une â peu près semblable." * Looking back to discover, the nature of this charge against Captain Darby, we find that the Bellerophon " struck. to the Tonnant; " that is, the cries and noise of the Bellerophon's people, when her masts were falling on deck and crushing them by scores, were mistaken for the cry of surrender. Nay, so delicate were the ears of the Frenchmen, that they could distinguish the cries of the officers from those of the men. "Son equipage," says the account, "et principalement. les officiers, jetèrent de grands cris, pour faire connaître quilt était rendu." † From our inquiries we believe we can assert (and, if we knew the fact to be otherwise, we should be the last to conceal it), that no surrender took place, or was even contemplated. The crew of the Bellerophon were neither the least brave, nor, as was pretty notorious, the least noisy, of any in the British fleet : it is not unlikely, therefore, that when the masts were tumbling about their heads, the men hallooed, and roared, and uttered "de grands cris," but not any cries, we can vouch, that were meant to signify that they surrendered.

Leaving to heads better versed in state affairs to discuss the political consequences, far and near, that attended the decisive victory which Rear-admiral Nelson and his fleet had gained, we shall merely transcribe from Mr. Williams's book a translated passage, purporting to be part of a letter from a very intelligent French officer, of some celebrity, M. E. Poussielgue, comptroller of the expenses of the army, and administrator-general of the finances, in Egypt ; and which letter, among many others, was intercepted by the British fleet in the Mediterranean. M. Poussielgue says : " But the fatal engagement of Aboukir ruined all our hopes ; it prevented us from receiving the remainder of the forces which were destined for us ; it left the field free for the English to persuade the Porte to declare war against us ; it rekindled that which was hardly extinguished with the Emperor of Germany ; it opened the Mediterranean to the Russians, and planted them on our frontiers ; it occasioned the loss of Italy, and the invaluable possessions in the Adriatic, which we owed to the successful campaigns of Buonaparte ; and, finally, it at once rendered abortive all our projects, since it was no longer possible for us to dream of giving the English any uneasiness in India : add to this, that the people of Egypt, whom we wished to consider as friends and allies, instantaneously became our enemies ; and, entirely surrounded as we were by the Turks, we found ourselves engaged in a most difficult defensive war, without a glimpse of the slightest future advantage to be derived from it."

On the 5th the Leander, having on board Captain Berry of the Vanguard, with despatches for Earl St.-Vincent off Cadiz, quitted the squadron ; but, about 12 days afterwards, was fallen

* Victoires et Conquêtes, tome ix., p. 101.
† Ibid., p. 95.

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