The Fishguard Invasion by the French in 1797

f dark figures rushed about with torches flaring wildly in their hands; the whole scene reminding one forcibly of Pand

o me as bringing my neglected studies to my mind, so

ding hordes (which was the term we usually applied to the Gallic soldiers), who n

ubbings in the back kitchen of Trehowel. The precise number of the men who landed that night on a bit (though remote) of Great Britain was fourteen hundred; of whom six hundred were regular troops, and eight hundred were convicts of the basest sort, described, indeed, in the pa

mes took the form of temper, yet to my astonishment I heard the sound of sobs which could

nce; nor did I. My idea of Nancy had been chiefly connected with the peppermints she had been in the habit of giving me as a child; I thought her a person of a free and generous disposition. She was a tall, fine young woman of five and twenty, with dark hair and eyes (these last being dark grey not brown), decided but pretty eye

t with a boy's utter want of d

about Davy for? I though

d Nancy with animation, her tears dried up and her eyes sparklin

nto trouble for horse-stealing? Why, a

re for their customs and laws? 'Deed to goodness, nothing at all. As to James Bo

in Welsh, and used a good many more exclamations than I hav

iet disposition. "And don't shout or you'll bring the Fre

the steep road which leads from Goodwick to Fishguard. This road was thronged with people, horses, carts, furniture, cattle all mixed together, and all (the animate ones at least) making their way with such speed as their

ips lighted up fitfully by cressets of fire. At the top of the cliff was Trehowel, and close by was the French camp surmounted by the tricolor flag. A little nearer us was Brestgarn, where Llewelyn lived, and just at our feet was the village and church of Llanunda. Goodwick lay to the east of us; there was a steep hill down to it, a magnificent flat of sands, with sea on one side and marsh on the other, and t

g out to see what they can get, the sco

ark clumps of men leaving the main mass and coming towards us; but Llewelyn inspired confi

l you do, Nan

with her; don't trouble about me, my dear," said

go there alone, wait a bit for me

you want to come, but better go

at the farm, for we had run down the s

s. Of course we did not understand a word they said, which, perhaps, was no loss under the circumstances. They were dressed in all sorts of uniforms-some of them in a dusky red (our soldiers' coats dyed, as I afterwards heard), others wore the regular dark blue of the French army. An enormous fire blazed o

elyn, again. "They

t rather, it may be, to the lack of one, which had perhaps occasioned t

ancy. "We'll get plenty again. I only hope ther

ensively, and there was at times a considerable stoc

the generous liquid through throats the outsides of which were much in want of shaving, elbows were raised, and voices also in the intervals of quaffing. Suddenly one man paused in his potations, the brass face of the old clock that stood in the

ng all caution in his exasperation. "The

arkness-yet more black to those who came from that blaze of light-we got clear away; but turning ere long to look, we perceived that Llewelyn had not been so fortunate, he was older and a good deal heavier than we were; and then his righteous anger had rendered him rather breathless before he began to run. He was now surrounded by a cr