ad received
a musket ball in it.

The loss was severe on both sides, and, in proportion to the respective
crews, nearly equal. The _Nymphe_, out of a crew of 240, had 23 killed,
including her boatswain, a master's mate (Pearse), and three midshipmen;
and 27 wounded, among whom were her second lieutenant, the lieutenant of
marines, and two midshipmen. The _Cleopatra_ lost 63 killed and wounded,
out of a crew of 320. She came out of action, therefore, with 67
effective men more than her conqueror. It is highly creditable to the
_Nymphe's_ crew, that they beat a ship like the _Cleopatra_ by gunnery,
notwithstanding their inexperience; and carried her by a hand-to-hand
conflict, notwithstanding their inferior numbers.

Captain Mullon was killed. A cannon-shot struck him on the back, and
carried away great part of his left hip. Even at that dreadful moment he
felt the importance of destroying the signals which he carried in his
pocket; but in his dying agony, he took out his commission in mistake,
and expired in the act of devouring it;--a trait of devoted heroism
never surpassed by any officer of any nation. These signals, so valuable
as long as the enemy did not know them to be in possession of the
British, thus fell into the hands of Captain Pellew, who delivered them
to the Admiralty.

Captain Pellew arrived at Portsmouth with his prize on the following
day. He sent the flag under which she fought, and the cap of liberty, to
his brother. This, the first trophy of the kind taken in the
revolutionary war, is about seven inches long, made of wood, and painted
red; with a round, tapering spear of brass, about three feet and a half
long, the lower half being blackened, with a screw at the end to fix it
on the mast. The following letter accompanied these trophies:--

"DEAR SAM,--Here we are--thank God! safe--after a glorious action
with _La Cleopatre_, the crack ship of France; 40 guns, 28 on her
main-deck, and 12 on her quarter-deck, some of 36 pounds, and 320
men. We dished her up in fifty minutes, boarded, and struck her
colours. We have suffered much, but I was long determined to make a
short affair of it. We conversed before we fired a shot, and then,
God knows, hot enough it was, as you will see by the enclosed.[3] I
might have wrote for a month, had I entered on the description of
every gallant action, but we were all in it, heart and soul. I owe
much to Israel, wh