his lordship made to capture or destroy the ships in the Clarente [Charente]. I said that it was the opinion of a very distinguished naval officer whom I named, and who was well known to him, that, if Cochrane had been properly supported, he would have destroyed the whole of the French ships, ' He could not only have destroyed them, ' replied Napoléon, 'but he might and would have taken them out, had your admiral supported him as he ought to have done. For, in consequence of the signal made by L'Allemand (I think he said) to the ships to do the best in their power to save themselves, sauve qui peut in fact, they became panic-struck and cut their cables. The terror of the brûlots (fire-ships) was so great that they actually threw their powder overboard, so that they could have offered very little resistance. The French admiral was an imbécile, but yours was just as bad. I assure you that, if Cochrane had been supported, he would have taken every one of the ships. They ought not to have been alarmed by your brûlots, but fear deprived them of their senses, and they no longer knew how to act in their own defence."' *

The destruction of three French two-deckers and a ship armed en flûte seems hardly to have warranted the Nelsonic exordium : " The Almighty's favour to his majesty and the nation has been strongly marked," &c. ; much less the high-flown panegyric, contained in the secretary of the admiralty's letter to Lord Gambier: " I am commanded by their lordships to congratulate you on the brilliant success of the fleet under your command." And again: " Their lordships, considering that the state of the enemy's force in consequence of the brilliant success of the fleet under your command, " &c. The only part of the enterprise, in which any thing of a brilliant nature discovered itself, was when the fire-ships were burning, and the explosion-vessels bursting through the air ; unless, giving to the term its intended metaphoric allusion, it was when Captain Wooldridge, in the Mediator, broke the boom, and, above all, when Lord Cochrane, in the Impérieuse, dashed in, without orders, and attacked the grounded line-of-battle ships.

In the Lords, the thanks of the House were voted to Lord Gambier upon the motion of Lord Mulgrave, with a few dissentients, but without a division. In the House of Commons, Lord Cochrane moved for a copy of the minutes of the trial of Lord Gambier, but lost his motion by the success of the amendment of the chancellor of the Exchequer, that " sentence" might be substituted for " minutes." Mr. Percival then moved, " That the thanks of the House be given to Admiral the Right Honourable Lord Gambier, for the zeal, judgment, ability, and anxious attention to the welfare of his majesty's service, which marked his lordship's conduct as commander-in-chief of the fleet in Basque roads ; by which the French fleet, which had taken refuge under their own batteries, were driven on shore and

* See O'Meara's Napoléon in Exile, vol. ii., p, 292

^ back to top ^