for the
first time came to light the full superiority which the English gained
from their corsair-like and bold method of war, and their alliance
with the Dutch. It was seen that a sudden attack would suffice to
break the whole combination in pieces: Queen Elizabeth was said to
have herself devised the plan and its arrangement.

The Armada was still lying at anchor in line of battle, waiting for
news from Alexander Farnese, when in the night between Sunday and
Monday (7th to 8th August) the English sent some fire-ships, about
eight in number, against it. They were his worst vessels which Lord
Howard gave up for this purpose, but their mere appearance produced a
decisive result. Medina Sidonia could not refuse his ships permission
to slip their anchors, that each might avoid the threatening danger:
only he commanded them to afterwards resume their previous order. But
things wore a completely different appearance the following morning.
The tide had carried the vessels towards the land, a direction they
did not want to take; now for the first time the attacks of the
English proved destructive to them: part of the ships had become
disabled: it was completely impossible to obey the admiral's orders
that they should return to their old position. Instead of this,
unfavourable winds drove the Armada against its will along the coast;
in a short time the English too gave up the pursuit of the enemy, who
without being quite beaten was yet in flight, and abandoned him to his
fate. The wind drove the Spaniards on the shoals of Zealand: once they
were in such shallow water that they were afraid of running aground:
some of their galleons in fact fell into the hands of the Dutch.
Fortunately for them the wind veered round first to the W.S.W., then
to the S.S.W., but they could not even then regain the Channel, nor
would they have wished it; only by the longest circuit, round the
Orkney Islands, could they return to Spain.

A storm fraught with ruin had lowered over England: it was scattered
before it discharged its thunder. So completely true is the expression
on a Dutch commemorative medal, 'the breath of God has scattered them'
(_flavit et dissipati sunt_).

Philip II saw the Armada, which he had hoped would give the dominion
of the world into his hand, return home again in fragments without
having, we do not say accomplished but even, attempted anything worth
the trouble. He did not therefore renounce his design. He spoke of his