By
all the rules of war, on which Borough was the first authority in the
service, to attack was suicide; but Drake had spent his life in breaking
rules. He did not care. The enemy was there, his authority was in his
pocket, the wind was fair, his officers believed in him, and as the sun
sank low behind them the fleet went in.
A scene of terror and confusion followed. Every ship in the harbor cut
its cables and sought safety in flight, some to sea, some across the bay
to St. Mary's, some through the Puntal passage to the inner harbor and
Port Royal. To cover the stampede ten galleys came confidently out from
under the Cadiz batteries. All was useless. While the chartered cruisers
swooped on the fugitives, the Queen's ships stood in, to head off the
advancing galleys, as coolly as though they had fought them a hundred
times before. In a few minutes the English admiral had taught the world
a new lesson in tactics. Galleys could only fire straight ahead; and, as
they came on line abreast, Drake, passing with the Queen's four
battle-ships athwart their course, poured in his heavy broadsides. Never
before had such gunnery been seen. Ere the galleys were within effective
range for their own ordnance they were raked and riddled and confounded,
and to the consternation of the Spaniards they broke for the cover of
the batteries.
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