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near enough to take her. But finding the obstacles of the rocks insuperable, they abandoned the enterprise and returned to join the flect. For the same causes, and at the same time, the English cutter and the French corvette joined battle with equal fury, but with different success. After an hour of the most vigorous resistance, the corvette surrendered. The Arethusa, in this action, had eight men killed and thirty-six wounded. The loss of the Belle Poule was forty killed, and fifty-seven wounded. Among the first was M. de St. Marsault, lieutenant of the frigate; among the second M. de la Roche de Kerandraon, ensign; Bouvet, an auxiliary officer, and M. de la Clocheterie himself, who received two contusions.

In the morning of the eighteenth, the frigate Licorne, which had been stationed in the middle of the English fleet, having made a movement which gave the English some suspicion, they fired a shot across her way, as a signal to keep in company with the other ships. Immediately, to the great astonishment of the admiral, and of the whole English fleet, she discharged a broadside and a volley of musketry into the America, of sixty-four guns, commanded by lord Longford, which lay the nearest to her. This done, she struck her colors, as if, tired of this middle state between peace and war in which she was kept, she had preferred, though a prisoner, to constitute herself in open war. Keppel sent her to Plymouth. In the meantime, another French frigate, named the Pallas, fell in with the English fleet; the admiral detained her, changing her officers and crew. Such was his conduct with regard to French vessels of war. As to merchant ships, though a great number of them fell within his reach, he permitted them to continue their voyage without interruption, not thinking himself authorised to stop them.

The action of the Belle Poule excited no little enthusiasm in France, where the remembrance of so many defeats was still recent; and it is unquestionable that the officers and all the crew of that frigate had signalised as much valor as nautical ability. Their conduct occasioned a sincere joy, and it was diligently extolled, in order to animate the public mind by these brilliant beginnings. The king showed himself lavish of favors towards those who had fought; he appointed M. de la Clocheterie captain of ship; Bouvet, lieutenant of frigate; and gave the cross of Saint Lewis to Roche Kerandraon. Pensions were granted to the sister of Saint Marsault, to the widows, and to the children of those who had fallen in the action. The English were not so generous towards captains Marshall, and Fairfax, commander of the cutter; but they received the encomiums of the admiralty and of their fellow-citizens.

But the king of France, considering the affair of the Belle Poule, and the seizure of other frigates, as a sufficient motive for executing his projects, ordered reprisals against the vessels of Great Britain. He immediately caused to be published his decree concerning prizes,

as if the sending of the count d' Estaing to America, with such orders as he was the bearer of, was not yet to be reputed a commencement of war. The English went through the same formalities, thus authorising by words what they had already done, at least with regard to ships of war. Until this time, the two parties had endeavored to harm each other by all possible means, without resulting to the accustomed declarations.

The papers found aboard the French frigates, and the questions put to the prisoners, furnished admiral Keppel with important intelligence. He learned that in the port of Brest were thirty-two ships of the line, with ten or twelve frigates, all in complete readiness to put to sea; whereas all his own force consisted in twenty sail of the line and three frigates. He found himself already in sight of the Isle of Ouessant, and consequently near the coasts of France. His position was truly embarrassing. The proximity and superiority of the enemy rendered his present station imminently perilous. To encounter the hazards of a battle which might expose the safety of the kingdom, was rather an act of temerity, than a courageous resolution. On the other hand, to retire from the coasts of an enemy he had braved a moment since, appeared to him a step too unworthy of his own reputation, and of the English name. But, finally, consulting utility more than appearances, and his duty rather than the point of honor, he tacked about for England, and entered Portsmouth the twenty-seventh of June.

Immediately, some from the spirit of party, and in order to exculpate the ministers, others to appease the national pride, pulled him to pieces without mercy. It might have seemed that his retreat had sullied the glory of England; and some were so transported by their fury as to compare Keppel to Byng. The admiral supported with admirable constancy the outrages of the multitude, and the invectives of the party who excited them. He busied himself only with the means of reenforcing his fleet, and of putting it in condition to scour the seas anew; the admiralty powerfully seconded his zeal, and the success corresponded to his exertions. The first divisions of the East and West India fleets arrived about that time, and furnished a great number of excellent seamen to the naval armament. Thus reenforced, it weighed anchor and put to sea the ninth of July. It was composed of twenty-four ships of the line, which were afterwards joined by six more of the same class. It comprehended a ship of one hundred guns, named the Victory, which bore the admiral's flag, six of ninety, one of eighty, and fifteen of seventy-four; the rest were of sixty-four.

They were all well manned and equipped, and commanded by excellent officers. The frigates were insufficient in number; there were only five or six, with two fire-ships. The fleet was divided into three squadrons; the van was commanded by sir Robert Harland,

vice-admiral of the Red; the centre by admiral Keppel, assisted by admiral Campbell, a consummate seaman, who, on the score of ancient friendship, had chosen to accompany him as the first captain of the Victory. The rear was conducted by sir Hugh Palliser, viceadmiral of the Blue, and one of the members of the board of admiralty. Finding themselves so strong, and no longer doubting of victory, the English made their appearance upon the coasts of France.

They sought the French fleet with all diligence, impatient to give it battle, in order to preserve their commerce, to efface the dishonor of having a few days before yielded the sea to the enemy; finally, to sustain their ancient renown, and to cause fortune to incline in their favor from the very commencement of hostilities. Meanwhile, the French fleet had also come out of port the eighth of July. It was in like manner formed in three divisions; the first commanded by the count Duchaffault, the centre by the count d'Orvilliers, captain-general, and the third by the duke de Chartres, prince of the blood, who was seconded and guided by admiral de la Motte Piquet. These three divisions comprised thirty-two sail of the line, among which were the admiral's ship, la Bretagne, of one hundred and ten guns, la Ville de Paris, of ninety, which carried the count de Guichen; two of eighty, twelve of seventy-four, one of seventy, two of sixty-four, one of sixty, and two of fifty, besides a great number of frigates. It was the intention of the count d' Orvilliers not to come to an engagement except with great probabilities of success; and this by no means for want of an intrepid valor, and of a perfect knowledge of naval tactics; but he chose first to exercise his crews thoroughly. He hoped, also, without exposing himself to the hazards of an action, to give England some severe blows, by employing his light vessels to capture the convoys which she daily expected from the two Indies. He shaped his course for the Isle of Ouessant, in the full persuasion that the British fleet, which he supposed to consist but of twenty sail of the line, would not presume to venture out of port, or if it showed itself, that he should certainly defeat or disperse it, and that, in all events, he should acquire the dominion of the sea. Fortune appeared to favor these first efforts; scarcely had he quitted the road of Brest, when he discovered the English frigate, the Lively, which admiral Keppel had detached upon discovery; he ordered her to be chased, and she was soon taken. The entire world was attentive to what might ensue, on seeing the two most potent nations of Europe marshalled the one against the other, on the ocean. To this object, and not in vain, had the government of France aimed all its calculations for several years back. Its ships were completely equipped, its seamen well trained, its captains excellent. It, remained only that fortune should smile upon such magnanimous designs. The two fleets came in sight of each other

in the evening of the twenty-third of July, the Isle of Ouessant being thirty leagues distant, and the wind at west. The count d' Orvilliers, believing the enemy weaker than he was in reality, desired impatiently to bring him to action. But on approaching the British fleet, and finding it nearly as strong as his own, he avoided an engagement no less cautiously than he had eagerly sought it at first. As he had the advantage of the wind, it was impossible for the English to force him to it, against his will. During the night, two French ships were driven by the force of the wind to the leeward of the British fleet. Admiral Keppel having perceived it in the morning, made signal to give chase and cut them off from the main body of their fleet. He hoped that in order to save them, the French admiral would give him battle, or at least that these ships would be taken, or so forced out of their course that it would be impossible for them to rejoin their fleet. The count d' Orvilliers preferred not to make any movement to succour them; and thus the two vessels, though they had the good fortune to escape the English, were chased so far, that they could take no part in the events which followed.

During the four following days the two fleets remained in sight; the British admiral endeavoring all the time to get the wind, or to beat up so near the French fleet as to force it to action. But to arrive at this object, it was impossible to maintain the disposition entire; and therefore Keppel had commanded that the ships should take rank according to their swiftness, as they gained to the windward, with attention, however, to keep their distances as much as possible. This movement was also necessary, in order not to lose sight of the enemy. But it was not without danger, since it might offer the French an occasion to fall suddenly with superior force upon some one of the English ships. It was also the cause, that on the twenty-seventh, the day of battle, the French fleet was formed in better order than that of England, which appeared deranged. On the morning of that day, the wind continuing from the west, and favoring the French, the two fleets were separated, one from the other, a distance of only three leagues, in such manner, however, that the English rear found itself a little more to the leeward than the centre and van. Keppel therefore ordered Palliser, who commanded it, to press up to the windward in order to form in a line with the two other divisions of the fleet. Palliser executed the orders of the admiral. This movement induced the count d' Orvilliers, to believe, and perhaps not without reason, as Palliser continued to crowd more and more to the windward, that it was the intention of the enemy to attack the French rear, and to gain on the opposite tack the weathergage of that division. To defeat this manœuvre, he directly put his ships about, and reversing his order

of battle, his rear became van. This very movement, together with some variations in the wind, of which the English dexterously availed themselves, brought the two fleets so near each other, that the action commenced immediately, the wind blowing from the west, and the French running from north to south, the English from south to north. This manner of combating, by which a close and stationary action was avoided, the ships firing only as they passed each other in opposite directions, was the result of the manoeuvre just made by the French fleet.

It suited the count d' Orvilliers so much the better, as since he had not been able to decline the engagement, it assured him, at least, that it could not be decisive. For it was a necessary consequence of this order of battle, that the two fleets must break their line during the action, and that the party who should have sustained the least damage, could not immediately pursue their advantages, whether against any particular ship of the enemy, or against his entire fleet. The two fleets thus standing on opposite tacks, and but a slight distance apart, the first ships of the English van, and those of the French rear, which, as we have said, was become the van, began to exchange broadsides, and the battle was joined successively, as the whole English line passed close along side of the whole French line; so that the rear, commanded by sir Hugh Palliser, and the van by the count Duchaffault, were the last to attack each other. The effects of this collision were very destructive on both sides; but as the French, according to their custom, had fired at the tackling, and the English, as they usually do, at the body of the ships, the hulls of the French vessels were more severely damaged, than those of their enemies; whereas the English were much the greater sufferers in their masts, yards, and rigging. The French, profiting of this advantage of their sails, soon tacked and formed their line anew. The British van and centre also in a short time recovered their stations, though the admiral's ship had suffered extremely. But the ships of Palliser and several others, not only had not yet tacked, but being in a disabled condition, they obeyed the wind and fell rapidly to leeward. In this state of things, whether the count d' Orvilliers intended, as the English pretend, to cut their line, and separate these ships from the rest of the fleet, or, as the French affirm, wishing to place himself under the wind, in order, as he expected a second battle, to deprive the English of the advantage he would thus gain for himself, of using the lower batteries with effect, he made signals for all his fleet to advance by a successive movement, and penetrate between the ships of Keppel and those of Palliser.

The English admiral, perceiving the design of his adversary, immediately put his ships about, and stood athwart the enemy's

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