General Eliot regarded the progress of the tremendous armaments without despondency. He prepared for the coming storm, and made every effort to meet it manfully and with success. An experiment which had lately been tried with red-hot shot produced such effects that he founded his hopes of destroying the enemy's battering-ships almost solely upon that expedient, and great numbers of furnaces for heating the shot were immediately prepared and placed in convenient positions within the principal batteries. The defences too were thoroughly repaired, the Land Port was more carefully protected, and unserviceable guns were laid across the tops of the embrasures in many of the works, as a protection to the artillerymen when under fire. The arrival of the Count d'Artois in the camp gave rise to an interchange of courtesies between the governor and the Duc de Crillon, and though the two chiefs were on the eve of a great struggle for the mastery, letters couched in the most affable and peaceful terms passed between them. The Count having brought with him a packet of letters for some officers of the garrison, the Duc de Crillon took advantage of the opportunity, and, when the parcel was sent into the fortress, accompanied it by a letter from himself to General Eliot, in which he expressed the highest esteem for the governor's person and character, and assured him how anxiously he looked forward to becoming his friend; at the same time he offered a present of a few luxuries for the General's table. In reply to this courteous note the governor returned his sincerest thanks for the gift, but begged that in future no such favor might be heaped upon him, as by accepting the present he had broken through a rule to which he had faithfully adhered since the beginning of the war, never to receive anything for his own private use, but to partake both of plenty and scarcity in common with the lowest of his brave fellow-soldiers. Toward the end of August, 1782, a grand inspection of the floating batteries took place at Algeciras, at which the French princes were present. To exhibit the ease and simplicity with which they could be manoeuvred, the vessels were put through various movements, to the admiration and surprise of the spectators. So satisfactory was this trial considered that it became the popular opinion that twenty-four hours would suffice for the demolition of the fortress, and the Duc de Crillon was made the subject of the greatest ridicule when he cautiously hinted that fourteen days might elapse ere the place fell. Crillon, in fact had no affection for the schemes of the Chevalier d'Arçon, and, as we shall presently see, he attributed his subsequent failure almost entirely to the blind confidence that was placed in the floating batteries.