Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/516

496 confidence from his success six years before in a similar expedition; and if the attempt was imprudent, it was also necessary. The force which had been collected seemed adequate to overbear all anticipated opposition. A hundred and fifty armed vessels, with as many transports, carried an army of twenty thousand infantry and two thousand horse.

A landing was effected, not without difficulty, at some distance from the town. The troops were on shore, the stores were still in the transports, when, on the second night after their arrival, a hurricane arose so desperately violent, that before morning the wrecks of half the fleet were strewed along the beach, and the Arabs were murdering the crews. The remainder had cut their cables and escaped destruction, but were driven into an anchorage three days' march from the unprovided army. Charles had no alternative but to follow them. In a hostile country, without food, and surrounded by swarms of light-armed Moorish cavalry, who made foraging parties impossible, and ran their lances through every weary loiterer who dropped behind the ranks, he secured the retreat of a fraction of his followers, and in December he was again in Spain, crippled by the expense of the fruitless effort, and weakened even more by the moral effects of his misfortune.

Francis, on the receipt of the happy intelligence, was more than ever satisfied that he might venture on the plunge, dare the world's opinion, and make allies of so fortunate auxiliaries. In spite of De Guasto, he