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GIBRALTAR 89
on shore nor from shoving you in through the gate
with an invitation to get out of English territory be-
fore sundown. The period can be lengthened on the
application of your consul or some other reputable
citizen, to be sure.
The city is a free port, but it is governed exclusively
on military lines, under regulations far more severe
than a prison’s. At sundown (five o’clock in the eve-
ning, in this month of January) a cannon is fired; five
minutes later the gates are closed; and the city re-
mains completely cut off from any contact with the
ocean or outside world until seven the following morn-
ing. The citizen who has not finished his errands in
the outlying parts by sundown must make up his mind
to camp outside the walls. At half-past nine a second
gun is fired, after which only the tip of your nose may
peer from your downy bed. Even during the day you
may not stroll about unaccompanied. Grim constables
and sentries watch your every step; military cards of
admission are required to visit the most ridiculous
places; if you set down the address of a laundress in
your note-book, vigilant eyes will interpret it as a plan
of the fortifications. So, newly come from free Anda-
lusia, where the lack of red tape and military pomp
makes life and breathing such great pleasures, we can
hardly draw a breath, so constrained are we by these
mechanical regulations; such provisions appear to us
justifiable only in war time. Your stay inside the
walls is made even more irritating by the firm tread
of guards on their incessant rounds, and troops of vari-
ous arms of the service, marching up the street, down
the street, drawing up, wheeling round corners—all
dictated by the inscrutable laws of some form of higher
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