of the success of the Catholic army against their enemies, by letters of the postmaster of Logrono, of the fourth of September, and by letters from Rouen of the one-and-thirtieth of August, and by letters from Paris of the king's ambassador there; wherein he declareth the imprisonment of Francis Drake and other great nobles of England, and how the queen is in the field with an army, and of a certain mutiny which was amongst the queen's army, with the success of the said Catholic army since they entered in the Groyne till they came on the coast of England." To which answer is made: "It is well known to all the world how false all this relation is, and either falsely coloured by the letters remembered, or else both the postmaster of Logrono and the writers from Rouen ought to be waged as intelligencers for the devil, the father of lies, whom they have herein truly served; and if they so continue in maintenance thereof against the known truth, their damnation is certain, and hell is open for them." "It is so false that there was any mutiny in the queen's army, that she herself was there, with the greatest honour, love, and applause received, that could be imagined for a lady and a queen. She rode round about her army, and passed through every part thereof, to their inestimable comfort; she lodged, and did eat in the camp, as quietly as ever she did in her own chamber. In the army was never any fray or discord; exercise of arms was daily used, and showed before her, to her great honour; yea, and with an universal extolling of God's name every day, morning and evening, in loud prayers and psalms; and the like song, in her own hearing, against all tyranny, by invasion, of God's enemies; and this every man may judge to be far from any colour of mutiny."

The next "Packe," in order of time, professes to be "Advice from London, which the Ambassadors of our Sovereign Lord the King, resident in Paris, had from thence." This letter of the 26th of August affirms, "that the queen's admiral-general was arrived in the river of London with twenty-five ships only, without his admiral's ship, which was taken by our admiral, Saint John; and it is well known in England, that to hide the loss of their admiral's ship, they say he put himself in a smaller ship, the better to follow our army; and it is known for certainty that he saved himself in a boat when he lost his ship; that Drake, for certainty, is taken or slain." It asserts, likewise, "that the queen commanded, upon pain of death, that nobody should speak of her fleet . . . . and that the Catholics (meaning those living in England), understanding that all their fleet was dispersed, moved a certain mutiny, which forced the queen to go herself into the field; and for certain it is known, that there is not brought into England neither ship nor boat of ours, more than the ship of Don Pedro Valdez; and that our fleet was gone into Scotland, and arrived in a haven called Trapena Euxaten." The sturdy Englishman indignantly rushes to the charge. "Here followeth the mountain of lies. It is reason, that if there were liars in London, they should send them to Mendoza; for so mendacia are of more price with him than true reports, and so was he accustomed, when he was ambassador in England, to buy more lies, because he liked them better than truths. If one should make a section or anatomy of this mountain and body of lies, there is no piece nor joint to be found sound." "The admiral-ship, which was called the Ark Royal, was safely brought home by the lord-admiral of England, Lord Howard; he never changed her. She is, thanked be God, safe with

other the queen's royal ships. She is able, with the lord-admiral, to match in fight with the Duke of Medina, or any prince of Christendom, in any ship that the King of Spain hath. This is not spoken for ostentation; but God's favour is assured to England, in the justice of the quarrel against any invader." "The last line is a lie, with like error as the former; for there is no haven in Scotland called Trapena Euxaten. This Mendoza was very curious to forge a strange name, as it appeareth he had read of some such in Peru or in New Spain."

The age of Elizabeth may well be looked back upon with wistfulness by such as hold in abomination the sentimentality of thought and vapidity of expression employed in the present day, when they behold such vigour and raciness in the language of their ancestors nearly three centuries ago. As civilisation advances, thought becomes polished and refined; but unfortunately, it too often acquires a tendency, in unequally balanced minds, to languishing feebleness and attenuation. As men depart further from a primitive condition, in that degree do they less frequently speak the spontaneous utterances of the soul, and substitute for them factitious and artificial imaginings.

"The

In the reply given to the following letter from Diego Peres, chief postmaster of Logrono, of the 2nd of September, 1588, the English writer, in a most happy and forcible manner, succinctly describes the spoliation of the Armada before Calais and on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. news of England is confirmed here by a letter of the governor of Rouen. He writeth, he hath in his power the chief pilot of Captain Drake; and that he knoweth that all the English army remained overthrown, having sunk two-and-twenty ships, and taken forty, and imprisoned Francis Drake, having given them chase almost as high as Abspurge, and slain many by the sword; and likewise saith, that there was found in Captain Drake's ship a piece of ordnance of five-and-twenty feet long, which discharged a shot of a hundred-weight at once, made on purpose, with one only shot, to sink our Spanish admiral; and it pleased God, although she was somewhat battered, yet was she repaired again, and overthrew the English army." To which the answer is: "The governor of Rouen is accounted a worthy nobleman, and therefore he shall do well to make this report of him to be known for a lie; for so surely he knoweth it to be, that there was never either a chief pilot or the value of a boy of Captain Drake's taken, and brought to him as a prisoner. The governors of Boulogne and Calais can inform the governor of Rouen how false a report it was, that the English remained overthrown before Calais.' The English army fought with the Spanish, chased the Spanish as a brace of greyhounds would a herd of deer. The Spaniards' ships were beaten, spoiled, burnt, sunk-some in the main seas before Dunkirk, some before Flushing, and the rest chased away; so as they fled continually before the English navy in their best order for strength, without daring to abide any fight. Yea, some one of the English ships fought with three of their galleasses; the Spaniards never attempting to board any English, but as many of them as could sail away fled with all their sails, and were followed by the English, until they were chased out of all the English seas, and forced them to run a violent course about Scotland, and so to Ireland, where a great number of their ships are drowned, their men taken, and many killed by the savage people for their spoil. And the English navy,

upon good consideration, left them, when they saw them so hastily to fly desperately into the northern dangerous seas, where the English navy did very certainly know that there would be no safety for them to follow the Spanish. Why durst any report that twenty-two English ships were sunk, and forty were taken, when in truth there was not any one of the English ships sunk or taken? A strange disposition to forge such great lies, whereof there was no ground nor colour. If any one or two of the English had been sunk, a liar might have put the number of twenty for two, and excuse the lie by error of figuring; but, of none in number, no number can be made, but by falsehood. The governor of Rouen, being a man of great honour and virtue, ought to revenge this shameful lie made upon him; for Lucian never did, in all his lies, use more impudency than these Spanish liars do report of him." "If Drake's ship were taken, if there was such a piece of ordinance of such a length, in what port is that ship? in whose possession is that piece? Drake is returned with honour; his ship, called the Revenge, is in harbour, ready for a revenge by a new service; no ship lost, no ordnance missing. The foolish liar maketh mention of Abspurge, in Scotland. In all Scotland is no such place. In Germany is a country called Habspurg, but any wager may be laid that none of the Spanish came ever thither. Every line, or every sentence, containeth a lie.'

It seems strange that such energetic language should be required, as it could not fail to be soon known that the Armada was broken up and ruined; but the barefaced obstinacy and impudence of this Spanish assertor in maintaining the most arrant falsehoods demanded a like doggedness in their stern repudiation. Indeed, he meets with more than his match. Again, alluding still more directly to the action off Calais, a fit rejoinder immediately appends the following:-"Copy of a letter that Pedro de Alva did write from Rouen, the first of September of the same year," in which "it is holden for certain that they (the Spanish) have fought with the English, and broken their heads, having sunk many of their ships, and taken others; and the rest, which they say were twentyseven ships, returned, very much battered, to the river of London, which are all those that could escape." To these fables, the advocate for truth chafingly replies, that "of all other places, none could make a truer report than Calais, where the governor and all the inhabitants saw the Spanish army mightily beaten by the English; and it was affirmed by men there of great judgment, that never was seen, by any man living, such a battery, so great for number, so furious, and of so long continuance, as the English made against the Spanish. Calais saw the Spanish army first driven from their anchors with fire; they saw the greatest galliasse of the Spanish, whereof was commander that worthy nobleman, Moncada, spoiled, and himself slain in the galliasse by the English. Calais did see the next day that the English navy fought and did beat the Spanish Armada from eight of the clock in the morning until four in the afternoon without any ceasing. Calais saw the Spanish hoist up all their sails as fast as wind could drive, and the English to follow and pursue them; and yet Calais saw a sufficient navy of England left before Dunkirk able to master all the shipping that the Duke of Parma had provided."

When disaster had attended the invincible Armada from the time of

its first setting out to its final and complete breaking up, it is extraordinary that such absurd falsehoods as are found in these letters should have been coined for the temporary illusion of the Spanish public. The government of that country must have felt itself greatly humiliated by the destruction of its fleet, to have been compelled to resort to such deceitful, not to say despicable, artifices. These fictions are dressed in various forms. Another " Packe of Spanish Lyes" professes to give a "relation of that which hath passed till this day, the fifth of September, 1588, till three of the clock in the afternoon, known by the relations and advice come to his majesty from the happy fleet, whereof is general the Duke of Medina, in the conquest of England," in which it is stated, that in the first fight and encounter, "there was sunk three galliasses and four mighty galleons of the Queen's." The last "Packe" in the list coolly produces the following piece of intelligence, very satisfactory, no doubt, to the Spanish nation-if true :

"Out of England was advice given, that on the thirteenth arrived fifteen of the queen's ships; and they said that the galleon, Saint Martin, wherein my lord the duke is (whom God preserve), had encountered with Drake, and had grappled his ship and captured his person, and other noble Englishmen, and taken other fifteen ships, beside others that were distressed; and the duke with his fleet followed his way to Scotland, because the wind was not come about." This strange collection of fables and deceits closes with the ludicrous remark that," with these news his majesty resteth very much contented, and causeth them to be sent to the empress, by the hands of Francisco Ydiaquez, his secretary of state." The stout-hearted Briton, rejoicing at the complete overthrow of the once-terrible Armada, and at the triumph of his own countrymen, yet full of wrath at the presumption and apparent gladness of his adversary, thus replies, and, like the Spaniard, sums up the case, but with a very different conclusion:

"This that is said of the duke's grappling with Drake's ship, and taking of him captive, and many other noblemen of England, is like all the rest of the lies. The duke, after he went from Calais towards Scotland, never came near to offer fight with any English ship, never turned back to the English that followed him, but fled away as wind and sail could serve him. If he had this fortune thus falsely reported, it is sure that he would have brought both Drake and some of the noblemen home with him into Spain, to have been presented to the king, and not have gone home to his own house without sight of the king. But, in truth, there was not one nobleman or gentleman of any mark, that went to the sea, that was either slain or taken; all are living, and are as willing, by God's favour, to adventure their lives, as ever they were, against any of the queen's enemies, when she shall command them." In reference to the contentment of the king upon the above news, he says: "And where this news did much content the king, it is likely that if he thought them true, he was glad thereof; for so had his majesty cause. But he is thought too wise to have thought that after he understood that the duke and all his army had fled from the coast of Flanders and England, that ever they were like to have any victory of the English. No, contrariwise, the king and all his wise counsellors had cause to lament the dangers whereunto of necessity his Armada should fall, by passing the

dangerous coasts, islands, and monstrous rocks of Scotland and Ireland; of more danger to his navy to pass, than to have passed from Lisbon to the Moluccas, and home again." He then winds up the whole (adding two or three aptly-chosen texts of Scripture, such as, Wherefore, cast off lying, and speak every man the truth unto his neighbour, for we are members one of another"), by jeeringly alluding to the probability of the bearer of such outrageous intelligence to the empress receiving a reward from her. "It is to be thought that if the empress gave the secretary, Ydiaquez, any reward for the news, as it is likely she did, she may justly require it again from him, and give him charge not to bring her majesty, nor the king, his master, any such notorious lies hereafter; for if he use it often, he is unworthy to be secretary to so great a king."

The pompous title given to the Armada by Pope Sixtus V., who bestowed upon it his special blessing, that of "the great, noble, and invincible army and terror of Europe," proved to be singularly unmerited. Its ignominious overthrow reminds us of the explosion of artillery when attended by the destruction only of those who had furnished the lighted match. While gleaning a history of this great event, in the antiquated documents from which our quotations have been taken, this remarkable international controversy imparts to the mind a freshness and relish in the consideration of an already deeply-interesting subject.

SCOTTISH CRIMINAL TRIALS.*

RUGGED in aspect and austere in climate, Scotland, notwithstanding its general character for industry, integrity, and morality, is celebrated for its Criminal Trials. The hostility of races, the feuds of clans, and mountain and castle seclusion, have been among the chief sources of crime; but in such a country, superstition also begat witchcraft; spectral and dream testimony has not been disregarded; and even piety has been made to assume as is too frequently the case—the form of deadly religious persecution.

Mr. John Hill Burton, in collecting his records of these dark proceedings, has not told his tales well. With the exception of one or two instances, everything is fragmentary; events are reasoned about, not narrated; strange incidents and mysterious causes are alluded to, never unfolded; and even when an attempt is made at relating one of these many eventful histories, the narrative never assumes either an animated, a picturesque, or a dramatic character. Looking, however, to Mr. Burton's proneness to argument and generalisation rather than to narrative, he brings out some things-as the hostility of races-in a very clear and distinct light.

The proceedings against the Clan Gregor, for example, fill up a goodly portion of the first volume; and Mr. Burton justly remarks upon these predatory habits of a clan, handed down from father to son for generations, that if one were desired to point out upon the map-on no surer ground than the mere physical character of the country that spot which must have been the main battle-field between the Celtic races

Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland. By John Hill Burton. 2 vols. Chapman and Hall.