rs at sea called cowards here on shore, and that he was
yesterday concerned publiquely at a dinner to defend them, against
somebody that said that not above twenty of them fought as they should
do, and indeed it is derived from the Duke of Albemarle himself, who
wrote so to the King and Duke, and that he told them how they fought
four days, two of them with great disadvantage. The Count de Guiche,
who was on board De Ruyter, writing his narrative home in French of the
fight, do lay all the honour that may be upon the English courage above
the Dutch, and that he himself [Sir W. Coventry] was sent down from the
King and Duke of Yorke after the fight, to pray them to spare none that
they thought had not done their parts, and that they had removed but
four, whereof Du Tell is one, of whom he would say nothing; but, it
seems, the Duke of Yorke hath been much displeased at his removal, and
hath now taken him into his service, which is a plain affront to the
Duke of Albemarle; and two of the others, Sir W. Coventry did speake
very slenderly of their faults. Only the last, which was old Teddiman,
he says, is in fault, and hath little to excuse himself with; and
that, therefore, we should not be forward in condemning men of want
of courage, when the Generalls, who are both men of metal, and hate
cowards, and had the sense of our ill successe upon them (and by the way
must either let the world thinke it was the miscarriage of the Captains
or their owne conduct), have thought fit to remove no more of them, when
desired by the King and Duke of Yorke to do it, without respect to
any favour any of them can pretend to in either of them. At last we
concluded that we never can hope to beat the Dutch with such advantage
as now in number and force and a fleete in want of nothing, and he hath
often repeated now and at other times industriously that many of the
Captains have: declared that they want nothing, and again, that they did
lie ten days together at the Nore without demanding of any thing in
the world but men, and of them they afterward, when they went away, the
generalls themselves acknowledge that they have permitted several ships
to carry supernumeraries, but that if we do not speede well, we must
then play small games and spoile their trade in small parties. And so we
parted, and I, meeting Creed in the Parke again, did take him by coach
and to Islington, thinking to have met my Lady Pen and wife, but they
were gone, so we eat and