By my faith! my lords," said the queen, "thirty years have I now reigned, and never before have I found a person to read me so noble a lesson ! My good lords, shall I not bid her go?" Her courtiers, and especially they of her Council, remonstrated strongly. But the queen heeded them little. After some little conference with them apart, she turned to Marguerite. "Are you not a Frenchwoman?" "I am." "Whither would you, should I set you free?" "To my country and my kindred." "By God's wounds! I will pardon thee; and I do it without conditions. You shall have safe and honorable conveyance to your own country. My loyal guards, see that she is cared for." Marguerite Lambrun gave the queen a look of ineffable gratitude, and even of admiration; for the first time, rendered a mute obeisance; and, covering her face, walked quietly away, followed by the sympathies of all who had heard her sorrows; by the admiration of all who could appreciate the heroism of her crime. It is superfluous to say, that the queen's promise of safe conveyance was fulfilled.1 When Marguerite's pistol fell, as she was in the act of arranging it for ready use, there was but a step between Elizabeth and death. Probably nothing but feminine awkwardness saved her. It was her most perilous moment, and her most wonderful escape during her long and eventful reign. Had she showed the like magnanimity towards the Queen 1 Dictionnaire Historique, Article Lambrun. of Scots, the Briarean malice of half of Christendom might also have been disarmed; and others, better than Sixtus Quintus, would have exclaimed, and in a different spirit, "What a glorious princess!" The world would have rung with her praises; and posterity - without a shudder - would have revered her name. CHAPTER V. ANNUS MIRABILIS. MARTIAL PREPARATIONS IN ENGLAND. THE SPANISH ARMADA. ITS PLAN SPAIN. ANXIETY ON THE CONTINENT. THE SPANISH FLEET ENTERS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. THE FIRST SKIRMISH. THE NAVAL FORCE OF ENGLAND. THE LORD ADMIRAL EFFINGHAM GIVES CHASE AND FIGHT. THE SPANIARDS ANCHOR AT CALAIS. - ARE DISPERSED BY FIRE-SHIPS, AND ATTACKED IN DETAIL. THE SPANIARDS HOLD A COUNCIL OF War, and RESOLVE UPON A RETREAT THROUGH THE NORTHERN SEAS. THEIR SUFFERINGS AND DISASTERS. · ONLY SIXTY SAIL SUCCEED IN REACHING SPAIN. THE MOURNING OF THE PEOPLE. THE ENGLISH CAMP AT TILBURY. — THE QUEEN'S SPEECH THERE. — THE LOYALTY OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. GOD THE VICTOR. - THANKSGIVING OF THE ENGLISH. THE LAST DAYS OF THE EARL OF LEICESTER. HIS PIOUS EPISTLES. 1588. Ir had long been predicted by astrologers, in various parts of the world, that the year of our Lord 1588 would be a year of remarkable and momentous events. By a Prussian seer it had been more particularly announced, more than a hundred years before, that a terrible fear would then pervade the nations, and be immediately followed, either by the destruction of the world, or by some great event which would change the forms of government, and bring great distress upon the people.1 "Whence the astrologers fetched their intelligence hereof, whether from heaven or hell, from other stars, or from Lucifer alone, is uncertain. This is most sure, 1 Stow, 743, 749. Camden, 402. Birch, I. 51, 52; Faunt to Bacon. that this prediction, though hitting the mark, missed the meaning." So far as the apprehensions of men were concerned, the prophecies wrought their own fulfilment; for the Christian world, universally awed by the pretensions and auguries of occult science, "by reason of the aforesaid predictions, had stood at gaze for divers years past, vehemently expecting more strange and terrible alterations, both in imperial and regal estates, than ever happened since the world began."2 God wrought the rest. In the year specified he crippled the right arm of Papacy. He paralyzed the secular power upon whose devotion and strength Rome could most depend; and since she has found no champion to extend by force her terrific despotism. Thus "the Governor among the nations" opened a highway for civil and social progress which has been trodden by increasing multitudes to the present hour. Early in the year 1588, England presented an unusual appearance. Martial preparations were going on, to a greater or less extent, in every county. In almost every hamlet the forge of the armorer was ringing with the sound of the anvil, and his shop was glittering with lances, petronels, calivers, muskets, corslets, bills, and halberds. Before the month of June had closed, along the coast from Land's-End to Dover, twenty-one thousand two hundred and seventy-two men were equipped for war, in readiness to be drawn quickly together and placed "under leaders who had orders to join one another as occasion should require." In the month of July, 1 Fuller, Book IX. p. 192. 2 Stow, 743. * Rapin, II. 135. Camden, 405. Murdin, 612. thirty-four thousand and four hundred foot-soldiers and nineteen hundred and fourteen cavalry were detailed from the several counties, under command of Lord Hunsdon. These were also furnished with arms, and received orders, on the twenty-third day of the month, to attend upon her Majesty person at St. James's; ten thousand of them (Londoners) to appear on that day; the others to do the same on different days, specified to each division, from the sixth to the tenth days of August. There were also enrolled a distinct corp of twenty-four hundred and eighteen cavalry and twenty-seven thousand foot, "to be drawn together to make an army . . . . . in June."2 The command of these was committed to the Earl of Leicester. From motives of policy and economy, only fifteen thousand foot-soldiers, with their proportion of cavalry, were collected and marched to Tilbury, at the mouth of the Thames, where they took position in an intrenched camp. The detachment 1 Murdin, 612, 613. Stow, 744. Wright, II. 375. Camden, 405. Strype's Annals, VI. 13, 14. Dr. Lingard says (VIII. 291), "that this army existed nowhere but on paper." But her Majesty, in the latter part of June or early in July, ordered its enrolment and arming. (Strype's Annals, VI. 14.) Are we to understand Dr. Lingard as affirming that the queen's orders were not obeyed? If so, we cannot credit him. The whole realm, and especially her nobility and officers, showed the greatest alacrity upon this occasion; ready even to exceed the royal requisitions. Although this special army for attendance upon her Majesty's per- |