This event was decisive.  The Neapolitans, who were charged to hold the neighbouring forts, flung themselves into the sea; and the ships themselves began to weigh anchor; for Buonaparte’s guns soon poured their shot on the fleet and into the city itself.  But even in that desperate strait the allies turned fiercely to bay.  On the evening of December 17th a young officer, who was destined once more to thwart Buonaparte’s designs, led a small body of picked men into the dockyard to snatch from the rescuing clutch of the Jacobins the French warships that could not be carried off.  Then was seen a weird sight.  The galley slaves, now freed from their chains and clustering in angry groups, menaced the intruders.  Yet the British seamen spread the combustibles and let loose the demon of destruction.  Forthwith the flames shot up the masts, and licked up the stores of hemp, tar, and timber:  and the explosion of two powder-ships by the Spaniards shook the earth for many miles around.  Napoleon ever retained a vivid mental picture of the scene, which amid the hated calm of St. Helena he thus described:  “The whirlwind of flames and smoke from the arsenal resembled the eruption of a volcano, and the thirteen vessels blazing in the roads were like so many displays of fireworks:  the masts and forms of the vessels were distinctly traced out by the flames, which lasted many hours and formed an unparalleled spectacle.” [25] The sight struck horror to the hearts of the royalists of Toulon, who saw in it the signal of desertion by the allies; and through the lurid night crowds of panic-stricken wretches thronged the quays crying aloud to be taken away from the doomed city.  The glare of the flames, the crash of the enemy’s bombs, the explosion of the two powder-ships, frenzied many a soul; and scores of those who could find no place in the boats flung themselves into the sea rather than face the pikes and guillotines of the Jacobins.  Their fears were only too well founded; for a fortnight later Freron, the Commissioner of the Convention, boasted that two hundred royalists perished daily.

It remains briefly to consider a question of special interest to English readers.  Did the Pitt Ministry intend to betray the confidence of the French royalists and keep Toulon for England?  The charge has been brought by certain French writers that the British, after entering Toulon with promise that they would hold it in pledge for Louis XVII., nevertheless lorded it over the other allies and revealed their intention of keeping that stronghold.  These writers aver that Hood, after entering Toulon as an equal with the Spanish admiral, Langara, laid claim to entire command of the land forces; that English commissioners were sent for the administration of the town; and that the English Government refused to allow the coming of the Comte de Provence, who, as the elder of the two surviving brothers of Louis XVI., was entitled to act on behalf of Louis XVII.[26] The facts in the