But in November Leicester returned to England, a confession of failure, and in January the fort of Zutphen was betrayed to the Spaniards.
Again the scene shifted and the characters changed; for when Drake returned to England, Walsingham gave him the cheering news that the Queen's eyes were at last opened. He had shown her a paper taken from the Pope's closet which proved that all Philip's preparations in port and harbour and storehouse were intended solely for her destruction and the religious education of her heretic realm. Then she flashed out in patriotic spirit and threw economy to the winds.
Sir Francis Drake was made her Majesty's Admiral-at-the-Seas, and William Burrows, Comptroller of the Navy, esteemed to be the most scientific sea officer in England, was selected as his Vice-Admiral.
The people cheered and sang and made ready to fight for hearth and home. One favourite stanza was that which had been nailed to the sign of the Queen's Head Tavern at Deptford—
"O Nature! to old England still
Continue these mistakes;
Still give us for our King such Queens,
And for our Dux such Drakes."
Drake's commission was to prevent the joining together of the King of Spain's ships out of their several ports, to keep victuals from them and to follow any ships that should sail towards England or Ireland.
On the 2nd of April Sir Francis Drake wrote to Walsingham to say all was ready for starting. "I thank God I find no man but as all members of one body, to stand for our gracious Queen and Country against Anti-Christ and his members."
We always see that with Drake the motive for war was a religious motive; it was to secure religious freedom of thought and put down the Inquisition.
He ends thus: "The wind commands me away; our ship is under sail. God grant we may so live in His fear, as the enemy may have cause to say that God doth fight for her Majesty as well abroad as at home ... let me beseech your Honour to pray unto God for us, that He will direct us the right way."
Besides the Elizabeth Bonaventure, which Drake commanded, Captain William Burrows as Vice-Admiral was in the Golden Lion, Fenner in the Dreadnought, Bellingham in the Rainbow—these all Queen's ships.