Editing Horatio Hornblower (section)

=== HMS ''Sutherland'' ===
After these exploits, he is given command of HMS ''Sutherland'', a [[Seventy-four (ship)|74-gun]] [[ship of the line]]. His feelings are disturbed during this period by the fact that his commander, Admiral Leighton, has recently married Lady Barbara. The admiral treats Hornblower with disdain.

While waiting at his Mediterranean rendezvous point for the rest of his squadron—and its commander—to arrive, he carries out a series of raids against the French along the south coast of Spain, earning the nickname "the terror of the Mediterranean". After saving Admiral Leighton's flagship, HMS ''Pluto'', which had become dismasted in stormy seas, from the French battery at Rosas, he learns that a French squadron of four ships of the line has slipped the blockade at Toulon. He decides that his duty requires that he fight them at one-to-four odds to prevent them from entering a well-protected harbour. In the process, his ship is crippled, and with two-thirds of the crew incapacitated (including Lt. Bush), he surrenders to the French, but not before severely crippling three of the French ships and damaging the fourth. As a prisoner in Rosas, he witnesses the destruction of the French ships at anchor by Leighton's squadron.

He is sent with his coxswain, Brown, and his injured first lieutenant, Bush, to Paris for a show trial and execution on charges of piracy for using a false flag to enter a French-held harbour despite him raising the British ensign before opening fire. During the journey, Hornblower and his companions escape. After a winter sojourn at the chateau of the Comte de Graçay, during which he has an affair with the nobleman's widowed daughter-in-law, the escapees travel down the River [[Loire]] to the coastal city of [[Nantes]]. There, he recaptures a Royal Navy [[cutter (ship)|cutter]], the ''Witch of Endor'', mans the vessel with a commandeered gang of galley prisoners, and escapes to the [[Channel Fleet]].

As an indication of Admiralty approval of Hornblower's actions, Lt. Bush is promoted into ''Witch of Endor'' as commander, and shortly thereafter to post captain, with "the dockyard job at Sheerness waiting for [him]."

When Hornblower arrives home, he discovers that his first wife Maria has died in childbirth, that the baby boy survives, and that Lady Barbara (now widowed after Admiral Leighton died of wounds sustained during the attack on Rosas that Hornblower had observed as a prisoner) has taken charge of the child, with her brothers Lords Wellesley and Wellington acting as godfathers.

Hornblower faces a mandatory [[court-martial]] for the loss of the ''Sutherland'', but is "most honourably acquitted." A national hero in the eyes of the public and a useful propaganda tool for various politicians and the [[King George IV of the United Kingdom|Prince Regent]], he is made a [[Knight of the Order of the Bath]] and appointed a [[Colonel of Marines]] (a ''[[sinecure]]'' which confers a salary without any additional duties).

Hornblower and Lady Barbara are now free (after a decent interval) to marry. They move to the fictional village of Smallbridge, Kent, where Hornblower has purchased an estate. However, the new lord of the manor longs for the sea.