nd all sorts of instruments of torture--racks and thumb-screws, and
every device for inflicting agony on the bodies of people, in order to
induce them to conform to what the Spaniards called the true faith. The
mighty fleet of Spain sailed up the Channel, Philip's generals and
officers boasting of the great victory they were about to achieve.
Elizabeth and her people had done their best for the defence of the
country and their liberty; but the Queen trusted not alone to an arm of
flesh. She offered up a prayer to God for the protection of her realm,
and sent it to her General at Plymouth, that he might in the same terms
pray for victory:--

"Most Omnipotent and Guider of all our world's mass, that only searchest
and fathomest the bottom of all hearts' conceits, and in them seest the
true original of all actions intended, how no malice, revenge, nor
quittance of injury, nor desire of bloodshed, nor greediness of lucre,
hath bred the resolution of our now set-out army, but a heedful care and
wary watch that no neglect of foes nor over-surety of harm might breed
either danger to us or glory to them. Thou that didst inspire the mind,
we humbly beseech with bended knees prosper the work, and with the best
fore-winds guide the journey, speed the victory, and make the return the
advancement of Thy glory, the triumph of Thy fame, the surety of the
realm, with the least loss of English blood. To these devout petitions,
Lord, give Thou Thy blessed grant! Amen."

The very day on which that prayer was being offered up, it was said that
Don Bernadins de Mendoza, the Spanish Ambassador, rushed into the Church
of Notre Dame in Paris, flourishing his rapier, and exclaiming in a loud
voice, "Victoria!" by which it was supposed that the English were
vanquished.

Up Channel the mighty Armada steered in the shape of a half-moon, with
the wind from the south-west, on the 21st of July of that year. While
Lord Howard began the battle by attacking in his own ship, called the
_Ark Royal_, one of the large ships of the Armada, Drake, Hawkins, and
Frobisher soon joined him, for two days pursuing and attacking the enemy
with the greatest fury, joined by Sir Walter Raleigh and other brave
commanders. For one day, the 24th, there was a rest; but on the
following, Hawkins, in the _Victory_, attacked a great galleon, which
yielded herself up; but now came on another desperate battle, till at
length the Spaniards anchored before Calais. Here,