widen his plans. According to the scheme of
September 29th, three expeditions were now to set out; the first was
to assure the safety of the French West Indies; the second was to
recover the Dutch colonies in those seas and reinforce the French troops
still holding out in part of St. Domingo; while the third had as its
objective West Africa and St. Helena. The Emperor evidently hoped to
daze us by simultaneous attacks in Africa, America, and also in Asiatic
waters. After these fleets had set sail in October and November, 1804,
Ireland was to be attacked by the Brest fleet now commanded by
Gantheaume. Slipping away from the grip of Cornwallis, he was to pass
out of sight of land and disembark his troops in Lough Swilly. These
troops, 18,000 strong, were under that redoubtable fighter, Augereau;
and had they been landed, the history of the world might have been
different. Leaving them to revolutionize Ireland, Gantheaume was to make
for the English Channel, touch at Cherbourg for further orders, and
proceed to Boulogne to convoy the flotilla across: or, if the weather
prevented this, as was probable in January, he was to pass on to the
Texel, rally the seven Dutch battleships and the transports with their
25,000 troops, beat back down the English Channel and return to Ireland.
Napoleon counted on the complete success of one or other of Gantheaume's
moves: "Whether I have 30,000 or 40,000 men in Ireland, or whether I am
both in England and Ireland, the war is ours."[326]

The objections to the September combination are fairly obvious. It was
exceedingly improbable that the three fleets could escape at the time
and in the order which Napoleon desired, or that crews enervated by
long captivity in port would succeed in difficult operations when
thrust out into the wintry gales of the Atlantic and the Channel.
Besides, success could only be won after a serious dispersion of
French naval resources; and the West Indian expeditions must be
regarded as prompted quite as much by a colonial policy as by a
determination to overrun England or Ireland.[327]

At any rate, if the Emperor's aim was merely to distract us by widely
diverging attacks, that could surely have been accomplished without
sending twenty-six sail of the line into American and African waters,
and leaving to Gantheaume so disproportionate an amount of work and
danger. This September combination may therefore be judged distinctly
inferior to that of July, which, wi