ent as I
was when a boy for the next chapter of my Dickens or Thackeray. Don't
laugh, dear old fellow, over my enthusiasm or my illustration, but
remember that I represent a considerable amount of average human
nature, and that's what we all write for, and ought to write for, and
be dashed to the critics who say to the contrary! I thought your
parallel of Philip and Don Quixote delightful, but the similitude of
Medina Sidonia and Sancho Panza is irresistible. That letter to
Philip is Sancho's own hand! Where did you get it? How long have you
had it up your sleeve? Have you got any more such cards to play? Can
you not give us a picture of those gentlemen adventurers with their
exalted beliefs, their actual experiences, their little jealousies,
and the love-lorn Lope de Vega in their midst? What mankind you have
come upon, dear Froude! How I envy you! Have you nothing to spare for
a poor literary man like myself, who has made all he could out of the
hulk of a poor old Philippine galleon on Pacific seas? Couldn't you
lend me a Don or a galley-slave out of that delightful crew of solemn
lunatics? And yet how splendid are those last orders of the Duke!
With what a swan-like song they sailed away!"

--
* The successor to Fraser.
--

The letter from Medina Sidonia to Philip, which reminded both Froude
and Bret Harte of Sancho Panza, is too delicious not to be given in
full.

"My health is bad, and from my small experience of the water I know
that I am always sea-sick. I have no money which I can spare, I owe a
million ducats, and I have not a real to spend on my outfit. The
expedition is on such a scale, and the object is of such high
importance, that the person at the head of it ought to understand
navigation and sea-fighting, and I know nothing of either. I have not
one of those essential qualifications. I have no acquaintance among
the officers who are to serve under me. Santa Cruz had information
about the state of things in England; I have none. Were I competent
otherwise, I should have to act in the dark by the opinion of others,
and I cannot tell to whom I may trust. The Adelantado of Castile
would do better than I. Our Lord would help him, for he is a good
Christian, and has fought in several battles. If you send me, depend
upon it, I shall have a bad account to render of my trust."*

--
* Spanish Story of the Armada, pp. 19, 20.
--

"Those last orders of the Duke"--the same Duke, by the way--are
"splendid"