nner port;
and so cumbered with shoals and rocks was the entrance from the sea that
no ship could get in without passing under the guns of the town
batteries, while access from the outer to the inner port was only to be
gained by the Puntal passage, half a mile wide.

Opposite Cadiz, on the other side of the outer harbor, was Port St.
Mary, and within the Puntal channel, at the extreme end of the inlet,
stood Port Royal. Both places, however, were so protected by shoals as
to be unapproachable except to the port pilots. It was an ideal scene of
action for galleys to develop their full capabilities. Two had already
appeared to reconnoitre, and how many more there were no one could tell.
Galleys, it must be remembered, were then considered the most formidable
warships afloat, and quite invincible in confined waters or calms. By
all the rules of war, on which Borough was the first authority in the
service, to attack was suicide; but Drake had spent his life in breaking
rules. He did not care. The enemy was there, his authority was in his
pocket, the wind was fair, his officers believed in him, and as the sun
sank low behind them the fleet went in.

A scene of terror and confusion followed. Every ship in the harbor cut
its cables and sought safety in flight, some to sea, some across the bay
to St. Mary's, some through the Puntal passage to the inner harbor and
Port Royal. To cover the stampede ten galleys came confidently out from
under the Cadiz batteries. All was useless. While the chartered cruisers
swooped on the fugitives, the Queen's ships stood in, to head off the
advancing galleys, as coolly as though they had fought them a hundred
times before. In a few minutes the English admiral had taught the world
a new lesson in tactics. Galleys could only fire straight ahead; and, as
they came on line abreast, Drake, passing with the Queen's four
battle-ships athwart their course, poured in his heavy broadsides. Never
before had such gunnery been seen. Ere the galleys were within effective
range for their own ordnance they were raked and riddled and confounded,
and to the consternation of the Spaniards they broke for the cover of
the batteries. Two had to be hauled up to prevent their sinking; the
rest were a shambles, and nothing was now thought of but how to protect
the city from the assault which seemed inevitable. Hardly any troops
were there: a panic seized the population; and Drake was left alone to
do the work for whi