The three ships which had fled to Cherburg were closely chased by an English squadron under the command of Delaval.  He found them hauled up into shoal water where no large man of war could get at them.  He therefore determined to attack them with his fireships and boats.  The service was gallantly and successfully performed.  In a short time the Royal Sun and her two consorts were burned to ashes.  Part of the crews escaped to the shore; and part fell into the hands of the English.268

Meanwhile Russell with the greater part of his victorious fleet had blockaded the Bay of La Hogue.  Here, as at Cherburg, the French men of war had been drawn up into shallow water.  They lay close to the camp of the army which was destined for the invasion of England.  Six of them were moored under a fort named Lisset.  The rest lay under the guns of another fort named Saint Vaast, where James had fixed his headquarters, and where the Union flag, variegated by the crosses of Saint George and Saint Andrew, hung by the side of the white flag of France.  Marshal Bellefonds had planted several batteries which, it was thought, would deter the boldest enemy from approaching either Fort Lisset or Fort Saint Vaast.  James, however, who knew something of English seamen, was not perfectly at ease, and proposed to send strong bodies of soldiers on board of the ships.  But Tourville would not consent to put such a slur on his profession.

Russell meanwhile was preparing for an attack.  On the afternoon of the twenty-third of May all was ready.  A flotilla consisting of sloops, of fireships, and of two hundred boats, was entrusted to the command of Rooke.  The whole armament was in the highest spirits.  The rowers, flushed by success, and animated by the thought that they were going to fight under the eyes of the French and Irish troops who had been assembled for the purpose of subjugating England, pulled manfully and with loud huzzas towards the six huge wooden castles which lay close to Fort Lisset.  The French, though an eminently brave people, have always been more liable to sudden panics than their phlegmatic neighbours the English and Germans.  On this day there was a panic both in the fleet and in the army.  Tourville ordered his sailors to man their boats, and would have led them to encounter the enemy in the bay.  But his example and his exhortations were vain.  His boats turned round and fled in confusion.  The ships were abandoned.  The cannonade from Fort Lisset was so feeble and ill directed that it did no execution.  The regiments on the beach, after wasting a few musket shots, drew off.  The English boarded the men of war, set them on fire, and having performed this great service without the loss of a single life, retreated at a late hour with the retreating tide.  The bay was in a blaze during the night; and now and then a loud explosion announced that the flames had reached a powder room or a tier of loaded guns.  At eight the next morning the tide came back strong; and with