proves that Cecil had a right to
use this mild sarcasm. Several months before, Raleigh had attempted by
his manifesto entitled _The Spanish Alarum_ to stir up the Government to
be in full readiness to guard against a revengeful invasion of England
by her old enemy. He had thought out the whole situation, he had planned
the defences of England by land and sea, and his new favour at Court had
enabled him to put pressure on the royal parsimony, and to insist that
things should be done as he saw fit. He was perfectly right in thinking
that Philip II. would rather suffer complete ruin than not try once more
to recover his position in Europe, but he saw that the late losses at
Cadiz would force the Catholic king to delay his incursion, and he
counselled a rapid and direct second attack on Spain. As soon as ever he
was restored to power, he began to victual a fleet of ten men-of-war
with biscuit, beef, bacon, and salt fish, and to call for volunteers. As
the scheme seized the popular mind, however, it gathered in extent, and
it was finally decided to fit up three large squadrons, with a Dutch
contingent of twelve ships. These vessels met in Plymouth Sound.

On the night of Sunday, July 10, the fleet left Plymouth, and kept
together for twenty-four hours. On the morning of the 12th, after a
night of terrific storm, Raleigh found his squadron of four ships parted
from the rest, and in the course of the next day only one vessel beside
his own was in sight. This tempest was immortalised in his earliest
known poem by John Donne, who was in the expedition, and was described
by Raleigh as follows:

The storm on Wednesday grew more forcible, and the seas grew
very exceeding lofty, so that myself and the Bonaventure had
labour enough to beat it up. But the night following, the
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the storm so increased, the
ships were weighty, the ordnance great, and the billows so
raised and enraged, that we could carry out no sail which to our
judgment would not have been rent off the yards by the wind; and
yet our ships rolled so vehemently, and so disjointed
themselves, that we were driven either to force it again with
our courses, or to sink. In my ship it hath shaken all her
beams, knees, and stanchions well nigh asunder, in so much on
Saturday night last we made account to have yielded ourselves up
to God. For we had no way to work, either by trying, hauling, or