another, and say they will not serve. I cannot write to our
generals at this time, for the Pursuevant found me at a country village,
a mile from Gravesend, hunting after runaway mariners, and dragging in
the mire from alehouse to alehouse, and could get no paper.' On the 6th
he was at Queenborough, on the 13th at Dover, whence he reports disaster
by a storm on Goodwin Sands, and finally on the 21st he arrived at
Plymouth. His last letters are full of recommendations of personal
friends to appointments in the gift or at the command of Sir Robert
Cecil. He brought with him to Plymouth two of Bacon's cousins, the
Cookes, and his own wife's brother, Arthur Throckmorton. Unfortunately,
just as the fleet was starting, the last-mentioned, 'a hot-headed
youth,' in presence not only of the four generals, but of the commanders
of the Dutch contingent also, took Raleigh's side in some dispute at
table so intemperately and loudly that he was dismissed from the
service. This must have been singularly annoying to Raleigh, who
nevertheless persuaded his colleagues, no doubt on receipt of due
apology, to restore the young man to his rank, and allow him to proceed.
At Cadiz, Throckmorton fought so well that Essex himself knighted him.

The generals had other troubles at Plymouth. The men that Raleigh had
pressed along the coast hated their duty, and some of them had to be
tried for desertion and mutiny. Before the fleet got under way, two men
were publicly hanged, to encourage the others, 'on a very fair and
pleasant green, called the Hoe.' At last, on June 1, the squadrons put
to sea. Contrary winds kept them within Plymouth Sound until the 3rd. On
the 20th they anchored in the bay of St. Sebastian, half a league to the
westward of Cadiz. The four English divisions of the fleet contained in
all ninety-three vessels, and the Dutch squadron consisted of
twenty-four more. There were about 15,500 men, that is to say 2,600
Dutchmen, and the rest equally divided between English soldiers and
sailors.

The events of the next few days were not merely a crucial and final test
of the relative strength of Spain and England, closing in a brilliant
triumph for the latter, but to Raleigh in particular they were the
climax of his life, the summit of his personal prosperity and glory. The
records of the battle of Cadiz are exceedingly numerous, and were drawn
up not by English witnesses only, but by Dutch and Spanish historians
also. Mr. Edwards has p