Dunkirk enters the narrative as the site of a prospective political humiliation: amid England’s expanding military power, Louis XIV was expected to demolish its fortifications under English pressure. The reference makes the city a measure of the shifting balance between England and France, rather than the setting of a narrated action.

Dunkirk in the Military Balance

The passage places the threatened demolition alongside England’s recent capture of Gibraltar and its ongoing effort to take Barcelona. These advances form part of a wider account of English power: a large fleet, troops deployed across Europe, and victories that were forcing France to withdraw. In this sequence, Dunkirk’s fortifications represent a position France was expected to surrender.

Political Significance

The emphasis falls not on a completed demolition but on the anticipated shame of Louis XIV having to carry it out himself. Dunkirk thus marks the pressure England could exert on its rival and the reversal of their relative fortunes. Its mention helps turn the military survey into an argument about national ascendancy: England’s achievements are presented as making the threatened dismantling of the fortifications a public emblem of French retreat.