He was at first weaker in numbers than de
Ruyter, the excellent Dutch admiral; but he skilfully struck one part
of the Dutch line very hard before the rest could support it. On the
second and third days the Dutch, do what they could, were quite unable
to crush him. Both sides had some bad ships and bad crews; but as the
Dutch had more of these than the British had they suffered the greater
loss by flinching.
On the fourth day Monk was helped by gallant Prince Rupert, cousin to
Charles II and by far the best of all the Stuarts. The Government of
Charles, afraid that Louis XIV would send the French to join the Dutch,
had just done one of those foolish things that are always done when
scared civilians try to manage fleets and armies for themselves. They
had sent Rupert off to guard against the French, thus risking a double
defeat, by weakening Monk in front of the Dutch and Rupert in front of
the French (who never came at all) instead of leaving the whole fleet
together, strong enough to fight either enemy before the two could
join.
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