That letter to Philip is Sancho's own hand! Where did you get it?
How long have you had it up your sleeve?
Have you got any more such cards to play?
Can you not give us a picture of those gentlemen adventurers with their exalted beliefs, their actual experiences, their little jealousies, and the love-lorn Lope de Vega in their midst?
What mankind you have come upon, dear Froude! How I envy you! Have you nothing to spare for a poor literary man like myself, who has made all he could out of the hulk of a poor old Philippine galleon on Pacific seas?
Couldn't you lend me a Don or a galley-slave out of that delightful crew of solemn lunatics?
And yet how splendid are those last orders of the Duke! With what a swan-like song they sailed away!" -- * The successor to Fraser.
-- The letter from Medina Sidonia to Philip, which reminded both Froude and Bret Harte of Sancho Panza, is too delicious not to be given in full.
"My health is bad, and from my small experience of the water I know that I am always sea-sick.

I have no money which I can spare, I owe a million ducats, and I have not a real to spend on my outfit.

The expedition is on such a scale, and the object is of such high importance, that the person at the head of it ought to understand navigation and sea-fighting, and I know nothing of either.

I have not one of those essential qualifications.

I have no acquaintance among the officers who are to serve under me.