But, though the various powers were ready enough to tolerate piracy when it affected their rivals, their complaisance quickly disappeared when it affected themselves. In 1655, as a result of repeated attacks on British shipping, Admiral Robert Blake was ordered to teach the corsairs respect for the British flag, which he did by administering a sound thrashing to the Tunisians. During the reign of Charles II a long series of expeditions against the pirates was undertaken by the British fleet, sometimes single-handed, sometimes in coöperation with the Dutch. In 1682 and again in 1683 the French fleet bombarded Algiers, and on the second occasion the Algerines repaid the little pleasantry by blowing the French consul from the mouth of a gun. In 1804 the United States took a hand in the game by sending a squadron under Commodore Preble to the Mediterranean. During a naval demonstration against Tripoli the frigate _Philadelphia_ went aground in the harbor and was captured by the corsairs, but was burned a few days later, under the very guns of the city, by a daring expedition led by gallant young Stephen Decatur, who subsequently commanded with marked success all the American naval operations against the cities of the Pirate Coast. When the dove of peace settled upon European soil after Waterloo, it was generally agreed that the time had arrived to bring the activities of the corsairs to an end. Accordingly, at the Congress of Vienna, Great Britain was delegated by the other powers to clean up the Barbary Coast, and in 1816 Lord Exmouth was ordered to exact promises of good behavior from the bey of Tunis and the dey of Algiers at the mouths of his guns. The negotiations proceeded amicably enough, but scarcely had they been concluded before a number of British subjects were attacked and brutally ill-treated by the pirates of Bône, whereupon the British government sent Exmouth back to exact reparation, and, acting in conjunction with a Dutch squadron under Admiral Van de Capellen, he administered a smashing bombardment to Algiers. This recalls the romantic attempt at escape of Ida M’Donnell, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Admiral Ulric, consul-general of Denmark, and wife of the British consul at Algiers. When the bombardment was about to begin, M’Donnell was loaded with chains by order of the bey and thrown into a dungeon. Mrs. M’Donnell, cutting off her hair, attempted to reach the British fleet disguised as a midshipman, carrying on her arm a basket of vegetables in which her baby was hidden. She was detected and detained, but the child was sent out to the flag-ship under a flag of truce with the dey’s compliments.