X. 1719. CHAP. those noblemen and a part of his suite, who, as he expected, were arrested at Voghera, he being supposed to be amongst them. They were conveyed to the castle of Milan, and some time elapsed be fore the mistake was discovered and the prisoners released. The news that the Pretender was taken had meanwhile spread abroad, and Lord Stair had written it in triumph to the Ministers in London. Under the cover of this report, James secretly embarked at the little port of Nettuno; and after touching at Cagliari, landed at Rosas in the beginning of March, 1719. There being then no further object in mystery, he was received at Madrid, not only publicly, but royally; his residence was ap pointed in the palace of Buen Retiro, and visits were paid to him as to the King of England by Philip and his Queen. The magnificence of his entry and public reception is extolled by Spanish writers. But I may observe in passing, that the ancient splendour of the Court of Madrid had long since faded away, during the melancholy reigns of the last Austrian Princes, and that the subsequent accounts of it which the Spaniards are still inclined to utter and we to receive are often indebted to fancy for their brilliant colouring. Never, for example, was there an occasion when splendour would have been more natural and becoming, - when it better accorded with the popular feeling, or had been ushered in by longer preparation, than the first public entry of Philip himself in February, 1701, four months after the death of Charles the X. Second; yet never was there a pageant more CHA P. mean and unsightly. For when we discard the national exaggerations, and look to the impartial testimony of an Englishman, who happened to be present, we find that " His Majesty entered in a 66 filthy old coach of the late King, without "guards; his better sort of attendants, some on "horseback and some in coaches, at half an hour's "distance from one another; and divers of the in"ferior sort attending the baggage, in so very 66 ragged clothes as exposed them extremely to the scorn of the Spaniards." At the same time order was so ill preserved, that "no less than forty men, women, and children, were trod under foot " and killed outright, and above one hundred are "now said to be languishing under their bruises, "and dying daily. On James's arrival at Madrid, the orders for sailing were despatched to the armament at Cadiz. It consisted of five men of war and about twenty transports, with 5000 soldiers, partly Irish, on board, and arms for 30,000 more. Several of the chief exiles of 1715 took part in this enterprise. Ormond himself was to embark when the fleet touched at Coruña, and to assume its command with the title of Captain-General of the King of Spain. He was provided with a proclamation to Mr. Jackson to Mr. Pepys, Feb. 24. 1701. Pepys' Correspondence. + Duke of Ormond to the Pretender, March 17. and 27. Stuart Papers. 1719. X. 1719. CHAP. be published at his landing, in the name of Philip, declaring that his Majesty had determined to send part of his forces as auxiliaries to King James; that he hoped Providence would favour so just a cause; but that the fear of ill success should not hinder any person from declaring for him, since he promised a secure retreat in his dominions to all that should join him; and in case they were forced to leave their country, he engaged that every sea or land officer should have the same rank as he enjoyed in Great Britain, and the soldiers be received and treated like his own. In England, meanwhile, the King and Ministers were still more active for their own defence. The Duke of Orleans, eager to requite a similar favour, had sent them timely warning of the intended expedition*; and he offered them the aid of any number of his troops. These were declined; but six battalions were accepted, and came over from the Austrians in the Netherlands, and two thousand men from the States-General,- a very doubtful policy, where the strength of the foreign succour was by no means such as to counterbalance the disgrace of employing it. The English troops were disposed to the best advantage, especially in the * Letter of Abbé Dubois to Earl Stanhope, March 15. 1719. Hardwicke Papers, vol. xxxviii. He gives all the details of the Chevalier's embarkation at Nettuno, says that Cammock had gone to him at Rome deguisé en matelot, and that Ormond passed the Pyrenees deguisé en valet. He offers as aid "tout ce que "nous pourrions faire pour la conservation de la France si elle " était en danger." X. north and west. A squadron of our ships, under CHAP. Sir John Norris, rode in the Channel. Both Houses assured the King of their support, and a proclamation was issued offering 10,000l. for the apprehension of Ormond on his landing.* But on this occasion it might be said of George, as once of Honoriust, that winds and storms fought upon his side. Scarcely had the Spanish fleet lost sight of Cape Finisterre before it was assailed by a tremendous tempest. The surges of the Bay of Biscay, lashed into fury by a hurricane for twelve days, scattered all the ships from each other, and tossed them far and wide. In the extremity of danger most of the crews cast overboard the horses, the guns, the stands of arms, in order to lighten the vessels; others were dismasted or unrigged; and the same ports which had lately sent them forth strong and well appointed ships saw them return one by one as crippled wrecks. Against such disasters even the genius of Alberoni * There were two proclamations, one at Dublin and the other in London; the one offering 10,000l. and the other 5000l. A strange distinction! (Boyer's Polit. State, 1719, vol. i. p. 41. and 336.) The Duke's house, in St. James's Square, was about this time set up to auction by the Government; it was sold to a Mr. Hackett for 7500l. †The noble lines of Claudian are well known : : "O nimium dilecte Deo, cui fundit ab antris (De III. Cons. Honor. v. 96.) 1719. CHAP. could not strive, and all further thoughts of the expedition were abandoned.* X. .1719. It was only a further aggravation of the calamity of this tempest to the Jacobites that two frigates escaped its violence and pursued their voyage to Scotland, since, thus unsupported, they could of course only bring ruin on those whom they conveyed and on those who welcomed them. On board were the Earls Marischal and Seaforth, and the Marquis of Tullibardine, with some arms and about 300 Spanish soldiers. They landed on the 16th of April at Kintail in Ross-shire; and the frigates putting out again to sea, left them scarcely any alternative but to become either conquerors or captives. Their first object was concealment, in order to await the expected landing of Ormond in England; accordingly, they scarcely advanced beyond Kintailt, and for some time the Govern ment believed that they had re-embarked. A few hundred Highlanders joined them, either the devoted adherents of the exiled Lords, or the bold * Ormond himself had written to Alberoni from Coruña (March 22. 1719, Stuart Papers), requesting a delay, or in fact a relinquishment of the enterprise, as its design was already known to France and England. He could not, he says, be so imprudent as to propose to attack England with 5000 men, unless by surprise. † According to San Phelipe, Lord Seaforth went on to Bracaam. (Coment. vol. ii. p. 216.) But what place he means by Bracaam is beyond my skill to divine. His names are often strangely distorted. With him the Duke of Maine, for instance, becomes Humena; Lord Townshend, Fouveskendem; and Lord Cobham, Chacon. |