C HAP.XIX. front the R evolution

5 69^ boarded him, with a Hundred Men;

Upon which, the Captain ordered hisRound-house to be blown up, whichcaused the Privateer to fall off, andleave his Men behind him ; At whichTime, the Captain, seing his Ship onFire, run her upon the CliiFs, wherethe Ship was burnt down to the MiddleDeck ; But a good Part of her Load-ing was sav’d, as were most of the Eng-lish, and thirty French Men.

An intended Descent from Dunkirk pre-vented ; With Sir George RookedProceedings in the Channel and Sound-ings.

tf tijgence The Beginning of this Year, the

if Ascent French, taking the Advantage of ouren ied. having no more Ships at Sea, than were

absolutely necessary for guarding theCoast, and to protect our Trade, (thegreat Ships which returned some Monthsbefore, from the Mediterranean, withAdmiral RuJJ'el, being mostly laid up,and those which were fitted out orderedto the Sfreights ) were making greatPreparations to embark an Army atCalais, Dunkirk, and other Ports,thereabouts, in Order to make a Descentin England. The King, who had In-telligence of their Proceedings, signifiedhis Pleasure to the Lords of the Admi-

ts the Death of K. William, 711

ralty, by Admiral on the twen^ 1696,

ty-first of February, what he thoughtnecessary to be done, on this importantOccasion; (e) And Mr. Russet(after he had assisted, as first Lord o { ven t it.the Admiralty, in the Preparations re-quired) repaired, by the King’s particu-lar Commands, to the Downs, to con-duct this important Service, where hearrived the four aud twentieth, (f)

The Admiral came to an Anchor, o F Admiralof Gravelin, the eight and twentieth G f Russd |r.February, with Part of the Fleet, and Gravelin.the Lord Berkeley lay between him andDunkirk, (g) This, with the Discoveryof the Grand Plot to assassinate the King,in England, broke the Neck of thewhole Design as we shall soon fee. (_h)

As he failed close in with Calais, hesaw between three and four Hundred Many T ran ‘Vessels, of all Sorts, for Embarkation,"calaisf #with their Sails to their Yards; And,in Flemish- Road, were about seventeenMen of War, great and small, which,with the Transports, would probably sni Men ofhave been, in a few Days, on our Coasts,had not such extraordinary Diligence Road.been used in getting a powerful Fleet toSea. For by Intelligence they received,soon after, by a Swedish Ship, as well asfrom the Dukes of Wirtemberg and Ba-varia, and the Prince of Vaudemont ,

King James had been at Calais, butwent from thence soon after Admiral8 S Rufel

(e) His Majesty's Orders were, that all theShips in the Rivers, Thames and Medway, as wellas those at the hTore, Spithead, Plymouth,and elsewhere, which could be got ready, shouldbe ordered to repair immediately to the Downs ;And, for the greater Expedition, Orders weregiven to those at Portsmouth , and Plymouth , totake the Men out of Merchant-Ships, and to bringas many more, as they conveniently could, to o-ther Ships in Want. The Civil Magistrates inKent, and about Portsmouth, were also ordered tosecure all straggling Seamen, and to feud them tothe Naval Commissioners residing nearest to thePlace where they should meet with them ; Andthe Commander in Chief, in the River Medway,was, likewise, directed to hasten all the Ships,from thence and the Nore, to the Downs, as theMaster Attendant on Float, was all Ships of War,Fire-ships, and other Vessels fittingout in the River.All the Boats belonging to the Shipsat theNore , andBlacksiakes, were ordered to impress WatermenBargemen, Lightermen and others, working onthe River Medway • Besides which, general Or-ders were issued, to impress all without Distincti-on, except such as were employed on necessaryServices of the Navy, Ordnance, or Fictualling ;And, there being an Embargo 1 aid on all Mer-chant-lhips, it was ordered, that a third Part ofthe Men, belonging to those which were outwardbound, should be taken from them, for the morespeedy putting the Fleet into a Condition, to pre-vent the Enemy's Design.

(f) He found, indeed, no more Ships therethan one First-Rate, two Third-Rates, six Fourth-Rates, and two Fifth-Rates, with one Fire-ship,a Ketch, and aBrigantine ; But such speedy Or-ders were issued, and so diligently were they putin Execution, that he was joined within threeDays after by Sir Cloudejly Shovel, at the South-Sand-head, with thirteen more, besides elevenEnglip and Dutch, from Spithead-, And, thenext Day, his Number was encreased, with tenShips, from Plymouth, at which Time, he wasstanding Eastward, along the French Coast. ’

(g) By this Time, the Admiral had with him,there, one First-Rate, twelve Third-Rates, fourand twenty Fourth-Rates and three Fifth-Rates,besides Fire-ships, of the English ; Together withtwelve Ships of War, of the Dutch, and two oftheir Fire-ships; And, in few Days after, theywere augmented to near fourscore Sail, reckon-ing into the Number, small Sixth-Rates, Brigan-tines, &c. with which there were the severalFlag Officers following, viz. The Admiral him-self ; the Lord Berkeley, Admiral of the Blue;Sir Cloudejly Shovel, Vice-Admiral of the Red ;Mr. Aylmer, Vice-Admiral of the Blue, and twoDutch Rear-Admirals.

(h) This was the Plot discovered first by Pen-dergrafs, and afterwards by others, for which SirJohn Fenwick, Sir John Friend, and Sir Ha MamPerkins suffered, the History of which, and theProceedings of the Parliament thereupon, are toowell known to need a Repetition here.