ed with speed; and
was in a manner offended with Richardotus, who denied that such words
fell from him.

The 12th of April, the count Aremberg, Champigny, Richardotus, Doctor
Maesius, and Garnier, delegated from the prince of Parma, met with the
English, and yielded to them the honour both in walking and sitting.

This conference, however, came to nothing; undertaken by, the queen, as
the wiser then thought, to avert the Spanish fleet; continued by the
Spaniard that he might oppress the queen, being as he supposed
unprovided, and not expecting the danger. So both of them tried to use
time to their best advantages.

At length the Spanish fleet, well furnished with men, ammunition,
engines, and all warlike preparations, the best, indeed, that ever was
seen upon the ocean, called by the arrogant title, The Invincible
Armada, consisted of 130 ships, wherein there were in all, 19,290.
Mariners, 8,350. Chained rowers, 11,080. Great ordnance, 11,630. The
chief commander was Perezius Guzmannus, duke of Medina Sidonia; and
under him Joannes Martinus Ricaldus, a man of great experience in sea
affairs.

The 30th of May they loosed out of the river Tagus, and bending their
course to the Groin, in Gallicia, they were beaten and scattered by a
tempest, three galleys, by the help of David Gwin, an English servant,
and by the perfidiousness of the Turks which rowed, were carried away
into France. The fleet, with much ado, after some days came to the
Groin, and other harbours near adjoining. The report was, that the fleet
was so shaken by this tempest, that the queen was persuaded, that she
was not to expect that fleet this year. And Sir Francis Walsingham,
sec'y, wrote to the lord admiral, that he might send back four of the
greatest ships, as if the war had been ended. But the lord admiral did
not easily give credit to that report; yet with a gentle answer
entreated him to believe nothing hastily in so important a matter: as
also that he might be permitted to keep those ships with him which he
had, though it were upon his own charges. And getting a favourable wind,
made sail towards Spain, to surprise the enemy's damaged ships in their
harbours. When he was close in with the coast of Spain, the wind
shifting, and he being charged to defend the English shore, fearing that
the enemy might unseen, by the same wind, sail for England, he returned
unto Plymouth.

Now with the same wind, the 12th of July, the duke of Medina with his
f