“After the Revenge was entangled with the San Philip, four others boarded her, two on her larboard and two on her starboard.  The fight thus beginning at three o’clock in the afternoon continued very terrible all that evening.  But the great San Philip, having received the lower tier of the Revenge, shifted herself with all diligence from her sides, utterly misliking her first entertainment.  The Spanish ships were filled with soldiers, in some 200, besides the mariners, in some 500, in others 800.  In ours there were none at all, besides the mariners, but the servants of the commander and some few voluntary gentlemen only.  After many interchanged vollies of great ordnance and small shot, the Spaniards deliberated to enter the Revenge, and made divers attempts, hoping to force her by the multitude of their armed soldiers and musketeers; but were still repulsed again and again, and at all times beaten back into their own ship or into the sea.  In the beginning of the fight the George Noble, of London, having received some shot through her by the Armadas, fell under the lee of the Revenge, and asked Sir Richard what he would command him; but being one of the victuallers, and of small force, Sir Richard bade him save himself and leave him to his fortune.”

A little touch of gallantry, which we should be glad to remember with the honour due to the brave English heart who commanded the George Noble; but his name has passed away, and his action is an in memoriam, on which time has effaced the writing.  All that August night the fight continued, the stars rolling over in their sad majesty, but unseen through the sulphur clouds which hung over the scene.  Ship after ship of the Spaniards came on upon the Revenge, “so that never less than two mighty galleons were at her side and aboard her,” washing up like waves upon a rock, and failing foiled and shattered back amidst the roar of the artillery.  Before morning fifteen several armadas had assailed her, and all in vain; some had been sunk at her side; and the rest, “so ill approving of their entertainment, that at break of day they were far more willing to hearken to a composition, than hastily to make more assaults or entries.”  “But as the day increased so our men decreased, and as the light grew more and more, by so much the more grew our discomfort, for none appeared in sight but enemies, save one small ship called the Pilgrim, commanded by Jacob Whiddon, who hovered all night to see the success, but in the morning bearing with the Revenge was hunted like a hare among many ravenous hounds—­ but escaped.”

All the powder in the Revenge was now spent, all her pikes were broken, 40 out of her 100 men killed, and a great number of the rest wounded.  Sir Richard, though badly hurt early in the battle, never forsook the deck till an hour before midnight; and was then shot through the body while his wounds were being dressed, and again in the head; and his surgeon was killed while attending on him.  The masts were