'How died he? Death to life is crown, or shame--'
There, on the deck of Don Alfonso Bassano's ship, in the midst of the
Spanish captains, who crowded round to wonder at the man who had so
long defied their deadly attacks, two or three days after the fight
between 'the mastiffs of England and the bloodhounds of Spain,' the
grand old Cornish warrior's spirit left the body, speaking his last
words thus--in Spanish, so John Huighen van Linschoten (in 'Hakluyt's
Voyages') tells us:
'Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind; for that
I have ended my life as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for his
Country, Queen, Religion and Honour: my soul willingly departing from
this body, leaving behind the lasting fame of having behaved as every
valiant soldier is in duty bound to do.'
Lord Bacon says of the fight that it was 'Memorable euen beyond credit,
and to the Height of some Heroicall Fable.'
And well might Ruskin, in his 'Bibliotheca Pastorum' (i. 33), class the
Cornish hero with Arnold of Sempach, Leonidas and Curtius as a type of
'the divinest of sacrifices--that of the patriot for his country'! Well
might the gentle Evelyn exclaim: 'Than this what have we more? What can
be greater?' And well might gallant old Sir John Hawkins wish that this
story might be 'written in our Chronicles,'--as it has been, by Raleigh
and by Tennyson,--in 'letters of Gold.'
The Spanish fleet were not permitted to enjoy the fruits of this, their
hard-earned and almost only capture during the war; for, a few days
after the battle, a great storm arose from the west and north-west,
dispersing their battle-ships, and also the West Indian fleet (the
cause of the English Expedition) which had now joined them; and
sinking, off the coast of St. Michael, fourteen sail, together with
the _Revenge_--which seemed to disdain to survive her commander--with
200 Spaniards on board her.
'So it pleased them,' says Raleigh, 'to honour the burial of that
renowned ship the _Revenge_, not suffering her to perish alone, for the
great honour she achieved in her life-time.' A noble elegy! which even
Tennyson's genius has been unable to surpass.
This is not perhaps the time or the place to consider how it was
possible for this one little English vessel with a crew of 100 men, to
contend so long against 50 (or according to some accounts 53) Spanish
galleons with 10,000 men, sinking four of the largest, and slaying
1,000 Spaniards; but it was no doubt owing to more causes than one:--to
the low and short hull, which made her more manageable--to superior
gunnery and seamanship--but mainly to the stoutest, freest, and
fiercest _hearts_ upon earth--the hearts of Englishmen. They _believed_
they were more than a match for their foes, and confidence begat
victory; and if ever there was an English victory, in the fullest sense
of the word, it was the triumphant loss of the '_Revenge_.'