Grenville ordered her
off, and Howard himself also retired, seeing no chance whatever of
helping the _Revenge_ and every chance of losing all his own ships.
Then, at three in the afternoon, the whole Spanish fleet closed in on
the _Revenge_, which had only one hundred men really fit for duty. The
rest were sick. Grenville, who had sworn he would cut down the first
man who touched a rope while there still seemed a chance to escape, now
refused the Spanish summons to surrender and prepared to fight to the
last. Trimming his sails as carefully as if for a yacht race he ran
down close-hauled on the starboard tack, right between the two
divisions of the Spanish fleet, till the flagship, three times the size
of the _Revenge_, ranged up on his weather side, thus blanketing his
canvas and stealing the wind. As the _Revenge_ lost way the ships she
had passed on the other side began ranging up to cut her off
completely. But meanwhile her first broadside had crashed into the
flagship, which hauled off for repairs and was replaced by two more
ships.
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