RALEIGH

ENGLISH WORTHIES. 

EDITED BY ANDREW LANG. 

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London: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 

English Worthies

EDITED BY ANDREW LANG

RALEIGH

BY

EDMUND GOSSE, M. A. 

CLARK LECTURER IN ENGLISH LITERATURE AT TRINITY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE

LONDON

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

1886

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PREFACE. 

The existing Lives of Raleigh are very numerous. To this day the mostinteresting of these, as a literary production, is that published in1736 by William Oldys, afterwards Norroy King at Arms. This book was amarvel of research, as well as of biographical skill, at the time of itsappearance, but can no longer compete with later lives as an authority. By a curious chance, two writers who were each ignorant of the othersimultaneously collected information regarding Raleigh, and produced twolaborious and copious Lives of him, at the same moment, in 1868. Each ofthese collections, respectively by Mr. Edward Edwards, whose death isannounced as these words are leaving the printers, and by the late Mr. James Augustus St. John, added very largely to our knowledge of Raleigh;but, of course, each of these writers was precluded from using thediscoveries of the other. The present Life is the first in which thefresh matter brought forward by Mr. Edwards and by Mr. St. John has beencollated; Mr. Edwards, moreover, deserved well of all Raleigh studentsby editing for the first time, in 1868, the correspondence of Raleigh. Ihope that I do not seem to disparage Mr. Edwards's book when I say thatin his arrangement and conjectural dating of undated documents I am veryfrequently in disaccord with him. The present Life contains varioussmall data which are now for the first time published, and more than onefact of considerable importance which I owe to the courtesy of Mr. JohnCordy Jeaffreson. I have, moreover, taken advantage up to date of the_Reports_ of the Historical MSS. Commission, and of the two volumes of_Lismore Papers_ this year published. In his prospectus to the latterDr. Grosart promises us still more about Raleigh in later issues. Mydates are new style. 

The present sketch of Raleigh's life is the first attempt which has beenmade to portray his personal career disengaged from the general historyof his time. To keep so full a life within bounds it has been necessaryto pass rapidly over events of signal importance in which he took but asecondary part. I may point as an example to the defeat of the SpanishArmada, a chapter in English history which has usually occupied a largespace in the chronicle of Raleigh and his times. Mrs. Creighton'sexcellent little volume on the latter and wider theme may be recommendedto those who wish to see Raleigh painted not in a full-length portrait, but in an historical composition of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. I have to thank Dr. Brushfield for the use of his valuable Raleighbibliography, now in the press, and for other kind help. 

CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE

 I. YOUTH 1

 II. AT COURT 17

 III. IN DISGRACE 40

 IV. GUIANA 65

 V. CADIZ 88

 VI. LAST DAYS OF ELIZABETH 111

 VII. THE TRIAL AT WINCHESTER 132

VIII. IN THE TOWER 161

 IX. THE SECOND VOYAGE TO GUIANA 189

 X. THE END 204

 INDEX 225

MAPS. 

SOUTH OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND _To face p. 16_

GUIANA " 70

RALEIGH. 

CHAPTER I. 

YOUTH. 

Walter Raleigh was born, so Camden and an anonymous astrologer combineto assure us, in 1552. The place was Hayes Barton, a farmstead in theparish of East Budleigh, in Devonshire, then belonging to his father; itpassed out of the family, and in 1584 Sir Walter attempted to buy itback. 'For the natural disposition I have to the place, being born inthat house, I had rather seat myself there than anywhere else, ' he wroteto a Mr. Richard Duke, the then possessor, who refused to sell it. Genealogists, from himself downwards, have found a rich treasure inRaleigh's family tree, which winds its branches into those of some ofthe best Devonshire houses, the Gilberts, the Carews, the Champernownes. His father, the elder Walter Raleigh, in his third marriage became thesecond husband of Katherine Gilbert, daughter of Sir Philip Champernounof Modbury. By Otto Gilbert, her first husband, she had been the motherof two boys destined to be bold navigators and colonists, Humphrey andAdrian Gilbert. It, is certainly the influence of his half-brother SirHumphrey Gilbert, of Compton, which is most strongly marked upon thecharacter of young Raleigh; while Adrian was one of his own earliestconverts to Virginian enterprise. 

The earliest notice of Sir Walter Raleigh known to exist was found andcommunicated to the _Transactions of the Devonshire Association_ by Dr. Brushfield in 1883. It is in a deed preserved in Sidmouth Church, bywhich tithes of fish are leased by the manor of Sidmouth to 'WalterRawlegh the elder, Carow Ralegh, and Walter Ralegh the younger, ' onSeptember 10, 1560. In 1578 the same persons passed over their interestin the fish-titles in another deed, which contains their signatures. Itis amusing to find that the family had not decided how to spell itsname. The father writes 'Ralegh, ' his elder son Carew writes 'CaroRawlyh, ' while the subject of this memoir, in this his earliest knownsignature, calls himself 'Rauleygh. '

His father was a Protestant when young Walter was born, but his motherseems to have remained a Catholic. In the persecution under Mary, she, as we learn from Foxe, went into Exeter to visit the heretics in gaol, and in particular to see Agnes Prest before her burning. Mrs. Raleighbegan to exhort her to repentance, but the martyr turned the tables onher visitor, and urged the gentlewoman to seek the blessed body ofChrist in heaven, not on earth, and this with so much sweetpersuasiveness that when Mrs. Raleigh 'came home to her husband shedeclared to him that in her life she never heard any woman, of suchsimplicity to see to, talk so godly and so earnestly; insomuch, that ifGod were not with her she could not speak such things--"I was not ableto answer her, I, who can read, and she cannot. "' It is easy to perceivethat this anecdote would not have been preserved if the incident had notheralded the final secession of Raleigh's parents from the creed ofPhilip II. , and thus Agnes Prest was not without her share in forgingRaleigh's hatred of bigotry and of the Spaniard. Very little else isknown about Walter and Katherine Raleigh. They lived at their manorialfarm of Hayes Barton, and they were buried side by side, as their sontells us, 'in Exeter church. '

The university career of Raleigh is vague to us in the highest degree. The only certain fact is that he left Oxford in 1569. Anthony à Woodsays that he was three years there, and that he entered Oriel College asa commoner in or about the year 1568. Fuller speaks of him as residentat Christ Church also. Perhaps he went to Christ Church first as a boyof fourteen, in 1566, and removed to Oriel at sixteen. Sir PhilipSidney, Hakluyt, and Camden were all of them at Oxford during thoseyears, and we may conjecture that Raleigh's acquaintance with them beganthere. Wood tells us that Raleigh, being 'strongly advanced byacademical learning at Oxford, under the care of an excellent tutor, became the ornament of the juniors, and a proficient in oratory andphilosophy. ' Bacon and Aubrey preserved each an anecdote of Raleigh'suniversity career, neither of them worth repeating here. 

The exact date at which he left Oxford is uncertain. Camden, who wasRaleigh's age, and at the university at the same time, saysauthoritatively in his _Annales_, that he was one of a hundred gentlemenvolunteers taken to the help of the Protestant princes by HenryChampernowne, who was Raleigh's first-cousin, the son of his mother'selder brother. We learn from De Thou that Champernowne's contingentarrived at the Huguenot camp on October 5, 1569. This seemscircumstantial enough, but there exist statements of Raleigh's own whichtend to show that, if he was one of his cousin's volunteers, he yetpreceded him into France. In the _History of the World_ he speaks ofpersonally remembering the conduct of the Protestants, immediately afterthe death of Condé, at the battle of Jarnac (March 13, 1569). Still morepositively Raleigh says, 'myself was an eye-witness' of the retreat atMoncontour, on October 3, two days before the arrival of Champernoun. Aprovoking obscurity conceals Walter Raleigh from us for the next six orseven years. When Hakluyt printed his _Voyages_ in 1589 he mentionedthat he himself was five years in France. In a previous dedication hehad reminded Raleigh that the latter had made a longer stay in thatcountry than himself. Raleigh has therefore been conjectured to havefought in France for six years, that is to say, until 1575. 

During this long and important period we are almost without a glimpse ofhim, nor is it anything but fancy which has depicted him as shut up byWalsingham at the English embassy in Paris on the fatal evening of St. Bartholomew's. Another cousin of his, Gawen Champernoun, became theson-in-law and follower of the Huguenot chief, Montgomery, whose murderon June 26, 1574, may very possibly have put a term to Raleigh'sadventures as a Protestant soldier in France. The allusions to his earlyexperiences are rare and slight in the _History of the World_, but onecurious passage has often been quoted. In illustration of the way inwhich Alexander the Great harassed Bessus, Raleigh mentions that, 'inthe third civil war of France, ' he saw certain Catholics, who hadretired to mountain-caves in Languedoc, smoked out of their retreat bythe burning of bundles of straw at the cave's mouth. There has latelybeen shown to be no probability in the conjecture, made by several ofhis biographers, that he was one of the English volunteers in the LowCountries who fought in their shirts and drawers at the battle ofRimenant in August 1578. 

On April 15, 1576, the poet Gascoigne, who was a _protégé_, of Raleigh'shalf-brother, issued his satire in blank verse, entitled _The SteelGlass_, a little volume which holds an important place in thedevelopment of our poetical literature. To this satire a copy ofeighteen congratulatory verses was prefixed by 'Walter Rawely of themiddle Temple. ' These lines are perfunctory and are noticeable only fortheir heading 'of the middle Temple. ' Raleigh positively tells us thathe never studied law until he found himself a prisoner in the Tower, andhe was probably only a passing lodger in some portion of the MiddleTemple in 1576. On October 7, 1577, Gascoigne died prematurely anddeprived us of a picturesque pen which might have gossiped of Raleigh'searly career. 

I am happy, through the courtesy of Mr. J. Cordy Jeaffreson, in beingable for the first time to prove that Walter Raleigh was admitted to theCourt as early as 1577. So much has been suspected, from his language toLeicester in a later letter from Ireland, but there has hitherto beenno evidence of the fact. In examining the Middlesex records, Mr. Jeaffreson has discovered that on the night of December 16, 1577, aparty of merry roisterers broke the peace at Hornsey. Their ringleaderswere a certain Richard Paunsford and his brother, who are described inthe recognisances taken next day before the magistrate Jasper Fisher asthe servants of 'Walter Rawley, of Islington, Esq. , ' and two days lateras yeoman in the service of Walter Rawley, Esq. , 'of the Court (_decuria_). '

It is very important to find him thus early officially described as ofthe Court. As Raleigh afterwards said, the education of his youth was atraining in the arts of a gentleman and a soldier. But it extendedfurther than this--it embraced an extraordinary knowledge of the sea, and in particular of naval warfare. It is tantalising that we have butthe slenderest evidence of the mode in which this particular schoolingwas obtained. The western ocean was, all through the youth of Raleigh, the most fascinating and mysterious of the new fields which were beingthrown open to English enterprise. He was a babe when Tonson came backwith the first wonderful legend of the hidden treasure-house of theSpaniard in the West Indies. He was at Oxford when England thrilled withthe news of Hawkins' tragical third voyage. He came back from Francejust in time to share the general satisfaction at Drake's revenge forSan Juan de Ulloa. All through his early days the splendour and perilousromance of the Spanish Indies hung before him, inflaming his fancy, rousing his ambition. In his own family, Sir Humphrey Gilbertrepresented a milder and more generous class of adventurers than Drakeand Hawkins, a race more set on discovery and colonisation than on merebrutal rapine, the race of which Raleigh was ultimately to become themost illustrious example. If we possessed minute accounts of the variousexpeditions in which Gilbert took part, we should probably find that hisyoung half-brother was often his companion. As early as 1584 Barlowaddresses Raleigh as one personally conversant with the islands of theGulf of Mexico, and there was a volume, never printed and now lost, written about the same time, entitled _Sir Walter Raleigh's Voyage tothe West Indies_. This expedition, no other allusion to which hassurvived, must have taken place before he went to Ireland in 1580, andmay be conjecturally dated 1577. 

The incidents of the next two years may be rapidly noted; they are allof them involved in obscurity. It is known that Raleigh crossed theAtlantic for a second time on board one of the ships of Gilbert'sill-starred expedition to the St. Lawrence in the winter of 1578. InFebruary of the next year[1] he was again in London, and was committedto the Fleet Prison for a 'fray' with another courtier. In September1579, he was involved in Sir Philip Sidney's tennis-court quarrel withLord Oxford. In May of this same year he was stopped at Plymouth when inthe act of starting on a piratical expedition against Spanish America. He had work to do in opposing Spain nearer home, and he first comesclearly before us in connection with the Catholic invasion of Ireland inthe close of 1579. It was on July 17, 1579, that the Catholicexpedition from Ferrol landed at Dingle. Fearing to stay there, itpassed four miles westward to Smerwick Bay, and there built a fortresscalled Fort del Ore, on a sandy isthmus, thinking in case of need easilyto slip away to the ocean. The murder of an English officer, who wasstabbed in his bed while the guest of the brother of the Earl ofDesmond, was recommended by Sandars the legate as a sweet sacrifice inthe sight of God, and ruthlessly committed. The result was what Sandarshad foreseen; the Geraldines, hopelessly compromised, threw up thefiction of loyalty to Elizabeth. Sir Nicholas Malby defeated the rebelsin the Limerick woods in September, but in return the Geraldines burnedYoughal and drove the Deputy within the walls of Cork, where he died ofchagrin. The temporary command fell on an old friend of Raleigh's, SirWarham Sentleger, who wrote in December 1579 a letter of earnest appealwhich broke up the apathy of the English Government. Among other stepshurriedly taken to uphold the Queen's power in Ireland, young WalterRaleigh was sent where his half-brother, Humphrey Gilbert, had so muchdistinguished himself ten years before. 

The biographer breathes more freely when he holds at last the earliestletter which remains in the handwriting of his hero. All else may beerroneous or conjectural, but here at least, for a moment, he presseshis fingers upon the very pulse of the machine. On February 22, 1580, Raleigh wrote from Cork to Burghley, giving him an account of hisvoyage. It appears that he wrote on the day of his arrival, and if thatbe the case, he left London, and passed down the Thames, in command ofa troop of one hundred foot soldiers, on January 15, 1580. By the samecomputation, they reached the Isle of Wight on the 21st, and stayedthere to be transferred into ships of Her Majesty's fleet, not startingagain until February 5. On his reaching Cork, Raleigh found that his menand he were only to be paid from the day of their arrival in Ireland, and he wrote off at once to Burghley to secure, if possible, thearrears. His arrival was a welcome reinforcement to Sentleger, who washolding Cork in the greatest peril, with only forty Englishmen. It mustbe recollected that this force under Raleigh was but a fragment of whatEnglish squadrons were busily bringing through this month of Januaryinto every port of Ireland. Elizabeth had, at last, awakened in earnestto her danger. 

Raleigh, in all probability, took no part in the marchings andskirmishings of the English armies until the summer. His 'reckoning, ' orduty-pay, as a captain in the field, begins on July 13, 1580, andperhaps, until that date, his services consisted in defending Cork underSentleger. In August he was joined with the latter, who was nowProvost-marshal of Munster, in a commission to try Sir James, theyounger brother of the Earl of Desmond, who had been captured by theSheriff of Cork. No mercy could be expected by so prominent a Geraldine;he was hanged, drawn and quartered, and the fragments of his body werehung in chains over the gates of Cork. Meanwhile, on August 12, LordGrey de Wilton arrived in Dublin to relieve Pelham of sovereign commandin Ireland. Grey, though he learned to dislike Raleigh, was probablymore cognisant of his powers than Pelham, who may never have heard ofhim. Grey had been the patron of the poet Gascoigne, and one of the mostprominent men in the group with whom we have already seen that Raleighwas identified in his early youth. 

From the moment of Grey's arrival in Ireland, the name of Raleigh ceasedto be obscure. Sir William Pelham retired on September 7, and Lord Grey, who had brought the newly famous poet, Edmund Spenser, with him as hissecretary, marched into Munster. With his exploits we have nothing todo, save to notice that it must have been in the camp at Rakele, if noton the battle-field of Glenmalure, that Raleigh began his momentousfriendship with Spenser, whose _Shepherd's Calender_ had inaugurated anew epoch in English poetry just a month before Raleigh's departure forIreland. It is scarcely too fanciful to believe that this tiny anonymousvolume of delicious song may have lightened the weariness of that wintervoyage of 1580, which was to prove so momentous in the career of 'theShepherd of the Ocean. ' Lodovick Bryskett, Fulke Greville, BarnabeeGooge, and Geoffrey Fenton were minor songsters of the copiousElizabethan age who were now in Munster as agents or soldiers, and wemay suppose that the tedious guerilla warfare, in the woods had itshours of literary recreation for Raleigh. 

The fortress on the peninsula of Dingle was now occupied by a fresh bodyof Catholic invaders, mainly Italians, and Smerwick Bay again attractedgeneral interest. Grey, as Deputy, and Ormond, as governor of Munster, united their forces and marched towards this extremity of Kerry;Raleigh, with his infantry, joined them at Rakele; and we may takeSeptember 30, 1580, which is the date when his first 'reckoning'closes, as that on which he took some fresh kind of service under LordGrey. Hooker, who was an eye-witness, supplies us with some veryinteresting glimpses of Raleigh in his _Supply of the Irish Chronicles_, a supplement to Holinshed. We learn from him that when Lord Grey brokeinto the camp at Rakele, Raleigh stayed behind, having observed that thekerns had the habit of swooping down upon any deserted encampment to roband murder the camp followers. This expectation was fulfilled; thehungry Irish poured into Rakele as soon as the Deputy's back was turned. Raleigh had the satisfaction of capturing a large body of these poorcreatures. One of them carried a great bundle of withies, and Raleighasked him what they were for. 'To have hung up the English churls with, 'was the bold reply. 'Well, ' said Raleigh, 'but now they shall serve foran Irish kern, ' and commanded him 'to be immediately tucked up in one ofhis own neck-bands. ' The rest were served in a similar way, and then theyoung Englishman rode on after the army. 

Towards the end of October they came in sight of Smerwick Bay, and ofthe fort on the sandy isthmus in which the Italians and Spaniards werelying in the hope of slipping back to Spain. The Legate had no sanguineaspirations left; every roof that could harbour the Geraldines had beendestroyed in the English forays; Desmond was hiding, like a wild beast, in the Wood. By all the principles of modern warfare, the time had comefor mercy and conciliation, and one man in Ireland, Ormond, thought asmuch. But Lord Grey was a soldier of the old disposition, an implacableenemy to Popery, what we now call a 'Puritan' of the most fierce andfrigid type. There is no evidence to show that the gentle Englishmen whoaccompanied him, some of the best and loveliest spirits of the age, shrank from sharing his fanaticism. There was massacre to be gonethrough, but neither Edmund Spenser, nor Fulke Greville, nor WalterRaleigh dreamed of withdrawing his sanction. The story has been told andretold. For simple horror it is surpassed, in the Irish history of thetime, only by the earlier exploit which depopulated the island ofRathlin. In the perfectly legitimate opening of the siege of Fort delOre, Raleigh held a very prominent commission, and we see that histalents were rapidly being recognised, from the fact that for the firstthree days he was entrusted with the principal command. It would appearthat on the fourth day, when the Italians waved their white flag andscreamed 'Misericordia! misericordia!' it was not Raleigh, but Zouch, who was commanding in the trenches. The parley the Catholics demandedwas refused, and they were told they need not hope for mercy. Next day, which was November 9, 1580, the fort yielded helplessly. Raleigh andMackworth received Grey's orders to enter and 'fall straight toexecution. '

It was thought proper to give Catholic Europe a warning not to meddlewith Catholic Ireland. In the words of the official report immediatelysent home to Walsingham, as soon as the fort was yielded, 'all the Irishmen and women were hanged, and 600 and upwards of Italians, Spaniards, Biscayans and others put to the sword. The Colonel, Captain, Secretary, Campmaster, and others of the best sort, saved to the number of 20persons. ' Of these last, two had their arms and legs broken beforebeing hanged on a gallows on the wall of the fort. The bodies of the sixhundred were stripped and laid out on the sands--'as gallant goodlypersonages, ' Lord Grey reported, 'as ever were beheld. ' The Deputy tookall the responsibility and expected no blame; he received none. In replyto his report, Elizabeth assured him a month later that 'this lateenterprise had been performed by him greatly to her liking. ' It isuseless to expatiate on a code of morals that seems to us positivelyJapanese. To Lord Grey and the rest the rebellious kerns and theirSouthern allies were enemies of God and the Queen, beyond the scope ofmercy in this world or the next, and no more to be spared or palteredwith than malignant vermin. In his inexperience, Raleigh, to be soonripened by knowledge of life and man, agreed with this view, but, happily for Ireland and England too, there were others who declined tosink, as Mr. Froude says, 'to the level of the Catholic continentaltyrannies. ' At Ormond's instigation the Queen sent over in April 1581 ageneral pardon. 

Severe as Lord Grey was, he seemed too lenient to Raleigh. In January1581, the young captain left Cork and made the perilous journey toDublin to expostulate with the Deputy, and to urge him to treat withgreater stringency various Munster chieftains who were blowing theembers of the rebellion into fresh flame. Among these malcontents theworst was a certain David Barry, son of Lord Barry, himself a prisonerin Dublin Castle. David Barry had placed the family stronghold, BarryCourt, at the disposal of the Geraldines. Raleigh obtained permission toseize and hold this property, and returned from Dublin to carry out hisduty. On his way back, as he was approaching Barry's country, with hismen straggling behind him, the Seneschal of Imokelly, the strongest andcraftiest of the remaining Geraldines, laid an ambush to seize him atthe ford of Corabby. Raleigh not only escaped himself, but returned inthe face of a force which was to his as twenty to one, in order torescue a comrade whose horse had thrown him in the river. With aquarter-staff in one hand and a pistol in the other, he held theSeneschal and his kerns at bay, and brought his little body of troopsthrough the ambush without the loss of one man. In the dreary monotonyof the war, this brilliant act of courage, of which Raleigh himself in aletter gives a very modest account, touched the popular heart, and didas much as anything to make him famous. 

The existing documents which illustrate Raleigh's life in Ireland during1581, and they are somewhat numerous, give the student a much highernotion of his brilliant aptitude for business and of his active couragethan of his amiability. His vivacity and ingenuity were sources ofirritation to him, as the vigour of an active man may vex him in wadingacross loose sands. There was no stability and apparently no hope or aimin the policy of the English leaders, and Raleigh showed no mock-modestyin his criticism of that policy. Ormond had been on friendly terms withhim, but as early as February 25 a quarrel was ready to break out. Ormond wished to hold Barry Court, which was the key to the importantroad between Cork and Youghal, as his own; while Raleigh was no lessclamorous in claiming it. In the summer, not satisfied with complainingof Ormond to Grey, he denounced Grey to Leicester. In the meantime hehad succeeded in ousting Ormond, who was recalled to England, and ingetting himself made, if not nominally, practically Governor of Munster. He proceeded to Lismore, then the English capital of the province, andmade that town the centre of those incessant sallies and forays whichHooker describes. One of these skirmishes, closing in the defeat of LordBarry at Cleve, showed consummate military ability, and deserves almostto rank as a battle. 

In August, Raleigh's temporary governorship of Munster ended. He was tooyoung and too little known a man permanently to hold such a post. Zouchtook his place at Lismore, and Raleigh, returning to Cork, was madeGovernor of that city. It was at this time, or possibly a little earlierin the year, that Raleigh made his romantic attack upon CastleBally-in-Harsh, the seat of Lord Roche. On the very same evening thatRaleigh received a hint from head-quarters that the capture of thisstrongly fortified place was desirable, he set out with ninety men onthe adventure. His troop arrived at Harsh very early in the morning, butnot so early but that the townspeople, to the number of five hundred, had collected to oppose his little force. He soon put them to flight, and then, by a nimble trick, contrived to enter the castle itself, toseize Lord and Lady Roche at their breakfast-table, to slip out withthem and through the town unmolested, and to regain Cork next day withthe loss of only a single man. The whole affair was a piece of militarysleight of hand, brilliantly designed, incomparably well carried out. The summer and autumn were passed in scouring the woods and ravines ofMunster from Tipperary to Kilkenny. Miserable work he found it, andglad he must have been when a summons from London put an end to hismilitary service in Ireland. In two years he had won a great reputation. Elizabeth, it may well be, desired to see him, and talk with him on whathe called 'the business of this lost land. ' In December 1581 he returnedto England. 

One point more may be mentioned. In a letter dated May 1, 1581, Raleighoffers to rebuild the ruined fortress of Barry Court at his own expense. This shows that he must by this time have come into a certain amount ofproperty, for his Irish pay as a captain was, he says, so poor that butfor honour he 'would disdain it as much as to keep sheep. ' This factdisposes of the notion that Raleigh arrived at the Court of Elizabeth inthe guise of a handsome penniless adventurer. Perhaps he had by thistime inherited his share of the paternal estates. [2]

[Illustration: SOUTH OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND. ]

CHAPTER II. 

AT COURT. 

Raleigh had not completed his thirtieth year when he became a recognisedcourtier. We have seen that he had passed, four years before, within theprecincts of the Court, but we do not know whether the Queen had noticedhim or not. In the summer of 1581 he had written thus to Leicester fromLismore:--

 I may not forget continually to put your Honour in mind of my affection unto your Lordship, having to the world both professed and protested the same. Your Honour, having no use of such poor followers, hath utterly forgotten me. Notwithstanding, if your Lordship shall please to think me yours, as I am, I will be found as ready, and dare do as much in your service, as any man you may command; and do neither so much despair of myself but that I may be some way able to perform so much. 

To Leicester, then, we may be sure, he went, --to find him, and the wholeCourt with him, in the throes of the Queen's latest and finalmatrimonial embroilment. Raleigh had a few weeks in which to admire theempty and hideous suitor whom France had sent over to claim Elizabeth'shand, and during this critical time it is possible that he enjoyed hispersonal introduction to the Queen. Walter Raleigh in the prime of hisstrength and beauty formed a curious contrast to poor Alençon, and thedifference was one which Elizabeth would not fail to recognise. OnFebruary 1, 1582, he was paid the sum of 200_l. _ for his Irish services, and a week later he set out under Leicester, in company with Sir PhilipSidney, among the throng that conducted the French prince to theNetherlands. 

When Elizabeth's 'poor frog, ' as she called Alençon, had been duly ledthrough the gorgeous pageant prepared in his honour at Antwerp, onFebruary 17, the English lords and their train, glad to be free of theirburden, passed to Flushing, and hastened home with as little ceremony asmight be. Raleigh alone remained behind, to carry some special messageof compliment from the Queen to the Prince of Orange. It is Raleighhimself, in his _Invention of Shipping_, who gives us this interestinginformation, and he goes on to say that when the Prince of Orange'delivered me his letters to her Majesty, he prayed me to say to theQueen from him, _Sub umbra alarum tuarum protegimur_: for certainly, said he, they had withered in the bud, and sunk in the beginning oftheir navigation, had not her Majesty assisted them. ' It would have beennatural to entrust to Leicester such confidential utterances as thesewere a reply to. But Elizabeth was passing through a paroxysm of ragewith Leicester at the moment. She ventured to call him 'traitor' and toaccuse him of conspiring with the Prince of Orange. Notwithstandingthis, his influence was still paramount with her, and it wascharacteristic of her shrewd petulance to confide in Leicester's_protégé_, although not in Leicester himself. Towards the end of March, Raleigh settled at the English Court. 

On April 1, 1582, Elizabeth issued from Greenwich a strange andself-contradictory warrant with regard to service in Ireland, and theband of infantry hitherto commanded in that country by a certain CaptainAnnesley, now deceased. The words must be quoted verbatim:--

 For that our pleasure is to have our servant Walter Rawley [this was the way in which the name was pronounced during Raleigh's lifetime] trained some time longer in that our realm [Ireland] for his better experience in martial affairs, and for the especial care which We have to do him good, in respect of his kindred that have served Us, some of them (as you know) near about Our person [probably Mrs. Catherine Ashley, who was Raleigh's aunt]; these are to require you that the leading of the said band may be committed to the said Rawley; and for that he is, for some considerations, by Us excused to stay here. Our pleasure is that the said band be, in the meantime, till he repair into that Our realm, delivered to some such as he shall depute to be his lieutenant there. 

He is to be captain in Ireland, but not just yet, not till a too tenderQueen can spare him. We find that he was paid his 'reckoning' for sixmonths after the issue of this warrant, but there is no evidence that hewas spared at any time during 1582 to relieve his Irish deputy. He wasnow, in fact, installed as first favourite in the still susceptibleheart of the Virgin Star of the North. 

This, then, is a favourable opportunity for pausing to consider whatmanner of man it was who had so suddenly passed into the intimate favourof the Queen. Naunton has described Raleigh with the precision of onewho is superior to the weakness of depreciating the exterior qualitiesof his enemy: 'having a good presence, in a handsome and well-compactedperson; a strong natural wit, and a better judgment; with a bold andplausible tongue, whereby he could set out his parts to the bestadvantage. ' His face had neither the ethereal beauty of Sidney's nor theintellectual delicacy of Spenser's; it was cast in a rougher mould thantheirs. The forehead, it is acknowledged, was too high for theproportion of the features, and for this reason, perhaps, is usuallyhidden in the portraits by a hat. We must think of Raleigh at this timeas a tall, somewhat bony man, about six feet high, with dark hair and ahigh colour, a facial expression of great brightness and alertness, personable from the virile force of his figure, and illustrating theseattractions by a splendid taste in dress. His clothes were at all timesnoticeably gorgeous; and to the end of his life he was commonlybedizened with precious stones to his very shoes. When he was arrestedin 1603 he was carrying 4, 000_l. _ in jewels on his bosom, and when hewas finally captured on August 10, 1618, his pockets were found full ofthe diamonds and jacinths which he had hastily removed from variousparts of his person. His letters display his solicitous love of jewels, velvets, and embroidered damasks. Mr. Jeaffreson has lately found amongthe Middlesex MSS. That as early as April 26, 1584, a gentleman namedHugh Pew stole at Westminster and carried off Walter Raleigh's pearlhat-band and another jewelled article of attire, valued together inmoney of that time at 113_l. _ The owner, with characteristicpromptitude, shut the thief up in Newgate, and made him disgorge. Tocomplete our picture of the vigorous and brilliant soldier-poet, we mustadd that he spoke to the end of his life with that strong Devonshireaccent which was never displeasing to the ears of Elizabeth. 

The Muse of History is surely now-a-days too disdainful of allinformation that does not reach her signed and countersigned. Inbiography, at least, it must be a mistake to accept none but documentaryevidence, since tradition, if it does not give us truth of fact, givesus what is often at least as valuable, truth of impression. The laterbiographers of Raleigh have scorned even to repeat those anecdotes thatare the best known to the public of all which cluster around hispersonality. It is true that they rest on no earlier testimony than thatof Fuller, who, writing in the lifetime of men who knew Raleigh, givesthe following account of his introduction to Elizabeth: 'Her Majesty, meeting with a plashy place, made some scruple to go on; when Raleigh(dressed in the gay and genteel habit of those times) presently cast offand spread his new plush cloak on the ground, whereon the queen trodgently over, rewarding him afterwards with many suits for his so freeand seasonable tender of so fair a footcloth. ' The only point about thisstory which is incredible is that this act was Raleigh's introduction tothe Queen. Regarded as a fantastic incident of their later attachment, the anecdote is in the highest degree characteristic of the readiness ofthe one and the romantic sentiment of the other. 

Not less entertaining is Fuller's other story, that at the full tide ofRaleigh's fortunes with the Queen, he wrote on a pane of glass with hisdiamond ring:--

 Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall, whereupon Elizabeth replied, If thy heart fail thee, then climb not at all. 

Of these tales we can only assert that they reflect the popular anddoubtless faithful impression of Raleigh's mother-wit and audaciousalacrity. 

If he did not go back to fight in Ireland, his experience of Irishaffairs was made use of by the Government. He showed a considerablepliancy in giving his counsel. In May 1581 he had denounced Ormond andeven Grey for not being severe enough, but in June 1582 he had veeredround to Burghley's opinion that it was time to moderate English tyrannyin Ireland. A paper written partly by Burghley and partly by Raleigh, but entitled _The Opinion of Mr. Rawley_, still exists among the IrishCorrespondence, and is dated October 25, 1582. This document is in thehighest degree conciliatory towards the Irish chieftains, whom itrecommends the Queen to win over peacefully to her side, this policy'offering a very plausible show of thrift and commodity. ' It isinteresting to find Raleigh so supple, and so familiar already with theQueen's foibles. It was probably earlier in the year, and about thissame Irish business, that Raleigh spoke to Elizabeth, on the occasionwhich Naunton describes. 'Raleigh, ' he says, 'had gotten the Queen's earat a trice; and she began to be taken with his elocution, and loved tohear his reasons to her demands; and the truth is, she took him for akind of _oracle_, which nettled them all. ' Lord Grey, who was nodiplomatist, had the want of caution to show that he was annoyed atadvice being asked from a young man who was so lately his inferior. Inanswer to a special recommendation of Raleigh from the Queen, Lord Greyventured to reply: 'For my own part I must be plain--I neither like hiscarriage nor his company, and therefore other than by direction andcommandment, and what his right requires, he is not to expect from myhands. ' Lord Grey did not understand the man he was dealing with. Theresult was that in August 1582 he was abruptly deposed from his dignityas Lord Deputy in Ireland. But we see that Raleigh could be exceedinglyantipathetic to any man who crossed his path. That it was wilfularrogance, and not inability to please, is proved by the fact that heseems to have contrived to reconcile not Leicester only but even Hatton, Elizabeth's dear 'Pecora Campi, ' to his intrusion at Court. 

As far as we can perceive, Raleigh's success as a courtier was uncloudedfrom 1582 to 1586, and these years are the most peaceful and uneventfulin the record of his career. He took a confidential place by the Queen'sside, but so unobtrusively that in these earliest years, at least, hispresence leaves no perceptible mark on the political history of thecountry. Great in so many fields, eminent as a soldier, as a navigator, as a poet, as a courtier, there was a limit even to Raleigh'sversatility, and he was not a statesman. It was political ambition whichwas the vulnerable spot in this Achilles, and until he meddled withstatecraft, his position was practically unassailed. It must not beoverlooked, in this connection, that in spite of Raleigh's influencewith the Queen, he never was admitted as a Privy Councillor, his advicebeing asked in private, by Elizabeth or by her ministers, and not acrossthe table, where his arrogant manner might have introduced discussionsfruitless to the State. In 1598, when he was at the zenith of his power, he actually succeeded, as we shall see, in being proposed for PrivyCouncil, but the Queen did not permit him to be sworn. Nothing would bemore remarkable than Elizabeth's infatuation for her favourites, if wewere not still more surprised at her skill in gauging their capacities, and her firmness in defining their ambitions. 

Already, in 1583, Walter Raleigh began to be the recipient of theQueen's gifts. On April 10 of that year he came into possession of twoestates, Stolney and Newland, which had passed to the Queen from AllSouls College, Oxford. A few days later, May 4, he became enriched byobtaining letters patent for the 'Farm of Wines, ' thenceforward to beone of the main sources of his wealth. According to this grant, whichextended to all places within the kingdom, each vintner was obliged topay twenty shillings a year to Raleigh as a license duty on the sale ofwines. This was, in fact, a great relief to the wine trade, for untilthis time the mayors of corporations had levied this duty at their ownjudgment, and some of them had made a licensing charge not less than sixtimes as heavy as the new duty. The grant, moreover, gave Raleigh a partof all fines accruing to the Crown under the provisions of the winesstatute of Edward VI. From his 'Farm of Wines' Raleigh seems at onetime to have obtained something like 2, 000_l. _ a year. The emolumentsdwindled at last, just before Raleigh was forced to resign his patent toJames I. , to 1, 000_l. _ a year; but even this was an income equivalent to6, 000_l. _ of our money. The grant was to expire in 1619, and wouldtherefore, if he had died a natural death, have outlived Raleighhimself. We must not forget that the cost of collecting moneys, and thesalaries to deputy licensers, consumed a large part of these receipts. 

While Raleigh was shaking down a fortune from the green ivy-bushes thathung at the vintners' doors, the western continent, at which he hadalready cast wistful glances, remained the treasure-house of Spain. Hisunfortunate but indomitable half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, recalledit to his memory. The name of Gilbert deserves to be better rememberedthan it is; and America, at least, will one day be constrained to honourthe memory of the man who was the first to dream of colonising hershores. Until his time, the ambition of Englishmen in the west had beenconfined to an angry claim to contest the wealth and beauty of the NewWorld with the Spaniard. The fabulous mines of Cusco, the plate-ships ofLima and Guayaquil, the pearl-fisheries of Panama, these had beenhitherto the loadstar of English enterprise. The hope was that suchfeats as those of Drake would bring about a time when, as George Witherput it, the spacious West, Being still more with English blood possessed, The proud Iberians shall not rule those seas, To check our ships from sailing where they please. 

Even Frobisher had not entertained the notion of leaving Spain alone, and of planting in the northern hemisphere colonies of English race. Itwas Sir Humphrey Gilbert who first thought of a settlement in NorthAmerica, and the honour of priority is due to him, although he failed. 

His royal charter was dated June 1578, and covered a space of six yearswith its privilege. We have already seen that various enterprisesundertaken by Gilbert in consequence of it had failed in one way oranother. After the disaster of 1579 he desisted, and lent three of hisremaining vessels to the Government, to serve on the coast of Ireland. As late as July 1582 the rent due to him on these vessels was unpaid, and he wrote a dignified appeal to Walsingham for the money in arrears. He was only forty-three, but his troubles had made an old man of him, and he pleads his white hairs, blanched in long service of her Majesty, as a reason why the means of continuing to serve her should not bewithheld from him. Raleigh had warmly recommended his brother before hewas himself in power, and he now used all his influence in his favour. It is plain that Gilbert's application was promptly attended to, for wefind him presently in a position to pursue the colonising enterpriseswhich lay so near to his heart. The Queen, however, could not be inducedto encourage him; she shrewdly remarked that Gilbert 'had no good luckat sea, ' which was pathetically true. However, Gilbert's six years'charter was about to expire, and his hopes were all bound up in makingone more effort. He pleaded, and Raleigh supported him, until Elizabethfinally gave way, merely refusing to allow Raleigh himself to take partin any such 'dangerous sea-fights' as the crossing of the Atlantic mightentail. 

On June 11, 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed from Plymouth with alittle fleet of five vessels, bound for North America. According to allauthorities, Raleigh had expended a considerable sum in the outfit;according to one writer, Hayes (in Hakluyt), he was owner of the entireexpedition. He spent, we know, 2, 000_l. _ in building and fitting out onevessel, which he named after himself, the 'Ark Raleigh. '

Sir Humphrey Gilbert was not born under a fortunate star. Two days afterstarting, a contagious fever broke out on board the 'Ark Raleigh, ' andin a tumult of panic, without explaining her desertion to the admiral, she hastened back in great distress to Plymouth. The rest of the fleetcrossed the Atlantic successfully, and Newfoundland was taken in theQueen's name. One ship out of the remaining four had meanwhile been sentback to England with a sick crew. Late in September 1583 a second sailedinto Plymouth with the news that the other two had sunk in an Atlanticstorm on the 8th or 9th of that month. The last thing known of thegallant admiral before his ship went down was that 'sitting abaft with abook in his hand, ' he had called out 'Be of good heart, my friends! Weare as near to heaven by sea as by land. '

At the death of Gilbert, his schemes as a colonising navigator passed, as by inheritance, to Raleigh. That he had no intention of letting themdrop is shown by the fact that he was careful not to allow Gilbert'soriginal charter to expire. In June 1584 other hands might have seizedhis brother's relinquished enterprise, and therefore it was, on March25, that Raleigh moved the Queen to renew the charter in his own name. In company with a younger half-brother, Adrian Gilbert, and with theexperienced though unlucky navigator John Davis as a third partner, Raleigh was now incorporated as representing 'The College of theFellowship for the Discovery of the North West Passage. ' In this he wasfollowing the precedent of Gilbert, who had made use of the Queen'sfavourite dream of a northern route to China to cover his lessattractive schemes of colonisation. Raleigh, however, took care tosecure himself a charter which gave him the fullest possible power to'inhabit or retain, build or fortify, at the discretion of the said W. Raleigh, ' in any remote lands that he might find hitherto unoccupied byany Christian power. Armed with this extensive grant, Raleigh began tomake his preparations. 

It is needful here to pass rapidly over the chronicle of the expeditionsto America, since they form no part of the personal history of Raleigh. On April 27 he sent out his first fleet under Amidas and Barlow. Theysailed blindly for the western continent, but were guided at last by 'adelicate sweet smell' far out in ocean to the coast of Florida. Theythen sailed north, and finally landed on the islands of Wokoken andRoanoke, which, with the adjoining mainland, they annexed in the name ofher Majesty. In September this first expedition returned, bringingRaleigh, as a token of the wealth of the new lands, 'a string of pearlsas large as great peas. ' In honour of 'the eternal Maiden Queen, ' thenew country received the name of Virginia, and Raleigh ordered his ownarms to be cut anew, with this legend, _Propria insignia WalteriRalegh, militis, Domini et Gubernatoris Virginiæ_. No attempt had beenmade on this occasion to colonise. It was early in the following yearthat Raleigh sent out his second Virginian expedition, under the braveSir Richard Grenville, to settle in the country. The experiment was notcompletely successful at first, but from August 17, 1585, which is thebirthday of the American people, to June 18, 1586, one hundred and eightpersons under the command of Ralph Lane, and in the service of Raleigh, made Roanoke their habitation. It is true that the colonists lostcourage and abandoned Virginia at the latter date, but an essay at leasthad been made to justify the sanguine hopes of Raleigh. 

These expeditions to North America were very costly, and by their verynature unremunerative for the present. Raleigh, however, was by thistime quite wealthy enough to support the expense, and on the secondoccasion accident befriended him. Sir Richard Grenville, in the 'Tiger, 'fell in with a Spanish plate-ship on his return-voyage, and towed intoPlymouth Harbour a prize which was estimated at the value of 50, 000_l. _But Raleigh was, indeed, at this time a veritable Danaë. As thoughenough gold had not yet been showered upon him, the Queen presented tohim, on March 25, 1584, a grant of license to export woollenbroad-cloths, a privilege the excessive profits of which soon attractedthe critical notice of Burghley. Raleigh's grant, however, was long leftunassailed, and was renewed year by year at least until May 1589. Itwould seem that his income from the trade in undyed broad-cloth was ofa two-fold nature, a fixed duty on exportation in general, and a chargeon 'over-lengths, ' that is to say, on pieces which exceeded the maximumlength of twenty-four yards. When Burghley assailed this whole system oftaxation in 1591, he stated that Raleigh had, in the first year only ofhis grant, received 3, 950_l. _ from a privilege for which he paid to theState a rent of only 700_l. _ If this was correct, and no one could be ina better position than Burghley to check the figures, Raleigh's incomefrom broad-cloth alone was something like 18, 000_l. _ of Victorian money. 

Such were the sources of an opulence which we must do Raleigh the creditto say was expended not on debauchery or display, but in the mostenlightened efforts to extend the field of English commercial enterprisebeyond the Atlantic. We need not suppose him to have been unselfishbeyond the fashion of his age. In his action there was, no doubt, anelement of personal ambition; he dreamed of raising a State in the Westbefore which his great enemy, Spain, should sink into the shade, and hefancied himself the gorgeous viceroy of such a kingdom. His imagination, which had led him on so bravely, gulled him sometimes when it came todetails. His sailors had seen the light of sunset on the cliffs ofRoanoke, and Raleigh took the yellow gleam for gold. He set his faithtoo lightly on the fabulous ores of Chaunis Temotam. But he was not theslave of these fancies, as were the more vulgar adventurers of his age. More than the promise of pearls and silver, it was the homely productsof the new country that attracted him, and his captains were bidden tobring news to him of the fish and fruit of Virginia, its salts and dyesand textile grasses. Nor was it a goldsmith that he sent out to the newcolony as his scientific agent, but a young mathematician of promise, the practical and observant Thomas Hariot. 

Some personal details of Raleigh's private life during these two yearsmay now be touched upon. He was in close attendance upon the Queen atGreenwich and at Windsor, when he was not in his own house in the stillrural village of Islington. In the summer of 1584, probably inconsequence of the new wealth his broad-cloth patent had secured him, heenlarged his borders in several ways. He leased of the Queen, DurhamHouse, close to the river, covering the site of the present AdelphiTerrace. This was the vast fourteenth-century palace of the Bishops ofDurham, which had come into possession of the Crown late in the reign ofHenry VIII. Elizabeth herself had occupied it during the lifetime of herbrother, and she had recovered it again after the death of Mary. Retaining certain rooms, she now relinquished it to her favourite, andin this stately mansion as his town house Raleigh lived from 1584 to1603. In spite of his uncertain tenure, he spent very large sums inrepairing 'this rotten house, ' as Lady Raleigh afterwards called it. 

Some time between December 14, 1584, and February 24, 1585, Raleigh wasknighted. On the latter date we find him first styled Sir Walter, in anorder from Burghley to report on the force of the Devonshire Stannaries. His activities were now concentrated from several points upon the Westof England, and he became once more identified with the only race thatever really loved him, the men of his native Devonshire. In July hesucceeded the Earl of Bedford as Lord Warden of the Stannaries; inSeptember he was appointed Lieutenant of the County of Cornwall; inNovember, Vice-Admiral of the two counties. He, appointed Lord Beauchamphis deputy in Cornwall, and his own eldest half-brother, Sir JohnGilbert of Greenway, his deputy in Devonshire. In the same year, 1585, he entered Parliament as one of the two county members for Devonshire. As Warden of the Stannaries he introduced reforms which greatlymitigated the hardships of the miners. 

It is pleasanter to think of Raleigh administering rough justice fromthe granite judgment-seat on some windy tor of Dartmoor, than to picturehim squabbling for rooms at Court with 'Pecora Campi, ' or ogling acaptious royal beauty of some fifty summers, Raleigh's work in the Westhas made little noise in history; but it was as wholesome and capable asthe most famous of his exploits. 

In March, 1586, Leicester found himself in disgrace with Elizabeth, andso openly attributed it to Raleigh that the Queen ordered Walsingham todeny that the latter had ceased to plead for his former patron. Raleighhimself sent Leicester a band of Devonshire miners to serve in theNetherlands, and comforted him at the same time by adding, 'The Queen isin very good terms with you, and, thanks be to God, well pacified. Youare again her "Sweet Robin. "' It seems that the strange accusation hadbeen made against Raleigh that he desired to favour Spain. This wascalculated to vex him to the quick, and we find him protesting (March29, 1586): 'I have consumed the best part of my fortune, hating thetyrannous prosperity of that State, and it were now strange andmonstrous that I should become an enemy to my country and conscience. 'Two months later he was threatened with the loss of his post asVice-Admiral if he did not withdraw a fleet he had fitted out to harassthe Spaniards in the Newfoundland waters. About the same time hestrengthened his connection with the Leicester faction by marrying hiscousin, Barbara Gamage, to Sir Philip Sidney's younger brother Robert. This lady became the grandmother of Waller's Sacharissa. The collapse ofthe Virginian colony was an annoyance in the summer of this year, but itwas tempered to Raleigh by the success of another of his enterprises, his fleet in the Azores. One of the prizes brought home by this purelypiratical expedition was a Spanish colonial governor of much fame anddignity, Don Pedro Sarmiento. Raleigh demanded a ransom for thispersonage, and while it was being collected he entertained his prisonersumptuously in Durham House. 

On October 7, 1586, Raleigh's old friend Sir Philip Sidney closed hischivalrous career on the battle-field at Zutphen. Raleigh's solemn elegyon him is one of the finest of the many poems which that sad eventcalled forth. It blends the passion of personal regret with the dignityof public grief, as all great elegiacal poems should. One stanza mightbe inscribed on a monument to Sidney:

 England doth hold thy limbs, that bred the same; Flanders thy valour, where it last was tried; The camp thy sorrow, where thy body died; Thy friends thy want; the world thy virtues' fame. 

This elegy appeared with the rest in _Astrophel_ in 1595; but it hadalready been printed, in 1593, in the _Phoenix Nest_, and as early as1591 Sir John Harington quotes it as Raleigh's. 

It was not till the following spring that Raleigh took possession ofcertain vast estates in Ireland. The Queen had named him among the'gentlemen-undertakers, ' between whom the escheated lands of the Earl ofDesmond were to be divided. He received about forty-two thousand acresin the counties of Cork, Waterford, and Tipperary, and he set aboutrepeopling this desolate region with his usual vigour of action. Hebrought settlers over from the West of England, but these men were notsupported or even encouraged at Dublin Castle. 'The doting Deputy, ' asRaleigh calls him, treated his Devonshire farmers with lessconsideration than the Irish kerns, and although it is certain that ofall the 'undertakers' Raleigh was the one who, after his lights, triedto do the best for his land, his experience as an Irish colonist was onthe whole dispiriting. By far the richest part of his property was the'haven royal' of Youghal, with the thickly-wooded lands on either sideof the river Blackwater. He is scarcely to be forgiven for what appearsto have been the wanton destruction of the Geraldine Friary of Youghal, built in 1268, which his men pulled down and burned while he was mayorof the town in 1587. Raleigh's Irish residences at this time were hismanor-house in Youghal, which still remains, and Lismore Castle, whichhe rented, from 1587 onwards, of the official Archbishop of Cashel, Meiler Magrath. 

We have now reached the zenith of Raleigh's personal success. His famewas to proceed far beyond anything that he had yet gained or deserved, but his mere worldly success was to reach no further, and even from thismoment sensibly to decline. Elizabeth had showered wealth and influenceupon him, although she had refrained, at her most doting moments, fromlifting him up to the lowest step in the ladder of aristocraticpreferment. But although her favour towards Raleigh had this singularlimit, and although she kept him rigidly outside the pale of politics, in other respects her affection had been lavish in the extreme. Withoutceasing to hold Hatton and Leicester captive, she had now for five yearsgiven Raleigh the chief place in her heart. But, in May 1587, wesuddenly find him in danger of being dethroned in favour of a boy oftwenty, and it is the new Earl of Essex, with his petulant beauty, who'is, at cards, or one game or another, with her, till the birds sing inthe morning. ' The remarkable scene in which Essex dared to demand thesacrifice of Raleigh as the price of his own devotion is best describedby the new favourite in his own words. Raleigh had now been made Captainof the Guard, and we have to imagine him standing at the door in hisuniform of orange-tawny, while the pert and pouting boy is halfdeclaiming, half whispering, in the ear of the Queen, whose beatingheart forgets to remind her that she might be the mother of one of herlovers and the grandmother of the other. Essex writes:

 I told her that what she did was only to please that knave Raleigh, for whose sake I saw she would both grieve me and my love, and disgrace me in the eye of the world. From thence she came to speak of Raleigh; and it seemed she could not well endure anything to be spoken against him; and taking hold of my word 'disdain, ' she said there was 'no such cause why I should disdain him. ' This speech did trouble me so much that, as near as I could, I did describe unto her what he had been, and what he was. .. . I then did let her know, whether I had cause to disdain his competition of love, or whether I could have comfort to give myself over to the service of a mistress which was in awe of such a man. I spake, with grief and choler, as much against him as I could; and I think he, standing at the door, might very well hear the worst that I spoke of himself. In that end, I saw she was resolved to defend him, and to cross me. 

It was probably about this time, and owing to the instigation of Essex, that Tarleton, the comedian, laid himself open to banishment from Courtfor calling out, while Raleigh was playing cards with Elizabeth, 'Seehow the Knave commands the Queen!' Elizabeth supported her oldfavourite, but there is no doubt that these attacks made theirimpression on her irritable temperament. Meanwhile Raleigh, engaged in adozen different enterprises, and eager to post hither and thither overland and sea, was probably not ill disposed to see his royal mistressdiverted from a too-absorbing attention to himself. 

On May 8, 1587, Raleigh sent forth from Plymouth his fourth Virginianexpedition, under Captain John White. It was found that the secondcolony, the handful of men left behind by Sir Richard Grenville, hadperished. With 150 men, White landed at Hatorask, and proposed to founda town of Raleigh in the new country. Every species of disaster attendedthis third colony, and in the midst of the excitement caused thefollowing year by the Spanish Armada, a fifth expedition, fitted outunder Sir Richard Grenville, was stopped by the Government at Bideford. Raleigh was not easily daunted, however, and in the midst of thepreparations for the great struggle he contrived to send out twopinnaces from Bideford, on April 22, 1588, for the succour of hisunfortunate Virginians; but these little vessels were ignominiouslystripped off Madeira by privateers from La Rochelle, and sent helplessback to England. Raleigh had now spent more than forty thousand poundsupon the barren colony of Virginia, and, finding that no one at Courtsupported his hopes in that direction, he began to withdraw a littlefrom a contest in which he was so heavily handicapped. In the nextchapter we shall touch upon the modification of his American policy. Hehad failed hitherto, and yet, in failing, he had already secured for hisown name the highest place in the early history of Colonial America. 

We now reach that famous incident in English history over which everybiographer of Raleigh is tempted to linger, the ruin of Philip'sFelicissima Armada. Within the limits of the present life of Sir Walterit is impossible to tell over again a story which is among the mostthrilling in the chronicles of the world, but in which Raleigh's partwas not a foremost one. We possess no letter of 1588 in which he refersto the fight. 

On March 31, he had been one of the nine commissioners who met toconsider the best means of resisting invasion. In the same body of mensat two of Raleigh's captains, Grenville and Ralph Lane, as well as hisold opponent, Lord Grey. Three months before this, Raleigh had reportedto the Queen on the state of the counties under his charge, and hiscounsel on the subject had been taken. That he was profoundly excited atthe crisis in English affairs is proved by the many allusions he makesto the Armada in the _History of the World_. It is on the wholesurprising that he was not called to take a more prominent part in theevent. [3]

It is believed that he was in Ireland when the storm actually broke, that he hastened into the West of England, to raise levies of Cornishand Devonian miners, and that he then proceeded to Portland, of which, among his many offices, he was now governor, in order that he mightrevise and complete the defences of that fortress. Either by land orsea, according to conflicting accounts, he then hurried back toPlymouth, and joined the main body of the fleet on July 23. There is avery early tradition that his advice was asked by the Admiral, Howard ofEffingham, on the question whether it would be wise to try to board theSpanish galleons. The Admiral thought not, but was almost over-persuadedby younger men, eager for distinction, when Raleigh came to his aidwith counsel that tallied with the Admiral's judgment. In the _Historyof the World_ Raleigh remarks:

 To clap ships together without any consideration belongs rather to a madman than to a man of war. By such an ignorant bravery was Peter Strozzi lost at the Azores, when he fought against the Marquis of Santa Cruz. In like sort had Lord Charles Howard, Admiral of England, been lost in the year 1588, if he had not been better advised than a great many malignant fools were that found fault with his demeanour. The Spaniards had an army aboard them, and he had none. They had more ships than he had, and of higher building and charging; so that, had he entangled himself with those great and powerful vessels, he had greatly endangered this kingdom of England. 

Raleigh's impression of the whole comedy of the Armada is summed up inan admirable sentence in his _Report of the Fight in the Azores_, towhich the reader must here merely be referred. His ship was one of thosewhich pursued the lumbering Spanish galleons furthest in their wildflight towards the Danish waters. He was back in England, however, intime to receive orders on August 28 to prepare a fleet for Ireland. Whether that fleet ever started or no is doubtful, and the latestincident of Raleigh's connection with the Armada is that on September 5, 1588, he and Sir Francis Drake received an equal number of wealthySpanish prisoners, whose ransoms were to be the reward of Drake's and ofRaleigh's achievements. More important to the latter was the fact thathis skill in naval tactics, and his genius for rapid action, had veryfavourably impressed the Lord Admiral, who henceforward publicly treatedhim as a recognised authority in these matters. 

CHAPTER III. 

IN DISGRACE. 

For one year after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Raleigh resistedwith success, or overlooked with equanimity, the determined attackswhich Essex made upon his position at Court. He was busy with greatschemes in all quarters of the kingdom, engaged in Devonshire, inIreland, in Virginia, in the north-western seas, and to his virileactivity the jealousy of Essex must have seemed like the buzzing of apersistent gnat. The insect could sting, however, and in the early partof December 1588, Raleigh's attention was forcibly concentrated on hisrival by the fact that 'my Lord of Essex' had sent him a challenge. Noduel was fought, and the Council did its best to bury the incident 'insilence, that it might not be known to her Majesty, lest it might injurethe Earl, ' from which it will appear that Raleigh's hold upon her favourwas still assured. 

A week later than this we get a glance for a moment at one or two of theleash of privateering enterprises, all of them a little under the rose, in which Sir Walter Raleigh was in these years engaged. An English ship, the 'Angel Gabriel, ' complained of being captured and sacked of herwines by Raleigh's men on the high seas, and he retorts by insinuatingthat she, 'as it is probable, has served the King of Spain in hisArmada, ' and is therefore fair game. So, too, with the four butts ofsack of one Artson, and the sugar and mace said to be taken out of aHamburg vessel, their capture by Raleigh's factors is comfortablyexcused on the ground that these acts were only reprisals against thevillainous Spaniard. It was well that these more or less commercialundertakings should be successful, for it became more and more plain toRaleigh that the most grandiose of all his enterprises, his determinedeffort to colonise Virginia, could but be a drain upon his fortune. After Captain White's final disastrous voyage, Raleigh suspended hisefforts in this direction for a while. He leased his patent in Virginiato a company of merchants, on March 7, 1589, merely reserving to himselfa nominal privilege, namely the possession of one fifth of such gold andsilver ore as should be raised in the colony. This was the end of thefirst act of Raleigh's American adventures. It may not be needless tocontradict here a statement repeated in most rapid sketches of his life. It is not true that at any time Raleigh himself set foot in Virginia. 

In the Portugal expedition of 1589 Raleigh does not seem to have takenat all a prominent part. He was absent, however, with Drake's fleet fromApril 18 to July 2, and he marched with the rest up to the walls ofLisbon. This enterprise was an attempt on the part of Elizabeth to placeAntonio again on the throne of Portugal, from which he had been oustedby Philip of Spain in 1580. The aim of the expedition was not reached, but a great deal of booty fell into the hands of the English, andRaleigh in particular received 4, 000_l. _ His contingent, however, hadbeen a little too zealous, and he received a rather sharp reprimand forcapturing two barks from Cherbourg belonging to the friendly power ofFrance. It must be understood that Raleigh at this time maintained athis own expense a small personal fleet for commercial and privateeringends, and that he lent or leased these vessels, with his own services, to the government when additional naval contributions were required. Inthe _Domestic Correspondence_ we meet with the names of the chief ofthese vessels, 'The Revenge, ' soon afterwards so famous, 'The Crane, 'and 'The Garland. ' These ships were merchantmen or men-of-war at will, and their exploits were winked at or frowned upon at Court ascircumstances dictated. Sometimes the hawk's eye of Elizabeth wouldsound the holds of these pirates with incredible acumen, as on thatoccasion when it is recorded that 'a waistcoat of carnation colour, curiously embroidered, ' which was being brought home to adorn the personof the adventurer, was seized by order of the Queen to form a stomacherfor his royal mistress. It would be difficult to say which of theillustrious pair was the more solicitous of fine raiment. At other timesthe whole prize had to be disgorged; as in the case of that bark ofOlonne, laden with barley, which Raleigh had to restore to the Treasuryon July 21, 1589, after he had concluded a very lucrative sale of thesame. 

In August 1589 Sir Francis Allen wrote to Anthony Bacon: 'My Lord ofEssex hath chased Mr. Raleigh from the Court, and hath confined him toIreland. ' It is true that Raleigh himself, five months later, beingonce more restored to favour, speaks of 'that nearness to her Majestywhich I still enjoy, ' and directly contradicts the rumour of hisdisgrace. This, however, is not in accordance with the statement made bySpenser in his poem of _Colin Clout's come home again_, in which he saysthat all Raleigh's speech at this time was

 Of great unkindness and of usage hard Of Cynthia, the Lady of the Sea, Which from her presence faultless him debarred, and this may probably be considered as final evidence. At all events, this exile from Court, whether it was enforced or voluntary, broughtabout perhaps the most pleasing and stimulating episode in the whole ofRaleigh's career, his association with the great poet whose lines havejust been quoted. 

We have already seen that, eight years before this, Spenser and Raleighhad met under Lord Grey in the expedition that found its crisis atSmerwick. We have no evidence of the point of intimacy which theyreached in 1582, nor of their further acquaintance before 1589. It hasbeen thought that Raleigh's picturesque and vivid personalityimmediately and directly influenced Spenser's imagination. Dean Churchhas noticed that to read Hooker's account of 'Raleigh's adventures withthe Irish chieftains, his challenges and single combats, his escapes atfords and woods, is like reading bits of the _Faery Queen_ in prose. 'The two men, in many respects the most remarkable Englishmen ofimagination then before the notice of their country, did not, however, really come into mutual relation until the time we have now reached. 

In 1586 Edmund Spenser had been rewarded for his arduous services asClerk of the Council of Munster by the gift of a manor and ruined castleof the Desmonds, Kilcolman, near the Galtee hills. This littlepeel-tower, with its tiny rooms, overlooked a county that is desolateenough now, but which then was finely wooded, and watered by the riverAwbeg, to which the poet gave the softer name of Mulla. Here, in themidst of terrors by night and day, at the edge of the dreadful Wood, where 'outlaws fell affray the forest ranger, ' Spenser had been settledfor three years, describing the adventures of knights and ladies in awild world of faery that was but too like Munster, when the Shepherd ofthe Ocean came over to Ireland to be his neighbour. Raleigh settledhimself in his own house at Youghal, and found society in visiting hiscousin, Sir George Carew, at Lismore, and Spenser at Kilcolman. Of thelatter association we possess a most interesting record. In 1591, reviewing the life of two years before, Spenser says:

 One day I sat, (as was my trade), Under the foot of Mole, that mountain hoar, Keeping my sheep among the cooly shade Of the green alders, by the Mulla's shore; There a strange shepherd chanced to find me out; Whether allurèd with my pipe's delight, Whose pleasing sound yshrilled far about, (the secret of the authorship of the _Shepherd's Calender_ having bythis time oozed out in the praises of Webbe in 1586 and of Puttenham in1589, )

 Or thither led by chance, I know not right, -- Whom, when I askèd from what place he came And how he hight, himself he did ycleepe The _Shepherd of the Ocëan_ by name, And said he came far from the main-sea deep; He, sitting me beside in that same shade, Provokèd me to play some pleasant fit, (that is to say, to read the MS. Of the _Faery Queen_, now approachingcompletion, )

 And, when he heard the music which I made, He found himself full greatly pleased at it; Yet æmuling my pipe, he took in hond My pipe, --before that, æmulèd of many, -- And played thereon (for well that skill he conned), Himself as skilful in that art as any. 

Among the other poems thus read by Raleigh to Spenser at Kilcolman wasthe 'lamentable lay' to which reference had just been made--the piece inpraise of Elizabeth which bore the name of _Cynthia_. In Spenser'spastoral, the speaker is persuaded by Thestylis (Lodovick Bryskett) toexplain what ditty that was that the Shepherd of the Ocean sang, and heexplains very distinctly, but in terms which are scarcely critical, thatRaleigh's poem was written in love and praise, but also in patheticcomplaint, of Elizabeth, that

 great Shepherdess, that Cynthia hight, His Liege, his Lady, and his life's Regent. 

This is most valuable evidence of the existence in 1589 of a poem orseries of poems by Sir Walter Raleigh, set by Spenser on a level withthe best work of the age in verse. This poem was, until quite lately, supposed to have vanished entirely and beyond all hope of recovery. Until now, no one seems to have been aware that we hold in our hands afragment of Raleigh's _magnum opus_ of 1589 quite considerable enough togive us an idea of the extent and character of the rest. [4]

In 1870 Archdeacon Hannah printed what he described as a 'continuationof the lost poem, _Cynthia_, ' from fragments in Sir Walter's own handamong the Hatfield MSS. Dr. Hannah, however, misled by the character ofthe handwriting, by some vague allusions, in one of the fragments, to aprison captivity, and most of all, probably, by a difficulty in dateswhich we can now for the first time explain, attributed these pieces to1603-1618, that is to say to Raleigh's imprisonment in the Tower. Thesecond fragment, beginning 'My body in the walls captived, ' belongs, nodoubt, to the later date. It is in a totally distinct metre from therest and has nothing to do with _Cynthia_. The first fragment bears thestamp of much earlier date, but this also can be no part of Raleigh'sepic. The long passage then following, on the contrary, is, I think, beyond question, a canto, almost complete, of the lost epic of 1589. Itis written in the four-line heroic stanza adopted ten years later by SirJohn Davies for his _Nosce teipsum_, and most familiar to us all inGray's _Churchyard Elegy_. Moreover, it is headed 'the Twenty-first andLast Book of _The Ocean to Cynthia_. ' Another note, in Raleigh'shandwriting, styles the poem _The Ocean's Love to Cynthia_, and this wasprobably the full name of it. Spenser's name for Raleigh, the Shepherd, or pastoral hero, of the Ocean, is therefore for the first timeexplained. This twenty-first book suffers from the fact that stanzas, but apparently not very many, have dropped out, in four places. Withthese losses, the canto still contains 130 stanzas, or 526 lines. Supposing the average length of the twenty preceding books to have beenthe same, _The Ocean's Love to Cynthia_ must have contained at least tenthousand lines. Spenser, therefore, was not exaggerating, or using thelanguage of flattery towards a few elegies or a group of sonnets, whenhe spoke of _Cynthia_ as a poem of great importance. As a matter offact, no poem of the like ambition had been written in England for acentury past, and if it had been published, it would perhaps have takena place only second to its immediate contemporary, _The Faery Queen_. 

At this very time, and in the midst of his poetical holiday, Raleigh wasactively engaged in defending the rights of the merchants of Waterfordand Wexford to carry on their trade in pipe-staves for casks. Raleighhimself encouraged and took part in this exportation, having two shipsregularly engaged between Waterford and the Canaries. Traces of hispeaceful work in Munster still remain. Sir John Pope Hennessy says:

 The richly perfumed yellow wallflowers that he brought to Ireland from the Azores, and the Affane cherry, are still found where he first planted them by the Blackwater. Some cedars he brought to Cork are to this day growing, according to the local historian, Mr. J. G. MacCarthy, at a place called Tivoli. The four venerable yew-trees, whose branches have grown and intermingled into a sort of summer-house thatch, are pointed out as having sheltered Raleigh when he first smoked tobacco in his Youghal garden. In that garden he also planted tobacco. .. . A few steps further on, where the town-wall of the thirteenth century bounds the garden of the Warden's house, is the famous spot where the first Irish potato was planted by him. In that garden he gave the tubers to the ancestor of the present Lord Southwell, by whom they were spread throughout the province of Munster. 

These were boons to mankind which the zeal of Raleigh's agents hadbrought back from across the western seas, gifts of more account in theend than could be contained in all the palaces of Manoa, and all theemerald mines of Trinidad, if only this great man could have followedhis better instinct and believed it. 

Raleigh's habitual difficulty in serving under other men showed itselfthis autumn in his dispute with the Irish Deputy, Sir WilliamFitzwilliam, and led, perhaps, to his return early in the winter. We donot know what circumstances led to his being taken back into Elizabeth'sfavour again, but it was probably in November that he returned toEngland, and took Spenser with him. Of this interesting passage in hislife we find again an account in _Colin Clout's come home again_. Spencer says:

 When thus our pipes we both had wearied well, . .. And each an end of singing made, He [Raleigh] gan to cast great liking to my lore, And great disliking to my luckless lot;

and advised him to come to Court and be presented to 'Cynthia, '

 Whose grace was great and bounty most rewardful. 

He then devotes no less than ninety-five lines to a description of thevoyage, which was a very rough one, and at last he is brought by Raleighinto the Queen's presence:

 The shepherd of the ocean . .. Unto that goddess' grace me first enhanced, And to my oaten pipe inclined her ear, That she thenceforth therein gan take delight, And it desired at timely hours to hear, finally commanding the publication of it. On December 1, 1589, the_Faery Queen_ was registered, and a pension of 50_l. _ secured for thepoet. The supplementary letter and sonnets to Raleigh express Spenser'sgenerous recognition of the services his friend had performed for him, and appeal to Raleigh, as 'the Summer's Nightingale, thy sovereigngoddess's most dear delight, ' not to delay in publishing his own greatpoem, the _Cynthia_. The first of the eulogistic pieces prefixed byfriends to the _Faery Queen_ was that noble and justly celebrated sonnetsigned W. R. Which alone would justify Raleigh in taking a place amongthe English poets. 

Raleigh's position was once more secure in the sunlight. He could holdSir William Fitzwilliam informed, on December 29, that 'I take myselffar his better by the honourable office I hold, as well as by thatnearness to her Majesty which still I enjoy, and never more. ' The nexttwo years were a sort of breathing space in Raleigh's career; he hadreached the table-land of his fortunes, and neither rose nor fell infavour. The violent crisis of the Spanish Armada had marked the close ofan epoch at Court. In September 1588 Leicester died, in April 1590Walsingham, in September 1591 Sir Christopher Hatton, three men inwhose presence, however apt Raleigh might be to vaunt his influence, hecould never have felt absolutely master. New men were coming on, but forthe moment the most violent and aggressive of his rivals, Essex, wasdisposed to wave a flag of truce. Both Raleigh and Essex saw one thingmore clearly than the Queen herself, namely, that the loyalty of thePuritans, whom Elizabeth disliked, was the great safeguard of the nationagainst Catholic encroachment, and they united their forces in trying toprotect the interests of men like John Udall against the Queen'sturbulent prejudices. In March 1591 we find it absolutely recorded thatthe Earl of Essex and Raleigh have joined 'as instruments from thePuritans to the Queen upon any particular occasion of relieving them. 'With Essex, some sort of genuine Protestant fervour seems to have acted;Raleigh, according to all evidence, was a man without religiousinterests, but far before his age in tolerance for the opinions ofothers, and he was swayed, no doubt, in this as in other cases, by hisdislike of persecution on the one hand, and his implacable enmity toSpain on the other. 

In May 1591, Raleigh was hurriedly sent down the Channel in a pinnace towarn Lord Thomas Howard that Spanish ships had been seen near the ScillyIslands. There was a project for sending a fleet of twenty ships toSpain, and Raleigh was to be second in command, but the scheme wasaltered. In November 1591 he first came before the public as an authorwith a tract in which he celebrated the prowess of one of his bestfriends and truest servants, Sir Richard Grenville, in a contest withthe Spaniard which is one of the most famous in English history. Raleigh's little volume is entitled: _A Report of the Truth of the Fightabout the Iles of the Açores this last Sommer betwixt the 'Reuenge' andan Armada of the King of Spaine_. The fight had taken place on thepreceding 10th of September; the odds against the 'Revenge' were soexcessive that Grenville was freely blamed for needless foolhardiness, in facing 15, 000 Spaniards with only 100 men. Raleigh wrote his _Report_to justify the memory of his friend, and doubtless hastened itspublication that it might be received as evidence before Sir R. Beville's commission, which was to meet a month later to inquire intothe circumstances of Grenville's death. Posterity has taken Raleigh'sview, and all Englishmen, from Lord Bacon to Lord Tennyson, have unitedin praising this fight as one 'memorable even beyond credit, and to theheight of some heroical fable. '

The _Report_ of 1591 was anonymous, and it was Hakluyt first who, inreprinting it in 1599, was permitted to state that it was 'penned by thehonourable Sir Walter Ralegh, knight. ' Long entirely neglected, it hasof late become the best known of all its author's productions. It iswritten in a sane and manly style, and marks the highest level reachedby English narrative prose as it existed before the waters were troubledby the fashion of Euphues. Not issued with Raleigh's name, it was yet nodoubt at once recognised as his work, and it cannot have been withoutinfluence in determining the policy of the country with Spain. Theauthor's enmity to the Spaniard is inveterate, and he is careful in aneloquent introduction to prove that he is not actuated by resentment onaccount of this one act of cruel cowardice, but by a divine anger, justified by the events of years, 'against the ambitious and bloodypretences of the Spaniard, who, seeking to devour all nations, shall bethemselves devoured. ' The tract closes with a passionate appeal to theloyalty of the English Catholics, who are warned by the sufferings ofPortugal that 'the obedience even of the Turk is easy and a liberty, inrespect of the slavery and tyranny of Spain, ' and who will never be sosafe as when they are trusting in the clemency of her Majesty. All thisis in the highest degree characteristic of Raleigh, whose central ideain life was not prejudice against the Catholic religion, for he wassingularly broad in this respect, but, in his own words, 'hatred of thetyrannous prosperity of Spain. ' This ran like a red strand through hiswhole career from Smerwick to the block, and this was at once themeasure of his greatness and the secret of his fall. 

It was formerly supposed that Raleigh came into possession of Sherborne, his favourite country residence, in 1594, that is to say after theThrockmorton incident. It is, however, in the highest degree improbablethat such an estate would be given to him after his fatal offence, andin fact it is now certain that the lease was extended to him muchearlier, probably in October 1591. There is a pleasant legend thatRaleigh and one of his half-brothers were riding up to town fromPlymouth, when Raleigh's horse stumbled and threw him within theprecincts of a beautiful Dorsetshire estate, then in possession of theDean and Chapter of Salisbury, and that Raleigh, choosing to considerthat he had thus taken seisin of the soil, asked the Queen forSherborne Castle when he arrived at Court. It may have been on thisoccasion that Elizabeth asked him when he would cease to be a beggar, and received the reply, 'When your Majesty ceases to be a benefactor!'His first lease included a payment of 260_l. _ a year to the Bishop ofSalisbury, who asserted a claim to the property. In January 1592, afterthe payment of a quarter's rent, Raleigh was confirmed in possession, and began to improve and enjoy the property. It consisted of the manorof Sherborne, with a large park, a castle which had to be repaired, andseveral farms and hamlets, together with a street in the borough ofSherborne itself. It is a curious fact that Raleigh had to present theQueen with a jewel worth 250_l. _ to induce her 'to make the Bishop, 'that is to say, to appoint to the see of Salisbury, now vacant, a manwho would consent to the alienation of such rich Church lands as themanors of Sherborne and Yetminster. John Meeres, afterwards sodetermined and exasperating an enemy of Raleigh's, was now[5] appointedhis bailiff, and Adrian Gilbert a sort of general overseer of the works. 

Raleigh had been but two months settled in possession of Sherborne, withhis ninety-nine years' lease clearly made out, when he passed suddenlyout of the sunlight into the deepest shadow of approaching disfavour. The year opened with promise of greater activity and higher publichonours than Raleigh had yet displayed and enjoyed. An expedition was tobe sent to capture the rich fleet of plate-ships, known as the IndianCarracks, and then to push on to storm the pearl treasuries of Panama. For the first time, Elizabeth had shown herself willing to trust herfavourite in person on the perilous western seas. Raleigh was to commandthe fleet of fifteen ships, and under him was to serve the morose heroof Cathay, the dreadful Sir Martin Frobisher. Raleigh was not only to beadmiral of the expedition, but its chief adventurer also, and in orderto bear this expense he had collected his available fortune from variousquarters, stripping himself of all immediate resources. To help him, theQueen had bought The Ark Raleigh, his largest ship, for 5, 000_l. _; andin February 1592 he was ready to sail. When the moment for parting came, however, the Queen found it impossible to spare him, and Sir JohnBurrough was appointed admiral. 

It is exceedingly difficult to move with confidence in this obscure partof our narrative. On March 10, 1592, we find Raleigh at Chatham, busyabout the wages of the sailors, and trying to persuade them to serveunder Frobisher, whose reputation for severity made him very unpopular. He writes on that day to Sir Robert Cecil, and uses these ambiguousexpressions with regard to a rumour of which we now hear for the firsttime:

 I mean not to come away, as they say I will, for fear of a marriage, and I know not what. If any such thing were, I would have imparted it to yourself, before any man living; and therefore, I pray, believe it not, and I beseech you to suppress, what you can, any such malicious report. For I protest before God, there is none, on the face of the earth, that I would be fastened unto. 

Raleigh was now in a desperate embarrassment. There was that concealedin his private life which could only be condoned by absence; he had seenbefore him an unexpected chance of escape from England, and now theQueen's tedious fondness had closed it again. The desperate fault whichhe had committed was that he had loved too well and not at all wisely abeautiful orphan, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, amaid of honour to the Queen. It is supposed that she was two or threeand twenty at the time. Whether he seduced her, and married her afterhis imprisonment in the Tower, or whether in the early months of 1592there was a private marriage, has been doubted. The biographers ofRaleigh have preferred to believe the latter, but it is to be fearedthat his fair fame in this matter cannot be maintained unsullied. AmongSir Walter Raleigh's children one daughter appears to have beenillegitimate, 'my poor daughter, to whom I have given nothing, for hissake who will be cruel to himself to preserve thee, ' as he says to LadyRaleigh in 1603, and it may be that it was the birth of this child whichbrought down the vengeance of Queen Elizabeth upon their heads. 

His clandestine relations with Elizabeth Throckmorton were not inthemselves without excuse. To be the favourite of Elizabeth, who had nowherself attained the sixtieth summer of her immortal charms, wastantamount to a condemnation to celibacy. The vanity of Belphoebewould admit no rival among high or low, and the least divergence fromthe devotion justly due to her own imperial loveliness was a mortal sin. What is less easy to forgive in Raleigh than that at the age of fortyhe should have rebelled at last against this tyranny, is that he seems, in the crisis of his embarrassment, to have abandoned the woman to whomhe could write long afterwards, 'I chose you and I loved you in myhappiest times. ' After this brief dereliction, however, he returned tohis duty, and for the rest of his life was eminently faithful to thewife whom he had taken under such painful circumstances. 

There is a lacuna in the evidence as to what actually happened early in1592; the late Mr. J. P. Collier filled up this gap with a convenientletter, which has found its way into the histories of Raleigh, but theoriginal of which has never been seen by other eyes than thetranscriber's. What is certain is that Raleigh contrived to conceal thestate of things from the Queen, and to steal away to sea on the pretextthat he was merely accompanying Sir Martin Frobisher to the mouth of theChannel. He says himself that on May 13, 1592, he was 'about fortyleagues off the Cape Finisterre. ' It was reported that the Queen sent aship after him to insist on his return, but such a messenger would havehad little chance of finding him when once he had reached the latitudeof Portugal, and it is more reasonable to suppose that after strayingaway as far as he dared, he came back again of his own accord. On June 8he was still living unmolested in Durham House, and dealing, as a personin authority, with certain questions of international navigation. Threeweeks later the Queen seems to have discovered, what everyone about herknew already, the nature of Raleigh's relations with ElizabethThrockmorton. On July 28 Sir Edward Stafford wrote to Anthony Bacon:'If you have anything to do with Sir Walter Raleigh, or any love to maketo Mrs. Throckmorton, at the Tower to-morrow you may speak with them. 'It was four years before Raleigh was admitted again to the presence ofhis enraged Belphoebe. 

Needless prominence has been given to this imprisonment of Raleigh's, which lasted something less than two months. He was exceedingly restiveunder constraint, however, and filled the air with the picturesqueclamour of his distress. His first idea was to soften the Queen's heartby outrageous protestations of anxious devotion to her person. Thefollowing passage from a letter to Sir Robert Cecil is remarkable inmany ways, curious as an example of affected passion in a soldier offorty for a maiden of sixty, curious as a piece of carefully modulatedEuphuistic prose in the fashion of the hour, most curious as thelanguage of a man from whom the one woman that he really loved wasdivided by the damp wall of a prison:

 My heart was never broken till this day, that I hear the Queen goes away so far off, whom I have followed so many years with so great love and desire, in so many journeys, and am now left behind her, in a dark prison all alone. While she was yet nigher at hand, that I might hear of her once in two or three days, my sorrows were the less; but even now my heart is cast into the depth of all misery. I that was wont to behold her riding like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus, the gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks, like a nymph; sometime sitting in the shade like a goddess; sometime singing like an angel; sometime playing like Orpheus. Behold the sorrow of this world! Once amiss, hath bereaved me of all. O Glory, that only shineth in misfortune, what is become of thy assurance? All wounds have scars, but that of fantasy; all affections their relenting, but that of womankind. Who is the judge of friendship, but adversity? or when is grace witnessed, but in offences? There were no divinity, but by reason of compassion for revenges are brutish and mortal. All those times past, the loves, the sights, the sorrows, the desires, can they not weigh down one frail misfortune? Cannot one drop of salt be hidden in so great heaps of sweetness? I may then conclude, _Spes et fortuna, valete_! She is gone in whom I trusted, and of me hath not one thought of mercy, nor any respect of that that was. Do with me now, therefore, what you list. I am more weary of life than they are desirous I should perish. 

He kept up this comedy of passion with wonderful energy. One day, whenthe royal barge, passing down to Gravesend, crossed below his window, heraved and stormed, swearing that his enemies had brought the Queenthither 'to break his gall in sunder with Tantalus' torment. ' Anothertime he protested that he must disguise himself as a boatman, and justcatch a sight of the Queen, or else his heart would break. He drew hisdagger on his keeper, Sir George Carew, and broke the knuckles of SirArthur Gorges, because he said they were restraining him from the sightof his Mistress. He proposed to Lord Howard of Effingham at the close ofa business letter, that he should be thrown to feed the lions, 'to savelabour, ' as the Queen was still so cruel. Sir Arthur Gorges was indespair; he thought that Raleigh was going mad. 'He will shortly grow, 'he said, 'to be Orlando Furioso, if the bright Angelica persevereagainst him a little longer. '

It was all a farce, of course, but underneath the fantastic affectationthere was a very real sentiment, that of the intolerable tedium ofcaptivity. Raleigh had been living a life of exaggerated activity, nevera month at rest, now at sea, now in Devonshire, now at Court, hurryinghither and thither, his horse and he one veritable centaur. Among theEuphuistic 'tears of fancy' which he sent from the Tower, there occursthis little sentence, breathing the most complete sincerity: 'I live totrouble you at this time, being become like a fish cast on dry land, gasping for breath, with lame legs and lamer lungs. ' There was no manthen in England whom it was more cruel to shut up in a cage. Thisreference to his lungs is the first announcement of the failure of hishealth. Raleigh's constitution was tough, but he had a variety ofailments, and a tendency to rheumatism and to consumption was amongthem. In later years we shall find that the damp cells of the Towerfilled his joints with pain, and reduced him with a weakening cough. Butlong before his main imprisonment his joints and his lungs weretroublesome to him. 

Meanwhile the great privateering expedition in which Raleigh hadlaunched his fortune was proceeding to its destination in the Azores. Nosuch enterprise had been as yet undertaken by English adventurers. Itwas a strictly private effort, but the Queen in her personal capacityhad contributed two ships and 1, 800_l. _, and the citizens of London6, 000_l. _, but Raleigh retained by far the largest share. Raleigh hadbeen a week in the Tower, when Admiral Sir John Burrough, who haddivided the fleet and had left Frobisher on the coast of Spain, joinedto his contingent two London ships, the 'Golden Dragon' and the'Prudence, ' and lay in wait under Flores for the great line ofapproaching carracks. The largest of these, the 'Madre de Dios, ' was themost famous plate-ship of the day, carrying what in those days seemedalmost incredible, no less than 1, 800 tons. Her cargo, brought throughIndian seas from the coast of Malabar, was valued when she started at500, 000_l. _ She was lined with glowing woven carpets, sarcenet quilts, and lengths of white silk and cyprus; she carried in chests ofsandalwood and ebony such store of rubies and pearls, such porcelain andivory and rock crystal, such great pots of musk and planks of cinnamon, as had never been seen on all the stalls of London. Her hold smelt likea garden of spices for all the benjamin and cloves, the nutmegs and thecivet, the ambergris and frankincense. There was a fight beforeRaleigh's ship the 'Roebuck' could seize this enormous prize, yetsomewhat a passive one on the part of the lumbering carrack, such afight as may ensue between a great rabbit and the little stoat thatsucks its life out. When she was entered, it was found that pilferingshad gone on already at every port at which she had called; and theEnglish sailors had done their share before Burrough could arrive onboard; the jewels and the lighter spices were badly tampered with, butin the general rejoicing over so vast a prize this was not muchregarded. Through seas so tempestuous that it seemed at one time likelythat she would sink in the Atlantic, the 'Madre de Dios' was at lastsafely brought into Dartmouth, on September 8. 

The arrival of the 'Madre de Dios' on the Queen's birthday had somethinglike the importance of a national event. No prize of such value had everbeen captured before. When all deduction had been made for treasurelost or pilfered or squandered, there yet remained a total value of141, 000_l. _ in the money of that day. The fact that all this wealth waslying in Dartmouth harbour was more than the tradesmen of London couldbear. Before the Queen's commissioners could assemble, half the usurersand shopkeepers in the City had hurried down into Devonshire to try andgather up a few of the golden crumbs. Raleigh, meanwhile, was ready toburst his heart with fretting in the Tower, until it suddenly appearedthat this very concourse and rabble at Dartmouth would render hisrelease imperative. No one but he could cope with Devonshire in itsexcitement, and Lord Burghley determined on sending him to Dartmouth. Robert Cecil, writing from Exeter to his father on September 19, reported that for seven miles everybody he met on the London road smeltof amber or of musk, and that you could not open a bag without findingseed-pearls in it. 'My Lord!' he says, 'there never was such spoil. 'Raleigh's presence was absolutely necessary, for Cecil could do nothingwith the desperate and obstinate merchants and sailors. 

On September 21, Raleigh arrived at Dartmouth with his keeper, Blount. Cecil was amazed to find the disgraced favourite so popular inDevonshire. 'I assure you, ' he says, 'his poor servants to the number ofone hundred and forty, goodly men, and all the mariners, came to himwith such shouts and joy as I never saw a man more troubled to quietthem in my life. But his heart is broken, for he is extremely pensivelonger than he is busied, in which he can toil terribly, but if you didhear him rage at the spoils, finding all the short wares utterlydevoured, you would laugh as I do, which I cannot choose. The meetingbetween him and Sir John Gilbert was with tears on Sir John's part; andhe belike finding it known he had a keeper, wherever he is saluted withcongratulation for liberty, he doth answer, "No, I am still the Queen ofEngland's poor captive. " I wished him to conceal it, because here itdoth diminish his credit, which I do vow to you before God is greateramong the mariners than I thought for. I do grace him as much as I may, for I find him marvellously greedy to do anything to recover the conceitof his brutish offence. '

Raleigh broke into rage at finding so many of his treasures lost, and hegave out that if he met with any London jewellers or goldsmiths inDevonshire, were it on the wildest heath in all the county, he wouldstrip them as naked as when they were born. He raved against thecommissioners and the captains, against Cecil and against Cross. As washis wont, he showed no tact or consideration towards those who wereengaged with or just above him; but about the end of September businesscooled his wrath, and he settled down to a division of the prize. OnSeptember 27, the Commissioners of Inquiry sent in to Burghley andHoward a report of their proceedings with respect to the 'Madre deDios'; this report is signed by Cecil, Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, andthree other persons. They had carried on their search for stolentreasure so rigorously that even the Admiral's chests were examinedagainst his will. They confess their disappointment at finding in themnothing more tempting than some taffetas embroidered with Chinese gold, and a bunch of seed-pearl. 

Sir Walter Raleigh now married or acknowledged Elizabeth Throckmorton, and in February 1593 Sir Robert Cecil procured some sort of surlyrecognition of the marriage from the Queen. For this Lady Raleigh thankshim in a strange flowery letter[6] of the 8th of that month, in whichshe excuses her husband for his denial of her--'if faith were brokenwith me, I was yet far away'--and shows an affectionate solicitude forhis future. It seems that Raleigh's first idea on finding himself freewas to depart on an expedition to America, and this Lady Raleighstrongly objects to. In her alembicated style she says to Cecil, 'I hopefor my sake you will rather draw for Walter towards the east than helphim forward toward the sunset, if any respect to me or love to him benot forgotten. But every month hath his flower and every season hiscontentment, and you great councillors are so full of new councils, asyou are steady in nothing, but we poor souls that have bought sorrow ata high price, desire, and can be pleased with, the same misfortune wehold, fearing alterations will but multiply misery, of which we havealready felt sufficient. ' The poor woman had her way for the present, and for two full years her husband contented himself with a quiet andobscure life among the woods of Sherborne. 

For the next year we get scanty traces of Raleigh's movements from hisown letters. In May 1593 his health, shaken by his imprisonment, gavehim some uneasiness, and he went to Bath to drink the waters, butwithout advantage. In August of that year we find him busy inGillingham Forest, and he gives Sir Robert Cecil a roan gelding inexchange for a rare Indian falcon. In the autumn he is engaged on thesouth coast in arranging quarrels between English and French fishermen. In April 1594 he captures a live Jesuit, 'a notable stout villain, ' withall 'his copes and bulls, ' in Lady Stourton's house, which was a verywarren of dangerous recusants. But he soon gets tired of these smallactivities. The sea at Weymouth and at Plymouth put out its arms to himand wooed him. To hunt 'notable Jesuit knaves' and to sit on the granitejudgment-seat of the Stannaries were well, but life offered more thanthis to Raleigh. In June 1594 he tells Cecil that he will serve theQueen as a poor private mariner or soldier if he may only be allowed tobe stirring abroad, and the following month there is a still more urgentappeal for permission to go with the Lord Admiral to Brittany. He has aquarrel meanwhile with the Dean and Chapter of Sarum, who have let hisSherborne farms over his head to one Fitzjames, and 'who could not dealwith me worse withal if I were a Turk. ' But a month later release hascome. The plague has broken up his home, his wife and son are sent inopposite directions, and he himself has leave to be free at last; withGod's favour and the Queen's he will sail into 'the sunset' that LadyRaleigh had feared so much, and will conquer for England the fabulousgolden cities of Guiana. 

CHAPTER IV. 

GUIANA. 

The vast tract in the north-east of the southern continent of Americawhich is now divided between Venezuela and three European powers, wasknown in the sixteenth century by the name of Guiana. Of this districtthe three territories now styled English, Dutch, and French Guianarespectively form but an insignificant coast-line, actually lyingoutside the vague eastern limit of the traditional empire of Guiana. Asearly as 1539 a brother of the great Pizarro had returned to Peru with alegend of a prince of Guiana whose body was smeared with turpentine andthen blown upon with gold dust, so that he strode naked among his peoplelike a majestic golden statue. This prince was El Dorado, the GildedOne. But as time went on this title was transferred from the monarch tohis kingdom, or rather to a central lake hemmed in by golden mountainsin the heart of Guiana. Spanish and German adventurers made effort aftereffort to reach this _laguna_, starting now from Peru, now from Quito, now from Trinidad, but they never found it: little advance was made inknowledge or authority, nor did Spain raise any definite pretensions toGuiana, although her provinces hemmed it in upon three sides. 

There is no doubt that Raleigh, who followed with the closest attentionthe nascent geographical literature of his time, read the successiveaccounts which the Spaniards and Germans gave of their explorations inSouth America. But it was not until 1594 that he seems to have beenspecially attracted to Guiana. At every part of his career it was'hatred of the tyrannous prosperity' of Spain which excited him toaction. Early in 1594 Captain George Popham, sailing apparently in oneof Raleigh's vessels, captured at sea and brought to the latter certainletters sent home to the King of Spain announcing that on April 23, 1593, at a place called Warismero, on the Orinoco, Antonio de Berreo, the Governor of Trinidad, had annexed Guiana to the dominions of hisCatholic Majesty, under the name of El Nuevo Dorado. In these sameletters various reports of the country and its inhabitants wererepeated, that the chiefs danced with their naked bodies gleaming withgold dust, and with golden eagles dangling from their breasts and greatpearls from their ears, that there were rich mines of diamonds and ofgold, that the innocent people were longing to exchange their jewels forjews-harps. Raleigh was aroused at once, less by the splendours of thedescription than by the fact that this unknown country, with itsmysterious possibilities, had been impudently added to the plunder ofSpain. He immediately fitted out a ship, and sent Captain Jacob Whiddon, an old servant of his, to act as a pioneer, and get what knowledge hecould of Guiana. Whiddon went to Trinidad, saw Berreo, was put off byhim with various treacherous excuses, and returned to England in thewinter of 1594 with but a scanty stock of fresh information. It wasenough, however, to encourage Raleigh to start for Guiana without delay. 

On December 26 he writes: 'This wind breaks my heart. That which shouldcarry me hence now stays me here, and holds seven ships in the river ofThames. As soon as God sends them hither I will not lose one hour oftime. ' On January 2, 1595, he is still at Sherborne, 'only gazing for awind to carry me to my destiny. ' At last, on February 6 he sailed awayfrom Plymouth, not with seven, but with five ships, together with smallcraft for ascending rivers. What the number of his crew was, he nowherestates. The section of them which he took up to the Orinoco he describesas 'a handful of men, being in all about a hundred gentlemen; soldiers, rowers, boat-keepers, boys, and all sorts. ' Sir Robert Cecil was to haveadventured his own ship, the 'Lion's Whelp, ' and for her Raleigh waitedseven or eight days among the Canaries, but she did not arrive. On the17th they captured at Fuerteventura two ships, Spanish and Flemish, andstocked their own vessels with wine from the latter. 

They then sailed on into the west, and on March 22 arrived on the southside of Trinidad, casting anchor on the north shore of the Serpent'sMouth. Raleigh personally explored the southern and western coasts ofthe island in a small boat, while the ships kept to the channel. He wasamazed to find oysters in the brackish creeks hanging to the branches ofthe mangrove trees at low water, and he examined also the now famousliquid pitch of Trinidad. Twenty years afterwards, in writing _TheHistory of the World_, we find his memory still dwelling on thesenatural wonders. At the first settlement the English fleet came to, Port of Spain, they traded with the Spanish colonists, and Raleighendeavoured to find out what he could, which was but little, aboutGuiana. He pretended that he was asking merely out of curiosity, and wason his way to his own colony of Virginia. 

While Raleigh was anchored off Port of Spain, he found that Berreo, theGovernor, had privately sent for reinforcements to Marguerita andCumana, meaning to attack him suddenly. At the same time the Indianscame secretly aboard the English ships with terrible complaints ofSpanish cruelty. Berreo was keeping the ancient chiefs of the island inprison, and had the singular foible of amusing himself at intervals bybasting their bare limbs with broiling bacon. These considerationsdetermined Raleigh to take the initiative. That same evening he marchedhis men up the country to the new capital of the island, St. Joseph, which they easily stormed, and in it they captured Berreo. Raleigh foundfive poor roasted chieftains hanging in irons at the point of death, andat their instance he set St. Joseph on fire. That very day two moreEnglish ships, the 'Lion's Whelp' and the 'Galleys, ' arrived at Port ofSpain, and Raleigh was easily master of the situation. 

Berreo seems to have submitted with considerable tact. He insinuatedhimself into Raleigh's confidence, and, like the familiar poet inShakespeare's sonnet, 'nightly gulled him with intelligence. ' Hisoriginal idea probably was that by inflaming Raleigh's imagination withthe wonders of Guiana, he would be the more likely to plunge to his owndestruction into the fatal swamps of the Orinoco. It is curious to findeven Raleigh, who was eminently humane in his own dealings with theIndians, speaking in these terms of such a cruel scoundrel as Berreo, 'agentleman well descended, very valiant and liberal, and a gentleman ofgreat assuredness, and of a great heart: I used him according to hisestate and worth in all things I could, according to the small means Ihad. ' Berreo showed him a copy he held of a journal kept by a certainJuan Martinez, who professed to have penetrated as far as Manoa, thecapital of Guiana. This narrative was very shortly afterwards exposed as'an invention of the fat friars of Puerto Rico, ' but Raleigh believedit, and it greatly encouraged him. When Berreo realised that hecertainly meant to attempt the expedition, his tone altered, and he 'wasstricken into a great melancholy and sadness, using all the arguments hecould to dissuade me, and also assuring the gentlemen of my company thatit would be labour lost, ' but all in vain. 

The first thing to be done was to cross the Serpent's Mouth, and toascend one of the streams of the great delta. Raleigh sent CaptainWhiddon to explore the southern coast, and determined from his report totake the Capuri, or, as it is now called, the Macareo branch, which liesdirectly under the western extremity of Trinidad. After an unsuccessfuleffort here, he started farther west, on the Caño Manamo, which he callsthe River of the Red Cross. He found it exceedingly difficult to enter, owing to the sudden rise and fall of the flood in the river, and theviolence of the current. At last they started, passing up the river onthe tide, and anchoring in the ebb, and in this way went slowly onward. The vessels which carried them were little fitted for such a task. Raleigh had had an old galley furnished with benches to row upon, and sofar cut down that she drew but five feet of water; he had also a barge, two wherries, and a ship's boat, and in this miserable fleet, leavinghis large vessels behind him in the Gulf of Paria, he accomplished hisperilous and painful voyage to the Orinoco and back, with one hundredpersons and their provisions. Of the misery of these four hundred mileshe gives a graphic account:

 We were all driven to lie in the rain and weather, in the open air, in the burning sun, and upon the hard boards, and to dress our meat, and to carry all manner of furniture, wherewith [the boats] were so pestered and unsavoury, that what with victuals being most fish, with the wet clothes of so many men thrust together, and the heat of the sun, I will undertake there was never any prison in England that could be found more unsavoury and loathsome, especially to myself, who had for many years before been dieted and cared for in a sort far different. 

On the third day, as they were ascending the river, the galley stuck sofast that they thought their expedition would have ended there; butafter casting out all her ballast, and after much tugging and hauling toand fro, they got off in twelve hours. When they had ascended beyond thelimit of the tide, the violence of the current became a very seriousdifficulty, and at the end of the seventh day the crews began todespair, the temperature being extremely hot, and the thick foliage ofthe Ita-palms on either side of the river excluding every breath of air. Day by day the Indian pilots assured them that the next night should bethe last. Raleigh had to harangue his men to prevent mutiny, for nowtheir provisions also were exhausted. He told them that if they returnedthrough that deadly swamp they must die of starvation, and that theworld would laugh their memory to scorn. 

[Illustration: GUIANA. ]

Presently things grew a little better. They found wholesome fruits onthe banks, and now that the streams were purer they caught fish. Notknowing what they saw, they marvelled at the 'birds of all colours, somecarnation, orange tawny, ' which was Raleigh's own colour, 'purple, green, watchet and of all other sorts both simple and mixed, as it wasunto us a great good passing of the time to behold them, besides therelief we found by killing some store of them with our fowling pieces. 'These savannahs are full of birds, and the brilliant macaws whichexcited Raleigh's admiration make an excellent stew, with the flavour, according to Sir Robert Schomburgk, of hare soup. Their pilot nowpersuaded them to anchor the galley in the main river, and come with himup a creek, on the right hand, which would bring them to a town. On thiswild-goose chase they ascended the side-stream for forty miles; it wasprobably the Cucuina, which was simply winding back with them towardsthe Gulf of Paria. They felt that the Indian was tricking them, butabout midnight, while they were talking of hanging him, they saw a lightand heard the baying of dogs. They had found an Indian village, and herethey rested well, and had plenty of food and drink. Upon this new riverthey were charmed to see the deer come feeding down to the water'sbrink, and Raleigh describes the scene as though it reminded him of hisown park at Sherborne. They were alarmed at the crowds of alligators, and one handsome young negro, who leaped into the river from the galley, was instantly devoured in Raleigh's sight. 

Next day they regained the great river, and their anxious comrades inthe 'Lion's Whelp. ' They passed on together, and were fortunate enoughto meet with four Indian canoes laden with excellent bread. The Indiansran away and left their possessions, and Raleigh's dreams of mineralwealth were excited by the discovery of what he took to be a 'refiner'sbasket, for I found in it his quicksilver, saltpetre, and divers thingsfor the trial of metals, and also the dust of such ore as he hadrefined. ' He was minded to stay here and dig for gold, but was preventedby a phenomenon which he mentions incidentally, but which has done muchto prove the reality of his narrative. He says that all the littlecreeks which ran towards the Orinoco 'were raised with such speed, as ifwe waded them over the shoes in the morning outward, we were covered tothe shoulders homeward the very same day. ' Sir R. Schomburgk foundexactly the same to be the case when he explored Guiana in 1843. 

They pushed on therefore along the dreary river, and on the fifteenthday had the joy of seeing straight before them far away the peaks ofPeluca and Paisapa, the summits of the Imataca mountains which dividethe Orinoco from the Essequibo. The same evening, favoured by a strongnortherly wind, they came in sight of the great Orinoco itself, andanchored in it a little to the east of the present settlement of SanRafael de Barrancas. Their spirits were high again. They feasted on theeggs of the freshwater turtles which they found in thousands on thesandy islands, and they gazed with rapture on the mountains to the southof them which rose out of the very heart of Guiana. A friendly chieftaincarried them off to his village, where, to preserve the delightfulspelling of the age, 'some of our captaines garoused of his wine tillthey were reasonable pleasant, ' this wine being probably the cassivi orfermented juice of the sweet potato. It redounds to Raleigh's especialcredit that in an age when great license was customary in dealing withsavages, he strictly prohibited his men, under threat of punishment bydeath, from insulting the Indian women. His just admiration of the fairCaribs, however, was quite enthusiastic:

 The casique that was a stranger had his wife staying at the port where we anchored, and in all my life I have seldom seen a better-favoured woman. She was of good stature, with black eyes, fat of body, of an excellent countenance, and taking great pride therein. I have seen a lady in England so like her, as but for the difference of colour I would have sworn might have been the same. 

They started to ascend the Orinoco, having so little just understandingof the geography of South America that they thought if they could onlysail far enough up the river they would come out on the other side ofthe continent at Quito. It has been noticed that Raleigh passed close tothe Spanish settlement of Guayana Vieja, which Berreo had founded fouryears before. Perhaps it was by this time deserted, and Raleigh mayreally have gone by it without seeing it. More probably, however, itsexistence interfered with his theory that all this territory wasuntouched by Europeans, and therefore open to be annexed in the name ofher English Majesty. Passing up the Orinoco, he came at last to what hecalls 'the port of Morequito, ' where he made some stay, and enjoyed theluxury of pine-apples, which he styles 'the princess of fruits. ' He wasalso introduced to that pleasing beast the armadillo, whose powers andfunctions he a little misunderstood, for he says of it, 'it seemeth tobe all barred over with small plates like to a rhinoceros, with a whitehorn growing in his hinder parts, like unto a hunting horn, which theyuse to wind instead of a trumpet. ' What Raleigh mistook for ahunting-horn was the stiff tail of the armadillo. Raleigh warned thepeaceful and friendly inhabitants of Morequito against the villanies ofSpain, and recommended England to them as a safe protector. He thenpursued his westerly course to an island which he calls Caiama, andwhich is now named Fajardo, which was the farthest point he reached uponthe Orinoco. This island lies at the mouth of the Caroni, the greatsouthern artery of the watershed, and Raleigh's final expedition wasmade up this stream. He reached the foot of the great cataract, nownamed Salto Caroni, and his description of this noble natural wonder maybe quoted as a favourable instance of his style, and as the crown of hisgeographical enterprise:

 When we ran to the tops of the first hills of the plains adjoining to the river, we behold that wonderful breach of waters, which ran down Caroli [Caroni]; and might from that mountain see the river how it ran in three parts, above twenty miles off, and there appeared some ten or twelve overfalls in sight, every one as high over the other as a church tower, which fell with that fury that the rebound of waters made it seem as if it had been all covered over with a great shower of rain; and in some places we took it at the first for a smoke that had risen over some great town. For mine own part, I was well persuaded from thence to have returned, being a very ill footman, but the rest were all so desirous to go near the said strange thunder of waters, that they drew me on by little and little, till we came into the next valley, where we might better discern the same. I never saw a more beautiful country, nor more lively prospects, hills so raised here and there over the valleys, the river winding into divers branches, the plains adjoining without bush or stubble, all fair green grass, the ground of hard sand easy to march on either for horse or foot, the deer crossing in every path, the birds towards the evening singing on every tree with a thousand several tunes, cranes and herons of white, crimson, and carnation perching on the river's side, the air fresh with a gentle easterly wind, and every stone that we stooped to take up promised either gold or silver by his complexion. 

The last touch spoils an exquisite picture. It is at once dispiriting tofind so intrepid a geographer and so acute a merchant befooled by themadness of gold, and pathetic to know that his hopes in this directionwere absolutely unfounded. The white quartz of Guiana, the 'hard whitespar' which Raleigh describes, confessedly contains gold, although, asfar as is at present known, in quantities so small as not to rewardworking. Humboldt says that his examination of Guiana gold led him tobelieve that, 'like tin, it is sometimes disseminated in an almostimperceptible manner in the mass of granite rocks itself, without ourbeing able to admit that there is a ramification and an interlacing ofsmall veins. ' It is plain that Raleigh got hold of unusually richspecimens of the sparse auriferous quartz. He was accused on his returnof having brought his specimens from Africa, but no one suggested thatthey did not contain gold. No doubt much of the sparkling dust he saw inthe rocks was simply iron pyrites, or some other of the minerals whichto this day are known to the wise in California as 'fool's gold. ' Hisexpedition had come to America unprovided with tools of any kind, andRaleigh confesses that such specimens of ore as they did not buy fromthe Indians, they had to tear out with their daggers or with theirfingers. 

It has been customary of late, in reaction against the defamation ofRaleigh in the eighteenth century, to protest that gold was not hischief aim in the Guiana enterprise, but that his main wish, under coverof the search for gold, was to form a South American colony for England, and to open out the west to general commerce. With every wish to holdthis view, I am unable to do so in the face of the existing evidence. More humane, more intelligent than any of the adventurers who hadpreceded him, it yet does not seem that Raleigh was less insanely bittenwith the gold fever than any of them. He saw the fleets of Spain returnto Europe year after year laden with precious metals from Mexico, and heexaggerated, as all men of his age did, the power of this tide of gold. He conceived that no one would stem the dangerous influence of Spainuntil the stream of wealth was diverted or divided. He says in the mostdirect language that it is not the trade of Spain, her exports of winesand Seville oranges and other legitimate produce, that threatensshipwreck to us all; 'it is his Indian gold that endangereth anddisturbeth all the nations of Europe; it purchased intelligence, creepeth into councils, and setteth bound loyalty at liberty in thegreatest monarchies of Europe. ' In Raleigh's exploration of Guiana, hissteadfast hope, the hope which led him patiently through so manyhardships, was that he might secure for Elizabeth a vast auriferouscolony, the proceeds of which might rival the revenues of Mexico andPeru. But we must not make the mistake of supposing him to have been sowise before his time as to perceive that the real wealth which mightparalyse a selfish power like that of Spain would consist in the cerealsand other products which such a colony might learn to export. 

Resting among the friendly Indians in the heart of the strange countryto which he had penetrated, Raleigh became in many ways the victim ofhis ignorance and his pardonable credulity. Not only was he gulled withdiamonds and sapphires that were really rock-crystals, but he was madeto believe that there existed west of the Orinoco a tribe of Indianswhose eyes were in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle oftheir breasts. He does not pretend that he saw such folks, however, orthat he enjoyed the advantage of conversing with any of the Ewaipanoma, or men without heads, or of that other tribe, 'who have eminent headslike dogs, and live all the day-time in the sea, and speak the Cariblanguage. ' Of all these he speaks from modest hearsay, and lessconfidently than Othello did to Desdemona. It is true that he relatesmarvellous and fabulous things, but it is no less than just todistinguish very carefully between what he repeats and what he reports. For the former we have to take the evidence of his interpreters, who butdimly understood what the Indians told them, and Raleigh cannot be heldpersonally responsible; for the latter, the testimony of all laterexplorers, especially Humboldt and Schomburgk, is that Raleigh'snarrative, where he does not fall into obvious and easily intelligibleerror, is remarkably clear and simple, and full of internal evidence ofits genuineness. 

They had now been absent from their ships for nearly a month, andRaleigh began to give up all hope of being able on this occasion toreach the city of Manoa. The fury of the Orinoco began to alarm them;they did not know what might happen in a country subject to such suddenand phenomenal floods. Tropical rains fell with terrific violence, andthe men would get wetted to the skin ten times a day. It was cold, itwas windy, and to push on farther seemed perfectly hopeless. Raleightherefore determined to return, and they glided down the vast river at arapid pace, without need of sail or oar. At Morequito, Raleigh sent forthe old Indian chief, Topiawari, who had been so friendly to him before, and had a solemn interview with him. He took him into his tent, andshutting out all other persons but the interpreter, he told him thatSpain was the enemy of Guiana, and urged him to become the ally ofEngland. He promised to aid him against the Epuremi, a native race whichhad oppressed him, if Topiawari would in his turn act in Guiana for theQueen of England. To this the old man and his followers warmly assented, urging Raleigh to push on, if not for Manoa, at least for Macureguarai, a rich city full of statues of gold, that was but four days' journeyfarther on. This, Raleigh, in consideration of the sufferings of hisfollowers, declined to do, but he consented to an odd exchange ofhostages, and promised the following year to make a better equippedexpedition to Manoa. He carried off with him the son of Topiawari, andhe left behind at Morequito a boy called Hugh Goodwin. To keep this boycompany, a young man named Francis Sparrey volunteered to stay also; hewas a person of some education, who had served with Captain Gifford. Goodwin had a fancy for learning the Indian language, and when Raleighfound him at Caliana twenty-two years later, he had almost forgotten hisEnglish. He was at last devoured by a jaguar. Sparrey, who 'coulddescribe a country with his pen, ' was captured by the Spaniards, takento Spain, and after long sufferings escaped to England, where hepublished an account of Guiana in 1602. Sparrey is chiefly remembered byhis own account of how he purchased eight young women, the eldest buteighteen years of age, for a red-hafted knife, which in England had costhim but a halfpenny. This was not the sort of trade which Raleigh lefthim behind to encourage. 

As they passed down the Orinoco, they visited a lake where Raleigh sawthat extraordinary creature the manatee, half cow, half whale; and alittle lower they saw the column of white spray, rising like the towerof a church, over the huge cascades of the crystal mountains of Roraima. At the village of a chieftain within earshot of those thundering waters, they witnessed one of the wild drinking feasts of the Indians, who were'all as drunk as beggars, the pots walking from one to another withoutrest. ' Next day, the contingent led by Captain Keymis found them, and tocelebrate the meeting of friends, they passed over to the island ofAssapana, now called Yayo, in the middle of the Orinoco, and theyenjoyed a feast of the flesh of armadillos. On the following day, increased cold and violent thunderstorms reminded them that the autumnwas far spent, and they determined to return as quickly as possible tothe sea. Their pilots told them, however, that it was out of thequestion to try to descend the River of the Red Cross, which they hadascended, as the current would baffle them; and therefore they attemptedwhat is now called the Macareo channel, farther east. Raleigh names thisstream the Capuri. 

They had no further adventures until they reached the sea; but as theyemerged into the Serpent's Mouth, a great storm attacked them. They ranbefore night close under shore with their small boats, and brought thegalley as near as they could. The latter, however, very nearly sank, andRaleigh was puzzled what to do. A bar of sand ran across the mouth ofthe river, covered by only six feet of water, and the galley drew five. The longer he hesitated, the worse the weather grew, and therefore hefinally took Captain Gifford into his own barge, and thrust out to sea, leaving the galley anchored by the shore. 'So being all very sober andmelancholy, one faintly cheering another to show courage, it pleased Godthat the next day, about nine of the clock, we descried the island ofTrinidad, and steering for the nearest part of it, we kept the shoretill we came to Curiapan, where we found our ships at anchor, than whichthere was never to us a more joyful sight. '

In spite of the hardships of the journey, the constant wettings, the badwater and insufficient food, the lodging in the open air every night, he had only lost a single man, the young negro who was snapped up by thealligator at the mouth of the Cucuina. At the coast there are dangerousmiasmata which often prove fatal to Europeans, but the interior of thispart of South America is reported by later travellers to be no lesswholesome than Raleigh found it. 

During Raleigh's absence his fleet had not lain idle at Trinidad. Captain Amyas Preston, whom he had left in charge, determined to takethe initiative against the Spanish forces which Berreo had summoned tohis help. With four ships Preston began to harry the coast of Venezuela. On May 21 he appeared before the important town of Cumana, but waspersuaded to spare it from sack upon payment of a large sum by theinhabitants. Captain Preston landed part of his crew here, and theycrossed the country westward to Caracas, which they plundered andburned. The fleet proceeded to Coro, in New Granada, which they treatedin the same way. When they returned is uncertain, but Raleigh found themat Curiapan when he came back to Trinidad, and with them he coasted oncemore the northern shore of South America. He burned Cumana, but wasdisappointed in his hopes of plunder, for he says, 'In the port towns ofthe province of Vensuello [Venezuela] we found not the value of one realof plate. ' The fact was that the repeated voyages of the Englishcaptains--and Drake was immediately to follow in Raleigh's steps--hadmade the inhabitants of these northern cities exceedingly wary. Theprecious products were either stored in the hills, or shipped off toSpain without loss of time. 

Raleigh's return to England was performed without any publicity. Hestole home so quietly that some people declared that he had been all thetime snug in some Cornish haven. His biographers, including Mr. Edwards, have dated his return in August, being led away by a statement ofDavis's, manifestly inaccurately dated, that Raleigh and Preston weresailing off the coast of Cuba in July. This is incompatible withRaleigh's fear of the rapid approach of winter while he was still inGuiana. It would also be difficult to account for the entire absence ofreference to him in England before the winter. It is more likely that hefound his way back into Falmouth or Dartmouth towards the end of October1595. On November 10, he wrote to Cecil, plainly smarting under theneglect which he had received. He thought that coming from the west, with an empire in his hand as a gift for Elizabeth, the Queen would takehim into favour again, but he was mistaken. He writes to Cecil nominallyto offer his services against a rumoured fleet of Spain, but really tofeel the ground about Guiana, and the interest which the Governmentmight take in it. 'What becomes of Guiana I much desire to hear, whetherit pass for a history or a fable. I hear Mr. Dudley [Sir Robert Dudley]and others are sending thither; if it be so, farewell all good fromthence. For although myself, like a cockscomb, did rather prefer thefuture in respect of others, and rather sought to win the kings to herMajesty's service than to sack them, I know what others will do whenthose kings shall come singly into their hands. '

Meanwhile he had been writing an account of his travels, and on November13, 1595, he sent a copy of this in manuscript to Cecil, no doubt inhope that it might be shown to Elizabeth. In the interesting letterwhich accompanied this manuscript he inclosed a map of Guiana, longsupposed to have been lost, which was found by Mr. St. John in thearchives of Simancas, signed with Raleigh's name, and in perfectcondition. It is evident that Raleigh could hardly endure thedisappointment of repulse. He says, 'I know the like fortune was neveroffered to any Christian prince, ' and losing his balance altogether inhis extravagant pertinacity, he declares to Cecil that the city of Manoacontains stores of golden statues, not one of which can be worth lessthan 100, 000_l. _ If the English Government will not prosecute theenterprise that he has sketched out, Spain and France will shortly doso, and Raleigh, in the face of such apathy, 'concludes that we arecursed of God. ' Amid all this excitement, it is pleasant to find himremembering to be humane, and begging Cecil to impress the Queen withthe need of 'not soiling this enterprise' with cruelty; nor permittingany to proceed to Guiana whose object shall only be to plunder theIndians. He sends Cecil an amethyst 'with a strange blush of carnation, 'and another stone, which 'if it be no diamond, yet exceeds any diamondin beauty. '

Raleigh now determined to appeal to the public at large, and towardsChristmas 1595 he published his famous volume, which bears the date1596, and is entitled, after the leisurely fashion of the age, _TheDiscovery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana, with aRelation of the Great and Golden City of Manoa, which the Spaniards callEl Dorado, and the Provinces of Emeria, Arromaia, Amapaia, and otherCountries, with their Rivers, adjoining_. Of this volume two editionsappeared in 1596, it was presently translated into Latin and publishedin Germany, and in short gained a reputation throughout Europe. Therecan be no doubt that Raleigh's outspoken hatred of Spain, expressed inthis printed form, from which there could be no escape on the ground ofmere hearsay, was the final word of his challenge to that Power. Fromthis time forth Raleigh was an enemy which Spain could not even pretendto ignore. 

The _Discovery of Guiana_ was dedicated to the Lord Admiral Howard andto Sir Robert Cecil, with a reference to the support which the authorhad found in their love 'in the darkest shadow of adversity. ' There wasprobably some courtly exaggeration, mingled with self-interest, in thegratitude expressed to Cecil. Already the relation of this cold-bloodedstatesman to the impulsive Raleigh becomes a crux to the biographers ofthe latter. Cecil's letters to his father from Devonshire on the matterof the Indian carracks in 1592 are incompatible with Raleigh's outspokenthanks to Cecil for the trial of his love when Raleigh was bereft of allbut malice and revenge, unless we suppose that these letters representedwhat Burghley would like to hear rather than what Robert Cecil actuallyfelt. In 1596 Burghley, in extreme old age, was a factor no longer to betaken into much consideration. Moreover, Lady Raleigh had some hold ofrelationship or old friendship on Cecil, the exact nature of which it isnot easy to understand. At all events, as long as Raleigh could hold thefavour of Cecil, the ear of her Majesty was not absolutely closed tohim. 

The _Discovery_ possesses a value which is neither biographical norgeographical. It holds a very prominent place in the prose literature ofthe age. During the five years which had elapsed since Raleigh's lastpublication, English literature had been undergoing a marvellousdevelopment, and he who read everything and sympathised with everyintellectual movement could not but be influenced by what had beenwritten. During those five years, Marlowe's wonderful career had beenwound up like a melodrama. Shakespeare had come forward as a poet. A newepoch in sound English prose had been inaugurated by Hooker's_Ecclesiastical Polity_. Bacon was circulating the earliest of his_Essays_. What these giants of our language were doing for their owndepartments of prose and verse, Raleigh did for the literature oftravel. Among the volumes of navigations, voyages, and discoveries, which were poured out so freely in this part of the reign of Elizabeth, most of them now only remembered because they were reprinted in thecollections of Hakluyt and Purchas, this book of Raleigh's takes easilythe foremost position. In comparison with the bluff and dull narrativesof the other discoverers, whose chief charm is their naïveté, the_Discovery of Guiana_ has all the grace and fullness of deliberatecomposition, of fine literary art, and as it was the first excellentpiece of sustained travellers' prose, so it remained long without asecond in our literature. The brief examples which it has alone beenpossible to give in this biography, may be enough to attract readers toits harmonious and glowing pages. 

Among the many allusions found to this book in contemporary records, perhaps the most curious is an epic poem on Guiana, published almostimmediately by George Chapman, who gave his enthusiastic approval toRaleigh's scheme. It is the misfortune of Chapman's style that in hisgrotesque arrogance he disdained to be lucid, and this poem is full oftantalising hints, which the biographer of Raleigh longs to use, butdares not, from their obscurity. These stately verses are plain enough, but show that Chapman was not familiar with the counsels of Elizabeth:

 Then in the Thespiads' bright prophetic font, Methinks I see our Liege rise from her throne, Her ears and thoughts in steep amaze erect, At the most rare endeavour of her power; And now she blesses with her wonted graces The industrious knight, the soul of this exploit, Dismissing him to convoy of his stars:

Chapman was quite misinformed; and to what event he now proceeds torefer, it would be hard to say:

 And now for love and honour of his wrath, Our twice-born nobles bring him, bridegroom like, That is espoused for virtue to his love, With feasts and music ravishing the air, To his Argolian fleet; where round about His bating colours English valour swarms In haste, as if Guianian Orenoque With his full waters fell upon our shore. 

Early in 1596, Raleigh sent Captain Lawrence Keymis, who had been withhim the year before, on a second voyage to Guiana. He did not come homerich, but he did the special thing he was enjoined to do--that is tosay, he explored the coast of South America from the mouth of theOrinoco to that of the Amazon. About the same time Raleigh drew up thevery remarkable paper, not printed until 1843, entitled _Of the Voyagefor Guiana_. In this essay he first makes use of those copiousquotations from Scripture which later on became so characteristic of hiswriting. His hopes of interesting the English Government in Guiana werefinally frustrated by the excitement of the Cadiz expedition, and by themelancholy fate of Sir Francis Drake. It is said that during this winterhe lived in great magnificence at Durham House, but this statement seemsimprobable. All the letters of Raleigh's now in existence, belonging tothis period, are dated from Sherborne. 

CHAPTER V. 

CADIZ. 

The defeat of the Spanish Armada had inflicted a wound upon the prestigeof Spain which was terrible but by no means beyond remedy. In the eightyears which had elapsed since 1588, Spain had been gradually recoveringher forces, and endangering the political existence of Protestant Europemore and more. Again and again the irresolution of Elizabeth had beencalled upon to complete the work of repression, to crush the snake thathad been scotched, to strike a blow in Spanish waters from which Spainnever would recover. In 1587, and in 1589, schemes for a navalexpedition of this kind had been brought before Council, and rejected. In 1596, Charles Lord Howard of Effingham, with the support of Cecil, forced the Government to consent to fit out an armament for the attackof Cadiz. The Queen, however, was scarcely to be persuaded that theexpenditure required for this purpose could be spared from the Treasury. On April 9, levies of men were ordered from all parts of England, and onthe 10th these levies were countermanded, so that the messengers sent onFriday from the Lords to Raleigh's deputies in the West, were pursued onSaturday by other messengers with contrary orders. 

The change of purpose, however, was itself promptly altered, and theoriginal policy reverted to. The Earl of Essex was joined in commissionwith the Lord Admiral Howard, and as a council of war to act with thesepersonages were named Sir Walter Raleigh and Lord Thomas Howard. TheDutch were to contribute a fleet to act with England. It is aninteresting fact that now for the first time the experience and navalskill of Raleigh received their full recognition. From the very first hewas treated with the highest consideration. Howard wrote to Cecil onApril 16--and Essex on the 28th used exactly the same words--'I prayyou, hasten away Sir Walter Raleigh. ' They fretted to be gone, andRaleigh was not to be found; malignant spirits were not wanting toaccuse him of design in his absence, of a wish to prove himselfindispensable. But fortunately we possess his letters, and we see thathe was well and appropriately occupied. In the previous November he hadsent in to the Lords of the Council a very interesting report on thedefences of Cornwall and Devon, which he had reason to suppose thatSpain meant to attack. He considered that three hundred soldierssuccessfully landed at Plymouth would be 'sufficient to endanger anddestroy the whole shire, ' and he discussed the possibility of levyingtroops from the two counties to be a mutual protection. It was doubtlesshis vigour and ability in performing this sort of work which led to hisbeing selected as the chief purveyor of levies for the Cadiz expedition, and this was what he was doing in the spring of 1596, when the creaturesof Essex whispered to one another that he was malingering. 

On May 3, he wrote to Cecil: 'I am not able to live, to row up and downevery tide from Gravesend to London, and he that lies here at Ratcliffcan easily judge when the rest, and how the rest, of the ships may saildown. ' And again, from a lower point of the Thames, at Blackwall, he isstill waiting for men and ships that will not come, and is 'more grievedthan ever I was, at anything in this world, for this cross weather. '

Through the month of May, we may trace Raleigh hard at work, recruitingfor the Cadiz expedition round the southern coast, of England. On the4th he is at Northfleet, disgusted to find how little her Majesty'sauthority is respected, for 'as fast as we press men one day, they comeaway another, and say they will not serve. I cannot write to ourgenerals at this time, for the Pursuevant found me at a country village, a mile from Gravesend, hunting after runaway mariners, and dragging inthe mire from alehouse to alehouse, and could get no paper. ' On the 6thhe was at Queenborough, on the 13th at Dover, whence he reports disasterby a storm on Goodwin Sands, and finally on the 21st he arrived atPlymouth. His last letters are full of recommendations of personalfriends to appointments in the gift or at the command of Sir RobertCecil. He brought with him to Plymouth two of Bacon's cousins, theCookes, and his own wife's brother, Arthur Throckmorton. Unfortunately, just as the fleet was starting, the last-mentioned, 'a hot-headedyouth, ' in presence not only of the four generals, but of the commandersof the Dutch contingent also, took Raleigh's side in some dispute attable so intemperately and loudly that he was dismissed from theservice. This must have been singularly annoying to Raleigh, whonevertheless persuaded his colleagues, no doubt on receipt of dueapology, to restore the young man to his rank, and allow him to proceed. At Cadiz, Throckmorton fought so well that Essex himself knighted him. 

The generals had other troubles at Plymouth. The men that Raleigh hadpressed along the coast hated their duty, and some of them had to betried for desertion and mutiny. Before the fleet got under way, two menwere publicly hanged, to encourage the others, 'on a very fair andpleasant green, called the Hoe. ' At last, on June 1, the squadrons putto sea. Contrary winds kept them within Plymouth Sound until the 3rd. Onthe 20th they anchored in the bay of St. Sebastian, half a league to thewestward of Cadiz. The four English divisions of the fleet contained inall ninety-three vessels, and the Dutch squadron consisted oftwenty-four more. There were about 15, 500 men, that is to say 2, 600Dutchmen, and the rest equally divided between English soldiers andsailors. 

The events of the next few days were not merely a crucial and final testof the relative strength of Spain and England, closing in a brillianttriumph for the latter, but to Raleigh in particular they were theclimax of his life, the summit of his personal prosperity and glory. Therecords of the battle of Cadiz are exceedingly numerous, and were drawnup not by English witnesses only, but by Dutch and Spanish historiansalso. Mr. Edwards has patiently collected them all, and he gives a veryminute and lucid account of their various divergencies. Of them all themost full and direct is that given by Raleigh himself, in his _Relationof the Action in Cadiz Harbour_, first published in 1699. In a biographyof Raleigh it seems but reasonable to view such an event as this fromRaleigh's own standpoint, and the description which now follows ismainly taken from the _Relation_. The joint fleet paused where theAtlantic beats upon the walls of Cadiz, and the Spanish President wroteto Philip II. That they seemed afraid to enter. He added that it formed_la mas hermosa armada que se ha visto_, the most beautiful fleet thatever was seen; and that it was French as well as English and Dutch, which was a mistake. 

Raleigh's squadron was not part of the fleet that excited the admirationof Gutierrez Flores. On the 19th he had been detached, in the words ofhis instructions, 'with the ships under his charge, and the Dutchsquadron, to anchor near the entrance of the harbour, to take care thatthe ships riding near Cadiz do not escape, ' and he took up a positionthat commanded St. Lucar as well as Cadiz. He was 'not to fight, exceptin self-defence, ' without express instructions. At the mouth of St. Lucar he found some great ships, but they lay so near shore that hecould not approach them, and finally they escaped in a mist, Raleighvery nearly running his own vessel aground. Meanwhile Essex and CharlesHoward, a little in front of him, came to the conclusion in his absencethat it would be best to land the soldiers and assault the town, withoutattempting the Spanish fleet. 

Two hours after this determination had been arrived at, much to thedismay of many distinguished persons in the fleet whose position did notpermit them to expostulate, Raleigh arrived to find Essex in the veryact of disembarking his soldiers. There was a great sea on from thesouth, and some of the boats actually sank in the waves, but Essexnevertheless persisted, and was about to effect a landing west of thecity. Raleigh came on board the 'Repulse, ' 'and in the presence of allthe colonels protested against the resolution, ' showing Essex from hisown superior knowledge and experience that by acting in this way he wasrunning a risk of overthrowing 'the whole armies, their own lives, andher Majesty's future safety. ' Essex excused himself, and laid theresponsibility on the Lord Admiral. 

Raleigh having once dared to oppose the generals, he received instantmoral support. All the other commanders and gentlemen present clusteredround him and entreated him to persist. Essex now declared himselfconvinced, and begged Raleigh to repeat his arguments to the LordAdmiral. Raleigh passed on to Howard's ship, 'The Ark Royal, ' and by theevening the Admiral also was persuaded. Returning in his boat, as hepassed the 'Repulse' Raleigh shouted up to Essex 'Intramus, ' and theimpetuous Earl, now as eager for a fight by sea as he had been a fewhours before for a fight by land, flung his hat into the sea for joy, and prepared at that late hour to weigh anchor at once. 

It took a good deal of time to get the soldiers out of the boats, andback into their respective ships. Essex, whom Raleigh seems to hint atunder the cautious word 'many, ' 'seeming desperately valiant, thought ita fault of mine to put off [the attack] till the morning; albeit we hadneither agreed in what manner to fight, nor appointed who should lead, and who should second, whether by boarding or otherwise. ' Raleigh, inhis element when rapid action was requisite, passed to and fro betweenthe generals, and at last from his own ship wrote a hasty letter to theLord Admiral, giving his opinion as to the best way to arrange the orderof battle, and requesting him to supply a couple of great fly-boats toattack each of the Spanish galleons, so that the latter might becaptured before they were set on fire. 

Essex and Howard were completely carried away by Raleigh's vehementcounsels. The Lord Admiral had always shown deference to Raleigh'snautical science, and the Earl was captivated by the qualities he couldbest admire, courage and spirit and rapidity. Raleigh's old faults ofstubbornness and want of tact abandoned him at this happy moment. Hisgraceful courtesy to Essex, his delicacy in crossing dangerous ground, won praise even from his worst enemies, the satellites of Essex. It wasRaleigh's blossoming hour, and all the splendid gifts and vigorouscharms of his brain and character expanded in the sunrise of victory. Late in the busy evening of the 20th, the four leaders held a finalcouncil of war, amiably wrangling among themselves for the post ofdanger. At last the others gave way to what Raleigh calls his 'humblesuit, ' and it was decided that he should lead the van. Essex, LordHoward of Effingham, and the Vice-Admiral, Lord Thomas Howard, were tolead the body of the fleet; but it appeared next morning that theVice-Admiral had but seemed to give way, and that his ambition was stillto be ahead of Raleigh himself. As Raleigh returned to sleep on boardthe 'War Sprite, ' the town of Cadiz was all ablaze with lamps, tapers, and tar barrels, while there came faintly out to the ears of the Englishsailors a murmur of wild festal music. 

Next day was the 21st of June. As Mr. St. John pleasantly says, 'thatSt. Barnabas' Day, so often the brightest in the year, was likewise thebrightest of Raleigh's life. ' At break of day, the amazed inhabitants ofCadiz, and the sailors who had caroused all night on shore and nowhurried on board the galleons, watched the magnificent squadron sweepinto the harbour of their city. First came the 'War Sprite' itself; nextthe 'Mary Rose, ' commanded by Sir George Carew; then Sir Francis Vere inthe 'Rainbow, ' carrying a sullen heart of envy with him; then Sir RobertSouthwell in the 'Lion, ' Sir Conyers Clifford in the 'Dreadnought, ' andlastly, as Raleigh supposed, Robert Dudley (afterwards Duke ofNorthumberland, and a distinguished author on naval tactics) in the'Nonparilla. ' As a matter of fact, the Vice-Admiral, hoping to contriveto push in front, had persuaded Dudley to change ships with him. Thesesix vessels were well in advance of all the rest of the fleet. In frontof them, ranged under the wall of Cadiz, were seventeen galleys lyingwith their prows to flank the English entrance, as Raleigh ploughed ontowards the galleons. The fortress of St. Philip and other forts alongthe wall began to scour the channel, and with the galleys concentratedtheir fire upon the 'War Sprite. ' But Raleigh disdained to do more thansalute the one and then the other with a contemptuous blare of trumpets. 'The "St. Philip, "' he says, 'the great and famous Admiral of Spain, wasthe mark I shot at, esteeming those galleys but as wasps in respect ofthe powerfulness of the others. '

The 'St. Philip' had a special attraction for him. It was six yearssince his dear friend and cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, under the leeof the Azores, with one little ship, the 'Revenge, ' had been hemmed inand crushed by the vast fleet of Spain, and it was the 'St. Philip' andthe 'St. Andrew' that had been foremost in that act of murder. Nowbefore Raleigh there rose the same lumbering monsters of the deep, thatvery 'St. Philip' and 'St. Andrew' which had looked down and watched SirRichard Grenville die, 'as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for hiscountry, queen, religion, and honour. ' It seems almost fabulous that thehour of pure poetical justice should strike so soon, and that Raleigh ofall living Englishmen should thus come face to face with those of allthe Spanish tyrants of the deep. As he swung forward into the harbourand saw them there before him, the death of his kinsman in the Azoreswas solemnly present to his memory, 'and being resolved to be revengedfor the "Revenge, " or to second her with his own life, ' as he says, hecame to anchor close to the galleons, and for three hours the battlewith them proceeded. 

It began by the 'War Sprite' being in the centre and a little to thefront; on the one side, the 'Nonparilla, ' in which Raleigh now perceivedLord Thomas Howard, and the 'Lion;' on the other the 'Mary Rose' and the'Dreadnought;' these, with the 'Rainbow' a little farther off, kept upthe fight alone until ten o'clock in the morning; waiting for thefly-boats, which were to board the galleons, and which, for some reasonor other, did not arrive. Meanwhile, Essex, excited beyond all restraintby the volleys of culverin and cannon, slipped anchor, and passing fromthe body of the fleet, lay close up to the 'War Sprite, ' pushing the'Dreadnought' on one side. Raleigh, seeing him coming, went to meet himin his skiff, and begged him to see that the fly-boats were sent, as thebattery was beginning to be more than his ships could bear. The LordAdmiral was following Essex, and Raleigh passed on to him with the sameentreaty. This parley between the three commanders occupied about aquarter of an hour. 

Meanwhile, the men second in command had taken an unfair advantage ofRaleigh's absence. He hurried back to find that the Vice-Admiral hadpushed the 'Nonparilla' ahead, and that Sir Francis Vere, too, in the'Rainbow, ' had passed the 'War Sprite. ' Finding himself, 'from being thefirst to be but the third, ' Raleigh skilfully thrust in between thesetwo ships, and threw himself in front of them broadside to the channel, so that, as he says, 'I was sure no one should outstart me again, forthat day. ' Finally, Essex and Lord Thomas Howard took the next places. Sir Francis Vere, the marshal, who seems to have been mad forprecedence, 'while we had no leisure to look behind us, secretlyfastened a rope on my ship's side toward him, to draw himself up equallywith me; but some of my company advertising me thereof, I caused it tobe cut off, and so he fell back into his place, whom I guarded, all buthis very prow, from the sight of the enemy. ' In his _Commentaries_ Verehas his revenge, and carefully disparages Raleigh on every occasion. 

For some reason or other, the fly-boats continued to delay, and Raleighbegan to despair of them. What he now determined to do, and what revengehe took for Sir Richard Grenville, may best be told in his own vigorouslanguage:

 Having no hope of my fly-boats to board, and the Earl and my Lord Thomas having both promised to second me, I laid out a warp by the side of the 'Philip' to shake hands with her--for with the wind we could not get aboard; which when she and the rest perceived, finding also that the 'Repulse, ' seeing mine, began to do the like, and the rear-admiral my Lord Thomas, they all let slip, and ran aground, tumbling into the sea heaps of soldiers, as thick as if coals had been poured out of a sack in many ports at once, some drowned and some sticking in the mud. The 'Philip' and the 'St. Thomas' burned themselves; the 'St. Matthew' and the 'St. Andrew' were recovered by our boats ere they could get out to fire them. The spectacle was very lamentable on their side, for many drowned themselves, many, half-burned, leaped into the water; very many hanging by the ropes' end, by the ships' side, under the water even to the lips; many swimming with grievous wounds, stricken under water, and put out of their pain; and withal so huge a fire, and such tearing of the ordnance in the great 'Philip' and the rest, when the fire came to them, as, if a man had a desire to see Hell itself, it was there most lively figured. Ourselves spared the lives of all, after the victory, but the Flemings, who did little or nothing in the fight, used merciless slaughter, till they were by myself, and afterwards by my Lord Admiral, beaten off. 

The official report of the Duke of Medina Sidonia to Philip II. Does notgreatly differ from this, except that he says that the English set fireto the 'St. Philip. ' Before the fight was over Raleigh received a veryserious flesh wound in the leg, 'interlaced and deformed withsplinters, ' which made it impossible for him to get on horseback. Hewas, therefore, to his great disappointment, unable to take part inEssex's land-attack on the town. He could not, however, bear to be leftbehind, and in a litter he was carried into Cadiz. He could only stay anhour on shore, however, for the agony in his leg was intolerable, and inthe tumultuous disorder of the soldiers, who were sacking the town, there was danger of his being rudely pushed and shouldered. He went backto the 'War Sprite' to have his wound dressed and to sleep, and foundthat in the general rush on shore his presence in the fleet was highlydesirable. 

Early next morning, feeling eased by a night's rest, he sent on shore toask leave to follow the fleet of forty carracks bound for the Indies, which had escaped down the Puerto Real river; this navy was said to beworth twelve millions. In the confusion, however, there came back noanswer from Essex or Howard. A ransom of two millions had meanwhile beenoffered for them, but this also, in the absence of his chiefs, Raleighhad no power to accept. While he was thus uncertain, the Duke of MedinaSidonia solved the difficulty on June 23, by setting the whole flock ofhelpless and treasure-laden carracks on fire. From the deck of the 'WarSprite' Raleigh had the mortification of seeing the smoke of thispriceless argosy go up to heaven. The waste had been great, for of allthe galleons, carracks, and frigates of which the great Spanish navy hadconsisted, only the 'St. Matthew' and the 'St. Andrew' had come intactinto the hands of the English. The Dutch sailors, who held back untilthe fight was decided, sprang upon the blazing 'St. Philip, ' and saved agreat part of her famous store of ordnance; while, as Raleigh pleasantlyputs it, 'the two Apostles aforesaid' were richly furnished, and madean agreeable prize to bring back to England. 

The English generals, engaged in sacking the palaces and razing thefortifications of Cadiz, were strangely indifferent to the anxieties oftheir friends at home. In England the wildest rumours passed from mouthto mouth, but it was a fortnight before anyone on the spot thought itnecessary to communicate with the Home Government. It is said thatRaleigh's letter to Cecil, written ten leagues to the west of Cadiz, onJuly 7, and carried to England by Sir Anthony Ashley, contained thefirst intimation of the victory. In this letter Raleigh is careful to dohimself justice with the Queen, and to claim a complete pardon on thescore of services so signal, for it was already patent to him that on afield where every man that would be helped must help himself, hiswounded leg had shut him out of all hope of plunder. The cause of hisstanding so far as ten leagues away from shore was that an epidemic hadbroken out on board his ship. It proved impossible to cope with thisdisease, and so it was determined that on August 1 the 'War Sprite'should return to England, in company with the 'Roebuck' and the 'Johnand Francis. ' On the sixth day they arrived in Plymouth, and Raleighfound that, although seven weeks had elapsed since the victory, noauthentic account of it had hitherto reached the Council. He was notwell, and instead of posting up to London, where he easily perceived hewould not be welcome, he asked pardon for staying with his ship. OnAugust 12 he landed at Weymouth, and passed home to Sherborne. The restof the fleet came back later in the autumn, and Essex, as he passed thecoast of Portugal, swooped down upon the famous library of the Bishop ofAlgarve, which he presented on his return to Sir Thomas Bodley. TheBodleian Library at Oxford is now the chief existing memorial of thatglorious expedition to Cadiz which shattered the naval strength ofSpain. 

As to prize-money, there proved to be very little of it for the captors. It was understood that the Lord Admiral was to have 5, 000_l. _, Essex asmuch, and Raleigh 3, 000_l. _; but Essex, in his proud way, waived hisclaim in favour of the Queen, just in time to escape spoliation, forElizabeth claimed everything. Her scandalous avarice had grown upon heryear by year, and now in her old age her finer and more generousqualities were sapped by her greed for money. Even her political acumenhad failed her; she was unable to see, in her vexation at the loss ofthe Indian carracks, that the blow to Spain had been one which relievedher of a constant and immense anxiety. She determined that no one shouldbe the richer or the nobler for a victory which had resulted in thedestruction of so much treasure which might have flowed into hercoffers. Deeply disappointed at the Queen's surly ingratitude, Raleigh, whom she still refused to see, retired for the next nine months intoabsolute seclusion at Sherborne. 

In his retirement Raleigh continued to remember that his function was, as Oldys put it, 'by his extraordinary undertakings to raise a grove oflaurels, in a manner out of the seas, that should overspread our islandwith glory. ' In October 1596 he was preparing for his third expeditionto Guiana, which he placed under the command of Captain Leonard Berrie. This navigator was absent until the summer of the following year, whenhe returned, not having penetrated to Manoa, but confirming with analmost obsequious report Raleigh's most golden dreams. It is at thistime, after his return from Cadiz, that we find Sir Walter Raleigh'sname mentioned most lavishly by the literary classes in theirdedications and eulogistic addresses. Whether his popularity was at thesame time high with the general public is more easily asserted thanproved, but there is no doubt that the victory at Cadiz was highlyappreciated by the mass of Englishmen, and it is not possible but thatRaleigh's prominent share in it should be generally recognised. 

On January 24, 1597, Raleigh wrote from Sherborne a letter of sympathyto Sir Robert Cecil, on the death of his wife. It is interesting asdisplaying Raleigh's intimacy with the members of a family which washenceforth to hold a prominent place in the chronicle of his life, sinceit was Henry Brooke, Lady Cecil's brother, who became, two months later, at the death of his father, Lord Cobham. It was he and his brotherGeorge Brooke who in 1603 became notorious as the conspirators forArabella Stuart, and who dragged Raleigh down with them. We do not knowwhen Raleigh began to be intimate with the Brookes, and it is just atthis time, when his fortunes had reached their climacteric, and when itwould be of the highest importance to us to follow them closely, thathis personal history suddenly becomes vague. If Cecil's letters to himhad been preserved we should know more. As it is we can but recordcertain isolated facts, and make as much use of them as we can ventureto do. In May 1597, nearly five years after his expulsion, we find himreceived again at Court. Rowland White says, 'Sir Walter Raleigh isdaily in Court, and a hope is had that he shall be admitted to theexecution of his office as Captain of the Guard, before he goes to sea. '

Cecil and Howard of Effingham had obtained this return to favour fortheir friend, and Essex, although his momentary liking for Raleigh hadlong subsided, did not oppose it. He could not, however, be present whenTimias was taken back into the arms of his pardoning Belphoebe. OnJune 1, the Earl of Essex rode down to Chatham, and during his absenceSir Walter Raleigh was conducted by Cecil into the presence of theQueen. She received him very graciously, and immediately authorised himto resume his office of Captain of the Guard. Without loss of time, Raleigh filled up the vacancies in the Guard that very day, and spentthe evening riding with her Majesty. Next morning he made his appearancein the Privy Chamber as he had been wont to do, and his return to favourwas complete. Essex showed, and apparently felt, no very acute chagrin. He was busy in planning another expedition against Spain, and he neededRaleigh's help in arranging for the victualling of the land forces. InJuly all jealousies seemed laid aside, and the gossips of the Courtreported, 'None but Cecil and Raleigh enjoy the Earl of Essex, theycarry him away as they list. '

It lies far beyond the scope of the present biography to discuss theobscure question of 'the conceit of _Richard the Second_' with whichthese three amused themselves just before the Islands Voyage began. Thebare facts are these. On July 6, 1597, Raleigh wrote to Cecil fromWeymouth about the preparations for the expedition, and added: 'Iacquainted the Lord General [Essex] with your letter to me, and yourkind acceptance of your entertainment; he was also wonderful merry atyour conceit of _Richard the Second_. I hope it shall never alter, andwhereof I shall be most glad of, as the true way to all our good, quiet, and advancement, and most of all for His sake whose affairs shallthereby find better progression. ' From this it would seem as thoughCecil had offered a dramatic entertainment to Essex and Raleigh on theirleaving town. This entertainment evidently consisted of Shakespeare'snew tragedy, then being performed at the Globe Theatre and to be enteredfor publication just a month later. When this play was printed it didnot contain what is called the 'Deposition Scene, ' but it would appearthat this was given on the boards at the time when Raleigh refers to it. It will be remembered that in 1601 the lawyers accused Essex of havingfeasted his eyes beforehand with a show of the dethronement of hisliege; but Raleigh's words do not suggest any direct disloyalty. 

Raleigh was in a state of considerable excitement at the prospect of thenew expedition. Cecil wrote, 'Good Mr. Raleigh wonders at his owndiligence, as if diligence and he were not familiars;' and the fact thatRaleigh would sometimes write twice and thrice to him in one day, and ona single occasion at least, four times, proves that Cecil had a right touse this mild sarcasm. Several months before, Raleigh had attempted byhis manifesto entitled _The Spanish Alarum_ to stir up the Government tobe in full readiness to guard against a revengeful invasion of Englandby her old enemy. He had thought out the whole situation, he had plannedthe defences of England by land and sea, and his new favour at Court hadenabled him to put pressure on the royal parsimony, and to insist thatthings should be done as he saw fit. He was perfectly right in thinkingthat Philip II. Would rather suffer complete ruin than not try once moreto recover his position in Europe, but he saw that the late losses atCadiz would force the Catholic king to delay his incursion, and hecounselled a rapid and direct second attack on Spain. As soon as ever hewas restored to power, he began to victual a fleet of ten men-of-warwith biscuit, beef, bacon, and salt fish, and to call for volunteers. Asthe scheme seized the popular mind, however, it gathered in extent, andit was finally decided to fit up three large squadrons, with a Dutchcontingent of twelve ships. These vessels met in Plymouth Sound. 

On the night of Sunday, July 10, the fleet left Plymouth, and kepttogether for twenty-four hours. On the morning of the 12th, after anight of terrific storm, Raleigh found his squadron of four ships partedfrom the rest, and in the course of the next day only one vessel besidehis own was in sight. This tempest was immortalised in his earliestknown poem by John Donne, who was in the expedition, and was describedby Raleigh as follows:

 The storm on Wednesday grew more forcible, and the seas grew very exceeding lofty, so that myself and the Bonaventure had labour enough to beat it up. But the night following, the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the storm so increased, the ships were weighty, the ordnance great, and the billows so raised and enraged, that we could carry out no sail which to our judgment would not have been rent off the yards by the wind; and yet our ships rolled so vehemently, and so disjointed themselves, that we were driven either to force it again with our courses, or to sink. In my ship it hath shaken all her beams, knees, and stanchions well nigh asunder, in so much on Saturday night last we made account to have yielded ourselves up to God. For we had no way to work, either by trying, hauling, or driving, that promised better hope, our men being worsted with labour and watchings, and our ship so open everywhere, all her bulkheads rent, and her very cook-room of brick shaken down into powder. 

Such were the miseries of navigation in the palmy days of Englishadventure by sea. The end of it was that about thirty vessels crept backto Falmouth and Tor Bay, some were lost altogether, and Raleigh, withthe remainder, found harbour on July 18 at Plymouth. For a month theylay there, recovering their forces, and Essex, whose own ship was atFalmouth, came over to Plymouth and was Raleigh's guest on the 'WarSprite. ' Raleigh writes to Cecil: 'I should have taken it unkindly if myLord had taken up any other lodging till the "Lion" come: and now herMajesty may be sure his Lordship shall sleep somewhat the sounder, though he fare the worse, by being with me, for I am an excellentwatchman at sea. ' In this same letter, dated July 26, 1597, the fatalname of Cobham first appears in the correspondence of Raleigh: 'I prayvouchsafe, ' he says, 'to remember me in all affection to my LordCobham. '

On August 18, in the face of a westerly wind, the fleet put out oncemore from Plymouth. In the Bay of Biscay the 'St. Andrew' and the 'St. Matthew' were disabled, and had to be left behind at La Rochelle. Offthe coast of Portugal, Raleigh himself had a serious accident, for hismainyard snapped across, and he had to put in for help by the Rock ofLisbon, in company with the 'Dreadnought. ' Essex left a letter sayingthat Raleigh must follow him as fast as he could to the Azores, and onSeptember 8 the 'War Sprite' came in view of Terçeira. On the 15thRaleigh's squadron joined the main fleet under Essex at Flores. 

The distress of the voyage and its separations had told upon the temperof Essex, while he was surrounded by those who were eager to poison hismind with suspicion of Raleigh. When the latter dined with Essex in the'Repulse' on the 15th, the Earl with his usual impulsiveness made aclean breast of his 'conjectures and surmises, ' letting Raleigh know thevery names of those scandalous and cankered persons who had ventured toaccuse him, and assuring him that he rejected their counsel. On this dayor the next a pinnace from India brought the news that the yearly fleetwas changing its usual course, and would arrive farther south in theAzores. A council of war was held in the 'Repulse, ' and it was resolvedto divide the archipelago among the commanders. Fayal was to be taken byEssex and Raleigh, Graciosa by Howard and Vere, San Miguel by Mountjoyand Blount, while Pico, with its famous wines, was left for theDutchmen. Essex sailed first, and left Raleigh taking in provisions atFlores, where he dined in a small inland town with his old acquaintanceLord Grey, and others, including Sir Arthur Gorges, the minute historianof the expedition. About midnight, when they were safe in their shipsagain, Captain Arthur Champernowne, Raleigh's kinsman, arrived with aletter from Essex desiring Raleigh to come over to Fayal at once, andcomplete his supplies there. With his usual promptitude, he startedinstantly, and soon outstripped Essex. 

When Raleigh arrived in the great harbour of Fayal, the peaceful look ofeverything assured him in a moment that Essex had not yet been heard of. But no sooner did the inhabitants perceive the 'War Sprite' and the'Dreadnought, ' than they began to throw up defences and remove theirvaluables into the interior. It was in the highest degree irksome toRaleigh to wait thus inactive, while this handsome Spanish colony wasslipping from his clutch, but he had been forbidden to move withoutorders. After three days' waiting for Essex, a council of war was heldon board the 'War Sprite. ' On the fourth Raleigh leaped into his bargeat the head of a landing company, refusing the help of the Flemings whowere with him, and stormed the cliffs. It was comparatively easy to gethis troops on shore, but the Spaniards contested the road to the towninch by inch. At last Raleigh and his four hundred and fifty men routedtheir opponents and entered Fayal, a town 'full of fine gardens, orchards, and wells of delicate waters, with fair streets, and one veryfair church;' and allowed his men to plunder it. The English soldiersslept that night in Fayal, and when they woke next morning they saw thetardy squadron of Essex come warping into the harbour at last. Sir GillyMeyrick, the bitterest of the parasites of Essex, slipped into a boatand was on board the 'Repulse' as soon as she anchored, reportingRaleigh's conduct to the Earl. 

Raleigh must have known that Essex was not the man to be pleased at afeat which took all the credit of the Islands Voyage out of his hands;but he feigned unconsciousness. In his barge he came out from Fayal togreet the Earl, and entered the General's cabin. After a faint welcome, Essex began to reproach him with 'a breach of Orders and Articles, ' andto point out to him that in capturing Fayal without authority he hadmade himself liable to the punishment of death. Raleigh replied that hewas exempt from such orders, being, in succession to Essex and LordHoward, himself commander of the whole fleet by the Queen's letterspatent. After a dispute of half an hour, Essex seemed satisfied, andaccepted an invitation to sup with Raleigh on shore. But anothermalcontent, Sir Christopher Blount, obtained his ear, and set hisresentment blazing once more. Essex told Raleigh he should not sup atall that night. Raleigh left the 'Repulse, ' and prepared to separate hissquadron from the fleet, lest an attempt should be made to force him toundergo the indignity of a court-martial. Howard finally made peacebetween the two commanders, and Raleigh was induced to give some sort ofapology for his action. 

The fleet proceeded to St. Miguel, when Raleigh was left to watch theroadstead, while Essex pushed inland. While Raleigh lay here, a greatIndian carrack of sixteen hundred tons, laden with spices, knowingnothing of the English invasion, blundered into the middle of what shetook to be a friendly Spanish fleet. She perceived her mistake just intime to run herself ashore, and disembark her crew. Raleigh at the headof a party of boats attempted to seize her, but her commander set heron fire, and when the Englishmen came close to her she was one dangeroussplendour of flaming perfumes and roaring cannon. Raleigh was morefortunate in securing another carrack laden with cochineal from Cuba. The rest of the Islands Voyage was uneventful and ill-managed. For sometime nothing was heard of the fleet in England, and Lady Raleigh'skrebbled, ' as she spelt it, hasty notes to Cecil begging for news ofher husband. Early in October he came back to England, seriouslyenfeebled in health. The only one of the commanders who gained anyadvantage from the Islands Voyage was the one who had undertaken least, Lord Howard of Effingham, who was raised to the earldom of Nottingham. 

CHAPTER VI. 

LAST DAYS OF ELIZABETH. 

A slight anecdote, which is connected with the month of January 1598, must not be omitted here. It gives us an impression of the personalhabits of Raleigh at this stage of his career. It was the custom of theQueen to go to bed early, and one winter's evening the Earl ofSouthampton, Raleigh, and a man named Parker were playing the game ofprimero in the Presence Chamber, after her Majesty had retired. Theylaughed and talked rather loudly, upon which Ambrose Willoughby, theEsquire of the Body, came out and desired them not to make so muchnoise. Raleigh pocketed his money, and went off, but Southamptonresented the interference, and in the scuffle that ensued Willoughbypulled out a handful of those marjoram-coloured curls that Shakespearepraised. 

It is not easy to see why it was, that in the obscure year 1598, whilethe star of Essex was setting, that of his natural rival did not burnmore brightly. But although now, and for the brief remainder ofElizabeth's life, Raleigh was nominally in favour, the saturnine oldwoman had no longer any tenderness for her Captain of the Guard. Her oldlove, her old friendship, had quite passed away. There was no longer anyexcuse for excluding from her presence so valuable a soldier and sowise a courtier, but her pulses had ceased to thrill at his coming. IfEssex had been half so courteous, half so assiduous as Raleigh, shewould have opened her arms to him, but she had offended Essex pastforgiveness, and his tongue held no parley with her. It must have beenin Raleigh's presence--for he it is who has recorded it in the gravepages of his _Prerogative of Parliament_--that Essex told the Queen'that her conditions were as crooked as her carcass, ' a terrible speechwhich, as Raleigh says, 'cost him his head. ' This was perhaps a littlelater, in 1600. In 1598 these cruel squabbles were already making lifeat Court a misery. The Queen kept Raleigh by her, but would give himnothing. In January he applied for the post of Vice-chamberlain, butwithout success. The new earl, Lord Nottingham, could theatrically wipethe dust from Raleigh's shoes with his cloak, but when Raleigh himselfdesired to be made a peer, in the spring of 1598, he was met with adirect refusal. He would fain have been Lord Deputy in Ireland, but theQueen declined to spare him. On the last day of August he was in thevery act of being sworn on the Privy Council, but at the final momentCecil frustrated this by saying that if he were made a councillor, hemust resign his Captainship of the Guard to Sir George Carew. This was, as Cecil was aware, too great a sacrifice to be thought of, and the heroof Cadiz and Fayal, foiled on every hand, had to submit to remain plainSir Walter Raleigh, Knight. 

As the breach grew between Essex and the Queen, the temper of the formergrew more surly. He dropped the semblance of civility to Raleigh. Inhis _Apothegms_, Lord Bacon has preserved an amusing anecdote ofNovember 17, 1598. On this day, which was the Queen's sixty-fifthbirthday, the leading courtiers, as usual, tilted in the ring in honourof their Liege; the custom of this piece of mock chivalry demanded thateach knight should be disguised. It was, however, known that Sir WalterRaleigh would ride in his own uniform of orange tawny medley, trimmedwith black budge of lamb's wool. Essex, to vex him, came to the listswith a body-guard of two thousand retainers all dressed in orange tawny, so that Raleigh and his men should seem a fragment of the great Essexfollowing. The story goes on to show that Essex digged a pit and fellinto it himself; but enough has been said to prove his malignantintention. We have little else but anecdotes with which to fill up thegap in Raleigh's career between December 1597 and March 1600. This wasan exceedingly quiet period in his life, during which we have to fancyhim growing more and more at enmity with Essex, and more and moreintimate with Cobham. 

In September 1598, an unexpected ally, the Duke of Finland, urgedRaleigh to undertake once more his attempt to colonise Guiana, andoffered twelve ships as his own contingent. Two months later we findthat the hint has been taken, and that Sir John Gilbert is 'preparingwith all speed to make a voyage to Guiana. ' It is said, moreover, that'he intendeth to inhabit it with English people. ' He never started, however, and Raleigh, referring long afterwards to the events of theseyears, said that though Cecil seemed to encourage him in his West Indianprojects, yet that when it came to the point he always, as Raleighquaintly put it, retired into his back-shop. Meanwhile, the interestfelt in Raleigh's narrative was increasing, and in 1599 the well-knowngeographer Levinus Hulsius brought out in Nuremburg a Latin translationof the _Discovery_, with five curious plates, including one of the cityof Manoa, and another of the Ewaipanoma, or men without heads. TheGerman version of the book and its English reprint in Hakluyt's_Navigations_ belong to the same year. Also in 1599, the _Discovery_ wasreproduced in Latin, German, and French by De Bry in the eighth part ofhis celebrated _Collectiones Peregrinationum_. This year, then, in whichwe hardly hear otherwise of Raleigh, marked the height of his success asa geographical writer. So absolutely is the veil drawn over his personalhistory at this time that the only facts we possess are, that onNovember 4 Raleigh was lying sick of an ague, and that on December 13 hewas still ill. 

In the middle of March 1600 Sir Walter and Lady Raleigh left DurhamHouse for Sherborne, taking with them, as a playmate for their sonWalter, Sir Robert Cecil's eldest son, William, afterwards the secondEarl of Salisbury. On the way down to Dorsetshire, they stopped at SionHouse as the guests of the 'Wizard' Earl of Northumberland, a life-longfriend of Raleigh's, and presently to be his most intelligentfellow-prisoner in the Tower. From Sherborne, Raleigh wrote on the 6thof April saying frankly that if her Majesty persisted in excluding himfrom every sort of preferment, 'I must begin to keep sheep betime. ' Hehinted in the same letter that he would accept the Governorship ofJersey, which was expected to fall vacant. The friendship with LordCobham has now become quite ardent, and Lady Raleigh vies with herhusband in urging him to pay Sherborne a visit. Later on in April theRaleighs went to Bath apparently for no other reason than to meet Cobhamthere. Here is a curious note from Raleigh to the most dangerous of hisassociates, written from Bath on April 29, 1600:

 Here we attend you and have done this sevennight, and we still mourn your absence, the rather because we fear that your mind is changed. I pray let us hear from you at least, for if you come not we will go hereby home, and make but short tarrying here. My wife will despair ever to see you in these parts, if your Lordship come not now. We can but long for you and wish you as our own lives whatsoever. 

 Your Lordship's everest faithful, to honour you most, W. RALEGH. 

Raleigh's absence from Court was so lengthy, that it was whispered inthe early summer that he was in disgrace, that the Queen had called him'something worse than cat or dog, ' namely, 'fox. ' The absurdity of thiswas proved early in July by his being hurriedly called to town toaccompany Cobham and Northumberland on their brief and fruitless visitto Ostend. The friends started from Sandwich on July 11, and werereceived in the Low Countries by Lord Grey; they were entertained atOstend with extraordinary respect, but they gained nothing of politicalor diplomatic value. Affairs in Ireland, connected with the Spanishinvasion, occupied Raleigh's mind and pen during this autumn, but hepaid no visit to his Munster estates. There were plots and counterplotsdeveloping in various parts of these islands in the autumn of 1600, butwith none of these subterranean activities is Raleigh for the presentto be identified. 

When Sir Anthony Paulet died, on August 26, 1600, Raleigh had thesatisfaction of succeeding him in the Governorship of Jersey. He hadasked for the reversion of this post, and none could be found moreappropriate to his powers or circumstances. It gave him once more theopportunity to cultivate his restless energy, to fly hither and thitherby sea and land, and to harry the English Channel for Spaniards as aterrier watches a haystack for rats. Weymouth, which was the Englishpostal port for Jersey, was also the natural harbour of Sherborne, andRaleigh had been accustomed, as it was, to keep more than one vesselthere. The appointment in Jersey was combined with a gift of the manorof St. Germain in that island, but the Queen thought it right, inconsideration of this present, to strike off three hundred pounds fromthe Governor's salary. Cecil was Raleigh's guest at Sherborne when theappointment was made, and Raleigh waited until he left before startingfor his new charge; all this time young William Cecil continued atSherborne for his health. At last, late in September, Sir Walter andLady Raleigh went down to Weymouth, and took with them their little sonWalter, now about six years old. The day was very fine, and the motherand son saw the new Governor on board his ship. He was kept at seaforty-eight hours by contrary winds, but reached Jersey at last on anOctober morning. 

Raleigh wrote home to his wife that he never saw a pleasanter islandthan Jersey, but protested that it was not in value the very third partof what had been reported. One of his first visits was to the castle ofMont Orgueil, which had been rebuilt seven years before. His intentionhad been to destroy it, but he was so much struck with its statelyarchitecture and commanding position that he determined to spare it, andin fact he told off a detachment of his men then and there to guard it. Raleigh's work in Jersey was considerable. While he remained governor, he established a trade between the island and Newfoundland, undertook toregister real property according to a definite system, abolished theunpopular compulsory service of the Corps de Garde, and lightened inmany directions the fiscal burdens which previous governors had laid onthe population. Raleigh's beneficent rule in Jersey lasted just threeyears. 

While he was absent on this his first visit to the island, Lady Raleighat Sherborne received news from Cecil of the partial destruction ofDurham House by a fire, which had broken out in the old stables. None ofthe Raleigh valuables were injured, but Lady Raleigh suggests that it ishigh time something were definitely settled about property in this'rotten house, ' which Sir Walter was constantly repairing and improvingwithout possessing any proper lease of it. As a matter of fact, when thecrash came, Durham House was the first of his losses. Early in November1600, Raleigh was in Cornwall, improving the condition of thetin-workers, and going through his duties in the Stannaries Court ofLostwithiel. We find him protecting private enterprise on Roborough Downagainst the borough of Plymouth, which desired to stop the tin-works, and the year closes with his activities on behalf of the 'establishmentof good laws among tinners. '

The first two months of 1601 were occupied with the picturesque tragedyof Essex's trial and execution. It seems that Raleigh was at lastprovoked into open enmity by the taunts and threats of the Lord Marshal. Among the strange acts of Essex, none had been more strange than hisextraordinary way of complaining, like a child, of anyone who mightdisplease him. In his letter to the Queen on June 25, 1599, he openlynamed Raleigh and Cobham as his enemies and the enemies of England; notreflecting that both of these personages were in the Queen's confidence, and that he was out of it. We may presume that it was more than Raleighcould bear to be shown a letter addressed to the Queen in which Essexdeliberately accused him of 'wishing the ill success of your Majesty'smost important action, the decay of your greatest strength, and thedestruction of your faithfullest servants. ' There were some thingsRaleigh could not forgive, and the accusation that he favoured Spain wasone of these. Shut up among his creatures in his house in the Strand, and refused all communication with Elizabeth, Essex thought noaccusation too libellous to spread against the trio who held the royalear, against Raleigh, Cecil, and Cobham, whose daggers, he said, werethirsting for his blood. 

It was probably in the summer of 1600 that Raleigh wrote the curiousletter of advice to Cecil which forms the only evidence we possess thathe had definitely come to the decision that Essex must die. His languageadmits of no doubt of his intention. He says:

 If you take it for a good counsel to relent towards this tyrant, you will repent it when it shall be too late. His malice is fixed, and will not evaporate by any of your mild courses. For he will ascribe the alteration to her Majesty's pusillanimity and not to your good nature, knowing that you work but upon her humour, and not out of any love towards him. The less you make him, the less he shall be able to harm you and yours; and if her Majesty's favour fail him, he will again decline to a common person. For after-revenges, fear them not, for your own father was esteemed to be the contriver of Norfolk's ruin, yet his son followeth your father's son and loveth him. 

This advice has been stigmatised as worse than ungenerous. It was, atall events, extremely to the point, and it may be suggested that forRaleigh and Cecil the time for showing generosity to Essex was past. They took no overt steps, however, but it is plain that they keptthemselves informed of the mad meetings that went on in Essex House. Onthe morning before the insurrection was to break out, February 18, 1601, Raleigh sent a note to his kinsman, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who was oneof Essex's men, to come down to Durham House to speak with him. Gorges, startled at the message, consulted Essex, who advised him to say that hewould meet Raleigh, not at Durham House, but half-way, on the river. Raleigh assented to this, and came alone, while Gorges, with two othergentlemen, met him. Raleigh told his cousin that a warrant was out toseize him, and advised him to leave London at once for Plymouth. Gorgessaid it was too late, and a long conversation ensued, in the course ofwhich a boat was seen to glide away from Essex stairs and to approachthem. Upon this Gorges pushed Raleigh's boat away, and bid him hastenhome. As he rowed off towards Durham House, four shots from the secondboat missed him; it had been manned by Sir Christopher Blount, who, with three or four servants of Essex, had come out to capture or elsekill Raleigh. 

For this treason Blount asked and obtained Raleigh's pardon a few dayslater, on the scaffold. At the last moment of his life, Essex also haddesired to speak with Raleigh, having already solemnly retracted theaccusations he had made against him; but it is said that this message ofpeace was not conveyed to Raleigh until it was too late. According toRaleigh's own account, he had been standing near the scaffold, onpurpose to see whether Essex would address him, and had retired becausehe was not spoken to. His words in 1618 were these:

 It is said I was a persecutor of my Lord of Essex; that I puffed out tobacco in disdain when he was on the scaffold. But I take God to witness I shed tears for him when he died. I confess I was of a contrary faction, but I knew he was a noble gentleman. Those that set me up against him, did afterwards set themselves against me. 

Raleigh was accused of barbarity by the adherents of Essex, but there isnothing to rebut the testimony of one of his own greatest enemies, Blount, who confessed, a few minutes before he died, that he did notbelieve Sir Walter Raleigh intended to assassinate the Earl, nor thatEssex himself feared it, 'only it was a word cast out to colour othermatters. ' We are told that Raleigh suffered from a profound melancholyas he was rowed back from the Tower to Durham House after the executionof Essex, and that it was afterwards believed that he was visited atthat time by a presentiment of his own dreadful end. 

During the summer of 1601, Raleigh became involved in a vexatiousquarrel between certain of his own Dorsetshire servants. The man Meeres, whom he had appointed as bailiff of the Sherborne estates nine yearsbefore, after doing trusty service to his master, had gradually becomeaggressive and mutinous. He disliked the presence of Adrian Gilbert, Raleigh's brother, who had been made Constable of Sherborne Castle, andwho overlooked Meeres on all occasions. There began to be constant pettyquarrels between the bailiff of the manor and the constable of thecastle, and when Raleigh at last dismissed the former bailiff andappointed another, Meeres put himself under the protection of an oldenemy of Raleigh's, Lord Thomas Howard, now Lord Howard of Bindon, andrefused to quit. In the month of August, Meeres audaciously arrested therival bailiff, whereupon Raleigh had Meeres himself put in the stocks inthe market-place of Sherborne. The town took Raleigh's side, and whenMeeres was released, the people riotously accompanied him to his house, with derisive cries. When Raleigh was afterward attainted, Meeres tookall the revenge he could, and succeeded in making himself not a littleoffensive to Lady Raleigh. Sir Walter Raleigh's letters testify to thegreat annoyance this man gave him. It appears that Meeres' wife, 'abroken piece, but too good for such a knave, ' was a kinswoman of LadyEssex, and the most curious point is that Raleigh thought that Meereswas trained to forge his handwriting. He tells Cecil:

 The Earl did not make show to like Meeres, nor admit him to his presence, but it was thought that secretly he meant to have used him for some mischief against me; and, if Essex had prevailed, he had been used as the counterfeiter, for he writes my hand so perfectly that I cannot any way discern the difference. [7]

Meeres was ready in the law, and during the month of September senttwenty-six subpoenas down to Sherborne. But on October 3 he wassubdued for the time being, and wrote to Cecil from his prison in theGatehouse that he was very sorry for what he had said so 'furiously andfoolishly' about Sir Walter Raleigh, and begged for a mercifulconsideration of it. He was pardoned, but he proved a troublesomescoundrel then and afterwards. 

Early in September 1601, Raleigh came up on business from Bath toLondon, meaning to return at once, but found himself unexpectedly calledupon to stay and fulfil a graceful duty. Henry IV. Of France, being atCalais, had sent the Duc de Biron, with a retinue of three hundredpersons, to pay a visit of compliment to Elizabeth. It was importantthat the French favourite should be well received in England, but no oneexpected him in London, and the Queen was travelling. Sir Arthur Savageand Sir Arthur Gorges were the Duke's very insufficient escort, untilRaleigh fortunately made his appearance and did the honours of London inbetter style. He took the French envoys to Westminster Abbey, and, totheir greater satisfaction, to the Bear Garden. The Queen was nowstaying, as the guest of the Marquis of Winchester, at Basing, and so, on September 9, Raleigh took the Duke and his suite down to the Vine, ahouse in Hampshire, where he was royally entertained. The Queen visitedthem here, and on the 12th they all came over to stay with her at BasingPark. By the Queen's desire, Raleigh wrote to Cobham, who had stayed atBath, to come over to Basing and help to entertain the Frenchmen; headded, that in three or four days the visit would be over, and he andCobham could go back to Bath together. The letters of Raleigh display anintimate friendship between Lord Cobham and himself which is not to beoverlooked in the light of coming events. The French were all dressed inblack, a colour Raleigh did not possess in his copious wardrobe, so thathe had to order the making of a black taffeta suit in a hurry, to fetchwhich from London he started back late on Saturday night after bringingthe Duke safe down to Basing. It was on the next day, if the Frenchambassador said true, that he had the astounding conversation withElizabeth about Essex, at the end of which, after railing against herdead favourite, she opened a casket and produced the very skull ofEssex. The subject of the fall of favourites was one in which Bironshould have taken the keenest interest. Ten months later he himself, abandoned by his king, came to that frantic death in front of theBastille which Chapman presented to English readers in the most majesticof his tragedies. The visit to Elizabeth occupies the third act of_Byron's Conspiracy_, which, published in 1608, contains of course noreference to Raleigh's part on that occasion. 

It may be that in the autumn of 1601, James of Scotland first becameactively cognisant of Raleigh's existence. Spain was once more givingElizabeth anxiety, and threatening an invasion which actually tookplace on September 21, at Kinsale. By means of the spies which he keptin the Channel, Raleigh saw the Spanish fleet advancing, and warned theGovernment, though his warnings were a little too positive in pointingout Cork and Limerick as the points of attack. Meanwhile, he wrote outfor the Queen's perusal a State paper on _The Dangers of a SpanishFaction in Scotland_. This paper has not been preserved, but the rumourof its contents is supposed to have frightened James in hiscorrespondence with Rome, and to have made him judge it prudent to offerElizabeth three thousand Scotch troops against the invader. Raleigh'scasual remarks with regard to Irish affairs at this critical time, as wefind them in his letters to Cecil, are not sympathetic or even humane, and there is at least one passage which looks very much like a licensingof assassination; yet it is certain that Raleigh, surveying from hisremote Sherborne that Munster which he knew so well, took in the salientfeatures of the position with extraordinary success. In almost everyparticular he showed himself a true prophet with regard to the Irishrising of 1601. 

In November the Duke of Lennox came somewhat hastily to London fromParis, entrusted with a very delicate diplomatic commission from Jamesof Scotland to Elizabeth. It is certain that he saw Raleigh and Cobham, and that he discussed with them the thorny question of the succession tothe English throne. It moreover appears that he found their intentions'traitorous to the King, ' that is to say unfavourable to the candidatureof James. The whole incident is exceedingly dark, and the particulars ofit rest mainly on a tainted authority, that of Lord Henry Howard. Itmay be conjectured that what really happened was that the Duke ofLennox, learning that Raleigh was in town, desired Sir Arthur Savage tointroduce him; that he then suggested a private conference, which wasfirst refused, then granted, in Cobham's presence, at Durham House; thatRaleigh refused King James's offers, and went and told Cecil that he haddone so. Cecil, however, chose to believe that Raleigh was keepingsomething back from him, and his attitude from this moment growssensibly colder to Raleigh, and he speaks of Raleigh's 'ingratitude, 'though it is not plain what he should have been grateful for to Cecil. 

It was now thirteen years since Raleigh had abandoned the hope ofcolonising Virginia, though his thoughts had often reverted to thatsavage country, of which he was the nominal liege lord. In 1602 he madea final effort to assert his authority there. He sent out a certainSamuel Mace, of whose expedition we know little; and about the same timehis nephew, Bartholomew Gilbert, with an experienced mariner, CaptainGosnoll, went to look for the lost colony and city of Raleigh. Theselatter started in a small barque on March 26, but though they enjoyed aninteresting voyage, they never touched Virginia at all. They discoveredand named Martha's Vineyard, and some other of the islands in the samegroup; then, after a pleasant sojourn, they came back to England, andlanded at Exmouth on July 23. It was left for another than Raleigh, while he was impoverished and a prisoner in the Tower, to carry out thedream of Virginian settlement. Perhaps the most fortunate thing thatcould have happened to Raleigh would have been for him to havepersonally conducted to the West this expedition of 1602. To have beenout of England when the Queen died might have saved him from the calumnyof treason. 

It has been supposed that Raleigh was a complete loser by these vainexpeditions. But a passage in a letter of August 21, 1602, shows us thatthis was not the fact. He says: 'Neither of them spake with the people, 'that is, with the lost Virginian colonists, 'but I do send both thebarques away again, having saved the charge in sassafras wood. ' From thesame letter we find that Gilbert and Gosnoll went off without Raleigh'sleave, though in his ship and at his expense, and the latter thereforeprays that his nephew may be stripped of his rich store of sassafras andcedar wood, partly in chastisement, but more for fear of overstockingthe London market. He throws Gilbert over, and speaks angrily of him notas a kinsman, but as 'my Lord Cobham's man;' then relents in apostscript--'_all_ is confiscate, but he shall have his part again. '

Raleigh was feeble in health and irritable in temper all this time. LadyRaleigh, with a woman's instinct, tried to curb his ambition, and tiehim down to Sherborne. 'My wife says that every day this place amends, and London, to her, grows worse and worse. ' Meanwhile, there is reallynot an atom of evidence to show that Raleigh was engaged in anypolitical intrigue. He spent the summer and autumn of 1602, when he wasnot at Sherborne, in going through the round of his duties. All themonth of July he spent in Jersey, 'walking in the wilderness, ' as hesays, hearing from no one, and troubled in mind by vague rumours, blownover to him from Normandy, of the disgrace of the Duc de Biron. He isalso 'much pestered with the coming of many Norman gentlemen, but cannotprevent it. ' On August 9, he left Jersey, in his ship the 'Antelope, 'fearing if he stayed any longer to exhaust her English stores, and getno more 'in this poor island. ' On landing at Weymouth on the 12th, hewrote inviting Cecil and Northumberland to meet him at Bath. He wasjustly exasperated to find that during his absence Lord Howard of Bindonhad once more taken up the wicked steward, Meeres, and persuaded SirWilliam Peryam, the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, to try the suit again. Raleigh complains to Cecil:

 I never busied myself with the Lord Viscount's [Lord Bindon's] wealth, nor of his extortions, nor poisoning of his wife, as is here avowed, have I spoken. I have foreborne . .. But I will not endure wrong at so peevish a fool's hands any longer. I will rather lose my life, and I think that my Lord Puritan Peryam doth think that the Queen shall have more use of rogues and villains than of men, or else he would not, at Bindon's instances, have yielded to try actions against me being out of the land. 

The vexation was a real one, but this is the language of a petulantinvalid, of a man to whom the grasshopper has become a burden. We aretherefore not surprised to find him at Bath on September 15, so ill thathe can barely write a note to Cecil warning him of the approach of aSpanish fleet, the news of which has just reached him from Jersey. Hegrew little better at Bath, and in October we find him again atSherborne, in very low spirits, sending by Cobham to the Queen a stonewhich Bartholomew Gilbert had brought from America, and which Raleightook to be a diamond. Immediately after this, he set out on what hecalls his 'miserable journey into Cornwall, ' no other than his customaryautumn circuit through the Stannary Courts. Once he had enjoyed thesebracing rides over the moors, but his animal spirits were subdued, andthe cold mosses, the streams to be forded, the dripping October woods, and the chilly granite judgment-seat itself, had lost their attractionfor his aching joints. In November, however, he is back at Sherborne, restored to health, and intending to linger in Dorsetshire as long as hecan, 'except there be cause to hasten me up. '

Meanwhile he had paid a brief visit to London, and had spoken with theQueen, as it would appear, for the last time. Cecil, who was alsopresent, has recorded in a letter of November 4 this interview, whichtook place the previous day. On this last occasion Elizabeth soughtRaleigh's advice on her Irish policy. The President of Munster hadreported that he had seen fit to 'kill and hang divers poor men, women, and children appertaining' to Cormac MacDermod McCarthy, Lord ofMuskerry, and to burn all his castles and villages from Carrigrohan toInchigeelagh. Cecil was inclined to think that severity had been pushedtoo far, and that the wretched Cormac might be left in peace. ButElizabeth had long been accustomed to turn to Raleigh for advice on herIrish policy. He gave, as usual, his unflinching constant counsel fordrastic severity. He 'very earnestly moved her Majesty of all others toreject Cormac MacDermod, first, because his country was worth herkeeping, secondly, because he lived so under the eye of the State that, whensoever she would, it was in her power to suppress him. ' This last, one would think, might have been an argument for mercy. The Queeninstructed Cecil to tell Sir George Carew, that whatever pardon wasextended to others, none might be shown to Cormac. 

It was in the same spirit of rigour that Raleigh had for two years pastadvised the retention of the gentle and learned Florence MacCarthy inthe Tower, as 'a man reconciled to the Pope, dangerous to the presentState, beloved of such as seek the ruin of the realm;' and this at thevery time when MacCarthy, trusting in his twenty years' acquaintancewith Raleigh, was praying Cecil to let him be his judge. Raleigh littlethought that the doors which detained Florence MacCarthy would soon openfor a moment to inclose himself, and that in two neighbouring cellsthrough long years of captivity the _History of the World_ would growbeside the growing _History of the Early Ages of Ireland_. 

In this year, 1602, Raleigh parted with his vast Irish estates toRichard Boyle, afterwards Earl of Cork, and placed the purchase-money inprivateering enterprises. It is known that Cecil had an interest in thisfleet of merchantmen, and as late as January 1603 he writes about acruiser in which Raleigh and he were partners, begging Raleigh, fromprudential reasons, to conceal the fact that Cecil was in the adventure. There was no abatement whatever in the friendliness of Cecil's tone toRaleigh, although in his own crafty mind he had decided that the deathof the Queen should set the term to Raleigh's prosperity. On March 30, 1603, Elizabeth died, and with her last breath the fortune and even thepersonal safety of Raleigh expired. 

We may pause here a moment to consider what was Raleigh's condition andfame at this critical point in his life. He was over fifty years of age, but in health and spirits much older than his time of life suggested;his energy had shown signs of abatement, and for five years he had donenothing that had drawn public attention strongly to his gifts. If he haddied in 1603, unattainted, in peace at Sherborne, it is a questionwhether he would have attracted the notice of posterity in any verygeneral degree. To close students of the reign of Elizabeth he wouldstill be, as Mr. Gardiner says, 'the man who had more genius than allthe Privy Council put together. ' But he would not be to us all theembodiment of the spirit of England in the great age of Elizabeth, theforemost man of his time, the figure which takes the same place in thefield of action which Shakespeare takes in that of imagination and Baconin that of thought. For this something more was needed, the long tortureof imprisonment, the final crown of judicial martyrdom. The slow tragedyclosing on Tower Hill is the necessary complement to his greatness. 

All this it is easy to see, but it is more difficult to understand whatcircumstances brought about a condition of things in which such atragedy became possible. We must realise that Raleigh was a man ofsevere speech and reserved manner, not easily moved to be gracious, constantly reproving the sluggish by his rapidity, and galling the dullby his wit. All through his career we find him hard to get on with, proud to his inferiors, still more crabbed to those above him. If policyrequired that he should use the arts of a diplomatist, he overplayed hispart, and stung his rivals to the quick by an obsequiousness in speechto which his eyes and shoulders gave the lie. With all his wealth andinfluence, he missed the crowning points of his ambition; he never satin the House of Peers, he never pushed his way to the council board, henever held quite the highest rank in any naval expedition, he neverruled with only the Queen above him even in Ireland. He who of all menhated most and deserved least to be an underling, was forced to play thesubordinate all through the most brilliant part of his variegated lifeof adventure. It was only for a moment, at Cadiz or Fayal, that by adoubtful breach of prerogative he struggled to the surface, to sinkagain directly the achievement was accomplished. This soured and wouldprobably have paralysed him, but for the noble stimulant of misfortune;and to the temper which this continued disappointment produced, we mustlook for the cause of his unpopularity. 

It is difficult, as we have said, to understand how it was that he hadthe opportunity to become unpopular. From one of his latest letters inElizabeth's reign we gather that the tavern-keepers throughout thecountry considered Raleigh at fault for a tax which was really insistedon by the Queen's rapacity. He prays Cecil to induce Elizabeth to remitit, for, he says, 'I cannot live, nor show my face out of my doors, without it, nor dare ride through the towns where these tavernersdwell. ' This is the only passage which I can find in his publishedcorrespondence which accounts in any degree for the fact that wepresently find Raleigh beyond question the best-hated man inEngland. [8]

CHAPTER VII. 

THE TRIAL AT WINCHESTER. 

Raleigh was in the west when the Queen died, and he had no opportunityof making the rush for the north which emptied London of its nobility inthe beginning of April. King James had reached Burghley before Raleigh, in company with his old comrade Sir Robert Crosse, met him on hissouthward journey. It was necessary that he should ask the new monarchfor a continuation of his appointments in Devon and Cornwall; his postsat Court he had probably made up his mind to lose. One of the blankforms which the King had sent up to be signed by Cecil, nominallyexcusing the recipient from coming to meet James, had been sent toRaleigh, and this was of evil omen. The King received him ungraciously, and Raleigh did not make the situation better by explaining the cause ofhis disobedience. James, it is said, admitted in a blunt pun that he hadbeen prejudiced against the late Queen's favourite; 'on my soul, man, 'he said, 'I have heard but _rawly_ of thee. ' Raleigh was promisedletters of continuance for the Stannaries, but was warned to take nomeasures with regard to the woods and parks of the Duchy of Cornwalluntil further orders. After the first rough greeting, James was fairlycivil, but on April 25 privately desired Sir Thomas Lake to settleRaleigh's business speedily, and send him off. 

In the first week of May, Sir Walter Raleigh was informed by the Councilthat the King had chosen Sir Thomas Erskine to be Captain of the Guard. It was the most natural thing in the world that James should select anold friend and a Scotchman for this confidential post, and Raleigh, asthe Council Book records, 'in a very humble manner did submit himself. 'To show that no injury to his fortunes was intended, the King waspleased to remit the tax of 300_l. _ a year which Elizabeth had chargedon Raleigh's salary as Governor of Jersey. There does not seem to be anyevidence that Raleigh was led into any imprudent action by all thesechanges. Mr. Gardiner appears to put some faith in a despatch ofBeaumont's to Villeroi, on May 2, according to which Raleigh was in sucha rage at the loss of one of his offices, that he rushed into the King'spresence, and poured out accusations of treason against Cecil. I cannotbut disbelieve this story; the evidence all goes to prove that he stillregarded Cecil, among the crowd of his enemies, as at least half hisfriend. On May 13, Cecil was raised to the peerage, as a sign of royalfavour. 

Lady Raleigh had always regretted the carelessness with which herhusband expended money upon Durham House, his town mansion, without eversecuring a proper lease of it. Her prognostications of evil were soonfulfilled. James I. Was hardly safe on his throne before the Bishop ofDurham demanded the restitution of the ancient town palace of his see. On May 31, 1603, a royal warrant announced that Durham House was to berestored to the Bishop--'the said dwellers in it having no right to thesame'--and Sir Walter Raleigh was warned to give quiet possession of thehouse to such as the Bishop might appoint. Raleigh, much incommoded atso sudden notice to quit, begged to be allowed to stay until Michaelmas. The Bishop considered this very unreasonable, and would grant him nolater date than June 23. In this dilemma Raleigh appealed to the LordsCommissioners, saying that he had spent 2, 000_l. _ on the house, and that'the poorest artificer in London hath a quarter's warning given him byhis landlord. ' It is interesting to us, as giving us a notion ofRaleigh's customary retinue, that he says he has already laid inprovision for his London household of forty persons and nearly twentyhorses. 'Now to cast out my hay and oats into the streets at an hour'swarning, ' for the Bishop wanted to occupy the stables at once, 'and toremove my family and stuff in fourteen days after, is such a severeexpulsion as hath not been offered to any man before this day. ' Whatbecame of his chattels, and what lodging he found for his family, isuncertain; he gained no civility by his appeal. That he was disturbed bythe Bishop, and busily engaged in changing houses all through June, isnot unimportant in connection with the accusation, at the trial, that hehad spent so much of this month plotting with Cobham and Aremberg atDurham House. 

It was plain that he was not judicious in his behaviour to James. At alltimes he had been an advocate of war rather than peace, even when peacewas obviously needful. Spain, too, was written upon his heart, as Calaishad been on Mary's, and even at this untoward juncture he must needsthrust his enmity on unwilling ears. It is hardly conceivable that heshould not know that James was deeply involved with promises to theCatholics; and though the King had said, in the face of his welcome toEngland, that he should not need them now, he had no intention ofexasperating them. As to Spain, the King was simply waiting forovertures from Madrid. Raleigh, who was never a politician, saw nothingof all this, and merely used every opportunity he had of gaining theKing's ear to urge his distasteful projects of a war. On the lastoccasion when, so far as we know, Raleigh had an interview with James, they were both the guests of Raleigh's uncle, Sir Nicholas Carew, atBedingfield Park. It would seem that he had already placed in the royalhands the manuscript of his _Discourse touching War with Spain, and ofthe Protecting of the Netherlands_, and he offered to raise two thousandmen at his own expense, and to lead them in person against Spain. JamesI. Must have found this persistence, especially from a man against whomhe had formed a prejudice, exceedingly galling. No doubt, too, longfamiliarity with Queen Elizabeth in the decline of her powers, had givenRaleigh a manner in approaching royalty which was not to James's liking. 

In July the King's Catholic troubles reached a head. Watson's plot, involving Copley and the young Lord Grey de Wilton, occupied the PrivyCouncil during that month, and it was discovered that George Brooke, ayounger brother of Lord Cobham's, was concerned in it. The Brookes, itwill be remembered, were the brothers-in-law of Cecil himself, but bythis time completely estranged from him. It is more interesting to usto note that Cobham himself was the only intimate friend left toRaleigh. With extraordinary rapidity Raleigh himself was drawn into thenet of Watson's misdoings. Copley was arrested on the 6th, and firstexamined on July 12. He incriminated George Brooke, who was arrested onthe 14th. Cobham, who was busy on his duties as Lord Warden of theCinque Ports, was brought up for examination on the 15th or 16th; and onthe 17th, [9] Sir Walter Raleigh, who, it is said, had given informationregarding Cobham, was himself arrested at Windsor. 

Raleigh was walking to and fro on the great terrace at Windsor on themorning of July 17, 1603, waiting to ride with the King, when Cecil cameto him and requested his presence in the Council Chamber. What happenedthere is unknown, but it is plain amid the chaos of conflictingtestimony that Cecil argued that what George Brooke knew Cobham mustknow, and that Raleigh was privy to all Cobham's designs. What form theaccusation finally took, we shall presently see. When it was overRaleigh wrote a letter to the Council, in which he made certain randomstatements with regard to offers made to Cobham about June 9 by acertain attendant of Count Aremberg, the ambassador of the ArchdukeAlbert. From the windows of Durham House he had seen, he said, Cobham'sboat cross over to the Austrian's lodgings in St. Saviour's. He probablyfelt himself forced to state this from finding that the Council alreadyknew something of Cobham's relations with Aremberg. Still, in the lightof later events, the writing of this letter may seem to us a gravemistake. It was instantly shown, on the very next day, to Cobham, anddoctored in such a way as to make the latter suppose that Raleigh hadgratuitously betrayed him. 

On the day that Raleigh was arrested, July 17, George Brooke said inexamination that 'the conspirators among themselves thought Sir WalterRaleigh a fit man to be of the action. ' This did not amount to much, butBrooke soon became more copious and protested a fuller tale day by day. Nothing, however, that could touch Raleigh was obtained from any witnessuntil, on the 20th, Lord Cobham, who had been thoroughly frightened bydaily cross-examination, was shown the letter, or part of the letter, from Raleigh to Cecil to which reference has just been made. He thenbroke out with, 'O traitor! O villain! now will I tell you all thetruth!' and proceeded at once to say that 'he had never entered intothose courses but by Raleigh's instigation, and that he would never lethim alone!' This accusation he entirely retracted nine days later, inconsequence of some expostulation from Raleigh which had found its wayfrom one prisoner to the other, for Raleigh was by this time safe in theTower of London. 

It is most probable that he was taken thither on July 18, immediatelyafter his arrest. On the 20th, after Cobham's formal accusation, he wasevidently more strictly confined, and it must have been immediatelyafter receiving news of this charge that he attempted to commit suicide. He would be told of Cobham's words, in all likelihood, on the morning ofthe 21st; he would write the letter to his wife after meditating on theresults of his position, and then would follow the scene that Cecildescribes in a letter dated fifteen days later:

 Although lodged and attended as well as in his own house, yet one afternoon, while divers of us were in the Tower, examining these prisoners, Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to have murdered himself. Whereof when we were advertised, we came to him, and found him in some agony, seeming to be unable to endure his misfortunes, and protesting innocency, with carelessness of life. In that way, he had wounded himself under the right pap, but no way mortally. 

There is no reason whatever for supposing that this was not a genuineattempt at suicide. We can have no difficulty in entering into the moodof Raleigh's mind. Roused to fresh energy by misfortune, his brain andwill had of late once more become active, and he was planning adventuresby land and sea. If James did oust him from his posts about the Court infavour of leal Scotchmen, Raleigh would brace himself by some freshexpedition against Cadiz, some new settlement of Virginia or Guiana. Inthe midst of such schemes, the blow of his unexpected arrest would comeupon him out of the blue. He could bear poverty, neglect, hardships, even death itself; but imprisonment, with a disgraceful execution as theonly end of it, that he was not at first prepared to endure. He hadtasted captivity in the Tower once before; he knew the intolerabletedium and fret of it; and the very prospect maddened him. Nor would histhoughts be only or mainly of himself. He would reflect that if he wereonce condemned, nothing but financial ruin and social obloquy wouldattend his wife and children; and this it was which inspired thepassionate and pathetic letter which he addressed to Lady Raleigh justbefore he stabbed himself. This letter seems to close the real life ofRaleigh. He was to breathe, indeed, for fifteen years more, but only ina sort of living death. He begins thus distractedly:

 Receive from thy unfortunate husband these his last lines: these the last words that ever thou shalt receive from him. That I can live never to see thee and my child more! I cannot! I have desired God and disputed with my reason, but nature and compassion hath the victory. That I can live to think how you are both left a spoil to my enemies, and that my name shall be a dishonour to my child! I cannot! I cannot endure the memory thereof. Unfortunate woman, unfortunate child, comfort yourselves, trust God, and be contented with your poor estate. I would have bettered it, if I had enjoyed a few years. 

He goes on to tell his wife that she is still young, and should marryagain; and then falls into a tumult of distress over his own accusation. Presently he grows calmer, after a wild denunciation of Cobham, and bidshis wife forgive, as he does:

 Live humble, for thou hast but a time also. God forgive my Lord Harry [Howard], for he was my heavy enemy. And for my Lord Cecil, I thought he would never forsake me in extremity. I would not have done it him, God knows. But do not thou know it, for he must be master of thy child, and may have compassion of him. Be not dismayed, that I died in despair of God's mercies. Strive not to dispute, but assure thyself that God has not left me, nor Satan tempted me. Hope and despair live not together. I know it is forbidden to destroy ourselves, but I trust it is forbidden in this sort--that we destroy not ourselves despairing of God's mercy. 

After an impassioned prayer, he speaks of his estate. His debts, heconfesses, are many, and as the latest of them he mentions what he owesto an expedition to Virginia then on the return voyage, the expeditionin which Cecil had a share. Then his shame and anger break out again:

 What will my poor servants think, at their return, when they hear I am accused to be Spanish who sent them, at my great charge, to plant and discover upon his territory! O intolerable infamy! O God! I cannot resist these thoughts. I cannot live to think how I am divided, to think of the expectation of my enemies, the scorns I shall receive, the cruel words of lawyers, the infamous taunts and despites, to be made a wonder and a spectacle!. .. I commend unto you my poor brother Adrian Gilbert. The lease of Sandridge is his, and none of mine. Let him have it, for God's cause. He knows what is due to me upon it. And be good to Keymis, for he is a perfect honest man, and hath much wrong for my sake. For the rest I commend me to thee, and thee to God, and the Lord knows my sorrow to part from thee and my poor child. But part I must. .. . I bless my poor child; and let him know his father was no traitor. Be bold of my innocence, for God--to whom I offer life and soul--knows it. .. . And the Lord for ever keep thee, and give thee comfort in both worlds. 

There are few documents of the period more affecting than this, but hesuffered no return of this mood. The pain of his wound and the weaknessit produced quieted him at first, and then hope began to take the placeof this agony of despair. Meanwhile his treason was taken for granted, and he was stripped of his appointments. He had been forced to resignthe Wardenship of the Stannaries to Sir Francis Godolphin, and the winepatent was given to the Earl of Nottingham, who behaved with scantcourtesy to his old friend and comrade. Sir John Peyton, after guardingRaleigh for ten days at the Tower, was released from the post ofLieutenant, and was given the Governorship of Jersey, of which Raleighwas deprived. On the next day, August 1, Sir George Harvey took Peyton'splace as Lieutenant of the Tower, the last report from the outgoingofficer being that 'Sir Walter Raleigh's hurt is doing very well. ' Itwas evidently not at all severe, for on the 4th he was pronounced cured, 'both in body and mind. ' On the 3rd, De Beaumont, the French ambassador, had written confidentially to Henry IV. That Raleigh gave out that thisattempt at suicide 'was formed in order that his fate might not serve asa triumph to his enemies, whose power to put him to death, despite hisinnocence, he well knows. '

On August 10 there had still been made no definite accusation linkingRaleigh or even Cobham with Watson's plot. All that could be said wasthat Raleigh and Cobham were intimate with the plotters, and that theyhad mutually accused each other, vaguely, of entering into certainpossibly treasonable negotiations with Austria. On that day De Beaumontwas inclined to think that both would be acquitted. It does not seemthat James was anxious to push matters to an extremity; but theGovernment, instigated by Suffolk, insisted on severity. On August 13, Raleigh was again examined in the Tower, and this time more rigorously. A distinct statement was now gained from him, to the effect that Cobhamhad offered him 10, 000 crowns to further a peace between Spain andEngland; Raleigh had answered, '"When I see the money I will make you ananswer, " for I thought it one of his ordinary idle conceits. ' Heinsisted, however, that this conversation had nothing to do withAremberg. All through the month of September the plague was raging inLondon. In spite of all precautions, it found its way into the outlyingposts of the Tower. Sir George Harvey sent away his family, and Wood, who was in special charge of the State prisoners, abandoned them to theLieutenant. On September 7 we find Harvey sending Raleigh's privateletters by a man of the name of Mellersh, who had been Cobham's stewardand was now his secretary. Raleigh and Cobham had become convinced that, whatever was their innocence or guilt, it was absolutely necessary thateach should have some idea what the other was confessing. 

On September 21, Raleigh, Cobham, and George Brooke were indicted atStaines. The indictment shows us for the first time what the Governmenthad determined to accuse Raleigh of plotting. It is plainly put that heis charged with 'exciting rebellion against the King, and raising oneArabella Stuart to the Crown of England. ' Without going into vexedquestions of the claim of this unhappy woman, we may remind ourselvesthat Arabella Stuart was James I. 's first cousin, the daughter ofCharles Stuart, fifth Earl of Lennox, Darnley's elder brother. Herfather had died in 1576, soon after her birth. About 1588 she had comeup to London to be presented to Elizabeth, and on that occasion hadamused Raleigh with her gay accomplishments. The legal quibble on whichher claim was founded was the fact that she was born in England, whereasJames as a Scotchman was supposed to be excluded. Arabella was nopretender; her descent from Margaret, the sister of Henry VIII. , wascomplete, and if James had died childless and she had survived him, itis difficult to see how her claim could have been avoided in favour ofthe Suffolk line. Meantime she had no real claim, and no party in thecountry. But Elizabeth, in one of her fantastic moods, had presentedArabella to the wife of a French ambassador, as 'she that will sometimebe Lady Mistress here, even as I am. ' Before the Queen's deathArabella's very name had become hateful to her, but this was the slenderground upon which Cobham's, but scarcely Raleigh's, hopes were based. 

The jury was well packed with adverse names. The precept is signed byRaleigh's old and bitter enemy, Lord Howard of Bindon, now Earl ofSuffolk. The trial, probably on account of the terror caused by theravages of the plague, was adjourned for nearly two months, whichRaleigh spent in the Tower. Almost the only remnant of all his greatwealth which was not by this time forfeited, was his cluster of estatesat Sherborne. He attempted to tie these up to his son, and his brother, Adrian Gilbert, and Cecil appears to have been a friend to Lady Raleighin this matter. It was so generally taken for granted that Raleigh wouldbe condemned, that no mock modesty prevented the King's Scotchfavourites from asking for his estates. In October Cecil informed SirJames Elphinstone that he was at least the twelfth person who hadalready applied for the gift of Sherborne. Fortunately Raleigh, as lateas the summer of 1602, had desired the judge, Sir John Doddridge, todraw up a conveyance of Sherborne to his son, and then to his brother, with a rent-charge of 200_l. _ a year for life to Lady Raleigh. For thepresent Cecil firmly refused to allow anyone to tamper with thisconveyance, and Sherborne was the raft upon which the Raleighs sailedthrough the worst tempest of the trial. Cecil undoubtedly retained acertain tenderness towards his old friend Lady Raleigh, and for hersake, rather than her husband's, he extended a sort of protection tothem in their misfortune. She appealed to him in touching language to'pity the name of your ancient friend on his poor little creature, whichmay live to honour you, that we may all lift up our hands and hearts inprayer for you and yours. If you truly knew, you would pity your poorunfortunate friend, which relieth wholly on your honourable and wontedfavour. ' Cecil listened, and almost relented. 

At first Cobham was not confined in the Tower, and before he came thereRaleigh was advised by some of his friends to try to communicate withhim. According to Raleigh's account, he wrote first of all, 'You or Imust go to trial. If I first, then your accusation is the only evidenceagainst me. ' Cobham's reply was not satisfactory, and Raleigh wroteagain, and Cobham then sent what Raleigh thought 'a very good letter. 'The person who undertook to carry on this secret correspondence was noother than young Sir John Peyton, whom James had just knighted, the sonof the late Lieutenant of the Tower. Sir George Harvey seems to havesuspected, without wishing to be disagreeable, for Raleigh had to hintto Cobham that the Lieutenant might be blamed if it were discovered thatletters were passing. Cobham shifted from hour to hour, and changedcolour like a moral chameleon; Raleigh could not depend on him, nor eveninfluence him. Meanwhile Cobham was transferred to the Tower, and nowcommunication between the prisoners seemed almost impossible. However, the servant who was waiting upon Raleigh, a man named Cotterell, undertook to speak to Cobham, and desired him to leave his window in theWardrobe Tower ajar on a certain night. Raleigh had prepared a letter, entreating Cobham to clear him at all costs. This letter Cotterell tiedround an apple, and at eight o'clock at night threw it dexterously intoCobham's room; half an hour afterwards a second letter, of still morecomplete retractation, was pushed by Cobham under his door. This Raleighhid in his pocket and showed to no one. 

Thus October passed, and during these ten weeks the popular fury againstthe accused had arisen to a tumultuous pitch. On November 5, Sir W. Waadwas instructed to bring Raleigh out of the Tower, and prepare him forhis trial. As has been said, the plague was in London, and the prisonerwas therefore taken down to Winchester, to be tried in Wolvesey Castle. So terrible was the popular hatred of Raleigh, that the conveyance ofhim was attended with difficulty, and had to be constantly delayed. 'Itwas hob or nob whether he should have been brought alive through suchmultitudes of unruly people as did exclaim against him;' and to escapeLynch law a whole week had to be given to the transit. 'The fury andtumult of the people was so great' that Waad had to set watches, andhasten his prisoner by a stage at a time, when the mob was not expectinghim. The wretched people seemed to forget all about the plague for themoment, so eager were they to tear Raleigh to pieces. When he hadreached Winchester, it was thought well to wait five days more, to givethe popular fury time to quiet down a little. A Court of King's Benchwas fitted up in the castle, an old Episcopal palace, not well suitedfor that purpose. 

On Thursday, November 17, 1603, Raleigh's trial began. In the centre ofthe upper part of the court, under a canopy of brocade, sat the LordChief Justice of England, Popham, and on either side of him, as specialcommissioners, Cecil, Waad, the Earls of Suffolk and Devonshire, withthe judges, Anderson, Gawdy, and Warburton, and other persons ofdistinction. Opposite Popham sat the Attorney-General, Sir Edward Coke, who conducted the trial. It was actually opened, however, by Hale, theSerjeant, who attempted, as soon as Raleigh had pleaded 'not guilty' tothe indictment, to raise an unseemly laugh by saying that Lady Arabella'hath no more title to the Crown than I have, which, before God, Iutterly renounce. ' Raleigh was noticed to smile at this, and we canimagine that his irony would be roused by such buffoonery on an occasionso serious. There was no more jesting of this kind, but the whole trialhas remained a type of what was uncouth and undesirable in the conductof criminal trials through the beginning of the seventeenth century. Thenation so rapidly increased in sensitiveness and in a perception oflegal decency, that one of the very judges who conducted Raleigh'strial, Gawdy, lived to look back upon it with horror, and to say, whenhe himself lay upon his death-bed, that such a mode of procedure'injured and degraded the justice of England. '

When Hale had ceased his fooling, Coke began in earnest. He was a man alittle older than Raleigh, and of a conceited and violent nature, owingnot a little of his exaggerated reputation to the dread that heinspired. He was never more rude and brutal than in his treatment of SirWalter Raleigh upon this famous occasion, and even in a court packedwith enemies, in which the proud poet and navigator might glance roundwithout meeting one look more friendly than that in the cold eyes ofCecil, the needless insolence of Coke went too far, and caused arevulsion in Raleigh's favour. Coke began by praising the clemency ofthe King, who had forbidden the use of torture, and proceeded to chargeSir Walter Raleigh with what he called 'treason of the Main, ' todistinguish it from that of George Brooke and his fellows, which was 'ofthe Bye. ' He described this latter, and tried to point out that theformer was closely cognate to it. In order to mask the difficulty, nay, the impossibility, of doing this successfully on the evidence which hepossessed, he wandered off into a long and wordy disquisition ontreasonable plots in general, ending abruptly with that of Edmund de laPole. Then, for the first time, Coke faced the chief difficulty of theGovernment, namely, that there was but one witness against Raleigh. Hedid not allow, as indeed he could not be expected to do, that Cobham hadshifted like a Reuben, and was now adhering, for the moment, to aneighth several confession of what he and Raleigh had actually done ormeant to do. It was enough for Coke to insist that Cobham's evidence, that is to say, whichever of the eight conflicting statements suited theprosecution best, was as valuable, in a case of this kind, as 'theinquest of twelve men. '

Having thus, as he thought, shut Raleigh's mouth with regard to this onegreat difficulty, he continued to declaim against 'those traitors, 'obstinately persisting in mixing up Raleigh's 'Main' with the 'Bye, ' inspite of the distinction which he himself had drawn. Raleigh appealedagainst this once or twice, and at last showed signs of impatience. Cokethen suddenly turned upon him, and cried out, 'To whom, Sir Walter, didyou bear malice? To the royal children?' In the altercation thatfollowed, Coke lost his temper in earnest, and allowed himself to callRaleigh 'a monster with an English face, but a Spanish heart. ' He thenproceeded to state what the accusation of Sir Walter really amounted to, and in the midst of the inexplicable chaos of this whole affair it maybe well to stand for a moment on this scrap of solid ground. Coke'swords were:

 You would have stirred England and Scotland both. You incited the Lord Cobham, as soon as Count Aremberg came into England, to go to him. The night he went, you supped with the Lord Cobham, and he brought you after supper to Durham House; and then the same night by a back-way went with La Renzi to Count Aremberg, and got from him a promise for the money. After this it was arranged that the Lord Cobham should go to Spain and return by Jersey, where you were to meet him about the distribution of the money; because Cobham had not so much policy or wickedness as you. Your intent was to set up the Lady Arabella as a titular Queen, and to depose our present rightful King, the lineal descendant of Edward IV. You pretend that this money was to forward the Peace with Spain. Your jargon was 'peace, ' which meant Spanish invasion and Scottish subversion. 

This was plain language, at least; this was the case for theprosecution, stripped of all pedantic juggling; and Raleigh now drewhimself together to confute these charges as best he might. 'Let meanswer, ' he said; 'it concerns my life;' and from this point onwards, asMr. Edwards remarks, the trial becomes a long and impassioned dialogue. Coke refused to let Raleigh speak, and in this was supported by Popham, a very old man, who owed his position in that court more to his age thanhis talents, and who was solicitous to be on friendly terms with theAttorney. Coke then proceeded to argue that Raleigh's relations withCobham had been notoriously so intimate that there was nothingsurprising or improbable in the accusation that he shared his guilt. Hethen nimbly went on to expatiate with regard to the circumstances ofCobham's treason, and was deft enough to bring these forward in such away as to leave on the mind of his hearers the impression that thesewere things proved against Raleigh. To this practice, which deserved thevery phrases which Coke used against the prisoner's dealings, 'devilishand machiavelian policy, ' Raleigh protested again and again that heought not to be subjected, until Coke lost his temper once more, andcried, 'I _thou_ thee, thou traitor, and I will prove thee the rankesttraitor in all England. ' A sort of hubbub now ensued, and the Lord ChiefJustice again interfered to silence Raleigh, with a poor show ofimpartiality. 

Coke, however, had well nigh exhausted the slender stock of evidencewith which he had started. For a few minutes longer he tried by sheerbluster to conceal the poverty of the case, and last of all he handedone of Cobham's confessions to the Clerk of the Crown to be read incourt. It entered into no particulars, which Cobham said their lordshipsmust not expect from him, for he was so confounded that he had lost hismemory, but it vaguely asserted that he would never have entered into'these courses' but for Raleigh's instigation. The reading being over, Coke at last sat down. Raleigh began to address the jury, very quietlyat first. He pointed out that this solitary accusation, by the mostwavering of mortals, uttered in a moment of anger, was absolutely allthe evidence that could be brought against him. He admitted that hesuspected Cobham of secret communications with Count Aremberg, but hedeclared that he knew no details, and that whatever he discovered, Cecilalso was privy to. He had hitherto spoken softly; he now suddenly raisedhis voice, and electrified the court by turning upon Sir Edward Coke, and pouring forth the eloquent and indignant protest which must now begiven in his own words. 

 Master Attorney, whether to favour or to disable my Lord Cobham you speak as you will of him, yet he is not such a babe as you make him. He hath dispositions of such violence, which his best friends could never temper. But it is very strange that I, at this time, should be thought to plot with the Lord Cobham, knowing him a man that hath neither love nor following; and, myself, at this time having resigned a place of my best command in an office I had in Cornwall. I was not so bare of sense but I saw that, if ever this State was strong, it was now that we have the Kingdom of Scotland united, whence we were wont to fear all our troubles--Ireland quieted, where our forces were wont to be divided--Denmark assured, whom before we were always wont to have in jealousy--the Low Countries our nearest neighbour. And, instead of a Lady whom time had surprised, we had now an active King, who would be present at his own businesses. For me, at this time, to make myself a Robin Hood, a Wat Tyler [in the inadvertence of the moment he seems to have said 'a Tom Tailor, ' by mistake], a Kett, or a Jack Cade! I was not so mad! I knew the state of Spain well, his weakness, his poorness, his humbleness at this time. I knew that six times we had repulsed his forces--thrice in Ireland, thrice at sea, once upon our coast and twice upon his own. Thrice had I served against him myself at sea--wherein, for my country's sake, I had expended of my own property forty thousand marks. I knew that where beforetime he was wont to have forty great sails, at the least, in his ports, now he hath not past six or seven. And for sending to his Indies, he was driven to have strange vessels, a thing contrary to the institutions of his ancestors, who straitly forbade that, even in case of necessity, they should make their necessity known to strangers. I knew that of twenty-five millions which he had from the Indies, he had scarce any left. Nay, I knew his poorness to be such at this time that the Jesuits, his imps, begged at his church doors; his pride so abated that, notwithstanding his former high terms, he was become glad to congratulate his Majesty, and to send creeping unto him for peace. 

In these fiery words the audience was reminded of the consistent hatredwhich Raleigh had always shown to Spain, and of the services which hehimself, now a prisoner at the bar, had performed for the liberties ofEngland. The sympathies of the spectators began to be moved; those whohad execrated Raleigh most felt that they had been deceived, and that sonoble an Englishman, however indiscreet he might have been, could not byany possibility have intrigued with the worst enemies of England. 

But the prisoner had more to do than to rouse the irresponsible part ofhis audience by his patriotic eloquence. The countenances of his judgesremained as cold to him as ever, and he turned to the serious businessof his defence. His quick intelligence saw that the telling point inCoke's diatribe had been the emphasis he had laid on Raleigh's intimatefriendship with Cobham. He began to try and explain away this intimacy, stating what we now know was not exactly true, namely that his'privateness' with Cobham only concerned business, in which the lattersought to make use of his experience. He dwelt on Cobham's wealth, andargued that so rich a man would not venture to conspire. All this partof the defence seems to me injudicious. Raleigh was on safer ground inmaking another sudden appeal to the sentiment of the court: 'As for myknowing that he had conspired all these things against Spain, forArabella, and against the King, I protest before Almighty God I am asclear as whosoever here is freest. '

After a futile discussion as to the value of Cobham's evidence, theforeman of the jury asked a plain question: 'I desire to understand thetime of Sir Walter Raleigh's first letter, and of the Lord Cobham'saccusation. ' Upon this Cecil spoke for the first time, spinning out along and completely unintelligible sentence which was to serve theforeman as an answer. Before the jury could recover from theirbewilderment, this extraordinary trial, which proceeded like anAdventure in Wonderland, was begun once more by Coke, who started afreshwith voluble denunciation of the defendant, for whom, he said, it wouldhave been better 'to have stayed in Guiana than to be so well acquaintedwith the state of Spain. ' Coke was still pouring out a torrent of mereabuse, when Raleigh suddenly interrupted him, and addressing the judges, claimed that Cobham should then and there be brought face to face withhim. Since he had been in the Tower he had been studying the law, and hebrought forward statutes of Edwards III. And IV. To support hiscontention that he could not be convicted on Cobham's bare accusation. The long speech he made at this point was a masterpiece of persuasiveeloquence, and it is worth noting that Dudley Carleton, who was incourt, wrote to a friend that though when the trial began he would havegone a hundred miles to see Raleigh hanged, when it had reached thisstage he would have gone a thousand to save his life. 

The judges, however, and Popham in particular, were not so moved, andRaleigh's objection to the evidence of Cobham was overruled. Coke was sofar influenced by it that he now attempted to show that there was otherproof against the prisoner, and tried, very awkwardly, to make theconfessions of Watson and George Brooke in the 'Bye' tell againstRaleigh in the 'Main. ' Raleigh's unlucky statement, made at Windsor, tothe effect that Cobham had offered him 10, 000 crowns, and an examinationin which Raleigh's friend Captain Keymis admitted a private interviewbetween Cobham and Raleigh during Count Aremberg's stay in London, werethen read. In the discussion on these documents the court and theprisoner fell to actual wrangling; in the buzz of voices it was hard totell what was said, until a certain impression was at last made by Coke, who screamed out that Raleigh 'had a Spanish heart and was a spider ofhell. ' This produced a lull, and thereupon followed an irrelevantdispute as to whether or no Raleigh had once had in his possession abook containing treasonable allusions to the claims of the King ofScotland. Raleigh admitted the possession of this volume, and said thatCecil gave him leave to take it out of Lord Burghley's library. He addedthat no book was published towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's reignthat did not pass through his hands. It would be interesting to knowwhether he meant that he exercised a private censorship of the press, orthat he bought everything that appeared. At all events, the point wasallowed to drop. 

Raleigh now gave his attention to the evidence which Keymis had givenunder threat of the rack. That this torture had been threatened, inexpress disobedience to the King's order, staggered some of thecommissioners, and covered Sir William Waad with confusion. Theeliciting of this fact seems to have brought over to Raleigh's side themost valuable and unexpected help, for, in the discussion that ensued, Cecil suddenly pleaded that Raleigh should be allowed fair play. TheAttorney then brought forward the case of Arabella Stuart, and a freshsensation was presented to the audience, who, after listening to Cecil, were suddenly thrilled to hear a voice at the back of the court shout, 'The Lady doth here protest, upon her salvation, that she never dealt inany of these things. ' It was the voice of the Earl of Nottingham, whohad entered unperceived, and who was standing there with Arabella Stuarton his arm. Their apparition was no surprise to the judges; it had beencarefully prearranged. 

The trial dragged on with irrelevant production of evidence by Coke, occasional bullying by the Lord Chief Justice, and repeated appeals forfairness from Cecil, who cautiously said that 'but for his fault, ' hewas still Raleigh's friend. Posterity has laughed at one piece of theAttorney's evidence:

 There is one Dyer, a pilot, that being in Lisbon met with a Portugal gentleman, which asked him if the King of England was crowned yet. To whom he answered, 'I think not yet, but he shall be shortly. ' 'Nay, ' said the Portugal, 'that shall he never be, for his throat will be cut by Don Raleigh and Don Cobham before he be crowned. '

A prosecution that calls for evidence such as this has simply brokendown. The whole report of the trial is so puerile, that it can only beunderstood by bearing in mind that, as Mr. Gardiner says, the Governmentwere in possession of a good deal of evidence which they could notproduce in court. The King wished to spare Arabella, and to acceptAremberg's protestations with the courtesy due to an ambassador. It wastherefore impossible to bring forward a letter which Cecil possessedfrom Cobham to Arabella, and two from Aremberg to Cobham. The difficultywas not to prove Cobham's guilt, however, but to connect Raleigh closelyenough with Cobham, and this Coke went on labouring to do. At last helaid a trap for Raleigh. He induced him to argue on the subject, andthen Coke triumphantly drew from his pocket a long letter Cobham hadwritten to the commissioners the day before, a letter in which Cobhamdisclosed all the secret correspondence Raleigh had had with him sincehis imprisonment, and even the picturesque story of the letter that wasbound round the apple and thrown into Cobham's window in the Tower. 

At the production of this document, Sir Walter Raleigh fairly lost hisself-possession. He had no idea that any of these facts were in thehands of the Government. His bewilderment and dejection soon, however, left him sufficiently for him to recollect the other letter of Cobham'swhich he possessed. He drew it from his pocket, and, Cobham's writingbeing very bad, he could not, from his agitation, read it; Coke desiredthat it should not be produced, but Cecil interposed once more, andvolunteered to read it aloud. This letter was Raleigh's last effort. Hesaid, when Cecil had finished, 'Now, my masters, you have heard both. That showed against me is but a voluntary confession. This is underoath, and the deepest protestations a Christian man can make. Thereforebelieve which of these hath more force. ' The jury then retired; and in aquarter of an hour returned with the verdict 'Guilty. ' Raleigh had, infact, confessed that Cobham had mentioned the plot to him, thoughnothing would induce him to admit that he had asked Cobham for a sum ofmoney, or consented to take any active part. Still this was enough; andin the face of his unfortunate prevarication about the interview withRenzi, the jury could hardly act otherwise. For a summing up of bothsides of the vexed question what shadow of truth there was in thegeneral accusation, the reader may be recommended to Mr. Gardiner'sbrilliant pages. 

Raleigh had defended himself with great courage and intelligence, andthe crowd in court were by no means in sympathy with the brutal andviolent address in which Popham gave judgment. On the very day on whichRaleigh was condemned, there began that reaction in his favour which hasbeen proceeding ever since. When the Lord Chief Justice called the nobleprisoner a traitor and an atheist, the bystanders, who after all wereEnglishmen, though they had met prepared to tear Raleigh limb from limb, could bear it no longer, and they hissed the judge, as a little beforethey had hooted Coke. To complete the strangeness of this strange trial, when sentence had been passed, Raleigh advanced quickly up the court, unprevented, and spoke to Cecil and one or two other commissioners, asking, as a favour, that the King would permit Cobham to die first. Before he was secured by the officers, he had found time for this lastprotest: 'Cobham is a false and cowardly accuser. He can face neither menor death without acknowledging his falsehood. ' He was then led away togaol. 

For a month Raleigh was retained at Winchester. He found a friend, almost the only one who dared to speak for him, in Lady Pembroke, thesaintly sister of Sir Philip Sidney, who showed _veteris vestigiaflammæ_, the embers of the old love Raleigh had met with from herbrother's family, and sent her son, Lord Pembroke, to the King. She didlittle good, and Raleigh did still less by a letter he now wrote toJames, the first personal appeal he had made to his Majesty. It was ahumble entreaty for life, begging the King to listen to the charitableadvice which the English law, 'knowing her own cruelty, doth give to hersuperior, ' to be pitiful more than just. This letter has been thoughtobsequious and unmanly; but it abates no jot of the author'sasseverations that he was innocent of all offence, and, surely, in thevery face of death a man may be excused for writing humbly to a despot. Lady Raleigh, meanwhile, was clinging about the knees of Cecil, whosedemeanour during the trial had given her fresh hopes. But neither theKing nor Cecil gave any sign, and in the gathering reaction in favour ofRaleigh remained apparently firm for punishment. The whole body of theaccused were by this time convicted, Watson and all his companions onthe 16th, Raleigh on the 17th, Cobham and Gray on the 18th. On the 29thWatson and Clarke, the other priest, were executed. Next day, theSpanish ambassador pleaded for Raleigh's life, but was repulsed. TheKing desired the clergy who attended the surviving prisoners to preparethem rigorously for death, and the Bishop of Winchester gave Raleigh nohope. On December 6, George Brooke was executed. And now James seems tohave thought that enough blood had been spilt. He would find out thetruth by collecting dying confessions from culprits who, after all, should not die. 

The next week was occupied with the performance of the curious burlesquewhich James had invented. The day after George Brooke was beheaded, theKing drew up a warrant to the Sheriff of Hampshire for stay of all theother executions. With this document in his bosom, he signeddeath-warrants for Markham, Gray, and Cobham to be beheaded on the 10th, and Raleigh on the 13th. The King told nobody of his intention, except aScotch boy, John Gibb, who was his page at the moment. On December 10, at ten o'clock in the morning, Sir Walter Raleigh was desired to come tothe window of his cell in Wolvesey Castle. The night before, he hadwritten an affecting letter of farewell to his wife, and--such, atleast, is my personal conviction from the internal evidence--the mostextraordinary and most brilliant of his poems, _The Pilgrimage_. By thistime he was sorry that he had bemeaned himself in his first paroxysm ofdespair, and he entreated Lady Raleigh to try to get back the letters inwhich he sued for his life, 'for, ' he said, 'I disdain myself forbegging it. ' He went on:

 Know it, dear wife, that your son is the child of a true man, and who, in his own respect, despiseth Death, and all his misshapen and ugly forms. I cannot write much. God knows how hardly I stole this time, when all sleep; and it is time to separate my thoughts from the world. Beg my dead body, which living was denied you; and either lay it at Sherborne, if the land continue [yours], or in Exeter Church, by my father and mother. I can write no more. Time and Death call me away. 

From his window overlooking the Castle Green, Raleigh saw Markham, avery monument of melancholy, led through the steady rain to thescaffold. He saw the Sheriff presently called away, but could not seethe Scotch lad who called him, who was Gibb riding in with the reprieve. He could see Markham standing before the block, he could see theSheriff return, speak in a low voice to Markham, and lead him away intoArthur's Hall and lock him up there. He could then see Grey led out, hecould see his face light up with a gleam of hope, as he stealthilystirred the wet straw with his foot and perceived there was no bloodthere. He could see, though he could not hear, Grey's lips move in theprayer in which he made his protestation of innocence, and as he stoodready at the block, he could see the Sheriff speak to him also, and leadhim away, and lock him up with Markham in Arthur's Hall. Then Raleigh, wondering more and more, so violently curious that the crowd belownoticed his eager expression, could see Cobham brought out, weeping andmuttering, in a lamentable disorder; he could see him praying, and whenthe prayer was over, he could see the Sheriff leave him to stand alone, trembling, on the scaffold, while he went to fetch Grey and Markham fromtheir prison. Then he could see the trio, with an odd expression of hopein their faces, stand side by side a moment, to be harangued by theSheriff, and then suddenly on his bewildered ears rang out the plauditsof the assembled crowd, all Winchester clapping its hands because theKing had mercifully saved the lives of the prisoners. And still thesteady rain kept falling as the Castle Green grew empty, and Raleigh athis window was left alone with his bewilderment. He was very soon toldthat he also was spared, and on December 16, 1603, he was taken back tothe Tower of London. Such was James's curious but not altogether inhumansketch for a burlesque. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

IN THE TOWER. 

It is no longer possible for us to follow the personal life of Raleighas we have hitherto been doing, step by step. In the deep monotony ofconfinement, twelve years passed over him without leaving any marks ofmonths or days upon his chronicle of patience. A hopeless prisonerceases to take any interest in the passage of time, and Raleigh's fewletters from the Tower are almost all of them undated. His comfort hadits vicissitudes; he was now tormented, now indulged. A whisper from theouter world would now give him back a gleam of hope, now a harsh answerwould complete again the darkness of his hopelessness. He was vexed withill-health, and yet from the age of fifty-one to that of sixty-three theinherent vigour of his constitution, and his invincible desire to live, were unabated. From all his pains and sorrows he took refuge, as so manyhave done before him, in the one unfailing Nepenthe, the consolatoryself-forgetfulness of literature. It was in the Tower that the main bulkof his voluminous writings were produced. 

He was confined in the upper story of what was called the Garden Tower, now the Bloody Tower, and not, as is so often said, in the White Tower, so that the little cell with a dim arched light, the Chapel Crypt offQueen Elizabeth's Armoury, which used to be pointed out to visitors asthe dungeon in which Raleigh wrote _The History of the World_, never, inall probability, heard the sound of his footsteps. It is a myth that hewas confined at all in such a dungeon as this. According to Mr. Loftie, his apartments were those immediately above the principal gate to theInner Ward, and had, besides a window looking westward out of the Tower, an entrance to themselves at a higher level, the level of theLieutenant's and Constable's lodgings. They probably opened directlyinto a garden which has since been partly built over. 

Raleigh was comfortably lodged; it was Sir William Waad's complaint thatthe rooms were too spacious. Lady Raleigh and her son shared them withhim for a considerable time, and Sir Walter was never without threepersonal servants. He was poor, in comparison with his former opulentestate, but he was never in want. Sherborne just sufficed for six yearsto supply such needs as presented themselves to a prisoner. His personalexpenses in the Tower slightly exceeded 200_l. _, or 1, 000_l. _ of ourmoney; there was left a narrow margin for Lady Raleigh. The months ofJanuary and February 1604 were spent in trying to make the best termspossible for his wife and son. In a letter to the Lords of the Council, Raleigh mentions that he has lost 3, 000_l. _ (or 15, 000_l. _ in Victorianmoney) a year by being deprived of his five main sources of income, namely the Governorship of Jersey, the Patent of the Wine Office, theWardenship of the Stannaries, the Rangership of Gillingham Forest, andthe Lieutenancy of Portland Castle. He besought that he might not bereduced to utter beggary, and he did his best to retain the Duchy ofCornwall and his estates at Sherborne. The former, as he might havesupposed, could not be left in the charge of a prisoner. It was given toa friend, to the Earl of Pembroke, and Raleigh showed a dangerousobstinacy in refusing to give up the Seal of the Duchy direct to theEarl; he was presently induced to resign it into Cecil's hands, and thennothing but Sherborne remained. His debts were 3, 000_l. _ His richcollections of plate and tapestry had been confiscated or stolen. If theKing permitted Sherborne also to be taken, it would be impossible tomeet the exorbitant charges of the Lieutenant, and under thesecircumstances it is only too probable that Raleigh might have beenobliged to crouch in the traditional dungeon ten feet by eight feet. Theretention of Sherborne, then, meant comfort and the status of agentleman. It is therefore of the highest interest to us to see what hadbecome of Sherborne. 

We have seen that up to the date of the trial Cecil held at bay theScottish jackals who went prowling round the rich Dorsetshire manor; andwhen the trial was over, Cecil, as Lady Raleigh said, 'hath been ouronly comfort in our lamentable misfortune. ' As soon as Raleigh wascondemned, commissioners hastened down to Sherborne and began to preparethe division of the prize. They sold the cattle, and began to root upthe copses. They made considerable progress in dismantling the houseitself. Raleigh appealed to the Lords of the Council, and Cecil sentdown two trustees, who, in February 1604, put a sudden stop to all thishavoc, and sent the commissioners about their business. Of the latter, one was the infamous Meeres, Raleigh's former bailiff, and this fact wasparticularly galling to Raleigh. On July 30 in the same year, SherborneCastle and the surrounding manors were conveyed to Sir Alexander Brettand others in trust for Lady Raleigh and her son Walter, Sir Walternominally forfeiting the life interest in the estates which he hadreserved to himself in the conveyance of 1602. On the moneys collectedby these trustees Lady Raleigh supported herself and her husband also. She was not turned out of the castle at first. Twice at least in 1605 wefind her there, on the second occasion causing all the armour to bescoured. Some persons afterwards considered that this act was connectedwith Gunpowder Plot, others maintained that it was merely due to thefact that the armour was rusty. The great point is that she was stillmistress of Sherborne. Lord Justice Popham, however, as early as 1604, pronounced Raleigh's act of conveyance invalid, and in 1608 negotiationsbegan for a 'purchase, ' or rather a confiscation of Sherborne to theKing. To this we shall presently return. In the meanwhile Captain Keymisacted as warden of Sherborne Castle. 

As soon as the warm weather closed in, in the summer of 1604, themalaria in the Tower began to affect Raleigh's health. As he tellsCecil, now Lord Cranborne, in a most dolorous letter, he was witheringin body and mind. The plague had come close to him, his son having laina fortnight with only a paper wall between him and a woman whose childwas dying of that terrible complaint. Lady Raleigh, at last, had beenable to bear the terror of infection no longer, and had departed withlittle Walter. Raleigh thereupon, in a fit of extreme dejection, 'presumed to tell their Lordships of his miserable estate, daily indanger of death by the palsy, nightly of suffocation by wasted andobstructed lungs. ' He entreated to be removed to more wholesomelodgings. His prayer was not answered. Earlier in the year he had indeedenjoyed a short excursion from the Tower. At Easter the King had come toattend a bull-baiting on Tower Hill, and Raleigh was hastily removed tothe Fleet prison beforehand, lest the etiquette of such occasions shouldoblige James, against his inclination, to give obnoxious prisoners theirliberty. Raleigh was one of five persons so hurried to the Fleet onMarch 25: on the next day the King came, and 'caused all the prisons ofthe Tower to be opened, and all the persons then within them to bereleased. ' After the bull-baiting was over, the excepted prisoners werequietly brought back again. This little change was all the variety thatRaleigh enjoyed until he left for Guiana in 1617. 

When it transpired in 1605 that through, as it appears, the negligenceof the copying clerk, the conveyance by which Raleigh thought that hehad secured Sherborne to his son was null and void, he had to sufferfrom a vindictive attack from his wife herself. She, poor woman, had nowfor nearly two years bustled hither and thither, intriguing in notalways the most judicious manner for her family, but never resting, never leaving a stone unturned which might lead to their restitution. The sudden discovery that the lawyers had found a flaw in the conveyancewas more than her overstrung nerves could endure, and in a fit of tempershe attacked her husband, and rushed about the town denouncing him. Raleigh, in deepest depression of mind and body, wrote to Cecil, who hadnow taken another upward step in the hierarchy of James's protean Houseof Lords, and who was Earl of Salisbury henceforward:

 Of the true cause of my importunities, one is, that I am every second or third night in danger either of sudden death, or of the loss of my limbs or sense, being sometimes two hours without feeling or motion of my hand and whole arm. I complain not of it. I know it vain, for there is none that hath compassion thereof. The other, that I shall be made more than weary of my life by her crying and bewailing, who will return in post when she hears of your Lordship's departure, and nothing done. She hath already brought her eldest son in one hand, and her sucking child [Carew Raleigh, born in the winter of 1604] in another, crying out of her and their destruction; charging me with unnatural negligence, and that having provided for my own life, I am without sense and compassion of theirs. These torments, added to my desolate life--receiving nothing but torments, and where I should look for some comfort, together with the consideration of my cruel destiny, my days and times worn out in trouble and imprisonment--is sufficient either utterly to distract me, or to make me curse the time that ever I was born into the world, and had a being. 

Things were not commonly in so bad a way as this, we may be sure. Raleigh, who did nothing by halves, was not accustomed to underrate hisown misfortunes. His health was uncertain, indeed, and it was stillworse in 1606; but his condition otherwise was not so deplorable as thisletter would tend to prove. Poor Lady Raleigh soon recovered herequanimity, and the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir George Harvey, indulged Raleigh in a variety of ways. He frequently invited him to histable; and finding that the prisoner was engaged in various chemicalexperiments, he lent him his private garden to set up his still in. Inone of Raleigh's few letters of this period, we get a delightful littlevignette. Raleigh is busy working in the garden, and, the pale beingdown, the charming young Lady Effingham, his old friend Nottingham'sdaughter, strolls by along the terrace on the arm of the Countess ofBeaumont. The ladies lean over the paling, and watch the picturesque oldmagician poring over his crucibles, his face lighted up with the flamesfrom his furnace. They fall a chatting with him, and Lady Effinghamcoaxes him to spare her a little of that famous balsam which he broughtback from Guiana. He tells her that he has none prepared, but that hewill send her some by their common friend Captain Whitlock, andpresently he does so. A captivity which admitted such communicationswith the outer world as this, could not but have had its alleviations. 

The letter quoted on the last page evidently belongs to the summer of1605, when, for a few months, Raleigh was undoubtedly in greatdiscomfort. On August 15, Sir George Harvey was succeeded by Sir WilliamWaad, who had shown Raleigh great severity before his trial. He, however, although not well disposed, shrank from actually ill-treatinghis noble prisoner. He hinted to Lord Salisbury that he wanted thegarden for his own use, and that he thought the paling an insufficientbarrier between Raleigh and the world. Meanwhile Salisbury did not takethe hint, and the brick wall Waad wished built up was not begun. Waadevidently looked upon the chemical experiments with suspicion. 'SirWalter Raleigh, ' he wrote, 'hath converted a little hen-house in thegarden into a still, where he doth spend his time all the day in hisdistillations. ' Some of the remedies which the prisoner invented becameexceedingly popular. His 'lesser cordial' of strawberry water wasextensively used by ladies, and his 'great cordial, ' which wasunderstand to contain 'whatever is most choice and sovereign in theanimal, vegetable, and mineral world, ' continued to be a favouritepanacea until the close of the century. 

When, in November, Gunpowder Plot was discovered, Sir Walter Raleigh wasfor a moment suspected. No evidence was found inculpating him in theslightest degree; but his life was, for the moment at least, madedistinctly harder. When he returned from examination, the wall whichWaad had desired to put between the prisoner and the public was incourse of construction. When finished it was not very formidable, forWaad complains that Raleigh was in the habit of standing upon it, in thesight of passers-by. The increased confinement in the spring of 1606brought his ill-health to a climax. He thought he was about to suffer anapoplectic seizure, and he was allowed to take medical advice. Thedoctor's certificate, dated March 26, 1606, is still in existence; itdescribes his paralytic symptoms, and recommends that Sir Walter Raleighshould be removed from the cold lodging which he was occupying to the'little room he hath built in the garden, and joining his still-house, 'which would be warmer. This seems to have been done, and Raleigh'shealth improved. 

During the year 1606 various attempts were made to persuade the King torelease Raleigh, but in vain. The Queen had made his acquaintance, andhad become his friend, and there was a general hope that when herfather, the King of Denmark, came over to see James in the summer, hewould plead for Raleigh. There is reason to believe that if he had doneso with success, he would have invited Raleigh to return with him, andto become Admiral of the Danish fleet. But matters never got so far asthis. James I. Had an inkling of what was coming, and he took an earlyopportunity of saying to Christian IV. , 'Promise me that you will be noman's solicitor. ' In spite of this, before he left England, Christiandid ask for Raleigh's pardon, and was refused. When he had left England, and all hope was over, in September, Lady Raleigh made her way toHampton Court, and, pushing her way into the King's presence, fell onher knees at his feet. James went by, and neither spoke nor looked ather. It must have been about this time, or a little later, that QueenAnne brought her unfortunate eldest son Henry to visit Raleigh at theTower. Prince Henry, born in 1594, was now only twelve years of age. Hisintimacy with Sir Walter Raleigh belongs rather to the years 1610 to1612. 

In February 1607, Raleigh was exposed to some annoyance from EdwardCotterell, the servant who in 1603 had carried his injudiciouscorrespondence with Lord Cobham to and fro. This man had remained inLady Raleigh's service, and attended on her in her little house, opposite her husband's rooms, on Tower Hill. He professed to be able togive evidence against his master, but in examination before the LordChief Justice nothing intelligible could be extracted from him. Aboutthe same time we find Raleigh, encouraged, it would appear, by theQueen, proposing to Lord Salisbury that he should be allowed to go toGuiana on an expedition for gold. It is pathetic to read the earnestphrases in which he tries to wheedle out of the cold Minister permissionto set out westward once more across the ocean that he loved so much. Heoffers, lest he should be looked upon as a runagate, to leave his wifeand children behind him as hostages; and the Queen and Lord Salisburymay have the treasure he brings back, if only he may go. He pleads howrich the land is, and how no one knows the way to it as he does. We seemto hear the very accents of another weary King of the Sea:

 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world; Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars until I die. 

Such was Raleigh's purpose; but it was not that of James and ofSalisbury. On the contrary, he was kept a faster prisoner. In July 1607, fresh regulations came into force in the Tower, by which at 5 P. M. Raleigh and his servants had to retire to their own apartments, and LadyRaleigh go back to her house, nor were guests any longer to be admittedin the evening. Lady Raleigh had particularly offended Sir William Waadby driving into the Tower in her coach. She was informed that she mustdo so no more. It was probably these long quiet evenings which speciallypredisposed Raleigh to literary composition. He borrowed books, mainlyof an historical character, in all directions. A letter to Sir RobertCotton is extant in which he desires the loan of no less than thirteenobscure and bulky historians, and we may imagine his silent eveningsspent in poring over the precious manuscripts of the _Annals ofTewkesbury_ and the _Chronicle of Evesham_. In this year young WalterRaleigh, now fourteen years of age, proceeded to Oxford, andmatriculated at Corpus on October 30, 1607. His tutors were a certainHooker, and the brilliant young theologian, Dr. Daniel Featley, afterwards to be famous as a controversial divine. Throughout the year1608, Raleigh, buried in his _History_, makes no sign to us. 

Early in 1609, the uncertain tenure of Sherborne, which had vexedRaleigh so much that he declared himself ready to part with the estatein exchange for the pleasure of never hearing of it again, once morecame definitely before the notice of the Government. A proposition hadbeen made to Raleigh to sell his right in it to the King, but he hadrefused; he said that it belonged to his wife and child, and that 'thosethat never had a fee-simple could not grant a fee-simple. ' AboutChristmas 1608 Lady Raleigh brought the matter up again, and leading hersons by the hand she appeared in the Presence Chamber, and besoughtJames to give them a new conveyance, with no flaw in it. But the Kinghad determined to seize Sherborne, and he told her, 'I maun hae thelond, I maun hae it for Carr. ' It is said that, losing all patience, Elizabeth Raleigh started to her feet, and implored God to punish thisrobbery of her household. Sir Walter was more politic, and on January2, 1609, he wrote a letter to the favourite, imploring him not to covetSherborne. It is to be regretted that Raleigh, whose opinion of James'sminions was not on private occasions concealed, should write to Carr ofall people in England as 'one whom I know not, but by an honourablefame;' and that the eloquence of his appeal should be thrown away onsuch a recipient. 'For yourself, Sir, ' he says, 'seeing your day is butnow in the dawn, and mine come to the evening, your own virtues and theKing's grace assuring you of many good fortunes and much honour, Ibeseech you not to begin your first building upon the ruins of theinnocent; and that their griefs and sorrows do not attend your firstplantation. ' Carr, of course, took no notice whatever, and on the 10thof the same month the estates at Sherborne were bestowed on him. AtPrince Henry's request the King presently purchased them back again, andgave them to his son, who soon after died. Mr. Edwards has discoveredthat Sherborne passed through eight successive changes of ownershipbefore 1617. To Lady Raleigh and her children the King gave 8, 000_l. _ aspurchase-money of the life security in Sherborne. The interest on thissum was very irregularly paid, and the Guiana voyage in 1617 swallowedup most of the principal. Thus the vast and princely fortune of Raleighmelted away like a drift of snow. 

In the summer of 1611, Raleigh came into collision with Lord Salisburyand Lord Northampton on some matter at present obscure. Northamptonwrites: 'We had afterwards a bout with Sir Walter Raleigh, in whom wefind no change, but the same blindness, pride, and passion thatheretofore hath wrought more violently, but never expressed itself in astranger fashion. ' In consequence of their interview with Raleigh andother prisoners, the Lords recommended that 'the lawless liberty' of theTower should no longer be allowed to cocker and foster exorbitant hopesin the braver sort of captives. Raleigh was immediately placed undercloser restraint, not even being allowed to take his customary walk withhis keeper up the hill within the Tower. His private garden and gallerywere taken from him, and his wife was almost entirely excluded from hiscompany. The final months of Salisbury's life were unfavourable toRaleigh, and there was no quickening of the old friendship at the last. When Lord Salisbury died on May 24, 1612, Raleigh wrote this epigram:

 Here lies Hobinall our pastor whilere, That once in a quarter our fleeces did sheer; To please us, his cur he kept under clog, And was ever after both shepherd and dog; For oblation to Pan, his custom was thus, He first gave a trifle, then offered up us; And through his false worship such power he did gain, As kept him on the mountain, and us on the plain. 

When these lines were shown to James I. He said he hoped that the manwho wrote them would die before he did. 

The death of Salisbury encouraged Raleigh once more. His intimacy withthe generous and promising Prince of Wales had quickened his hopes. During the last months of his life, Henry continually appealed toRaleigh for advice. The Prince was exceedingly interested in all mattersof navigation and shipbuilding, and there exists a letter to him fromRaleigh giving him elaborate counsel on the building of a man-of-war, from which we may learn that in the opinion of that practised hand sixthings were chiefly required in a well-conditioned ship of the period:'1, that she be strong built; 2, swift in sail; 3, stout-sided; 4, thather ports be so laid, as she may carry out her guns all weathers; 5, that she hull and try well; 6, that she stay well, when boarding orturning on a wind is required. ' Secure in the interest of the Prince ofWales, and hoping to persuade the Queen to be an adventurer, Raleighseized the opportunity of the death of Salisbury to communicate hisplans for an expedition to Guiana to the Lords of the Council. Hethought he had induced them to promise that Captain Keymis should go, and that if so much as half a ton of gold was brought back, that shouldbuy Raleigh his liberty. But the negotiations fell through, and Keymisstayed at home. 

In September 1612, Raleigh was writing the second of his _MarriageDiscourses_, that dealing with the prospects of his best and youngestfriend. A month later that friend fell a victim to his extreme rashnessin the neglect of his health. The illness of the Prince of Wales filledthe whole of England with dismay, and when, on November 6, he sank underthe attack of typhoid fever, it was felt to be a national misfortune. Onthe very morning of his death the Queen sent to Raleigh for his famouscordial, and it was forwarded, with the message that if it was notpoison that the Prince was dying of, it must save him. The Queen herselfbelieved that Raleigh's cordial had once saved her life; on the otherhand, in the preceding August his medicines were vulgarly supposed tohave hastened the death of Sir Philip Sidney's daughter, the Countess ofRutland. The cordial soothed the Prince's last agony, and that was all. Henry had with great difficulty obtained from his father the promisethat, as a personal favour to himself, Raleigh should be set at libertyat Christmas 1612. He died six weeks too soon, and the King contrived toforget his promise. The feeling of the Prince of Wales towards Raleighwas expressed in a phrase that was often repeated, 'No man but my fatherwould keep such a bird in a cage. '

We learn from Izaak Walton that Ben Jonson was recommended to Raleighwhile he was in the Tower, by Camden. That he helped him in obtainingand arranging material for the _History of the World_ is certain. In1613 young Walter Raleigh, having returned to London, and having, in themonth of April, killed his man in a duel, went abroad under the chargeof Jonson. They took letters for Prince Maurice of Nassau, and theyproceeded to Paris, but we know no more. It was probably before theystarted that young Walter wheeled the corpulent poet of the _Alchemist_into his father's presence in a barrow, Ben Jonson being utterlyoverwhelmed with a beaker of that famed canary that he loved too well. Jonson, on his return from abroad, seems to have superintended thepublication of the _History of the World_ in 1614. A fine copy ofverses, printed opposite the frontispiece of that volume, was reprintedamong the pieces called _Underwoods_ in the 1641 folio of Ben Jonson's_Works_. These lines have, therefore, ever since been attributed to thatpoet, but, as it appears to me, rashly. In the first place, this volumewas posthumous; in the second, for no less than twenty-three years BenJonson allowed the verses to appear as Raleigh's without protest; in thethird, where they differ from the earlier version it is always to theirpoetical disadvantage. They were found, as the editor of 1641 says, amongst Jonson's papers, and I would suggest, as a new hypothesis, thatthe less polished draft in the _Underwoods_ is entirely Raleigh's, having been copied by Jonson verbatim when he was preparing the _Historyof the World_ for the press, and that the improved expressions in thelatter were adopted by Raleigh on suggestion from the superior judgmentof Jonson. The character of the verse is peculiarly that of Raleigh. 

It was in 1607, as I have conjectured, that Raleigh first beganseriously to collect and arrange materials for the _History of theWorld_; in 1614 he presented the first and only volume of this giganticenterprise to the public. It was a folio of 1, 354 pages, printed veryclosely, and if reprinted now would fill about thirty-five such volumesas are devised for an ordinary modern novel. Yet it brought the historyof the world no lower down than the conquest of Macedon by Rome, and itis hard to conceive how soon, at this rate of production, Raleigh wouldhave reached his own generation. He is said to have anticipated that hisbook would need to consist of not less than four such folios. In theopening lines he expresses some consciousness of the fact that it waslate in life for him, a prisoner of State condemned to death at theKing's pleasure, to undertake so vast a literary adventure. 'Had it beenbegotten, ' he confesses, 'with my first dawn of day, when the light ofcommon knowledge began to open itself to my younger years, and beforeany wound received either from fortune or time, I might yet well havedoubted that the darkness of age and death would have covered over bothit and me, long before the performance. ' It is greatly to be desiredthat Raleigh could have been as well advised as his contemporary andpossible friend, the Huguenot poet-soldier, Agrippa d'Aubigné, who atthe close of a chequered career also prepared a _Histoire Universelle_, in which he simply told the story of his own political party in Francethrough those stormy years in which he himself had been an actor. Wewould gladly exchange all these chronicles of Semiramis and Jehoshaphatfor a plain statement of what Raleigh witnessed in the England ofElizabeth. 

The student of Raleigh does not, therefore, rise from an examination ofhis author's chief contribution to literature without a severe sense ofdisappointment. The book is brilliant almost without a rival in its bestpassages, but these are comparatively few, and they are divided from oneanother by tracts of pathless desert. The narrative sometimes descendsinto a mere slough of barbarous names, a marish of fabulous genealogy, in which the lightest attention must take wings to be supported at all. For instance, the geographical and historical account of the Ten Tribesoccupies a space equivalent to a modern octavo volume of at least fourhundred pages, through which, if the conscientious reader would pass'treading the crude consistence' of the matter, 'behoves him now bothsail and oar. ' It is not fair to dwell upon the eminent beauties of the_History of the World_ without at the same time acknowledging that thebook almost wilfully deprives itself of legitimate value and true humaninterest by the remoteness of the period which it describes, and by thetiresome pedantry of its method. It is leisurely to the last excess. Thefirst chapter, of seven long sections, takes us but to the close of theCreation. We cannot proceed without knowing what it is that Tostatusaffirms of the empyrean heavens, and whether, with Strabo, we may dareassume that they are filled with angels. To hasten onwards would beimpossible, so long as one of the errors of Steuchius Eugubinus remainsunconfuted; and even then it is well to pause until we know the opinionsof Orpheus and Zoroaster on the matter in hand. One whole chapter offour sections is dedicated to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the arguments of Goropius Becanus are minutely tested and foundwanting. Goropius Becanus, whom Raleigh is never tired of shakingbetween his critical teeth, was a learned Jesuit of Antwerp, who provedthat Adam and Eve spoke Dutch in Paradise. It is not until he reachesthe Patriarchs that it begins to occur to the historian that at hispresent rate of progress it will need forty folio volumes, and not four, to complete his labours. From this point he hastens a little, as thecompilers of encyclopædias do when they have passed the letter B. 

With all this, the _History of the World_ is a charming and delightfulmiscellany, if we do not accept it too seriously. Often for a score ofpages there will be something brilliant, something memorable on everyleaf, and there is not a chapter, however arid, without its fine thingssomewhere. It is impossible to tell where Raleigh's pen will take fire. He is most exquisite and fanciful where his subject is most unhopeful, and, on the other hand, he is likely to disappoint us where we take forgranted that he will be fine. For example, the series of sections on theTerrestrial Paradise are singularly crabbed and dusty in their displayof Rabbinical pedantry, and the little touch in praise of Guiana isalmost the only one that redeems the general dryness. It is not mirth, or beauty, or luxury that fires the historian, but death. Of mortalityhe has always some rich sententious thing to say, praising 'theworkmanship of death, that finishes the sorrowful business of a wretchedlife. ' So the most celebrated passages of the whole book, and perhapsthe finest, are the address to God which opens the _History_, and theprose hymn in praise of death which closes it. The entire absence ofhumour is characteristic, and adds to the difficulty of reading the bookstraight on. The story of Periander's burning the clothes of the womencloses with a jest; there is, perhaps, no other occasion on which thesolemn historian is detected with a smile upon his lips. 

By far the most interesting and readable, part of the _History of theWorld_ is its preface. This is a book in itself, and one in which theauthor condescends to a lively human interest. We cheerfully pass fromElihu the Buzite, and the conjectures of Adricomius respecting thefamily of Ram, to the actualities of English and Continental history inthe generation immediately preceding that in which Raleigh was writing. When we consider the position in which the author stood towards James I. And turn to the pages of his Preface, we refuse to believe that it waswithout design that he expressed himself in language so extraordinary. It would have been mere levity for a friendless prisoner, ready for theblock, to publish this terrible arraignment of the crimes of tyrantkings, unless he had some reason for believing that he could shelterhimself successfully under a powerful sympathy. This sympathy, in thecase of Sir Walter Raleigh, could be none other than that of PrinceHenry; and it may well have been in the summer of 1612, when, as weknow, he was particularly intimate with the Prince and busied in hisaffairs, that he wrote the Preface. With long isolation from the world, he had lost touch of public affairs, as _The Prerogative of Parliament_would alone be sufficient to show. It is probable that he exaggeratedthe influence of the young Prince, and estimated too highly the promiseof liberty which he had wrung from his father. 

It took James some time to discover that this grave Rabbinicalmiscellany, inspired by Siracides and Goropius Becanus, was notwholesome reading for his subjects. On January 5, 1615, after the bookhad been selling slowly, the King gave an order commanding thesuppression of the remainder of the edition, giving as his reason that'it is too saucy in censuring the acts of kings. ' It is said that somefavoured person at Court pushed inquiry further, and extracted fromJames the explanation that the censure of Henry VIII. Was the real causeof the suppression. Contemporary anecdote, however, has reported thatthe defamation of the Tudors in the Preface to the _History of theWorld_ might have passed without reproof, if the King had not discoveredin the very body of the book several passages so ambiguously worded thathe could not but suspect the writer of intentional satire. According tothis story, he was startled at Raleigh's account of Naboth's Vineyard, and scandalised at the description of the impeachment of the Admiral ofFrance; but what finally drew him up, and made him decide that the bookmust perish, was the character of King Ninias, son of Queen Semiramis. This passage, then, may serve us as an example of the _History of theWorld_:

 Ninus being the first whom the madness of boundless dominion transported, invaded his neighbour princes, and became victorious over them; a man violent, insolent, and cruel. Semiramis taking the opportunity, and being more proud, adventurous, and ambitious than her paramour, enlarged the Babylonian empire, and beautified many places therein with buildings unexampled. But her son having changed nature and condition with his mother, proved no less feminine than she was masculine. And as wounds and wrongs, by their continual smart, put the patient in mind how to cure the one and revenge the other, so those kings adjoining (whose subjection and calamities incident were but new, and therefore the more grievous) could not sleep, when the advantage was offered by such a successor. For _in regno Babylonico hic parum resplenduit_: 'This king shined little, ' saith Nauclerus of Ninias, 'in the Babylonian kingdom. ' And likely it is, that the necks of mortal men having been never before galled with the yoke of foreign dominion, nor having ever had experience of that most miserable and detested condition of living in slavery; no long descent having as yet invested the Assyrian with a right, nor any other title being for him pretended than a strong hand; the foolish and effeminate son of a tyrannous and hated mother could very ill hold so many great princes and nations his vassals, with a power less mastering, and a mind less industrious, than his father and mother had used before him. 

It is in passages like this, where we read the satire between the lines, and in those occasional fragments of autobiography to which we havealready referred in the course of this narrative, that the secondarycharm of the _History of the World_ resides. It is to these that we turnwhen we have exhausted our first surprise and delight at the greatbursts of poetic eloquence, the long sonorous sentences which break likewaves on the shore, when the spirit of the historian is roused by someoccasional tempest of reflection. In either case, the book isessentially one to glean from, not to read with consecutive patience. Real historical philosophy is absolutely wanting. The author strives toseem impartial by introducing, in the midst of an account of theslaughter of the Amalekites, a chapter on 'The Instauration of Civilityin Europe, and of Prometheus and Atlas;' but his general notions ofhistory are found to be as rude as his comparative mythology. Hescarcely attempts to sift evidence, and next to Inspiration he knows noguide more trustworthy than Pintus or Haytonus, a Talmudic rabbi or aJesuit father. In the midst of his disquisitions, the reward of thecontinuous reader is to come suddenly upon an unexpected 'as I myselfhave seen in America, ' or 'as once befell me also in Ireland. '

Another historical work, the _Breviary of the History of England_, hasbeen claimed for Sir Walter Raleigh. This book was first published in1692, from a manuscript in the possession of Archbishop Sancroft, and, as it would appear, in Raleigh's handwriting. Before its publication, however, the Archbishop had noted that 'Samuel Daniel hath inserted intohis _History of England_ [1618], almost word for word, both theIntroduction and the Life; whence it is that you have sometimes in themargin of my copy a various reading with "D" after it. ' Daniel, a gentleand subservient creature, was the friend of Camden, and a paid servantof Queen Anne, during Raleigh's imprisonment. He died a few months afterRaleigh's execution. It is very likely that he was useful to Raleigh incollecting notes and other material. It may even have been his work forthe interesting prisoner in the Tower that caused Jonson's jealousdislike of Daniel. The younger poet's own account, as Mr. Edwardspointed out, by no means precludes the supposition that he used materialput together by another hand. At the same time Sancroft's authoritycannot be considered final as regards Raleigh's authorship of the_Breviary_, for the manuscript did not come into his hands untilnineteen years after Raleigh's death. 

No such doubt attaches to the very curious and interesting volumepublished nominally at Middelburg in 1628, and entitled _The Prerogativeof Parliament_. This takes the form of a dialogue between a Counsellorof State and a Justice of the Peace. The dramatic propriety is butpoorly sustained, and presently the Justice becomes Raleigh, speaking inhis own person. The book was written in the summer of 1615, a few monthsafter the suppression of the _History of the World_, and by a curiousmisconstruction of motive was intended to remove from the King's mindthe unpleasant impression caused by those parables of Ahab and ofNinias. It had, however, as we shall see, the very opposite result. Thepreface to the King expresses an almost servile desire to please: 'itwould be more dog-like than man-like to bite the stone that struck me, to wit the borrowed authority of my sovereign misinformed. ' But Raleighwas curiously misinformed himself regarding the ways and wishes ofJames. His dialogue takes for its starting-point the trial of Oliver St. John, who had been Raleigh's fellow-prisoner in the Tower since Aprilfor having with unreasonable brutality protested against the enforcedpayment of what was called the Benevolence, a supposed free-willoffering to the purse of the King. So ignorant was Raleigh of what wasgoing on in England, that he fancied James to be unaware of the tricksof his ministers; and the argument of _The Prerogative of Parliament_ isto encourage the King to cast aside his evil counsellors, and come faceto face with his loyal people. The student of Mr. Gardiner's account ofthe Benevolence will smile to think of the rage with which the King musthave received Raleigh's proffered good advice, and of Raleigh'sstupefaction at learning that his well-meant volume was forbidden to beprinted. His manuscript, prepared for the press, still remains among theState Papers, and it was not until ten years after his death that it wasfirst timidly issued under the imprints of Middelburg and of Hamburg. 

Not the least of Raleigh's chagrins in the Tower must have been thecomposition of works which he was unable to publish. It is probable thatseveral of these are still unknown to the world; many were certainlydestroyed, some may still be in existence. During the thirty years whichsucceeded his execution, there was a considerable demand for scraps ofRaleigh's writing on the part of men who were leaning to the Liberalside. John Hampden was a collector of Raleigh's manuscripts, and he ispossibly the friend who bequeathed to Milton the manuscript of _TheCabinet Council_, an important political work of Raleigh's which thegreat Puritan poet gave to the world in 1658. At that time Milton hadhad the treatise 'many years in my hands, and finding it lately bychance among other books and papers, upon reading thereof I thought it akind of injury to withhold longer the work of so eminent an author fromthe public. ' _The Cabinet Council_ is a study in the manner ofMacchiavelli. It treats of the arts of empire and mysteries ofState-craft, mainly with regard to the duties of monarchy. It isremarkable for the extraordinary richness of allusive extracts from theRoman classics, almost every maxim being immediately followed by an aptLatin example. At the end of the twenty-fourth chapter the author wakesup to the tedious character of this manner of instruction, and the restof the book is illustrated by historical instances in the Englishtongue. The book closes with an exhortation to the reader, who could beno other than Prince Henry, to emulate the conduct of Amurath, King ofTurbay, who abandoned worldly glory to embrace a retired life ofcontemplation. _The Cabinet Council_ must be regarded as a text-book ofState-craft, intended _in usum Delphini_. 

Probably earlier in date, and certainly more elegant in literary form, is the treatise entitled _A Discourse of War_. This may be recommendedto the modern reader as the most generally pleasing of Raleigh's prosecompositions, and the one in which, owing to its modest limits, thepeculiarities of his style may be most conveniently studied. The lastpassage of the little book forms one of the most charming pages of theliterature of that time, and closes with a pathetic and dignifiedstatement of Raleigh's own attitude towards war. 'It would be anunspeakable advantage, both to the public and private, if men wouldconsider that great truth, that no man is wise or safe but he that ishonest. All I have designed is peace to my country; and may Englandenjoy that blessing when I shall have no more proportion in it than whatmy ashes make. ' There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of thesewords; yet we must not forget that this pacific light was not that inwhich Raleigh's character had presented itself to Robert Cecil or toElizabeth. 

None of Raleigh's biographers have suggested any employment for hisleisure during the year which followed his release from the Tower. Yetthe expressions he used in the preface to his _Observations on Trade andCommerce_ show that it must have been prepared during the year 1616 or1617: 'about fourteen or fifteen years past, ' that is to say in 1602, 'Ipresented you, ' he says to the King, 'a book of extraordinaryimportance. ' He complains that this earlier book was suppressed, andhopes for better luck; but the same misfortune, as usual with Raleigh, attended the _Observations_. That treatise was an impassioned plea, based upon a survey of the commercial condition of the world, in favourof free trade. Raleigh looked with grave suspicion on the various dutieswhich were levied, in increasing amount, on foreign goods entering thiscountry, and he entreated James I. To allow him to nominatecommissioners to examine into the causes of the depression of trade, and to revise the tariffs on a liberal basis. It must have seemed to theKing that Raleigh wilfully opposed every royal scheme which he examined. James had been a protectionist all through his reign, and at this verymoment was busy in attempting to force the native industries to flourishin spite of foreign competition. Raleigh's treatise must have been putinto the King's hands much about the time at which his violentprotectionism was threatening to draw England into war with Holland. Raleigh's advice seems to us wise and pointed, but to James it can onlyhave appeared wilfully wrong-headed. The _Observations upon Trade_disappeared as so many of Raleigh's manuscripts had disappeared beforeit, and was only first published in the _Remains_[10] of 1651. 

Of the last three years of Raleigh's imprisonment in the Tower we knowscarcely anything. On September 27, 1615, a fellow-prisoner in whomRaleigh could not fail to take an interest, Lady Arabella Stuart, diedin the Tower. In December, Raleigh was deprived, by an order in Council, of Arabella's rich collection of pearls, but how they had come into hispossession we cannot guess. Nor can we date the stroke of apoplexy fromwhich Raleigh suffered about this time. But relief was now brieflycoming. Two of Raleigh's worst enemies, Northampton and Somerset, wereremoved, and in their successors, Winwood and Villiers, Raleigh foundlisteners more favourable to his projects. It has been said that he owedhis release to bribery, but Mr. Gardiner thinks it needless to supposethis. Winwood was as cordial a hater of Spain as Raleigh himself; andVilliers, in his political animus against the Somerset faction, wouldneed no bribery. Sir William St. John was active in bringing Raleigh'sclaims before the Court, and the Queen, as ever, used what slenderinfluence she possessed. Urged on so many sides, James gave way, and onJanuary 30, 1616, signed a warrant for Raleigh's release from the Tower. He was to live in his own house, but, with a keeper; he was not topresume to visit the Court, or the Queen's apartments, nor go to anypublic assemblies whatever, and his whole attention was to be given tomaking due preparations for the intended voyage to Guiana. This warrant, although Raleigh used it to leave his confinement, was only provisional;and was confirmed by a minute of the Privy Council on March 19. Raleightook a house in Broad Street, where he spent fourteen months in discreetretirement, and then sailed on his last voyage. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE SECOND VOYAGE TO GUIANA. 

Raleigh had been released from the Tower expressly on the understandingthat he should make direct preparations for a voyage to Guiana. Theobject of this voyage was to enrich King James with the produce of amine close to the banks of the Orinoco. In the reign of Elizabeth, Raleigh had stoutly contended that the natives of Guiana had ceded allsovereignty in that country to England in 1595, and that Englishcolonists therefore had no one's leave to ask there. But times hadchanged, and he now no longer pretended that he had a right to theOrinoco; he was careful to insist that his expedition would infringe noprivileges of Spain. He was anxious by every diplomatic subtlety toavoid failure, and for the first few months he kept extremely quiet. Hehad called in the 8, 000_l. _ which had been lying at interest ever sincehe had received it as part of the compensation for the Sherborneestates. Lady Raleigh had raised 2, 500_l. _ by the sale of some lands atMitcham. [11] 5000_l. _ more were brought together by various expedients, some being borrowed in Amsterdam through the famous merchant, PieterVanlore, ' and 15, 000_l. _ were contributed by Raleigh's friends, wholooked upon his enterprise much as men at the present day would regard apromising but rather hazardous investment. 

His first business was to build one large ship of 440 tons in theThames. This he named the 'Destiny, ' and he received no check in fittingher up to his desire; the King paid 700 crowns, as the usual statutablebounty on shipbuilding, without objection. At the same time Raleighbuilt or collected six other smaller vessels, and furnished them allwith ordnance. The preparation of such a fleet in the Thames could notpass unobserved by the representatives of the foreign courts, and duringthe last six months of 1616 Raleigh's name became the centre of a tangleof diplomatic intrigue, and one which frequently occurs in thecorrespondence of Sarmiento, better known afterwards as Gondomar, theSpanish ambassador, and in that of Des Marêts, the French ambassador. Mr. Edwards has remarked, with complete justice, that the last two yearsof Raleigh's life were simply 'a protracted death-struggle between himand Gondomar. ' The latter had been in England since 1613, and hadacquired a singular art in dealing with the purposes of James I. At theEnglish Court during 1616 we find Spain watching France, and Venicewatching Savoy, all of them intent on Raleigh's movements in the river. For the unravelment of these intrigues in detail, the reader must bereferred to Mr. Gardiner's masterly pages. 

On August 26, a royal commission was issued, by which Raleigh was madethe commander of an expedition to Guiana, under express orders, morestringently expressed than usual, not to visit the dominions of anyChristian prince. This was to allay the alarm of the Spanish ambassador, who from the first rumour of Raleigh's voyage had not ceased to declarethat its real object was piracy, and probably the capture of the Mexicanplate fleet. At the same time James I. Allowed Gondomar to obtainpossession of copies of certain documents which Raleigh had drawn out atthe royal command describing his intended route, and these were at onceforwarded to Madrid, together with such information as Gondomar had beenable to glean in conversation with Raleigh. Spain instantly replied byoffering him an escort to his gold mine and back, but of course Raleighdeclined the proposition. He continued to assert that he had nopiratical intention, and that any man might peacefully enter Guianawithout asking leave of Spain. 

It is doubtful whether the anecdote is true which records that Raleighat this time applied to Bacon to know whether the terms of hiscommission were tantamount to a free pardon, and was told that theywere. But it rests on much better testimony that Bacon asked him what hewould do if the Guiana mine proved a deception. Raleigh admitted that hewould then look out for the Mexican plate fleet. 'But then you will bepirates, ' said Bacon; and Raleigh answered, 'Ah, who ever heard of menbeing pirates for millions?' There was no exaggeration in this; theMexican fleet of that year was valued at two millions and a half. Theastute Gondomar was at least half certain that this was Raleigh's realintention, and by October 12 he had persuaded James to give him stillmore full security that no injury should be done, at the peril ofRaleigh's life, to any subject or property of the King of Spain. 

The building of the 'Destiny' meanwhile proceeded, and Raleigh receivedmany important visitors on board her. He was protected by the cordialfavour of the Secretary, Sir Ralph Winwood; and if the King disliked himas much as ever, no animosity was shown. In the first days of 1617, Raleigh ventured upon a daring act of intrigue. He determined to workupon the growing sympathy of the English Court with Savoy and itstension with Spain, to strike a blow against the rich enemy of the oneand ally of the other, Genoa. He proposed to Scarnafissi, the Savoyardenvoy in London, that James I. Should be induced to allow the Guianaexpedition to steal into the Mediterranean, and seize Genoa for Savoy. Scarnafissi laid the proposal before James, and on January 12 it wasdiscussed in the presence of Winwood. There was talk of increasingRaleigh's fleet for this purpose by the addition of a squadron ofsixteen ships from the royal navy. For a fortnight the idea wasdiscussed in secret; but on the 26th, Scarnafissi was told that the Kinghad determined not to adopt it. Four days later Raleigh was releasedfrom the personal attendance of a keeper, and though still not pardoned, was pronounced free. On February 10, the Venetian envoy, who had beentaken into Scarnafissi's counsel, announced to his Government that theKing had finally determined to keep Raleigh to his original intention. 

Raleigh was next assailed by secret propositions from France. Throughthe month of February various Frenchmen visited him on the 'Destiny, 'besides the ambassador, Des Marêts. He was nearly persuaded, indefiance of James, to support the projected Huguenot rebellion bycapturing St. Valéry. To find out the truth regarding his intention, DesMarêts paid at least one visit to the 'Destiny, ' and on March 7 gave hisGovernment an account of a conversation with Raleigh, in which thelatter had spoken bitterly of James, and had asserted his affection forFrance, and desire to serve her. It is in the correspondence of DesMarêts that the names of Raleigh and Richelieu become for a momentconnected; it was in February 1617 that the future Cardinal describedhis English contemporary as 'Ouastre Raly, grand marinier et mauvaiscapitaine. ' In March the English Government, to allay freshapprehensions on the part of Spain, forwarded by Gondomar most implicitassertions that Raleigh's expedition should be in no way injurious toSpain. And so it finally started after all, not bound for Mexico, orGenoa, or St. Valéry, but for the Orinoco. Up to the last, Gondomarprotested, and his protestations were only put aside after a specialcouncil of March 28. Next day Raleigh rode down to Dover to go on boardthe 'Destiny, ' which had left the Thames on the 26th. 

His fleet of seven vessels was not well manned. His own account of thecrews is thus worded in the _Apology_: 'A company of volunteers who forthe most part had neither seen the sea nor the wars; who, some fortygentlemen excepted, were the very scum of the world, drunkards, blasphemers, and such others as their fathers, brothers, and friendsthought it an exceeding good gain to be discharged of, with the hazardof some thirty, forty, or fifty pound. ' He was himself Admiral, with hisson Walter as captain of the 'Destiny;' Sir William Sentleger was onthe 'Thunder;' a certain John Bailey commanded the 'Husband. ' Theremaining vessels were the 'Jason, ' the 'Encounter, ' the 'Flying Joan, 'and the 'Page. ' The master of the 'Destiny' was John Burwick, 'ahypocritical thief. ' Various tiresome delays occurred. They waited forthe 'Thunder' at the Isle of Wight; and when the rest went on toPlymouth, the 'Jason' stayed behind ignominiously in Portsmouth becauseher captain had no ready money to pay a distraining baker. The 'Husband'was in the same plight for twelve days more. The squadron was, however, increased by seven additional vessels, one of them commanded by Keymis, through the enforced waiting at Plymouth, where, on May 3, Raleighissued his famous _Orders to the Fleet_. On June 12 the fleet sailed atlast out of Plymouth Sound. 

West of Scilly they fell in with a terrific storm, which scattered theships in various directions. Some put back into Falmouth, but the'Flying Joan' sank altogether, and the fly-boat was driven up theBristol Channel. After nearly a fortnight of anxiety and distress, thefleet collected again in Cork Harbour, where they lay repairing andwaiting for a favourable wind for more than six weeks. From the _LismorePapers_, just published (Jan. 1886), we learn that Raleigh occupied thisenforced leisure in getting rid of his remaining Irish leases, and incollecting as much money as he could. Sir Richard Boyle records that onJuly 1 Raleigh came to his house, and borrowed 100_l. _ On August 19 thelast _Journal_ begins, and on the 20th the fleet left Cork, Raleighhaving taken a share in a mine at Balligara on the morning of the sameday. Nothing happened until the 31st, when, being off Cape St. Vincent, the English fleet fell in with four French vessels laden with fish andtrain oil for Seville. In order that they might not give notice thatRaleigh was in those waters, where he certainly had no business to be, he took these vessels with him a thousand leagues to the southward, andthen dismissed them with payment. His conduct towards these French boatswas suspicious, and he afterwards tried to prove that they were pirateswho had harried the Grand Canary. It was also Raleigh's contention, thatthe enmity presently shown him by Captain Bailey, of the 'Husband, 'arose from Raleigh's refusal to let him make one of these French shipshis prize. 

On Sunday morning, September 7, the English fleet anchored off the shoreof Lanzarote, the most easterly of the Canaries, having hitherto creptdown the coast of Africa. These Atlantic islands were particularly opento the attacks of Algerine corsairs, and a fleet of 'Turks' had justravaged the towns of the Madeiras. The people of Lanzarote, waking upone morning to find their roadstead full of strange vessels, took forgranted that these were pirates from Algiers. One English merchantvessel was lying there at anchor, and by means of this interpreterRaleigh endeavoured to explain his peaceful intention, but withoutsuccess. He had a meeting on shore with the governor of the island, 'ourtroops staying at equal distance with us, ' and was asked the pertinentquestion, 'what I sought for from that miserable and barren island, peopled in effect all with Moriscos. ' Raleigh asserted that all hewanted was fresh meat and wine for his crews, and these he offered topay for. 

On the 11th, finding that no provisions came, and that the inhabitantswere carrying their goods up into the hills, the captains begged Raleighto march inland and take the town; 'but, ' he says, 'besides that I knewit would offend his Majesty, I am sure the poor English merchant shouldhave been ruined, whose goods he had in his hands, and the way beingmountainous and most extreme stony, I knew that I must have lost twentygood men in taking a town not worth two groats. ' The Governor ofLanzarote continued to be in a craven state of anxiety, and would nothear of trading. We cannot blame him, especially when we find that lessthan eight months later his island was invaded by genuine Algerinebandits, his town utterly sacked, and 900 Christians taken off intoMoslem slavery. After three Englishmen had been killed by the islanders, yet without taking any reprisals, Raleigh sailed away from these sandyand inhospitable shores. But in the night before he left, one of hisships, the 'Husband, ' had disappeared. Captain Bailey, who is believedto have been in the pay of Gondomar, had hurried back to England to givereport of Raleigh's piratical attack on an island belonging to thedominion of Spain. As the great Englishman went sailing westward throughthe lustrous waters of the Canary archipelago, his doom was sealed, andhe would have felt his execution to be a certainty, had he but knownwhat was happening in England. 

He called at Grand Canary, to complain of the Lanzarote people to thegovernor-general of the islands, but, for some reason which he does notstate, did not land at the town of Palmas, but at a desert part, farfrom any village, probably west of the northern extremity of the island. The governor-general gave him no answer; but the men found a littlewater, and they sailed away, leaving Teneriffe to the north. OnSeptember 18 they put into the excellent port of the island of Gomera, 'the best, ' he says, 'in all the Canaries, the town and castle standingon the very breach of the sea, but the billows do so tumble and overfallthat it is impossible to land upon any part of the strand but byswimming, saving in a cove under steep rocks, where they can passtowards the town but one after the other. ' Here, as at Lanzarote, theywere taken for Algerines, and the guns on the rocks began to fire atthem. Raleigh, however, immediately sent a messenger on shore to explainthat they were not come to sack their town and burn their churches, asthe Dutch had done in 1599, but that they were in great need of water. They presently came to an agreement that the islanders should quit theirtrenches round the landing-place, and that Raleigh should promise on thefaith of a Christian not to land more than thirty unarmed sailors, tofill their casks at springs within pistol-shot of the wash of the sea, none of these sailors being permitted to enter any house or garden. Raleigh, therefore, sent six of his seamen, and turned his shipsbroadside to the town, ready to batter it with culverin if he saw onesign of treachery. 

It turned out that when the Governor of Gomera knew who his visitorswere, he was as pleased as possible to see them. His wife's mother hadbeen a Stafford, and when Raleigh knew that, he sent his countrywoman apresent of six embroidered handkerchiefs and six pairs of gloves, with avery handsome message. To this the lady rejoined that she regretted thather barren island contained nothing worth Raleigh's acceptance, yetsent him 'four very great loaves of sugar, ' with baskets of lemons, oranges, pomegranates, figs, and most delicate grapes. During the threedays that they rode off Gomera, the Governor and his English lady wrotedaily to Sir Walter. In return for the fruit, deeming himself much inher debt, he sent on shore a very courteous letter, and with it twoounces of ambergriece, an ounce of the essence of amber, a great glassof fine rose-water, an excellent picture of Mary Magdalen, and acut-work ruff. Here he expected courtesies to stay, but the lady mustpositively have the last word, and as the English ships were startingher servants came on board with yet a letter, accompanying a basket ofdelicate white manchett bread, more clusters of fruits, and twenty-fourfat hens. Meanwhile, in the friendliest way, the sailors had been goingto and fro, and had drawn 240 pipes of water. So cordial, indeed, wastheir reception, that, as a last favour, Raleigh asked the Governor fora letter to Sarmiento [Gondomar], which he got, setting forth 'how noblywe had behaved ourselves, and how justly we had dealt with theinhabitants of the islands. ' Before leaving Gomera, Raleigh discharged anative barque which one of his pinnaces had captured, and paid at thevaluation of the master for any prejudice that had been done him. OnSeptember 21 they sailed away from the Canaries, having much sickness onboard; and that very day their first important loss occurred, in thedeath of the Provost Marshal of the fleet, a man called Stead. 

On the 26th they reached St. Antonio, the outermost of the Cape VerdeIslands, but did not land there. For eight wretched days they wanderedaimlessly about in this unfriendly archipelago, trying to make up theirminds to land now on Brava, now on St. Jago. Some of the ships grated onthe rocks, all lost anchors and cables; one pinnace, her crew beingasleep and no one on the watch, drove under the bowsprit of the'Destiny, ' struck her and sank. When they did effect a landing on Brava, they were soaked by the tropical autumnal rains of early October. Menwere dying fast in all the ships. In deep dejection Raleigh gave theorder to steer away for Guiana. Meanwhile Bailey had arrived in England, had seen Gondomar, and had openly given out that he left Raleigh becausethe admiral had been guilty of piratical acts against Spain. It does notseem that Winwood or the King took any notice of these declarationsuntil the end of the year. 

The ocean voyage was marked by an extraordinary number of deaths, amongothers that of Mr. Fowler, the principal refiner, whose presence at thegold mine would have been of the greatest importance. On October 13, John Talbot, who had been for eleven years Raleigh's secretary in theTower, passed away. The log preserved in the _Second Voyage_ is of greatinterest, but we dare not allow its observations to detain us. On thelast of October, Raleigh was struck down by fever himself, and fortwenty days lay unable to eat anything more solid than a stewed prune. He was in bed, on November 11, when they sighted Cape Orange, now themost northerly point belonging to the Empire of Brazil. On the 14th theyanchored at the mouth of the Cayenne river, and Raleigh was carried fromhis noisome cabin into his barge; the 'Destiny' got across the bar, which was lower then than it now is, on the 17th. At Cayenne, after aday or two, Raleigh's old servant Harry turned up; he had almostforgotten his English in twenty-two years. Raleigh began to pick upstrength a little on pine-apples and plantains, and presently he beganto venture even upon roast peccary. He proceeded to spend the nextfortnight on the Cayenne river, refreshing his weary crews, andrepairing his vessels. An interesting letter to his wife that he senthome from this place, which he called 'Caliana, ' confirms the _SecondVoyage_, and adds some details. He says to Lady Raleigh: 'To tell you Imight be here King of the Indians were a vanity; but my name hath stilllived among them. Here they feed me with fresh meat and all that thecountry yields; all offer to obey me. Commend me to poor Carew my son. 'His eldest son, Walter, it will be remembered, was with him. 

In December the fleet coasted along South America westward, till on the15th they stood under Trinidad. Meanwhile Raleigh had sent forward, byway of Surinam and Essequibo, the expedition which was to search for thegold mine on the Orinoco. His own health prevented his attempting thisjourney, but he sent Captain Keymis as commander in his stead, and withhim was George Raleigh, the Admiral's nephew; young Walter alsoaccompanied the party. On New Year's Eve Raleigh landed at a village inTrinidad, close to Port of Spain, and there he waited, on the borders ofthe land of pitch, all through January 1618. On the last of that monthhe returned to Punto Gallo on the mainland, being very anxious for newsfrom the Orinoco. The log of the _Second Voyage_ closes on February 13, and it is supposed that it was on the evening of that day that CaptainKeymis' disastrous letter, written on January 8, reached Raleigh andinformed him of the death of his son Walter. 'To a broken mind, a sickbody, and weak eyes, it is a torment to write letters, ' and we know hefelt, as he also said, that now 'all the respects of this world hadtaken end in him. ' Keymis had acted in keeping with what he must havesupposed to be Raleigh's private wish; he had attacked the new Spanishsettlement of San Thomé. In the fight young Walter Raleigh had beenstruck down as he was shouting 'Come on, my men! This is the only mineyou will ever find. ' Keymis had to announce this fact to the father, anda few days afterwards, with only a remnant of his troop, he himself fledin panic to the sea, believing that a Spanish army was upon him. Thewhole adventure was a miserable and ignominious failure. 

The meeting between Raleigh and Keymis could not fail to be anembarrassing one. Raleigh could not but feel that all his own mistakesand faults might have been condoned if Keymis had brought one basket ofore from the fabulous mine, and he could not refrain from reproachinghim. He told him he 'should be forced to leave him to his arguments, with the which if he could satisfy his Majesty and the State, I shouldbe glad of it, though for my part he must excuse me to justify it. 'After this first interview Keymis left him in great dejection, and a dayor two later appeared in the Admiral's cabin with a letter which he hadwritten to the Earl of Arundel, excusing himself. He begged Raleigh toforgive him and to read this letter. What followed, Sir Walter must tellin his own grave words:

 I told him he had undone me by his obstinacy, and that I would not favour or colour in any sort his former folly. He then asked me, whether that were my resolution? I answered, that it was. He then replied in these words, 'I know then, sir, what course to take, ' and went out of my cabin into his own, in which he was no sooner entered than I heard a pistol go off. I sent up, not suspecting any such thing as the killing of himself, to know who shot a pistol. Keymis himself made answer, lying on his bed, that he had shot it off, because it had long been charged; with which I was satisfied. Some half-hour after this, his boy, going into the cabin, found him dead, having a long knife thrust under his left pap into his heart, and his pistol lying by him, with which it appeared he had shot himself; but the bullet lighting upon a rib, had but broken the rib, and went no further. 

Such was the wretched manner in which Raleigh and his old faithfulservant parted. In his despair, the Admiral's first notion was to plungehimself into the mazes of the Orinoco, and to find the gold mine, or diein the search for it. But his men were mutinous; they openly declaredthat in their belief no such mine existed, and that the Spaniards werebearing down on them by land and sea. They would not go; and Raleigh, strangely weakened and humbled, asked them if they wished him to leadthem against the Mexican plate fleet. He told them that he had acommission from France, and that they would be pardoned in England ifthey came home laden with treasure. 

What exactly happened no one knows. The mutiny grew worse and worse, andon March 21, when Raleigh wrote a long letter to prepare the mind ofWinwood, he was lying off St. Christopher's on his homeward voyage; notknowing of course that his best English friend had already been deadfive months. Next day, he made up his mind that he dared not return toEngland to face his enemies, and he wrote to tell his wife that he wasoff to Newfoundland, 'where I mean to make clean my ships, andrevictual; for I have tobacco enough to pay for it. ' But he waspowerless, as he confesses, to govern his crew, and no one knows how theheartbroken old man spent the next two dreadful months. His ships slunkback piecemeal to English havens, and on May 23, Captain North, who hadcommanded the 'Chudleigh, ' had audience of the King, and told him thewhole miserable story. On May 26, [12] Raleigh made his appearance, withthe 'Destiny, ' in the harbour of Kinsale, and on June 21 he arrived inPlymouth, penniless and dejected, for the first time in his life utterlyunnerved and irresolute. On June 16 he had written an apologetic letterto the King. By some curious slip Mr. Edwards dated this letter threemonths too late, and its significance has therefore been overlooked. Itis important as showing that Raleigh was eager to conciliate James. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE END. 

Gondomar had not been idle during Raleigh's absence, but so long asWinwood was alive he had not been able to attack the absent Admiral withmuch success. As soon as Bailey brought him the news of the supposedattack on Lanzarote, he communicated with his Government, and urged thatan embargo should be laid on the goods of the English merchant colony atSeville. This angry despatch, the result of a vain attempt to reachJames, is dated October 22; and on October 27 the sudden death ofWinwood removed Gondomar's principal obstacle to the ruin of Raleigh. Atfirst, however, Bailey's story received no credence, and if, as Howelsomewhat apocryphally relates, Gondomar had been forbidden to say twowords about Raleigh in the King's presence, and therefore entered withuplifted hands shouting 'Pirates!' till James was weary, he did not seemto gain much ground. Moreover, while Bailey's story was being discussed, the little English merchant vessel which had been lying in Lanzaroteduring Raleigh's visit returned to London, and gave evidence whichbrought Bailey to gaol in the Gate House. 

On January 11, 1618, before any news had been received from Guiana, alarge gathering was held in the Council Chamber at Westminster, to tryBailey for false accusation. The Council contained many men favourableto Raleigh, but the Spanish ambassador brought influence to bear on theKing; and late in February, Bailey was released with a reprimand, although he had accused Raleigh not of piracy only, but of high treason. The news of the ill-starred attack on San Thomé reached Madrid on May 3, and London on the 8th. This must have given exquisite pleasure to thebaffled Gondomar, and he lost no time in pressing James for revenge. Hegave the King the alternative of punishing Raleigh in England or sendinghim as a prisoner to Spain. The King wavered for a month. Meanwhilevessel after vessel brought more conclusive news of the piraticalexpedition in which Keymis had failed, and Gondomar became daily moreimportunate. It began to be thought that Raleigh had taken flight forParis. 

At, last, on June 11, James I. Issued a proclamation inviting all whohad a claim against Raleigh to present it to the Council. LordNottingham at the same time outlawed the 'Destiny' in whatever Englishport she might appear. It does not seem that the King was unduly hastyin condemning Raleigh. He had given Spain every solemn pledge thatRaleigh should not injure Spain, and yet the Admiral's only act had beento fall on an unsuspecting Spanish settlement; notwithstanding this, James argued as long as he could that San Thomé lay outside theagreement. The arrival of the 'Destiny, ' however, seems to have clinchedGondomar's arguments. Three days after Raleigh arrived in Plymouth, theKing assured Spain that 'not all those who have given security forRaleigh can save him from the gallows. ' For the particulars of thecurious intrigues of these summer months the reader must be referred, once more, to Mr. Gardiner's dispassionate pages. 

On June 21, Raleigh moored the 'Destiny' in Plymouth harbour, and senther sails ashore. Lady Raleigh hastened down to meet him, and theystayed in Plymouth a fortnight. His wife and he, with Samuel King, oneof his captains, then set out for London, but were met just outsideAshburton by Sir Lewis Stukely, a cousin of Raleigh's, now Vice-Admiralof Devonshire. This man announced that he had the King's orders toarrest Sir Walter Raleigh; but these were only verbal orders, and hetook his prisoner back to Plymouth to await the Council warrant. Raleighwas lodged for nine or ten days in the house of Sir Christopher Harris, Stukely being mainly occupied in securing the 'Destiny' and hercontents. Raleigh pretended to be ill, or was really indisposed withanxiety and weariness. While Stukely was thinking of other things, Raleigh commissioned Captain King to hire a barque to slip over to LaRochelle, and one night Raleigh and King made their escape towards thisvessel in a little boat. But Raleigh probably reflected that withoutmoney or influence he would be no safer in France than in England, andbefore the boat reached the vessel, he turned back and went home. Heordered the barque to be in readiness the next night, but although noone watched him, he made no second effort to escape. 

On July 23 the Privy Council ordered Stukely, 'all delays set apart, ' tobring the body of Sir Walter Raleigh speedily to London. Two days later, Stukely and his prisoner started from Plymouth. A French quack, calledMannourie, in whose chemical pretensions Raleigh had shown someinterest, was encouraged by Stukely to attend him, and to worm himselfinto his confidence. As Walter and Elizabeth Raleigh passed thebeautiful Sherborne which had once been theirs, the former could notrefrain from saying, 'All this was mine, and it was taken from meunjustly. ' They travelled quickly, sleeping at Sherborne on the 26th, and next night at Salisbury. Raleigh lost all confidence as he foundhimself so hastily being taken up to London. As they went from Wiltoninto Salisbury, Raleigh asked Mannourie to give him a vomit; 'by itsmeans I shall gain time to work my friends, and order my affairs;perhaps even to pacify his Majesty. Otherwise, as soon as ever I come toLondon, they will have me to the Tower, and cut off my head. '

That same evening, while being conducted to his rooms, Raleigh struckhis head against a post. It was supposed to show that he was dizzy; andnext morning he sent Lady Raleigh and her retinue on to London, sayingthat he himself was not well enough to move. At the same time, King wenton to prepare a ship to be ready in the Thames in case of anotheremergency. When they had started, Raleigh was discovered in his bedroom, on all fours, in his shirt, gnawing the rushes on the floor. Stukely wascompletely taken in; the French quack had given Raleigh, not an emeticonly, but some ointment which caused his skin to break out in darkpurple pustules. Stukely rushed off to the Bishop of Ely, who happenedto be in Salisbury, and acted on his advice to wait for Raleigh'srecovery. Unless Stukely also was mountebanking, the spy Mannourie forthe present kept Raleigh's counsel. Raleigh was treated as an invalid, and during the four days' retirement contrived to write his _Apology forthe Voyage to Guiana_. On August 1, James I. And all his Court enteredSalisbury, and on the morning of the same day Stukely hurried hisprisoner away lest he should meet the King. Some pity, however, wasshown to Raleigh's supposed dying state, and permission was granted himto go straight to his own London house. His hopes revived, and he veryrashly bribed both Mannourie and Stukely to let him escape. So confidentwas he, that he refused the offers of a French envoy, who met him atBrentford with proposals of a secret passage over to France, and awelcome in Paris. He was broken altogether; he had no dignity, nojudgment left. 

Raleigh arrived at his house in Broad Street on August 7. On the 9th theFrench repeated their invitation. Again it was refused, for King hadseen Raleigh and had told him that a vessel was lying at Tilbury readyto carry him over to France. Her captain, Hart, was an old boatswain ofKing's; before Raleigh received the information, this man had alreadyreported the whole scheme to the Government. The poor adventurer wassurrounded by spies, from Stukely downwards, and the toils weregathering round him on every side. On the evening of the same August 9, Raleigh, accompanied by Captain King, Stukely, Hart, and a page, embarked from the river-side in two wherries, and was rowed down towardsTilbury. Raleigh presently noticed that a larger boat was followingthem; at Greenwich, Stukely threw off the mask of friendship andarrested King, who was thrown then and there into the Tower. Whatbecame of Raleigh that night does not appear; he was put into the Towernext day. When he was arrested his pockets were found full of jewels andgolden ornaments, the diamond ring Queen Elizabeth had given him, aloadstone in a scarlet purse, an ounce of ambergriece, and fifty poundsin gold; these fell into the hands of the traitor 'Sir Judas' Stukely. 

Outside the Tower the process of Raleigh's legal condemnation nowpursued its course. A commission was appointed to consider the chargesbrought against the prisoner, and evidence was collected on all sides. Raleigh was obliged to sit with folded hands. He could only hope thatthe eloquence and patriotism of his _Apology_ might possibly appeal tothe sympathy of James. As so often before, he merely showed that he wasignorant of the King's character, for James read the _Apology_ withoutany other feeling than one of triumph that it amounted to a confessionof guilt. The only friend that Raleigh could now appeal to was Anne ofDenmark, and to her he forwarded, about August 15, a long petition inverse:

 Cold walls, to you I speak, but you are senseless! Celestial Powers, you hear, but have determined, And shall determine, to my greatest happiness. 

 Then unto whom shall I unfold my wrong, Cast down my tears, or hold up folded hands?-- To Her to whom remorse doth most belong;

 To Her, who is the first, and may alone Be justly called, the Empress of the Britons. Who should have mercy if a Queen have none?

Queen Anne responded as she had always done to Raleigh's appeals. If hislife had lain in her hands, it would have been a long and a happy one. She immediately wrote to Buckingham, knowing that his influence was fargreater than her own with the King, and her letter exists for the wonderof posterity. She writes to her husband's favourite: 'My kind Dog, ' forso the poor lady stoops to address him, 'if I have any power or creditwith you, I pray you let me have a trial of it, at this time, in dealingsincerely and earnestly with the King that Sir Walter Raleigh's life maynot be called in question. ' Buckingham, however, was already pledged toaid the Spanish alliance, and the Queen's letter was unavailing. 

On August 17 and on two subsequent occasions Raleigh was examined beforethe Commissioners, the charge being formally drawn up by Yelverton, theAttorney-General. He was accused of having abused the King's confidenceby setting out to find gold in a mine which never existed, withinstituting a piratical attack on a peaceful Spanish settlement, withattempting to capture the Mexican plate fleet, although he had beenspecially warned that he would take his life in his hands if hecommitted any one of these three faults. It is hard to understand howMr. Edwards persuaded himself to brand each of these charges as 'adistinct falsehood. ' The sympathy we must feel for Raleigh'smisfortunes, and the enthusiasm with which we read the _Apology_, shouldnot, surely, blind us to the fact that in neither of these three matterswas his action true or honest. We have no particular account of hisexaminations, but it is almost certain that they wrung from himadmissions of a most damaging character. He had tried to make James acatspaw in revenging himself on Spain, and he had to take theconsequences. 

It was of great importance to the Government to understand why Francehad meddled in the matter. The Council, therefore, summoned La Chesnée, the envoy who had made propositions to Raleigh at Brentford and at BroadStreet; but he denied the whole story, and said he never suggestedflight to Raleigh. So little information had been gained by the middleof September, that it was determined to employ a professional spy. Theperson selected for this engaging office was Sir Thomas Wilson, one ofthe band of English pensioners in the pay of Spain. The most favourablething that has ever been said of Stukely is that he was not quite such ascoundrel as Wilson. On September 9 this person, who had known Raleighfrom Elizabeth's days, and was now Keeper of the State Papers, wassupplied with 'convenient lodging within or near unto the chambers ofSir Walter Raleigh. ' At the same time Sir Allen Apsley, the Lieutenant, who had guarded the prisoner hitherto, was relieved. 

Wilson's first act was not one of conciliation. He demanded that Raleighshould be turned out of his comfortable quarters in the Wardrobe Towerto make room for Wilson, who desired that the prisoner should have thesmaller rooms above. To this, and other demands, Apsley would notaccede. Wilson then began to do his best to insinuate himself intoRaleigh's confidence, and after about a fortnight seems to havesucceeded. We have a very full report of his conversations with Raleigh, but they add little to our knowledge, even if Wilson's evidence couldbe taken as gospel. Raleigh admitted La Chesnée's offer of a Frenchpassage, and his own proposal to seize the Mexican fleet; but both thesepoints were already known to the Council. 

Towards the end of September two events occurred which brought mattersmore to a crisis. On the 24th Raleigh wrote a confession to the King, inwhich he said that the French Government had given him a commission, that La Chesnée had three times offered him escape, and that he himselfwas in possession of important State secrets, of which he would make aclean breast if the King would pardon him. This important document wasfound at Simancas, and first published in 1868 by Mr. St. John. On thesame day Philip III. Sent a despatch to James I. Desiring him inperemptory terms to save him the trouble of hanging Raleigh at Madrid byexecuting him promptly in London. As soon as this ultimatum arrived, James applied to the Commissioners to know how it would be best to dealwith the prisoner judicially. Several lawyers assured him that Raleighwas under sentence of death, and that therefore no trial was necessary;but James shrank from the scandal of apparent murder. The Commissionerswere so fully satisfied of Raleigh's guilt that they advised the King togive him a public trial, under somewhat unusual forms. He was to betried before the Council and the judges, a few persons of rank beingadmitted as spectators; the conduct of the trial to be the same asthough it were proceeding in Westminster Hall. On receipt of thedespatch from Madrid, that is to say on October 3, Lady Raleigh, whosepresence was no longer required, was released from the Tower. 

The trial before the Commissioners began on October 22. Mr. Gardiner hasprinted in the _Camden Miscellany_ such notes of cross-examination aswere preserved by Sir Julius Cæsar, but they are very slight. Raleighseems to have denied any intention to stir up war between England andSpain, and declared that he had confidently believed in the existence ofthe mine. But he made no attempt to deny that in case the mine failed hehad proposed the taking of the Mexican fleet. At the close of theexamination, Bacon, [13] in the name of the Commissioners, told Raleighthat he was guilty of abusing the confidence of King James and ofinjuring the subjects of Spain, and that he must prepare to die, being'already civilly dead. ' Raleigh was then taken back to the Tower, wherehe was left in suspense for ten days. Meanwhile the Justices of theKing's Bench were desired to award execution upon the old Winchestersentence of 1603. It is thought that James hoped to keep Raleigh fromappearing again in public, but the judges said that he must be broughtface to face with them. On October 28, therefore, Raleigh was rousedfrom his bed, where he was suffering from a severe attack of the ague, and was brought out of the Tower, which he never entered again. He wastaken so hastily that he had no time for his toilet, and his barbercalled out that his master had not combed his head. 'Let them kem thatare to have it, ' was Raleigh's answer; and he continued, 'Dost thouknow, Peter, any plaister that will set a man's head on again, when itis off?'

When he came before Yelverton, he attempted to argue that the Guianacommission had wiped out all the past, including the sentence of 1603. He began to discuss anew his late voyage; but the Chief Justice, interrupting him, told him that he was to be executed for the oldtreason, not for this new one. Raleigh then threw himself on the King'smercy, being every way trapped and fettered; without referring to thisappeal, the Chief Justice proceeded to award execution. Raleigh was tobe beheaded early next morning in Old Palace Yard. He entreated for afew days' respite, that he might finish some writings, but the King hadpurposely left town that no petitions for delay might reach him. Baconproduced the warrant, which he had drawn up, and which bore the King'ssignature and the Great Seal. 

Raleigh was taken from Westminster Hall to the Gate House. He was inhigh spirits, and meeting his old friend Sir Hugh Beeston, he urged himto secure a good place at the show next morning. He himself, he said, was sure of one. He was so gay and chatty, that his cousin FrancisThynne begged him to be more grave lest his enemies should report hislevity. Raleigh answered, 'It is my last mirth in this world; do notgrudge it to me. ' Dr. Tounson, Dean of Westminster, to whom Raleigh wasa stranger, then attended him; and was somewhat scandalised at this flowof mercurial spirits. 'When I began, ' says the Dean, 'to encourage himagainst the fear of death, he seemed to make so light of it that Iwondered at him. When I told him that the dear servants of God, inbetter causes than his, had shrunk back and trembled a little, he deniedit not. But yet he gave God thanks that he had never feared death. ' Thegood Dean was puzzled; but his final reflection was all to Raleigh'shonour. After the execution he reported that 'he was the most fearlessof death that ever was known, and the most resolute and confident; yetwith reverence and conscience. '

It was late on Thursday evening, the 28th, that Lady Raleigh learned theposition of affairs. She had not dreamed that the case was so hopeless. She hastened to the Gate House, and until midnight husband and wife werecloseted together in conversation, she being consoled and strengthenedby his calm. Her last word was that she had obtained permission todispose of his body. 'It is well, Bess, ' he said, 'that thou maystdispose of that dead, which thou hadst not always the disposing of whenalive. ' And so, with a smile, they parted. When his wife had left him, Raleigh sat down to write his last verses:

 Even such is time, that takes in trust Our youth, our joys, our all we have, And pays us but with earth and dust; Who in the dark and silent grave, When we have wandered all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days; But from this earth, this grave, this dust, My God shall raise me up, I trust. 

At the same hour Lady Raleigh was preparing for the horrors of themorrow. She sent off this note to her brother, Sir Nicholas Carew:

 I desire, good brother, that you will be pleased to let me bury the worthy body of my noble husband, Sir Walter Raleigh, in your church at Beddington, where I desire to be buried. The Lords have given me his dead body, though they denied me his life. This night he shall be brought you with two or three of my men. Let me hear presently. God hold me in my wits. 

There was probably some difficulty in the way, for Raleigh's body wasnot brought that night to Beddington. 

In the morning the Dean of Westminster entered the Gate House again. Raleigh, who had perhaps not gone to bed all night, had just finished atestamentary paper of defence. Dr. Tounson found him still very cheerfuland merry, and administered the Communion to him. After the Eucharist, Raleigh talked very freely to the Dean, defending himself, and goingback in his reminiscences to the reign of Elizabeth. He declared thatthe world would yet be persuaded of his innocence, and he once morescandalised the Dean by his truculent cheerfulness. He ate a heartybreakfast, and smoked a pipe of tobacco. It was now time to leave theGate House; but before he did so, a cup of sack was brought to him. Theservant asked if the wine was to his liking, and Raleigh replied, 'Iwill answer you as did the fellow who drank of St. Giles' bowl as hewent to Tyburn, "It is good drink, if a man might stay by it. "'

This excitement lasted without reaction until he reached the scaffold, whither he was led by the sheriffs, still attended by Dr. Tounson. Asthey passed through the vast throng of persons who had come to see thespectacle, Raleigh observed a very old man bareheaded in the crowd, andsnatching off the rich night-cap of cut lace which he himself waswearing, he threw it to him, saying, 'Friend, you need this more than Ido. ' Raleigh was dressed in a black embroidered velvet night-gown over ahare-coloured satin doublet and a black embroidered waistcoat. He worea ruff-band, a pair of black cut taffetas breeches, and ash-colouredsilk stockings, thus combining his taste for magnificence with a decentregard for the occasion. The multitude so pressed upon him, and he hadwalked with such an animated step, that when he ascended the scaffold, erect and smiling, he was observed to be quite out of breath. 

There are many contemporary reports of Sir Walter Raleigh's deportmentat this final moment of his life. In the place of these hackneyednarratives, we may perhaps quote the less-known words of anotherbystander, the republican Sir John Elyot, who was at that time a youngman of twenty-eight. In his _Monarchy of Man_, which remained inmanuscript until 1879, Elyot says:

 Take an example in that else unmatched fortitude of our Raleigh, the magnanimity of his sufferings, that large chronicle of fortitude. All the preparations that are terrible presented to his eye, guards and officers about him, fetters and chains upon him, the scaffold and executioner before him, and then the axe, and more cruel expectation of his enemies, and what did all that work on the resolution of that worthy? Made it an impression of weak fear, or a distraction of his reason? Nothing so little did that great soul suffer, but gathered more strength and advantage upon either. His mind became the clearer, as if already it had been freed from the cloud and oppression of the body, and that trial gave an illustration to his courage, so that it changed the affection of his enemies, and turned their joy into sorrow, and all men else it filled with admiration, leaving no doubt but this, whether death was more acceptable to him, or he more welcome unto death. 

At the windows of Sir Randolph Carew, which were opposite to thescaffold, Raleigh observed a cluster of gentlemen and noblemen, and inparticular several of those who had been adventurers with him for themine on the Orinoco. He perceived, amongst others, the Earls of Arundel, Oxford, and Northampton. That these old friends should hear distinctlywhat he had to say was his main object, and he therefore addressed themwith an apology for the weakness of his voice, and asked them to comedown to him. Arundel at once assented, and all the company at Carew'sleft the balcony, and came on to the scaffold, where those who had beenintimate with Raleigh solemnly embraced him. He then began hiscelebrated speech, of which he had left a brief draft signed in the GateHouse. There are extant several versions of this address, besides theone he signed. In the excitement of the scene, he seems to have saidmore, and to have put it more ingeniously, than in the solitude of theprevious night. His old love of publicity, of the open air, appeared inthe first sentence:

 I thank God that He has sent me to die in the light, and not in darkness. I likewise thank God that He has suffered me to die before such an assembly of honourable witnesses, and not obscurely in the Tower, where for the space of thirteen years together I have been oppressed with many miseries. And I return Him thanks, that my fever [the ague] hath not taken me at this time, as I prayed to Him that it might not, that I might clear myself of such accusations unjustly laid to my charge, and leave behind me the testimony of a true heart both to my king and country. 

He was justly elated. He knew that his resources were exhausted, hisenergies abated, and that pardon would now merely mean a relegation tooblivion. He took his public execution with delight, as if it were amartyrdom, and had the greatness of soul to perceive that nothing couldpossibly commend his career and character to posterity so much as toleave this mortal stage with a telling soliloquy. His powers were drawntogether to their height; his intellect, which had lately seemed to begrowing dim, had never flashed more brilliantly, and the biographer canrecall but one occasion in Raleigh's life, and that the morning of St. Barnaby at Cadiz, when his bearing was of quite so gallant amagnificence. As he stood on the scaffold in the cold morning air, hefoiled James and Philip at one thrust, and conquered the esteem of allposterity. It is only now, after two centuries and a half, that historyis beginning to hint that there was not a little special pleading andsome excusable equivocation in this great apology which rang throughmonarchical England like the blast of a clarion, and which echoed insecret places till the oppressed rose up and claimed their liberty. 

He spoke for about five-and-twenty minutes. His speech was excessivelyingenious, as well as eloquent, and directed to move the sympathy of hishearers as much as possible, without any deviation from literal truth. He said that it was true that he had tried to escape to France, but thathis motive was not treasonable; he knew the King to be justly incensed, and thought that from La Rochelle he might negotiate his pardon. What hesaid about the commission from France is so ingeniously worded, as toleave us absolutely without evidence from this quarter. After speakingabout La Chesnée's visits, he proceeded to denounce the base Mannourieand his miserable master Sir Lewis Stukely, yet without a word ofunseemly invective. He then defended his actions in the Guiana voyage, and turning brusquely to the Earl of Arundel, appealed to him forevidence that the last words spoken between them as the 'Destiny' leftthe Thames were of Raleigh's return to England. This was to rebut theaccusation that Raleigh had been overpowered by his mutinous crew, andbrought to Kinsale against his will. Arundel answered, 'And so you did!'The Sheriff presently showing some impatience, Raleigh asked pardon, andbegged to say but a few words more. He had been vexed to find that theDean of Westminster believed a story which was in general circulation tothe effect that Raleigh behaved insolently at the execution of Essex, 'puffing out tobacco in disdain of him;' this he solemnly denied. Hethen closed as follows:

 And now I entreat that you will all join me in prayer to the Great God of Heaven, whom I have grievously offended, being a man full of all vanity, who has lived a sinful life in such callings as have been most inducing to it; for I have been a soldier, a sailor, and a courtier, which are courses of wickedness and vice; that His almighty goodness will forgive me; that He will cast away my sins from me; and that He will receive me into everlasting life. --So I take my leave of you all, making my peace with God. 

Proclamation was then made that all visitors should quit the scaffold. In parting with his friends, Raleigh besought them, and Arundel inparticular, to beg the King to guard his memory against scurrilouspamphleteers. The noblemen lingered so long, that it was Raleigh himselfwho gently dismissed them. 'I have a long journey to go, ' he said, andsmiled, 'therefore I must take my leave of you. ' When the friends hadretired he addressed himself to prayer, having first announced that hedied in the faith of the Church of England. When his prayer was done, hetook off his night-gown and doublet, and called to the headsman to showhim the axe. The man hesitated, and Raleigh cried, 'I prithee, let mesee it. Dost thou think that I am afraid of it?' Having passed hisfinger along the edge, he gave it back, and turning to the Sheriff, smiled, and said, ''Tis a sharp medicine, but one that will cure me ofall my diseases. ' The executioner, overcome with emotion, kneeled beforehim for pardon. Raleigh put his two hands upon his shoulders, and saidhe forgave him with all his heart. He added, 'When I stretch forth myhands, despatch me. ' He then rose erect, and bowed ceremoniously to thespectators to the right and then to the left, and said aloud, 'Give meheartily your prayers. ' The Sheriff then asked him which way he wouldlay himself on the block. Raleigh answered, 'So the heart be right, itmatters not which way the head lies, ' but he chose to lie facing theeast. The headsman hastened to place his own cloak beneath him, sodisplaying the axe. Raleigh then lay down, and the company was hushedwhile he remained awhile in silent prayer. He was then seen to stretchout his hands, but the headsman was absolutely unnerved and could notstir. Raleigh repeated the action, but again without result. The richDevonshire voice was then heard again, and for the last time. 'What dostthou fear? Strike, man, strike!' His body neither twitched nor trembled;only his lips were seen still moving in prayer. At last the headsmansummoned his resolution, and though he struck twice, the first blow wasfatal. 

Sir Walter Raleigh was probably well advanced in his sixty-seventh year, but grief and travel had made him look much older. He was stillvigorous, however, and the effusion from his body was so extraordinary, that many of the spectators shared the wonder of Lady Macbeth, that theold man had so much blood in him. The head was shown to the spectators, on both sides of the scaffold, and was then dropped into a red bag. Thebody was wrapt in the velvet night-gown, and both were carried to LadyRaleigh. By this time, perhaps, she had heard from her brother that hecould not receive the body at Beddington, for she presently had itinterred in the chancel of St. Margaret's, Westminster. The head shecaused to be embalmed, and kept it with her all her life, permittingfavoured friends, like Bishop Goodman, to see and even to kiss it. Afterher death, Carew Raleigh preserved it with a like piety. It is supposednow to rest in West Horsley church in Surrey. Lady Raleigh lived onuntil 1647, thus witnessing the ruin of the dynasty which had destroyedher own happiness. 

No success befell the wretches who had enriched themselves by Raleigh'sruin. Sir Judas Stukely, for so he was now commonly styled, was shunnedby all classes of society. It was discovered very soon after theexecution, that Stukely had for years past been a clipper of coin of therealm. He did not get his blood-money until Christmas 1618, and inJanuary 1619 he was caught with his guilty fingers at work on some ofthe very gold pieces for which he had sold his master. The meanerrascal, Mannourie, fell with him. The populace clamoured for Stukely'sdeath on the gallows, but the King allowed him to escape. Wherever hemet human beings, however, they taunted him with the memory of SirWalter Raleigh, and at last he fled to the desolate island of Lundy, where his brain gave way under the weight of remorse and solitude. Hedied there, a maniac, in 1620. Another of Raleigh's enemies, though aless malignant one, scarcely survived him. Lord Cobham, who had beenreleased from the Tower while Raleigh was in the Canaries, died oflingering paralysis on January 24, 1619. Of other persons who wereclosely associated with Raleigh, Queen Anne died in the same year, 1619;Camden in 1623; James I. In 1625; Nottingham, at the age of eighty-nine, in 1624; Bacon in 1629; Ben Jonson in 1637; while the Earl of Arundellived on until 1646. 

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Mr. Edwards corrects the date to 1580 N. S. , but this is manifestlywrong; on the 7th of February 1580 N. S. Raleigh was on the Atlanticmaking for Cork Harbour. 

[2] Dr. Brushfield has found no mention of the elder Walter Raleighlater than April 11, 1578. As he was born in 1497, he must then havebeen over eighty years of age. 

[3] Mr. J. Cordy Jeaffreson has communicated to me the followinginteresting discovery, which he has made in examining the Assembly Booksof the borough of King's Lynn, in Norfolk. It appears that the Mayor waspaid ten pounds 'in respecte he did in the yere of his maioraltie[between Michaelmas 1587 and Michaelmas 1588] entertayn Sir WalterRawlye knight and his companye in resortinge hether about the Queanesaffayrs;' the occasion being, it would seem, the furnishing and settingforth of a ship of war and a pinnace as the contingent from Lynn towardsdefence against the Armada. This is an important fact, for it is theonly definite record that has hitherto reached us of Raleigh's activityin guarding the coast against invasion. 

[4] In the first two numbers of the _Athenæum_ for 1886, I gave in fulldetail the facts and arguments which are here given in summary. 

[5] Raleigh says that he appointed this man, 'taking him out of prison, because he had all the ancient records of Sherborne, his father havingbeen the Bishop's officer. '--_De la Warr MSS. _

[6] Mr. Edwards has evidently dated this important letter a year toolate (vol. Ii. 397-8). 

[7] In a letter Raleigh goes still further, and says that he foundMeeres, 'coming suddenly upon him, counterfeiting my hand above ahundred times upon an oiled paper. '

[8] Among Sir A. Malet's MSS. , for instance, we find Raleigh spoken of, so early as April 1600, as 'the hellish Atheist and Traitor, ' and welook in vain for the cause of such violence. 

[9] This date, till lately uncertain, is proved from the journal ofCecil's secretary. 

[10] This was really the first edition of the _Remains_, although thattitle does not appear until the third edition of 1657. 

[11] More exactly, a house at the corner of Wykford Lane, with a smallestate at the back of it, an appendage to Lady Raleigh's brother's seatat Beddington. 

[12] I gather this date, hitherto entirety unknown, from the fact thatin the recently published _Lismore Papers_ Sir Richard Boyle notes onMay 27 that he receives letters from Raleigh announcing his arrival atKinsale. 

[13] Among the Bute MSS. Is a letter from Raleigh to Bacon beseechinghim 'to spend some few words to the putting of false fame to flight;'but Bacon's enmity was unalterable. 

INDEX. 

NOTE. --_Read Raleigh for R. _

Adricomius, 179

Albert, Aremberg, the Envoy of Archduke, 136

Alençon's contrast to R. At Court, 18; pageant at Antwerp for, 18

Algarve, Bishop of, library captured by Essex and nucleus of Bodleian, 101

Algerine corsairs, 193; sack Lanzarote, 194

Allen, Sir Francis, 42

America, its debt, to Sir H. Gilbert, 25; Gilbert's last expedition to, 27; R. Renews Gilbert's charter, 28; R. 's costly expeditions to, 29, 37

Amidas, a captain in R. 's American fleet, 28; discovers Virginia, 29

Amurath, King of Turbay, 185

Anderson, one of R. 's Winchester judges, 146

'Angel Gabriel, ' capture of ship, 40

_Annales_ by Camden, 3

Anne of Denmark. _See_ Queen

Annesley, R. Takes up his command, 19

Antonio of Portugal, 41

_Apology for the Voyage to Guiana_ by R. , 193, 208-10

_Apothegms_, Bacon's, 113

Apsley, Sir Allen, Lieutenant of Tower, 211; relieved of R. 's custody, 211

Aremberg, Count, plotter in Durham House, 134; ambassador of Archduke Albert, 136; relations with Cobham, 137, 155; communications with R. , 148; James accepts his protestations, 155

'Ark Raleigh' fitted for Gilbert's expedition by R. , 27; purchased by Elizabeth, 54

'Ark Royal, ' Lord Howard's ship, 93

Armada, account of, 37-39; Lynn contributes to resistance of, 38; R. 's advice for boarding ships, 39; R. And Drake receive prisoners from, 39

Armadillo in Guiana, 74, 80

Artson, R. Captures sack from one, 41

Arundel, Earl of, Keymis writes to, 201; at R. 's execution as a friend 218; R. Appeals to him in justification, 220; death of, 223

Ashley, Mrs. Catherine, R. 's aunt, 19

Ashley, Sir Anthony, notifies Cadiz victory, 100

Assapana Islands, 80

_Astrophel_, Elegy by R. In, 34

d'Aubigné, _Histoire Universelle_ by, 177

Aubrey at Oxford with R. , 3

Awbeg, river in Munster, sung by Spenser, 44

Azores, piratical expedition to, 33; Peter Strozzi lost at, 39; R. 's _Report of the Fight in the_, _ib. _; 'Revenge' and Armada fight off, 51; 'Madre de Dios' captured off, 60; second plate-ship expedition off, 107; capture of its towns arranged, _ib. _; R. Takes Fayal, 108; Essex attacks San Miguel, 109

Bacon, Anthony, 42, 56

Bacon, Lord Francis, with R. At Oxford, 3; praise of Grenville's fight, 51; issues his _Essays_, 85; his _Apothegms_, 113; his cousins the Cookes, 90; asked if R. 's Guiana commission is equivalent to pardon, 191; if R. Fails in Guiana asks what is his alternative? _ib. _; R. Reveals his desire for Mexican plate fleet to, _ib. _; tells R. He must prepare to die, 213; asked by R. To protect his fame, 213; death of, 223

Bailey, John, commands 'Husband' in Guiana fleet, 194; prevented from seizing French ship, 195; deserts R. 's expedition, 196; returns and charges R. With piracy, 196, 204; in pay of Gondomar, 196; imprisoned and story discredited, 204; released with reprimand, 205

Balligara, R. 's share in, 194

Barlow, a captain in R. 's American fleet, 28; discovers Virginia, _ib. _

Barlow's reference to R. , 7

Barry Court, Geraldine stronghold, 13; source of quarrel between R. And Ormond, 14; R. Offers to rebuild, 16

Barry, David, Irish malcontent, 13

Barry, Lord, defeat at Cleve by R. , 15

Basing House, Marquis of Winchester's, 122; Queen Elizabeth and French envoys at, 123

Bath, R. Visits, 63, 115, 122, 127

Bear Gardens, R. Takes French envoys to, 122

Beauchamp, Lord, R. 's deputy in Cornwall, 32

Beaumont's story of R. And King James, 133

Beaumont, Countess of, 167

Becanus, Goropius, 178

Beddington, Lady R. Sells land at, 189; burial asked for R. At, 215

Bedford, Earl of, R. Succeeds him in Stannaries, 32

Bedingfield Park, seat of Sir F. Carew, 135; King James and R. Entertained at, _ib. _

Beeston, Sir Hugh, and R. 's execution, 214

Benevolence tax, 184

Berreo, Antonio de, Spanish Governor of Trinidad, describes Guiana, 66; his cruelty, 68; captured by R. At St. Joseph, _ib. _; attempts to lure R. , _ib. _; submission to R. , 68-69; founded Guayana Vieja, 73

Berrie, Captain Leonard, makes voyage to Guiana for R. , 102

Beville, Sir R. , inquires into Sir R. Grenville's death, 51

Bideford, Grenville's Virginian expedition stopped at, 37; R. Sends ships to Virginia from, _ib. _

Bindon, Lord. _See_ Howard

Biron, Duc de, special French Ambassador, 122-123; disgrace, 127

Blount, Sir Christopher, R. 's keeper at Dartmouth, 61; to make joint attack on San Miguel, 107; excites Essex against R. , 109; tries to kill R. , 120; pardoned by R. Before execution, _ib. _

Bodleian Library, Bishop of Algarve's books captured by Earl of Essex contained in, 101

'Bonaventure, ' ship, 105

Boyle, Richard, afterwards Earl of Cork, buys R. 's Irish estates, 129; lends R. 100_l. _, 194; R. Announces his arrival at Kinsale to, 203

Brett, Sir Alex. , trustee of Sherborne, 164

_Breviary of the History of England_ by R. , 182-3

Broad-cloths, R. 's licence to export woollen, 29, 30

Broad Street, R. Resides in, 188, 208

Brooke, George, conspires for Arabella Stuart, 102, 142; concerned in Watson's plot, 135; relationship to Cobham and Cecil, _ib. _; arrest, 136; execution, 158

Brooke, Henry, brother to Lady Cecil. _See_ Cobham, 102

Brushfield, Dr. , R. 's bibliography, vi. ; researches, 2, 16

Bryskett, Lodovick, in Munster, 10; 'Thestylis' of Spenser, 45

Burghley, R. Corresponds with, 8, 9; his moderate Irish policy, 22; joint author of _The Opinion of Mr. Rawley_, 22; assails R. 's broad-cloth patent, 30; references to, 31, 84; sends R. To Dartmouth to save prizes, 61

Burrow, Sir John, commands Indian Carrack venture, 54; successful attack of plate-ships, 59-60

Burwick, John, master of 'Destiny, ' 194

_Byron's Conspiracy_ by Chapman, 123

_Cabinet Council_ by R. , 186; published by Milton, _ib. _

Cadiz expedition, 87, 88-102; forced on by Lord Howard, 88; Queen Elizabeth reluctantly permits, _ib. _; Essex, Howard, and R. To consider, 89; Dutch to co-operate, _ib. _; R. To raise levies for, _ib. _; recruiting for, 90; strength of English and Dutch fleets, 91; R. 's _Relation of the Action_, 92; details of destruction of Spanish fleet, 92-98; the town sacked, 99-100; R. Wounded in the leg, 98; fleet of carracks escape but burnt by Spaniards, 99; Queen Elizabeth claims the prize money, 101; the victory popular in England, 102

Cæsar, Sir Julius, notes of R. 's second trial, 213

Caiama Island, 74

Camden with R. At Oxford, 3; his _Annales_, 3; recommends Jonson to R. , 175; friend of Samuel Daniel, 183; his death, 223

_Camden Miscellany_, account of R. 's second trial in, 213

Canary Islands, R. 's Guiana fleet off, 195; exposed to Algerine corsairs, 195; Lanzarote sacked, 196; R. Visits Gomera, 197

Cape Verde Islands, R. 's Guiana fleet off, 198; R. Lands at Brava, 199

Capuri river, 80

Caracas plundered and burnt, 81

Carews, connections of R. , 1

Carew, Sir Francis, R. 's uncle, 135; entertains King James and R. , _ib. _

Carew, Sir George, at Lismore, 44; keeper of R. At Tower, 58; at Cadiz in 'Mary Rose, ' 95; and Cormac MacDermod, 129

Carew, Sir Nicholas, and R. 's burial, 215

Carew, Sir Randolph, and friends witness R. 's execution, 218

Carleton, Dudley, at R. 's trial, 153

Caroni, river, 74

Carr, Earl of Somerset, and Sherborne, 171, 172, 187

Cashel, Magrath Archbishop of, 34

Castle Bally-in-Harsh, its capture, 15

Cayenne, R. Off river, 199, 200

Cecil, Sir Robert, and R. 's marriage, 54, 63; R. 's letter of devotion for Queen sent to, 57; fails to control Devon sailors, 61; inquires into pillage of 'Madre de Dios, ' 62; barters with R. , 64; promises ship for Guiana expedition, 67; R. Asks how result of Guiana voyage is viewed, 82; R. Sends MS. Account and presents from Guiana, 83; _Discovery of Guiana_ dedicated to, 84; supports proposed attack on Cadiz, 88; informed by R. Of victory at Cadiz, 100; death of his wife and R. 's sympathy, 102; R. 's intimacy with his family, _ib. _; obtains R. 's return to Court, 103; told of R. 's goodwill to Essex, 106; thwarts R. In being sworn of P. Council, 112; doubtful support of Guiana voyage, 113-4; son and young Walter R. Playmates, 114; at Sherborne, 116; accused by Essex, 118; advised by R. To show Essex no mercy, 118-9; decline of friendship with R. , 125; invited to Bath by R. , 127; R. Complains of Lord Bindon to, _ib. _; craftiness towards R. , 129; created a peer by King James, 133; estranged from the Brookes, 135; describes R. 's attempted suicide, 138; aids R. With Sherborne estate, 144; sits on R. 's trial, 146, 157; influence sought to save R. , 158; created Lord Cranborne, 164; and Earl of Salisbury, 166; R. Writes of his condition to, _ib. _; references to, 167, 170, 173, 186; his death and epigram on, 173

Cecil, William. _See_ Salisbury

Champernowne, Captain Arthur, in Azores, 108

Champernowne, Gawen, his career, 4

Champernowne, Henry, R. 's cousin, 4; his Huguenot contingent, 4

Champernowne, Sir Philip, 1

Champernownes, connections of R. , 1

Chapman, George, his epic poem on Guiana, 86; his _Byron's Conspiracy_, 123

Chatham, R. Raising sailors at, 54

Chaunis Temotam, its fabulous ores, 30

Cherbourg, R. Takes barks from, 42

Christian IV. Of Denmark and R. , 169

Church, Dean, compares R. 's exploits with passages in _Faery Queen_, 43

Clarke executed for Watson's plot, 158

Cleve, Lord Barry defeated by R. At, 15

Clifford, Sir Conyers, at Cadiz, 95

Cobham, Lord, Henry Brooke succeeds as, 102; first mention by R. Of, 106; R. 's increased intimacy, 113; invited to Sherborne and Bath, 115; goes to Ostend with R. _ib. _; called an enemy of England by Essex, 118; attends at Basing to entertain French, 123; plotting at Durham House, 134; R. Only intimate friend, 136; Lord Warden of Cinque Ports, _ib. _; and Watson's plot, _ib. _; shown R. 's explanation, 137; accuses R. , but retracts, _ib. _; communicates with R. By Mellersh, 142; tried at Staines for Arabella Stuart plot, 142; communications with R. , 144; vacillation, 145; retracts to R, _ib. _; R. Asks that Cobham should die first, 157; convicted of treason, 158; led out for execution, but reprieved, 160; death by paralysis, 223

Coke, Sir Edward, Attorney-General at R. 's Winchester trial, 146-7

_Colin Clout_, Spenser refers to R. In, 43, 48; Queen Elizabeth commands its publication, 49

_Collectiones Peregrinationum_, by De Bry, 114

Collier, J. P. , 56

_Commentaries_, by Sir F. Vere, 97

_Commerce_, R. 's _Observations on Trade and_, 186

Condé, Prince of, his death, 4

Cookes, the, R. Takes to Cadiz, 90

Copley and Watson's plot, 135; his arrest, 136

Corabby, R. 's courage at ford of, 14

Cordials made by R. , 168

Cork, R. Reinforces Sentleger at, 9; Geraldine executed at, _ib. _; R. Governor of, 15; land granted to R. In, 34; cedars planted by R. Still at, 47; R. 's second Guiana fleet takes refuge at, 194

Cornwall, R. Lieutenant and Vice-Admiral of, 32; R. 's deputy in, 32; R. Collects miners to resist Armada, 38; its defences considered, 89; R. 's efforts for tin-workers in, 117; R. Tries to retain office, but superseded by Earl of Pembroke, 163

Coro, burned, 81

Cotterell, messenger between R. And Cobham, 145, 169; examined against R. , 170

Cotton, Sir Robert, lends books to R. , 171

Court, early record of R. 's admission to, 5, 6; R. Not a penniless adventurer at, 16; recognised courtier, 17, 19; R. Inferior to Leicester, Walsingham, and Hatton at, 50; reference to R. At, 103, 115; R. Excluded by James I. , 188

Cranborne, Lord. _See_ Cecil

'Crane, ' the, R. 's ship, 42

Creighton's, Mrs. , _Period of R. _, vi. 

Cross, Captain, and plate ship prize, 62

Crosse, Sir Robert, with R. Meets King James, 132

Cucuina, river, R. Ascends, 71

Cumana, Venezuela, spared by ransom and subsequently burnt by R. 's ships, 81

_Cynthia_, R. 's supposed lost poem, 45-46; fragments printed from Hatfield MS. , 46; style and importance, 46-47; called _The Ocean to_, 46; and _The Ocean's Love to_, _ib. _; treated of in _Athenæum_, 1886, _ib. _; publication urged by Spenser, 49

_Dangers of a Spanish Faction in Scotland_, by R. , 124

Daniel, Samuel, and R, 182-3

Dartmouth, 'Madre de Dios' towed to, 60; R. Stops spoliation of, 61

Davies, Sir John, _Nosce teipsum_ and R. 's _Cynthia_, 46

Davis, John, R. 's partner for discovery of N. -W. Passage, 28; refers to whereabouts of R. , July 1595, 82

De Beaumont, French ambassador, refers to R. , 133, 141

De Bry prints R. 's _Discovery_ in his _Collectiones_, 114

'Destiny, ' ship built by R. For Guiana expedition, 190; Des Marêts visits the, 193; commanded by young Walter R. , _ib. _; John Burwick the master, 194; outlawed, 205; arrives at Plymouth, 205, 206

Des Marêts, French ambassador, 190; suspicious of R. 's Guiana voyage, _ib. _; visits R. 's 'Destiny, ' 193; his correspondence, _ib. _

Desmond, Earl of, murder of his brother's guest, 8; R. Shares escheated lands of, 34

Devonshire Association, _Transactions of_, and R. , 2; accent strong in R. , 21; R. 's popularity in, 31; Stannaries, R. 's report on, _ib. _; R. Vice-Admiral of, 32; Sir John Gilbert, R. 's deputy in, _ib. _; R. Member of Parliament for, _ib. _; miners serve in Netherlands, _ib. _; farmers settle in south of Ireland, 34; miners raised by R. To repel Armada, 38; R. Considers its defences, 89

Devonshire, Earl of, on R. 's trial at Winchester, 146

Dingle, expedition from Ferrol lands at, 8

_Discovery of Guiana_, published by R. , 83-84; literary value, 85; translations in Latin, German, and French, 114; reprinted by Hakluyt, _ib. _

Doddridge, Sir John, 144

_Domestic Correspondence_ refers to R. 's ships, 42

Donne, John, earliest known poem, 105

Dover, R. At, 90, 193

Drake, Sir Francis, receives prisoners from Armada, 39; expedition to Portugal, 41-42; and spoil of 'Madre de Dios, ' 62; his fate, 6, 87

'Dreadnought, ' Sir C. Clifford's Cadiz ship, 95

Dudley, Robert, D. Of Northumberland, at Cadiz, _ib. _

Duke, Richard, contemporary owner of R. 's birthplace, 1

Durham, Bishop of, demands Durham House, 133

Durham House leased by R. , 31; its site and history, _ib. _; Queen Elizabeth there in 1592, 56; references to, 87, 114, 120; fire at, 117; Lady R. Advises a proper lease for, _ib. _; Bishop of Durham demands and King James directs R. To surrender, 133-4; R. Forced to remove from, 134; alleged plotting at, _ib. _

Dutch to assist in attack on Cadiz, 89, 99; take part in capture of Azores, 107

Dyer's evidence at R. 's trial, 155

Edwards, Edward, life and letters of R. , v. ; collected evidence of battle of Cadiz, 91; references to, 82, 190, 210

Effingham, Lady, converse with R. , 167

Effingham. _See_ Howard

El Dorado, legendary prince of Guiana, 65; supposed lake in heart of Guiana, _ib. _; efforts of Spaniards and Germans to reach, _ib. _

Elizabeth, Queen, Duc d'Alençon her suitor, 17-18; confers an Irish captaincy on R. , 19; R. First favourite with, 19-25; gifts to R. , 24, 25; grants charter to R. For discovery of N. -W. Passage, 28; Virginia named in honour of, _ib. _; leases Durham House to R. , 31; feelings towards Leicester, 32; keeps R. From politics, 35; R. Supplanted by Essex, 35; appropriates pirated fine raiment, 42; R. Restored to favour by, 43, 49; praised in _Cynthia_, 45; Spenser introduced to, 48; commands publication of _Colin Clout_, 49; happy retort of R. To, 53; instals a pliable Bishop of Salisbury and receives fine from R. , 53; supports R. In Spanish plate-ship venture, 54, 59; buys the 'Ark Raleigh, ' 54; vanity and resentment, 55; recalls R. From Frobisher's fleet, 56; discovers R. 's Throckmorton intrigue, _ib. _; confines R. In Tower, 57; R. 's letter of devotion to, _ib. _; acknowledges R. 's marriage, 63; works of travel published in her reign, 85; irresolution to attack Spain after Armada, 88; R. Seeks reconciliation with, 100; claims Cadiz prize-money, 101; R. 's position with, 101, 103, 111, 115; reconfers captaincy of the Guard on R. , 103; her custom to retire early to rest, 111; festivities on her sixty-fifth birthday, 113; sends R. To Ostend, 115; confers Governorship of Jersey and Manor of St. Germain on R. , 116; Essex accuses R. , Cecil, and Cobham to, 118; refuses communication with Essex, _ib. _; said to have shown skull of Essex, _ib. _; R. Sends her a supposed diamond, 128; interviews R. On Irish policy, _ib. _; R. Advises as to MacDermod, _ib. _; her death, 129; reference to, 186

Elizabethan poets engaged in Ireland, 10

El Nuevo Dorado, or Guiana, 66

Elphinstone, Sir James, eager for R. 's estate, 143

Elyot, Sir John, his _Monarchy of Man_, 217; describes R. 's end, _ib. _

_England, Breviary of the History of_, 182; Archbishop Sancroft and MS. Of, _ib. _; Samuel Daniel's share in, 183; attributed to R. , _ib. _

Epuremi tribe in Guiana, 78

Erskine, Sir Thomas, supplants R. In the Guard, 133; his position with King James, 133

_Essays_, Bacon issues his, 85

Essex, Earl of, competes with R. For royal favour, 35; demands R. 's sacrifice, 35, 36; Court attacks on R. , 40; challenges R. , _ib. _; drives R. From Court, 42; more friendly with R. , 50; perceives value of the Puritans, _ib. _; his Protestantism, _ib. _; to consider attack on Cadiz, 89; his share in Cadiz expedition, 92-100; captures library of Bishop of Algarve, 101; presents it to Sir T. Bodley, _ib. _; and Cadiz prize money, _ib. _; at Chatham, 103; planning fresh attack on Spain, _ib. _; charged with disloyalty, 104; R. 's guest at Plymouth, 106; expedition to Azores and result, 107-109; Royal influence on the wane, 111; offended past forgiveness by Queen, 112; uncompromising speech to Elizabeth, _ib. _; surliness of temper, _ib. _; adopts for his men tilting colours of R. , 113; increasing enmity with R. , _ib. _; complaints to Queen, 118; Queen refuses communication with, _ib. _; conspiracy, 119-120; R. And the execution of, 120; Elizabeth shows his skull to Duc de Biron, 123

Eugubinus, Steuchius, 178

Euphuistic prose, example in R. 's letter to Cecil, 57

_Evesham, Chronicle of_, 171

Ewaipanoma tribe, 77

Execution of R. , 217, 218-219; his speech, 218; his gallant bearing, 29

Exeter, R. 's parents buried at, 3

_Faery Queen_, R. 's adventures compared with those in, 43; its progress, 45; registered, Spenser obtains pension by, 49; R. 's sonnet appended to, _ib. _

Fajardo Isle, 74

Falmouth, expedition to Spain puts back into, 106

'Farm of Wines' granted by Q. Elizabeth to R. , 24; granted by King James to E. Of Nottingham, 141

Fayal, Essex and R. Arrange to capture, 107; R. To meet Essex at, 108; R. Arrives before Essex, its attack and capture, _ib. _; arrival of Essex, _ib. _; dispute relative to capture, 109

Featley, Dr. Daniel, tutor to young Walter R. , 171

Fenton, Geoffrey, in Munster, 10

Ferrol, Spanish expedition to Ireland from, 8

Finland, Duke of, offers assistance to R. In Guiana, 113

Fish tithes, in Sidmouth, leased to R. 's family, 2

Fisher, Jasper, 6

Fitzjames rents R. 's Sherborne farms, 64

Fitzwilliam, Sir William, Irish Deputy, dispute with R. , 48; reference to, 49

Fleet Prison, R. Committed to, 7; R. Removed from Tower to, 165

Flemish ships captured off Fuerteventura, 67

Flores in Azores, R. Joins fleet of Essex off, 107

Flores, Gutierrez, Spanish President, opinion of the enemies' fleet off Cadiz, 92

Fort del Ore, Ireland, built by invaders, 6; siege, capture and massacre at, 12

Fowler, R. 's gold refiner, death of, 199

France, R. Aids Huguenot princes, 4; Hakluyt in, _ib. _; R. 's return from, 6; Henry IV. 's compliment to Queen Elizabeth, 122; invited to support Huguenots, 193; Ambassador visits R. , 190, 192; R. Offered escape by, 208

Free trade, R. An advocate of, 186-7

French Ambassadors: Duc de Biron, 122; De Beaumont, 133, 141; Des Marêts, 190, 192

French envoy, La Chesnée, offers R. Means of escape, 208, 211, 212

French vessels detained by R. , 195

Frobisher, Sir Martin, 26; fleet for capturing Indian carracks, 54; reputed severity, _ib. _; R. With his fleet, 56; off Spanish coast seeking plate ships, 59

Fuerteventura, R. Captures ships off, 67

Fuller records R. At Oxford, 3; story of R. Making his cloak a mat for Queen, 21; anecdotes, 22

Gamage, Barbara, marries Robert Sidney, 33; grandmother of Waller's Sacharissa, _ib. _

Gardiner, S. R. , estimate of R. 's genius, 130; credits Beaumont's story of, 133; account of R. 's trial, 157, 213; account of the Benevolence, 184; details of intrigues in K. James's Court, 190, 206

'Garland, ' the, R. 's ship, 42

Gascoigne, protégé of R. 's half-brother, 5; his _Steel Glass_, _ib. _; death of, 5; Lord Grey patron of, 10

Gate House, R. Confined in, 214

Gawdy, one of R. 's Winchester judges, 146

Genoa, its seizure proposed, 192; discussed before K. James and rejected, _ib. _

Geraldine Friary, Youghal, destroyed, 34

Geraldine, Sir James, trial and execution, 9

Geraldines rebel, 8

Gibb, John, page to James I. , 159

Gifford, Captain, reference to, 79, 80

Gilbert, Adrian, R. 's half-brother, 1; partner in N. -W. Expeditions, 28; holds office at Sherborne, 53; obnoxious to R. 's bailiff Meeres, 121; commended to Lady R. , 140; and R. 's Sherborne estates, 143

Gilbert, Bartholomew, his voyage to America, 125; sails from Virginia with rich woods, 126; carries supposed diamond from R. To Queen, 127-8

Gilbert, Katherine. _See_ Raleigh, Mrs

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, R. 's half-brother, 1; R. Companion of his voyages, 6, 7; gained renown in Ireland, 8; granted Charter to make settlements in America, 26; lends ships to serve on Irish coast, 26; misfortunes and vicissitudes of expedition, 26-27; his death at sea, 27

Gilbert, Sir John, half-brother to R. , 62; preparing to sail for Guiana, 113

Gilbert, Otto, 1

Gillingham Forest, R. In, 64

Glenmalure, R. Meets Spenser at battle of, 10

Globe Theatre, Shakespeare's _Richard the Second_ at, 104

Godolphin, Sir Francis, warden of Stannaries, 141

Gomera Islands, R. Lands at, 197; courtesy of governor and his lady to R. , 197-198

Gondomar (Sarmiento), Spanish ambassador, 190; suspicious of R. , 190, 191; pledged R. 's life against Spanish attack, 192; protests against Guiana expedition, 193; Captain Bailey in his pay, 196; Bailey traduces R. To, 199; activity for R. 's ruin, 204; urges embargo on English at Seville, 204; claims punishment of R. , 205

Goodwin, Hugh, hostage with Topiawari, 79; learns Indian language, _ib. _; serves under Gifford, _ib. _; meets R. After twenty-two years, 200

Googe, Barnabee, in Munster, 10

Gorges, Sir A. , assaulted by R. , 58; believes R. Mad, _ib. _; historian of Azores expedition, 107; and Duc de Biron, 122

Gorges, Sir F. , and Essex conspiracy, 119

Gosnoll, Captain, American discoveries, 125; sails from Virginia without R. 's leave, 126

Gray's _Elegy_ and R. 's _Cynthia_, 46

Grenville, Sir Richard, and R. 's Virginian expeditions, 29, 37; captures Spanish prize of 50, 000_l. _, 29; and Armada, 37; R. 's account of the fight in the 'Revenge' and his heroic death, 51, 96; Sir R. Beville inquires into his death, 51; praised by Tennyson and Bacon, 51; R. 's cousin, 95; R. Revenges his death, 96, 98

Greville, Fulke, in Munster, 10

Grey, Lord de Wilton, in Dublin, 9; dislikes R. , 9; patron of Gascoigne, 10; hatred of Popery, 11; treatment of Irish rebels, 13; denounced by R. To Leicester, 14; leniency in Ireland, 22; and Armada, 37; dines with R. At Flores, 107; in Low Countries, 115

Grey, young Lord de Wilton, and Watson's plot, 135, 158, 160

Grosart's _Lismore Papers_, vi. 

Guard, R. Captain of the, 35, 103; Sir T. Erskine supplants R. , 133

Guayana Vieja founded by Berreo, 73

Guiana, R. 's desire to conquer, 64; its description, 65, 66; capture of Spanish letters relative to, 66; annexed by Berreo, governor of Trinidad, _ib. _; Captain Whiddon visits for R. , 66; R. Explores part of, 67; supposed mineral wealth, 72, 75; Humboldt on its gold yield, 75; leaves two sailors at Morequito, 79; health of R. 's expedition, 81; R. Asks effect of expedition on Court, 83; R. 's _Discovery of Guiana_ published, 83-84; Chapman's poem on, 85-86; Captain Keymis's voyage, 86; R. 's _Of the Voyage for Guiana_, 87; Government interest not excited by R. , _ib. _; Captain L. Berrie's voyage, 102; D. Of Finland urges R. To colonise, 113; Sir J. Gilbert preparing for, 113; increased fame of _Discovery_, 114; R. Asks leave to revisit, 170; R. 's funds for voyage, 172, 189-190; R. Released from Tower to go to, 189; advantages promised King James, _ib. _; preparations for, excite Spaniards, 190; R. 's Royal commission, 190-191; composition of R. 's fleet, 193-194; its delays, 194; fleet detains French traders, 195; fleet off Canaries, _ib. _; Captain Bailey deserts, 196; courtesies with Governor of Gomera, 198; R. 's log of _Second Voyage_, 199; R. Ill of fever in, 199-200; R. Meets Hugh Goodwin after twenty-two years, 200; fleet at Trinidad, 200; Keymis explores for gold, attacks San Thomé, 200-1; R. 's son Walter killed, 201; Keymis's failure and embarrassed meeting with R. , 201; Keymis commits suicide in, 202; R. 's failure to find gold mines in, 202; mutiny of fleet, 202; R. Sails to Newfoundland from, 203; R. 's ignominious return from, _ib. _; _Apology for the Voyage to_, 208

Gunpowder Plot and R. , 168

Hakluyt, R. 's contemporary at Oxford, 3; his _Voyages_ and sojourn in France, 4; reprints R. 's report of Grenville's fight, 51; _Discovery of Guiana_, 114

Hale, the sergeant at R. 's Winchester trial, 146-7

Hamburg ship, R. Takes sugar, &c. , from a, 41

Hampden, John, collector of R. 's MSS. , 185

Hannah, Archdeacon, printed R. 's _Cynthia_, 46

Harington, Sir John, 34

Hariot, Thomas, R. 's scientific agent in Virginia, 31

Harris, Sir C. , R. Lodged in his house, 206

Hart, Captain, betrays R. , 208

Harvey, Sir G. , Lieutenant of Tower, 141, 142; suspects R. 's communications, 144; indulges R. , succeeded by Sir W. Waad, 167

Hatfield MSS. And R. 's _Cynthia_, 46

Hatton, Sir C. , R. Reconciles him to Queen Elizabeth, 23; references to, and death, 32, 35, 50

Hawkins, his third voyage, 6; character of his voyages, 7

Hayes relates R. 's expense in Gilbert's expedition, 27

Hayes Barton, R. 's birthplace, in Devon, 1, 3

Hennessy, Sir J. Pope, account of R. In Ireland, 47

Henri IV. Of France, 122

Henry VIII. Censured in R. 's _History_, 180

Henry, Prince, visits R. In Tower, 169; seeks advice of R. , 173, 174; death agonies eased by R. 's cordial, 175; efforts and sympathy for R. , 175, 180; opinion of his father's conduct, 175; and R. 's _Cabinet Council_, 185

_Histoire Universelle_, by d'Aubigné, 177

Historical MSS. Commission _Reports_, vi. 

_History of the World_, by R. 's personal reference, 4, 5, 162, 171; references to Armada, 38; on boarding galleons, 39; refers to Trinidad, 67; R. Aided by Ben Jonson, 175; size and contents, 176; critically examined, 176-182; its preface, when written, 180; suppressed by King James, and cause, 180-181

Hooker's _Supply of the Irish Chronicles_ and references to R. , 11, 43; _Ecclesiastical Polity_, 85; Oxford tutor of Walter R. , jun. , 171

Hornsey, R. 's servants disturb the peace at, 6

Howard of Bindon, Thomas Lord, R. To warn him if any Spaniards in Channel, 50; and Cadiz expedition, 89, 96, 97, 98; takes R. 's servant under his protection, 121; persuades Sir W. Peryam to re-try Meere's suit, 127; juror on R. 's trial, 143, 146

Howard, Lord Henry, and R. , interview with Lennox, 124-125; R. Prays forgiveness for, 139

Howard of Effingham, Lord Charles, R. 's advice on boarding Armada, 38, 39; high opinion of R. , 39; _Discovery of Guiana_ dedicated to, 84; forces expedition to Cadiz, 88; on committee for attack on Cadiz, 89; details of his action at Cadiz, 92-100; ship 'Ark Royal, ' 93; obtains R. 's return to Court, 103; to attempt capture of Graciosa, 107; created E. Of Nottingham, 110, 112; granted R. 's wine patent, 141; conducts Arabella Stewart to R. 's trial, 155; outlaws R. 's ship 'Destiny, ' 205; death of, 223

Huguenots, R. Offers to aid, 4; Henry Champernowne's force aids, _ib. _; mode of smoking out Catholics, 5

Hulsius, Levinus, Latin translation of the _Discovery of Guiana_, 114

Humboldt's examination of Guiana gold, 75; testified to the genuineness of R. 's account of Guiana, 78

'Husband' ship, 194, 196

Imataca mountains seen by R. , 72

Imokelly, R. Escapes ambush by Seneschal of, 14

Income of R. , references to, 16, 24, 25, 30, 34, 133, 162, 172

Indian carracks (plate-ships) scheme for R. To seize, 53-54; Sir J. Burrows to attack them, 54; their capture, 59-60; fleet of in Cadiz harbour, 99; burnt by Spaniards to avoid capture, _ib. _; two destroyed by R. In Azores, 109

_Ireland, History of the Early Ages in_, MacCarthy's, 129

Ireland, R. In, 7; Catholic invasion of, 7; R. 's voyage to Cork, 8; Lord Grey succeeds Pelham in, 9; execution of Sir J. Geraldine, 10; poets on service in, _ib. _; massacre at Fort del Ore, 12; R. 's severity towards rebels, 13; rebels pardoned through Ormond, 13; R. 's seizure of Barry Court, 14; Castle Bally-in-Harsh taken by R. 's strategy, 15; R. 's return from, 16; R. Paid for service in, 18; R. Assigned a Captaincy in, 19; _The Opinion of Mr. Rawley_ on, 22; Lord Grey deprived of Deputyship, 23; R. 's residences in, 34; estates in Cork, Waterford, and Tipperary settled by R. , 34; R. 's experience as a colonist in, 34; R. Leaves to fight Armada, 38; Essex forces R. 's return to, 42; R. 's efforts in developing his estates in, 47; potato and tobacco introduced by R. , 48; Sir William Fitzwilliam, Deputy in, _ib. _; R. Refused Lord Deputyship, 112; occupied with affairs of, 115; invaded by Spain, 124; R. On situation in, _ib. _; MacCarthy's _History of the Early Ages in_, 129; Boyle, Earl of Cork, buys R. 's estates in, 129; R. Sells remainder of his leases, 194

_Irish Chronicles_, Hooker's _Supply of the_, 11

Islands voyage. _See_ Azores

Islington, R. 's residence in, 6

James I. First cognisant of R. , 123; offers Scotch troops to repel Spanish invasion, 124; sends Lennox on mission to Elizabeth, _ib. _; R. And Cobham reported unfavourable to, 124; met by London nobility at death of Elizabeth, 132; R. And Sir R. Crosse meet him at Burghley, _ib. _; unfavourably received R. , 132; promises R. Continuance of Stannaries, _ib. _; displaces R. From the Guard, 133; increases R. 's salary as Governor of Jersey, _ib. _; deprives R. Of Durham House on petition of Bishop of Durham, 133, 134; involved in promises to Catholics, 135; waiting Spanish overtures, _ib. _; guest of Sir F. Carew, _ib. _; given R. 's _Discourse on Spanish War, &c. _, _ib. _; R. 's projects distasteful to, _ib. _; commits R. To Tower, 137; R. Begs his life of and refused hope by, 158; prepares warrant for stay of R. 's execution, 158; signs death-warrants for conspirators, 159; intention to reprieve, _ib. _; at bull-baiting on Tower Hill, 165; and Christian IV. Of Denmark, 169; suppresses R. 's _History of the World_, 180; R. Hopes to propitiate him, 183; forbids printing of R. 's _Prerogative of Parliament_, 184; and the Benevolence, 184; a Protectionist, 187; releases R. , 188; to be enriched by R. 's second voyage to Guiana, 189; submits R. 's proposed route to Madrid, 191; ignores statements of Bailey, 199; Captain North relates R. 's failure to, 203; R. 's apologetic letter to, _ib. _; Spain clamours for R. 's death, 205; invites claims against R. , _ib. _; his arguments for R. , _ib. _; R. Doomed by, 205, 206; _Apology_ for Guiana voyage of no effect on, 209; R. 's attempted catspaw against Spain, 211; R. 's confession to, 212; advised to give R. Public trial, 212; R. Throws himself on his mercy, 214; quits London and signs R. 's death-warrant, _ib. _; foiled by R. 's bearing at execution, 219; R. Begs his memory to be saved from scurrilous writers, 220; death of, 223

Jarnac, battle of, 4

Jeaffreson, J. Cordy, contribution by, vi. ; researches in Middlesex Records, 6, 20; researches in Assembly Books of K. Lynn, 38

Jersey, R. Seeks Governorship of, 114; R. Succeeds Sir A. Paulet as Governor, 116; account of and effect of R. 's rule in, 116-117; Norman gentry in, 127; King James increased R. 's salary for, 133; R. Displaced for Sir J. Peyton, 141; references to R. In, 126, 127

Jesuit captured by R. , 64

Jewels, R. 's love of, 20; value on his person when arrested, 20, 209

Jonson, Ben, referred by Camden to R. , 175; assists R. In _History of the World_, 175, 176; goes with young Walter R. To Paris, 175; his _Works_, 175; jealous of Samuel Daniel, 183; death of, 223

Keymis, Captain, with R. In Guiana, 80; his second voyage to Guiana, 86; commended to Lady R. , 140; gives evidence on R. 's trial under fear of torture, 154; warden of Sherborne, 164; and Guiana, 174; joins R. 's fleet at Plymouth, 194; commands Orinoco gold expedition without success, 200, 201; attacks San Thomé, 201; announces to R. Death of his son Walter R. , _ib. _; dejection at R. 's reproach, asks forgiveness, _ib. _; writes to Earl of Arundel, _ib. _; commits suicide, 202

Kilcolman, Spenser's Irish seat, 44

King, Captain Samuel, attempts R. 's escape, 206-8; his arrest, 208

King's Lynn entertains R. , 38

Kinsale, Spanish landing at, 124; R. Returns from Guiana to, 203

La Chesnée, French envoy, offers escape to R. , 208, 211, 212

Lake, Sir Thomas, to send R. From Court, 133

Lane, Ralph, leader of R. 's Virginian colony, 29; considers defence against Armada, 37

Languedoc, Catholics smoked out at, 5

La Rienzi, reference to at R. 's trial, 148

Leicester, Earl of, R. Writes from Lismore to, 17; R. His protégé at Court, _ib. _; goes to Netherlands with R. And Sir P. Sidney, 18; Queen Elizabeth quarrels with, _ib. _; reconciled to R. 's Royal favour, 23; in Netherlands and in disgrace, R. 's sympathy, 32; reference to, 35; death of, 50

Lennox, Duke of, diplomatic visit to Elizabeth, 124; believes R. And Cobham opposed King James, _ib. _

Limerick, victory of Sir N. Malby in woods of, 8

'Lion, ' Sir R. Southwell's ship at Cadiz, 95

'Lion Whelp, ' Cecil's ship, 67; R. Reinforced at Port of Spain by, 68

Lisbon, Drake and R. With expedition at, 41-42

Lismore, Elizabethan capital of Munster, 15

Lismore Castle, R. Rents from Archbishop of Cashel, 34

_Lismore Papers_ and R. 's references, vi. , 194, 203

Loftie, Rev. W. J. , account of R. 's lodgings in Tower, 162

London citizens aid privateering against Spain, 59; eagerness to share spoil, 61; jewellers or goldsmiths and Spanish prize, 62; plague in, 142

Lostwithiel, Stannaries Court of, 117

Macareo, R. Tried to enter river, 69; channel, 80

MacCarthy, Florence, R. Advises his retention in Tower, 129; asks Cecil to permit R. To judge him, _ib. _; his _History of the Early Ages in Ireland_, 129

Mace, Samuel, commands a Virginian fleet for R. , 125

MacDermod, Cormac, Lord of Muskerry, R. 's severity to, 128

Macureguarai, rich city of Guiana, 78

Madeira, R. 's Virginian ships stripped at, 37

'Madre de Dios, ' plate-ship, value of its capture, 60; inquiry as to disposal of treasure, 62

Magrath, Meiler, Archbishop of Cashel, 34

Malby, Sir Nicholas, defeats Irish rebels, 8

Malet, Sir A. , MSS. , R. 's unpopularity referred to in, 131

Manamo, R. Enters the Orinoco by river, 69

Manatee seen by R. In Guiana, 79

Mannourie, French quack attendant and spy on R. , 207; gives R. A detrimental dose, _ib. _; bribed by R. , 208; denounced by R. , 220; his disgrace, 223

Manoa, capital of Guiana, 69

Markham led out for execution but reprieved, 159, 160

Marlowe's career, 85

Marriage of R. To Elizabeth Throckmorton, 63

Martinez, Juan, journal of visit to Manoa, 69

'Mary Rose, ' Sir G. Carew's Cadiz ship, 95

Maurice of Nassau, letters taken to Prince, 175

Medina Sidonia, Duke of, his report to Philip II. Of English attack on Cadiz, 98; burns fleet of carracks to avoid capture by English, 99

Meeres, John, R. 's bailiff at Sherborne, 53; his dismissal and revenge, 121; arrests R. 's new bailiff, 121; brings civil action against R. , 122, 127; commissioner for despoiling Sherborne, 164

Mellersh, Cobham's secretary, 142

Mexican plate fleet, R. 's designs on, 191, 202, 210, 213

Mexico, Gulf of, R. 's early knowledge of, 7

Mexico, its revenue to Spain, 77

Meyrick, Sir Gilly, his conduct towards R. , 108

Middle Temple, R. In, 5

Milton inherits and publishes R. 's _The Cabinet Council_, 185

Mitcham, Lady R. Sells an estate at, 189

_Monarchy of Man_, by Sir J. Elyot, describes R. 's last moments, 217

Moncontour in France, R. At retreat of, 4

Montgomery, death of Huguenot chief, 4

Mont Orgueil, Jersey, 117

Morequito, port on River Orinoco, 74; its chief Topiawari, 78

Mulla. _See_ Awbeg, 44

Munster, R. Temporary governor of, succeeded by Zouch, 15; Sentleger provost-marshal in, 9; Spenser clerk of the council of, 44; life in, _ib. _; R. 's efforts to improve, 47; severity of President against Cormac MacDermod, 128

Muskerry, Lord of, severity against, 128

Naunton's description of R. , 20, 22

Navigation, R. Considering international, 56

Netherlands, Earl of Leicester in, 28, 32; Devon miners serve in, 32; R. 's _Discourse . .. The Protecting of_, 135

Newfoundland, R. In, 33, 203; R. Establishes trade with Jersey, 117

Ninias, R. 's account of King, 181

'Nonparilla, ' R. , Dudley's ship at Cadiz, 95

North, Captain, tells the King of R. 's Guiana failure, 203

North-West Passage, R. 's efforts, its discovery, 28; and northern route to China, 28

Northampton, Lord, interviews R. In Tower, 172; R. 's enemy removed, 187; at R. 's execution, 218

Northumberland, Earl of, R. Visits at Sion House, 114; goes to Ostend with R. , 115; invited to Bath, 127

Nottingham, Earl of. _See_ Howard

Old Palace Yard, R. Executed at, 214

Oldys, William, _Life of R. _, v. ; reference to, 101

Olonne, R. Captures and forfeits to Treasury a bark of, 42

Orange, Prince of, Elizabeth sends R. To, 18; Leicester accused of conspiracy with, _ib. _

Orinoco, R. 's expedition to river, 67, 69-81; second expedition up, 200; failure to find gold, 201

Ormond, governor of Munster, 10; desire to treat with Irish, 11; obtains pardon for the rebels, 13; quarrels with R. , 15; denounced for leniency, 22

Ostend, R. And Northumberland visit, 115

Oxford, R. Educated at, 3, 6

Oxford's, Lord, quarrel with Sir P. Sidney, 7; at execution of R. , 218

Panama pearl fisheries, 25; R. 's scheme to seize, 54

_Parliaments, Prerogative of_, 112, 180

Paulet, Sir Anthony, governor of Jersey, death, 116

Paunsford, Richard, servant of R. , 6

Pecora Campi. _See_ Hatton

Pelham, Sir William, Irish command, 9, 10

Pembroke, Earl of, succeeds R. In Duchy of Cornwall, 163

Pembroke, Lady, R. 's friend in hour of trial, 157; her son intercedes for R. , _ib. _

Peryam, Sir William, Chief Baron of Exchequer, 127

Pew, Hugh, steals R. 's pearl hat-band, &c. , 20

Peyton, Sir John, succeeds R. In Jersey, 141; Sir John the younger messenger between Cobham and R. , 144

Philip of Spain's Armada, resistance to, 37; expels Antonio from Portugal, 41; desire to recover prestige, 105

Philip III. Demands R. 's execution, 212; foiled by R. 's conduct at execution, 219

_Phoenix Nest_, 34

_Pilgrimage_, R. Writes _The_, 159

Piratical expedition by R. Stopped, 7

Plymouth, 7, 27, 29, 36, 38, 67, 89, 90, 91, 100, 105, 106, 117, 194, 203

Popham, Lord Chief Justice, tries R. At Winchester, 146; hissed at conclusion of R. 's trial, 157; declares R. 's Sherborne conveyance invalid, 164

Popham, Captain George, captures Spanish letters, 66

Portland, R. As governor completes defences of, 38

Portugal, expedition to restore Antonio, 41; R. Serves under Drake at Lisbon, _ib. _

Potato introduced into Ireland by R. , 48; distributed by ancestor of Lord Southwell, _ib. _

_Prerogative of Parliaments_, by R. , 112, 180; its publication and intention, 183; King James forbids its printing, 184; issued posthumously, _ib. _; MS. In Record Office, _ib. _

Preston, Captain Amyas, harries Venezuela, 81

Prest, Agnes, her martyrdom, 2; indirect effect on R. 's religion, 3

'Prudence, ' a London ship, 59

Puerto Rico friars, 69

Purchas, his collection of travels, 85

Puritans, Essex and R. Their friends, 50

Puttenham's praise of _Shepherd's Calender_, 44

Queen of James I. , R. 's friend, 169, 188; her father, Christian IV. , 169; Samuel Daniel a servant of, 183; R. 's rhyming petition to, 209; exertions to save R. , 210; death of, 223

'Rainbow, ' Sir F. Vere's ship at Cadiz, 95

Rakele, R. Meets Spenser at, 10; R. 's treatment of Irish kerns at, 11

Raleigh, Carew, son of Sir Walter, 166; reference to, 200, 222

Raleigh, George, Sir Walter's nephew, 200

Raleigh _née_ Gilbert, Mrs. , Sir Walter's mother, 1; her religion, 2

Raleigh town, Virginia, 36

Raleigh, Walter, the elder, his third marriage, 1; diversity of spelling his name, 2; family lease of fish tithes, 2; latest mention of, his age, 16

Raleigh, Sir Walter, Lives of, v. ; correspondence of, v. ; bibliography by Dr. Brushfield, vi. ; love of birthplace, 1; connections and parentage, 1; earliest record of, 2; education and career at Oxford, 3; convicted of assault, 7; goes to Ireland, 9; with Spenser, 10, 43, 48, 49; character whilst in Ireland, 14; pecuniary position, 16, 30, 34, 42, 116, 126, 129, 133, 141, 162, 189, 190, 194; his person in 1582, 20; mother wit and audacious alacrity, 22; success as a courtier, 23; Royal gifts to, 24, 25; continues Sir H. Gilbert's efforts, 28; and Virginia, 29, 37, 41, 125; granted licence to export woollen broad-cloths, their nature and value, 29, 30; resides at Durham House, 31; receives knighthood, 31; successful expedition to Azores, 33; elegy on Sir Philip Sidney, _ib. _; experience as an Irish colonist, 34; zenith of personal success, 35; part in fighting Armada, 37; privateering expeditions, their excuse, 40, 41; forced return to Ireland, 42; his poem of _Cynthia_, 45; developes his Irish estates, 47; introduces the potato, 48; and Puritans, his toleration, 50; _Report on Grenville's fight in the_ '_Revenge_, ' 51; obtains Sherborne Castle, 52-53; clandestine relations with Elizabeth Throckmorton, 55; embroilment between Queen and Mrs. Throckmorton, 55-57; confined in the Tower, 57; failure in health, 59, 63, 110, 114, 168, 187, 199, 200; released to quell disturbance in Devon, 61; his popularity in Devon, 61; marriage with E. Throckmorton, 63; eagerness for service, 64; attracted to Guiana, 66; and Guiana gold, 75-77; publishes _Discovery of Guiana_, 84; merit as a writer of travel, 85; his _Of the Voyage for Guiana_, 87; naval skill first fully recognised, 89; taking of Cadiz, brilliant triumph for, 91; his _Relation of the Action in Cadiz Harbour_, 92; details of his Cadiz command, 92-99; wounded in the leg, 98; preparation for third Guiana expedition, 101; lauded by literary classes on return from Cadiz, 102; intimacy with Cecil and Brooke family, 102; exertions to provoke second attack on Spain, 105; sails with fleet to attack Azores; success at Fayal, which provokes Essex, 105-109; only nominally in Queen's favour, 111; his _Prerogative of Parliament_, 112, 183-184; seeks various dignities without success, _ib. _; increasing enmity with Essex, and friendship with Cobham, 113; height of fame as a geographer, 114; his share in the execution of Essex, 118-121; comes under notice of James of Scotland, 123; his _Dangers of the Spanish Faction in Scotland_, 124; his view of Irish affairs in 1601, _ib. _; not a complete loser by his expeditions, 126; severe action towards Cormac MacDermod, 128; advises detention of F. MacCarthy in Tower, 129; good fortune ceases with Elizabeth's death, _ib. _; character, condition, and fame in 1603, 130-131; ungraciously received by King James, 132; sent from Court of James, 133; not judicious towards James, 134; Spanish schemes distasteful to King, 135; arrested for complicity in Watson's plot, 136; compromised by Cobham, 136, 137; committed to the Tower, 137; attempts suicide, 137, 138, 141; supposed farewell letter to his lady, 137-140; stripped of his appointments, 141; communications with Cobham, 141, 144, 145; enmity of populace to, 145; trial at Winchester, 146-157; letter to K. James suing for life, 158, 159; poem _The Pilgrimage_, 159; reprieved at hour for execution, 160; confinement in Tower, 160, 164, 167, 168; efforts for his release, 169; friendship with Queen and Prince Henry, 169; asks permission to go to Guiana, 170, 174; literary pursuits, 171; consulted by P. Henry in shipbuilding, 173-4; writing _Marriage Discourses_, 174; _History of World_ and Ben Jonson, 175, 176-182; demands for his MS. , 184; his _Cabinet Council_; _Discourse of War_; and _Observations on Trade and Commerce_, 185, 186; his release and conditions, 188, 189; prepares second voyage to Guiana, 189-191; intrigues for seizure of Genoa, 192; leaves for Guiana--fleet vicissitudes, 193-194; details of outward voyage, 195-200; meets an old servant in Guiana, 200; his son slain at San Thomé, 201; fails to discover gold, 201; his faithful Keymis commits suicide, 202; mutiny of his fleet _ib. _; ignominious return to England, 203, 205; arrest and attempted escape, 206, 208; writes _Apology for the Voyage to Guiana_, 208; valuables found on his person, 209; James uninfluenced by _Apology_, _ib. _; rhyming petition to Queen; her exertions, 209, 210; examined before Commissioners, 210, 212; written confession to the King, 212; if pardoned declares ability to reveal State secrets, _ib. _; trial, defence, condemnation, 212, 213, 214; bearing night before execution, 214-5; last interview with his Lady, 215; last verses, _ib. _; proposed burial at Beddington, 215; last moments, conduct on scaffold, 216-220; reason for attempted escape to France, 219; execution, 221; body in St. Margaret's, Westminster, 222; his head embalmed and preserved, _ib. _; death roll of his friends, 223

Raleigh, Walter, the younger, 114, 116; and Sherborne estates, 143; at Oxford; his tutors, 171; wins a fatal duel, 175; and Ben Jonson, _ib. _; Captain of the 'Destiny, ' 193; with Keymis in Orinoco gold expedition, 200; killed at San Thomé, last words, 201

Raleigh, Lady, and _see_ Throckmorton; influence over Cecil, 84; appeals to Cecil, 110, 144, 158; and Durham House, 117, 133; her husband's supposed farewell letter, 137-140; shares rooms in Tower, 162; and Sherborne Estates, 144, 164, 165, 171, 172; pleads with James for R. 's pardon, 169; sells an estate at Mitcham, 189; letter from R. In Guiana, 200; meets R. At Plymouth, 206; precedes R. To London, 207; released from Tower, 212; final interview with R. , 215; and burial of her husband, 215, 222; her death, 222

Rebellion in Ireland, R. 's share in suppression, 9-16

_Remains_ of R. 's writings, 187

'Repulse, ' Essex's ship off Cadiz, 93; off Azores, 107

Revenge, R. 's ship, 42

'_Revenge_, ' _A Report of the Truth of the Fight_, etc. , 51; its style and anonymous issue, _ib. _

_Richard the Second_, Cecil entertains Essex and R. With Shakespeare, 103-104

Richelieu refers to R. , 193

Rimenant, R. At battle of, 5

Roanoke, discovery of, 28; settled by Ralph Lane, 29

Roche, Lord and Lady, captured by R. , 15

Rochelle privateers strip R. 's ships, 37

'Roebuck, ' R. 's ship captures 'Madre de Dios, ' 60

Roraima, 79

Rutland, Countess of, Sir P. Sidney's sister, 175

Sacharissa, grand-daughter of R. 's cousin, 33

Saint Germain, R. Receives manor of, 116

Salisbury, R. Ill at, 207, 208; K. James and Court at, 208

Salisbury, See of, and R. 's Sherborne estate, 52, 53, 64

Salisbury, Cecil created Earl of, 166

Salisbury, William, Second Earl of, playmate to young Walter R. , 114; at Sherborne, 116

Salto Caroni, cataract of, 74

San Juan de Ulloa, 6

San Miguel, its capture arranged, 107, 109

San Rafael de Barrancas settlement, 72

San Thomé, R. 's captain attacks, 201; R. 's eldest son killed at, _ib. _; news of attack reaches Spain and England, 205

Sancroft, Archbishop, attributes _History of England_ to R. , 182

Sandars, a legate, and Irish rebellion, 8

Sarmiento, Don Pedro, captured by R. , 33

Sarmiento. _See_ Gondomar

Savage, Sir Arthur, and Duc de Biron, 122; reference to, 125

Savoy watched by Venice, 190

Scarnafissi, Savoyard Envoy, 192; R. Suggests to him seizure of Genoa, _ib. _; lays R. 's scheme before King James; its rejection, _ib. _

Schomburgk, Sir Robert, corroborates R. In Guiana, 71, 72

Sentleger, Sir Warham, Irish command, 8; Provost Marshal of Munster, 9

Sentleger, Sir William, command in Guiana fleet, 194

Shakespeare's advent, 85; performance of his _Richard the Second_, 104

Shepherd of the Ocean, R. So named by Spenser, 44, 46-7

_Shepherd's Calender_ by Spenser, 10, 44; references to R. In, 45

Sherborne, R. 's favourite country abode, 52; R. 's acquirement of, 52, 53; R. At, 63, 67, 71, 87, 100, 114, 126, 127, 207; Dean of Sarum lets farms over R. 's head, 64; remnant of R. 's fortune: tries to tie it to his son and Adrian Gilbert, 143; Sir J. Elphinstone applies for, _ib. _; R. Conveys it to his son with rent charge to Lady R. , 144; supports R. Six years in Tower, 162; King's Commissioners spoiling, 163; Cecil stays commissioners, _ib. _; held on trust for Lady R. By Sir A. Brett, 164; R. 's conveyance declared invalid, 164, 165; Keymis warder of, 164; Lady R. Pleads for secure tenure of, 171; James covets it for and bestows it on Carr, 171, 172; repurchased for Prince Henry, 172; Lady R. Receives 8, 000_l. _ in lieu of, _ib. _; R. 's last sojourn at, 207

_Shipping_, R. 's _Invention of_, 18

Sidmouth Church, earliest R. Deed preserved at, 2

Sidney, Sir Philip, R. 's contemporary at Oxford, 3; tennis court quarrel, 7; handsome features, 20; R. 's elegy on, 33

Sidney, Robert, marries R. 's cousin, 33

Simancas, R. 's map of Guiana found at, 83; R. 's confession of French intrigues found at, 212

Sion House, R. Visits Earl of Northumberland at, 114

Smerwick Bay, Spanish invasion at, 8

Southwell, Sir Robert, with Cadiz expedition, 95

Southwell, Lord, his ancestor distributes R. 's potatoes, 48

Southampton, Earl of, his amusement, 111

Spain and R. , 25, 30, 32, 50, 51, 52, 84; attack and capture of its plate ships, 59-60; R. Tries to stem flow of gold to, 76-77; effect of Cadiz expedition on, 101; R. Counsels a second attack on, 105; expedition to, and its accidents, 105, 106; alters destiny for Azores, 107; invades Ireland at Kinsale, 124; King James waiting overtures from, 135; R. 's _Discourse touching War with_, _ib. _; R. 's offer to raise and lead troops against, _ib. _; watching France, 190; Guiana route submitted to, 191; offers R. Escort to Guiana gold mines, _ib. _; promised security at peril of R. 's life, 192, 205; asks punishment of R. For San Thomé attack, _ib. _; Buckingham favourable to, 210; James, the attempted catspaw of R. Against, 211; English pensioners in pay of, _ib. _

_Spanish Alarum, The_, by R. , 104

Spanish Ambassador pleads for R. 's life, 158

Spanish Armada, 38-39, 88

_Spanish Faction in Scotland, the Dangers of a_, 124

Spanish invasion of England, R. 's advice against, 37-38

Sparrey, Francis, volunteers to stay in Guiana, 79; captured by Spaniards; his account of Guiana, _ib. _

Spenser, Edmund, secretary to Lord Grey in Ireland, 10; his _Shepherd's Calender_; first meets R. , _ib. _, 20; _Colin Clout_, evidence of R. 's position with Queen, 43; effect of R. 's friendship on, _ib. _; his _Faery Queen_ and R. 's adventures compared, _ib. _; Clerk of Council of Munster, 44; Irish estate, _ib. _; returns to England; at Court with R. , 48; secures a pension for _Faery Queen_, 49

'St. Andrew, ' rich Spanish prize taken at Cadiz, 99

St. Bartholomew's, R. And massacre on, 4

St. John, J. A. , _Life of R. _, v. ; discovery of R. 's map of Guiana, 83; prints R. 's confession, 212

St. John, Oliver, trial of, 184

St. John, Sir William, efforts for R. 's release, 188

St. Margaret's, Westminster, R. 's body buried in, 222

'St. Matthew, ' valuable prize taken at Cadiz, 98, 99

'St. Philip, ' R. 's contest at Cadiz with, 96, 98; saved from total destruction by Dutch, 99

Stafford, Sir Edward, tells Bacon of R. In Tower, 57; his kinswoman wife of Governor of Gomera, 197

Stannaries, R. Lord Warden of the, 32, 64, 128, 141

Stead, death of, 198

_Steel Glass_, Gascoigne's, 5; verses prefixed by R. To, _ib. _

Stourton, Lady, R. Arrests a Jesuit in house of, 64

Strozzi, Peter, lost at Azores, 39

Stuart, Arabella, conspirators for, 102; her descent and relationship to James I. , 142, 143; protests her ignorance of plot at R. 's trial, 155; James wishes to spare, _ib. _; her death, R. Deprived of her pearls, 187

Stukely, Sir Lewis, R. 's cousin, arrests R. , 206; hires French quack to inveigle R. , 207; bribed by and betrays R. , 208; valuables on R. 's person fall to, 209; denounced by R. , 220; condemned for clipping coin, 222; fled to Lundy and died a maniac, 223

Suffolk urges severity against R. , 141

'Summer's Nightingale, ' R. Styled the, 49

Talbot, John, R. 's secretary in Tower, death of, 199

Tarleton, comedian, his remark against R. At Court, 36

Tax on tavern-keepers ascribed to R. But due to Queen, 131

Temple, Middle, R. In, 5

Tennyson, Lord, praise of Sir R. Grenville, 51

_Tewkesbury, Annals of_, 171

Throckmorton, Arthur, dispute and dismissal from fleet, 90; restored by R. 's influence, 91; gains distinction at Cadiz, 91

Throckmorton, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Nicholas, 55; her love of R. , 55; private marriage with R. , _ib. _, 63; confined in Tower, 57; _see_ R. , Lady

Thynne, Francis, R. 's cousin, 214

'Tiger, ' Sir R. Grenville's ship, 29

Tipperary, R. Granted estates in, 34

Tonson, navigator, 6

Topiawari, friendly Guiana chief, 78, 79

Tounson, Dean of Westminster, R. 's spiritual adviser, 214; describes R. In face of death, 214-215; attends R. 's execution, 216

Tower, R. Confined in, 57, 137, 138, 142, 145, 160, 161-188, 209; R. Attempts suicide in, 137; plague in outlying posts of, 142; R. 's apartments in Garden or Bloody Tower, 162; malaria in, 164; Lady R. And son leaves, 165; R. 's experiments in garden of, 168; death of Arabella Stuart in, 187; release of R. , 188

Tower, Lieutenants of, in charge of R. , Sir G. Harvey and Sir J. Peyton, 141; Sir William Waad, 167; Sir A. Apsley and Sir T. Wilson, 211

_Trade and Commerce_, R. On, 186; a plea for free trade, 186-187; when published, 187

Trinidad, A. De Berreo Governor of, 66; visited by R. 's expedition, 67, 200; its liquid pitch and oysters, 67; R. Returns from Guiana to, 80

Udall, John, protected by R. And Essex, 50

_Underwoods_, verses by R. Attributed to Ben Jonson, 175

Vanlore, Pieter, R. Borrows of, 190

Venezuela coast plundered by R. 's expedition, 81; precautions against English, _ib. _

Venice watching Savoy, 190

Vere, Sir Francis, with Cadiz expedition, 95, 97; to attempt with Howard capture of Graciosa, 107

Villiers, favourable to R. , 187; animus against Somerset, 188; urged to intervene for R. , 210; pledged to Spanish alliance, _ib. _

Virginia, discovery of, 28; failure of a second expedition to, 29; its products attract R. , 30; collapse of R. 's colony, 33; a fourth expedition fails, 36; expenditure on abortive fifth expedition, 37; R. 's relief vessels stripped by privateers, _ib. _; drain on R. 's fortune; leases patent, 41; never visited by R. , _ib. _; R. 's final effort to colonise, 125; R. Not a complete loser by expeditions to, 126; expected return of an expedition by R. , 40

Waad, Sir W. , takes R. To Winchester for trial, 145; special commissioner at R. 's trial, 146; thinks R. Too comfortable in Tower, 162; succeeds as Lieutenant of Tower, 167; suspicion of R. 's experiments, 168; reference to, 170

Walsingham and R. In Paris on St. Bartholomew's eve, 4; massacre of Fort del Ore reported to, 12; reference to, 32; death of, 50

Walton, Izaak, accounts of Ben Jonson and R. , 175

_War_, R. 's _A Discourse of_, 185-6; most pleasing of R. 's prose writings, 185

Warburton, judge at R. 's Winchester trial, 146

'War Sprite, ' R. 's ship in Cadiz expedition, 94

Waterford, R. Granted estates in, 34; trade in pipe-staves encouraged by R. , 47

Watson's plot, 135; his conviction and execution, 158

Webbe's praise of _Shepherd's Calender_, 44

_West Indies, Sir W. R. 's voyage to the_, 7; R. 's early visits to, _ib. _

West Horsley Church, R. 's head rests in, 222

Wexford, its trade in pipe-staves encouraged by R. , 47

Weymouth, R. At, 100, 104, 116, 127

Whiddon, Captain Jacob, visits Guiana for R. , 66; examines mouths of Orinoco, 69

White, Captain John, fourth Virginian expedition, 36; lands at Hatorask. His failure, _ib. _

White, Roland, records R. At Court, 103

Whitlock, Captain, 167

Willoughby, Ambrose, Esquire of the body, 111

Wilson, Sir Thomas, spy on R. , 211; his acquaintance with Raleigh in Tower, _ib. _

Winchester, Marquis of, entertains Queen and French envoys at Basing House, 123

Winchester, R. Tried at Wolvesey Castle, 145; R. Confined in, 157, 159; R. Removed from, 160

Winchester, Bishop of, attendant on, 158

Wines, farm of, R. Granted, 24, 25; King James transfers it to E. Of Nottingham, 141

Winwood, Sir Ralph, favourable to R. , 187, 204; hater of Spain, 188; visits R. 's ship 'Destiny, ' 192; ignores Bailey's charge against R. , 199; R. Writes of his Guiana failure to, 202; his death, 203, 204

Wither, George, prophecy of English supremacy in America, 25

Wokoken, discovery of, 28

Wood, Anthony à, records R. At Oxford, 3

_Works_ by Ben Jonson, and R. 's verses, 175

Yelverton, Attorney-General, prosecutes R. , 210, 214

Yetminster Manor given to R. , 53

Youghal burned by Geraldines, 8; destruction of Geraldine Friary, 34; R. 's residence at, 34, 44; yew tree contemporary with R. Still at, 48; potato first planted at, 48

Zouch, in trenches at Fort del Ore, 12; at Lismore, 15

_Spottiswoode & Co. Printers, New-street Square, London_

TRANSCRIBERS' NOTES

General: corrections to punctuation have not been individually documented

General: references to page iii changed to page v

Page 19: life-time standardised to lifetime

Page 28: "'a delicate sweet smell' far out in ocean" as in original

Pages 148, 238: Discrepancy in the spelling of Renzi/Rienzi as in original

Page 160: Gray's standardised to Grey's in "could not hear, Grey's lips"

Page 226: "Madre de Dio" standardised to "Madre de Dios" Beddingfield Park standardised to Bedingfield Park

Page 228: Gavan standardised to Gawen

Psge 233: N. W. Standardised to N. -W. 

Page 238: 206-7-8 standardised to 206-8

Page 239: Meere standardised to Meeres Montcontour standardised to Moncontour

Page 240: hatband standardised to hat-band

Page 242: broadcloths standardised to broad-cloths McDermod standardised to MacDermod

Page 246: Page number corrected from 24 to 64 in entry Stourton

Page 247: Page number corrected from 517 to 175 in entry Underwoods