ently
in view to see that they were intent upon securing their arrival, rather
than fighting. He therefore made signal for the seven ships nearest them
"to chase and draw into a line-of-battle ahead of me, and endeavour to
stop them till the rest of the squadron should come up, who also were
_to form as they chased that no time might be lost_ in the pursuit." The
French "kept going off under such sail as all their squadron could
carry and _yet keep together_, while we crowded after him _with every
sail our ships could bear_." The words italicized sum up the whole
philosophy of a general chase. The pursued are limited to the speed of
the slowest, otherwise he who cannot but lag is separated and lost; the
pursuer need slacken no whit, for his friends are ever coming up to his
aid. Overtaking is inevitable, unless the distance is too short.

At half-past two firing began between the French rear and the leading
British. Of the two foremost in the chase, who thus opened the fight,
one was the same _Dorsetshire_ which in Mathews's battle had played the
laggard. Her captain, who thus rose to his opportunity, was one of the
two to whom Hawke addressed the enthusiastic compliment that they had
"behaved like angels." Hawke himself was at this moment south of
Belleisle, with several ships ahead of him; while the French admiral was
leading his fleet, in order better to pilot them over dangerous ground,
and by his own action show more surely than was possible by signal what
he wished done from moment to moment. At the southern extreme of the
shoals which act as a breakwater to Quiberon Bay are some formidable
rocks, known as the Cardinals. Around these M. de Conflans passed soon
after the firing began, his rear being then in hot action.

Hawke himself was without a pilot, as were most of his captains. The
sailing master of the flag-ship was charged with that duty for the
fleet, but had of the ground before him no exact personal knowledge; nor
could reliance be placed upon the imperfect surveys of a locality, which
it was not the interest of an almost constant enemy to disclose. Enough,
however, was known to leave no doubt of the greatness of the risks, and
it was the master's part to represent them. The occasion, however, was
not one of a mere diversion, of a secondary operation, but of one vital
to the nation's cause; and Hawke's reply, stamped with the firmness of a
great officer, showed how little professional timidity had to do