Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/66

38 changed, and threw both the combating parties into disorder.

This change of wind, according to the English writers, saved the French fleet from certain defeat. The French on their side, whilst admitting the shameful conduct of some of their captains, contend that the battle was still uncertain, and that they were combating with equal chances when the wind came to part them. The state of affairs after the change of wind had operated, as stated by one of the English writers of the period, a decided partisan, shows, I think, that there could have been little to choose between the condition of the rivals. "After much manœuvring," he writes, "and the continuation of a partial engagement between such of the two fleets as came within reach of each other, the English admiral made the signal for the line of battle ahead, and was preparing, at half-past one o'clock, to renew the attack; but seeing, at two, the enemy standing in shore, and collecting their ships in a close body, while his were much dispersed, and several of them ungovernable, he relinquished that design, and thought only of getting into such a condition as should prove decisive to the service next morning. Then, however, the French were observed under sail, on their way to Cuddalore, while our fleet was utterly incapable of preventing or pursuing them." If this does not imply that the English ships had been at least