For subdivided as it was into small
fields, scarcely larger than a cottage garden, and each of these
little squares of land inclosed with substantial stone walls; these
too from the necessity of having the fields perfectly level, rising
in tiers above each other; the whole of the inhabited part of the
island was an effective fortification for all the purposes of
annoyance and offensive warfare. Sir Alexander Ball exerted himself
successfully in procuring information respecting the state and temper
of the garrison, and, by the assistance of the clergy and the almost
universal fidelity of the Maltese, contrived that the spies in the
pay of the French should be in truth his own confidential agents. He
had already given splendid proofs that he could outfight them; but
here, and in his after diplomatic intercourse previous to the
recommencement of the war, he likewise outwitted them. He once told
me with a smile, as we were conversing on the practice of laying
wagers, that he was sometimes inclined to think that the final
perseverance in the siege was not a little indebted to several
valuable bets of his own, he well knowing at the time, and from
information which himself alone possessed, that he should certainly
lose them.
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