Well, my dear Harry! you are not the only man in England who have not conquered France!(896) Even Dukes of Marlborough have been there without doing the business. I don't doubt but your good heart has even been hoping, in spite of your understanding, that our heroes have not only taken St. Maloes, but taken a trip cross the country to burn Rochefort, only to show how easy it was. We have waited with astonishment at not hearing that the French court was removed in a panic to Lyons, and that the Mesdames had gone off in their shifts with only a provision of rouge for a week. Nay, for my part, I expected to be deafened with encomiums on my Lord Anson's continence, who, after being allotted Madame Pompadour as his share of the spoils, had again imitated Scipio, and, in spite of the violence of his temperament, had restored her unsullied to the King of France. Alack! we have restored nothing but a quarter of a mile of coast to the right owners. A messenger arrived in the middle of the night with an account that we have burned two frigates and an hundred and twenty small fry; that it was found impossible to bring up the cannon against the town; and that, the French army approaching the coast, Commodore Howe, with the expedition of Harlequin as well as the taciturnity, re-embarked our whole force in seven hours, volunteers and all, with the loss only of one man, and they are all gone to seek their fortune somewhere else. Well! in half a dozen more wars we shall know something of the coast of France. Last war we discovered a fine bay near Port l'Orient: we have now found out that we know nothing of St. Maloes. As they are popular persons, I hope the city of London will send some more gold boxes to these discoverers. If they send a patch-box to Lord George Sackville, it will hold all his laurels. As our young nobility cannot at present travel through France, I suppose that is a method for finishing their studies. George Selwyn says he supposes the French ladies will have scaffolds erected on the shore to see the English go by. But I won't detain the messenger any longer; I am impatient to make the Duchess(897) happy, who I hope will soon see the Duke returned from his coasting voyage.
The Churchills will be with you next Wednesday, and I believe I too; but I can take my own word so little, that I will not give it you. I know I must be back at Strawberry on Friday night; for Lady Hervey and Lady Stafford are to be there with me for a few days from to-morrow se'nnight. Adieu!
(896) Alluding to the expedition against Rochefort, the year before, in which Mr. Conway was second in command.
(897) Lady Mary Bruce, Duchess of Richmond, only child of the
Countess of Ailesbury by her first marriage.
She was at Park-place with her mother during the Duke of
Richmond's absence, who was a volunteer upon this expedition
427 Letter 266 To The Earl Of Strafford. Arlington Street, June 16, 1758.
My dear lord, Dear lord, I stayed to write to you, in obedience to your commands, till I had something worth telling you. St. Maloes is taken by storm. The Governor leaped into the sea at the very name of the Duke of Marlborough. Sir James Lowther put his hand into his pocket, and gave the soldiers two hundred and fifty thousand pounds to drink the King's health on the top of the great church. Norborne Berkeley begged the favour of the Bishop to go back with him and see his house in Gloucestershire. Delaval is turned capuchin, with remorse, for having killed four thousand French with his own hand. Commodore Howe does nothing but talk of what he has done. Lord Downe, who has killed the intendant, has sent for Dupr`e(898) to put in his place; and my Lord Anson has ravished three abbesses, the youngest of whom was eighty-five. Sure, my lord, this account is glorious enough! Don't you think one might 'bate a little of it? How much will you give up? Will you compound for the town capitulating, and for threescore men of war and two hundred privateers burned in the harbour? I would fain beat you down as low as I could. What, if we should not have taken the town? Shall you be very much shocked, if, after burning two ships of fifty-four and thirty-six guns, and a bushel of privateers and smallware, we had thought it prudent to leave the town where we found it, and had re-embarked last Monday in seven hours, (the despatch of which implies at least as much precipitation as conduct,) and that of all the large bill of fare above, nothing should be true but Downe's killing the intendant; who coming out to reconnoitre, and not surrendering, Downe, at the head of some grenadiers, shot him dead. In truth, this is all the truth, as it came in the middle Of the night; and if your lordship is obstinately bent on the conquest of France, you must wait till we have found another loophole into it, which it seems our fleet is gone to look for. I fear it is not even true that we have beat them in the Mediterranean! nor have I any hopes but in Admiral Forbes, who must sail up the Rhone, burn Lyons, and force them to a peace at once.
I hope you have had as favourable Succession of sun and rain as we have. I go to Park-place next week, where I fancy I Shall find our little Duchess(899) quite content with the prospect of recovering her Duke, without his being provided with laurels like a boar's head. Adieu! my dear lord. My best compliments to my lady and her whole menagerie.
(898) A French master.
(899) of richmond.
428 Letter 267 To Sir Horace Mann. Strawberry Hill, June 18, 1758.