HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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their more numerous companions were employed to the southward againstBrest, and afterwards in the Mediterranean, whither the greater part of themaccompanied Mr. Russel, the remainder were scarcely less destructively andusefully occupied against Dunkirk and Calais. The consequence of these mea-sures was as propitious as the hopes of the combined powers themselves couldhave possibly led them to expect: France, who, in consequence of her successagainst the Smyrna fleet, on the side of the Atlantic, and the apparently for-midable force which she possessed in the Mediterranean, had arrogantly assumedto herself the title of empress of the seas, found herself degraded in the eyes ofthe whole universe, and the arms of her enemies so completely successful inevery quarter where they were employed, that a prudent attention to the secu-rity of her ships caused her to prevent their ever putting t@ sea in search ofthose foes whom they so lately, and so insolently braved.. The summer did not,however, pass over wholly without misfortune on the part of Holland. Thecelebrated French partisan, Du Bart, had the fortune to fall in with a Dutchmerchant fleet, under the protection of De Vries, who had under his commanda squadron of eight ships of war. Du Bart was evidently superior in force,and pursuing his enemy with alacrity, several of the Dutch officers, contrary totheir usual custom,'are said to have behaved with extreme backwardness, leavingtheir commander in chief to fight singly against his antagonists, by whom, aftera most gallant defence, he was surrounded and taken prisoner. It is not impro-bable, that this success might have been one of the principal causes which gavebirth to that expedition which took place under Sir Cloudesley Shovel, in themonth of September, against Dunkirk. The allied powers had now acquireda complete ascendancy, which .they did not suffer to pass out of their handsduring the whole remainder of the war .; hostilities, nevertheless, appeared fromthis time in a languishing state ; and the flame of war gradually diminished,till it became in the year 1697 totally extinguished. The only misfortunewhich befel Holland during this interval, was ithe capture of a number ofmerchant ships, homeward bound from Portugal, which were so unlucky as tofall in with the same commander, Du Bart, who had conquered De Vries.Out of five frigates which composed the convoy to this fleet, four were taken ;■but the-conclusion of the event fully proved .the superiority of the allies, andthe danger to which an enemy-was exposed-should he venture, though with theutmost precaution, to attack or face them. Scarcely had the French partisan

Y y 2 taken