It was crowded by craft of every description; ships of the line, frigates, gun-brigs, tenders, store-ships, and transports; its waters being literally alive with man-of-war boats, barges, and launches, skimming to and fro, filled with seamen and marines, or laden with stores, water-casks, and ammunition which were being conveyed from the town or arsenals to the fleet.
Twelve flat-bottomed boats, each capable of holding sixty-three men, were prepared. These were to be rowed by twelve oars each, and were not to draw more than two feet of water. Meanwhile a vast number of scaling ladders, sandbags to form batteries, baskets for fascines, waggons for the conveyance of wounded, of stores and plunder, had been brought to Portsmouth from the Tower.
Several launches and many bridges, each sixty yards in length, together with floats and stages, for landing the troops, horses, and horse artillery, were made in all haste.
Nothing was omitted that might ensure the success of this daring expedition, for which the departure of Lord Alison's fleet to Brest was certain to open the way, as we had long since swept the fleet of France from the seas; and so great was the enthusiasm in London, that Viscount Downe, Sir John Armytage, Sir James Lowther, and many other English gentlemen of distinction joined the fleet and army to serve as private volunteers.
And there, amid that bustling scene in Portsmouth harbour, lay the Monarque, on the quarter-deck of which, the brave Admiral Byng had been judicially murdered, in the preceding year, not as his sentence had it, "for an error in judgment," but to cloak the errors of a ministry!
The infantry destined to serve on our expedition, were three battalions of the Foot Guards; the Eighth, or king's regiment; the famous Twentieth, or Kingsley's; the Welsh Fusileers; the Edinburgh regiment; the Twenty-fourth; Thirtieth; Thirty-third; Thirty-fourth; Thirty-sixth, Sixty-eighth, and the regiments of Richmond and Talbot.
From Southsea Common the whole force was ordered to the Isle of Wight, where for a short time a camp was formed; but on the same night that the order for this movement was issued, I was despatched on duty to London, bearer of a letter from Commodore Howe to the Lords of the Admiralty.
I knew not what its contents were then, but departed on my mission with the document in my sabretasche, my orders being simply to deliver it at the Admiralty office, and to bring back the answer without a moment of delay. I shall now proceed to relate how I was personally concerned in the contents of the document entrusted to me for delivery.
From the day I joined the army, I was full of eagerness to bring myself prominently before my leaders; but my first essay was singularly unfortunate in its sequel.
One evening when on duty as sentry on foot with my carbine, posted near some sea-stores that were piled on the beach, not far from Southsea Castle, I observed two men of a foreign and somewhat suspicious aspect, who were loitering near, and observing with unmistakeable interest the shipping in the harbour, the distant camp on the common, and the stores that were piled near the castle-gate. On perceiving that I observed them they came directly up to me, and touched their hats with great politeness.