there were cries of alarm,—a heavy crash. Both officers sprung on deck, and found that the ship White Bear, with three others of the English fleet, had drifted against the Ark, carried away many yards and much tackle, and threatened to cripple the best ship in the fleet on the eve of a general engagement. Fortunately the alacrity and good handling the ships received averted the ill consequences of the accident, and Howard and Winter returned to the cabin to discuss their plan as to the fire ships.

The morrow was Sunday. The Spanish commander had been for more than a week off our coast; as yet no injury had been sustained, and at present there were no signs of Duke Parma's appearance. Early in the morning Howard hung out his signal for council, and soon after the chief officers of the fleet were assembled in his cabin. To them Winter's suggestion was submitted, and was highly approved.

Sir Harry Palmer

started in a pinnace for Dover to bring off a number of old vessels fit to be fired, together with a supply of light wood, tar, resin, sulphur, and other combustibles. But notwithstanding the speed with which he endeavoured to carry out his instructions, the night came on before he could return, and the opportunity seemed lost for ever. Failing the return of Palmer, it was then resolved that materials for the fire ships should be collected among the fleet, and every man engaged in the adventure set to work with zeal and with speed.

In the meantime the soldiers and sailors on board the Spanish fleet were becoming impatient. Within sight of the richest prize that had ever yet been offered to their grasp, they loitered for Duke Parma. The southern warriors beheld with contempt the small and apparently illequipped vessels of their foes; they relied on an easy victory if Parma but came in time. The delay in his arrival might be fatal to the whole enterprise. The men were impatient: the officers not without suspicion that the Duke was playing a double game. It was whispered about that King Philip had issued secret instructions to seize the duke on his arrival and send him a disgraced captain to Spain; that he had been detected in plotting with the English, and that probably the news of this detection had already reached him.

The position of the Armada, as it rode off Calais on that Sunday, was full of danger. The position selected, secure enough in calm weather, was extremely hazardous in a storm, and a tempest might at any time arise. Indeed, as the evening advanced, dark clouds spread over the sky,-clouds which the moon sought in vain to pierce; the surge grew

heavier, and the low moan of the wind betokened a gale. At midnight the darkness became intense; there was the roll of distant thunder, the sob of the rising waves; the sounds of merriment on board the fleet were hushed, and those who were on the watch spoke but few words to each other; every man thought of the treacherous quicksands under their lee.

Suddenly a practised ear caught the faint dip of oars; it was a vain endeavour to pierce the darkness, and those who heard the sound listened with breathless attention. A few moments afterwards a broad glare of light flashed across the dark water, and six flaming vessels were seen bearing steadily down on the Armada before wind and tide..

under any circumstances for a fleet so vast

and so unwieldy as the Armada, but it was especially alarming to the Spanish soldiers and seamen who remembered the demon-ships of Gianibelli. It was known that Gianibelli was in England, busy, doubtless, in the service of the English queen; and doubtless also, these floating apparitions were but so many floating volcanoes that would presently burst into eruption, as was the case at Antwerp, pouring down a deadly shower of scythes and gravestones on the crew of Philip's Armada, just as they had done on the defenders of Parma's bridge. The bridge and floating forts of Farnese had been shattered by them as though they were toys of glass, and doubtless the same would now happen even to the Invincible Armada. A panic seized the Spaniards. There was a yell throughout the fleet; the cry was caught up from ship to ship

"The fire-ships of Antwerp-the fire-ships of Antwerp !"

Every cable was cut, and frantic attempts were made by those on board each galleon and galeasse to escape what seemed to be imminent destruction. Four or five of the large ships became entangled with each other. Two caught fire and were burnt to the water's edge. Medina Sidonia, who was not altogether unprepared for a surprise, behaved with admirable coolness; he issued immediate orders that every ship, as soon as the danger was over, should return to its assigned post; but the panic was great, and Sidonia's orders were totally disregarded. Gianibelli-the despised Mantuan whose inventive skill had been rejected by Philip, and foiled only by the cowardice of Runaway Jacob-was too terrible a foe to admit of calm obedience being rendered when he was at work—and the Spaniards never doubted that the diabolical fire-ships were of his manufacture.

As to the fire-ships, they did no further damage than spreading a panic through the whole fleet. So long as the darkness of the night continued, so long the confusion prevailed. When the morning dawned several of the Spanish vessels lay disabled, while the rest of the fleet were seen at a distance of two leagues from Calais driving towards the Flemish coast. The weather was squally, and the huge vessels of the Armada were difficult to manage in a rough sea. The English fleet, on the contrary, was all astir, riding bravely at no great distance from the Spaniards, and ready to give chase or to bear down on any tempting victim.

"In the immediate neighbourhood of Calais," says Mr. Motley, "the flag-ship of the squadron of galeasses, commanded by Don Hugo de Moncado, was discovered using her foresail and oars, and endeavouring to

enter the harbour. She had been damaged by collision with the St. John of Sicily and other ships during the night's panic, and had the rudder quite torn away. She was the largest and most splendid vessel in the Armada -the show ship of the fleet, 'the very glory and stay of the Spanish navy;' and during the previous two days she had been visited and admired by great numbers of Frenchmen from the shore.

"Lord Admiral Howard bore down upon her at once; but as she was already in shallow water, and was rowing steadily towards the town, he saw that the Ark could not follow with safety. So he sent his long boat to cut her out, manned with fifty or sixty volunteers, most of them as 'valiant in courage as gentle in birth,' as a partaker in the adventure declared. The Margaret and Joan, of London, also following in pursuit,

ran herself aground; but the master despatched his pinnace with a body of musketeers to aid in the capture of the galeasse.

"That huge vessel failed to enter the harbour, and stuck fast upon the bar. There was much dismay on board, but Don Hugo prepared resolutely to defend himself. The quays of Calais and the lines of the French shore were crowded with thousands of eager spectators, as the two boatsrowing steadily towards a galeasse, which carried forty brass pieces of artillery, and was manned with three hundred soldiers and four hundred and fifty slaves-seemed rushing upon their own destruction. Of these daring Englishmen, patricians and plebeians together, in two open pinnaces, there were not more than one hundred in number all told. They soon laid themselves close to the Capitana, far below her lofty sides, and called on Don Hugo to surrender. The answer was a smile of derision from the haughty Spaniard as he looked down upon them from what seemed an inaccessible height. Then one Wilton, coxswain of the Delight, of Winter's squadron, clambered up to the enemy's deck and fell dead the same instant. Then the English volunteers opened volley upon the Spaniards. They seemed safely ensconced in their ships,' said bold Dick Tomson of the Margaret and Joan, 'while we in our open pinnaces and far under them had nothing to shroud and cover us.' But the Spaniards, still quite disconcerted by the events of the preceding night, seemed under a spell. Otherwise it would have been an easy matter for the great galeasse to annihilate such puny antagonists in a very short space of time. "The English pelted the Spaniards quite cheerfully, however, with arquebus shot whenever they showed themselves above the bulwarks, picked off a considerable number, and sustained a rather severe loss themselves; Lieutenant Preston, of the Royal Ark, among others, being dangerously wounded. 'We had a pretty skirmish for half-an-hour,' said Tomson. At last Don Hugo de Moncado, furious at the inefficiency of his men, and leading them forward in person, fell back on his deck with a bullet through both eyes. The panic was instantaneous, for, meantime, several other English boats-some with eight, ten, or twelve men on board-were seen pulling towards the galeasse, while the dismayed soldiers at once leaped over on the land side, and attempted to escape by swimming and wading to the shore. Some of them succeeded, but the greater number were drowned. The few who remained-not more than twenty in all-hoisted two handkerchiefs upon two rapiers as a signal of truce. The English accepting it as a symbol of defeat, scrambled with