JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE 1 99 



collected in the Bay of Fenol by the 6th- 1 6th of 

 July. All repairs were completed by the iith-2ist, 

 and the next day, the I2th-22nd, the Armada 

 took leave of Spain for the last time. 



The scene as the fleet passed out of the harbour 

 must have been singularly beautiful. It was a 

 treacherous interval of real summer. The early 

 sun was lighting the long chain of the Gallician 

 mountains, marking with shadows the cleft defiles, 

 and shining softly on the white walls and vine- 

 yards of Corufia. The wind was light, and fall- 

 ing towards a calm ; the great galleons drifted 

 slowly with the tide on the purple water, the long 

 streamers trailing from the trucks, the red crosses, 

 the emblem of the crusade, shewing bright upon 

 the hanging sails. The fruit boats were bringing 

 off the last fresh supplies, and the pinnaces hasten- 

 ing to the ships with the last loiterers on shore. 

 Out of thirty thousand men who that morning 

 stood upon the decks of the proud Armada, twenty 

 thousand and more were never again to see the 

 hills of Spain. Of the remnant who in two short 

 months crept back ragged and torn, all but a few 

 hundreds returned only to die. 



The Spaniards, though a great people, were 

 usually over conscious of their greatness, and 

 boasted too loudly of their fame and prowess ; 

 but among the soldiers and sailors of the doomed 

 expedition against England, the national vain- 



