, the whole
company trooped to the middle deck, where at the main-mast the purser
read aloud a long proclamation in Spanish, at the end of which huzzahs
were given for the King, and the lanthorns lit for the night.

I confess I turned in to my berth that night uneasy in my mind. For I
never saw ships such as these; no, not even in the Medway. What could
our small craft do against these floating towers? and what sort of hole
could our guns make in these four-foot walls? And when it came to
grappling, what could our slender crews do against this army of picked
men, who, even if half of them fell, would yet be a match for any force
our English ships could hold?

So I turned in with many forebodings, and all night long I could hear
the laugh and song of coming victory, mingled now and again with the
fanfare of the trumpets, and the distant boom of the admiral's signal-
gun.

Next morning, when we looked out, there was land in sight ahead.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

HOW THE DONS SAILED UP CHANNEL.

For a long while we could discern only a blue haze on the horizon.
Then, towards noon, when the sun stood higher, and the wind behind us
freshened, there appeared a grey line through the mist, and above that a
gleam of green.

The sight was hailed by the gay young Spaniards who crowded the deck
with a mighty shout and a defiant blare of the trumpets. And, ere the
noise died away, we caught a faint answering echo from the vessels
nearest us. Then, acting on some arranged signal, the whole fleet
seemed to gather itself together, and closing into a great crescent, at
about cable distance, advanced with sails full of wind--a majestic
sight, and, to me, who gazed with dismay from end to end of the
magnificent line, fraught with doom to my poor country.

The _Rata_ held a post near to the left of the line, and was thus a
league, or thereabouts, nearer to the coast than the ships of the other
flank. Already out of the mist the black headlands were rising grim and
frowning to front us; and already, betwixt us and them, a keen eye might
detect the gleam of the afternoon sun on a little white sail here and
there. But except for a fishing-boat or two which cruised along our
line, taking a good eyeful of us, and then darting ahead before the
galliasses could give chase, we saw no sign of the Queen's ships
anywhere.

Towards dusk we opened a great break in the coast, which we knew
presently to be Plymouth Sound. The Dons, a