had procured so much
honour, lest they who raised them should be eclipsed by them. Such is
the general revolution of affairs in every state; danger and distress
produce unanimity and bravery, virtues which are seldom unattended
with success; but success is the parent of pride, and pride of
jealousy and faction; faction makes way for calamity, and happy is
that nation whose calamities renew their unanimity. Such is the
rotation of interests, that equally tend to hinder the total
destruction of a people, and to obstruct an exorbitant increase of
power.

Blake had weakened his fleet by many detachments, and lay with no more
than forty sail in the Downs, very ill provided both with men and
ammunition, and expecting new supplies from those whose animosity
hindered them from providing them, and who chose rather to see the
trade of their country distressed, than the sea officers exalted by a
new acquisition of honour and influence.

Van Trump, desirous of distinguishing himself, at the resumption of
his command, by some remarkable action, had assembled eighty ships of
war, and ten fireships, and steered towards the Downs, where Blake,
with whose condition and strength he was probably acquainted, was then
stationed. Blake, not able to restrain his natural ardour, or,
perhaps, not fully informed of the superiority of his enemies, put out
to encounter them, though his fleet was so weakly manned, that half of
his ships were obliged to lie idle without engaging, for want of
sailors. The force of the whole Dutch fleet was, therefore, sustained
by about twenty-two ships. Two of the English frigates, named the
Vanguard and the Victory, after having, for a long time, stood engaged
amidst the whole Dutch fleet, broke through without much injury, nor
did the English lose any ships till the evening, when the Garland,
carrying forty guns, was boarded, at once, by two great ships, which
were opposed by the English, till they had scarcely any men left to
defend the decks; then retiring into the lower part of the vessel,
they blew up their decks, which were now possessed by the enemy, and,
at length, were overpowered and taken. The Bonaventure, a stout
well-built merchant ship, going to relieve the Garland, was attacked
by a man of war, and, after a stout resistance, in which the captain,
who defended her with the utmost bravery, was killed, was likewise
carried off by the Dutch. Blake, in the Triumph, seeing the Garland in
distress, pres