marched round the north-east part
of the harbour, and taken possession of the Lighthouse-point, where
he erected several batteries against the ships and the island
fortification, which last was soon silenced. On the nineteenth day of
June, the Echo, a French frigate, was taken by the English cruisers,
after having escaped from the harbour. From the officers on board of
this ship the admiral learned that the Bizarre, another frigate, had
sailed from thence on the day of the disembarkation, and the Comete had
successfully followed her example. Besides the regular approaches to
the town, conducted by the engineers under the immediate command and
inspection of general Amherst, divers batteries were raised by the
detached corps under brigadier Wolfe, who exerted himself with amazing
activity, and grievously incommoded the enemy, both of the town and
shipping. On the twenty-first day of July the three great ships, the
Entreprenant, Capricieux, and Celebre, were set on fire by a bomb-shell,
and burned to ashes, so that none remained but the Prudent and
Bienfaisant, which the admiral undertook to destroy. For this purpose,
in the night between the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth days of the
month, the boats of the squadron were in two divisions detached into the
harbour, under the command of two young captains, Laforey and Balfour.
They accordingly penetrated in the dark through a terrible fire of
cannon and musketry, and boarded the enemy sword in hand. The Prudent,
being aground, was set on fire and destroyed, but the Bienfaisant was
towed out of the harbour in triumph. In the prosecution of the siege,
the admiral and general co-operated with remarkable harmony; the former
cheerfully assisting the latter with cannon and other implements; with
detachments of marines to maintain posts on shore, with parties of
seamen to act as pioneers, and concur in working the guns and mortars.
The fire of the town was managed with equal skill and activity, and kept
up with great perseverance; until, at length, their shipping being all
taken and destroyed, the caserns ruined in two principal bastions,*
forty out of fifty-two pieces of cannon dismounted, broke, or rendered
unserviceable, and divers practicable breaches effected, the governor,
in a letter to Mr. Amherst, proposed a capitulation on the same articles
that were granted to the English at Port-Mahon.

* It may not be amiss to observe, that a cavalier, which
admiral Knowles h