There was, indeed, very great provifion of War found in the City: a great mass of money, plate, reals of plate and wrought plate, chains of gold, hangings, tapestries, robes, tissues, cloths, India ftuffs as well from the East as West, all which was pillaged; every one catching what he could. 'Twas faid, in all the Spaniard loft above twenty millions of Duckets; but the fea and the fire had their share of the spoil.

Then was there great rejoicing, my Lord Admiral and the Earl of Effex, after his wont, making many Knights, fo that gentlemen were offended; for my Lord dubbed fome that were only officers of his own household, giving gilt Spurs, as Tarleton faid, to thofe had as yet no Coats. Infomuch that (knowing the Earl's own poverty) a lewd fellow of the camp made these fatyrical lines, which the foldiers laughed at in their cups :

"A'Squire of Wales,

A Knight of Cales,

And a Laird of the North Countré;
A Yeoman of Kent

With his yearly rent,

Would buy them out all three!”

Ar. a Feffe Gules, Three Roundels in Chief. 291

But my Lord had the best o' the game; pleasuring

many valiant men.

And, when the gleek fhall be well

nigh forgotten, the Armoreal Coat of the Earl of Effex

will be found cut into the

very Walls of Gades!

པ

CHAPTER XXIV.

Quid fiet homini quem rex vult honorare?”
LIB. S. EST. IN VULG. CAP. vi. v. 6.

AL hidalgo non fia visto entre herejos," said
King Philip. "En verdad es hombre de

grande governo," wrote the Cortez. But the

Spanish people cried, " Lastima es de tener guerra con tan buona gente y tan nobile!" And Effex was welcomed home by shouts of praise, and a great stir of rejoicing; the Commons giving him all the credit of the action. Nay, the good Archbishop Whitgift ordered Thanksgivings and a Sermon, which should, with great applause, found his Lordship's worthy fame, his justice, wisdom, courage, and high carriage; making many comparisons of him with the chiefeft Generals of antique hiftory; and much inveighing against all such as extenuated this happy victory.

Her Highness performeth a Mean Part.

293

"Honour and Valour," quoth the Preacher, "will flourish, maugre Malice and Envy itself." And it was time for my Lord, too, to vindicate himself: for you shall now know that Sir Robert Cecyl holdeth that place in the State Effex had defigned for a more worthy man, Sir Thomas Bodley, to wit. And to the end that the little boissu should climb nearer her Grace's ear, you see matters had been made smooth for the Earl his great emprise. 'Tis wonderful the Serpentine twisting of that devil's-tail policy! See what base regards now are made to proceed from her Majesty, the true fountain of honour!

"Her Highness will not discharge her troops their wages-those who made profit of the adventure should defray that coft! The Queen's share cometh but to fome twelve or thirteen thousand pounds. You fhall not expect her Grace out of that poor fum to fatisfy them?" So the plunder was valued in fpite of Sir Walter, he having only fome one thousand seven hundred and fixty-nine pounds to falve his wound; while Effex gat the library of Jerome Oforius, Bishop of Algarve, with which he munificently endowed the Vniuerfity of Oxford. My Lord was vexed at thefe fordid compts: and the covetous and avaricious ways

of court ladies, who wrote to him for their fhare of the fpoil, forfooth! "I have a crabbed fortune," writes he— "a crabbed fortune, that gives me no quiet; and the four food I am fain still to digest may breed four humours; but I do as warily watch myself from corrupting myself, do feek to guard myself from others." Effex had need look about him: for you may be fure this letter (and with a comment) was not long hid by Harry Howard from the new Secretary for Foreign Affairs.

Then did the Earl in a proud vein remind the Queen that the Plot and Scheme of that adventure was due to him, but that he had been thwarted and foiled in the execution of it (as fhe very well knew-and by whom); showing her Grace all the advantages fhe had gained notwithstanding, and what more she would have met had he gone on with the exploit. And my Lord Thomas Howard was in the one tale with my Lord. Upon which, while they mufed, lo! news that, only two days after the difallowance of my Lord's project, the Homebound fleet from the Indies, with twenty million of duckets, entered the Tajo! Oh, my Lord Treasurer! twenty millions of duckets loft-for ever! How was the veffel of royal wrath then poured on his