midshipman (Alexander Hood) and 37 seamen and marines wounded. The Penelope's loss, of one killed and three, including one mortally wounded, has already appeared; making a total of 17 killed, and 101 wounded. The only French account, which has been published on the subject, represents the loss of the Guillaume-Tell at upwards of 200, in killed and wounded together. This was out of a complement, as deposed by her officers, of 919 men, being 81 less than the number stated in Captain Dixon's letter.

A more heroic defence than that of the Guillaume-Tell is not to be found among the records of naval actions. Its only compeer, in modern times at least, was fought in the same seas, and within less than a degree of the same latitude. If the British have their Leander and Généreux, the French have their Guillaume-Tell and a British squadron; and the defeat, in either case, was more honourable than half the single-ship victories which have been so loudly celebrated.

Nor, when the Guillaume-Tell's case is mentioned, must the conduct of the Penelope frigate be forgotten. Without Captain Blackwood's promptitude, gallantry, and perseverance ; without those repeated raking fires, of the effects of which Admiral Decres so justly complained, the Guillaume-Tell would most probably have escaped. The decided inferiority of a 64-gun ship, especially with two-thirds only of her crew on board, rendered the bold approach of the Lion creditable to Captain Dixon, his officers and men.

It was the Foudroyant's arrival that so turned the scale. This ship expended in the action, according to a return which has been published, the following quantity of powder and shot:

Had the Foudroyant, single-handed, met the Guillaume-Tell, the combat would have been between two of the most powerful ships that had ever so met; and, although the Foudroyant's slight inferiority of force, being chiefly in number of men, was not that of which a British captain would complain, still the chances were equal, that the Guillaume-Tell, so gallantly manned, and so ably commanded, came off the conqueror.

As soon as the three crippled ships had put themselves a little to rights, the Penelope, as the most efficient, took the prize in tow, and proceeded with her to Syracuse. Subsequently the Guillaume-Tell arrived at Portsmouth; and, under the name of Malta, became, next to the Tonnant, the largest two

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