I have sent to all the justices of peace about it from place to place.

I speak it that timely consideration be had of these things, and that they be not deferred till the worst come.

Let her Majesty not defer the time, upon any supposed hope, to assemble a convenient force of horse and foot about her.

Her Majesty cannot be strong enough too soon, and if her navy had not been strong and abroad as it is, what care had herself and her whole realm been in by this time! And what care she will be in if her forces be not only assembled, but an army presently dressed to withstand the mighty enemy that is to approach her gates." "God doth know, I speak it not to bring her to charges.

I would she had less cause to spend than ever she had, and her coffers fuller than ever they were; but I will prefer her life and safety, and the defence of the realm, before all sparing of charges in the present danger." Thus, on the 5th August, no army had been assembled--not even the body-guard of the Queen--and Leicester, with four thousand men, unprovided with a barrel of beer or a loaf of bread, was about commencing his entrenched camp at Tilbury.