The Active was one of the privateers that had late the evening before
gone out to Ram Head, and just as it was growing dusk the anchors
were got up, and the little fleet sailed out from the shelter of
the land as the Armada swept along.
The Spanish admiral at once ordered the fleet to lie to for the
night, and to prepare for a general action at daybreak, as he knew
from a fisherman he had captured that the English fleet were at
Plymouth. The wind was on shore, but all through the night Howard's
and Drake's ships beat out from the Sound until they took their
places behind the Spanish fleet, whose position they could perfectly
make out by the light of the half moon that rose at two in the
morning.
On board the English fleet all was confidence and hilarity. The
sufferings of the last three months were forgotten. The numbers and
magnitude of the Spanish ships counted as nothing. The sailors of
the west country had met the Spaniards on the Indian seas and proved
their masters, and doubted not for a moment that they should do so
again.
There was scarce a breath of air when day broke, but at eight
o'clock a breeze sprang up from the west, and the Armada made sail
and attempted to close with the English; but the low, sharp English
ships sailed two feet to the one of the floating castles of Spain,
and could sail close to the wind, while the Spanish ships, if they
attempted to close haul their sails, drifted bodily to leeward.
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