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  difficult, or I trust it would have been reduced much soon. * * *.

(Signed)“.”

“''Right Hon. Lord Nelson, K.B. &c. &c. &c.''”

On this occasion, the loss of the allies amounted to 37 officers and men killed, and 85 wounded. Lord Nelson, in a letter to his commander-in-chief, says, “The very great strength of St. Elmo, and its formidable position, will mark with what fortitude, perseverance, and ability the combined forces must have acted.”

The siege of Capua next ensued, and was crowned with equal success. On the 19th July, a party of Swiss, commanded by Colonel Tschudy, some Neapolitan cavalry under General Acton, two corps of infantry under General Bouchard and Colonel Gams, accompanied by the British and Portuguese seamen and marines, began their march from Naples, and were followed by a body of Russians. During that night and the next day, all the troops, &c. arrived at Caserta, and were employed in reconnoitring the ground and erecting batteries: with their head-quarters at St. Angelo. The enemy’s force, under General Girardon, consisted of about 1200 French infantry, 50 cavalry, 600 Cisalpines, and 200 rebels. On the 25th, the trenches were opened, with one battery within five hundred yards of the glacis. In private letters to Nelson, Troubridge said,

“Our battery was finished by four o’clock yesterday afternoon, but I did not think it advisable to open until this morning, at half-past three o’clock. After three rounds from the guns and mortars, I sent Hallowell to propose the terms your lordship directed. They answered,they could not surrender, and hardly believed that St. Elmo was taken: nothing but the sight of Mejan’s signature could make them believe it. Our batteries are again opening; but the powder is so bad, that the shells hardly breach; many fall short, though not above three hundred toises; I really suspect some treachery. If your lordship could spare us forty casks of our powder it would be very useful for the mortars. If you comply, it will be necessary that some person belonging to us should accompany it, or they will steal one half and change the other. I have moved the camps, to enable us to erect two more batteries in a very commanding situation, within two hundred yards of the work. July 26th, 1799, eight – As there is no dependence to be placed on the metal of the Neapolitan