54

msTcmr of England.

chap.

XVIII.

1692 .

was the first great check that had ever been given to the armsof Lewis the Fourteenth, and the first great victory that theEnglish had gaine.d over the French since the day of Agincourt.The stain left on our fame by the shameful defeat of BeachyHead was effaced. This time the glory was all our own. TheDutch had indeed done their duty, as they have always done itin maritime war, whether fighting on our side or against us,whether victorious or vanquished. But the English had bornethe brunt of the fight. Itussell who commanded in chief was anEnglishman. Delaval who directed the attack on Cherburgwas an Englishman. Hooke who led the flotilla into the Bay ofLa Hogue was an Englishman. The only two officers of notewho had fallen, Admiral Carter and Captain Hastings of theSandwich, were Englishmen. Yet the pleasure with which thegood news was received here must not be ascribed solely orchiefly to national pride. The island was safe. The pleasantpastures, cornfields and commons of Hampshire and Surrey■would not be the seat of war. The houses and gardens, thekitchens and dairies, the cellars and plate chests, the wivesand daughters of our gentry and clergy would not be at themercy of Irish Rapparees, who had sacked the dwellings andskinned the cattle of the Englishry of Leinster, or of Frenchdragoons accustomed to live at free quarters on the Protestantsof Auvergne. Whigs and Tories joined in thanking God forthis great deliverance; and the most respectable nonjurorscould not but be glad at heart that the rightful King was not tobe brought back by an army of foreigners.

The public joy was therefore all but universal. Duringseveral days the bells of London pealed without ceasing. Flagswere flying on all the steeples. Rows of candles w'ere in all thewindows. Bonfires were at all the corners of the streets.* The

* An Account of the late Great Victory, 1G92; Monthly Mercury forJune; Baden to the Statea General, . iy -V -5 Narcissus Luttrcll’s Diary.

June J. ’ J