HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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attacked them with the utmost resolution and good conduct. His success was'equal to his intrepidity, and after a very obstinate contest, the assault beingcarried on at the same time both by sea, and land, he possessed himself of thewhole of the enemy’s fleet. Three hundred sail, all laden with provisions andstores, were dispatched for England with the glorious tidings of the foregoingevent; and the remainder, through the want of seamen to bring them oif,were set on fire, and destroyed. Thus, as is shrewdly observed by an eminenthistorian, was this prince fortunate at sea, because his sailors were loyal, thoughhe was, on the other hand, so unlucky in his land contests, owing to the trea-chery of his nobles.

In the midst of subsequent distresses, and disputes with the barons, suchwas the firm and unshakeable loyalty of his seamen, that though there re-mained not a single house on shore where the king could with safety have takenrefuge, yet from the midst of surrounding rebellion he found a constant sanctuaryon board his ships. Thus was he enabled to collect those few friends who stillremained faithful to him, and by the captures he occasionally made of vesselsbelonging to those of his subjects, whom he considered in a state of insurrection,he was enabled to subsist his followers and adherents. Henry the Third,his son and successor, had scarcely ascended the throne, when he found him-self involved in a most serious warfare with Lewis, king of France, who hadinvaded England, and was then in the center of the kingdom, at the head ofan army consisting of twenty thousand men. Forcibly driven from the realmwhose dominion he wished to usurp, he returned in much greater force,having a numerous army under him embarked on board transports, escorted byno less than eighty large ships, armed purposely for war. Hubert de Burgh,at that time constable of Dover castle, having been joined by two other powerfulbarons, Philip d’Albanie and John Marshall, put to sea with Such force asthe Cinque Ports were able to collect, in the hope of delaying the approach,if not discomfiting the invader. The whole force which these gallant chiefswere able to collect, equalled not that of Lewis by one half; but the supe-riority possessed by the English in point of skill, almost compensated for theinequality of numbers. Availing themselves of the weather gage, they rantheir ships on board the French transports, several of which w'ere sunk by thosemeans, together with their whole crews, and the soldiers which were on boardthem. Nor was this all, for making use of a new species of annoyance againsttheir enemies, they fixed a number of pots on their decks filled with unslaked

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