of them
were merchantmen. There was no comparison whatever between the relative
strength of the fleets. In number they were about equal being each from
one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty strong--but the Spaniards
had twice the tonnage of the English, four times the artillery, and
nearly three times the number of men.

Where was Farnese? Most impatiently the Golden Duke paced the deck of the
Saint Martin. Most eagerly were thousands of eyes strained towards the
eastern horizon to catch the first glimpse of Parma's flotilla. But the
day wore on to its close, and still the same inexplicable and mysterious
silence prevailed. There was utter solitude on the waters in the
direction of Gravelines and Dunkerk--not a sail upon the sea in the
quarter where bustle and activity had been most expected. The mystery was
profound, for it had never entered the head of any man in the Armada that
Alexander could not come out when he chose.

And now to impatience succeeded suspicion and indignation; and there were
curses upon sluggishness and upon treachery. For in the horrible
atmosphere of duplicity, in which all Spaniards and Italians of that
epoch lived, every man: suspected his brother, and already Medina Sidonia
suspected Farnese of playing him false. There were whispers of collusion
between the Duke and the English commissioners at Bourbourg. There were
hints that Alexander was playing his own game, that he meant to divide
the sovereignty of the Netherlands with the heretic Elizabeth, to desert
his great trust, and to effect, if possible, the destruction of his
master's Armada, and the downfall of his master's sovereignty in the
north. Men told each other, too, of a vague rumour, concerning which
Alexander might have received information, and in which many believed,
that Medina Sidonia was the bearer of secret orders to throw Farnese into
bondage, so soon as he should appear, to send him a disgraced captive
back to Spain for punishment, and to place the baton of command in the
hand of the Duke of Pastrana, Philip's bastard by the Eboli. Thus, in the
absence of Alexander, all was suspense and suspicion. It seemed possible
that disaster instead of triumph was in store for them through the
treachery of the commander-in-chief. Four and twenty hours and more, they
had been lying in that dangerous roadstead, and although the weather had
been calm and the sea tranquil, there seemed something brooding in the
atmosphere.

As