s
yet); demolition of Dunkirk the thing aimed at." If only the Dutch prove
hoistable!--

"And so, from May on to September, it noisily proceeds, at multiplex
rates? and often with more haste than speed: and in such five months
(seven, strictly counted) of clangorous movement and dead-lift
exertion, there were veritably got across, of Horse and Foot with their
equipments, the surprising number of '16,334 men.' [Adelung, iii. A,
201.] May 20th it began,--that is, the embarking began; the noise and
babble about it, which have been incessant ever since, had begun in
February before;--and on September 26th, Ostend, now almost weary of
huzzaing over British glory by instalment, had the joy of seeing our
final portions of Artillery arrive: Such a Park of Siege-and-Field
Artillery," exults the Gazetteer, "as"--as these poor creatures never
dreamt of before.

"Magnanimous Lord Stair, already Plenipotentiary to the Dutch, is to be
King's General-in-Chief of this fine Enterprise; Carteret, another Lord
of some real brilliancy, and perhaps of still weightier metal, is head
of the Cabinet; hearty, both of them, for these Anti-French intentions:
and the Public cannot but think, Surely something will come of it this
time? More especially now that Maillebois, about the middle of August,
by a strange turn of fortune, is swept out of the way. Maillebois, lying
over in Westphalia with his 30 or 40,000, on 'Check to your King' this
year past, had, on sight of these Anti-Dunkirk movements, been ordered
to look Dunkirk way, and at length to move thitherward, for protection
of Dunkirk. So that Stair, before his Dunkirk business, will have to
fight Maillebois; which Stair doubts not may be satisfactorily done.
But behold, in August and earlier, come marvellous news from the Prag
quarter, tragical to France; and Maillebois is off, at his best speed,
in the reverse direction; on a far other errand!"--Of which readers
shall soon hear enough.

"Dunkirk, therefore, is now open. With 16,000 British troops,
Hanoverians to the like number, and Hessians 6,000, together near
40,000, not to speak of Dutch at all, surely one might manage Dunkirk,
if not something still better? It is AFTER Maillebois's departure that
these dreadful exertions, coopering of water-casks, pumping all
Sunday, go on at Gravesend: 'Swift, oh, be swift, while time is!' And
Generalissimo-Plenipotentiary Stair, who has run over beforehand,
is ardent enough upon the Dutch; his el