INTRODUCTION .
appointed fleets which any age had ever
seen , disputed
the
command
of
the
greater
half of
the globe,
the
commerce
of nations, and the
riches
of the
universe .
While these vast floating
bodies
moved against
each
other
in parallel lines and
our
countrymen , under
the
happy conduct of his Royal Highness , went breaking ,
by
little
and little, into
the
line
of
the
enemies , the
noise of
the
cannon
from
both
navies
reached
our
ears about
the
City , so
that
all
men
being alarmed
with
it,
and
in
a
dreadful suspense
of
the event which
we knew was
then
deciding
,
every
one went following
the sound
as
his
fancy
led him
,
and
leaving
the
town
almost empty
,
some took
towards the park
,
some cross
the river
,
others
down
it;
all seeking
the noise
in
the
depth
of
silence
.'
Dryden
goes
on
to
relate
how
in
company
with
three gentlemen
'
whom
their wit and quality have made
known
to
all
the
town
'--
they
were
Lord
Buckhurst
,
Sir Charles Sedley and Sir Robert Howard
,
in
the Essay
disguised
under
the
borrowed
names
of
Eugenius
,
Lisideius
and Crites
-
he took barge
down
through
the
crowded
shipping
to
Greenwich
;
where the four listened
in
silence
as
the air broke about them
in
little indulations
of
sound
'
like the noise
of
distant thunder
or
of
swallows
in
a
chimney
,'
until
by
little and
little
it
fell away
and
at
length
Eugenius
,
lifting
a
hand
,
congratulated
all
on
this
certain
omen
of
victory
,
adding
the devout wish
that wemight hear no more
of
that noise
which
was
now
leaving
the
English
coast
.
Thereupon
(
as
the
bravest will
,
when
a
long tension
of
the
spirit
is
happily
relaxed
)
Sir Robert Howard
let the
strain
down
with
a
Alippant remark
,
that
'
He could
scarce
have wished the