prison with such
torments and diet as her Majesty's subjects be kept with in Spain, and
on complaint made by the King to give such answer as is now made when
her Majesty sues for subjects imprisoned by the Inquisition. Or that a
Commission be granted to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other
bishops word for word for foreign Papists as the Inquisitors have in
Spain for the Protestants. So that all may know that her Majesty cannot
and will not longer endure the spoils and torments of her subjects, and
the Spaniards shall not think this noble realm dares not seek revenge of
such importable wrongs.'

Elizabeth issued no such Commission as Dorothy Seely asked for, but she
did leave her subjects to seek their revenge in their own way, and they
sought it sometimes too rashly.

In the summer of 1563 eight English merchantmen anchored in the roads
of Gibraltar. England and France were then at war. A French brig came in
after them, and brought up near. At sea, if they could take her, she
would have been a lawful prize. Spaniards under similar circumstances
had not respected the neutrality of English harbours. The Englishmen
were perhaps in doubt what to do, when the officers of the Holy Office
came off to the French ship. The sight of the black familiars drove the
English wild. Three of them made a dash at the French ship, intending to
sink her. The Inquisitors sprang into their boat, and rowed for their
lives. The castle guns opened, and the harbour police put out to
interfere. The French ship, however, would have been taken, when
unluckily Alvarez de Bacan, with a Spanish squadron, came round into the
Straits. Resistance was impossible. The eight English ships were
captured and carried off to Cadiz. The English flag was trailed under De
Bacan's stern. The crews, two hundred and forty men in all, were
promptly condemned to the galleys. In defence they could but say that
the Frenchman was an enemy, and a moderate punishment would have
sufficed for a violation of the harbour rules which the Spaniards
themselves so little regarded. But the Inquisition was inexorable, and
the men were treated with such peculiar brutality that after nine months
ninety only of the two hundred and forty were alive.

Ferocity was answered by ferocity. Listen to this! The Cobhams of
Cowling Castle were Protestants by descent. Lord Cobham was famous in
the Lollard martyrology. Thomas Cobham, one of the family, had taken to
the sea like many of hi