haustion, to furnish the machinery for destroying their own countrymen, and for hurling to perdition their most healthful neighbour. And this approaching destruction of England-now generally believed in-was like the sound of a trumpet throughout Catholic Europe. Scions of royal houses, grandees of azure blood, the bastard of Philip II., the bastard of Savoy, the bastard of Medici, the Margrave of Burghaut, the Archduke Charles, nephew of the Emperor, the Princes of Ascoli and of Melfi, the Prince of Morocco, and others of illustrious name, with many a noble English traitor, like Paget, and Westmoreland, and Stanley, all hurried to the camp of Farnese, as to some famous tournament, in which it was a disgrace to chivalry if their names were not enrolled. The roads were trampled with levies of fresh troops from Spain, Naples, Corsica, the States of the Church, the Milanese, Germany, Burgundy. Blas Capizucca was sent in person to conduct reinforcements from the north of Italy. The famous Terzio of Naples, under Carlos Pinelo, arrived 3500 strong-the most splendid regiment ever known in the history of war. Every man had an engraved corslet and musket-barrel, and there were many who wore gilded armour, while their waving plumes and festive caparisons made them look like holiday-makers, rather than real campaigners, in the eyes of the inhabitants of the various cities through which their road led them to Flanders.1 By the end of April the Duke of Parma saw himself at the head of 60,000 men, at a monthly expense of 454,315 crowns or dollars. Yet so rapid was the progress of disease-incident to northern climates-among those southern soldiers, that we shall find the number wofully diminished before they were likely to set foot upon the English shore. 2 Thus great preparations, simultaneously with pompous Carnero, 'Guerras de Flandes' (1625), p. 222. 2 'Relacion Particular,' &c. 29th April, 1588. (Arch. de Simancas, 1588. THE PAINFUL SUSPENSE CONTINUES. 457 negotiations, had been going forward month after month, in England, Holland, Flanders. Nevertheless, winter, spring, two-thirds of summer, had passed away, and on the 29th July, 1588, there remained the same sickening uncertainty, which was the atmosphere in which the nations had existed for a twelvemonth. Howard had cruised for a few weeks between England and Spain, without any results, and, on his return, had found it necessary to implore her Majesty, as late as July, to "trust no more to Judas' kisses, but to her sword, not her enemy's word."1 1 Howard to Walsingham, 23 June 3 July 1588, in Barrow, 284. CHAPTER XIX. Philip Second in his Cabinet His System of Work and Deception - His vast but vague Schemes of Conquest The Armada sails - Description of the Fleet The Junction with Parma unprovided for - The Gale off Finisterre Exploits of David Gwynn - First Engagements in the English Channel Considerable Losses of the Spaniards - General Engagement near Port land Superior Seamanship of the English - Both Fleets off CalaisA Night of Anxiety-Project of Howard and Winter Impatience of the Spaniards Fire-Ships sent against the Armada A great Galeasse disabled — Attacked and captured by English Boats-General Engagement of both Fleets Loss of several Spanish Ships Armada flies, followed by the English-English insufficiently provided Are obliged to relinquish the Chase A great Storm disperses the Armada Great Energy of Parma Made fruitless by Philip's Dulness-England readier at Sea than on Shore The Lieutenant-General's Complaints - His Quarrels with Norris and Williams- Harsh Statements as to the English Troops - Want of Organization in England-Royal Parsimony and Delay-Quarrels of English Admirals — England's narrow Escape from great Peril-Various Rumours as to the Armada's Fate-Philip for a long Time in Doubt― He believes himself victorious - Is tranquil when undeceived. It is now time to look in upon the elderly letter-writer in the Escorial, and see how he was playing his part in the drama. His counsellors were very few. His chief advisers were rather like private secretaries than cabinet ministers; for Philip had been withdrawing more and more into seclusion and mystery as the webwork of his schemes multiplied and widened. He liked to do his work, assisted by a very few confidential servants. The Prince of Eboli, the famous Ruy Gomez, was dead. So was Cardinal Granvelle. So were Erasso and Delgado. His midnight council-junta de noche —for thus, from its original hour of assembling, and the air of secrecy in which it was enwrapped, it was habitually called -was a triumvirate. Don Juan de Idiaquez was chief secretary of state and of war; the Count de Chinchon was minister for the household, for Italian affairs, and for the kingdom of Aragon; Don Cristoval de Moura, the monarch's chief favourite, was at the head of the finance department, and administered the affairs of Portugal and Castile.1 1 Herrera, III. ii. 43-45, and 138. 1 1588. PHILIP THE SECOND IN HIS CABINET. 459 The president of the council of Italy, after Granvelle's death, was Quiroga, cardinal of Toledo, and inquisitor-general." Enormously long letters, in the King's name, were prepared chiefly by the two secretaries, Idiaquez and Moura. In their hands was the vast correspondence with Mendoza and Parma, and Olivarez at Rome, and with Mucio, in which all the stratagems for the subjugation of Protestant Europe were slowly and artistically contrived. Of the great conspiracy against human liberty, of which the Pope and Philip were the double head, this midnight triumvirate was the chief executive committee. These innumerable despatches, signed by Philip, were not the emanations of his own mind. The King had a fixed purpose to subdue Protestantism and to conquer the world; but the plans for carrying the purpose into effect were developed by subtler and more comprehensive minds than his own. It was enough for him to ponder wearily over schemes which he was supposed to dictate, and to give himself the appearance of supervising what he scarcely comprehended. And his work of supervision was often confined to pettiest details. The handwriting of Spain and Italy at that day was beautiful, and in our modern eyes seems neither antiquated nor ungraceful. But Philip's scrawl was like that of a clown just admitted to a writing-school, and the whole margin of a fairly penned despatch, perhaps fifty pages long, laid before him for comment and signature by Idiaquez or Moura, would be sometimes covered with a few awkward sentences, which it was almost impossible to read, and which, when deciphered, were apt to reveal suggestions of astounding triviality.2 Thus a most important despatch-in which the King, with his own hand, was supposed to be conveying secret intelligence to Mendoza concerning the Armada, together with minute directions for the regulation of Guise's conduct at the me 1 Ibid. 2 "No man who has had personal experience in the Archives of Simancas, or who has studied with his own eyes the great collection of documents originally belonging to that depository, and now preserved in the Archives of the Empire at Paris, will assert that the description in the text is exaggerated. The paragraphs written in the King's own hand are almost illegible, and evidently written with great difficulty. When deciphered, they are found to be always awkward, generally ungrammatical, and very often puerile. morable epoch of the barricades-contained but a single comment from the monarch's own pen. 66 The Armada has been in Lisbon about a month-quassi un mes"-wrote the secretary. "There is but one s in quasi," said Philip.' Again, a despatch of Mendoza to the King contained the intelligence that Queen Elizabeth was, at the date of the letter, residing at St. James's. Philip, who had no objection to display his knowledge of English affairs-as became the man who had already been almost sovereign of England, and meant to be entirely so-supplied a piece of information in an apostille to this despatch. "St. James is a house of recreation," he said, "which was once a monastery. There is a park between it, and the palace which is called Huytal; but why it is called Huytal, I am sure I don't know."2 His researches in the English language had not enabled him to recognize the adjective and substantive out of which the abstruse compound White-Hall (Huyt-al), was formed. On another occasion, a letter from England containing important intelligence concerning the number of soldiers enrolled in that country to resist the Spanish invasion, the quantity of gunpowder and various munitions collected, with other details of like nature, furnished besides a bit of information of less vital interest. "In the windows of the Queen's presence-chamber they have discovered a great quantity of lice, all clustered together," said the writer. Such a minute piece of statistics could not escape the microscopic eye of Philip. So, disregarding the soldiers and the gunpowder, he commented only on this last-mentioned clause of the letter; and he did it cautiously too, as a King surnamed the Prudent should: |