Garlick.
He nodded.
"It is not that I look for final deliverance from Spain," he said. "I
have no wish to be aught but an Englishman, as I said to Mr. Bassett a
while ago. But I think the fleet will distract her Grace for a while;
and it may very well mean that we have better treatment hereafter."
"What news is there, sir?"
"I hear that the Londoners buzz continually with false alarms. It was
thought that the fleet might arrive on any day; but I understand that
the fishing-boats say that nothing as yet been seen. By the end of the
month, I daresay, we shall have news."
So they talked pleasantly in the shade till the shadows began to
lengthen. They were far enough here from the sea-coast to feel somewhat
detached from the excitement that was beginning to seethe in the south.
At Plymouth, it was said, all had been in readiness for a month or two
past; at Tilbury, my lord Leicester was steadily gathering troops. But
here, inland, it was more of an academic question. The little happenings
in Derby; the changes of weather in the farms; the deaths of old people
from the summer heats--these things were far more vital and significant
than the distant thunders of Spain. A beacon or two had been piled on
the hills, by order of the authorities, to pass on the news when it
should come; a few lads had disappeared from the countryside to drill in
Derby marketplace; but except for these things, all was very much as it
had been from the beginning.
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