BROOM AND WHIPLASH 311 



of the engagement, on the English, who endured the 

 burden of the battle. As a result of the affair, which was 

 indecisive, the allied fleet was unable to take the offensive 

 for more than a month afterwards, although they had 

 lost only one ship and the Dutch five or six. 



Meanwhile, De Ruyter had scored a triumph which 

 even he could scarcely have considered possible he had 

 lumbered across the North Sea and invaded England 

 itself, and carried off to Holland as a chief trophy the 

 finest warship in the world the Royal Charles, which, 

 on 3rd June 1665, had carried the flag of the Duke 

 of York. 



A letter from Hull, written on i6th June 1667, 

 sounded that note of consternation and fear which was 

 universal in England when it was known that the Dutch 

 had sailed boldly up the Thames, entered the Medway, 

 defeated the English, burnt some of our finest warships, 

 and carried off the Royal Charles. At Amsterdam there 

 is to be seen the arms which decorated the stern of the 

 Royal Charles, bearing an inscription stating that she 

 was captured during the "glorious operations in the 

 river of Rochester in the year 1667." That relic is as 

 much a source of pride to Holland as the remembrance 

 of the Dutch in the Medway is a lasting national 

 humiliation. 



A profligate monarch and licentious Court had put 

 pleasure and selfish indulgence before everything else, 

 with the result that the Navy had been grossly and com- 

 pletely neglected. Ships were badly found, ordnance 

 was imperfect, ammunition was bad, and such shot as 

 there was available proved, often enough, either too 

 large or too small for the guns for which it was issued. 



