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THE ARMADA FIGHT.

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that where all were brave he was amongst the bravest. Some, excited with the first successes of the English, advised Howard to grapple with the enemy's ships and board them. Referring to this in his History of the World, Ralegh says: "Charles Lord Howard, Admiral of England, would have been lost in the year 1588, if he had not been better advised than a great many malignant fools were that found fault with his behaviour. The Spaniards had an army aboard them, and he had none. They had more ships than he had, and of higher building and charging; so that had he entangled himself with those great and powerful vessels he had greatly endangered this kingdom of England; for twenty men upon the defence are equal to a hundred that board and enter. Whereas then, contrariwise, the Spaniards had an hundred. for twenty of ours to defend themselves withal. But our Admiral knew his advantage, and held it, which had he not done, he had not been worthy to have held his head."

On the 24th July a council of the commanders was held, and the English fleet was divided into four squadrons, under Lord Howard, Sir Francis Drake, Captain Hawkins, and Captain Frobisher. On the 25th there was severe skirmishing off the Isle of Wight, in which Frobisher and Hawkins behaved themselves so valiantly, and withal so prudently, that on the following day the Lord Admiral rewarded them with the order of knighthood. As the two fleets passed through the Straits

of Calais, crowds of Frenchmen, Walloons, and Flemings gathered on the coast of France to see the wonderful sight. Never before in the history of the world had such an array of ships been seen. The Spanish fleet anchored off Calais; for the Duke of Medina-Sidonia had received messengers, telling him that Alexander of Parma would be ready in a dozen hours or so to embark from Dunkirk, and join him.

Meanwhile the English fleet had been joined by twenty ships which had been keeping guard over the mouth of the Thames. Howard now saw that he could no longer avoid an engagement. If he was to strike a decisive blow at the Spaniards, he must do it before they were joined by Parma. On the 28th of July, therefore, he took eight of his worst and basest ships, and filled them with gunpowder, pitch, brimstone, and other combustibles, and setting them on fire, sent them, at two o'clock in the morning, the wind and the tide being favourable, into the midst of the Spanish fleet. The Spaniards were roused from their sleep in the dead of the night by these terrible burning apparitions, and were thrown into such perplexity and horror, that, cutting their cables and hoisting their sails, they betook themselves very confusedly into the main sea.

In the confusion the ships ran against one another; and some were damaged by collision, others were burnt by the fire-ships, and the remainder were driven northwards along the Flemish

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FLIGHT OF THE ARMADA.

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coast by the wind and the tide. The English pursued them, and on July 29th there was a fierce battle fought off Gravelines. The attack was

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led by Drake, the Admiral not having yet come up. Again the English took advantage of their nimble steerage, and 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, . . . until such time as powder and bullets failed them." The fighting lasted six hours, and terrible mischief was done to the Spaniards. The Admiral Howard joined the battle before it was over; not a ship in the Spanish fleet escaped damage. "Their force is wonderful great and strong," wrote Howard; "but we pluck their feathers by little and little. . . Notwithstanding that our powder and shot was well near all spent, we set on a brag countenance, and gave them chase."

The wind came to the help of the English, and the Spaniards fled northwards with full sail. "There was never anything pleased me better," wrote Drake, "than seeing the enemy flying with a southerly wind northwards." For four days the English pursued; but on Friday, the 2nd of August, they had to halt, as powder and provisions were failing them. They left the winds and the waves to finish the work of destruction which they had begun. On the 4th of August, the

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English fleet arrived at Harwich. There it provided itself with powder and provisions, and sailed out again to be ready to meet the Spanish fleet, should it return. But when the English heard that the Spaniards had determined to sail round the north of Scotland and Ireland, and so return home, "they thought it best to leave them unto those boisterous and uncouth northern seas, and not there to hunt after them." A terrible storm which arose on the 4th of August brought fearful sufferings to the Spanish ships. They were driven helplessly before the wind. Some were wrecked on the coasts of Norway; others were dashed to pieces on the Scottish shores; others only escaped to perish on the Irish coasts. In October the miserable remnant of the Invincible Armada reached Spain. Of that proud array of 132 ships, with 30,000 men, only fifty-three ships, with 10,000 men, returned. England had been delivered from terrible peril. It would be long before Philip II. could have another fleet on the seas; and meanwhile England had shown what stuff her mariners were made of, and made it clear that he would not find the task of crushing her an easy one. The defeat of the Armada showed the world that the power of Spain was declining, and that England was again able to fill an important position in the affairs of Europe.

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CHAPTER VI.

Ralegh in Disgrace.

GLOOM was cast over Elizabeth's rejoicings

at the defeat of the Armada by the death of the Earl of Leicester in the following September. A little while before his death Leicester, alarmed in all probability at the growing influence of Ralegh, had introduced a new favourite at Court, his stepson Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. After Leicester's death, Essex held the chief place in the Queen's favour and at Court, and became the head of the party opposed to Ralegh.

Essex was young, only twenty-one years old, brave, handsome, full of generous feelings, but devoured by vanity and ambition. He rapidly made his way in the Queen's affections, and though more than thirty years his senior, she demanded from him all the devotion of a lover, and lavished upon him in return all the tenderness of a mistress.

It was hardly to be expected that Ralegh and Essex should get on well together. Ralegh felt himself supplanted by the new favourite, and his proud spirit could not put up with the slights cast

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