t of the
left, Tromp's squadron. Monk then had thirty-five ships well in hand;
but the rear had opened and was straggling, as is apt to be the case
with long columns. With the thirty-five he then put his helm up and
ran down for Tromp, whose squadron cut their cables and made sail on
the same tack (V'); the two engaged lines thus standing over toward
the French coast, and the breeze heeling the ships so that the English
could not use their lower-deck guns (Fig. 2, V''). The Dutch centre
and rear also cut (Fig. 1, C'), and followed the movement, but being
so far to leeward, could not for some time come into action. It was
during this time that a large Dutch ship, becoming separated from her
own fleet, was set on fire and burned, doubtless the ship in which was
Count de Guiche.

As they drew near Dunkirk the English went about, probably all
together; for in the return to the northward and westward the proper
English van fell in with and was roughly handled by the Dutch centre
under Ruyter himself (Fig. 2, C''). This fate would be more likely to
befall the rear, and indicates that a simultaneous movement had
reversed the order. The engaged ships had naturally lost to leeward,
thus enabling Ruyter to fetch up with them. Two English flag-ships
were here disabled and cut off; one, the "Swiftsure," hauled down her
colors after the admiral, a young man of only twenty-seven, was
killed. "Highly to be admired," says a contemporary writer, "was the
resolution of Vice-Admiral Berkeley, who, though cut off from the
line, surrounded by enemies, great numbers of his men killed, his ship
disabled and boarded on all sides, yet continued fighting almost
alone, killed several with his own hand, and would accept no quarter;
till at length, being shot in the throat with a musket-ball, he
retired into the captain's cabin, where he was found dead, extended at
his full length upon a table, and almost covered with his own blood."
Quite as heroic, but more fortunate in its issue, was the conduct of
the other English admiral thus cut off; and the incidents of his
struggle, though not specially instructive otherwise, are worth
quoting, as giving a lively picture of the scenes which passed in the
heat of the contests of those days, and afford coloring to otherwise
dry details.

"Being in a short time completely disabled, one of the enemy's
fire-ships grappled him on the starboard quarter; he was,
however, freed by the almost incredib