do forthwith caufe him to be fent hither in fafe manner; which, if you do not, you shall look to answer for the fame to your smart. For these be no childish actions nor matters wherein you are to deal by cunning of devices; seeking evasions, as the custom of lawyers is; neither will we be fo fatisfied at yonr hand. Therefore, confider well of your doings herein !"

But the adventurous Fire-Drake braved her Grace's fury as he had dared Philip's fea Fortreffes, and the boisterous tornadoes of the Western Main, and England was conftrained to be content a while.

Much damage did this fleet do all along the enemy's coaft; taking, as usual, immense treasure from the Spaniard, and about fixty hulks belonging to the Hanse Towns, laden with wheat and all manner of provision for shipping, to furnish (as 'twas reported) a new Armado, which should come upon us from the other fide. And fo, whether for plunder or for glory, on they fail. They reach Penacha in Portingale, and are hot for an assault. But the fea being much troubled (by reafon of late ftorms), the boats can fcarcely live in those waters, Effex and his comrades in the first of these being upfet; when some twenty of them fink

Effex Toufteth amorously.

131

and are drowned (William faving one or two with difficulty). You should have seen my Lord up to the shoulders among the billows, his axe over his head, ready, as it were, to battle with the waves themselves! He was the first man to fet his foot afhore, as he had been the first to begin the fray at Zutphen. Aut Caesar aut Nullus;' an he be not the first he is ill content every where! You might have heard him from a long way off fhouting "Saint George!" "England!" The cowardly knaves fled at very sight of him. Yet 'twas a bloodless victory, and without honour to us as it was with much fhame to them. Nor was the rest of the campaign a whit more glorious. Profitable, no doubt, to Sir Francis Drake and fuch veteran warriors; but what careth the generous youth, poor though he be, for fpoil? Oh, her Grace's vain pretext! He who caft out his own baggage that the fick and footfore shall ride in his carriage may make a good General, but he is a bad Pirate, eh? Yet would Effex (in Sir Thomas his vein) give them a tafte of his chivalrous valour and defperate ecstacy: "Come on!" quoth he, when, armed capapie, he rode up to the walls of Lifbon ('Zekiel at his foot, William befide him). "Come on, ye bragging Spaniards! Know

'tis Robert Devereux, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, Viscount Hereford and Earl of Effex, who, for the honour of his Mistress and Sovereign Lady, Queen Elizabeth, will break a lance, or fight it à l'outerance, with whomfoever! Come on!" And fo, brandishing it freely, and with a gay menace, he thrust his pike into the very gate of the town. But the gallants within (though they admired his spirit) thought it safer to court their ladies with amorous discourses (tilting with lips, as the faying is), than to have their loves written in their hearts with the point of my Lord's Englifh fpear. Na'th'lefs, a maunch fnatched from fuch an one hath come into the Knight of Chenies his poffeffion.

And it was this gentle and puiffant heroism (revealed by one to her Grace) which gained his peace at home, albeit a fierce miffive had reached him full of indignation and difpleasure.

CHAPTER X.

"Some Spirit put this Paper in the Packet
To bless your Eye withal.”

KING HENRY VIII., act. 1. fc. ii.

OU have feen a flickering link flare more brightly juft ere it goeth out; and fo, when

they clamour bells, the last peal shall be the

loudeft. Sir Francis Walfingham, now near his end, waxeth very brilliant; and the puff and bruit of his final plot confoundeth those who thought his faculties extinct and his craft for ever filenced.

Haply 'tis well we all be not far feers, or few would be found to undertake thofe worthy exploits which carry along with them great injuries. Only a diseased regarding of our refponfibilities, truly, would effect so great a stoppage in the

affairs of life! Her Majesty's Chief Secretary his ailment is phyfical and in the eye (a falt rheum); not a spiritual weakness and of the confcience. For the rent entrails of traitors have no kindred in his bowels-mercy having no counterplots. So he comforteth his anguished and dying body, not with the memory of pardoned criminals, but in the faith that, having worked well for his Queen, he shall have countenance of the King of Kings when all's done.

But this by the way. Effex had no need (in one of those forty letters he left in his desk) to remind Sir Francis of those mysterious papers he left with him. Abundantly did they encourage his (expectant) father-in-law's curiosity; raising in him that joy and alacrity of spirit which he had laid aside since poor Lord Arundel had been put on trial. Carefully did he look at the wonderful chirograph. They were common to his eye, these marks, cyphers, and deceptious flourishes. Yet this was a marvellous thing! 'Twas as of a horseshoe, quaintly circumfcribed at the heels, and having two pens (as it feemed) placed in faltire, as the heralds fay—(Andrew's cross the vulgar.) So fimple yet fo complicate! He could not make it out yet! Then the first of these letters was written in a clerkly