passed the river
almost without opposition.]

[Footnote 150: Note 2C, p. 149. In the month of May, three ships of the
line, namely, the Royal Oak, of seventy-six guns, commanded by commodore
baron Wyldo; the Grafton, of seventy guns, captain Edward Acton; and
the Hampton-Court, of seventy guns, captain George Clements, sailed as
convoy to the West India and Portugal fleet of merchant-ships, amounting
to five-and-forty sail. They fell in with the Dunkirk squadron,
consisting of ten ships of war, one frigate, and four privateers, under
the command of M. de Forbin. A furious action immediately ensued,
and notwithstanding the vast disproportion in point of number, was
maintained by the English commodore with great gallantry, until captain
Acton was killed, captain Clements mortally wounded, and the Grafton and
Hampton-Court were taken, after having sunk the Salisbury, at that time
in the hands of the French; then the commodore, having eleven feet water
in his hold, disengaged himself from the enemy, by whom he had been
surrounded, and ran his ship aground near Dungenness; but she afterwards
floated, and he brought her safe into the Downs. In the meantime,
the French frigate and privateers made prize of twenty-one
English merchant-ships of great value, which, with the Grafton and
Hampton-Court, Forbin conveyed in triumph to Dunkirk. In July, the same
active officer took fifteen ships belonging to the Eussian company, off
the coast of Lapland; in September, he joined another squadron fitted
out at Brest, under the command of the celebrated M. du Guai Tronin,
and these attacked, off the Lizard, the convoy of the Portugal fleet,
consisting of the Cumberland, captain Richard Edwards, of eighty guns;
the Devonshire, of eighty; the Royal Oak, of seventy-six; the Chester
and Ruby, of fifty guns each. Though the French squadron did not fall
short of twelve sail of the line, the English captains maintained the
action for many hours with surprising valour. At length the Devonshire
was obliged to yield to superior numbers; the Cumberland blew up; the
Chester and Ruby were taken; the Royal Oak fought her way through the
midst of her enemies, and arrived safe in the harbour of Kinsale; and
the Lisbon fleet saved themselves, by making the best of their way
during the engagement. Since the battle off Malaga, the French king had
never dared to keep the sea with a large fleet, but carried on a kind of
piratical war of this sort, in order