e.' This
is really a high compliment, as it proves that the authorities
were quite ready to, and in fact did, learn from experience. Mr.
Oppenheim, however, is not an undiscriminating assailant of the
Queen; for he remarks, as has been already said, that, 'how far
Elizabeth was herself answerable is a moot point.' He tells us
that there 'is no direct evidence against her'; and the charge
levelled at her rests not on proof, but on 'strong probability.'
One would like to have another instance out of all history, of
probability, however strong, being deemed sufficient to convict
a person of unsurpassed treachery and stupidity combined, when
the direct evidence, which is not scanty, fails to support the
charge and indeed points the other way.

The Lord Admiral himself and other officers have been quoted to
show how badly off the fleet was for food. Yet at the close of
the active operations against the Armada, Sir J. Hawkins wrote:
'Here is victual sufficient, and I know not why any should be
provided after September, but for those which my Lord doth mean
to leave in the narrow seas.' On the same day Howard himself
wrote from Dover: 'I have caused all the remains of victuals
to be laid here and at Sandwich, for the maintaining of them
that shall remain in the Narrow Seas.' Any naval officer with
experience of command who reads Howard's representations on the
subject of the victuals will at once perceive that what the Admiral
was anxious about was not the quantity on board the ships, but
the stock in reserve. Howard thought that the latter ought to
be a supply for six weeks. The Council thought a month's stock
would be enough; and--as shown by the extracts from Howard's
and Hawkins's letters just given--the Council was right in its
estimate. Anyone who has had to write or to read official letters
about stocks of stores and provisions will find something especially
modern in Howard's representations.

Though the crews of the fleet did certainly come near the end of
their victuals afloat, there is no case of their having actually
run out of them. The complement of an ordinary man-of-war in the
latter part of the sixteenth century, judged by our modern standard,
was very large in proportion to her size. It was impossible for
her to carry provisions enough to last her men for a long time.
Any unexpected prolongation of a cruise threatened a reduction
to short commons. A great deal has been made of the fact that
Howard had to