returning by the Cape of Good Hope, he came to London, where he sailed up the Thames in a kind of picturesque triumph. His mariners and soldiers were all clothed in silk of the most brilliant colours; his sails were of damask, his topsail was glittering cloth of gold, and the prizes were the richest that had as yet been brought to England.

But now Elizabeth, on hearing that Philip of Spain, though he seemed to dissemble, or to ignore the daily insults and injuries sustained by his flag from the English, was equipping a great navy to attack her, ordered Sir Francis Drake once more to prepare for sea.

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man of the bedchamber, who (Welwood asserts in his memoirs) stole the keys from the pocket of the pontiff while he slept. Bishop Burnet observes that Walsingham's chief spies were priests, and he used to say "an active but vicious priest was the best spy in the world."

Drake sailed from the Thames, Strype says, with forty galleys, for the coast of Spain. Four of these were the largest ships of the queen; the remainder were furnished and equipped for him by the merchants of London, in hope of making profit out of the plunder. His chief ships were the Bonaventure; the Lion commanded by William Borough,

These equipments ultimately developed themselves as the Great Armada; but the arrangements were so vast that Sir Francis Drake says in one of his letters, quoted by Strype, that the Spaniards had provisions of bread and wine alone sufficient to maintain 40,000 men for a whole year. And that these preparations were aimed against England was discovered by Walsingham in a very singular manner. On learning that Philip had dispatched an express to Rome with a secret letter, written by his own hand, to the Pope, Sixtus V., "acquainting him with the true design in hand, and asking his blessing upon it;" Walsingham, by means of a Venetian priest, retained by him as a spy upon the Vatican, got a transcription of the original, which was abstracted from the Pope's cabinet by a gentle

Comptroller of the Navy; the Dreadnought, Captain Fenner; and the Rainbow, Captain Bellingham.

After anchoring in Plymouth Sound, he learned from two Dutch vessels which he hailed, that a Spanish fleet, richly laden, was lying at Cadiz, ready to sail for Lisbon, the rendezvous of the intended Armada. He bore boldly for that harbour. Six galleys which endeavoured to make head against him he compelled to run for shelter under cover of a fire from the forts. In spite of the latter, he plundered and sank or burned more than 100 vessels laden with provisions, arms, and ammuni tion. Among them were two stately galleons, one belonging to the Marquis of Santa Cruz, the other to the Venetians of Ragusa, mounting

many brass cannon. Running thence along the coast to Cape St. Vincent, he stormed the castle on that promontory, and other fortresses, and pillaged the towns in succession, till he came to the mouth of the Tagus, when he in vain endeavoured to lure out the Marquis of Santa Cruz to fight him, by plundering and burning all the ships he found there.

Sailing thence to the Azores, he met on the way, near the isle of St. Michael, a mighty carack, called the San Philipo, returning from the East Indies, and captured her with ease; and the papers that were found on board of her so fully illustrated to the English the value of Indian merchandise, and the mode of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere, that "they afterwards," says Camden, "set up a gainful trade and traffic, establishing a company of East India merchants."

Drake destroyed at Cadiz, in what he jocularly termed "singeing the King of Spain's beard," compelled Philip to defer his darling project of invading England for another year, and gave that country time to prepare; while, by the success of the expeditions of Drake, her seamen were fast learning to despise the great and unwieldy ships of the Spaniards, who ere the year closed had fresh source for disgust, when Rear-Admiral Sir John Hawkins, when lying with a fleet of Her Majesty's ships in the Catwater, fired a shot into the Spanish admiral, who came into Plymouth with the fleet that was to escort Anne of Austria, for not striking his flag, "and paying the usual honours to Her Majesty's colours, which, after much altercation, he compelled him to do ("Lives of the Admirals").

And now came the year 1588, when Philip II. hoped to have a sure and terrible vengeance for all

UNDOUBTEDLY the greatest event of Elizabeth's reign was the defeat of the Invincible Armada-the mighty fleet destined by Philip to conquer England. His grand or ostensible object was the destruction of Protestantism; but he was smarting under a consciousness of repeated insults, of territories ravaged, cities burned, and the loss of many great treasure-ships. His vanity was also wounded by Elizabeth's refusal to marry him, as her sister had done; and after the death of Mary Stuart, whose execution was deemed by all Europe an outrage on the law of nations, he did not conceal his claims to the double inheritance of the crowns of England and Scotland, which she had bequeathed to him from the scaffold at Fotheringay.

His ambassador, Mendoza, thus wrote to him: "God having been pleased to suffer this accursed nation to fall under His displeasure, not only in regard to spiritual affairs by heresy, but also in what relates to worldly affairs, by this terrible event (the death of Mary), it is plain that the Almighty has wished to give your Majesty these two crowns as your own entire possession."

John Leslie, the celebrated Bishop of Ross, and the devoted adherent of Mary, wrote in French and Latin, and in English, a declaration to prove that

Philip II. was lawful heir to the throne of England, the King of Scotland having rendered himself incompetent to succeed, in consequence of his heresy from Rome. The Duke de Guise was of the same opinion, and consigned to the King of Spain the task of avenging Mary Stuart, and securing Catholicism in England; and having at his disposal the ships and seamen of all Spain, Portugal, and Italy, with troops deemed then the finest in Europe, with all the treasures of the New World, he seemed to possess resources sufficient for the mighty enterprise he resolved to undertake-an enterprise which he had conceived so early as 1570, and began to execute in 1588.

The roadstead of Lisbon was to be the general muster-place of the fleet; and there, in the spring of 1588, assembled the shipping furnished by Sicily, Naples, Catalonia, Andalusia, Castile, and Biscay. These vessels were of various dimensions. There were caravels, caracks, xebecs, galleys (the general craft of the time), some with sails, some with oars; a number of galleons; and four galeases of enormous size, that towered like wooden citadels amid the lesser vessels of the fleet. Their forecastles were literally fortified, and carried several tiers of guns. This fleet had on board 21,556 troops, who were

Spain, the Marquis de Bourgou, son of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, Vespasian di Gonzaga, of the house of Mantua, a great soldier, who had once been Viceroy of Spain; Giovanni di Medici, the Bastard of Florence; Amadeo of Savoy, and many others.

Meanwhile the Queen of England and her people were not idle in preparing to resist this mighty armament, the fame of which filled all Europe.

Elizabeth summoned her most able councillors, some of whom, like Raleigh, Grey, Bingham, Norris, and Grenville, had been bred to arms, and possessed military talents of a very high order.

It was resolved to equip a fleet adequate to the great emergency, and to raise all the land forces possible; and for this purpose circular letters were addressed to the lords-lieutenants of the different counties, and the returns showed that there could be raised for the defence of England 132,689 men, of whom 14,000 were cavalry. These levies were exclusive of the city of London, which offered the queen 10,000 men and 30 ships; and, as Stow records, "The merchants met every Tuesday to practise all points of war. Some of them, in 1588, had charge of men in the great camp, and were called Captains of the Artillery Garden." Their first place of meeting was in Tasel Close, now Artillery Lane, Bishopsgate.

Along the southern coast were disposed 20,000 men; under the Earl of Hunsdon, 45,000 men were collected for the special defence of the queen's person; 1,000 horse and 22,000 foot were posted at Tilbury, to protect London against the Prince of Parma; and, as Macaulay's noble ballad has it—

In Scotland, the king, who had rejected the proposals of the Spaniards to ally themselves with him, and to invade England by the borders with an army under Parma, took all the necessary measures for defence, by the erection of beacons, and the enrolment of every man above sixteen years of age, capable of bearing arms, in the kingdom; on which Elizabeth sent Sir Robert Sidney as a special ambassador to thank him, and promise assistance if the Spanish troops landed on the Scottish shores. On the 4th of August, he wrote to Elizabeth from Edinburgh, to the effect that he did not propose to aid the English as a foreign prince, but as their countryman and her "natural-born son" (Rymer).

The ships of the English navy at this time amounted only to thirty-six; but the largest and

most serviceable of the merchant vessels were collected from various ports to form a fleet, to man which there came forward 17,472 mariners. The number of ships was 191; their total tonnage was only 31,985; but there was one, the Triumph, of 1,100 tons, one of 1,000, one of 900, others smaller, and twenty of only 200 tons. Assistance was given by the Dutch, who sent, as Stow has it, "threescore sail, brave ships of war, fierce, and full of spleen, not so much for England's aid as in just occasion for their own defence."

The command of the fleet was given to Lord Howard of Effingham, High Admiral of England, and his vice-admirals were Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins, and Sir Martin Frobisher, men whose names, even after the lapse of nearly three centuries, are still their country's pride.

On the 12th of July the Armada put finally to sea; the orders of Philip to the Duke de Medina Sidonia being that "he should, on entering the Channel, keep near the French coast, and if attacked by the English ships, avoid an action, and steer on Calais Roads, where the Prince of Parma's squadron was to join him." As these many vessels spread their canvas to the breeze, the grandeur of the spectacle excited the most flattering antici pations of success, and thousands of hearts beat high with the hope of conquest and visions of coming glory.

But the duke having been informed that the English fleet were lying "off their guard," in Plymouth Sound, could not resist the chance of destroying it there; and, deviating from his orders, he stood at once across to the coast of England. On the 19th of July the Armada was off the Lizard, where a Scottish privateer's-man, Captain Thomas Fleming, saw them, and hoisting every inch of canvas, ran into Plymouth to warn the English admiral. By sound of cannon and trumpet the crews were summoned on board; and though a stiff south-west wind was blowing, the vessels worked out into the offing. Lord Howard that night got clear out to sea with only six of his ships, but between twenty and thirty more came out in the morning; and with these under easy sail, he stood along shore in view of the cliffs they had come to defend, anxiously looking out for this long-expected and terrible Armada.

"On the night of that memorable 19th of July, messengers and signals were dispatched fast and far through England to warn each town and village that the enemy had come at last! In every shire and every city there was instant mustering of horse and man; in every seaport there was instant making ready for sea; and, especially along the