t by some great personage, not a member
of the house, he had been sharply rebuked for speeches delivered in
parliament: he craved the favor of the house, and desired that some of
the members might inform that great personage of his true meaning
and intention in these speeches.[*] The commons, to obviate these
inconveniencies, passed a vote that no one should reveal the secrets of
the house.[**]

* D'Ewes, p. 432, 433.

** An act was passed this session, enforcing the former
statute, which imposed twenty pounds a month on everyone
absent from public worship: but the penalty was restricted
to two thirds of the income of the recusant. 29 Eliz. c. 6.

The discomfiture of the armada had begotten in the nation a kind of
enthusiastic passion for enterprises against Spain; and nothing seemed
now impossible to be achieved by the valor and fortune of the English.
Don Antonio, prior of Crato, a natural son of the royal family of
Portugal, trusting to the aversion of his countrymen against the
Castilians, had advanced a claim to the crown; and flying first to
France, thence to England, had been encouraged both by Henry and
Elizabeth in his pretensions. A design was formed by the people, not the
court of England, to conquer the kingdom for Don Antonio: Sir Francis
Drake and Sir John Norris were the leaders in this romantic enterprise:
near twenty thousand volunteers[*] enlisted themselves in the service:
and ships were hired, as well as arms provided, at the charge of the
adventurers. The queen's frugality kept her from contributing more than
sixty thousand pounds to the expense; and she only allowed six of her
ships of war to attend the expedition.[**] There was more spirit and
bravery than foresight or prudence in the conduct of this enterprise.
The small stock of the adventurers did not enable them to buy either
provisions or ammunition sufficient for such an undertaking; they even
wanted vessels to stow the numerous volunteers who crowded to them;
and they were obliged to seize by force some ships of the Hanse Towns,
which they met with at sea; an expedient which set them somewhat at ease
in point of room for their men, but remedied not the deficiency of their
provisions.[***]

* Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, vol. i. p. 61. Monson
(p. 267) says that there were only fourteen thousand
soldiers and four thousand seamen in the whole on this
expedition: but the account contained