h of
the main body well to windward. To draw them within reach, Rodney
signalled Hood to send chasers after the _Zele_. De Grasse took the bait
and ran down to her support, ordering his ships to form line-of-battle
on the port tack, which was done hastily and tumultuously. The two lines
on which the antagonists were respectively advancing now pointed to a
common and not distant point of intersection, which the French, despite
the loss of ground already undergone, reached first, passing in front
and to windward of the head of the British column. Eight ships thus went
by clear, but the ninth arrived at the same moment with the leading
British vessel, which put her helm up and ran along close to leeward of
the French line towards its rear, followed in so doing by the rest of
her fleet.

The battle thus assumed the phase of two fleets passing each other in
opposite directions, on parallel lines; a condition usually unproductive
of results, and amounting to little more than a brush, as had been the
case in two rencounters between Rodney and De Guichen in the prolonged
chase of May, 1780. Chance permitted a different issue on this occasion.
The wind at the moment of first collision, shortly before 8 A.M., was
east, and so continued till five minutes past nine, when it shifted
suddenly to the southeastward, ahead for the French, abaft for the
British. The former, being already close to the wind, could keep their
sails full only by bearing away, which broke up their line ahead, the
order of battle as ranged for mutual support; while the British being
able to luff could stand into the enemy's line. Rodney's flag-ship, the
_Formidable_, 90, was just drawing up with the _Glorieux_, 74, nineteenth
from the van in the French order and fourth astern of the _Ville de
Paris_, De Grasse's flag-ship. Luffing to the new wind, she passed
through the French line at this point, followed by the five ships astern
of her; while the sixth astern, the _Bedford_, 74, luffing on her own
account, broke also through the French astern of the _Cesar_ and the
_Hector_, 74's, eleventh and twelfth in their order. The twelve British
vessels in rear of the _Bedford_ followed in her wake. Hood was in one
of these, the _Barfleur_, 90. Of the ships ahead of Rodney the nearest
one imitated his example instantly and went through the line; the
remainder, sixteen in all, continued northward for a space.

These sudden and unexpected movements overpowered the _Cesa