proche offered by the ennymie to rayse the laram by bells or hoblers; and yf they shall procead forthe to landing to fyer the beacons.
That yow appoynt the serchers of every beacon dilligentlye to attend ther charge from tyme to tyme, to advertis yow the centioners what shal be discryed, and that uppon anny matter discovered yow advertise me with dilligens what shal be seen.
That yow appoynt the beacons sufficientlie to be supplied with fuell, and that yow appoynt for every day watche a gare[1], reddy uppon the fyrst occasionn to be hanged up.
That yow take order in all the perrisshes within your canten that no bells be ronge in the churche for service, christeninge, or burriall,
- ↑ Sir Henry Englefield thus explained the word gare—"Gare, in French, is beware. Carriages passing in a crowd are obliged to cry Gare, and are not answerable for mischief done by their horses after that notice. Gare was also used on another occasion at Edinburgh, and the persons throwing filth from their windows were subject to prosecution, if they defiled passengers, without that word of notice. A Gare was therefore probably a signal flag, or some notice of that kind, hung out from the beacons by day when fire light would have been invisible."
further to understand, that yesterday there arrived there a bark of that island that came from Newhaven, the company whereof made report that the speeches there were, that the king of France had sent to St Tavies in Portugal sixty sail of ships for salt, and was then preparing a fleet to go against Rochel, whereof ten sail came out of Newhaven, who were appointed to haul out of Newhaven as the day before; and that there were two English ships of Alborough, of the burthen of 140 ton a piece, the one had paid thirty crowns to be released, and the other stayed to serve. And that the common report was, that the king had sent to her majesty an ambassador, that if me would by any means aid Rochel, he would have war with her. That they further said, that the common report in Newhaven was, that the king of Spain had sent against sir Francis Drake forty galliasses and caracks, and that sir Francis Drake had burnt divers cities and towns in the India, which proved true enough." Strype adds, that he repeats this letter, "that by this news and these reports the present condition of this kingdom may hence be better understood, and with what good reason the state now, at this juncture, had to look about them."
