Stories of Elizabethan heroes : $b Stirring records of the intrepid bravery and boundless resource of the men of Queen Elizabeth's reignGilliat, Edward
History
Stories of Elizabethan heroes : $b Stirring records of the intrepid bravery and boundless resource of the men of Queen Elizabeth's reign
Gilliat, Edward
Great Britain -- Biography; Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603
On this message being delivered, the crew naturally wished to accept
the terms and drew back from the master-gunner, who, in a frenzy of
grief for his admiral's dishonour, as he thought, drew his sword and
would have slain himself on the spot, had not his friends withheld
him from it by force and locked him into his cabin.
Then Don Alphonso asked Sir Richard to come out of the _Revenge_, the
ship being marvellous unsavoury, filled with blood and dead bodies
and wounded men, like any slaughter-house. To which Sir Richard
replied that the Spaniard might do with his body what he list, for he
esteemed it not. As they bore him out of the ship, he swooned; when
he recovered, he was on the Spaniard's deck, and looking about him
said, "I desire you, gentlemen, to pray for me."
The Spanish admiral used Sir Richard with all humanity and tended him
well, highly commending his valour and worthiness; but the English
hero died on the third day and was buried at sea with all honour.
As he lay surrounded by Spanish hidalgos, who were trying to comfort
him in his agony, the dying man half raised himself and said:
"Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind, for
that I have ended my life as a good soldier ought to do, who has
fought for his country and his Queen, for honour and religion.
Wherefore my soul joyfully departeth out of this body, leaving behind
it an everlasting fame, as a true soldier who hath done his duty as
he was bound to do. But the other of my company have done as
traitors and dogs, for which they shall be reproached all their
lives."
Lord Thomas Howard did not deserve this condemnation, for he wished
to attempt a rescue, but his men refused to follow.
A few days after the fight a great storm from the north-west
scattered the fleet, and fourteen Spanish ships went down, together
with the _Revenge_, off St. Michael's Isle. It seemed to the English
that Heaven was on the side of the _Revenge_, for 10,000 Spaniards
perished in that storm.
Sir Richard Hawkins, correcting Raleigh's account, wrote that there
were on board the _Revenge_ "above 260 men, as by the pay-book
appeareth--all which may worthily be written in our chronicles in
letters of gold, in memory for all posterities, some to beware,
others to imitate, the true valour of our nation in these ages."
CHAPTER VIII
JOHN DAVIS, THE HERO OF THE ARCTIC
AND PACIFIC
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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