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enemy, aware of our condition, took the opportunity, set her foresail and topgallant sails, and ran away; we endeavoured to pursue her with what rags of sails we had left, but to no purpose. Thus we lost one of the finest two-decked ships I cannot bestow encomy eyes ever beheld.

miums too great on the people and officers' behaviour, and I hope you will strenuously recommend the latter to the Lords of the Admiralty, as they richly deserve their favour. Notwithstanding the great fatigue the ship's company had experienced during the day, they cheerfully continued up all night, knotting and splicing the rigging, and tending the sails. I flatter myself, when you reflect that one of the ships of your squadron, with no more than 65 guns (as you know, some of them were disabled last January, and not supplied), and 472 well men at quarters, should beat three French men-of-war, one of 74 guns and 700 men, and another of 38 guns and 350 men, and one of 28 guns and 250 men, you will not think we have been deficient in our duty. If we had had the good luck to join the Bristol, it would have crowned all. Before I conclude, I cannot help representing to you the inhuman, ungenerous, and barbarous behaviour of the French during the action; no rascally picaroon or pirate could have fired worse stuff into us than they did, such as square bits of iron, old rusty nails, and in short everything that could tend to the destruction of men, a specimen of which,

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please God, I shall produce to you on my arrival."

The loss of the Buckingham in this action did not exceed 7 killed and 31 wounded; whereas, according to Smollett, we know not on what authority, the number of slain on board the Florissant did not fall short of 180, and that of her wounded is said to have exceeded 300. She was so disabled in her hull that she could hardly be kept afloat until she reached Martinique, where she was repaired; and the largest of the two frigates, together with the loss of forty men, received such damage as to be for some time quite unserviceable.

A monument in Westminster Abbey, upon which the particulars of the above action are inscribed, records the gallantry of Admiral Tyrrell; but his body was, at his own desire, thrown into the sea; his death having occurred on the element which had been the scene of his fame.

CAPTAIN MORDAUNT'S DEFENCE OF THE
RESOLUTION. ·

On the 19th April, 1706, the Resolution, of 70 guns, commanded by Captain Mordaunt, with the Milford frigate in company, fell in with six large French ships of war. The celebrated Earl, of Peterborough, the father of Captain Mordaunt, was at this time on board the Resolution, on

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his passage to Genoa, together with the Spanish Envoy to the court of the Duke of Savoy. The Resolution having been much shattered a few days before in a heavy gale of wind, and being at no time a fast sailer, the enemy's ships gained fast upon her, and, in order to avoid capture, it was deemed advisable to put the Envoy and the Duke on board the Milford, with instructions to make their escape into Ongelia, the nearest friendly port. Being now relieved of his fears for the safety of his illustrious passengers, Captain Mordaunt, notwithstanding the great disparity of force, determined on defending his ship, and maintained the unequal contest for some time, and then, to prevent her falling into the enemy's hands, by the advice of his officers, he ran her aground, under the guns of a Genoese fort. From this, however, the ship received no manner of protection, and the Captain, having been severely wounded in the thigh, was carried, most unwillingly, on shore. The defence had now been protracted from before noon until five o'clock P.M., and the French Commodore sent in all the boats of his squadron, under the cover of a 70-gun ship, to board the Resolution; but the officers and crew, fired with their captain's ardour, repulsed the enemy, and obliged them to retire to their ships. The state of the English ship was, however, hopeless. Her enemies preserved their position during the night, and next morning a French 80-gun ship brought

up close under the Resolution's stern, with a spring upon her cable, and opened a heavy raking fire upon her, to which none could be returned. The officers, now finding that there was no prospect of saving the ship, the water being up to the gun-deck, resolved, with their captain's consent, to set her on fire. This was accordingly

done, and the well-defended Resolution was soon consumed, her surviving officers and crew reaching the shore in safety.

The Earl of Peterborough above mentioned was the peer of that name who commanded the English forces sent to Spain in support of the Archduke Charles, and must have been on board the Resolution at this time in the execution of matters connected with that service. He had himself, as Lord Mordaunt, been engaged in the naval service, and had signalized his courage against the Moors, at Tangier; and we can well imagine that his spirit could have ill brooked leaving his son in the moment of danger. In that curious book, "The Diary of Henry Teonge," chaplain of his Majesty's ships Assistance, Bristol, and Royal Oak, will be found a notice of this nobleman, which shows that, in addition to his prowess on the field and the ocean, he wished to try his powers as a member of the church militant; the following is the chaplain's narrative:

"The Lord Mordaunt, taking occasion by my not being very well, would have preach't, and

ask't the captaine's leave last night, and to that intent sate up till four in the morning to compose his speech, and intended to have Mr. Norwood to sing the psalme. All this I myself heard in agitation, and, resolving to prevent him, I got up in the morning before I should have done had I had respect to my owne health, and cam into the greate cabin, where I found the zealous Lord with our captaine, whom I did so handle in a smart and short discourse, that he went out of the cabin in greate wrathe. In the afternoone, he set one of the carpenter's crewe to woorke about his cabin, and I being acquainted with it, did by my captaine's order discharge the woorkeman, and he left woorking; at which the reverent Lord was so vexed that he borrowed a hammer and busyed himselfe all that day in nayling up his hangings; but being done on the sabbaoth day, and also when there was no necessity, I hope the woorke will not be long-lived. From that day he loved neyther me nor the captaine."

SIR SIDNEY SMITH IN BREST HARBOUR.

Sir Sidney Smith, celebrated for his defence of St. Jean d'Acre, was one of those whose cha racter appears to coincide with the estimate and opinion of Lord Howard of Effingham, viz., that a portion of madness was a necessary ingredient

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