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would take an active part in the same cause, there was good reason to hope that the arrival of these seamen would accelerate, at the several ports, similar exertions in behalf of the French monarch. The Convention however suspected their designs, and, having tried many in a summary manner, caused them to be put to death.

His Majesty's ships Bedford, and Leviathan, arrived at Toulon, September 28, with 800 Sardinian troops; and also Marshall Forteguerri, Commodore of the Sicilian ships, with 2000 troops from Naples, in two ships of the line, two frigates, and two sloops. This served considerably to cheer the spirits of the garrison, and of the inhabitants of Toulon, as for the last fortnight scarcely a day had passed, without their being attacked from one quarter or the other. Carteaux's army at this time amounted to 8000 men on the west, and that to the east, under Le Poype, to 7000; with reinforcements con tinually pouring into both.

The enemy had also opened a battery of twenty-four 24 pounders, upon our gun-boats, and the ships that covered them; and though they were soon dismounted by the ships under the direction of Rear Admiral Gell, and the works totally destroyed, with very great slaughter, yet the enemy, two or three successive times, renewed their works, and persevered to the last moment in their attack upon our gun-boats, and advanced ships.

During the night of the 30th of September, the French availing themselves of a fog, very unexpectedly surprised a post occupied by the Spaniards, and thereby got possession of the Height of Pharon, immediately over Toulon; but at noon, on the 1st of October, when in the very act of establishing themselves with about 2000 men, they were attacked by the troops under the command of Lord Mulgrave, and after a short, but spirited action, were driven from the Height with great slaughter. Many of the flying parties were forced at the point of the bayonet headlong over the rocks. The loss of the English, Spaniards, Sardinians, and Neapolitans, amounted only to seven killed, and seventy-two wounded. The loss of the French was nearly 1450 killed and wounded, and 48 taken prisoners. The batteries of the enemy on the Hauteur de Ranier were destroyed in the night of the 8th October, with a considerable quantity of artillery and ammunition. The ensuing night a very successful sortie was made under the command of Captain Brereton, assisted by Lieutenant Sericold of the navy, and the seamen under his command: the enemy's batteries, which had recently been erected, were destroyed. The French, notwithstanding these defeats, obtained possession of Cape Le Brun, on the 15th, but were again overcome, and driven from thence with considerable loss,

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Our readers must already have perceived with what labour, even at this period, Toulon was preserved by the valour and perseverance of a British admiral, assisted by his brave followers. These obstacles, however, were as nothing, in comparison to the treachery, and peculiar difficulties, by which he was surrounded. On the 18th of October Don Langara informed Lord Hood of the arrival of Don Valdes, to take upon him the command of the Spanish troops at Toulon, in the room of Admiral Gravina, who had been wounded on the 1st of October at the Heights of Pharon: on the 23d of the same month, Lord Hood was much surprised to receive another letter from Don Langara, acquainting him, that on account of the valour and good conduct of Admiral Gravina, his Catholic Majesty had promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general, and had appointed him commander in bief of the combined forces at Toulon. This Lord Hood very properly resisted; the town, and its dependant forts, were yielded up to the British troops alone, and were taken possession of by his Lordship; their Sardinian, and Sicilian Majesties, had been graciously pleased to confide their respective troops entirely to his Lordship's disposal, or to act under whatever British officer he might judge fit to appoint; he therefore felt it to be his duty to put the Sardinian and Sicilian troops, together with the British, under the command of Major General O'Hara, the moment he arrived, and who even then was off the port, eventually subject to such orders as might afterwards be received from his Lordship. This unexpected measure of the court of Spain, together with the daily encroachments which the Spanish officers, supported by their commander in chief, made to obtain power, laid the foundation of that distrust which afterwards* subsisted between the English, and Spaniards.

Major General O'Hara, and Major General Dundas, arrived on the 22d of October; the former with a commission to be Governor of Toulon and its dependencies. Lord Hood had the mortification to find at this critical juncture, that Sir Robert Boyd was so sparing of succours for the defence of Toulon, that only half the number were sent which he had so earnestly requested by letter early in September.

Lord Hood, finding his fleet much weakened by such a number of seamen who were sent on shore to defend the various posts, judged it expedient to dispatch a ship to the Grand Master of Malta, requesting that 1500 Maltese seamen might be sent to serve in the

The British Admiral had at this time only ten sail of the line in the harbour of Toulon; the menacing position in which Don Langara placed his ships at anchor, consisting of twenty one ships of the line, excited much animadversion. Under pretence of moving his flect into more convenient births, he brought his own ship alongside to bear on the Victory, and anchored two three-deckers on her bow and quarter,

British fleet, during its continuance in the Mediterranean, who should have the same wages per month as his own seamen. The Grand Master in the most handsome manner furnished the desired reinforcement.

The Spanish Admiral about this period proposed a joint expedition against Corsica; but Lord Hood, aware of the different interests and views which the Spaniards might have, wisely declined the undertaking unless he had instructions from home to that purpose: adding in reply, that feeling much for General Paoli, he had a month before, as a voluntary act of his own, sent a squadron to Corsica* to try what could be effected to assist this veteran general; but owing to wrong information, and General Paoli not commencing the attack by land, at the same moment the squadron did by sea, the ships, after making a complete breach in the fort of St. Florence, were obliged to retreat with the loss of 50 men killed and wounded, and two line of battle ships much damaged.

The Spanish admiral began at this time more openly to disclose the treachery, which had been long concealed under a base hypocrisy, more worthy of an Inquisitor General, than of a Naval Officer. On the 12th of November, Don Langara, as if anxious to contrive some ・ground for an open rupture, renewed his desire of co-operating with a squadron of the British ships in attacking Corsica, and at the same instant proposed a joint expedition against some French ships that were at Tunis; but this was also declined by Lord Hood, as the Bey of Tunis had given no just cause of offence to his Britannic Majesty. Don Langara, however, still pursuing the object in his own mind, and finding he had not hitherto succeeded, as he could wish, wrote another letter to Lord Hood, claiming his right to an equal partition of power, in the naval, military, and civil departments of Toulon; and complaining that Corsican vessels, wearing the Corsican flag, had been received in the Port. Lord Hood still baffled the Spaniard by a reply "that was moderate, but firm :-Do not, I entreut your Excellency, let us be discussing points our courts only can settle. The inhabitants of Corsica, who have never acknowledged themselves subjects of France, and navigate from ports in the island, not possessed by the French, bave, I humbly conceive, a right to hoist The Corsican Flag; and I could not be justified in obliging them to wear any other. Lord Hood was little aware that a secret negotiation, at this very juncture, had been actually agreed on between the Court of Madrid, and the French Convention.

During the time this was passing between the British, and Spanish admirals, Commodore Forteguerri, Commander in Chief of

This squadron was commanded by Commodore Linzee, brother-in-law to "Lord Hood, now Vice Admiral of the Red.

his Sicilian Majesty's ships, would not suffer his captains to obey Lord Hood's orders, though given in the most delicate manner, as acting under the authority of his Sicilian Majesty. Lord Hood, therefore, was under the disagreeable necessity of complaining of his conduct to the court of Naples: in consequence of this remonstrance, Commodore Forteguerri adopted half measures, and gave a feeble co-operation to the interests of the common cause; but the cordiality between the two commanders, so essential at this critical period, was thus destroyed.

On the evening of the 15th of November, the French vigorously attacked, with a large force, our post upon the Heights de Grasse, called Fort Mulgrave, and one of the most essential posts that covered the shipping in the harbour of Toulon. This attack was principally directed against that part which was occupied by the Spaniards on the right. General O'Hara, who was at dinner on board the Victory, lost no time in getting on shore. When he reached the Height, the French were close to the works; the Spaniards retreating, and firing their musquets in the air. The general instantly directed a company of the Royals to advance, who gallantly leaped the works, and put the enemy to flight, after leaving about 600 men dead and wounded in the field. The loss of the English amounted only to sixty-one. The British Admiral, in addition to what he had already experienced, since his taking possession of Toulon, had a fresh vexation towards the end of November, of the most serious and alarming nature; considering the augmented force of the surrounding enemy, and the critical situation of the extensive posts to be defended. After having been flattered with the most positive hopes of receiving, towards the middle of this month, 5000 Austrian troops; and when he had actually dispatched Vice Admiral Cosby, with a squadron of ships and transports to Vado Bay, to convey them, as previously concerted between himself and Mr. Trevor, his Majesty's minister at Turin; by letters received from Mr. Trevor, of the 18th of November, his Lordship's hopes were at once destroyed, and with them all expectation of the arrival of a single Austrian soldier at Toulon.

The enemy, at the close of November, having opened a battery against the post of Malbousket, near the arsenal, from which shells could reach the town, it was resolved to destroy it, and to bring off the guns; for this purpose General O'Hara digested a distinct and masterly plan of attack, which he communicated on the evening of the 29th of November, to the commanding officer of the troops of each nation. Accordingly, on the morning of the 30th, this plan was so far executed as to surprise the enemy's redoubt most effectually:-the British troops having obtained full possession of the Height and battery, their ardour and impetuosity was not to be restrained in this

moment of success ; but continuing to pursue the flying enemy in a scattered manner, a mile beyond the works, the consequence was, that the latter, collecting in great force, obliged our troops to retreat, and to relinquish the advantages they had at first obtained.

O'Hara arrived at the battery on the moment it was taken; and, perceiving the disorder of the troops, thus driven back, was hastening to rally them, when most unfortunately he received a wound in his arm, which bled so much as to render him incapable of avoiding the enemy; by whom he was made prisoner as he sat down under a wall, faint from loss of blood.

The French army before Toulon at this time amounted to 40,000 men; after the surrender of Lyons, this force, considerable as it already was, became daily augmented. The army of the coalesced powers never exceeded 12,000, and even these were composed of five different nations, and languages; consequently by no means formed. to co-operate with each other. The greatest return of the British force, at any one period, was never more than 2360, out of which we had only 2100 rank and file; this was the case on the first of November: previous to the arrival of the first regiment of foot, (Royals) and the eighteenth regiment, there were only 1360 British soldiers at Toulon. The circumference, necessary to be occupied for the complete defence of the town and harbour, extended fifteen miles, by eight principal posts, with several intermediate dependencies: with such a prodigious superiority as the enemy possessed, it will naturally excite the astonishment of every one, that they could be made tenable for so long a time as seven weeks.

Return of the British Forces at Toulon on November the 1st, 1793, being the greatest number at any period:

One lieutenant colonel, 3 majors, 31 captains, 53 lieutenants, 13 ensigns, 2 adjutants, 2 quarter masters, I surgeon, 2 mates, 106 serjeants, 57 drummers and fifers, 2100 rank and file fit for duty, 231 sick, 39 at Gibraltar and England recruiting.-Total, 2365.

Return of Combined Forces on November the 4th, 1793:

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N. B. On the evacuation were embarked of British, Spanish, and Piedmontese, about 8000; the Neapolitans having in a panic embarked the preceding

day.

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