Great, therefore, was the joy of the besieged when, on the 12th of April, a convoy of nearly one hundred vessels arrived from England, escorted by a strong fleet under Admiral Darby. The historian of the siege, in describing this event, soars almost into the region of poetry. “At daybreak,” he says, “the much-expected fleet, under the command of Admiral Darby, was in sight from our signal-house, but was not discernible from below, being obscured by a thick mist in the Gut. As the sun, however, became more powerful, this fog gradually rose, like the curtain of a vast theatre, discovering to the anxious garrison _one of the most beautiful and pleasing scenes it is possible to conceive_. The convoy, consisting of near a hundred vessels, was in a compact body, led by several men-of-war, their sails just enough filled for steerage; whilst the majority of the line-of-battle ships lay-to under the Barbary shore, having orders not to enter the Bay, lest the enemy should molest them with their fire-ships. The ecstasies of the inhabitants at this grand and exhilarating sight are not to be described. Their expressions of joy far exceeded their former exultations. But, alas! they little dreamed of the tremendous blow that impended, which was to annihilate their property and reduce many of them to indigence and beggary.” As the convoy drew near, a squadron of fifteen gun-boats advanced from Algesiras, and, assembling in regular array under the batteries at Cabrita Point, opened a smart fire on the nearest ships, supported by the gun and mortar batteries on the land; but they were soon compelled, by an English line-of-battle ship and a couple of frigates, to effect a precipitate retreat. * * * * * This second relief of the garrison stung the Spaniards into the adoption of a measure which had little value in a military sense, but inflicted a large amount of suffering on the inhabitants of the town of Gibraltar. The convoy had scarcely anchored, when they bombarded the town and fortifications with sixty-four heavy guns and fifty mortars. The unfortunate inhabitants, who were busily congratulating each other on the arrival of the fleet, exchanged their exultation for sorrow, and fled in the greatest confusion--old and young, men, women, and children--to the southward, abandoning their property to the mercy of the soldiers. Soon after noon the firing ceased, and the inhabitants hastened to secure such valuables as could be easily removed; but those bulkier articles which “the avaricious and hard-hearted hucksters” had concealed in their stores, to retail in small quantities at exorbitant prices, were all destroyed.