102

HISTORY OP ENGIAHD.

CHAP.

XIX.

1692 .

reasonable. It did not follow, because Hooke and bis seamen• had silenced the batteries hastily thrown up by Bellefonds, thatit would he safe to expose ships to the fire of regular fortresses.The government, however, was not less sanguine than thenation. Great preparations were made. The allied fleet, havingbeen speedily refitted at Portsmouth, stood out again to sea.llooke was sent to examine the soundings and the currentsalong the shore of Britanny.* Transports were collected atSaint Helens. Fourteen thousand troops were assembled onPortsdown under the command of Meinhart Schomberg, whohad been rewarded for his father’s services and his own withthe highest rank in the Irish peerage, and was now Duke ofLeinster. Under him were Euvigny, who, for his good serviceat Aghrim, had been created Earl of Galway, La Melloniereand Cambon with their gallant bands of refugees, and Argylewith the regiment which bore his name, and which, as it beganto be rumoured, had last winter done something strange andhorrible in a wild country of rocks and snow, never yet exploredby any Englishman.

On the twenty-sixth of July the troops were all on board.The transports sailed, and in a few hours joined the naval arma-ment in the neighbourhood of Portland. On the twenty-eightha general council of war was held. All the naval commanders,with Russell at their head, declared that it would be madnessto carry their ships within the range of the guns of SaintMaloes, and that the town must be reduced to straits by landbefore the men- of war in the harbour could, with any chanceof success, be attacked from the sea. The military men de-clared with equal unanimity that the land forces could effect no-thing against the town without the cooperation of the fleet. Itwas then considered whether it would be advisable to makean attempt on Brest or Rochefort. Russell and the other flag

* See his report in Burchett.