steps, sent orders to their ambassadors
to endeavor the renewal of the treaty of alliance, which had been broken
off by the abrupt departure of St. John. Not to be unprepared, they
equipped a fleet of a hundred and fifty sail, and took care, by
their ministers at London, to inform the council of the state of that
armament. This intelligence, instead of striking terror into the
English republic, was considered as a menace, and further confirmed the
parliament in their hostile resolutions. The minds of men in both states
were every day more irritated against each other; and it was not long
before these humors broke forth into action.

Tromp, an admiral of great renown, received from the states the command
of a fleet of forty-two sail, in order to protect the Dutch navigation
against the privateers of the English. He was forced by stress of
weather, as he alleged, to take shelter in the road of Dover, where he
met with Blake, who commanded an English fleet much inferior in number.
Who was the aggressor in the action which ensued between these two
admirals, both of them men of such prompt and fiery dispositions, it
is not easy to determine; since each of them sent to his own state a
relation totally opposite in all its circumstances to that of the other,
and yet supported by the testimony of every captain in his fleet. Blake
pretended, that having given a signal to the Dutch admiral to strike,
Tromp, instead of complying, fired a broadside at him. Tromp asserted,
that he was preparing to strike, and that the English admiral,
nevertheless, began hostilities. It is certain that the admiralty of
Holland, who are distinct from the council of state, had given Tromp no
orders to strike, but had left him to his own discretion with regard
to that vain but much contested ceremonial. They seemed willing to
introduce the claim of an equality with the new commonwealth, and to
interpret the former respect paid the English flag as a deference due
only to the monarchy. This circumstance forms a strong presumption
against the narrative of the Dutch admiral. The whole Orange party, it
must be remarked, to which Tromp was suspected to adhere, was desirous
of a war with England.

Blake, though his squadron consisted only of fifteen vessels,
reenforced, after the battle began, by eight under Captain Bourne,
maintained the fight with bravery for five hours, and sunk one ship of
the enemy, and took another. Night parted the combatants, and the