These armies, though all the Spanish forces had been able to land, would possibly have been sufficient to protect the liberties of their country. But as the fate of England, in that event, must depend on the issue of a single battle, allmen of serious reflection entertained the most awful apprehensions of the shock of at least fifty thousand veterans, commanded by experienced officers, under so consummate a general as the duke of Parma. The queen alone was undaunted. She issued all her orders with tranquillity, animated her people to a steady resistance, and employed every resource, which either her domestic situation or her foreign alliances could afford her. She even appeared on horse-back in the camp at Tilbury; and riding through the lines, discovered a cheerful and animated countenance, exhorting the soldiers to remember their duty to their country and their religion, and professed her intention, though a woman, to lead them herself into the field against the enemy, and rather perish in battle than survive the ruin and slavery of her people. "I "know," said she intrepidly, "I have but the weak and "feeble arm of a woman; but I have the heart of a king, "and of a king of England too47 !"

The heroic spirit of Elizabeth communicated itself to the army, and every man resolved to die rather than desert his station. Meanwhile the Spanish Armada, after various obstructions, appeared in the Channel. It consisted of an hundred and thirty vessels, of which near one hundred were galleons, and carried about twenty thousand land forces. Effingham, who was informed of its approach by a Scotch pirate, saw it, just as he could get out of Plymouth Sound, coming full sail towards him, disposed in the form of a crescent, and stretching the distance of seven miles, from the extremity of one division to that of the other. The lofty masts, the swelling sails, and the towering prows of the Spanish galleons, seem impossible to be justly described by the his

47. Hume, Hist. Eng. vol. v. note (BB).

torians,

torians of that age, without assuming the language of poetry. Not satisfied with representing the Armada as a spectacle infusing equal terror and admiration into the minds of all beholders, and as the most magnificent that had ever appear. ed on the main, they assert, That, although the ships bore every sail, it yet advanced with slow motion, as if the ocean had groaned with supporting, and the winds been tired with impelling so enormous a weight48.

The English admiral at first gave orders not to come to close fight with the Spaniards, on account of the size of their ships and the number of soldiers on board; but a few trials convinced him, that even in close fight, the size of the Spanish ships was of no advantage to the enemy. Their bulk exposed them to the fire, while their cannon, placed too high, shot over the heads of the English men of war. Every thing conspired to the ruin of this vast armament. Sir Francis Drake took the great galleon of Andalusia, and a large ship of Biscay, which had fallen behind the rest; while the nobility and gentry hastened out with their vessels from every harbour and reinforced Effingham, who filled eight of his smaller ships with cumbustibles, and sent them into the midst of the enemy. The Spaniards fled with disorder and precipitation: the English commanders fell upon them while in confusion; and besides doing great damage to their whole fleet, took twelve ships,

It was now evident that the purpose of the Armada was utterly frustrated; and the duke of Parma, whose vessels were calculated for transporting soldiers, not for fighting, positively refused to leave the harbour, while the English were masters of the sea. The Spanish admiral, after many unsuccessful rencounters, prepared therefore to make his way home; but as the winds were contrary to his return through the channel, he resolved to take the circuit of the island, The English fleet flollowed him for some time; and

48. Camden. Bentivoglio.

had

had not their ammunition fallen short, through the negligence of the public officers in supplying them, they had obliged the Armada to surrender at discretion.

Such a conclusion of that vain-glorious enterprize would have been truly illustrious to the English, but the event was scarce less fatal to the Spaniards. The Armada was attacked by a violent storm in passing the Orkneys; and the ships having already lost their anchors, were obliged to keep at sea, while the mariners, unaccustomed to hardships, and unable to manage such unwieldy vessels, allowed them to drive on the western isles of Scotland or on the coast of Ireland, where they were miserably wrecked. Not one half of the fleet returned to Spain, and a still smaller proportion of the soldiers and seamen : yet Philip, whose command of temper was equal to his ambition, received with an air of tranquillity the news of so humbling a disaster. "I sent my "fleet," said he," to combat the English, not the elements. "God be praised that the calamity is not greater49."

While the naval power of Spain was receiving this signal blow, great revolutions happened in France. The Hugonots, notwithstanding the valour of the king of Navarre, who had gained at Coutras, in 1587, a complete victory over the royal army, were reduced to the greatest extremity, by the power of the league; and the exorbitant ambition of the duke of Guise, joined to the idolatrous admiration of the Catholics, who considered him as a Saviour, and the king as unworthy of the throne, only could have preserved the reformers from utter ruin. The citizens of Paris, where the duke was most popular, took arms against their sovereign, and obliged him to abandon his capital at the hazard of his life; while the doctors of the Sorbonne declared, “That a "weak prince may be removed from the government of his "kingdom, as a tutor or guardian, unfit for his office, may "be deprived of his trust5o,"

4). Ferreras. Strada.

Cayet.

Henry's

Henry's spirit was roused, by the dread of degradation, from that lethargy in which it had long reposed. He dissembled his resentment; entered into a negociation with Guise and the League; seemed outwardly reconciled, but harboured vengeance in his heart. And that vengeance was hastened by an insolent speech of the duchess de Montpensier, the duke of Guise's sister; who shewing a pair of gold scissars, which she wore at her girdle, said, "The best use "that I can make of them is, to clip the hair of a prince unworthy to sit on the throne of France, in order to qua"lify him for a cloister, that ONE more deserving to reign may "mount it, and repair the losses which religion and the "state have suffered through the weakness of his predecessors1."

After Henry had fully taken his resolution, nine of his guards, singled out by Loignac, first gentleman of his bedchamber, were introduced to him in his palace. He put a poinard into each of their hands, informed them of their business, and concluded thus: "It is an execution of justice, "which I command you to make on the greatest criminal "in my kingdom, and whom all laws, human and divine, "permit me to punish; but not having the ordinary methods "of justice in my power, I anthorize you, by the right "inherent in my royal authority, to strike the blow." They were secretly disposed in the passage, which led from the king's chamber to his cabinet; and when the duke of Guise came to receive audience, six poignards were at once plunged into his breast52. He groaned and expired.

DEC. 23.

"I am now a king, Madam !" said Henry, entering the apartment of the queen mother, " and have no competitor; "the duke of Guise is dead." The Cardinal of Guise also was dispatched, a man more violent than even his brother. Among other insolent speeches, he had been heard to say

51 P. Dansel.

32 Davila. Du Tillet,

that

1

that he would hold the king's head between his knees till the tonsure was performed at the monastery of the Capuchins53.

These cruel executions, which their necessity alone can excuse, had an effect very different from what Henry expected. The partizans of the League were inflamed with the utmost rage against him, and every where flew to arms. Rebellion was reduced into a system. The doctors of the Sorbonne had the arrogance to declare, "That the people "were released from their oath of allegiance to Henry of "Vallois :" and the duke of Mayenne, brother to the duke of Guise, was chosen by the League LieutenantGeneral of the State Royal and Crown of France: an unknown and unintelligible title, but which was meant as a substitute for sovereignty54.

A. D. 1589

In this extremity, the king, almost abandoned by his Catholic subjects, entered into a confederacy with the Hugonots and the king of Navarre. He enlisted large bodies of Swiss infantry and German cavalry; and being still supported by his chief nobility, and the princes of the blood, he was enabled, by all those means, to assemble an army of forty thousand men. With these forces the two kings advanced to the gates of Paris, and were ready to crush the League, and subdue all their enemies, when the desperate resolution of one man gave a new turn to the affairs of France.

James Clement, a Dominican friar, inflamed by that bloody spirit of bigotry which distinguished the age, and of which we have seen so many horrid examples, had embraced the pious resolution of sacrificing his own life, in order to save the church from the danger which now threatened it, in consequence of the alliance between Henry III. and the Hugonots: and being admitted into the king's presence, under pretence of important business, he mortally wounded that prince, while reading some sup

AUGUST. I

53. Thuanus.

54. Mezeray

posed