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United States are now. His men quarrelled with him and with one another, and he had to set sail home. His vessel, the Squirrel,' was scarcely more than a boat, being only of ten tons burthen. A storm rose, and one of the vessels which accompanied him came so near that those who were on board could hear what he said. "Heaven,' he cried out cheerfully, is as near by sea as by land.' That night his friends could see the lights of the little 'Squirrel' rocking on the tempestuous waves. On a sudden they disappeared, and neither the brave old man nor his crew were seen again. Other efforts to colonise were made. Raleigh himself sent men to settle in what has from that time been known as Virginia, called after Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. But they all died or were killed by the Indians. Other explorers followed; but no English colony was permanently settled in America till after Elizabeth's death.

CHAPTER XXI.

ELIZABETH'S TRIUMPHS.

(1580-1588.)

1. The Roman Catholic Missionaries.-Almost at the same time that Drake came back from his voyage some men of a very different kind set foot in England. As Elizabeth had now been Queen for more than twenty years, and young men and women were growing up who had no recollection of the days when the mass had been said in England in Mary's

reign, those who believed that the Roman Catholic religion was true were very sad at seeing the number of Protestants increasing. Many earnest men who believed this had gone abroad, and now returned as missionaries. Elizabeth was much frightened. She knew that the Pope had declared her not to be the true Queen of England, and she feared lest, if these missionaries converted many people to be Roman Catholics, they would drive her off her throne and perhaps put her to death. So she and the Parliament made fierce laws against the missionaries. If any Roman Catholic priest converted any one to his faith, or even only said mass, he was to be put to death as a traitor; because the Protestants believed that nobody could be a loyal subject to the Queen who thought that the Pope had a right to depose her, and they did not doubt that all Roman Catholics thought that. Even the Roman Catholics who were not priests had to pay a great deal of money if they did not go to the Protestant churches, and a great many were put in prison and treated very cruelly.

When

2. Throgmorton's Plot and the Association. a number of men are ill-treated, there are usually some who will try anything, however wicked, to revenge themselves on their persecutors. Most of the Roman Catholics bore their sufferings bravely and patiently, but there were some who wanted to murder the Queen and to place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne. One man named Francis Throgmorton formed such a plan. He was found out, and executed. It was discovered that the Spanish ambassador knew of this plot, and Elizabeth at once

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ordered him to leave the kingdom. The House of Commons was very eager to prevent any new attempt to kill Elizabeth. The members bound themselves in an Association, engaging that if Elizabeth were killed they would put to death not only her murderers, but also any person for whose advantage she might be murdered. They meant that if Elizabeth were murdered they would kill Mary Queen of Scots. They thought that after this none of Mary's friends would bring her into danger by trying to kill Elizabeth. The paper on which this engagement was written was sent about to all parts of England, and was signed by a very large number of Englishmen. English people do not like assassination, and Throgmorton's plot had much to do with setting a great many people against the Pope.

3. Help sent to the Dutch.-It was not only in England that murders were committed in the name of religion. In the Netherlands, where the Dutch had been fighting bravely against Philip, their great leader, the Prince of Orange, whose great-grandson was one day to come to deliver England, had been murdered by a Roman Catholic. His son was only a boy, and Elizabeth sent soldiers to help the Dutch. She sent to command them a foolish, selfish man, of whom she was very fond, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the son of that wicked Duke of Northumberland who had ruled England in the time of Edward VI. Besides, she did not pay her soldiers, they came to help. This expedition cost the life of Sir Philip Sydney. He was a young man, but was already well known as a writer of prose and verse, a

brave soldier and a courteous gentleman. When he was wounded, a cup of water was brought him to quench his thirst. He saw a common soldier lying in agony near, and bade him drink the water 'Your need,' he said, 'is greater than mine.'

4. Drake in the West Indies.-Whilst English soldiers were throwing away their lives uselessly in

the Netherlands, Drake had sailed for the West Indies with a fine fleet. He attacked and took St. Domingo, and refused to leave it till a large sum of money had been paid. He then sailed to Cartagena and forced the inhabitants to pay him 30,000l. The yellow fever broke out in his ships and he had to sail home. He had taught the King of Spain that,

for all his great navy, his towns were at the mercy of the bold English sailors.

5. The Babington Conspiracy and the Execution of the Queen of Scots.-Englishmen were growing less afraid of the King of Spain than they had ever been; but they were growing more afraid of plots to murder the Queen. In the year in which Drake came home there was a new one. Anthony Babington, with some other young men, most of whom were in the Queen's service, and who would therefore have no difficulty in getting near her, proposed to assassinate Elizabeth. The plot was, however, found out in time, and the conspirators were executed. Their object had been to put Mary on the throne. Thousands of Englishmen had come to believe that, as long as Mary lived, Elizabeth's life would never be in safety. Elizabeth's own ministers thought so too. They declared that they had found letters written by Mary in which she gave her approval to the plot. It is not certain whether this was true or not. At all events Mary was taken to Fotheringay in Northamptonshire, and was there tried and beheaded.

6. Drake singes the King of Spain's Beard.-Englishmen were almost all now on the side of Elizabeth. They did not like murderers, and the attempts to assassinate the Queen made many people turn against the Church of Rome. Englishmen were also determined to defend their island against invasion, and they now heard that Philip was going to send an enormous fleet and army to conquer England, and to make it submit to the Pope. In 1587 Drake was off again. He soon heard that a great