It was about sixteen months later that Drake, amongst the band of famous captains gathered at Plymouth, watched the long-awaited Armada sailing in a great crescent up the Channel. The English popular view of the invasion is, perhaps, reflected in a ballad which was written soon after the event. It is called 'Sir Francis Drake; or, Eighty-eight.'
'In eyghtye-eyght, ere I was borne,
As I can well remember,
In August was a fleet prepared,
The moneth before September.
'Spayne, with Biscayne, Portugall,
Toledo, and Granado,
All these did meet, and made a fleet,
And called it the Armado.
'When they had gott provision,
As mustard, pease, and bacon;
Some say two shipps were full of whipps,
But I thinke they were mistaken.
'There was a little man of Spaine
That shott well in a gunn-a—
Don Pedro bright, as good a knight
As the knight of the sunn-a.
'King Phillip made him Admiral,
And charged him not to stay-a—
But to destroy both man and boy,
And then to runn away-a.
'The King of Spayne did freet amayne,
And to doe yet more harme-a,
He sent along to make him strong
The famous Prince of Parma.
When they had sayl'd along the seas,
And anchored uppon Dover,
Our Englishmen did board them then,
And cast the Spaniards over.
'Oure Queene was then att Tilbury;
What could you more desire-a?
For whose sweete sake Sir Francis Drake
Did sett them all on fyre-a.
'But let them look about themselfes;
For if they come again-a.
They shall be served with that same sauce
As they were, I know when-a.'