ix hundred great guns, were
provisioned for half a year, and contained military stores in a profusion
which only the wealth of America and the Indies could have supplied. On
them were nearly twenty thousand of the famous troops of Spain, with two
thousand volunteers of the most distinguished families, and eight thousand
sailors. In addition there was assembled in the coast districts of the
Netherlands an army of thirty-four thousand men, for whose transportation
to England a great number of flat-bottomed vessels had been procured.
These were to venture upon the sea as soon as the Armada was in position
for their support.

And now, indeed, "perfidious Albion" had reason to tremble. Never had that
nation of islanders been so seriously threatened, not even when the ships
of William of Normandy were setting sail for its shores. The great fleet,
which lay at Lisbon, then a city of Spain, was to set sail in the early
days of May, and no small degree of fear affected the hearts of all
Protestant Europe, for the conquest of England by Philip the fanatic would
have been a frightful blow to the cause of religious and political
liberty.

All had so far gone well with Spain; now all began to go ill. At the very
time fixed for sailing the Marquis of Santa Cruz, the admiral of the
fleet, was taken violently ill and died, and with him died the Duke of
Paliano, the vice-admiral. Santa Cruz's place was not easy to fill. Philip
chose to succeed him the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a nobleman totally
ignorant of sea affairs, giving him for vice-admiral Martinez de Recaldo,
a seaman of much experience. All this caused so much delay that the fleet
did not sail till May 29.

Storm succeeded sickness to interfere with Philip's plans. A tempest fell
on the fleet on its way to Corunna, where it was to take on some troops
and stores. All but four of the ships reached Corunna, but they had been
so battered and dishevelled by the winds that several weeks passed before
they could again be got ready for sea,--much to the discomfiture of the
king, who was eager to become the lord and master of England. He had dwelt
there in former years as the husband of Queen Mary; now he was ambitious
to set foot there as absolute king.

England, meanwhile, was in an ebullition of joy. Word had reached there
that the Spanish fleet was rendered unseaworthy by the storm, and the
queen's secretary, in undue haste, ordered Lord Howard, the admiral, to
lay up four of his