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fidence with which they had set forth, they ranged themselves again in order off Gravelines; and there they were bravely attacked. Drake and Fenner were the first who assailed them: Fenton, Southwell, Beeston, Cross, and Reyman followed; and then the lord admiral came up, with lord Thomas Howard and lord Sheffield. They got the wind of the enemy, who were now cut off from Calais roads, and preferred any inconvenience rather than change their array or separate their force, standing only upon their defence. albeit there were many excellent and warlike ships in the English fleet, yet scarce were there two or three and twenty among them all which matched ninety of the Spanish ships in bigness, or could conveniently assault them. Wherefore, using their prerogative of nimble steerage, whereby they could turn and wield themselves with the wind which way they listed, they came oftentimes very near upon the Spaniards, and charged them so sore, that now and then they were but a pike's length asunder; and so continually giving them one broadside after another, they discharged all their shot, both great and small, upon them, spending a whole day, from morning till night, in that violent kind of conflict.' "We had such advantage," says lord Monmouth, "both of wind and tide, that we had a glorious day of them, continuing fight from four o'clock in the morning till five or six at night." During this action, the Spaniards, "lying close under their fighting sails," passed Dunkirk with a south-west wind, close followed by their enemies. Their great ships were found vulnerable in the close action of that day; many of them were pierced through and through between wind and water: one was sunk by captain Cross, in the Hope: from the few of her people who were saved, it was learnt that one of her officers, having proposed to strike, was put to death by another; the brother of the slain instantly avenged his death, and then the ship went down. Two others are believed to have sunk. The St. Philip and

* Hakluyt, 602.

July

31.

the St. Matthew, both Portugueze galleons, were much shattered. D. Diego de Pimentel, in the latter, endeavoured to assist the former, but in vain; for being 66 sore battered with many great shot by Seymour and Winter," and the mast shot away, the St. Philip was driven near Ostend: as a last chance, the officers endeavoured to make for a Flemish port; but finding it impossible to bring the ship into any friendly harbour, they got to Ostend in the boats, and the galleon was taken possession of from Flushing. The St. Matthew suffered so much, and leaked so fast, that the duke sent a boat to bring Pimentel and some of the chief persons on board his own ship. A sense of honour withheld them from abandoning their men, and looking solely to the preservation of their own lives. The duke then charged them to keep company with him but this was impossible: in that danger the one vessel could not slacken its course, and the other could make little way; for the water came in so fast, that fifty men were employed at the pumps. Seeing himself thus necessarily forsaken, Pimentel resolved to run aground on the Flemish coast; but here he was discovered by some of the Dutch ships, which had their station upon that coast; and, after losing some forty of his men in vain resistance, struck to Pieter Van der Does. The ship sunk in one of the Zeeland ports; and its flag was suspended as a trophy in St. Peter's church at Leyden ; a city which had been in no light degree beholden for its own glorious deliverance to the illustrious family of Dousa.*

;

Still the duke did not despair of eventual success : an unexpected respite was afforded him; for the English had expended their ammunition, and were forced to send for a supply; and taking advantage of a strong westnorth-wester, the Armada made an effort to regain his position in the straits, that the prince might join them. The spirit in which this resolution was taken was better than the seamanship: that wind carried them

* Bor. 325. Hakluyt, 602, 603. Camden, 415. Grimstone, 1004.

FLIGHT OF THE ARMADA.

363

towards the shallows, and sands on the Zeeland coast; and glad were they when it came to the south and enabled them to avoid the dangers by which they must otherwise soon have found themselves surrounded. That day Drake wrote to Walsingham,-" We have the army of Spain before us, and mind to wrestle a pull with him. There was never any thing pleased better than seeing the enemy flying with a southerly wind to the northward. I doubt not, but ere it be long, so to handle the matter with the duke of Sidonia, that he shall wish himself at St. Mary's Port, among his vine trees. God give us grace to depend upon him; so shall we not doubt victory, for our cause is good." But the hopes which Drake entertained of a brilliant victory were not to be fulfilled. Enough had been achieved by the councils and the hand of man. That providence which had confounded the devices of the enemy effected by the agency of the elements the rest. The duke advised with his officers in the evening what course, after these unexpected disasters, should be pursued. They were now experimentally convinced that the English excelled them in naval strength. Several of their largest ships had been lost, others were greatly damaged there was no port to which they could repair; and to force their way through the victorious English fleet, then in sight, and amounting to 140 sail, was

*

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*"And here," says Sir William Monson, "was opportunity offered us to have followed the victory upon them; for if we had once more offered them fight, the general, it was thought, by persuasion of his confessor, was determined to yield; whose example, 't is very likely, would have made the rest to have done the like. But this 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 powder and shot, for want whereof they were forced to return home. Another opportunity was lost, not much inferior to the other, by not sending part of our fleet to the west of Ireland, where the Spaniards, of necessity, were to pass, after so many dangers and disasters as they had endured. If we had been so happy as to have followed their course, as it was both thought and discoursed of, we had been absolutely victorious over this great and formidable navy, for they were brought to that necessity, that they would willingly have yielded, as divers of them confessed that were shipwrecked in Ireland. By this we may see how weak and feeble the designs of man are in respect of the Creator; and how indifferently he dealt betwixt the two nations, sometimes giving one, sometimes the other, the advantage, yet so that He only ordered the battle.”—Churchill's Collection, iii. 159.

plainly and confessedly impossible. They resolved, therefore, upon returning to Spain by a northern course; and in that determination, "having gotten more sea room for their huge-bodied bulks, spread their mainsails, and made away as fast as wind and water would give them leave. But surely," says Speed, "if they had known the want of powder that our fleet sustained (a fault inexcusable upon our own coasts), they no doubt would have stood longer to their tacklings. But God, in this, as in the rest, would have us to acknowledge, that we were only delivered by his own gracious providence and arm, and not by any policy or power of our own." The lord admiral left Seymour to blockade the prince of Parma's force, and followed what our chroniclers now call the Vincible Armada, not without some apprehension that they might put into Scotland; but leaving Scotland on the west, they bent towards Norway, “ ill-advised, but that necessity urged, and God had infatuated their councils, to put their shaken and battered bottoms into those black and dangerous seas." And the English having, in Drake's words, " cast them so far to the northward, that they could neither recover England nor Scotland, thought it best to leave them to those boisterous and uncouth northern seas.' "'*

But while the loss which they had hitherto sustained was as yet uncertain, and the opinion on shore was that they would return to the straits, it was still thought probable that the prince of Parma might effect a landing. Elizabeth, who had not easily been dissuaded from her intention of being present in the battle whereever it should be fought, went to the camp at Tilbury. From the time that camp was formed, a true English spirit had been shown there. "It was a pleasant sight," says the good London chroniclert, who himself had seen it, to behold the soldiers as they marched towards Tilbury, their cheerful countenances, couragous words and gestures, dancing and leaping wheresoever they came. In the camp their most felicity was the hope of fighting * Hakluyt, 603. Speed, 862. Turner, 681. + Stowe, 744.

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ELIZABETH IN THE CAMP.

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365

with the enemy, where, oft-times, divers rumours ran of their foes' approach, and that present battle would be given them; then were they as joyful at such news as if lusty giants were to run a race.' When the queen came among them, " full of princely resolution, and more than feminine courage," she rode through the ranks with a general's truncheon in her hand, sometimes with a martial pace, another while gently, like a woman: ❝ incredible it is," says Camden, "how much she encouraged the hearts of her captains and soldiers by her presence and her words."-" I think," says Leicester, "the weakest person among them is able to match the proudest Spaniard that dare land in England!" Her speech at this memorable time has been preserved*, and well might it animate them. "My loving people," she said, we have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear! I have always so behaved myself, that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects; and, therefore, I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all, to lay down for my God, for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too; and think it foul scorn that Parma, or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you, on the

* Somers Tracts (Scott's edition), i. 429.

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