A DARING DEED: BLOWING UP THE CASHMERE GATE, DELHI " 154 THE LIGHTER SIDE OF WAR AT LUCKNOW " 180 SHOT DOWN BY THEIR FELLOW-CITIZENS " 216 A DUEL BETWEEN A TEXAN AND A GERMAN " 224 THE BALLOON POST USED DURING THE SIEGE OF PARIS " 244 A STRANGE WEAPON OF OFFENCE " 282 THE BOERS, TAKEN BY SURPRISE, WERE UNSTEADY AND PANIC-STRUCK " 304 A BRITISH AMAZON AT MAFEKING " 308 A RUSSIAN TORPEDO-BOAT DESTROYER ELUDING THE JAPANESE FLEET " 344 A HUMAN LADDER " 348 THE ROMANCE OF MODERN SIEGES CHAPTER I SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR (1779-1782). The position of the Rock--State of defence--Food-supply--Rodney brings relief--Fire-ships sent in--A convoy in a fog--Heavy guns bombard the town--Watching the cannon-ball--Catalina gets no gift--One against fourteen--Red-hot shot save the day--Lord Howe to the rescue. Gibraltar! What a thrill does the very name evoke to one who knows a little of English history and England’s heroes! But to those who have the good fortune to steam in a P. and O. liner down the coast of Portugal, and catch sight of the Rock on turning by Cabrita Point into the Bay of Algeciras the thrill of admiration is intensified. For the great Rock lies like a lion couched on the marge of the Mediterranean. It is one of the pillars of Hercules: it commands the entrance to the inner sea. From 712 to the beginning of the fourteenth century Gibraltar was in the hands of the Saracens; then it fell into the hands of the Spaniards. In 1704, the year of Blenheim, a combined English and Dutch fleet under Sir George Rooke captured the Rock from the Marquis de Salines, and Gibraltar has since then remained in the possession of the English, though several attempts have been made to wrest it from us. Before we follow Captain Drinkwater in some details of the great siege, a few words must be said about the Rock and its defences as they then were.