THE DESIGN OF THE FRENCH DEFEATED.
Meanwhile the French court proceeded with their preparations at Boulogne and Dunkirk, under the eye of the young pretender; and seven thousand men were actually embarked. M. de Roquefeuille sailed up the channel as far as Dungeness, a promontory on the coast of Kent, after having detached M. de Barreil, with five ships to hasten the embarkation at Dunkirk. While the French admiral anchored off Dungeness, he perceived, on the twenty-fourth day of February, the British fleet, under sir John Norris, doubling the South-Foreland from the Downs; and though the wind was against him, taking the opportunity of the tide to come up and engage the French squadron. Roquefeuille, who little expected such a visit, could not be altogether composed, considering the great superiority of his enemies; but the tide failing, the English admiral was obliged to anchor two leagues short of the enemy. In this interval, M. de Roquefeuille called a council of war, in which it was determined to avoid an engagement, weigh anchor at sun-set, and make the best of their way to the place from whence they had sot sail. This resolution was favoured by a very hard gale of wind, which began to blow from the north-east, and carried them down the channel with incredible expedition. But the same storm which, in all probability, saved their fleet from destruction, utterly disconcerted the design of invading England. A great number of their transports was driven ashore and destroyed, and the rest were so damaged that they could not be speedily repaired. The English were now masters at sea, and their coast was so well guarded, that the enterprise could not be prosecuted with any probability of success. The French generals nominated to serve in this expedition returned to Paris, and the young pretender resolved to wait a more favourable opportunity. In the meantime he remained in Paris, or that neighbourhood, incognito, and almost totally neglected by the court of France. Finding himself in this disagreeable situation, and being visited by John Murray of Broughton, who magnified the power of his friends in Great Britain, he resolved to make some bold effort, even without the assistance of Louis, in whose sincerity he had no faith, and forthwith took proper measures to obtain exact information touching the number, inclinations, and influence of his father’s adherents in England and Scotland. The French king no longer preserved any measures with the court of London; the British resident at Paris was given to understand, that a declaration of war must ensue; and this was actually published on the twentieth day of March. The king of Great Britain was taxed with having dissuaded the court of Vienna from entertaining any thoughts of an accommodation; with having infringed the convention of Hanover; with having exercised piracy upon the subjects of France, and with having blocked up the harbour of Toulon. On the thirty-first day of March, a like denunciation of war against France was published at London amidst the acclamations of the people.
1744