of the French van, seeing the Dutch close to his line
and more disabled than himself, pressed six of his leading ships
ahead, where they went about, and so put the Dutch between two fires
(Plate VI. B).

[Illustration: Pl. VI. LA HOUGUE MAY 29, 1692. Pl. VIa. BEACHY
HEAD JULY 10, 1690.]

At the same time Tourville, finding himself without adversaries in the
centre, having beaten off the leading division of the enemy's centre,
pushed forward his own leading ships, which Herbert's dispositions had
left without opponents; and these fresh ships strengthened the attack
upon the Dutch in the van (B).

This brought about a _melee_ at the head of the lines, in which the
Dutch, being inferior, suffered heavily. Luckily for the allies the
wind fell calm; and while Tourville himself and other French ships got
out their boats to tow into action again, the allies were shrewd
enough to drop anchor with all sail set, and before Tourville took in
the situation the ebb-tide, setting southwest, had carried his fleet
out of action. He finally anchored a league from his enemy.

At nine P.M., when the tide changed, the allies weighed and stood to
the eastward. So badly had many of them been mauled, that, by English
accounts, it was decided rather to destroy the disabled ships than to
risk a general engagement to preserve them.

Tourville pursued; but instead of ordering a general chase, he kept
the line-of-battle, reducing the speed of the fleet to that of the
slower ships. The occasion was precisely one of those in which a
_melee_ is permissible, indeed, obligatory. An enemy beaten and in
flight should be pursued with ardor, and with only so much regard to
order as will prevent the chasing vessels from losing mutual
support,--a condition which by no means implies such relative bearings
and distances as are required in the beginning or middle of a
well-contested action. The failure to order such general pursuit
indicates the side on which Tourville's military character lacked
completeness; and the failure showed itself, as is apt to be the case,
at the supreme moment of his career. He never had such another
opportunity as in this, the first great general action in which he
commanded in chief, and which Hoste, who was on board the flag-ship,
calls the most complete naval victory ever gained. It was so indeed at
that time,--the most complete, but not the most decisive, as it
perhaps might have been. The French, according to Hoste,