, found
himself at the end of it in an exposed roadstead, where he ought never
to have been, nine-tenths of his provisions thrown overboard as unfit
for food, his ammunition exhausted by the unforeseen demands upon it,
the seamen and soldiers harassed and dispirited, officers the whole week
without sleep, and the enemy, who had hunted him from Plymouth to
Calais, anchored within half a league of him.

Still, after all his misadventures, he had brought the fleet, if not to
the North Foreland, yet within a few miles of it, and to outward
appearance not materially injured. Two of the galleons had been taken;
a third, the _Santa Ana_, had strayed; and his galleys had left him,
being found too weak for the Channel sea; but the great armament had
reached its destination substantially uninjured so far as English eyes
could see. Hundreds of men had been killed and hundreds more wounded,
and the spirit of the rest had been shaken. But the loss of life could
only be conjectured on board the English fleet. The English admiral
could only see that the Duke was now in touch with Parma. Parma, they
knew, had an army at Dunkirk with him, which was to cross to England. He
had been collecting men, barges, and transports all the winter and
spring, and the backward state of Parma's preparations could not be
anticipated, still less relied upon. The Calais anchorage was unsafe;
but at that season of the year, especially after a wet summer, the
weather usually settled; and to attack the Spaniards in a French port
might be dangerous for many reasons. It was uncertain after the day of
the Barricades whether the Duke of Guise or Henry of Valois was master
of France, and a violation of the neutrality laws might easily at that
moment bring Guise and France into the field on the Spaniards' side. It
was, no doubt, with some such expectation that the Duke and his advisers
had chosen Calais as the point at which to bring up. It was now
Saturday, the 7th of August. The Governor of the town came off in the
evening to the _San Martin_. He expressed surprise to see the Spanish
fleet in so exposed a position, but he was profuse in his offers of
service. Anything which the Duke required should be provided, especially
every facility for communicating with Dunkirk and Parma. The Duke
thanked him, said that he supposed Parma to be already embarked with his
troops, ready for the passage, and that his own stay in the roads would
be but brief. On Monday morning a