THE CALL TO ARMS 



was. The captain of Our Lady of the Rosary, which 

 came from Ribadeo, in Galicia, admitted that the 

 landing was to be in London River; " and it was 

 resolved by the whole company that in what place 

 soever the}- should enter within the land, to sack the 

 same, either city, town, village, or whatsoever. . . . 

 Thej- were determined to put all to the sword that 

 should resist them." To these terrors a greater was 

 to be added, for " the King of Spain would establish 

 the Inquisition in this realm." 



But the dons of Spain fell before the English sea- 

 dogs like the autumn leaves in Vallombrosa ; the 

 castle-like galleons were battered and beaten by the 

 handy little English craft — of the thirty-four 

 Queen's ships eight were of less than ioo tons, 

 three being of fifty, and one, the Cygnet, of thirty 

 only, with twenty men and three guns. 



The parallel holds good with regard to Germany. 

 Germans were to win, and were then to impose their 

 " f rightfulness " on the English and other peoples 

 What that " f rightfulness " meant was but too ter- 

 ribly shown in the case of Belgium, a country which 

 had been sacrificed to the necessity that knew 

 neither law nor honour. 



The little ships from the coast, largely manned 

 by fishermen, had helped to save England from the 

 despotic don ; they had helped to fling him back into 

 the sea on which he had dared to set forth on his 

 sinister adventure; and little ships of Great Britain, 

 whose crews also were fishermen, shared in crush- 

 ing, at the very outset, the criminal intentions of 

 the modern Huns. 



41 



