Don Carlos, and placed his education under the care of a
preceptor, Luis de Vives, a scholar not to be confounded with his
namesake, the learned tutor of Mary of England. Having completed his
arrangements, Philip set out for the place of his embarkation in the
north. At Compostella he passed some days, offering up his devotions to
the tutelar saint of Spain, whose shrine, throughout the Middle Ages,
had been the most popular resort of pilgrims from the western parts of
Christendom.

While at Compostella, Philip subscribed the marriage treaty, which had
been brought over from England by the earl of Bedford. He then proceeded
to Corunna, where a fleet of more than a hundred sail was riding at
anchor, in readiness to receive him. It was commanded by the admiral of
Castile, and had on board, besides its complement of seamen, four
thousand of the best troops of Spain. On the eleventh of July, Philip
embarked, with his numerous retinue, in which, together with the Flemish
Counts Egmont and Hoorne, were to be seen the dukes of Alva and Medina
Coeli, the prince of Eboli,--in short, the flower of the Castilian
nobility. They came attended by their wives and vassals, minstrels and
mummers, and a host of idle followers, to add to the splendor of the
pageant and do honor to their royal master. Yet the Spanish ambassador
at London had expressly recommended to Philip that his courtiers should
leave their ladies at home, and should come in as simple guise as
possible, so as not to arouse the jealousy of the English.[95]

After a pleasant run of a few days, the Spanish squadron came in sight
of the combined fleets of England and Flanders, under the command of the
Lord Admiral Howard, who was cruising in the channel in order to meet
the prince and convoy him to the English shore. The admiral seems to
have been a blunt sort of man, who spoke his mind with more candor than
courtesy. He greatly offended the Flemings by comparing their ships to
muscle-shells.[96] He is even said to have fired a gun as he approached
Philip's squadron, in order to compel it to lower its topsails in
acknowledgment of the supremacy of the English in the "narrow seas." But
this is probably the patriotic vaunt of an English writer, since it is
scarcely possible that the haughty Spaniard of that day would have made
such a concession, and still less so that the British commander would
have been so discourteous as to exact it on this occasion.

On the nineteenth o