Another interesting event also is recorded as having occurred off this coast, by Bishop Burnet, who in the History of his Own Times thus relates this marvellous circumstance: “There was one extraordinary thing happened near the Hague this summer (1672); I had it from many eye-witnesses, and no doubt was made of the truth of it by any at the Hague. Soon after the English fleet had refitted themselves, they appeared in sight of Scheveling, making up to the shore. The tide turned, but they reckoned that with the next flood they could certainly land the forces that were on board, where they were like to meet with no resistance. The States sent to the prince for some regiments to hinder the descent. He could not spare many men, having the French near him; so between the two, the country was given up for lost unless De Ruyter should quickly come up. The flood returned, which the people thought was to end in their ruin; but to all their amazement, after it had flowed two or three hours, an ebb of many hours succeeded, which carried the fleet again to sea; and before that was spent, De Ruyter came in view. This they reckoned a miracle wrought for their preservation.” It is also a curious circumstance that the reverse of this extraordinary effort of nature enabled the immortal Nelson to lay his fleet so as to bear upon the batteries by which the capital of Denmark was protected. The tide had never been known, in the memory of the oldest inhabitant of Copenhagen, to have risen so high as on the day when the battle first commenced, and greatly contributed to his success in persuading the gallant Danes that they were beaten. De Ruyter, the Nelson of the Dutch, was distinguished for the boldness of his designs and the celerity of his execution. In 1653, with Van Tromp, he commanded the Dutch fleet against this country with the greatest honour to his flag. The Moors presented him with a Barbary horse, magnificently caparisoned, for his gallantly reaching his destined port in the Salee roads, and for capturing five powerful Algerine corsairs. The celebrated vice-admiral d’Estrés said of him in a letter to Colbert, on account of his noble conduct in those hard-fought engagements between the English, Dutch, and French fleets off the Texel, “I should be very willing to purchase with my life the glory which De Ruyter has acquired in these desperate actions.”