The Falmouth Service could ill have spared an officer of Captain Kempthorne’s qualities, even for the limited period which might be expected to elapse before he could be exchanged. But a worse misfortune was at hand, for Captain Kempthorne had been no more than a few days in the hands of the French when he fell ill of a putrid fever, and died after a very short illness. No officer could have been more regretted, for Captain Kempthorne, who had served in the navy as midshipman and lieutenant, had in the last war fought one of the most notable actions of which the Post-Office could boast, having sustained for some hours and at last repulsed the joint attack of three American Privateers, of which the smallest was of greater force than his own ship. The same French squadron captured the “Thynne” Packet four days after the “Antelope,” but the last four months of 1794 went by without further mishap, and when the New Year arrived the retrospect must have been fairly encouraging. Though four Packets had been captured no one of them had fallen to a Privateer. Three had indeed been captured by squadrons against which any armament conceivable would have proved useless, and, on the whole, it might fairly be argued therefore that the new system held its ground. The time was at hand, however, in which this immunity from the ravages of Privateers was to be broken. In the year 1795 the French turned their chief attention to the task of destroying commerce, and their change of policy makes itself felt at once in the records of the Post-Office, for though the Packets captured in 1795 were again only four in number, every one of them was taken by a Privateer, and in each case without a fight. This was certainly not very satisfactory, for if the qualities of the new Packets, their sailing powers and their capacity for fighting in the last resort, could not protect them against Privateers the model must stand condemned. Questions doubtless arose in Lombard Street about the bloodless nature of every one of these conquests, but no trace of such discussions appears in the records. My Lords the Postmaster General had certainly impressed on their commanders that their safety was in flight, but they had not intended to convey that all the qualities of timid animals were to be copied, and that the commanders were to give themselves up for lost when overtaken. In the following year (1796) the record is more pleasant to read. Three Packets were captured, apparently without effective resistance, by French Privateers, and one was seized by the Spaniards in Corunna harbour upon the declaration of war with England; but there were three gallant fights, which were the more welcome by reason of the fact that during two years the commanders seemed to have forgotten that guns were made to be fired.