Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/157

 commission for that purpose; and, as a proof of Elizabeth's determination to maintain the position she had taken in this affair, the ships which escorted Alva back to Dunkirk actually cut out from Calais roads a dozen rich Spanish merchantmen, and sent them to the Thames.

Whenever a ship could be found with a Catholic owner she was plundered by the English rovers. In harbour, in the Channel, or on the open sea, they became alike objects of their eager prey. While some of these freebooters were content to lie in wait for such vessels as contained Flemish prisoners whom they would set at liberty, others resolutely entered Spanish ports to rescue the English vessels, crews, and cargoes which had been detained in them. But their patriotism, like their religious enthusiasm, was ever blended with a love of plunder, for they invariably helped themselves to any valuables they came across in their cruises by land or by sea. To the yet deeper distress of Philip, the houses of the largest Spanish merchants in London were not merely searched and ransacked by Elizabeth's police, but the plundered furniture of his chapel, the crucifixes and the images of the saints were borne in mock procession through the streets, and burnt in Cheapside amid the jeers of the populace, who cried as they saw them blazing, "These are the gods of Spain—to the flames with them and their worshippers."

While such insults were of too frequent occurrence on shore, the agressions of the privateers had rather increased than diminished in the Channel. Elizabeth felt that, for the safety of the kingdom against inva-*