k Toulon.[241]

It so chanced that on that very day the ardour of the Provencaux brought
about a very different situation. The arrival of Hood's fleet encouraged
the moderates to send two Commissioners, representing the two coast
Departments, to seek help from the British fleet. Thereupon on his
flagship, the "Victory," Hood drew up a public Declaration that, if the
ships-of-war in Toulon and Marseilles were unrigged and the French Royal
standard hoisted, he would take those cities under his protection,
respect private property and, on the conclusion of peace, restore the
warships to the French monarchy. He then sent to a Spanish squadron,
under Langara, cruising off the coast of Roussillon, with a request for
help. That officer soon had the promise of 2,000 Spanish troops, to be
detached from the army invading that province. The Jacobin forces under
Carteaux having crushed the moderates in Marseilles, Hood made for
Toulon, though as yet the Spanish ships were not in sight. He cast
anchor in the outer roadstead on 27th August, and landed 1,500 men near
Fort Lamalgue, east of the town. In the afternoon fifteen Spanish ships
arrived, and on the next day landed 1,000 men. On the 28th Hood also
issued a proclamation to the effect that he would hold Toulon in trust
only for Louis XVII until peace should be restored to France.[242] To
this the Toulonese assented; the opposition of some of their sailors and
troops soon collapsed; and a detachment of Carteaux' force was easily
dislodged from a strong position near Ollioules, north-west of the town
(31st August). Toulon therefore seemed a sure gain for the royalist
cause.

Yet Pitt and his colleagues were careful not to identify themselves with
that cause. Hood, having implied in his Toulon proclamation that one of
the objects of Great Britain was the restoration of the French monarchy,
Ministers warned him that "the true ground of the war was to repel an
unjust and unprovoked aggression against His Majesty, and his Allies,
and the rest of Europe, which had been evidently threatened and
endangered by the conduct of France." True, in the course of the
struggle England had supported the French Royalists, and might find it
prudent, especially in view of the events at Toulon, to assist in
restoring monarchy. "But," adds Lord Chatham, "it is to be considered as
arising out of the circumstances and founded on the considerations which
I have stated, and not as making part of the objec