322

HISTOBY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XX.

JG94.

engineer in the world had been employed to fortify the coastagainst them. They therefore did not doubt that their troopsmight easily be put on shore under the protection of a fire fromthe ships. On the following morning Caermarthen was orderc dto enter the bay xvith eight vessels and to batter the Frenchworks. Talmash was to follow xvith about a hundred boats fullof soldiers. It soon appeared that the enterprise xvas even moreperilous than it had on the preceding day appeared to be.Batteries xx'hich had then escaped notice opened on the ships afire so murderous that several decks xvere soon cleared. Greatbodies of foot and horse xvere discernible; and, by their uni-forms, they appeared to be regular troops. The young Rear-Admiral sent an officer in all haste to xvarn Talmash. ButTalmash xvas so completely possessed by the notion that theFrench xvere not prepared to repel an attack that he disregardedall cautions and would not even trust his oxvn eyes. He feltsure that the force which he saxv assembled on the shore was amere rabble of peasants, who had been brought together inhaste from the surrounding country. Confident that these mocksoldiers xvould run like sheep before real soldiers, he orderedhis men to pull for the beach. He was soon undeceived. A ter-rible fire mowed down his troops faster than they could get onshore. He had himself scarcely sprung on dry ground when hereceived a xvound in the thigh from a cannonball, and xvas car-ried back to his skiff. His men reembarked in confusion. Shipsand boats made haste to get out of the bay,, but did not succeedtill four hundred seamen and seven hundred soldiers had fallen.During many days the waves continued to throw up pierced andshattered corpses on the beach of Britanny. The battery fromwhich Talmash received his xvound is called, to this day, theEnglishman’s Death.

The unhappy general xvas laid on his couch; and a councilof war xvas held in his cabin. He xvas for going straight into the