nt of persons of that creed.

The French expedition against Ireland sailed from Brest on the 16th of
December, 1796. Having sent off successively each of his consorts with
information for the fleet, Pellew remained with his own ship alone, the
_Indefatigable_, at the moment of the final start. There are two
principal channels by which Brest can be left, one leading to the south,
the other due west. The French admiral had at first intended to use the
former; but, the wind showing signs of an unfavorable shift, he
endeavored to change the orders just as night was falling. The weather
being hazy, his signals were understood by but few of the forty-odd
vessels composing the force. Eight or ten joined him; the remainder
followed the original instructions and went out by the south. Pellew
attached himself to the admiral's division, kept along with it just out
of gun-shot, and by making false signals, burning blue lights and
sending up rockets, introduced into the attempts to convey the wishes of
the commander-in-chief such confusion as rendered them utterly futile.
Having satisfied himself as to the general direction taken by the
enemy, he left them, and made all sail for Falmouth, where he arrived on
the 20th.

The general fortunes of the expedition do not belong to the present
story. Suffice it to say that the greater part reached Ireland safely,
but through stress of weather was unable to land the troops, and went
back to France by detachments, in January, 1797. It is during this
process of return that Sir Edward Pellew again appears, in perhaps the
most dramatic incident of his stirring career.

On the afternoon of January 13th, being then in company with the frigate
_Amazon_, and about one hundred and twenty miles west of Brest, a French
ship-of-the-line was discovered. The stranger, named the _Droits de
l'Homme_, was returning from Ireland, and heading east. The frigates
steered courses converging towards hers, seeking to cut her off from the
land. The weather was thick and gloomy, with a strong west wind fast
rising to a gale. At half-past four, as night was falling, the French
ship carried away her fore and main topmasts in a heavy squall; and an
hour later the _Indefatigable_, now under close reefs, passed across her
stern, pouring in a broadside from so near that the French flag floated
across her poop, where it was seized and torn away by some of the
British seamen. The enemy, having on board nearly a thousand so