 After this defeat Spinola took his remaining six galleys back to Lisbon and filled his vessels with pay chests for Flanders . During the sailing to Flanders he took an English ship , which he left at A Coruña . At Santander he took on a further 400 troops to complete the Tercio complement of 1 @,@ 600 men . In England word had spread that Spinola was on his way in an attempt to run the English channel again . His heading was for Sluis with the six galleys , of whose approach was well informed by Robert Cecil even when they arrived at Blavet in Brittany at the beginning of October . Queen Elizabeth decided to act , so she appointed Sir Robert Mansell to join with the States fleet before Dunkirk and Sluis , to see what they could do to impeach them . Meanwhile , the States of Holland and West Frisia had sent a flotilla of nine ships under Vice @-@ Admiral Jacob van Duyvenvoorde to intercept Spinola but when this force arrived near Spain , Spinola had already escaped to the north . Van Duyvenvoorde , coping with an outbreak of smallpox by which he was afflicted himself , sent four of his ships back north under Jan <unk> Cant , known by the English as Jan van Cant . 
