Page:The Siege of London - Posteritas - 1885.djvu/53



HE division of the French army of invasion which had landed in Sutherlandshire by what was a veritable coup de main, consisted of about 10,000 men, comprising two brigades of infantry of the line, four batteries of field artillery, a numerous commissariat staff, and land transport corps. As is now well known, the French had for a long time been secretly and quietly planning this mode of invasion. They had surveyed every inch of the coast, and made themselves perfectly acquainted with every obstacle and impediment in their way. They were aware that a part of the country was absolutely without any defences save what nature interposed, and they were not at all calculated to keep back a resolute foe. That foe once landed, there were absolutely no military obstacles worthy the name between him and Edinburgh, with the exception of three forts miserably garrisoned. It is, of course, pretty certain that, had the British navy been strong enough to effectually blockade the sea-board of Great Britain, an invasion might have been defied; but the ludicrously weak state of the navy had long been a theme of comment throughout Europe, while in England itself the subject had attracted the attention and aroused the fears of many thoughtful men. These men, however, had been howled down and taunted with being "alarmists" and "panic-mongers," and so the country was befooled into a sense of security, and the fatal optimism of pot-house politicians was allowed to prevail.

The invading force, having secured a footing, encamped on the beach of the Kyle of Scow, with an effective trench