soon after she had
passed the rear of the enemy. By standing to the southward again,
Captain Saumarez brought his ship into action, but to _windward_ of
the enemy; and, at the time the wind shifted to the southward, Sir
George Rodney, in passing through the enemy's fleet, was surprised to
find an English ship to _windward_ of the French. Having ascertained
it was the Russell, he declared emphatically that the captain had
distinguished himself more than any officer in the fleet.[4] By this
favourable position, which he had thus gallantly obtained, after
receiving the more distant fire of several of the enemy's ships, about
three o'clock he was able to come up with and closely engage a French
seventy-four, and after exchanging broadsides with three others,
pushed up to the Ville de Paris, and after raking her, having
maintained a position on the lee quarter, poured in a most destructive
fire, until the Barfleur, Sir Samuel Hood's flag-ship, came up.

[4] Ralfe's Naval Biography, Vol. ii. p. 378.

Sir Gilbert Blane, in his account of this period of the battle, says:
"It was late in the day when the Ville de Paris struck her colours:
the ships immediately engaged with her at that moment were the
Barfleur, the flag-ship of Sir Samuel Hood, and the Russell, commanded
by Captain Saumarez. The Formidable (in which was Sir Gilbert) was
right astern, and, having come within shot, was yawing in order to
give the enemy a raking broadside, when Sir Charles Douglas and I
standing together on the quarter-deck, the position of our ship opened
a view of the enemy's stern between the foresail and the jib-boom,
through which we saw the French flag hauled down." This fact has not
been generally stated.

But the anecdote which we are now about to relate, must remove every
doubt on the subject. In the autumn of 1808, when the Baltic fleet,
under command of Vice-admiral Sir James Saumarez, returned from the
Gulf of Finland, in company with the Swedish fleet, to the harbour of
Carlscrona, the Swedish commander-in-chief, Admiral Palmquist,
Rear-admiral Nauckhoff, Commodore Blessing, Captain Tornquist, and
others, came on board the flag-ship, Victory, to pay their respects to
the admiral: they were of course asked to take some refreshment in the
cabin: on which, as on all other occasions where an interpreter was
wanted, we were of the party. The conversation naturally turned to the
actions wherein they each had served in early life, when i