[100]. Cf. James, i. 208. The effective defence of this tower—which took its name from the place (Mortella = Myrtle)—suggested the erection, along our south coast, of those numerous, useless, and misnamed Martello towers, against which the poet Campbell vainly protested.
[102]. Nelson’s comment on the reappearance of these ships was not so classical: ‘Sir Sidney Smith did not burn them all—Lord Hood mistook the man: there is an old song, “Great talkers do the least, we see.”‘
[103]. Formerly Le Dauphin Royal, and afterwards L’Orient, burnt and blown up at the Nile. She was really of 120 guns.
[104]. Golfe Jouan.
[105]. In April 1794. As no one was saved the details were never known. Cf. Brenton, Naval History, ii. 52.
[106]. The Tonnant, of 80 guns, already dismasted in the storm. The capture was prevented, not by a gale coming on, but by the arrival of other ships to her assistance. Cf. ante, p. [74].
[107]. William IV., at that time Duke of Clarence.
[108]. So in MS. The name is now entirely unknown, but it may perhaps have some relationship to ‘brown Bess.’
[109]. French ships brought from Toulon. Cf. Schomberg, Naval Chronology, iv. 471. It will be seen that the lists of these squadrons differ from Schomberg’s, which are probably the more correct. The Alert, for instance, had been captured on the coast of Ireland, in May.—James, i. 439.