Of the treachery of Captain Landais a brief space will suffice because, as already said, his disappointments while in the French service had made him partially insane. That he fired into the _Bonhomme Richard_ was proved beyond any doubt by his own men, some of whom (the Americans) refused to fire the guns at his order. It was proved by his own officers (Frenchmen at that) that he said he would have “thought it no harm if the _Bonhomme Richard_ had struck, for it would have given him an opportunity to retake her and to take the _Serapis_.” A sane man would have been executed for such treachery as his, of course, but he was very properly dismissed only. He settled down in New York City after the war, where he lived on an income of $100 a year, derived from prize money that he had obtained. It was his habit to take a walk on lower Broadway every day when the weather and his health permitted. He was a curious figure there, for he “never appeared abroad with his old-fashioned cocked hat in its legitimate station,” but “carrying it forever in his hand, as a mark of homage and respect to, and in commemoration of the cruel death of his beloved sovereign.” [Illustration: A Letter from Pierre Landais. _From the original at the Lenox Library._] [Illustration: John Paul Jones. _From a miniature, recently found (1897) in a cellar at the Naval Academy._] To return to the story of what happened immediately after the conclusion of the battle between the _Bonhomme Richard_ and the _Serapis_, the facts may best be given in the words of John Paul Jones himself. In his report he says: “I had yet two Enemies to encounter far more formidable than the britons, I mean fire and Water. the _Serapis_ Was attacked only by the first, but B. _h._ R. Was assailed by both, there was five feet Water in the hould, and tho’ it Was moderate from Explosion of so much gun powder, yet the three pumps that remained could with difficulty only keep the Water from gaining. the fire broke out in Various parts of the Ship in spite of all the Water that Could be thrown (immediately) to quench it, and at length broke out as low as the powder magazine and within a few inches of the powder. in that dilema I took out the powder upon deck ready to be thrown overboard at the last extremity, and it Was ten O’clock A.M. the next day the 24 before the fire Was entirely extinguished. With respect to the Situation of the B. _h._ R. the rudder Was cut Entirely off the stern frame and transoms Were almost Entire Cut away, the timbers by the lower Deck especially from the mainmast to the stern, being greatly decayed With age, were mangled beyond my power of description, and a person must have been an Eye Witness to form a Just idea of the tremendous scene of carnage, Wreck and Ruin that Every Where appeared. humanity cannot but Recoil from the prospect of such finished horror and Lament that War should produce such fatal consequences.