return, there was less enthusiasm among the sailors of the fleet.
Pursuing the Spaniards without powder or fire, and without beef and
bread to eat, was not thought amusing by the English crews. Howard had
not three days' supply of food in his lockers, and Seymour and his
squadron had not food for one day. Accordingly, when Seymour and Winter
took their departure, "they had much ado," so Winter said; "with the
staying of many ships that would have returned with them, besides their
own company." Had the Spaniards; instead of being panic-struck, but
turned on their pursuers, what might have been the result of a conflict
with starving and unarmed men?

Howard, Drake, and Frobisher, with the rest of the fleet, followed the
Armada through the North Sea from Tuesday night (9th August) till Friday
(the 12th), and still, the strong southwester swept the Spaniards before
them, uncertain whether to seek refuge, food, water, and room to repair
damages, in the realms of the treacherous King of Scots, or on the iron-
bound coasts of Norway. Medina Sidonia had however quite abandoned his
intention of returning to England, and was only anxious for a safe
return: to Spain. So much did he dread that northern passage; unpiloted,
around the grim Hebrides, that he would probably have surrendered, had
the English overtaken him and once more offered battle. He was on the
point of hanging out a white flag as they approached him for the last
time--but yielded to the expostulations of the ecclesiastics on board
the Saint Martin, who thought, no doubt, that they had more to fear
from England than from the sea, should they be carried captive to that
country, and who persuaded him that it would be a sin and a disgrace
to surrender before they had been once more attacked.

On the other hand, the Devonshire skipper, Vice-Admiral Drake, now
thoroughly in his element, could not restrain his hilarity, as he saw the