n8 THE CECILS
their way home as best they could. A succession of gales did still further damage, and Cecil himself, on the Anne Royal, arrived in Kinsale Harbour on December nth, having already lost 130 men from disease, and with 160 sick on board. The rest of the fleet suffered as severely, and it was many months before all the vessels which survived found their way back into English ports.
So ended this disastrous enterprise, which was fitly commemorated in the following lines :
" There was a crow sat on a stone ; He flew away and there was none. There was a man that ran a race ; When he ran fast, he ran apace. There was a maid that ate an apple ; When she ate two, she ate a couple. There was an ape sat on a tree ; When he fell down, down fell he. There was a fleet that went to Spain ; When it returned, it came again." x
For the fiasco Buckingham must bear the chief part of the blame. Not only was he responsible for the inception of the expedition and for its equipment, but he filled all the most important positions with his own nominees, whom Wimbledon was unable to reject. But even with the materials at his command, had he shown any decision or dash, Cecil should have had no difficulty in sacking Cadiz and destroying the ships in the harbour ; while his failure to intercept the Plate fleet was due far more to incapacity than to ill-luck. He lacked
1 Court and Times of Charles I., I. 118.
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