After an interval of a quarter of a century, the hopes of the Spaniards once more turned towards the famous Rock, which had been the object of so many vicissitudes. In 1435 Henry de Guzman, Count de Niebla, resolved to invest it by land and sea; but having disembarked from his galleys, and attacked the Moors, before his son John had brought up the land-forces, he was driven back pell-mell into the sea, and with many of his followers perished. In 1462, John de Guzman had the satisfaction of avenging his father’s death. A civil war had broken out in Moorish Granada, and a considerable portion of the Gibraltar garrison had been withdrawn to strengthen the army of one of the aspirants to the crown. The governor of Tarifa, apprised of the opportunity thus offered, rapidly collected a body of Spanish troops and appeared before Gibraltar. The inhabitants defended it bravely; but John de Guzman arriving with reinforcements for the besieging army, they surrendered, and the Cross supplanted the Crescent after a period of seven hundred and forty-eight years. This event was so grateful to Henry IV., King of Castile and Leon, that he added Gibraltar to his royal titles, and bestowed upon the fortress the armorial bearings of a castle, _gules_, proper, with a key pendent to the gate, _or_,--thereby indicating that Gibraltar was the key to the Mediterranean. Don Pedro de Perras was appointed governor; but the post was afterwards given to Don John de Guzman, who seems to have held it as a semi-independent fief until 1502, when, in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, it was reclaimed by the Crown. In 1589 its fortifications were extended and modernized by the imperial engineer, Daniel Speckel: from which date it was regarded as impregnable, until Sir George Rooke dispelled the long-cherished delusion. * * * * * In concluding our brief description of Gibraltar, and our summary of its history, we may allude to its intimate connection with the naval annals of Great Britain. How often have our fleets sailed forth from under its guns to encounter the armaments of hostile Powers; how often have they returned victorious, carrying with them the trophies of their prowess! Let us glance for a moment at the most brilliant of these triumphs; that last crowning victory of Nelson’s, off Trafalgar, which was won almost within sight of the celebrated Strait. A memorable victory, for it swept the French and Spanish flags from the sea, while it defeated Napoleon’s masterly combination by which he had hoped to have effected the invasion of England.