ENCH FLEET SAILS FROM BREST.

The French fleet being thus hampered, forbore their attempt upon
Britain; and the projected invasion seemed to hang in suspense till the
month of August, in the beginning of which their army in Germany was
defeated at Minden. Their designs in that country being baffled by this
disaster, they seemed to convert their chief attention to their sea
armament; the preparations were resumed with redoubled vigour; and, even
after the defeat of La Clue, they resolved to try their fortune in a
descent. They now proposed to disembark a body of troops in Ireland.
Thurot received orders to sail from Dunkirk with the first opportunity,
and shape his course round the northern parts of Scotland, that he might
alarm the coast of Ireland, and make a diversion from that part where
Conflans intended to effectuate the disembarkation of his forces. The
transports and ships of war were assembled at Brest and Rochefort,
having on board a train of artillery, with saddles, and other
accoutrements for cavalry, to be mounted in Ireland; and a body
of French troops, including part of the Irish brigade, was kept
in readiness to embark. The execution of this scheme was, however,
prevented by the vigilance of sir Edward Hawke, who blocked up the
harbour of Brest with a fleet of twenty-three capital ships; while
another squadron of smaller ships and frigates, under the command of
captain Duff, continued to cruise along the French coast, from Port
L'Orient in Bretagne, to the point of St. Gilles in Poitou. At length,
however, in the beginning of November, the British squadron, commanded
by sir Edward Hawke, sir Charles Hardy, and rear-admiral Geary, were
driven from the coast of France by stress of weather, and on the ninth
day of the month anchored in Torbay. The French admiral, Conflans,
snatched this opportunity of sailing from Brest, with one-and-twenty
sail of the line and four frigates, in hopes of being able to destroy
the English squadron commanded by captain Duff, before the large
fleet could return from the coast of England. Sir Edward Hawke, having
received intelligence that the French fleet had sailed from Brest,
immediately stood to sea in order to pursue them; and, in the meantime,
the government issued orders for guarding all those parts of the coast
that were thought the most exposed to a descent. The land-forces were
put in motion, and quartered along the shore of Kent and Sussex: all the
ships of war in the