and Philip's credit was at its lowest ebb after Drake's
devastating raid. The English were exultant, east and west; for the
_True Report of a Worthie Fight performed in the voiage from Turkie by
Five Shippes of London against 11 gallies and two frigats of the King of
Spain at Pantalarea, within the Straits_ [of Gibraltar] _Anno 1586_ was
going the rounds and running a close second to Drake's West India
achievement. The ignorant and thoughtless, both then and since, mistook
this fight, and another like it in 1590, to mean that English
merchantmen could beat off Spanish men-of-war. Nothing of the kind: the
English Levanters were heavily armed and admirably manned by
well-trained fighting crews; and what these actions really proved, if
proof was necessary, was that galleys were no match for broadsides from
the proper kind of sailing ships.

Turkey came into the problems of 1586 in more than name, for there was a
vast diplomatic scheme on foot to unite the Turks with such Portuguese
as would support Antonio, the pretender to the throne of Portugal, and
the rebellious Dutch against Spain, Catholic France, and Mary Stuart's
Scotland. Leicester was in the Netherlands with an English army,
fighting indecisively, losing Sir Philip Sidney and angering Elizabeth
by accepting the governor-generalship without her leave and against her
diplomacy, which, now as ever, was opposed to any definite avowal that
could possibly be helped.

Meanwhile the Great Armada was working up its strength, and Drake was
commissioned to weaken it as much as possible. But, on the 8th of
February, 1587, before he could sail, Mary was at last beheaded, and
Elizabeth was once more entering on a tricky course of tortuous
diplomacy too long by half to follow here. As the great crisis
approached, it had become clearer and clearer that it was a case of kill
or be killed between Elizabeth and Mary, and that England could not
afford to leave Marian enemies in the rear when there might be a vast
Catholic alliance in the front. But, as a sovereign, Elizabeth disliked
the execution of any crowned head; as a wily woman she wanted to make
the most of both sides; and as a diplomatist she would not have open war
and direct operations going down to the root of the evil if devious ways
would do.

So the peace party of the Council prevailed again, and Drake's orders
were changed. He had been going as a lion. The peace party now tried to
send him as a fox. But he stretche