Hearing that the French fleet
with a great treasure was in Vigo Bay, our admirals, Rooke and Hopson,
pursued the enemy thither; the troops landed and carried the forts that
protected the bay, Hopson passing the boom first on board his ship the
_Torbay_, and the rest of the ships, English and Dutch, following him.
Twenty ships were burned or taken in the port of Redondilla, and a vast
deal more plunder than was ever accounted for; but poor men before that
expedition were rich afterwards, and so often was it found and remarked
that the Vigo officers came home with pockets full of money, that the
notorious Jack Shafto, who made such a figure at the coffee-houses and
gaming-tables in London, and gave out that he had been a soldier at Vigo,
owned, when he was about to be hanged, that Bagshot Heath had been his
Vigo, and that he only spoke of La Redondilla to turn away people's eyes
from the real place where the booty lay. Indeed, Hounslow or Vigo--which
matters much? The latter was a bad business, though Mr. Addison did sing
its praises in Latin. That honest gentleman's muse had an eye to the main
chance; and I doubt whether she saw much inspiration in the losing side.

But though Esmond, for his part, got no share of this fabulous booty, one
great prize which he had out of the campaign was, that excitement of
action and change of scene, which shook off a great deal of his previous
melancholy. He learnt at any rate to bear his fate cheerfully. He brought
back a browned face, a heart resolute enough, and a little pleasant store
of knowledge and observation, from that expedition, which was over with
the autumn, when the troops were back in England again; and Esmond giving
up his post of secretary to General Lumley, whose command was over, and
parting with that officer with many kind expressions of goodwill on the
general's side, had leave to go to London, to see if he could push his
fortunes any way further, and found himself once more in his dowager
aunt's comfortable quarters at Chelsey, and in greater favour than ever
with the old lady. He propitiated her with a present of a comb, a fan, and
a black mantle, such as the ladies of Cadiz wear, and which my lady
viscountess pronounced became her style of beauty mightily. And she was
greatly edified at hearing of that story of his rescue of the nun, and
felt very little doubt but that her King James's relic, which he had
always dutifully worn in his desk, had kept him out of dang