HISTORICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES TO CANTO I. In August, 1813, as the preparations for the renewed siege of San Sebastian were advancing, the besieged demonstrated their confidence by celebrating the Emperor’s birthday with a splendid illumination. The castle, upon whose crest it was exhibited, is seen from a great distance; and the besiegers could plainly read the letters of fire in which the name of Napoléon was written high in air. The incidents of the siege I have derived chiefly from Napier’s _History of the War in the Peninsula_, book xxii. chapters 1 and 2, and from Jones’s _Journals of Peninsular Sieges_. The topography of San Sebastian will be found sufficiently illustrated in either of those works. The small castle of La Mota is most picturesquely situated like a crown on the conical hill of Monte Orgullo, which rising immediately behind the town westward, is nearly four hundred feet high, and washed by the sea. “The Hill has a broad base of 400 by 600 feet, and is crowned by fort La Mota.” Jones, _Journal of Peninsular Sieges_, vol. ii. General Jones’s description of cutting off the aqueduct, and converting it into a globe of compression, is thus prosaic but practical and deadly:--“The parallel crost a drain level with the ground, 4 feet high, and 3 feet wide, through which ran a pipe to convey water into the town. Lieut. Reid ventured to explore it, and at the end of 230 yards, he found it closed by a door in the counterscarp, opposite to the face of the right demi-bastion of the hornwork: as the ditch was narrow, it was thought that by forming a mine, the explosion would throw earth sufficient against the escarpe, only 24 feet high, to form a road over it: eight feet at the end of the aqueduct was therefore stopped with filled sand bags, and 30 barrels of powder of 90 lb. each, lodged against it, and a saucisson led to the mouth of the drain.” _Journals of the Sieges undertaken by the Allies in Spain_, Supplementary Chapter. The aqueduct had been cut off at the commencement of the siege by the Spanish general, Mendizabal. “It was formed into a globe of compression designed to blow, as through a tube, so much rubbish over the counterscarp as might fill the narrow ditch.” Napier, _Hist._ book xxi. c. 3. This plan was subsequently realized, and with complete success, “creating” says Jones “much astonishment in the enemy,” at the period of the first assault, which took place on the 25th July, five weeks before the second and memorable storming. I have transferred the incident to the latter part of the siege.