tness such a scene; but those who have, know that it is
one of the most beautiful and striking spectacles connected with the
wonders of the great deep.

By this time the sun had got so high, as to begin to stir the fog, and
streams of vapour were shooting up from the beach, like smoke rising
from coal-pits. The wind increased, too, and rolled the vapour before
it, and in less than ten minutes, the veil was removed; ship after ship
coming out in plain view, until the entire fleet was seen riding in the
roadstead, in its naked and distinct proportions.

"Now, Bluewater is a happy fellow," exclaimed Sir Gervaise. "He sees his
great enemy, the land, and knows how to deal with it."

"I thought the French were the great and natural enemies of every
British sailor," observed Sir Wycherly, simply, but quite to the point.

"Hum--there's truth in that, too. But the land is an enemy to be feared,
while the Frenchman is not--hey! Atwood?"

It was, indeed, a goodly sight to view the fine fleet that now lay
anchored beneath the cliffs of Wychecombe. Sir Gervaise Oakes was, in
that period, considered a successful naval commander, and was a
favourite, both at the admiralty and with the nation. His popularity
extended to the most distant colonies of England, in nearly all of which
he had served with zeal and credit. But we are not writing of an age of
nautical wonders, like that which succeeded at the close of the century.
The French and Dutch, and even the Spaniards, were then all formidable
as naval powers; for revolutions and changes had not destroyed their
maritime corps, nor had the consequent naval ascendency of England
annihilated their navigation; the two great causes of the subsequent
apparent invincibility of the latter power. Battles at sea, in that day,
were warmly contested, and were frequently fruitless; more especially
when fleets were brought in opposition. The single combats were usually
more decisive, though the absolute success of the British flag, was far
from being as much a matter of course as it subsequently became. In a
word, the science of naval warfare had not made those great strides,
which marked the career of England in the end, nor had it retrograded
among her enemies, to the point which appears to have rendered their
defeat nearly certain. Still Sir Gervaise was a successful officer;
having captured several single ships, in bloody encounters, and having
actually led fleets with credit, in four or five