1586-7. In Nicolas, Life of Davison 70.

[262] Reasons gathered by certain appointed in Parliament. In Strype
iii. 1, 534.

[263] According to the protocol of an interview with the ambassador
(in Murdin, 579) there can be no doubt of the reality of the plot. The
ambassador does not deny that he had been spoken to about it, he only
excuses himself for not having had the Queen informed of it, but
asserts that he had rejected it with abhorrence.

[264] To James I, Letters of Elizabeth and James 42.

[265] Arraignment of Mr. Davison in the Star Chamber, State Trials
1230. In Nicolas, Life of William Davison, are printed the statements
and memoranda of Davison as to his share in this matter. They are not
without reserve; but, in what they contain, they bear the stamp of
truth.

CHAPTER VI.

THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA.

At this moment the war with the Spaniards--the resistance which the
English auxiliaries offered to them in the Netherlands, as well as the
attack now being made on their coasts--occupied men's minds all the
more, as the success of both the one and the other was very doubtful,
and a most dangerous counter-stroke was to be expected. The lion they
wished to bind had only become exasperated. The naval war in
particular provoked the extreme of peril.

Hostilities had been going on a long while, arising at first from the
privateering which filled the whole of the Western Ocean. The English
traders held it to be their right to avenge every injustice done them
on their neighbours' coasts--for man has, they said, a natural desire
of procuring himself satisfaction--and so turned themselves into
freebooters. Through the counter operations of the Spaniards this
private naval war became more and more extensive, and then also
gradually developed more glorious impulses, as we see in Francis
Drake, who at first only took part in the mere privateering of injured
traders, and afterwards rose to the idea of a maritime rivalry between
the nations. It was an important moment in the history of the world
when Drake on the isthmus of Panama first caught sight of the Pacific,
and prayed God for His grace that he might sail over this sea some day
in an English ship--a grace since granted not merely to himself but
also in the richest measure to his nation. Many companies were formed
to resume the voyages of discovery already once begun and then again
discontinued. And as the Spaniards based their exclusive right to the
pos