west coast of Ireland. Not a few were driven on shore on the high cliffs against which the Atlantic ocean rolls its waves without a break on this side of America. Most of the Spaniards who reached the shore and fell into the hands of the English were put to death. Those who fell into the hands of the Irish were also butchered for the sake of plunder. The greater part were swallowed up by the sea. 'When I was at Sligo,' wrote an Englishman, ‘I numbered on one strand of less than five miles in length, eleven hundred dead bodies of men, which the sea had driven upon the shore. The country people told me the like was in other places, though not to the like number.' Fifty-four vessels, with nine or ten thousand sick and suffering men on board, were all that succeeded in struggling home to Spain. Philip was struck to the heart at his failure, shut himself up in his room, and for a time would speak to no one. Yet when the beaten Admiral arrived, he did not reproach him. I sent you to fight against men,' he said, and not with the winds.' Elizabeth, too, acknowledged that her triumph was not owing to herself, or even to her sailors. She went in state to St. Paul's, to return thanks for the victory which had been gained, and she struck a medal which bore the motto, God blew with His wind, and they were scattered.'

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CHAPTER XXII.

THE LAST YEARS OF ELIZABETH.

(1588-1603.)

1. Continuance of War with Spain.-Elizabeth reigned for fifteen more years after the defeat of the Armada. Spain was unable to protect its trade and its colonies in America. Spanish towns were sacked, and Spanish wealth was carried off to England. The Spaniards were brave men, and fought hard. Drake died in the West Indies, on one of his plundering expeditions.

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2. Death of Sir Richard Grenville.-The most heroic death in the whole war was that of Sir Richard Grenville. His little ship, the Revenge,' was one of six which were overtaken at the Azores by fiftythree Spanish ships, some of them of enormous size. Five of his comrades fled, as they well might, before such odds. Grenville refused to fly. The little 'Revenge' fought all alone through the whole of the afternoon. Our own living poet has told the story, speaking as if he had been one of that valiant crew.

And the sun went down, and the stars came out, far over the summer sea,

But never for a moment ceased the fight of the one and the fifty-three.

Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high-built galleons

came;

Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battle-thunder and flame.

Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her dead and her shame;

For some were sunk, and many were shatter'd, and so could fight

no more.

God of battles! was ever a battle like this in the world before?

Through the whole of that night the one English vessel, with but a hundred fighting men to begin with, fought the fifty-three Spanish ships.

And the night went down, and the sun smiled out, far over the summer sea,

And the Spanish fleet, with broken sides, lay round us, all in a ring:

But they dared not touch us again, for they fear'd that we still

could sting.

So they watch'd what the end would be,

And we had not fought them in vain.

But in perilous plight were we,

Seeing forty of our poor hundred slain,

And half of the rest of us maim'd for life

In the crash of the cannonades, and the desperate strife;

And the sick men down in the hold were most of them stark and cold.

And the pikes were all broken and bent, and the powder was all

of it spent,

And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side.

The little 'Revenge' could hold out no longer. Grenville himself, like all his men who remained alive, was sore wounded, and the Spaniards rushed on board his ship, and took it. They carried Grenville to one of their own vessels to die. His last words were befitting one who had fought so well. 'Here die I, Richard Grenville,' he said, ' with a joyful and a quiet mind; for that I have ended my life as a good soldier ought to do, who has fought for his country and his queen, for his honour and religion.'

3. The Expedition to Cadiz.-After this a great expedition was sent to Cadiz. The command was given to Lord Howard of Effingham and the young Earl of Essex, who was now the Queen's favourite, a dashing young man, who was too vain and impatient to do anything really great. Essex was always wanting to get renown by some great warlike exploit. He was angry when any one said that there had been fighting enough, and that it was time to make peace with Spain. One day, when he was talking in this way, the wise old Lord Burghley, who had been Elizabeth's minister all through the reign, opened a Bible and showed him the words, 'Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.' On board this fleet was Sir Walter Raleigh, who could do anything he chose to put his hand to. When the fleet reached Cadiz, it found about seventy or eighty armed Spanish ships under the walls, ready to defend the town. The town itself was protected with fortifications, on which guns were mounted. The English fleet dashed in, each captain eagerly trying to thrust his ship into the foremost place. The Spaniards took fright. The soldiers who had been on board their ships hurried on shore 'as thick as if coals had been poured out of a sack.' They set fire to their own ships, and the great Spanish fleet was soon in a blaze. The town was then taken, and plundered and burnt.

4. Essex in Ireland. - As Essex was always asking to be allowed to command an army somewhere, the Queen gave him some work to do which was harder even than the taking of Cadiz.

Ireland had never been really conquered. A small district round Dublin obeyed the English law, but the rest of the people lived in their own way, governed by their own chiefs. Elizabeth had been afraid lest the Spaniards should take it, and she had tried to conquer the Irish chiefs. At one time she took a great quantity of land from them and gave it to Englishmen. The Irish did not like this, and some years after the defeat of the Armada they rose against her and defeated an English army. She therefore sent Essex with a larger army to conquer them. Essex marched about the country, doing nothing which was of any use, and losing most of his men. Then he came back to England suddenly when he ought to have remained in Ireland, and went straight to the Queen in his muddy clothes, without changing his dress after riding, thinking that he would persuade her to forgive him. Elizabeth did not like even her favourite to disobey her, and she sent him away to his own house, ordering him to stop there till there had been an inquiry to find out why he had come away from Ireland. Essex did not like this, and one day he and a few friends mounted their horses and rode into the city, calling on the citizens to rise to protect him. The citizens did nothing of the kind, and Essex was tried upon the charge of treason, and executed.

5. Conquest of Ireland.-After Essex came back Elizabeth sent Lord Mountjoy to conquer Ireland. He succeeded in doing it; and at the end of Elizabeth's reign Ireland was, for the first time, entirely under the English Government. But Mountjoy only conquered the North of Ireland by destroying all the