ith
unsparing hand; the chivalrous and young rushed on-board ships of their
own equipment, a band of generous volunteers; the poor demanded arms to
exterminate every invader who should set foot on English ground; while
the clergy animated their audience against the Pope and the Spaniard,
and invoked a blessing on the holy warfare of their fellow-citizens.
Elizabeth, casting aside all her weaknesses, showed herself worthy to be
the queen and heroine of such a people. Her prudence, her vigilance, her
presence of mind, which failed not for a moment, inspired unbounded
confidence, while her cheerful countenance and spirited demeanour
breathed hope and courage and alacrity into the coldest bosoms. Never
did a sovereign enter upon a great and awful contest with a more
strenuous resolution to fulfil all duties, to confront all perils; never
did a people repay with such ardor of gratitude, such enthusiasm of
attachment, the noblest virtues of a prince.

The best troops of the country were at this time absent in Flanders; and
there was no standing army except the queen's guard and the garrisons
kept in a few forts on the coast or the Scottish border. The royal navy
was extremely small, and the revenues of the crown totally inadequate
to the effort of raising it to any thing approaching a parity with the
fleets of Spain. The queen possessed not a single ally on the continent
capable of affording her aid; she doubted the fidelity of the king of
Scots to her interests, and a formidable mass of disaffection was
believed to subsist among her own subjects of the catholic communion. It
was on the spontaneous efforts of individuals that the whole safety of
the country at this momentous crisis was left dependent: if these
failed, England was lost;--but in such a cause, at such a juncture, they
could not fail; and the first appeal made by government to the
patriotism of the people was answered with that spirit in which a nation
is invincible. A message was sent by the privy-council to inquire of the
corporation of London what the city would be willing to undertake for
the public service? The corporation requested to be informed what the
council might judge requisite in such a case. Fifteen ships and five
thousand men, was the answer. Two days after, the city "humbly intreated
the council, in sign of their perfect love and loyalty, to prince and
country, to accept ten thousand men and thirty ships amply furnished."
"And," adds the chronicl