If the men were certified that they would not be detained after the danger was over, it was said, they certainly would go on board.

"This service, my dear Lord," he wrote to St.Vincent, "above all others, would be terrible for me: to get up and harangue like a recruiting sergeant; but as I am come forth, I feel that I ought to do this disagreeable service as well as any other, if judged necessary." Three days more, and he was off Boulogne in a frigate with some bomb-vessels.

The French admiral, Latouche Treville, had moored in front of the pier a line of gun-vessels, twenty-four in number, fastened together from end to end.

At these, and at the shipping in the small port, some bombs were thrown.

Not much injury was done on either side.