The invasion, though it ended in smoke, was very seriously projected, and hung over us for great part of the summer; nor was it radically baffled till the winter following. Immense preparations were made along their coasts of flat-bottomed boats. They even notified their design to the Dutch; but at the same time informing the States, that they did not intend to disturb the established succession, but to punish England for her attempts on their coasts the last year. This notification had the least serious air in the whole transaction, but accorded with those weak councils, which knew not how to conduct any of their operations. We were defenceless at home, and could not assemble above twelve thousand men. Our towns were crowded with French prisoners. They were removed up into the country, and committed to the guard of the Militia. The Earl of Orford,[50] with the Militia of Norfolk, was garrisoned at Portsmouth, whence they addressed the King with offers and promises of service--a zeal somewhat unconstitutional, and indicating how far from impossible it might be to divert this national force to the same purposes as are always reasonably apprehended from a standing Army. In the present case the apprehension was the more pregnant, as the officers of the Militia were chiefly Tory gentlemen. To ward off or dissipate the invasion, Admiral Rodney[51] was dispatched to the French coast; and arriving off Havre de Grace, he with two bomb-ketches set fire to the town in two or three places, though the fire from the forts was very warm. He threw so prodigious a number of bombs into the place, that he almost melted his own mortars; but the flat-bottomed boats, which were not finished, proved to be out of his reach; and he returned with having done but inconsiderable damage. About the same time advice being received that Monsieur Thurot, with 1500 men under his command, had escaped out of Dunkirk, another battalion was flung into Dover Castle, and two more were ordered into the lines at Chatham--but Thurot was not then sailed. FOOTNOTES: [32] The story of Lord George Sackville. [33] The late Earl of Arran was only brother of the last Duke of Ormond, and had been elected Chancellor of Oxford, on the forfeiture of his brother, to show the devotion of the University to that family, and to the Jacobite cause. [34] John Fane, Earl of Westmoreland, married Mary, only daughter of Lord Henry Cavendish, a younger son of the first Duke of Devonshire. [35] George Henry Lee, third Earl of Lichfield, married Diana, daughter of Sir Thomas Frankland; a very remarkable union--for she was fourth in descent from Oliver Cromwell, as her Lord was from King Charles the First. They had no issue. [36] He was not even permitted to sell his regiment, though he had paid 8,000_l._ for it. [37] 1740_l._ were collected for them in London alone. The Romans dragged Princes in triumph after their cars--the English taxed themselves to support their prisoners.