Chapter 64, Footnote #02
That order to slacken sail
King James, in his Memoirs, gives an account of this affair different from what we meet with in any historian. He says that while he was asleep, Brounker brought orders to Sir John Harmon, captain of the ship, to slacken sail. Sir John remonstrated, but obeyed. After some time, finding that his falling back was likely to produce confusion in the fleet, he hoisted the sail as before; so that the prince, coming soon after on the quarter-deck, and finding all things as he left them, knew nothing of what had passed during his repose. Nobody gave him the least intimation of it. It was long after that he heard of it by a kind of accident, and he intended to have punished Brounker by martial law; but just about that time the House of Commons took up the question and impeached him, which made it impossible for the duke to punish him otherwise than by dismissing him his service. Brounker, before the House, never pretended that he had received any orders from the duke.