saintly and apostolic names, fought pellmell with the Lion, the Bear, the
Bull, the Tiger, the Dreadnought, the Revenge, the Victory, the Triumph,
and other of the more profanely-baptized English ships, the Spaniards
were again baffled in all their attempts to close with, and to board,
their ever-attacking, ever-flying adversaries. The cannonading was
incessant. "We had a sharp and a long fight," said Hawkins. Boat-loads
of men and munitions were perpetually arriving to the English, and many,
high-born volunteers--like Cumberland, Oxford, Northumberland, Raleigh,
Brooke, Dudley, Willoughby, Noel, William Hatton, Thomas Cecil, and
others--could no longer restrain their impatience, as the roar of battle
sounded along the coasts of Dorset, but flocked merrily on board the
ships of Drake,--Hawkins, Howard, and Frobisher, or came in small vessels
which they had chartered for themselves, in order to have their share in
the delights of the long-expected struggle.

The action, irregular, desultory, but lively, continued nearly all day,
and until the English had fired away most of their powder and shot. The
Spaniards, too, notwithstanding their years of preparation, were already
sort of light metal, and Medina Sidonia had been daily sending to Parma
for a Supply of four, six, and ten pound balls. So much lead and
gunpowder had never before been wasted in a single day; for there was no
great damage inflicted on either side. The artillery-practice was
certainly not much to the credit of either nation.

"If her Majesty's ships had been manned with a full supply of good
gunners," said honest William Thomas, an old artilleryman, "it would have
been the woefullest time ever the Spaniard took in hand, and the most
noble victory ever heard of would have been her Majesty's. But our sins
were the cause that so much powder and shot were spent, so long time in
fight, and in comparison so little harm done. It were greatly to be