M.de Suffren set sail to go in search of the English.
[Illustration: Suffren----413] He sought them for three months without any decisive result; it was only on the 4th of July in the morning, at the moment when Hyder Ali was to attack Negapatam, that a serious engagement began between the hostile fleets.

The two squadrons had already suffered severely; a change of wind had caused disorder in the lines: the English had several vessels dismantled; one single French vessel, the _Severe,_ had received serious damage; her captain, with cowardly want of spirit, ordered the flag to be hauled down.

His lieutenants protested; the volunteers to whom he had appealed refused to execute his orders.

By this time the report was spreading among the batteries that the captain, was giving the order to cease firing; the sailors were as indignant as the officers: a cry arose, "The flag is down!" A complaisant subaltern had at last obeyed the captain's repeated orders.

The officers jumped upon the quarter-deck.
"You are master of your flag," fiercely cried an officer of the blue, Lieutenant Dien, "but we are masters as to fighting, and the ship shall not surrender!" By this time a boat from the English ship, the _Sultan,_ had put off to board the Severe, which was supposed to have struck, when a fearful broadside from all the ship's port-holes struck the _Sultan,_ which found herself obliged to sheer off.