In the meantime the Dutch Smyrna fleet and several of their East Indiamen, not daring to enter the English Channel, took refuge in the port of Bergen in Norway; but a plot was concerted between the kings of England and Denmark to seize these ships, worth several millions, and to divide the spoil. Through mismanagement, however, the scheme was defeated, and the Earl of Sandwich, who had been sent to carry out this intrigue, was so severely handled by the governor of Bergen, that the English ships were compelled to return home. A strong fleet of ninety-three ships, well equipped, under the command of De Ruyter, was then despatched from Holland to convey home the valuable merchant ships from Bergen, but a storm severely damaged this expedition, and ultimately twenty of the ships fell into the hands of the English. [Sidenote: Coalition between the French and Dutch, 1666.] [Sidenote: Battle of June 1,] In the following year the affairs of England looked alarming, the States-General having induced the king of France to declare war against England, at the same time subsidising the king of Denmark, to enable him to keep a fleet at sea in the service of the allies. It is irrelevant to our main purpose to describe the tactics of the English and allied fleets; it will be only necessary to remind our readers that the English admirals, Monk and Prince Rupert, engaged the Dutch fleet under De Ruyter and Cornelis Van Tromp on the 1st of June, 1666, off the coast of Flanders, and, after a bloody struggle for four days, the English lost two admirals and twenty-three great ships, besides smaller vessels, six thousand men, and two thousand six hundred prisoners, while the losses of the Dutch amounted to four admirals, six ships, two thousand eight hundred soldiers, and eighty sailors. The latter of course claimed the victory, but the Londoners made bonfires as if they were the conquerors.[185] [Sidenote: and of July 24, 1666.] The two fleets soon put to sea again, and met on the 24th July, when another formidable struggle took place between the contending parties. The English had a hundred sail, the Dutch had eighty ships of the line and nineteen fireships, the battle being fiercely disputed on each side with unequal and varying success; but, through an error of Van Tromp, the English beat De Ruyter, driving him into port; and afterwards made a descent upon the Dutch coasts, burning a hundred of their merchant ships and two men-of-war destined for convoys. The French fleet appeared in the Channel _after_ the campaign was over, but whether it was in intelligence with the English court, while Louis XIV. only amused the Dutch with a hollow alliance, secretly rejoicing in the destruction of both the English and Dutch navies, and hoping that France might then step in and reap the benefit, certain it is that the Dutch received no real assistance from France. [Sidenote: Renewed negotiations for peace, 1667.]