is
own.

After the action, towards sunset, both squadrons anchored in fifteen
fathoms of water, irregular soundings, three of the French ships
taking the bottom on coral patches. Here they lay for a week two miles
apart, refitting. Hughes, from the ruined condition of the "Monmouth,"
expected an attack; but when Suffren had finished his repairs on the
19th, he got under way and remained outside for twenty-four hours,
inviting a battle which he would not begin. He realized the condition
of the enemy so keenly as to feel the necessity of justifying his
action to the Minister of Marine, which he did for eight reasons
unnecessary to particularize here. The last was the lack of efficiency
and hearty support on the part of his captains.

It is not likely that Suffren erred on the side of excessive caution.
On the contrary, his most marked defect as a commander-in-chief was an
ardor which, when in sight of the enemy, became impatience, and
carried him at times into action hastily and in disorder. But if, in
the details and execution of his battles, in his tactical
combinations, Suffren was at times foiled by his own impetuosity and
the short-comings of most of his captains, in the general conduct of
the campaign, in strategy, where the personal qualities of the
commander-in-chief mainly told, his superiority was manifest, and
achieved brilliant success. Then ardor showed itself in energy,
untiring and infectious. The eagerness of his hot Provencal blood
overrode difficulty, created resources out of destitution, and made
itself felt through every vessel under his orders. No military lesson
is more instructive nor of more enduring value than the rapidity and
ingenuity with which he, without a port or supplies, continually
refitted his fleet and took the field, while his slower enemy was
dawdling over his repairs.

The battle forced the English to remain inactive for six weeks, till
the "Monmouth" was repaired. Unfortunately, Suffren's situation did
not allow him to assume the offensive at once. He was short of men,
provisions, and especially of spare spars and rigging. In an official
letter after the action he wrote: "I have no spare stores to repair
rigging; the squadron lacks at least twelve spare topmasts." A convoy
of supply-ships was expected at Point de Galles, which, with the rest
of Ceylon, except Trincomalee, was still Dutch. He therefore anchored
at Batacalo, south of Trincomalee, a position in which he was between