followed, bring great calamities on France.
As a legitimate sovereign expelled by rebels, as a confessor of the true
faith persecuted by heretics, as a near kinsman of the House of Bourbon,
who had seated himself on the hearth of that House, he was entitled to
hospitality, to tenderness, to respect. It was fit that he should have
a stately palace and a spacious forest, that the household troops should
salute him with the highest military honours, that he should have at his
command all the hounds of the Grand Huntsman and all the hawks of the
Grand Falconer. But, when a prince, who, at the head of a great fleet
and army, had lost an empire without striking a blow, undertook to
furnish plans for naval and military expeditions; when a prince, who
had been undone by his profound ignorance of the temper of his own
countrymen, of his own soldiers, of his own domestics, of his own
children, undertook to answer for the zeal and fidelity of the Irish
people, whose language he could not speak, and on whose land he had
never set his foot; it was necessary to receive his suggestions with
caution. Such were the sentiments of Lewis; and in these sentiments he
was confirmed by his Minister of War Louvois, who, on private as well as
on public grounds, was unwilling that James should be accompanied by
a large military force. Louvois hated Lauzun. Lauzun was favourite at
Saint Germains. He wore the garter, a badge of honour which has very
seldom been conferred on aliens who were not sovereign princes. It was
believed indeed at the French Court that, in order to distinguish him
from the other knights of the most illustrious of European orders, he
had been decorated with that very George which Charles the First had,
on the scaffold, put into the hands of Juxon, [164] Lauzun had been
encouraged to hope that, if French forces were sent to Ireland, he
should command them; and this ambitious hope Louvois was bent on
disappointing, [165]

An army was therefore for the present refused; but every thing else was
granted. The Brest fleet was ordered to be in readiness to sail. Arms
for ten thousand men and great quantities of ammunition were put on
board. About four hundred captains, lieutenants, cadets and gunners were
selected for the important service of organizing and disciplining the
Irish levies. The chief command was held by a veteran warrior, the
Count of Rosen. Under him were Maumont, who held the rank of lieutenant
general, and a brigadi