to the critics who say to the contrary!  I thought your parallel of Philip and Don Quixote delightful, but the similitude of Medina Sidonia and Sancho Panza is irresistible.  That letter to Philip is Sancho’s own hand!  Where did you get it?  How long have you had it up your sleeve?  Have you got any more such cards to play?  Can you not give us a picture of those gentlemen adventurers with their exalted beliefs, their actual experiences, their little jealousies, and the love-lorn Lope de Vega in their midst?  What mankind you have come upon, dear Froude!  How I envy you!  Have you nothing to spare for a poor literary man like myself, who has made all he could out of the hulk of a poor old Philippine galleon on Pacific seas?  Couldn’t you lend me a Don or a galley-slave out of that delightful crew of solemn lunatics?  And yet how splendid are those last orders of the Duke!  With what a swan-like song they sailed away!”

—­ * The successor to Fraser. —­

The letter from Medina Sidonia to Philip, which reminded both Froude and Bret Harte of Sancho Panza, is too delicious not to be given in full.

“My health is bad, and from my small experience of the water I know that I am always sea-sick.  I have no money which I can spare, I owe a million ducats, and I have not a real to spend on my outfit.  The expedition is on such a scale, and the object is of such high importance, that the person at the head of it ought to understand navigation and sea-fighting, and I know nothing of either.  I have not one of those essential qualifications.  I have no acquaintance among the officers who are to serve under me.  Santa Cruz had information about the state of things in England; I have none.  Were I competent otherwise, I should have to act in the dark by the opinion of others, and I cannot tell to whom I may trust.  The Adelantado of Castile would do better than I. Our Lord would help him, for he is a good Christian, and has fought in several battles.  If you send me, depend upon it, I shall have a bad account to render of my trust."*

—­ * Spanish Story of the Armada, pp. 19, 20. —­

“Those last orders of the Duke”—­the same Duke, by the way—­are “splendid” enough of their kind.  “From highest to lowest you are to understand the object of our expedition, which is to recover countries to the Church now oppressed by the enemies of the true faith.  I therefore beseech you to remember your calling, so that God may be with us in what we do.  I charge you, one and all, to abstain from profane oaths, dishonouring to the names of our Lord, our Lady, and the Saints.  All personal quarrels are to be suspended while the expedition lasts, and for a month after it is completed.  Neglect of this will be held as treason.  Each morning at sunrise the ship-boys, according to custom, will sing ‘Good Morrow’ at the foot of the mainmast, and at sunset the ‘Ave Maria.’  Since bad weather may interrupt the communications the watchword is laid down for each day in the week:  Sunday, Jesus; the days succeeding, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Trinity, Santiago, the Angels, All Saints, and Our Lady."*