omotion for his first lieutenant,
Mr. Thomson thus rose rapidly to seniority, and was made a commander for
the action with the _Droits de l'Homme_.

Captain Mullon was buried at Portsmouth, with all the honours due to
his gallantry. One of Sir Edward's first acts was to write a letter of
condolence to the widow; and as he learnt that she was left in narrow
circumstances, he sent, with her husband's property, what assistance his
then very limited means enabled him to offer. Madame Mullon acknowledged
his attention and kindness in a most grateful letter. He received also
the warm acknowledgments of the _Cleopatra's_ surviving officers, the
senior of whom requested and received from him testimonials of the skill
and gallantry with which they had defended their ship, without which
their defeat, in the bloody councils which then prevailed, would
probably have brought them to the scaffold. What was scarcely to be
expected at such a time, and after a first defeat, it was admitted in
the _Moniteur_ that the "superb frigate" the _Cleopatra_ had been taken
by a frigate of equal force.

The action between the _Nymphe_ and _Cleopatra_ is interesting as the
first in which a ship had substituted carronades for her quarter-deck
guns of small calibre, making them a material part of her force. This
gun had been invented about three years before the close of the former
war, and the Admiralty had allowed it to be introduced generally into
the navy; but except in one ship, the _Rainbow_, 44, which was armed
entirely with heavy carronades, it was considered as supplementary to
the regular armament, being mounted only where long guns could not be
placed, and not affecting the ship's rating. The _Flora_, when she took
the _Nymphe_, in 1780, thus carried six 18-pounder carronades, in
addition to her proper number of long guns; and the _Artois_, when Sir
Edward commanded her, was armed in the same manner. The carronade was at
first very unpopular with the sailors, generally prejudiced as they are
against innovations, and who, not understanding how to use it,
attributed failures which arose from their own mismanagement to defects
in the invention. Sir Edward, who had no prejudices to contend with in
training his crew, obtained permission, when he fitted the _Nymphe_, to
exchange the six-pounders on her quarter-deck for 24-pounder carronades;
and the result of the battle confirmed his favourable opinion of them.
His next ship, the _Arethusa_, wa