leet departed from the Groin. And after a few days he sent Rodericus
Telius into Flanders, to advertise the duke of Parma, giving him warning
that the fleet was approaching, and therefore he was to make himself
ready. For Medina's commission was to join himself with the ships and
soldiers of Parma; and under the protection of his fleet to bring them
into England, and to land his forces upon the Thames side.

The sixteenth, day, (saith the relator,) there was a great calm, and a
thick cloud was upon the sea till noon; then the north wind blowing
roughly; and again the west wind till midnight, and after that the east;
the Spanish navy was scattered, and hardly gathered together until they
came within sight of England the nineteenth day of July. Upon which day,
the lord admiral was certified by Fleming, (who had been a pirate) that
the Spanish fleet was entered into the English sea, which the mariners
call the Channel, and was descried near to the Lizard. The lord admiral
brought forth the English fleet into the sea, but not without great
difficulty, by the skill, labour, and alacrity of the soldiers and
mariners, every one labouring; yea, the lord admiral himself putting his
hand to this work.

The next day the English fleet viewed the Spanish fleet coming along
like the towering castles in height, her front crooked like the fashion
of the moon, the wings of the fleet were extended one from the other
about seven miles, or as some say eight miles asunder, sailing with the
labour of the winds, the ocean as it were groaning under it, their sail
was but slow, and yet at full sail before the wind. The English were
willing to let them hold on their course, and when they were passed by,
got behind them, and so got to windward of them.

Upon the 21st of July, the lord admiral of England sent a cutter before,
called the Defiance, to denounce the battle by firing off pieces. And
being himself in the Royal-Arch, (the English admiral ship) he began the
engagement with a ship which he took to be the Spanish admiral, but
which was the ship of Alfonsus Leva. Upon that he expended much shot.
Presently Drake, Hawkins, and Forbisher, came in upon the rear of the
Spaniards which Ricaldus commanded.--Upon these they thundered. Ricaldus
endeavoured, as much as in him lay, to keep his men to their quarters,
but all in vain, until his ship, much beaten and battered with many
shot, hardly recovered the fleet. Then the duke of Medina gathered
t