Just at this moment he was encountered by the tempest, and compelled to take shelter in the harbour of Portsmouth.

[509] At that time James, who was not incompetent to form a judgment on a question of seamanship, declared himself perfectly satisfied that his Admiral had done all that man could do, and had yielded only to the irresistible hostility of the winds and waves.

At a later period the unfortunate prince began, with little reason, to suspect Dartmouth of treachery, or at least of slackness.

[510] The weather had indeed served the Protestant cause so well that some men of more piety than judgment fully believed the ordinary laws of nature to have been suspended for the preservation of the liberty and religion of England.

Exactly a hundred years before, they said, the Armada, invincible by man, had been scattered by the wrath of God.