and it was not long before the
following order was received from the Admiralty.

By the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High
Admiral, &c.

You are hereby required and directed to proceed in the ship
under your command, without a moment's loss of time, to the
islands of Guernsey and Jersey; and so soon as you shall have
delivered the pacquets you will herewith receive, addressed to
the commanding officers of his Majesty's troops serving in these
islands, you are to repair with the said ship off St. Maloes,
and use your best endeavours to obtain such information of the
enemy's forces there, as circumstances will admit.

Having so done, you are to return with the said ship with all
possible despatch, for further orders, transmitting to our
secretary, for our information, by post-office express, an
account of your arrival and proceedings.

Given under our hands, this 18th October 1793,
A. GARDNER.
J. SMYTH.
P. AFFLECK.

To Captain Saumarez, R.N.

For several days previously to the 19th, it had been reported that a
French frigate usually quitted the port of Cherbourg at night, and
returned next morning with what prizes she had picked up: this,
together with the information that an armament was preparing for the
invasion of Jersey, caused Captain Saumarez to make extraordinary
exertions to get to sea; and, although the wind was light, he
fortunately succeeded in getting round St. Helens before night. Early
on the morning, on the 20th, he was close to the light-house off Cape
Barfleur.

ACTION BETWEEN THE CRESCENT AND REUNION.

This gallant action, which we are now about to describe, having been
misrepresented in every account yet published, we have, in order to
make the circumstances attending it more easily understood,
illustrated the positions by a diagram, showing the masterly
manoeuvre performed by the Crescent, and the relative situation of
the ships at the commencement and the end of the conflict. The
engraving shows the state and situation of the two ships at the time
the Reunion surrendered.

During the night, the wind had been so far to the westward as to
enable the Crescent to fetch Cape Barfleur, while the Reunion, which
left Cherbourg in the evening, stood to the northward, in hopes of
meeting with merchant-ships coming up Channel. The two frigates,
therefore, must have crossed each other at no great distance; but the
wind hav