hips, met three Dutch men-of-war in the
Channel and fired at the first that refused to salute according to the
Custom of the Sea. Then the great British admiral, Blake, fired at the
great Dutch admiral, van Tromp, for the same reason. A hot fight
followed in each case; but without a victory for either side. At
Dungeness, however, van Tromp with eighty ships beat Blake with forty,
and swept the Channel throughout the winter of 1652-3. But in
February, when the fleets were about equal, the British got the better
of him in the Straits of Dover, after a running fight of three days.
Blake being wounded, Monk led the fleet to another victory in May. But
the dogged Dutch were not yet beaten; and it was not till the last of
July that the final battle came.

Monk made straight for the Dutch line at six in the morning. For nine
hours the fight went on, the two fleets manoeuvring with great skill
and fighting furiously every time they came together. Each time they
separated to manoeuvre again some ships were left behind, fighting,
disabled, or sinking. The British attacked with the utmost courage.
The Dutch never flinched. And so noon passed, and one, and two o'clock
as well. Van Tromp's flag still flew defiantly; but van Tromp himself
was dead. When the fleets first met he had been killed by a
musket-shot straight through his heart. When they first parted the
flag for a council of war was seen flying from his ship. The council
of Dutch admirals hurriedly met, decided to keep his flag aloft, so as
not to discourage their men, took orders from his second-in-command,
and met the British as bravely as before. But after nine hours
fighting their fleet broke up and left the field, bearing with it the
body of van Tromp, the lion of the Dutch, and by far the greatest
leader who had as yet withstood the British on the sea.

[Illustration: SAILING SHIP. The Pilgrim Fathers crossed in a similar
vessel (1620).]

This great battle off the coast of Holland made the Dutch give in.
They were divided among themselves; the merchants keeping up a republic
and a navy, but the nobles and inland people wishing for a king and
army to make the frontier safe. The British, though also divided among
themselves, had the advantages of living on an island, of having
settled what kind of government they would obey for the time being, and
of having at the head of this government the mighty Cromwell, one of
the greatest masters of the art of w