st howled through his
rigging, once more there fell upon him the shadow of the tragedy which
could never cease to darken his judgment. Already, in Cadiz harbor, he
had thought his vice-admiral too careful of his ship when the shot were
flying; and now he saw in him another Doughty sent by the friends of
Spain to hang on his arm. "In persisting," he told Lord Burleigh, "he
committed a double offence, not only against me, but it toucheth
further." To his embittered sense the querulous protest was a treasonable
attack on his own authority, and in his fury he brutally dismissed the
old admiral from his command and placed him under arrest on his
flag-ship. In vain the astonished veteran protested his innocence,
apologized, and made submission. Drake would not listen. The ring of the
heads-man's sword upon the desolate shores of Patagonia had deafened his
ears to such entreaties forever.

Two days later he was back in Lagos Bay, landing a thousand men for an
attempt upon the town, but in the evening, after vainly endeavoring to
induce the bodies of cavalry which hovered on their line of march to
come within reach, the troops reembarked, reporting the place too strong
to be taken by assault. Such reports were not to Drake's liking. It was
no mere cross-raiding on which he was bent, but a sagacious stroke that
was essential to the development of his new ideas. To get the command of
the seas it was necessary that he should be able to keep the seas, and
for this a safe anchorage and watering-places were necessary. In default
of Lagos, strategy and convenience both indicated St. Vincent road for
his purpose. It was commanded by forts, but that did not deter him; and,
resolved to have his way, he next day landed in person near Cape Sagres.

On the summit of the headland was a castle accessible on two sides only.
The English military officers declared that a hundred determined men
could hold it against the whole of Drake's force. But he would not
listen; it commanded the watering-place, and he meant to have it.
Detaching part of his force against a neighboring fort, which was at
once evacuated, he himself advanced against the castle, and at the
summit of the cliff found himself confronted with walls thirty feet
high, bristling with brass guns and crowded with soldiers. The garrison
had just been reenforced by that of the evacuated fort, and to every one
but the admiral the affair was hopeless. He attacked with his
musketeers, and,