ht of
Britain. The French, who had a navy nearly as powerful as our own, got
the Dutch and Spaniards to join them, and felt certain that we should go
down to Davy Jones by the run, and never more--

"Sweep through the deep
While stormy winds do blow."

Instead of saying "got the Dutch and Spaniards to join them," I should
have written, "formed an alliance with these nations against us,"
because we determined that, with Heaven on our side, we should prevent a
junction of the fleets. So brave Scotch Duncan shut the Dutch up in the
Texel like a lot of rats. They had not the pluck to come out and fight
him. Well, Duncan would have blown them sky-high, as he eventually did.
There was a French fleet at Brest, and the Spaniards farther south, and
had they all got together--but then they didn't. You know the position
of a game of draughts when you have one of your enemy's crowned heads in
each corner, and he cannot move without danger. That is blockade, and
that is how we held and meant to hold the French, Spaniards, and Dutch
till we should smash them time about, and then sing, "Britannia, the
pride of the ocean," or some bold equivalent thereto.

The Spaniards had their lesson first.

It was well for Jack Mackenzie that he arrived off Cadiz in his swift
_Tonneraire_[B] about a week before the great battle of St. Vincent. I
do not mean to describe this fight at any length; every school-boy knows
all about it. I merely wish to remind the reader of some of its chief
events, because to me it has always seemed such a blood-stirring
battle. The haughty Don had a fleet of twenty-seven sail of the line and
two frigates. Some of his ships, like the _Santissima-Trinidad_, were
perfect _montes belli_--thunder-bergs. Fancy a four-decker carrying one
hundred and thirty guns! and the Spaniards had six that carried one
hundred and twenty; while we had only two of one hundred guns, the
_Victory_ and _Britannia_.

[B] Fictitious name, the reader of history will note.

On the 1st of February Lord St. Vincent, then Sir John Jervis, was in
the Tagus with only ten ships; but as the great fleet of the Don sailed
from Carthagena to effect a junction with the French fleet at Toulon,
Jervis set sail after them. He meant to spoil some of the paint-work
about that fine Spanish fleet. It was very brave of him, and quite
British. Luckily on the 6th he was joined by Admiral Parker with five
ships, and on the 13th--hurrah!--by Commodor