In one of the shifts of the battle the _San Martin_ was out of action. She might have escaped, but Sidonia bravely went into the conflict again. The English had to endure no such ordeal, but they fought with furious determination. The _Revenge_ was severely battered. Wynter’s _Vanguard_ fired 500 30-, 18-, and 9-pounder shot--a remarkable achievement in those days. But so completely had the English the advantage that, according to Vice-Admiral Fenner, they lost only sixty killed. By three o’clock the battle was at an end. Nearly twenty Spanish ships were cut off (among them the _San Martin_, _San Mateo_, and _San Felipe_), all sadly shattered, full of dead and dying, and with not a shot left to reply to the merciless cannonade that was still pouring upon them. Nothing, it seemed, could save them, when suddenly a squall descended upon the struggling fleets. The English were forced to cease fighting to meet the danger. The crippled Spaniards, unable to manœuvre, had to put before the wind, and the combatants were parted. The Spaniards had no power left to fight. All that night they fled blindly, followed by the English, while their shattered ships went down and drifted ashore. Several were lost in this way, including the _San Felipe_ and the _San Mateo_, and with the wind as it was nothing could save them from all going ashore. [Illustration: _A. Rischgitz._ CHARLES HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM, FIRST EARL OF NOTTINGHAM. Lord High Admiral of England in 1588, and official commander of the English fleet which defeated the great Armada. _From the portrait by Zucchero in the Painted Hall, Greenwich Hospital._] Sidonia, having confessed and prepared for death, turned to bay; but there was no heart left in the fleet to follow their Admiral’s example, though Leyva and Oquendo, brave to the last, at once supported him. The English fleet was holding off to let the Zeeland sandbanks do their deadly work, and Leyva and Oquendo urged Sidonia to at least make a show of attacking. It could not be. Discipline was gone. They cursed him in their despair, and shouted to the crew to throw Diego Valdes overboard! Nearer and nearer to the banks drifted the miserable throng of shattered, blood-stained hulks that now represented the Fortunate and Invincible Armada, when suddenly the wind shifted. The English could not understand it. Twice God had intervened to save the foe! The Armada was able to bear out from the shoals and steer a course to the northward in deep water.