war. France not only maintained her frontiers on the Scheldt and
the Rhine, but still exercised a predominant influence in Holland
and western Italy, and excluded British trade from territories
under her control. Until French troops were withdrawn from Holland,
as called for by the treaty, England refused to evacuate Malta.
Bonaparte, who wished further breathing space to build up the French
navy, tried vainly to postpone hostilities by threatening to invade
England and exclude her from all continental markets. "It will be
England," he declared, "that forces us to conquer Europe." The
war reopened in May of 1803.

With no immediate danger on the Continent and with all the resources
of a regenerated France at his command, Bonaparte now undertook
the project of a descent upon England on such a scale as never
before. Hazardous as he always realized the operation to be--it
was a thousand to one chance, he told the British envoys, that he
and his army would end at the bottom of the sea--he was definitely
committed to it by his own threats and by the expectation of France
that he would now annihilate her hereditary foe.

_Napoleon's Plan of Invasion_

An army of 130,000 men, with 400 guns and 20 days' supplies, was
to embark from four ports close to Boulogne as a center, and cross
the 36 miles of Channel to a favorable stretch of coast between
Dover and Hastings, distant from London some 70 miles. The transport
flotilla, as finally planned, was to consist of 2000 or more small
flat-bottomed sailing vessels with auxiliary oar propulsion-_chaloupes_
and _bateaux canonnieres_, from 60 to 80 feet over all, not over 8
feet in draft, with from two to four guns and a capacity for 100
to 150 men. Large open boats (_peniches_) were also to be used,
and all available coast craft for transport of horses and supplies.
Shipyards from the Scheldt to the Gironde were soon busy building
the special flotilla, and as fast as they were finished they skirted
the shores to the points of concentration under protection of coast
batteries. Extensive harbor and defense works were undertaken at
Boulogne and neighboring ports, and the 120 miles from the Scheldt
to the Somme was soon bristling with artillery, in General Marmont's
phrase, "a coast of iron and bronze."

The impression was spread abroad that the crossing was to be effected
by stealth, in calm, fog, or the darkness of a long winter night,
without the protection of a fleet. Almost from