QUEEN (_starting away as from a frightful apparition_, _but with unquailing spirit rushes about with uplifted arms and the rage of a tigress_.) I see! I see! I see it ALL—Villains, fools, and traitors, I should be left without an ally to battle with the world in arms. Rebels, traitors, assassins—Fiends of Hell within—The fleets and armies of Spain without. The wars of the roses over again. Fierce civil strife, seas of brothers’ blood—The proud island before whose arms Europe has quailed, trampled into a Spanish province! (_A pause of grim rage and sarcasm_), and the moles and bats would give it to him! (_She laughs with a grim and bitter expression of rage and exultation_). Ha! Ha! Ha! They shan’t, Drake, they shan’t! Philip shall not have one ochavo of it. No! War or no war—never! Shade of Henry of Monmouth! Can thy stone casement hold thee? (_She walks about with a proud resolve then confronts him_). What then do you propose sir? You are entitled to a voice in the matter. DRAKE. Your Majesty can now take the wind out of his sails, you can build and equip the fleet. Give me, my Liege, but a small one, I’ll burn every town upon his coast, every stick of navy he possesses, in harbour or afloat; carry his gold fleet to England, and drive him from the ocean in a month; (_he walks aside in exultation_). QUEEN (_abruptly_). You’re the man, Drake! you’re the man! DRAKE. Then, my Liege, we shall occupy California and the Indies, whose downtrodden people will welcome you as a Saviour. England will become the mart of the precious metals, the centre of universal commerce. The tribes of broken humanity will come begging for the crumbs that fall from your replenished table. Our great race, (_elevating his voice_) shall spread from land to land, from sea to sea, till one wide luminous zone of truth, of light, of freedom, shall gird the globe; the sun shall make his eternal round and never set in the dominions. _He looks upward with confiding fervour as if delivering a divine message from on high_. _The_ QUEEN _overpowered with emotion at the awful development of national greatness_. QUEEN. Hold! Spare me! My brain turns, stunned, bewildered in the vastness of that visioned future. (_She exclaims imploringly as one afraid to advance farther_.) Stay! Stay!