ough
the English, sword in hand. The grenadiers, however, rushed immediately
into the castle, made themselves masters of it, and took nearly three
hundred French seamen and fifty Spaniards, with their officers,
prisoners at discretion. A small party of the enemy endeavoured to make
their escape through the water, but were stopped by a detachment of the
Dutch. As soon as this was done, the boats of the squadron pushed up
the harbour to take possession of the galleons. The French admiral,
however, finding that all hope of defending the place was gone, gave
orders for setting the shipping on fire. Before these orders could be
executed, a considerable number of the ships were taken possession of by
the boats. Besides seventeen ships, carrying between them nine hundred
and sixty guns, destroyed or captured by the English and Dutch, three
Spanish men-of-war, carrying a hundred and seventy-eight guns, were
destroyed, and fifteen galleons were found there. Four of them were
taken by the English, five by the Dutch, and four destroyed.

The brave Admirals Rooke, Hopson, and Vandergoes, were still furiously
attacking the French ships placed across the harbour behind the boom.
Suddenly flames were seen to burst forth from the French admiral's ship.
This was soon discovered to be done on purpose, for immediately
afterwards they burst forth from the other French ships, from which
boats were at the same time seen putting off towards the shore. The
French admiral, indeed, finding that the forts were in the hands of his
victorious enemies, his fire-ship spent in vain, the "Bourbon" captured,
the boom cut, and the confederate fleet pouring in upon him, so that the
battle was lost, hoped by burning his ships to prevent their falling
into their hands. The order he issued, however, was not punctually
obeyed, in consequence of the haste of the French to get on shore.
Immediately this was perceived, the boats of the squadron were ordered
in to take possession of the galleons. John Deane found himself in one
of the leading boats. Onward they dashed, amid the burning ships. On
one side the "Torbay" lay with her fore-top-mast shot away, her sails
burnt and scorched, her fore-yard burnt to a coal, and her larboard
shrouds, fore and aft, burned to the deadeyes, so that indeed it
appeared surprising that she had not been burned altogether. The
leading boats dashed alongside some of the largest ships, which were so
imperfectly set on fi