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The Isle of Rhé.]

THE REGIMENT OF CHAMPAGNE DEFEATED.

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the Lion, and the Chameleon came to anchor near | disorder that he might with tolerable ease have the islet of St. Martin; all their sides to be lined made himself master of St. Martin. with musketeers, to scour the beach while the boats went off.

The army was formed in three divisions, and, when landed, the different regiments were to be formed in contiguous battalions, one hundred yards apart; each soldier to have powder, shot, and provisions for two days; a quartermaster to follow each regiment with ammunition alone. The landing was accordingly effected in this fashion, but not without disorder, as there was a scarcity of boats, and they were fired on by the

enemy.

Next morning a French trumpeter came from De Thoiras with a page, to ask if Buckingham meant "to give him a breakfast.” The duke sent them back with twenty-five pieces of silver. He still did not despair of getting quietly into Rochelle, as a message came thence to the effect, says Greenville, that they could show no countenance to the English till the Isle of Rhé was cleared, and until they got in their wine and coal. The Marquis de Thoiras, who was rapidly strengthening all his posts, now sent another trumpeter concerning the burial of the French dead, offering great ransoms for some of the slain who were of high rank, and who were carried out of the English intrenchments and delivered to the French in carts. The duke was now joined by Soubize, with 500 French Huguenot gentlemen from Rochelle; and the troops marched out of the trenches a few bowshots to the front, but retired again to their bivouac.

Buckingham now passed days in unmeaning delays. He allowed the wary old soldier, De Thoiras, to amuse him with deceitful negotiations, while he was strengthening St. Martin's to stand a siege; and he was so negligent in guarding the sea by his shipping that he permitted a strong French force to steal into the island in small divisions.

Buckingham had only got ashore 1,500 men, with four small pieces of cannon, called drakes, under Sir John Burroughs, Sir Alexander Bret, Sir Charles Conway, and others, when 200 French cavalry, who had been concealed in a hollow, made a furious charge, and "put our men, being unranked," to the rout, driving many into the sea, where they were drowned. By the example of the duke, Sir William Heydon, Sir Thomas York, and other officers, this disordered party faced about and began firing. They thus repulsed the cavalry, who fell back, with the loss of 120 men, on a body of infantry, whose officers led them on, waving their plumed hats and brandishing their swords. But, after a few volleys of shot, on the advance of the pikemen, now formed in close ranks, they were put to flight, but not until the British had some eighty soldiers drowned and twenty slain, together with no less than thirty officers killed and wounded. Among the former were Sir William Heydon, General of the Ordnance; Sir Thomas York, Quartermaster-General; Sir Thomas Thornhurst, Lieutenant Colonel; eight captains, including Buckingham had promised King Charles that he Wodehouse, Corporal of the Field; Johnson, an would reduce the citadel of St. Martin in eight engineer; Netherton, a quartermaster; three lieu-days; yet he was detained before it by De Thoiras tenants, two ensigns, and a sergeant.

That night Buckingham got the cavalry squadron ashore, and threw up a trench, as another attack was expected; but none was made, as some discussion or difference of opinion as to the mode of defence had taken place between the Marquis de Thoiras and the Baron de St. Andre, who resented the marquis having assigned to his brother the honour of first attacking the invaders, who had actually defeated the Regiment of Champagne, in whose ranks were many men of the best families in France, and which had been first embodied by Henry II. in 1558, and had ever boasted of its stainless reputation in war; and Buckingham committed a third blunder in not instantly following up the repulse of that corps, which fell back in such

He marched to La Flotte, a little town, where he halted for the night, and next day appeared before the town of St. Martin's, where a Scottish officer, named Sir William Cunningham (says Sanderson, in his "History of Charles I."), “dared any to single combate;" but the town was abandoned by 400 men, who left twenty pieces of cannon behind them.

till the month of November, for to the old works of the place were now added many new.

Sanderson describes it as being quadrangular, with sloping parapets, and four great bastions, or bulwarks, named for the king, the queen, Thoiras, and Antioch. In these were galleries loopholed for musketry, and on their summits were fascines and hurdles of baskets and earth. The trenches, which were of great depth, could be filled with water. It was further defended by other works in the form of half-moons and ravelins, over which the great guns of the central tower could play with ease.

On the 20th the duke had a battery erected against the citadel, while he left the regiments of Sir Peregrine Bertie and Sir Henry Sprye with the

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guns of the latter slew many of the duke's men, who were much exposed.

Passing the French army before Rochelle at the hazard of his life, Mr. George Monk (the Albemarle of a future time) reached the Island of Rhé from England, with tidings of French preparations by land and sea. The barge of the Triumph captured a boatful of men and provisions, bound for the citadel, and her crew put all to the sword save three, who were "commanders of quality," and one of whom is styled as standard-bearer to the King of France. Two other boats were sunk with all on board.

On the 8th of August the British trenches were scoured by a party of horse from the citadel, but many of these were slain as they retired. A few

were filled with armed men; and the services of Pompeo de Farago, a famous engineer of Dunkirk, were to be employed, for the destruction of the English fleet by fire.

On the duke being joined by some Irish auxili aries, under Sir Ralph Bingley and Sir Piers Crosby, the council of colonels became anxious for more active measures than mere cannonading; but delays, caused by parleys on various pretences-all the scheme of Thoiras to gain time-ensued with the consent of Buckingham, who rapidly lost favour with the troops.

An assault, before a breach had been effected, was made on the 23rd of September, when the prospects of starvation or being cut off made the troops doubly desperate; but they were over

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The Isle of Rhé.]

THE ROUT AT THE CAUSEWAY.

matched by the regiment of Champagne. From the ramparts fully a hundred of the British were killed by stones alone; mines were sprung, and the stormers were repulsed with a loss of more than 400 men, and many prisoners, thirty of whom were taken "in traps which they had made in their trenches."

French troops were now pouring into the island every night—on one occasion 1,000 men landed from twenty boats in the face of the fleet-and a retreat or abandonment of the enterprise was urged upon Buckingham by Sir Edward Hawley and Sergeant-Major Brett, in the name of the Military Council; but he declined, until some of Sir William Cunningham's cavalry, who had been scouting, came in to report that they heard the sound of heavy firing on the mainland.

By that time Count Schomberg was on the island, with 7,000 of the finest infantry of France, including the Royal Guard, and the regiments of Navarre and Piedmont, and had possessed himself of La Prée, a fort which the duke had overlooked; and now, with an army decimated by disease, exposure, and starvation, rather than by the casualties of war, he consented to retreat, and the movement was executed so unskilfully that it became a fatal rout. The garrisoning of La Prée and other forts on the isle left him no other point for embarkation than the Işle de l'Oye, which is separated from Rhé by salt-pits and a channel, through which lay a long and narrow causeway. Followed closely by the French, the British began to retire, but were not much molested until they began to cross the causeway to reach the boats of the fleet, and then they were furiously charged by the French, among whom was a body of cavalry, and a dreadful scene of confusion and slaughter ensued as the rear was driven in disorder upon the centre and front.

Five men only could pass abreast. The English, under Brett and Rich, and the Scots, under the Earl of Morton (who was labouring like the other two under a severe illness), had begun to defile across with four pieces of cannon, while some other troops, under Courtenay, Hawley, and Bingley, strove to keep a front to the enemy, but in vain; the army became "like a body without a head," to quote "Strafford's Letters," Vol. I., "like a flock without a shepherd. The French falling upon their rear, killed and took prisoners as they would themselves, helped by our own horse, who, to save themselves, broke, rode over our men, and put all in disorder, which made way for the slaughter. They even disbanded, and shifted, there being no word of command given for the making them face about for repulsing of the enemy."

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The Lord Mountjoy was taken prisoner, and received quarter; but Sir William Cunningham, who disdained to surrender, was killed. Vast numbers were drowned on each side of the causeway, others perished miserably by falling into the salt-pits. Sir William Courtenay, "a heavy, dull, covetous, old man, who had been above thirty years a private captain in Holland," fell into one of these, but was saved by one of his soldiers, who next fell in and perished unaided. Sir Piers Crosby, with 800 Irish pikemen, and Sir Thomas Fryar, with a few musketeers, alone made any attempt to cover the flight, and enable the remnant of the survivors to get on board; and, to do him justice, the Duke of Buckingham was the last man who left that fatal island, where, of the 7,000 men he brought from Britain, no less than 5,000 perished. "It was rumoured, however, in England," says Rapin, "that not above 1,500 were lost; and some even say the king was made to believe it." Fifty officers were killed between the time of landing and the retreat from the Isle of Rhé.

"Since England was England it never received so dishonourable a blow. Four colonels lost; thirtytwo colours in the enemy's possession (but more lost); God knows how many men slain-they say not above two thousand of our side, and I think not one of the enemy" ("Strafford's Letters").

The colours were taken to Paris, and hung up as trophies in Notre Dame.

The Duc de Rohan, who had taken arms as soon as the English fleet appeared off the coast of France, soon discovered the dangerous tendencies of the Huguenots, without being able to do much mischief. The Rochellers, who had been at last induced to join the English on the Isle of Rhé, by sending them small supplies of food, and 500 men under the Duc de Soubize, only hastened the vengeance of the king, their master, who came in person with the great cardinal. With their provisions exhausted, they were left to endure a long and terrible siege, during which a famine ensued among them. Dogs, cats, horses, hides, and leather were devoured; and of 15,000 persons, only some 4,000 were surviving when Rochelle surrendered.

Such were the fruits of Buckingham's rash and most ill-conducted expedition to the coast of France.

He proposed a second attempt, and for this purpose the survivors of the Scottish and Irish contingents were billeted about Portsmouth, “in the country villages, to the great regret of their hosts, that had never felt any such burden before," as Sanderson expresses it; and Sir William Balfour, a Scottish commander of horse in the Netherlands,

afterwards Governor of the Tower of London, | but of a sixth rate, only £4 6s. 8d.; while the seareceived £30,000 to purchase cavalry horses for the king's service; but the enterprise, so far as the duke was concerned, was ended by the dagger of Felton, a lieutenant who had been dismissed from the service.

The result of the expedition to the Isle of Rhé had raised many complaints and loud murmurs against the duke, who had many enemies-so many had perished there, and among others, Major

men in all classes had 15s. without distinction; and all surgeons had £1 10s. per month, but were rated below the ship's steward and cook, who received £1 5s. (Lediard).

Troubles were now fated to come thick and fast on England, on Scotland, and on their king; and thus a few explanations are necessary as we draw near the battles of the great Civil War. From 1629 to 1640, a period of eleven years, no

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General Sir John Boroughs, one of the best officers in England. And these misfortunes were universally imputed to Buckingham's incapacity, as he had never served in any war either by land or sea, and yet he had been commissioned in the double capacity of Admiral of the Fleet and Captain-General of the Army. To these complaints were added others. The seamen urged that they had been without wages for three years past; so they deserted in vast numbers, as they were determined to serve no longer without reward.

The king's ships at this time were divided into six different rates or classes, in which the pay of the officers and men varied considerably. Thus, the monthly pay of the captain of a first-rate was £14;

Parliament was called (except in Scotland, in 1633), a case without parallel in English history. Archbishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford were during these years the principal ministers and dangerous advisers of Charles I. As Thomas Wentworth, the earl had been a leading man among those who forced the king to ratify the Petition of Rights; but the hope of being as necessary to Charles as the more able Richelieu was to the French monarch led him to seek the Royal favour. He laid a deep scheme to undermine the strength of the House of Commons, and to secure for Charles an absolute power. This scheme he called in his private letters, "thorough," a name that well expresses its dangerous nature.

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COLLAR OF BANDOLEERS, WITH CORDS, RINGS, BULLET-BAG, AND PRIMER (see page 207).

pagnies d'ordonnance (according to Père Daniel), it was unknown in England, and before it all other power in the State was to be swept away. As Viceroy of Ireland, Strafford had tried the experiment in that island in 1631, and for seven years he kept the natives and the English colonists alike cowering beneath his iron sway. Archbishop Laud conducted the affairs of the Church; and,

sponsible and tyrannical tribunals, conducted by In the Star Chamber, men these two ministers. were fined, imprisoned, and often cruelly mutilated, for resisting their policy. The High Commission Court launched its thunders against all who dared to differ in religious views from Laud, some of whose opinions were very peculiar; and, directed by Wentworth, a Council of York sat in that city,

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