Are turned to one thread, one little hair:
My heart hath one poor string to stay it by.
Which holds but till thy news be uttered;
And then all this thou seest is but a clod,
And module of confounded royalty.

Faul. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward; Where Heaven He knows how we shall answer

him :

my power,

For, in a night, the best
part of
As I upon advantage did remove,
Were in the Washes all unwarily
Devoured by the unexpected flood.

[The KING dies. Sal. You breathe these dead news in as dead

an ear.

My liege my lord! but now a king, now thus ! P. Henry. Even so must I run on, and even

so stop.

What surety of the world, what hope, what stay,
When this was now a king, and now is clay ?-
At Worcester must his body be interred,
For so he willed it.

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35

40

45

DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA.

(1588.)

1. On the afternoon of the 19th of July, A.D. 1588, a group of English captains was collected at the Bowling Green on the Hoe,' at Plymouth, whose equals have never before or since been

brought together, even at that favourite mustering-place of the heroes of the British navy.

2. There was Sir Francis Drake, the first English circumnavigator of the globe, the terror of every Spanish coast in the Old World and the New; there was Sir John Hawkins, the rough veteran of many a daring voyage on the African and American seas; there was Sir Martin Frobisher, one of the earliest explorers of the Arctic Seas in search of the north-west passage.

2

3. There was the High Admiral of England, Lord Howard of Effingham, prodigal of all things in his country's cause. In the harbour lay the English fleet, with which they had just returned from a cruise to Corunna," in search of information respecting the real condition and movements of the hostile Armada.

4. Lord Howard had ascertained that our enemies, though tempest-tost, were still formidably strong; and fearing that part of their fleet might make for England in his absence, he had hurried back to the Devonshire coast. He resumed his station at Plymouth, and waited there for certain tidings of the Spaniards' approach.

5. A match at bowls was being played, in which Drake and other high officers of the fleet were engaged when a small armed vessel was seen running before the wind into Plymouth harbour, with all sails set. Her com

mander landed in haste, and told the English officers that he had that morning seen the Spanish Armada off the Cornish coast.

6. At this exciting information the captains began to hurry down to the water, and there was a shouting for the ships' boats; but Drake coolly checked his comrades, and insisted that the match should be played out. He said that there was plenty of time both to win the game and beat the Spaniards.

7. The best and bravest match that ever was scored was resumed accordingly. Drake and his friends aimed their last bowls with the same steady calculating coolness with which they were about to point their guns. The winning cast was made; and then they went on board and prepared for action, with their hearts as light and their nerves as firm as they had been on the Hoe Bowling Green.

8. Meanwhile the messengers and signals had been despatched fast and far through England, to warn each town and village that the enemy had come at last. In every seaport there was instant making ready by land and by sea; in every shire and every city there was instant mustering of horse and man.

9. Although the number of sail which the queen's government and the patriotic zeal of volunteers had collected for the defence of England exceeded the number of sail in the Spanish fleet, the English ships were, collec