foul of another ship, was taken possession of by Drake, and sent into Dartmouth. The St. Ann, a large galleon of Portugal, not being able to keep up with the fleet, was taken, on which three large galliasses came to her relief, and were so warmly received by the Lord Admiral and Lord Thomas Howard, that they were satisfied to take themselves off, but not before they had suffered a great loss of It was observed that from this time none of the galliasses ventured to engage.

men.

The first of the four general actions, if so they may be called, happened on the 25th July, off the Isle of Wight, and the only one mentioned by the Lord High Admiral until the last. On this occasion the Lord Admiral led the attack, accompanied by the Lion, Lord Thomas Howard; the Elizabeth Jonas, Sir R. Southwell, the Lord Admiral's son-in-law; the Bear, Lord Sheffield, his nephew; the Victory, Captain John Hawkins; with Frobisher, Fenner, and others. "With great valour," says Purchas, "and thunder of shot, they encountered the Spanish Admiral in the midst of his fleet, and entered a terrible combat with the English, battering each other with their broadsides, at the distance of 100

or 120 yards apart. At length," he says, "the

Spaniards hoisted up their sails, and gathered themselves up into the form of a rundell, and moved off. Frobisher, on this occasion, was the

last who ceased fighting, and was only drawn off by the Admiral going to his assistance.

The Lord Admiral was so much gratified with the proceedings of this day, that on the following (the 26th) he bestowed the honour of knighthood on Lord Thomas Howard, Lord Sheffield, Roger Townsend, John Hawkins, and Captain Martin Frobisher, in consideration of their gallant behaviour. And as they were now approaching the spot, where the grand and decisive scene of action would in all probability take place, it was agreed upon, in council, that no further attack should be made on the enemy until they arrived at the British Firths, or Straits of Dover, where they were to be joined by Lord Henry Seymour and Sir William Wynter, provided the Prince of Parma should not previously put to sea, and compel his Lordship to attack him; which, however, he had ascertained, from the state of his preparations, there was little prospect of his doing.

The whole conduct of the Lord High Admiral from the day of his first taking charge of the fleet at the close of the year 1587 until the present time, was marked by a strict attention to the active duties of his important office, by a cautious circumspection, and a cool and discreet resolution, such as characterizes the man of true courage. He possessed

* Purchas.

a coolness of temper rarely to be ruffled, a prudence and magnanimity that nothing could disturb, of which the following incident may be given as an example. The over-anxiety of Drake in chasing some ships, caused him to omit hoisting the lantern it was his turn to carry. Part of the English fleet laid by, but the Lord Admiral and two other ships, the Bear and the Mary Rose, deceived by the light carried by the Spanish Admiral, followed it, and Lord Charles remained among the Spanish fleet the whole night, and quietly and coolly dropped astern at the dawn of the following day, and joined his own fleet. His passive resistance, and fearlessness of censure, was soon put to a severe trial, which in another might have been construed into a want of courage: when in the act of attacking the Armada, several of his principal officers, the boldest, the bravest, and most experienced, earnestly entreated him, “with more heat," says Camden, "than discretion," to permit them to lay aboard the enemy; he resisted their entreaties, not with a hasty and peremptory refusal, but for a few cogent reasons which none could dispute; the enormous size of their ships, as compared with his own-their lofty turrets fore and aft like so many castles, from which they would hurl their missiles of various kinds,. even to fragments of rock, and inevitably destroy those who would be obliged as it were to fight beneath them;-the number of regular troops with

which they were filled, while his ships had noneand above all, the sacrifice of life, which such an act would render inevitable, and the damage the ships would sustain-these or any of them would defeat the object for which his fleet had been specially prepared.

There was in fact the greatest probability that the severest trial was yet to come, and for five days, and in three actions, the English had sustained little or no loss, while the Spanish Armada was flying before them. It was not yet their object therefore to put forth all their strength. They had besides to look forward to a junction of the Armada with the Duke of Parma's flotilla, with thirty to forty thousand troops on board, intended, under protection of the fleet, to proceed up the Thames, and to sack London. This was their main object, and had they not been diverted from their original intention of proceeding along the coast of France to the neighbourhood of Dunkirk, instead of appearing before Plymouth, led by false information, they might have attempted, at least, to carry their project into execution, while our fleet was quietly at their moorings in Plymouth harbour; for Lord Henry Seymour, with his flotilla, must inevitably have been overwhelmed.

The Spanish fleet, being now unmolested by the English, came to anchor off Calais. The Lord Admiral followed, and coolly anchored his fleet

within cannon shot of the enemy, and both remained passive for two days, when after due preparation a squadron of eight fire-ships were sent off with a fair wind, directing them towards the body of the Spanish fleet, which caused so much confusion and dispersion, as to end in their flight and in giving up the contest. It was supposed, and generally believed, that the Queen suggested the employment of fire-ships, and a medal with a dispersed fleet and fire-ships pursuing it, and bearing the motto "Dux fœmina fecit"—" The general who caused it was a woman "—perhaps will be thought some confirmation of it. Hawkins and Drake, however, could not have forgotten the day when, at San Juan d'Ulloa, they cut their cables and ran out of that port, to escape the two fire-ships sent against them by the Spaniards. Sir Richard Hawkins says that, on the present occasion, two of his ships were fitted as part of the fire-ships.

To the destruction of this boasted Armada, by which perhaps the salvation of the kingdom was secured, three causes may be said to have contributed the dispersion of the Spanish fleet by our fire-ships the strong south-west wind then prevailing and the defection of the Prince of Parma. With regard to the first and most important, which indeed was the prelude to the rest and to the catastrophe which succeeded, Camden has supplied an interesting description. "But Queen Elizabeth,