relief of Savona, then attacked by an Austro-Russian army, the 1000 troops received on board at Brest. On the 3rd of June the French fleet showed itself off Genoa, and on the 5th, when the British fleet was nearly abreast of Cape Roux, anchored in Genoa Mole, with a wheat-laden convoy, which the French admiral had escorted from the westward. General Moreau, who had arrived at Genoa two days before, took this opportunity of holding a conference with Vice-admiral Bruix on board the Océan. On the 6th, in the morning, the General quitted the flag-ship for the shore; and at noon, when the British fleet, having been recalled to the bay of Rosas, had put about for that destination, the French fleet weighed and made sail to the westward, the French accounts say, but we much doubt the fact, in consequence of information that the British fleet, of "22 sail of the line," had been seen off Toulon.

Thus was the seeking fleet unconsciously running before the sought fleet, and the latter as unconsciously pursuing the former. No doubt had this fact been known in France, the Moniteur would have declared, and with some show of reason, that Viceadmiral Bruix had chased Lord Keith and could not bring him to action. On the 9th, the French fleet passed in sight of Toulon, and on the 22nd appeared off Carthagena. On the 23rd, Viceadmiral Bruix cast anchor in the road, and thus effected a junction with the Spanish fleet, now, with most surprising alacrity, after the damage it had received in the storm of the preceding month, nearly ready for sea.

As far as we can gather from the obscure accounts in the French and Spanish journals, this fleet, soon after its arrival from Cadiz, had transferred to a large body of transports, purposely assembled at Carthagena, about 5000 troops, for disembarkation at Majorca, and to be employed, as it would appear, more for defending that island, than for making any attempt to recapture Minorca. On the 24th, the day after their junction, and when the British fleet, having gone the round we have described, was increasing its distance in the direction, first of Toulon, and then of Genoa, the French and Spanish fleets, numbering together 40 sail of the line, with a suitable train of frigates and corvettes, sailed from Carthagena, bound out of the Mediterranean.

On the 6th, Lord Keith, whom we left steering for Minorca, arrived off the east end of the island; and on the 7th, close off Mount Toro, was joined by the following reinforcement from the Channel fleet:

This reinforcement, when it quitted the Channel fleet, consisted of 16 sail of the line, under Admiral Sir Alan Gardner; but the latter, taking with him the Royal Sovereign, Cæsar, Magnificent, and Russel, had put into the Tagus, to escort home the Lisbon convoy, and the Nile prizes.

While a part of Lord Keith's fleet, now augmented to 31 sail of the line, four frigates, and two or three smaller vessels, lay off and on Port Mahon, the remaining ships, including tho Queen Charlotte, anchored in the harbour to get a supply of water. Scarcely had the vice-admiral been an hour at this anchorage, ere intelligence arrived of the junction of which he had been forewarned. All was now bustle in the port; and on the 10th Lord Keith weighed and set sail for the Straits, having previously sent an order to Rear-admiral Nelson, at Palermo, to detach a part of his force for the protection of Minorca. On the 26th, the British fleet anchored in Tetuan bay, to get, what the ships had only partially procured at Mahon, a supply of water, and on the 29th, reached Gibraltar; just three weeks after the French and Spanish fleets had passed the rock on their way to Cadiz. Even the two French 74s left repairing at Toulon, had since followed the combined facets out of the Mediterranean.

With such limited means as we possess, it is not easy to say how it happened, first that the Spanish fleet, scattered and discomfited by a gale, was suffered to enter Carthagena; and next that the French fleet, although it spent nearly four weeks in twice traversing that small portion of the Mediterranean which divides Genoa from Carthagena, was missed by a British fleet cruising on the same seas. Not a jot of information on the subject appears in a work in which, from its title and the rela

tion that subsisted between its author and Earl St. Vincent, a solution of the difficulty might reasonably be expected.

66

To show that this writer's account of the proceedings of the British fleet after it had arrived at Gibraltar from Cadiz, brief as it is, contains many misstatements, we have only to subjoin an extract. Here, with all the zeal and vigilance of Earl St. Vincent and the anxiety of every officer to forward the work, it took five days," that is, from 9 A.M. on the 10th, to 11 A.м. on the 11th, "before the provision and water could be completed, and the ships sufficiently repaired to follow the enemy; when the Earl of St. Vincent hoisted his flag on board the Ville de Paris, and taking Lord Keith under his orders, made all sail for Cape Dell-Mell. At this place (see p. 294) he received intelligence, that the enemy had anchored in Vado bay; but his lordship, having every reason to think that the Spaniards meditated an attack on Minorca, went to Mahon, and ordered Lord Keith to cruise off the island, the Spaniards having collected a large body of troops at Majorca."

Being desirous to attend the combined fleets in their further movements, we shall merely advert to two untoward circumstances, which may assist in explaining how the British and French fleets twice missed each other: one was when Lord Keith on the 8th of June, in compliance with Earl St. Vincent's orders, put back, just when a 24 hours' run in the course he had been steering, would have brought him in front of M. Bruix; the next, when, instead of waiting off Cape San Sebastian, Lord Keith, of his own accord as it appears, steered for Minorca, and in the neighbourhood of that island wasted several days.

On the 7th of July, while the combined fleets were passing the Straits, some of the ships amused themselves with firing at two vessels belonging to the Algerines, and then steering close in with the Barbary shore. Earl St. Vincent, who was on board the 44-gun ship Argo, at anchor in the bay, despatched the hired cutter Penelope, of 16 or 18 guns, Lieutenant Frederick Lewis Maitland, to ascertain the cause of the firing. Having stretched across the gut with very light winds during the night, Lieutenant Maitland, at daybreak on the 8th, found himself nearly within gun-shot of Admiral Massaredo's advanced ships, the boats of which, in the prevailing calm, were ordered to tow the 14-gun brig-corvette Vivo towards the Penelope. The latter, however, on approaching the British cutter, received so warm a salute, that she soon dropped astern.

1 Brenton, vol. ii., p. 476.

A breeze now springing up, the Spanish 34-gun frigate Del Carmen ran down, and placing herself about a cable's length on the Penelope's weather beam, opened a heavy fire, by which the cutter was soon unrigged and compelled to surrender. An officer from the Vivo now boarded the Penelope, and demanded her commander's sword; but Lieutenant Maitland refused to deliver it, alleging that the British colours had been struck to the frigate. Shortly afterwards, one of the Carmen's boats boarded and took possession of the Penelope, and sent away the boat of the Vivo.

The Penelope, when thus suddenly ordered from Gibraltar, had on board a considerable sum in specie, intended for the island of Minorca, but which, rather neglectfully we think, was not removed. "When her crew found there was no chance of escape from the combined fleets, they made an attempt to plunder the treasure, which Lieutenant Maitland most honourably and successfully resisted, alleging that, as public property, it was the lawful prize of the captors."1

On the 10th, 11th, and 12th, the French and Spanish fleets entered the harbour of Cadiz. The Censeur being still not in a state to proceed on the voyage, the Spanish monarch presented to the French republic the 74 San-Sebastian; and into the latter, newly and appropriately named the Alliance, Captain Faye and his officers and crew instantly removed. That done, on the 21st the combined fleets got under way, bound to Brest. Scarcely, however, had the two fleets made sail from the anchorage, than two of the Spanish three-deckers, the Mexicano and Santa Ana, returned; the latter after having run on shore and been with difficulty got afloat again. This left Admiral Massaredo with the following 15 sail of the line :—

Exclusive of four frigates and three brigs; making the aggregate number of the combined Spanish and French fleets 59 sail, of which 40 were of the line.

1 Marshall, vol. ii., p. 383.

On the 30th at 2 A.M., the wind coming to the eastward, Lord Keith, with his 31 sail of the line, got under way from Gibraltar, and stood towards the channel, but heard nothing of the object of his pursuit until the 8th of August; when, being off Cape Finisterre, he was informed by a Danish brig, that on the 6th, she had passed through the combined fleets, steering to the north-east. On the 9th, the British 36-gun frigate Stag, Captain Joseph Sidney Yorke, came into the fleet with information that she had seen the French and Spaniards off Cape Ortegal, steering, as before, to the north-east. On the 12th, the British fleet arrived in soundings, and at noon on that day, was about 80 miles to the westward of Ushant. On the 14th, Lord Keith detached the Impétueux, Pompée, and Ethalion, to look into Brest; where Sir Edward Pellew found the French and Spanish fleets, which had arrived only on the preceding day, safely moored in the road.

Whatever may have been the errors or mismanagement of Lord Keith while cruising in the Mediterranean, so soon as the British fleet was clear of the island of Minorca, the ships pushed, under all sail, in pursuit of the Franco-Spanish fleet, and actually gained upon it so much that, had there been another degree of distance to pass over, the two fleets in all probability would have come in contact. Those who might dread the result of a meeting, under such a numerical disparity as 40 to 31, should recollect, that a fleet of 30 sail of the line, equipped, manned, and commanded like Lord Keith's, was a match for any fleet that could be sent to sea; especially one made up of the ships of two national navies, between which there was little or no concert, and the fleet of one of which had given so decided a proof that numbers were a disadvantage to it.

We may observe, in passing, that the alleged object of the voyage of M. Bruix to the Mediterranean appears to have been much overrated. He had landed a few soldiers at Savona, and convoyed a fleet of coasters to Genoa; services which his frigates alone could just as well have performed. Even when the two fleets had joined, they evinced no intention to act against Minorca and Sicily, or to overpower the British naval force in that sea. The French fleet when alone, and even the two fleets when united, rather shunned than sought an engagement; nor had a single hostile port been visited, nor even threatened. The result was, that the Brest and Cadiz fleets had united, and now lay moored together, to the ridicule of monarchial Spain, in the great naval depôt of republican France.