So,with all England firing up like one strong,angry man,and with both sides of the Thames fortified,and with the soldiers under arms,and with the sailors in their ships,the country waited for the coming of the proud Spanish fleet,which was called THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA.The Queen herself,riding in armour on a white horse,and the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Leicester holding her bridal rein,made a brave speech to the troops at Tilbury Fort opposite Gravesend,which was received with such enthusiasm as is seldom known.Then came the Spanish Armada into the English Channel,sailing along in the form of a half moon,of such great size that it was seven miles broad.But the English were quickly upon it,and woe then to all the Spanish ships that dropped a little out of the half moon,for the English took them instantly!
And it soon appeared that the great Armada was anything but invincible,for on a summer night,bold Drake sent eight blazing fire-ships right into the midst of it.In terrible consternation the Spaniards tried to get out to sea,and so became dispersed;the English pursued them at a great advantage;a storm came on,and drove the Spaniards among rocks and shoals;and the swift end of the Invincible fleet was,that it lost thirty great ships and ten thousand men,and,defeated and disgraced,sailed home again.
Being afraid to go by the English Channel,it sailed all round Scotland and Ireland;some of the ships getting cast away on the latter coast in bad weather,the Irish,who were a kind of savages,plundered those vessels and killed their crews.So ended this great attempt to invade and conquer England.And I think it will be a long time before any other invincible fleet coming to England with the same object,will fare much better than the Spanish Armada.
Though the Spanish king had had this bitter taste of English bravery,he was so little the wiser for it,as still to entertain his old designs,and even to conceive the absurd idea of placing his daughter on the English throne.But the Earl of Essex,SIRWALTER RALEIGH,SIR THOMAS HOWARD,and some other distinguished leaders,put to sea from Plymouth,entered the port of Cadiz once more,obtained a complete victory over the shipping assembled there,and got possession of the town.In obedience to the Queen's express instructions,they behaved with great humanity;and the principal loss of the Spaniards was a vast sum of money which they had to pay for ransom.This was one of many gallant achievements on the sea,effected in this reign.Sir Walter Raleigh himself,after marrying a maid of honour and giving offence to the Maiden Queen thereby,had already sailed to South America in search of gold.
The Earl of Leicester was now dead,and so was Sir Thomas Walsingham,whom Lord Burleigh was soon to follow.The principal favourite was the EARL OF ESSEX,a spirited and handsome man,a favourite with the people too as well as with the Queen,and possessed of many admirable qualities.It was much debated at Court whether there should be peace with Spain or no,and he was very urgent for war.He also tried hard to have his own way in the appointment of a deputy to govern in Ireland.One day,while this question was in dispute,he hastily took offence,and turned his back upon the Queen;as a gentle reminder of which impropriety,the Queen gave him a tremendous box on the ear,and told him to go to the devil.He went home instead,and did not reappear at Court for half a year or so,when he and the Queen were reconciled,though never (as some suppose)thoroughly.
From this time the fate of the Earl of Essex and that of the Queen seemed to be blended together.The Irish were still perpetually quarrelling and fighting among themselves,and he went over to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant,to the great joy of his enemies (Sir Walter Raleigh among the rest),who were glad to have so dangerous a rival far off.Not being by any means successful there,and knowing that his enemies would take advantage of that circumstance to injure him with the Queen,he came home again,though against her orders.The Queen being taken by surprise when he appeared before her,gave him her hand to kiss,and he was overjoyed-though it was not a very lovely hand by this time-but in the course of the same day she ordered him to confine himself to his room,and two or three days afterwards had him taken into custody.
With the same sort of caprice-and as capricious an old woman she now was,as ever wore a crown or a head either-she sent him broth from her own table on his falling ill from anxiety,and cried about him.