Title etched below image.
Printmaker from British Museum catalogue.
One of four satires by Gillray on Rodney's victory as a blow to the Ministry.
Library's copy trimmed within plate mark.
Rodney, in profile to the right, kneels before George III (right), seated on a throne, his sceptre in his right hand. Rodney's right hand is held out towards de Grasse, who stands behind him and on his right; in his left hand he holds a sword, its hilt resting on the ground at the king's feet. He is saying, "Sire, I have done my Duty & at your Royal Feet, I lay the Scourge of these Destroyers". De Grasse, grotesquely thin and tall, stands erect, his hands folded. Fox and Keppel stand one on each side of the king. Fox, on the king's right, both hands thrust into his waistcoat, is saying, "This Fellow must be recalled, he fights too well for us - & I have obligations to Pigot, for he has lost 17000 at my Faro Bank". Keppel looks at a paper held in his right hand saying, "This is the very Ship I ought to have taken on the 27th of July". The word "Ville" is just legible on the paper, the allusion being to de Grasse's flag-ship the 'Ville de Paris', taken on 12 Apr. 1782. The king is seated on a small square dais, covered by a fringed carpet. On the back of his throne is a crown to which is attached an ostrich feather, the feather which Rodney has added to the Crown by his victory. Cf. British Museum online catalogue.