squallacci melody, natural to the place, could be allowed to proceed again. This was the first intimation men had of Howe's victory of the 1st of June; on the following evening London was illuminated: the Gazette had been published,some six ships taken, and a seventh, named Vengeur, which had been sunk a very glorious victory and the joy of people's minds was considerable. : : - For the remainder of that month of June 1794, and over into July, the Newspapers enliven themselves with the usual succession of despatches, private narratives, anecdotes, commentaries and rectifications; unfolding gradually, as their way is, how the matter has actually passed; till each reader may form some tolerably complete image of it, till each at least has had enough of it; and the glorious victory submerges in the general flood, giving place to other glories. Of the Vengeur that sank, there want not anecdotes, though they are not of a very prominent kind. The Vengeur, it seems, was engaged with the Brunswick; the Brunswick had stuck close to her, and the fight was very hot; indeed, the two ships were hooked together by the Brunswick's anchors, and stuck so till the Vengeur had got enough; but the anchors at last gave way, and the Brunswick, herself much disabled, drifted to leeward of the enemy's flying ships, and had to run before the wind, and so escape them. The Vengeur, entirely powerless, was taken possession of by the Alfred, by the Culloden, or by both of them together; and sank after not many minutes. All this is in the English Newspapers; this, so far as we are concerned, is the English version of Howe's victory, in which the sinking Vengeur is noticeable, but plays no preeminently distinguished part. The same English Newspapers publish, as they receive them, generally without any commentary whatever, the successive French versions of the matter; the same that can now be read more conveniently, in their original language, in the Choix des Rapports, vol. xiv., and elsewhere. The French Convention was now sitting, in its Reign of Terror, fighting for VOL. IV. |