Ostend, ill-timed though it
was, had not paralyzed the arm or chilled the heart of the nation. When
the great Queen, arousing herself from the delusion in which the
falsehoods of Farnese and of Philip had lulled her, should once more.
represent--as no man or woman better than Elizabeth Tudor could
represent--the defiance of England to foreign insolence; the resolve of a
whole people to die rather than yield; there was a thrill of joy through
the national heart. When the enforced restraint was at last taken off,
there was one bound towards the enemy. Few more magnificent spectacles
have been seen in history than the enthusiasm which pervaded the country
as the great danger, so long deferred, was felt at last to be closely
approaching. The little nation of four millions, the merry England of the
sixteenth century, went forward to the death-grapple with its gigantic
antagonist as cheerfully as to a long-expected holiday. Spain was a vast
empire, overshadowing the world; England, in comparison, but a province;
yet nothing could surpass the steadiness with which the conflict was
awaited.

For, during all the months of suspense; the soldiers and sailors, and
many statesman of England, had deprecated, even as the Hollanders had
been doing, the dangerous delays of Ostend. Elizabeth was not embodying
the national instinct, when she talked of peace; and shrank penuriously
from the expenses of war. There was much disappointment, even
indignation, at the slothfulness with which the preparations for defence
went on, during the period when there was yet time to make them. It was
feared with justice that England, utterly unfortified as were its cities,
and defended only by its little navy without, and by untaught enthusiasm
within, might; after all, prove an easier conquest than Holland and
Zeeland, every town, in whose territory bristled with fortifications. If
the English ships--well-trained and swift sailors as they were--were
unprovided with spare and cordage, beef and biscuit, powder and shot, and
the militia-men, however enthusiastic, were neither drilled nor armed,
was it so very certain, after all, that successful resistance would be
made to the great Armada, and to the veteran pikemen and musketeers of
Farnese, seasoned on a hundred, battlefields, and equipped as for a
tournament? There was generous confidence and chivalrous loyalty on the
part of Elizabeth's naval and military commanders; but there had been
deep regret and