too from the necessity of having the fields perfectly level, rising
in tiers above each other; the whole of the inhabited part of the
island was an effective fortification for all the purposes of
annoyance and offensive warfare. Sir Alexander Ball exerted himself
successfully in procuring information respecting the state and temper
of the garrison, and, by the assistance of the clergy and the almost
universal fidelity of the Maltese, contrived that the spies in the
pay of the French should be in truth his own confidential agents. He
had already given splendid proofs that he could outfight them; but
here, and in his after diplomatic intercourse previous to the
recommencement of the war, he likewise outwitted them. He once told
me with a smile, as we were conversing on the practice of laying
wagers, that he was sometimes inclined to think that the final
perseverance in the siege was not a little indebted to several
valuable bets of his own, he well knowing at the time, and from
information which himself alone possessed, that he should certainly
lose them. Yet this artifice had a considerable effect in suspending
the impatience of the officers, and in supplying topics for dispute
and conversation. At length, however, the two French frigates, the
sailing of which had been the subject of these wagers, left the great
harbour on the 24th of August, 1800, with a part of the garrison:
and one of them soon became a prize to the English. Sir Alexander
Ball related to me the circumstances which occasioned the escape of
the other; but I do not recollect them with sufficient accuracy to
dare repeat them in this place. On the 15th of September following,
the capitulation was signed, and after a blockade of two years the
English obtained possession of Valetta, and remained masters of the
whole island and its dependencies.

Anxious not to give offence, but more anxious to communicate the