ay!"
said Amyas, stamping on the deck.

"Of course it was. Well, we shall find her again, doubt not. That
cunning old Drake! how he has contrived to line his own pockets, even
though he had to keep the whole fleet waiting for him."

"He has given the lord high admiral the dor, at all events."

"Lord Howard is too high-hearted to stop and plunder, Papist though he
is, Amyas."

Amyas answered by a growl, for he worshipped Drake, and was not too just
to Papists.

The fleet did not find Lord Howard till nightfall; he and Lord Sheffield
had been holding on steadfastly the whole night after the Spanish
lanterns, with two ships only. At least there was no doubt now of the
loyalty of English Roman Catholics, and indeed, throughout the fight,
the Howards showed (as if to wipe out the slurs which had been cast on
their loyalty by fanatics) a desperate courage, which might have thrust
less prudent men into destruction, but led them only to victory. Soon a
large Spaniard drifts by, deserted and partly burnt. Some of the men are
for leaving their place to board her; but Amyas stoutly refuses. He has
"come out to fight, and not to plunder; so let the nearest ship to her
have her luck without grudging." They pass on, and the men pull long
faces when they see the galleon snapped up by their next neighbor,
and towed off to Weymouth, where she proves to be the ship of Miguel
d'Oquenda, the vice-admiral, which they saw last night, all but blown up
by some desperate Netherland gunner, who, being "misused," was minded to
pay off old scores on his tyrants.

And so ends the second day; while the Portland rises higher and clearer
every hour. The next morning finds them off the island. Will they try
Portsmouth, though they have spared Plymouth? The wind has shifted
to the north, and blows clear and cool off the white-walled downs of
Weymouth Bay. The Spaniards turn and face the English. They must mean
to stand off and on until the wind shall change, and then to try for
the Needles. At least, they shall have some work to do before they round
Purbeck Isle.

The English go to the westward again: but it is only to return on the
opposite tack; and now begin a series of manoeuvres, each fleet trying
to get the wind of the other; but the struggle does not last long, and
ere noon the English fleet have slipped close-hauled between the Armada
and the land, and are coming down upon them right before the wind.

And now begins a fight most fierce