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and warned them to trust in God as their chief support and stay. 'What,' he exclaimed, though God hath given our enemies power over us for a season, will He not, in His own good time, bring deliverance?' Though we are hunted on the hill and in the valley, and driven to the caves of the earth for shelter, have we not there that peace that passeth understanding,- do know that our Redeemer liveth?' "We are now vilified, reviled, and persecuted, and our enemies are the high and mighty of the land: yet, in after times, will we be honoured for our constancy to the truth, while they will be forgotten, or remembered only to be execrated.' 'We fight the good fight not for ourselves only, nor yet for our children, but for all the nations of the earth, our brethren of mankind.' 'Aye, and often when the heather is my couch, and the plaid my covering, I see, as through a glass darkly, other and brighter days than these, when our memories will be revered, and our doings be stars to light on nations to deeds of truth and mercy.'

The preacher ceased, for it had become certain that a dreadful storm was impending. The heavens had exchanged their morning brightness for an arch of lowering clouds; and the moaning of the new-risen wind among the hills, warned all to seek for shelter.

The concluding psalm, in which the congregated peasantry were to join before parting, was read, when the sound of a musket-shot was heard, and one of the sentinels was observed making signals that a body of soldiery was approaching. This was fearful intelligence to an unarmed multitude; but here no confusion followed the announcement; every one had come forth resolved to take what fate God should send him ; and the attack on a field-preaching by soldiers was too common an occurrence to excite much surprise among the 'persecuted remnant.' The command of Mr. Myddleton was to disperse them

selves among the hills, as quickly and as quietly as possible. His orders were obeyed by the great majority, and ere many minutes had passed-even before the dragoons appeared over the ridge of the hills-the people were deep in the mountain dells, and safe from harm.

The preacher's first thought was likewise of flight; but when he approached the old elder, on whose breast his brother's head lay, he saw at a glance that it was hopeless. William was much worse, and to have moved him to any distance would have been equal to death; his naturally delicate frame had, at length, sunk under the pressure of accumulated hardships, and life was fast leaving him. Fly yourselves!' was Myddleton's exhortation to those around him, and leave us to our fate.' But, instead of leaving, those who remained pressed the closer about them, resolved to share their evil fortune.

At a short distance from the spot on which they stood was a cave known by them as a retreat in former hours of peril; and they resolved in it to lay the dying man, and then take such fortune as God might send them. Great was their joy to see one of their number, who had first entered it, return laden with arms and ammunition, the remnants of some party of persecuted men who had left their retreat and never returned. The muskets were soon loaded; and, re-invigorated by their aid, the party waited the coming up of the assailants.

Meantime, the storm which had been for some time impending, broke in all its fury. The rain and wind dashed and beat with the greatest violence; and the brook of the glen, which, a moment before, was a placid streamlet, was changed into a raging torrent. In the midst of this elemental war, the party of soldiery advanced, and their leader, hailing the Covenanters, desired to know by whose warrant they assembled ? By the warrant of our own consciences,' was the answer.

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'Ha,' cried the royalist leader, 'dare ye avow it?' But he checked himself, adding, 'deliver into my hands Thomas and William Myddleton, two traitors to their country and king, and ye will be allowed to depart in peace.' 'Never, while we have arms in our hands and can wield them,' was the bold answer; and immediately the dragoons charged forward. They were met by a welldirected fire, which emptied a few saddles, and made the survivors stagger and halt. Forward, cowards!' claimed their leader, chafed to see his disciplined party repulsed by the muchdespised peasantry; but no one advanced except himself. He stopped almost close to Myddleton's party; but when he looked for his soldiers they were galloping down the glen. He saw that to follow them as quickly as he could was his only chance for escape; but willing to do as much mischief as he could, even although at the expense of some bodily peril to himself, he rose in his stirrups, and fired his holster pistol among the party that stood round the apparently dying William Myddleton. The ball entered his forehead, and he expired without a struggle or a groan! A strong expression of mental agony passed over the brow of Thomas Myddleton, but he speedily subdued it, and said calmly, 'God's will be done.' The perpetrator of the deed did not escape to triumph in it; a ball from the musket of one of the party laid him on the ground, and his war-horse, on which, but a few moments before, he rode so proudly, now bereft of his rider, galloped wildly after the troop.

It was soon ascertained that the royalist officer was not dead; but the Covenanters, enraged by his cruelty, would soon have taken his life, if Myddleton had not interfered for his preservation. At his command he was carried into the cave, and laid beside his victim's body. Some dry wood having been got, by the help of a musket, a fire

soon gave light and heat within the earthy cell. At the request of Myddleton, the rest of the party then dispersed, leaving only himself, and the old elder already spoken of, beside the dead body and the wounded man.

Great reason as he had to hate him, Myddleton prepared to render what assistance he could to the dying soldier. With the old man's assistance he moved him near the burning brands, that he might by their light examine his wounds. In removing the vestments that covered them, his eye was caught by a miniature which hung round the soldier's neck. He gazed on it a moment, as if petrified, and then starting up, and looking the dying man full in the face, he said, in a hoarse and broken, but dreadfully calm voice, Bruce, do you know me?' The soldier's eyes were fixed on the roof of the cave; but no sooner had Myddleton uttered these words, than he started up to a sitting posture, and while the blood was gushing afresh from his wound by the exertion, he cried out, 'It is he! I knew he would come. Mercy! Mercy!' Myddleton's hands were clenched together, and his teeth were firmly knit, as if he would have annihilated the helpless being before him; but he checked himself, seemingly anxious to gain some very important intelligence. But there was now no one to answer his questions. The soldier, who a moment before seemed to defy the terrors of death, was a raging maniac. He raved, blasphemed,

and, bleeding and wounded as he was, writhed and turned himself among the dust of the cave; and when his eye met that of Myddleton, he started as if a dagger had been piercing him.

There was a strife in Myddleton's mind, betwixt the desire of vengeance for accumulated wrongs, and the precepts of that gospel which he preached. Human nature said, Take vengeance; but the word of God said, 'Love thine enemy.' He clasped his hands together, and cried to his aged friend, who stood by in

silent astonishment,-'Pray for me, pray for me! That crushed worm at my feet was the bosom friend of my youth. I trusted him, and he proved a rotten stay. I had an only sister, the pride of her mother's eye, and the delight of her father's house. That viper by his arts made her a woe on the earth. My father and mother died of grief for the death of my elder brother, by his hand, when trying to avenge his sister. I, too, cried for justice, and cried in vain! The oppressor was rich and powerful-the oppressed poor and persecuted. I suf fered the punishment which ought to have been his. Now, he is before me,

and it is a strong temptation. O, pray for me, that the dark cloud may pass from my spirit, and that I may be enabled to forgive.' He was enabled, and received the dying confession of the persecutor, whose last moments he soothed with true Christian charity."

No long time had elapsed after the events above above narrated, narrated, when Mr. Myddleton fell into the hands of the persecutors, and sealed his belief in the truths he taught with his blood. The pious peasant still points to the stone half buried in the moss, which records his name and the date of his martyrdom.

IF the defeat of the Spanish Armada had been the only English victory during the reign of Elizabeth, it would have made

that reign remarkable; and if the exploits of Drake in connection with it had been all

by which he was known to

posterity, it would have amply sufficed to make his name glorious.

"In 1587, when formidable preparations were making in the ports of Spain and Portugal for the grand Armada and the invasion of England, Elizabeth appointed Drake to the command of a fleet equipped for the purpose of destroying the enemy's ships in their own harbours. This force did not exceed thirty sail, and only four were of the navy royal; the rest, with the exception of two yachts belonging to the queen, being furnished by merchant-adventurers. Drake sailed from Plymouth on the 2nd of April. On

the 16th of that month he fell in with two ships of Middleburgh, which had come from Cadiz, and by the captains of which he was informed that there was great store of warlike provision at Cadiz, where the Spaniards were busily employed in shipping it for Lisbon, the grand dépôt for the Armada. On the 19th of April, between night and morning, the dragon Drake,' whose very name now spread terror, dashed into Cadiz Bay. Besides galleys there were sixty ships, and many vessels of inferior size, all protected by land-batteries. When over against Cadiz town he was smartly assailed by five galleys; but he soon drove them under the guns of the castle. A great Ragusan ship of 1,000 tons, richly laden, and furnished with forty pieces of brass, was presently sunk. There came,' says one of the sailors engaged, 'two galleys more from St. Mary's port and two from Port Real, which shot freely at us, but altogether in vain; for they went away with our blows, well beaten for their pains.'

Drake burned, sunk, or took from thirty-five to forty ships, some of which were of the largest size, and it appears he might have done much more mischief | but for the necessity he was under of securing as much booty, in goods, as he could, for the benefit of the merchantadventurers, who had lent their ships, and provided crews and equipments in the hope of some profitable return. These goods were removed by the English sailors from the captured ships, close under a tremendous fire of landbatteries. The mariner from whom we have already quoted says, 'We found little ease during our abode here, by reason of their continual shooting from the galleys, the fortresses, and from the shore; where continually, at places convenient, they planted new ordnance to offend us with: besides the inconvenience which we suffered from their ships, which, when they could defend no longer, they set on fire to come among us. Whereupon, when the flood of tide came, we were not a little troubled to defend us from their terrible fire, which, nevertheless, was a pleasant sight for us to behold, because we were thereby eased of a great labour, which lay upon us day and night,, in discharging the victuals and other provisions of the enemy. Thus, to the great astonishment of the King of Spain, this strange and happy enterprise was achieved in one day and two nights; which bred such a corrosion in the heart of the Marquis of Santa Cruz, high admiral of Spain, that he never enjoyed a good day after, but within a few months (as may justly be supposed) died of extreme grief and sorrow. . . . And so, having performed this notable service, we came out of the road of Cadiz on Friday morning, the 21st of the said month of April, with very small loss."

...

Whether his "singeing" did or did not cause the death of the Marquis of Santa Cruz, who was reputed the best naval commander of Spain, and whose

loss is said to have been fatally felt in the management of the grand Armada, it is quite certain that his operations delayed the sailing of that armament more than a year, and gave Elizabeth that time to prepare for her defence.

When the Armada finally did sail, it was composed of a vast multitude of vessels. Weextract the following description from Motley, the brilliant historian of the Dutch republic:-"There were rather more than one hundred and thirty ships. in all, divided into ten squadrons. There was the squadron of Portugal, consisting of ten galleons, and commanded by the captain-general Medina Sidonia. In the squadron of Castile were fourteen ships of various sizes, under General Diego Flores de Valdez. This officer was one of the most experienced naval officers in the Spanish service, and was subsequently ordered, in consequence, to sail with the generalissimo in his flag-ship. In the squadron of Andalusia were ten galleons and other vessels, under General Pedro de Valdez. In the squadron of Biscay were ten galleons and lesser ships.

In the squadron of Guipuycoa were ten galleons; in that of Italy ten ships. In the squadron of Urcas, or storeships, were twenty-three sail. The squadron of tenders, caravels, and other vessels numbered twenty-two sail. The squadron of four galeasses was commanded by Don Hugo de Marcada. The squadron of four galeras, or galleys, was in charge of Captain Diego de Medrado.

The total tonnage of the fleet was 59,120; the number of guns was 3,165. Of Spanish troops there were 19,295 on board; there were 8,252 sailors and 2,088 galley-slaves. Besides these, there was a force of noble volunteers, belonging to the most illustrious houses of Spain, with their attendants, amounting to nearly 2,000 in all. There was also Don Martin Alaccon, administrator and vicar-general of the Holy Inquisition, at the head of some 290 monks of