to them, and the queen's commissioners doing their best to secure as much as possible. The queen's anxiety on the subject was probably well reflected in a letter[1] addressed on August 10th from the Council at Greenwich to the joint generals.
In spite of all his efforts to vindicate his conduct, Essex fell into some disfavour at court. Lediard suggests that the uneasiness thus occasioned him may have led him into the extravagant projects which in the end cost him his life. Probably he proved himself at times a difficult colleague of the Lord High Admiral: possibly he often allowed zeal to outrun discretion. But it is abundantly clear that in all he did during the Cadiz expedition he was animated by the best motives, and not by that personal greed which remains a blot upon the record of some of his most noted contemporaries: and the fact that all his proposals for the more complete humiliation of Spain seem to have been supported by Duijvenvoorde,[2] a seaman of experience, is one which speaks very strongly in favour of his general conduct.
In 1596, Cumberland sent his ninth expedition to sea. He first fitted out the Scourge of Malice, obtained the Dreadnought from her majesty, and chartered some small craft. With these he sailed, but the Scourge of Malice was presently disabled in a storm, and the expedition had to put back. He then fitted out a vessel called the Ascension, of 300 tons and thirty-four guns, and dispatched her to cruise under Francis Slingsby. She also was damaged and forced home by a gale, but, sailing again, fought some gallant, though indecisive, actions off Lisbon ere she returned.[3]
The immediate effect of the Cadiz expedition was to stimulate Spain to a fresh effort. Philip lost no time in assembling at Lisbon as many ships as he could collect from all parts of his extensive dominions and in taking up such suitable foreign vessels as lay in his ports. The fleet thus formed proceeded in the spring of 1597 to Ferrol, and there received on board a considerable body of troops and a great number of fugitives from Ireland. The intention seems to have been to land all these forces in Ireland; but soon after the fleet had quitted Ferrol it fell in with such terrible weather, and suffered so severely,[4] that it put back, incapable of prosecuting its
