l. On his return from founding Raleigh's colony his
boats were swept away in a storm just before he saw a Spanish treasure
ship. But he made his carpenter put together some sort of boat with
bits of boxes; and in this he boarded the Spaniard, just reaching her
deck before his makeshift craft went down.

On the 1st of September, 1591, the _Revenge_, with Grenville in command
of her less than two hundred men, was at "Flores in the Azores" when
Don Alonzo de Bazan arrived with fifty-three ships of Spain. The
little English squadron under Lord Thomas Howard had no chance against
this overwhelming force. So it put to sea just in time to escape
destruction. But when Howard saw that the _Revenge_ was being
surrounded he gallantly came back and attacked the Spaniards in rear;
while the little _George Noble_ of London ran alongside the _Revenge_,
offering to stand by through thick and thin. Grenville ordered her
off, and Howard himself also retired, seeing no chance whatever of
helping the _Revenge_ and every chance of losing all his own ships.

Then, at three in the afternoon, the whole Spanish fleet closed in on
the _Revenge_, which had only one hundred men really fit for duty. The
rest were sick. Grenville, who had sworn he would cut down the first
man who touched a rope while there still seemed a chance to escape, now
refused the Spanish summons to surrender and prepared to fight to the
last. Trimming his sails as carefully as if for a yacht race he ran
down close-hauled on the starboard tack, right between the two
divisions of the Spanish fleet, till the flagship, three times the size
of the _Revenge_, ranged up on his weather side, thus blanketing his
canvas and stealing the wind. As the _Revenge_ lost way the ships she
had passed on the other side began ranging up to cut her off
completely. But meanwhile her first broadside had crashed into the
flagship, which hauled off for repairs and was replaced by two more
ships. The fight raged with the utmost fury all that sunny afternoon
and far into the warm dark night. Two Spaniards were sunk on the spot,
a third sank afterwards, and a fourth could only be saved by beaching.
But still the fight went on, the darkness reddened by the flaming guns.

Maddened to see one English ship keeping their whole fleet of
fifty-three at bay the Spaniards closed in till the _Revenge_ was
caught fast by two determined enemies. In came the Spanish grapplings,
hooking fast to the _