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

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty two of Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
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  Speaker 1: Pamela and Nagami, Chapter twelve, Drake's Armada, Part one. Drake
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  Speaker 1: was at the zenith of his fame. Though the Battle
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  Speaker 1: of Gravelin, by some strange freak of destiny, is hardly
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  Speaker 1: known to the bulk of Englishmen, it was at least
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  Speaker 1: as momentous as Waterloo or Trafalgar, and the honor belongs
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  Speaker 1: to Drake no less rightly than the laurels of Copenhagen
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  Speaker 1: or Nelson's parmer knew it well, and when Drake, leaving
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  Speaker 1: the Armada to the mercies of the westerly gales, struggled
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  Speaker 1: back through the tempest to face him ere the fine
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  Speaker 1: weather returned, he broke up his camp at Dunkirk and
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  Speaker 1: abandoned the enterprise. Howard knew it too, and when, on
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  Speaker 1: his return from the chase he was suddenly summoned to court,
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  Speaker 1: he was careful to furnish himself with a testimonial from
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  Speaker 1: Drake that he had behaved well to his lieutenant and
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  Speaker 1: taken his advice throughout. It was one of Drake's captains
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  Speaker 1: who was sent up with the trophies, and it was
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  Speaker 1: Drake's name with which Europe rang. As the news of
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  Speaker 1: the victory spread, the remnants of the Spanish crews who
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  Speaker 1: escaped the rocks of the Orkneys and the iron cliffs
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  Speaker 1: of Connaught, came home to swear anew he was a
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  Speaker 1: devil and no man, and Medina Sedonia slunk away to
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  Speaker 1: his home to be tormented by urchins who cried under
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  Speaker 1: his windows, Drake is coming, Drake is coming. It was
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  Speaker 1: only amongst the other captains that there was any disposition
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  Speaker 1: to deny him the glory. Frobisher's jealousy was made a
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  Speaker 1: focus of opposition by the friends of Spain, and Lord
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  Speaker 1: Henry Seymour, furious at having been ordered back to his blockade,
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  Speaker 1: begged to be relieved of his command if the Lord
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  Speaker 1: Admiral's lieutenant was going to serve in the narrow Seas
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  Speaker 1: faithful and generous as Drake was to his followers, it
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  Speaker 1: is certain that in his masterful temperament there was something
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  Speaker 1: unbearable to those who were not content to walk in
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  Speaker 1: his train, while to his friends he was self reliant,
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  Speaker 1: impetuous and enthusiastic to those whom his strong personality repelled.
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  Speaker 1: He was egotistical, headstrong, and a braggart. Although it was
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  Speaker 1: never admitted, every one knew that his fortune had been
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  Speaker 1: founded in plunder, and in spite of his lavishness and
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  Speaker 1: his stern destruction of prizes whenever the interests of his
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  Speaker 1: country demanded the sacrifice, he was credited with avarice and
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  Speaker 1: accused of dragging England into war to fill his pockets.
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  Speaker 1: Yet in truth he was greedy of nothing but vengeance
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  Speaker 1: and renown, the renown of being hailed as the savior
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  Speaker 1: of his country, the vengeance that was his religion. He
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  Speaker 1: was now to give his ambition reign. As August passed
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  Speaker 1: and the fate of the Armada was known, scheme after
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  Speaker 1: scheme for the prosecut usion of the campaign was abandoned.
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  Speaker 1: The fleet was lying foul and idle in the narrow seas.
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  Speaker 1: The officers were quarreling and splitting into factions. The sick
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  Speaker 1: and wounded were dying, unpaid and uncared for. In the
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  Speaker 1: streets of the seaport towns. The admirals did their best.
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  Speaker 1: Drake and Hawkins together founded the Chatham Chest for disabled
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  Speaker 1: seamen but the government, under the Queen's irresolution in parsimony,
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  Speaker 1: sank into apathy once more, and the country looked to
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  Speaker 1: Drake to say the next word. It was with no
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  Speaker 1: uncertain voice that he spoke. It was imperative that something
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  Speaker 1: should be done before Spain ceased to reel under the
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  Speaker 1: blow she had received. Yet nothing would the government do.
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  Speaker 1: Drake went to Norris by the middle of September. Their
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  Speaker 1: plans were ripe, and those two knights whose brotherhood and
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  Speaker 1: arms had begun so darkly at the massacre of Rochlen,
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  Speaker 1: sent up to the Council a proposal that is fairly astounding.
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  Speaker 1: However much we may rub our eyes to see such
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  Speaker 1: a thing in a period that we are accustomed to
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  Speaker 1: look upon as one of the most glorious in our history,
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  Speaker 1: the fact is not to be denied. These two adventurous spirits,
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  Speaker 1: in the Queen's default, offered to form a great War
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  Speaker 1: syndicate to prosecute the struggle on which the national existence
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  Speaker 1: seemed to hang. And what is even stranger, their offer
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  Speaker 1: was accepted. All they asked of the Queen, or at
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  Speaker 1: least all they were granted, was a subscription of twenty
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  Speaker 1: thousand pounds to the syndicate and the loan of six battleships.
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  Speaker 1: It was of course understood that the government was in
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  Speaker 1: every way to facilitate their operations, and they were given
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  Speaker 1: power to press men and make requisition of provisions. A
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  Speaker 1: siege train was also to be furnished out of the
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  Speaker 1: Royal Arsenals, and they were to be permitted to take
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  Speaker 1: into their pay thirteen veteran foot companies and six hundred
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  Speaker 1: horse from the English legion in the low Country. Norris
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  Speaker 1: further received authority to pass into Holland in order to
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  Speaker 1: negotiate for the cooperation of the Dutch. A joint expedition
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  Speaker 1: of the two great Protestant belligerents had been for years
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  Speaker 1: the dream of the English soldiers, and Norris was so
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  Speaker 1: far successful that he procured the promise of ten companies
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  Speaker 1: and six warships in England. The idea was taken up
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  Speaker 1: with enthusiasm, and in Norris's absence, Drake was able to
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  Speaker 1: secure the support of most of the great seaport towns,
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  Speaker 1: Court and commerce came forward freely with money and everything
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  Speaker 1: promised a triumphant success. The general idea was a revival
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  Speaker 1: of the project for the liberation of Portugal in Don
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  Speaker 1: Antonio's name, But it was no longer on the modest
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  Speaker 1: scale of former years. Through all his life of stress
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  Speaker 1: and storm, Drake had been the profit of English nationality.
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  Speaker 1: His mission was too to preach and demonstrate its innate strength.
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  Speaker 1: And now his victory had swelled his idea to its
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  Speaker 1: full development. It was no filibustering raid he had in
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  Speaker 1: his mind, but in imperial armada as great as the
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  Speaker 1: one he had crushed, bent on conquest, and fit to
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  Speaker 1: show Europe that all that Spain could do was within
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  Speaker 1: the might of England. Everything was to be ready by
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  Speaker 1: February first, and all the winter the reawakening war spirit,
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  Speaker 1: which Elizabeth had so long pent up, surged round the
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  Speaker 1: two commanders. All that were warlike and adventurous in the
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  Speaker 1: country crowded tumultuously to their standard, and Drake renewed his
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  Speaker 1: relations of the Irish Wars. The brothers of Norris were there,
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  Speaker 1: those chickens of Mars, who were regarded as the patterns
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  Speaker 1: of soldiership. There too came the truculent man of Monmouth,
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  Speaker 1: Sir Roger Williams, in his guilt Morian and great plume
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  Speaker 1: of feathers, with all the crabbed pedantry and cool valor
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  Speaker 1: which seemed to have given to Shakespeare the character of
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  Speaker 1: Captain Fluellen, and to host more besides, whose reputations are
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  Speaker 1: long since dead, but whom under other names, we may
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  Speaker 1: see today as clearly as when they lived, quarreling, fighting
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  Speaker 1: and dying through pages of the Elizabethan dramatists. Nor was
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  Speaker 1: chivalry behind. At his head was the Earl of Northumberland
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  Speaker 1: and Essex two had from Drake a renewal of his
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  Speaker 1: promise of a place if at the last moment he
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  Speaker 1: could escape from court. The living force of England was
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  Speaker 1: loose at last, and fed by Drake's stupendous notions, it
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  Speaker 1: began to develop an energy so formidable that, as it
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  Speaker 1: would seem, the government took alarm. The Queen began to
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  Speaker 1: assume more and more control over the preparations, and obstacles
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  Speaker 1: of all kinds arose. There were difficulties about the low
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  Speaker 1: country troops, and the Dutch too grew cold. Elizabeth would
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  Speaker 1: not sign the commissions, and when she did, could not
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  Speaker 1: make up her mind to let them pass. The seal. Courtiers,
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  Speaker 1: tuning to her note, began to back out and would
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  Speaker 1: not pay their calls, while the Earl of Northumberland was
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  Speaker 1: ordered to withdraw both his person and his subscription. Still
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  Speaker 1: the two Knights persevered. But so straitened were they by
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  Speaker 1: the defaulters, and so protracted had been the preparations by
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  Speaker 1: the conduct of the Queen, that at last they had
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  Speaker 1: to apply to her for further assistance. She flew into
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  Speaker 1: a passion as a matter of course, and tried to
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  Speaker 1: induce Lord Willoughby to take over the command He had
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  Speaker 1: succeeded Lester in the Low Countries. But though he would
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  Speaker 1: not budge a single inch for all the devils in hell,
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  Speaker 1: the Queen herself had managed to worry the heart out
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  Speaker 1: of him, and he begged to be excused from the
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  Speaker 1: service of so exasperating a mistress. Perhaps there was something
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  Speaker 1: in the melancholy dignity of the broken hearted soldier's refusal
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  Speaker 1: that brought the Queen a touch of remorse. At any rate,
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  Speaker 1: a fortnight the two Knights were able to go down
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  Speaker 1: to Dover to hoist their flags. Still, the forces they
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  Speaker 1: were to command were seriously below Drake's standard. They were
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  Speaker 1: already well into March, and the long delays had entailed
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  Speaker 1: a large expenditure in pay and freight to no purpose. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: the siege train had not been forthcoming, and there were
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  Speaker 1: also wanting the six dutch men of war, seven companies
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  Speaker 1: of the English veterans, four of the Dutch, and all
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  Speaker 1: the cavalry. Nor had they transports for more than twelve
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  Speaker 1: thousand men. But Drake was not to be beaten. He
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  Speaker 1: had set his heart on commanding a fleet as great
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  Speaker 1: as the invincible Armada, and once free of the trammels
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  Speaker 1: of the court, he set about getting what he wanted
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  Speaker 1: in his own peculiar way. Till March sixteenth. He waited
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  Speaker 1: at Dover when there came sailing by a fleet of
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  Speaker 1: sixty five Dutch vessels bound for Spain under passes from Parma.
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  Speaker 1: On these Drake pounced, capt tastured them every one, and
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  Speaker 1: carried them off to Plymouth, where the chartered cruisers were assembling.
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  Speaker 1: It was an extraordinary coincidence, as he told Walsingham with
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  Speaker 1: his tongue in his cheek, that the Dutchman should have
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  Speaker 1: been passing the very day he sailed, especially as they
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  Speaker 1: happened to be exactly the class of vessels he wanted
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  Speaker 1: for transports. But be that as it may, the effect
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  Speaker 1: was electrical, and volunteers flocked to Plymouth. His force soon doubled,
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  Speaker 1: but as ill luck would have it, that only added
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  Speaker 1: to the General's troubles. For a whole month they lay
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  Speaker 1: wind bound, consuming their scanty store of victuals, till they
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  Speaker 1: had barely a month's provisions left. It was not till
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  Speaker 1: April sixth that the wind was fair, and even then,
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  Speaker 1: no sooner had they put to sea than they were
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  Speaker 1: immediately driven back. The case was getting desperate to request
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  Speaker 1: a further supply was useless, they knew, But they had
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  Speaker 1: still a strong card to play. Wherein trees he failed,
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  Speaker 1: a threat might yet succeed. So quietly pointing out to
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  Speaker 1: the Council that it was madness to sail with their
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  Speaker 1: existing resources, they bluntly announced that unless a reserve of
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  Speaker 1: stores were at once made ready to follow them, they
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  Speaker 1: would have to turn their army of twenty thousand men
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  Speaker 1: loose upon the country without a penny to pay them.
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  Speaker 1: The letter found the Queen in a fine tudor rage.
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  Speaker 1: Essex had suddenly disappeared from court. Sir Roger Williams had
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  Speaker 1: not put back to Plymouth, since the gale, and to
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  Speaker 1: her vexation in having to sanction a new requisition was
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  Speaker 1: added the conviction that the generals had connived at her
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  Speaker 1: truant pet's escape. Courtiers and messengers came spurring down the
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  Speaker 1: Great Western Road, and penises were fitted out to find
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  Speaker 1: the swift Shure with which Sir Roger Williams had disappeared.
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  Speaker 1: With an edifying display of zeal for the fugitive's arrest,
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  Speaker 1: the generals protested their innocence, but nevertheless, on the eighteenth
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  Speaker 1: the fleet sailed without a trace, having been discovered of Essex,
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  Speaker 1: or Williams or the swift Shire. Drake's dream was realized.
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  Speaker 1: At last. He had got Donantonio snugly under his wing,
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  Speaker 1: and at the head of a fleet of one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and eighty sail he was bound for the coast of Spain.
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  Speaker 1: Not only is the armament noteworthy as being the most
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  Speaker 1: powerful that had ever left the English shores, but its
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  Speaker 1: organization is of special interest as marking an attempt to
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  Speaker 1: introduce order into a naval force. On military lines, Drake's
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  Speaker 1: admiration for the disciplines and methods of soldiers no less
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  Speaker 1: than the example of the Armada was, no doubt, not
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  Speaker 1: without its weight. The fleet was divided into five squadrons,
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  Speaker 1: each of some seventeen ships and fifteen transports, and each
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  Speaker 1: under a colonel. These colonels of squadrons were the two
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  Speaker 1: generals in chief, Captain Thomas Fenner, the Vice Admiral, Sir
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  Speaker 1: Roger Williams, Colonel General of the Foot, and Sir Edward Norris,
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  Speaker 1: General of the Artillery. At the head of each squadron
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  Speaker 1: was one of the Queen's battleships, and each squadron colonel
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  Speaker 1: had on his staff a lieutenant colonel, a corporal of
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  Speaker 1: the squadron or aide de camp, and a captain corresponding
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  Speaker 1: to the regimental captain lieutenant. In the sixth Queen's ship
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  Speaker 1: sailed the rear Admiral, Captain William Fenner, unattached as Marshal
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  Speaker 1: General of the Fleet. Associated with the two generals, there
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  Speaker 1: was also a full military staff, including an intelligence department
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  Speaker 1: under a Master of the Discoveries with the rank of
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Colonel of the Pinnises. When all was over, the
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  Speaker 1: system was considered to have failed, but in truth it
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  Speaker 1: never had a fair trial, for so foul was the weather,
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  Speaker 1: and so hurried the whole affair from shortness of supplies
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  Speaker 1: that the fleet was never once exercised at sea upon
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  Speaker 1: the new system. End of Section twenty two