France over the secret aid Englishmen had been giving to the Huguenots
at La Rochelle. But suddenly Elizabeth was all smiles and affability for
France. And when her two great merchant fleets put out to sea, one, the
wine-fleet, bound for La Rochelle, went with only a small naval escort,
just enough to keep the pirates off; while the other, the big
wool-fleet, usually sent to Antwerp but now bound for Hamburg, went with
a strong fighting escort of regular men-of-war.

Aboard this escort went Francis Drake as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy.
Home in June, Drake ran down to Tavistock in Devon; wooed, won, and
married pretty Mary Newman, all within a month. He was back on duty in
July.

For the time being the war cloud passed away. Elizabeth's tortuous
diplomacy had succeeded, owing to dissension among her enemies. In the
following year (1570) the international situation was changed by the
Pope, who issued a bull formally deposing Elizabeth and absolving her
subjects from their allegiance to her. The French and Spanish monarchs
refused to publish this order because they did not approve of deposition
by the Pope. But, for all that, it worked against Elizabeth by making
her the official standing enemy of Rome. At the same time it worked for
her among the sea-dogs and all who thought with them. 'The case,' said
Thomas Fuller, author of _The Worthies of England_, 'the case was clear
in _sea divinitie_.' Religious zeal and commercial enterprise went hand
in hand. The case _was_ clear; and the English navy, now mobilized and
ready for war, made it much clearer still.

_Westward Ho!_ in chief command, at the age of twenty-five, with the
tiny flotilla of the _Dragon_ and the _Swan_, manned by as good a lot of
daredevil experts as any privateer could wish to see! Out and back in
1570, and again in 1571, Drake took reprisals on New Spain, made money
for all hands engaged, and gained a knowledge of the American coast that
stood him in good stead for future expeditions.

* * * * *

It was 1572 when Drake, at the age of twenty-seven, sailed out of
Plymouth on the Nombre de Dios expedition that brought him into fame.
He led a Lilliputian fleet: the _Pascha_ and the _Swan_, a hundred tons
between them, with seventy-three men, all ranks and ratings, aboard of
them. But both vessels were 'richly furnished with victuals and apparels
for a whole year, and no less heedfully provided with all manner of
ammuni