r had plunged them. England
was wild with joy. Burghley himself was almost startled from his
caution, and cried out with half a shudder that Drake was a fearful man
to the King of Spain.

For two years Philip had been at work upon his Armada. His ports were
crowded with its details; his storehouses were bursting with its
furniture; and Walsingham at last was able to convince the Queen, by a
paper stolen from the very closet of the Pope, that it was upon her head
the great engine was to crash. Her eyes were opened; and, infected for a
moment with the warlike spirit into which her people and her Parliament
had lashed themselves, she ordered Drake in 1587 to the coast of Spain.

It was no longer as a privateer that he was to act. He held the rank of
her majesty's admiral-at-the-seas, and William Borough, the comptroller
of the navy, was his vice-admiral. Four of the Queen's largest
battle-ships and two of her pinnaces were under his command, and the
London merchants committed to his flag ten fine cruisers, with the
famous Merchant Royal at their head. Besides these, he had six hundred
tons of his own shipping, as well as some of the lord admiral's. In all,
exclusive of tenders, there were twenty-three sail--five battle-ships,
two first-class cruisers, seven of the second class, and nine gunboats
large and small. With this fine force he was instructed to proceed to
Cape St. Vincent, and by every means in his power to prevent the
concentration of the several divisions of the Armada by cutting off
their victuallers, and even destroying them in the ports where they lay.
If the enemy sailed for England or Ireland, he was to hang on their
skirts, cut off stragglers, and prevent a landing; and, finally, he was
given a free hand to act against the East and West India convoys.

Elizabeth was in a resolute mood. Drake's ideas of naval warfare were
developing a step further, and the Queen for the moment listened. He was
beginning dimly to grasp that the command of the sea was the first
object for a naval power to aim at. It was because he had not command of
the seas that he had been unable to retain his hold of Cartagena, for
the troops which should have formed its garrison were wanted to defend
his fleet. Wiser for the lesson, his aim was now to crush the Spanish
navy, and then, in undisputed control of the sea, to gather in his
harvest. The opposition were thoroughly alarmed, and, while Drake in hot
haste was driving on his prepa