Irois. Rigaud’s assault on the fort is repulsed and the Magicienne’s fire forces his withdrawal; each side loses about 100 men; Maitland arrives too late.

Meanwhile General Rigaud was fighting the English with the greatest tenacity. He marched at the head of about two thousand men against the fort of Les Irois, held by a battalion of colonial troops commanded by Colonel Degress, a company of European troops of the 17th regiment under the orders of Lieutenant Talbot, and thirty artillerymen commanded by de Breuil. After cannonading the fort, General Rigaud delivered a vigorous assault on it and was repulsed. He then invested it on every side and continued to cannonade it. But the brisk and sustained fire of the frigate Magicienne, moored with springs on her cables not far from the shore and commanded by Captain Rickets, forced the Republican army to withdraw. Colonel Maitland, who had hastened to the relief of Les Irois with an imposing force, arrived there after the retreat of the Republicans (20 April). The English had lost more than 100 men, and the Republicans about as many.