ght with the Armada.]

Small however as the English ships were, they were in perfect trim; they
sailed two feet for the Spaniards' one; they were manned with 9000 hardy
seamen, and their Admiral was backed by a crowd of captains who had won
fame in the Spanish seas. With him were Hawkins, who had been the first
to break into the charmed circle of the Indies; Frobisher, the hero of
the North-West passage; and above all Drake, who held command of the
privateers. They had won too the advantage of the wind; and, closing in
or drawing off as they would, the lightly-handled English vessels, which
fired four shots to the Spaniards' one, hung boldly on the rear of the
great fleet as it moved along the Channel. "The feathers of the
Spaniard," in the phrase of the English seamen, were "plucked one by
one." Galleon after galleon was sunk, boarded, driven on shore; and yet
Medina Sidonia failed in bringing his pursuers to a close engagement.
Now halting, now moving slowly on, the running fight between the two
fleets lasted throughout the week, till on Sunday, the twenty-eighth of
July, the Armada dropped anchor in Calais roads. The time had come for
sharper work if the junction of the Armada with Parma was to be
prevented; for, demoralized as the Spaniards had been by the merciless
chase, their loss in ships had not been great, and their appearance off
Dunkirk might drive off the ships of the Hollanders who hindered the
sailing of the Duke. On the other hand, though the numbers of English
ships had grown, their supplies of food and ammunition were fast running
out. Howard therefore resolved to force an engagement; and, lighting
eight fire-ships at midnight, sent them down with the tide upon the
Spanish line. The galleons at once cut their cables, and stood out in
panic to sea, drifting with the wind in a long line off Gravelines.
Drake resolved at all costs to prevent their return. At dawn on the
twenty-ninth the English ships closed fairly in, and almost their last
cartridge was spent ere the sun went down.

[Sidenote: Flight of the Armada.]

Hard as the fight had been, it seemed far from a decisive one. Three
great galleons indeed had sunk in the engagement, three had drifted
helplessly on to the Flemish coast, but the bulk of the Spanish vessels
remained, and even to Drake the fleet seemed "wonderful great and
strong." Within the Armada itself however all hope was gone. Huddled
together by the wind and the deadly English fire,