twelve o'clock before the Triumph came within gunshot of the rearmost enemy, and nearly two before the main body came up with them off Dungeness. Again compelled to fight, 'Tromp ordered the merchants to make sail for the nearest Dutch port, keeping close under the French shore between Calais and Dunkirk for protection, and then turned like a panther on his pursuer.

'The battle was renewed on both sides with fury. De Ruiter gave fresh proofs of his fresh proofs of his courage; but the fortune of war was still against him. After some hours of this second engagement his vessel became unmanageable, and would have fallen into the enemy's hands had not 'Tromp seen his danger and sent Captain Duin to bring him out from the fight. With great difficulty he was extricated from his position and carried away. An hour or so later Tromp also began to fall back toward Boulogne, still, however, contesting every wave; and the mingled rout and battle lasted until night again separated the hostile hosts.

war.

Fortunately for the English fleet, though the air was bitterly cold, the sky was unusually clear for winter, so that the enemy's lights served them as polar-stars and enabled their ships to keep pretty close together and well up for the new battle of the morrow. On the second day Blake had captured or destroyed five Dutch men-of'The advantages gained by the recent reforms came out clearly in face of the enemy: the Admirals had not a single complaint to make as to the courage, steadiness and unity of purpose displayed by the inferior officers. In the Dutch fleet, on the contrary, want of concert, party bitterness and personal envy combined to clog the genius of the great commander. At the close of the second day's engagement several captains of ships sent word to the Brederode that they could resist no longer, pleading want of powder as an excuse, and Tromp was

compelled to send these men away from the main body in the night so as to prevent the treason and cowardice from spreading to the other ships. To conceal the true nature and cause of this defection, he made a pretence of giving them instructions to take up a new position to windward of the convoy, and make such a show of resistance as would keep the English frigates from coming too near. But this device failed of its own weakness. When daylight dawned, Blake saw at a glance that the fleet had been considerably reduced, and inferring that a squadron had been dispatched in the night to cover the flight of the merchants, he sent off a division of fleet sailers, drawing little water, in pursuit of them, while he himself bore down once more with the main body on his reduced but still unconquered enemy.

Tromp fought, as usual, with the most desperate courage but he had now little hope, with his broken and divided power, of doing more than occupy Blake until his richly laden convoy could run into the nearest port. Even this was doubtful. After the first shock of the third day's battle, he sent Captain Van Ness to the merchants, with orders for them to crowd sail and make for Calais road, as he found himself unable to afford them more than a few hours' protection from the enemy. As the fight grew fiercer, he sent his Fiscal or Treasurer to urge them to press on faster, or the English frigates would would soon be amongst them. But the wind then was blowing from the French coast, and notwithstanding his energetic attempts, Van Ness was unable to carry such a number of disorganised ships sufficiently near land to be out of danger.

More than half the Dutch frigates and men-of-war had now been taken, sunk or scattered; and considering that it was a species of insanity in Tromp to continue the engagement until they were all destroyed, the other

captains, contrary to their express orders, retreated on the flying convoy. Confusion then reached its height. Some of the English frigates came up ; and the merchants, in their alarm and disorder, ran foul of each other, knocked them to pieces or fell blindly into the enemy's power. Still fighting with the retreating men-of-war, Blake arrived in the midst of this strange scene late in the afternoon, and finding several ships run against him, as if desirous of being captured, the thought occurred to him that this was a device of his wily adversary to stay the victorious pursuit, and give time to rally some part of the discomfited fleet, and he issued strict and instant commands that every warship still in a condition to follow and fight the enemy should press on with all its force against the main body, leaving the traders in their rear to be watched and seized by the frigates already assigned to that service, or driven into ports whence it would be easy to recover them should the Dutch fleet be swept utterly from the Channel. Darkness alone. put an end to the exciting chase.

Tromp ran in under the French shore, some four miles from Calais, where he anchored the remnant of his once mighty fleet—now reduced to less than half the former number of masts, besides being damaged in every part. Blake consulted pilots and others well acquainted with the coast as to what Tromp could do in his new position; and the general opinion of these men was, that the Dutch could not weather the coast of Artois, as the wind and tide then were, and would be compelled to come out again to sea in order to get home. He therefore cast his anchors and sat down to repair his damages. The night was unusually dark, with a high gale blowing, so that the enemy's lights could not be seen; and when day again dawned the sea was clear in that direction, Tromp having slipped away and tided toward Dunkirk,

whence he got off into the harbours of Zealand. By twelve o'clock in the morning Blake was ready to give chase; but no enemy being then visible, and feeling that it would be useless to follow the runaways into the flats and shallows of their own coast, he stood over toward England, and the gale still rising, carried his fleet and prizes into Stoke's Bay, whence he and his colleagues in command wrote to inform the House of their success.

W. HEPWORTH DIXON

THE BATTLE OFF LOWESTOFT

1665

BEFORE the fleets of the two nations were prepared for sea, but after the war had actually broken out, Sir 'Thomas Allen, now raised to the rank of vice-admiral, cruising about the mouth of the straits with a squadron of eight or nine vessels, fell in with a Dutch fleet, coming home richly laden from Smyrna.

This fleet consisted of no less than forty merchant vessels, some of them very large, and well provided with ordnance, the whole under the convoy of four third-rate men-of-war. Notwithstanding the inferiority of his force, Allen attacked the enemy with so much vigour that he sank several of the ships, killed Brachel, the commander-in-chief, seized four of the richest prizes, one of which foundered at sea on her voyage to England, and drove the remainder into the Bay of Cadiz. Nor was this the only instance in which the Dutch had reason to repent their obstinacy, even before the great armaments came into collision; for in the preceding November the English fleet, hovering on the coast of Holland, met the homeward-bound Bordeaux fleet, and captured no less than 130 sail. Of these some proved to be French bottoms, and were discharged, but the rest were declared lawful prizes.

These losses compelled the Dutch, contrary to their usual practice, to lay an embargo on all vessels in their ports; by which their commerce and fisheries were