mitive mode of
fighting which Macaulay has sung, and which remained for many years
the ideal of the English navy:--

"Then on both sides the leaders
Gave signal for the charge;
And on both sides the footmen
Strode forth with lance and targe;
And on both sides the horsemen
Struck their spurs deep in gore,
And _front to front_ the armies
Met with a mighty roar."

Human movement is not always advance; and there are traces of a
somewhat similar ideal in the naval periodical literature of our own
day. The fight was severe, lasting from ten in the morning till five
in the afternoon, but was entirely indecisive. The next day the wind
shifted, giving the weather-gage to the French, but they did not use
the opportunity to attack; for which they were much to blame, if their
claim of the advantage the day before is well founded. Rooke could not
have fought; nearly half his fleet, twenty-five ships, it is said, had
used up all their ammunition. Even during the battle itself several of
the allied ships were towed out of line, because they had not powder
and ball for a single broadside. This was doubtless due to the attack
upon Gibraltar, in which fifteen thousand shot were expended, and to
the lack of any port serving as a base of supplies,--a deficiency
which the new possession would hereafter remove. Rooke, in seizing
Gibraltar, had the same object in view that prompted the United States
to seize Port Royal at the beginning of the Civil War, and which made
the Duke of Parma urge upon his king, before sending the Spanish Great
Armada, to seize Flushing on the coast of Holland,--advice which, had
it been followed, would have made unnecessary that dreary and
disastrous voyage to the north of England. The same reasons would
doubtless lead any nation intending serious operations against our
seaboard, to seize points remote from the great centres and
susceptible of defence, like Gardiner's Bay or Port Royal, which in an
inefficient condition of our navy they might hold with and for their
fleets.

Rooke retired in peace to Lisbon, bestowing by the way on Gibraltar
all the victuals and ammunition that could be spared from the fleet.
Toulouse, instead of following up his victory, if it was one, went
back to Toulon, sending only ten ships-of-the-line to support the
attack on Gibraltar. All the attempts of the French against the place
were carried on in a futile manner; the investing squadron wa