About eleven thousand men were embarked under the conduct of Earl Rivers, with a large train of artillery; and the combined squadrons, commanded by sir Cloudesley Shovel, set sail from Plymouth on the thirteenth day of August.

Next day they were forced into Torbay by contrary winds, and there they held a council of war to concert their operations, when they discovered that Guiscard's plan was altogether chimerical, or at least founded upon such slight assurances and conjectures as could not justify their proceeding to execution.

An express was immediately despatched to the admiralty with the result of this council; and, in the meantime, letters arrived at court from the earl of Galway, after his retreat from Madrid to Valencia, soliciting succours with the most earnest entreaties.

The expedition to France was immediately postponed, and sir Cloudesley Shovel was ordered to make the best of his way to Lisbon, there to take such measures as the state of the war in Spain should render necessary.
Guiscard and his officers being set on shore, the fleet sailed with the first fair wind, and towards the latter end of October arrived at Lisbon.

On the twenty-eighth day of the next month the king of Portugal died, and his eldest son and successor being but eighteen years of age, was even more than his father influenced by a ministry which had private connexions with the court of Versailles.