Egmont a force which enſured the conqueſt. The Spaniſh commander required the Engliſh captains to depart, but they thinking that reſiſtance neceſſary which they knew to be uſeleſs, gave the Spaniards the right of preſcribing terms of capitulation. The Spaniards impoſed no new condition except that the ſloop ſhould not ſail under twenty days; and of this they ſecured the performance by taking off the rudder.
To an inhabitant of the land there appears nothing in all this unreasonable or offenſive. If the Engliſh intended to keep their ſtipulation, how were they injured by the detention of the rudder? If the rudder be to a ſhip what his tail is in fables to a fox, the part in which honour is placed, and of which the violation is never to be endured, I am ſorry that the Favourite ſuffered an indignity, but cannot yet think it a cauſe for which nations ſhould ſlaughter one another.
