concerting a plan to storm the garrison next morning. My disguise was my
protection; they suffered me to continue there, hearing everything that
passed, till they went to their several beds. When I found the whole
camp, and even the sentinels, were wrapped up in the arms of Morpheus,
I began my work, which was that of dismounting all their cannon (above
three hundred pieces), from forty-eight to twenty-four pounders, and
throwing them three leagues into the sea. Having no assistance, I found
this the hardest task I ever undertook, except swimming to the opposite
shore with the famous Turkish piece of ordnance, described by Baron de
Tott in his Memoirs, which I shall hereafter mention. I then piled all
the carriages together in the centre of the camp, which, to prevent the
noise of the wheels being heard, I carried in pairs under my arms; and a
noble appearance they made, as high at least as the rock of Gibraltar.
I then lighted a match by striking a flint stone, situated twenty feet
from the ground (in an old wall built by the Moors when they invaded
Spain), with the breech of an iron eight-and-forty pounder, and so set
fire to the whole pile. I forgot to inform you that I threw all their
ammunition-waggons upon the top.

Before I applied the lighted match I had laid the combustibles at the
bottom so judiciously, that the whole was in a blaze in a moment. To
prevent suspicion I was one of the first to express my surprise. The
whole camp was, as you may imagine, petrified with astonishment: the
general conclusion was, that their sentinels had been bribed, and that
seven or eight regiments of the garrison had been employed in this
horrid destruction of their artillery. Mr. Drinkwater, in his account of
this famous siege, mentions the enemy sustaining a great loss by a fire
which happened in their camp, but never knew the cause; how should he?
as I never divulged it before (though I alone saved Gibraltar by this
night's business), not even to General Elliot. The Count d'Artois and