ship-builder; in every arsenal blazed the flames of busy forges. All
Spanish Europe echoed with the din of arms. Provisions were amassed in
a thousand granaries; soldiers were daily mustered on the
parade-grounds, drilled, and accustomed to the use of arquebus and
cannon. Carts and wagons were built in hundreds for the conveyance of
stores; spades, mattocks; and baskets were got ready for the pioneers;
iron and brass ordnance were cast, and leaden shot melted in enormous
quantities; nor were the instruments of torture--the thumb-screw and
the 'jailer's daughter'--forgotten."

18. In 1587 the preparations were nearly completed, and the Armada was
about ready to sail, when a knowledge of its destination became known
to Sir Francis Drake, the great English commander. Without considering
the disparity of force, the old sea-king, with a fleet of
swift-sailing vessels, made a sudden descent upon the port of Cadiz,
where the ships of the Armada were at anchor. Many of the larger
vessels escaped by taking refuge under the guns of the forts, but the
city was lit up by the blaze of one hundred and fifty burning ships,
and the great enterprise was delayed for another year.

SAILING OF THE ARMADA.

19. But this disaster only called forth greater exertions. The maimed
vessels were repaired, new ones were built, and at length one hundred
and thirty-two ships, many of them the largest ever known at the time,
were ready to sail. They carried three thousand guns and thirty
thousand men. On May 3d the Armada sailed from the mouth of the Tagus,
but a great gale dispersed the ships, and obliged them to put back
into port to repair. Surely God did not smile upon the beginning of a
warfare carried on in his name! It was not until July 12th that the