came necessary. He had been reprimanded for remissness after his victory at Beachy Head, when he might have done more than De Ruyter dared to do; and he believed, on the authority of King James, and John, Earl of Melfort, K.T. (who, before the Revolution, had been general of the Scottish artillery), that the English seamen were Jacobites to a man, and consequently would fight indifferently for William ; and with these ideas he now found himself in sight of St. Alban's Head and the undulating coast of Dorsetshire. He tacked, however, and stood across the Channel towards Cape la Hogue, where the army he was to convoy to England had already began to embark in the transports. When the sunrise of the squadron was in the van, the Blue squadron in the rear, the Red formed the centre. He also makes the French fleet amount to sixty-three; and states that, as they were to windward, De Tourville might have avoided a battle, but that he had received positive orders to fight, on the supposition that the Dutch were absent. Prior to the fleets closing, Admiral Russell had visited most of the English ships, and exhorted the crews to do their duty. "If any of your officers play false," he added, "overboard with him, and with myself among the first." This stern advice had direct reference to those with Jacobite sympathies, for there were no doubt many in the fleet who remembered with love and admiration that Duke of York who had led them to victory in other days. He had barely returned to his own ship, the Britannia, 100 guns, ere De Tourville, in the Rising Sun, 104 guns, was alongside of her, and round shot, chain shot, grape, and musketry were exchanged with indescribable fury. This was at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and in a few minutes after the whole squadron, many of the Dutch ships excepted, were engaged, and the roar of the cannon and small-arms could be heard in the French and Irish camp at La Hogue, and all along the coast, from Barfleur to the ancient streets of Bayeux. Admiral Richard Carter was the first who broke the French line; but he was mortally wounded by a splinter torn from one of his own spars, and fell dying on the deck, from which he would not allow himself to be borne, neither would he permit his sword to be taken from his hand. table ruin, by concealing and scattering it far over the sea. Twenty of the smaller vessels made their escape by steering a course that was too perilous for any but those whose courage was born of despair or desperation. With all sail crowded, under cover of the dense fog and the cloud of a moonless night, they ran through the boiling breakers past those treacherous rocks called the Caskets, which form the Race of Alderney, between that isle and Cape La Hogue, the place where Prince William, son of Henry I., perished in 1119, where the Victory, with 1,000 men on board, was cast away in 1744, and countless other wrecks have occurred; and from thence they reached St. Malo's. Thus, says Dalrymple, did fog, calm, tides, and veering winds save France from English vengeance for one day-but one day only! The ships of the line, whose draught of water had rendered this course impossible, fled to the havens of Cotentin. The Soleil Royal, and two other three-deckers, the Admirable, 90 guns, Captain "Fight the ship as long as she will swim!" Beaujean, and the Conquerant, 80 guns, Captain du said he to his captain, William Wright, and soon | Magnon, reached Cherbourg in comparative safety; after expired (Smollett). Colonel Hastings, of the but there they were driven ashore and set in marines on board the Sandwich, was killed. flames by Sir Ralph Delaval, who found them hauled up in shoal water. He therefore attacked them with his fire-ships and boats. The crews fled ashore, and the Soleil Royal-the pride of the French navy-and her two stately consorts, were speedily sheeted with flames. Foulis, a Scottish sea-captain, who was the first to board her, was driven off by her crew, and had his own ship set on fire. Both fleets plied their guns with equal fury from eleven o'clock till one. During the earlier part of the conflict the wind had been with the French, the smoke of whose artillery constantly enveloped the English. They had been opposed to the greater portion only of the allied fleet, and against that portion they had fought well and valiantly. The Count de Tourville now thought he had done enough to vindicate the honour of the silver lilies, and to clear himself from aspersions that had been thrown upon him by M. de Seignelay, the Minister of Marine; and the fire from his ship having carried away Russell's fore-topmast, on finding the Rising Sun sorely disabled, he had her towed out of the line of fire by his boats, while five fresh ships, by a terrible cannonade, covered his retreat. She was so full of men that no attempt was made to board her; but the slaughter between her decks was fearful. It was not until after sunset that she got clear of her assailants, and crept towards the coast of Normandy, "having so many men in her slain," says the "Life of King William," "that the blood running out of her scuppers discoloured the ocean." She had suffered so much that De Tourville had to shift his flag to the Ambitious, 90 guns. Some French ships were blown up, and others sent to the bottom with all their rigging standing, and with the dead and dying between decks. Inexorably bent on the total destruction of the French armament, Admiral Russell was meanwhile blocking up the bay of La Hogue, where, as at Cherbourg, the French war-ships were moored in shoal water, close to the camp of that army which was destined for the invasion of England, under Bernard Gigaut, Marquis de Bellefonds and Marshal of France, Six sail lay anchored under a fort named Lisset, the rest were under the guns of St. Vaast, wherein King James had his quarters, and on the walls of which were displayed the white banner of Bourbon and the flags of England and Scotland. De Bellefonds had thrown up some batteries, which he flattered himself would deter any enemy from approaching either of these forts. But King James, who knew better the mettle of English seamen, recommended that troops should be put on board the ships for their protection. "But De Tourville," says Macaulay, “would not consent to put such a slur on his profession"-a A fog that fell about four in the afternoon alone curious expression, when we bear in mind that the preserved the French fleet from instant and inevi-Count de Tourville was a Marshal of France. La Hogue.] DESTRUCTION OF THE FRENCH SQUADRON. The chief fortress stands on a narrow isthmus, which connects a small peninsula with the mainland, and defends the extensive roadstead that lies within the Bank du Bec, the Cape, and the Isle of Tatihon. At low tide it is still surrounded by water, its only communication with the land being a narrow channel called the Sillon. The English admiral was preparing for an attack in a mode which rather surprised the French; and by the evening of the 23rd of May, a flotilla, consisting of sloops, of fire-ships, and all the boats of the fleet, 200 in number, full of armed men, put off under the command of Sir George Rooke, who in after years was to add Gibraltar to the British territories. His orders were to destroy everything in the bay; and with the Union-Jack floating from the stern of each boat, with loud cheers, and in the highest spirits, the crews bent to their oars, and the whole division swept within the Bank du Bec, and pulled straight for the three-deckers that lay in fancied security under the batteries of Fort Lisset, while the twilight of evening was darkening all the coast of Normandy. By some strange fatality, there was on this occasion a panic in the fleet and in the camp of De Bellefonds. The latter got the French and Irish regiments under arms, and marched them in all haste to the beach, when, after firing a little, they retired and drew off! The Count de Tourville ordered the seamen to man their boats and pinnaces, but his orders were issued in vain. They turned and fled; and louder than ever rang the deep hearty hurrahs of the English sailors, though the guns of Fort Lisset now opened upon them, and every shot that struck a craft so frail as a boat was death to all her crew. The boats vied with each other which should be first on board the enemy. Exposed to a dreadful but ill-directed cannonade from the forts and batteries, the English boarded the three-deckers in succession, capturing or tossing overboard all who dared to withstand them, and lashing all the vessels together, they set them in flames; and with little or no loss, and with three hearty cheers, dropped out of the bay with the ebb tide, leaving La Hogue one sheet of fire. During all the night the great ships blazed, and the explosion was heard from time to time of their loaded cannon as the fire reached them, till six culminating crashes announced that the flames had reached their magazines, and then sea and sky became sheeted with burning brands. At eight o'clock the tide turned, and Sir George Rooke with his 200 boats' crews came back with it, to destroy the ships that were moored under the guns of Fort St. Vaast. 429 These guns knocked a few boats to pieces, and sent their crews to flounder in the water; but the vessels were soon won. Cheering, the English seamen came sheering alongside and drew their cutlasses, and as they came swarming up on one side the French were seen pouring out on the other, and the instant their ships were taken their guns were levelled at the batteries on the shore, and the fire from them was speedily silenced. King James, the Duke of Berwick, the Earl of Melfort, and Marshals De Bellefonds and De Tourville, were looking on this terrible spectacle. Amid those flames the unhappy monarch of Great Britain saw the extinction for ever of all his hopes of restoration, yet when he beheld the irrepressible valour of the seamen, honest admiration became mingled with his regret. "Ah," he exclaimed to the Scottish earl, when he saw the French squadron in flames, "none but my brave English tars could have performed so gallant an action!" A few minutes after, Dalrymple states that a gun exploded in one of the vessels which was nearly burned to the water-edge, and the shot killed one of the king's attendants by his side. Struck by this circumstance, James exclaimed with despair, "Heaven itself fights against me!" and then retired to his tent; and there he heard the flotilla of Rooke, after having insulted the camp, silenced the batteries, and destroyed all the vessels, including transport and store-ships, pulling seaward to the fleet, and making the sky echo with "God Save the King." In this last expedition Puffendorf states our loss to have been only ten men, with a few that were blown up in a long-boat. Thus ended the great battle of La Hogue, in which sixteen of the noblest ships of France, ranging from the Soleil Royal, 104 guns, to the Sanspariel, 60, were destroyed, together with an incredible number of smaller craft. For five days by sea and shore had the strife continued, and England lost only one fire-ship! The Soleil Royal was entirely mounted with guns of polished brass; and in her great cabin was a statue of Louis XIV., seated on the throne, "with the figures of many kings and princes in chains at his feet" ("Life of King William "). The result of La Hogue fell heavily on King James, who never forgot the sad impression it made upon him; and concerning it he wrote the following melancholy letter to the King of France : "Monsieur my Brother,-I have hitherto borne with something of constancy and resolution those misfortunes which it hath blessed Heaven to lay upon me, so long as myself was the only sufferer; but I must acknowledge that this last disaster utterly overwhelms me. I am altogether comfortless in reference to what concerns your Majesty, through the loss that has befallen your fleets. I know too well that it is my unlucky star which has drawn this misfortune upon your forces, always victorious, save when they fought for my interests. And this it is which plainly tells me I no longer merit the support of so great a monarch -one who is always sure to vanquish when he fights for himself. For which reason it is that I request your Majesty no longer to concern yourself for a prince so unfortunate as I; but permit me to retire to some corner of the world, where I may cease to obstruct the course of your prosperity and conquest. "It is not just that the most potent monarch in the world, and the most flourishing, above all others should share in my disgrace. 'Tis better that I should retire till it please omnipotent Providence to be more propitious to my affairs. But how soever it pleases overruling Heaven to dispose of me and mine, I can assure your Majesty that I shall always preserve to the last gasp of my breath that due acknowledgment which I shall retain of your favour and constant friendship. Nor can anything contribute more to my consolation than to hear, as I hope to do, when I have wholly quitted your dominions, of the quick return of all your wonted triumphs, both by sea and land, over your enemies and mine, when my interest shall be no longer mixed with yours.-I am, monsieur my brother, yours, &c., "JAMES REX." The King of France assigned him the palace of St. Germain's, and promised never to forsake him, even in his worst extremity. La Hogue sealed for ever the doom of all those Irish and Scottish exiles who had followed the banners of King James, by consigning them to perpetual and hopeless expatriation. The double victory, for such it was, on the sea and in the bay, excited the greatest exultation in London; and the disaster at Beachy Head was forgotten. Again England was safe, and, thanks to the valour of Russell, Rooke, and Delaval, with their men, no French drums would wake the echoes of her woods and valleys. London was illuminated. Bonfires were lit in the streets, and flags hung from the steeples. Admiral Carter and Colonel Hastings were interred with the honours of war; and fifty surgeons, amply supplied with lint, bandages, medicines, and instruments, left London for Portsmouth, to suc cour the wounded of the fleet. In her delight, Queen Mary ordered medals to be struck in honour of the victory, and £30,000 to be distributed among the seamen; and promised that at last the stately palace by the Thames commenced by Charles II., at Greenwich, should be assigned as a home and retreat for all those who were disabled in the sea-service of the country. CHAPTER LXXIX. THE ISLAND OF THE SCOTS, 1693-7. In all our military annals, there is no story more melancholy than that which tells the fate of the Scottish officers of King James's army, after the death of Dundee. Even at this lapse of time, it fills the heart with sorrow, for their valour and magnanimity were worthy of the most glorious ages of Athens and of Sparta. A list preserved shows that they were about 150 in number, all men of noble spirit, unblemished honour, and the representatives of some of the first families in Scotland. Amid "the revolting displays of political insanity and actual dishonour which degrade the Revolution in that country," says Chambers, "it is delightful to record the generous abandonment of all selfish considerations, and the utter devotedness to a lofty and beautiful moral principle, which governed the actions of this noble band of gentlemen." On terms being made with the Government, the regular troops who had served under Viscount Dundee were conveyed to France, where the officers had their rank confirmed, according to the tenor of their Scottish commissions. They were distributed throughout the various garrisons in the North of France; and, though nominally in the service of James, derived their whole means of subsistence from Louis XIV. So long as a descent on the coast of Britain to effect a second Restoration was probable, these officers assented to the arrangement; but the destruction of the French fleet under Admiral De Tourville blasted their hopes, |