determined immediately to repair to him, and receive his orders; but before he set out upon this most hazardous adventure he requested an interview with M. Lynch, who was just then returned from the capital. That magistrate, who was always a loyalist at heart, foresaw the speedy overthrow of Buonaparte, and had already given his word to the Polignacs (then in confinement), that if Bourdeaux declared for the king, he would be the first to mount the white cockade; this promise he now renewed to Rochejaquelein, and charged him to assure the Duc of his devoted services, and that he would deliver to him the keys of the town. After many difficulties and dangers, the Marquis succeeded in getting on board a ship bound, with a license, to S. Sebastian’s; and, escaping from a storm by which several vessels were wrecked on the coast, he landed at Passages, and hastened to St. Jean de Luz. ♦LORD WELLINGTON REFUSES TO SEND AN EXPEDITION TO THE COAST OF POITOU.♦ When the Duc heard his report of the state of feeling in La Vendée, of the general opinion which prevailed in France, and of the disposition which there was to receive him in Bourdeaux, he declared that nothing should now make him forsake that country in which he had found subjects who were still so faithful. Without delay, accompanied by the Duc de Guiche, Rochejaquelein proceeded to Lord Wellington, who was then at Garitz; he assured him that Bourdeaux would declare for the Bourbons as soon as a British force should approach it; and, as the means of effecting a powerful diversion in aid of that loyal city, he proposed that the British General should send one or two vessels and a few hundred men to land him by night upon the coast of Poitou, escort him some two leagues into the interior, and then leave him there: while they re-embarked and drew the attention of the troops, he would pursue his way alone, and raise once more that loyal race who had exerted themselves so dutifully, and suffered so severely, in the most frantic and ferocious times of the revolution. Lord Wellington listened with great interest to these representations; but he doubted whether the feelings of the people towards the royal family were what Rochejaquelein believed them to be; and he did not think himself authorized to detach even a small force upon an expedition such as ♦MÉMOIRES DE LA MARQUISE DE LA ROCHEJAQUELEIN, PP. 513–28.♦ was proposed, when he had no instructions from his own government, and moreover when he was on the eve of great operations, ... for he was now preparing to pass the Adour. ♦SUCHET FAILS IN AN ATTEMPT TO SURPRISE A BRITISH CORPS. DECEMBER.♦