ery broad, but generally
dry in many places; the water (as in the Var) dividing itself into
several small streams. The Paglion being fed by melted snow and rain in
the mountains, is quite dry in summer; but it is sometimes swelled by
sudden rains to a very formidable torrent. This was the case in the
year 1744, when the French and Spanish armies attacked eighteen
Piedmontese battalions, which were posted on the side of Montalban. The
assailants were repulsed with the loss of four thousand men, some
hundreds of whom perished in repassing the Paglion, which had swelled
to a surprising degree during the battle, in consequence of a heavy
continued rain. This rain was of great service to the Piedmontese, as
it prevented one half of the enemy from passing the river to sustain
the other. Five hundred were taken prisoners: but the Piedmontese,
foreseeing they should be surrounded next day by the French, who had
penetrated behind them, by a pass in the mountains, retired in the
night. Being received on board the English Fleet, which lay at Villa
Franca, they were conveyed to Oneglia. In examining the bodies of those
that were killed in the battle, the inhabitants of Nice perceived, that
a great number of the Spanish soldiers were circumcised; a
circumstance, from which they concluded, that a great many Jews engage
in the service of his Catholic majesty. I am of a different opinion.
The Jews are the least of any people that I know, addicted to a
military life. I rather imagine they were of the Moorish race, who have
subsisted in Spain, since the expulsion of their brethren; and though
they conform externally to the rites of the Catholic religion, still
retain in private their attachment to the law of Mahomet.

The city of Nice is built in form of an irregular isosceles triangle,
the base of which fronts the sea. On the west side it is surrounded by
a wall and rampart; on the east, it is over-hung by a rock, on which we
see the ruins of an old castle, which, before the invention of
artillery, was counted impregnable. It was taken and dismantled by
marechal Catinat, in the time of Victor Amadaeus, the father of his
Sardinian majesty. It was afterwards finally demolished by the duke of
Berwick towards the latter end of queen Anne's war. To repair it would
be a very unnecessary expence, as it is commanded by Montalban, and
several other eminences.

The town of Nice is altogether indefensible, and therefore without
fortifications.