“Lord St. Vincent tells me he hates councils,” he writes rather sorely to Addington.  “So do I between military men; for if a man consults whether he is to fight, when he has the power in his own hands, it is certain that his opinion is against fighting; but that is not the case at present, and I own I do want good council.  Lord St. Vincent is for keeping the enemy closely blockaded; but I see they get alongshore inside their sand banks, and under their guns, which line the coast of France.  Lord Hood is for keeping our squadrons of defence stationary on our own shore (except light cutters to give information of every movement of the enemy)....  When men of such good sense, such great sea-officers, differ so widely, is it not natural that I should wish the mode of defence to be well arranged by the mature consideration of men of judgment?”

Meanwhile he had again gone off Boulogne, and directed an attack in boats upon the line of vessels moored outside.  He took great care in the arrangements for this hazardous expedition, giving personal supervision to all details.  “As you may believe, my dear Emma,” he wrote to her who had his closest confidence, “my mind feels at what is going forward this night; it is one thing to order and arrange an attack, and another to execute it; but I assure you I have taken much more precaution for others, than if I was to go myself—­then my mind would be perfectly at ease.”  He professed, and probably felt, entire confidence in the result.  Fifty-seven boats were detailed for the attack.  They were in four divisions, each under a commander; Edward Parker having one.  Each division was to advance in two columns, the boats of which were secured one to another by tow-ropes; a precaution invaluable to keep them together, though rendering progress slower.  The points in the enemy’s line which each division was to make for were clearly specified, and special boats told off and fitted to tow out any vessels that were captured.  Simultaneous with this onslaught, a division of howitzer flatboats was to throw shot into the port.

At half-past eleven on the night of August 15th, the boats, which had assembled alongside the flag-frigate “Medusa,” shoved off together; but the distance which they had to pull, with the strong, uncertain currents, separated them; and, as so often happens in concerted movements, attacks intended to be simultaneous were made disconnectedly, while the French were fully prepared.  The first division of the British arrived at half-past twelve, and after a desperate struggle was beaten off, Commander Parker being mortally wounded.  Two other divisions came up later, while the fourth lost its way altogether.  The affair was an entire failure, except so far as to show that the enemy would be met on their own shores, rather than on those of Great Britain.  The British loss was forty-four killed, and one hundred and twenty-eight wounded.