, and where he is to be found. This only I
entreat of you, and so remain behind with a heavy heart.

"Yours to command in all else, and I would to Heaven, in this also,

"AMYAS LEIGH."

I am sorry to have to say, that after having thus obeyed his mother,
Master Amyas, as men are too apt to do, revenged himself on her by being
more and more cross and disagreeable. But his temper amended much,
when, a few months after, Drake returned triumphant, having destroyed
a hundred sail in Cadiz alone, taken three great galleons with immense
wealth on board, burnt the small craft all along the shore, and offered
battle to Santa Cruz at the mouth of the Tagus. After which it is
unnecessary to say, that the Armada was put off for yet another year.

This news, indeed, gave Amyas little comfort; for he merely observed,
grumbling, that Drake had gone and spoiled everybody else's sport: but
what cheered him was news from Drake that Don Guzman had been heard of
from the captain of one of the galleons; that he was high in favor in
Spain, and commandant of soldiers on board one of the largest of the
marquis's ships.

And when Amyas heard that, a terrible joy took possession of him. When
the Armada came, as come it would, he should meet his enemy at last! He
could wait now patiently: if--and he shuddered at himself, as he found
himself in the very act of breathing a prayer that Don Guzman might not
die before that meeting.

In the meanwhile, rumor flew thousand-tongued through the length and
breadth of the land; of vast preparations going on in Spain and Italy;
of timber felled long before for some such purpose, brought down to the
sea, and sawn out for shipbuilding; of casting of cannon, and drilling
of soldiers; of ships in hundreds collecting at Lisbon; of a crusade
preached by Pope Sixtus the Fifth, who had bestowed the kingdom of
England on the Spaniard, to be enjoyed by him as vassal tributary to
Rome; of a million of gold to be paid by the pope, one-half down at
once, the other half when London was taken; of Cardinal Allen writing
and printing busily in the Netherlands, calling on all good Englishmen
to carry out, by rebelling against Elizabeth, the bull of Sixtus the
Fifth, said (I blush to repeat it) to have been dictated by the Holy
Ghost; of Inquisitors getting ready fetters and devil's engines of all
sorts; of princes and noblemen, flocking from all quarters, gentlemen
selling their private estates to fit out ships; how t