To Sir George Rooke and all his officers this predicament, which was brought about by the unwise return of Killigrew and Delavel, must have been a source of the keenest anxiety, entrusted as they were with such a vast amount of mercantile wealth. By three in the afternoon they were within four miles of the enemy. To contend against such odds would have been madness, and risking the utter destruction of everything. Yet he exerted all his skill; and now the Dutch were averse to fighting. Vice-Admiral Vandergoes suddenly brought to, and announced that they must avoid an action if possible, as he dreaded the loss of the merchant ships. To the brave Rooke it seemed that they had advanced too far to retreat without fighting; but, says Lediard, "considering the blame would lie upon him should he expose himself to the hazard of so unequal a combat, contrary to the opinion and advice of the Dutch flag-officer, and miscarry, he brought to, and stood off under easy sail, that the Dutch and the heavy ships might work up to windward." He dispatched the Sheerness with orders to the smaller ships that were near the land and probably unable to keep up with the fleet, to run in shore during the night, and save themselves as best they could in Faro, Cadiz, or San Lucar. The Count de Tourville, with ten vessels under a press of canvas, followed our squadron, which made all the sail it might, and they came up with the leeward about six o'clock in the evening. There were three Dutch men-of-war, whose officers resolved to sacrifice themselves to save the convoy. Two of these vessels were commanded by Captains Schryver and Vander Poel. For five hours the three Dutchmen fought, first eleven and then seven French men-of-war, but were compelled at last to make sail and sheer off. The Dutch merchants now fled in shore, and as the count steered after them, our ships, which were to windward and far ahead, escaped. The admiral stood to sea all night under a press of canvas, with a fresh gale from the north-west, and on Sunday morning he had several of the men-of-war about him, but only fiftyfour out of the four hundred merchant ships. With his charge thus reduced, he got safe to Madeira, and thence bore up for Ireland. But more than 350 of the vessels which he had convoyed down the Channel were scattered far and wide over the sea. Some reached Ireland, some La Corunna, some Cadiz, and a few Lisbon; many were taken, and more destroyed. Seven of the largest Smyrna ships fell into the hands of M. de Coetlogon, and four others he sunk in the Bay of Gibraltar. Others perished in the same manner under the batteries of Malaga. The gain to France was not great; but the loss to Britain, Holland, and the North of Europe was immense. Hence it was that, as Macaulay has it, "never within the memory of man had there been in the city a day of more gloom and agitation than that on which the news of the encounter in Lagos Bay arrived. Many traders, an eye-witness said, went away from the Royal Exchange as pale as if they had received sentence of death." The French admirals instead of following Rooke to Madeira, made an unsuccessful attempt upon Cadiz, and bombarded Gibraltar, where the merchants sunk their ships by boring holes in them, that they might not enrich the enemy, one of whose frigates was very roughly handled by the fire of the batteries and shipping; and on the return of the king from Holland a squadron was fitted out to punish France, and appease the discontents on 'Change, by bombarding St. Malo. This squadron, the command of which was assigned to the famous Commodore Benbow, consisted of five-and-twenty sail, according to Père Daniel; of twelve ships of the line, armed each with sixty guns, four bomb-galiots, ten or twelve brigantines, and some sloops, according to De Larrey. In the middle of November it was off the quaint old town of St. Malo, which is situated on a rock in the sea, that completely insulates it twice daily, and had a strong castle, flanked with great towers, begirt by ditches, and manned by a good gar rison. St. Malo then as now was small, gloomy, and wealthy; by turns an island or peninsula, according to the flowing of the tide, says a writer, and bordered by filthy fœtid rocks, where the seaweed rots in the sun; and to a considerable distance round it extends a coast of white rocks, angular, and sharp as razors. With Danish colours flying, to delude the Bretons, Commodore Benbow brought his squadron as close as he could venture to the town, and was permitted to anchor his ships as he pleased, unmolested, at half a mile's distance from the walls. Suddenly on every ship the Union Jack replaced the white cross of Denmark; the ports were triced up, and a furious bombardment began with shot and shell. For four days this was continued with more fury than success; for only a few houses were destroyed, and part of the town wall was beaten down. This served, however, as Campbell states, to alarm the inhabitants so much that the spirit of privateering was considerably checked at St. Malo and many other ports on the coast of Camaret Bay.] THE "INFERNAL." 447 France. The commodore landed a body of sea- her mastheads, and continued to burn for some men, and destroyed a convent by fire. The night of the 19th of November proving very dark and stormy, he took advantage of a fresh gale and strong tide to send in a fire-ship of very remarkable construction, with intention to burn the whole town; and to the effect of this vessel, called an "infernal," the French assert the British trusted more than to the use of their bombs. She was made after the model of those which the engineer Lambelli contrived for the destruction of the bridge which Alexander of Parma threw over the Scheldt at the siege of Antwerp, in 1585. In the "Histoire de France sous Louis XIV.," this vessel is described as a new galiot of 300 tons. In the hold were placed above 100 barrels of gunpowder, covered with pitch, tar, rosin, tow, straw, and faggots; over all these were placed 340 carcases or mortar-chests, filled with grenades, cannonballs, iron chains, and firearms loaded with shot, wrapped in tarred tarpaulins. She was open in six places, like mouths to let out the flames, which no water could quench. The commodore's intention was to have this amiable invention moored close to the town wall, where it was calculated by its explosion to blow all St. Malo to pieces. She ran in before the wind and tide, but struck upon a rock near the appointed place. The engineer fired the train, and pulled off with all speed in the boat. In the gusty wind she was soon ablaze from stem to stern, and from her deck to time, casting a lurid glare on the sea and castled rocks of St. Malo; at last she blew up with a dreadful explosion. The whole town was shaken as if by an earthquake; part of the wall fell into the sea; more than 300 houses were unroofed in an instant; and all the glass and earthenware for nine miles around were broken or destroyed; while her capstan was shot from her flaming deck right over the ramparts, where it fell on the root of a house, and in an instant levelled it to the ground. Smollett states that the inhabitants were overwhelmed with such consternation that a very small number of troops might have taken the place without much resistance; but Benbow had not a soldier on board his squadron. His seamen, however, landed, stormed and demolished Fort Quince, and did considerable damage to the town, after which the ships put to sea. Though the affair was executed with great spirit and considerable success, for St. Malo had long been a nest of privateers who were the scourge of English commerce, the people were still far from satisfied, and could not forgive the terrible losses sustained in Lagos Bay. It was in this year that the ships of the royal navy were first permitted to take to sea spare topmasts and sails, to replace those that might be lost in storm or battle. Two years afterwards brass box-compasses were first invented, and issued to our ships of war. CHAPTER LXXXIII. CAMARET BAY, 1694. ONE of the most remarkable events in the course of William's war with France was the expedition to Brest, by a British fleet and army, under Lord Berkeley and the gallant General Talmash. It was resolved to keep this expedition a profound secret from the enemy, but the resolution proved vain. The Jacobites were incessantly on the watch, and in London it soon became known that some enterprise in which the land forces were to be engaged was on the tapis, when thirteen companies from the English Guards, under Colonel John Hope, of the Coldstreams, were ordered to march from London for Plymouth on the 15th of May, and that Lieutenant-General Talmash, of the same regiment, was to command the whole of the troops. The scene of the intended operations excited much speculation; "some talked of the Isle of Rhé, some of Oléron, some of Rochelle, some of Rochefort. Many, till the flect actually began to move westward, believed that it was bound for Dunkirk. Many guessed that Brest would be the point of attack; but they only guessed this, for the secret was much better kept than most of the secrets of that age." While a combined Dutch and English fleet sailed for the Mediterranean under Admiral Russell, another under Charles, Earl of Berkeley, K.B., was to remain in British waters, and take on board the land forces under Talmash, for the attack of Brest, which, in the absence of the Count de Tourville's fleet, would, it was confidently supposed, prove an easy conquest. Under Talmash were 10,000 men and a great number of horses. The fleet of Berkeley consisted of thirty-eight sail of English vessels, and twentythree Dutch, including fire and hospital ships, under Admirals Allemande, Schey, and Vanderput. John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough, who was secretly in the interest of King James, instantly wrote to him on the 4th of May, stating that he had "but that moment ascertained that twelve regiments of infantry and two regiments of marines, were about to embark, under the command of Talmash, for the purpose of destroying the harbour of Brest and the shipping that lay there. This," he added, "would be a great advantage to England; but no consideration can, or ever shall, hinder me 'from letting you know what I think may be for your service." These tidings King James immediately communicated to the Government of France, knowing well that whatever conduced to cripple the power of that country weakened the strength and influence of the Jacobite party; and most prompt were the measures taken for the defence of Brest. The British forces were already on board, but adverse gales detained them for nearly a month in the Channel; while large bodies of troops were being concentrated in the vicinity of the point to be attacked, and to the great Vauban was assigned the duty of putting the defences in order. The town occupied the slope of a hill towards the harbour, the entrance to which was defended by a strong castle, built by Cardinal Richelieu, the founder of Brest, and partly excavated out of the solid rock. In addition to this there was a citadel. | Under Vauban, batteries were planted to sweep every point where an invader might be likely to land, and eight large rafts, each carrying many mortars, were moored in the harbour, the entrance to which is from the south-west, by a narrow and difficult passage called the Goulet, or Gullet, about 1,800 yards wide. On every side cannon bristled, and some days before the arrival of the British expedition all was ready to give it a warm and most unexpected reception. On sailing from St. Helen's, Lord Berkeley issued his orders for "all the ships and vessels under his command, together with the tenders and well-boats (built for landing the troops), to keep near the flags whereunto they were respectively appointed, and to shift their pennants accordingly, that when the signal should be made for parting, each might follow his own proper flag without confusion." In case of casual separation at sea, Camaret Bay was appointed as the general rendezvous. "A red ensign at the foretopmast-head on board of Lord Berkeley's ship, with the firing of a gun, was the signal for the soldiers to embark on board the small craft and boats; and the hauling down of that signal, with the firing of two guns, for their going on shore." Meanwhile Vauban had reported to the King of France that he need have no apprehension for the safety of Brest, as all the subterraneous passages under the castle had been made bomb-proof; "that he had placed ninety mortars and three hundred pieces of cannon in proper places; that all the ships were out of reach of an enemy's bombs, and all the troops in good order; that there were 300 bombardiers in the place, 300 gentlemen, 4,000 regular troops, and a regiment of dragoons." On the 6th of June the allied fleet was off the French coast, Cape Finisterre bearing fifteen leagues to the eastward, and steering for the coast of Brittany. They came to anchor just outside Camaret Bay, a small harbour, with a tiny village inhabited by pilchard fishers on the beach, in Brittany, and eight miles south of Brest. There General Talmash proposed to land, and marching upon the town, attack it in the rear. By this time the French cannoniers, finding the fleet within range, had opened a fire upon it from batteries on the western point of Camaret, and from a castle on a high rock in Bertheaume Bay. This was on the 7th of June. Peregrine, Marquis of Carmarthen, K.G. (afterwards Duke of Leeds), who served under Berkeley as Admiral of the Blue, undertook to reconnoitre the bay. He was a brave but eccentric young noble, in whom a passion "for maritime adventure was unconquerable ;" and he had accompanied this expedition in his own yacht, the Peregrine, named from himself, and deemed then a masterpiece in the art of shipbuilding. He was accompanied by Lord Mohun, who was engaged in the murder of Mountford the actor, during a brawl about Anne Bracegirdle the actress; and by John, Lord Cutts, who had been aide-de-camp to the Duke of Lorraine in Hungary, and distinguished himself at the capture of Buda, in 1686, and who was now an officer of the Guards. The Peregrine ran into the bay under the fire of the enemy's cannon, and came out safely. The marquis reported that the defences, of which he had seen but a small portion, were extremely formidable. But Berkeley and Talmash believed that Camaret Bay.] THE LANDING. he overrated the danger, and were both unaware that their designs had been known at Versailles before a single soldier had embarked, and that now an army was collected in rear of both Camaret and Brest, and that the entire coast had been fortified against them by the greatest military engineer the world had seen. Therefore they had not the slightest doubt but that the troops, under a protecting fire from the shipping, lying broadside to the shore, might be landed with ease. It was ordered that the Monk and Diamond, two sixty-gun ships, should first enter the bay; but the marquis represented that they would prove quite insufficient to cover the landing, because the enemy were better prepared, were entrenched behind breastworks and redoubts, which were supported by fourteen squadrons of horse. On the 8th of June a Council of War was held by the British and Dutch flag officers, and it was resolved "that the lieutenant-general should go on shore with the troops as soon as possible, and endeavour to make himself master of the fort of Camaret, and that six other men-of-war should be added to the other two-the Greenwich, 54 guns; the Charles, galley, 32 guns; the Shoreham, 32 guns; the Darkenstien, 44 guns; the Wesep, 30 guns; and the Wolf, 30 guns." These the Marquis of Carmarthen undertook to post so that all their guns should bear upon the castle. All this, however, proved a work of the greatest difficulty and danger, for no sooner was the Monk within range of the French mortars than showers of bombs fell around her, lashing the waves to foam. From the western point of Camaret and the Point des Fillettes the fire was terrible, and each ship received it in succession as she entered the bay; while suddenly three other batteries, which had been masked or unnoticed, filled all the beach with smoke, as they poured a shower of iron upon the advancing squadron, which the brave marquis made all speed to post and anchor in such a manner as to cover the landing of the troops, who were fast crowding into the pinnaces and wellboats; for now the red flag was flying at Berkeley's foretop, and the boom of the signal gun had mingled with the echoes of those that were then engaged. The fire of the eight ships drove the French twice out of the fort of Camaret; but wherever there was any possibility of landing great bodies of troops were seen posted behind entrenchments, the whole lines of which were wreathed with fire and smoke. In consequence of all this, there could be no prosecution of the regular landing, "which my 449 Lord Cutts proposed, and was before agreed upon," says the Marquis of Carmarthen, in his "Journal of the Brest Expedition." Talmash disdained to believe that the troops he saw were regulars, though in French uniform. He persisted in asserting that they were' a mere rabble of peasants, and ordered the soldiers to be pulled in shore; and closely packed, with their muskets between their knees, they advanced through a dreadful fire of cannon, and effected a landing, Talmash leading the way, sword in hand, at the head of a battalion of grenadiers, seconded by 900 men armed with muskets and pikes. He leaped ashore under cover of a small rock on the south side of the bay. Brisk firing instantly ensued on both sides, while flinging their grenades the grenadiers advanced, forming in ranks as they went on. But Père Daniel states that the Sieur de Beausire, captain of French marines, observing that there was some confusion among the British, sallied out sword in hand at the head of two companies, and attacked them with such vigour that many were slain, and the rest driven towards their boats. At this crisis, so momentous for Talmash, he was mortally wounded in the thigh by a cannon-ball, while the Count de Servon, Marshal-de-Camp, and the Sieurs de Vaise, Brigadier of Infantry, and Du Plessis, Brigadier of Horse, charged down to the shore with their troops, and compelled many of the British, whose boats were stranded in shoal water, to surrender, while the rest, who were afloat, pulled away under cover of the ships' guns with all speed. Amid this vile hurly-burly, a Dutch man-of-war was sunk at her anchors; her captain was killed, and only eight of her crew escaped. Père Daniel says the English lost 400 men in the descent, and that only five soldiers and forty officers were taken prisoners. Burnet says that of all who landed, not above one hundred came back. A bomb-vessel full of English soldiers blew up, and every man on board perished. The Monk, the Charles, galley, and the Shoreham were nearly knocked to pieces, and in these ships alone one account says 112, another 400, men were killed; while it was only after incredible labour, courage, and peril that the Marquis of Carmarthen got them out of Camaret Bay at all, and made an offing. Their rigging was cut to pieces, and all their spars and yards were disabled. "Monsieur de Vauban, who commanded at Brest," records Père Daniel, "had taken all his precautions with an admirable skill, in the batteries as well as the intrenchments, in which were placed a battalion of marines, under the Marquis de Langeron." In this futile expedition 700 British soldiers perished, and "during many days the waves continued to throw up pierced and shattered corpses on the beach of Brittany.". The battery from which Talmash received his wound is to this day called "The Englishman's Death." A little before this he is said to have stated, "As I have lost my life in the performance of my duty to so good a king, I am easy as to that, but it was torture to think that I have been so basely betrayed by the Government." In the year of the Revolution he had been appointed colonel of the 5th Foot, and Governor of Portsmouth. In 1691 he was a lieutenant-general; and after his death was succeeded by Lord Cutts as colonel of the Coldstream Guards. The unfortunate Talmash lay on a couch in his cabin, where a Council of War was held. "Steer straight for Brest, and bombard the town!" said he, passionately. But this suggestion was supposed to spring from the irritation of his mind and body. It was not adopted by the naval officers; and the fleet stood over to the coast of England, and on the 15th of June came to anchor at St. Helen's, and in August the survivors of the Guards marched back to London. The agony of his spirit, which smarted under what he deemed defeat and disgrace, caused the wound of Talmash to gangrene, and he died at Plymouth, exclaiming with his last breath, "I was lured into a snare by treachery!" Burnet tells us that he was a brave, generous, and good man, and greatly beloved and lamented by the army. "The nation," says Macaulay, "remembered the services of the unfortunate general, forgave his rashness, pitied his sufferings, and execrated the unknown traitors whose machinations had been so fatal to him. There were many conjectures and many rumours. Some sturdy Englishmen, misled by national prejudice, swore that none of our plans would ever be kept a secret from the enemy while French refugees were kept in high military command. Some zealous Whigs, misled by party spirit, muttered that the Court of St. Germain's would never want good intelligence while a single Tory remained in the Cabinet |