back
before the wind out of the strait. At sunset the two fleets lay to the
westward of the Saints' Passage, and there was no probability that De
Grasse would attempt to tack through it during the hours of darkness. In
the night Rodney manoeuvred to get to windward of the enemy, and at
daylight on the 12th the two fleets were within striking distance, De
Grasse to the leeward, his fleet in a straggling line over some nine miles
of sea. Rodney had his opportunity of forcing on a decisive battle at last.

At some distance from the French line a partly dismasted line-of-battle
ship, the "Zele," was seen in tow of a frigate. She had been in collision
with the flagship during the night, and had been so badly damaged that De
Grasse was sending her away to Guadeloupe. Rodney's ships had lost their
order of battle somewhat in the darkness, and while he was reforming his
line he detached a couple of ships to threaten the disabled "Zele." This
had the effect he intended. It removed De Grasse's last hesitation about
fighting. The French line was soon seen bearing down on the port tack, the
rearward ships crowding sail to close up. Rodney's battle line, in reversed
order, led by Drake and the rear division, was already on a course that
would bring the two fleets sweeping past each other, and the leading ship,
the "Marlborough," was steered so as to make the passage a close one.
Rodney had hoisted the signal to engage the enemy to leeward. While the
fleets were closing he sat in an arm-chair on his quarterdeck, for he was
older than his sixty-four years, broken by long illness and only sustained
by his dogged spirit. One of his captains, Savage of the "Hercules," also
went into battle seated in an arm-chair beside the bulwarks of his ship. He
was lame with gout and unable to stand or walk without help. When the
firing began, and the ships were passing each other amid a thunder of
broadsides and a hail of shot and bullets, Captain Savage gravely raised
his cocked hat to salute each enemy as she ranged up abreast of the
"Hercules." What would those old sailors have thought of the naval
commander of to-day peeping through the slits in the steel walls of a
conning tower? But it is only fair to ask also what they would have thought
of shells weighing half a ton bursting in fiery destruction.

The "Marlborough," approaching on a converging course, came to close
quarters with the "Brave," the sixth ship in De Grasse's line, and then,
shift