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ments of fear and hope which agitated them, the resolution to resist valiantly was general.

Meanwhile, the combined fleet which had been detained a long time by calms at the entrance of the channel, all at once made its appearance there, the fifteenth of August; it presented itself before Plymouth with dread display. The alarm was immediately spread among the inhabitants of the coasts; the militia flew to their post; the guards were doubled at the arsenals of Plymouth and Portsmouth. The bank in the latter town was closed; all commerce was suspended. From all parts of the coast of Cornwall, whole families were seen flying towards the inland countries with their most valuable effects. A new incident added to the universal panic. The Ardent ship of the line, of sixty-four guns, which had sailed from Portsmouth in order to join the fleet of admiral Hardy, fell into the hands of the French in view of Plymouth. During this time the British admiral was standing off and on near the mouth of the channel; his inferiority, and the position of the enemy, not permitting him to bring succour to his country, amidst the perils that menaced it. But, what men could not do, was operated by chance. At the moment when the success of this great enterprise was going to be decided, all at once there sprung up a violent gale from the northeast, which forced the combined fleet to quit the channel for the open ocean. The gale having abated, it displayed itself anew from the Lands End and the Scilly islands to the chops of the channel, with intent to intercept admiral Hardy, and to prevent his retreat into the ports of England. Nevertheless, he profited with so much ability of a favorable wind, that on the thirty-first of August he made good his entrance into the channel in full view of the allies, who could not hinder him. His design was, to entice them up to the narrowest part of the strait, where the superiority of numbers would avail them little, and the advantage of position would thus compensate the inequality of forces. The allies followed him as far as Plymouth. Each of the hostile fleets preserved the best order; the British to avoid being approached till after having arrived at the desirable point, and to be always prepared to fall upon such of the enemy's vessels as should chase them too near; the French and Spaniards, to keep together, and to gain Plymouth before the enemy. But admiral Hardy having eluded all the projects of his adversary, the count d'Orvilliers decided to retire from the coasts of England, and return to Brest. His retreat was attributed at the time to several causes, such as the continued prevalence of east winds, the want of provisions, the proximity of the equinox, and the great sickness and mortality among his crews, by which some of the ships were totally disabled.

Such was the issue of an expedition which seemed to portend the downfall of a most powerful empire. If there never had been so great a naval force assembled on the seas, so never were effects less

answerable to appearances. Enfeebled by the loss of more than five thousand sailors, victims of the epidemic, the combined fleet could attempt no enterprise during the rest of the campaign. It followed that the weaker gathered those fruits which the stronger might reasonably have expected. Not only the numerous fleets of British merchantmen, loaded with the riches of the two Indies, arrived happily in the ports of Great Britain, but the squadron of Hardy put to sea again, and captured a multitude of French and Spanish vessels. Europe was astonished; she had not expected that so many preparations and such mighty efforts were to end in this wise. The glory of the British marine thus acquired a new lustre. The allies had, assuredly, shown no want either of ability or of valor; but the greater part of men judge of merit by success, and the arms of the enemies of England lost much of their splendor. But whatever might be the causes which prevented the great naval armaments of the belligerent powers from coming to a decisive action, a few days after their retreat several partial combats were engaged, in which the French, the English, and the Americans seemed to vie for the palm of deep and desperate valor. The count d' Orvilliers had sent out from Brest, to observe the movements of the British fleet, the frigate Surveillante, commanded by the chevalier du Couedic, and the cutter Expedition, at the orders of the viscount de Roquefeuil. These two vessels fell in, near the isle of Ouessant, with the British frigate Quebec, captain Farmer, accompanied also by a sloop called the Rambler. The two parties immediately engaged with fury. The forces, skill and bravery being equal on both sides, the action lasted three hours and a half. The frigates fought so close that several times their yards got entangled. Their artillery had already made a frightful ravage; the decks were covered with dead and wounded, their masts shivered and shot away; they could no longer be steered. Nor one nor other, however, seemed disposed to retire or surrender. The French captain received a wound in the head and fainted; but on recovering sense, he immediately resumed the command. Two fresh wounds in the belly could not constrain him to give over, on the contrary he gave orders for boarding. Captain Farmer displayed, on his part, an invincible courage. To smooth the way for boarding, the French threw a great quantity of grenades aboard the Quebec. Her sails took fire; the flames spread, and soon caught other parts of the ship. The English exerted themselves to extinguish them, and obstinately refused to Istrike. The chevalier du Couedic, to avoid the combustion, was forced to think of retiring, which he with difficulty accomplished. His bowsprit got embarrassed with the rigging of the enemy. At length the fire took the magazine of the British frigate, and she blew up with her colors waving to the last.

The French captain, with an example of humanity that cannot be honored enough, devoted all his cares to saving the greatest possible number of his enemies, who, to escape the flames, threw themselves headlong into the sea. Only forty-three of them could be rescued from the waves, the sole survivors of three hundred men who composed the company of the Quebec. Captain Farmer was swallowed up with the wreck of his ship. The French frigate was unable to move; the cutter Expedition, disengaged herself from the Rambler, which she had combated with advantage, in order to succour the Surveillante. She took her in tow, and brought her the following day into the port of Brest. The French government faithfol to its own examples and those of civilised nations, sent free to England the forty-three Englishmen, not willing to retain those prisoners who, in the same day, had escaped the fury of men, cannon, fire and water. The French had forty killed and a hundred wounded. The king promoted the chevalier du Couedic to the rank of captain of ship. But he could not long enjoy the glorious reputation which his valor and humanity had acquired him; his wounds proved mortal three days after the engagement. He was

deeply regretted in France; his name was pronounced with distinction throughout Europe, but no where with warmer eulogium than in England.

A few days before, the coasts of Great Britain had witnessed a combat no less sanguinary, and no less honorable for the two parties. Paul Jones, a Scotchman by birth, but engaged in the service of the United States, had established his cruise at first in the seas of Ireland, and afterwards in those of Scotland, where he was waiting for an opportunity to make some prize, or, according to his practice, to land upon some point of the coast in order to sack the country. His flotilla was composed of the Bonhomme Richard of forty guns, the Alliance of thirty-six, both American ships; the Pallas, a French frigate of thirty-two, in the pay of Congress, with two other smaller vessels. He fell in with a British merchant fleet, on its return from the Baltic, convoyed by captain Pearson, with the frigate Serapis, of forty-four guns, and the Countess of Scarborough, of twenty.

Pearson had no sooner perceived Jones, than he bore down 10 engage him, while the merchantmen endeavored to gain the coast. The American flotilla formed to receive him. The two enemies joined battle at about seven in the evening, with great resolution, and the conflict was supported on both sides with equal valor. The Serapis had the advantage of metal and manoeuvre; to obviate which, Jones took the resolution to fight her closer. He advanced till the two frigates were engaged yard to yard, and their sides so near that the muzzles of their guns came in contact. In this position they continued to fight from eight in the evening till ten, with an audacity bordering on frenzy. But the artillery of the Americans

was no longer capable of producing much effect. The Richard having received several heavy shot between wind and water, could now make no use whatever of her lower batteries, and two or three of her upper guns had burst, to the destruction of those who served them. Jones, at length, had only three left that could be worked, and he employed them against the masts of the hostile frigate. Seeing the little impression made by chain shot, he resorted to another mode of attack. He threw a vast quantity of grenades and fire works on board the British frigate. But his own now admitted the water on all sides, and threatened every moment to go to the bottom. Some of his officers having perceived it, asked him if he would surrender? No,' he answered them in a tremendous tone, and continued to push the grenades. The Serapis was already on fire in several places; the English could with difficulty, extinguish the flames. Finally, they caught a cartridge, which, in an instant, fired all the others with a horrible explosion. All who stood near the helm were killed, and all the cannon of that part were dismounted. Meanwhile, Pearson was not disheartened; he ordered his people to board. Paul Jones prepared himself to repulse them. The English in jumping on board him found the Americans ready to receive them on the point of their pikes; they made the best of their way back to their own vessel. But during this interval, the fire had communicated itself from the Serapis to the Bonhomme Richard, and both were a prey to the flames. No peril could shake these desperate men. The night was dark, the combatants could no longer see each other but by the blaze of the conflagration, and through dense volumes of smoke, while the sea was illuminated afar. At this moment, the American frigate Alliance came up. Amidst the confusion she discharged her broadside into the Richard, and killed a part of her remaining defenders. As soon as she discovered her mistake, she fell with augmented fury upon the Serapis. Then the valiant Englishman, seeing a great part of his crew either killed or disabled, his artillery dismounted, his vessel distasted, and quite enveloped in flames, surrendered. All joined to extinguish the fire, and at length it was accomplished. The efforts tnade to stop the numerous leaks of the Richard proved less fortunate; she sunk the uext morning. Out of three hundred and seventy-five men that were aboard that vessel, three hundred were killed or wounded. The English had but forty-nine killed, and their wounded amounted to no more than sixty-eight. History, perhaps, offers no example of an action more fierce, obstinate and sanguinary. During this time the Pallas had attacked the Countess of Scarborough and had captured her, not however without a stubborn resistance. After a victory so hard earned, so deplorable, Jones wandered, with his shattered vessels for some days, at the mercy of the winds in the north sea. He finally made his way good, on the sixth of October, into the waters of the Texel.

The events which we have just related are all that claim notice in the latter months of 1779, after the accession of Spain to the alliance formed against England. But at the commencement of the following year, other powers manifested dispositions which menaced that state with new enemies, or at least with exceedingly dubious friends.

1780. Ever since the commencement of the war, the Dutch had carried on privately a very lucrative commerce; they conveyed into the ports of France, ship timber as well as all sorts of military, and especially naval, stores. The English were apprised of it, and the British government had often complained of it, in strong terms, to the States-General, not only as contrary to the rules which England was accustomed to observe in time of war, with respect to the commerce of neutrals, and which themselves either tacitly or expressly acknowledged, but also as a violation of the treaties of commerce and alliance existing between the two nations. The same government had also remonstrated against the protection granted in Holland to French and American privateers. The States-General answered only by disavowal, or evasive explanations. But about the beginning of January intelligence was received in England, that a numerous convoy of Dutch vessels, laden with naval stores for account of France, was already at sea, and that in order to escape the vigilance of the British cruisers, this fleet had placed itself under the protection of the count de Byland, who, with a squadron of ships of the line and frigates, convoyed another merchant fleet bound for the Mediterranean. The British admiralty despatched captain Fielding, with a sufficient number of ships, to examine the convoy, and to seize any vessels containing contraband articles. The British squadron having met that of Holland, captain Fielding requested permission to visit the merchant ships. It was refused him. This notwithstanding, he despatched his boats for that purpose, which were fired at, and prevented from executing their orders by the Dutch. Upon this, the Englishman fired a shot ahead of the Dutch admiral; it was answered by a broadside; and count Byland, having received Fielding's in return, and being in no condition of force to pursue the contest further, then struck his colors. Most of the Dutch vessels that were in the predicament which occasioned the contest, had already, by pushing close to the shore, escaped the danger, and proceeded without interruption to the French ports. The others were seized. The Englishman then informed the Dutch admiral that he was at liberty to hoist his colors and prosecute his voyage. He hoisted his colors indeed; but he refused to separate from any part of his convoy; and he accordingly, with the whole of the fleet, which was seized, accompanied the British squadron to Spithead. The ships and their cargoes were confiscated as contraband. This intelligence excited a violent clamor in Holland. The Dutch were at this time divided in

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