14

THE DUC DE BOUILLON.

rine affairs) signified to the Duc de Bouillon that the King had little need of the wood bought of him, because the design of augmenting the Navy, for which it had been bought, was laid aside; and told him that his taking it back, and disposing of it, would be considered a favour.

"M. de Bouillon, who had been in some disgrace, and now wished to ingratiate himself, complied; he took the wood, and disposed of it at a loss of 100,000 crowns, which he certainly could ill afford. To his great surprise, last summer or autumn, being at his estate in Normandy, he heard of great augmentations making at Havre de Grâce, Brest, Rochefort, &c., in the Navy, and of great quantities of timber daily coming in there. This last circumstance incensed him against De Sartine, who had deceived him; and, on his return to Paris, he determined to inquire from whence this wood came. This he discovered by bribing a clerk in De Sartine's office. He immediately wrote to a person of his acquaintance in London, who had formerly been his secretary, informing him of the whole affair, as far as he knew of it, and begging he would inquire into it. He communicated the matter to M. de Choiseul, and to M. de Guignes, who had been ambassador

THE DUC DE CHARTRES.

15

in England, and to all the heads of the Queen's party; and, after long searches and inquiries, it was found that De Sartine had kept £70,000 to himself, and given £30,000 to Beaumarchais; that Maurepas, Miromesnil, and the Duc d'Aiguillon had one million and a half between them, and that the remaining unappropriated part remained in the treasurer of the Navy's hands.

"M. de Bouillon was for drawing up a memorial of the whole, and presenting it to the King, to expose to him the misconduct of the Ministry; but this was opposed by Choiseul, De Guignes, and the English gentleman, at least until some further discovery should be made." *

To return to our narrative: A sharp, but sanguinary conflict ensued between the French and English fleets, which had sailed out from Brest and Plymouth in 1778. The victory was undecided, but not positively to be beaten by Britannia on the waves, was a triumph to France. triumph to France. The Duc de Chartres, who had accompanied the squadron from Brest, was enthusiastically greeted upon his return to Paris.

With French sentiment the Duchesse de Chartres

* MS. (abbreviated) Mus. Brit. Ex Dono. Archdeacon Coxe,

16

THE DUCHESSE DE CHARTRES.

had been portrayed in a picture which found popular favour at the moment, as awaiting the return of her absent lord on the sea-shore, like a goddess invoking Mars, Neptune, and Eolus. The Duc and Duchesse de Chartres were not notoriously devoted to each other in domestic life, and the goddess in the picture (which was exhibited in Paris, 1778) was dressed in the height of French fashion; but the sentiment atoned for the discrepancies of which the artist had been guilty; as did the idea of the Duc de Chartres having been on the British Channel fighting the English, compensate to Parisians, for the moment, for his not having gained an absolute victory over the enemy. When the royal French hero appeared at the Opera, the applause was extreme, and crowns of laurel were presented to him. Afterwards, by a quick turn of popular caprice, he was murmured against for not having brought back more trophies of his conquest. For this quick turn, and the lampoons against him, the Duc de Chartres had probably to thank the Count de Maurepas-that old courtier being still much addicted to rhyme and ribaldry, and uniformly jealous of another's

success.

ENGLISH CAMPS AND MILITIA.

17

Again did the Count d'Orvilliers and Keppel meet on the sea, but this time it was said in France that they seemed rather to avoid than to seek each other. The excitement grew more and more vivid on both sides of the channel. Keppel was the hero of the moment in England. Even Lord Lyttelton, most of whose autograph letters are invitations to dinner, was roused. He wrote to his friend and convive, Mr. Roberts (in a free and easy handwriting):

"Captain Falkner is just arrived in town from Plymouth, with an express from Keppel. He came about four o'clock. Nothing but this is yet known -viz., that Keppel has engaged the French; that they had made a running fight of it, and were all got into Brest. Lord Sandwich is gone with the Captain to Kew. I am got vastly better. L." "Hill Street, ye 1st August."*

The American rebellion was almost forgotten amid the excitement of war with the French. The cause for the moment was obliterated by the effect. The southern coasts of England were "studded with camps." Militiamen were everywhere active. The whole country was in movement. King George * Autograph, Mus. Brit.

VOL. II.

C

and the Church were toasted. France was execrated on one side of the Channel, and England was pasquinaded on the other. All eyes in England were turned towards Admiral Keppel. A very small man, outwardly, was Admiral Keppel, to attract his country's observation. He was four years older than Admiral Count d'Estaing, having been born in 1725, but, like that French hero, Keppel bore in his body the marks of the Seven Years' War between France and England. In the Bay of Biscay, just twenty years before, Keppel was hit in the leg and lamed for life. "This," he had said,

66

may spoil my dancing, but not my fighting." Keppel had also served in General Braddock's campaign in the late war (as Washington had done); and when Admiral Byng was condemned to death for his Minorca defeat, he had vainly striven to save the life of that officer, and to intercede against what the French to this day call the "sévérité implacable" of England. ("In England they kill an admiral from time to time, to encourage the others,"

said Voltaire.) Byng's fate.

Keppel was not discouraged by His courage was from a hardy. Dutch root. His ancestors had not come over to

England with the Conqueror, but with William of