Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 24 - Riou
Riou. — That this heroic officer was killed in action is well known through Campbell’s lines:—
“Brave hearts, to Britain’s pride
Once so faithful and so true,
On the deck of fame that died
With the gallant good Riou!”
In St. Paul’s Cathedral there is a monument to him and Captain Mosse, which may be described as if it were heraldic; a sarcophagus is the crest, a tablet is the shield, the supporters are two angels holding medallion profiles of the deceased officers. The tablet has this inscription:—
“The services and death of two valiant and distinguished officers, James Robert Mosse, Captain of the Monarch, and Edward Riou, Captain of the Amazon, who fell in the attack upon Copenhagen, conducted by Lord Nelson 2d April 1801, are commemorated by this monument erected at the national expense.
James Robert Mosse
was born in 1746; he served as Lieutenant several years under Lord Howe, and was promoted to the rank of Post-Captain in 1790.
To Edward Riou,
who was born in 1762, an extraordinary occasion was presented in the early part of his service of his signalising his intrepidity and presence of mind, which were combined with the most anxious solicitude for the lives of those under his command, and a magnanimous disregard of his own. When his ship, the Guardian, struck upon an island of ice in Dec. 1 789, and afforded no prospect but that of immediate destruction to those on board, Lieutenant Riou encouraged all who desired to take the chance of preserving themselves in the boats, to consult their safety, but judging it contrary to his own duty to desert the vessel, he neither gave himself up to despair nor relaxed his exertions, whereby after ten weeks of the most perilous navigation, he succeeded in bringing his disabled ship into port, receiving this high reward of fortitude and perseverance from the Divine Providence on whose protection he relied.”
I have begun with Edward Riou’s epitaph because it does honour to his earlier career. In March 1801 he was in command of the Amazon.
“Before the fleet left Yarmouth,” says Southey, “it was sufficiently known that its destination was against Denmark. Some Danes, who belonged to the Amazon frigate, went to Captain Riou, and telling him what they had heard, begged that he would get them exchanged into a ship bound on some other destination. They had no wish (they said) to quit the British service; but they entreated that they might not be forced to fight against their own country. There was not in our whole navy a man who had a higher and more chivalrous sense of duty than Riou. Tears came into his eyes while the men were speaking; without making any reply he instantly ordered his boat, and did not return to the Amazon until he could tell them that their wish was effected.”
Nelson had never seen Riou till this expedition, but instantly perceived and appreciated his courage and capacity; his Lordship made his final examination of the watery field before Copenhagen in the Amazon. Nelson, Foley, and Riou arranged the order of battle, and Riou received the command of a small fleet and large discretion. Unhappily, some of the ships of this flotilla could not get up to him, owing to impossibilities which sailing-vessels (there was no steam navigation then) could not conquer. The fire from Riou’s ships against the Crown Battery was therefore inadequate, and a signal to retire had to be obeyed. Then came the closing scene of Riou’s life, which is thus depicted by Southey:—
“What will Nelson think of us? was Riou’s mournful exclamation, when he unwillingly drew off. He had been wounded on the head by a splinter, and was sitting on a gun, encouraging his men, when just as the Amazon showed her stern to the Trekoner Battery, his clerk was killed by his side, and another shot swept away several marines who were hauling in the mainbrace. ‘Come then, my boys,’ cried Riou, ‘let us all die together!’ The words had scarcely been uttered before a raking shot cut him in two.”
The despatch of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, dated on board H.M.S. London, off Copenhagen Roads, 6th April 1801, said:—
“It is with the deepest concern I mention the loss of Captains Mosse and Riou, two very brave and-gallant officers, and whose loss, as I am well informed, will be sensibly felt by the families they have left behind them — the former, a wife and children — the latter, an aged mother.”
The Report of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson was addressed to Parker, and dated from H.M.S. Elephant, April 3rd:—
“From the very intricate nature of the navigation, the Bellona and Russel unfortunately grounded, but (although not in the situation assigned them) yet so placed as to be of great service. The Agamemnon could not weather the shore of the Middle, and was obliged to anchor; but not the smallest blame can be attached to Captain Fancourt; it was an event to which all the ships were liable. These accidents prevented the extension of our line by the three ships before mentioned, who would (I am confident) have silenced the Crown Islands, the two outer ships in the harbour’s mouth, and prevented the heavy losses in the Defiance and Monarch, and which unhappily threw the gallant and good Captain Riou (to whom I had given the command of the frigates and sloops named in the margin,[1] to assist in the attack of the ships at the harbour’s mouth) under a very heavy fire; the consequence has been the death of Captain Riou, and many brave officers and men in the frigates and sloops.”
The joint-monument to Captains Mosse and Riou was executed by C. Rossi, R.A. The angelic supporters are intended to represent Victory and Fame (Smyth’s “Biographical Illustrations of St. Paul’s Cathedral,” p. 53). The monument cost £4200 (id. p. 6).
I content myself with the above quotations, because a connected memoir of Riou is given by Mr. Smiles in the Sunday Magazine, vol. vi., p. 389, to which I gladly refer my readers, only borrowing from that memoir the facts which I summarise in the following pedigree:—
| Etienne Riou, heir of the estate of Vernoux in Languedoc, a refugee at Berne, who joined Viscount Galway’s Regiment in Piedmont; thereafter, in 1698, he became a merchant in London, and married | |||
| Magdalen Baudoin, daughter of a refugee gentleman from Touraine, | |||
| Captain Stephen Riou, Horse Grenadier Guards. | |||
| Colonel Philip Riou, Royal Artillery, died at Woolwich, 1817, Senior Colonel. |
Captain Edward Riou, Royal Navy, born 20th November 1762, killed in action, 2nd April 1801. | ||
- ↑ Blanche, Alemene, Dart, Arrow, Zephyr, and Otter.