ially when near an enemy,--till the wind came
again abaft, restoring the normal conditions of moving ahead under
control of the helm. The contest was then renewed, and ended in the
surrender of the French vessel. The disparity of loss--1 British to 118
French--proved the discipline of the _Crescent_ and the consummate
seamanship of her commander. For this exploit Saumarez was knighted.
Faithful to his constant preference, he as soon as possible exchanged
into a ship-of-the-line, the _Orion_, of seventy-four guns. In her he
again bore a foremost part, in 1795, in a fleet-battle off the Biscay
coast of France, where three enemy's ships were taken; and two years
later he was in the action with the Spaniards off Cape St. Vincent, of
which an account has been given in the sketch of Earl St. Vincent. After
this Saumarez remained on the same station, blockading Cadiz.

In the following year, 1798, it became necessary to send a small
detachment into the Mediterranean, and off the chief arsenal of the
enemy, Toulon, to ascertain the facts concerning a great armament, since
known as Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition, which rumor said was there in
preparation. The hazardous nature of the duty, which advanced three
ships of medium size, unsupported, in the very teeth of over a dozen
enemies, many of superior strength, demanded the utmost efficiency in
each member of the little body so exposed; a consideration which
doubtless led Lord St. Vincent to choose Saumarez, though one of the
senior captains, for this service, of which Nelson, the junior flag
officer of the fleet, was given charge.

It seems scarcely credible that, when it was afterwards decided to raise
this detachment to fourteen ships-of-the-line, sufficient to cope with
the enemy, both St. Vincent and Nelson wished to remove Saumarez, with
his antecedents of brilliant service, so as to allow Troubridge, his
junior, to be second in command. The fact, however, is certain. Nelson
had orders which would have allowed him to send the _Orion_ back, when
thus proceeding on a service pregnant with danger and distinction, to
the immeasurable humiliation of her brave commander. After making every
deduction for the known partiality for Troubridge of both St. Vincent
and Nelson, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Saumarez, with
all his undoubted merit, was in their eyes inferior to Troubridge in the
qualities necessary to chief command, in case of Nelson's death, at a
junctu