Page:The Second Armada - Hayward - 1871.pdf/11

Rh It was on the evening of the 17th of June, 1874, that the Admiralty received intelligence that an American squadron had been sighted off Milford Haven on its way to the Irish Sea, and my Lords immediately telegraphed to the Commander of the Channel Fleet, Admiral Sir Henry Keppel, to be on the lookout. Three hours afterwards arrived the news that the Armada had been descried, and subsequent reports coming in rapidly left little doubt that the Suffolk coast had been chosen for the landing. The very locality might be inferred with tolerable certainty from its almost exclusive adaptation to the purpose, and from the ascertained fact that foreign officers, disguised as artists, had been seen sketching it. We also, with all our talk about un-English practices, had not disdained to employ spies. Fouché certainly sent the Duke of Wellington Napoleon's plan of the Waterloo campaign, though it came too late; and it was shrewdly suspected, from the unusual foresight shown by the English Government, that there was a Fouché in the military Cabinet of the League.

So soon as the course of the headmost ships left no doubt of the precise destination of the expedition, the telegraphs were set to work, and all the available troops were brought down without delay. His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief was present in person, but the detailed arrangements were left to Lord Strathnairn and Lord Sandhurst, assisted by General Wolseley and a well-appointed Staff. A couple of hours sufficed to dig in the sand such rifle pits and trenches as were still wanting; and these were manned with the Guards, the Rifles, a battalion of Marines, and the Inns of Court Volunteers. The rocky and un-