on of St. Cas, some civilities, by message,
passed between the duke d'Aiguillon and the English commanders, who were
favoured with a list of the prisoners, including four sea captains;
and assured that the wounded should receive all possible comfort and
assistance. These matters being adjusted, commodore Howe returned with
the fleet to Spithead, and the soldiers were disembarked.

The success of the attempt upon Cherbourg had elevated the people to a
degree of childish triumph; and the government thought proper to indulge
this petulant spirit of exultation, by exposing twenty-one pieces of
French cannon in Hyde-park, from whence they were drawn in procession to
the Tower, amidst the acclamations of the populace. From this pinnacle
of elation and pride they were precipitated to the abyss of despondence
or dejection, by the account of the miscarriage at St. Cas, which buoyed
up the spirits of the French in the same proportion. The people of that
nation began to stand in need of some such cordial after the losses they
had sustained, and the ministry of Versailles did not fail to make the
most of this advantage: they published a pompous narrative of the battle
of St. Cas, and magnified into a mighty victory the puny check which
they had given to the rear-guard of an inconsiderable detachment. The
people received it with implicit belief, because it was agreeable to
their passions, and congratulated themselves upon their success in
hyperboles, dictated by that vivacity so peculiar to the French nation.
Indeed, these are artifices which the ministers of every nation find it
necessary to use at certain conjunctures, in governing the turbulent and
capricious multitude. After the misfortune at St. Cas, nothing further
was attempted by that armament; nor was any enterprise of importance
achieved by the British ships in Europe during the course of this
summer. The cruisers, however, still continued active and alert. Captain
Hervey, in the ship Monmouth, destroyed a French ship of forty guns in
the island of Malta; an exploit of which the Maltese loudly complained,
as a violation of their neutrality. About twenty sail of small French
vessels were driven ashore on the rocks of Bretagne, by some cruisers
belonging to the fleet commanded by lord Anson, after a smart engagement
with two frigates, under whose convoy they sailed. In the month of
November, the Belliqueux, a French ship of war mounted with sixty-four
guns, having by mistake