She thence some way, still marching kinglike on; And they, again, on knees, do pray for her; They couch their pikes, and bow their ensigns down, Midway, between the fort and the camp, her majesty was met by sir Roger Williams, the second in command, at the head of two thousand horse, which he divided into two brigades, one to go before her, and the other behind to guard her person, and, together with two thousand foot soldiers, escorted her to master Rich's house, about three miles from the camp, where she was to sleep that night. Aske continues: "The soldiers which placed were far off From that same way through which she passed along, He happy was that could but see her coach, The sides whereof, beset with emeralds With curious knots embroider'd with gold; The grand display was reserved for the following morning, when the female majesty of England came upon the ground, mounted on a stately charger, with a marshal's truncheon in her hand, and forbidding any of her retinue to follow her, presented herself to her assembled troops, who were drawn up to receive their stout-hearted liege lady on the hill, near Tilbury church. She was attended only by the earl of Leicester, and the earl of Ormond, who bore the sword of state before her, a page followed, carrying her white plumed regal helmet. She wore a polished steel corslet on her breast, and below this warlike boddice descended a fardingale of such monstrous amplitude, that it is wonderful how her mettled war-horse submitted to carry a lady encumbered with a gaberdine of so strange a fashion,' but in this veritable array the royal heroine rode, bare-headed, between the lines, with a courageous but smiling countenance; and when the thunders of applause, with which she was greeted by her army, had a little subsided, she harangued them in the following popular speech: "My loving people,-We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes for fear of treachery; but, I do assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear; I have always so behaved myself, that under God I have placed my chiefest strength, and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects; It is thus Elizabeth appears in an engraving of the times, in the Grainger portraits, only wearing her helmet. VOL. VII.-8 and, therefore, I am come amongst you as you see at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all to lay down for my God, and for my kingdoms, and for my people, my honour and my blood even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king-and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which, rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I myself will take up arms—I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, for your forwardness, you have deserved rewards and crowns, and, we do assure you, on the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. For the meantime, my lieutenant-general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over these enemies of my God, of my kingdoms, and of my people." The soldiers, many of whom, be it remembered, were volunteers of gentle blood and breeding, unanimously responded to this address, by exclaiming, "Is it possible that any Englishman can abandon such a glorious cause, or refuse to lay down his life in defence of this heroic princess ?" 2 Elizabeth was then fifty-five years old-she had borne the sceptre and the sword of empire with glory for thirty years. Time, which had faded her youthful charms, robbed the once plump cheek of its roundness, and elongated the oval contour of her face, had, nevertheless, endeared her to her people, by rendering her every day more perfect in the queenly art of captivating their regard, by a gracious and popular demeanour. She had a smile and a pleasant speech for every one who approached her with demonstrations of affection and respect. Her high pale forehead was, indeed, furrowed with the lines of care, and her lofty features sharpened, but her piercing eye retained its wonted fires, and her majestic form was unbent by the pressure of years. The pro testants hailed her as a mother in Israel-another Deborah; for the land had had rest in her time. The persecuted catholics felt like patriots, and forgot their personal wrongs, when they saw her, like a true daughter of the Plantagenets, vindicating the honour of England, undismayed by the stupendous armament that threatened her coast, and united with every class and denomination of her subjects in applauding and supporting her, in her dauntless determination. Perhaps there was not a single man among the multitudes, who that day beheld their maiden monarch's breast sheathed in the warrior's iron panoply, and heard her declaration, "that she would be herself their general," that did not feel disposed to exclaim "Where's the coward that would not dare Meaning the pride and courage of a king. The wisdom and magnanimity of the union of rival creeds and adverse parties in one national bond of association, for the defence of their threatened land, doubtless inspired the immortal lines with which Shakspeare concluded his historical play of King John, which, from the many allusions it contains to the state of the times, was evidently written at the epoch of the Armada : "This England never did nor never shall And we shall shock them! nought shall make us rue, If England to herself do rest but true." Although the news from her majesty's fleet was of the most cheering nature, the Armada was still formidable in numbers and strength, and serious apprehensions were entertained of the landing of the prince of Parma, with the Flemish armament and flotilla, while the English navy was engaged in battling with Medina Sidonia in the Channel. We find from a paragraph, in a letter from sir Edward Ratcliffe, that while the queen was dining with Leicester in his tent, a post entered with the report, that the duke was embarked for England with all his forces, and would be there with all speed. This news was presently published through the camp.' "Her majesty," says Ratcliffe, in another part of his letter, "hath honoured our camp with her presence, and comforted many of us with her gracious usage. It pleased her to send for me to my lord general's tent, and to make me kiss her hand, giving me many thanks for my forwardness in this service, telling me, I showed from what house I was descended,' and assuring me, that before it was long, she would make me better able to serve her;' which speech being spoken before many, did well please me, however the performance may be."3 While Elizabeth was at Tilbury, Don Pedro Valdez, the second in command in the Spanish fleet, whose ship was taken by sir Francis Drake, in the action of July 22d, was by his bold captor sent to sir Francis Walsingham, to be presented to her majesty, as the first pledge of victory. Whether Drake's earnestly expressed desire was complied with to the letter is doubtful; but, it is certain, that the unlucky Spaniard's name was very freely used by Elizabeth's ministers, for the delusion of the credulous souls who had been persuaded, that the sole 'Cabala, 3d ed. Letter of Sir E. Ratcliffe to the earl of Sussex, in Essex. Sir Edward Ratcliffe was probably the gentleman of whom lord Bacon relates the following incident:-"Queen Elizabeth, seeing one of her courtiers (whoin Bacon calls Sir Edward') in her garden, put her head out of her window, and asked him, in Italian, What does a man think of when he thinks of nothing?' "Sir Edward, who was a suitor for some grants which had been promised, but delayed, paused a little, as if to consider, and then answered, 'Madame, he thinks of a woman's promises.' "The queen drew in her head, saying, 'Well, Sir Edward, I must not confute you. He never obtained the preferment he sued for." 'See Drake's despatch, in Wright, vol. ii., p. 382. object of the Spanish invasion was the pleasure of inflicting tortures and death upon the whole population of England. "The queen lying in the camp one night, guarded by her army," writes Dr. Lionel Sharp, one of the military chaplains, "the old treasurer (Burleigh) came thither, and delivered to the earl (Leicester) the examination of Don Pedro, which examination, the earl of Leicester delivered to me, to publish to the army in my next sermon." A piece of divinity, which doubtless would have been well worth the hearing. The paragraph, concocted by Burleigh for this popular use, purported to be the ferocious replies of Don Pedro, in his examination before the privy-council. Being asked what was their intent in coming out, he stoutly answered, "What but to subdue your nation, and root you all out!" "Good," said the lords, " and what meant you to do with the catholics ?" "We meant," he replied, "to send them, good men, directly to heaven, as all you that are heretics to hell," &c. The news of the final defeat and dispersion of the Armada, was brought to her majesty while she was yet at Tilbury, on the 8th of August, by those gallant volunteers, the young earl of Cumberland, and her maternal kinsman, Robert Carey, who had joined the fleet as volunteers at Plymouth, and distinguished themselves in the repeated fierce engagements in the Channel, between the ships of England and Spain.2 A mighty storm-a storm, which, to use the emphatic expression of Strada, "shook heaven and earth" — finally decided the contest, and delivered England from the slightest apprehension of a rally, and fresh attack, from the scattered ships of the Armada. The gallant Howard chased them northward as long as he could, consistently with the safety of his own vessels and the want of ammunition, of which the parsimonious interference of the queen, in matters really out of a woman's province, had caused an insufficient supply to be doled out to her brave seamen. But winds and waves fought mightily for England, and while not so much as a single boat of ours was lost, many of the stateliest ships of Spain were dashed upon the shores of Ireland and Scotland, where their crews perished miserably.3 But to return to Elizabeth's visit to Tilbury: "Our royal mistress hath been here with me," writes Leicester to the earl of Shrewsbury, 'A brief, but very spirited narrative of these successive naval triumphs of English valour and nautical skill over the superior force of Spain, is given by Robert Carey, in his autobiography, which fills up one or two omissions in Caniden's eloquent account of the operations of the rival fleets. One of the Armada ships, called the "Florida," was wrecked on the coast of Morven, in that memorable storm on the 7th of August, 1588, and her shattered hulk has lain there ever since. During my late visit to Scotland, a very amiable lady, Miss Morris, whose family reside on the spot, presented me with a pretty little broach, in the form of a cross, made of a fragment of the timber of that vessel, Spanish oak, black and polished as ebony, and set in gold, which will ever be worn by me as a memorial, not only of the signal deliverance of Eng-, land and her Elizabeth, but of the gratifying manner in which I was welcomed on this, my first historical pilgrimage to the hospitable land of the mountain and the stream. "to see her camp and people, which so inflamed the hearts of her good subjects, as I think the weakest person among them is able to match the proudest Spaniard that dares land in England. But God hath also fought mightily for her majesty, and I trust they be too much daunted to follow their pretended enterprise." The queen had given the post of captain-general of the cavalry to Essex, an inexperienced youth, not yet two-and-twenty, and, on the day of her visit to the camp, treated him with peculiar marks of her regard. Elizabeth's farewell to her army is thus gracefully described by Aske: "When Phœbus' lights were in the middle part Was ready to depart from out her camp; To do the will of their high general. There might you see most brave and gallant men, In ranked then in courtlike, costly suits, Through whom did pass our queen, most Dido-like, To waterside to take her royal barge. Amidst the way, which was the outward ward Of that, her camp, her sergeant-major stood, Among those squadrons which there then did ward. Her eyes were set so earnestly to view, Did will him do this message from her mouth." The message is merely a brief repetition of her former address to the troops. The long continuance of dry weather, which had rendered the encampment of the army on the banks of the Thames so agreeable to the gallant recruits and volunteers who were there assembled, is noticed in the "Elizabetha Triumphans," and also the storm of thunder and lightning, accompanied with heavy rain, which befell the same evening the queen departed from Tilbury. This was, doubtless, the skirts of one of the tempests which proved so fatal to the scattered ships of the Armada. James Aske, after recording the embarkation of the queen on the Thames, thus quaintly describes the thunder following the royal salute at her departure: "Where, once im-barged, the roaring cannons were And with thick clouds barr'd Phoebus' gladsome streams Wright. |