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CHAPTER III.

THE ARMADA.

THE King of Spain at last aroused himself to repel the attacks made upon his honour by great counter-attack. England had made him appear contemptible throughout the world; his fairest towns had been pillaged and burnt; his ships of treasure had been continually intercepted; his revolting subjects in the Netherlands had been aided in throwing off their allegiance; and so, with resolution and courage, he prepared for a great aggression on England, and the preparations were on a scale sufficient to alarm any land, and to crush anywhere the strongest alliance which was not placed upon the moral bravery and heroism of the people. But the spirit of the people rose with the imminence of the danger and the emergency; and it was on the individual and spontaneous energy of the country that its whole safety depended,

and every person in the realm roused to enthusiasm to meet the impudent invaders. All ranks vied with each other; the rich and noble poured their offerings of wealth; the youthful chivalry of the land bestirred itself, and rushed on board vessels of its own equipment. The poor demanded arms, so that they might stand ready to meet the invaders when they came; the Papists resounded with loud animating outcries against Pope and Spaniard. Elizabeth, casting aside all her weaknesses, showed herself to be worthy of such a people, as the people were worthy of such a heroine. England was not then, as now, prepared for any such attack, and her foes, doubtless, calculated upon her weakness. The best troops of this country were, at this time, absent in Flanders; the royal navy was extremely small; there was no standing army; a few guards surrounded the queen, and a few forts were garrisoned on the Scottish border. But the revenues of the government were not at all equal to the contest; not a single ally upon the continent capable of rendering any assistance. The fidelity of Scotland was doubted; the fidelity of the queen's Catholic subjects was doubted. Never did the country seem placed in an emergency so fearful. An appeal was made to the patriotism of the

people, and the reply was prompt and glorious. A message was sent by the privy council to inquire of the Corporation of London what the city would be willing to undertake for the public service. The Corporation requested to know what the Council might judge requisite in such a case. Fifteen ships and five thousand men was the answer.

Two days after, the city humbly entreated the Council, in sign of their perfect love and loyalty to prince and country, to accept ten thousand men, and thirty ships, amply furnished. And, adds the chronicler, "even as London like gave precedent, the whole kingdom kept true rank and equipage." At this time the able-bodied men in the capital, between the ages of eighteen and sixty, amounted to no more than 17,083.

There were not wanting to the queen's council some who proposed shocking and horrible methods of attempted defence no other than to take away the lives of the leading Catholics of the realm; but Elizabeth rejected with horror these suggestions of cowardice and cruelty; at the same time all proper means were taken to provide against the possibility of their using their freedom to the detriment of the nation. But this lenient mode of procedure

met with its reward; for most of the Catholics entered the ranks of the volunteers; and the Catholic gentry encouraged their tenantry and dependents to engage in the defence of their country, while many fitted out vessels at their own expense, and entrusted them to the command of persons on whose fidelity the queen could rely.

Five years had Philip of Spain been preparing the terrible Armada; but it was not until 1587 that anything decisive and definite appears to have been known. Upon the death of Mary Queen of Scots he proclaimed Elizabeth a murderer, and hurried on his preparations for attack, without any attempt at concealment. Then Drake was sent to destroy all the Spanish ships he could find in the Spanish harbours, and to prevent, or at least delay, the preparations of the invading fleet.

"With thirty sail, he swept into the Cadiz roads, burned, took, or sank thirty ships (some of the largest size), and secured a considerable quantity of spoil for the benefit of some of the merchant-adventurers with him; then, turning back along the coast, between Cadiz Bay and Cape St. Vincent, disposed in a similar manner of nearly one hundred vessels, and demolished four castles. Drake called this 'singeing the

King of Spain's beard.' Sailing to the Tagus, he then challenged the Marquis Santa Cruz, who was the appointed general of the Spanish Armada, and captured before his eyes the St. Philip, a great ship loaded with the richest merchandize. De Cruz, the best sailor of Spain, forbidden by the orders he had received from the Court of Madrid to accept Drake's challenge, though his was the superior force, took it so much to heart, that it is said he fell sick in consequence, and soon after died. These brilliant performances of Drake proved of sufficient consequence to delay the sailing of the Armada more than a year."

At last the King of Spain completed his preparations, and raised his terrible armament for the conquest of the little island of Britain: it consisted of ninety-two galleons, or ships of the line, four galliasses, thirty frigates, thirty transports for horse, and four gallies, on board whereof were 8350 mariners, 2080 galley slaves, and 19,290 land forces; the whole commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia besides which, the Prince of Parma, the Spanish general in Flanders, was ordered to prepare transports and flat-bottomed boats to transport an army of horse and foot from the Netherlands to England. At the same time,

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