but as soon as Bankert--the same who had
manoeuvred so judiciously at Solebay the year before--saw the danger,
he put his helm up and ran through the remaining twenty ships of
D'Estrees' squadron with his own twelve (C),--a feat as creditable to
him as it was discreditable to the French; and then wearing round
stood down to De Ruyter, who was hotly engaged with Rupert (C'). He
was not followed by D'Estrees, who suffered him to carry this
important reinforcement to the Dutch main attack undisturbed. This
practically ended the French share in the fight.

[Illustration: Pl. IV. TEXEL. Aug. 21, 1673.]

Rupert, during his action with De Ruyter, kept off continually, with
the object of drawing the Dutch farther away from their coast, so that
if the wind shifted they might not be able to regain its shelter. De
Ruyter followed him, and the consequent separation of the centre from
the van (B, B') was one of the reasons alleged by D'Estrees for his
delay. It does not, however, seem to have prevented Bankert from
joining his chief.

In the rear an extraordinary action on the part of Sir Edward Spragge
increased the confusion in the allied fleet. For some reason this
officer considered Tromp, who commanded the Dutch rear, as his
personal antagonist, and in order to facilitate the latter's getting
into action, he hove-to (stopped) the whole English rear to wait for
him. This ill-timed point of honor on Spragge's part seems to have
sprung from a promise he had made to the king that he would bring back
Tromp alive or dead, or else lose his own life. The stoppage, which
recalls the irresponsible and insubordinate action of the junior Dutch
flag-officers in the former war, of course separated the rear (A'',
B'', C''), which also drifted rapidly to leeward, Spragge and Tromp
carrying on a hot private action on their own account. These two
junior admirals sought each other personally, and the battle between
their flags was so severe that Spragge twice had to shift his own to
another ship; on the second occasion the boat in which he was embarked
was sunk by a shot, and he himself drowned.

Rupert, thus forsaken by his van and rear, found himself alone with
Ruyter (B'); who, reinforced by his van, had the address further to
cut off the rear subdivision of the allied centre, and to surround the
remaining twenty ships with probably thirty or forty of his own (C').
It is not creditable to the gunnery of the day that more substantial
re