wounded, and two hundred on board were killed. She struck her colours
at four o'clock after receiving a terrible battering, and was the only
French ship captured by Hawke's fleet. All the others were sunk, burnt,
or beached, or else escaped. The young Laperouse was amongst the
wounded, though his hurts were not dangerous; and, after a brief period
spent in England as a prisoner of war, he returned to service.

An amusing rhyme in connection with this engagement is worth recalling.
Supplies for Hawke's fleet did not come to hand for a considerable time
after they were due, and in consequence the victorious crews had to be
put on "short commons." Some wag--it is the way of the British sailor
to do his grumbling with a spice of humour--put the case thus:--


"Ere Hawke did bang
Monsieur Conflans,
You sent us beef and beer;
Now Monsieur's beat
We've nought to eat,
Since you have nought to fear."


An interesting coincidence must also be noted. Thirty-five years later,
only a few leagues from the place where Laperouse first learnt
what it meant to fight the British on the sea, another young officer
who was afterwards greatly concerned with Australasian exploration had
his introduction to naval warfare. It was in 1794 that Midshipman
Matthew Flinders, on the BELLEROPHON, Captain Pasley, played his
valiant little part in a great fleet action off Brest. Both of these
youths, whose longing was for exploration and discovery, and who are