Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/152

132 ; D'Annebault came to meet them with, the galleys, and there was some distant firing; but there was no intention of an engagement on either side. The English withdrew, and night closed in.

The morning which followed was breathlessly calm. Lisle's fleet lay all inside in the Spit, the heavy sails hanging motionless on the yards, the smoke from the chimneys of the cottages on shore rising in blue columns straight up into the air. It was a morning beautiful with the beauty of an English summer and an English sea. But for the work before him, Lord Lisle would have gladly heard the west wind whistling among his shrouds; at this time he had not a galley to oppose to the five-and-twenty which D'Annebault had brought with him; and in such weather the galleys had all the advantages of the modern gunboats. From the single long gun which each of them carried in the bow they poured shot for an hour into the tall stationary hulls of the line-of-battle ships; and keeping in constant motion, they were themselves in perfect security. According to the French account of the action, the 'Great Harry' suffered so severely as almost to be sunk at her anchorage; and had the calm continued, they believed that they could have destroyed the entire fleet. As the morning drew on, however, the off-shore breeze sprung up suddenly; the large ships began to glide through the water; a number of frigates—long, narrow vessels—so swift, the French said, that they could outsail their fastest shallops—came out with 'incredible