at Corunna, and
captured the great treasure-ship _San Felipe_.

Elizabeth was no doubt encouraged in her apparent recklessness by the
belief that with the Netherlands, which she had been compelled at last to
assist, in a state of revolt, Spain would have little energy for
reprisals upon England; but she grew more and more uneasy when news
continued to arrive in England of the growing preparations for the
Armada; France, too, was now so much involved with internal struggles, as
the Protestant Henry of Navarre was now the heir to her Catholic throne,
that efficacious intervention could no longer be looked for from that
quarter, and it seemed at last as if the gigantic Southern power was
about to inflict punishment upon the little northern kingdom which had
insulted her with impunity so long.

In the October of '87 certain news arrived in England of the gigantic
preparations being made in Spain and elsewhere: and hearts began to beat,
and tongues to clack, and couriers to gallop. Then as the months went by,
and tidings sifted in, there was something very like consternation in the
country. Men told one another of the huge armament that was on its way,
the vast ships and guns--all bearing down on tiny England, like a bull on
a terrier. They spoke of the religious fervour, like that of a crusade,
that inspired the invasion, and was bringing the flower of the Spanish
nobility against them: the superstitious contrasted their own _Lion_,
_Revenge_, and _Elizabeth Jonas_ with the Spanish _San Felipe_, _San
Matteo_, and _Our Lady of the Rosary_: the more practical thought with
even deeper gloom of the dismal parsimony of the Queen, who dribbled out
stores and powder so reluctantly, and dismissed her seamen at the least
hint of delay.

Yet, little by little, as midsummer came and went, beacons were gathering
on every hill, ships were approaching efficiency, and troops assembling
at Tilbury under the supremely incompetent command of Lord Leicester.

Among the smaller seaports on the south coast, Rye was one of the most
active and enthusiastic; the broad shallow bay was alive with
fishing-boats, and the steep cobbled streets of the town were filled all
day with a chattering exultant crowd, cheering every group of seamen that
passed, and that spent long hours at the quay watching the busy life of
the ships, and predicting the great things that should fall when the
Spaniards encountered the townsfolk, should the Armada survive Drake