largest ships and discharge their crews, as they would
not be needed. But Howard was not so ready to believe a vague report, and
begged the queen to let him keep the ships, even if at his own expense,
till the truth could be learned. To satisfy himself, he set sail for
Corunna, intending to try and destroy the Armada if as much injured as
reported. Learning the truth, and finding that a favorable wind for Spain
had begun to blow, he returned to Plymouth in all haste, in some dread
lest the Armada might precede him to the English coast.

He had not long been back when stirring tidings came. The Armada had been
seen upon the seas. Lord Howard at once left harbor with his fleet. The
terrible moment of conflict, so long and nervously awaited, was at hand.
On the next day--July 30--he came in view of the great Spanish fleet, drawn
up in the form of a crescent, with a space of seven miles between its
wings. Before this giant fleet his own seemed but a dwarf. Paying no
attention to Lord Howard's ships, the Armada moved on with dignity up the
Channel, its purpose being to disperse the Dutch and English ships off the
Netherland coast and escort to England the Duke of Parma's army, then
ready to sail.

Lord Howard deemed it wisest to pursue a guerilla mode of warfare,
harassing the Spaniards and taking any advantage that offered. He first
attacked the flag-ship of the vice-admiral Recaldo, and with such vigor
and dexterity as to excite great alarm in the Spanish fleet. From that
time it kept closer order, yet on the same day Howard attacked one of its
largest ships. Others hurried to the aid; but in their haste two of them
ran afoul, one, a large galleon, having her mast broken. She fell behind
and was captured by Sir Francis Drake, who discovered, to his delight,
that she had on board a chief part of the Spanish treasure.

Other combats took place, in all of which the English were victorious. The
Spaniards proved ignorant of marine evolutions, and the English sailed
around them with a velocity which none of their ships could equal, and
proved so much better marksmen that nearly every shot told, while the
Spanish gunners fired high and wasted their balls in the air. The fight
with the Armada seemed a prototype of the much later sea-battles at Manila
and Santiago de Cuba.

Finally, after a halt before Calais, the Armada came within sight of
Dunkirk, where Parma's army, with its flat-bottomed transports, was
waiting to embark.