set
particular value, dropped from Sir Edward's finger, as he was getting
into the carriage again. He was vexed at the loss; but the road being
very dirty, and the night dark, it was useless then to seek it. He
therefore tore a bush from the hedge, and left it where the carriage had
stopped: and ordering the post-boys to draw up at the next cottage, he
knocked up the inmates, and promised them a reward if they found it. To
his great pleasure, the expedient proved successful, and the ring was
delivered to him on his return.

[6] The _Revolutionaire_, 110, wrecked Dec. 24, on the Mingan rock, near
Brest; the _Neuf Thermidor_, 80. _Scipion_, 80, and _Superbe_, 74,
foundered in a heavy gale on the 28th of January; and the _Neptune_, 74,
wrecked in Audierne Bay.

CHAPTER V.

EXPEDITION AGAINST IRELAND.

France, having at length obtained internal quiet, and a settled
Government under the Directory, and secured the alliance of Spain and
Holland, prepared for a decisive blow against Great Britain. The
condition of the British empire was at that time peculiarly critical. Of
her allies, some had joined the enemy, and the others had proved unequal
to resist him. In the East, the most powerful of the native princes were
preparing to subvert her authority. At home, Ireland was organized for
rebellion; and England herself contained a strong revolutionary party,
checked, indeed, by the energy of the Government, and still more by the
excellent disposition of the people, but prepared to rise in formidable
activity, whenever the successes of the enemy should enable them to
declare themselves.

Well acquainted with all her difficulties, the French Government
hastened to take advantage of them. Through the summer and autumn of
1796, a powerful fleet was equipped at Brest, to land an army on the
shores of Ireland; after accomplishing which, a squadron of eight sail
of the line was to be detached to India, where its support would
probably encourage the hostile states to an immediate and general war.
Its prospects were the more promising, as the armies of two of the
native princes were officered by Frenchmen. As for Ireland, that was
regarded as a country of which they had only to take possession; and the
well-known feeling of a considerable part of the inhabitants warranted
the most sanguine hopes of the invader.

The history of Ireland affords a melancholy, but most instructive
lesson, pre-eminent as that unhappy country ha