beside that of Solebay or the Texel; but as Duquesne was the
best French officer of the century, with the possible exception of
Tourville, this battle has a value of its own in the history of
tactics, and may by no means be omitted. The standing of the
commander-in-chief is the warrant that it marks the highest point to
which French naval tactics has as yet attained. Before quitting this
discussion, it may be noted that the remedy Clerk proposed was to
attack the rear ships of the enemy's line, and preferably to leeward;
the remainder of the fleet must then either abandon them or stand down
for a general action, which according to his postulate was all that
the English seamen desired.

After the fight De Ruyter sailed to Palermo, one of his ships sinking
on the way. Duquesne was joined outside Messina by the French division
that had been lying there. The remaining incidents of the Sicilian war
are unimportant to the general subject. On the 22d of April, De Ruyter
and Duquesne met again off Agosta. Duquesne had twenty-nine ships, the
allied Spaniards and Dutch twenty-seven, of which ten were Spanish.
Unfortunately the Spaniard commanded in chief, and took the centre of
the line with the ships of his country, contrary to the advice of
Ruyter, who, knowing how inefficient his allies were, wished to
scatter them through the line and so support them better. Ruyter
himself took the van, and the allies, having the wind, attacked; but
the Spanish centre kept at long cannon range, leaving the brunt of the
battle to fall on the Dutch van. The rear, following the
commander-in-chief's motions, was also but slightly engaged. In this
sorrowful yet still glorious fulfilment of hopeless duty, De Ruyter,
who never before in his long career had been struck by an enemy's
shot, received a mortal wound. He died a week later at Syracuse, and
with him passed away the last hope of resistance on the sea. A month
later the Spanish and Dutch fleets were attacked at anchor at Palermo,
and many of them destroyed; while a division sent from Holland to
reinforce the Mediterranean fleet was met by a French squadron in the
Straits of Gibraltar and forced to take refuge in Cadiz.

The Sicilian enterprise continued to be only a diversion, and the
slight importance attached to it shows clearly how entirely Louis XIV.
was bent on the continental war. How differently would the value of
Sicily have impressed him, had his eyes been fixed on Egypt and
exten