ness."

A wave of panic passed over the vessel, and these rough and hardy men
who feared no mortal foe shook with terror at the shadows of their own
minds. They stared into the cloud with blanched faces and fixed eyes, as
though each instant some fearsome shape might break in upon them. And
as they stared there came a gust of wind. For a moment the fog-bank rose
and a circle of ocean lay before them.

It was covered with vessels. On all sides they lay thick upon its
surface. They were huge caracks, high-ended and portly, with red sides
and bulwarks carved and crusted with gold. Each had one great sail set
and was driving down channel on the same course at the Basilisk. Their
decks were thick with men, and from their high poops came the weird
clashing which filled the air. For one moment they lay there, this
wondrous fleet, surging slowly forward, framed in gray vapor. The next
the clouds closed in and they had vanished from view. There was a long
hush, and then a buzz of excited voices.

"The Spaniards!" cried a dozen bowmen and sailors.

"I should have known it," said the shipman. "I call to mind on the
Biscay Coast how they would clash their cymbals after the fashion of the
heathen Moor with whom they fight; but what would you have me do, fair
sir? If the fog rises we are all dead men."

"There were thirty ships at the least," said Knolles, with a moody brow.
"If we have seen them I trow that they have also seen us. They will lay
us aboard."

"Nay, fair sir, it is in my mind that our ship is lighter and faster
than theirs. If the fog hold another hour we should be through them."

"Stand to your arms!" yelled Knolles. "Stand to your arms--! They are on
us!"

The Basilisk had indeed been spied from the Spanish Admiral's ship
before the fog closed down. With so light a breeze, and such a fog,
he could not hope to find her under sail. But by an evil chance not a
bowshot from the great Spanish carack was a low galley, thin and swift,
with oars which could speed her against wind or tide. She also had
seen the Basilisk and it was to her that the Spanish leader shouted his
orders. For a few minutes she hunted through the fog, and then sprang
out of it like a lean and stealthy beast upon its prey. It was the sight
of the long dark shadow gliding after them which had brought that wild
shout of alarm from the lips of the English knight. In another instant
the starboard oars of the galley had been shipped, the sides of t