ough the great general had not enough flat-boats and barges
to float his army had he been so foolhardy as to embark, or the
Dutch so benevolent as to let him go. But the English, now reenforced
by Seymour's squadron, gave the Duke little time to ponder his next
move. At midnight eight fire hulks, "spurting flames and their
ordnance exploding," were borne by wind and tide full upon the
crowded Spanish fleet. Fearful of _maquinas de minas_ such as had
wrought destruction a year before at the siege of Antwerp, the
Spanish made no effort to grapple the peril but slipped or cut cables
and in complete confusion beat off shore.

At dawn the Spanish galleons, attempting with a veering wind from
the southward and westward to form in order off Gravelines, were set
upon in the closest approach to a general engagement that occurred
in the campaign. While Howard and several of his ships were busy
effecting the capture of a beached galleass, Drake led the attack
in the _Revenge_, seeking to force the enemy to leeward and throw
the whole body upon the shallows of the Flanders coast. With splendid
discipline, the Spanish weather ships, the flagship _San Martin_
among them, fought valiantly to cover the retreat. But it was an
unequal struggle, the heavier and more rapid fire of the English
doing fearful execution on decks crowded with men-at-arms. Such
artillery combat was hitherto unheard of. Though warned of the new
northern methods, the Spanish were obsessed by tradition; they were
prepared for grappling and boarding, and could they have closed,
their numbers and discipline would have told. Both sides suffered
from short ammunition; but the Armada, with no fresh supplies, was
undoubtedly in the worse case. "They fighting with their great
ordnance," writes Medina Sidonia, "and we with harquebus fire and
musketry, the distance being very small." Six-inch guns against
bows and muskets tells the tale.

A slackening of the English pursuit at nightfall after eight hours'
fighting, and an off-shore slant of wind at daybreak, prevented
complete disaster. One large galleon sank and two more stranded
and were captured by the Dutch. These losses were not indeed fatal,
but the remaining ships staggering away to leeward were little
more than blood-drenched wrecks. Fifteen hundred had been killed
and wounded in the day's action, and eleven ships and some eight
thousand men sacrificed thus far in the campaign. The English,
on the other hand, had