Context: Besides his religious tracts, the Rev. Charles Kingsley wrote three historical novels: Hypatia (1853), Westward Ho!, and Hereward the Wake (1866) about Anglo-Saxon courage against the conquering Normans. The breezy tale of Westward Ho! is the most interesting of the trio. Against the background of Elizabethan adventure on the sea, the author defends the principles of the nineteenth century Broad Church movement for which he jousted against Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801–1890). The great character of Salvation Yeo contrasts with the Spanish-American Jesuits and inquisitors. Most of Kingsley's local color came from Hakluyt's Voyages, and while there are occasions where his lack of sea knowledge caused slips, most critics believe that Kingsley expressed well the feelings of the age of Good Queen Bess. In the story, Amyas Leigh, his brother Frank, and villainous Cousin Eustace are brought up in Bideford, along with Rose Salterne, the Mayor's daughter. The boys go to sea, around the world with Sir Francis Drake. Following the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588, among the Spanish prisoners brought to the village to await ransom money is the nobleman Guzmán de Soto. When Rose later disappears, the young men suspect that the ransomed Spaniard has abducted her. So in a ship The Rose they sail Westward Ho! to La Guayra, Venezuela, where Guzmán has been sent as Governor. Roman Catholic Eustace warns the Spaniards, so a Spanish vessel is waiting their arrival. As for the colloquial phrase, though the proverbial cat has nine lives, there are many ways of killing it. "Care killed a cat" and "Cat killed by kindness," come to mind, as well as "Skinning the cat," and this method, the most inappropriate of all. Here is Kingsley's account of the sea fight: