ws so
nobly off Toulon, and had then succeeded to the command of the
_Marlborough_, fighting her till himself disabled. He had to bring the
wind on the starboard quarter of his little sixty-four, in order to
reach the seventh in the enemy's line, which was an eighty-gun ship,
carrying the flag of the French admiral. This post, by professional
etiquette, as by evident military considerations, Byng owed to his own
flag-ship, of equal force.

The rest of the rear division the commander-in-chief attempted to carry
with himself, slanting down; or, as the naval term then had it,
"lasking" towards the enemy. The flag-ship kept away four
points--forty-five degrees; but hardly had she started, under the very
moderate canvas of topsails and foresail, to cover the much greater
distance to be travelled, in order to support the van by engaging the
enemy's rear, when Byng observed that the two ships on his left--towards
the van--were not keeping pace with him. He ordered the main and mizzen
topsails to be backed to wait for them. Gardiner, the captain, "took the
liberty of offering the opinion" that, if sail were increased instead of
reduced, the ships concerned would take the hint, that they would all be
sooner alongside the enemy, and probably receive less damage in going
down. It was a question of example. The admiral replied, "You see that
the signal for the line is out, and I am ahead of those two ships; and
you would not have me, as admiral of the fleet, run down as if I was
going to engage a single ship. It was Mr. Mathews's misfortune to be
prejudiced by not carrying his force down together, which I shall
endeavor to avoid." Gardiner again "took the liberty" of saying he would
answer for one of the two captains doing his duty. The incident, up to
the ship gathering way again, occupied less than ten minutes; but with
the van going down headlong--as it ought--one ceases to wonder at the
impression on the public produced by one who preferred lagging for
laggards to hastening to support the forward, and that the populace
suspected something worse than pedantry in such reasoning at such a
moment. When way was resumed, it was again under the very leisurely
canvas of topsails and foresail.

By this had occurred the incident of the _Intrepid_ losing her
foretopmast. It was an ordinary casualty of battle, and one to be
expected; but to such a temper as Byng's, and under the cast-iron
regulations of the Instructions, it entailed cons