Council. The real criminal was not named; nor, till the archives of the House of Stuart were explored was it known to the public that Talmash had perished by the basest of all the hundred villanies of Marlborough!"

These troops perished in Camaret Bay most uselessly, and yet what says Sir Walter Scott? "Never talk to me about brave blood being shed in vain; it sends a roaring voice down through all coming time."

IN the year 1695 a squadron of ships, having on board a body of land forces, departed from Plymouth on the 14th of January, under Commodore Wilmot, who had sealed orders, which he was not to open till "he came into the latitude of forty degrees, and then to do it in presence of the commander-in-chief of the troops."

This squadron consisted of a third, a fourth, and a fifth-rate, with two fire-ships, and twelve other vessels for the conveyance of the troops. He was in the first instance to sail towards America, where he was to take under his command two more fourth-rates and one fifth. The troops were under the orders of Colonel Luke Lillingston, who was colonel of the 6th Foot in 1674, and of the 38th in 1702. According to his published "Reflections," they consisted of his own regiment, 1,200 strong. His brother, Jarvis Lillingston, was

major.

"Each company," he states, "had two lieutenants, one ensign, six sergeants, six corporals, two drums, and two hundred private sentinels, making two hundred and eighteen men in a company. The train of artillery consisted of twelve pieces of cannon, viz., two eighteen pounders, four twentyfour pounders, six field-pieces, and two mortars. The stores were in all things proportioned to the design. We had eight-and-twenty gunners and firemen, 500 barrels of powder, with plenty of all manner of ammunition and other necessaries."

Owing to the paucity of communication between places in those days, and the little that people residing in one part of the world knew of those residing in another, much of deep interest and mystery attended the departure of any expedition by land or sea; while the dangers of the latter were greatly enhanced by the lack of proper charts and soundings, log-lines, patent anchors, chronometers, and life-boats; and by innumerable terrors of which the modern seaman, though deeply imbued by superstition, knows nothing. Navigation was

more dangerous, and reckonings more doubtful and obscure than in our days; and in the watches of the night the seamen told of mermaids and magic islands, of plague-ships and burning shores, of storms that were raised by sorcery, and downhill currents against which a fated ship might beat till her timbers parted.

On reaching the fortieth degree of latitude, Commodore Wilmot, in presence of Colonel Lillingston, opened his sealed orders, which directed them to sail to Jamaica, and to co-operate with the Spaniards in Hispaniola against the French settlements in that island, and to destroy their fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland when hauling up for home.

After coming safely to anchor in the old roadstead of St. Christopher's, he sailed thence for Savannah la Mer, at the eastern end of Hispaniola; intending, the Governor of San Domingo was ready to march against the French in Port de Paix, to sail round to the west side of the island and bombard the place from the seaward.

The French at this time had nineteen privateers out of Guadaloupe and Martinique, with three ships of war of about forty guns each, one being a Dutch ship captured at Camaret Bay. The French general in Hispaniola had full notice that the expedition was coming, and was duly prepared for it with all the force he could muster. the force he could muster. This was owing to the folly of Commodore Wilmot, whom Colonel Lillingston, in his "Reflections," not only accuses of disobeying the king's orders in many ways, but of attempting to "overset the design" by leaving behind a store-ship with the best of the artillery, and of attempting to lure him "into clandestine measures to enrich themselves," and of taking the most direct plans to make public at Antigua and Montserrat the purpose for which they had come and whither they were bound; while, as if to add to this folly, Captain Butler, of the Winchester, as he sailed along the coast of Guadaloupe, fired several

Savannah.]

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When the squadron arrived at Savannah, the commodore received a letter from the Spanish commander, assuring him of assistance in any attack upon the enemy; on which he sailed with three ships of war and two fire-ships, sending the transports and the rest of the squadron to the Gulf of Samana, at the north-east end of the island, where the anchorage is safe and spacious, though the entrance is difficult and narrow. He presented the King of Spain's letters, with which he was furnished, to the President of San Domingo, who, by some petty scruples on points of punctilio, caused a loss of twelve days, during which time the French were adding to their defences. It was, however, ultimately arranged that he should march with 1,700 Spaniards and 150 Englishmen to Manchioneal Bay, at the mouth of the Diver river, where the whole squadron was to meet him. To these Spaniards and Lillingston's regiment, the commander was to add ultimately 500 seamen. The Spaniards were to add three men-of-war to the expedition, their commander hauling down his flag to avoid the silly old dispute about precedence on the seas.

After "loitering six days in the bay, diverting himself with women and music," Commodore Wilmot sailed for Cape Francis; and landing the troops, he then ran within gunshot of the fort, which opened a hot cannonade upon him, and soon disabled the Swan. It was mounted with forty pieces of cannon, and well garrisoned. It was planned that while the seamen should assault it in rear, where the ground was higher than the fort itself, the troops should storm it in front. But the French did not wait for this. In the night they spiked their guns, blew up the fort, and laying trains of powder to many houses, destroyed a great part of the adjacent town, after which they retreated to Fort de Paix.

After a consultation, it was arranged that Major Jarvis Lillingston, with 300 men of his brother's regiment, and the Spanish troops, should march against that place, which was said to be some fourteen leagues off; but this was not done then, and as the soldiers became unruly, they straggled about the country in search of plunder, and many of them were never seen again. Smollett says that instead of proceeding against Le Petit Goave, "according to the instructions they had received, Wilmot took possession of Fort Francis, and plundered the country for his own private advantage; notwithstanding the remonstrance of Lillingston, who protested against his conduct. In a word, the

dissension; and both became exceedingly disagreeable to the Spaniards, who renounced all connection with them or their designs."

It would seem from Lediard's history that the commodore had heard nothing of the troops from the time of their landing; and being anxious for their safety, stood along the coast, and landed. 400 seamen five miles eastward of Fort de Paix. These, though they encountered opposition, and were briskly fired on, burned and destroyed all the houses and plantations of the French colonists to the gates of the fort itself, into which the enemy retired; but that still hearing nothing of the troops, they rejoined the squadron in the night. Discovering next day that some of Lillingston's soldiers had straggled near to the fort, the commodore landed again the 400 seamen, and put on shore the cannons and mortars, but omitted to send tackle with which to get them mounted; and the colonel accused him of sending the carriage of an eighteenpounder to mount a twenty-four. He alleged, as reasons for his delay in coming before the place and attacking it, that "we were but 2,500 men in all; fatigued, in want of provisions, without our train of artillery, or any instrument proper for a siege." He adds that the seamen refused to assist him, and were brought by the commodore merely as a body-guard, "being sensible that the land forces owed him a grudge."

Monsieur Du Casse, the commander of Fort de Paix, having sent a haughty refusal, when summoned by beat of drum to surrender, ten pieces of cannon were opened upon that place from an adjacent hill, and in a few days part of the inner fort was beaten down, and many fugitives who had taken shelter there were killed.

Between twelve and one o'clock on the 3rd of July, the French made a vigorous sally. Their force was mixed, 300 being whites and 200 blacks, all well armed. By our soldiers and seamen, they were as vigorously met with bayonet and cutlass. Many of them were slain, especially their officers, who fought with high courage; but they were routed, and many taken prisoners. Thus far one account.

"The 3rd of July, the breach being wide enough, and the bastion quite open," relates Colonel Lillingston, "I continued the firing, and gave directions to have 300 grenades and their fusees filled, and all preparations made for a storm, and this I ordered to be done in sight of some prisoners, one of whom was suffered to escape. This had the designed effect upon the garrison, though in a manner we did not expect. About two the next morning, we heard a great volley of musketry on

the side of the fort next the sea, which was soon followed by another, and then by confused firing for about a quarter of an hour. I detached my brother Jarvis, with 250 men, to find the meaning of it. As soon as he came to the commodore's quarters, he found all in confusion, and many of his men killed. The governor of the fort, it seems, expecting a general storm, and resolving not to surrender on articles, had packed up what he could carry, and resolved to fight his way through. Accordingly, they came very near the camp of the undisciplined seamen without being discovered, poured in a volley of shot upon them, and having put them in confusion, faced them, till his whole body, men, women, and children, marched off."

As soon as the major saw the position of affairs, he with his detachment at once took possession of the fort, which was armed with eighty pieces of cannon, and the storehouse of which was full. These, with the governor's house and all articles of value, he placed under guards; but the commodore suddenly broke into the place at the head of 500 seamen, and clapping Jarvis Lillingston on the shoulder, said, mockingly—

"Now, major, I am stronger than you."

He then ordered off the sentinels, and the place was given up to general plunder by the seamen; and this had the effect of exasperating our soldiers and disgusting the Spaniards.

In this fort and in that at Cape Francis, on battery and in store, were captured 133 brass and iron guns. These and the ammunition were shared with the Spaniards; but the commodore carried off all the negroes he could find, and sold them at Jamaica for £5,000. He personally amassed plunder to the value of £25,000. By the Spanish governor's letter, it was stated that there were taken 10,000 pieces of eight in money, besides an abundance of plate.

On the 17th of July all the troops, artillery, plunder, and prisoners were put on board the squadron, which instantly weighed for Jamaica. "The damage we have done the enemy," wrote Colonel Lillingston, "and the booty recovered from them were considerable; for in sixty days we ruined the plantations for a hundred miles, we demolished two forts, and took prisoners nearly a thousand negroes, who every one knows are valued at £20 a head. The seamen got plunder to the value of £40,000 at least. If the booty was never delivered where it should have been, and if the king was cheated as well as we (the troops), I cannot answer for that; the damage we did the enemy will never be repaired with £200,000 sterling. We displanted the whole colony, leaving the enemy

scattered about in holes and woods, making the Spaniards masters of the whole."

In

After refitting at Jamaica, the commodore, whose spirit of peculation was most prominent in the conducting of this expedition, sailed for Britain on the 3rd of September, leaving four ships of war behind him-the Reserve, Hampshire, Ruby, and Swan-the first three to protect Jamaica, and the last-named to convoy some merchantmen. returning he encountered a succession of storms and tempests, and fever decimated his crews and the troops, so that "it was next to a miracle the ships got home." The commodore and many of his officers died; and one of the fourth-rates, the Winchester, for want of men to trim her sails, was totally lost amid the dangerous shoals off Cape Florida.

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So true it is, as Dr. Johnson observes, that war has means of destruction more formidable than the cannon or the sword. Of the thousands and tens of thousands that perished in our contest with France and Spain terminated by the conquest of Gibraltar, a very small part ever felt the stroke of the enemy. The rest languished in tents and ships, amidst damps and putrefactions, pale, torpid, spiritless, and helpless, gasping and groaning unpitied, among men made obdurate by a long continuance of helpless misery; and were at last whelmed in pits or heaved into the ocean, without notice and without remembrance. By incommodious encampments and unwholesome stations, where courage is useless and enterprise impractic able, fleets are silently dispeopled and melted away."

In the May of this year, 1695, a spirited little sea-fight took place off the port of Poole, in Dorsetshire. William Thompson, a fishermen of that place, in a small smack, with only a man and a boy on board, was fired upon by a French sloop privateer, armed with two guns and several small-arms, and manned by sixteen hands. Thompson had on board but two small guns, probably swivels, and three muskets; yet, notwithstanding this extraordinary disparity in force, he actually maintained a two hours' combat with the privateer, killed and wounded several of her men, after which she struck and became Thompson's prize. He took her into Poole, and Schomberg records that "the Lords of the Admiralty presented him with a gold chain and a medal of the value of £50.”

The same reward was also given to a Mr. Williams, who, in a fishing smack belonging to Whitesand Bay, retook some merchant ships which had fallen into the hands of the enemy's privateers.

455.

Namur

IN the year 1695 King William ordered certain changes to take place in the equipment of the

army.

It was ordered that the Royal Fusiliers (7th), the Scots Fusiliers (21st), and the grenadiers of each regiment alone were to wear caps; that there were to be fourteen pikes in each company of sixty men; that each captain of infantry was to carry a pike, each lieutenant a partisan, and each ensign a half-pike.

The May of the same year saw the king again in Holland, having sailed from Gravesend for the Hague. The Allies took the field, and two armies were formed in the Netherlands: one led by the Elector of Bavaria and the Duke of HolsteinPlön; the other was to act in Flanders, under the king and the Prince de Vaudemont. On the 27th the whole of the forces assembled at Arseele, where the allied army was found to muster 124,700 men; and in four columns it moved towards Becelar, in the vicinity of the French lines, between Ypres and Lys. On the evening of the 13th of June, the king, attended by an escort of cavalry and grenadiers, under Major-General La Meloniere and Colonel Ingoldsby, of the Welsh Fusiliers, reconnoitred the French army, then commanded by Marshal Villeroi, who seeing his lines threatened, had passed the Scheldt, and posted his head-quarters at Honthem. During the preceding winter the French had provided for such quick marches, by making "royal ways," as they were termed, from Mons to the sea, in order to facilitate the movements of their armies, by cutting down all they met, without regarding house, church, or village, so that a squadron of horse could march abreast.

During 1694 King William had remained satisfied with simply seeking to resist the progress of the French arms; but he now determined to recover from Louis XIV. the important fortress of Namur. The latter was well defended by ditches and ravelins; and its citadel or castle, situated on a high and craggy rock, had then the reputation of being impregnable; and its bastions and batteries tower in their strength above the gaunt blue-coloured streets of the city below. Steep on all sides, the rock is still fortified to perfection, and has a deep well with two springs of fine water. Its importance in a military point of view was very great,

and during the last three years the works around it had been greatly increased. To the batteries of Cohorn, Louis had added all the latest masterpieces of Vauban. The one illustrious engineer outvied the other. Namur was deemed the strongest barrier fortress in Europe; and over one of its gates was placed a vaunting inscription, which defied the Allies to wrest it from the grasp of France.

Finding it menaced, Marshal Boufflers, at the head of a cavalry force, and a body of sappers, miners, and artillery, under a colonel named Megrigny, threw himself into it, thus augmenting the garrison to 16,000 chosen men; hence, when the natural and artificial strength of the place are considered, the quality of the troops defending it, and the known valour and skill of the marshal commanding, the attack on Namur may be deemed an undeniable proof of William's courage and temerity. The columns commanded by him included "seventy battalions of infantry, and eightytwo squadrons of horse and dragoons, chiefly English and Scots," exclusive of the other forces under the elector and duke, covering the ground from Brussels to Dendermonde ; but these leaders, the moment that Boufflers was shut up in Namur, proceeded to invest it. William arrived soon after, and fixed his headquarters at Chateau de la Falize, four miles distant from the place.

Fourteen battalions from the Prince of Vaudemont's army reached Templeux, about the same distance from Namur. Lord Cutts next came in with six battalions, including two of English Guards, with the regiments of Trelawney, Nassau, Heyden, and the Welsh Fusiliers; the besiegers closed in on every side, and by the 1st of July the lines of circumvallation were complete. These tidings caused no alarm at the Court of Versailles. There it was never doubted but that "the Prince of Orange," whose kingly title was never admitted, would be repulsed with loss and shame by Boufflers. The castle and town were known to be of vast strength; the magazines were stored with provisions and all kinds of munitions of war; and with a garrison. of 16,000 chosen troops, under one of the best marshals of France, Namur was deemed as safe as the Bastille at Paris.

The siege was vigorously pressed by the Allies, the scientific part of whose operations was conducted by Cohorn, whom emulation of his rival