England rang with joy when the news came that Brille was taken. Church
bells pealed, and bonfires blazed. Money poured across in streams.
Exiled families went back to their homes--which were to be their homes
once more--and the Zealanders and Hollanders, entrenched among their
ditches, prepared for an amphibious conflict with the greatest power
then upon the earth.
LECTURE IV
DRAKE'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD
I suppose some persons present have heard the name of Lope de Vega, the
Spanish poet of Philip II.'s time. Very few of you probably know more of
him than his name, and yet he ought to have some interest for us, as he
was one of the many enthusiastic young Spaniards who sailed in the Great
Armada. He had been disappointed in some love affair. He was an earnest
Catholic. He wanted distraction, and it is needless to say that he found
distraction enough in the English Channel to put his love troubles out
of his mind. His adventures brought before him with some vividness the
character of the nation with which his own country was then in the
death-grapple, especially the character of the great English seaman to
whom the Spaniards universally attributed their defeat.
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