ath of innovation beat
in vain. In every country of Europe the party of freedom and reform was
the national party, the party of reaction and absolutism was the Spanish
party, leaning on Spain, looking to her for help. Above all, it was so
in France; and while within her bounds there was a semblance of peace,
the national and religious rage burst forth on a wilder theatre. Thither
it is for us to follow it, where, on the shores of Florida, the Spaniard
and the Frenchman, the bigot and the Huguenot, met in the grapple of
death.

In a corridor of the Escurial, Philip II. was met by a man who had long
stood waiting his approach, and who with proud reverence placed a
petition in the hand of the pale and sombre King. The petitioner was
Pedro Menendez de Aviles, one of the ablest and most distinguished
officers of the Spanish marine. He was born of an ancient Asturian
family. His boyhood had been wayward, ungovernable, and fierce. He ran
off at eight years of age, and when, after a search of six months, he
was found and brought back, he ran off again. This time he was more
successful, escaping on board a fleet bound against the Barbary
corsairs, when his precocious appetite for blood and blows had
reasonable contentment. A few years later, he found means to build a
small vessel in which he cruised against the corsairs and the French,
and, though still little more than a boy, displayed a singular address
and daring. The wonders of the New World now seized his imagination. He
made a voyage thither, and the ships under his charge came back
freighted with wealth. War with France was then at its height. As
captain-general of the fleet, he was sent with troops to Flanders, and
to their prompt arrival was due, it is said, the victory of St. Quentin,
Two years later, he commanded the luckless armada which bore back Philip
to his native shore, and nearly drowned him in a storm off the port of
Laredo. This mischance, or his own violence and insubordination, wrought
to the prejudice of Menendez. He complained that his services were ill
repaid. Philip lent him a favoring ear, and despatched him to the Indies
as general of the fleet and army. Here he found means to amass vast
riches; and, in 1561, returning to Spain, charges were brought against
him of a nature which his too friendly biographer does not explain. The
Council of the Indies arrested him. He was imprisoned and sentenced to a
heavy fine, but, gaining his release, hastened to Ma