by Sir Cloudesley Shovell and took part in operation to besiege Toulon in combination with land forces commanded by Prince Eugene of Savoy. The arrival of French reinforcements meant that siege had to be abandoned, but Shovell was determined to get something from the engagement and ordered Dilkes to bombard the French fleet confined within the town. On he hoisted his flag aboard the and led a flotilla of bomb ketches close inshore. They continually bombarded the town, destroying two French ships and damaging three more, until being driven off by shore batteries the following morning. The French completed the job themselves, seeking to avoid their capture or destruction, they scuttled their entire fleet. Shovell left for England immediately after the siege was raised, though he would perish en route in the Scilly naval disaster. Dilkes was left in command of the Mediterranean fleet and went to Barcelona to confer with Archduke Charles, the Habsburg claimant to the Spanish throne. Charles wanted him to invade Sardinia and concentrate on defending the coast of Catalonia, but as these projects did not fit with his orders from London, Dilkes declined. Following this conference, he sailed for Italy, anchoring in Livorno on . On arrival, a dispute arose between the admiral and the local authorities over the priority of saluting. Dilkes claimed the right to be saluted first by the castle, but the answer came that this honour was only offered to admirals or vice-admirals. Rear-admiral Dilkes had to be content with this answer, and as a conciliatory gesture he was invited to a public dinner on shore on . Returning to his flagship after this meal he caught a chill, followed by a fever, from which he died on 12 December 1707. His death coming so soon after his dispute with the grand-ducal court led to rumours that he had been poisoned; John Campbell, for example, writing that his fever was "caused, as most people imagined, by an Italian dinner." These rumours have been dismissed as groundless. He was buried in the British cemetery outside the city on . According to John Charnock, "as for the character of this brave and unfortunate man we find much to applaud and nothing to censure [...] the respect of those who were his superiors in command he always possessed; the service on which he was ordered, he constantly did his utmost to accomplish." Politics In