ss a word to him.

It was in these very days that people in England first really became
conscious of the danger that threatened them. A division of the fleet
under Henry Seymour was watching, with Dutch assistance, the two
harbours held by the prince of Parma: the other and larger division,
just returned from Spain and on the point of being broken up, made
ready at Plymouth, under the admiral, Howard of Effingham, to receive
the enemy. Meanwhile the land forces assembled, on Leicester's
advice,[271] in the neighbourhood of London. The old feudal
organisation of the national force was once more called into full
activity to face this danger. Men saw the gentry take the field at the
head of their tenants and copyholders, and rejoiced at their holding
together so well. It was without doubt an advantage, that the
threatened attack could no longer be connected with a right of
succession recognised in the country; it appeared in its true
character, as a great invasion by a foreign power for the subjugation
of England. Even the Catholic lords came forward, among them Viscount
Montague (who had once, alone in the Upper House, opposed the
Supremacy, and had also since not reconciled himself to the religious
position of the Queen), with his sons and grandsons, and even his
heir-presumptive who, though still a child, bestrode a war-horse; Lord
Montague said, he would defend his Queen with his life, whoever might
attack her, king or pope. No doubt that these armings left much to be
desired, but they were animated by national and religious enthusiasm.
Some days later the Queen visited the camp at Tilbury: with slight
escort she rode from battalion to battalion. A tyrant, she said, might
be afraid of his subjects: she had always sought her chief strength in
their good will: with them she would live and die. She was everywhere
received with shouts of joy: psalms were sung, and prayers offered up
in which the Queen joined.

For, whatever may be men's belief, in great wars and dangers they
naturally turn their eyes to the Eternal Power which guides our
destiny, and on which all equally feel themselves dependent. The two
nations and their two chiefs alike called on God to decide in their
religious and political conflict. The fortune of mankind hung in the
balance.

On the 31st July, a Sunday, the Armada, covering a wide extent of sea,
came in sight of the English coast off the heights of Plymouth. On
board the fleet itself it was thou