falsehood.

These accounts appear to have reached Paris on the 11th July. On the
19th, the following bulletin reached St. Malo.

Three French ships of the line and a frigate, under the command
of Rear-admiral Linois, were attacked on the 6th instant by six
English sail of the line and a frigate. The English were
completely beaten, and took refuge in Gibraltar, leaving in
possession of the French the Hannibal, of seventy-four guns:
another ship of the line had struck, but was towed off by a
great number of gun-vessels, which sailed from Gibraltar to her
relief.

About this time, the Jason frigate, having been wrecked near St. Malo,
the captain and crew were made prisoners. The author was sent in with
a flag of truce by Commodore Cunningham, of the Clyde, to negotiate
for the exchange of prisoners; when the French officer, with an air of
triumph and exultation, handed him a copy of that bulletin: but, as
soon as the negotiation was ended, the author had the pleasure of
handing to him, in return, the Gazette account of the victory of the
13th, which Sir James Saumarez had gained over Linois, and which the
Commodore had received, fortunately, on that day. The Frenchman's
chagrin may be easily imagined, when he threw down the Gazette, with
the exclamation '_Ce n'est pas vrai_!'

On the statement of Linois' victory, as it was called, reaching Paris,
a handsome sword was sent to him; which, however, did not reach him
until after his subsequent defeat. On this occasion the following
Epigram was written.

In the days of the Bourbons, a man was _rewarded_
For _standing_ the brunt of the day:
But, now, this old maxim in France is _discarded_,--
Men are honoured for _running away_!

In the French accounts nothing was mentioned of their running their
ships aground to escape from the English, which is, indeed, the only
thing Citizen Linois deserved any credit for doing. At the same time,
it could not fail to convince both the French and Spanish troops, of
the want of confidence he must have had in his crews, and of their
evident inferiority: it was certainly a new mode of fighting, which
called forth the following lines on this improvement in naval tactics.

To mar our skill, fam'd Linois, thou hast found
A certain way,--by fighting ships on _ground_;
Fix deep in sand thy centre, van, and rear,
Nor e'er St. Vincent, Duncan, Nelson, fear.
While, o'er