[Footnote 34: _Hist. MSS. Commission: Report XIV._ Duke of Rutland's MSS. at Belvoir Castle, vol. iii. p. 55. At Belvoir Castle there are preserved, besides eight brass cannon of French make, the carved tiller of the _Resolution_, and some bottles of wine stamped with the Manners peacock, which were in the ship as part of the captain's stores.] [Footnote 35: There is a very fine model of the _Duke_, representing her exactly as she appeared on the 12th of April 1782, in the naval collection at South Kensington Museum.] [Footnote 36: The first was in the fighting on the 9th of April. 'De Grasse had sent me a message that he could not meet me in March, but that he certainly would attack us in April. He did not keep his promise, for I attacked him. In the first day's action, when the _Formidable_ came abreast of the _Ville de Paris_, I ordered the main topsail to be laid aback. [This was a well-understood form of personal challenge at sea.] De Grasse, who was about three miles to windward, did not accept the challenge, but kept his wind and did not fire one shot the whole day.' (Letter to Lady Rodney, May 4, 1782; quoted in Mundy's _Life_, etc., vol. ii. p. 291.)] [Footnote 37: Sir Gilbert Blane, _Dissertations on Medical Science_, vol. i. p. 88 _et seq._] [Footnote 38: Sir C. Dashwood's letter is dated Torquay, 8th July 1829. It is quoted in full in the _United Service Journal_ for 1833, part i. p. 73.] [Footnote 39: Professor J. Knox Laughton, R.N., _Dictionary of National Biography_, art. 'Rodney.'] [Footnote 40: The _Diademe's_ name appears in De Vaudreuil's official return of the ships rallied by him which reached Cap Francois, San Domingo, on the 25th of April.] [Footnote 41: Hennequin, _Biographie Maritime_, vol. i. p. 356.] [Footnote 42: Navy Records Society: _The Naval Miscellany_, vol. i. p. 234. A letter apparently from a lieutenant of the _Ville de Paris_ gives details.] [Footnote 43: Navy Records Society, _Letters of Sir Samuel Hood_, pp. 102-103.] [Footnote 44: Sir Gilbert Blane, _Dissertations on Medical Science_, vol. i.] [Footnote 45: _United Service Journal_ for 1833, vol. i. p. 514.] [Footnote 46: De Grasse, it is stated, had not once left the quarter-deck since daybreak. See also _Historical Memoirs of my Own Time_, Sir N.W. Wraxall, vol. iii. p. 108.]