those previously released at
Tunis and Tripoli, raised to 3003 the human beings whom Exmouth had been
the instrument of freeing from a fate worse than death. Of this total,
but eighteen were English; the remainder were almost wholly from the
Mediterranean countries. On the 3d of September, just one week after the
attack, the fleet sailed for England.

Profuse acknowledgment necessarily awaited the hero of a deed in which
national exultation so happily blended with the sentiment of pity for
the oppressed. The admiral was raised to the next rank in the peerage,
and honors poured in upon him from every side,--from abroad as well as
from his own countrymen. His personal sense of the privilege permitted
him, thus to crown a life of strenuous exertion by a martial deed of
far-reaching beneficence, was a reward passing all others. In the
opening words of his official report he voices his thankfulness: "In all
the vicissitudes of a long life of public service, no circumstance has
ever produced on my mind such impressions of gratitude and joy as the
event of yesterday. To have been one of the humble instruments in the
hands of Divine Providence for bringing to reason a ferocious
Government, and destroying for ever the horrid system of Christian
slavery, can never cease to be a source of delight and heartfelt comfort
to every individual happy enough to be employed in it."

Here Lord Exmouth's career closes. Just forty years had elapsed since as
a youth he had fought the _Carleton_ on Lake Champlain, and he was yet
to live sixteen in honored retreat; bearing, however, the burden of
those whose occupation is withdrawn at an age too advanced to form new
interests. Though in vigorous health and with ample fortune, "he would
sometimes confess," says his biographer, "that he was happier amid his
early difficulties." The idea of retirement, indeed, does not readily
associate itself with the impression of prodigious vitality, which from
first to last is produced by the record of his varied activities. In
this respect, as in others, the contrast is marked between him and
Saumarez, the two who more particularly illustrate the complementary
sides of the brilliant group of naval leaders, in the second rank of
distinction, which clustered around the great names of Nelson, Howe, and
Jervis. In the old age of Saumarez, the even, ordered tenor of his
active military life is reflected in the peaceful, satisfied enjoyment
of repose and home happ