While the hubbub was raging at home, Hawke was straining to overtake Conflans. The wind between the 14th and the evening of the 19th November either fell calm or blew from the east, hampering both fleets. On the evening of the 19th it began to blow strong from the west, and there was every sign of a coming gale. Conflans was to the south-west of Belleisle, and Hawke behind him. Fearing that the force of the wind would cause him to make the land during the night, the French admiral carried little sail. Hawke, who was farther out, had less motive for caution, and was able to carry more sail than his opponent, thereby reducing the distance between them. When the late November daybreak came, this was the position; out at sea was Hawke with twenty-three sail of the line. Ahead of him, and just so far ahead of him as to be under the horizon line, was Conflans with twenty-one sail and five frigates or sloops. Both were flying before a rising gale from the W.N.W. and heading to enter Quiberon Bay by the passage between the Grands Cardinaux and the Plateau du Four. Ahead of Conflans was the Vengeance frigate of 28 guns, whose captain, Nightingale, was carrying all the sail he could bear, and was firing signal guns rapidly to warn Commodore Duff at anchor in Quiberon Bay that the French fleet was at hand. Duff at once ordered the cables to be cut and all speed to be made to sea, for there was not a moment to be lost if his little squadron was to escape from between the land and an overwhelming enemy. The surest road to safety was round the Pointe de Conguel, and through La Teignouse to the north of Belleisle. But to beat through that channel, all scarred as it is with rocks, in the face of a gale blowing right down from the W.N.W., was a feat which only one of his ships could achieve. The others were compelled to take the frightfully perilous course of running down the east side of Belleisle and rounding it to the south. Every yard of the road brought them nearer to the French fleet, which was coming up from the west and south. It was a question of minutes whether Conflans’ ships would or would not cut the path of escape. Never since the fleet of Bazan was seen stretching across the roadstead of Flores in the Azores had an English squadron been in greater peril than Duff’s, and the men knew it well. Therefore it was that when the lookout-man at the masthead of the Rochester hailed to report that he saw Hawke’s sails to windward of the enemy, a wild shout of joy went up, and the men threw their hats into the sea at the French, in a horseplay of defiance. It was the gesture of the boxer or single-stick player at a country fair who gave a challenge. It was now about eight o’clock in the morning. The reader will bear in mind that Duff’s ships were just about to be pinned to the south coast of Belleisle, that the French ships were closing in on them from the sea, and that the topsails of Hawke were rising over the horizon against the grey November sky. The clouds were driving furiously overhead. The Norsemen, whose descendants were numerous in the English fleet, and not absent from the French, would have seen the Valkyries riding, and would have heard the voices of the “choosers of the slain.” Here is the list of the ships and the captains:—

THE FLEET OF HAWKE

The Royal George100Sir E. Hawke.
Capt. Campbell.
Union 90Sir C. Hardy.
Capt. J. Evans.
Duke 90T. Graves.
Namur 90M. Buckle.
Mars 74Commodore James Young.
Warspight 74Sir John Bentley.
Hercules 74E. Fortescue.
Torbay 74Hon. A. Keppel.
Magnanime 74Lord Howe.
Resolution 74H. Speke.
Hero 74Hon. G. Edgecumbe.
Swiftsure 70Sir T. Stanhope.
Dorsetshire 70P. Denis.
Burford 70J. Gambier.
Chichester 70E. S. Willet.
Temple 70Hon. W. Shirley.
Revenge 64J. Storr.
Essex 64L. O’Brien.
Kingston 60T. Shirley.
Intrepid 60J. Maplesden.
Montagu 60J. Rowley.
Dunkirk 60R. Digby.
Defiance 60P. Baird.
Duff’s Ships and the Frigates
Rochester 50Capt. R. Duff.
Portland 50M. Arbuthnot.
Falkland 50Fr. S. Drake.
Chatham 50J. Lockhart.
Minerva 32A. Hood.
Venus 36T. Harrison.
Vengeance 28G. Nightingale.
Coventry 28F. Burslem.
Maidstone 28D. Diggs.
Sapphire 32J. Strachan.

FLEET OF CONFLANS

Soleil Royal80Conflans Capt. de Chézac.
Tonnant80Chevr. de Beauffremont, Chef d’escadre.
Formidable80Saint-André Duverger, Chef d’escadre.
Orient80Guébriant de Budez, Chef d’escadre.
Itrépide74Chasteloger.
Magnifique74Bigot de Morogues.
Glorieux74Villars de Labrosse.
Thésé74de Kersaint.
Héros74Vicomte de Sanzay.
Robuste74Marquis de Vienne.
Northumberland74Chevr. de Belingant.
Juste70Saint Allouarn.
Dauphin Royal70Vicomte d’Urtubie.
Inflexible70Chevr. de Caumont.
Dragon70Levassor de Latouche.
Eveillé70Chevr. de Laprévalais.
Sphinx70Chevr. de Coutance-Laselle
Solitaire70Vicomte de Langle.
Brilliant70Boischateau.
Bizarre70Chevr. de Rohan.
Frigates:—Vestale, Aigrette.
Corvettes:—Calypso, Prince Noir.

The first report that he was approaching the enemy was given to Hawke by the signal of the Maidstone at about half-past eight. But it was not until a quarter to ten that Howe in the Magnanime, who had been sent on to make the land and guide the fleet, was able to signal that the French fleet was ahead, and to report its force. Meanwhile the French admiral, who was at first incredulous of the approach of his opponent, had been convinced at last that the British fleet was indeed upon him, and had begun to collect his ships, which had been scattered in pursuit of Duff. He endeavoured to form a line, and appeared resolved to give battle. When Howe’s signal was seen, Hawke gave the order to form the line abreast, and for the heavy sailers which were lagging behind to set more sail and come up to his flag. As the British ships rose above the horizon both fleets were much scattered, and the admirals were endeavouring to bring them together. It was not a rapid process with sailing-ships, which could not spread much canvas in stormy weather. The whole forenoon slipped away before a shot could be fired, and all the vessels were still to the west and south of Belleisle at midday. Duff joined Hawke at eleven o’clock. The French admiral was now able to measure the strength of the force about to fall on him. He estimated it at thirty sail of the line, which even when the 50-gun ships of Commodore Duff were counted in was an exaggeration, only to be accounted for by fear, or by a dishonest wish to excuse the weakness of his conduct to his superiors. Losing all confidence, Conflans decided not to give battle, but to make for Quiberon Bay. He therefore hoisted the signal for retreat, and set the example by leading the way in the Soleil Royal. He did not believe that Hawke would follow him into the narrow and broken waters of the bay, but he calculated that if the English admiral did take this bold course, he himself could work up towards the peninsula of Quiberon, and so gain the weather-gage and the advantage of position over an opponent embayed on a hostile and unfamiliar coast. This is what he said in his exculpatory dispatch, but it has much the look of an afterthought, and the probability is that Conflans really hoped to reach the enclosed waters of the Morbihan before being overtaken.

Had he been opposed to a commonplace officer, he would probably have succeeded. Hawke was too bold a man to turn his mind to considerations of superfluous prudence in the presence of an enemy who was manifestly seeking to avoid battle. The signal for the line abreast was hauled down and replaced by another, for the vessels nearest the French to pursue, to overtake, and to bring the enemy to action, and for all others to come on at their best speed, pressing into battle where and how they could. The two fleets swept on past Belleisle, rolling and pitching in the rising sea. It was shortly after two in the afternoon that the French admiral led his flying force round the Grands Cardinaux, and already the battle had begun with the ships behind him. The Warspight, Sir John Bentley, and the Dorsetshire, Captain P. Denis, were the first of the English ships to come up with and open fire on the enemy. They were soon joined by the Revenge, Magnanime, Torbay, Montagu, Resolution, Swiftsure, and Defiance. Thus, when the French ships ran between the Grands Cardinaux and Plateau du Four, all those at the end of their line were already mingled with their pursuers, and both the fleets came in together locked in a savage embrace of battle.

Never in the long history of war was the truth that the timid is also the dangerous course more convincingly shown than in this battle. As the English ships overtook the French, ranging up on both sides, they did not linger by the first they met, but pushed on ahead, leaving the work of destruction to be completed by their comrades coming on behind. Thus the French rear ships were successively assailed by superior numbers firing into them from right and left. It must also be remembered that when the ships turned round Les Grands Cardinaux and headed to the north and north-west, they turned their left sides to the wind and were pressed over to the right. The slope, or list, given to them was so great that it was impossible to open the ports of the lowest tier of guns on the lee side. When any English captain came up on the lee side of a Frenchman, he himself had the full use of his weather battery, while his opponent could not fire his heaviest and most effective tier of guns. Conflans, in fact, had so managed matters that he gave Hawke’s superiority of numbers an effect it could not have had if the French fleet had accepted battle outside Belleisle, in good order, and in a united body. The rear of his line was miserably crushed. The Formidable, 80, the flagship of the Chef d’Escadre Saint-André Duverger, was shattered to pieces by our fire. Duverger himself and 200 of his men were slain, and his ship surrendered. The Thésée, 74, filled and went down with all hands, unquestionably because her captain, M. de Kersaint, opened his lower deck ports to fire and allowed the water to rush in. Keppel on the Torbay all but incurred the same fate by running the same hazard, but his ship freed herself of the water in time.

A detailed description of the battle is an impossibility. The wind shifted suddenly from W.N.W. to N.N.W., and increased in violence as it travelled round, adding to the already frightful confusion of the forty and odd great ships manœuvring in the confined triangle of water bounded by the coast and the islands. The sea was heaving underfoot, driven in great waves before the wind, and dragged seaward by the ebb. The storm howled through the rigging. The ships under reduced canvas made short tacks to avoid the rocks all around. Conflans, after stretching up to Quiberon Bay, turned back to the help of the ships behind him, and the two fleets were mingled in a wild whirl of storm and battle. Collisions were incessant between enemies and friends, but the English, as being the more practised seamen, avoided them better, and suffered from them less. To the French admiral it suggested itself as a possibility that he might fight his way out again, and get once more to windward of Belleisle. Signals followed one another rapidly from the Soleil Royal, but they were not, and they could not be obeyed. The rolling of the ships rendered their fire ineffective, and the danger of wreck compelled the captains to think constantly of the safety of their vessels. Sunset, too, came early, and the dark put a stop to all manœuvring. Thus there was neither time nor opportunity to take many prizes. One other French ship, the Superbe, shared the fate of the Thésée, and the Héros, dismasted and riddled by the English fire, hauled down her flag and dropped anchor. But the enemy was none the less completely beaten. Seven of his ships found refuge in the Vilaine by grovelling over the mud bar of the river. Others fled down the coast to the south, where one of them, the Juste, was stranded near St. Nazaire. Her first and second captains, the brothers Allouar, had both fallen. Conflans himself ran inside the Point du Four, and anchored off Croisic. When darkness came down, Hawke made the signal to anchor. It was, according to the code of the time, two guns fired to leeward, and was naturally not distinguished while cannon were being fired on all sides. Several of the English ships kept under way all night, but most anchored between the Grands Cardinaux and the little island of Dumet, which lies to north-east towards the mouth of the Vilaine. Two English ships, the Essex and the Resolution, were lost on the Four in the dark. The captain of the Héros finding that he was not boarded by an English prize crew, took advantage of the darkness to cut his cables and allow his vessel to drive ashore near Croisic, when Conflans had anchored in the Soleil Royal. In the morning the admiral found himself alone, with the bulk of Hawke’s fleet at anchor a few miles off. Hopeless of escape, he ran his flagship ashore to prevent her from falling into our hands.