Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/52

32 their cruisers: they had ravaged the English coasts, and robbed English traders, from Berwick to the Land's End. An invasion in their own waters was the last peril which seemed to have been anticipated. Soon after daybreak strange ships were reported inside the Bass Rock. As the sun rose the numbers appeared more considerable, the white sails passing in from seaward and coming up the Forth in a stream, of which the end was still invisible. The good citizens went out upon the Castle Hill and Arthur's Seat, and 'to crags and places eminent,' to gaze on the unintelligible spectacle the silent vessels, countless as a flight of seabirds, appearing from behind the horizon, and covering the blue level of the water. What were they? What did they mean? Midday came; they drew nearer in the light air; and keen eyes saw on the leading ships the flutter of St George's Cross. But 'still sat the Cardinal at his dinner, showing as though there had been no danger appearing.' The English were come, was the cry. The English were come to destroy them. 'The Cardinal skrippit and said, it is but the Iceland fleet; they are come to make us a show and to put us in fears.' It would soon be known what they were. The first line as they came off Leith rounded up into the wind, dropped their anchors, and lay motionless. One by one, as the rest followed in, they took their places in the floating forest. While the sun was still in the sky the anxious watchers counted two hundred sail.

No message came on shore. There was neither