to tell lies, and in very
truth I have not the face to do it."

And the news of the Calais squibs, of the fight off Gravelines, and the
retreat of the Armada towards the north; could not be very long
concealed. So soon, therefore, as authentic intelligence reached, the
English envoy of those events--which was not however for nearly ten days
after their--occurrence--Stafford in his turn wrote a pamphlet, in answer
to that of Mendoza, and decidedly the more successful one of the two. It
cost him but five crowns, he said, to print 'four hundred copies of it;
but those in whose name it was published got one hundred crowns by its
sale. The English ambassador was unwilling to be known as the
author--although "desirous of touching up the impudence of the
Spaniard"--but the King had no doubt of its origin. Poor Henry, still
smarting under the insults of Mendoza and 'Mucio,--was delighted with
this blow to Philip's presumption; was loud in his praises of Queen
Elizabeth's valour, prudence, and marvellous fortune, and declared that
what she had just done could be compared to the greatest: exploits of the
most illustrious men in history.

"So soon as ever he saw the pamphlet," said Stafford; "he offered to lay
a wager it was my doing; and laughed at it heartily." And there were
malicious pages about the French; court; who also found much amusement in
writing to the ambassador, begging his interest with the Duke of Parma
that they might obtain from that conqueror some odd-refuse town or so in:
England, such as York, Canterbury, London, or the like--till the luckless
Don Bernardino was ashamed to show his face.

A letter, from Farnese, however, of 10th August, apprized Philip before
the end of August of the Calais disasters and caused him great
uneasiness, without driving him to despair. "At the very moment," wrote
the King to Medina Sidonia; "when I was expecting news of the effect
hoped for from my Armada, I have learned the retreat from before Calais,
to which it was compelled by the weather; [!] and I have received a very
great shock which keeps, me in anxiety not to be exaggerated.
Nevertheless I hope in our Lord that he will have provided a remedy; and
that if it was possible for you to return upon the enemy to come back to
the appointed posts and to watch an opportunity for the great stroke; you
will have done as the case required; and so I am expecting with
solicitude, to hear what has happened, and please God it may be t