In critical circumstances, men, the sagest and coolest, are apt to be influenced by trivial incidents, which they convert into good or evil omens; and such is especially the case when life and liberty are the stakes for which they are about to contend. As the British soldiers, from the summit of their famous Rock, looked out upon the crowd of masts which gathered in the Bay, it was generally reported among them that their arrival was occasioned by the pressure of a British fleet in hot pursuit. Suddenly a loud cheer was raised, and all exclaimed that the British admiral was certainly in their rear, as a flag for a fleet in sight was waving, they said, from the Signal-post. Hope beamed radiant on every countenance; but a revulsion succeeded when the signal suddenly disappeared. The guard at the signal-station afterwards informed them that the supposed flag was really _an eagle_, which, after several evolutions, had perched for a few minutes on the westernmost pole, and then spread its broad wings to the eastward. Though less superstitious, says the historian gravely, than the ancient Romans, many could not help accepting it as a favourable omen; and the prognostication, happily, was fully justified by the events of the succeeding day. * * * * * The grand attack took place on the 13th of September. Shortly after nine in the morning, the ten battering-ships took up their several positions in admirable order: the admiral, in a two-decker, dropping anchor about nine hundred yards off the King’s Bastion, and the others successively falling into their places to the right and left of the flag-ships; the most distant being about 1100 or 1200 yards from the garrison. General Elliot reserved his fire until the first ship anchored, and then began a well-directed cannonade. The enemy occupied about ten minutes in their manœuvres; after which they returned our fire, and the stress of battle waxed fast and furious. The air was darkened by the clouds of smoke which rose from shore and sea, while the rattle of shot and the whirr of shells seemed to silence the very echoes. Four hundred pieces of the heaviest artillery were discharging their murderous missiles simultaneously, until one might have thought that all the thunders of heaven were let loose.