l; and had I not
been concerned with sons of interest I could have done much."

With his two new prizes (for the Countess of Scarborough had after a
short action struck to the greatly superior Pallas) Jones set off for
the Texel, with a most dilapidated crew and fleet. The Alliance, well
called a "Comet" by the editor of the Janette-Taylor collection of
Jones's papers, disappeared again after the battle. Landais, whose
conduct was described by Jones as being that of "either a fool, a
madman, or a villain," was afterwards dismissed the service, but not
until he had cut up other extraordinary pranks. He now went off with his
swift and uninjured frigate to the Texel, leaving Jones, laden down with
prisoners and wounded, unassisted. Of the Richard's crew of 323, 67 men
had been killed, leaving 106 wounded and 150 others to be accommodated
on the injured Serapis. Then there were 211 English prisoners on the
Richard at the beginning of the action; and of the 332 (including 8 sick
men and 7 non-combatants) men composing the crew of the Serapis, there
were 245 left to be cared for--134 wounded, 87 having been killed. There
were, consequently, only 150 well men to look after 562 wounded and
prisoners. Some of the latter were afterwards transferred to the Pallas,
but altogether it was an unwieldy fleet which slowly sailed for the
Texel, at which neutral port Jones arrived October 3, none too soon, for
as he entered the roads, an English squadron, consisting of a sixty-four
ship of the line and three heavy frigates, which had been looking for
him, hove in sight.

The effect of the cruise was very great. The English people, alarmed and
incensed, never forgot it. Never before had one of their ships of war
been conquered by a vessel of greatly inferior force. Their coasts,
deemed impregnable, were again invaded by the man whom they called, in
the blindness of their rage, pirate and renegade. Professor Houghton, a
serious-minded historian, writing of Jones said: "His moral character
can be summed up in one word--detestable." English comment on Paul Jones
may be summed up truthfully in one word,--envenomed. Jones's exploits,
moreover, greatly increased the prestige of young America, and made of
himself a still greater hero at home and particularly in France. For the
rest of his life, indeed, Jones, in France especially, where spectacles
are peculiarly appreciated, was the man on horseback, and he enjoyed the
position intensely. Fannin