s bed-chamber, who
pretended authority from his master. The duke disclaimed the orders;
but Brounker never was sufficiently punished for his temerity.[*] It is
allowed, however, that the duke behaved with great bravery during the
action. He was long in the thickest of the fire. The earl of Falmouth,
Lord Muskerry, and Mr. Boyle, were killed by one shot at his side, and
covered him all over with their brains and gore. And it is not likely,
that, in a pursuit, where even persons of inferior station, and of the
most cowardly disposition, acquire courage, a commander should feel his
spirits to flag ana should turn from the back of an enemy, whose face he
had not been afraid to encounter.

* King James, in his Memoirs, gives an account of
this affair different from what we meet with in any
historian. He says, that, while he was asleep, Brounker
brought orders to Sir John Harman, captain of the ship, to
slacken sail. Sir John remonstrated, but obeyed. After some
time, finding that his falling back was likely to produce
confusion in the fleet, he hoisted the sail as before; so
that the prince, coming soon after on the quarter deck, and
finding all things as he left them, knew nothing of what had
passed during his repose. Nobody gave him the least
intimation of it. It was long after that he heard of it, by
a kind of accident; and he intended to have punished
Brounker by martial law; but just about that time, the house
of commons took up the question, and impeached him, which
made it impossible for the duke to punish him otherwise than
by dismissing him his service. Brounker, before the house,
never pretended that he had received any orders from the
duke.

This disaster threw the Dutch into consternation, and determined De Wit,
who was the soul of their councils, to exert his military capacity, in
order to support the declining courage of his countrymen. He went on
board the fleet, which he took under his command; and he soon remedied
all those disorders which had been occasioned by the late misfortune.
The genius of this man was of the most extensive nature. He quickly
became as much master of naval affairs, as if he had from his infancy
been educated in them; and he even made improvements in some parts of
pilotage and sailing, beyond what men expert in those arts had ever been
able to attain.

The misfortunes of the Dutch determined