The third epoch, culminating in the grand attack on the 13th September, 1782, is deeply interesting. The fate of Minorca had released a number of Spanish troops, to act against Gibraltar; and large French reinforcements had arrived. On the land side, there were now "Most stupendous and strong batteries and works, mounting two hundred pieces of heavy ordnance, and protected by an army of near 40,000 men, commanded by a victorious and active general, the Duke de Crillon; and animated by the immediate presence of two Princes of the Royal Blood of France." From the sea, the Fort was menaced by forty-seven sail of the line:—"Ten battering-ships, deemed perfect in design, and esteemed invincible, carrying 212 guns; besides innumerable frigates, xebeques, bomb-ketches, cutters, gun and mortar-boats, and smaller craft for disembarking men."[29] It was during the bombardment immediately preceding the grand attack, that Major Lewis was wounded, and Lieutenant Boag received his second wound, the latter in a singular manner. He was in the act of laying a gun, when a shell fell in the Battery. He immediately threw himself into an embrasure for safety when the shell should explode; but when the shell burst, it _fired the gun under whose muzzle he lay_. Besides other injury, the report deprived him of hearing, and it was very long ere he recovered. Another officer of the Artillery, Major Martin, had a narrow escape at the same time, a 26-pounder shot carrying away the cock of his hat, near the crown. The 26-pounder was a very common gun, both in the Rock and in the enemy's land-batteries; but as it was not used on board their ships, and to prevent them returning the shot of the garrison against themselves, all the 26-pounders were moved to the seaward batteries, and fired against the ships, guns of other calibres being employed against the land forces. The battering ships, with their supposed impregnable shields, were the mainstay of the enemy's hopes; but the use of red-hot shot by the garrison made them after a time perfectly useless. When the cannonade was at its highest pitch, on the day of the grand attack, "the showers of shot and shell which were directed from the enemy's land-batteries, the battering-ships, and, on the other hand, from the various works of the garrison, exhibited a scene of which, perhaps, neither the pen nor pencil can furnish a competent idea. It is sufficient to say that four hundred pieces of the heaviest Artillery were playing at the same moment: an instance which has scarcely occurred in any siege since the invention of those wonderful engines of destruction."[30]