l. 2. _Cales or St Michaels tale._ The point of this allusion was early lost and has been long in being recovered. The spelling 'Calis' is a little misleading, as it was used both for Calais and for Cadiz. In Sir Francis Vere's _Commentaries_ (1657) he speaks of 'The Calis-journey' and the 'Island voiage'. I have taken 'Cales' from some MSS. as less ambiguous. All the modern editors have printed 'Calais', and Grosart considers the allusion to be to the Armada, Norton to the 'old wars with France'. The reference is to the Cadiz expedition and the Island voyage: 'Why should I tell you what we both know?' In speaking of 'St. Michaels tale' Donne may be referring to the attack on that particular island, which led to the loss of the opportunity to capture the plate-fleet. But the 'Islands of St. Michael' was a synonym for the Azores. 'Thus the ancient Cosmographers do place the division of the East and Western Hemispheres, that is, the first term of longitude, in the _Canary_ or fortunate Islands; conceiving these parts the extreamest habitations Westward: But the Moderns have altered that term, and translated it unto the _Azores_ or Islands of St Michael; and that upon a plausible conceit of the small or insensible variation of the Compass in those parts,' &c. Browne, _Pseud. Epidem._ vi. 7. ll. 10-11. _Fate, (Gods Commissary)_: i.e. God's Deputy or Delegate. Compare: Fate, which God made, but doth not control. _The Progresse of the Soule_, p. 295, l. 2. Great Destiny the Commissary of God That hast mark'd out a path and period For every thing ... Ibid., p. 296, ll. 31 f.