achievements against them afterwards, though we sometimes conquered,
and were never overcome, were but a copy of that victory, and they
still fell short of their original: somewhat of fortune was ever
wanting, to fill up the title of so absolute a defeat; or perhaps the
guardian angel of our nation was not enough concerned when you were
absent, and would not employ his utmost vigour for a less important
stake, than the life and honour of a royal admiral.

And if, since that memorable day,[4] you have had leisure to enjoy in
peace the fruits of so glorious a reputation; it was occasion only has
been wanting to your courage, for that can never be wanting to
occasion. The same ardour still incites you to heroick actions, and
the same concernment for all the interests of your king and brother
continues to give you restless nights, and a generous emulation for
your own glory. You are still meditating on new labours for yourself,
and new triumphs for the nation; and when our former enemies again
provoke us, you will again solicit fate to provide you another navy to
overcome, and another admiral to be slain. You will then lead forth a
nation eager to revenge their past injuries; and, like the Romans,
inexorable to peace, till they have fully vanquished. Let our enemies
make their boast of a surprise,[5] as the Samnities did of a
successful stratagem; but the _Furcae Caudinae_ will never be forgiven
till they are revenged. I have always observed in your royal highness
an extreme concernment for the honour of your country; it is a passion
common to you with a brother, the most excellent of kings; and in your
two persons are eminent the characters which Homer has given us of
heroick virtue; the commanding part in Agamemnon, and the executive in
Achilles. And I doubt not from both your actions, but to have abundant
matter to fill the annals of a glorious reign, and to perform the part
of a just historian to my royal master, without intermixing with it
any thing of the poet.

In the mean time, while your royal highness is preparing fresh
employments for our pens, I have been examining my own forces, and
making trial of myself, how I shall be able to transmit you to
posterity. I have formed a hero, I confess, not absolutely perfect,
but of an excessive and over-boiling courage; but Homer and Tasso are
my precedents. Both the Greek and the Italian poet had well
considered, that a tame hero, who never transgresses the bounds of
mor