The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-01

from the headland. was fighting out a
 bitter battle with himself, such a one
 as only noble nature ever needs to | fight. Alter the vice admiraFs depar- ture there had come to him an eTnis- sary of the JacobItes, who, without openly suggesting disloyalty told him
 that De Vervillin was carrying Scotch troops to the north to aid the prince
 This was false. but Bluewater had no
 reason to doubt 1t. as 1t seemed like | ly thing for the French to do. All his | generous nature was aroused in the
 cause of the young prince, whom he, in his frank, sincere and trusting mind, painted with all the nobility with
 which loyalistshave always cloaked | tn cir hero-princes. sg sa
 He felt that 1t would be merely neces- sary for him to hold hIs division back to render an engagement morally im- probable. It never came to his honest heart for an instant to abandon his
 friend to a superior force; but his mind had glimpses of the possibility of doing
 the adventurer in Scotland great
 good without doing Sir Gervaise and
 the fleet any harm. The thought did
 not come to him in any way as dis
 loyalty to England. for in his mind the Pretender was England.
 So when Bluewater saw his ships
 
 first time in his career with something else in his heart than the single wish
 to meet the enemy and fight him. He
 repaired on board his flagship, the Caesar, with a mind in harmony with the weather that had set in with the approach of night.
 The sea was rising fast and the wind had begun to moan through the im- mense and complicated rigging. When
 sail was made on the great ship, she heeled over to 1t and rose and fell on the troubled waters. By the time she entered the Channel the winds voice | had grown to a roar, and the sea was 1 a sheet of glancing foam.
 Bluewater sent men aloft as soon as he cleared the land. but though they
 were the sharpest-eyed in the fleet, they could see no sign of the vice ad-
 miraPs ships. He ordered the course set we'll to eastward and sailed in search, still struggling with himself l and unable to come to a decision as to what would be the right thing for him
 to do in the critical situation in which
 he found himself.
 Meantime oakes's fleet was pitching
 wildly in the Chops of the Channel, un- der reefed forsail, close-reefed main
 top-s sail, and small triangular pieces of heavy cloth fitted between the l masts. The green water was stream ing from their hawse holes after each sma shing dive, each ship wallowed on, showing aside huge masses of water with the bows. the masts describing short arcs in the air, and the hulls lurching as if boring their way through the mounting seas. Yet when day came an airline drawn from the mig zen-top of the Plantegenet to that of the last vessel in the vice admirafs line would have passed through the spars of full half the squadron, and none of the rest would have been
 pistol shot out of the way.
 In this splendid position for battle they bore along-a trap set by con summate seaman; for if the day should
 show them the Frenchman under their lee where he was almost bound to be. they would have him where he could
 neither run fast enough to escape them nor manoeuVere well enough to engage them except as they chose.
 Sir Gervais protested that he was not mad enough to dream of engaging
 so superior a force as that of the French, and that he simply meant to prevent them from coming up channel. But when a sail was reported on his lee bow he did not show any desire to alter the course of his fleet. Nor did he set any signals when another and another appeared, until at last they counted twenty ships. all heading north in line as the British were heading south.
 These courses were certain to bring
 the two fleets together-the British
 cruisers being to windward. while the
 French ships were running close hauled toward them from leeward.
 "We certainly can't lick him with our force" said Sir Gervais reluctant
 ly, 'but so long as 1t blows such gale as it does now there won't be much
 fighting. and there can be no harm In taking a near look at M. de Vervillin." He stood on, followed by his ships.
 There were now only two miles between the Plantagenet and the flag ship Of the Frenchmen. the noble eighty-gun ship Le Foudroyant. It was evident that when abreast there would be about the same distance
 between the vans of both. the English being so much to windward, while the
 rear of the British would naturally be
 brought much closer to the van of the
 French In passing, If both fleets held
 their coursa