le exertions of his
lieutenant, who, having in the midst of the flames loosed the
grappling-irons, swung back on board his own ship unhurt. The
Dutch, bent on the destruction of this unfortunate ship, sent a
second which grappled her on the larboard side, and with greater
success than the former; for the sails instantly taking fire,
the crew were so terrified that nearly fifty of them jumped
overboard. The admiral, Sir John Harman, seeing this confusion,
ran with his sword drawn among those who remained, and
threatened with instant death the first man who should attempt
to quit the ship, or should not exert himself to quench the
flames. The crew then returned to their duty and got the fire
under; but the rigging being a good deal burned, one of the
topsail yards fell and broke Sir John's leg. In the midst of
this accumulated distress, a third fire-ship prepared to grapple
him, but was sunk by the guns before she could effect her
purpose. The Dutch vice-admiral, Evertzen, now bore down to him
and offered quarter; but Sir John replied, 'No, no, it is not
come to that yet,' and giving him a broadside, killed the Dutch
commander; after which the other enemies sheered off."[29]

It is therefore not surprising that the account we have been following
reported two English flag-ships lost, one by a fire-ship. "The English
chief still continued on the port tack, and," says the writer, "as
night fell we could see him proudly leading his line past the squadron
of North Holland and Zealand [the actual rear, but proper van], which
from noon up to that time had not been able to reach the enemy [Fig.
2, R''] from their leewardly position." The merit of Monk's attack as
a piece of grand tactics is evident, and bears a strong resemblance to
that of Nelson at the Nile. Discerning quickly the weakness of the
Dutch order, he had attacked a vastly superior force in such a way
that only part of it could come into action; and though the English
actually lost more heavily, they carried off a brilliant prestige and
must have left considerable depression and heart-burning among the
Dutch. The eye-witness goes on: "The affair continued until ten P.M.,
friends and foes mixed together and as likely to receive injury from
one as from the other. It will be remarked that the success of the day
and the misfortunes of the English came from their being too much
scattered, too ext