37° 45', longitude 16° 50', I fell in with two line-of-battle ships, one under three jury topmasts, the second had a jury mizen topmast, having the other ship in tow. I passed so close as to make their hulls out distinctly. I also showed them French colours, which they answered by the same ; and I have not the smallest doubt, from those circumstances, and the perfect recollection I have of the Guillaume-Tell and the Généreux, that it was those ships : they were steering to the north-east, apparently for Corfu. *

The sufferings of the Leander's men did not cease with the arrival of the two ships at Corfu. The republican authorities there seem to have considered the example of Captain Lejoille and his officers worthy of imitation to the very letter ; and, with all their characteristic hardihood, the seamen, more especially the wounded portion of them, nearly perished under the load of ill-treatment which was continued to be heaped upon them. †

At length the principal part of the officers, late belonging to the Leander, were allowed to return home on their parole ; but Captain Lejoille actually detained the carpenter, Thomas Jarrat, because he refused to furnish him with the dimensions of the Leander's masts and yards. Several of the seamen also were compelled to remain at Corfu ; and when, at a subsequent day, a Turco-Russian squadron was blockading the Généreux in the port, Captain Lejoille tried to persuade some of the Leander's men, of whose prowess he had received so indubitable a proof, to assist him in forcing his way out to sea. But the noble fellows lent a deaf ear to all the French captain's promises of reward ; and, in particular, a maintopman, named George Bannister, replied, "No, you d-----d French r------l, give us back our little ship, and we'll fight you again till we sink."

Had Captain Thompson found an enemy in such a man as Captain Bergeret, ‡ or in any one of those by whom Captain Bligh of the Alexander had been captured, or, in short, any among 50 other French officers that might be named, his persevering defence of his ship, his noble support of the flag under which he served, would have gained him the esteem of his conqueror. Far from plundering, he would have protected him. Far from belying him, he would have told a plain tale of his own good fortune. Far from wishing to degrade his prisoner,

* Clarke and M'Arthur's Life of Nelson, vol. ii., p. 97.
† See letter from Mr. Stanley, the British Consul at Trieste, in Naval Chronicle, vol. xiv., p. 11.
‡ While a prisoner in England, (see vol. i., p. 464,) Captain Bergeret was permitted to go to France on his parole, to endeavour to effect an exchange between himself and Sir Sidney Smith ; but, failing in his object, he returned to England. Sir Sidney having in the mean time escaped, the British government, with a proper feeling, gave Captain Bergeret his liberty.
§ See vol. i. p. 183.

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