Fight. The next Day it blew a brisk Gale, and drove our Fleet some
Leagues to the Southward of the Place where they forsook our Ship, yet
the Day after they all returned safe aboard; not in one Flock, but in
small Parties of four or five at a Time. Some Persons at that Time
aboard the Ship admiring at the Manner of their Return, and speaking of
it with some Surprize, Sir _Edward Sprage_ told them, That he brought
those Pidgeons with him from the _Streights_; and that when, pursuant to
his Order, he left the _Revenge_ Man of War, to go aboard the _London_,
all those Pidgeons, of their own accord, and without the Trouble or Care
of carrying, left the _Revenge_ likewise, and removed with the Sailors
on board the _London_, where I saw them; All which many of the Sailors
afterwards confirm'd to me. What Sort of Instinct this could proceed
from, I leave to the Curious.

Soon after this Sea Engagement I left the Fleet. And the Parliament, the
Winter following, manifesting their Resentments against two of the
Plenipotentiaries, _viz. Buckingham_ and _Arlington_, who had been sent
over into _Holland_; and expressing, withal, their great Umbrage taken
at the prodigious Progress of the _French_ Arms in the _United
Provinces_; and warmly remonstrating the inevitable Danger attending
_England_ in their Ruin. King _Charles_ from all this, and for want of
the expected Supplies, found himself under a Necessity of clapping up a
speedy Peace with _Holland_.

This Peace leaving those youthful Spirits, that had by the late Naval
War been rais'd into a generous Ferment, under a perfect Inactivity at
Home; they found themselves, to avoid a Sort of Life that was their
Aversion, oblig'd to look out for one more active, and more suitable to
their vigorous Tempers Abroad.