gly went back, and when they arrived, they found that
Buckingham had deceived them. They were ordered to Rochelle. One of
the ships broke away and returned to England. The officers and men
deserted from the other ships and got home. The whole armament was
disorganized, and the English people, who took sides with the sailors,
were extremely exasperated against Buckingham for his blind and
blundering recklessness, and against the king for giving such a man
the power to do his mischief on such an extensive scale.

At another time the duke and the king contrived to fit out a fleet of
eighty sail to make a descent upon the coast of Spain. It caused them
great trouble to get the funds for this expedition, as they had to
collect them, in a great measure, by various methods depending on the
king's prerogative, and not by authority of Parliament. Thus the whole
country were dissatisfied and discontented in respect to the fleet
before it was ready to sail. Then, as if this was not enough,
Buckingham overlooked all the officers in the navy in selecting a
commander, and put an officer of the army in charge of it; a man
whose whole experience had been acquired in wars on the land. The
country thought that Buckingham ought to have taken the command
himself, as lord high admiral; and if not, that he ought to have
selected his commander from the ranks of the service employed. Thus
the fleet set off on the expedition, all on board burning with
indignation against the arbitrary and absurd management of the
favorite. The result of the expedition was also extremely disastrous.
They had an excellent opportunity to attack a number of ships, which
would have made a very rich prize; but the soldier-commander either
did not know, or did not dare to do, his duty. He finally, however,
effected a landing, and took a castle, but the sailors found a great
store of wine there, and went to drinking and carousing, breaking
through all discipline. The commander had to get them on board again
immediately, and come away. Then he conceived the plan of going to
intercept what were called the Spanish galleons, which were ships
employed to bring home silver from the mines in America, which the
Spaniards then possessed. On further thoughts he concluded to give up
this idea, on account of the plague, which, as he said, broke out in
his ships. So he came back to England with his fleet disorganized,
demoralized, and crippled, and covered with military disgrace. T