34

HISTORY OF EHGLAND.

CHAP.

XVIII.

JtiU2.

Jamesbelievesthat IheEnglishfleet isfriendlyto him.

countryman Sarsfield. AVith them were to he joined about tenthousand French troops. The whole army was to be com-manded by Marshal Bellefonds.

A noble fleet of about eighty ships of the line was to convoythis force to the shores of England. In the dockyards both ofBritanny and of Provence immense preparations were made.Four and forty men of war, some of which were among thefinest that had ever been built, were assembled in the harbourof Brest under Tourville. The Count ofEstrees, with thirtyfive more, was to sail from Toulon. Ushant was fixed for theplace of rendezvous. The very day was named. In order thatthere might be no want either of seamen or of vessels for the in-tended expedition, all maritime trade, all privateering was, fora time, interdicted by a royal mandate.* Three hundred trans-ports were collected near the spot where the troops were to em-bark. It was hoped that all would be ready early in thespring, before the English ships were half rigged or halfmanned, and before a single Dutch man of war was in theChannel.**

James had indeed persuaded himself that, even if the Eng-lish fleet should fall in with him, it would not oppose him.He imagined that he was personally a favourite with themariners of all ranks. His emissaries had been busy among thenaval officers, and had found some who remembered him withkindness, and others who -were out of humour with the mennow in power. All the wild talk of a class of people not dis-tinguished by taciturnity or discretion was reported to him withexaggeration, till he was deluded into a belief that he had morefriends than enemies on board of the vessels which guarded ourcoasts. Yet he should have known that a rough sailor, whothought himself ill used by the Admiralty, might, after the

* London Gazette, Feb. 15. 169£.

** Mdmoires de Berwick; Burnet, ii. 92.; Life of James, ii. 478. 491.