268 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 65. ships some had made away after Brissac ; the rest fell into the hands of Santa Cruz, and were treated as pirates. The officers were all beheaded, the crews were hanged ; not a man was spared. Strozzi himself, had he been taken alive, was to have been drawn asunder by four boats a horrible travesty of the ferocious dismember- ment by horses. 1 Neutralized as it was by theological mania, there was still a national feeling in France which was roused by this extravagant cruelty. It was reported that some of the gentlemen had been tortured, and the gallantry with which four ships for only four had been engaged had faced and encountered an enemy six times as numerous touched the pride and the indignation of the country. The King sent money at once to his brother ; a fresh squadron was ordered at Belleisle, and a declaration of war seemed immediately imminent, when news came that Don Antonio had fled, that St Michael's was recovered, Teroeira taken, and that the Portuguese flag floated no longer on land or water. Further views in this quarter were abandoned, but a sore feeling remained, which ren- dered it for the time impossible for Guise to co-operate with Philip, and made it certain also that France would instantly resent the interference of the Spaniards in Scot- land. Even Guise himself was a Frenchman as well as a Catholic, and, notwithstanding the entreaties of the Queen of Scots, it was felt by all parties that nothing could be done till the immediate exasperation had abated. 1 Cobham to "Valsingham, September 17 and September 18: MSS. France
