or the Prince of Spain to follow the custom of
the sea by saluting first when coming into English waters. So the
Spanish fleet sailed on and took no notice, till suddenly Howard fired
a shot across the Spanish flagship's bows. Then, at last, Philip's
standard came down with a run, and he lowered topsails too, so as to
make the salute complete. Howard thereupon saluted Philip, and the two
fleets sailed on together. But there was no love lost between them.
Neither was the marriage popular ashore. Except for the people at
court, who had to be civil to Philip, London treated the whole thing
more as a funeral than a wedding. Philip drank beer in public, instead
of Spanish wine, and tried to be as English as he could. Mary did her
best to make the people like him. And both did their best to buy as
many friends at court as Spanish gold could buy. But, except for his
Queen and the few who followed her through thick and thin, and the
spies he paid to sell their country, Philip went back with even fewer
English friends than he had had before; while the Spanish gold itself
did him more harm than good; for the English Sea-Dogs never forgot the
long array of New-World wealth that he paraded through the streets of
London--"27 chests of bullion, 99 horseloads + 2 cartloads of gold and
silver coin, and 97 boxes full of silver bars." That set them asking
why the whole New World should be nothing but New Spain.

But seventeen years passed by; and the Spanish Empire seemed bigger and
stronger than ever, besides which it seemed to be getting a firmer hold
on more and more places in the Golden West. Nor was this all; for
Portugal, which had many ships and large oversea possessions, was
becoming so weak as to be getting more and more under the thumb of
Spain; while Spain herself had just (1571) become the victorious
champion both of West against East and of Christ against Mahomet by
beating the Turks at Lepanto, near Corinth, in a great battle on
landlocked water, a hundred miles from where the West had defeated the
East when Greeks fought Persians at Salamis two thousand years before.

THE FAME OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Sir Drake, whom well the world's end knew,
Which thou didst compass round,
And whom both poles of heaven once saw,
Which north and south do bound.

The stars above would make thee known,
If men here silent were;
The sun himself cannot forget
His fellow-traveller.
--_Anonymo