Captain Brenton remained with his family at Alverstoke till the beginning of October, when having gained sufficient strength to be moved, he proceeded to London, which he reached in two days. He received from the Admiralty an assurance of His Majesty’s approbation of his conduct, and a promise that in due time his name should be added to the list of Baronets; in the mean time a pension was granted him of £300 per annum, his wound being considered by the members of the college of physicians equivalent to the loss of a limb. This proved a very welcome addition to his income, and he considered it a most providential circumstance; for he had been but a few months in England, when he was informed by his agents that they had failed, with all the prize money belonging to the Spartan in their hands. This circumstance was the more unexpected, and the more inexcusable, as Captain Brenton had given them positive orders, when the proceeds of neutral vessels were remitted to them from abroad, to cause the money to be immediately funded, in order to await the result of any appeal that might be made, but this was not done. As misfortunes are said seldom to come alone, so it was on this occasion. The Spartan had taken two American ships in 1807, bound from Sicily to Copenhagen, laden with sulphur; but captured, actually running into Marseilles; and one of the Captains confessed that the destination in the papers was a false one. Captain Brenton under these circumstances, and from a conviction that the sulphur was intended to make gunpowder for the fleet at Toulon, did not hesitate to send them for adjudication to Malta; where they were condemned as the most flagrant breaches of neutrality that had ever come before that court. The proceeds were accordingly remitted, with the positive injunction before mentioned; but being retained by the agents, were involved in their bankruptcy, and by the same post, which informed him of the failure of his agents, Captain Brenton received information, that the appeal for these ships having at length come on, the sentence was reversed, and that he was called upon to pay the amount, a sum of £3000. This was indeed a heavy blow, and one for which he was not prepared either in mind or purse. He says, “the failure of my agents was the more unexpected, as upon my arrival in England, the agents had immediately written to say, that they had a considerable sum of prize money in their hands; and actually did pay a share a short time before their failure, which took place in the spring of the year 1811. With respect to the result of the appeal, this was a matter of still greater astonishment to me, considering the nature of the cases, the acknowledgment of the American masters, and the opinion given by the judge who tried the vessels at Malta. But the Admiralty Court is a political one, and is often governed by expediency, as well as maritime law and usages.”