“You are not ill-informed.”
“I was in the Groyne for a week, sir, never as far south as Cadiz.”
“I forget your Spanish adventures. But it does not entitle you to information not yet divulged to others.”
“No, sir. I can only guess.”
“And keep your guesses under lock and~key … By the living God, I feel ill! It would be a humiliation to be laid aside at a time like this.”
“There must be many others the same.”
“No doubt most of the three hundred green-headed youths in their feathers and gold lace will be wishing themselves ashore again. But it is different for them. The leaders should be above physical frailty …” He took a sip of his cordial, and the whole cabin leaned and creaked as he did so. “Ships stink so foul of bilge water and foetid air, it does not give one a chance. Also there’s the heat and stink of the cook room directly under us. In merchant ships they sometimes build the galley in the forecastle … No doubt this does not worry my Lord Admiral, since he is a sailor born.”
“Lord Thomas Howard,” I said, “is a sailor too?”
“Oh, a fair one. Though no fighter. He commanded at the Azores when my cousin, Richard Grenville, fought the Spanish fleet alone. Howard commanded his squadron away and left Grenville to his fate. His action has been defended because he was outnumbered. I have openly said what I thought of his behaviour and there was to have been a duel fought between us, but it was stopped by the Queen.”
The wind was freshening and they were taking in the mizzen which was almost above us, Sir Walter’s cabin being four flights up in the poop.
“I should be happier in a world quite bereft of Howards,” he said broodingly. “Oil and water … we do not mix. But Lord Thomas is much to be preferred to his uncle, Lord Henry Howard. If ever you meet him I commend him to your study.”
“At Wednesday’s council meeting, sir, I thought none spoke with sincerity or candour.”
Perhaps fortunately he did not take the remark as directed at himself.
“Much between the Earl of Essex and the Lord Admiral is jealousy and the question of precedence … But on that I should not cast stones. When I arrived in Plymouth Francis Vere was claiming a position beyond his due, and we had hard words before it was settled.”
The ship lurched and the cabin seemed to turn in a semicircle.
“I know what you are thinking, young Killigrew: that if leaders may endeavour to be above seasickness, they should much more be above petty deceptions and small jealousies, over which they have some control. Well, I can tell you they are not. Greatness is a condition of brain and marrow: it is in no way connected with virtue, which is of the soul. Indeed, looking into my own heart, which is in essence the only one I shall ever know, it seems to me that the very faculties which make for excellence of talent and wit, make also for a deficiency of patience and humility and generosity towards one’s rivals and fellow men. In command I want command, not to dog at the heels of some strutting popinjay raised to his position by accident of birth. If there is equal talent in an equal position I do not acknowledge it, save grudgingly as in the case of Vere and he no less of me. Never equate the great with the good, young Killigrew, or you will suffer deeper disillusions than you are suffering now.”
“I confess I’ve an anxious thought for the success of an expedition in which all the leaders are at dagger’s point.”
“All leaders are always at dagger’s point where there is more than one leader. This is the flaw of so many enterprises. But take heart: some succeed in spite of it. This may; we are a formidable force. Eighteen of the Queen’s galleons, twelve great ships from the City of London, eighteen Hollanders, many transports and victuallers capable of fighting on their own behalf. We may meet the Spanish fleet at sea; if not we shall sweep wide with our pinnaces and fast craft to pick up all small vessels as we go, so that none may turn and fly ahead with news of our coming. This is what I have been waiting for for five years, to avenge my cousin Grenville and the men who died with him! “
I saw much of Sir Walter during the next few days. Confined as he was to his own warship, his restless energies had no suitable outlet. Once his sickness had lessened he was ever about, inspecting the guns, talking with the gunners, plotting our course with Captain Oakes. Warspite was a fine new ship, but as Sir Walter said, already stinking of the foul water which slapped about in her bilges. I would not have liked to be a common sailor, for it was not possible to walk upright between decks, the clearance being not above five feet, and the men slept side by side on the decks with only some fourteen inches of space to lie in. There was little light or air below because, except in the calmest seas, the gun ports had to be kept closed and there was small hope of healthful rest or cleanliness.
So as to be less conspicuous to the casual sail, our fleet spread wide in extended order during the day and drew together at nightfall with the sound of trumpets blown and cheerful shouts from one vessel to another.
The Sunday was wild, and Warspite plunged and groaned like a coach in a muddy lane. Victor fell and sprained his arm. Monday and Tuesday were fair and calm, but this was followed by a gale coming up from the north-west, with rain, on the Wednesday afternoon. Great combers built up under the declining sun and moved after us, overtaking us so that we lurched to the top of them scattering spray and spume over the poop windows, poised high regarding a tossing gray-faced white-lipped world, and then yawed drunkenly into the valley behind. It looked more awful even than it felt, for while we were riding the crests other vessels around us disappeared into pits from which it seemed they would never climb, or swung at such strange angles to the hurrying seas that they seemed about to turn over and sink.
Days passed without sight of land or foreign sail. On Friday, the sea having fallen and the day being fair, Lord Admiral Howard summoned another council aboard his flagship, and Sir Walter embarked on a naval barge, this time taking Victor Hardwicke with him. I was left behind to think of Sue and to dream of battle and spoils. When the council was over, which was not until three in the afternoon, Victor took an early opportunity to whisper one word in my ear. It was “Cadiz”.
The next day three fly boats, two from Amsterdam and one from Middleburgh,were chased and after a fight taken. The captured masters were brought aboard Warspite. Though Sir Christopher Blount, who had been concerned in their capture, tried to have them taken aboard Lioness, he was brusquely overruled by Sir Walter. Three days out of Cadiz, with a cargo of salt and wines, the Flemish master of the Middleburgh boat, entertained in Ralegh’s cabin with greater courtesy than Sir Walter had just extended to his soldier colleague, was forthcoming enough. Cadiz harbour, he said, was full of shipping, there being 20 powerful galleys of the Andalusian squadron, four of the great Apostle galleons of the Guard, two older Portuguese galleons and three of the new treasure frigates which were recently back from their defeat of Drake at Puerto Rico. In addition there were about 40 vessels of a treasure fleet loading cargoes for New Spain. No rumour had yet reached Spain of an English force approaching: it was widely thought that with the death of Drake and the fall of Calais all our energies would be turned towards defence.
News of such import was at once sent to the other admirals, while the three fly boats were searched and some of their cargo seized. That evening the sun was bloody as it set almost behind us.
We were now beating down the Spanish coast, and the following day about six in the morning we sighted the Burlings, which are islands off Vigo the first land we had seen since the Cornish coast.
One night my master had Sir John Wingfield, a tall sombre soldier, and the Earl of Sussex to dine, and after they had gone he stood for a while beside me on the deck staring across at their receding barge.