[715] The Venerable (his flag-ship) and the Magnificent. The Magnificent went home with prisoners some weeks later, and was replaced for a time by the Abercrombie, from the Brest blockading squadron.
[716] Medusa, Isis, Diadem, Surveillante, and Rhin. The Belle Poule looked in for a short time later in the season.
[717] Sparrow and Lyra.
[718] So says Popham in his dispatch at the Record Office: though Napier (iv. p. 246) says that the Spaniards attacked and were repulsed. But Popham must have known best! Sir Howard Douglas corroborates him, Life, p. 168.
[720] One of them, Sir George Collier, commanding the Medusa.
[721] Popham’s prescience is shown by the fact that his papers relating to Burgos began to be drawn up as early as July 26. He cross-questioned not only Porlier but other Spanish officers. Their answers did not always tally with each other. See all Popham’s dispatches of the time, in the Admiralty Section at the Record Office—under the general head ‘Channel Fleet!’ They have this misleading heading because Popham was under Lord Keith, then commanding that fleet.
[724] The 2/67th and a part of the foreign Regiment of de Watteville, also a British battery, from Cadiz.