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Rh side of them, when a sudden gale of wind sweeping down the firth sunk one of his prizes, and carried his squadron irresistibly out to sea. The captains of the Pallas and Vengeance were so much dejected at this accident, that they could not be prevailed upon to renew the attempt. His little squadron shortly after fell in with the homeward-bound Baltic fleet, under convoy of his majesty's ships the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough. A desperate engagement en- sued, in which Jones displayed the most consummate skill, dauntless intrepidity, and perfect presence of mind. The battle was obstinately contested; but the Countess of Scarborough was at last obliged to strike to the Pallas, and the Serapis to the Bon Homme Richard, which was so shattered in the action, that next morning, after all hands had left her, she went to the bottom. Though the Serapis was nearly in the same condition, Jones hoisted his flag aboard of her, and under jury masts, with some difficulty, steered her along with his other prizes into the Texel. He now used all his influence with the French court to have his prisoners exchanged against American prisoners in England, in which he had the pleasure of succeeding to the utmost of his wishes, receiving, in a short time after, a letter from Benjamin Franklin, the American minister at Paris, which informed him, "that he (Franklin) had just completed the noble work, which he (Jones) had so nobly begun, by giving liberty to all the Americans that then languished in England." The French ambassador at the Hague was at the same time ordered to communicate to commodore Jones, the high sense which his majesty, the king of France, entertained of his merits, and the personal esteem he bore for his character, and, especially, for his disinterested humanity.

Jones now took the command of the Alliance, the captain of which had been summoned to Paris to answer for his insubordination, in deserting the commodore on the coast of Ireland; but his situation was now perilous in the extreme. Summoned to deliver him up to the vengeance of the English government as a pirate and a rebel, the Dutch were constrained to order him out to sea, where an English squadron was watching to intercept him. From this dilemma he could have been saved by accepting of a commission from the king of France, whose ambassador earnestly pressed him to adopt that alternative; but he thought himself bound in honour to decline the offer, and determined, at whatever hazard, to abide by and support the flag of the country which he had, upon the maturest reflection, adopted. "Fortune favours the brave w is a maxim we see every day exemplified. Jones weighed anchor and escaped through the straits of Dover, almost under the eyes of the English men-of-war, all of which had strict orders to secure him, and were, besides, inflamed against him in a high degree from the repeated defeats that British ships had sustained at his hands.

Towards the close of the year 1780, he sailed with important despatches for America in the ship Ariel, and by the way meeting an English ship of twenty guns, engaged her, and with his usual gallantry made her his prize. The king of France had, previously to this, testified his approbation of Jones's services, by presenting him with a superb gold-hiked sword; and a letter from the French minister, M. de Sartine, was now transmitted to the president of the United States, requesting liberty "to decorate that brave officer with the cross of the order of military merit." The letter was laid before Congress, and, a law acceding to the proposal being passed on the 27th of February, he was formally invested by the chevalier de la Luzerne, at a public fete given to the members of that body. Congress, in the month of April following, on the report of a committee, passed a vote of thanks to the chevalier John Paul Jones, "for the zeal, prudence, and intrepidity, with which he had sustained the honour of the American flag, for his bold and successful enterprizes to redeem