towards the execution of the orders.

This information did not chill the ardour of their victorious countrymen.
No quarter was given. Such of the victims as succeeded in throwing
themselves overboard, out of the St. Augustine, or any of the burning or
sinking ships, were pursued by the Netherlanders, who rowed about among
them in boats, shooting, stabbing, and drowning their victims by
hundreds. It was a sickening spectacle. The bay, said those who were
there, seemed sown with corpses. Probably two or three thousand were
thus put to death, or had met their fate before. Had the chivalrous
Heemskerk lived, it is possible that he might have stopped the massacre.
But the thought of the grief which would fill the commonwealth when the
news should arrive of his death--thus turning the joy of the great
triumph into lamentations--increased the animosity of his comrades.
Moreover, in ransacking the Spanish admiral's ship, all his papers had
been found, among them many secret instructions from Government signed
"the King;" ordering most inhuman persecutions, not only of the
Netherlanders, but of all who should in any way assist them, at sea or
ashore. Recent examples of the thorough manner in which the royal
admirals could carry out these bloody instructions had been furnished by
the hangings, burnings, and drownings of Fazardo. But the barbarous
ferocity of the Dutch on this occasion might have taught a lesson even to
the comrades of Alva.

The fleet of Avila was entirely destroyed. The hulk of the St.
Augustine drifted ashore, having been abandoned by the victors, and was
set on fire by a few Spaniards who had concealed themselves on board,
lest she might fall again into the enemy's hands.

The battle had lasted from half-past three until sunset. The Dutch