Next morning the
_Soleil Royal_ became so disabled that she drifted ashore near
Cherbourg. But Tourville had meanwhile shifted his flag to another
ship and fought his way into La Hogue with twelve of his best
men-of-war. Some of the other French ships escaped by reaching St.
Malo through the dangerous channel between La Hogue and the island of
Alderney. Five others escaped to the eastward, and four went so far
that they rounded Scotland before getting home.
On the 23rd and 24th Admiral Rooke, the future hero of Gibraltar,
sailed up the bay of La Hogue with his lighter vessels; then took to
his boats and burnt Tourville's men-of-war, supply ships, and even
rowboats, in full view of King Louis and King James and of their whole
army of invasion. No other navy has seen so many strange sights,
afloat and ashore, as have been seen by the British. Yet even the
British never saw a stranger sight than when the French cavalry charged
into the shallow water where the Dutch and British sailors were
finishing their work. A soldier-and-sailor rough-and-tumble followed,
sabres and cutlasses slashing like mad, and some of the horsemen being
dragged off their saddles by well-handled boat-hooks.
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