As if sent on purpose for him, the San Philip, a magnificent caraque from the Indies, fell straight into his hands, ‘so richly loaded,’ it was said, ‘that every man in the fleet counted his fortune made.’  There was no need to wait for more.  It was but two months since Drake had sailed from Plymouth.  He could now go home after a cruise of which the history of his own or any other country had never presented the like.  He had struck the King of Spain in his own stronghold.  He had disabled the intended Armada for one season at least.  He had picked up a prize by the way and as if by accident, worth half a million, to pay his expenses, so that he had cost nothing to his mistress, and had brought back a handsome present for her.  I doubt if such a naval estimate was ever presented to an English House of Commons.  Above all he had taught the self-confident Spaniard to be afraid of him, and he carried back his poor comrades in such a glow of triumph that they would have fought Satan and all his angels with Drake at their head.

Our West-country annals still tell how the country people streamed down in their best clothes to see the great San Philip towed into Dartmouth Harbour.  English Protestantism was no bad cable for the nation to ride by in those stormy times, and deserves to be honourably remembered in a School of History at an English University.

LECTURE VIII

SAILING OF THE ARMADA

Peace or war between Spain and England, that was now the question, with a prospect of securing the English succession for himself or one of his daughters.  With the whole Spanish nation smarting under the indignity of the burning of the ships at Cadiz, Philip’s warlike ardour had warmed into something like fire.  He had resolved at any rate, if he was to forgive his sister-in-law at all, to insist on more than toleration for the Catholics in England.  He did not contemplate as even possible that the English privateers, however bold or dexterous, could resist such an armament as he was preparing to lead to the Channel.  The Royal Navy, he knew very well, did not exceed twenty-five ships of all sorts and sizes.  The adventurers might be equal to sudden daring actions, but would and must be crushed by such a fleet as was being fitted out at Lisbon.  He therefore, for himself, meant to demand that the Catholic religion should be restored to its complete and exclusive superiority, and certain towns in England were to be made over to be garrisoned by Spanish troops as securities for Elizabeth’s good behaviour.  As often happens with irresolute men, when they have once been forced to a decision they are as too hasty as before they were too slow.  After Drake had retired from Lisbon the King of Spain sent orders to the Prince of Parma not to wait for the arrival of the Armada, but to cross the Channel immediately with the Flanders army, and bring Elizabeth to her knees.  Parma had more sense than his master.