HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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quence of the combined fleets having put to sea, and escaped from their formerprison, the Brest squadron under Roquefeuille should quit Brest, and standing im-mediately over to the British coast, prevent the junction of two squadrons whichwere known to be ready for sea at Portsmouth, and Chatham. The French arma-ment entered the British channel on the third of February; but, the wind beingcontrary, and the weather at times extremely tempestuous, fourteen days elapsedere it was able to work up so high as the Isle of Wight, In the interim, theBritish ships had collected in the Downs to the number of twenty-nine sail of theline, under the orders of sir John Norris. Roquefeuille’s force amounted totwenty-three ships of war only ; twenty of which were of the line. On his arrivaloff the Isle of Wight, he dispatched a small fr igate to reconnoitre Spithead, andfinding no ships there, for sir John Norris had proceeded to the Downs three daysbefore, with all the vessels that were ready, he was sanguine enough to supposethe same tempestuous weather he had been so unfortunate as to encounter, hadcompelled the British ships to disperse, and retire into their own ports.

Under this impression, four ships were detached to Dunkirk for the purpose ofhastening the embarkation of a very considerable corps of troops collected in thatneighbourhood, for the purpose of invading England ; this delusive hope was cx Ttremely short-lived, for the main body having reached Dungeness, were surprised onthe24th, by the signal made to them from the advanced frigate, that sir John Norriswas tiding it round the Foreland, and would presently attack them. It was one of theprincipal points given in charge to the French commander in chief, that he should,on no account, hazard an action, if it were possible to avoid one,. The tide failedwhen the British fleet had worked up within two miles of him; a circumstancewhich, in all probability, preserved this luckless armament from total annihilation.The French admiral having called a council of war, it was unanimously agreed,to retire under the friendly covert of the night, a resolution which was con-siderably promoted by the sudden freshening of the wind from the eastward, sothat, by the next morning, the fugitives had reached the length of the Isle of Port-land on their return to their own ports: here their misfortunes, however, did notend ; for, a thick fog suddenly arising, all the ships were dispersed, and reachedBrest in a most shattered distressed condition. Thus ended an attempt, which wasconsidered so prudently projected, that it filled the whole French nation with arro-gant hope, and no inconsiderable part of the British with apprehension. All theseevents happened previous to any regular declaration of war, but that formality took

place'