Captain Woodriff strongly recommended the master of her to haul upon a wind to the northward, which the latter immediately did.

The Rochefort squadron, which had sailed out under Rear Admiral Burgues-Missiessy on the 11th of January, returned to port on the 20th of May. For some reason, not unconnected perhaps, with the proceedings of that squadron at the island of Dominique, and which we shall by and by have to relate, the French emperor dispossessed M. Missiessy of his command, and appointed M. Allemand, late of the Magnanime and the senior captain of the squadron, in his stead. As soon as the ships had refitted, M. Allemand received directions to take the earliest opportunity of putting to sea. He was first to proceed off the Lizard ; there to wait awhile for Vice-admiral Ganteaume : if the Brest fleet did not make its appearance, the rear-admiral was to steer for the bay of Biscay, and endeavour to join the combined fleet on its return from the Antilles : if foiled here also, M. Allemand was to proceed straight to Vigo, to await his further instructions. On the 12th of July, as has already been stated, Rear-admiral Stirling, with his squadron of five sail of the line, by orders from Admiral Lord Gardner, raised the blockade of the road of Aix ; * and on the 16th M. Allemand weighed and put to sea, with his squadron, consisting of the

On the next day, the 17th, the squadron captured the British 18-gun ship-sloop Ranger, Captain Charles Coote ; � but the crew, on seeing that their fate was inevitable, had so damaged the ship, that M. Allemand was obliged to set her on fire. While waiting at his first point of rendezvous, with the additional object in view of intercepting the Illustrious and her convoy, of whose expected arrival two or three captured stragglers had already apprized him, the French commodore fell in with the

*  See p. 1.

�  in the English translations of the old French navy-lists this ship rates as a 110. Either there was a mistake in this, or the ship had since been lengthened ; for, to a certainty, the force of the Majestueux in 1805 was precisely that of the 120-gun ship in the small table at p. 54 of the first volume, except that four of her 8-pounders had been withdrawn from the cabin and two brass carronades added to the four on the poop, making her guns in all 122.

�  The French say, " of 24 guns, " and that, in reality, was the number including carronades, which the Ranger mounted.

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