howed no devotion, in which she was not singular, old people and
Cossack officers excepted. During the sermon she took occasion to
smile and nod to those whom she meant to gratify; and surely no
sovereign ever possessed the power of pleasing all within her eye to
the degree she did. She was dressed in the Guards' uniform, which was
a scarlet pelisse, and a green silk robe lapelled from top to bottom.
Her hair was combed neatly, and boxed _en militaire_, with a small
cap, and an ornament of diamonds in front; a blue riband, and the
order of St Andrew on her right shoulder."

He speaks of the empress excelling in that inclination of the body
which the Russian ladies substitute for the curtsy, and which he
justly regards as very becoming, the empress adding dignity and grace.
He describes Orloff as an herculean figure, finely proportioned, with
a cheerful eye, and, for a Russian, a good complexion: Potemkin as
having stature and shoulders, but being ill limbed and of a most
forbidding countenance. His examination of the Russian dockyards,
naval armament, and general style of shipbuilding, was most exact; and
he records in his notes his having seen, in the naval arsenals of
Norway, sheds to cover ships on the stocks--an important arrangement,
which was afterwards claimed as an invention at home.

After inspecting the harbours of Sweden and Norway, the travellers
returned by Holland, where they made similar investigations. In the
following year they renewed their tour of inspection, and traversed
the western parts of France. And this active pursuit of knowledge was
carried on without any pecuniary assistance beyond his half-pay. He
had hitherto made no prize-money. "To be sure," he said in after days,
"we sometimes did fare rather roughly; but what signifies that now? my
object was attained."

His character was now high, but it is to be presumed that he had some
powerful interest; for on his return he was appointed to two
line-of-battle ships in succession, the Kent, 74, and the Foudroyant,
84, a French prize, and reckoned the finest two-decker in the navy.

From this period a new scene opened before him, and his career became
a part of the naval history of England. In 1778 he joined the Channel
fleet, and his ship was placed by the celebrated Keppel as one of his
seconds in the order of battle, and immediately astern of the
admiral's ship, the Victory, on the 27th of July, in the drawn battle
off Ushant with the French