effected their escape. By which designation was meant the Champion, and, we suppose, the Osborne transport, the pendant ship of the convoy.

On the 26th, at daybreak, having reached the latitude of Belleisle, on her way to Lorient, the Vet�ran fell in with, and was chased by, a British squadron composed of the 80-gun ship Gibraltar, Captain Willoughby Thomas Lake, and the 18-pounder 36-gun frigates Penelope and Tribune, Captain William Robert Broughton and Thomas Baker. The prince had reason to be alarmed ; but, by the local experience of the officers intrusted with the care of J�r�me and with the management of the ship, the Vet�ran succeeded in reaching the little port of Concarneau, situated about three leagues to the north-north-east of the Glenan isles ; and into which, on account of its rocky approach, narrow entrance, and small depth of water, no ship of the line had ever before attempted to take shelter.

For his dereliction of duty in quitting his commanding officer without leave, Prince J�r�me did not, as far as we can discover, receive any rebuke from his brother. On the contrary, Napol�on pleased perhaps at the partial destruction of the Quebec convoy, received him in a very flattering manner ; and the editor of the Moniteur was commanded to dress up J�r�me's " cruise " in the first style of court-panegyric. No inducement, however, could prevail upon the young naval hero to trust himself again at sea in a fighting ship ; and he very soon afterwards, we believe, quitted the profession. M. Willaumez now demands our attention.

Daylight on the 1st of August discovered to the French admiral the absence of the V�t�ran ; and, fully sensible of the danger to which the fugitive prince would be exposed, M. Willaumez cruised in every direction to find him. Meanwhile the Jamaica fleet, consisting of 109 vessels, under convoy of a 64, two frigates, and a sloop or two, had sailed from the west end of that island on the 28th of July, to go by the gulf, instead of the windward, passage, and was then rounding Cape Antonio. Having returned from his unsuccessful search, M. Willaumez continued to cruise for the Jamaica fleet, until, at the expiration of some days, a neutral assured him that his hopes were at an end.

This delay on the part of M. Willaumez, in all probability, would have led to a re-encounter between him and Sir John Borlase Warren had not the latter, on quitting Barbadoes, where he had arrived on the 12th of July, kept too much to the eastward. After having returned to Spithead from his first cruise off Madeira, Sir John had sailed, on the 4th of June, with the Foudroyant and four of his five 74s, * with an additional 74, the Fame,

*  See p. 185.

^ back to top ^