sion on them. Besides, his ship blocked up the channel, so that with difficulty Sir Francis Vere, in the Rainbow, got past him. Sir Walter then weighed his anchor, and stood farther in.

Lord Thomas Howard, impatient to get into the fight, left his ship, on account of her size, and entered the Nonpareil. Each ship now strove to get opposite to the galleons, which were so placed that their broadsides faced the invaders, while they were also under the protection of their forts. Six of the English ships, however, having taken up their proper positions, obliged the greater part of the Spanish ships of war to cut and make their escape; yet two of the galleons, the St. Matthew and St. Andrew, were boarded and taken; two others, the St. Philip and St. Thomas, were set fire to, and burnt down to the water's edge. The galleons being destroyed, and the ships of war having fled, all the other shipping slipped their cables and ran into that part of the bay above the town, making the best of their way to Puerto Reale.

The Dutch, in the meanwhile, attacked the fort of Puntales, and carried it; upon which Essex landed a body of 800 men, about a league from the city, while the Lord Admiral and the fleet were bombarding it from the harbour. While the Earl of Essex was on his march to the city, accompanied by a great number of volunteers, the Lord Admiral and another party, with a body of seamen, landed

close to the town, and the two parties entered it nearly at the same time, with little or no resistance, except some scattered firing from the roofs of the houses, as they proceeded to the market-place. Here a negociation was entered into, and a sum of money, of five, or as some say six, hundred thousand ducats was given as ransom for the lives and property of the inhabitants of the town, and forty hostages were taken for the payment of it.

A joint proclamation of the two Lords General declared that no violence should be offered to the Spaniards. The women, the clergy, and such citizens as desired it, were conveyed to Porto Santa Maria; and the ladies, with their best apparel and jewels, were protected by the General in person, that no insult or violence should be committed by the soldiers. The Lord Admiral, in writing to his father-in-law, the Lord Chamberlain Hunsdon, says, "The mercy and clemency which hath been shewed, will be spoken of through those parts of the world. No cold blood touched, no woman defiled, but have with great care been embarked, and sent to St. Mary Port. All the ladies, which were many, and all the nuns and other women and children, which were likewise sent thither, have been suffered to carry away with them all their apparel, money and jewels which they had about them, and were not searched for."* It was now dis

* Rirch's Memoirs.

cussed whether a ransom should not be demanded for the smaller ships of war, and the large fleet of merchant ships that had taken refuge in the Puerto Reale, or whether a detachment should be sent to destroy them. To the former the Lord High Admiral decidedly objected, stating that he came not there for the sake of ransom, but to destroy the shipping, stores, and preparations, according to his instructions; but while this was debating, a third party stepped in and settled the question at once. The Duke of Medina Sidonia, supposing what might be intended, ordered the whole of the shipping that had escaped to be set on fire and destroyed.

The loss said to have been sustained by Spain was equal in value to more than twenty millions of ducats. The destruction of shipping is stated to have been four galleons of fifteen and twelve hundred tons burden each; thirteen ships of war of different sizes; and eleven plate-ships, freighted for the Indies. The pieces of ordnance taken or sunk were innumerable, among which were above a hundred brass cannon.* But, besides all this, was "the indignity," as Hume says," which that proud and ambitious people suffered from the sacking of one of their chief cities, and destroying in their harbour a fleet of such force and value." The only loss sustained by the English, with the

exception of a very few seamen and soldiers, was in the death of Sir John Wingfield, who was shot in the market-place, at the same time that Lieutenants Savage and Bagnal were covered with wounds, and knighted on the spot. The Lords General, when the business was over, bestowed the honour of knighthood on upwards of sixty officers and gentlemen volunteers.

The Earl of Essex now proposed that they should retain possession of Cadiz, because it would prove a thorn in the side of Spain, and he offered to take charge of it with only four hundred men; but the Lord Admiral and the council would not listen to so wild a project. He then proposed they should proceed to the Azores, according to their instructions, to wait for the Indian carracks; but not one of the officers would consent to it, except Lord Thomas Howard and the Dutch Admiral. Essex then applied to Raleigh, but he pleaded a scarcity of provisions and an infection in his ship. Essex offered him his own ship, but he found that he could not succeed. They now, therefore, set sail for England, calling at Faro, which they found deserted, and contented themselves with carrying off the library of the Bishop Osorius, of which Essex sent his share to the New College at Oxford.

On the 23rd October of the following year, 1597, the Queen was pleased to create the Lord High Admiral EARL of NottinghaAM, on which occasion

we are told by that "notable busy man," Rowland White, that "Her Majestie made a speach unto hym in acknowledgment of his services; and Mr. Secretary read the lettres patentes aloude, which are very honourable. All his great services related in Anno 88, and lately at Cales (Cadiz). He is to take his place ut Comes de Nottingham, for so are the words in his patent." *

The words in his patent are these:-" That by the victory obtained in the year 1588 he had secured the kingdom of England from the invasion of Spain, and other impendent dangers; and did also, in conjunction with our dear cousin, Robert Earl of Essex, seize by force the isle and strongly fortified city of Cales, in the farthest part of Spain; and did likewise entirely rout and defeat another fleet of the King of Spain, prepared in that port against this kingdom."

Just after the elevation of Howard to the earldom, Lord Essex arrived from his unsuccessful voyage to the islands, mortified, beyond measure, first, at the cool reception he met with from the Queen for not having done more; next, that her Majesty had made Sir Robert Cecil Secretary of State, in preference to Sir Thomas Bodley, for whom Essex had strongly solicited the office; and lastly, which was doubtless the most mortifying of all, at the earldom bestowed upon Lord Charles Sidney Papers.

*