Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p1.djvu/174

 two commissioned officers, killed, wounded, and made prisoners. By the immediate destruction of this fortification, and the blowing up of rocks in various places, the road was rendered impassable to the enemy’s artillery, required for the siege of Gerona. On the 28th Sept. following, his Lordship reported the destruction of the newly constructed semaphoric telegraphs at Bourdique, Pinede, St. Maguire, Frontignan, Canet, and Foy, together with their guard houses, fourteen barracks of the gens-d’armes, a battery, and a strong tower upon the lake of Frontignan. “Lieutenant Mapleton,” (then first of the Imperieuse,) says Lord Cochrane, “had the command of those expeditions; Lieutenant Urry Johnson had charge of the field-pieces; and Lieutenant Hoare of the royal marines. To them, and to Mr. Gilbert, assistant-surgeon; Mr. Burney, gunner; and Messrs. Stewart and Stovin, midshipmen, is due whatever credit may arise from such mischief; and for having, with so small a force, drawn about 2,000 troops from the important fortress of Figueras, in Spain, to the defence of their own coast. The conduct of Lieutenants Mapleton, Johnson, and Hoare, deserves my best praise.” Other services performed by the Imperieuse, on the Mediterranean station, will be found noticed.

Mr. Mapleton’s next appointment was, Feb. 19th, 1811, to the Edinburgh 74, in which ship he served as first lieutenant, under Captains Robert Rolles and the Hon. George H. L. Dundas, until advanced to the command of a French national brig, taken at Genoa, in April, 1814. Previous to his promotion, he had distinguished himself on various occasions, particularly at the capture of a French convoy lying in the mole of D’Anzo, Oct. 5th, 1813; at the unsuccessful attack upon Leghorn, in the month of December following; and during the operations against Genoa and its dependencies, in March and April, 1814. On the 18th of the latter month, Captain Sir Josias Rowley, commanding the Anglo-Sicilian naval force, informed Sir Edward Pellew (now Viscount Exmouth) that “that active officer, Lieutenant Mapleton, of the Edinburgh," he was sorry to say, had been wounded,