They had attacked, stormed, burnt, or held to ransom three
of Spain's proudest colonial cities, and had come home unfought with.
The Catholic conspirators had to recognise that they had a worse enemy
to deal with than Puritan controversialists or spoilt Court favourites.
The Protestant English mariners stood between them and their prey, and
had to be encountered on an element which did not bow to popes or
princes, before Mary Stuart was to wear Elizabeth's crown or Cardinal
Allen be enthroned at Canterbury. It was a revelation to all parties.
Elizabeth herself had not expected--perhaps had not wished--so signal a
success. War was now looked on as inevitable. The Spanish admirals
represented that the national honour required revenge for an injury so
open and so insolent. The Pope, who had been long goading the lethargic
Philip into action, believed that now at last he would be compelled to
move; and even Philip himself, enduring as he was, had been roused to
perceive that intrigues and conspiracies would serve his turn no
longer. He must put out his strength in earnest, or his own Spaniards
might turn upon him as unworthy of the crown of Isabella. Very
reluctantly he allowed the truth to be brought home to him.
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