aterial, had Rodney
reaped the full fruits of the victory which he owed rather to chance
than to his own merit, great as that undeniably was.

A letter published in 1809, anonymous, but bearing strong internal
evidence of being written by Sir Gilbert Blane, the physician of the
fleet and long on intimate terms with Rodney, who was a constant
sufferer during his last cruise, states that the admiral "thought
little of his victory on the 12th of April, 1782." He would have
preferred to rest his reputation upon his combinations against De
Guichen, April 17, 1780, and "looked upon that opportunity of beating,
with an inferior fleet, such an officer, whom he considered the best
in the French service, as one by which, but for the disobedience of
his captains, he might have gained immortal renown."[222] Few students
will be inclined to question this estimate of Rodney's merit on the
two occasions. Fortune, however, decreed that his glory should depend
upon a battle, brilliant in itself, to which his own qualities least
contributed, and denied him success when he most deserved it. The
chief action of his life in which merit and success met, the
destruction of Langara's fleet off Cape St. Vincent, has almost
passed into oblivion; yet it called for the highest qualities of a
seaman, and is not unworthy of comparison with Hawke's pursuit of
Conflans.[223]

Within the two years and a half which had elapsed since Rodney was
appointed to his command he had gained several important successes,
and, as was remarked, had taken a French, a Spanish, and a Dutch
admiral. "In that time he had added twelve line-of-battle ships, all
taken from the enemy, to the British navy, and destroyed five more;
and to render the whole still more singularly remarkable, the 'Ville
de Paris' was said to be the only first-rate man-of-war that ever was
taken and carried into port by any commander of any nation."
Notwithstanding his services, the party spirit that was then so strong
in England, penetrating even the army and navy, obtained his
recall[224] upon the fall of Lord North's ministry, and his successor,
a man unknown to fame, had already sailed when news arrived of the
victory. In the fallen and discouraging state of English affairs at
the time, it excited the utmost exultation, and silenced the
strictures which certain parts of the admiral's previous conduct had
drawn forth. The people were not in a humor to be critical, and amid
the exaggerated not