served that Lord Lambert had
made a point of being present, as if to signify that the great sailor
and he had always understood each other. How Blake would have farther
comported himself had he lived no one really knows. At sea he had
made it a principle to abstain from party-politics. "When news was
brought him of a metamorphosis in the State at home, he would then
encourage the seamen to be most vigilant abroad; for, said he, 'tis
not our duty to mind State-affairs, but to keep foreigners from
fooling us." The idea among the ultra-Republicans of using Blake's
popularity to undermine Cromwell had long come to nothing.[1]

[Footnote 1: Council Order Books, Aug. 13, 1657: Godwin, IV. 420-421;
Wood's Fasti, I. 371.]

Blake gone, the naval hope of England now was Admiral Montague. Since
August 11 he had been cruising up and down the Channel with his fleet
under general orders. The interest of the war with Spain now lay
chiefly in Flanders, where the Protector's army of 6000 foot under
General Reynolds was co-operating with the larger French army of
Louis XIV. commanded by Turenne. Here Cromwell had, again to complain
of Mazarin's wily policy. By the Treaty the great object of the
expedition was to be the reduction of the coast-towns, Gravelines,
Mardike, and Dunkirk; but these sieges had been postponed, and
Turenne had been campaigning in the interior, the English troops
obliged to attend him hither and thither, and complaining much of
their bad accommodation and bad feeding. Mazarin, in fact, was
studying French interests only, A peremptory communication from
Cromwell through Ambassador Lockhart, Aug. 31, changed the state of
matters. "I pray you tell the Cardinal from me," he said, "that I
think, if France desires to maintain its ground, much more to
_get_ ground, upon the Spaniard, the performance., of his Treaty
with us will better do it than anything appears yet to me of any
design he hath." He offered 2000 more men from England, if necessary;
but he added in a postscript, "If indeed the French be so false to us
as that they would not have us have any footing on that side the
water, then I desire ... that all things may be done in order to the
giving us satisfaction, and to the drawing-off of our men. And truly,
Sir, I desire you to take boldness and freedom to yourself in your
dealing with the French on these accounts." The Cardinal at once
succumbed, and the siege of Mardike by land and sea was begun Sept.
21. Th