d fire upon the 'Vengeur' and
'Artesien' [French van]. These two ships, having luffed[182] to
return the fire, were at once ordered to keep away again.
Suffren, who wished for a decisive action, kept his course,
receiving without reply the shots directed upon his ship by the
enemy. When at pistol-range of the 'Superbe,' he hauled to the
wind (B), and the signal to open fire appeared at his mainmast
head. Admiral Hughes having only eleven ships, the 'Bizarre,'
according to the dispositions taken by the commander-in-chief,
was to attack on the quarter the rear ship of the English fleet
and double on it to leeward. At the moment when the first
cannon-shots were heard, our worst sailers were not up with
their stations. Breathing the letter, and not the spirit, of the
commodore's orders, the captains of these ships luffed at the
same time as those which preceded them. Hence it resulted that
the French line formed a curve (B), whose extremities were
represented in the van by the 'Artesien' and 'Vengeur,' and in
the rear by the 'Bizarre,' 'Ajax,' and 'Severe.' In consequence,
these ships were very far from those which corresponded to them
in the enemy's line."

It is evident from all this, written by a warm admirer of Suffren, who
has had full access to the official papers, that the French chief
intended an attack elementary in conception and difficult of
execution. To keep a fleet on a line of bearing, sailing free,
requires much drill, especially when the ships have different rates of
speed, as had Suffren's. The extreme injury suffered by the "Superbe"
and "Monmouth," undeniably due to a concentration, cannot be
attributed to Suffren's dispositions. "The injuries which the 'Heros'
received at the beginning of the action did not allow her to remain by
the 'Superbe.' Not being able to back her topsails in time, the braces
having been cut, she passed ahead, and was only stopped on the beam of
the 'Monmouth.'"[183] This accounts for the suffering of the latter
ship, already injured, and now contending with a much larger opponent.
The "Superbe" was freed from Suffren only to be engaged by the next
Frenchman, an equally heavy ship; and when the "Monmouth" drifted or
bore up, to leeward, the French flag-ship also drifted so that for a
few moments she fired her stern guns into the "Superbe's" bow (C, d).
The latter at the same time was engaged on the beam