pension of £50 a year. Spenser prefixed to these three books a letter to Ralegh, in which he set forth the object of his work to be "to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline."

Though Ralegh managed to recover the place in the Queen's favour which he had lost at first through the jealousy of Essex, a love intrigue, which the Queen chanced to discover, brought him into still deeper disgrace. Amongst the fair ladies at Queen Elizabeth's Court was one who made a deeper impression upon the courtier's heart than the royal mistress to whom he pretended to make love. This was an orphan, Elizabeth Throgmorton, one of Elizabeth's maids of honour, a fair-haired, handsome woman, to whom Ralegh made love secretly, probably afraid of the Queen's anger, should she discover that he paid his devotions to anyone but herself. Whilst Ralegh was busy with his love affairs, he was also busy with schemes for making reprisals on the Spaniards, which occupied so many Englishmen after the great Armada fight. Ralegh was probably anxious to find some excuse for withdrawing from England until the Queen's anger had blown over.

It was a splendid opportunity for gaining wealth in the Spanish seas, and Elizabeth was more willing than ever to wink at the piracy of her subjects. One of the most important of these enterprises was undertaken by Lord Thomas Howard, cousin of the Lord Admiral, and Sir Richard Grenville.

1591]

FIGHT OFF THE AZORES.

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They set sail on the 10th March, 1591, with a fleet of some sixteen ships, to which Ralegh contributed one vessel. They hoped to seize a fleet bringing West Indian produce home to Spain; but Philip II. heard of their designs, and sent out a large fleet to oppose them. This fleet, consisting of fifty sail, was the biggest which the Spaniards had put on the sea since the Armada. Ralegh himself has left us an account of what followed, in a paper called, The Truth of the Fight about the Isles of the Azores.

The English fleet was riding at anchor off the Azores, on the afternoon of the last day of August, all unprepared to meet the enemy. "The ships," writes Ralegh, "all pestered and romaging, everything out of order. . . . The one-half part of the men of every ship sick and utterly unserviceable." The island had shrouded the approach of the Spanish fleet, and the English ships had scarce time to weigh their anchors. The last who got off was Sir Richard Grenville. He waited to take in the men who were on land, and who would otherwise have been lost. Howard managed to get away by the help of the wind, but Grenville could not do So. He then "utterly refused to turn from the enemy, alledging that he would rather choose to die than dishonour himself, his country, and Her Majesty's ship." So he turned with his single vessel to meet the Spanish fleet of fifty sail, hoping he might pass through the two squadrons in despite of them. Five Spanish ships attacked

the Revenge. They made divers attempts to enter her, "but were repulsed again and again, and at all times beaten back into their own ships or into the seas. The fight began at three o'clock in the afternoon, and continued very terrible all that evening. The Spanish ships which attempted to board the Revenge, as they were wounded and beaten off, so always others came in their places; she having never less than two mighty galleons by her sides." So it went on all through the night; but as the day increased so the men of the Revenge decreased. At last "all the powder of the Revenge to the last barrel was spent, all her pikes broken, forty of her best men slain, and the most part of the rest hurt." Unto them "remained no comfort at all; no hope, no supply either of ships, men, or weapons. The masts all beaten overboard; all her tackle cut asunder. . . . Sir Richard, finding himself in this distress, having endured in this fifteen hours' fight the assault of fifteen several armadas, . . commanded the master gunner to split and sink the ship." He was determined to die rather than surrender to his enemies. The master gunner felt as he did; but the other officers begged Sir Richard to have care of them. When he would not hearken to them, they took the matter into their own hands, and treated with the Spanish Admiral, Alfonzo Bazan, who gave them honourable terms; for he granted "that all their lives should be saved, the company sent for England, and the better sort to pay such reasonable

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DEATH OF SIR R. GRENVILLE.

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ransome as their estate would bear, and in the mean season to be free from galley or imprisonment. . . . Sir Richard, being thus overmatched, was sent unto by Alfonzo Bazan, to remove out of the Revenge, the ship being marvellous unsavoury, filled with blood, and bodies of dead and wounded men, like a slaughter-house. Sir Richard answered that he might do with his body what he list; for he esteemed it not; and as he was carried out of the ship he swooned, and reviving again, desired the company to pray for him." The Spaniards, who greatly respected him for his valour, tended him with the utmost care; but he died of his wounds the second or third day after he had been taken on board the Spanish ship. "Here die I," he said to the Spaniards who stood round, "Richard Grenville, with a joyfull and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a good soldier ought to do, who has fought for his country and his Queen, for honour and religion. Wherefore my soul joyfully departeth out of this body, leaving behind it an everlasting fame, as a true soldier who hath done his duty as he was bound to do. But the others of my company have done as traitors and dogs; for which they shall be reproached all their lives, and have a shameful name for ever." Grenville's condemnation does not seem to have been deserved by Lord Thomas Howard, who would have come to his assistance, if his crews would have let him. Ralegh thinks it was better that he did not, considering the smallness of his fleet, its bad condition,

and the sickness of the men. "The dishonour and loss to the Queen had been far greater than the spoil or harm that the enemy could any way have received."

After this fight a tremendous storm arose, and did great havoc amongst the Spanish fleet; and also to the fleet of Spanish treasure-ships coming home from the West Indies. "Thus," adds Ralegh, "it hath pleased God to fight for us, and to defend the justice of our cause against the ambitious and bloody pretences of the Spaniards, who, seeking to devour all nations, are themselves devoured.” Ralegh looked upon ceaseless opposition to the Spaniard as the sacred duty of every Englishman. He seems to have grasped the nature of Philip II.'s vast schemes to restore the Romish faith, and place puppet kings on the thrones of France and Germany. With a monarch who cherished such schemes there could be no possibility of peace; and it was this feeling, as much as love of booty, that sent the English privateers into the Spanish Grenville's fight in the Revenge shows the spirit which animated them. They knew no fear, they counted no costs before they attacked, but trusted to their own courage and to God. Doubtless the rich booty won in these fights was very welcome; but a larger motive existed besides the love of plunder, and in some perhaps was the strongest. "Let not any Englishman," writes Ralegh, "of what religion soever, have other opinion of the Spaniard, but . . . that he useth

seas.