"May-be," said Lord Strange thoughtfully, "when the husbandmen that shall go first have made it somewhat less rough, gentlemen may be found to go and dwell there." "Why, Jack, lad! This country is not all the world," observed his father. "'Tis all of it worth anything, Sir," returned insular Jack. "Thy broom sweepeth clean, Jack," responded Lord Strange. "What, is nought worth in France, nor in Holland,--let be the Emperor's dominions, and Spain, and Italy?" "They be all foreigners, my Lord. And what better are foreigners than savages? They be all Papists, to boot." "Not in Almayne, Jack,--nor in Holland." "Well, they speak no English," said prejudiced Jack. "That is a woeful lack," gravely replied Lord Strange. "Specially when you do consider that English was the tongue that Noah spake afore the flood, and the confusion of tongues at Babel." Jack knew just enough to have a dim perception that Lord Strange was laughing at him. He got out of the difficulty by turning the conversation. "Well, thus much say I: let the King of Spain come when he will, and where, at every point of the coast there shall be an Englishman awaiting--and we will drive him home thrice faster than he came at the first." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1. He was fined 10,000 pounds for contempt of court. What his real offences were remains doubtful, beyond the fact that he was a Papist, and had married against the will of the Queen. Note 2. The state of the gaols at this time, and for long afterwards, until John Howard effected his reformation of them, was simply horrible. The Black Assize at Exeter was by no means the only instance of its land. Note 3. I stated in _Robin Tremayne_ that I had not been able to discover the burial-place of Honor Viscountess Lisle. Since that time, owing to the kindness of correspondents, personally unknown to me, I have ascertained that she was probably buried at Atherington, with her first husband, Sir John Basset. In that church his brass still remains--a knight between two ladies--the coats of arms plainly showing that the latter are Anne Dennis of Oxleigh and Honor Granville of Stow. But the Register contains no entry of burial previous to 1570. Note 4. In the custody of the (Popish) Bishop of Southwark is a quarto volume, containing, under date of Rome, April 28, 1588,--"An admonition to the nobility and people of England and Ireland, concerning the present warres made _for the execution of His Holiness' sentence_, by the highe and mightie King Catholicke of Spaine: by the Cardinal of England." [Cardinal Allen.]--(Third Report of Royal Commission of Historical Manuscripts, page 233). CHAPTER FOUR. THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA.