Raleigh has not been idle in the meanwhile. It has been found necessary after all to take the counsel which he gave in vain in 1588, to burn the Spanish fleet in harbour; and the heroes are gone down to Cadiz fight, and in one day of thunder storm the Sevastopol of Spain. Here, as usual, we find Raleigh, though in an inferior command, leading the whole by virtue of superior wisdom. When the good Lord Admiral will needs be cautious, and land the soldiers first, it is Raleigh who persuades him to force his way into the harbour, to the joy of all captains. When hotheaded Essex, casting his hat into the sea for joy, shouts ‘_Intramos_,’ and will in at once, Raleigh’s time for caution comes, and he persuades them to wait till the next morning, and arrange the order of attack. That, too, Raleigh has to do, and moreover to lead it; and lead it he does. Under the forts are seventeen galleys; the channel is ‘scoured’ with cannon: but on holds Raleigh’s ‘Warspite,’ far ahead of the rest, through the thickest of the fire, answering forts and galleys ‘with a blur of the trumpet to each piece, disdaining to shoot at those esteemed dreadful monsters.’ For there is a nobler enemy ahead. Right in front lie the galleons; and among them the ‘Philip’ and the ‘Andrew,’ two of those who boarded the ‘Revenge.’ This day there shall be a reckoning for the blood of his old friend; he is ‘resolved to be revenged for the “Revenge,”’ Sir Richard Grenvile’s fatal ship, or second her with his own life’; and well he keeps his vow. Three hours pass of desperate valour, during which, so narrow is the passage, only seven English ships, thrusting past each other, all but quarrelling in their noble rivalry, engage the whole Spanish fleet of fifty-seven sail, and destroy it utterly. The ‘Philip’ and ‘Thomas’ burn themselves despairing. The English boats save the ‘Andrew’ and ‘Matthew.’ One passes over the hideous record. ‘If any man,’ says Raleigh, ‘had a desire to see hell itself, it was there most lively figured.’ Keymis’s prayer is answered in part, even while he writes it; and the cry of the Indians has not ascended in vain before the throne of God!