ns for to invade
the Queen's Majesty's dominions. And now they say that we may look for
his setting forth this next year. Sir Francis Drake is gone by Her
Highness' command to the Spanish main, there to keep watch and bring
word; and he saith he will singe the Don's whiskers ere he turn again.
Yet he may come, for all belike."

The singeing of the Don's whiskers was effected soon after, by the
burning of a hundred ships of war in the harbour of Cadiz.

"Why, not a man in England but would turn out to defend the Queen and
country!" exclaimed Sir Thomas.

"Here is one that so will, Sir, by your leave," said another voice.

We may peep behind the green curtain, though Barbara did not. That
elegant young man with such finished manners--surely he can never be our
old and irrepressible friend Jack? Ay, Jack and no other; more courtly,
but as irrepressible as ever.

"We'll be ready for him!" said Sir Thomas grimly.

"Amen!" was Jack's contribution, precisely in the treble tones of the
parish clerk. The imitation was so perfect that even the grave Lord
Strange could not suppress a smile.

"Shall I get thee a company, Jack Enville?"

"Pray do so, my good Lord. I thank your Lordship heartily."

"Arthur Tremayne is set on going, if it come to hot water--as seemeth
like enough."

"Arthur Tremayne is a milksop, my Lord! I marvel what he means to do.
His brains are but addled eggs--all stuffed with Latin and Greek."

Jack, of course, like the average country gentleman of his time, was a
profound ignoramus. What knowledge had been drilled into him in
boyhood, he had since taken pains to forget. He was familiar with the
punctilio of duelling, the code of regulations for fencing, the rules of
athletic sports, and the intricacies of the gaming-table; but anything
which he dubbed contemptuously "book-learning," he considered as far
beneath him as it really was above.

"He will be as good for the Spaniards to shoot at as any other,"
jocularly observed Sir Thomas.

"Then pray you, let Lysken Barnevelt go!" said Jack soberly. "I warrant
you she'll stand fire, and never so much as ruffle her hair."

"Well, I heard say Dame Mary Cholmondeley of Vale Royal, that an' the
men beat not back the Spaniards, the women should fight them with their
bodkins; wherewith Her Highness was so well pleased that she dubbed the
dame a knight then and there. My wife saith, an' it come to that, she
will be colonel of a company of arche