r than he that
taketh a city."

Though in the strictest sense professional, the Baltic service of
Saumarez involved little of purely military interest. Shortly after his
assuming the command, in 1808, a Russian fleet which had been keeping
the sea took refuge, on the approach of the allied British and Swedes,
in a harbor on the Gulf of Finland. Saumarez followed close upon their
heels, and after a consultation and reconnoissance of the position,
which consumed two days, secured the co-operation of the Swedish admiral
for an attack on the day following; an essential condition, for the
Russian force was superior to his own in the proportion of eight to six.
Unhappily, the wind shifted, and blew an adverse gale for eight days; at
the end of which time the enemy had so far fortified the surroundings
that Saumarez thought it inexpedient to attack. In this decision he was
supported by the opinion of captains of such established reputation as,
joined to his own brilliant record, must be taken to justify his action,
which seems to have caused some dissatisfaction in England. On the face,
it could not but be a disappointment to people accustomed to the
brilliant victories of Nelson, and his apparent invincibility by
obstacles; but in the end it was all for the best, for doubtless the
mortifying destruction of a Russian fleet would not have furthered the
reconciliation, which soon became a leading object with the British
government and the great bulk of the Russian nation. It is, however,
probable that to this frustration of public expectation, which had been
vividly aroused by preceding accounts of the conditions, is to be
attributed the delay in granting the peerage, eagerly desired by
Saumarez in his later days,--not for itself merely, but as a recognition
which he not unnaturally thought earned by his long and distinguished
service. Saumarez held the Baltic command through five eventful
years,--from 1808 to 1812. After Napoleon's disastrous Russian
expedition, affairs in that sea no longer required a force adequate to
his rank, and he then finally retired from service afloat, still in the
full maturity of a healthy prime, at the age of fifty-five. The
remainder of his life, with brief exception, was passed in his native
island of Guernsey, amid those charms of family affection and general
esteem which he had deserved by his fidelity to all the duties of the
man and the citizen. Though so far removed from the active centres of