1812     BOATS OF MINSTREL AT VALENCIA     73

command. Captain Peyton accepted the invitation, dined with the French general, and received back his midshipman and six out of his seven men. Thus is it ever, that the brave sympathize with the brave ; and he who gallantly does his duty, meets far from the most inestimable part of his reward, in the admiration which he elicits from the breast of his enemy.

On the 11th of August, the Menelaus, Captain Sir Peter Parker, observed several small vessels and a large brig running alongshore ; on perceiving the frigate they hauled up for Port St.-Stefano, in the bay of Orbitello. Reconnoitring the harbour, a battery of two guns, one of four guns, a tower with one, and a citadel of 14 guns were seen ; and although so well defended, and within half musket-shot of the shore and batteries, Sir Peter Parker resolved to cut them out. He stood out to sea that his preparations for the attack might not be noticed by the enemy, as well as to lead them to suppose that, discouraged by the strength of the place, he had given up the intention of attack. At dark he again stood in for the bay, in the hope, by storming the town, of carrying the vessels. The service being of a most desperate nature, to which, in the event of failure, an imputation of rashness might possibly attach, Sir Peter resolved to head the attack himself. The boats left the Menelaus at 11 p.m., but failed in their endeavours to reach the port, and returned under a heavy fire from the citadel and batteries. Foiled, but not discouraged, he deferred his attack until the night of the 13th, when he again left the ship with two gigs, two cutters, a launch with an 18-pound carronade, carrying 130 seamen and 40 marines. The force opposed to the above was 400 men, who manned the batteries, and many inhabitants of the town who had armed to repel the intruders. The plan suggested was that Lieutenants Beynon and Wilcocks, of the marines, were to storm the batteries, while Sir Peter Parker pushed on and secured the vessels. They approached the shore under a heavy fire ; the marines landed in spite of all opposition, charged up a hill and drove before them about 90 of the enemy into the four-gun battery, which was instantly stormed and taken ; the guns were spiked, and the marines re-embarked. Sir Peter, in the mean time, boarded and carried the brig, and scuttled and destroyed the other vessels ; the brig was brought out, although she was close under the guns of the citadel, and moored to the shore by six cables, with the loss of one midshipman (Thomas Munro) killed, and five seamen wounded.

On the 29th of September, in the evening, having received information that the French had laden six vessels with shells at Valencia for Peniscola, Captain Peyton despatched the boats of the Minstrel, under Lieutenant George Thomas, assisted by midshipmen William Lewis, B. S. Oliver, and Charles Thomas Smith to endeavour to bring them out ; keeping the ship close in shore to cover and protect the boats. Although the vessels

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