On her arrival the Hydra was found to be totally unfit for service, and shortly after put out of commission. Captain Mundy’s next appointment was, at the close of 1814, to the Ajax 74; and in the spring of 1815 he joined the fleet under Lord Exmouth on the Mediterranean station, where he was soon employed on a service which required no small degree of discretion and good judgment, and wherein he displayed his accustomed ability and discernment.
Napoleon Buonaparte having returned to France from Elba, was at the beginning of June employed making preparations for that grand conflict, which a few days afterwards decided his fate, and struck the last bolt off the fetters of Europe. Captain Mundy was despatched to Marseilles, with instructions to ascertain, if possible, the sentiments of the inhabitants of that city; and his proceedings there were to be regulated according to a discretionary power vested in him by the commander-in-chief, by such circumstances and events as might occur in the course of the service in which he was engaged, and from the intelligence he might be able to obtain. On his arrival off that port, he received information from the lighthouse, as well as from some fishermen, that almost all the forts and batteries had been dismantled, and the whole of the troops, with the exception of 300, marched over the mountains; that the people were very discontented, assassinations frequent, and that at the barracks, and there only, the white flag was hoisted. This and other important intelligence he immediately forwarded to the Duke d’Angouleme and Lord
manded by General Castanos; and after a sanguinary battle, during which he was reinforced by another French division, 6,000 strong, under General Wedel, was obliged to surrender at discretion, with the loss of 3,000 killed and wounded. On his return to France, Buonaparte, in whose military code defeat and disgrace found no lenient construction, ordered him to be tried by a court martial. He was condemned to death, and immediately shot by torch light, though it is evident that his discomfiture and surrender arose from no misconduct on his part, but from the positive superiority of force opposed to him. His troops were transported by the Spaniards to Cabrera, an island to the southward of Majorca, producing nothing but water and a few wild goats, with no other inhabitants than the garrison of a small fort at the entrance of the haven, and occasionally a few fishermen. General Wedel and his division were more fortunate, they being allowed to return home by sea.
