But it was too late. The day was lost, and the brave old man had at last, reluctantly, to give the order for retreat. Just then a fresh gale sprang up, but the English fleet pressed sail after them, sank some ships, captured others, and were only made to cease by darkness coming on. Favored by the darkness, Tromp anchored in Ostend Road, and next day escaped, with the remnant of his fleet, into Weilingen. The news of this great defeat threw the United Provinces into a dangerous ferment. The mob rose in many towns, and committed great excesses. The Admirals offered to resign; and they all declared that they would go to sea no more with such an organized fleet as they then possessed. De Witt openly acknowledged that the English were, for the present, masters of the sea. The naval power of Holland was indeed, for the time, completely broken; and the final battle of the war, hazarded and lost two months later, was an expiring effort, made with crippled resources, and under circumstances of the greatest discouragement. The English fleet, though it kept the sea, was scarcely in better condition than that of their enemy. Blake kept the Dutch coast blockaded, nevertheless, while their commerce was intercepted and their fisheries idle. In doing this his fleet suffered from bad and scanty provisions, which brought on much sickness. Blake himself fell ill, and had to be taken on shore, more dead than alive, leaving to Monk, Penn and Lawson the carrying out of his plans. One more blow, and all was over. In the temporary absence of the English blockading fleet, the Dutch squadrons at Weilingen and the Texel put to sea, and effected a junction. But their shattered fleet was felt to be unfit to cope with their powerful opponents, and when they met the English fleet, they endeavored to avoid a battle. But Penn and Lawson pressed sail to come up with them, and some fighting had already taken place, when night came on, and stopped it. Next day a heavy gale prevented a renewal of the action; but on the next the fleets once more met. During the close fighting which ensued the aged and able Van Tromp received a musket ball through the heart, and fell upon his own quarter-deck,--an appropriate death for the gallant but unfortunate veteran. At his death his fleet fled; the English pursuing without mercy, for the ruthless Monk was now in command, and had ordered his captains to give no quarter. They made no prisoners; and the end of the engagement was rather a massacre than a battle. Immediately after this the humbled States General sued for peace. IX. FRENCH AND DUTCH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. A.D. 1676. In the latter part of 1674 Messina and a part of Sicily revolted against the Spaniards, and Louis XIV resolved to sustain the insurrection, in pursuance of his political designs. In consequence, Duquesne, who had just been named General of the Naval Forces, sailed from Toulon, on January 29th, 1675, with eight ships-of-war, bound for the Sicilian coast.