our chief efforts were to blockade the enemy's ships.
Despite constant ill-health and frequent gales, Nelson clung to
Toulon. Admiral Cornwallis cruised off Brest with a fleet generally
exceeding fifteen sail of the line and several smaller vessels: six
frigates and smaller craft protected the coast of Ireland; six
line-of-battle ships and twenty-three lesser vessels were kept in the
Downs under Lord Keith as a central reserve force, to which the news
of all events transpiring on the enemy's coast was speedily conveyed
by despatch boats; the newly invented semaphore telegraphs were also
systematically used between the Isle of Wight and Deal to convey news
along the coast and to London. Martello towers were erected along the
coast from Harwich to Pevensey Bay, at the points where a landing was
easy. Numerous inventors also came forward with plans for destroying
the French flotilla, but none was found to be serviceable except the
rockets of Colonel Congreve, which inflicted some damage at Boulogne
and elsewhere. Such were the dispositions of our chief naval forces:
they comprised 469 ships of war, and over 700 armed boats, of all
sizes.[273]

Our regular troops and militia mustered 180,000 strong; while the
volunteers, including 120,000 men armed with pikes or similar weapons,
numbered 410,000. Of course little could be hoped from these last in a
conflict with French veterans; and even the regulars, in the absence
of any great generals--for Wellesley was then in India--might have
offered but a poor resistance to Napoleon's military machine.
Preparations were, however, made for a desperate resistance. Plans
were quietly framed for the transfer of the Queen and the royal family
to Worcester, along with the public treasure, which was to be lodged
in the cathedral; while the artillery and stores from Woolwich arsenal
were to be conveyed into the Midlands by the Grand Junction
Canal.[274]

The scheme of coast-defence which General Dundas had drawn up in 1796
was now again set in action. It included, not only the disposition of
the armed forces, but plans for the systematic removal of all
provisions, stores, animals, and fodder from the districts threatened
by the invader; and it is clear that the country was far better
prepared than French writers have been willing to admit. Indeed, so
great was the expense of these defensive preparations that, when
Nelson's return from the West Indies disconcerted the enemy's plans,
Fox me