ent was impossible. The basket and its contents were seized by
the guard and carried before the Dey, and the Consul and the sailors
from the _Prometheus_ were arrested and imprisoned.

It was terrible news, indeed, which reached the poor mother, waiting on
board for her husband and child. Life in Algiers must have taught her,
only too well, the lengths to which Moorish cruelty could go, and the
tyrant who had defied the English nation was not likely to be deterred
by fear of consequences from avenging himself on his prisoner. The very
approach of the English ships might mean the sword or the bow-string, or
a yet more horrible death by torture. Some comfort the poor lady
received next day, when her baby was sent her, alive and well. Even the
cruelty of the Dey of Algiers had stopped short of hurting the child;
but the Consul, heavily ironed, was in the tyrant's dungeon, awaiting,
with many another luckless captive, the sentence from which the English
Admiral might be too late to save them. And, meanwhile, Lord Exmouth,
who had been joined at Gibralter by a Dutch squadron, arrived before the
Citadel of the sea, and sent in his demand for immediate release of all
Christian prisoners. The Admiral had made his arrangements with the
utmost care, and, when the time allowed for answer passed without any
reply, he boldly sent his flag-ship, the _Queen Charlotte_, straight for
the strong fort at the end of the pier which guarded the harbour. As the
troops flocked to the walls to watch the advance of the fleet, the
Admiral himself shouted and signed to them to retire under cover, while
he anchored right before the enemy's guns. The fort fired first; then a
broadside from the _Queen Charlotte_ crashed with terrible effect into
its walls.

Lord Exmouth had come there with the intention of doing his work
thoroughly: and very thoroughly he did it, for eight long hours of that
hot August day. When darkness fell, the famous forts, built by the
hands of thousands of luckless captives, were a mass of ruins. The
arsenal, the storehouses, and the fleet in the harbour had been utterly
destroyed. With the dawn, a boat, bearing the flag of truce, carried the
Admiral's terms to the beaten city. Every captive was to be immediately
surrendered, Christian slavery to be abolished, all ransoms paid during
the past year to be restored, and the Consul and sailors delivered
unhurt, and with due compensation. Three guns were to be fired in token
that a