"On the 16th, in the morning, the wind being still easterly, hazy weather, and having no sight of the enemy or their scouts, we filled and bore away to the westward, supposing they would have gone away for Cadiz; but being advised from Gibraltar and the coast of Barbary that they did not pass the Straits, we concluded they had been so severely treated as to oblige them to return to Toulon. "The admiral says he must do the officers the justice to say that every man in the line did his duty, without giving the least umbrage for censure or reflection, and that he never observed the true English spirit so apparent and prevalent in our seamen as on this occasion. "This battle is so much the more glorious to Her Majesty's arms because the enemy had a superiority of six hundred great guns, and likewise the advantage of cleaner ships, being lately come out of port, not to mention the great use of their galleys in towing on or off their great ships and in supplying them with fresh men as often as they had any killed or disabled. But all these disadvantages were surmounted by the bravery and good conduct of our officers and the undaunted courage of our seamen." In this fierce engagement neither side lost a ship, but the carnage was very great, the English killed and wounded numbering three thousand and the French nearly four thousand. The French claimed it as a victory but showed no disposition to follow it up. Upon his return to England Sir George found himself the subject of much party strife, and, as perceiving that as he rose in credit with his country he lost his interest in those at the helm, resolved to retire from public service and prevent the affairs of the nation from receiving any disturbance upon his account. Retiring to his seat in Kent he spent the rest of his life in rest and peace, dying of the gout on January 24th, 1708-9 in the fifty-eighth year of his age. A good husband and a kind master, he lived hospitably with his neighbours and left behind him a moderate fortune. "I do not leave much," said he, "but what I leave was honestly gotten; it never cost a sailor a tear or the nation a farthing." After he was laid aside a privy seal was offered him for passing his accounts; but he refused it, and made them up in the ordinary way and with all the exactness imaginable. [Illustration: THE SPANISH ARMADA. (_See page 101._)] OFF GIBRALTAR. It is not to be supposed that our enemies quietly accepted the conquest of Gibraltar by Sir George Rooke as final; indeed, a very short time elapsed before they began to make efforts to regain it.