advanced, Herbert did not follow Châteaurenault at once, but lay to all the night. The force under his command is variously stated as nineteen and twenty-two ships of the line. The average size of the English ships was about the same as the French. On the 1st of May the wind was blowing off the land. Châteaurenault had disembarked as many of the soldiers as were carried in the men-of-war on the previous evening. But the transports were still undischarged, and had not yet been able to work up to the town of Bantry. Seeing that the English were somewhat, though not much, inferior in number to himself, the French admiral came to the very proper decision to engage. He got under way about half-past eleven, and stood down the Bay. As he had the weather-gage, he had the choice of attack. Herbert lay to to receive him. At the moment of getting under way the French fleet was in order of convoy, that is, in three parallel columns; Châteaurenault himself in the middle, with the van division under the command of Gabaret on one side, and the rear commanded by Forant on the other. When the order to draw into a line of battle was given, Gabaret should have stood on ahead, leaving a sufficient space for the admiral’s division between himself and Forant. But he moved so slowly and kept his wind at such a distance from the enemy that Châteaurenault in a fit of impatience crowded on sail, ran between the van division and the English, and took the place of van himself, thus leaving Gabaret to fall in behind and form the centre. In consequence of these misunderstandings the French line was in considerable disorder, which was increased by the fact that the narrow water of Bantry Bay left little room for manœuvring, and that the fleet was speedily compelled to tack. It would appear that these conditions ought to have afforded Herbert an opportunity for working to windward and forcing a close action with the enemy. It is, indeed, asserted that he made an attempt to gain the weather-gage, and could not do so because the French kept their wind so carefully. Thus the battle was confined to artillery fire at a considerable distance, and no great harm was done on either side. The French make an unfounded claim to have sunk an English ship. On the other hand, it is allowed that the French _Diamant_, Captain Coëtlogon, was set on fire. The biographer of Sir John Leake, who served in the battle as commander of the fireship =Firedrake=, claims the honour of this achievement for his hero. He says that the feat was performed by a “cushee piece” invented by Leake’s father, the Master-gunner of England. But the cushee piece was never heard of again, as Captain John Leake judged it to be as dangerous to its friends as its enemies, for which independence of judgment he was badly treated in the will of his indignant parent. The two fleets continued onwards in a disorderly way and firing at one another over a distance of twenty-one miles till they