Lieutenant Yeo's letter to Captain Maitland : " To their credit as Englishmen, as well as (to the credit of) their profession, the instant the fort was in our possession, they (the seamen and marines) seemed to try who could be the first to relieve and assist the poor wounded prisoners, who were lying in numbers in different parts of the fort ; and I had the pleasure to see their humanity amply repaid by the gratitude the unfortunate men's friends expressed when they came to take them away. "

The twelve 18-pounders being spiked and thrown over the parapet, the carriages broken, and the embrasures, with a part of the fort, blown up, the British, taking with them 40 barrels of powder, two small brass cannon, and 50 stands of arms, retired from the scene of their exploits to their boats on the beach, and soon pulled back to the Loire. Captain Maitland, meanwhile, had, by an officer and boat's crew, taken quiet possession of the two unarmed French privateers, also of a Spanish merchant brig in ballast. The Confiance was a ship of 490 tons, and had carried 24 guns on a flush deck ; probably long 6-pounders, or 18-pounder carronades ; * her ports being too close together and too small for any higher caliber of long gun or carronade. The brig was the Belier, the same probably that, in the spring of 1803, carried out despatches to Rear-admiral Linois in the East Indies. † Her guns, stated to be 18-pounder carronades, were also on shore ; and the vessel herself was quite in an unprepared state, having only her lower rigging overhead.

As soon as possession had been taken of these vessels, Captain Maitland sent a flag of truce to the town, with a message to the effect that, if the inhabitants would deliver up such stores of the ship as were on shore, they should receive no further molestation. This proposal was readily agreed to ; and the British brought off all the stores of the Confiance, except her guns ; which, as the embarkation of them would have occupied some time, and a large body of troops was in the vicinity, were left behind. A great many small merchant vessels were afloat in the bay, and hauled up on the beach ; but, having a just sense of the inhumanity of depriving the poorer inhabitants of the means of gaining a livelihood, and knowing that the cargoes of such vessels as had any would be worth little or nothing to the captors (of which others, besides himself and his ship's company, formed apart), Captain Maitland left them untouched. As if to give the finish to an exploit so gallantly begun, and so handsomely concluded, the bishop and one of the principal inhabitants of Muros came off to the Loire, to express their gratitude for the orderly behaviour of the British seamen and marines, who had not, they acknowledged, committed one act of pillage, and to offer

*  The guns are called by Captain Maitland twelves and nines ; but he evidently had not seen them, nor is it clear that those had who made the report.

†  See vol. iii., p. 217.

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