Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/147

1545.] ships of war and twenty-five galleys, which had dared the dangers of the Bay of Biscay, and had come round from Marseilles, were to form the convoy of sixty transports, and sixty thousand men. William the Norman had brought as large a force with him, but his fleet was nothing. The Spanish Armada was as powerful on the sea, but the troops intended for land-service scarce amounted to half the army of Francis. The aim of the expedition was successfully concealed. Rumour pointed alternately to Scotland or the western counties, to Kent or Sussex, to the Humber, the Thames, or the Solent; and the English Government, to be prepared on all sides, had a hundred and twenty thousand men in the field throughout the summer. Thirty thousand, under Hertford, guarded the Marches of Northumberland; the Duke of Norfolk in Lincolnshire and Suffolk, Lord Russell in the West, were each in command of an equal force; while the Duke of Suffolk, with the fourth division, held Sussex, Kent, and Hampshire, and was prepared, if necessary, to cross the Channel. The garrisons at Calais, Guisnes, and Boulogne were, at the lowest, fifteen thousand strong. The new fortresses along the coasts were largely manned. The number of English soldiers in receipt of pay fell scarcely short of a hundred and forty thousand, in addition to German contingents perpetually raised and perpetually useless, and the small but effective company of Italians under De l'Armi.

On the sea, also, the returns were tolerably