sur le champ, 'at once

33. le camp de Boulogne. Boulogne is the great seaport town in Picardy, opposite Folkestone. There Napoléon assembled 160,000 men and 10,000 horses, and a flotilla of 1300 vessels and 17,000 sailors, to invade England in 1804. Such was the alarm raised in England by this camp, that the coasts of Sussex were covered with Martello towers and lines of defence, and nearly half the ]x>pulation of Britain was formed into volunteer corps. Lord Nelson attacked a flotilla there, disabling 10 vessels and sinking 5 (3d Aug. 1801), but in another attempt he was repulsed with great loss(i8th Aug. 1801). In October 1804 Sir Sidney Smith unsnccessiully

en. V.] NOTES. 173

attempted to bum the flotilla with fire-mach:nes called catamarans. The army removed on the breaking out of the war with Austria in 1805.

36-7. 8i Ton m'eût annoncé, subjunctive pluperfect used elegantly after si instead of the pluperfect indicative. Cf. Ch. I. 1. 129.