QUEEN. You know my mind upon that, Uncle. It’s the natural drink of the nation. HOWARD. I know I have ever seen the men fight best upon it, but I have heard that some fool proposes a tax upon ale. QUEEN (_laughing_). What? Tax an Englishman’s ale! That would be the next thing to foreign rule. Come, kinsman! (_She takes his arm_). HOWARD (_aside as they go out_). Marry a French frog! like that pock-marred Alençon. (_Grumbling angrily_). I must have a talk with Cecil. (_Exeunt_). _Scene changes_. SCENE VI.—THE TERRACE OF GREENWICH PALACE. _Enter the_ QUEEN _and_ DRAKE. QUEEN (_laughing_). Abajo Perro! Down dog! Brave boy! I must see him Drake, Ha! Ha! Ha! Abajo Perro! So he leaped foremost aboard, felled the first Spaniard with his fist, shouting Abajo Perro. God’s death! How I should like to have seen the Spaniard sprawling on the deck. Ha! Ha! Ha! A Plymouth boy you say. His name, Drake? DRAKE. Thomas Moon, an it please Your Majesty. QUEEN. Humph! Fellows have been knighted for less; he’s a hero! DRAKE. Such are the men that England wants, my Liege. QUEEN. And has, Drake, I am proud to say. (_With eagerness_) Come! Tell me about the great gold ship. DRAKE. As we neared, one broadside brought down her masts, a volley from our longbows mowed her deck, like the scythe in standing corn; we shot up alongside of her, our men rushed aboard, Thomas Moon foremost. QUEEN (_laughing_). Ha! Ha! The Plymouth boy, Abajo Perro! I shall never forget that. Ha! Ha! Ha! Well, well! Go on. DRAKE. Well, my Liege! We cut away the wreck, towed her out to sea and took charge of the precious freight at our leisure. QUEEN. That’s the way that British sailors do their work. You astonished the Spaniards. DRAKE. Your Majesty knows the rest. Magellan’s straits were secured against me, and I was not going to surrender what I had got. QUEEN. No, Drake was not the man for that. DRAKE. So I decided to take my chance, on the great unknown ocean, and by the Cape of Good Hope. QUEEN (_thoughtfully_). The great unknown ocean, without chart or pilot! DRAKE (_with an air of confidence_). My Liege, I had the stars of Heaven, and Him who set them in their courses, whose law I proclaimed from my deck to every line of longitude on His globe! (_Looking up with reverence_). Thus, Your Majesty’s little ship, having ploughed a furrow round the earth, arrived safe in Plymouth with a nation’s wealth in her hold. QUEEN (_eagerly_). Tell me all! Tell me all. Strange sights, strange men, strange lands, a tale of wonder; (_she muses thoughtfully_).