that, being dead, he hath not outlived his own honor.

For the rest of her majesty's ships that entered not so far into the fight as the "Revenge," the reasons and causes were these. . . . The island of Flores was on the one side, fifty-three sail of the Spanish, divided into squadrons, on the other, all as full filled with soldiers as they could contain. Almost the one half of our men sick and not able to serve; the ships grown foul, unrummaged, and scarcely able to bear any sail for want of ballast, having been six months at the sea before. If all the rest had entered, all had been lost, for the very hugeness of the Spanish fleet, if no other violence had been offered, would have crushed them between them into shivers. Of which the dishonor and loss to the queen had been far greater than the spoil or harm that the enemy could any way have received. Notwithstanding, it is very true that the "Lord Thomas" would have entered between the squadrons, but the rest would not condescend: and the master of his own ship offered to leap into the sea rather than to conduct that her majesty's ship and the rest, to be a prey to the enemy where there was no hope nor possibility either of defence or victory. Which also in my opinion had ill sorted or answered the discretion and trust of a general-to commit himself and his charge to an assured destruction without hope or any likelihood of prevailing, thereby to diminish the strength

of her majesty's navy, and to enrich the pride and glory of the enemy. The "Foresight," of the queen's, commanded by M. Thomas Vavasour, performed a very great fight and stayed two hours as near the "Revenge" as the weather would permit him, not forsaking the fight till he was likely to be encompassed by the squadrons, and with great difficulty cleared himself. The rest gave divers volleys of shot and entered as far as the place permitted, and their own necessities to keep the weather gage of the enemy, until they were parted by night. A few days after the fight was ended and the English prisoners 'dispersed into the Spanish and Indian ships, there arose so great a storm from the west and northwest that all the fleet was dispersed, as well as the Indian fleet which was then come unto them, as the rest of the Armada that attended their arrival, of which fourteen sail, together with the "Revenge," and in her two hundred Spaniards, were cast away upon the island of Saint Michael. So it pleased them to honor the burial of that renowned ship, the "Revenge," not suffering her to perish alone for the great honor she had achieved in her lifetime.

THE "REVENGE"

A BALLAD OF THE FLEET

I

AT Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,

And a pinnace, like a flutter'd bird, came flying

from far away:

"Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted fiftythree!"

Then sware Lord Thomas Howard: "'Fore God I am no coward;

But I can not meet them here, for my ships are out of

gear,

And the half my men are sick. I must fly, but follow

quick.

We are six ships of the line; can we fight with fiftythree?"

II

Then spake Sir Richard Grenville: "I know you are no coward;

You fly them for a moment to fight with them again. But I've ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore.

I should count myself the coward if I left them, my Lord Howard,

To these Inquisition dogs and the 'devildoms of Spain."

III

So Lord Howard past away with five ships of war that day,

Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer

heaven;

But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick men from the land

Very carefully and slow,

Men of Bideford in Devon,

And we laid them on the ballast down below;

For we brought them all aboard,

And they blest him in their pain, that they were not left to Spain,

To the thumbscrew and the stake, for the glory of the Lord.

IV

He had only a hundred seamen to work the ship and to fight,

And he sailed away from Flores till the Spaniard came in sight,

With his huge sea-castles heaving upon the weather bow.

"Shall we fight or shall we fly?

Good Sir Richard, tell us now,
For to fight is but to die!

There'll be little of us left by the time this sun be

set."

And Sir Richard said again: "We be all good English men.

Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the

devil,

For I never turn'd my back upon Don or devil yet."

V

Sir Richard spoke and he laugh'd, and we roar'd a hurrah, and so

The little "Revenge" ran on sheer into the heart of the foe,

With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below;

For half of their fleet to the right and half to the left were seen,

And the little "Revenge" ran on thro' the long sealane between.

VI

Thousands of their soldiers look'd down from their decks and laugh'd,

Thousands of their seamen made mock at the mad little craft

Running on and on, till delay'd

By their mountain-like "San Philip" that, of fifteen hundred tons,

And up-shadowing high above us with her yawning tiers of guns,

Took the breath from our sails, and we stay'd.