hat remained. She
could, of course, command attendance, but not the love that she had
formerly known--for there was now little to be gained from serving her,
and she had, moreover, been made unpopular by the execution of the Earl
of Essex, who was loved by the common people.

Elizabeth died in her sleep in 1603, passing away without pain. And we
are told that when her coffin was borne to Westminster Abbey, where she
was buried, that all the former love of her subjects returned and she
was mourned as no sovereign has been mourned before or since her time.
And this was only fitting, for in spite of her many faults, her like
has seldom been seen upon a throne or in the course of history.

CHAPTER XV

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Probably the greatest hero in all Great Britain's naval history is Sir
Francis Drake, who carried England's flag to the uttermost corners of
the earth and made it glorious when Queen Elizabeth was on the English
throne.

Drake was the oldest of a family of twelve sons and was born in
Devonshire in 1539. He was an active and adventurous boy, fond of all
athletic games and early showing a taste for the sea that seemed to run
in his family, for his father had served in the navy in the time of
Henry the Eighth, and his cousin, Sir John Hawkins, was sailing to the
coast of Guinea to bring back slaves.

The talent that Drake had for the sea was soon observed by the
keen-eyed Hawkins, and before long Drake became his apprentice, and
quickly learned the ins and outs of seamanship. He rapidly made a name
for himself as a brave and skilful sailor, and before long accompanied
Hawkins on his trips to Guinea after negro slaves--trips in which Drake
was always in the fore when any adventure of a particularly dangerous
nature was undertaken. The slave trade was a perfectly honorable
calling in those days, and Drake succeeded in it beyond his hopes,
amassing much money with which he helped his younger brothers and did
many kindnesses for his family.

But the slave trade itself soon grew too small to satisfy Hawkins, who
sought a field for broader adventures. All the western ocean lay open
to him, and mustering a squadron he offered Drake the command of one of
the vessels, which were to go to the West Indies and engage in trading
or fighting with the Spaniards, who had at that time almost a monopoly
of the waters where Columbus had sailed some seventy years before.
Spain and England were not openly at war wh