peculiar fashion, and a better expedient was found to secure Alva's
money. The bullion was landed and was brought to London by road on the
plea that the seas were unsafe. It was carried to the Tower, and when it
was once inside the walls it was found to remain the property of the
Genoese until it was delivered at Antwerp. The Genoese agent in London
was as willing to lend it to Elizabeth as to Philip, and indeed
preferred the security. Elizabeth calmly said that she had herself
occasion for money, and would accept their offer. Half of it was sent to
the Prince of Orange; half was spent on the Queen's navy.

Alva was of course violently angry. He arrested every English ship in
the Low Countries. He arrested every Englishman that he could catch, and
sequestered all English property. Elizabeth retaliated in kind. The
Spanish and Flemish property taken in England proved to be worth double
what had been secured by Alva. Philip could not declare war. The
Netherlands insurrection was straining his resources, and with Elizabeth
for an open enemy the whole weight of England would have been thrown on
the side of the Prince of Orange. Elizabeth herself should have
declared war, people say, instead of condescending to such tricks.
Perhaps so; but also perhaps not. These insults, steadily maintained and
unresented, shook the faith of mankind, and especially of her own
sailors, in the invincibility of the Spanish colossus.

I am now to turn to another side of the subject. The stories which I
have told you show the temper of the time, and the atmosphere which men
were breathing, but it will be instructive to look more closely at
individual persons, and I will take first John Hawkins (afterwards Sir
John), a peculiarly characteristic figure.

The Hawkinses of Plymouth were a solid middle-class Devonshire family,