Their firmness did not equal his own, and he was obliged to twice give the command before it was obeyed.
CHAPTER VII
THE ADVENTURE OF THE KNIGHT OF THE BRANDISHED LANCE
I
THE QUEST
ROBERT DEVREUX, Earl of Essex, was in one of his worst moods as he strode the deck of his flag-ship in Cadiz Bay on a certain June morning in 1596.
And yet this favourite of Fortune stood then at the summit of his career, having by a brilliant assault taken the city for England, while a letter whose seal he had just broken assured him of the doting infatuation of England's Queen.
It was precisely this letter, as he now explained to his friend, which occasioned his dissatisfaction.