CHARLES I. : THE NAVY 273 



had left behind him " pressing after him," as he said were of 

 more consideration. The king therefore ordered that when the 

 victualling was completed the fleet should again keep the sea 

 to the westward. 1 



This decision probably saved the Earl of Lindsey, as well as 

 the king, from further humiliation and disappointment. Even 

 had he at once sailed to the north, he would have found no 

 Dutch herring-busses to deal with, any more than he had found 

 the French fleet. For the Dunkirk privateers, swiftly taking 

 advantage of Richelieu's withdrawal of the blockading squadron 

 from their port, had made a bold dash into the North Sea and 

 overwhelmed the Hollanders off the coast of Northumberland. 

 More than 100 busses had been sunk or burnt, and 1000 

 fishermen carried prisoners to Flanders; the rest were in full 

 flight homewards or pent up in British ports, and the herring- 

 fishing was ruined for that year. 2 



The calamity soon brought over the Dutch fleet to protect 

 the remaining busses. Van Dorp, with fourteen French and 

 Dutch men-of-war, arrived in Calais Road about the middle of 

 August and sailed thence northwards, thirsting for vengeance 

 on the freebooters. Lindsey detached some of the ships from 

 his fleet, which lay victualling in the Downs, for convoys, as 

 well as to punish the " contempt " of the Dutch at Scarborough 

 (see p. 250), and a few of the smaller vessels were engaged in 

 looking for " picaroons " in the Straits of Dover." For during 

 the absence of the fleet, the post-boat between Dover and Dun- 

 kirk had been attacked and pillaged five times within seven 



1 Lindsey to the king, 2nd August ; Coke to Lindsey, 4th August. State Papers, 

 -Dora. , ccxcv. 9, 42. The rumour that two of the king's ships were to go north to 

 the busses reached the ears of the States' ambassador. Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 

 17,677, 0, fol. 376. 



2 State Papers, Dom., ccxcvi. 5, 14, 16, 30. Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 17,677, 0, 

 fol. 380. Res. Holl., 7th September, Bosgoed, op. cit., p. 358. Twelve busses and 

 three of the convoys took refuge at Newcastle ; others in the Firth of Forth. The 

 skipper of a coasting vessel from Scotland to Scarborough saw seven busses in 

 flames ; the sky was red from the conflagration. The Leopard, one of Lindsey's 

 fleet, convoying merchantmen to Dunkirk, met eighteen of the privateers returning 

 in triumph. The Dutch busses were the natural prey of the Dunkirkers, and the 

 States were put to great expense and pains in guarding them. In 1625 a Spanish 

 agent, Egidio Ouwers, submitted to Cardinal de Ceva, at Brussels, an elaborate 

 plan for destroying the Dutch herring fishery, so as to "spoil their chiefest mine 

 by which they maintained their wars." State Papers, Dom., dxxi. 30. 



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