The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-02-21

IL was 900 years more before an
( other invasion was seriously attempt
ed. when in SIS the 132 sail of the
Great Armada OF Spain spread their
| canvas in sight of Drake he was
playing bowls on the sward of the
plymouth Hoe. That English bulldog
of the sea stands there now in bronze.
still bowling on the green of the lofty
headland. Down below him is the old
cobbled dock. whence in 1920 leaky
little ship sailed away to new Ply
mouth and to the conquest of a con-
| tinent
II CHANGED that when / came TO the
| town one night. mimic armada crept
I out of the darkness into the radiance
| of EddyStone Light and undertook to
break through the chain of forts that
| greatest stronghoids. The battle that
ensued was full OF sound, if not of
! fury, and for an hour the mock war
! fare ratified the windows of the sober
manSionS on the Hoe.
But Drake did not quit his bowling
as when he sailed out of the bay and
| hung with the wind on the rear of
Spaniards carried 800 guns. 5000
sailors and 10000 soldiers. while the
English had only scratch fleet of
eighty little vessels, more than half of
But. ever. Neptune rose to the de-
Tense of the islanders who. under the
favor of the winds. "plucked one by
one the feathers of the Spaniards."
For a full week there was a running
fight all the way from Plymouth to
Calais and beyond. whittier the Ar
sage of an invading Spanish army.
which waited at Dunkirk. But off
GravelineS the vast fleet was put to
flight after battle which the Brit
ish had begun at midnight. when they
spread panic among their foes by
sending down upon them eight fire
ships.
The fleeing boats attempted to re-
hn- he
and rounding the top of Scotland, but
fierce storms pursued them down the .
wild coast of Western Ireland long
after all their English pursuers had .
Causeway and where the mountains of
Kerry look down on the breakers that
foam about the Baskets no less than
5000 Spaniards found their graves,
and only fifty of the Spanish ships es-
capped destruction.
Where William of Orange Landed.
II is but a little way up the Devon
coast from Plymouth to the sunny
Italian shores of Torhay. where the
latest successful invasion of England
took place in 1858. On my pilgrimage
to the landing place of William of
Orange [ descended the steep ladder
like streets of the old fishing port of
BriNham. past All Saints, whose rec
tor composed Abide With Me- past
the humble house where the Orange
prince laid his uneasy head on a pill
low his first night in England. and
down to the edge of the harbor
ermen. There little lighthouse rises
from the very stone on which William
first stepped as he entered the king
dom he had come to claim.
But his really was not a foreign in
vasion. As the grandson of Charles /
and son-in-law of James ii, both he
and his wife. Mary. were regarded as
heirs presumptive to the English
throne the Of /,
whom would succeed King James
But when James at fifty-five received
from his second wife the unexpected
present of son and heir his baf-
fled enemies called upon William to
come over from Holland and snatch
the crown from his father-in-law.
Accepting the invitation, he came ,
with fifty men-of-war and 600 trans .
ports. carrying $4,000. Dutch soldiers.
His invasion. however. was not only
by powerful English !
who fled to France. I
With that doubtful instance. the !
record of the successful tnvasions of =,
has remained closed for two ,
and a quarter centuries The threats !,
and failures of the French in the time
Of the revolution and of Napoleon
have only served to prove that it is
indeed
night little tight little island. =
The English themselves have taken 9
,n an added feeling of security since (
he all-conquering hosts of France 1
hat overran Europe from Cadiz to !
Moscow found themselves helpless .
against England's watery defenses I
rhe long. vain struggle began with s
he footless expedition to Bantry Bay
n 1886 when. on the invitation OF e
irish revolutionists, including Robert h
Emmett and Wolf Tone. the French =
dispatched $4,000 soldiers 4
Inder Gen. Hoche to invade Ireland. n
But the feet was dispersed by Brit I
inns trusty ally. Neptune. whose praise Il
Sir Walter Scott sang in these lines: a
A rare Admiral. Gen. Gale. lC
oh. NAV the gods give him blessing! 4
Appeared in time with crowded sail. n
And gave the frog eaters q dressing 1 n