on board, but there were some casks of Ribadavia wine which was
more fatal to her enemies than those pieces of artillery had proved. For
while the rebels were refreshing themselves, after the fatigues of the
capture, with large draughts of that famous vintage, the St. Philip,
which had been bored through and through with English shot, and had been
rapidly filling with water, gave a sudden lurch, and went down in a
moment, carrying with her to the bottom three hundred of those convivial
Hollanders.

A large Biscay galleon, too, of Recalde's squadron, much disabled in
action, and now, like many others, unable to follow the Armada, was
summoned by Captain Cross of the Hope, 48 guns, to surrender. Although
foundering, she resisted, and refused to strike her flag. One of her
officers attempted to haul down her colours, and was run through the body
by the captain, who, in his turn, was struck dead by a brother of the
officer thus slain. In the midst of this quarrel the ship went down with
all her crew.

Six hours and more, from ten till nearly five, the fight had lasted--a
most cruel battle, as the Spaniard declared. There were men in the Armada
who had served in the action of Lepanto, and who declared that famous
encounter to have been far surpassed in severity and spirit by this fight
off Gravelines. "Surely every man in our fleet did well," said Winter,
"and the slaughter the enemy received was great." Nor would the Spaniards
have escaped even worse punishment, had not, most unfortunately, the
penurious policy of the Queen's government rendered her ships useless at
last, even in this supreme moment. They never ceased cannonading the
discomfited enemy until the ammunition was exhausted. "When the
cartridges were all spent," said Winter, "and the munitions in some
vessels gone altogether, we ceased fighting, but followed the enemy, who
still kept away." And the enemy--although still numerous, and seeming
strong enough, if properly handled, to destroy the whole English
fleet--fled before them. There remained more than fifty Spanish vessels,
above six hundred tons in size, besides sixty hulks and other vessels of
less account; while in the whole English navy were but thirteen ships of
or above that burthen. "Their force is wonderful great and strong," said
Howard, "but we pluck their feathers by little and little."

For Medina Sidonia had now satisfied himself that he should never succeed
in boarding those hard-fighting and