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18 - Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett · Sir Francis Drake

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  Speaker 1: Section eighteen of Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamel
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  Speaker 1: and Agami, Chapter ten in Quests of the Spanish Armada,
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  Speaker 1: Part two, From Howard downwards, the sailors were in despair
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  Speaker 1: all through March. He and Seymour were compelled to waste
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  Speaker 1: their resources with a naval demonstration off Ostend in support
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  Speaker 1: of negotiations which they knew instinctively were but a trick.
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  Speaker 1: Drake was kept idle at Plymouth, and it was thought
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  Speaker 1: that when the moment came, he could not possibly be ready.
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  Speaker 1: We can see him fuming up and down the Plymouth
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  Speaker 1: hoe as he looked down on his half dismantled ships
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  Speaker 1: growing fowler and fowler as they chafed at their moorings.
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  Speaker 1: We hear him swearing and praying by turns as he
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  Speaker 1: gazes seawards for a trace of the gunboats he had
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  Speaker 1: sent to Finis there for intelligence that will convince his
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  Speaker 1: mistress that the piece degochieation is only a trick to
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  Speaker 1: disarm her. Still the weeks went by and nothing was
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  Speaker 1: done till at the end of the month he received
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  Speaker 1: orders to get ready for sea. Then, from the depth
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  Speaker 1: of his disgust, he poured out one last appeal to
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  Speaker 1: the Council. During his impatience striding up and down the hoe,
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  Speaker 1: the true theory of naval warfare, of which he had
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  Speaker 1: already a dim perception, had been growing clearer in his
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  Speaker 1: teeming mind, and in his acknowledgment of the fresh orders,
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  Speaker 1: he for the first time distinctly formulates the idea of
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  Speaker 1: getting command of the sea. He fully grasped that the
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  Speaker 1: invasion was to come from Parma in the Netherlands, but
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  Speaker 1: no less perfectly he perceived that its feasibility hung upon
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  Speaker 1: the possession of the Four Seas. If her majesty, he wrote,
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  Speaker 1: and your lordships think that the King of Spain meaneth
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  Speaker 1: any invasion in England, then doubtless his force is and
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  Speaker 1: will be great in Spain, and therein he will make
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  Speaker 1: his groundwork or foundation, whereby the Prince of Parma may
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  Speaker 1: have the better entrance, which in mine own judgment is
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  Speaker 1: most to be feared. But if there may be such
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  Speaker 1: a stay or stop made by any means of this
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  Speaker 1: fleet in Spain, that they may not come through the
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  Speaker 1: seas as conquerors, which I assure myself they think to do,
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  Speaker 1: then shall the Prince of Parma have such a check
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  Speaker 1: Thereby as were meet with deep apologies, he urged the
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  Speaker 1: folly of keeping so large a fleet blockading Parma, and
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  Speaker 1: craved that his own division might be strengthened, that he
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  Speaker 1: might go and seek the enemies of God and her
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  Speaker 1: Majesty wherever they were to be found. Still struggling to
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  Speaker 1: give clear utterance to the idea with which his genius
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  Speaker 1: was in travail, he went on only to confuse it
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  Speaker 1: with the moral effect of offensive operations, till his passion
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  Speaker 1: altogether overcame his argument, and he told how three hundred
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  Speaker 1: English flags with the Red Cross had been made in Lisbon,
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  Speaker 1: which is, he bursts out a great presumption proceeding from
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  Speaker 1: the haughtiness and pride of the Spaniard, and not to
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  Speaker 1: be tolerated by any true natural English heart. His appeal
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  Speaker 1: had some effect, for on its heels came a dispatch
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  Speaker 1: from the commissioners at Ostend, telling how Parma had admitted
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  Speaker 1: that warlike preparations were still going on in Spain, though
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  Speaker 1: he vowed they were only against Drake. So an order
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  Speaker 1: came down that he was to write to the Queen
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  Speaker 1: direct and tell her how strong her fleet ought to
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  Speaker 1: be to carry out his ideas, and how he proposed
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  Speaker 1: to distress the fleet which was assembling at Lisbon. To
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  Speaker 1: the second question, he would give no direct reply. Traders
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  Speaker 1: were too thick about the Queen, and he told her
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  Speaker 1: it depended upon the intelligence he got on the way
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  Speaker 1: and the temper of his force when he got it
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  Speaker 1: to sea. The last ensample at Kadith, he growled, in
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  Speaker 1: the bitterness of his anger, is not of divers yet forgotten,
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  Speaker 1: for one such flying now as Burah did, then will
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  Speaker 1: put the hole in peril. As to the strength of
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  Speaker 1: her fleet, God, increase your most excellent Majesty's forces daily,
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  Speaker 1: said he. But with four more navy ships and sixteen
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  Speaker 1: merchantmen that were fitting out at London, he declared himself ready,
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  Speaker 1: through the goodness of his merciful God, to answer for
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  Speaker 1: the armada. Or even as the advantage of time and
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  Speaker 1: place in all martial actions was half the victory, he
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  Speaker 1: offered to sail as he was and let the reinforcements
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  Speaker 1: follow surly. As was the tone of his answer, the
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  Speaker 1: Queen was delighted and sang his praises everywhere, but still
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  Speaker 1: she could not make up her mind to loose her
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  Speaker 1: growling dog. A fortnight later, one of the gunboats came
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  Speaker 1: in with intelligence that showed the Armada was on the
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  Speaker 1: eve of sailing, and Drake, in an agony of impatience,
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  Speaker 1: hurried the captain up to court, urging again as a
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  Speaker 1: matter of life and death, that he should be allowed
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  Speaker 1: to go. The answer was a summons to town. Elizabeth
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  Speaker 1: was now thoroughly alarmed, and no sooner was the sailor's
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  Speaker 1: rough eloquence heard ringing in the council chamber than the
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  Speaker 1: Queen's purpose was at last made firm. The eyes of
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  Speaker 1: the government were opened to the great idea, and Howard,
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  Speaker 1: with every ship that had three months victuals, was ordered
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  Speaker 1: to join Drake in the west. Golden weeks had been wasted.
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  Speaker 1: How grave the peril was those only grasped who had
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  Speaker 1: to face it, and Drake knew that if the Armada
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  Speaker 1: was once allowed to sail, the England he loved so
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  Speaker 1: well was at the mercy of God. It was not
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  Speaker 1: till May twenty third that Howard reached Plymouth. Drake was
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  Speaker 1: already there in the morning light, at the head of
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  Speaker 1: sixty sail he put out to greet the Lord Admiral,
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  Speaker 1: and then as they met, went about with his whole
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  Speaker 1: division and escorted his delighted chief into port, where the
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  Speaker 1: combined fleet watered. And on May thirtieth, as an easterly
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  Speaker 1: breeze sprung up, the two admirals put to sea in
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  Speaker 1: loyal concert to try, if there yet were time, to
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  Speaker 1: strike the weapon from the hand that threatened their country's life.
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  Speaker 1: It was no easy task that was before them. Over
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  Speaker 1: the sea came uncertain sounds of preparations so vast that
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  Speaker 1: no one could doubt any longer where Philip's right arm was.
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  Speaker 1: But where and how it would strike was still uncertain.
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  Speaker 1: It might be destined for Ireland or for Scotland. It
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  Speaker 1: might be meant to see some English port. It might
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  Speaker 1: be under orders to join Parma, or to act with
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  Speaker 1: the Geezes from France. It might come north about by
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  Speaker 1: the Orkneys, or directly up the channel. And to watch
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  Speaker 1: one route was to leave the other open. Even if
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  Speaker 1: the armada's course were divined aright, the wind which brought
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  Speaker 1: it must throw the English to leeward, and to reap
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  Speaker 1: the advantage of our superior gunnery, on which the whole
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  Speaker 1: hope of victory lay. The weather gage was essential for
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  Speaker 1: the defending force. It was a situation as difficult as
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  Speaker 1: that which outwitted Nelson himself, and one well designed to
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  Speaker 1: force home Drake's idea of the command of the seas.
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  Speaker 1: From the first Drake had seen the strategic and tactical
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  Speaker 1: disadvantages of attempting to cover any of the threatened points.
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  Speaker 1: To prevent those threats ever being developed was his plan,
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  Speaker 1: and to effect this he saw he must go boldly
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  Speaker 1: out and lie to windward of the enemy's port of departure.
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  Speaker 1: Once there, he felt that even if they dared come out,
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  Speaker 1: he could so handle them as they put to sea,
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  Speaker 1: and so harass their advance, that nothing but a broken
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  Speaker 1: remnant would ever reach the British coasts. As far as
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  Speaker 1: men could see, it was the only chance. And, hoping
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  Speaker 1: against hope that there might yet be time, the admirals
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  Speaker 1: lay the course for finisterre. But their cup was not
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  Speaker 1: yet full. Ere they were clear of the channel, the
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  Speaker 1: wind veered to south and began to freshen to a gale,
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  Speaker 1: and their very teeth with it came over the deserted
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  Speaker 1: seas as solitary merchantmen, which announced that ten days ago
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  Speaker 1: she had seen the whole Armadas stretching westerly from horizon
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  Speaker 1: to horizon on a northerly wind. It was too late.
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  Speaker 1: The wind which had stopped the English fleet would bring
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  Speaker 1: the enemy, and there was nothing to do but to
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  Speaker 1: stand off and on where they were. For six days,
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  Speaker 1: the gale continued veering slowly, but in spite of it,
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  Speaker 1: the fleet held its ground. On the seventh day it
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  Speaker 1: was blowing harder than ever straight from the west, and
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  Speaker 1: then fearing to be driven so far to the leeward
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  Speaker 1: as to uncover Plymouth, the discomfited admirals put back. The
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  Speaker 1: disastrous situation, which for months had been haunting Drake's dreams,
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  Speaker 1: was at last waking truth. Still, the Spaniards came not,
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  Speaker 1: and a ray of hope brightened the gloom. As Drake,
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  Speaker 1: with the instinct of a born strategist, divined what had
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  Speaker 1: happened behind the wasat of storm, he felt that what
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  Speaker 1: he had seen was only a move to a rendezvous
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  Speaker 1: at Kiruna. There was still time to strike. The conditions
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  Speaker 1: were indeed more favorable than ever After the gale. The
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  Speaker 1: armadem must take time for a final concentration, and backed
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  Speaker 1: by Hawkins, Frobisher and Fenner, he persuaded Howard to try again.
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  Speaker 1: Their determination was at once announced to the council, but
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  Speaker 1: day after day the westerly gale continued to rage, such
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  Speaker 1: as summer had never been seen. Every attempt to get
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  Speaker 1: the sea failed, and ere the fleet got free. To
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  Speaker 1: Drake's utter dismay, there came a peremptory order from the Queen,
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  Speaker 1: absolutely forbidding the maneuver. In Drake's absence, someone had frightened
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  Speaker 1: her back into the old and feudal methods, and with
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  Speaker 1: a sharp reprimand for rashness, Howard was directed to cruise
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  Speaker 1: between Spain and England and to water nowhere but i
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  Speaker 1: his own coasts. Had the Queen, in her perverseness, wished
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  Speaker 1: to destroy her fleet as well as paralyze it, she
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  Speaker 1: could hardly have given more fitting orders. With a sullen growl,
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  Speaker 1: the admirals obeyed. It was June nineteenth before they could
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  Speaker 1: get out, and in three days they had to put
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  Speaker 1: back for want of victuals. It was not till the
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  Speaker 1: next evening that the provision ships arrived, and it was
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  Speaker 1: fortunate they did, for the same night came news that
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  Speaker 1: eighteen Spanish ships had been sighted off Silly. Without a
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  Speaker 1: moment's hesitation, a few stores were flung on board the fleet, and,
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  Speaker 1: leaving the victuallers to follow, it, pushed out to sea
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  Speaker 1: again on a fresh northeasterly breeze to cut off the
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  Speaker 1: straggling squadron, But again, ere they were out of the channel,
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  Speaker 1: the wind chopped round to the southwest and stopped further progress.
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  Speaker 1: It was the wind to bring the armada at any
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  Speaker 1: moment its sails might appear, so while Howard stood off
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  Speaker 1: and on in mid channel, Drake, with ten ships and
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  Speaker 1: four or five gunboats, made a sweep down to the
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  Speaker 1: bay to feel for the enemy there and to retard
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  Speaker 1: their advance if he found them stealing up the French coast.
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  Speaker 1: Howard had a fixed idea that the first intention of
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  Speaker 1: the Armada was to join hands with the Geezes in
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  Speaker 1: some French port. But though Drake bowed to the Lord
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  Speaker 1: Admiral's superior political information from the first, his instinct told
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  Speaker 1: him the movement was only exhausting the fleet to no purpose.
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  Speaker 1: By this time it was known that two more stray
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  Speaker 1: Spanish squadrons had been hovering about Silly, but for days
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  Speaker 1: no sign of them had appeared. One of them had
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  Speaker 1: even been sighted, bearing for Spain, and Drake divined the rest,
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  Speaker 1: as though he had indeed been shown the truth in
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  Speaker 1: a magic mirror. He knew that the Lake Gales had
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  Speaker 1: broken up the Armada, and that it must be painfully
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  Speaker 1: reassembling in the ports about Finistaire. As he paced impatiently
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  Speaker 1: the deck of the Revenge, gazing out over the still
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  Speaker 1: desolate sea, he saw in Vigo and Biona and Karuna
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  Speaker 1: a confusion of shattered rigging, and heard the muttering of
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  Speaker 1: landsmen sickened of the sea and raw cruise, demoralized with failure.
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  Speaker 1: Into the midst he pictured himself bursting like a thunderclap
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  Speaker 1: and in a storm of fire and iron, completing the
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  Speaker 1: ruin which heaven had begun. In a week, he could
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  Speaker 1: endure it no longer. Victuals were running out, the crews
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  Speaker 1: on half rations were falling sick, and as every day
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  Speaker 1: some poor fellow was flung overboard, they began to lose heart.
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  Speaker 1: June came to an end, and then Drake rejoined the
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  Speaker 1: Lord Admiral to try and prove to him with all
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  Speaker 1: the force of his eloquence, how the Lord had, once more,
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  Speaker 1: in his mercy, delivered the enemy into their hand. All
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  Speaker 1: was in vain. Howard, loyal to his fatal instructions, would
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  Speaker 1: do nothing but stretch out his fleet like a net
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  Speaker 1: across the mouth of the Channel, and patrol his front
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  Speaker 1: and flanks with gunboats. In desperation, Drake reduced his reasons
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  Speaker 1: to riding and sent them home, imploring to be allowed
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  Speaker 1: to go at least a little nearer to Spain, in
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  Speaker 1: order that even if he were wrong and the Spaniards
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  Speaker 1: were already on their way, he might still have some
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  Speaker 1: chance of getting to winward of them before they entered
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  Speaker 1: the channel. Shaken at length by his lieutenant's vehemence, Howard
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  Speaker 1: ventured to stretch his scruples so far as to advance
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  Speaker 1: the line outside the channel, and there on the afternoon
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  Speaker 1: of the seventh a fresh northerly breeze came up behind them.
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  Speaker 1: To Drake it was the very breadth of the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: and before his passionate conviction, Howard at last gave way.
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  Speaker 1: Half the fleet had but a few days provisions, but
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  Speaker 1: as Drake pointed out, if they returned for more, the
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  Speaker 1: other half would be just as bad. So without more ado,
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  Speaker 1: away they went for finisterre, long and low. The tempter
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  Speaker 1: must have laughed to himself as they flew before the wind.
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  Speaker 1: If it only held orders or no orders, for bare
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  Speaker 1: life's sake, his scrupulous commander would be compelled to revictual
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  Speaker 1: from Philip's storeships. No man ever watched the wind more anxiously.
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  Speaker 1: As next day's sails began to shake ominously, yards were
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  Speaker 1: braced round, bolines were strained more and more. Yet league
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  Speaker 1: by league they neared the goal. On the ninth, Ushant
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  Speaker 1: was eighty leagues behind, but their labor was in vain.
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  Speaker 1: A souwester was blowing in their teeth. To proceed was impossible.
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  Speaker 1: To stay was starvation, and in open wonder that God
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  Speaker 1: would have sent to souwester, Drake confessed that retreat was
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  Speaker 1: the only course. So for the third time the great
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  Speaker 1: Armada escaped, helpless and wind bound. It had been lying
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  Speaker 1: in Koruna Bay at the mercy of the fire ships
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  Speaker 1: and great guns of a fleet to windward, But now
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  Speaker 1: the wished for wind had come to release it. And
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  Speaker 1: on the twelfth, as Howard's exhausted fleet reappeared, off Plymouth,
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  Speaker 1: the Duke of Medina Sidonia, in the fullness of his strength,
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  Speaker 1: put out to sea untouched. Not an English saale was
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  Speaker 1: there to see or hinder. An ignorant of the jeopardy
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  Speaker 1: in which they stood. Howard and Drake set every hand
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  Speaker 1: to work that their fleets might be ready to renew
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  Speaker 1: the attempt together. The moment the wind was fair, a
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  Speaker 1: messenger sped to court for permission. In this time, so
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  Speaker 1: convincing had Drake's memorandum proved, it was not refused. By
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  Speaker 1: the nineteenth they were almost ready, sick, had been landed,
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  Speaker 1: crews were reinforced, the scanty stores allowed were on board,
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  Speaker 1: when suddenly they were astounded with the news that the
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  Speaker 1: armada was off the Lizard. The tables were completely turned
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  Speaker 1: by the southwest wind on which Medina Sidonia was advancing.
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  Speaker 1: The English were shut in port and caught in the
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  Speaker 1: very same trap which Drake had meant to be the
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  Speaker 1: destruction of the enemy. Clever as he was, he had
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  Speaker 1: not guessed the whole truth. He could not tell that
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  Speaker 1: the wandering squadrons were merely some stray ships that had
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  Speaker 1: kept on bravely in spite of the gales to the
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  Speaker 1: rendezvous Atsilly, He could not tell that the bulk of
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  Speaker 1: the Armada, more faint hearted, had never passed finished there,
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  Speaker 1: but had taken shelter weeks ago ere irreparable damage was done.
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  Speaker 1: After all his scheming and strife with friend and foe,
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  Speaker 1: he was taken by surprise at last, and the Armada
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  Speaker 1: had reached the channel without one English gun to say
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  Speaker 1: it nay. End of Section eighteen