made a very great number of captures. He was
present with Lord Gambier's fleet outside Aix Roads in April 1809,
when Cochrane made his famous fire-ship attack on the French fleet.
The _Emerald_ was one of the few ships which, on the 12th, were sent
by Gambier, much against his will, to support Cochrane in the
_Imperieuse_. One can well imagine that her gallant commander shared
Cochrane's indignation at seeing so daring an enterprise shorn of its
fruits by the weakness and irresolution of their chief.

Maitland's next appointment, dated June 3, 1813, was to the _Goliath_,
a cut-down 74. He commanded her for twelve months on the Halifax and
West India stations. Having been found seriously defective, she was
paid off at Chatham in October 1814. In the following month Maitland
was appointed to the _Boyne_, then fitting at Portsmouth for the flag
of Sir Alexander Cochrane, commander-in-chief on the coast of America.

In January 1815 he was at Cork, and had collected a large fleet of
transports and merchant vessels bound for America. The fleet was ready
to sail, but was detained at Cove by a succession of strong westerly
winds. Before the wind changed the news came that Napoleon had escaped
from Elba.

Maitland's orders were at once countermanded, and he was removed to
the ship with which his name will always be associated, the
_Bellerophon_, 74. This famous old ship had fought on the First of
June, at the Nile, and at Trafalgar; she was now once more to render a
conspicuous service to the country.

She sailed from Plymouth with Sir Henry Hotham's squadron on May 24,
1815. Her commander's record of the memorable events which took place
on board her during the following weeks is in the reader's hands, and
nothing more need be said of them here. Let it suffice to note that
the controversies which have raged around the story of Napoleon's
exile, and which have tarnished so many reputations, have left
Maitland's without a stain. "My reception in England," said Napoleon
himself to Maitland, as he bade him farewell in the cabin of the
_Bellerophon_, "has been very different from what I expected; but it
gives me much satisfaction to assure you, that I feel your conduct to
me throughout has been that of a gentleman and a man of honour."

* * * * *

Up to this point the materials for Maitland's biography are somewhat
scanty. After this his journal, preserved at Lindores, gives us a very
full recor