Thus, with all sail set he went
on before the wind. Drake and Howard attended him till they had seen
him past the Forth, and knew then that there was no more to fear. It was
time to see to the wants of their own poor fellows, who had endured so
patiently and fought so magnificently. On the 13th of August they saw
the last of the Armada, turned back, and made their way to the Thames.
But the story has yet to be told of the final fate of the great
'enterprise of England' (the 'empresa de Inglaterra'), the object of so
many prayers, on which the hopes of the Catholic world had been so long
and passionately fixed. It had been ostentatiously a religious crusade.
The preparations had been attended with peculiar solemnities. In the
eyes of the faithful it was to be the execution of Divine justice on a
wicked princess and a wicked people. In the eyes of millions whose
convictions were less decided it was an appeal to God's judgment to
decide between the Reformation and the Pope. There was an
appropriateness, therefore, if due to accident, that other causes
besides the action of man should have combined in its overthrow.
The Spaniards were experienced sailors; a voyage round the Orkneys and
round Ireland to Spain might be tedious, but at that season of the year
need not have seemed either dangerous or difficult.
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