which month the King of Sardinia, finding it impossible any longer to endure the exactions of France, and the insults of the republican commissary, embarked on board a Danish frigate at Leghorn, and was escorted by the Terpsichore to Cagliari – that part of his dominions, which the maritime supremacy of England rendered a secure asylum. On the 23d June following, our officer captured the St. Antonio, a Spanish brig of war, mounting 14 guns, with a complement of 70 men.
We are not aware of the exact period at which Captain Gage returned to England; but in the summer of 1800, we find him assisting at the detention of a Danish frigate, in consequence of her commander refusing to allow some merchant vessels under his convoy to be searched by a British squadron. This affair created considerable discussion, and was one of the principal causes of an expedition being soon after sent to the Baltic[1].
On the 21st July, 1801, the boats of the Doris, Beaulieu, and Uranie, to which latter ship Captain Gage had been appointed in the preceding spring, cut out la Chevrette, a French corvette, of 20 guns and 300 men, from under the batteries of Camaret, near Brest, and in presence of the combined fleets of France and Spain. This daring exploit stands as high in point of credit to the British arms, and glory to the officers and men who so nobly achieved it, as any of the kind ever performed. The particulars thereof will be given under the head of Captain Keith Maxwell, in our next volume.
The Uranie was paid off at Plymouth in May, 1802; and we have no farther mention of Captain Gage until July 1805, when he obtained the command of the Thetis, another fine frigate; in which, after serving for some time on the North Sea station, he was again sent to the Mediterranean, from whence he returned with Sir Arthur Paget, who had been on an embassy to the Ottoman Porte.
- ↑ See note †’ at p. 348, et seq.
pitulation to the British squadron, sixteen days after the commencement of the blockade. Malta, as will be seen at p. 281, held out until Sept. 5, 1800.
