1690.] NAVAL DEFEAT AT BEACHY HEAD. 111 England, at the very hour when the shot that was fired across the Boyne had very nearly settled the question whether the Revolution of 1688 should be a starting-point in a race of honour and prosperity, or a broken trophy of one brief and useless effort for liberty and the rights of conscience. The departure of William for Ireland was the signal for an attack upon the English coasts, which was to be accompanied with an insurrection of the Jacobites. A fleet sailed from Brest under the Count de Tourville. The English fleet was in the Downs, under the command of the earl of Torrington. He sailed to the back of the Isle of Wight, and was there joined by a squadron of Dutch vessels under a skilful commander, Evertsen. Queen Mary and her Council were aware that the French fleet had left Brest. It soon became known that the English admiral had quitted his position off St. Helen's, and had sailed for the Straits of Dover upon the approach of the French. The Council determined to send Torrington positive orders to fight. The French fleet was superior in vessels and guns to the combined English and Dutch fleet; but the inequality was not so great that a man of the old stamp of Blake would have feared to risk a battle. Torrington did something even worse than hesitate to fight. He let the brunt of the conflict fall upon the Dutch. He put Evertsen in the van, and brought very few of his own squadron into action. The Dutch fought with indomitable courage and obstinacy, but were at length compelled to draw off. The gazers from the high downs of Beachy Head witnessed the shameful flight of a British admiral to seek the safety of the Thames. When Medal struck to commemorate the Conduct of the Queen, after the Defeat of the English the news came to London that Torrington had left the Channel to a triumphant enemy when an invasion was imminent, for England was without regular troops when plotters were all around, and arrests of men of rank, even of Clarendon, the queen's kinsman, were taking place-then, indeed, there was an hour almost of despair such as was felt when De Ruyter sailed up the Medway. But the very humiliation roused the spirit of the people. The queen was universally beloved; and, although studiously avoiding, when the king was at hand, any interference in public affairs, she took at once a kingly part in this great crisis. "The queen balanced all things with an 112 ENERGETIC CONDUCT OF THE QUEEN. [1690. extraordinary temper," writes Burnet. She sent for the Lord Mayor of London; and inquired what the citizens would do, should the enemy effect a landing? The Lord Mayor returned to the queen with an offer of a hundred thousand pounds; of nine thousand men of the city trainbands, ready instantly to march wherever ordered; and a proposal for the Lieutenancy to provide and maintain six additional regiments of foot; and of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council to raise a regiment of horse, and a thousand dragoons, by voluntary contributions. The same spirit was manifested throughout the land. The people might grumble against the Dutch; they might feel some commiseration for an exiled prince; they might be divided about questions of Church government; they might complain that the Revolution had brought them increased taxation. But they would have no Papist government thrust upon them by the French king. They would not undo the work of their own hands. The gloom for the disaster of Beachy Head was quickly forgotten. On the 4th of July a messenger had brought letters to the queen which told that a great victory had been won in Ireland, and that the king was safe; and, says Evelyn in his quiet way, "there was much public rejoicing." * Maitland's "London," vol. i. 495. James embarks for France - William enters Dublin-The French devastate Teignmouth--William's march to Limerick-Siege of Limerick-The siege raised-William goes to EnglandParliament-War supply-England and Continental Politics-William leaves for Holland -Congress at the Hague-Mons capitulates to the French-Vacant sees in England filled up-Plot of Preston and Ashton-Treason laws-Marlborough in Flanders-Limerick surrenders to Ginkell-Treaty of Limerick. KING JAMES, "in compliance with the advice of all his friends, resolved to go for France, and try to do something more effectual on that side, than he could hope from so shattered and disheartened a body of men as now remained in Ireland."" Request of friends " is the apology for the foolish actions of the weak king as well as of the vain scribbler. On the 3rd of July James quitted Dublin with all speed, about five in the morning; left two troops of horse at Bray, to defend the bridge there against any pursuers; rode over the Wicklow mountains, and baited near Arklow; "mended his pace" when four French officers maintained that the enemy was not far behind; and never stopped till "Life of James II." Own Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 402. 114 WILLIAM ENTERS DUBLIN. [1690. he got to Duncannon about sunrise. His attendants found a merchant ship at Passage. The captain was persuaded to take James on board in the evening. They sailed for Kinsale; and the next day the royal fugitive was secure in a French frigate, and was landed safely at Brest.* James repaired to St. Germains, where "his Most Christian Majesty came to see him; and in general terms promised all imaginable kindness and support." The sanguine exile having abandoned Ireland, had his ready scheme for invading England, "now naked and ungarnished of troops." Louis received the project coldly; and, finally, would have nothing to do with the affair; although James magnanimously offered to go with a fleet, either with or without an army, for he was sure "his own sailors would never fight against one under whom they so often had conquered.”† His Most Christian Majesty pretended illness when his brother of England came to pester him with his new demands for ships and troops. "The court of France could not forbear speaking great disrespect, even in his own hearing; which the queen seemed much more sensible of than he did." The courtiers of Versailles could guess at the truth; although "the few English courtiers who stayed with the queen in France, to justify the flight of their king, did not spare calumniating the Irish." They averred that "the Irish abandoned their prince, and left him exposed to the enemy; and this version of the cause of James's return was so believed by the uninformed, that the Irish who had been refugees in France since the days of Cromwell, "durst not walk abroad or appear in the streets, the people were so exasperated against them." § On the day that James fled from Dublin, the citizens had to apprehend two sorts of danger. The forces of James, scattered about the vicinity, pressed by hunger, might return and rifle the town. The lowest of the Dublin populace, in a pretended zeal for religion, threatened to burn and plunder the houses of the Papists. The city was saved from these calamities chiefly by the firmness of captain Robert Fitzgerald. On the 3rd, the camp of William on the Boyne was broken up. On the 4th, the Dutch guards took possession of Dublin Castle. On the 5th, the head-quarters of the king were at Ferns; and on the 6th, being Sunday, he rode to Dublin, and in the cathedral of St. Patrick returned thanks to God for the success of his arms. William, however, continued to sleep in his camp. On the 8th, "his Majesty in person viewed and took a general muster of all the army, and was fourteen hours on horseback; only for one quarter he did alight to eat and drink." The news of the disgrace of Beachy Head had reached Ireland on the 10th, when the king, contemplating a return to England, resolved to secure Waterford, as the most important harbour of the Eastern coast. On the 11th of July the army was on its march. Rowland Davies records how, in defiance of the royal proclamation, the troops "robbed and pillaged all the road along." Execution followed execution. On the 14th, on the march to Carlow, "as we passed, two of the Enniskillen dragoons hung by the wayside, with papers on their breasts exposing their crime; and thereby our march was very regular, without any such excursions or pillaging "Life of James II." Own Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 402. Dartmouth's note in Burnet, vol. iv. p. 100. Harris, p. 273. + Dalrymple. Rowland Davies, p. 12€. 1690.] THE FRENCH DEVASTATE TEIGNMOUTH. 115 as before." * On the 21st, Waterford was in possession of William's troops, the garrison having capitulated. The king then determined to return to Dublin, with the view of embarking for England. With a French fleet in the Channel, there was now greater danger to be met on the English shores, than in the resistance which continued to be made in Ireland. The forces which had been scattered on the 1st of July had gathered around Limerick, and were prepared to defend that city. Officers and soldiers, without orders from their superiors, without a leader, all flocked to Limerick, "as if they had been all guided thither by some secret instinct of nature."† But, irregularly fortified, and its defence left to the Irish, it was considered as likely soon to fall. On his road to Dublin, on the 27th, more accurate intelligence from England had reached the king, and he determined to invest Limerick in person. The shameful discomfiture of the allied fleet at Beachy Head had not been followed up by the French so as to produce any results that should give serious alarm to William. On the 22nd of July, the French admiral, Tourville, was anchored in Torbay, with the fleet which had chased Torrington to the mouth of the Thames; and he had been reinforced with a number of galleys, rowed by slaves. The whole fleet was employed to transport troops. The approach of danger had roused up the spirit of the July of 1588. The beacons are again blazing on the Devonshire hills. From every road in the interior the yeomen of the West are gathering on the coast, not shrinking from trying their strength against the veterans of France. Tourville loses faith in the assurances of the Stuart courtiers, that all England would be up to aid in his enterprise. All England is shouting "God bless king William and queen Mary." But Tourville will do something. He lands some troops at Teignmouth, which Burnet calls "a miserable village," but which the inhabitants represented as consisting of two towns, having three hundred houses. The people of Teignmouth obtained a brief for their losses; and in this document they say that "the French fleet, riding in Torbay, where all the forces of our county of Devon were drawn up to oppose their landing, several of their galleys drew off from their fleet, and made towards a weak unfortified place called Teignmouth, about seven miles to the eastward of Torbay." The narrative then continues to describe the ravages of these heroes:-" Coming very near, and having played the cannon of their galleys upon the town, and shot near two hundred great shot therein, to drive away the poor inhabitants, they landed about seven hundred of their men, and began to fire and plunder the towns of East and West Teignmouth, which consist of about three hundred houses; and in the space of three hours ransacked and plundered the said towns, and a village called Shaldon, lying on the other side of the river, and burnt and destroyed one hundred and sixteen houses, together with eleven ships and barks that were in the harbour. And to add sacrilege to their robbery and violence, they in a barbarous manner entered the two churches of the said towns, and in the most unchristian manner tore the Bibles and Common Prayer-books in pieces, scattering the leaves thereof about the streets, broke down the pulpits, Rowland Davies, p. 128. "Macaria Excidium." |