ger gusts
of wind that filled the sails of the "Seven Provinces," and she swung
round, showing a broadside that could blow the yacht out of the water. But
before a gun could be fired the yacht, with all sails spread, was racing
back to the English fleet, and Rupert returned to the "Royal Charles" as
pleased as a schoolboy with his frolic.

During the night of the 26th the wind rose, and De Ruyter steered for the
Scheldt, followed up by Monk's two divisions. The Dutch admiral covered his
retreat with his best ships, and a running fight began at dawn. Even before
the sun rose the sounds of a heavy cannonade had come through the darkness,
telling that Tromp and Smith were hard at it again in their detached
battle. Early in the day Monk abandoned the chase of the Dutch, and steered
towards the sound of the cannonade. Soon the fleet came in distant sight of
the battle. Tromp with the "Zealand squadron" was making a dogged retreat,
working to the south-east, close-hauled on the wind from the north-east.
Monk tacked and made more than one attempt to place himself across the
course of the Dutchmen, hoping to catch them between his fleet and Smith's
Blue Division as between hammer and anvil. But Tromp slipped between his
enemies and was before long in full sail for Holland, with the three
English divisions combined in a stern chase. Monk said that if Smith had
pressed Tromp closer early in the day, his retreat would have certainly
been cut off. Smith and his friends protested that if the "general at sea"
had laid his fleet on a better course, Tromp would have been taken. The
honours of this last move in the game were with the Dutchman.

A substantial victory had been gained, though there were few trophies to
show for it. The enemy had been met and forced by sheer hard knocks to
abandon his station off the mouth of the Thames, and take refuge in his own
ports. Monk was on the Dutch coast, picking up returning merchantmen as
prizes, blockading the outgoing trade, and keeping the great fishing fleet
in ruinous idleness. With the help of information supplied by a Dutch
traitor, Monk reaped further advantage from his victory and inflicted heavy
additional loss on the enemy. On 8 August the fleet sailed into the
roadstead behind the long island of Terschelling, one of the chain of
islands at the mouth of the Zuyder Zee, and burned at their anchors a
hundred and sixty Dutch merchantmen that had taken shelter there, including
several gr