to deliver up the ringleaders. He continued on in the Channel till the close of the following year, when he was sent out to the Mediterranean, with his flag in the Foudroyant, as second, under his old chief Lord St. Vincent. The following February he shifted into the Barfleur, and until the beginning of May had the active command before Cadiz; St. Vincent, who was in failing health, remaining at Gibraltar. The divided command was a great misfortune, for St. Vincent was not the man to let his subordinate act independently; and Keith was thus greatly hampered. On 25 April Vice-admiral Bruix got to sea from Brest, with twenty-five ships of the line besides smaller vessels, taking advantage of an easterly gale which blew the blockading squadron off shore. On 8 May Keith had news that the French fleet had been seen two days before off Oporto. He immediately sent on the news to St. Vincent, preparing as he best could for what might happen. Next morning the French were in sight. Keith had with him only fifteen sail of the line, in presence of these twenty-five French ships and twenty-two Spanish in Cadiz. The position seemed critical; but the strong westerly wind prevented the Spaniards from putting to sea, and gave the French enough to do to take care of themselves. The gale freshened; during the night some of the French ships parted company, several were more or less disabled, all were scattered; and Bruix judged that the best thing he could do was to run through the Straits and get to Toulon as fast as possible (Chevalier, Hist. de la Marine française sous la première République,; he anchored there on the 14th. St. Vincent had at once sent to Keith to join him with his whole squadron, but the westerly gale rendered the communication slow. Keith did not get the message till the evening of the 9th, and it was the 12th before the English fleet could leave Gibraltar. Bruix had been a whole week in the Mediterranean, and whither he had gone, whither he meant to go, or what he meant to do, was a complete mystery. Starting in pursuit, St. Vincent had with him only sixteen sail of the line. At Minorca, on the 20th, he was joined by Sir John Duckworth with four more, and was on his way to Toulon when he learned that the Spanish fleet from Cadiz had also come into the Mediterranean. He did not know that it had put into Cartagena with most of the ships dismasted (ib. 411), and accordingly took up a station off Cape St. Sebastian with a view to prevent the two hostile fleets from joining. On the 30th he learned that Bruix had put to sea from Toulon on the 26th, but with what object was unknown. An attack on Nelson at Palermo seemed not improbable, and Duckworth was sent with four ships to reinforce him [see Nelson, Horatio, Viscount Nelson; Duckworth, Sir John Thomas]. The fleet was, however, joined by four other ships under Rear-admiral Whitshed in the Queen Charlotte, and continued off Cape St. Sebastian; but on 2 June St. Vincent, whose health gave way, turned the command over to Keith and sailed for Port Mahon. Keith, left to himself, and having, it may be, a clearer idea of the worthlessness of the Spanish fleet, resolved to quit his strategic station and go to look for the French. On the 3rd, off Toulon, he learned that they had certainly gone eastward; on the 5th that they had been seen only the day before in Vado Bay. The wind was foul, and he was still working up towards Vado when, off Cape delle Mele on the 8th, he received orders from St. Vincent to detach two ships to join Nelson, and to go himself off Rosas to prevent the junction of the French and Spanish fleets. That the order was a blunder is certain. Nelson thought that Keith, being where he was and with better information, ought not to have obeyed it (Nelson Despatches, vii. cxcii); Keith judged otherwise, but at the same time so far deviated from the letter of his orders as to take Minorca on the way, thus permitting Bruix, who had weighed from Valdo Bay on the 8th, and whom he must have met had he stood on, to hug the French and Spanish shore, and so, passing to the southward, to join the Spaniards at Cartagena on the 23rd. At Minorca, on the 13th, Keith shifted his flag to the Queen Charlotte, and on the 15th received St. Vincent's final resignation of the command. Standing over towards Toulon, he fell in with and captured a squadron of four French frigates returning from the Levant; he looked into Toulon, Genoa, Vado Bay, but could get no news of the French fleet. He returned to Minorca, where, on 7 July, he was reinforced by twelve sail of the line under Sir Charles Cotton, but not till some days later did he know that the French had gone to Cartagena. On 29 July he readied Gibraltar. The combined fleets had passed the Straits three weeks before. They had gone to Cadiz, and had sailed northwards on the 20th. Keith now thought the Channel might be their aim, and followed with all speed. On 12 Aug. he was broad off Ushant; the allies had gone into Brest on the 8th. From the mere fact that in this long and weary cruise he failed to find the enemy's fleet and to bring it to action, Keith's conduct was severely criticised; but he seems to have been in a great measure the victim of circumstances; and the divided command
