imaginary one; and
the lord-lieutenant of each county was to do his best with the militia.
But men were perpetually escaping out of the general service, in order to
make themselves retainers for private noblemen, and be kept at their
expense. "You shall hardly believe," said Leicester, "how many new
liveries be gotten within these six weeks, and no man fears the penalty.
It would be better that every nobleman did as Lord Dacres, than to take
away from the principal service such as are set down to serve."

Of enthusiasm and courage, then, there was enough, while of drill and
discipline, of powder and shot, there was a deficiency. No braver or more
competent soldier could be found than Sir Edward Stanley--the man whom we
have seen in his yellow jerkin, helping himself into Fort Zutphen with
the Spanish soldier's pike--and yet Sir Edward Stanley gave but a sorry
account of the choicest soldiers of Chester and Lancashire, whom he had
been sent to inspect. "I find them not," he said, "according to your
expectation, nor mine own liking. They were appointed two years past to
have been trained six days by the year or more, at the discretion of the
muster-master, but, as yet, they have not been trained one day, so that
they have benefited nothing, nor yet know their leaders. There is now
promise of amendment, which, I doubt, will be very slow, in respect to my
Lord Derby's absence."

My Lord Derby was at that moment, and for many months afterwards,
assisting Valentine Dale in his classical prolusions on the sands of
Bourbourg. He had better have been mustering the trainbands of
Lancashire. There was a general indisposition in the rural districts to
expend money and time in military business, until the necessity should
become imperative. Professional soldiers complained bitterly of the
canker of a long peace. "For our long quietness, which it hath pleased
God to send us," said Stanley, "they think their money very ill bestowed
which they expend on armour or weapon, for that they be in hope they
shall never have occasion to use it, so they may pass muster, as they
have done heretofore. I want greatly powder, for there is little or none
at all."

The day was fast approaching when all the power in England would be too
little for the demand. But matters had not very much mended even at
midsummer. It is true that Leicester, who was apt to be
sanguine-particularly in matters under his immediate control--spoke of
the handful of recru