At last, on the 4th of August, M. de Nion received an answer, and not an acceptable one, to his last note, still harping on “the punishment of the general.”  We had had enough of that sort of thing.  On the 5th a despatch-boat brought me news of the safety of Mr. Hay, the British Plenipotentiary, on board an English ship, and of the failure of his mission.  On the 6th I attacked the fortifications of Tangier in the presence of ships of war of every nation, British battleships, and Spanish frigates.  The object of our demonstration was eminently clear.  We were proving to the Moors, whom we chastised, as to the foreigners who were looking on, that France intended to ensure her Algerian frontier being respected, and that no foreign protection would save those who violated it from punishment.

The shelling of Tangier was much more of a political act than of an act of warfare.  Though eighty pieces of artillery replied to our first shots, their fire was swiftly silenced by the admirable practice made by our capital gunners.  Not a shot went wide of the enemy’s embrasures, nor did a single one fall on the dwelling-houses, nor on the consular quarter of the town.  Our loss was insignificant I have not the figures by me, but I do not think we had more than fifteen or twenty men disabled.  No damage was done to the fleet.  My ship, the Suffren, had not more than fifty shots in her hull and spars.

General Bugeaud, with whom I at once communicated, wrote to me soon afterwards as follows: 

I told you on the 11th, that the army would lose no time about honouring the draft the navy had drawn on it.  By the enclosed copy of a telegram to his Excellency the Minister of War you will see it has kept its word.

The despatch in question contained the report of the battle of Isly, which had just been fought; and the letter was dated from the battlefield itself, on August 14th.  On that same 14th of August I was before Mogador with the squadron.  Having sent out three very intelligent officers, Colonel Chauchard, and Captain Coffinieres of the Engineers, and a post-captain, the heir to a glorious name, Vicomte Duquesne, to reconnoitre, I had resolved, on their information, to choose this particular town and its port, as offering the best chance of a successful attack.  Another consideration too had weighed with me—­the customs duties at Mogador supplied the greater part of Muley Abderrahman’s revenue.  We had dissipated his illusions at Tangier, and while the general was lowering his pride on the battlefield of Isly, I was going to make a hole in his purse.