that English was the tongue that Noah spake afore the
flood, and the confusion of tongues at Babel."

Jack knew just enough to have a dim perception that Lord Strange was
laughing at him. He got out of the difficulty by turning the
conversation.

"Well, thus much say I: let the King of Spain come when he will, and
where, at every point of the coast there shall be an Englishman
awaiting--and we will drive him home thrice faster than he came at the
first."

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Note 1. He was fined 10,000 pounds for contempt of court. What his
real offences were remains doubtful, beyond the fact that he was a
Papist, and had married against the will of the Queen.

Note 2. The state of the gaols at this time, and for long afterwards,
until John Howard effected his reformation of them, was simply horrible.
The Black Assize at Exeter was by no means the only instance of its
land.

Note 3. I stated in _Robin Tremayne_ that I had not been able to
discover the burial-place of Honor Viscountess Lisle. Since that time,
owing to the kindness of correspondents, personally unknown to me, I
have ascertained that she was probably buried at Atherington, with her
first husband, Sir John Basset. In that church his brass still
remains--a knight between two ladies--the coats of arms plainly showing
that the latter are Anne Dennis of Oxleigh and Honor Granville of Stow.
But the Register contains no entry of burial previous to 1570.

Note 4. In the custody of the (Popish) Bishop of Southwark is a quarto
volume, containing, under date of Rome, April 28, 1588,--"An admonition
to the nobility and people of England and Ireland, concerning the
present warres made _for the execution of His Holiness' sentence_, by
the highe and mightie King Catholicke of Spaine: by the Cardinal of
England." [Cardinal Allen.]--(Third Report of Royal Commission of
Historical Manuscripts, page 233).

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA.

"His power secured thee, when presumptuous Spain Baptised her fleet
Invincible in vain; Her gloomy monarch, doubtful and resigned To every
pang that racks an anxious mind, Asked of the waves that broke upon his
coast, `What tidings?'--and the surge replied,--`All lost!'"

_Cowper_.

King Philip of Spain was coming at last. Every Englishman--ay, and
every woman and child in England--knew that now.

When Drake returned home from "singeing the Don's whis