issued in September 1670, appointing Colonel Thomas Lynch
Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica, to command there in the "want, absence
or disability" of the governor;[324] and on 4th January following, in
spite of a petition of the officers, freeholders and inhabitants of
Jamaica in favour of Modyford,[325] the commission of the governor was
revoked.[326] Lynch arrived in Jamaica on 25th June with instructions,
as soon as he had possession of the government and forts, to arrest Sir
Thomas Modyford and send him home under guard to answer charges laid
against him.[327] Fearing to exasperate the friends of the old governor,
Lynch hesitated to carry out his instructions until 12th August, when he
invited Modyford on board the frigate "Assistance," with several members
of the council, and produced the royal orders for his arrest. Lynch
assured him, however, that his life and fortune were not in danger, the
proceeding being merely a sop to the indignant Spaniards.[328] Modyford
arrived in England in November, and on the 17th of the month was
committed to the Tower.[329]

The indignation of the Spaniards, when the news of the sack of Panama
reached Spain, rose to a white heat. "It is impossible for me to paint
to your Lordship," wrote Godolphin to Lord Arlington, "the face of
Madrid upon the news of this action ... nor to what degree of
indignation the queen and ministers of State, the particular councils
and all sorts of people here, have taken it to heart."[330] It seems
that the ambassador or the Spanish consul in London had written to
Madrid that this last expedition was made by private intimation, if not
orders, from London, and that Godolphin had been commanded to provide in
the treaty for a long term before publication, so as to give time for
the execution of the design. Against these falsehoods the English
ambassador found it difficult to make headway, although he assured the
queen of the immediate punishment of the perpetrators, and the arrest
and recall of the Governor of Jamaica. Only by the greatest tact and
prudence was he able to stave off, until an official disavowal of the
expedition came from England, an immediate embargo on all the goods of
English merchants in Spain. The Spanish government decided to send a
fleet of 10,000 men with all speed to the Indies; and the Dukes of
Albuquerque and Medina Coeli vied with each other in offering to raise
the men at their own charge from among their own vassals. After
Godolphi