How much of
this is true, time will show.
August 1, 1666. Walked over the Park with Sir W. Coventry, who I
clearly see is not thoroughly pleased with the late management of
the fight, nor with any thing that the Generalls do; only is glad
to hear that De Ruyter is out of favour, and that this fight hath
cost them 5000 men, as they themselves do report. And it is a
strange thing, as he observes, how now and then the slaughter
runs on one hand; there being 5000 killed on theirs, and not
above 400 or 500 killed and wounded on ours, and as many flag-
officers on theirs as ordinary captains in ours.
3rd. The death of Everson, and the report of our success, beyond
expectation, in the killing of so great a number of men, hath
raised the estimation of the late victory considerably; but it is
only among fools: for all that was but accidental. But this
morning, getting Sir W. Pen to read over the Narrative with me,
he did sparingly, yet plainly, say that we might have intercepted
their Zealand squadron coming home, if we had done our parts; and
more, that we might have run before the wind as well as they, and
have overtaken their ships in the pursuite, in all the while.
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