study, to treat his majesty with all the respect due to so great a
personage; and I have the pleasure to believe, that my humble endeavours
have met with the royal approbation."
The painful anxiety of the king, as he viewed the hostile flag on the
distant Castle of St. Elmo, feeling both for the besiegers and the
besieged, was excessive; but, when on the third day after his arrival,
it was visibly lowered, as he stood on the deck, with Lord Nelson and Sir
William and Lady Hamilton, he threw his arms round them in an extacy of
gratitude, and hailed those generous friends by the appellation of his
preservers and restorers.
In fact, the castle surrendered, on the 12th, by capitulation, after a
close siege of eight days, with open batteries; in which, the bravery of
Captain Troubridge, and the other British officers serving under him,
with a most heterogeneous army of British marines, and Russian,
Portuguese, Albanese, Calabrese, and Swiss troops, was eminently
conspicuous. The particulars of this siege, as well as it's success,
will appear in the following letter sent by Captain Troubridge to Lord
Nelson.
"Antignano, near St. Elmo,
July 13, 1799.
"MY LORD,
Agreeable to your lordship's orders, I landed with the English and
Portuguese marines of the fleet, on the 27th of June: and, after
embarking the garrisons of the castles of Ovo and Nuovo, composed
of French and rebels, I put a garrison in each; and, on the 29th,
took post against Fort St. Elmo, which I summoned to surrender.
But, the commandant being determined to stand a siege, we opened a
battery of three thirty-six pounders and four mortars, on the 3d
inst. within seven hundred yards of the fort; and, on the 5th,
another, of two thirty-six pounders. The Russians, under Captain
Buillie, opened another battery of four thirty-six pounders and
four mortars, against the opposite angle; intending to storm it, in
different places, as soon as we could make two practicable breaches
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