The call was sounded. It rang through every ship like a trumpet note and
every man sprang to his duty.

"On to the Dons! No Spanish Inquisition!" was the watch-cry of the
English navy, and with great difficulty, for the wind was against them,
they steered for the open sea.

It was not until the next day that they came within sight of the Armada.
The most powerful fleet that had ever been known since the beginning of
time. Blest by the pope, sent forth amid the prayers and the fastings of
the people, the fleet had been cleared of every unclean thing, for
haughty England who styled herself the mistress of the seas was to be
humbled upon her own element and made to yield her lands to the
foreigners.

The great Spanish ships, built high like castles and towers, stretched in
the form of a crescent measuring at least seven miles from horn to horn.
They came slowly on, and, although under full sail, yet as though the
winds labored and the ocean sighed under the burden of it, says Camden.
When they reached the open channel Lord Howard discovered his policy to
his men.

They were not to come to close quarters with the towering, unwieldy
galleons, but to pour broadside after broadside into them at a distance
and to bide their opportunity to fall upon them. Nearer and nearer drew
the two fleets, the Spanish preparing to begin the action at daybreak.
But at two o'clock the gibbous moon arose in a clear sky and showed to
the astonished Spanish the English fleet lying in their rear just out of
cannon shot.

The next morning Lord Howard, sending before him a pinnace called the
Defiance, provoked the fight by discharging a piece of her ordnance and
presently out of his own ship, called the Ark Royal, thundered upon a
Spanish craft which he supposed was that of the Spanish Admiral, Medina
Sidonia, but which proved to be that of Alphonso de Leon.

At the same time Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher fell terribly upon the
rear which was valiantly commanded by Juan Martinez de Recaldo. The
English invaded, retired, and re-invaded them from every quarter with
incredible celerity. The Spanish captain general was nonplused. The
English ships ran in, doing as much damage as possible without coming to
close quarters, while his lumbering craft were useless to chase and
cripple so agile an enemy. The great galleons and galleasses of Spain
towered beside the English ships like "Flemish dray horses beside light
Arabian coursers."

Fiercer waxed