a chance of escape

up her ears, and instantly saw from bad forage and the heavy 24-pounders. With a neigh and snort away she bolted, and her hoofs clattered on the paved highway as she dashed onward through fire and smoke, carrying the astonished and powerless officer straight into the jaws of his foes. Richardson sat his runaway mare well, and inwardly blessed Sir Francis Wood and the Badsworth hounds for the lesson he had received in his memorable contest with the tea captain.

The guard at the gate, seeing a British officer charging at full gallop, concluded that a regiment of cavalry was behind him, and shouted to the sentinels:

"Up, drawbridge!

Let the portcullis fall!"

And so it did, just in time to prevent the Flanders mare dashing with her helpless prey into the city. Immediately the mistake was perceived, and a volley from the soldiers made the mare wheel round, and the sudden change of position nearly capsized her burden. However, by clinging to the mane and saddle he contrived to get righted again :

"But scarcely had he Maggie rallied,

When out the hellish legion sallied."

For over the lowered drawbridge a squadron of cavalry

rapidly passed in vain pursuit after the affrighted quadruped and biped, scouring away over the stones to Middleburg. At length all parties were checked by the British lines, when the French were received with grape-shot, and the captain with the congratulations and cheers of his brother officers.

After this narrow escape, the uninjured man returned to his battery, and he had scarcely been there ten minutes before a shower of balls was poured into it, and two or three men fell close to him, from the unexpected fire. It was at once evident, that taking advantage of the low ground on the opposite side of the dyke, the enemy had stealthily brought forward and placed some guns so as entirely to command and rake his position. Picking out five-and-twenty of his best sailors, and ordering the others to immediate shelter, Richardson ran up the dyke until it narrowed, and they were able to get over. It being dusk, the enraged tars came unobserved upon six 12-pounders, which were upon the point of firing again. The Cæsar's men, with a shout, sprang at them; and Captain Richardson exclaiming," Ize Yorkshire, too!" cut down the French officer in command, while the cutlasses and pistols of the seamen speedily killed or dispersed the artillerymen. Ropes were attached to the captured guns, and they were triumphantly hauled across the dyke by the delighted sailors to the British side. After

Flushing surrendered, the commander-in-chief presented these trophies to Captain Richardson, who brought them home in the Cæsar.

On the 13th, the frigates and smaller vessels having taken their respective stations, the bombardment commenced. The gun and bomb vessels, under the direction of Captain Cockburn, of the Belleisle, and Captain Owen, of the Clyde, were most judiciously placed at the east and west end of the town. This squadron kept up a destructive cannonade, and threw its shells with the greatest precision, setting the nearest houses in a blaze. At the same time, fifty-two pieces of heavy ordnance, under Sir Eyre Coote, on the land. side, vomited forth their deadly contents. In addition to these, there was Captain Richardson's battery in advance, of 24-pounders, which commanded a part of the town where the inhabitants had crowded together, in hopes of escaping from the fast falling shells of the shipping. The soldiers fired their cannon singly, as fast as they could load, but Captain Richardson, when acting on shore, always preferred the sea method of making an impression, and his sailors only discharged broadsides, which did great execution amongst the dense masses, at six hundred yards distance.

In a work entitled "Letters from Flushing," by an officer of the 81st Regiment, its effects are thus described" Of the batteries which chiefly distinguished

themselves in the bombardment, one of them, commanded by Captain Richardson, of the Cæsar, astonished us all. It consisted of six 24-pounders and played on the enemy incessantly, and every discharge seemed to be followed by a vast crash and ruin in the town. I must observe, by the way, that the seamen are all engineers, and manage their batteries as well, I had almost said better, than any of our artillery officers. They fire their batteries by broadsides, and the reports of the individual pieces are seldom distinguishable. They always play, moreover, against a certain point until they have demolished it: their six-gun-battery invariably went off as if only one

gun."

The wind would not allow the ships of the line to weigh when the batteries opened their fire, but it proved more favorable the following day, and Sir Richard Strachan proceeded in the Domingo, together with the Blake, Repulse, Victorious, Denmark, Audacious, and Venerable. Ranging up along the sea line of defences they anchored, and kept up a tremendous cannonade on the devoted town, which suffered dreadfully, especially from the congreve rockets. About four in the afternoon the garrison ceased firing, and General Coote sent in a summons and desired the admiral to cease hostilities. General Monnet returned in answer to this demand that he would reply in an