ns of distinction were
apprehended on suspicion of treasonable practices; a proclamation was
issued for putting the laws in execution against papists and nonjurors,
who were commanded to retire ten miles from London; and every precaution
was taken which seemed necessary for the preservation of the public
tranquillity.

THE DESIGN OF THE FRENCH DEFEATED.

Meanwhile the French court proceeded with their preparations at Boulogne
and Dunkirk, under the eye of the young pretender; and seven thousand
men were actually embarked. M. de Roquefeuille sailed up the channel
as far as Dungeness, a promontory on the coast of Kent, after having
detached M. de Barreil, with five ships to hasten the embarkation at
Dunkirk. While the French admiral anchored off Dungeness, he perceived,
on the twenty-fourth day of February, the British fleet, under sir John
Norris, doubling the South-Foreland from the Downs; and though the
wind was against him, taking the opportunity of the tide to come up and
engage the French squadron. Roquefeuille, who little expected such
a visit, could not be altogether composed, considering the great
superiority of his enemies; but the tide failing, the English admiral
was obliged to anchor two leagues short of the enemy. In this interval,
M. de Roquefeuille called a council of war, in which it was determined
to avoid an engagement, weigh anchor at sun-set, and make the best of
their way to the place from whence they had sot sail. This resolution
was favoured by a very hard gale of wind, which began to blow from
the north-east, and carried them down the channel with incredible
expedition. But the same storm which, in all probability, saved their
fleet from destruction, utterly disconcerted the design of invading
England. A great number of their transports was driven ashore and
destroyed, and the rest were so damaged that they could not be speedily
repaired. The English were now masters at sea, and their coast was
so well guarded, that the enterprise could not be prosecuted with any
probability of success. The French generals nominated to serve in this
expedition returned to Paris, and the young pretender resolved to wait
a more favourable opportunity. In the meantime he remained in Paris, or
that neighbourhood, incognito, and almost totally neglected by the court
of France. Finding himself in this disagreeable situation, and being
visited by John Murray of Broughton, who magnified the power of his
friends in