CHAPTER X. X. 1719. In England, as in France, the hopes of Alberoni CHAP. rested more on internal factions, that on foreign arms. He knew the numbers and influence of the English Jacobites; he heard the clamours of the opposition against the Spanish war, and he trusted that the party which so eagerly echoed his manifestoes in the House of Commons would be as ready to support him in his schemes against the reigning family. But in this he was certainly quite deceived. Most statesmen bred in despotic monarchies utterly mistake the nature of our Parliamentary warfare, and cannot distinguish between the loyal subject who declaims against a minister, and the traitor who plots against the throne. Flushed with vain hopes, and finding the prospect of the Swedish invasion closed by the death of Charles the Twelfth, Alberoni resolved to assist the Pretender with an expedition of his own. Accordingly, he gave directions for equipping a formidable armament at Cadiz, and offered its command to the Duke of Ormond, the same general who some years before had led an English expedition against Spain, who had attempted Cadiz, and stormed Vigo! But such are only the common vicissitudes of exiles; they are used as tools by X. 1719. CHAP. those who once felt them as foes. The Pretender himself was also invited to Spain, not indeed to head the vanguard of the invading army, but to be able to join it speedily, in the event of its safe landing and prosperous progress. Since the influence of France had compelled him to cross the Pyrenees, James had resided sometimes at Urbino and sometimes at Rome. He had lately, to the great joy of his party, contracted a marriage with Princess Clementina, the grand-daughter of John Sobieski, late King of Poland, and she was on her way to join her betrothed husband, when she was arrested and detained at Inspruck, in the Imperial territories: a favour of the Emperor to the English Government unworthy of them to solicit, and base in him to grant. The memory of John Sobieski, the heroic deliverer of Vienna, might have claimed more gratitude from the son of the Prince whom he had saved. The Chevalier did not hesitate to accept Alberoni's invitation to Spain; but knowing the great power of the Imperialists in Italy, and seeing by the affair at Inspruck how readily that power would be exerted against him, especially while a British fleet rode victorious in the Mediterranean, he thought stratagem requisite to effect his design. He pretended to set out to the northward with the Earls of Mar and Perth, and in reality despatched those noblemen and a part of his suite, who, as he expected, were arrested at Voghera, he being supposed to be amongst them. They were conveyed to the castle of Milan, and some time elapsed be X. 1719. fore the mistake was discovered and the prisoners CHAP. were released. The news that the Pretender was. taken had meanwhile spread abroad, and Lord Stair had written it in triumph to the Ministers in London. Under the cover of this report, James secretly embarked at the little port of Nettuno; and after touching at Cagliari, landed at Rosas in the beginning of March, 1719. There being then no further object in mystery, he was received at Madrid, not only publicly, but Royally; his residence was appointed in the palace of Buen Retiro, and visits were paid to him as to the King of England by Philip and his Queen. The magnificence of his entry and public reception is extolled by Spanish writers. But I may observe in passing, that the ancient splendour of the Court of Madrid had long since faded away, during the melancholy reigns of the last Austrian Princes, and that the subsequent accounts of it which the Spaniards are still inclined to utter and we to receive are often indebted to fancy for their brilliant colouring. Never, for example, was there an occasion when splendour would have been more natural and becoming when it better accorded with the popular feeling, or had been ushered in by longer preparation than the first public entry of Philip himself in February, 1701, four months after the death of Charles the Second; yet never was there a pageant more mean and unsightly. For when we discard the national exaggerations, and look to the impartial testimony of an Englishman, who happened to be X. 1719. 66 66 CHAP. present, we find that "his Majesty entered in a filthy old coach of the late King, without guards; his better sort of attendants, some on "horseback and some in coaches, at half an hour's "distance from one another; and divers of the in"ferior sort attending the baggage, in so very ragged clothes as exposed them extremely to the 66 scorn of the Spaniards." At the same time order was so ill preserved, that "no less than forty men, "women, and children, were trod under foot "and killed outright, and above one hundred are "now said to be languishing under their bruises, "and dying daily."* On James's arrival at Madrid, the orders for sailing were despatched to the armament at Cadiz. It consisted of five men of war and about twenty transports, with 5000 soldiers, partly Irish, on board, and arms for 30,000 more. Several of the chief exiles of 1715 took part in this enterprise. Ormond himself was to embark when the fleet touched at Coruña, and to assume its command with the title of Captain-General of the King of Spain. He was provided with a proclamation to be published at his landing, in the name of Philip, declaring that his Majesty had determined to send part of his forces as auxiliaries to King James; that he hoped Providence would favour so just a * Mr. Jackson to Mr. Pepys, Feb. 24. 1701. Pepys's Correspondence. + Duke of Ormond to the Pretender, March 17. and 27. 1719. Stuart Papers. X. 1719. cause; but that the fear of ill success should not CHAP. hinder any person from declaring for it, since he promised a secure retreat in his dominions to all that should join him; and in case they were forced to leave their country, he engaged that every sea or land officer should have the same rank as he enjoyed in Great Britain, and the soldiers be received and treated like his own. In England, meanwhile, the King and Ministers were still more active for their own defence. The Duke of Orleans, eager to requite a similar favour, had sent them timely warning of the intended expedition*; and he offered them the aid of any number of his troops. These were declined; but six battalions were accepted, and came over from the Austrians in the Netherlands, and two thousand men from the States-General -a very doubtful policy, where the strength of the foreign succour was by no means such as to counterbalance the disgrace of employing it. The English troops were disposed to the best advantage, especially in the north and west. A squadron of our ships, under Sir John Norris, rode in the Channel. Both Houses assured the King of their support, and a proclam * Letter of Abbé Dubois to Earl Stanhope, March 15. 1719. Hardwicke Papers, vol. xxxviii. He gives all the details of the Chevalier's embarkation at Nettuno, says that Cammock had gone to him at Rome déguisé en matelot, and that Ormond passed the Pyrenees déguisé en valet. He offers as aid "tout ce que nous pourrions faire pour la conservation de la France "si elle était en danger." 66 |