t got into the wind and fled for their lives out of the Straits.

The _Rata_, being last of the line, escaped with little hurt; for all
the vessels ahead of her had cleared off before she got under weigh.

That was a merry night for me up in my perch. I hallooed and cheered,
and shouted "God save the Queen!" till I was hoarse. I jeered the King
of Spain, and hooted his men. No one heard me; but it did me good.

When day broke, there we were, the glorious Armada, like a scared flock
of sheep, six miles away from Calais, looking round at one another with
white faces, and counting the cost of that night's fireworks. A few
charred hulks drifting in the distance were all that were left of the
terrible brands which had routed the Don from his beauty sleep; while
many a disabled galleon on our side told of the panic they had caused.
Like sheep, at a safe distance, the Spaniards swung round cautiously to
face the danger that had passed; and a cry presently arose, not
unmingled with shame, of "Back to Calais!"

But the cunning Englishmen had risen too early in the morning to permit
that. Already their sails crowded the western horizon and, as we lay in
a long crooked line, waiting the Admiral's signal to beat up again for
our lost anchorage, down they bore upon us--half of their sail swooping
on the right of our line, the other half on the left.

Then followed the biggest battle of all that great sea-fight. For,
taking us on either flank, the Englishmen, coming for the first time to
close quarters, huddled our ships in towards the centre, sending us one
on the top of the other, so that for every ship they sank by their own
shot, another went down, stove in by her next neighbour. Where I was,
the smoke was soon so dense that I could see but little clearly. More
than once, I know, the _Rata_ was in the thick of the fight, pounding
away at the Englishmen, and receiving broadside after broadside in
return, which crashed against the hull and shook me where I hung at the
mast-head. The sails round me were riddled with shot, and once or twice
I, coming suddenly into view, became a special target for the enemy's
marksmen.

Little cared I! For at every shot that day the banner of Spain tottered
lower and lower to its fall, and the flag of old England spread wider
and more proudly in the breeze!

Presently, I remember, an English ship named the _Vanguard_, slipped
suddenly in betwixt the _Rata_ and another tall Spaniard, s