A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England)
All the powder at length in the _Revenge_ was spent, all her pikes
were broken, forty out of her hundred men were killed, and a great
number of the rest wounded.
Sir Richard, though badly hurt early in the battle, never forsook
the deck till an hour before midnight, and was then shot through the
body while his wounds were being dressed, and again in the head, and
his surgeon was killed while attending on him. The masts were lying
over the side, the rigging cut or broken, the upper work all shot in
pieces, and the ship herself, unable to move, was settling slowly in
the sea, the vast fleet of the Spaniards lying round her in a ring,
like dogs round a dying lion and wary of approaching him in his last
dying agony. Sir Richard, seeing it was past hope, having fought for
fifteen hours, ordered the master-gunner to sink the ship; but this
was a heroic sacrifice that the common seamen opposed. Two Spanish
ships had gone down, above fifteen hundred men had been killed, and
the Spanish admiral could not induce any of the rest of the fleet to
board the _Revenge_ again, as they feared lest Sir Richard should
blow himself and them up.
Sir Richard was lying disabled below, and too weak and wounded
to contest with those who opposed the sinking of the vessel. The
captain now entered into parley with the Spanish admiral, and
succeeded in obtaining for conditions that all their lives should
be saved, the crew sent to England, and the officers ransomed. Sir
Richard was now removed to the ship of Don Alfonso Barsano, the
Spanish admiral, and there died, saying in Spanish:--
"Here die I, Richard Granville, with a joyful and quiet mind,
for that I have ended my life as a true soldier ought to do
that hath fought for his country, queen, religion, and honour:
whereby my soul most joyfully departeth out of this body, and
shall always leave behind it an everlasting fame of a valiant
and true soldier that hath done his duty as he was bound to do."
Froude well says:--[17]
[17] _Forgotten Worthies._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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