Secretary  Windebanke,  writing  to  Heneage  at  the  same  time,
savs  the  Queen  is  strangely  set  against  the  expedition,  and  is
intensely  incensed  at  the  fruitless  attack  on  Corunna.  "She
thinks  they  went  to  places  for  their  own  profit  rather  than  for
her  service." — Slalc  Papers  {Domestic).
THE   COUNTER-ARMADA    OF   [589.
nothing  was  dune.  The  next  day  they  tried  again,
and  this  time  with  such  success  that  one  half  of  the
gate  tower  was  blown  up,  and  the  other  half  left
tottering.  On  rushed  the  assailants.  Some  few
got  into  the  town,  but  as  the  officers  and  their
immediate  followers  set  foot  on  the  breach  and
waved  their  men  onward,  down  came  the  other  half
of  the  tower  upon  them,  and  crushed  them  beneath
the  ruins.  Two  standards  were  lost,  but  captured
again,  and  scores  of  men  were  killed.  In  the  dust
and  terror  the  unpractised  soldiery  thought  they
were  the  victims  of  some  stratagem  of  the  enemv
and  tied,  leaving  the  officers  and  gentlemen  volun-
teers to  extricate  themselves  as  best  they  could.
Poor  Captain  Sydenham  "was  pitifully  lost,  who
having  three  or  foure  yreat  stones  on  his  lower
parts  was  held  .so  fast,  as  neither  himself  could
stirre,  nor  anie  reasonable  companie  recover  him.
