drive away the English cruizers, and secure him a passage across the Channel, so Parma, in 1588, waited for Medina Sidonia to drive away the Dutch and English squadrons that watched his flotilla, and to enable his veterans to cross the sea to the land that they were to conquer. Thanks to Providence, in each case England's enemy waited in vain!
Although the numbers of sail which the Queen's government, and the patriotic zeal of volunteers, had collected for the defence of England exceeded the number of sail in the Spanish fleet, the English ships were, collectively, far inferior in size to their adversaries; their aggregate tonnage being less by half than that of the enemy. In the number of guns, and weight of metal, the disproportion was still greater. The English admiral was also obliged to subdivide his force; and Lord Henry Seymour, with forty of the best Dutch and English ships was employed in blockading the hostile ports in Flanders, and in preventing the Duke of Parma from coming out of Dunkirk.
The Invincible Armada, as the Spaniards in the pride of their hearts named it, set sail from the Tagus on the 29th of May; but near Corunna met with a tempest that drove it into port with severe loss. It was the report of the damage done to the enemy by this storm, which had caused the
