THE FIGHT UP CHANNEL. 231 afterwards in his "History of the World," that "to clap ships together without consideration belongs rather to a madman than a man of war; "the guns of a slow ship pierce as well, and make as great holes, as those in that a swift." And so the English, having been well taught "the difference between fighting loose or at large, and grappling," ran in under the great galleons, and having delivered their broadsides, sheered out of the range of the Spanish guns, which were high above the water-line. greater thundering of ordnance on both sides, which notwithstanding from "Never was heard the Spaniards flew for the most part over the English without harm." In this furious skirmish there was alternate success. hemmed in by the Spaniards, were rescued by the queen's ships; and the The ships of London, fleet of Biscay, under Recalde, being surrounded by the English wasps, was delivered from danger by the galeasses, who, "as sergeants of the band, would issue forth to succour their distressed friends." One English commander only fell-" Cock, an Englishman, who died with honour in the midst of the enemies in a small ship of his." From morning till night this fight continued; the Spaniards sometimes bearing down upon their pursuers, and then going before the west wind towards St. Alban's Head. The 24th is a day of rest. The fleets are becalmed, with the Needles in distant view. Howard has sent some small craft to Portsmouth for supplies of ammunition. From every port of Dorsetshire and Hampshire fresh ships have come forth, hired and armed by the gentlemen of England to aid in this great defence. The harvest-time is at hand; but let the rye and the barley, 232 THE RUN TO CALAIS. [1588. the wheat and the oats, be gathered in by the women and the children and the old men; for the able-bodied must fight, or no harvest will in future be worth the gathering for the Anglo-Saxon race. For four days the fishermen of the long line of shore have been hovering about the fleets, instead of casting their nets. The sea-weed burners on the shelves of the coast have let out their fires, and have climbed to the cliffs to gaze upon the flashing smoke far out at sea. Now the great towers lie idly about Purbeck, and the men of Poole and Christchurch wonder if they are going up the Solent. For four nights the beacon-fires have been lighted. For four nights they have proclaimed to the people throughout the land that they must watch and pray. On this fifth night of danger they again send out their tongues of flame from every cliff and every hill: "For swift to east and swift to west the warning radiance spread— The armada lies becalmed, on the 25th of July, below the chalk cliffs of Freshwater. It is the day of St. James the Great, the patron saint of Spain; but it is not a day in which the saint will inspire the Spaniard with the determination to fight against the Heretic, as he inspired him to fight against the Moslem. A great galleon, disabled in the fight of the 23rd, has dropped astern; and Hawkins, in the Victory, has been towed to take possession of her. There is no resistance from the galleon. But a thousand oars are now lashing the quiet waves; and three of the great galeasses come to rescue her, and to punish her daring captor. But the Lion and the Bear, the Triumph and the Elizabeth Jonas, are quickly about them, with their sixty pounders, and their thirty-three pounders, known as cannon and demi-cannon, "sending their dole until the Spaniard's blood ran out at scupper-hole." The battle, for a breeze had sprung up, again becomes general. Medina's ship, the San Martin, has her mainmast shot away, and is about to strike to Frobisher. Medina is saved by his generals, Mexia and Recalde. Howard joins in the struggle. The issue is long doubtful. But the English powder is exhausted; and there is no more fighting on that summer afternoon. The next day the lord high admiral is bestowing the greatest honour that the worthies of England then aspired to receive. Lords might be born, but Knights must be made. For their services in these six days of incessant work, lord Sheffield and lord Thomas Howard, Frobisher, Townsend and Hawkins, were knighted "for their valour." It was resolved to defer any further attack till the Spaniard was in the narrow sea. So with a fair Etesian gale, which in our sky bloweth for the most part from the south-west and by south, clear and fair, the Spanish fleet sailed forward, the English fleet following close at the heels." On the 26th and 27th, the vast navies are seen as they coast along, from Selsea Bill, and from the downs of Brighton, from Hastings, and from Dungeness. For seven days has the Spaniard been fighting his way through the Channel, and at length he is at anchor before Calais on the Saturday night of that week of memorable conflict. But when the morning of Sunday dawns, and the French and Walloons go out in their boats with fresh pro • Macaulay, 1588.] THE FIRE-SHIPS AT CALAIS. 233 visions for those whose ships are laden with gold, and who readily give sixpence for a fresh egg, the English fleet of a hundred and forty sail is riding in Calais Roads within cannon-shot of the exceeding great ships, whose greatest still keep the outer line against their enemy. England, then, is not yet beaten, as the rumour has gone forth; for "in Paris, Don Bernadino de Mendoza, ambassador from Spain, entered into the church of Notre Dame, advancing his rapier in his right hand, and with a loud voice, cried, Victoria, Victoria; and it was forthwith bruited that England was vanquished." On that Sunday the heart of England sends up to Heaven the simple but solemn prayer, "Save and deliver us, we humbly beseech Thee, from the hands of our enemies." In this time of need the queen had herself composed a prayer, which had been sent to "the general of her highness' army at Plymouth," as her majesty's private meditation :-" Most Omnipotent, and Guider of all our world's mass, that only searchest and fathomest the bottom of all hearts' conceits, and in them seest the true original of all actions intended, how no malice of revenge, nor quittance of injury, nor desire of bloodshed, nor greediness of lucre, hath bred the resolution of our now set out army; but a heedful care, and wary watch, that no neglect of foes, nor over surety of harm, might breed either danger to us, or glory to them; these being grounds, Thou that didst inspire the mind, we humbly beseech, with bended knees, prosper the work, and with the best forewinds guide the journey, speed the victory, and make the return the advancement of Thy glory, the triumph of Thy fame, and surety to the realm, with the least loss of English blood. To these devout petitions, Lord, give Thou Thy blessed grant. Amen.' The prayer was mercifully heard to its fullest extent. On that Sunday in Calais Roads, there is work being done by Drake and his men a work of necessity which will brook no delay. For the duke of Medina has dispatched messenger after messenger to the duke of Parma, to bid him send "light vessels," without which the Spaniard could not well fight with the English; and to urge him to put to sea with his army, which the Spanish fleet would protect till the landing upon the hated shore was accomplished. Parma's boats were leaky; his provisions were exhausted; his sailors had deserted; he was kept in port by the vigilant Dutch. But nevertheless a junction might have been fatal; and the Spaniard must be crippled before he again weighs anchor. It is two o'clock of the Monday morning. The stillness is scarcely broken by a slight movement upon the sea. There are eight small vessels being towed from the main body of the English fleet, and they are bearing with the wind upon the Spanish anchorage. Are they deserters; or are they rushing upon certain destruction? Suddenly a strong light bursts out from each vessel. The tow-boats leave them, and they drift with the breeze right into the centre of the armada. Then vast volumes of flame and smoke roll out from the burning hulks, with fearful explosions and sulphury stenches; and the sea defences of Calais, and the church towers which overlook them, gleam with more than noon-day brightness; and the red glare is seen across the sea from Dover heights, and along the shore from Gravelines to Boulogne. Young and Prowse, who led these fire-ships into the heart of the enemy's fleet, have done their duty well. The bold stroke, * MS. in British Museum, endorsed as being sent by sir Robert Cecil to the generals. 234 THE FIGHT OFF GRAVELINES. [1588. Some went devised by Elizabeth herself as contemporaries say, has been successful beyond hope. The Spaniards had seen the effects of " sundry works of wildfire lately made to break the bridge at Antwerp,"-it was in the siege of 1585-and now, "all amazed, with shrieks and loud outcries, to the great astonishment of the near inhabitants, crying The fire of Antwerp! the fire of Antwerp!' some cut cables, others let the hawsers slip, and happiest they who could first be gone, though few could tell what course to take." One of the largest of the galeasses was stranded near the town of Calais, and was taken, after a fierce engagement, in which many English were slain, and the Spaniards lost four hundred men. Medina conducted himself with courage and coolness, and his ship, with a few others, resumed their stations. But the bulk of the fleet was running up Channel in wild confusion. ashore on the Flemish coast; others stood out to sea; many got together as well as they could near Gravelines. But Drake and Fenner were fighting them from the first peep of the dawning; and now come up Hawkins and Fenton, Seymour and Cumberland, Southwell and Frobisher, and there is again a general battle under the castle of Gravelines; for Howard himself is up at his post. He has written somewhat despairingly to Walsingham of the want of ammunition; saying, with the true modesty of the brave, "Their force is wonderful great and strong, and yet we pluck their feathers by little and little." In that fleet the "mighty ships and of great strength," were as four to one compared with the larger ships of the English. The Spanish castles have fearful difficulty in avoiding the shallows. They are hemmed in with. danger. They must keep together; or be made prize if they run out to sea. A galleon of Biscay, the San Matthew, has surrendered; another great ship is stranded; the San Philipe is drifting disabled upon the Flemish shore, and will be boarded by the sailors of Flushing. No help will come from the duke of Parma. There is no chance of the union of the two armies. "The English forces," says Stow, "being now wholly united, prevented their enemies conjoining together, and followed their fortunes to the uttermost, continuing four days' fight in more deadly manner than at any time before, and having incessant cause of fresh encouragement chased the Spaniards from place to place, until they had driven them into a desperate estate; so as of necessity, as well for that the wind was westerly, as that their enemies increased, and their own provision of sails, anchors, and cables greatly wasted, resolved to shape their course by the Orcades and the north of Ireland." The last great fight was on the 29th of July. The scattered remnant of the armada holds on its perilous course, past Dunkirk, past the mouth of the Scheldt, full into the North Sea. No more will the beacon-fires be lighted on the Southern coast of England. The Eastern has nothing to fear from these enemies. Drake is in the wake of the flying squadrons. What a model despatch does this true English sailor write to Walsingham, on this last of July, 1588:-" We have the army of Spain before us, and mind, with the grace of God, to wrestle a fall with them. There was never anything pleased me better than the seeing the enemy flying with a south wind to the northwards. God grant they have a good eye to the duke of Farma; for with the grace of God, if we live, I doubt it not but ere it be long so to handle the 1588.] THE FLIGHT TO THE NORTH. 235 matter with the duke of Sidonia as he shall wish himself at St. Marie among his orange-trees. God give us grace to depend upon Him, so shall we not doubt victory, for our cause is good." The prince of Parma had failed the Spaniards. They had received a message from him, as they lay before Calais on that Sunday the 28th, that he could not be ready for them till the Friday following. On that Friday they were far away to the north, the English pursuing. Howard writes, on the 7th of August, to Walsingham, "Notwithstanding that our powder and shot was well near all spent, we set on a brag countenance and gave them chase, as though we had wanted nothing, until he had cleared our own coast and some part of Scotland." Seymour had returned with his squadron, after he had passed the Brill, to look after the duke of Parma. On the 2nd of August, says a Spanish narrative, "the enemy's fleet still followed the armada in the morning, but they turned towards the coast of England, and we lost sight of them." Sir William Monson, a contemporary writer, says, "The opportunity was lost, not through the negligence or backwardness of the lord admiral, but merely through the want of providence in those that had the charge of furnishing and providing for the fleet; for, at that time of so great advantage, when they came to examine their provisions, they found a general scarcity of Morions, from the Meyrick collection; and Military Costume of 1590, from one of the morions. powder and shot, for want of which they were forced to return home." The arsenals of England in those days were scantily supplied; and we may well believe that there was no expectation that the dreaded conflict would have ended at sea. The daring and the endurance of her sailors could not have been wholly trusted to, when the enemy to be resisted was of such gigantic force. The men on shore would have fought to the death; and there was not a town that would not have sent out its train-bands in harness, with arquebuss, and pike, and the old mighty long-bow. Raleigh held, that without an adequate fleet no force could debar an enemy from landing; but the fleet which drove |