[Illustration]

The exhausted enemies remained at anchor in the open sea, two miles apart, for a week, repairing.  On the 19th of April the French got under way and made a demonstration before the British, inviting battle, yet not attacking; but the condition of the Monmouth forbade Hughes from moving.  Suffren therefore departed to Batacalo, in Ceylon, south of Trincomalee, where he covered his own convoys from Europe, and flanked the approach of his adversary’s.  Hughes, on the 22d of April, got into Trincomalee, where he remained till June 23d.  He then went to Negapatam, formerly a Dutch possession, but then held by the British.  There he learned that Suffren, who meanwhile had captured several British transports, was a few miles north of him, at Cuddalore, which had surrendered to Hyder Ali on April 4th.  On the 5th of July, at 1 P.M., the French squadron appeared.  At 3 P.M.  Hughes put to sea, and stood south during the night to gain the wind,—­the south-west monsoon now blowing.

Next morning, at daylight, the French were seen at anchor, seven or eight miles to leeward.  At 6 A.M. they began to get under way.  One of their sixty-fours, the Ajax, had lost her main and mizzen topmasts in a violent squall on the previous afternoon, and was not in the line.  There were therefore eleven ships on each side.  The action, known as that of Negapatam, began shortly before 11, when both fleets were on the starboard tack, heading south-south-east, wind south-west.  The British being to windward, Hughes ordered his fleet to bear up together to the attack, exactly as Suffren had done on the 12th of April.  As commonly happened, the rear got less close than the van (Position I).  The fourth ship in the French order, the Brillant, 64 (a), losing her mainmast early, dropped to leeward of the line, (a’), and astern of her place (a").  At half-past noon the wind flew suddenly to south-south-east,—­the sea-breeze,—­taking the ships a little on the port bow.  Most of them, on both sides, paid off from the enemy, the British to starboard, the French to port; but between the main lines, which were in the momentary confusion consequent upon such an incident, were left six ships—­four British and two French—­that had turned the other way (Positions II and III).[145] These were the Burford, Sultan (s), Worcester, and Eagle, fourth, fifth, eighth and tenth, in the British order; and the Severe (b), third in the French, with the dismasted Brillant, which was now towards the rear of the fight (a).  Under these conditions, the Severe, 64, underwent a short but close action with the Sultan, 74; and with two other British ships, according to the report of the Severe’s captain.  The remainder of the incident shall be given in the latter’s own words.