who was
found then in Port Mahon, Minorca. Sir Edward Pellew, captain of one of
the new-comers, asked a Court-Martial upon a mutiny that had occurred
just before leaving the home port. St. Vincent at first demurred,
startled, according to Pellew's biographer, by the extent of the plot
then revealed, and thinking it politic to suppress the facts; but it is
alleged with equal probability that he was indignant at being
continually called upon to remedy evils due to the general indiscipline
of the Channel Fleet. "What do they mean by invariably sending the
mutinous ships to me? Do they think that I will be hangman to the
fleet?" Both versions are likely enough to be correct. There is a limit
to all human endurance, and the earl was now broken in health; he was
sixty-four, had borne his load for three years, and was on the point of
resigning his command to Lord Keith. The Court, however, was ordered,
and three men were sentenced to be hanged. Pellew then interceded for
one, on the ground of previous good character. "No," replied St.
Vincent. "Those who have suffered hitherto have been so worthless before
that their fate was of little use as an example. I shall now convince
the seamen that no character, however good, shall save a man who is
guilty of mutiny."

But St. Vincent was not content with mere repression. Outwardly, and
indeed inwardly, unshaken, he yet unwearyingly so ordered the fleet as
to avoid occasions of outbreak. With the imposing moral control exerted
by his unflinching steadiness, little trouble was to be apprehended from
single ships; ignorant of what might be hoped from sympathizers
elsewhere, but sure of the extreme penalty in case of failure, the
movements lacked cohesion and were easily nipped. Concerted action only
was to be feared, and careful measures were taken to remove
opportunities. Captains were forbidden to entertain one another at
dinner,--the reason, necessarily unavowed, being that the boats from
various ships thus assembling gave facilities for transmitting messages
and forming plans; and when ships arrived from England they underwent a
moral quarantine, no intercourse with them being permitted until
sanctioned by the admiral. When the captain reported to him, his boat,
while waiting, was shoved off out of earshot. It is said that on one
occasion a seaman in such a boat managed to call to one looking out of
a port of the flag-ship, "I say, there, what have you fellows been doing
out here,