Drake, Nelson and Napoleon eBook

Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 331 pages of information about Drake, Nelson and Napoleon.

Drake, Nelson and Napoleon eBook

Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 331 pages of information about Drake, Nelson and Napoleon.
and other places; a Spanish peerage was given him together with L40,000, which was to be used for equipping the privateer fleet.  The money was duly paid in London, and possibly some of it was used for repairing the British squadron which Hawkins had pronounced as being composed of the finest ships in the world for him to hand over to Philip, even though they had been neglected owing to the Queen’s meanness.  The plausible way in which the great seaman put this proposition caught the imagination of the negotiators.  They were captivated by him.  He had caused them to believe that he was a genuine seceder from heresy and from allegiance to the Queen of England, and was anxious to avow his penitence for the great sins he had committed against God and the only true faith, and to make atonement for them in befitting humility.  All he asked for was forgiveness, and in the fullness of magnanimity they were possibly moved to ask if, in addition to forgiveness, a Spanish peerage, and L40,000, he would like to commemorate the occasion of his conversion by a further token of His Spanish Majesty’s favour.  It is easy to picture the apparent indifference with which he suggested that he did not ask for favours, but if he were to ask for anything, it would be the release from the Inquisition galleys of a few poor sailor prisoners.  The apparently modest request was granted.  Hawkins had risked his life to accomplish this, and now he writes a letter to Cecil beginning “My very good Lord.”  I do not give the whole of the letter.  Suffice it to say that he confirms the success of the plot so far as he is concerned, and in a last paragraph he says, “I have sent your Lordship the copy of my pardon from the King of Spain, in the order and manner I have it, with my great titles and honours from the King, from which God deliver me.”

The process by which Hawkins succeeded in obtaining the object he had in view was the conception of no ordinary man.  We talk and write of his wonderful accomplishments on sea and land, as a skilful, brave sailor, but he was more than that.  He was, in many respects, a genius, and his courage and resolution were unfailingly magnificent.

I dare say the prank he played on Philip and his advisers would be regarded as unworthy cunning, and an outrage on the rules of high honour.  Good Protestant Christians disapproved then, as now, the wickedness of thus gambling with religion to attain any object whatsoever, and especially of swearing by the Mother of God the renunciation of the Protestant faith and the adoption of Roman Catholicism.  The Spaniards, who had a hand in this nefarious proceeding, were quite convinced that, though Hawkins had been a pirate and a sea robber and murderer, now that he had come over to their faith the predisposition to his former evil habits would leave him.  These were the high moral grounds on which was based the resolve to execute Elizabeth and a large number of her subjects, and take possession of the throne and private property at their

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Drake, Nelson and Napoleon from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.