Luckily for the British, Louis XIV did not want to
make them hate him more than he could help, because he hoped to use
them for his own ends when he had brought them under James again.
Better still, William beat James in Ireland about the same time. Best
of all, the Royal Navy began to renew its strength; while it made up
its mind to stop foreign invasions of every kind. Even Jacobite
officers swore they would stop the French fleet, even if James himself
was on board of it. Then the tide of fortune turned for good and all.
In the spring of 1692 Louis and James, with a French and a
Jacobite-Irish army, were at La Hogue, in the north-west corner of the
Normandy peninsula, ready for the invasion of England. They had to
wait for Tourville to clear the Dutch and British fleets away. But
they thought these fleets had not joined company and that the British
fleet would be so full of Jacobites as to be easily defeated again. At
the first streak of dawn on the 19th of May Admiral Russell was off
Harfleur, at the north-east corner of the Normandy peninsula.
Pages:
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183