14}

SIR C. SHOVEL SAILS WITH A REINFORCEMENT TO CHARLES.

Over and above these disasters which the French sustained in the course
of this campaign, they were miserably alarmed by the project of an
invasion from Britain, formed by the marquis de Guiscard, who, actuated
by a family disgust, had abandoned his country and become a partisan of
the confederates. He was declared a lieutenant-general in the emperor's
army, and came over to London, after having settled a correspondence
with the malcontents in the southern parts of France. He insinuated
himself into the friendship of Henry St. John, secretary of war, and
other persons of distinction. His scheme of invading France was approved
by the British ministry, and he was promoted to the command of a
regiment of dragoons destined for that service. About eleven thousand
men were embarked under the conduct of Earl Rivers, with a large train
of artillery; and the combined squadrons, commanded by sir Cloudesley
Shovel, set sail from Plymouth on the thirteenth day of August. Next day
they were forced into Torbay by contrary winds, and there they held a
council of war to concert their operations, when they discovered that
Guiscard's plan was altogether chimerical, or at least founded upon such
slight assurances and conjectures as could not justify their proceeding
to execution. An express was immediately despatched to the admiralty
with the result of this council; and, in the meantime, letters arrived
at court from the earl of Galway, after his retreat from Madrid to
Valencia, soliciting succours with the most earnest entreaties. The
expedition to France was immediately postponed, and sir Cloudesley
Shovel was ordered to make the best of his way to Lisbon, there to take
such measures as the state of the war in Spain should render necessary.
Guiscard and his officers being set on shore, the fleet sailed with
the first fair wind, and towards the latter end of October arrived at
Lisbon. On the twenty-eighth day of the next month the king of Portugal
died, and his eldest son and successor being but eighteen years of age,
was even more than his father influenced by a ministry which had private
connexions with the court of Versailles. Nevertheless, sir Cloudesley
Shovel and Earl Rivers, being pressed by letters from king Charles and
the earl of G-alway, sailed to their assistance in the beginning of
January; and on the twenty-eighth arrived at Alicant, from whence the
earl of R