Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/122

94 from her superior height out of the water, the fire of the Kent could only pass over the deck of La Confiance.

To climb on the enemy's deck followed by the crew, was a work of an instant. After a desperate conflict the English were driven below, their flag was hauled down, but still they did not give in. The fight continued below in the batteries, nor was it until resistance had become useless that it ceased, and the Kent surrendered.

In this battle the French had sixteen men wounded, of whom three died of their wounds. The English lost seventy men killed and wounded. Surcouf at once transported the greater part of his prisoners, amongst whom was the daughter of the Margrave of Anspach married to an English general, on board a three-masted coasting vessel which opportunely came near enough to be captured; then placing sixty of his men under an officer on board the Kent, he sailed in company with her to the Islands. He arrived there in November. There, too, he received instructions to re-conduct the Confiance to France with a view to her receiving a more powerful armament. He sailed with this object on the 29th January 1801, and arrived at La Rochelle on the 13th April following, having captured a Portuguese vessel, the Ebro, carrying 18 twelve-pounders, on the way.

That same year the brief treaty of Amiens put a stop to hostilities. Surcouf then married. But the war being resumed in 1803, the First Consul offered him the commission of post captain (capitaine de vaisseau) in