great galleons, and attacked them like little
game-cocks fighting huge unwieldy cochinchinas.

From morning until sundown the battle raged; and it was the small
vessels which had the advantage.

Many of the Spanish ships sank or ran aground--'the feathers of the
Armada were plucked one by one'; then the remainder of the fleet made
wildly for the northern seas, the little English ships in pursuit.

When the English had followed the Spaniards sufficiently far, Drake
wrote from the deck of his vessel, 'We have driven the Spanish admirals
so far apart, that we hope they shall not shake hands these many days;
and whensoever they shall meet, I believe neither of them will rejoice
greatly at this day's service.'

A great storm completed the destruction which the English had begun,
and of the hundred and thirty-two ships that had set out for the
invasion of England, only fifty-three returned to Spain. The others
lay beneath the waters of the English Channel or had been wrecked upon
the islands of Scotland and the coasts of Ireland and Devonshire.

When the Spanish king heard the news, he said that he had sent his
fleet against men, and not against the wind and waves, and that he
could easily send another armament to the shores of England.

But the King of Spain's beard had been too badly singed.

Never again did England have to fear a foreign invasion. By the
destruction of the Armada she had proved herself worthy of the title
which she bears to this day: that of Queen and Mistress of the Seas.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY***

******* This file should be named 24725.txt or 24725.zip *******

This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/2/24725

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permi