had originally started, but there were now six; and with them were four "foists" or tenders. Echyngham, of course, reported to Howard what he had seen, but no steps seem to have been then taken to deal with Prégent; and the omission had serious consequences; for on Friday, the 22nd, Prégent, with his galleys and tenders, made a dash at part of the English fleet, probably with the idea of joining his friends at Brest, or of forcing the raising of the blockade. He sank the vessel commanded by Compton, and so severely damaged another ship commanded by Stephen Bull, that she narrowly escaped foundering. One of the tenders was taken by the English boats; and Prégent, apparently baffled for the time, went into Blanc-sablon Bay, where he remained throughout Saturday, the 23rd, placing his squadron between the two islets at the mouth of the bay, and fortifying both.
On the night of Saturday he intended to disembark six thousand men on the little peninsula between the bays of Blanc-sablon and Le Conquêt, so as to take the galleys in the rear, but the movements of the enemy caused him to abandon his design and to take his fleet back to Le Goulet, it appearing to him that an effort was to be made to throw supplies into the town of Brest.
On St. Mark's Day, Monday the 25th, Howard determined to essay an attack upon the galleys, which were so situated that they could not be approached at all by large vessels, and that the batteries on the rocks commanded the approach of even boats. Captains Sir Thomas Cheyne, Sir John Wallop, Sir Henry Sherburn, and Sir William Sydney, with Lord Ferrers, were associated with him in the hazardous venture; and two small galleys, two large barges and two boats formed the cutting-out force, which advanced to the attack at about 4 P.M.[1]
Howard, in the galley which he personally commanded, got alongside the galley of Prégent. He had told off fifteen men to fling into the French vessel his own anchor, so as to hold her, and to make fast the cable of it to his own capstan, with directions that if the French ships caught fire, the cable was to be cut; but either the cable was at once cut by the enemy, or the Englishmen failed to carry out their orders; for, as Howard, followed by a Spaniard named Charrau and sixteen others, clambered into the forecastle of Prégent's ship, his own craft swung clear and drifted away, leaving
- ↑ Du Bellay, i.; Herbert, 13; 'Reg. of Garter' (Austis), ii. 275; Dupleix, iii. See also Stowe, Speed, and Godwin.
