two
followers."

They had only rejoined the _Tartar_ a short time when, on the 5th
February, 1794, the captain was signalled to proceed with a small squadron
that was to sail, under Captain Linzee of the _Alcide_, as commodore, to
Corsica, where a force under General Paoli had asked for assistance in
their endeavours to regain their freedom.

The chief strongholds of that island were the fortified towns of San
Fiorenzo, Bastia, and Calvi. These towns are near each other, and as the
troops scornfully rejected his summons to surrender, the commodore was
placed in a difficulty. The force under his command was not strong enough
to blockade the three forts at once, while they were so near each other
that to blockade one or two and leave the entrance to the other open would
have been useless. He determined at first to take Forneilli, a fortified
place two miles from San Fiorenzo, but when he opened the attack he found
that it was so much more strongly fortified than he had anticipated that
its capture could not be effected without more loss than the gain of the
position would justify.

Lord Hood then placed a squadron of frigates under Captain Nelson's
command to cruise off the north-western coast of the island so as to
prevent supplies being introduced, and he also sailed there himself with
some of his seventy-fours and a body of soldiers under Major-general
Dundas. Before he arrived, Nelson had done something towards facilitating
his enterprise, for, having learned that the French in San Fiorenzo drew
their supplies of flour from a mill near the shore, he landed a body of
seamen and soldiers and burnt the mill, threw into the sea all the flour
contained in it and in a large storehouse close to it, and regained his
ship without the loss of a man.

When Lord Hood arrived he ordered Nelson to land on the island to prevent
supplies from getting into Bastia, and took charge of the siege of San
Fiorenzo himself. On his way Nelson captured the town of Maginaggio,
routed the garrison, and destroyed a great quantity of provisions which
were being prepared for a number of French vessels in the harbour. Lord
Hood commenced the siege by attacking the town of Mortella. The garrison
fought with great bravery and inflicted heavy loss upon the _Fortitude_,
seventy-four guns, to which the task of battering was assigned. As she was
evidently getting the worst of it the _Fortitude_ was withdrawn, but the
shore batteries were more successf