to Charles II and afterwards himself King James II)
flinched from pressing home a finishing attack. Next year Monk, a
really great commander, fought the famous Four Days Battle in the
Downs, (11-14 June 1666). He was at first weaker in numbers than de
Ruyter, the excellent Dutch admiral; but he skilfully struck one part
of the Dutch line very hard before the rest could support it. On the
second and third days the Dutch, do what they could, were quite unable
to crush him. Both sides had some bad ships and bad crews; but as the
Dutch had more of these than the British had they suffered the greater
loss by flinching.

On the fourth day Monk was helped by gallant Prince Rupert, cousin to
Charles II and by far the best of all the Stuarts. The Government of
Charles, afraid that Louis XIV would send the French to join the Dutch,
had just done one of those foolish things that are always done when
scared civilians try to manage fleets and armies for themselves. They
had sent Rupert off to guard against the French, thus risking a double
defeat, by weakening Monk in front of the Dutch and Rupert in front of
the French (who never came at all) instead of leaving the whole fleet
together, strong enough to fight either enemy before the two could
join. Rupert came in the nick of time; for, even with his fresh ships
to help Monk through this last and most desperate day, de Ruyter and
van Tromp were just enough stronger to win. But the fighting had been
so deadly to both sides that the Dutch were in no condition to go on.

Again there was some very bad behaviour on both sides, especially among
the court favourites. But Charles never thought of punishing these men
for deserting Monk, any more than he thought of honouring the memory of
Sir Christopher Myngs, Rupert's second-in-command, who fell, mortally
wounded, at the end of the fight, after having done all that skill and
courage could possibly do to turn the fortune of the day. Myngs was
one of those leaders whom men will follow anywhere; and in the diary of
Samuel Pepys, a good official at Navy headquarters in London, we may
see the shame of Charles shown up by the noble conduct of the twelve
picked British seamen who, after following Myngs to the grave, came
forward, with tears in their eyes, to ask this favour: "We are here a
dozen of us who have long served and honoured our dead commander, Sir
Christopher Myngs. All we have is our lives. But if you will give us
a fire-s