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seventeen galleys. To these, as, to use his own expression, he considered them but as wasps" in comparison with the San Philip and the other galleons, he only replied by a flourish of trumpets, reserving his ordnance for higher game. He now directed his course against the great vessels in the deepest part of the river, drawing on the rest of the ships, which so battered the Spaniards that they soon began to ply their oars and take to flight. By this time Sir Walter had anchored beside the Philip and Andrew, and poured broadsides into them without intermission, trusting that the flyboats would speedily come up and enable him to board. The fight soon became very hot. Lord Thomas Howard, in the Lion, drew up on one side of the Warspite, and Carew, in the Mary Rose, on the other, whilst Sir Francis Vere pushed on towards the side of Puntal; and Essex, who was still at a distance, hearing the thunder of the ordnance, thrust up through the fleet and anchored next Raleigh on the left hand. In this way the action continued for three hours; the volleys of cannon and culverin coming as thick as in a skirmish of musqueteers. By this raking fire, Sir Walter's ship was so dreadfully shattered that, fearing she could not float much longer, he went aboard and assured Essex, that if the flyboats could not instantly be brought up he would board from the Warspite at all risks. The earl, with his accustomed gallantry, replied, that whatever Raleigh did, he would, on his honour, second. The other, throwing himself into his boat, rowed back to his ship with all expedition,-an action which seemed to be a signal to the fleet who should be the first to run in on the great galleons. The high-admiral, finding the river so choked up that he could not pass in the Ark, joined his brother, in the Nonpareil. Vere, thinking it hard to be so far behind, got ahead of the Warspite with the Rainbow; and he again, in this race of valour, was headed by Lord Thomas Howard. All this passed in the fifteen minutes during which Raleigh was absent. The moment he returned, finding that, instead of being first he was only third, he slipped his anchor, and pushing between Lord Thomas and Vere,

went ahead of both, and anchored within twenty yards of the San Philip, athwart the channel, so as to prevent any ship from again passing him. Vere, upon this, fastened a rope to the side of the Warspite, in order to draw himself up alongside; but one of the crew cut it asunder, and the Rainbow fell back into its old place.

Having no hopes of the flyboats, and prevented by the wind from running close up and boarding the San Philip, Sir Walter laid out a warp " to shake hands with her ;" and Lord Thomas with other ships imitating his example, the Spanish galleons in the utmost haste slipped anchor and ran aground, "tumbling into the sea heaps of soldiers like coals out of a sack," some drowning, some choking in the mud, and others mortally wounded. In the midst of this tumult a negro fired the powder in the San Philip, which blew up with a tremendous noise, the mainmast shooting into the air like an arrow. The flames catching hold of the San Thomas at the same moment, she exploded and covered the sea with burning fragments. Raleigh, however, was too rapid in his movements to allow the San Matthew and San Andrew to follow their example; he took them before they could run aground or be burnt by their crews. The picture he draws of the scene, in his relation of the Cadiz action, is striking: "The spectacle was very lamentable on their side; for many drowned themselves, many, half-burnt, leaped into the water; very many hanging by the ropes' ends, by the ships' sides, under the water even to the lips; many swimming with grievous wounds, strucken under water, and put out of pain; and withal so huge a fire, and such tearing of the ordnance in the great Philip and the rest, when the fire came to them, as, if any man had a desire to see hell itself, it was there most lively figured. Ourselves spared the lives of all after the victory; but the Flemings, who did little or nothing in the fight, used merciless slaughter, till they were, by myself, and afterwards by the lord-admiral, beaten off."

The action continued from ten in the morning till late * Relation of the Cadiz Action. Raleigh's Works, vol. viii.

p. 672.

in the afternoon; by which time the bay was cleared and entirely resigned to the English. The victory was justly described by Sir William Monson, one of the officers engaged, as the most disgraceful overthrow ever given to the majesty of Spain, the battle being at his own home, in his port which he thought as safe as his chamber; and it was particularly glorious to the English, when the great inequality of numbers was considered,— seven ships destroying the Spanish fleet, including six galleons, three frigates, seventeen galleys, and the Mexican squadron, in all fifty-five, backed by the fort of Puntal, and moored under their batteries.

After this success the army landed, and, led by the Earl of Essex, carried the town by a coup de main, although 5000 foot and 800 horse, including the cavaliers of Xeres, made an attempt at resistance. Raleigh, during the seafight, had been hurt in the leg by a splinter. But his anxiety would not suffer him to be absent from the army, and having been carried ashore he mounted his horse, and charging along with the rest entered the city. The pain of his shattered limb, however, became intolerable; there was great danger of his being trodden down by the English soldiers, who abandoned themselves to pillage, and after an hour he returned to the fleet.

At this moment, although grievously incommoded and smarting under his wound, his great object was to capture the Mexican fleet, which had taken refuge in the roads of Puerto Real, where, had they been instantly followed, it would have been impossible for them to escape. With this view he sent repeated messages to obtain the admiral's consent. But owing to the confusion incident to the sacking of the town, and some jealousies between the seamen and the land-forces, Raleigh "could not obtain any answer to his desire." Before next morning the Duke of Medina Sidonia, apprehensive lest this inestimable prize should fall into the enemy's hand, ordered them to be burnt. "So as now," says he in his account of the action, " both galleons, frigates, argosies, and all other ships of war, together with the fleet of Nueva Espana, were all converted into ashes; only the

San Matthew and the San Andrew were in our possession." Having destroyed the fortifications and city, the army re-embarked on the 5th of July; and Essex's design of continuing at sea to intercept the West Indian fleet having been overruled, the victorious squadron directed their course homeward. On their way they sacked the town of Faro in Portugal, from which they carried off the famous library of Osorius; and laden with bales of philosophy and literature, as well as with the rich plunder of Cadiz, they arrived at Plymouth on the 10th of August, from which Essex immediately posted to court.

There can be little doubt that this great victory is mainly to be attributed to Raleigh. It was at his earnest entreaty that the absurd design of first attacking with the land-forces was abandoned; it was he who drew up the plan of the action; and to him the command of the van was intrusted. Many officers, who were present and nowise favourably disposed to him, bore in their private letters the warmest testimony to his ability and gallantry; books were dedicated to him, in which the glory he had acquired was commemorated; portraits engraved or painted, in which the action was introduced as the most appropriate background; and all seemed anxious that the cloud under which his merit had been lately obscured should be dispelled by the returning favour of his royal mistress.

Yet, in spite of these testimonies, Elizabeth did not immediately recall him to court, or permit him to resume his offices. Aware of the influence of Essex, he had been careful to treat the favourite during the voyage with that courtesy to which his great bravery and talents entitled him; and those who knew the secret enmity between them ascribed this change to interested motives:

"Sir Walter's carriage," says Standen, who was present, "to my lord of Essex is with the cunningest respect and deepest humility that ever I saw or have trowed." But the same writer, after the action, confesses, that among many excellent qualities his behaviour to the earl deserved high praise.* To secure the favour of one * Oldys, p. 254.

so powerful as his rival, provided it were done. by no sacrifice of honour, was, to a man labouring under the displeasure of his sovereign, no improper object; and when engaged in such a service as the attack on the Spanish fleet, he must have been convinced it was their duty to forget private animosities. But Sir Walter's malignant star was still in the ascendant. Incapacitated by his wounds from sharing in the sack of Cadiz, the rich booty fell into the hands of others whom he taught to win the victory. Nor does it appear that he had gained the friendship of Essex, who, with all his nobleness of nature, perhaps felt hurt at the glory acquired by his inferior in command.

The favourite, indeed, had himself cause for dissatisfaction, and began to feel the insecurity of his giddy elevation. Before leaving court he had recommended his friend Sir Thomas Bodley for the vacant post of Secretary of State. On his return he found that Elizabeth had preferred Sir Robert Cecil, Burleigh's second son; and the indignation which he imprudently exhibited on this occasion seems to have been the first cause of that decline of his influence which began soon after to be apparent. He was too open, generous, and independent, for a professional courtier. He presumed upon his royal mistress's passion for him; and that she really felt as much love as could take possession of a heart on the borders of sixty-four is not to be doubted. But he forgot that the queen, however weak and capricious on some occasions, possessed a remarkable skill in selecting men fit for high offices, and that no considerations of personal attachment had ever been sufficient to blind her discernment. It is this faculty of discriminating true genius, and attaching to her service the greatest talents in England, which is the peculiar feature in Elizabeth's character. To deny, as has lately been done, that she was a woman of high and commanding powers, is a refinement of modern ingenuity,-an opinion begot apparently. between prejudice and paradox, and contradicted by the whole history of her reign. That she had weaknesses, all will allow. She was vain; and, although of homely