.. you
shall, as in the way and execution of justice, seize, arrest, &c. such
ships and vessels of the said French king, or any of his subjects, as you
shall think fit,... and the same keep in your custody, till the parliament
declare their further resolution concerning the same."--Thurloe, i. 144.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Feb.]
acceptance;[1] but the queen-mother and the other counsellors were so
unwilling to give the English a footing in France, that he acquiesced in
their opinion, and a refusal was returned. Cromwell did not fail to resent
the disappointment. By the facility which he afforded to the Spanish levies
in Ireland, their army in Flanders was enabled to reduce Gravelines, and,
soon afterwards, to invest[a] Dunkirk. That fortress was on the point of
capitulating when a French flotilla of seven sail, carrying from twenty to
thirty guns each, and laden with stores and provisions, was descried[b]
stealing along the shore to its relief. Blake, who had received secret
orders from the council, gave chase; the whole squadron was captured, and
the next day[c] Dunkirk opened its gates.[2] By the French court this
action was pronounced an unprovoked and unjustifiable injury; but Mazarin
coolly calculated the probable consequences of a war, and, after some time,
sent[d] over Bordeaux, under the pretence of claiming the captured ships,
but in reality to oppose the intrigues of the agents of Spain, of the
prince of Conde, and of the city of Bordeaux, who laboured to obtain the
support of the commonwealth in opposition to the French court.
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