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

food in the country. There was a terrible famine, and a large number of the Irish people there died of starvation.

6. The Monopolies.Elizabeth had very little money. She did not like to ask parliament to tax the people, for fear of making people dissatisfied

QUEEN ELIZABETH IN THE MANTLE OF THE ORDER OF THE GARTER.

with her. At the same time she had a great many favourites whom she wished to reward, and she did it by giving them the monopoly of some article or other; that is to say, by allowing nobody but them to sell it. Of course they charged more for these things than would have been charged if anybody who liked had

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been allowed to sell them. At last the people got angry, and the House of Commons begged her to put an end to these monopolies. The Queen at once gave way. When she knew that all her people were determined to have a thing, she never resisted them. ‘I have more cause to thank you all,' she said to the Speaker of the House of Commons, than you me; and I charge you to thank them of the House of Commons from me, for had I not received a knowledge from you, I might have fallen into the lap of an error, only for lack of true information. I have ever used to set the last judgment-day before mine eyes, and so to rule as I shall be judged to answer before a higher Judge, to whose judgment-seat I do appeal, that never thought was cherished in my heart that tended not to my people's good. Though you have had, and may have, many princes more mighty and wise sitting in this seat, yet you never had, or shall have, any that will be more careful and loving.'

7. Elizabeth's Death.-This was the last time that Elizabeth spoke to her people. In 1603 she died, after a long reign of forty-five years. She had many faults, but she was a great queen. She found England divided and weak, she left it united and strong. Englishmen were proud of their country. As we look back to that time we are able to see that if they were fierce and cruel in their revenge upon Spain, the victory was one for which all the world was the better. Spain was a land of tyranny, where

no man dared to speak a word against the king or the church. England was not so free as it is now,