for a short time with much success, while his very liberal conduct obtained for him the highest respect of the British residents.  Fortune was again unjust to him.  On the 14th of February, 1805, the San Fiorenzo, commanded by Captain Lambert, late of the Wilhelmina, and which had been sent expressly in pursuit of him, fell in with the Psyche off Vizagapatam, and after a chase of two days brought her to action.  Bergeret defended his ship against a very superior force for three hours and a half, when the San Fiorenzo hauled off to repair her rigging, leaving him with his ship entirely disabled, and more than half his crew killed and wounded.  On the approach of the British frigate to renew the action, he surrendered.

Sir Edward was a warm admirer of the brave prisoner, whose character so much resembled his own, and who returned his friendship with equal warmth and sincerity.  There is not often such a scene on board a man-of-war as occurred when the two officers first met on the quarter-deck of the Culloden.  Both were deeply affected, and the struggle of their feelings, from meeting under such circumstances, drew tears from many who witnessed the interview.[11]

Sir Edward was not always so happy as to meet with enemies thus deserving of his sympathy.  A French frigate, the Piedmontaise, was guilty of conduct which would have-disgraced a pirate.  Cruising off the Cape, on the 17th of February, 1805, she fell in with the Warren Hastings, one of the China fleet which on a former voyage so gallantly bent off the squadron of Admiral Linois; and after a very long and severe action, in which the Indiaman was dismasted, and otherwise completely disabled, took her.  Her brave defence appears to have excited the fury of the enemy, probably because her very crippled state increased the probability of recapture.  Before taking possession of the prize, the frigate, by her own mismanagement, fell on board.  Immediately, the first lieutenant, with a party of ruffians, many of whom, like their leader, were intoxicated, rushed on the deck of the Indiaman with horrid imprecations and drawn daggers, accusing the prisoners of having run foul of the frigate intentionally.  The lieutenant himself wounded Captain Larkins dangerously, and stabbed a young midshipman in several places; and the second officer, the surgeon, and a boatswain’s mate, were wounded by his followers.  Sir Edward did not become acquainted with these facts for two years, as Captain Larkins and his crew could not depose to them until they reached St. Helena, after they had been liberated from the Isle of France.  The Piedmontaise was then cruising in the Indian seas, and Sir Edward transmitted copies of the depositions to every ship on the station, with a general order, in which “the attention of the respective captains and commanders of H.M.’s squadron is especially called to the statement, in order that the ferocious conduct of the first lieutenant, and part of the crew of the Piedmontaise, may receive the general reprobation of H.M.’s service.”