“At that time the Vice-Admiral with the _Jersey_, _Guernsey_, and _St. Albans_ stood in to westward of us after another ship on shore and fired some guns, when she struck; after which they set her on fire and stood in towards the Cape where another French ship was at anchor which they brought off. On our beginning to fire, the _America_ fired some guns on the _Ocean_: she instantly hauled down her colours.
“We sent a boat on board and took possession of our prize, which proved to be the _Téméraire_, 74 guns, 716 men. At ¼ to 5 we cut her cables and carried her down to the Admiral.
“In the evening the _Intrepid_ and _America_ set fire to the _Ocean_.”
Boscawen, with his work accomplished and the Toulon fleet accounted for, sailed away for England, carrying the _Téméraire_ and the _Modeste_ with him under British colours, to add both ships, in their original French names, to the British Navy. His battle in Lagos Bay under the shadow of the cliffs of Cape St. Vincent, if perhaps few people nowadays remember it, perhaps have ever heard of it, yet, in the words of Captain Mahan, “saved England from invasion,” and the _Téméraire’s_ name should always stand for us as a memento of that fact.
At the time the event made a widespread impression throughout Europe. It caused great enthusiasm, as we are told, in the camps of the allied armies fighting the French beyond the Rhine, and was honoured by a cannon salute. “We were entertained,” wrote a British officer in the army which had just fought at Minden, “with a _feu de joie_ within hearing of the French camp, in honour of Admiral Boscawen’s success against the Toulon squadron.”
The little difficulty with Portugal that ensued was settled amicably. The elder Pitt, then Prime Minister, had his own way of dealing with matters that would upset the feebler nerved politicians of our modern House of Commons. The Opposition in the House tried, of course, to make party capital over Boscawen’s breach of Portuguese neutrality. “Very true,” was all the answer Pitt deigned to make, “but the enemy’s ships were burned.” He sent Lord Kinnoull to Lisbon with a polite expression of regret at the unavoidable necessity of the case, and the incident was not heard of again.