ay 15.]

was placed under the command of the celebrated Turenne, who was opposed by
the Spaniards under Don Juan, with the British exiles, commanded by the
duke of York, and the French exiles, by the prince of Conde. The English
auxiliaries, composed of veteran regiments, supported the reputation of
their country by their martial appearance and exemplary discipline; but
they had few opportunities of displaying their valour; and the summer was
spent in a tedious succession of marches and countermarches, accompanied
with no brilliant action nor important result. Cromwell viewed the
operations of the army with distrust and impatience. The French ministry
seemed in no haste to redeem their pledge with respect to the reduction
of Dunkirk, and to his multiplied remonstrances uniformly opposed this
unanswerable objection, that, in the opinion of Turenne, the best judge,
the attempt in the existing circumstances must prove ruinous to the
allies. At last he would brook no longer delay; the army marched into the
neighbourhood of the town, and the fort of Mardyke capitulated[a] after a
siege of three days. But the Spaniards lay strongly intrenched behind the
canal of Bergues, between Mardyke and Dunkirk; and by common consent the
design was abandoned, and the siege of Gravelines substituted in its place.
Scarcely, however, had the combined army taken[b] a position before it,
when the sluices were opened, the country was inundated, and Turenne
dismissed his forces into winter quarters. Mardyke received a garrison,
partly of English, and partly of French, under the command of Sir John
Reynolds; but that officer in a short time incurred the suspicion of the
protector. The duke of York, from his former service in the French army,
was well known

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Sept. 23.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1657. Sept. 27.]

to some of the French officers. They occasionally met and exchanged
compliments in their rides, he from Dunkirk, they from Mardyke. By one of
them Reynolds solicited permission to pay his respects to the young prince.
He was accompanied by Crew, another officer; and, though he pretended that
it was an accidental civility, found the opportunity of whispering an
implied offer of his services in the ear of the duke. Within a few days
he received an order to wait on the protector in London in company with
Colonel White, who had secretly accused him; but both were lost[a] on the
Goodwin Sands, through the ignorance or the stup