"Father, forgive me, for I have sinned." "I have most grievously offended thee by the sin of envy." "Father, forgive me, for I have sinned." "I have most grievously offended thee by the sin of pride." "Father, forgive me, for I have sinned." "I have most grievously offended thee by the sin of anger." "Father, forgive me, for I have sinned." "I have most grievously offended thee by the sin of gluttony." "Father, forgive me, for I have sinned." "I have most grievously offended thee by the sin of avarice." "Father, forgive me, for I have sinned..." "Is it true?" "There was no word of it when I left Madrid." "You need not whisper." "The prince hears nothing when he's playing." "There was no word when I left Madrid." "Letters from Paris reached his majesty last night." "The English have truly murdered her?" "Your countrymen have truly murdered her." "May God receive her innocent soul..." "Amen." "And translate her to celestial bliss." "Amen." "Now may she call upon us, his avenging servants." "Do you not agree?" "Your pardon, father Robert." "I did not realize you had finished." "Finished?" "Your prayer." "Do you mock me, Idiaquez?" "No, but why have you come?" "Is it to tell the king of Spain that he must avenge the Queen of scots?" "God's will demands it." "The king's exchequer may not yet permit it." "There's no richer prince in christendom." "You have forgotten the pope, father Robert." "His holiness has many calls upon his purse, but he will bless the armies that destroy Elizabeth." "Has he not said that were she not a heretic, she would be the most perfect and accomplished prince in the world?" "Now you mock the holy father." "You are a good man, Robert Parsons." "I would protect myself from your dangerous simplicity." "That is all." "You are a clerk, and you're afraid of war." "So is my royal master." "Remember, he fears war as a burnt child dreads the fire." "He'll not be long at the confessional." "Meanwhile, with your permission." "You carry your news on your face, Francis." "Oh, sweet Jesus!" "Were Elizabeth only a man." "We might all be headless by now." "But you have your commission at last?" "Aye, but God preserve me from another campaign like this one." "There were days when she granted me an audience nine times before supper, and then weeks when she looked through me as if I was made of glass." "How far will the commission carry you?" "She warned me against talking to that rogue..." "Walsingham." "No doubt." "Since Mary Stuart was relieved of her head, burghley and I have both been rogues." "Well, I can be patient." "I'm accustomed to the burden of the queen's conscience." "What did you say to her?" "What we've all been saying for 3 years now, that Philip will send a fleet against us and this much more..." "We must now strangle the antichrist on his own doorstep before he can take a pace beyond it." "Not that Drake's war against Spain should become England's." "My war, as you call it, has given your purse a golden lining as well as the queen's." "Or your own, my friend." "But she's truly given you a warrant for an assault on Philip's ships in their harbors?" "I'll tell you the wording of it." ""To impeach the purpose of the Spanish fleet."" "Now, how that may be done is left to my taste, even to "distressing their ships within their havens."" "Then I advise you to set upon the venture without delay." "I leave Gravesend for Plymouth tonight." "Within a week, I'll be under sail for Cadiz." "Write to me from Plymouth." "And, Francis," "I pray you, earnestly, do not delay." "Oh, she'll not change her mind now." "As easily as she would a gown, you know that, and persuade us that we are chameleons, not she." "Get you gone, Francis." "Oh, but I'd sup with you." "Godspeed you, but Begone now!" "I'll bring you a golden hair from Philip's beard..." "If I can find one I've not already turned gray." "I did not know you were to have an audience, father Robert, but you are welcome." "Your majesty, I have come..." "I have not slept since I read the letters from Paris." "Call the physician to bleed me tonight." "Your countrymen are brutes, father Robert." "No, your majesty, not all of them." "Many pray that you will free them from the tyranny of that heretical bastard Elizabeth." "I would be grateful to hear that they prayed less for my help and more for the courage to free themselves." "Is it not true that English catholics are among those who seize my ships in the indies and fight my soldiers in the Netherlands?" "If so, they are thereby deposed and excommunicated, but, sire, I have told you that the faithful..." "You tell me what Dr. Allen writes to you, but neither of you is in England." "You are here, and he is in Rome." "I will write to Rome." "Sire." "I will tell the courier that I grieve for the queen's death, for she would have been the most suitable instrument to bring both Scotland and England back to the church." "Is that not so, father Robert?" "Most assuredly, sire." "Although, having done so, she would have made both the allies of France." "Idiaquez, I will say nothing of that to Rome." "I do not understand, your majesty." "I will tell the courier that as God, in his wisdom, ordained that Elizabeth should take the life of Mary, so will he raise up another for the triumph of his church." "Amen." "Then may we not leave it to him, father Robert?" "What would you have me do?" "Avenge her death." "Yet, if she is a saint, as we agree, should I punish those who have been God's instruments, translating her immortal soul to heaven?" "Majesty, I do not dispute God's purpose in ordaining her murder, but by that foul deed, he also reveals the obscene heresy of the usurper Elizabeth." "Are you saying that God lags behind his holiness the pope, who has already excommunicated her?" "Majesty, I am saying that now is the time for the enterprise of England." "I ask your pardon, father Robert." "I see it is state craft, not theology, that you would debate with me." "For 20 years, men have urged this enterprise upon me, yet I had no ships for the purpose until I conquered Portugal." "That was a terrible war, father Robert." "I am still at war in the Netherlands." "And I cannot yet trust France." "How can I send an army and a fleet against England?" "Majesty, for four years, the marquis of Santa Cruz has been gathering your ships in Cadiz and Lisbon." "To protect the indies and to reinforce my armies in the Netherlands." "All men know that." "Sire?" "Pray, excuse me." "Majesty, what may I write to Dr. Allen?" "What comfort can we send to the faithful in England?" "Tell them I will be guided by God." "Majesty, there is need of haste." "Then we must walk with feet of lead, lest we stumble." "Sire... majesty, if it has been God's will to take the soul of that murdered queen, it is also his obvious design to bestow upon you the crowns of England and Scotland." "Pray for me, father Robert." "Your majesty." "Rest you still, old man." "God's death, burghley!" "I command you, rest you still!" "They did not tell me you were sick until this morning." "Gout, madam, gout." "I suffer more from your displeasure." "And so you should." "You're a wicked wretch, a false dissembler, old and beaten, and a traitor." "Madam, I protest." "How is it with you, Walsingham?" "Does the stone still plague you?" "Aye, madam." "You swallow too much bad physic and hang too many good physicians." "God's death, Walsingham, I am almost your age, yet I can dance six galliards of a morning and enjoy a healthful sweat." "Your majesty's continuing good health is a joy to her people." "I, too, am sometimes sick." "In another body, no great matter, but much in a princess." "What says your physician?" "That I'm close to 3-score year and 10, and they expect the flesh to weaken." "Old man, I fear I have used you grievously." "Since your majesty dismissed me..." "Yet you tricked me, both of you." "I did not desire the death of that wretched woman." "I know your impudent thoughts." "Would I wear these weeds a month if I had desired her death?" "Your majesty's grief is a model to Europe." "The king of France is astonished that you still weep for her." "Little good his astonishment will do me, not while you empty England's purse into the greedy palms of his huguenots." "I would have the protestant cause triumphant and you its greatest prince." "There is only one Jesus Christ, one faith." "All else is a dispute over titles." "The king of Spain..." "I am not afraid of Philip." "God's death, I fear a mistake in my Latin more than I do him." "Your majesty's Latin is without fault." "How would you know?" "You have a poor hand for it." "You see, milord, I am come in penitence to you my spirit and to you my moor to ask you to sit in council again." "Madam, my legs are weak..." "It's your good head I need, not your bad legs." "Have your servants carry you if they must, but mark me, both of you," "I have not forgotten you contrived the death of that woman." "Walsingham, you have received letters from Drake." "Aye, madam, from the Elizabeth Bonaventure which he boarded at Plymouth last week." "Well?" "He said that the wind commanded him away with six of your ships and four of his own." "Recall him." "Madam, it is too late." "He is at sea." "Upon your majesty's commission." "To work malice he could upon the Spanish ships at Cadiz and Lisbon." "That was not my commission." "Am I not to be obeyed?" "Jesu, my father would have had your heads!" "Madam, the king of Spain is resolved to set his enterprise against us this year." "The only way to bridle his ambition is to strike at his ships before they sail." "Recall Francis Drake, I command you." "Madam, your majesty knows" "I have ever been your servant in your desire for peace, but the king of Spain must now come against us." "Oh, he has been talking of his enterprise for 20 years." "Crowing cocks lay no eggs." "Nothing is changed." "Madam, the death of the queen of scots has changed all." "Your majesty, she bequeathed her crown to the king of Spain and her false claim to yours." "Recall Francis Drake." "Once at sea, your majesty, he respects no orders but his own." "Then I'll hang the rogue above his own deck." "If he sets foot on Spain, we shall most assuredly have war." "Your majesty's soldiers have been fighting in the Spanish Netherlands for two years." "Aye." "It costs me £100,000 a year to maintain Leicester's army there." "With that, I must also stomach his impudent title of governor over them, but no more." "I am determined upon a truce with Parma and peace in the Netherlands." "The Duke of Parma is a great captain, madam." "The Spanish cause prospers from his victories in the low countries." "It's not his nature to think of peace..." "When he's winning." "Nor will he agree to anything that his uncle, the king of Spain, does not sanction." "Then you are confounded, master spy." "He has agreed to meet my emissaries at borbourg." "He plays you for a dupe." "Guard your tongue, sirrah." "Madam, will you abandon the dutch?" "They will meet Parma's emissaries with mine." "I will give them peace..." "And send them good English cloth instead of soldiers." "Milord, come soon to my council." "Your majesty, I fear Walsingham is right." "They will deceive you if they can." "If we treat honestly with them, their deception will soon be exposed." "Be my friend again." "God keep me to serve your majesty." "Amen to that." "Touching the matter of Francis Drake." "I know that even my command will not bring him back, but charge him upon his life he is to enter no port of Spain nor land a man upon it." "Yet, if at sea, he should chance upon an indies fleet," "the boy is pleased with your gift, Santa Cruz." "Nothing else has occupied his mind." "Ah." "Now, I want 150 great ships." "No more." "It is not enough, sire." "With as many auxiliaries... dispatch boats, picket boats, zabras, and fragatas." "Your majesty," "I could have such a fleet at sea within a month, but it would be ill-manned and ill-supplied and too little." "It may yet be too much for my purse." "Two years ago, sire, when I proposed that your majesty's ships should invade England immediately..." "Yes." "I received no reply from your majesty." "You asked for... 500 ships and 200 barges," "100,000 soldiers and seamen, 2 million pounds of cheese," "70,000 bushels of beans and rice, 5 million gallons of wine, etcetera, etcetera." "Well, I was perhaps struck dumb by the magnitude of your proposal, don Alvaro." "And do you remember the cost?" "4 million ducats, your majesty." "It was impossible." "Yes, and since the cost may now be twice that sum, and for half the force then stated, may I beg that your majesty abandons the enterprise?" "Don Alvaro, I do not think you are a coward, but you have been ill." "A fever..." "Of no consequence, your majesty." "Do you wish to resign your commission as my captain general?" "Your majesty knows that if he so ordered," "I would sail against England with a single galleass." "Oh, Santa Cruz, do not debase yourself with such foolish bravado." "Be of good heart." "I have accepted your proposal..." "With some modifications, of course." "Yes, sire." "My nephew Parma was of the same cautious mind as yourself, but I have persuaded him to take an army of 30,000 men from the Netherlands to Kent, supported by your fleet." "Since we may thus send less soldiers from Spain, we shall need no barges and fewer transports." "We may also count upon the armed assistance of those English catholics..." "Your majesty..." "Do not interrupt me, Idiaquez!" "Dr. Allen tells me that 1/3, if not more of Elizabeth's subjects will rise against her." "We may expect him to supply us with provisions as well as men, and we may reduce our own supplies accordingly from eight months to three." "Your majesty is wrong." "Wrong, don Alvaro?" "Mistaken, sire." "Your majesty cannot understand the great risks, the many difficulties attending a rendezvous between a land force and a fleet in enemy seas." "A contrary wind, sire, one day lost." "Yet, you once proposed such a rendezvous with the French army." "Why not now with Parma?" "But I asked for 500 great Vessels, sire, and a seaborne army that could..." "Have I not shown you that 150 Vessels will suffice?" "Of course I have." "When may they sail?" "After so many years of indecision, your majesty's present impatience..." "God is impatient, don Alvaro, and we may not be his laggard servants." "I've told the pope I shall be master of England by the end of October." "As your majesty pleases." "Go then." "Write to me daily." "Count me ever your friend, don Alvaro, but be gentle with my purse." "God guard the catholic person of your majesty." "The..." "Your majesty." "No, no... it is..." "Nothing but the affliction in my eye." "You will call a physician to bleed and purge me again this evening." "Idiaquez..." "Do you know my father warned me never to lose the friendship of England?" "So you have told me, sire." "My son..." "Because of the love I owed my father," "I have patiently endured the insults and heresies of that island." "I was once its king." "I've always been its friend and have suffered its unkindness with humility." "I've always deserved the gratitude of Elizabeth." "But for me, your sister would have taken her life." "When I was urged to destroy her," "I refused..." "Yet I may not boast of my tolerance." "Christ has asked no less of me." "Sire, may I fetch the physician to you now?" "No, no, no." "His bleeding weakens me, and his purges cloud my mind." "I must not waste the rest of the day upon my bed." "You wished to speak when Santa Cruz was here." "Upon the matter of the English catholics, sire." "His holiness always writes of her with admiration, even as he urges her death upon me." "He sends me a million crowns to drag her from her throne, yet calls her one of the greatest princes in christendom." "He speaks of her courage and my timidity, of her wit and my dull piety." "We three are yoked together in love and hate, and my neck is galled with sores." "Your majesty must put no trust in the advice given you by Dr. Allen and father Robert." "I, too, have been dazzled by her brilliance and have scourged myself in penance for the sin of envy." "There can be no substantial help from the English catholics." "God has scaled my poor eye with this affliction, yet he has revealed my duty and put an end to my cowardly patience." "You are wrong, Idiaquez." "Your majesty knows how abhorrent an alien government is to the English." "It unites all men in opposition, whatever their faith." "Idiaquez, we must look to God for favor in an enterprise so entirely his own." "Then we should acknowledge that favor, your majesty, where it is most evident." "It is my opinion that it would be better to suspend the invasion of England and deploy both the fleets and the army in the reduction of the Netherlands." "But it is not the dutch who rob my treasure ships." "Your majesty!" "Don Alvaro?" "From Cadiz." "Drake." "God's blood, here was a don who departed in haste." "Now what is this place, master Francis?" "You were at the council, Tregannon." "It's the castle of sagres on the Lee side of the cape." "Oh, tat I..." "I know." "There was more." "Aye, it was once a school of seamanship founded by old Henry the navigator." "Your feet are on holy ground, friend John." "I'd rather they stood on the streets of Cadiz." "Man, would you have me take 4 galleons in among 100?" "I get shore batteries to boot." "Jacob, get you below." "Tell master platt to burn all that will burn." "Tregannon, here." "You set a torch to those storehouses?" "Aye." "When we'd overcome the dons." "And what was in them?" "Meal." "Wine." "Barrel staves, the most part." "And piled high as my main truck." "And yonder?" "Ah." "Great hall of books." "Prince Henry's library." "I'd as lief save that." "Ah, no matter." "We've torn more than they'd ever learn from the old man's books." "They fought like lions to keep us from the barrel staves." "Without casks for water and biscuits, the greatest fleet is nothing." "You know that, Tregannon." "I know we have the dons by the throat in Cadiz." "We have sent but one ship's company ashore." "Nay, John." "If the wind had dropped, we'd have been hares in a gin." "You expect too much from the hand of God." "In two days off the harbor mouth we sank or burned 40 of the ships they sent out against us... including their flagship." "I expect the hand of God to have more gold in it." "You're a pirate, Tregannon." "Then there's two of us in this room, admiral." "If you're writing to... to Walsingham." "Oh, that knave." "He's my friend..." "Master Tregannon." "God keep him, then." "But tell him John Tregannon says we've lit a great lantern in her majesty's name and scotched the dons forever." "Not yet." "But we made a happy beginning." "Albeit one with more hard knocks than treasure." "We can expect little gratitude from the queen if we bring her no gold." "We've made her kingdom safe for her this summer season." "She'll thank us for that." "My Lord of Leicester, are you afraid to show me your face?" "Only that I may be blinded by yours, madam." "Here's a bold liar." "Madam, your modesty does not permit..." "Don't try to cozen me, sir." "What do you know of modesty, your excellency?" "I refused greater titles than governor which the dutch would have thrust upon me." "And you'll strip yourself of that you accepted." "Madam, I may not." "I command you!" "Madam..." "Do not shame me so before these gentlemen." "Burghley, and you, too, Walsingham." "How fares it with your mother?" "Your lady wife is well." "Commend me to her." "The queen honors you, boy." "Upon your charity, milord." "You could not have favored me more had I been your own son." "Essex." "That rogue Drake has placed this kingdom in Jeopardy." "Your majesty, he did not receive your countermand before he attacked Cadiz." "Well, I swore I would hang the rogue, and so I shall." "Walsingham, you will write to Parma and tell him that upon my life," "Drake acted without my authority and against my wishes." "Madam, if the Duke of Parma is as desirous of peace as your majesty and if he believes you to be as honest in intent as you hold him, he will acquit you of blame in this matter." "You stepped through that answer like a barefoot child among nettles, burghley." "Tell me plainly." "Your majesty, Parma will say and do what the king of Spain proposes." "That hermit." "That tortured monk!" "Your majesty, by the island of St. Michael in the azores," "Drake came upon a great ship from the indies, the San Felipe." "Her treasure, which he brings you, is worth twice the cost of the fleet he took to Cadiz." "Then I'll hang him with a silken rope instead of hemp." "He also sends your majesty a warning." "He warns me?" "That he has but halted halted the monstrous power of Spain, that we should build ships and look to the coast of Sussex." "When I rode out to my coronation, an old man cried out from the crowd at the water gate." "He said he remembered king Harry viii." "It lifted my heart." "Who will be happy to remember me if I challenge Philip and lose?" "The challenge has been made by Spain, madam." "Who will remember England if you ignore it?" "Are the dutchmen here?" "Majesty." "We have read your petition against our desire to reach a truce with the Duke of Parma, also your impertinent demand that we confirm the Earl of Leicester in his title of governor over you." "What next?" "Will you make the fellow your prince?" "Our country is a sovereign state, madam, and may surely choose to honor those who serve it well." "Your country, sir, is a sieve into which mine has poured much gold and sifted little good." "Will your majesty now surrender us to Spain?" "Oh, Goodman, your people are as dear to me as my own." "If I can give them both peace, will you have us fight more bloody battles?" "Your majesty's emissaries have assured Parma's that should he agree to a truce, we will admit to the authority of Rome." "Our savior Christ paid his tribute to the romans." "And was delivered by them to the cross." "Do princes now take instruction from common men?" "You are less than honest with me, sir." "You have issued a proclamation in your provinces..." "Aye, I know of it... ordering no man to speak of peace with Spain." "Will you so order me?" "Is this your gratitude?" "Madam, such gratitude has two edges." "While we contest the spaniards, they may not cross the sea to you." "You are a bold petitioner, sir." "And I will be bolder, madam." "Within a year, you may regret the time you waste." "Parma laughs at you!" "God's death!" "You need a prince to teach you manners!" "Go to." "Did I frighten you?" "Madam..." "Get you gone." "Speak your business to milord burghley." "But if I am to see you again, remember..." "I am to be treated with honor." "Burghley, dismiss them all." "I would be alone." "Leicester, stay." "Ha ha ha ha." "Ha ha ha." "Be off, you impudent boy." "Get up, graybeard." "Sirrah, get up!" "Sweet Robin, I entreat you." "Your excellency must stand before me as an equal." "Since that title sticks in your throat, madam, you should know that I accepted it for love of you." "For love of yourself, and to blind your eyes to your wretched failures." "Had you sent me the men I needed and the money" "I asked for, I should not..." "Will you dip your hand into my treasury whenever you choose?" "I paid your soldiers for a year from my own revenue." "Which you received from me." "You've whined for money." "You make widows and orphans." "Your majesty has forgotten that I saw my nephew Philip Sidney die at Zutphen." "Ah, rob, rob." "Though all the world forsook me," "I thought you would be true." "I would die at your feet." "What's that to do with it?" "Get up." "Oh, it's a hard bargain, milord, when both parties are losers." "Though I part with your love, you will make open and public resignation of the title given you by the dutch." "I an determined upon it." "I cannot treat honestly with Parma while I sustain you in that office." "For God, if that's all." "The man's deluding you." "Send me back against him, and I'll..." "I'm sending you to bath to take the water, as you have been ill." "A fever and the gout, but..." "I will draw up a diet to reduce that sagging flesh." "2 ounces of meat a day, no more, though the quality I leave to your judgment." "On festival days, the shoulder of a wren at noon with the leg for supper." "Madam, I beseech you." "Assemble your forces and your ships here in England and send me back to the low countries." "On Sundays, you may drink the 20th part of a pint of wine." "On ordinary days, nothing but the healing waters." "For God, madam, you try my patience." "You will not go back to flanders." "I will accept banishment to an Irish bog if you so order it, but as I love you, do not trust Philip or Parma." "If I desire Walsingham's advice," "I will hear it from his lips, not yours." "I have not deserved this contempt." "Nor I your blustering." "You will do as I command." "Leave me to govern this kingdom." "How, madam, by playing cards with my pretty stepson?" "Hmm." "Tch." "Do as I command you, milord." "Get you well." "Your life is dear to me." "And you destroy it by abandoning me." "Oh, rob, much is past." "You and I are old." "You are gloriana." "You're ageless." "We are mortal." "Look in your glass, milord." "Madam..." "You may go." "24 great Vessels..." "The town of Lagos, and the castle of sagres." "Your majesty," "Drake boasted he had destroyed 40 ships." "Am I to be grateful for the difference?" "No, sire." "Or the loss of 200,000 ducats?" "Majesty, we pursued him to the azores." "Yes, where he took the San Felipe." "The crew was sick..." "But the daring of the English, don Alvaro." "Their daring!" "And that remarkable woman." "Idiaquez, surely in all heretics there must be a dread of heaven's displeasure, for that is the substance of all belief." "They are English heretics, sire, with a church and heaven of their own creation." "Not all." "Not all." "How can Elizabeth defy the church when 1/3 of her people must rise against her?" "If your majesty were to appeal to the English catholics, urge them to defend the church, not to overthrow Elizabeth." "But it is illogical to assume one does not involve the other." "Majesty, the English are, by definition, illogical." "No, you do not know them as I do." "Elizabeth is afraid of her people's displeasure." "No, Parma will beguile her with talk of peace." "And meanwhile, he urges me to dispatch your fleet at once, don Alvaro." "Impossible, your majesty..." "The damage done by Drake." "We have no seasoned wood for barrel staves." "My nephew says it'll be enough if you hold to the channel while his army crosses to Kent." "As things now stand, sire, your fleet may not risk a long voyage." "I have told the pope you will be in the channel by the first day of December." "Winter, your majesty?" "You said you cannot sail at once, and I agree." "Even so, sire, your majesty underestimates the great damage done by Drake." "Now we must take 14 galleons from the English treasure fleet and 10 more from the Portuguese." "We are buying merchantmen in Italy and the baltic which we shall convert to warships." "Has your majesty some scheme for the rapid seasoning of the wood we shall need for new barrels?" "Don Alvaro, I recall you once urged haste upon me." "With the same devotion to your majesty," "I now implore caution." "You are, perhaps, ill." "I wish I were in better health to serve, your majesty, but were I 30 years younger," "I would still advise against a winter sailing." "Parma will land 40,000 men in Kent to be supported by a rising of scots and English catholics." "You wanted to close them out of the thames and land an army there." "I could do so, sire, in the spring, but your majesty must allow me to carry more soldiers." "My nephew says it will be enough if you hold the isle of wight and await his orders." "With 100 miles and the English fleet between us?" "Heh heh heh." "There is no English fleet." "Or are you thinking of the handful of ships that Drake brought to Cadiz?" "Your poor health distresses me, don Alvaro." "I'll send my physician to you." "Are you keeping secrets from me, old man?" "The dispatch, sir." "Where is the dispatch?" "What news?" "None." "Have you ships at sea?" "A pinnace off the azores, another by corona, but these November gales..." "What are these rogues doing at ostende?" "They have been there since midsummer." "Walsingham, how long does it take honest men to agree?" "If all parties are of one mind, your majesty, an afternoon would be enough." "The Duke of Parma and I are of one mind." "Is that not enough?" "Unless he mocks your majesty." "God's death, I'll suffer no one to mock this poor old woman." "Nor I." "I thought I'd hanged you, sir." "Your majesty's repeated assurances to the dutch perplex the Duke of Parma." "He asks for time to consider..." "Does he expect me to abandon them entirely?" "God's death, I will stand by them as long as I have a man left in my kingdom to fight for me." "Bold words from a peacemaker." "I can hear your quarterdeck whisper." "Will your majesty hear more?" "I did not command you hither." "I came upon the Lord admiral's order." "Is the armada at sea?" "Has Philip come to devour us?" "Will your majesty wait until he does?" "Put me to sea again, madam, and let me burn out their rat holes while their masts are still there." "Madam, sir Francis gives good advice." "If we are forced to meet the armada at sea, it must be at great hazard to this kingdom." "We should prevent the Spanish from sailing." "And so says Raleigh and Hawkins and Frobisher." "Only my good spirit here encourages me in my honest concern for peace." "Madam, there never was, since England was England, such a trick to deceive us as this talk of peace." "I pray God we don't curse a white head and graybeard for the mischief it may yet do us." "Take care, cousin, my people do not curse you for a war that destroys them." "Better that than follow a Judas goat to slaughter." "Master pirate." "I can distinguish between those who advise me in love and loyalty and for those who follow other fancies." "No man who loves you, madam, may keep silence while your ships are unrigged, the guns in the tower, the seamen cutting throats for a crust!" "Aye, and no man would so order it!" "I know you would as lief have a man upon my throne, but God gave it to me." "I am anointed by him and am answerable to none but him." "My counselors depend upon me, not I upon them." "You are dust that I have molded." "You are empty breath without my voice." "I am not deceived by Spain." "There are men like you who would have Philip set his power against us, but he and I are princes both, not common men." "We know that we are bound by the will of God to preserve the peace of our kingdoms." "Do not think you can trick me!" "I have such cunning that if I were turned out of my kingdom in my petticoat," "I would prosper anywhere in christendom!" "God's mercy, we need more than a petticoat." "Is the woman bewitched?" "If not..." "We may so contrive it, Francis." "Send me word if your watching pinnace sights so much as a Spanish fishing boat." "Who is there?" "Don Idiaquez." "Oh." "How fares it with your excellency?" "All is well." "I am dying." "I am sorry to hear that." "Has spring come?" "It's not yet Christmas." "And I am not in London." "His majesty sent me to tell you that his love is constant." "One thing this day, another the next." "Yes, his love is constant." "You are his greatest captain." "Of a fleet I cannot get to see." "His majesty understands that your sickness has prevented... the enterprise is sick." "It is doomed with me." "Do not disturb yourself, excellency." "He... he instructs me as if I were a cabin boy." "He is distressed that the fleet has not sailed as he ordered." "Ropes." "Excellency?" "Canvas..." "Guns." "Green staves." "His contractors cheat him." "His officers are thieves." "Then they..." "They take the pay of the deserters." "When your excellency has recovered, no doubt you'll..." "Are you a physician?" "What may I say to the king?" "You're a clerk..." "Base born." "So it pleases men to tell me." "For winter's sailing..." "His majesty's further instructions upon the storing of supplies and the proper conduct of your Christian observance when you are at sea." "At sea?" "His majesty now takes the sacrament four times daily in confidence that you will depart before the spring." "What may I tell him?" "Tell him..." "I have never been more eager..." "To depart." "Who was that black raven?" "Her majesty's astrologer." "We've been waiting upon him?" "I've seen the fellow somewhere before..." "A sennight ago at your lodging." "The divinations of reggio montanas the mathematician forecast the fall of empires in the coming year." "And her majesty's..." "Naturally concerned." "Did you not hear the tumult in London?" "Aye." "A mob shouted at me as I passed, asked me why I wasn't at sea when the Spanish were coming." "Ha ha ha." "Is this your doing?" "Tell me again." "What report did your captain send?" "Little enough." "A galley out of Lisbon watching him like a boy over an orchard wall." "Will you make an armada out of that?" "Parma has withdrawn his commissioners from ostende upon some dispute over procedure." "I had not counted on that happy accident, and I'm obliged to him." "Well, I'll not pretend to understand what you're at, but..." "what must I do?" "When we see the queen, you must say aye and nay in support of me." "No more, but..." "Most solemnly." "Gentlemen." "Remember, Francis." "Most solemnly." "Oh, aye." "Your majesty." "Tell me bluntly." "Is it true?" "Majesty, my information is no better than the men who send it to me, but since they do so at risk of their own lives..." "What men?" "Where?" "In brussels." "And Paris." "As to the men, your majesty must understand..." "The armada is to sail at Christmas." "If it is not already at sea." "One of Drake's ships has..." "Sighted Vessels under sail from Lisbon." "Aye, madam." "What was your captain doing there?" "Your majesty has heard that Parma has withdrawn his commissioners from ostende?" "Could the fellow have been mistaken?" "No, madam." "They were recalled to receive his instructions." "Aye, madam, but what instructions?" "Your majesty is aware that since the victory of the huguenots at coutras the French..." "Walsingham, are you saying that France is also sending an army against us?" "I believe the Duke of guise will obey his paymaster, the king of Spain." "Reggio montanas." "The prophecy is cryptic nonsense." "Upon which ambitious princes may justify their designs." "When can the fleet be mobilized?" "John Hawkins could have the ships at sea with 14 days, madam." "Men of war, that is, but as for provisioning..." "Let them sail with empty bellies if they must." "Now God be thanked." "Is the speaker here?" "Madam." "Master speaker, will the commons vote me supplies?" "Madam, they must decide that in debate." "They'll waste no time in idle debate, but vote me the supplies I need to defend this realm." "Madam, may they have no liberty of speech?" "None that allows every man to release whatever vapor may come into his brain." "None, madam?" "No, sir." "Their liberty of speech goes no further than the freedom to say yea or nay." "Your majesty, a bill..." "I have the power to dissolve parliament, sir." "Madam, would you coerce them?" "God's death!" "Will they coerce me?" "Burghley, teach this malapert fellow his duty." "Your majesty's commons are her loyal servants." "Nay, arrogant and presumptuous." "Hark ye, sir, though you know it well enough," "I am in powerless debt." "I have but £250,000 a year from my revenues with which to maintain my dignity and my servants, to support my government and play purse holder to protestant Europe." "Any a German prince has more." "I have a sovereign's right to call upon you for taxation." "Your majesty knows that such taxation may be levied for her household charges only." "Dear man, all England is my household!" "Madam, until today we have been set upon peace and to your commons' joy, but the speaker cannot say how matters will go now that we may have war." "Good master speaker, the spaniards are come against this country and against our religion." "It is not of my choosing." "But if the commons will not support me, then I will go out alone, sword in hand, to meet my enemies." "Madam, I did but say that the commons must debate the matter, not that they would refuse you." "Then I am content, my friend." "See to it, milord." "Send word to Leicester." "He is to come to London as my lieutenant general." "A little... magicking with the stars, an obedient mob, a careful threat, and a bold lie." "Ha ha ha." "I'm your humble admirer." "Pray the Spanish come, Francis." "For if they don't this time," "I doubt we can cry wolf again." "Your majesty, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, sire." "Mmm." "May God protect the catholic person of your majesty." "You've heard that Santa Cruz is dead." "A great loss to your majesty and to Spain." "God is merciful." "Always more time." "More money." "More ships." "Don Alonzo, you will now become my captain general of the ocean and the sea." "Has the physician been called?" "Yes, sire." "I, your majesty?" "Yes." "Why, are you surprised?" "I am your captain general of Andalusia, sire." "I am a soldier." "You're not ambitious, neither headstrong nor quarrelsome." "But most unfit!" "You've led a blameless life." "No man will think you take the office for profit." "Sire, there are many, many men much better qualified than I." "You are a devout son of the church, and your house is the oldest in Castile, so who can take offense?" "Majesty, hear me first!" "As you will." "Sire..." "My... my health would not be equal to the voyage." "One of my physicians will accompany you." "And though I am a soldier, sire," "I have fought no battles." "I have no experience of the sea." "God will direct you to victory, don Alonzo, for this is a crusade in his name, and as for the sea, it is but a wider road than we travel on land." "Sire, I know nothing of what Santa Cruz has decided!" "I am the architect of the victory." "I shall instruct you." "Majesty, I have not a real of my own to spend in your majesty's service." "My family is burdened down with debt... 900,000 ducats!" "I am not appointing a moneylender." "Ando mayor of Castile is a much better soldier, sire!" "And a good Christian, too, I swear!" "Your modesty confirms my judgment." "An arrogant commander would provoke jealous officers to spiteful indiscipline." "And your lack of conceit persuades me that you will obey me implicitly." "Sire, as your captain general of Andalusia," "I was unable to prevent Drake landing... that was the fault of Santa Cruz." "You will take this commission, don Alonzo, and for love of me." "Idiaquez, bid the physician make haste." "And tell father Diego" "I shall take the sacrament again at noon." "Your excellency may care to begin with these reports from Lisbon and Cadiz." "Why could he not have left me to my orange groves?" "His majesty wishes the armada to sail by midsummer at the latest." "The Duke of Parma believes..." "I am always seasick!" "I always catch cold at sea!" "Ah, you have come at last, sir." "Immediately, madam, upon your summons." "Which I sent 10 days ago." "I have been in the country..." "Are we conquered?" "Are the Spanish in London?" "You duped me, sir." "No, madam." "Upon my honor." "A plague upon your honor, sir." "You have not enough to cover a flea!" "Two months ago upon your information," "I mobilized the fleet and the militia." "I ordered ship money from my ports and supplies from the commons." "My chest at treasure is all but empty, and idle soldiers bully my honest citizens." "You have been too clever this time, master spy." "If your majesty will listen..." "Listen to what?" "More lying tales about a fleet that is still in harbor and God knows may never sail?" "It will sail, madam." "Under a dead commander or his successor, that orange grower, who I believe is more dead than alive." "I will school you in simple truths, sir." "My merchant-adventurers want to use the ports of the new world." "My clothiers and weavers want the markets of the rhine." "I am not only a queen, Walsingham." "I am a Tanner and a tinsmith, a Collier and Shepherd." "How will my trades prosper if you have your war with Spain?" "Burghley, the fleet is to be dismissed." "Howard may watch with four ships, if he wishes, but no more." "The rest will lie up." "Their guns will be removed to the tower and their wasteful crews dismissed from my charge." "Madam, I must warn you..." "No, sir, you must not!" "You must guard your rattling tongue lest I have my hangman pluck it out." "Burghley, you have written to Parma?" "Aye, ma'am." "I've prepared your instructions for new commissioners to meet his agents." "Will he agree?" "I'm confident of it, ma'am, as I now believe we may trust his good intentions." "Milord..." "Sir Francis!" "A cool head best serves her majesty at this time!" "And none is cooler than mine, for it is chilled by fears for her safety." "Madam, Philip grasps at your crown." "All else he proposes is a game of hoodman blind!" "I will believe that, sir, when I have proof of his malice toward my person." "So far, you have discovered none." "Now, milord, you are in a perilous state." "Ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha!" "What is the title of Dr. Allen's book?" "Oh, yes." "Of course." "He is a cardinal now." "Yes, your majesty." "He has entitled the work," "An Admonition of the Nobility and People of England." "Ah." "Will they be permitted to read it?" "It was printed in Antwerp, your majesty." "It is already circulating privately in England." "And, uh..." "Its apologia?" "That his holiness has confirmed the declaration of pious v in respect to Elizabeth's bastardy, and has reissued the sentence of excommunication upon her as a usurper and abominable heretic." "Ah, you hear Idiaquez?" "Go on, father Robert, for what is his argument?" "Most cogent, sire." "The deposition of Elizabeth will be right in natural law because she is a tyrant and in divine law because she is a heretic." "Good." "And then?" "It sets forth the instructions of his holiness, that no englishman need obey or defend her, but must be ready to join with your majesty's forces in deposing her and restoring the catholic church." "Only thus can they save their own and their children's souls." "Have you read it, Idiaquez?" "I have, your majesty." "I would not dispute its arguments nor its theology." "But by its gutter vituperation of Elizabeth's person, it may have a contrary effect to that which his eminence intends." "No, you are wrong, Idiaquez." "You are always wrong about the English." "Father Robert, tell his eminence I am pleased with what he has written and that I wish this to be known in England." "Her majesty has seen this scurrilous work?" "She's reading it now." "God's death!" "As you can hear." "It's a work of poor scholarship." "I thought better of William Allen." "Jesu, the rogue!" "Are there many copies at large?" "Allen's priests carry them like rats transport fleas." "To God I were at home today." "First the news that Parma has abandoned all thought of the treaty, and now this!" "This!" "Milord, a cool head will best serve your inflamed choler." "Enough!" "God's death!" "Give it to me." "Unjust usurper, am I?" "Depraved and accursed!" "God be praised." "I had not hoped for such passion." "Spawn of an infamous courtesan!" "Burghley!" "Madam." "Oh, milord, forgive me." "In my rage at this billingsgate," "I have forgot your wretched grief." "Your gentle daughter Anna, sweet lady, her death so aggrieved me, my spirit." "Oh, madam." "No, old man, get up." "All are equal in sorrow." "Gentlemen..." "Ahh." "Well, Walsingham, I have the proof which I defied you to discover." "Jesu, it could not have been more damnably done had you contrived it yourself." "They have played me false, Parma and Philip, but now my eyes are open, and with God's help I will strike those braggarts down." "And with ours." "Are there truly men who will obey the pope in this?" "Your majesty, you have a list of those you may suspect." "Take up the leaders, hang a few and set others in the tower." "Madam, it will be hard for a loyal englishman to face your enemies if he fears his house may be burnt behind his back." "No, madam." "Confine some to their houses if you wish and deprive them of horses..." "Your majesty, now's the time for a hempen lesson." "Your majesty, that billingsgate, as you so rightly name it, could work well in your favor." "While catholic englishmen may oppose our church, they would not exchange you for Spanish rule." "Tread softly, your majesty." "You'll travel well." "I'll tread between the pair of you." "Walsingham, take up those you suspect most, but no hangings." "Let men know what cruelties the Spanish work, and let them see that if I fall, they come down with me and England." "Madam, how shall we fight?" "I must tell you?" "Madam, it is the opinion of your commanders that you should permit them take the fleet to the coast of Spain." "And leave England defenseless." "Oh, for God, against whom?" "The enemy is there." "And in flanders?" "Barges!" "Your majesty has been listening to landsmen." "I have been listening to men who love me as dearly as you, Francis Drake, and make less noise about their valor." "I will not be churlish." "Fight where you will, though it is against my judgment." "Cousin Howard, you and your officers were born for the preservation of your country." "Set my ships and armies in good order." "See to it, milords." "I acknowledge, o my king, that without thee my throne is unsteady, my kingdom weak, and my life uncertain." "Create therefore in me, o God, a new heart and so renew my spirit." "Defend me and my people from all my enemies, who are enemies of truth and vaunt themselves against thy Christ." "In whose blood and passion thy children are saved." "Scourge this sinner for his envious heart, his cowardly spirit, and miserable frailty." "Give that triumph to my ships and armies which may preserve thy true church and glorify thy name." "Comfort me with thy protection, and strengthen me with thy grace through the love of thy only son, thou savior Jesus Christ." "Amen." "Idiaquez." "Don Alonzo." "Don Luis." "Your majesty, in the two months since I have accepted your majesty's commission," "I have come to terms with my conscience." "You answer to God for your conscience, don Alonzo, and to me for my fleet." "When will it sail?" "Within the week, as your majesty commanded." "130 Vessels, 2,500 guns, 30,000 soldiers and seamen, uh, 2/3 of whom are Portuguese and Italian." "Yes, I know the listing, don Alonzo." "Unfortunately, your majesty, many of the seaman are merely..." "Farmers and craftsmen impressed into your majesty's service." "I have chosen the squadron commanders for their skill and experience." "It is enough." "Yes, your majesty." "And for my own part," "I may say that I have learned much about the sea." "From the highest to the lowest, you are to understand the holiness of your mission." "I charge you, all men are to abstain from profane oaths." "No common whores are to board the Vessels." "Each day at sunrise, the ship's boys will sing Good Morrow at the foot of the main mast and at sunset Ave Maria." "Remember to keep each holy day and the watchwords appointed for each day..." "Jesus, the holy ghost, and so on." "How many holy friars have you aboard?" "200, your majesty, though the seamen are complaining..." "The English will endeavor to engage you at a distance because they have the better gunners." "So for love of me, if you must meet with them, do so in a close engagement." "If you fall in with Drake near to my coasts, ignore him." "Your majesty told me that I should... sail straight to cape margate, and thence to the mouth of the thames, and there hold yourself in readiness for the Duke of Parma." "In your orders last week, your majesty told me that I should seek an Anchorage off the flanders coast and then escort the Duke..." "Majesty..." "One moment, Cordoba." "Are you confused, don Alonzo?" "Indeed, your majesty." "Perhaps my wits..." "Majesty, I must speak." "Don Luis." "Don Alonzo, should the Duke of Parma be unable to attack, you may land upon the isle of wight." "But your majesty expressly forbade me to attack that island." "On the eastward run, but if at cape margate you learn that Parma may not come, return from thence to wight." "Idiaquez." "Those are your sailing instructions." "Mark them well." "The fleet is to sail in six squadrons out of the titles of Portugal," "Castile, Andalusia, and so on, but when you engage, they are to draw into the formations I have devised." "Trust in your squadron commanders don Pedro de Valdez and don Juan de Ricalde, who are devout, honest men." "There will be high mass in the cathedral at Lisbon, and the archbishop will bless your ships." "Majesty, touching these orders..." "Are they not clear?" "Well, uh..." "After 20 years, can I have made some mistake, don Alonzo?" "Majesty, I am your majesty's servant in all things." "Then go quickly to Lisbon, my good friend." "God is with you." "What says my nephew?" "Your majesty, the Duke of Parma wishes you to know that the enemy is aware of your intentions." "Of course." "And earnestly advises your majesty to make the armada strong enough to secure landing without his assistance, should that be difficult." "And why should that be difficult, young man?" "Sir, 40 English Vessels lie off the low countries." "Don Alonzo has instructions to disperse them if necessary and meet with my nephew at Dunkirk." "Impossible." "In my opinion, sire." "Be good enough to tell me why I should consider your opinion." "Shoal water, sire." "Shoal water?" "Idiaquez." "Several leagues of it in front of Dunkirk." "The armada galleons draw 25 or 30 feet, and they'll not get far enough inshore to protect the barges." "It's not marked." "Yet it's there." "Curb your insolent spirit, don Luis." "The armada will lie off these shoals until the barges come out." "Or be driven aground by false winds, your majesty, or watch English ships of shallow draft get between them and the shore." "I cannot change the instructions" "I have given to don Alonzo." "Then since the junction between the Duke's barges and the armada is the whole point of the enterprise, and since such a meeting is impossible, your majesty should abandon the scheme now and save money and lives." "Is that your opinion, too, or is it my nephew's advice?" "The Duke of Parma instructed me to speak boldly to your majesty." "And so you have done." "Young man, do you know what don Juan de Ricalde replied when asked if the armada would triumph?" "No, sire." "That however cunning and expert the English might be, and however great their advantage," "God is our strength." "Therefore he would sail in the confident hope of a miracle." "Your majesty, don Juan is renowned for his wit." "Tom fleming's at sea with the tide in the Golden Hind." "Ah..." "I've known better weather at Plymouth for a sailing." "How far have you ordered his ship?" "As far south as the wind will take him." "He'll put about as soon as he sights their topsails." "They're long in coming." "Six weeks." "God's hand is against them." "And it's not for us, either." "The same foul gales that hold them back keep us from attacking them on their own shore." "We match their strength in numbers, Francis, though we're grievous small in size." "I've seen puny English hounds pull down a Spanish bull by the nose." "And this orange grower, their commander..." "He'd never set foot in a ship of war." "Nor did I, sir, until the queen gave me this office." "In faith, uh, that's true." "Well, milord, what shall we do?" "What would you do if I did not leave so much to you and Hawkins?" "Why, milord, for love of England," "I might well pluck you from that chair." "Ha ha ha!" "Oh, but that's a treasonable thought." "If they come before the wind, Francis, will they not have the advantage of us?" "You're learning seamanship, milord." "Well, here's more..." "We'll weather it out to sea at dusk, God willing, come to windward of them at dawn, hold them on a Lee shore, albeit our own." "But, milord, as soon as we sight them, we must fight, and all the way." "I've no other wish." "Now God be thanked the queen has such a kinsman." "Oh, don Alonzo writes an abominable hand." "Where was it written?" "At corona, sir." "This month?" "July?" "Yes, sir." "So long?" "Why is he still there?" "He was driven back by gales, your majesty, and may not sail until fairer weather." "Well, has it come?" "The day I left corona, sir... the 22nd." "The wind changed." "From the hills I saw the first squadron underway." "Good." "Is don Alonzo in good heart?" "There are many sick." "Queasy stomachs, no more." "And supplies are..." "Always supplies." "They're better than he'd hoped, sire." "Oh." "Well, is that all?" ""Your majesty has embarked all your resources" ""in this expedition." ""I can see no way of redressing any disaster which may befall it."" "The man makes too many excuses." "But he is a chivalrous man, and battle will strengthen his heart." "The 22nd, you say?" "How long will it take them to reach the channel?" "Your majesty, I'm no seaman." "You were eloquent enough about shoal water." "Seven days, your majesty." "Seven." "But today is the 29th, and tonight..." "Or tomorrow, Idiaquez..." "God's work has begun." "Is this the fellow from Howard?" "John Tregannon, noble queen, master of the loyal prince of falmouth." "What news of my ships?" "Oh, God bless them, they're most worthy." "They're like hounds about that great beast of Spain." "I'd rather kept the loyal prince in the fight, but milord told me that bringing word to you was greater honor than grappling with the dons." ""It's death," said I..." "Fellow, fellow." "Good master Tregannon, have pity on me." "God bless you, noble lady." "You stand in no need of pity." "Your news, sir." "Aye." "You'll find it here." "That's in Lord Howard's hand, with more from master Francis and John Hawkins." "And now, uh, by your leave, madam," "I'll return to my ship." "Stay, good master Tregannon." "Tell me what you can." "Why, madam, that's all..." "Well, on... on the 29th..." "That's when Thomas fleming brought the news to Plymouth..." "The tide was against us, and the dons were to windward." "But that night we were got out of harbor." "54 sailed. 54." "But then by noon when my mast top man sighted the first spaniard, the wind fell away to nigh on calm... be brief, master Tregannon." "Oh, aye." "Aye." "Uh, briefer it will be, in the telling, madam." "At moonrise the wind came up on the starboard quarter, yet still not light enough, for there was cloud and Spanish voices coming out of the darkness." "Now I, uh..." "Ah, their ships are tall." "Poopcastle and forecastle as high above my truck, but we closed, and their great guns, they spat clear over us." "Then you could see the dons in plate armor, leaning down and cursing us." "Master Tregannon." "Aye, aye." "Be brief." "We fired five rounds to their one and into their great bellies." "Well, we had them windward." "They had the Lee shore." "We galled them when we would by dodman point and by Plymouth." "Then they rounded stark point to torbay, but we had them again on the second west of Portland bill, broke their Crescent, and as they tacked towards wight, we belabored them again by the needles." "Oh, God." "God save me," "I never thought I'd hear men scream so." "As they lay upon their decks, their blood ran down the sides of those handsome Vessels." "Such deeds in your name, noble lady." "I saw Drake board a great galleon and take her master's sword, with Hawkins laying over a quarter, shouting that master Francis was gone a-pirating again." "What of Lord Howard?" "Oh, there's the miracle of it." "The old gentleman, he proved himself a great captain." "He took the Heart Royal alongside the Don's chief galleon, and mauled her prettily." "Well, until she escaped." "But being to windward now, you understand, where she had been to leeward..." "Master Tregannon, is the armada defeated?" "Oh, no, sir, it is not." "Then a plague upon your busky humor, sir, and tell me the truth." "When I came ashore, we'd fought them again off Catherine's point on wight." "At dawn, I saw them as I rode by the Sussex shore they're making for Dunkirk, I'd warrant." "Parma." "Hmm." "Master Tregannon, you have brought me sad news." "Sweet lady, all the world never saw such a force as theirs." "Have no shame for your seamen." "I shall go to tilbury." "Nay, madam." "You'll be..." "Silence." "I shall join the Earl of Leicester and my soldiers at tilbury." "You, good master Tregannon, get you back to your ship." "Aye, madam." "That I will." "Tell Lord Howard to send you to me again as soon as he has news." "Rye is a slow crop." "To ripen, I mean." "But hearty." "That's rye bread..." "Well, wheaten rye." "Brown as a hazelnut." "Bread's bread." "The soldier should eat what he can, when he can." "Rye for bread, barley for beer." "Beer?" "Ha." "There she is, lad." "My loving people, we have been persuaded by those who are careful for our safety to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes for fear of treachery." "Let tyrants fear!" "Under God, I place my chief strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts... bravely said." "By heaven, I recall her father." "I may yet if she talks less of dying." "Why, the dons will do the dying." "...of battle, to live or die amongst you all, to lay down for my God and for my kingdom and for my people, my honor and my blood even in the dust." "I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman." "Now she comes to it." "Now she cogs the guys." "I have the heart and stomach of a king..." "And a king of England, too." "And I think foul scorn that Parma or Spain or any prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of our realm!" "God's death, she breedeth courage in a man." "What I feel in my stomach is not courage." "Stand at my flank, my boy, and I'll show you how we fought the dons at Zutphen." "Your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field." "We know already for your forwardness, you deserve rewards and crowns." "And we do assure you, on the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you." "There." "You've her earnest word on it." "Fight bravely, and you'll get your pay." "Well, I am glad to hear it, for I've had none since I was dragged from my plow." "Are you a coward, boy?" "You know, I truly believe I am." "Then you'll be no comrade of mine." "May you rot first." "Old man, by your temper and your age," "I say you'll rot long before I." "Here she comes." "Oh, God's death!" "I'm all but choked by this steel collar." "Unstrap me, girl, before I die for want of breath." "Get up, milord." "Your aged stepfather is envious of your agility." "Madam, today youth triumphs over age." "You are eternal spring." "God save you, boy." "We've done with playacting." "I'm choked by that fancy collar and winded by shouting against the ears of 30,000 men." "I thank God I'm alive today, for England will never see..." "You'll pardon, milord." "I have fresh news." "Madam, two days ago, the armada anchored by Calais." "It got the worst of the fighting in the channel, but it is still a mighty threat." "Parma is not at Calais?" "No, madam." "His barges are 8 leagues to the east, behind the shoals of Dunkirk." "It is Howard's opinion that they'll come out on the first favorable tide, join with the armada, and fall upon Kent and this Essex shore." "Heaven be praised." "We'll give them a welcome." "Madam, your army here is all that you may rely upon, for your camp in Kent musters no more than broken seamen." "Should the spaniards land at margate, then I can cross the bridge of boats to Gravesend and engage..." "Your majesty, return to London." "The streets are barred with chains, and the citizens say they'll fight like the people of Antwerp." "No." "I'm confident your majesty will stay with us." "By my soul, she'll not." "Go to your tent, sir, I pray you." "You, too, girl." "Leave us." "It pains me to see you look so ill." "God will preserve me un... until this work is done." "And longer still." "No, madam." "He must make an end of me soon." "What will Howard do?" "He has little powder and shot and less food." "He will fall upon the armada, if he may, before it joins with Parma's flotilla, but..." "I fear he will have..." "Milord, do not put yourself into such a pother." "Come sit by me." "Oh, Robin..." "Were we once so young?" "How can you bear to look at me now?" "You are the most sacred and dainty thing" "I have in this world to love." "Bold Robert Dudley, Lusty Robin, the treacherous Earl of Leicester." "Drink your wine, old man." "I've no taste for it." "Because you are angry with me." "Madam, I am your loyal..." "Loyal and faithful." "You have always betrayed me." "Then take my head, madam." "You've always had my heart." "Why do you always provoke me to cruel words, even when I love you most?" "Get up." "Sit again." "Are you taking the physic I sent you?" "Is it better than the other?" "It will preserve me till God and your majesty have no further need for me." "Then I am content, for he knows I will always have need of you." "When this kingdom is safe," "I am sending you to the country for a cure." "No diets, I pray you." "No diet, I swear." "You will dine with me here now." "Oh, Robin, let us sit like two old folk and recall gay times." "Sweet Robin, let us remember the past." "If your majesty so orders it." "What kind of dalliance flourishes upon orders?" "I am your majesty's lieutenant general." "Have you some paramour in your sergeant's tent?" "I have an army, madam." "Should I neglect it, I neglect you." "I command you to stay." "As your majesty wishes." "God, you look so old, so sick." "Your stepson is a pretty boy, is he not?" "Hmm." "There was a time when that would have had you reaching for your sword and blustering like a bully." "Madam, I would not." "I would have left you." "Then go now." "Robin." "Oh, God keep you," "God love you, sweet Robin." "Halt!" "Halt, I say!" "Stand aside, fellow!" "Milords." "And you, sir, what news?" "Now, God bless your majesty." "Great news, madam." "Is it truly so?" "Up, master Tregannon." "Tell me what's befallen my fleet." "Nothing but good, madam." "Oh, that's brevity, I warrant." "Nothing but good." "Thank you, sir." "Now I will have more." "Well, come Sunday night, we have the dons between us and the Calais shore, with a west wind behind us and flying tide against them." "So close were we, they at us, our flag boats were within gunshot of each other, but durstn't fire, lest we wasted precious powder." "Then we sent in fire ships..." "Jesu." "Eight of them, at midnight, dismasted merchantmen stuffed with tar and cordage." "Their guns shouted to explode as soon as the flames touched the priming." "We took them in under low clouds while the moon was Begone." "Am I too brief for you, madam?" "Get on, sir." "Well, the dons were like sheep in a pen close by the shoals." "We towed those fire ships in until the spaniards could have touched them with a pike end, and we lit the fires and left it to God's will and the wind." "You burned them all." "Nay, madam." "Even hell could not burn them all." "We heard their trumpets and drums, their voices calling upon their saints." "I'll not lie to you." "We burned none of their ships." "Then God's death, what was the..." "True." "They brushed against a galleon or two, lit a candle in the canvas." "The real damage was done by the dons themselves, colliding with each other in their fears." "Yards and rigging meshed like a maiden's snood." "At dawn, we saw them scattered to the north, and we followed." "They escaped?" "Do you tell me that they escaped?" "Someone among them knew his seamanship." "They left the galleasses on the shoals and cut the cables of the galleons." "But north of gravelines, 40 of them turned into the wind and waited for us to come on." "God be thanked I saw that fight." "Five squadrons of your majesty's ships passing and passing again and laying ahead, firing broadsides into the dons as we came." "And so close." "Their foolish boarders... they swung from their yards into our rigging." "We offered them quarter, but none of their commanders would take it." "And you could see their priests were." "They were kneeling in the blood." "And brave men, madam, though they are papists." "And now you destroyed them all?" "No, madam." "We all but sank one galley." "We drove two more onto the banks of flushing." "We were out of powder now, no water for our wounded, and the weather turning against us." "Where are the spaniards now?" "Will they come against us here?" "Nay, madam." "They're running northeast." "The Lord Howard is after them, though I'll warrant his empty powder casks will bring him back before long." "You can safely leave the rest to God, madam." "Master Tregannon... leave it to the almighty, madam, for he's sending such wind, I swear, they can do no more than run before it." "North about these islands." "Such wrecks there will be, and wined scots and irish to cut the throats of those who come ashore." "God's blood, I..." "Your majesty." "Your majesty, such gales and tempests..." "For a month, your majesty." "I have 11 ships." "More will come, your majesty, but I fear that 40 have been..." "Don Juan de Ricalde has died, your majesty, of grief, two days ago." "And don Miguel Daquendo, also of grief." "Your majesty, I fear that of the 30,000 men you entrusted to my command, not... 5,000 will come." "Majesty, do not reproach me." "Must I then reproach God?" "Majesty..." "Of the 60 of my own household, only two have survived." "Men cry out for my life." "They will have someone's life." "You and don Pedro de Valdez are the only admirals to survive." "If your majesty wishes..." "Don Pedro has been arrested." "Let that suffice." "Idiaquez." "Sire?" "Send clothes and medicine for the sick and the wounded." "Let them know I do not blame them." "Every widow and orphan will be paid what is... has your majesty the funds for such..." "I sent my ships and soldiers against men, not against winds and hurricanes." "It is God's will." "How have we sinned that he should so punish us?" "Don Alonzo, I relieve you of your commission." "Go home to your oranges, hmm?" "Go by night." "Go secretly, eh?" "Idiaquez, send for my confessor." "Since the enterprise of England was most solemnly dedicated to God and to his holy church, the result of it must surely be most advantageous to him." "For we are nothing." "Nothing." "Madam, your seamen are dying for want of food and medicine." "Will you neglect them?" "I have told you, milord, they may depart gloriously for their own homes." "I am no tyrant who holds them in service when their duty is done." "Your majesty, a hundred, little more, of your sailors were killed in the fighting which made your kingdom secure." "But thousands now die in diseases and hunger." "Madam, they..." "They lie crying, most pitiably, in the streets of Dover and Plymouth." "Cousin, is my purse bottomless?" "The fleet is to be dismissed and the army disbanded." "Is that unwisdom, burghley?" "Madam?" "A gentle dolt would grasp hold of your wits." "Shall I now spend money on idle seamen and soldiers?" "Tell Howard, is that wisdom?" "To spend in time of need, milord, is wisdom." "To continue spending without that need brings bitter repentance." "Mmm." "Thank you, milord." "I'll carry that reassurance to her majesty's servants." "Good cousin, I will have no sad faces about me when all should be rejoicing." "Tell your captains to bring their captured banners to St. Paul's this Sunday." "There will a day of Thanksgiving and joy throughout the kingdom." "Madam, may I have leave to return to my poor sailors in Plymouth?" "Burghley, we will strike a medal." "Aye, ma'am." "Aye." "We will record our thanks to God for the mighty wind that scattered our enemies." "What say you, Howard?" "That God also gave us better ships and better guns, ma'am, before he sent us a tempest." "May I have your leave?" "Oh, do as you please, sir." "I'm sick of your sour face." "Burghley, I want an accounting of the Booty..." "Jesu." "Your face is as sour as vinegar, too." "What is it?" "Madam..." "Dear man, what can spoil my joy?" "Gracious majesty..." ""Madam, gracious majesty." What is it?" "Get to the point." "The Earl of Leicester is dead." "You lie." "Two days since, ma'am, at cornbury, of a continual fever." "Leicester dead?" "Sweet Robin dead?" "Aye, ma'am." ""I must humbly beseech your majesty" ""to pardon your poor old servant" ""to be thus bold" ""in thus sending to know how my gracious lady doeth." ""Being the chiefest thing in this world I do pray for," ""for her to have good health and long life." ""For my own poor case," ""I continue still your medicine" ""and find it amends much better" ""than any other thing that hath been given me."" "Majesty?" "Madam?" "Your court cannot be gay without you." "Do you know that the Earl of Leicester is dead?" "Aye, madam." "So I've been told by my mother, his wife." "Ingrate!" "Get out!" "Get out!"