ong the coast of France, and had
arrived in the road of Calais before being discovered by our fleet,
which might have greatly endangered the queen and realm, our fleet being
so far off at Plymouth. And, though the Prince of Parma had not been
presently ready, yet he might have gained sufficient time to get in
readiness, in consequence of our fleet being absent. Although the prince
was kept in by the thirty sail of Hollanders, yet a sufficient number of
the dukes fleet might have been able to drive them from the road of
Dunkirk and to have possessed themselves of that anchorage, so as to
have secured the junction of the armada and the land army; after which
it would have been an easy matter for them to have transported
themselves to England. What would have ensued on their landing may be
well imagined.

But it was the will of HIM who directs all men and their actions, that
the fleets should meet, and the enemy be beaten, as they were, and
driven from their anchorage in Calais roads, the Prince of Parma
blockaded in the port of Dunkirk, and the armada forced to go about
Scotland and Ireland with great hazard and loss: Which shews how God did
marvellously defend us against the dangerous designs of our enemies.
Here was a favourable opportunity offered for us to have followed up the
victory upon them: For, after they were beaten from the road of Calais,
and all their hopes and designs frustrated, if we had once more offered
to fight them, it is thought that the duke was determined to surrender,
being so persuaded by his confessor. This example, it is very likely,
would have been followed by the rest. But this opportunity was lost, not
through the negligence or backwardness of the lord admiral, but through
the want of providence in those who had the charge of furnishing and
providing for the fleet: For, at that time of so great advantage, when
they came to examine into the state of their stores, they found a
general scarcity of powder and shot, for want of which they were forced
to return home; besides which, the dreadful storms which destroyed so
many of the Spanish fleet, made it impossible for our ships to pursue
those of them that remained. Another opportunity was lost, not much
inferior to the other, by not sending part of our fleet to the west of
Ireland, where the Spaniards were of necessity to pass, after the many
dangers and disasters they had endured. If we had been so happy as to
have followed this course, which w