this Spanish Widdrington still continued to fight upon his stumps. But both his efforts and his example were in vain. Even had the English been fewer, I may be pardoned for believing that they would still have been victorious. Castañeta was made prisoner, and the greater part of his fleet either taken or destroyed. Admiral Cammock alone, with ten ships of war, forced his way from the battle, and found shelter in the port of La Valetta. In an opposite direction Mari had also made his escape with some ships of the line; but Captain Walton, being sent in pursuit, compelled them to surrender. Walton's report, on this occasion, is remarkable for simplicity, the usual attendant and the surest recommendation of merit. It was merely, "Sir, we have taken and destroyed "all the Spanish ships which were upon the coast: the “ number as per margin.” A naval writer well observes, that the ships which Captain Walton thrust into his margin would have furnished matter for some pages in a French relation.* The loss of the English in the action of Passaro was not considerable; only one ship, the Grafton, suffered severely. To have thus annihilated the Spanish armada might be thought something more than merely a declaration of war; yet Byng affected not to consider it as such, and sent a complimentary letter to De Lede, urging that the Spaniards had begun the battle, and that they ought not to look upon this accident as a rupture between the two nations. This compliment, it may well be supposed, was very coldly received by men still smarting under the loss and shame of their defeat. Nor did it deaden their zeal for the reduction of Messina; on the contrary, they pushed their attacks with so much vigour, that, in spite of the efforts of the Austrian troops at Reggio, and the activity of the British fleet in the straits, the place surrendered at the close of September; and Byng thereupon sailed back with his squadron to Naples. The conduct of the English Admiral in fighting the Spanish fleet was entirely approved by the English Ministry. It is remarkable that Stanhope, who had left * Campbell's Admirals, vol. iv. p. 428. 1718. 66 FURY OF ALBERONI. 317 Spain before any news of the action had arrived writes to Byng from Bayonne on the 2d of September, recommending the very course which the Admiral had already taken: "Nothing has passed at Madrid which should "divert you from pursuing the instructions you have. If you should have an opportunity of attacking "the Spanish fleet, I am persuaded you will not let such an occasion slip; and I agree perfectly in opinion with "what is recommended to you by Mr. Secretary Craggs, "that the first blow you give should, if possible, be deci"sive. The two great objects which I think we ought “to have in view are, to destroy their fleet if possible, "and to preserve such a footing in Sicily as may enable us to land an army there." The manner in which the Admiral had anticipated these directions was much praised; even the Spaniards acknowledged his high personal merit; and, on his return from his command, this brave and skilful officer was deservedly raised to the rank of Viscount Torrington. The high-flown hopes which Alberoni had cherished of the Spanish armament may give us some idea of his burst of rage at its defeat. He wrote to the Marquis de Monteleon in most vehement terms, loudly complaining of breach of faith, and commanding that Minister to depart immediately from England. His letter and the ambassador's to Mr. Craggs, were also, by his direction, made public in London, with the view of raising a national ferment against the Ministry. But the indignation of Alberoni was not confined to words; he gave orders, in direct violation of the Treaty of Commerce, to seize the British goods and vessels in the Spanish ports, and to dismiss the British Consuls from the Spanish territory. Numerous privateers also were fitted out and sent forth *Coxe conjectures that "before Earl Stanhope quitted the capital, some intelligence of the discomfiture of the fleet probably reached "Alberoni." (House of Bourbon, vol. ii. p. 330.) But this is certainly an error. The action was fought on the 11th, Lord Stanhope set out on the 26th; and on examining the dates at which other tidings of the Sicilian army reached Madrid, it will be found that they never came in so short a time. Nor could a vessel be speedily despatched from a fleet just defeated and dispersed. Moreover Coxe's supposition is not readily to be reconciled with Alberoni's burst of indignation at the first public announcement of the battle. against the British traders. Yet it is remarkable that, in spite of these mutual injuries, the breach was not yet considered complete and decisive, and that a declaration of war from England was still withheld. We are also assured that an edict was published at Madrid by beat of drum, prohibiting all persons from speaking of the disaster of the fleet; an order which, as it seems suited only for the meridian of Tunis or Algiers, I should have thought utterly incredible in Spain, were it not recorded by most unimpeachable authority.* Alberoni himself, irritated and not dismayed by his reverses, haughtily persevered in his domestic preparations and foreign cabals; and I shall now proceed to relate the issue of his manifold schemes in Holland, Piedmont, Sweden, France, and England. The commercial jealousy of the Dutch, and their natural slowness, were turned to the best advantage by the Marquis Beretti Landi, the Spanish ambassador. He had, however, an able antagonist in the Minister from England, Earl Cadogan, whose great influence with the States rested not merely on his talents and services, but also on his known intimacy with the Duke of Marlborough, and on his marriage with a Dutch lady of powerful connections. Neither of these distinguished ̄rivals altogether prevailed. Cadogan, indeed, obtained the accession of Holland to the Quadruple Alliance; but Landi delayed it for several months, and until the cause of Spain had been struck by further disasters. At the Court of Turin there was no such opportunity for hesitation; the difficulties of Victor Amadeus were pressing and immediate. He found his kingdom of Sicily at the same time claimed by Charles and attacked by Philip. No succour, no hope appeared for him in any quarter; on the one side stood the Quadruple Allies, presenting the treaty and demanding his signature, and on the other side there gleamed 30,000 Spanish bayonets against him. Even after the expedition to Sicily, Alberoni had not altogether lost his hope of cajoling Victor *“On publie au son du tambour une défense de parler du désastre "de la flotte." (Duc de St. Aignan to the Regent, Sept. 17. 1718. Mém. de Noailles, vol. v. p. 96.) 1718. SWEDEN AND RUSSIA. 319 Amadeus: he represented the conquest of the island as only a precautionary measure to prevent its transfer from its rightful owner, and expressed an ardent zeal for the preservation of the Peace of Utrecht. But the artifice was too gross, and easily seen through.* The King of Sicily determined, that if he must lose his island, he would at least incline to that power which offered a positive, though insufficient, compensation for it; he therefore broke off all intercourse with Spain, acceded to the Quadruple Alliance, and consented to give over to Imperial troops the remaining fortresses of Syracuse, Melazzo, and Trapani. His Regal title of Sicily was soon after exchanged for that of Sardinia, still held by his descendants; and this was perhaps the only negotiation which the House of Savoy had ever yet carried on without extracting from it some advantage. It was In Sweden and Russia, the schemes of Alberoni seemed at first more hopeful; and, according to his own expression, there was reason to expect that the northern clouds would break in thunder and hail-storms.† A negotiation between Charles the Twelfth and the Czar had been opened in the Isle of Aland, under the mediation of a Swedish agent; and the Duke of Ormond had hastened to Russia as plenipotentiary of the Pretender. agreed that Peter should retain Livonia, Ingria, and other Swedish territories to the southward of Finland; that Charles should undertake the conquest of Norway and the recovery of Bremen and Verden; and that both monarchs should combine for the restoration of Stanislaus in Poland, and of the Stuarts in Great Britain. The latter point was foremost in the wishes of Gortz, who had planned and forwarded the whole design-who enjoyed more than ever the confidence of his master and who had left his Dutch captivity, stung with disappointment at his failure, and burning with revenge against King * "Esta carta (del Cardinal) en la realidad era absolutamente "inutil, y no debiera haber Alberoni perdido tiempo en ella." (Ortiz Compendio, vol. vii. p. 336.) † St. Simon, vol. xv. p. 308. ed. 1829. Amongst the Stuart Papers is the original passport given to Ormond in Russian and Latin, and signed by Peter the Great. Ormond travelled under the name of Brunet. George and King George's Ministers. So active and embittered an enemy was the very man to raise and direct the tempest against England. The tempest was raised; but it burst upon his own head. Charles, pursuing his plans and impatient of delay, led an army into Norway, notwithstanding the severity of winter; and on the 11th of December, with the snow and ice deep around him, he was pressing the siege of the frontier fortress of Frederickshall, when a musket-ball from an unknown hand laid him lifeless on the frozen ground. He had begun to reign and (what in him was synonymous) to fight in his eighteenth year; he died in his thirty-sixth; and, during that period, he had been the tyrant and scourge of that nation by whom his memory is now adored! Such is the halo with which glory is invested by posterity! But very different was the feeling at the time of Charles's fall; and a total change of system was so universally demanded as to be easily effected. His sister Ulrica was proclaimed his successor by the Senate; but the form of the monarchy was altered from the most despotic to the most limited in Europe. All his Ministers were dismissed, all his projects abandoned: his chief favourite, Gortz, gratified the public resentment by an ignominious death upon the scaffold; and the intended league, which had threatened the throne of England, vanished as speedily and utterly as one of those thunder-clouds to which Alberoni had compared it. I have already had occasion to notice the projects of Alberoni in France, and the party with which he was connected in that country. Its head was nominally the Duke, but in truth the Duchess du Maine; the former being of a timorous and feeble mind, and the latter abounding in courage and in cabals. She was granddaughter to the famous Condé, and was assured by all her dependants, especially her husband, that she inherited the spirit of that great man, although in truth her character had more of passion than prudence, and more of prudence than dexterity. A single fact from her domestic life will give an idea of her violence; she could not bear the least suspense of hunger, or restraint of regular meals, and had always in her apartment a table with cold meats, of which she partook at any instant that |