Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp3.djvu/307

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POST-CAPTAINS OF 1814.
289

he would introduce me to him, adding, ‘see, here he comes!’ ‘What?’ I asked, in unfeigned astonishment, ‘can that be the Duke of Brunswijk ?’ looking at a slight advancing figure, about five feet five inches high, with a sun-burnt countenance, and light moustaches. He had a small foraging cap on his head, which, on my being introduced to him, he most courteously doffed. He was without his black jacket (the costume of his corps), his waistcoat thrown open, shirt-collar loose, throat bare, and wrists unbuttoned ; presenting altogether a figure so unheroic, that I took him for one of the humblest of his followers. Having conversed in French with him for a short time, he expressed a wish to repose himself. Captain Goate naturally offered to escort him to his cabin; but this he declined. Simply asking for a flag, in which he enveloped himself, and laid down on the deck, between two guns, with his cap for a pillow upon one of the quoins.

“Perhaps no individual since the days of Swedish Charles, ever endeared himself so greatly by his simplicity of manner, and rigid self-denial, as this gallant and persevering Prince. Practising every abstinence, exposing himself to every hardship, braving every danger, and participating in every triumph, he is idolized by his followers, all of whom speak of him with rapture and enthusiasm.”

We next find Captain Watts commanding the Woodlark brig, of 10 guns, in the Baltic; on which station he was employed four successive years; and, although no opportunity offered of sufficient importance in itself, singly to effect his promotion, yet it may safely be asserted, that of the many vessels composing the fleet under Sir James Saumarez, none was more marked for activity and success than his. With a crew of only 76 men and boys, he had no less than 13 prize-masters away at one time; and he himself, in addition to all calls, was at watch and watch for nearly four months. In May, 1810, he captured a Danish brig under the batteries at Fladstrand; and on the 27th of the same month, he pursued a cutter privateer through a navigation of such extreme intricacy, that his pilots abandoned their charge. Having repeatedly chased the same vessel, he determined, if possible,