troops, perhaps more; '1,000 sandbags' (empty as yet);
demolition of Dunkirk the thing aimed at." If only the Dutch
prove hoistable!--

"And so, from May on to September, it noisily proceeds, at
multiplex rates? and often with more haste than speed: and in such
five months (seven, strictly counted) of clangorous movement and
dead-lift exertion, there were veritably got across, of Horse and
Foot with their equipments, the surprising number of '16,334 men.'
[Adelung, iii. A, 201.] May 20th it began,--that is, the embarking
began; the noise and babble about it, which have been incessant
ever since, had begun in February before;--and on September 26th,
Ostend, now almost weary of huzzaing over British glory by
instalment, had the joy of seeing our final portions of Artillery
arrive: Such a Park of Siege-and-Field Artillery," exults the
Gazetteer, "as"--as these poor creatures never dreamt of before.

"Magnanimous Lord Stair, already Plenipotentiary to the Dutch, is
to be King's General-in-Chief of this fine Enterprise; Carteret,
another Lord of some real brilliancy, and perhaps of still
weightier metal, is head of the Cabinet; hearty, both of them, for
these Anti-French intentions: and the Public cannot but think,
Surely something will come of it this time? More especially now
that Maillebois, about the middle of August, by a strange turn of
fortune, is swept out of the way. Maillebois, lying over in
Westphalia with his 30 or 40,000, on 'Check to your King' this year
past, had, on sight of these Anti-Dunkirk movements, been ordered
to look Dunkirk way, and at length to move thitherward, for
protection of Dunkirk. So that Stair, before his Dunkirk business,
will have to fight Maillebois; which Stair doubts not may be