still that some better terms might be offered.  But in order to gain breathing space for the efforts of the negotiators, one thing was essential—­the breaking of the blockade.  The Admiralties made a supreme effort to refit and reinforce their fleet, but it lay in two portions; eighty-five sail under Tromp in the Maas, thirty-one under De With in the Texel.  Monk with about 100 ships lay between them to prevent their junction.  On August 4 Tromp sailed out and, after a rearguard action off Katwijk, out-manoeuvred the English commander and joined De With.  He now turned and with superior numbers attacked Monk off Scheveningen.  The old hero fell mortally wounded at the very beginning of what proved to be an unequal fight.  After a desperate struggle the Dutch retired with very heavy loss.  Monk’s fleet also was so crippled that he returned home to refit.  The action in which Tromp fell thus achieved the main object for which it was fought, for it freed the Dutch coast from blockade.  It was, moreover, the last important battle in the war.  The States, though much perplexed to find a successor to Martin Tromp, were so far from being discouraged that great energy was shown in reorganising the fleet.  Jacob van Wassenaer, lord of Obdam, was appointed lieutenant-admiral of Holland, with De Ruyter and Evertsen under him as vice-admirals.  De With retained his old command of a detached squadron, with which he safely convoyed a large fleet of East Indiamen round the north of Scotland into harbour.  After this there were only desultory operations on both sides and no naval engagement.

Meanwhile negotiations had been slowly dragging on.  The accession of Cromwell to supreme power in December, 1653, with the title of Lord Protector seemed to make the prospects of the negotiations brighter, for the new ruler of England had always professed himself an opponent of the war, which had shattered his fantastic dream of a union between the two republics.  Many conferences took place, but the Protector’s attitude and intentions were ambiguous and difficult to divine.  The fear of an Orange restoration appears to have had a strange hold on his imagination and to have warped at this time the broad outlook of the statesman.  At last Cromwell formulated his proposals in twenty-seven articles.  The demands were those of the victor, and were severe.  All the old disputes were to be settled in favour of England.  An annual sum was to be paid for the right of fishing; compensation to be made for “the massacre of Amboina” and the officials responsible for it punished; the number of warships in English waters was to be limited; the flag had to be struck when English ships were met and the right of search to be permitted.  These demands, unpalatable as they were, might at least have furnished a basis of settlement, but there was one demand besides these which was impossible.  Article 12 stipulated that the Prince of Orange should not at any time hold any of the offices or dignities which