Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/444

 424 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 60. same November, Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth Sound, nominally to search the waste of the Pacific and find openings for English commerce ; but with private instructions also from the Queen, which might be shown or withheld, acted upon or not acted upon, as conve- nience might afterwards dictate. De Guaras had watched his preparations and suspected his real object. He was provided with a second in command, the Mr Doughty whose fate afterwards caused so deep sensa- tion ; and Doughty was probably sent by the Spanish party in the council to observe and embarrass his lead- er's movements, and thwart his purpose if mischief was intended to Spain. This was Elizabeth's contribution to the war of the Low Countries, bestowed while she was in the humour and happily irrevocable a contribution more effective, measured by its results in bringing Spain upon her knees, than if she had emptied her treasury into the lap of Orange. In those five ships lay the germ of the ocean empire of Great Britain. They sailed but just in time, for the Queen's courage had passed its flood, and other help the States were after all not to receive. The appearance of Matthias upon the scene. pro- December. mismg as it did a quarrel between Philip and the Emperor Rudolf, relieved her, when she thought about it, of an immediate necessity of action. The rupture with Philip was again put off. The pale shadow of the Archduke his influence never amounted to a reality soon melted away, but by that time the Queen's natural disposition had reasserted its usual in-