At the same time the signs of the approaching invasion seemed to thicken.

"In my opinion," said Dale, "as Phormio spake in matters of wars, it were very requisite that my Lord Harry should be always on this coast, for they will steal out from hence as closely as they can, either to join with the Spanish navy or to land, and they may be very easily scattered, by God's grace." And, with the honest pride of a protocol-maker, he added, "our postulates do trouble the King's commissioners very much, and do bring them to despair." The excellent Doctor had not even yet discovered that the King's commissioners were delighted with his postulates; and that to have kept them postulating thus five months in succession, while naval and military preparations were slowly bringing forth a great event--which was soon to strike them with as much amazement as if the moon had fallen out of heaven--was one of the most decisive triumphs ever achieved by Spanish diplomacy.

But the Doctor thought that his logic had driven the King of Spain to despair.
At the same time he was not insensible to the merits of another and more peremptory style of rhetoric,--"I pray you," said he to Walsingham, "let us hear some arguments from my Lord Harry out of her Majesty's navy now and then.

I think they will do more good than any bolt that we can shoot here.

If they be met with at their going out, there is no possibility for them to make any resistance, having so few men that can abide the sea; for the rest, as you know, must be sea-sick at first." But the envoys were completely puzzled.