Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

enterprise. The moment the news arrived that the
Armada had been sighted off the Lizard, they
began their preparations, and the whole following
night was spent in getting the ships ready for sea.
By Saturday morning sixty ships had been towed
out of harbor. Their numbers were not more than a
third of those of the Armada, and their inferiority
in size was still greater; but, manned by patriotic
crews, they hoisted sail, and away they went to
meet the enemy. On the afternoon of the same day
the two fleets came in sight of each other. The
wind was blowing from the south-west, bringing
with it a drizzling rain and a chopping sea. The
billows of the Atlantic came tumbling into the
Channel, and the galleons of Spain, with their
heavy ordnance, and their numerous squadrons,
rolled uneasily and worked clumsily; whereas the
English ships, of smaller size, and handled by
expert seamen, bore finely up before the breeze,
took a close survey of the Spanish fleet, and then
standing off to windward, became invisible in the
haze. The Spaniard was thus informed that the
English fleet was in his immediate neighborhood,
but the darkness did not permit battle to be joined
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