III.

Never was a situation more clearly defined or more decisive than that of

660. Never had a course of conduct been more plainly indicated to a

well-ordered mind. England was out of Cromwell's grasp. Under the

republic many irregularities had been committed. British preponderance

had been created. With the aid of the Thirty Years' War, Germany had

been overcome; with the aid of the Fronde, France had been humiliated;

with the aid of the Duke of Braganza, the power of Spain had been

lessened. Cromwell had tamed Mazarin; in signing treaties the Protector

of England wrote his name above that of the King of France. The United

Provinces had been put under a fine of eight millions; Algiers and Tunis

had been attacked; Jamaica conquered; Lisbon humbled; French rivalry

encouraged in Barcelona, and Masaniello in Naples; Portugal had been

made fast to England; the seas had been swept of Barbary pirates from

Gibraltar to Crete; maritime domination had been founded under two

forms, Victory and Commerce. On the 10th of August, 1653, the man of

thirty-three victories, the old admiral who called himself the sailors'

grandfather, Martin Happertz van Tromp, who had beaten the Spanish, had

been destroyed by the English fleet. The Atlantic had been cleared of

the Spanish navy, the Pacific of the Dutch, the Mediterranean of the

Venetian, and by the patent of navigation, England had taken possession

of the sea-coast of the world. By the ocean she commanded the world; at

sea the Dutch flag humbly saluted the British flag. France, in the

person of the Ambassador Mancini, bent the knee to Oliver Cromwell; and

280

The Man Who Laughs