" The Spaniard found no
partisans in the country which he assailed, nor did England, self-wounded,
"Lie at the proud foot of her enemy."
For upward of a year the Spanish preparations had been actively and
unremittingly urged forward. Negotiations were, during this time,
carried on at Ostend, in which various pretexts were assigned by the
Spanish commissioners for the gathering together of such huge masses of
shipping, and such equipments of troops in all the seaports which their
master ruled; but Philip himself took little care to disguise his
intentions; nor could Elizabeth and her able ministers doubt but that
this island was the real object of the Spanish armament.
The peril that was wisely foreseen was resolutely provided for.
Circular-letters from the Queen were sent round to the lord lieutenants
of the several counties requiring them to "call together the best sort
of gentlemen under their lieutenancy, and to declare unto them these
great preparations and arrogant threatenings, now burst forth in action
upon the seas, wherein every man's particular state, in the highest
degree, could be touched in respect of country, liberty, wives,
children, lands, lives, and--which was specially to be regarded--the
profession of the true and sincere religion of Christ, and to lay before
them the infinite and unspeakable miseries that would fall out upon any
such change, which miseries were evidently seen by the fruits of that
hard and cruel government holden in countries not far distant.
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