ants have ever manifested themselves to be proof against every
attempt to seduce them from their allegiance. The opinions which have
been entertained unfavourable to this fact,--arising no doubt from the
proximity of the island to the coast of France, and the general use of
the French language, but, most of all, from its having at one time
been infested by adventurers,--are totally without foundation.

Having been many years stationed at this island, we have witnessed the
loyalty and intrepidity of the natives: and could give several
instances where the Guernsey pilot was the _first_ to board the enemy.

Lord de Saumarez was married at Guernsey, on the 27th October 1788, to
Martha, only daughter and heiress of Thomas Le Marchant, Esq. by
marriage with Miss Mary Dobree, two of the most ancient and
respectable families in the island. This marriage was the consequence
of a long and mutual attachment: it need scarcely be added, that it
completed the happiness of both. They became the parents of eight
children, whose biography will be found in the Appendix.

CHAPTER II.

1767 to 1778.

Commencement of his Career.--His Education.--Visit of the Duke
of Gloucester to Guernsey.--Saumarez decides for the Navy.--Is
put on the Soleby's books.--School at London.--Embarks in the
Montreal.--Winchelsea, Pembroke, Levant.--Smyrna.--Returns
home.--Passes for Lieutenant.--Embarks in the Bristol.--Proposal
to leave the Navy.--Attack on Fort Sullivan.--Gallant
Conduct.--Is made Lieutenant.--Bristol, Chatham, Lady
Parker.--Commands the Spitfire.--Rhode Island.--Many
Engagements.--War with France.--Appearance of the French Fleet
under D'Estaing.--Spitfire burnt.--Appearance of Lord Howe.

The illustrious admiral, of whose ancestors a biographical sketch has
been briefly given in the preceding chapter, and in the Addenda to
this work, and whose glorious career is the subject of this record,
passed from the first rudiments of learning, under a dame, to the more
manly tuition of Elizabeth College, in Guernsey, where his brother,
fifteen months his senior, was receiving his education.

Although he always said that his brother was a much better scholar in
both Latin and Greek than himself, his taste for poetry, and his
discrimination in that refined branch of literature, must have
appeared at a very early age, as, when he was only seven or eight
years old, he surprised his mother by reciting to her sev