oin in destroying a factor in the political equilibrium, even if they
hold aloof. England and Spain were allies in Toulon in 1793, when the
excesses of Revolutionary France seemed to threaten the social order
of Europe; but the Spanish admiral told the English flatly that the
ruin of the French navy, a large part of which was there in their
hands, could not fail to be injurious to the interests of Spain, and a
part of the French ships was saved by his conduct, which has been
justly characterized as not only full of firmness, but also as
dictated by the highest political reason.[57]

The battle of the Texel, closing the long series of wars in which the
Dutch and English contended on equal terms for the mastery of the
seas, saw the Dutch navy in its highest efficiency, and its greatest
ornament, De Ruyter, at the summit of his glory. Long since old in
years, for he was now sixty-six, he had lost none of his martial
vigor; his attack was as furious as eight years before, and his
judgment apparently had ripened rapidly through the experience of the
last war, for there is far more evidence of plan and military insight
than before. To him, under the government of the great Pensionary De
Witt, with whom he was in close sympathy, the increase of discipline
and sound military tone now apparent in the Dutch navy must have been
largely due. He went to this final strife of the two great sea-peoples
in the fulness of his own genius, with an admirably tempered
instrument in his hands, and with the glorious disadvantage of
numbers, to save his country. The mission was fulfilled not by courage
alone, but by courage, forethought, and skill. The attack at the Texel
was, in its general lines, the same as that at Trafalgar, the enemy's
van being neglected to fall on the centre and rear, and as at
Trafalgar the van, by failing to do its duty, more than justified the
conception; but as the odds against De Ruyter were greater than those
against Nelson, so was his success less. The part played by Bankert at
Solebay was essentially the same as that of Nelson at St. Vincent,
when he threw himself across the path of the Spanish division with his
single ship (see Plate III., c, c'); but Nelson took his course
without orders from Jervis, while Bankert was carrying out Ruyter's
plan. Once more, still himself in his bearing, but under sadly altered
surroundings, will this simple and heroic man come before us; and
here, in contrast with his glory, see