1809	Lord Collingwood and M. Ganteaume	141

instance), and by the notorious tardiness of the military commander-in-chief. The French say of the Earl of Chatham, that he was the most temporizing general in the British army, " le plus temporiseur des généraux de l'armée Britannique ; * and further, that " his countrymen reproached him with being occupied almost exclusively about his health and his turtle-soup, instead of troubling himself with the details of the expedition placed under his command." " Ses compatriotes lui ont fait le reproche de s'être occupé presque exclusivement de sa Santé et du soin d'avoir de bon bouillon de tortue, au lieu de se livrer aux details de l'expédition qui lui était Confiée. " We now quit the fogs and damps of the Scheldt, for the more genial climate of the Mediterranean.

The rival commanders-in-chief on that station were still, as at the close of the preceding year, Vice-admirals Ganteaume and Lord Collingwood. On or about the 26th of April, during the period of unavoidable absence on the part of the blockading fleet, a French squadron, of five sail of the line, two frigates, one corvette, and 16 brigs and settees, under the command of Rear-admiral Baudin in the 80-gun ship Robuste, sailed from Toulon roads with troops and provisions for the relief of Barcelona. It appear that the ships arrived there, landed their succours, and returned to Toulon in the middle of May, followed, at no very great distance, by the fleet of Lord Collingwood ; who, with 11 sail of the line, resumed the blockade of the port.

By the early part of October the fleet at anchor in Toulon road consisted of the following 15 sail of the line, exclusive of six Russian sail of the line, six or seven French frigates, and several armed transports and store-ships, either the whole fleet, or a division of it, waiting for a second opportunity to throw supplies into Barcelona.

* Victoires et Conquêtes, &c., tome xix., p, 268

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