Note 79 — BOOK VIII[61]
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
Jean Bart (1650-1702), a famous French sailor. After serving some time in the Dutch Navy, he returned to France, when war broke out with Holland, and equipped a privateer, with which he did great damage to the enemy. Louis XIV. thereupon gave him a commission in the Navy, then generally granted only to nobles, and, in 1691, made him a vice-admiral. In that year, Bart burnt over eighty English ships outside Dunkirk, and made a descent upon Newcastle, returning with an enormous booty. He fought continuously against the Dutch and English until the Peace of Rijswijk, in 1697. Louis XIV. ennobled him and sent for him to Court: his rough and awkward manners and brusque frankness of speech aroused the mirth of the courtiers, and the King himself more than once went out of his way to defend him.—T.