of the national spirit of a people
rising with a united heart to repel the invader, and so on. But
national spirit could not extemporize a fleet, or produce trained
officers and sailors to match the conquerors of Lepanto. One slight
observation I must make here at starting, and certainly with no
invidious purpose. It has been said confidently,--it has been
repeated, I believe, by all modern writers,--that the Spanish invasion
suspended in England the quarrels of creed, and united Protestants and
Roman Catholics in defense of their Queen and country. They remind us
especially that Lord Howard of Effingham, who was Elizabeth's admiral,
was himself a Roman Catholic. But was it so? The Earl of Arundel, the
head of the House of Howard, was a Roman Catholic, and he was in the
Tower praying for the success of Medina Sidonia. Lord Howard of
Effingham was no more a Roman Catholic than--I hope I am not taking
away their character--than the present Archbishop of Canterbury or the
Bishop of London. He was a Catholic, but an English Catholic, as those
reverend prelates are. Roman Catholic he could not possibly have been,
nor any one who on that great occasion was found on the side of
Elizabeth. A Roman Catholic is one who acknowledges the Roman Bishop's
authority. The Pope had excommunicated Elizabeth, had pronounced her
deposed, had absolved her subjects from their allegiance and forbidden
them to fight for her. No Englishman who fought on that great occasion
for English liberty was, or could have been, in communion with Rome.
Loose statements of this kind, lightly made, fall in with the modern
humor. They are caught up, applauded, repeated, and pass unquestioned
into history. It is time to correct them a little.

THE DEATH OF COLONEL GORING

From 'Two Chiefs of Dunboy'

Fatally mistaking what was intended for a friendly warning, the
colonel conceived that there was some one in the forge whom the smith
wanted to conceal.

"I may return or not," he said; "but I must first have a word with
these strangers of yours. We can meet as friends for once, with
nothing to dispute over."

Minahan made no further attempt to prevent him from going in. If
gentlemen chose to have their quarrels, he muttered between his teeth,
it was no business of his.

Goring pushed open the door and entered. By the dim light--for the
shutter that had been thrown back had been closed again, and the only
light came from a window in the roof--he ma