The Spanish Armada.

[PROLOGUE.]

"Descend, ye sacred daughters of King Jove;
Apollo, spread thy sparkling wings to mount,
And try some lightsome sweet Castalian springs
That warble to their silver-winding waves,
Making soft music in their gentle glide,
And take survey of England's Emperess,
And in her praise tune your heroic songs;
Write, write, you chroniclers of time and fame,
Elizabeth by miracles preserved

From perils imminent and infinite;

Clio, proclaim with golden trump and pen

Her happy days, England's high holidays;

O'er Europe's bounds take wing, and make thy flight Through melting air, from where the rising sun

Gallops the zodiac in his fiery wain,

Even to the brink where Thetis in her bower

Of pumey and tralucent pebble-stones
Receives the weary bridegroom of the sea,
Beyond Grand Cair, by Nilus' slimy bank,
Over the wild and sandy Afric plains,
Along the frozen shore of Tanais,
Whose icy crust Apollo cannot thaw;

Even there and round about this earthly ball
Proclaim the day of England's happiness.

I humbly crave these verses may be read of her
That with her scourge keeps all the world in awe,
With thund'ring drums awakes the God of War
And calls the furies from Averno's crags

To range and rage and vengeance to inflict,
Vengeance on the accursed King of Spain.

They tell her famous victory o'er that Spanish fleet
Which by themselves was termed Invincible.

"SIR,

Here is a letter the contents whereof is an account of the sea-fight in which the final empire of the world was, thanks be to God, in spite of Fortune's spite or enemies' threats, vested in England's arms. I do not well understand this prophecy, that

There shall be seen upon a day

Between the Baugh and the May
The black fleet of Norway,
When that is come and gone,

England shall build houses of lyme and stone,
For after war shall you have none,'

but they say it was meant to be a prediction touching the Magnificent or Invincible Armada that came upon the coast of England in the miraculous year eighty-eight, for that the King of Spain's surname, as they say, is Norway.

"That great fleet from tawnie Spain was generally conceived to be the greatest in strength, though probably not in numbers, of all that ever swam upon the sea, for that Philip, the King of Spain, had been building ships for the Spanish fleet since the time of the death of Mary and the succession of Elizabeth that followed. And he did likewise collect the infinite number of ships that were beyond the Atlantic, in America, adding thereto those of Norway and the Low Countries.

"So much of the globe was then subject to Philip, that the king had great taste of empire and thinks the rest

of the earth mought be made parts of the kingdom of Spain if Queen Elizabeth were his wife, and that he as her husband would reign as a Cæsar over the world; and he likewise thinks it no peril to invade England and put the yoke upon us, as his great fleet exceeds our shipping ten

to one.

"But the king had forgotten that there is now much difference from the exploits of Alexander in Asia or the exploits of Julius Cæsar, in that our kingdom of Britain is stronger than it was at the time Cæsar made here his conquest. And even Cæsar was carried off our coast twice beaten, and his ships on our terrible seas moved upon their surges and cracked like egg-shells against our rocks. And while the whole compass of Spain is a very great tree and doth clasp and contain a great dominion, yet the Spaniards have been by no means competent to deal with us upon the ocean, for one of the principal dowries of this kingdom of Great Britain is the vantage of strength at sea; and above all, we entertain hopes of triumph, inasmuch as the English navy, however small it be, is always fit to be master of the sea if necessity inforce it to so decide the battle. But Philip, the King of Spain, having peace in the heart of his empire, and by his hieutenants making his wars prosperously in the remote places of his dominions, chose to join his shipping to that of the Low Countrimen and to plough up the seas with flying keels. He, the King of Spain, saw plainly that the kingdom being girt with the sea, this design of his to make a trial of strength in a great battle by sea was the only way for the undoing of the kingdom, remembering that Themistocles says, Whoever is master of the sea is master of the empire;' and we see from many instances

(where princes or states have risked their whole fortune upon sea-fights,) the great effects of battles by sea. The battle of Actium decided the empire of the world; the battle of Lepanto arrested the greatness of the Turk; and thus much is certain, that he that commands the sea is at great liberty and may take as much or as little of the war as he will, whereas those that be stronger by land are nevertheless many times in great straits.

"The king also saw that the wealth and treasures of both Indies were in great part but an accessory to the command of the sea, and also that the enterprise must not be brought to the notice of the nations; for he considereth that if it be known abroad that he hath a purpose and determination to make a war upon the kingdom of Great Britain, it will be of no small effect in point of keeping good peace with all his neighbor princes and especially with the king of France. And therefore he affecteth the greatest love for Queen Elizabeth of England, and full of secret cunning doth, about this time, forward a dispatch to her by a counsellor and a secretary, in which he asked her hand in marriage; and to say truth he certainly did pack the cards and play them well. For the counsellor and secretary conferred one with the other and kept good quarter between themselves, and taking cunning advantage of Queen Elizabeth's great affection and vainglory, when they came in place one of them, as by chance, said to the other in the Spanish tongue, 'Mi venga la muerta;' and the other goeth backward and forward in an unsteady manner and maketh it appear as if surprise at the great spirit and beauty of the Queen hath, as it were, made him drunken, and he suddenly falls down before the Queen as overcome with her shew

of majesty, and with his hands doth shade his eyes as if the light of the Queen had threatened him with blindness. He lays abait for a question by shewing this visage, countenance and posture to the Queen, and she, hearing their cunning and crafty professions of her beauty in an unknown tongue, conceived their discourse concerneth a secret of empire, and being suspicious both in nature and state, did interrupt them in their speeches and ordered the secretary to let fall his words in the British tongue. The cunning Jesuits, with transparent countenances and demure abashing of their eyes, did not affect to have heard Queen Elizabeth, and the secretary said to the other, 'In counsel is stability;' the other straight caught up his words and said, 'To say truth, Jupiter did marry Metis and she brought forth a childe,' whereby they intend that sovereignty is married to counsel, and make use of that monstrous fable to raise credit of the business in which they were engaged. But they interrupt their course and let victory escape them, for the Lord Leicester no sooner heard their incorporation and inseparable conjunction of discourse and speech then he said unto them, 'They say that after Jupiter was married to Metis and she was with child by him, Jupiter suffered her not to stay but ate her up, whereby he became himself with child and was delivered of Pallas armed out of his head.' The Queen, perceiving at once that their discourse is ridiculous, and discerning, what is true, that praise should be sparingly used, said, 'You sing a song of Placebo instead of the real business. What would your King with us?'

"The ambassadors keep themselves more in guard and change their speech and speak in English, and the counsellor saith to the Queen, Your Grace, my liege,