contingent of twenty thousand troops serving with the
Spanish army in northern Italy against the Austrians. To the attempts
to negotiate, Martin replied only by pulling out his watch and giving
the government an hour to come to terms. There was nothing for it but
submission; and the English fleet left the harbor after a stay of
twenty-four hours, having relieved the empress of a dangerous enemy.
Henceforward it was evident that the Spanish war in Italy could only
be maintained by sending troops through France; England controlled the
sea and the action of Naples. These two last incidents, at St. Tropez
and Naples, deeply impressed the aged Fleuri, who recognized too late
the scope and importance of a well-founded sea power. Causes of
complaint were multiplying on both sides, and the moment was fast
approaching when both France and England must quit the pretence of
being only auxiliaries in the war. Before it came to that, however,
the controlling sea power and wealth of England again made itself felt
by attaching the King of Sardinia to the Austrian cause. Between the
dangers and advantages of the French or English alliance the king's
action was determined by a subsidy and the promise of a strong English
fleet in the Mediterranean; in return he engaged to enter the war with
an army of forty-five thousand men. This compact was signed in
September, 1743. In October, Fleuri being now dead, Louis XV. made
with Spain a treaty, by which he engaged to declare war against
England and Sardinia, and to support the Spanish claims in Italy, as
also to Gibraltar, Mahon, and Georgia. Open war was thus near at hand,
but the declaration was still deferred. The greatest sea fight that
took place occurred while nominal peace yet existed.

[Illustration: Pl. VII. MATTHEWS. FEB., 1744., Pl. VIIa. BYNG.
MAY, 1756.]

In the latter part of 1743 the Infante Philip of Spain had sought to
land on the coast of the Genoese Republic, which was unfriendly to the
Austrians; but the attempt had been frustrated by the English fleet,
and the Spanish ships forced to retreat into Toulon. They lay there
for four months, unable to go out on account of the English
superiority. In this dilemma the court of Spain applied to Louis XV.
and obtained an order for the French fleet, under the command of
Admiral de Court,--an old man of eighty years, a veteran of the days
of Louis XIV.,--to escort the Spaniards either to the Gulf of Genoa or
to their own port