200 THE CALL OF THE SEA 



glory was singularly silent. They were the flower 

 of the country, called and chosen over the entire 

 Peninsula, and they were going with a modest 

 nobility upon a service which they knew to 

 be dangerous, but which they believed to be 

 peculiarly sacred. Every one, seaman, officer, and 

 soldier, had confessed and communicated before 

 he went on board. Gambling, swearing, profane 

 language of all kinds had been peremptorily for- 

 bidden. Private quarrels and differences had 

 been made up or suspended. The loose women 

 who accompanied Spanish armies, and sometimes 

 Spanish ships to sea, had been ordered away, and 

 no unclean thing or person permitted to defile the 

 Armada ; and in every vessel, and in the whole 

 fleet, the strictest order was prescribed and 

 observed. Medina Sidonia led the way in the 

 San Martm^ showing lights at night, and firing 

 guns when the weather was hazy. Mount's Bay 

 was to be the next place of rendezvous if they 

 were again separated. 



On the first evening the wind dropped to a calm. 

 The morning after, the I3th-23rd, a fair fresh 

 breeze came up from the south and south-west ; 

 the ships ran flowingly before it ; and in two days 

 and nights they had crossed the bay, and were 

 off Ushant. The fastest of the pinnaces was 

 dispatched from thence to Parma, with a letter 

 bidding him expect the Duke's immediate coming. 



