resumed her place at Paris, at the head of a splendid establishment, and was unremitting in her efforts to testify her gratitude to every English person who approached her; for the hospitality she acknowledged to have received from their country. In the course of the month of May your beloved mother’s cough had increased, and in June she broke a blood vessel. We were advised to try country air, and M. Mercudel, a Minorquine gentleman, had the goodness to lend us his house at Bingot, pleasantly situated on the road to Alegero. The air of this place appeared for some time to have the most salutary effect; thus the summer passed away with no other occurrence than my having been brought into intimate communication and friendship with that best of sea officers, Sir Benjamin Hallowell, afterwards Carew, who was left in command of the squadron in the Mediterranean, and who took his station at Minorca, in order to superintend the disposal of the stores, &c. The peace taking place early in Autumn, the fleet was ordered home, and consequently there no longer existed the necessity for a dockyard at Mahon. I was directed to send all the stores to England, and to return home; Lord Melville in the mean time having most kindly appointed me to the Dorset Yacht. Your mother’s health was so precarious, that it became necessary for us to accept the kind offer of my friend, Captain Bathurst,[20] to take home my family in the Fame, and to his care I consigned them, under the protection of that benign Providence which never forsook us. I was unable to accompany them from the remaining duties I had to perform. They embarked on the 7th of August. A few days after they had sailed, I left Minorca in the Castor, for Marseilles, and from thence proceeded to Paris. There I enjoyed the kind hospitality of the Duchess of Orleans for a few days, returning to England early in October. Your mother and yourselves had arrived a few days before me.