re at anchor off Gravelines, and there covering the
transports at Dunkirk. On the 22nd, Roquefeuil appeared off Dungeness
and anchored there. As soon as he knew Roquefeuil's whereabouts, Norris
resolved to attack him without delay. The wind, being N.W., was
favourable to his enterprise, and at the same time made it impossible
for the expedition to leave Dunkirk. Should the wind change before
Roquefeuil was brought to action and defeated, Norris held that he was
strong enough to detach a force to impeach Saxe and Baraille, and at the
same time to give a good account of Roquefeuil. But matters did not
exactly turn out in this wise. On the 24th Norris left the Downs, with a
light wind from the N.W., and an ebb tide in his favour, making for
Dungeness, where Roquefeuil was still lying. His appearance in the
offing was Roquefeuil's first information that Norris was to the
eastward of him in superior force, and it greatly disconcerted
Roquefeuil. He held a hasty council of war and decided to cut and run.
By this time the tide had turned and the wind had fallen, so that he
could not stir until the tide again began to ebb. Norris, similarly
disabled, had anchored some few miles to the eastward, intending to make
his attack as soon as wind and tide allowed. But during the night a
furious gale from the N.E. sprang up, which drove most of Norris's ships
from their anchors, and when daylight came the French were nowhere to be
seen. Roquefeuil had slipped his cables, and with the gale behind him
was hurrying back to Brest. Norris went after him as far as Beachy Head,
but there gave up the chase and returned to the Downs, to make sure that
Saxe and Baraille, for whom the wind was now favourable, might find
their way barred should they attempt to set sail. The transports,
however, were by now in no position to move, nor was either Saxe or
Baraille in any mind to allow them to move. They both realized that the
game was up. The troops were in the transports, and they suffered
greatly in the gale that frustrated Norris' attack on Roquefeuil. But
that was merely an accident of warfare. It was not the gale that
shattered the expedition, nor did it save England from invasion. On the
contrary, while it played havoc with the transports and troops at
Dunkirk, it also saved Roquefeuil's fleet from destruction at Dungeness.
But, gale or no gale, the transports and troops never could have crossed
so long as Norris held on to the Downs. Nor could th