1812     SWALLOW WITH RENARD AND GOELAND     71

hull ; and, of a crew of 109 out of 120 men and boys, lost six seamen and marines killed, and 17 wounded, including the purser, Mr. Eugene Ryan, who had gallantly volunteered to serve on deck. The Renard was much injured. in her masts and most severely shattered in her hull ; especially on the starboard side. Her loss, out of the 94 men that constituted, as it appears, her regular crew, was 14 men killed and 28 wounded ; including among the latter her gallant commander, who was struck by a splinter upon the stump of the arm which some years before he had honourably lost. The total number of persons on board the Renard at the commencement of the action, consisting partly of troops as already mentioned, is represented to have been 180. The loss sustained by the Goéland, whose crew is stated to have consisted of 113 men, does not appear in M. Baudin's letter ; and yet, as the schooner, at one time in particular, was exposed to a close and well-directed fire from five of the Swallow's carronades, loaded each with 64 pounds of double cannister and 32 of musket-balls, making 96 pounds in all, a considerable slaughter must have ensued.

That this was an affair very creditable to Captain Sibly, the officers, and crew of the Swallow, cannot admit a doubt; and that the latter would have made a prize of the Renard, had she not run for protection to the batteries, is, from a review of all the circumstances, equally clear. And yet some dozens of cases have been passed over, to celebrate this as an action glorious, in the extreme; for the navy of France. "The Renard," says a well-known French writer on English subjects," of the same force as the Abeille, escorting a convoy in the gulf of Genoa, meets the Swallow, of the same force as the Alacrity. A frigate and an English ship of the line are in view ; it matters not : the Swallow must fly, or be taken, before she can be succoured. A furious combat ensues between the two brigs, and the Swallow avoids her inevitable capture, only by flying for protection, under all sail, to the two large vessels, who are also crowding all sail to save her." * This is M. Dupin ; who reads English, and writes liberally, except when national self-love interposes to screen truth.

On the 10th of August the British 20-gun ship Minstrel, Captain John Strutt Peyton and 18-gun brig-sloop Philomel, Captain Charles Shaw, observed three small French privateers in the port of Biendom, near Alicant ; where they were protected by a castle mounting 24 guns. As a further security, two of the vessels were hauled on shore, and a battery formed with six of their guns, which were manned with their united crews, amounting to 80 men, chiefly Genoese. Under these circumstances, the British ship and brig could only blockade the privateers ; and,

* For the original passage see Appendix, No. 4.

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