[54] According to the London Magazine for August 1782, King George, at an audience granted to De Grasse shortly after the French admiral's arrival in England, returned him the sword that De Grasse had surrendered to Rodney. 'This etiquette,' the London Magazine proceeds, 'enabled the Count to appear at Court.' He spent the week he was in London, we are told, 'in paying visits to the great officers of State and some of the principal nobility of the kingdom, by whom he was entertained in a sumptuous and hospitable style. He likewise took a view of the Bank and other public edifices, and of Vauxhall and other places of amusement.... Every mark of respect was shown to him, even by the common people, in testimony of his valour.'
[55] Practically everybody: four or five officers were called before the court at the close of the proceedings, and formally reprimanded for not having done all they might. De Vaudreuil came off with flying colours, and all documents containing reflections on him were ordered to be suppressed. The warmest commendation was bestowed on the captains who rallied with De Vaudreuil to the support of De Grasse.
[56] 'The most virulent expressions of disgust were hurled on his misfortune and his fame; epigrams circulated from mouth to mouth, and even the women carried ornaments called "à la De Grasse," having on one side a heart and on the other none.' (Sir E. Cust's Annals of the Wars of the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii. p. 329). Also General Mundy in his Life of Lord Rodney (vol. ii. p. 290, note), says of De Grasse: 'On his return to France he was disgraced by his Court, and in the gardens of the Tuileries his life was nearly sacrificed to the fury of an exasperated mob.'
[57] Wraxall's Memoirs, iii. p. 104. Several of the medals, in silver and bronze, struck to commemorate the great occasion are now in private collections. A lady's fan of the period, bearing a portrait of Rodney with emblematical devices in honour of the victory, was on view two or three years ago at a small exhibition of fans of the eighteenth century in Bond Street.
[58] Letter quoted in Mundy's Life of Lord Rodney, vol. ii. p. 309.
[59] Mr. Schetky, the artist, whose picture of Rodney's victory is reproduced in this book, relates in a note the following anecdote. 'It is in reference to this famous action (Rodney's victory) that the story is told of the old one-legged veteran, a patient in the Edinburgh Infirmary, who, being asked by Dr. John Barclay, "Where did you lose your leg, my man?" briefly replied, "At the 12th of April, your honour." The doctor, not immediately calling to mind that great day, inquired again, "What 12th of April?" Jack looked him in the face with supreme contempt, and retorted indignantly, "What 12th of April? Who ever heard of any 12th of April but One."'
WON AT THE CANNON'S MOUTH