The attempts to raise money in these ways made great trouble. The people resisted, and interposed all possible difficulties. However, some funds were raised, and a fleet of a hundred sail, and an army of seven thousand men, were got together. Buckingham undertook the command of this expedition himself, as there had been so much dissatisfaction with his appointment of a commander to the other. It resulted just as was to be expected in the case of seven thousand men, and a hundred ships, afloat on the swelling surges of the English Channel, under the command of vanity, recklessness, and folly. The duke came back to England in three months, bringing home one third of his force. The rest had been lost, without accomplishing any thing. The measure of public indignation against Buckingham was now full. [Sidenote: Another projected.] [Sidenote: 1628.] [Sidenote: Assassination of Buckingham.] Buckingham himself walked as loftily and proudly as ever. He got up another fleet, and was preparing to set sail in it himself, as commander again. He went to Portsmouth, accordingly, for this purpose, Portsmouth being the great naval station then, as now, on the southern coast of England. Here a man named Felton, who had been an officer under the duke in the former expedition, and who had been extremely exasperated against him on account of some of his management there, and who had since found how universal was the detestation of him in England, resolved to rid the country of such a curse at once. He accordingly took his station in the passage-way of the house where Buckingham was, armed with a knife. Buckingham came out, talking with some Frenchmen in an angry manner, having had some dispute with them, and Felton thrust the knife into his side as he passed, and, leaving it in the wound, walked away, no one having noticed who did the deed. Buckingham pulled out the knife, fell down, and died. The bystanders were going to seize one of the Frenchmen, when Felton advanced and said, "I am the man who did the deed; let no man suffer that is innocent." He was taken. They found a paper in his hat, saying that he was going to destroy the duke, and that he could not sacrifice his life in a nobler cause than by delivering his country from so great an enemy. [Sidenote: The king not sorry.] King Charles was four miles off at this time. They carried him the news. He did not appear at all concerned or troubled, but only directed that the murderer--he ought to have said, perhaps, the _executioner_--should be secured, and that the fleet should proceed to sail. He also ordered the treasurer to make arrangements for a splendid funeral. [Sidenote: Buckingham's monument the universal execration of his countrymen.]