e a
tiller. In some ships there was no water for fourteen days. The weather
in the lower latitudes lost part of its violence, or not one of them
would have seen Spain again. As it was they drifted on outside Scilly
and into the Bay of Biscay, and in the second week in September they
dropped in one by one. Recalde, with better success than the rest, made
Corunna. The Duke, not knowing where he was, found himself in sight of
Corunna also. The crew of the _San Martin_ were prostrate, and could not
work her in. They signalled for help, but none came, and they dropped
away to leeward to Bilbao. Oquendo had fallen off still farther to
Santander, and the rest of the sixty arrived in the following days at
one or other of the Biscay ports. On board them, of the thirty thousand
who had left those shores but two months before in high hope and
passionate enthusiasm, nine thousand only came back alive--if alive they
could be called. It is touching to read in a letter from Bilbao of their
joy at warm Spanish sun, the sight of the grapes on the white walls, and
the taste of fresh home bread and water again. But it came too late to
save them, and those whose bodies might have rallied died of broken
hearts and disappointed dreams. Santa Cruz's old companions could not
survive the ruin of the Spanish navy. Recalde died two days after he
landed at Bilbao. Santander was Oquendo's home. He had a wife and
children there, but he refused to see them, turned his face to the wall,
and died too. The common seamen and soldiers were too weak to help
themselves. They had to be left on board the poisoned ships till
hospitals could be prepared to take them in. The authorities of Church
and State did all that men could do; but the case was past help, and
before September was out all but a few hundred needed no further care.

Philip, it must be said for him, spared nothing to relieve the misery.
The widows and orphans were pensioned by the State. The stroke which had
fallen was received with a dignified submission to the inscrutable
purposes of Heaven. Diego Florez escaped with a brief punishment at
Burgos. None else were punished for faults which lay chiefly in the
King's own presumption in imagining himself the instrument of
Providence.

The Duke thought himself more sinned against than sinning. He did not
die, like Recalde or Oquendo, seeing no occasion for it. He flung down
his command and retired to his palace at San Lucan; and so far was
Philip