He had especially urged upon the authorities, at an early period of the siege, the propriety of making large purchases of corn and storing it in magazines at a time when famine-price had by no means been reached.

But the leading men had then their heads full of a great ship, or floating castle, which they were building, and which they had pompously named the 'War's End,' 'Fin de la Guerre.' We shall hear something of this phenomenon at a later period.
Meanwhile, Gianibelli, who knew something of shipbuilding, as he did of most other useful matters, ridiculed the design, which was likely to cost, in itself before completion, as much money as would keep the city in bread for a third of a year.
Gianibelli was no patriot.

He was purely a man of science and of great acquirements, who was looked upon by the ignorant populace alternately as a dreamer and a wizard.

He was as indifferent to the cause of freedom as of despotism, but he had a great love for chemistry.

He was also a profound mechanician, second to no man of his age in theoretic and practical engineering.
He had gone from Italy to Spain that he might offer his services to Philip, and give him the benefit of many original and ingenious inventions.