of his ships had been captured, one was burned, three were sunk, and his loss in dead and wounded was very considerable. Blake was naturally much cast down. He accused many of his captains with baseness of spirit, prayed that their Honours of the Admiralty might be pleased to send down some gentlemen to make an impartial and strict examination of the deportment of several commanders, and hoped that they might give him, their unworthy servant, a discharge from this employment, so far too great for him.

Tromp, on the other hand, was elated by his success, and proposed to his captains to sail up the Thames, since the rest of the English fleet had gone there for shelter; but although the scheme was enthusiastically received, the dangers of the navigation, and the want of pilots, proved insurmountable objections. It was after this battle that he is reported to have sailed for some days up and down the Channel with a broom fixed to his mainmast, as if he were resolved to sweep the sea of the English, but I am much inclined to doubt this story. Not only must it have been a broom of immense size to be distinguished at such a distance, but there is not the least mention of it in any of the books kept on the Dutch fleet at that time, and Dutch tradition is equally silent on the subject. The only authority that I have been able to find is an absurd little news-pamphlet published about that time in London, and which has been copied word for word by everybody afterwards as if it were the New Testa

ment. Against this testimony we may put the serene temperament, the moderation and modesty of a great man, who never before and never afterwards performed any deed out of mere show, and who had as high an opinion of Blake as Blake had of him.

It was during this battle, too, that while the Dutch admiral stood on his own deck watching the battle, one of his sailors hurried past him with a bag of powder, and not recognising him, told him to get out of his way, dealing him at the same time a box on the ear that nearly knocked him down. Tromp said not a word, but walked to a less busy part of the vessel. When the battle was over, he called the man before him. The sailor remembered having given somebody a blow, but was terrified to find that it was the admiral himself. You need not be afraid, my son,' said Tromp, 'for you did your duty. Never allow any man to interfere in the execution of your orders. But next time you hit, don't hit so hard.' The man was thereupon promoted.

There can be no doubt that the Dutch felt very proud of their victory. It was given out by the States that everyone who cared for the risk might fit out a privateer and make war on his own account. There was an immediate activity in all the ports. The restless spirit which had been somewhat checked by the war, became stronger than ever. There was a regular rush. Over a hundred letters of marque were issued in one week. Hundreds of English coasting ships and fisher boats were captured. Two

H

One was from

Neither was

by a volley of

Zealand privateers, who had got up a sort of partnership, brought thirteen prizes into port in eleven days, and so fierce was the mutual hatred thereby developed, that an Englishman and Dutchman could meet nowhere without coming to blows. Two fishingsmacks met near the Dogger Bank. Vlieland, the other from Harwich. armed. The English began the battle stones, the Dutch answered by a broadside of woodblocks. The English then took to their boat-hooks, the Dutch to their oars; and having thus belaboured each other for some time, the latter got on board the Harwich boat, forced the crew into their own hold among their fish, fastened down the hatches, and brought the prize into the Zuyder Zee.

During this time, however, the Dutch government committed a sad blunder. Tromp warned them in vain that the English were a harder enemy to deal with than the Spanish. The States foolishly declined to make any improvements, although they must have known that a second contest was inevitable, Their slowness in giving and executing orders prevented a new fleet being built or the old one being repaired. Not a grain of powder, not a round of ammunition, not a new ship was sent to Tromp after his victory, but he was packed off to the Bay of Biscay in escort of one hundred and fifty merchantmen, with the order to bring back another fleet that lay waiting for him there. He went, but he had scarcely arrived, in the middle of February, when an express yacht from the

States ordered him to make all haste home, as they had reason to believe that another English fleet had run out and was blocking up the mouth of the river. It was true enough. Great preparations had been made in England to wipe out the disgrace, while the Dutch sat with their hands in their pockets. When Tromp arrived off Portland on the 28th February, he looked at his captain and his captain looked at him, and nodded.

There they are, sir,' said he, pointing to eighty English men-of-war that were lying right in his way, 'and there is little doubt what they want.'

'There they are, indeed,' said Tromp; 'they want fighting, methinks, and they'll have plenty of it.'

rear.

His dispositions were soon made. The wind was in his favour, and Tromp could therefore begin the battle when he liked. The merchantmen and a sufficient number of men-of-war were ordered to the rear, and the fleet was divided into three squadrons : Florisz had the van, Evertsen the centre, and De Ruyter the The English were divided into two squadrons; Blake and Deane had the one, and General Monk, newly arrived from Scotland, commanded the other. It was eight o'clock in the morning when Tromp's ship, the 'Brederode,' met the English admiral's ship, the 'Triumph,' with Blake and Deane standing side by side on the quarter-deck. The fight lasted till darkness, and was carried on with great fury. For miles the sea was covered with ships that lay together in threes or fours, and broke out into flame and

smoke. De Ruyter was surrounded by a whole cluster of his enemies until he was rescued by Evertsen and his squadron. The Dutch Captain Poort sailed into the English frigate Sampson,' but so damaged her that on jumping over with his crew, friend and foe went down together. The Dutch Captain Cleydeyck, beset on each side by an enemy, was already on his way to the powder stores to blow up his vessel, when his friend Regemorter came to his assistance. Cleydeyck's ship was sinking, but in the moment of despair he led his men to board the English 'Prosperous.' Captain Barker was killed and the ship taken, when suddenly Captain Veysey, of the English frigate 'Merlin,' came up, forced him to abandon the 'Prosperous' and take refuge, with all his men, on his friend's ship, while his own went to the bottom. While the fight was at its hottest, Tromp, whose eye was everywhere, descried with alarm that Blake was quietly trying to outflank him, and that some of the swiftest English ships were sailing past him at several miles' distance in order to reach the merchantmen. It was in moments like this that his marvellous organisation appeared to its best advantage. In the fiercest heat of battle, when to the unaccustomed eye the scene must have been one of hopeless confusion, and when friend and foe seemed so intermingled as to defy detection, the admiral's signals flew up the mainmast. Instantly the tactics were changed. De Ruyter withdrew his squadron from the battle, and gave chase to the flanking ships; the rest of the fleet gathered,