mind to give
battle on the 14th, at daybreak, he sent word to the English general,
Lockhart, by one of his officers who wanted at the same time to explain
the commander-in-chief's plan and his grounds for it. 'All right,'
answered Lockhart: 'I leave it to M. de Turenne; he shall tell me his
reasons after the battle, if he likes.' A striking contrast between the
manly discipline of English good sense and the silly blindness of Spanish
pride. Conde was not mistaken: the issue of a battle begun under such
auspices could not be doubtful. 'My lord,' said he to the young Duke of
Gloucester, who was serving in the Spanish army by the side of his
brother, the Duke of York, 'did you ever see a battle?' 'No, prince.'
'Well, then, you are going to see one lost.' The battle of the Dunes
was, in fact, totally lost by the Spaniards, after four hours' very hard
fighting, during which the English regiments carried bravely, and with
heavy losses, the most difficult and the best defended position; all the
officers of Lockhart's regiment, except two, were killed or wounded
before the end of the day; the Spanish army retired in disorder, leaving
four thousand prisoners in the hands of the conqueror. 'The enemy came
to meet us,' wrote Turenne, in the evening, to his wife; 'they were
beaten, God be praised! I have worked rather hard all day; I wish you
good night, and am going to bed.' Ten days afterwards, on the 23d of
June, 1658, the garrison of Dunkerque was exhausted; the aged governor,
the Marquis of Leyden, had been mortally wounded in a sortie; the place
surrendered, and, the next day but one, Louis XIV. entered it, but merely
to hand it over at once to the English. 'Though the court and the army
are in despair at the notion of letting go what he calls a rather nice
morsel,' wrote Lockhart, the day before, to Secretary Thurloe,
'nevertheless the cardinal is staunch to his promises, and seems as well
satisfied at giving up this place to his Highness as I am to take it.
The king, also, is extremely polite and obliging, and he has in his soul
more honesty than I had supposed.'"

The surrender of Dunkerque was soon followed by that of Gravelines and
several other towns; the great blow against the Spanish arms had been
struck; negotiations were beginning; tranquillity reigned everywhere in
France; the Parliament had caused no talk since the 20th of March, 1655,
when, they having refused to enregister certain financial edicts, for