e _Arab_, was made to serve during fourteen months in
seas in which there was no work to be done; but for the _Pallas_, a fine
frigate of thirty-two guns, he was allowed to find memorable employment.
He was sent to the Azores, with orders to limit his cruise to a month.
He captured one large Spanish vessel on the 6th of February, 1805, a
second on the 13th, a third on the 15th, a fourth on the 16th. Forced
after that to be idle, as far as prize-taking was concerned, for more
than a year, he seized two French vessels on the 27th of March, 1806,
and another a few days later. On the 6th of April he captured the
_Tapageuse_, and on the 7th he chased three other corvettes till they
were driven on shore by their crews and wrecked. He took another prize
on the 14th. On the 14th of May, the _Pallas_ had her famous engagement
with the French frigate _Minerve_ and three brigs, the _Lynx_, the
_Sylph_, and the _Palinure_, carrying eighty-eight guns in all, wherein
she was so disabled that she was forced to return to Portsmouth to be
refitted.

The _Imperieuse_ being assigned to him in August, 1806, Lord Cochrane
took two prizes on the 19th of December, and a third on the 31st. He was
then ordered home, and there detained till the autumn of 1807. On the
14th of November, being again in the Mediterranean, he captured a
Maltese pirate-ship, and soon afterwards he seized some other vessels.
Being ordered to scour the French coast during the summer of 1808, he
took numerous prizes on the sea and effected yet more important work on
land. "With varying opposition but with unvaried success," he wrote in
his concise report to Lord Collingwood on the 28th of September, "the
newly-constructed semaphoric telegraphs--which are of the utmost
consequence to the safety of the numerous convoys that pass along the
coast of France--at Bourdigne, La Pinede, St. Maguire, Frontignan,
Canet, and Fay, have been blown up and completely demolished, together
with their telegraph houses, fourteen barracks of gens d'armes, one
battery, and the strong tower on the Lake of Frontignan." The list of
casualties was "None killed, none wounded, one singed, in blowing up the
battery." That work was followed by more of the same nature, a famous
episode in which was Lord Cochrane's occupation of the Castle of
Trinidad. "The zeal and energy with which he has maintained that
fortress," wrote Lord Collingwood, "excite the highest admiration. His
resources for every exigen