haste, fear, and confusion, put to sea, "happiest they who could first be gone, though few or none could tell which course to take." 4 5 15 In this confusion, the largest of the galleasses, commanded by Don Hugo de Moncada, ran foul of another ship, lost her rudder, floated about at the mercy of the tide, and, making the next morning for Calais as well as she could, ran upon the sands. There she was presently assailed by the English small craft, who lay battering her with their guns, but dared not attempt to 10 board, till the admiral sent a hundred men in his boats, under Sir Amias Preston. The Spaniards made a brave resistance, hoping presently to be succored by the Prince of Parma, and the action was for a long time doubtful. At length Moncada was shot through the head, the gal-1 leas was carried by boarding, and most of the Spaniards, leaping into the sea, were drowned. This huge bottom, manned with 400 soldiers and 300 galley-slaves, had also 50,000 ducats on board; "a booty," says Speed, "well fitting the English soldiers' affections." Having ran-20 sacked all, and freed the slaves from their miserable fetters, they were about to set that vessel of emptiness on fire; but the Governor of Calais would not permit this, fearing, it is said, the damage that might thereupon ensue to the town and haven. He fired, therefore, upon 25 the captors, and the ship and ordnance became his prize. The duke, when the fire-ships were first perceived, had ordered the whole fleet to weigh anchor and stand off to sea, and when the danger was over, return every ship to its former station. The first part of this order they were too much alarmed to wait for or to heed; and when he returned himself, and fired a signal for others to follow his example, the gun was heard by few, "because they were scattered all about, and driven by fear, some 30 of them into the wide sea, and some among the shoals of Flanders." Little broken yet in strength, though now losing fast the hope and the confidence with which they had set forth, they ranged themselves again in order off Gravelines, and there they were bravely attacked. Drake and Fenner were the first who assailed them. Fenton, Southwell, Beeston, Cross, and Reyman followed; and then the lord admiral came up, with Lord Thomas Howard and Lord Sheffield. They got the wind of the enemy, who were now cut off from Calais roads, 10 and preferred any inconvenience rather than change their array or separate their force, standing only upon their defence. "And albeit there were many excellent and warlike ships in the English fleet, yet scarce were there two or three and twenty among them all which 15 matched ninety of the Spanish ships in bigness, or could conveniently assault them. Wherefore, using their prerogative of nimble steerage, whereby they could turn and wield themselves with the wind which way they listed, they came oftentimes very near upon the Span-20 iards, and charged them so sore that now and then they were but a pike's length asunder; and so, continually giving them one broadside after another, they discharged all their shot, both great and small, upon them, spending a whole day, from morning till night, in that violent 25 kind of conflict." "We had such advantage," says Lord Monmouth, "both of wind and tide, that we had a glorious day of them, continuing fight from four o'clock in the morning till five or six at night." During the action the Span-s iards, "lying close under their fighting-sails," passed Dunkirk with a south-west wind, close followed by their enemies. Their great ships were found vulnerable in the close action of that day; many of them were pierced through and through between wind and water; one was sunk by Captain Cross, in the Hope: from a few of her people who were saved it was learned that one of her officers, having proposed to strike, was put to death by another; a brother of the slain instantly avenged his 5 death, and then the ship went down. Two others are believed to have sunk. The Saint Philip and the Saint Matthew, both Portuguese galleons, were much shattered. Don Diego de Pimentel, in the latter, endeavored to assist the former, but in vain; for, being "sore bat-10 tered with many great shot by Seymour and Winter," and the mast shot away, the Saint Philip was driven on Ostend! As a last chance, the officers endeavored to make for a Flemish port; but finding it impossible to bring the ship into any friendly harbor, they got to Os-15 tend in the boats, and the galleon was taken possession of from Flushing. LVI. YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND. BY THOMAS CAMPBELL.' YE mariners of England, That guard our native seas, Whose flag has braved a thousand years, The battle and the breeze, Your glorious standard launch again 20 And sweep through the deep While the stormy winds do blow; 25 While the battle rages loud and long, The spirit of your fathers Shall start from every wave; For the deck it was their field of fame, Where Blake' and mighty Nelson' fell As ye sweep through the deep, Britannia needs no bulwark, Her march is o'er the mountain-waves, With thunders from her native oak 15 She quells the floods below, As they roar on the shore When the stormy winds do blow; When the battle rages loud and long, 20 The meteor flag of England Till danger's troubled night depart, And the star of peace return. Then, then, ye ocean-warriors, Our song and feast shall flow To the fame of your name, When the storm has ceased to blow; When the fiery fight is heard no more, 30 25 10 5 TO HERODOTUS OF HALICARNASSUS, GREETING; Concerning the matters set forth in your histories, and the tales you tell about both Greeks and Barbarians, whether they be true, or whether they be false, men dispute not a little, but a great deal. Wherefore I, being concerned to know the verity, did set forth to make search in every manner, and came in my quest even unto the ends of the earth. For there is an island of the Cimmerians3 beyond the Straits of Heracles,* some three days' voyage to a ship that hath a fair following wind in her 10 sails; and there it is said that men know many things from of old: thither, then, I came in my inquiry. Now, the island is not small, but large-greater than the whole of Hellas and they call it Britain. In that island the east wind blows for ten parts of the year, and the peo-15 ple know not how to cover themselves from the cold. But for the other two months of the year the sun shines fiercely, so that some of them die thereof, and others die of the frozen mixed drinks; for they have ice even in the summer, and this ice they put to their liquor.20 Through the whole of this island, from the west even to the east, there flows a river called Thames; a great river and a laborious, but not to be likened to the River of Egypt. The mouth of this river, where I stepped out from my 25 ship, is exceedingly foul and of an evil savor by reason |