appearance, but they were nowhere seriously injured.  In the words of Napier, “they were not breached, and a determined enemy might have remained secure under the breastworks, or in the numerous casemates, without suffering much loss.”  The accidental explosion of a magazine within the fort, containing six thousand casks of powder, laid in ruins a space of sixty thousand square yards, opened a large breach in the walls of the fortifications, partially destroyed the prisons, and killed and wounded a thousand men of the garrison.  This frightful disaster, says the French account, hastened the triumph of the fleet.  The prisoners and malefactors, thus released from confinement, rushed upon the garrison at the same time with the mountaineers, who had besieged the place on the land side.  The uselessness of the artillery, the breaches of the fort, the attacks of the English, all combined to force the retreat of the garrison, “in the midst of scenes of blood and atrocious murders.”

We will close this account with the following extract of a speech of the Duke of Wellington, in the House of Lords, Feb. 4, 1841:  “He had had,” he said, “a little experience in services of this nature; and he thought it his duty to warn their lordships, on this occasion, that they must not always expect that ships, however well commanded, or however gallant their seamen might be, were capable of commonly engaging successfully with stone walls.  He had no recollection, in all his experience, except the recent instance on the coast of Syria, of any fort being taken by ships, excepting two or three years ago, when the fort of San Juan d’Ulloa was captured by the French fleet.  This was, he thought, the single instance that he recollected, though he believed that something of the sort had occurred at the siege of Havana, in 1763.  The present achievement he considered one of the greatest of modern times.  This was his opinion, and he gave the highest credit to those who had performed such a service.  It was, altogether, a most skilful proceeding.  He was greatly surprised at the small number of men that was lost on board the fleet; and, on inquiring how it happened, he discovered that it was because the vessels were moored within one-third of the ordinary distance.  The guns of the fortress were intended to strike objects at a greater distance; and the consequence was, that the shot went over the ships that were anchored at one-third the usual distance.  By that means, they sustained not more than one-tenth of the loss which they would otherwise have experienced.  Not less than five hundred pieces of ordnance were directed against the walls, and the precision with which the fire was kept up, the position of the vessels, and, lastly, the blowing up of the large magazine—­all aided in achieving this great victory in so short a time.  He had thought it right to say thus much, because he wished to warn the public against supposing that such deeds as this could be effected every day.  He would repeat that this was a singular instance, in the achievement of which undoubtedly great skill was manifested, but which was also connected with peculiar circumstances, which they could not hope always to occur.  It must not therefore be expected, as a matter of course, that all such attempts must necessarily succeed.”