greater distance, this seems to have been simply giving the benefit of a
doubt.

Thus situated, the action between the _Namur_ and _Marlborough_ on the
one side, and the _Real Felipe_ and _Hercules_ on the other, was for
some time very hot; but the _Marlborough_, moving faster than the
_Namur_, closed upon her, so that she had to get out of the way, which
she did by moving ahead and at the same time hauling to windward, till
she reached as far from the Spanish line as the _Dorsetshire_ had
remained. The Court in this matter decided that, after the admiral had
thus hauled off, the _Dorsetshire_ was in a line, or as far to
leeward--towards the enemy--as the admiral. The _Marlborough_ was thus
left alone, exposed to the fire of a ship heavier than herself, and also
to that of the _Hercules_, which was able to train upon her a
considerable part of her battery. Under these circumstances, it was the
duty of the _Dorsetshire_, as it was the opportunity of her commander,
by attacking the _Hercules_, to second, and support, the engaged ship;
but she continued aloof. After two hours--by 3 P.M.--the main and mizzen
masts were cut out of the _Marlborough_, and she lost her captain with
forty-two men killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded, out of a crew
of seven hundred and fifty. Thus disabled, the sails on the foremast
turned her head towards the enemy, and she lay moving sluggishly,
between the fleets, but not under control. The admiral now sent an
officer to Burrish--the second that morning--to order him into his
station and to support the _Marlborough_; while to the latter, in
response to an urgent representation by boat of her condition, and that
she was threatened by the approach of the hitherto separated ships of
the Spanish rear, he replied that the _Namur_ was wearing and would come
to her assistance.

When Burrish received his message, he sent for his lieutenants on the
quarter-deck, and spoke to them words which doubtless reflect the
reasoning upon which he was justifying to himself his most culpable
inaction. "Gentlemen, I sent for you to show you the position of our
ships to windward," (_i.e._ the ships of the centre division behind him,
and Lestock's division), "likewise those five sail [Spanish] of the
enemy that are astern of us. I have my orders to engage the _Real_, and
you see I am bearing down for that purpose." The lieutenants remarked
that he could do so with safety. To this he rejoined, with a curtness