n6 THE CECILS
Gardiner, " that honours granted before success has crowned an undertaking are apt to become ridiculous in case of failure."
And from the very beginning failure dogged the ill-fated expedition. When it actually sailed, early in October, it was met in the Channel by a violent south-west gale, and put back in the greatest disorder to Falmouth and Plymouth. Finally, the fleet, consisting of seventy-six English and twenty Dutch vessels, with 5,000 sailors and 10,000 soldiers on board, put to sea on October 8th. The object in view was to destroy the King of Spain's shipping, to seize some important Spanish town, and above all to intercept the treasure-ships coming from the West Indies and the River Plate. 1 But no plan of action had been decided upon, and Cecil throughout proved entirely incapable of coming to any decision whatever. On the slightest provocation he called a council of war, and it was not till the fleet had arrived, without serious damage, in Spanish waters, that Puerto de Santa Maria in Cadiz Bay was selected as the point of attack. The operations which followed might, under more favourable circumstances and under less incompetent leaders, have been crowned with success. The Spaniards were unprepared, and the whole garrison of Cadiz consisted of 300 men ; and had the first attack been followed up with energy, the town could not have held out. Instead of this, time was frittered away in bombarding a fort and in marching hungry troops for twelve
1 Glanville's Voyage to Cadiz, p. 32.
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