Note 67 — CHAP. XXVIII. THE VOTE OF THANKS.

For having, as Buonaparte afterwards said (see Vol. I. p. 421), suffered themselves to be terrified by the explosion-vessels, so as to take every fireship for one, and then to run their ships ashore in order to avoid the impending danger; this result forming the very essence of my plan. Poor Captain Lafon of the Calcutta was shot, not for surrendering to Lord Gambier’s fleet, but to the Impérieuse frigate under my command, she being a vessel of inferior force to the Calcutta.