But the day wore on to its close, and still the same inexplicable and mysterious silence prevailed.

There was utter solitude on the waters in the direction of Gravelines and Dunkerk--not a sail upon the sea in the quarter where bustle and activity had been most expected.

The mystery was profound, for it had never entered the head of any man in the Armada that Alexander could not come out when he chose.
And now to impatience succeeded suspicion and indignation; and there were curses upon sluggishness and upon treachery.

For in the horrible atmosphere of duplicity, in which all Spaniards and Italians of that epoch lived, every man: suspected his brother, and already Medina Sidonia suspected Farnese of playing him false.

There were whispers of collusion between the Duke and the English commissioners at Bourbourg.