all the coffeehouses, and was received with transports of joy. For
those Englishmen who wished to see an English army beaten and an English
colony extirpated by the French and Irish were a minority even of the
Jacobite party.

On the ninth day after the battle of the Boyne James landed at Brest,
with an excellent appetite, in high spirits, and in a talkative humour.
He told the history of his defeat to everybody who would listen to him.
But French officers who understood war, and who compared his story with
other accounts, pronounced that, though His Majesty had witnessed the
battle, he knew nothing about it, except that his army had been routed,
[717] From Brest he proceeded to Saint Germains, where, a few hours
after his arrival, he was visited by Lewis. The French King had too much
delicacy and generosity to utter a word which could sound like reproach.
Nothing, he declared, that could conduce to the comfort of the royal
family of England should be wanting, as far as his power extended. But
he was by no means disposed to listen to the political and military
projects of his unlucky guest. James recommended an immediate descent
on England. That kingdom, he said, had been drained of troops by the
demands of Ireland. The seven or eight thousand regular soldiers who
were left would be unable to withstand a great French army. The people
were ashamed of their error and impatient to repair it. As soon as their
rightful King showed himself, they would rally round him in multitudes,
[718] Lewis was too polite and goodnatured to express what he must
have felt. He contented himself with answering coldly that he could not
decide upon any plan about the British islands till he had heard from
his generals in Ireland. James was importunate, and seemed to think
himself ill used, because, a fortnight after he had run away from one
army, he was not entrusted with another. Lewis was not to be provoked
into uttering an unkind or uncourteous word: but he was resolute and,
in order to avoid solicitation which gave him pain, he pretended to
be unwell. During some time, whenever James came to Versailles, he was
respectfully informed that His Most Christian Majesty was not equal to
the transaction of business. The highspirited and quickwitted nobles who
daily crowded the antechambers could not help sneering while they bowed
low to the royal visitor, whose poltroonery and stupidity had a second
time made him an exile and a mendicant. They eve