was
repairing its damages. "'Twill be easy enough to conquer the country,"
said Philip, "so soon as you set foot on the soil. Then perhaps our
Armada can come back and station itself in the Thames to support you."

Nothing could be simpler. Nevertheless the King felt a pang of doubt lest
affairs, after all, might not be going on so swimmingly; so he dipped his
pen in the inkstand again, and observed with much pathos, "But if this
hope must be given up, you must take the Isle of Walcheren: something
must be done to console me."

And on the 15th September he was still no wiser. "This business of the
Armada leaves me no repose," he said; "I can think of nothing else. I
don't content myself with what I have written, but write again and again,
although in great want of light. I hear that the Armada has sunk and
captured many English ships, and is refitting in a Scotch pert. If this
is in the territory, of Lord Huntley, I hope he will stir up the
Catholics of that country."

And so, in letter after letter, Philip clung to the delusion that
Alexander could yet, cross to England, and that the Armada might sail up
the Thames. The Duke was directed to make immediate arrangements to that
effect with Medina Sidonia, at the very moment when that tempest-tossed
grandee was painfully-creeping back towards the Bay of Biscay, with what
remained of his invincible fleet.

Sanguine and pertinacious, the King refused to believe in, the downfall
of his long-cherished scheme; and even when the light was at last dawning
upon him, he was like a child, crying for a fresh toy, when the one which
had long amused him had been broken. If the Armada were really very much
damaged, it was easy enough, he thought, for the Duke of Parma to make
him a new one, while the old, one was repairing. "In case the Armada is
too much shattered to come out," said Philip, "and winter compels it to
stay in that port, you must cause another Armada to be constructed at
Emden and the adjacent towns, at my expense, and, with the two together,
you will certainly be able to conquer England."

And he wrote to Medina Sidonia in similar terms. That naval commander was
instructed to enter the Thames at once, if strong enough. If not, he was
to winter in the Scotch port which he was supposed to have captured.
Meantime Farnese would build a new fleet at Emden, and in the spring the
two dukes would proceed to accomplish the great purpose.

But at last the arrival of Medina