rm in battle; and after Waterloo it was he who
made the proposition, familiar to all readers of Napoleon's life, to
cover the escape of the Emperor from Rochefort by sacrificing the ships
under his command in an heroic resistance to the English cruisers while
the vessel bearing the fallen monarch escaped. "Sixteen years ago," said
he, "my father died of joy upon learning the return from Egypt of
General Bonaparte; and I myself to-day would die of grief to see the
Emperor leave France if I thought that by remaining he could again do
aught for her. But he must leave her only to live honored in a free
country, not to die a prisoner to our rivals." Such was that career,
belonging to an early and singular generation, which here for a moment
crossed and linked with that of the great naval hero of our own days.
Farragut has recorded his impression of him. "Admiral Baudin," he
writes, "would be undoubtedly a _rara avis_ in any navy. He is about
fifty years of age (he was fifty-four), has lost his right arm, looks
like a North of Europe man, has a fine address, and speaks English well.
He has every mark of a polished seaman and officer, with the expression
of great decision, with firmness and activity to execute his
well-digested plans. These were my remarks the first time I saw him, and
his subsequent conduct soon proved I was right." His French biographer
makes a remark, commonplace enough, which yet notes the essential
difference in the lot of the two gallant men who thus casually met. "For
the few who allow occasions to escape them, how many could justly
complain that a chance has never been offered them? Admiral Baudin never
had the opportunity to which his capacities suited him; all his
aptitudes designated him for war on a great scale; a man such as he,
succeeding Latouche-Treville, would have saved us the sorrows of
Trafalgar." Farragut was fortunate, for in him the opportunity and the
man met in happy combination.

When he reached his station, Admiral Baudin suffered no time to be lost.
The wintry gales were approaching, while, on the other hand, his first
experience showed the miseries of disease on that sickly coast. Of the
two frigates there before he came, which had been blockading during the
summer, one had buried forty-five seamen and five officers out of a
ship's company of four hundred men; the other, at the time of his
arrival, had three hundred and forty-three sick among a crew of five
hundred. With such condi