March went by, and sure intelligence came that the Armada was not
dissolving. Again Drake prayed the Queen to let him take the _Revenge_
and the Western adventurers down to Lisbon; but the commissioners wrote
full of hope from Ostend, and Elizabeth was afraid 'the King of Spain
might take it ill.' She found fault with Drake's expenses. She charged
him with wasting her ammunition in target practice. She had it doled out
to him in driblets, and allowed no more than would serve for a day and a
half's service. She kept a sharp hand on the victualling houses. April
went, and her four finest ships--the _Triumph_, the _Victory_, the
_Elizabeth Jonas_, and the _Bear_--were still with sails unbent,
'keeping Chatham church.' She said they would not be wanted and it would
be waste of money to refit them. Again she was forced to yield at last,
and the four ships were got to sea in time, the workmen in the yards
making up for the delay; but she had few enough when her whole fleet was
out upon the Channel, and but for the privateers there would have been
an ill reckoning when the trial came. The Armada was coming now. There
was no longer a doubt of it. Lord Henry Seymour was left with five
Queen's ships and thirty London adventurers to watch Parma and the
Narrow Seas.
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