eneral on the
memorable Saturday, 6th of August, "no doubt but I think about London
the meetest, and I suppose that others will be of the same mind. And
your Majesty should forthwith give the charge thereof to some special
nobleman about you, and likewise place all your chief officers that every
man may know what he shall do, and gather as many good horse above all
things as you can, and the oldest, best, and assuredest captains to lead;
for therein will consist the greatest hope of good success under God. And
so soon as your army is assembled, let them by and by be exercised, every
man to know his weapon, and that there be all other things prepared in
readiness, for your army, as if they should march upon a day's warning,
especially carriages, and a commissary of victuals, and a master of
ordnance."

Certainly, with Alexander of Parma on his way to London, at the head of
his Italian pikemen, his Spanish musketeers, his famous veteran
legion--"that nursing mother of great soldiers"--it was indeed more than
time that every man should know what he should do, that an army of
Englishmen should be-assembled, and that every man should know his
weapon. "By and by" was easily said, and yet, on the 6th of August it was
by and by that an army, not yet mustered, not yet officered, not yet
provided with a general, a commissary of victuals, or a master of
ordinance, was to be exercised, "every man to know his weapon."

English courage might ultimately triumph over, the mistakes of those who
governed the country, and over those disciplined brigands by whom it was
to be invaded. But meantime every man of those invaders had already
learned on a hundred battle-fields to know his weapon.

It was a magnificent determination on the part of Elizabeth to place
herself at the head of her troops; and the enthusiasm which her attitude
inspired, when she had at last emancipated herself from the delusions of
diplomacy and the seductions of thrift, was some recompense at least for
the perils caused by her procrastination. But Leicester could not approve
of this hazardous though heroic resolution.

The danger passed away. The Invincible Armada was driven out of the
Channel by the courage; the splendid seamanship, and the enthusiasm of
English sailors and volunteers. The Duke of Parma was kept a close
prisoner by the fleets of Holland and Zeeland; and the great storm of the
14th and 15th of August at last completed the overthrow of the Spaniards.