expostulated in vain with the French Captain on this harsh treatment; and when they reminded him of the situation of the French officers made prisoners by Sir Horatio Nelson, in comparison with those now taken in the Leander, he coolly replied, “I am sorry for it; but the fact is, that the French are expert at plunder.” These friends to liberty and equality even carried their inhumanity to such an extreme, that at the very moment the surgeon of the Leander was performing the chirurgical operations, they robbed him of his instruments, and the wounds which Captain Thompson had received were nearly proving fatal by their forcibly withholding the attendance of that gentleman.
The court-martial which afterwards was assembled to examine the conduct of Captain Thompson, his officers and crew, declared, “that his gallant and almost unprecedented defence of the Leander against so superior a force as that of le Généreux, was deserving of every praise his country and the assembled court could give; and that his conduct, with that of the officers and men under his command, reflected not only the highest honor on himself and them, but on their country at large.” The thanks of the court were also given to Captain Berry, who was present on the occasion, for the gallant and active zeal he had manifested. Upon the return of Captain Thompson to the shore from the Alexander, in which the court-martial had been held, he was saluted with three cheers by all the ships in harbour at Sheerness.
Soon after this period, Captain Thompson received the honor of knighthood, and a pension of 200l. per annum. In the following spring, 1799, he was appointed to the Bellona, of 74 guns, and joined the fleet under the command of Lord Bridport, off Brest. From this station he was sent to the Mediterranean, where the Bellona was attached to a flying squadron, under the command of Captain Markham, of the Centaur, and assisted in the capture of three frigates and two brigs from Jaffa, bound to Toulon. She returned to England in the autumn. In the course of the same year, Corfu was taken by the Russians and Turks; and the Leander being found there, the Emperor Paul ordered her to be restored to the British navy.
The Bellona continued on the Home station until the period
