bulwarks, fitting of waist-cloths, arming of tops, tallowing of pikes,
slinging of yards, doubling of sheets and tacks," enough to satisfy even
the pedantical soul of Richard Hawkins himself. Amyas took charge of
the poop, Cary of the forecastle, and Yeo, as gunner, of the main-deck,
while Drew, as master, settled himself in the waist; and all was ready,
and more than ready, before the great ship was within two miles of them.

And now while the mastiffs of England and the bloodhounds of Spain are
nearing and nearing over the rolling surges, thirsting for each other's
blood, let us spend a few minutes at least in looking at them both, and
considering the causes which in those days enabled the English to face
and conquer armaments immensely superior in size and number of ships,
and to boast that in the whole Spanish war but one queen's ship, the
Revenge, and (if I recollect right) but one private man-of-war, Sir
Richard Hawkins's Dainty, had ever struck their colors to the enemy.

What was it which enabled Sir Richard Grenville's Revenge, in his last
fearful fight off the Azores, to endure, for twelve hours before she
struck, the attack of eight Spanish armadas, of which two (three times
her own burden) sank at her side; and after all her masts were gone, and
she had been boarded three times without success, to defy to the last
the whole fleet of fifty-four sail, which lay around her, waiting for
her to sink, "like dogs around the dying forest king"?

What enabled young Richard Hawkins's Dainty, though half her guns were
useless through the carelessness or treachery of the gunner, to maintain
for three days a running fight with two Spaniards of equal size with
her, double the weight of metal, and ten times the number of men?

What enabled Sir George Cary's illustrious ship, the Content, to fight,
single-handed, from seven in the morning till eleven at night, with
four great armadas and two galleys, though her heaviest gun was but
one nine-pounder, and for many hours she had but thirteen men fit for
service?

What enabled, in the very year of which I write, those two "valiant
Turkey Merchantmen of London, the Merchant Royal and the Tobie,"
with their three small consorts, to cripple, off Pantellaria in the
Mediterranean, the whole fleet of Spanish galleys sent to intercept
them, and return triumphant through the Straits of Gibraltar?

And lastly, what in the fight of 1588, whereof more hereafter, enabled
the English f