The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sir Walter Ralegh, by William Stebbing

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Title: Sir Walter Ralegh
       A Biography

Author: William Stebbing

Release Date: April 10, 2008 [EBook #25029]

Language: English

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  SIR WALTER RALEGH

  _STEBBING_




  HENRY FROWDE, M.A.

  PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

  [Illustration]

  LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK




  [Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEGH
    _From the Duke of Rutland's Miniature_]




  SIR WALTER RALEGH

  A Biography

  By

  WILLIAM STEBBING, M.A.

  FORMERLY FELLOW OF WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD
  AUTHOR OF
  'SOME VERDICTS OF HISTORY REVIEWED'


  _REISSUE_

  _WITH A FRONTISPIECE AND A LIST OF AUTHORITIES_


  Oxford
  AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
  1899




  Oxford

  PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

  BY HORACE HART, M.A.
  PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY




  CONTENTS

                                                      PAGE

           PREFACE                                     vii

           LIST OF AUTHORITIES                        xiii

           CORRIGENDA                                xxvii

     CHAP.

        I. GENEALOGY                                     1

       II. IN SEARCH OF A CAREER (1552-1581)             6

      III. ROYAL FAVOUR (1581-1582)                     22

       IV. OFFICES AND ENDOWMENTS (1582-1587)           32

        V. VIRGINIA (1583-1587)                         42

       VI. PATRON AND COURTIER (1583-1590)              53

      VII. ESSEX. THE ARMADA (1587-1589)                60

     VIII. THE POET (1589-1593)                         69

       IX. THE REVENGE (September, 1591)                82

        X. IN THE TOWER. THE GREAT CARACK (1592)        88

       XI. AT HOME; AND IN PARLIAMENT (1592-1594)      100

      XII. GUIANA (1594-1595)                          108

     XIII. CADIZ. THE ISLANDS VOYAGE (1596-1597)       125

      XIV. FINAL FEUD WITH ESSEX (1597-1601)           141

       XV. THE ZENITH (1601-1603)                      155

      XVI. COBHAM AND CECIL (1601-1603)                168

     XVII. THE FALL (April-June, 1603)                 180

    XVIII. AWAITING TRIAL (July-November, 1603)        186

      XIX. THE TRIAL (November 17)                     207

       XX. ITS JUSTICE AND EQUITY                      222

      XXI. REPRIEVE (December 10, 1603)                232

     XXII. A PRISONER (1604-1612)                      241

    XXIII. SCIENCE AND LITERATURE (1604-1615)          265

     XXIV. THE RELEASE (March, 1616)                   287

      XXV. PREPARING FOR GUIANA (1616-1617)            298

     XXVI. THE EXPEDITION (May, 1617-June, 1618)       313

    XXVII. RETURN TO THE TOWER (June-August, 1618)     331

   XXVIII. A MORAL RACK (August 10-October 15)         343

     XXIX. A SUBSTITUTE FOR A TRIAL (October 22, 1618) 359

      XXX. RALEGH'S TRIUMPH (October 28-29, 1618)      371

     XXXI. SPOILS AND PENALTIES                        380

    XXXII. CONTEMPORARY AND FINAL JUDGMENTS            394

           INDEX                                       401




PREFACE


Students of Ralegh's career cannot complain of a dearth of materials.
For thirty-seven years he lived in the full glare of publicity. The
social and political literature of more than a generation abounds in
allusions to him. He appears and reappears continually in the
correspondence of Burleigh, Robert Cecil, Christopher Hatton, Essex,
Anthony Bacon, Henry Sidney, Richard Boyle, Ralph Winwood, Dudley
Carleton, George Carew, Henry Howard, and King James. His is a very
familiar name in the Calendars of Domestic State Papers. It holds its
place in the archives of Venice and Simancas. No family muniment room
can be explored without traces of him. Successive reports of the
Historical Manuscripts Commission testify to the vigilance with which
his doings were noted. No personage in two reigns was more a centre for
anecdotes and fables. They were eagerly imbibed, treasured, and
circulated alike by contemporary, or all but contemporary, statesmen and
wits, and by the feeblest scandal-mongers. A list comprising the names
of Francis Bacon, Sir John Harington, Sir Robert Naunton, Drummond of
Hawthornden, Thomas Fuller, Sir Anthony Welldon, Bishop Goodman, Francis
Osborn, Sir Edward Peyton, Sir Henry Wotton, John Aubrey, Sir William
Sanderson, David Lloyd, and James Howell, is far from exhausting the
number of the very miscellaneous purveyors and chroniclers.

Antiquaries, from the days of John Hooker of Exeter, the continuer of
Holinshed, Sir William Pole, Anthony à Wood, and John Prince, to those
of Lysons, Polwhele, Isaac D'Israeli, Payne Collier, and Dr. Brushfield,
have found boundless hunting-ground in his habits, acts, and motives.
Sir John Hawles, Mr. Justice Foster, David Jardine, Lord Campbell, and
Spedding have discussed the technical justice of his trials and
sentences. No historian, from Camden and de Thou, to Hume, Lingard,
Hallam, and Gardiner, has been able to abstain from debating his merits
and demerits. From his own age to the present the fascination of his
career, and at once the copiousness of information on it, and its
mysteries, have attracted a multitude of commentators. His character has
been repeatedly analysed by essayists, subtle as Macvey Napier, eloquent
as Charles Kingsley. There has been no more favourite theme for
biographers. Since the earliest and trivial account compiled by William
Winstanley in 1660, followed by the anonymous and tolerably industrious
narrative attributed variously to John, Benjamin, and James, Shirley in
1677, and Lewis Theobald's meagre sketch in 1719, a dozen or more lives
with larger pretensions to critical research have been printed, by
William Oldys in 1736, Thomas Birch in 1751, Arthur Cayley in 1805, Sir
Samuel Egerton Brydges in 1813, Mrs. A.T. Thomson in 1830, Patrick
Fraser Tytler in 1833, Robert Southey in 1837, Sir Robert Hermann
Schomburgk in 1848, C. Whitehead in 1854, S.G. Drake, of Boston, U.S.,
in 1862, J.A. St. John in 1868, Edward Edwards in the same year, Mrs.
Creighton in 1877, and Edmund Gosse in 1886.

Almost every one of this numerous company, down even to bookmaking
Winstanley the barber, has shed light, much or little, upon dark
recesses. By four, Oldys, Cayley, Tytler, and Edwards, the whole
learning of the subject, so far as it was for their respective periods
available, must be admitted to have been most diligently accumulated.
Yet it will scarcely be denied that there has always been room for a new
presentment of Ralegh's personality. That the want has remained
unsatisfied after all the efforts made to supply it is to be imputed
less to defects in the writers, than to the intrinsic difficulties of
the subject. Ralegh's multifarious activity, with the width of the area
in which it operated, is itself a disturbing element. It is confusing
for a biographer to be required to keep at once independent and in
unison the poet, statesman, courtier, schemer, patriot, soldier, sailor,
freebooter, discoverer, colonist, castle-builder, historian,
philosopher, chemist, prisoner, and visionary. The variety of Ralegh's
powers and tendencies, and of their exercise, is the distinctive note of
him, and of the epoch which needed, fashioned, and used him. A whole
band of faculties stood ready in him at any moment for action. Several
generally were at work simultaneously. For the man to be properly
visible, he should be shown flashing from more facets than a brilliant.
Few are the pens which can vividly reflect versatility like his. The
temptation to diffuseness and irrelevancy is as embarrassing and
dangerous. At every turn Ralegh's restless vitality involved him in a
web of other men's fortunes, and in national crises. A biographer is
constantly being beguiled into describing an era as well as its
representative, into writing history instead of a life. Within an
author's legitimate province the perplexities are numberless and
distracting. Never surely was there a career more beset with insoluble
riddles and unmanageable dilemmas. At each step, in the relation of the
most ordinary incidents, exactness of dates, or precision of events,
appears unattainable. Fiction is ever elbowing fact, so that it might be
supposed contemporaries had with one accord been conspiring to disguise
the truth from posterity. The uncertainty is deepened tenfold when
motives have to be measured and appraised. Ralegh was the best hated
personage in the kingdom. On a conscientious biographer is laid the
burden of allowing just enough, and not too much, for the gall of
private, political, and popular enmity. He is equally bound to remember
and account, often on the adverse side, for inherent contradictions in
his hero's own moral nature. While he knows it would be absurdly unjust
to accept the verdict of Ralegh's jealous and envious world on his
intentions, he has to beware of construing malicious persecution as
equivalent to proof of angelic innocence.

One main duty of a biographer of Ralegh is to be strenuously on the
guard against degenerating into an apologist. But, above all, he ought
to be versed in the art of standing aside. While explanations of
obscurities must necessarily be offered, readers should be put into a
position to judge for themselves of their sufficiency, and to
substitute, if they will, others of their own. Commonly they want not so
much arguments, however unegotistical and dispassionate, as a narrative.
They wish to view and hear Ralegh himself; to attend him on his quick
course from one field of fruitful energy to another; to see him as his
age saw him, in his exuberant vitality; not among the few greatest, but
of all great, Englishmen the most universally capable. They desire
facts, stated as such, simply, in chronological sequence, and, when it
is at all practicable, in the actor's own words, not artificially
carved, coloured, digested, and classified. As for failings and
infirmities, they are more equitable and less liable to unreasonable
disgusts than a biographer is inclined to fancy. They are content that a
great man's faults, real or apparent, should be left to be justified,
excused, or at all events harmonized, in the mass of good and ill.

No biographer of Ralegh need for lack of occupation stray from the
direct path of telling his readers the plain story of an eventful life.
The rightful demands on his resources are enough to absorb the most
plentiful stores of leisure, patience, and self-denial. He should be
willing to spend weeks or months on loosing a knot visible to students
alone, which others have not noticed, and, if they had, would think
might as profitably have been left tied. He should collect, and weigh,
and have the courage to refuse to use, piles of matter which do not
enlighten. He should be prepared to devote years to the search for a
clue to a career with a bewildering capacity for sudden transformation
scenes. He should have the courage, when he has lost the trace, to
acknowledge that he has wandered. He should feel an interest so supreme
in his subject, in its shadows as in its lights, as neither to count the
cost of labour in its service, nor to find affection for the man
incompatible with the condemnation of his errors. Finally, after having
arrived at a clear perception of the true method to be pursued, and ends
to be aimed at, he should be able to recognize how very imperfectly he
has succeeded in acting up to his theory.

                                     W.S.

    LONDON:
  _September_, 1891.




AUTHORITIES


Not a few readers and critics, who have been so kind as to speak
otherwise only too favourably of the book, have intimated that its value
would be increased by references to the authorities.

In compliance with the suggestion, the author now prints the list--a
formidable one. He has drawn it up in a form which, he hopes, may enable
students without much difficulty to trace the sources of the statements
in the text.

The figures in the parentheses () after the title of each authority are
the date of the original edition, where that is not the one cited. The
figures which follow give the date of the edition actually referred to.
The brackets [] after the pages of the _Life_ contain the pages, or
volumes and pages, of the cited works.

  Example--

    D'ISRAELI, ISAAC, _Cur. Lit._
    (1791-1834), date of original edition.
    ed. B. Disraeli, 1849, date of edition referred to.
    79, page of _Life_.
    [iii. 140], volume and page of _Cur. Lit._


  A.

  ARBER, EDWARD, _English Reprints_: p. 83 [No. 29, xiv. 13-22].

  _Archaeologia_ (Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries): pp. 130
    [xxii. 175], 299 [xii. 271], 368 [xliv. 394]. See also Collier, Monson.

  _Ashmolean MSS._ (Bodleian Library): pp. 368 [DCCLXXXVI, fol. 101], 386.

  AUBREY, JOHN, _Letters by Eminent Persons and Lives of Eminent Men_,
    1813: pp. 8, 13, 25, 28, 35, 49, 57, 58, 100, 104, 105, 164, 180, 181,
    192, 209, 249, 273, 282, 283, 300 [ii. 416 and 494, and 509-21].

  _Aulicus Coquinarius_ (published in _Secret History of James I_,
    1811)--'supposed to have been compiled from Bishop Goodman's materials
    by William Sanderson': p. 210 [173].


  B.

  BACON, ANTHONY, Correspondence (_MSS. Tenison_, at Lambeth, and
    Catalogue, _Lambeth Palace MSS._): pp. 89 [Cat. 162], 108 [Cat. 166].

  BACON, FRANCIS, LORD, _Works, Letters, and Life_, ed. James Spedding,
    R.E. Ellis, and D.D. Heath, 1858-1874.

  -- _Apophthegms_: pp. 8 [ii. 163], 89 [ii. 129], 155 [ii. 124], 302
    [ii. 168].

  -- _Life_: pp. 359 [vi. 360-2], 361 [vi. 356, 364-5].

  BAYLEY, JOHN, _History and Antiquities of the Tower of London_, 1821:
    p. 250 [Appendix, vol. ii. ch. x].

  BEATSON, ROBERT, _Political Index to the Histories of Great Britain and
    Ireland_ (1786), 3rd ed. 1806: pp. 35 [i. 448], 108 [i. 448].

  BEAUMONT, CHRISTOPHER DE HARLAY DE, _Lettres à Henri IV_ (transcripts
    by E. Edwards from MSS. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris):
    pp. 182, 195, 201, 227, 237, 239, 240.

  _Biographia Britannica_, 1747-1766 (Art. W. Ralegh): pp. 39, 49.

  BIRCH, REV. THOMAS, D.D., _Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth_, 1754: pp. 89
    [i. 79], 147 [ii. 418].

  -- _Life of Sir Walter Ralegh_ (Oxford ed. of Ralegh's Works): pp. 89
    [i. 593], 300 [i. 613].

  BLACKSTONE, MR. JUSTICE SIR WILLIAM, _Commentaries on the Laws of
    England_ (1765-1769). Revised by Serjeant Henry John Stephen, 3rd
    ed. 1853: p. 285 [ii. 475].

  BOLINGBROKE, HENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT ('_The Craftsman_, by Caleb
    D'Anvers, Esq.' 1731-1737. Nos. 160, 163, 164, 175, 274): p. 269.

  BRAY. See Manning.

  BRAYLEY, EDWARD WEDLAKE, and JOHN BRITTON, _History of Surrey_,
    1850: p. 380 [ii. 93-4].

  BRUCE, REV. JOHN, _Correspondence of King James VI of Scotland with
    Sir R. Cecil and others in England_ (Camden Society), 1861: pp. 58
    [67], 148 [Appendix 82-3, 90], 172 [15], 173 [67], 175 [43], 176
    [18-9], 177 [ibid.], 254 [140-60, 219].

  BRUSHFIELD, THOMAS NADAULD, M.D., _Raleghana_ (_Burial-place of
    Walter and Katherine Ralegh_), 1896: p. 5 (Devon Assoc. Trans.
    xxviii. 291-4).

  -- -- (_Birthplace of Sir Walter Ralegh_), 1889: pp. 6, 101 (Devon Assoc.
    Trans. xxi. 319-21).

  -- -- (_Children of_), 1896: p. 197 (Devon Assoc. Trans. xxviii. 310-12).

  -- _London and Suburban Residences of Sir Walter Ralegh:_ pp. 103-5
    (_Western Antiquary_, iv. 82-7, 109-12).

  -- _Bibliography of Sir Walter Ralegh_ (reprinted from _Western
    Antiquary_), 1886: pp. 265-76.

  -- (_Tobacco and Potatoes_): p. 49 (Devon Assoc. Trans. xxx. 158-97).
    _Builder, The_, Sept. 17, 1864: p. 105.

  BULLEN, A.H. (_Poetical Rhapsody_, ed. Francis Davison, 1602), 1890:
    pp. 78 [i. 116, and Introd. 83, 84], 79 [i. 28, and Introd. 86].

  BULLEN, A.H. (_England's Helicon_, 1600), 1887: p. 80 [Introd. 22, 23].

  BURGHLEY, WILLIAM CECIL, LORD, _State Papers at Hatfield House_,
    Vol. ii, 1571-1596, ed. Rev. Wm. Murdin: pp. 93 [ii. 657], 95 [ii.
    658], 102 [ii. 675], 152 [ii. 811].


  C.

  _Calendar, Carew MSS._ 1515-1624, Lambeth Palace Library, ed. Rev.
    John S. Brewer and William Bullen, 1868: pp. 38, 49, 71, 91, 126,
    148, 149, 156, 158, 162, 169, 330.

  -- _State Papers_, Domestic Series, Elizabeth and James I, 1585-1618:
    pp. 34, 35, 36, 37, 43, 45, 51, 54, 55, 58, 59, 64, 69, 82, 84, 87, 89,
    96, 98, 101, 102, 117, 125, 134, 135, 142, 146, 147, 164, 169, 180,
    182, 201, 208, 241, 242, 243, 247, 249, 252, 254, 257, 260, 262, 263,
    264, 266, 288, 297, 298, 300, 301, 302, 307, 313, 316, 332, 333, 337,
    346, 347, 348, 349, 352, 358, 366, 369, 372, 375, 381, 384, 385, 386,
    387, 393, 394, 396.

  -- _Venetian State Papers_, 1581-1591: pp. 50, 64.

  CAMDEN, WILLIAM, _Annales, etc. regnante Elizabethâ_ (Part I, to 1589,
    1615; Part II, 1627), ed. Thomas Hearne, 1717: pp. 9 [i. 198], 66
    [ii. 574-5], 89 [iii. 697], 109 [iii. 697], 137 [iii. 741-2].

  -- _Annales Regni Jacobi I_: p. 275 [9].

  -- _Epistolae_ (containing in appendix the _Annales Jacobi I_), ed.
    Thomas Smith, 1691: pp. 325 [256], 333 [243].

  CAMPBELL, JOHN, LORD, _Lives of the Chief Justices of England_,
    1849-1857: p. 209 [i. 210-11].

  CAREW, RICHARD, _Survey of Cornwall_ (1602), ed. Lord de Dunstanville,
    1811: p. 168 [xxv-xxvi].

  CARLYLE, THOMAS: p. 279 (see Cromwell).

  CARTE, THOMAS, _General History of England_, 1747-1755: p. 205 [iii.
    719].

  CLARENDON, EDWARD HYDE, FIRST EARL of, _The Difference and
    Disparity between the Estates and Conditions of George, Duke of
    Buckingham, and Robert, Earl of Essex_, 'written by the Earl of
    Clarendon in his younger Dayes' (in _Reliquiae Wottonianae_, 4th ed.
    1685, 185-202): p. 145 [190].

  COKE, SIR EDWARD, _Third Institute_ (1644), 1797: p. 214 [24-5].

  COLLIER, JOHN PAYNE (_Notes and Queries_, 3rd Series, vol. v): pp. 244
    [7], 246 [7].

  -- _Archaeologia_ (Society of Antiquaries) 1852-1853: pp. 11 [xxxiv.
    139], 15 [xxxiv. 139], 21 [xxxiv. 141], 36 [xxxv. 368-71], 42 [xxxiii.
    199, and xxxiv. 151], 89 [xxxiv. 160], 90 [xxxiv. 161], 91 [xxxiv.
    165], 133 [xxxiv. 168], 164 [xxxiv. 163-4], 165 [xxxv. 214], 244
    [xxxv. 217-8], 252 [xxxv. 219-20].

  CORNEY, BOLTON, '_Curiosities of Literature_, by I. D'Israeli, Esq.,
    Illustrated by Bolton Corney, Esq.,' 1837: p. 274.

  COSTELLO, LOUISA STUART, _Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen_, 1844:
    p. 63 [i. 209-10].

  _Cotton. Library MSS._, British Museum: pp. 57 [Galba, C. 9, fol. 157],
    132 [Vespas. C. 13, fol. 290], 149 [Julius, F. 6, p. 433], 272 [Julius,
    C. 3, fol. 311], 316 [Titus, B. 8, fol. 155], 351 [Vitell. C. 17, foll.
    439-40], 373 [Titus, C. 6, fol. 93].

  _Craftsman._ See Bolingbroke.

  CROMWELL, OLIVER, _Letters and Speeches_, ed. Thomas Carlyle, 1870:
    p. 279 [ii. 293].

  -- _Memoirs of the Protector Oliver Cromwell, and of his sons, Richard
    and Henry_, by Oliver Cromwell, Esq. (1820), 3rd ed. 1822: p. 279
    [i. 369-70].


  D.

  _Declaration of the Demeanour and Carriage of Sir Walter Raleigh, as well
    in his Voyage, as in and since his Return_, printed by the King's
    Printers, 1618; reprinted _Harleian Miscellany_, iii, 1809; _Somers
    Collect_, ii, 1809: pp. 301 [Harl. iii. 20-3], 389-93 [Harl. iii. 18,
    _et seq._].

  DEE, DR. JOHN, _Private Diary_, ed. J.O. Halliwell (Camden Society),
    1842: p. 104 [54].

  DEVEREUX, WALTER B., _Lives and Letters of the Devereux, Earls of
    Essex_, 1853: pp. 61 [i. 86], 62 [i. 186-8], 130 [i. 376-7], 138 [i.
    457].

  _Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and
    Art, Transactions of the_ (see also Brushfield): pp. 2 [xv. 163-79],
    313 [xv. 459].

  D'EWES, SIR SIMONDS, _Journals of all the Parliaments during the Reign
    of Queen Elizabeth_, ed. Paul Bowes (1682), 1862: pp. 105 [478, 492],
    106 [508-9], 158 [674-6], 159 [629-33].

  D'ISRAELI, ISAAC, _Curiosities of Literature_ (1791-1834), ed. B.
    Disraeli, 1849: pp. 79 [iii. 140], 274 [iii. 145-7], 334 [iii. 127],
    375 [iii. 141].

  -- '_Amenities of Literature_ (Psychological History of Rawleigh
    (1840)),' 1841: pp. 59 [iii. 152], 181 [iii. 166-7], 274 [iii. 172-84].

  DIXON, WILLIAM HEPWORTH, _Her Majesty's Tower_, 1869-71: pp. 198
    [i. 351-4], 266 [i. 369-70].

  DREXELIUS, JEREMIAH (_Trismegistus Christianus_), Antwerp, 1643:
    p. 40 [469].

  DRUMMOND, WILLIAM, of Hawthornden, _'Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations
    with_--January, 1619' (Shakespeare Society), ed. David
    Laing, 1842: pp. 13 [21], 270 [15], 274 [15], 301 [21].


  E.

  ECHARD, ARCHDEACON LAURENCE, _History of England_, 1711: p. 186
    [i. 911].

  EDWARDS, EDWARD, _Life of Sir Walter Ralegh_, 1868: p. 26 [i. 54-5].

  _Egerton Papers_--from MSS. belonging to Lord Francis Egerton, ed.
    J. Payne Collier (for Camden Society), 1840: pp. 36 [94], 183 [377].

  ELIOT, SIR JOHN, _Monarchy of Man, MSS. Harleian_, 2228, Brit. Mus.
    (cf. Forster's _Life of Eliot_ [i. 34, 604]): pp. 375, 397.

  EVELYN, JOHN, _Diary and Correspondence_, ed. William Bray (1818-1819),
    1872: p. 267 [i. 391].


  F.

  FEBRE, NICHOLAS LE, _Discours sur le Grand Cordial de Sir Walter
    Ralegh_, 1664: p. 266.

  _Flying Chudleigh, Chaplain of the_, MSS. Corpus Christi, Oxford: p. 326.

  FORSTER, JOHN, _Life of John Eliot_, 1864. See Eliot.

  _Fortescue Papers_; collected by John Packer, Secretary to George
    Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, ed. S.R. Gardiner, 1871: pp. 332 [40],
    386 [80], 387 [67], 395 [143].

  FOSS, EDWARD, _Judges of England_, 1857: pp. 209 [vi. 179], 231
    [vi. 159].

  FOSTER, MR. JUSTICE SIR MICHAEL, _Trial of the Rebels in 1746, and
    other Crown Cases_ (1st ed. 1762), new ed. 1809: pp. 214, 222 [234].

  FOX (or FOXE), JOHN, _Acts and Monuments_ (1554-1562), 1684: p. 5 [iii.
    748].

  FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY, _History of England_, 1856-1870: p. 4
    [vi. 149].

  FULLER, REV. THOMAS, _Church History of Britain_, 1655: p. 7 [170].

  -- _History of the Worthies of England_ (1662), 1811: pp. 24 [i. 287],
    166 [ii. 286], 394 [ii. 336].


  G.

  GAINSFORD, CAPTAIN THOMAS, _Vox Spiritus_, or _Sir Walter Rawleigh's
    Ghost_, 1620: p. 395 [Fortescue Papers, 143].

  GARDINER, SAMUEL RAWSON, _History of England, from the Accession of
    James I to the Disgrace of Chief Justice Coke, 1603-1616_. 1863:
    pp. 190 [i. 102], 193 [i. 89], 226 [i. 58-9], 263 [i. 29-32].

  -- _Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage, 1617-1623_. 1869: pp. 238
    [i. 151], 309 [i. 57-64], 324 [i. 125, 130], 332 [i. 134], 337
    [i. 140].

  -- _The Case against Sir Walter Ralegh_ (_Fortnightly Review_, vol. vii;
    New Series, vol. i), 1867: pp. 305 [613], 318 [602-14].

  GASCOIGNE, GEORGE, _The Glasse of Gouernment_ (1576), ed. W.C. Hazlitt
    (Roxburghe Library), 1870: p. 12 [ii. 178].

  GERARD, JOHN, _Herbal, or General History of Plants_, 1597, with
    dedication to Sir Walter Raleigh: p. 105 [546].

  GIBBON, EDWARD, _Life and Works_, ed. John Lord Sheffield (1799),
    new ed. 1814: pp. 102 [i. 152], 281 [i. 151], 309 [i. 152-3], 398
    [i. 153].

  _Gibson MSS._, Lambeth Palace Library: p. 345 [viii. fol. 21].

  GIFFORD, WILLIAM, _Ben Jonson's Works, with Memoir by_, 1860:
    p. 157 [19].

  GOODMAN, GODFREY, EX-BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER, _Court of King James
    the First_, ed. John S. Brewer, 1839: pp. 195 [ii. 93-7], 381 [i. 69].

  GORGES, SIR ARTHUR, _A larger Relation of the said Island Voyage_
    (1607), iv. Purchas, 1938-1969: pp. 136 [iv. 1950], 139 [iv. 1965],
    140 [iv. 1938-69].

  GOSSE, EDMUND, _Athenaeum_, January 2 and 9, 1886: p. 73.

  GUTCH, REV. J., _Collectanea Curiosa_, 1781: pp. 368 [i. 94-5], 367, 372,
    373, 374, 376 [ii. 421-4].


  H.

  HAILES, LORD, _Secret Correspondence of Sir Robert Cecil with James VI_,
    ed. Lord Hailes, 1766: pp. 171 [116], 174 [9], 175 [29], 176 [68],
    180 [231], 182 [107], 254 [140-60, 290].

  HAKLUYT, RICHARD, _Voyages, Navigations, Traffics, and Discoveries of
    the English Nation_ (1600). New ed. 1810: pp. 11 [iii. 364], 15 [iii.
    186], 44 [iii. 301-6], 45 [iii. 324-40], 47 [iii. 365], 50 [iii. 366],
    53 [iii. 364], 67 [ii. 169], 84 [ii. 663-70], 119 [iv. 66].

  HALL, BISHOP JOSEPH, _Balm of Gilead_ (1660), _Works_, 1837: p. 279
    [vii. 171].

  HALLAM, HENRY, _Constitutional History of England, Henry VII--George
    II_ (1827), 1850: pp. 183 [i. 354], 199 [i. 353], 204 [i. 354],
    225 [i. 353], 285 [i. 277], 293 [i. 352-3], 303 [i. 354].

  -- _Introduction to the Literature of Europe_ (1838-1839), 1847: pp. 79
    [ii. 126], 277 [iii. 149].

  _Hampshire, History of_, by Richard Warner, 1795, Woodward, Wilks, and
    Lockhart (undated) 209 [i. 298-302], Murray's _Handbook_, 5th ed.
    1898: p. 209 [98-9].

  HANNAH, ARCHDEACON JOHN, _The Courtly Poets, from Raleigh to
    Montrose_, 1870: pp. 56 [56], 73 [Introd. xiv-xv], 367 [52-3].

  HARINGTON, SIR JOHN (_Nugae Antiquae_, 1804). _A Brief State of the
    Church of England_: pp. 91 [ii. 127], 101 [ii. 125], 102 [ii. 152], 143
    [ii. 129], 164 [ii. 125], 194 [ii. 126], 237 [ii. 99], 273 [ii. 127].

  -- _Letters_: pp. 90 [i. 348-53], 93 [i. 362], 156 [i. 342], 171 [ibid.],
    205 [i. 343], 293 [i. 348-53].

  HARIOT (HARRIOT, HERIOTT, or HERIOT), THOMAS, _A Briefe and True
    Report of the new found Land of Virginia_, February, 1587; published,
    London, 1588, and in Latin, by Theodore Bry at Frankfort, 1590;
    reprinted from the London edition by Hakluyt (iii. 324-40), 1600;
    new ed. of Hakluyt, 1810: pp. 45, 49.

  _Harleian MSS._, British Museum: pp. 20 [6993, fol. 5], 21 [1644, fol.
    77], 56 [6994, fol. 2], 181 [11402, fol. 88], 210, 218 [xxxix. ff. 277
    _et seq._], 288 [xxxix. fol. 359], 290 [xxxix. ff. 350-1], 329 [4761,
    ff. 23-5], 333 [7002, fol. 410].

  _Harleian Miscellany_ (from library of Edward, second Earl of Oxford),
    (1st ed. William Oldys, 1744-1753; 2nd ed. the late William
    Oldys and Thomas Park, 1808-1813): pp. 381 [iv. 62], 382 [iv. 63],
    387 [iii. 63-8].

  _Hatfield Papers_, Hatfield House: pp. 18, 102, 103, 107, 111, 112, 119,
    120, 124, 126, 141, 156, 160, 164, 165, 170, 171, 174, 178, 181, 194,
    201, 203, 232, 233, 242, 244, 246, 247, 249, 260, 261, 334.

  HAWLES, SIR JOHN, _The Magistracy and Government of England
    Vindicated_, 1689: pp. 186, 224 [35].

  HEARNE, THOMAS, _Appendix to Preface to Chronic. Walteri Hemingford,
    Edw I, II, and III_, 1731: pp. 372, 374 [i. 181].

  HENNESSY, SIR JOHN POPE, _Sir Walter Ralegh in Ireland_, 1883: pp.
    70 [1-3], 162 [75-9], 272 [142-3].

  HEYLIN, REV. PETER, D.D.,'Observation upon some particular persons
    and passages in a Book intitled _A Compleat History of the Lives and
    Reigns of Queen Mary and King James_, By a Lover of the Truth,
    1656' (ascribed to Carew Ralegh, but queried in British Museum
    Catalogue as by Peter Heylin): pp. 243, 254, 281.

  _Historical Account of Sir Walter Raleigh's Voyages and Adventures_,
    1719: p. 7.

  '_Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland_ (1st ed. by
    Raphael Holinshed, 1577; 2nd ed. by Raphael Holinshed, William
    Harrison, and others, newlie augmented and continued to the yeare 1586
    by John Hooker, alias Vowell, Gent.'--the 'supplie' by Hooker, vol.
    vi, 323-461--1586-1587). Reprint 1807 (to which I refer): pp. 4 [iii.
    942], 15 [vi. 107], 16 [vi. 437], 18 [vi. 441-5], 38 [vi. 183], 45
    [iv. 598-9].

  HOOKER, JOHN, alias VOWELL. See Holinshed. Also, _Epistle Dedicatory_,
    prefixed to his translation of _The Irish Histories of Giraldus
    Cambrensis_, and his _Continuation of the Chronicles of Ireland_, in
    ii. Holinshed, ed. 1587. Reprint 1807, vol. vi, pp. 101-110: pp. 1
    [vi. 105-6], 3 [vi. 105], 53 [vi. 107].

  HOWELL, THOMAS BAYLY (Cobbett's _Complete Collection of State Trials_,
    edited by Thomas Bayly Howell, 1809-1815; and by Thomas Jones
    Howell, 1815-1826): pp. 174 [ii. 48], 228 [ii. 48], 230 [ii. 47-51],
    237 [ii. 50], 260 [ii. 950-1].

  HOWELL (or HOWEL), JAMES, _Epistolae Ho-Elianae_ (1645-1655), 7th ed.
    1705: pp. 49 [404], 302 [371], 303 [ibid.], 305 [369], 327 [370].

  HUMBOLDT, F.H. ALEXANDER VON, _Personal Narrative of Travels_
    (1799-1804). Translated by Helen Maria Williams, 2nd ed. 1827:
    p. 115 [ii. 439, 446].

  HUME, DAVID, _History of England_ (1754-1761), new ed. 1848: pp. 120
    [iv. 123], 184 [iv. 225], 225 [iv. 226].

  HUTCHINS, JOHN, _History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset_,
    3rd ed. 1870: pp. 49 [iv. 279], 266 [iv. 276].

  HUTCHINSON, MRS. LUCY, _Life of Colonel Hutchinson_ (1806), 3rd ed.
    1810: pp. 247 [ii. 322], 347 [i. 20], 348 [i. 22, 274].


  I.

  _Irish Correspondence, Eliz._ (Record Office): pp. 19 [lxxx. § 82], 20
    [lxxxiii. § 16].

  IZACKE, RICHARD, _Remarkable Antiquities of the City of Exeter_ (1677),
    enlarged by Samuel Izacke, 1724: p. 6 [147].


  J.

  JARDINE, DAVID, _Criminal Trials_ (Library of Entertaining Knowledge),
    1832: pp. 152 [i. 507], 214 [i. 514-5], 218 [i. 446], 224 [i. 513-4],
    303 [i. 518-9].

  JONSON, BEN, _Works_, ed. William Gifford (1816), 1860: p. 274 [701].


  K.

  KING, CAPTAIN SAMUEL, _Narrative of Sir Walter Ralegh's Motives and
    Opportunities for conveying himself out of the Kingdom, with the
    Manner in which he was betrayed_, MS. 1618. (Cited by Oldys in
    _Life_; and stated by E. Edwards to be in the British Museum; but not
    discoverable there by Spedding): pp. 333-342.

  KINGSLEY, REV. CHARLES, _Miscellanies_, 1859: pp. 151 [i. 65], 204
    [i. 72], 300 [i. 80], 328 [i. 104], 388 [i. 106].

  KNIGHT, CHARLES, _London_, 1842: p. 104 [ii. 175-6].


  L.

  LAING, DAVID (viii. _MSS. Hawthornden_, Antiqu. Society of Scotland;
    ii, _Drummond Miscel._): p. 367 [iv. 236-8].

  _Lansdowne MSS._, Brit. Mus.: pp. 1 [clx. fol. 311], 97 [xx. fol. 88], 99
    [lxx. fol. 210], 361 [cxlii. ff. 412, &c.].

  LAUDONNIÈRE, RENÉ DE, _L'Histoire notable de la Floride_, Paris, 1586.
    (Only six copies known to be extant): p. 43.

  _Leicester's Commonwealth._ See Parsons.

  LINGARD, REV. DR. JOHN, _History of England_ (1819-1830), 6th ed.
    1855: pp. 192 [vi. 208-9], 227 [viii. 131].

  _Lismore Papers._ Notes and Diaries of Sir Richard Boyle, first Earl of
    Cork, ed. Dr. Alexander B. Grosart. First Series, 1886: pp. 95 [v.
    242], 103 [i. 289]; Second Series, 1887: pp. 163 [ii. 157], 299 [ii.
    81-2], 314 [i. 78, and ii. 85, 159], 315 [ii. 38-57], 382 [ii.
    157-60].

  LLOYD, DAVID, _State Worthies_, 1766: pp. 55 [i. 564], 270 [i. 565], 328
    [ii. 83-4].

  LODGE, EDMUND, _Portraits of Illustrious Personages_, 1824: p. 381
    [ii. Portrait 12].

  _Loseley Manuscripts, Henry VIII--James I_, ed. A.J. Kempe, 1835:
    pp. 295 [377-8], 298 [378-9].

  LYSONS, REV. DANIEL, _Environs of London_ (1792-96), 2nd ed. 1811:
    p. 105 [ii. Part II, 481].


  M.

  MANNING, REV. OWEN, and WILLIAM BRAY, _History and Antiquities of
    the County of Surrey_, 1814: pp. 49 [ii. 527], 105 [iii. Append. 152],
    373 [ii. 527].

  MARÊTS, COMTE DES, _Despatches_, MSS. 1616-1617, Bibliothèque Nationale,
    Paris: pp. 306 [ii. No. 420], 307 [ii].

  MATTHEW, SIR TOBY, _Collection of Letters_, 1660: pp. 189 [181], 199
    [285], 219 [285], 229 [279], 237 [285].

  _Middlesex County Records_, ed. John Cordy Jeaffreson, 1886: pp. 13 [i.
    110-11], 40 [i. 149].

  MONSON, SIR WILLIAM, _Narrative of the Principal Naval Expeditions
    of English Fleets_, 1588-1603 (_MSS. Cotton._ Titus, B. viii, ff. 127
    et seq. Brit. Mus.). Printed by Sir Henry Ellis in xxxiv.
    _Archaeologia_, 296-349, as by an anonymous writer 'closely connected
    with Sir William Monson, if he was not Sir William himself'; and as
    _Sir William Monson's Naval Tracts_, in iii. Churchill's _Collection
    of Voyages and Travels_, 3rd ed. 1745, pp. 147-508: pp. 71 [iii. 164],
    99 [iii. 165], 125 [iii. 167], 127 [iii. 169], 129 [iii. 170], 131
    [iii. 172], 136 [iii. 173], 138 [iii. 173, but cf. xxxiv. Archaeol.
    324].

  MOORE, REV. THOMAS, _History of Devonshire_, 1829: p. 6.


  N.

  NAPIER, MACVEY, _Lord Bacon and Sir Waller Raleigh_, 1853: pp. 208
      [223], 270 [206].

  NAUNTON, SIR ROBERT, _Fragmenta Regalia_, or, _Observations on the late
    Queen Elizabeth, her Times and Favourites_ (1641); reprinted _Harl.
    Miscel._ ii. 81-108: pp. 16 [ii. 100], 22 [ii. 100], 35 [ii. 101], 109
    [ii. 100].

  _Newes of Sir Walter Rauleigh from the River of Caliana._ At the Bell
    without Newgate, 1618: p. 317.

  NICOLAS, SIR NICOLAS HARRIS, _Life and Times of Sir Christopher
    Hatton_, 1846: pp. 57 [323], 60 [415].

  _Notes and Queries_, Second Series, vol. viii, pp. 64 [107], 247 [107];
    Third Series, vol. v, pp. 16 [351], 21 [351]; Fourth Series, vol. v, p.
    299 [91], and vol. ix, p. 333 [239]; Fifth Series, vol. viii, p. 5
    [515]. See also Collier.


  O.

  _Observation upon a Book_, &c. See Heylin.

  OLDYS, WILLIAM, _Life of Sir Walter Ralegh_ (1735); new ed. prefixed
    to Oxford edition of Ralegh's _Works_, 1829: pp. 12 [i. 23], 55 [i.
    115], 260 [i. 416], 265 [i. 372, 415, 447], 266 [i. 413, 415], 267 [i.
    447], 268 [i. 441-2], 295 [i. 468], 299 [i. 472-3], 301 [i. 479], 375
    [i 563].

  -- Manuscript notes to Gerard Langbaine's _Account of the English
    Dramatic Poets_, 1691, in Brit. Mus. copy of Langbaine: p. 301
    [ii. 612].

  OSBORN, FRANCIS, _Traditional Memoirs on the Reign of King James_
    (1658). Reprinted in _Secret History of James I_, 1811: pp. 180 [379],
    230 [384], 258 [413], 280 [387], 296 [382], 368 [382].

  OVERBURY, SIR THOMAS, _Trial of Sir Walter Ralegh; MSS. Cotton._
    Titus, C. 7, Brit. Mus.; _MSS. Harleian_, xxxix; ii. _Somers Collect._:
    pp. 219, 221 [ii. 408-20].

  _Oxford, Register of the University of_, ed. Rev. Andrew Clark,
    1887-1889: pp. 8 [ii. Part II, 40], 300 [ii. Part II, 297], 381 [ii.
    Part II. 386].


  P.

  PARSONS (or PERSONS), REV. ROBERT (alias R. Doleman the Jesuit), _Per
    D. Andraeam Philopatrum ad idem_ (i.e. _Elizabethae Reginae Edictum_,
    Nov. 29, 1592) _Responsio_, Lyons, 1592: p. 106.

  -- _Leicester's Commonwealth_, 'by Robert Parsons, Jesuite, London, 1641'
    (according to Lowndes, and the _Dictionary of National Biography_,
    falsely attributed to him. Reprinted IV. _Harleian Miscellany_,
    576-583. Originally printed abroad as early as 1584): p. 33.

  _Physicians, Roll of Royal College of_, ed. William Munk, M.D.; 2nd ed.
    1878: p. 328 [i. 166].

  PINKERTON, JOHN, _Letters of Literature, by Robert Heron_, 1785:
    p. 283 [213-16].

  POLE, SIR WILLIAM, '_Collections towards a Description of the County of
    Devon_ (made by or before 1635). Now first printed by Sir J.W.
    de la Pole,' 1791: pp. 1 [119], 101 [162-3].

  POLWHELE, REV. RICHARD, _History of Devonshire_, 1797: pp. 1 [i. 267],
    2 [ii. 219], 101 [ii. 219].

  POPE, ALEXANDER, _Works_, ed. William Roscoe, 1824: pp. 164 [viii.
    411-18], 278 [vi. 273].

  PRESTON, THOMAS, _Yeomen of the Guard_, 1485-1885. 1886: pp. 35 [11],
    108 [11].

  PRINCE, REV. JOHN, _The Worthies of Devon_ (1710), 2nd ed. 1810:
    p. 2.

  _Privy Council, 'Acts of the Privy Council of England_; New Series
    (vols. i-xvi), 1542-1580,' ed. John Roche Dasent, 1890-1897:
    pp. 13 [xi. 384, 388-9, 421], 15 [xi. 143].

  _Privy Council Register, Elizabeth--James I_: pp. 51 [ii. 57], 331
    [iii. 175], 332 [iii. 233], 335 [iii. 474-5], 351 [iii. 510-12].

  PURCHAS, REV. SAMUEL, _Purchas his Pilgrimes_ (or _Purchas his
    Pilgrimage_), 1613-1625: pp. 136, 138, 139, 140, 291 [iv. 1938-1969,
    and 1267].

  PUTTENHAM, GEORGE, _The Arte of English Poesie_ (1589). Reprinted
    1811: p. 77 [ii. 236].


  R.

  RALEGH, SIR WALTER, _The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh, Kt., now
    first collected, with the Lives by Oldys and Birch_. Oxford University
    Press, 1829.

  -- _Apology for his Voyage to Guiana_, first printed 1650, and generally
    annexed to his _Select Essays_, also published in 1650. Reprinted with
    the same essays, 1667. In the Oxford ed. of _Works_, viii. 479-506:
    pp. 320, 321, 324. 336.

  -- _Discourse of War in General_: p. 11 [viii. 279].

  -- _Discourse touching a War with Spain_: p. 17 [viii. 304-5].

  -- _Instructions to his Son, and to Posterity_: pp. 167 [viii. 563], 187
    [viii. 558].

  -- _Letters_: pp. 20, 42, 56, 87, 88, 92-3, 95, 103, 106, 107, 151-2,
    183, 233, 237-8, 257, 262, 293, 317, 324, 329, 349-50 [viii. 627-66].

  -- _Match between the Lady Elizabeth and the Prince of Piedmont_:
    p. 256 [viii. 224-36].

  -- _Marriage between Prince Henry and a Daughter of Savoy_: p. 256 [viii.
    237-52].

  -- _Maxims of State_: p. 286 [viii. 2].

  -- _Orders to Commanders_: p. 313 [viii. 682-8].

  -- _Poems_: pp. 12, 56, 72-81, 102, 103, 258 [viii. 697-736].

  -- _Prerogative of Parliaments_: pp. 148 [viii. 199], 159 [viii. 187],
     178 [viii. 178], 259 [viii. 179], 285 [viii. 154], 286 [viii. 213].

  -- _Relation of Cadiz Action_: pp. 127 [viii. 668], 131 [viii. 674].

  -- _Report of the Truth of the Fight about the Isle of Azores_ (not in
    _Works_), 1591. See Hakluyt.

  -- _History of the World_: pp. 10 [vi. 211], 35 [vii. 789], 50 [iv.
    684], 52 [v. 318], 65 [vi. 101-2], 66 [vi. 81-2], 85 [vi. 113-4], 134
    [vii. 789-90], 137 [vi. 103-5], 162 [ii. 151-2], 167 [vi. 458-63], 204
    [v. 210], 208 [ii. Preface, 2], 270 [vi. 83], 396 [vii. 900].

  -- _Lives_, by Oldys and Birch. See Oldys and Birch.

  -- CAREW, _Observation upon Sanderson's History_. See Heylin.

  _Record Office MSS._: pp. 343 [Dom. Cor. James I, xcviii. § 79], 357
    [Dom. Cor. James I, xcix. § 74], 373 [Dom. Cor. James I, Nov. 7,
    1618], 383 [Dom. Cor. James I, Oct. 5, 1619], 385 [Dom. Cor.
    James I, ciii. §§ 76 and 21].

  _Remains of Sir Walter Raleigh_, 1651 and 1656-1657. Lowndes dates
    1660. (The contents of this publication--treatises and letters--are
    incorporated in the Oxford 1829 edition of the _Works_): pp. 257,
    294, 317.

  ROS, LIEUT.-GEN. LORD DE, _Memorials of the Tower of London_ (1866),
    new ed. 1867: pp. 248 [183, 193], 250 [168].

  ROSSETTI, DANTE GABRIEL (in _Sonnets of Three Centuries_, ed. T.H.
    Caine, 1883): p. 265 [170].

  RUSHWORTH, JOHN, _Historical Collections of Private Passages of State_
    (1659-1701). Abridged and improved, 1703: pp. 186 [i. 9], 386 [i. 9].


  S.

  ST. JOHN, JAMES AUGUSTUS, _Life of Sir Walter Raleigh_, 1868: p. 360
    [ii. 339].

  SANDERSON, SIR WILLIAM, _A Compleat History of the Lives and Reigns
    of Queen Mary and King James_, 1656. 'Answer to a scurrilous
    pamphlet entitled _Observations upon a Complete History_,' &c., 1656:
    pp. 210 [284], 297 [459-60].

  SCHOMBURGK, SIR ROBERT H., _Discovery of the Empire of Guiana in
    the year 1595, by Sir Walter Ralegh_, ed. Sir R.H. Schomburgk
    (Hakluyt Society), 1848: pp. 110 [25-6], 113 [41], 119 [62], 121
    [56-64], 307 [173], 321 [211].

  SHIRLEY (JOHN, or BENJAMIN, or JAMES), _Life of the Valiant and
    Learned Sir Walter Ralegh, Kt._, 1677: pp. 258 [179], 273.

  SIDNEY, HON. ALGERNON, _Discourses Concerning Government_ (1698),
    1750: pp. 274 [ii. 274], 285 [ibid.].

  SMITH, CHARLES, M.D., _County and City of Cork_, 1774: pp. 38 [i. 52-6],
    49 [i. 120].

  SOMERS, _Collection of Tracts from public and private Libraries,
    particularly that of Lord Somers_, 2nd ed. Walter Scott, 1809: pp. 219
    [ii. 408-20], 376 [ii. 439-42], 382 [ii. 452-6], 387 [ii. 445-51], 389
    [ii. 422-37].

  SOUTHEY, ROBERT, _The British Admirals_ (Lardner's _Cabinet
    Cyclopaedia_), 1837: pp. 11 [iv. 210], 55 [iv. 242], 113 [iv. 310].

  SPEDDING, JAMES. See Francis Bacon.

  SPENCE, REV. JOSEPH, D.D., _Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters of
    Books and Men_, ed. S.W. Singer (1820), 2nd ed. 1858: p. 278 [235].

  SPENSER, EDMUND, _A View of the State of Ireland, in Ancient Irish
    Histories_, Dublin (1633, ed. Sir James Ware), 1809: p. 17 [i. 168-9].

  STAUNDFORD (STAUNFORD, or STANFORD), MR. JUSTICE SIR WILLIAM,
    _Les Plees del Coron_, London (1557); 1560: p. 214. See Jardine.

  STEELE, SIR RICHARD, _The Englishman_, 1714: p. 269 [Aug. 11, 1611].

  STEWART, DUGALD, _Collected Works_, ed. Sir William Hamilton, 1854-1860.
    _A Dissertation_, Part First: p. 398 [i. 78].

  -- _Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind_: p. 398 [iii. 376].

  STOW, JOHN, _A Survey of London and Westminster_ (1598), 6th ed.
    1754-1755: P. 371 [ii. 634].

  -- _Annales, or a Generall Chronicle of England_ (1580), continued by
    Edmond Howes (1615), 1631: p. 146 [788].

  STRYPE, REV. JOHN, _Annals of the Reformation--Reign of Elizabeth--with
    Appendix of original State Papers_ (1709-31), new ed. 1824:
    pp. 55 [iv. 28-41], 97 [iv. 178], 98 [iv. 177], 99 [iv. 181].

  STUKELY (or STUCLEY), SIR LEWIS, _Apology_ (_MSS. Ashmolean_, Bodleian
    Library, Oxford; copy in Stukely's own hand), Aug. 10, 1618:
    p. 386. [Printed in Ralegh's _Works_, viii. 783-5.]

  -- _Humble Petition and Information of Sir Lewis Stukely_, &c., Nov. 26,
    1618; _Somers Collection_, 445-451; _Harleian Miscellany_, 63-68;
    _Fortescue Papers_, 67: p. 387.

  SULLY, MAXIMILIEN DE BETHUNE, DUC DE, _Mémoires_ (1634), nouvelle
    edition, Londres, 1768: pp. 156 [iv. 37], 184 [iv. 340], 254 [iv. 295].

  SYDNEY, SIR HENRY, '_Letters and Memorials of State (Queen
    Mary--Oliver)_, written and collected by Sir Henry Sydney,' ed. from
    originals at Penshurst, Arthur Collins, 1746: pp. 121 [i. 377], 132
    [ii. 24], 133 [ii. 42, 55], 144 [ii. 82, 90], 146 [ii. 96, 117-18],
    148 [ii. 178, 139], 151 [ii. 168-9], 160 [ii. 210].


  T.

  _Tanner MSS._ (Archbishop Sancroft's, at Bodleian): pp. 271 [xxv.
    No. 10, fol. 12], 304 [lxxiii. § 160], 368 [ccxcix. fol. 87].

  _Tenison MSS., Lambeth Palace Library Catalogue_: p. 69 [i. 160].

  THORESBY, RALPH, _Ducatus Leodensis_, or _The Topography of Leeds_
    (Musaeum Thoresbyanum), 1715: p. 49 [485].

  TIMBS, JOHN, _Curiosities of London_, 1855: p. 248 [796].

  TOWNSHEND, HEYWOOD, _Four Last Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth_,
    1680: p. 159 [232, 235].

  _Tubus Historicus_, or _Historical Perspective_ (described by the
    publisher, T. Harper, as 'Model to the Heroic Work, _The History of the
    World_, by Sir Walter Raleigh'), 1631: p. 282.

  TYTLER, PATRICK FRASER, _Life of Sir Walter Raleigh_, 1833: p. 198 [438].


  U.

  UDAL, REV. JOHN, _Demonstration of the Truth of that Discipline which
    Christ hath prescribed in his Worde for the Gouernment of his Church_,
    1588: p. 55.


  V.

  VERE, MARSHAL SIR FRANCIS, _The Commentaries of Sir Francis Vere,
    written by Himself_. Published from his manuscript by Dr. William
    Dillingham, 1657. Reprinted, VII. English Garner, ed. Edward Arber,
    1883, pp. 57-184: pp. 134 [vii. 94], 138 [vii. 99].


  W.

  WALTON, IZAAK, _The Complete Angler_ (1653), ed. Sir Harris Nicolas,
    1875: pp. 78 [78].

  WELLDON, SIR ANTHONY, _Court and Character of King James the First_
    (1651), reprinted in _Secret History of the Court of James I_, 1811:
    pp. 217 [346], 255 [350-1].

  _Wharton MSS._ (Bodleian, Oxford): pp. 221 [vol. lxxx], 230 [lxxx.
    ff. 440, &c.].

  WHEATLEY, H.B., _London Past and Present_ (based on Peter Cunningham's
    _Handbook of London_), 1891: pp. 104 [i. 540-2], 248 [iii. 76], 371
    [ii. 88-9].

  WHITE, WALTER, _A Londoner's Walk to the Land's End_, 1855: p. 7
    [98-100].

  WINSTANLEY, WILLIAM, _English Worthies_, 1660: p. 282 [256-7].

  WINWOOD, SIR RALPH, _Memorials of Affairs of State in the Reigns of
    Queen Elizabeth and King James I_ (Collection of Papers belonging
    to him), ed. Edmund Sawyer, 1725: pp. 156 [i. 215, 231], 205 [ii. 8],
    237 [ii. 11].

  WOTTON, SIR HENRY, _Of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and George
    Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, Some Observations by way of Parallel_,
    1641 (in _Reliquiae Wottonianae_, 4th ed. 1685): pp. 23 [162], 40
    [175], 56 [162], 139 [180], 145 [190].

  WOOD, ANTHONY À, _Athenae Oxonienses_, to which are added _The Fasti_
    (1691-1692), ed. Rev. Philip Bliss, 1815: pp. 8 [ii. 235], 12 [ibid.],
    54 [ii. 299-303], 89 [ii. 237], 270 [ii. 242], 273 [iii. 18], 274 [ii.
    626], 300 [iii. 169], 301 [ii. 612], 382 [ii. 244-5].




CORRIGENDA

  P. 5, l. 12, _for_ 'him. It has not been' _read_ 'his career. Until
    lately it had not even.'

  P. 5, ll. 22-26, _for_ 'In fact no trace ... face of Ralegh's words'
    _read_ 'But a few years ago an entry was discovered in the Registers
    of St. Mary Major, Exeter, of the burial in that church on February
    23, 1581, of "Mr. Walter Rawlye, gentelman." Katherine Ralegh, as
    appears from her will, found in 1895, died in 1594.'

  P. 89, l. 10, _omit_ 'published in 1615.'

  P. 90, l. 2 from bottom, _omit_ 'in 1615 by Ralegh and his wife.'

  P. 102, l. 28, _for_ 'absence of the detail of private life' _read_
    'barrenness in Oldys's biography of the detail of private life.'

  P. 209, l. 7, _for_ 'Wolvesey Castle, the old episcopal palace, now a
    ruin' _read_ 'the great Hall of the Castle.'

  P. 233, l. 20, _for_ 'Send me my life' _read_ 'Lend me my life.'

  P. 248, l. 4, _omit_ 'and there remained all the years of his
    imprisonment.'

  P. 248, l. 8, _for_ 'died on Tower Hill' _read_ 'was buried in St.
    Peter's Chapel in the Tower.'

  P. 256, l. 14, _for_ 'the Duke' _read_ 'the Dukes.'

  P. 258, l. 8 from bottom, 'Historical scavengers, Aubrey and Osborn,'
    _omit_ 'Aubrey and Osborn.'

  P. 269, l. 11, _for_ 'against the phrase' _read_ 'against misuse of
    the phrase.'

  P. 285, l. 12, _for_ 'a statement in the Dialogue' _read_ 'a
    statement in the Preface to the History.'

  P. 317, l. 2, _for_ 'November 17' _read_ 'November 14, 1617.'

  P. 324, l. 10 from bottom, _for_ '"I know"--or, according to the
    Apology, "I know not"' _read_ '"I know," according to the
    Apology--or, according to another account, "I know not."'

  P. 335, ll. 11-14, _omit_ sentence 'Mr.... mob,' which, entirely in
    error, attributes to Dr. Gardiner the opinion of another writer.

  P. 373, l. 9 from bottom, _for_ 'God hold me and' _read_ 'God hold me
    in.'

  P. 398, l. 22, _omit_ 'and a fund of materials not yet properly
    manufactured.'




_SIR WALTER RALEGH._




CHAPTER I.

GENEALOGY.


The Raleghs were an old Devonshire family, once wealthy and
distinguished. At one period five knightly branches of the house
flourished simultaneously in the county. In the reign of Henry III a
Ralegh had been Justiciary. There were genealogists who, though others
doubted, traced the stock to the Plantagenets through an intermarriage
with the Clares. The Clare arms have been found quartered with those of
Ralegh on a Ralegh pew in East Budleigh church. The family had held
Smallridge, near Axminster, from before the Conquest. Since the reign of
Edward III it had been seated on the edge of Dartmoor, at Fardell. There
it built a picturesque mansion and chapel. The Raleghs of Fardell were,
writes Polwhele, 'esteemed ancient gentlemen.' But the rapacious lawyers
of Henry VII had discovered some occasion against Wimund Ralegh, the
head of the family in their day. They thought him worth the levy of a
heavy fine for misprision of treason; and he had to sell Smallridge.

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Parents._]

[Sidenote: _Their Character._]

Wimund married into the Grenville family; and in 1497 his son and heir,
Walter, was born. Before the boy attained majority the father died. As
Dr. Brushfield, a Devon antiquarian, to whose diligence and enthusiasm
all students of the life of Walter Ralegh are indebted, has shown,
Walter Ralegh of Fardell, on the termination of his minority, in 1518,
was possessed, in addition to Fardell, of the manors of Colaton Ralegh,
Wythecombe Ralegh, and Bollams. He may be presumed to have succeeded to
encumbrances likewise. Part of Colaton was sold by him; and he did not
occupy Fardell. As he is known to have owned a bark in the reign of
Mary, it has been supposed that he took to commerce. Whether for the
sake of contiguity to Exeter, then the centre of a large maritime trade,
or for economy, he fixed his residence in East Budleigh parish, on a
farm, which was his for the residue of an eighty years' term. His choice
may have been partly determined by his marriage to Joan, daughter to
John Drake of Exmouth. The Exmouth Drakes were connected with East
Budleigh; and Joan's nephew, Robert Drake, bequeathed charitable funds
in 1628 for the benefit of East Budleigh parish in which he lived. The
dates of Joan's marriage and death are uncertain. It is only known that
the two events occurred between 1518 and 1534. Her tomb is in East
Budleigh church, with an inscription asking prayers for her soul. She
left two sons, George and John. Secondly, Walter married a lady of the
family of Darell or Dorrell, though some genealogists describe her as
Isabel, daughter of de Ponte, a Genoese merchant settled in London. She
left a daughter, Mary, who married Hugh Snedale. On her death, some time
before 1549, Walter married thirdly Katherine, daughter of Sir Philip
Champernoun. She was widow of Otho Gilbert, of Compton and Greenway
Castles, to whom she had borne the three Gilbert brothers, John,
Humphrey, and Adrian. By her marriage to Walter Ralegh of Fardell she
had three more children, Carew, and Walter, 'Sir Walter Ralegh,' with a
daughter, Margaret, described sometimes as older, and sometimes as
younger than Walter.

At the time of Ralegh's birth the family had lost its pristine
splendour. But there has been a tendency to exaggeration of the extent
of the decadence, by way of foil to the merit which retrieved the ruin.
John Hooker, a contemporary Devonshire antiquary, uncle to the author of
_The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity_, described the family as
'consopited,' and as having 'become buried in oblivion, as though it had
never been.' Yet Walter Ralegh of Fardell was still a land-owner of
importance. His third marriage indicates that he had not fallen out of
the society of his class. Not even personally can he and his wife
Katherine be set down as altogether obscure. Holinshed names one of
them, and Foxe names both. Walter seems to have had much of his great
son's restlessness and independence of character, if without the genius
and the gift of mounting. After his first wife's death he energetically
adopted reformed doctrines. In 1549 during the rising in the West his
religious zeal endangered his life.

[Sidenote: _In Peril of Death._]

The story is thus told in Holinshed's _Chronicles_. 'It happened that a
certain gentleman named Walter Ralegh, as he was upon a side holy day
riding from his house to Exeter, overtook an old woman going to the
parish church of Saint Mary Clift, who had a pair of beads in her hands,
and asked her what she did with those beads. And entering into further
speech with her concerning religion which was reformed, and as then by
order of law to be put in execution, he did persuade with her that she
should, as a good Christian woman and an obedient subject, yield
thereunto; saying further that there was a punishment by law appointed
against her, and all such as would not obey and follow the same, and
which would be put in execution upon them. This woman nothing liking,
nor well digesting this matter, went forth to the parish church, where
all the parishioners were then at the service; and being impatient, and
in an agony with the speeches before passed between her and the
gentleman, beginneth to upbraid in the open church very hard and
unseemly speeches concerning religion, saying that she was threatened by
the gentleman, that, except she would leave her beads, and give over
holy bread and holy water, the gentlemen would burn them out of their
houses and spoil them, with many other speeches very false and untrue,
and whereof no talk at all had passed between the gentleman and her.
Notwithstanding, she had not so soon spoken but that she was believed,
and in all haste like a sort of wasps they fling out of the church, and
get them to the town which is not far from thence, and there began to
intrench and fortify the town, sending abroad into the country round
about the news aforesaid, and of their doings in hand, flocking, and
procuring as many as they could to come and to join with them. But
before they came into the town they overtook the gentleman Master Ralegh
aforesaid, and were in such a choler, and so fell in rages with him,
that, if he had not shifted himself into the chapel there, and had been
rescued by certain mariners of Exmouth which came with him, he had been
in great danger of his life, and like to have been murdered. And albeit
he escaped for this time, yet it was not long before he fell into their
hands, and by them was imprisoned and kept in prison in the tower and
church of Saint Sidwell, without the east gate of the city of Exeter,
during the whole time of the commotion, being many times threatened to
be executed to death.' He was not released till the battle of Clyst,
called by Holinshed, Clift, Heath, won on August 4, 1549, by Lords Grey
and Bedford near the scene of his misadventure, followed by a second
victory on the next day, forced the Catholic insurgents to raise the
siege of Exeter, which they had been blockading since July 2.

He was no fair weather theologian. His Protestantism out-lived King
Edward. He sympathized with the demonstration in 1553 against the
Spanish marriage. On the failure of the Devonshire movement his cousin,
Sir Peter Carew, the ringleader at Exeter, is stated in official
depositions to have effected his escape abroad through Walter Ralegh,
whom he 'persuaded to convey him in his bark' to France from Weymouth.
The wording implies active and conscious intervention. The strange
thing is that he should not have been punished for complicity. Later in
the reign of Mary his wife exposed herself to similar peril, and
similarly escaped. Foxe in his _Acts and Monuments_ relates that Agnes
Prest, before she was brought to the stake in 1557 at Southernhay, had
been comforted in Exeter gaol by the visits of 'the wife of Walter
Ralegh, a woman of noble wit, and of good and goodly opinion.'

[Sidenote: _Death and Burial._]

Unless that Walter was churchwarden of East Budleigh in 1561, and that a
conveyance by him of the Sidmouth Manor fish tithes proves him to have been
alive in April, 1578, nothing more is known of him. It has not been
ascertained when he and Katherine died, though they are believed to have
been dead in 1584. The interest in the East Budleigh farm had by that time
run out; and it is surmised they had removed into Exeter, if they had not
previously possessed a residence there, perhaps by the Palace Gate. On the
authority of a request by their son in 1603 to be buried, if not at
Sherborne, beside them in 'Exeter Church,' it has been concluded that they
were interred in the Cathedral. A monument erected to Katherine's son by
her first marriage, Sir John Gilbert, was long accepted as theirs. In fact
no trace of their burial in any Exeter church has been found. The present
inclination of local archæologists seems to be to assume that they were not
buried at Exeter at all. It is hard to assent in the face of Ralegh's
words. At all events, nothing else of any kind is remembered of the pair;
or could reasonably be expected to have been remembered. History has told
much more of them than of most country gentlemen and their wives.




CHAPTER II.

IN SEARCH OF A CAREER (1552-1581).


[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Birthplace._]

Walter, the second son by the third marriage of Walter Ralegh of Fardell
and Hayes, was born in the reign of Edward VI, it has been supposed, in
1552. The exact date is not beyond doubt; for the registration of
baptisms at East Budleigh was not begun till two or three years later.
If the inscription on the National Portrait Gallery picture, '1588,
aetatis suae 34,' and that on Zucchero's in the Dublin Gallery, 'aet.
44, 1598,' be correct, his birth must have been not in 1552, but about
1554. A similar, or nearly similar, inference may be drawn from the
statement, on a miniature of him at Belvoir Castle, of his age as
sixty-five in 1618. One local writer, R. Izacke, has claimed the honour
of his birthplace for a house in Exeter, adjoining the Palace-gate.
Probably the rumour points, as I have intimated, to its occupation at
some time or other by his parents. Another author asserts that he was
born at Fardell. His own testimony, 'being born in that house,' is
decisive in favour of his father's Budleigh home, a lonely, one-storied,
thatched, late Tudor farmhouse, not a manor-house, of moderate size,
with gabled wings, and a projecting central porch. Tradition has marked
out the particular room in which he was born, as on the upper floor at
the west end, facing southwards. The house, which is a mile west of East
Budleigh church, and six from Exmouth, with the exception of some change
at the end of the east wing, probably retains its original character. It
was restored in 1627 by 'R.D.' For a century past it has been
denominated Hayes Barton, or simply Hayes. Previously it had been
called, after successive landlords, Poerhayes or Power's Hayes, and
Dukes-hayes. The hollow in which it lies, among low hills, is on the
verge of a tract of moorland; and Hayes Wood rises close at hand.
Through the oak wood to Budleigh Salterton Bay is two miles and a half.

[Sidenote: _At Oxford._]

In this quiet spot Ralegh spent his boyhood, in circumstances not very
unlike those of more eminent county families with which his was
connected. During the earlier half of the sixteenth century the majority
of the gentry were continually growing poorer, and a minority were
growing richer. The Raleghs, it is plain, had not met with the good
fortune of the Russells, and others of their rural peers. They were
declining, if hardly in the degree represented subsequently. But an
ampler share of prosperity could not have made much difference in young
Walter's prospects or training. Three brothers were all before him in
the succession to the patrimony. His birthright could not have comprised
more than the cadet's prescriptive portion of necessity and brains. It
is unfair to the natural curiosity of posterity that his extraordinary
endowments in the second respect are not traceable in anecdotes of his
childhood. Naturally a local legend reports him to have loved the
society of adventurous mariners. Sir John Millais in his 'Boyhood of
Ralegh,' which was painted at Budleigh Salterton, has embodied it. In a
narrative printed a century after his death a general assertion of his
fondness for books of voyages occurs. Otherwise his boyish tastes and
habits are wholly unknown. The name of his school has not been
preserved. The first accepted fact after his birth is his entrance, as a
commoner, into Oriel College, of which, says Anthony à Wood, his cousin,
C. Champernoun, was a member. According to a statement by Thomas Fuller,
of which there is no corroboration either in the books of Christ Church,
or elsewhere, he belonged also to Christ Church, before or after his
admission into Oriel. For any details of his academical course, as for
the dates of its commencement and close, posterity is indebted to Wood,
who remarks that he went up to Oriel 'in 1568, or thereabouts,' and,
'after he had spent about three years in that house, left the University
without a degree.' Wood declares that 'his natural parts being strangely
advanced by academical learning, under the care of an excellent tutor,
he became the ornament of the juniors, and was worthily esteemed a
proficient in oratory and philosophy.' It is exceedingly likely, Ralegh
being Ralegh. At the same time, particulars would have been welcome.

[Sidenote: _Chronological difficulties._]

Lord Bacon has enshrined in his Apophthegms an example of Ralegh's wit
at Oxford. A cowardly fellow happened to be a very good archer. Having
been grossly abused by another, he bemoaned himself to Ralegh, and asked
what he should do to repair the wrong that had been offered him. 'Why,
challenge him,' answered Ralegh, 'to a match of shooting.' If the
sarcasm is not very keen its preservation in academical memory implies
an impression of distinction in its author. Perhaps as much may be said
for another anecdote of his University career, for which John Aubrey
solemnly vouches, that he borrowed a gown at Oxford of one T. Child, and
never restored it. Bacon's anecdote, in any case, being contemporary
testimony, answers the useful purpose of confirming the reality of
Ralegh's membership of the University, which otherwise would have to be
believed on the faith simply of vague tradition, and of Wood's hasty
assertions. No evidence indeed of Ralegh's connection with Oxford has
ever been discovered in the College or University papers and books,
beyond the entry, a little below the name of C. Champernoun, of 'W.
Rawley,' in the list of members of Oriel, dated 1572. It is printed in
Mr. Andrew Clark's valuable _Oxford Register_. This W. Rawley must have
been, like Champernoun, an undergraduate; for the name has not the
graduate's prefix of 'Mr' or 'Sr.' The presence of the name in the
list, with that of Champernoun, would be known to Wood. He may have
built upon it the whole of his account of the periods both of Ralegh's
admission into Oriel, and his departure after some three years. It would
seem to him reasonable enough that Ralegh should have entered about
1568 at sixteen, and be still in residence three or four years later.
Unfortunately an interlude, put apparently by Wood several years later,
separates 1568 and 1572 in Ralegh's career. His academical course cannot
fill up the gap; and it at once renders the chronology of the _Athenae_
impossible, and that of the Oriel list hard to understand. Ralegh is
known to have been out of England for part, if not the whole, of 1569,
and is believed with good cause to have remained abroad over 1572. There
are ways of explaining the consequent discrepancies. The W. Rawley on
the Oriel list may have been, and probably was, our Walter Ralegh,
retained among the number of undergraduates, though he had ceased to
reside. A century later the name of the Duke of Monmouth, who had
resided for a few months only, was kept on the Corpus books for many
years. Again, to take and revise Wood's reference, Ralegh may well have
entered long before he was sixteen. If, having been, in accordance with
the common belief, born in 1552, he had, like his son Walter, gone up at
fourteen, he would, in 1569, have passed three years at Oxford. But at
all events Wood is mistaken in the assertion that he resided there about
three years from 1568; for in 1569 he certainly was campaigning in
France.

[Sidenote: _In France._]

It happened in this way. His maternal kinsmen, the Champernouns, were
connected by marriage with the Huguenot Comte de Montgomerie. One of
them, Henry, had obtained the leave of Elizabeth to raise a troop of a
hundred mounted gentlemen volunteers for the Protestant side. He
collected them chiefly from the West. Ralegh is said to have been among
those who accepted his invitation; 'admodum adolescens,' writes Camden
in the _Annals_, 'jam primum fatis monstratus.' He must have quitted
Oriel, perhaps in company with C. Champernoun, for the purpose.
Generally it has been supposed that he crossed the Channel with the rest
of the troop. But there is some reason for holding that he reached
France earlier. The contingent entered the Huguenot camp on October 5,
1569, two days after the defeat at Moncontour. Ralegh alludes to himself
in the _History of the World_ as of the beaten army. Praising Count
Lewis of Nassau for his skilful conduct of the Huguenot retreat, he
remarks: 'Of which myself was an eye-witness, and was one of them that
had cause to thank him for it.' The passage proves that he was in the
Huguenot camp after Moncontour. Nothing in the remark is inconsistent
with his earlier arrival, if there be, as there is, evidence to support
it. Elsewhere in the History he says: 'I remember it well, that, when
the Prince of Condé was slain after the battle of Jarnac,' the Huguenots
consoled themselves for his death. Jarnac was fought on March 13, 1669.
If, then, the phrase, 'I remember,' refer to Ralegh's personal
experiences of Huguenot sentiment on the field, he must have joined the
army at least half a year before the retreat after Moncontour. The only
way of avoiding that conclusion is to take the violent course of
supposing that he was recalling French criticisms delivered some time
after the actual event.

[Sidenote: _Ferocities of Civil War._]

A haze of uncertainty shrouds his original advent among the Huguenots.
It lifts for a moment to show him there; and that is all. As soon as he
has ridden within the Huguenot lines the clouds gather once more, and
darkness swallows up his individuality. He tells one anecdote in the
History of the manner in which the Huguenots chased Catholics in the
hills of Languedoc. They tracked the fugitives to caverns half way up
precipitous cliffs. Then they smoked them out with their treasures by
lighted bundles of straw let down by iron chains opposite the mouth.
General Pelissier plagiarised the device, with more murderous details,
in Algeria in 1849. It is a specimen of the brutalities of a conflict,
which its English assistants, though they had countenanced, would not
care to chronicle minutely. To Ralegh's keen sight the struggle would
soon have displayed itself shorn of the glamour of religious enthusiasm.
He regarded it simply as a civil war, by which 'the condition of no
nation,' as he wrote later, 'was ever bettered.' Of one of its prime
authors, Admiral Coligny, he has recorded his belief that he 'advised
the Prince of Condé to side with the Huguenots, not only out of love to
their persuasion, but to gain a party.' English troopers on their return
were not likely to dilate on their exploits at the Court of Elizabeth,
who audaciously disavowed to the French Catholic Court the auxiliaries
she had licensed.

[Sidenote: _In the Netherlands._]

[Sidenote: _The Middle Temple._]

On the authority of an observation of the younger Hakluyt's, that Ralegh
had resided longer in France than he, the period is computed to have
been not less than six years. As he appears to have been in London at
the end of February, 1575, that term would be completed within a
fortnight, if he were present at the battle of Jarnac. The time covered
the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24, 1572. But there is no
foundation for the story that he was then in Paris, and was one of the
Englishmen sheltered in Walsingham's house. He had enlisted as a lad of
seventeen. He emerged a man of twenty-three. Of this long and critical
stage in his education we know really nothing, as we know nothing of his
youth at school and college. After he quitted France it would appear
from allusions by several contemporary writers that he served, about
1577-78, in the Netherlands with Sir John Norris's contingent under the
Prince of Orange. Modern enquirers have doubted the fact, on the ground
of evidence that he was in England between 1576 and 1578. The reasoning
is not demonstrative. He may, if a regular combatant, have obtained a
furlough to cross over, and see his family; or, from his English home,
he may have paid a flying visit or visits to his brother, Sir Humphrey
Gilbert, who commanded a regiment of the English auxiliaries. The dates
are not incompatible even with a statement that he fought at the battle
of Rimenant on August 1, 1578, though, had he been present on so famous
an occasion, it would have been more like him to refer somewhere to the
circumstance. But if there is no sufficient ground for questioning the
belief in his participation in the war of the Low Countries, there is
yet less for disputing his residence in England from 1576. His signature
to a family deed, already mentioned, in April, 1578, testifies that in
1578 and in ensuing years he was for a time in Devonshire. Evidence
exists that in 1576, if not earlier, he was living in London. For 1576
itself the proof consists of some commendatory verses by 'Walter Rawely
of the Middle Temple' prefixed to the _Steele Glasse_ by Gascoigne,
published in that year. Upon the description Wood has based a distinct
assertion that Ralegh went from Oxford to the Middle Temple to improve
himself in the intricate knowledge of the municipal laws. Oldys says he
had searched the Registers of the Inn and they yielded no sign of a
Walter Rawely or Ralegh. Moreover, if Ralegh had ever been formally a
law student, it has been argued he could scarcely have solemnly declared
at his trial in 1603 that he had never read a word of law or the
statutes. On the other hand, doubts of the identity of the Rawely of the
poem with Ralegh always involved intrinsic difficulties. Ralegh would
have known Gascoigne through Humphrey Gilbert, with whom Gascoigne
served in Flanders; and there is not a trace of the existence of a
namesake acquainted with Gascoigne, or able to compose the verses. Now,
at any rate, no room for serious dispute remains. A list in two
manuscript volumes of all members of the Middle Temple from the
commencement of the sixteenth century has lately been completed by order
of the Benchers. In it, under the date 1574/5, February 27, appears an
entry 'Walter Rawley, late of Lyons Inn, Gent. Son of Walter R. of
Budleigh, Co. Devon, Esq.' The specification of parentage is useful.
Without it a hypothesis would have been possible, that the traditions
both of Oxford and of the Temple had been concurrently and equally at
fault, and that some inglorious William or Walter had been personating
the future hero alike in 1572 and in 1575. As for Ralegh's assertions in
later years that he had read no law, as large a disclaimer might have
been conscientiously made by many students at Inns of Court beside him.
But it is evident that he intended to follow the profession of the law,
and took the orthodox steps towards initiation into it, having
commenced, as was usual, with admission into an Inn of Chancery, the
bygone little collection of brick tenements in Newcastle-street. There
is no reason to suppose that he was ever called to the Bar.

[Sidenote: _About the Court._]

In the year following the publication of the _Steele Glasse_ he
undoubtedly was living in London, though in a different quarter. William
and Richard Paunsford, two servants of his, as appears from the
Middlesex Registers edited by Mr. Jeaffreson, were in December, 1577,
taken up for defying the watch. They had to be bailed out. In the
recognizance for one Ralegh was described as 'Walter Rawley, Esq. of
Islington,' and in the other as 'Walter Rawley, Esq. de Curia,' that is
of the Court. Young men of good family and ambition were in the habit of
obtaining an introduction to the Court. They used it as a club, though
they might not advance beyond the threshold. Ralegh on his return from
France had pursued the regular course. He sought for opportunities of
advancement where they most abounded; and, while he waited for them, he
enjoyed the pleasures of life. In the use of his leisure he may not
always have been more discreet than his riotous dependents. His wife is
reported to have remarked of a censure upon their elder son's addiction
to equivocal society, that she had heard Ralegh in his youth showed
similar tastes. Aubrey, whom nobody believes and everybody quotes, the
'credulous, maggotty-headed, and sometimes little better than crazed'
antiquarian, as Wood, his debtor for much curious unsifted gossip,
courteously characterizes him, relates how, at a tavern revel, Ralegh
quieted a noisy fellow, named Charles Chester. He sealed up his mouth by
knotting together the beard and moustache. It is on record that in the
February of 1580 he was in trouble for a brawl with Sir Thomas Perrot,
who afterwards married the sister of Lord Essex, Lady Dorothy Devereux.
Ralegh and Perrot were committed by the Council to the Fleet for six
days. The affray is not creditable; but it indicates that Ralegh
associated with courtiers.

[Sidenote: _Maritime adventures._]

The company he kept was not all of Chester's or of Perrot's kind. His
later correspondence proves that at this early period he must have
become known to Walsingham and Burleigh, and have found means for
allying himself with Leicester. He can have been no absolutely obscure
adventurer now, any more than was his family at the time of his birth
the utterly fallen stock it has been the fashion to suppose it. Whence
he derived the resources for the maintenance of an establishment, and
for social extravagances, is not as clear. He may have brought spoil
from France; or, more probably, he had already begun to cultivate the
West country art of privateering. Assistance would be furnished at need
by his helpful half brother, Humphrey, his 'true brother,' as Ralegh
called him. When at last the employment Ralegh desired came, the opening
was made by Gilbert. Gilbert had in 1577 formed a plan for the capture,
without warning, of the foreign ships, especially the Spanish and
Portuguese, which resorted to the Newfoundland coast for the fisheries.
His prizes he proposed to bring into Dutch ports, where they could be
sold. With the proceeds he would have fitted out an expedition
sufficiently strong, he hoped, to conquer the chief Spanish possessions
in America. A main feature of the scheme was that the Queen's name
should not be compromised. The leaders were to represent themselves as
servants of the Prince of Orange. The English Government might, in proof
of good faith, punish any naval officers who had abetted the project.
Mr. St. John, a former biographer of Ralegh, has fancied that Ralegh's
hand can be detected in the design as laid in writing before Elizabeth.
Mr. Spedding is inclined to agree, on account of the extraordinary
resemblance he traces between it and the Guiana expedition of 1617-18.
The parallel is imaginary, as is the supposition that Gilbert's bold and
inventive intellect needed inspiration from any one. But undoubtedly,
had the Queen's wary counsellors given their sanction, Ralegh would have
been among the adventurers. The next year he accepted a command in the
expedition Gilbert was equipping for 'Norimbega,' in search, it was
said, for the North-West passage to Cathay. By a Royal charter Gilbert
had been authorized for six years from 1578 to discover and occupy
heathen territory not actually possessed by any Christian prince or
people. The adventure was retarded. A Seville merchant complained of the
seizure of his cargo of oranges and lemons at Dartmouth by some of Sir
Humphrey's company. At his suit the Privy Council ordered Gilbert and
Ralegh to remain until he should be compensated. The County authorities
were directed to stop the fleet. How the demand was settled, and whether
the embargo were formally taken off, is not recorded. A memorandum in
the Privy Council books stating the imposition of fines upon Ralegh and
several other West countrymen, and their payment in 1579, may perhaps
relate to the injunction, and imply that it was disregarded. At any
rate, before the end of 1578 the fleet sailed, though curtailed in
strength through quarrels among the adventurers. In an encounter with a
Spanish squadron it lost a ship. Ralegh's name is not mentioned in the
narrative in Hakluyt. Hooker, however, speaks of him as engaged in a
dangerous sea-fight wherein 'many of his company were slain.' Battered
and dispirited the expedition returned. From an allusion in Holinshed it
would appear that Ralegh held on his course for a time by himself,
though finally he too was compelled, early in 1579, to turn back through
want of victuals. The year 1579 came and went, and his fortune remained
unmade.

[Sidenote: _In Ireland._]

[Sidenote: _'Thorough.'_]

From Humphrey Gilbert came his second chance of distinction. Sir
Humphrey in 1569-70 had been appointed President of Munster. With many
noble qualities he was unruly. His friends admitted his liability to 'a
little too much warmth and presumption.' He had administered his Irish
province with a vigour somewhat in excess even of the taste of his age.
Consequently, he had been replaced by Sir John Perrot, father of
Ralegh's recent opponent. Sir John acted more leniently to the natives.
The collision between his son and Ralegh may have arisen out of
controversies on the proper policy to be pursued in the island. In any
case to Humphrey Gilbert's favour with the Queen, and to his continuing
interest in Irish affairs, Ralegh owed his regular entrance into the
public service. In 1580 he was commissioned as captain of a hundred
foot-soldiers raised to fight the insurgents of Munster, and their
Spanish and Italian confederates. From July 13, 1580, he drew allowances
in that capacity. The appointment was not lucrative. His pay was four
shillings a day. Sir Robert Naunton, who rose to be Secretary of State
to King James, and was connected with a crisis in Ralegh's fate,
compiled some biographical notes, entitled _Fragmenta Regalia_ on Queen
Elizabeth's favourite counsellors. Fuller describes the work, which was
not published till after the author's death, as a fruit of Naunton's
younger years. Allusions to events which occurred after the death of
James I prove that part or all was composed, or revised, when he had
already risen, and had access to authentic sources of information.
Ralegh's career is one of his themes, though he does not continue it
nearly to its close. He sketches it with a generosity which contrasts
strangely with the subsequent relations of the two men. Of Ralegh's
Irish appointment he speaks as 'not leaving him food and raiment, for it
was ever very poor.' The employment afforded abundance of hard work. He
gathered confidence in himself, if he ever lacked it. An untried, if not
wholly unknown, subordinate, he exhibited the spirit and sense of
responsibility of a viceroy. 'Thorough' was as much his motto as
Stafford's, and he acted upon it from the first. Towards American
Indians he could be gentle and just. His invariable rule with Irishmen
and Anglo-Irishmen of every degree was to crush. A characteristic story
is told of the outset of Ralegh's Irish career. A kerne was caught
carrying a bundle of withies on the outskirts of the English camp.
Ralegh asked their destination. 'To hang up English churls!' 'Well,'
retorted Ralegh, 'they will do for an Irishman;' and the prisoner was
strung up by them accordingly. It is a savage legend which deserves to
be remembered in justice to the audacity of the nameless peasant.
Probably invented to glorify a renowned Englishman's inflexibility, it
illustrates at all events the temper in which the war was waged.
Ferocity to Irishmen was accounted policy and steadfastness. Every
advantage was taken of the superiority of English steel and ordnance.
Writing in 1603 for the information of King James, Ralegh says that,
when he was a Captain in Ireland, a hundred foot and a hundred horse
would have beaten all the force of the strongest provinces, for 'in
those days the Irish had darts.' Towards the end of the Queen's reign
they had bought good English arms, and fought on even terms.

[Sidenote: _The Smerwick Massacre._]

One of his first public acts was to join Sir Warham St. Leger in trying
and executing at Cork in August, 1580, Sir James Fitzgerald, the Earl of
Desmond's brother. Fitzgerald was drawn, hanged, and quartered. His
immediate superior was the Earl of Ormond, the Lieutenant of Munster,
who showed occasional tenderness to his fellow-countrymen. The Lord
Deputy was Lord Grey of Wilton, whose views were generally as stern as
Ralegh's. Edmund Spenser was assistant secretary to Grey, and held as
austere a theory of Irish government. Ralegh in November, 1580, was with
Lord Grey's army. With the assistance of an English fleet under Admiral
Winter it blockaded at Smerwick in Kerry a mixed Spanish and Irish
garrison. On November 10 the garrison capitulated without conditions.
Thereupon Grey sent in Ralegh and Macworth, who had the ward of the day.
They are stated by Hooker, in his continuation of Holinshed, to have
made a great slaughter. Four hundred Spaniards and Italians were put to
the sword. All the Irishmen and several Irish women were hanged. An
Englishman and an Irish priest, who suffered the same doom, had their
legs and arms first broken. Only the foreign officers were held to
ransom. The act was that of the Deputy. Afterwards it was discovered
that the massacre excited general horror through Europe. Attempts were
made to repudiate sympathy with it on the Queen's part. Bacon wrote that
she was much displeased at the slaughter. Her own letters to Grey
comment on the whole proceeding as greatly to her liking. She expresses
discontent only that she had not been left free to kill or spare the
officers at her discretion. Personally Ralegh cannot be accounted
amenable for the atrocity. He is not named in Grey's despatch to the
Council. But it would be folly to pretend that he disapproved it.
Hooker, his eulogist, claims it for him as an eminent distinction. He
cordially sympathized with Grey's ideal of a Mahometan conquest for
Ireland.

[Sidenote: _Feats of Arms._]

His Irish service gave him opportunities of a nobler order. He ventured
his life in a score of hazardous feats. On one occasion his horse was
desperately wounded. He must have been slain but for the aid of his
servant Nicholas Wright, a trusty Yorkshireman. Another time the
Seneschal of Imokelly with fifteen horsemen and sixty foot lay in wait
for him at a ford between Youghal and Cork. He had crossed in safety
when Henry Moile, one of a few Downshire horsemen he had added to his
foot soldiers, was thrown in the middle of the stream. Back rode Ralegh,
and stood by his comrade in the face of tremendous odds. The Seneschal,
though his men outnumbered Ralegh's by twenty to one, was intimidated.
He let Ralegh accomplish his purpose, which was the occupation of
Barry's Court, the seat of Lord Barry. Barry was one of the Irish nobles
whose loyalty was not fixed. Ralegh desired to convince the class of the
futility of resistance by sudden blows. His courage in this instance was
more apparent than his wisdom. He had with difficulty obtained the
Deputy's consent to the enterprise. The result justified Grey's
hesitation. Barry had escaped before Ralegh's arrival at his castle. He
became, and remained for years, an open enemy. At last he seems to have
been reconciled to the Government. In 1594 Ralegh was interceding for
him against the grant of a favour at his expense to another veteran
malcontent, Florence MacCarthy. Ralegh's vigour had fuller success
against another suspected noble, Lord Roche, of Bally. Roche's castle,
twenty miles from Cork, was strong, and his retainers devoted and many.
With a petty detachment Ralegh set off on a dark night. He foiled two
bands, one of eight hundred, the other of five hundred, which
endeavoured to block his way. During a parley he contrived to introduce
first a few and then all his followers. Lord Roche professed much
loyalty, and entertained the intruders courteously at dinner. He refused
to accompany Ralegh on his return till he was shown that the castle was
in the hands of the English soldiers. Reluctantly he yielded, and Ralegh
conveyed him and his family across the rugged hills into Cork by night.
Roche proved an excellent subject.

[Sidenote: _Claim to Reward._]

Ralegh was indefatigable. He shunned no toil or danger. He did not care
if the enemy were five or twenty to one. But he was not a workman who
never complains of his tools, or an ox content to be muzzled while
treading out the corn. He spoke of his soldiers as such poor and
miserable creatures as their captains did not dare lead them into
battle. Wellington sometimes was as uncomplimentary to his. He bitterly
criticized Ormond. Grey had granted him the custody of Barry's Court. He
wrote in February, 1581, to Sir Francis Walsingham, with whom he had
established a correspondence. He asked the Secretary to obtain from the
Deputy Grey his confirmation in the post. He accused Ormond of
compelling so long a delay before Ralegh could enter, that Barry had
been able to dismantle the castle. He imputed the blunder either to
covetousness, or to unwillingness that any Englishman should have
anything. He contrasted the multiplication of traitors in Munster by a
thousand in the two years of Ormond's rule with Gilbert's suppression of
a previous rising in two months. 'Would God Sir Humphrey Gilbert's
behaviour were such in peace it did not make his good service forgotten,
and hold him from the preferment he is worthy of!' He was ashamed to
receive her Majesty's pay, though but a poor entertainment, and see her
so much abused. Walsingham wrote to Grey, and the Lord Deputy assigned
to Ralegh the Barry's Court domain from Rostellan Castle to Fota. It
comprised one side of Cork harbour, with the island now occupied by
Queenstown. The Queen, through the influence, it is said, of Burleigh,
refused her sanction. Next year Ralegh was writing again to Grey in
vehement censure of Ormond. He repudiated any complicity in the
defencelessness of the great wood of Conoloathe, and the country between
the Dingle and Kilkenny. The commissariat of Cork, he charged, had been
recklessly neglected; and Desmond's and Barry's wives were being
encouraged to gather help for their traitor lords.

[Sidenote: _Discontent._]

Denunciations of a general by his officer have an evil sound. Ralegh's
apology, such as it is, must be sought in his just sense of a masterly
capacity. He knew he was right; from the point of view of the prevalent
Elizabethan policy towards Ireland, though not from Burleigh's, he was
right. He raged at his want of official authority to correct the wrong.
He fretted, moreover, at being left in Ireland at all. Ormond quarrelled
with Grey, and was recalled in the spring of 1581. The lieutenancy of
Munster was assigned jointly to Ralegh, Sir William Morgan, and Captain
Piers. Ralegh continued discontented. He sighed for a wider sphere. From
his quarters at Lismore he wrote in August, 1581, to Lord Leicester. He
desired 'to put the Earl in mind of his affection, having to the world
both professed and practised the same.' Incidentally he intimated more
than readiness to return to England. 'I have spent,' he writes, 'some
time here under the Deputy, in such poor place and charge as, were it
not for I knew him to be one of yours, I would disdain it as much as to
keep sheep.' His tone implied that he understood he had come on
probation for more exalted functions elsewhere, and that he had a claim
upon Leicester's patronage. How he had established it is unknown.
Probably the intimacy began in London before he received his Irish
commission. He was at any rate sufficiently intimate to be able to
recommend a man of some eminence, as was Sir Warham St. Leger, to the
Earl's protection.

[Sidenote: _Return to England._]

He did not wish to stay in Ireland. The immediate success of his
hardness and resoluteness, when he was given a free hand, would have
deprived him of the option, if he had wished it. After Ormond's
dismissal the pacification of Munster went rapidly on under him and his
fellow lieutenants. Captain John Zouch, an officer as ruthless to
Irishmen as himself, who was appointed Governor of the province in
August, 1581, worked on the same lines. It became practicable to disband
part of the English forces. Ralegh's own company was paid off without
apparent dissatisfaction on his part. Being needed no longer in Ireland
he was sent home by Grey in December, 1581, with despatches. For his
expenses he was paid on December 29, at the liberal rate of £20, which
may be roughly reckoned as equivalent to £100.




CHAPTER III.

ROYAL FAVOUR (1581-1582).


[Sidenote: _Ralegh and Grey._]

This visit of Ralegh's to the Court was the turning-point in his career.
How it became that has been explained in different ways. According to
Naunton a variance between him and Grey drew both over to plead their
cause. Naunton goes on to say that Ralegh 'had much the better in
telling of his tale; and so much that the Queen and the lords took no
slight mark of the man and his parts; for from thence he came to be
known, and to have access to the Queen and the lords.' It is natural to
suppose that Ralegh's Irish campaigns were concerned with his sudden
rise at Court. Thenceforward he was a high authority on Irish policy.
His Irish experience continued to be the sheet-anchor of his ascendency
with the Queen. Naunton's tale, too, is supported by evidence from the
Hatfield and the Irish State papers of Ralegh's disposition to form and
push Irish plans of his own, and of Grey's keen jealousy of the habit.
Burleigh on January 1, 1582, in a letter to the Lord Deputy, mentioned
that Mr. Rawley had informed her Majesty how the charge of five or six
hundred soldiers for the garrison of Munster might be shifted from the
Queen to the province without umbrage to Ormond, its most powerful
land-owner. To this the Lord Deputy speedily replied, vehemently
criticising 'the plot delivered by Captain Rawley unto her Majesty.' He
condemned it as a plausible fancy, 'affecting credit with profit,' but
'framed upon impossibilities for others to execute.' To Walsingham he
complained bitterly of misrepresentations at Court in the same January,
and, in the following April, declared that he 'neither liked Captain
Rawley's carriage, nor his company.' On the other hand, Grey is not
known to have returned from Ireland till August, 1582; and the Council
Register contains no reference to a personal controversy between Ralegh
and him. But Ralegh may well have privately expounded to the Queen and
some Privy Councillors his views, which would then have been transmitted
to Grey to answer. Naunton's mistake in confronting the Deputy and the
self-confident Captain directly at the Council board does not seriously
affect the value otherwise of his statement. Still, the account of
Ralegh's admittance to the Queen's favour, with its particular
circumstances, rests, it must be remembered, on Naunton's own not
unimpeachable authority. Other authors who tell the same story, have
simply and unsuspiciously borrowed it from him. Students of Ralegh's
history have to accustom themselves to the use by successive biographers
of the same hypothetical facts with as much boldness as if they had been
the fruit of each writer's independent research.

[Sidenote: _Fuller's Tale._]

Another account attributes to Leicester Ralegh's sudden favour on his
return from Ireland. A few months before he was, we have seen,
soliciting the Earl for a change of employment. His introduction at
Court may have been the answer. Sir Henry Wotton, adopting the view,
cynically surmised that Leicester wished to 'bestow handsomely upon
another some part of the pains, and perhaps of the envy, to which long
indulgent fortune is obnoxious.' By others, whom Scott has partly
followed, the Earl of Sussex has been credited with the elevation of
Ralegh, as a counterpoise to Leicester. Neither the one noble nor the
other, it was supposed, could have patriotically desired to enrol in the
public service the most effective of recruits. Amongst all the subtle
solutions of the mystery of Ralegh's leap into prominence, Fuller's
well-worn story, which is now Scott's, commends itself for comparative
simplicity. Everybody has heard how her Majesty, meeting with a plashy
place, made some scruple to go on; when Ralegh, dressed in the gay and
genteel habit of those times, presently cast off and spread his new
plush cloak on the ground, whereon the Queen trod gently over, rewarding
him afterwards with many suits for his so free and seasonable tender of
so fair a footcloth. Fuller, again, it is who vouches for the sequel of
the incident. Ralegh, he says, having thus attracted notice, wrote on a
window, which Elizabeth was to pass--

    Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.

Elizabeth capped it with

    If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.

[Sidenote: _Not Improbable._]

Some of Ralegh's later biographers have felt so intensely the
seriousness of their task, that they either omit or ridicule the legend.
The whole appeared first in the _Worthies_, published in 1662. No
documentary proof can be given of its veracity; and there is no
disproof. The opportunity might easily have occurred; and Ralegh was of
an eagerness and an adroitness not to have let it slip. Undoubtedly the
anecdote has the intrinsic merit beyond the rest of pointing to the
final and determining agent in his change of fortune. All the other
answers to the enigma may contain an ingredient of truth. Leicester
would recognize his capacity, and might have been ready to use him.
Sussex would perceive the danger of allowing so redoubtable a free lance
to pass to a rival service. Walsingham and Burleigh were manifestly
impressed with his extraordinary sagacity and strength of will. His
Irish services, which had called forth the admiration of Grey himself so
long as Ralegh fought under him, could not fail to be appreciated by the
Queen's wise councillors. He was backed by the vast family circles of
the Gilberts and Champernouns. In his later life he could speak of 'an
hundred gentlemen of my kindred.' He was no novice at the Court itself,
which he had studied for years before it recognized him as an inmate.
But Leicester and Sussex, like Grey, and even Burleigh and Walsingham,
though they might have employed him, and have bandied him among them,
would have concurred in keeping him in the background. To Elizabeth
herself may confidently be ascribed the personal decision that he was to
be acknowledged, and not merely used, but distinguished.

[Sidenote: _The Queen's Choice._]

To the Queen he owed his emergence from an obscurity, which posterity
wonders to find enveloping him till thirty. His was not a nature which
ripens late. As a boy at home, as an undergraduate at Oxford, as an
adventurer in France, as a seaman in the Atlantic, as a military leader
in Munster, as a commencing courtier, he might have been expected to
flash forth from the mass of his comrades. No apathy of contemporary
opinion is to blame for the long delay. Rather it was the hurry and the
glitter of contemporary life. A nation, like the English under
Elizabeth, facing the dawn of a new age, does not pause to mark degrees
of individual brightness. All eyes are dazzled with the radiance of the
era itself. The few rare and peculiar stars are not discriminated as
shining with a lustre of their own. The Queen would not be better able
than her subjects to measure the particular mode in which Ralegh
overtopped his neighbours. She discerned the special gifts which others
discerned, the 'good presence in a handsome and well compacted person;
the strong natural wit and a better judgment, with a bold and plausible
tongue, whereby he could set out his parts to the best advantage.' She
was diverted by his flights of fancy emphasized by the broad Devon
accent, which, to the day of his death, he never lost, or tried to lose.
She must have been conscious of depths of capacity, to which, whatever
the exigency, appeal was never made in vain. But the surpassing
attraction for her was the feeling that he and his grandeur were her
creature and creation.

[Sidenote: _Scandal._]

Personally she chose him, and she exacted that his service should be
personally rendered to her. He understood the conditions of his tenure
of influence, and generally fulfilled them faithfully. She knew, and he
knew, that he was selected for gifts which made him a valuable servant
of the State, as impersonated in its chief. Yet it is not strange that,
in an age of coarse feeling, and coarser language, his elevation should
have been attributed to mere feminine weakness. It is much more
surprising that the warning, 'No scandal about Queen Elizabeth,' should
have been disregarded by grave modern historians and biographers. Mr.
Edward Edwards, for instance, Ralegh's most thorough and painstaking
biographer since the learned but unmethodical Oldys, takes the report
for granted, and appears to think it honourable. The belief cannot bear
the least examination. Elizabeth was in the habit of requiring all her
courtiers to kneel to her as woman as well as Queen, to hail her at once
Gloriana and Belphoebe. The fashion was among her instruments of
government. By appealing to the devotion of her courtiers as lovers, she
hoped to kindle their zeal in serving their Queen. They who mock at her
claims to adoration as the Lady of the land are ungrateful to a policy
which preserved the tone of English society for a generation romantic,
poetical, and chivalrous. In pursuance of her usual system, and in
innocence of any vice but vanity, she was sure to invite the language of
passion from the owner of genius and looks like Ralegh's. She played
upon his Christian name, writing it as she and others pronounced it,
Water. She enjoyed the anger her kindness aroused in other admirers,
such as Hatton. He was willing to offer the homage for which she
thirsted. So were other courtiers by the dozen. Cautious methodical
George Carew wrote to her when she was seventy, and nearing the grave,
envying 'the blessing others enjoy in beholding your Royal person whose
beauty adorns the world.' Of sensual love between her and Ralegh there
is not a tittle of evidence which will be accepted by any who do not
start by presuming in her the morals of a courtesan. In support of the
calumny, passages of the _Faerie Queene_ have been cited, in which the
poet has been interpreted as literally and as illiberally as the
courtier. Fastidious Spenser would have shuddered to imagine the coarse
construction against his Queen to which his delicate allegories were to
be wrested. Had there been ground for the legend, we may feel tolerably
certain that Lady Ralegh would have known of it. She could not have
refrained from hinting at a motive for the wrath with which, it will
hereafter be seen, her mistress visited her transgression.

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Versatility._]

Ralegh himself may not have been sufficiently careful to guard against a
fable flattering to his charms, if injurious to his independence. He
furthered malignant humours in his own time by his fondness for personal
adornment. His lavish vanity seems to have been taken as proof of his
and his Sovereign's amours. He must in any case, by no fault of his own,
but by the excessive bounty of nature in heaping courtly graces upon
him, have been exposed to the liability of misconstruction by later
ages. Measured by his force of character and his acts he has as little
as possible in common with a Leicester or a Hatton. Yet posterity,
misled by tradition, has never been sure whether his distinctive
vocation were not that of a fine gentleman. Contemporaries, partly from
misapprehension, partly from admiration, and partly from jealousy, tried
to fasten him to that. When the splendour of his exploits by sea and
land demonstrated him to be more than a courtier, they ranked him as
seaman or swordsman. His versatility lent itself to the error, and
operated to the disappointment of his real aim. His constant effort was
to be accepted and trusted as a serious statesman. He might have
attained his end more completely if his absorption in it had dimmed the
brightness of his marvellous intelligence, or deadened his delight in
its gymnastics. But he had to live his life according to his nature. The
multiplicity of his interests separates him from others of his mental
level. He loved power, both the contest for it and its exercise. He
coveted money for its uses, and equally for the inspiring experiences
involved in its acquisition. He liked to act the patron, and was content
in turn to play the client. He loved toil, and he could enjoy ease. He
revelled in the strifes of statesmanship and the physical perils of
battles and travel. He resembled his period, with its dangers and
glories, its possibilities of Spanish dungeons and Spanish plunder, its
uncertainties of theology and morality. He had a natural gift for
deriving pleasure from his actual circumstances, a dull and brutal civil
war, or a prison, though none could utter more dismal groans. By
predilection he basked in a Court, where simultaneously he could adore
its mistress and help to sway her sceptre.

[Sidenote: _His Aspect._]

[Sidenote: _Dates of Portraits._]

Hitherto his career had been run outside the verge of chronicles. Its
early stages left few direct records. They have to be pieced together by
retrospective allusions proceeding from himself or others, after he had
already risen. The difficulties of his biographers are not at an end
when he has mounted into the full blaze of publicity. His name
thenceforth was in a multitude of mouths; yet much in his character,
position, and motives always remains shadowy and uncertain. His
appearance at the time it was winning an entrance for him at Court can
only be conjectured. He was tall and well-proportioned, with thick curly
locks, beard, and mustache, full red lips, bluish-grey eyes, and the
high forehead and long bold face, remarked in a contemporary epigram.
Aubrey describes him by report similarly, with the addition that he was
sour eye-lidded. His characteristic features, and the 'general aspect of
ascendency,' were the same in youth and in later life. They are vividly
represented by several extant portraits, by Zucchero's, somewhat wanting
in repose and dignity, at Longleat; by another of Zucchero's, now in the
National Gallery of Ireland, the original of the print in Sir Henry
Ellis's collection of letters, representing Ralegh at forty-four, with a
map of Cadiz; by that at Knole, from which Vertue's print in Oldys's
Life probably was engraved; by that of 1588, formerly in Sir Carew
Ralegh's house at Downton, and now in the National Portrait Gallery; by
one belonging to Mr. J.D. Wingfield Digby; by one, dated 1618, in the
possession of Mr. T.L. Thurlow; and by the best, in Mr. George Scharf's
decisive judgment, the picture in possession of Sir John Farnaby
Lennard, at Wickham Court, Kent. The last, the original of Houbraken's
engraving, was painted in 1602 for the Carews of Beddington. Young
Walter, then eight years old, stands by Ralegh's side, a handsome boy,
richly dressed, with features, as they remained in later life, like his
father's, and the same air of command. A picture, described as by
Cornelius Janssen, sold at Christie's rooms in December, 1890,
represents a visage worn and sombre, the hair on the head thin. As the
artist's first commonly acknowledged portraits taken in England are
dated 1618, the work, if by Janssen, must have been executed after
Ralegh's second Guiana expedition, and might naturally exhibit these
traits. There are also several contemporary miniatures, one, in
particular, at Belvoir Castle. This is of especial interest, on account
of the age inscribed, sixty-five, and the year, 1618, which imply a
belief that he was born later than 1552. From the date, 1618, and the
representation of a battle, on the companion miniature of young Walter,
apparently by the same hand, it may be inferred that the portrait of the
father was, as that of the son must have been, painted after the second
voyage to Guiana. Probably, to judge from the combination of Lady
Ralegh's and her husband's initials on the back, it was executed for
her. In it, to a degree even beyond the portrait attributed to Janssen,
the hair of the head is pathetically white. Though elsewhere the marks
of age have not been so openly betrayed, all the extant portraits,
unless that in the National Portrait Gallery be an exception, were
executed after he had reached middle life. He may be beheld in most of
them as he appeared to his rivals and partisans, the veteran knight in
magnificent apparel, pearls, and silver armour, haughty and subtle,
tanned, hardened, and worn with voyages to the Spanish Main and fighting
at Cadiz, 'Ralegh the witch,' the 'scourge of Spain,' the 'soldier,
sailor, scholar, courtier, orator, historian, and philosopher.' We do
not see the daredevil trooper of Languedoc and Munster, the duellist,
the master of the roistering watch-beating Paunsfords. He is not visible
as pictured to the vivid fancy of the author of _Kenilworth_, the
youthful aspirant, graceful, eager, slender, dark, restless, and
supercilious, with a sonnet or an epigram ever ready on his lips to
delight friends and sting enemies.

[Sidenote: _Spelling of Name._]

[Sidenote: _Seventy-four Forms._]

The spelling of his name for the first thirty-two years of his life was
as vague and unsettled as his acts. There was no standard of orthography
for surnames till the latter part of the seventeenth century. Neither
the owners, nor others, were slaves to uniformity. Posterity has used
its own liberty of selection, often very arbitrarily. Robert Cecil, for
instance, signed his name Cecyll, and nobody follows him, not even his
descendants. For Ralegh's name his contemporaries never had a fixed rule
to the end of him. Transcribers with the signature clear before them
would not copy it; they could not keep to one form of their own. His
correspondents and friends followed the idea of the moment. Lord
Burleigh wrote Rawly. Robert Cecil wrote to him as Rawley, Raleigh, and
Ralegh. A secretary of Cecil wrote Raweley and Rawlegh. King James, for
whom in Scotland he had been Raulie, wrote once at any rate, and Carew
Ralegh commonly, Raleigh. Carew's son Philip spelt his name both Raleigh
and Ralegh. Lady Ralegh signed one letter Raleigh, but all others which
have been preserved, Ralegh. The only known signature of young Walter is
Ralegh. The Privy Council wrote the name Raleghe, Rawleighe, and
Rawleigh. George Villiers spelt it Raughleigh, and Cobham, Rawlye. In
Irish State Papers he is Rawleie. Lord Henry Howard wrote Rawlegh and
Rawlie. The Lord Admiral called him Rawlighe. For some he was Raileigh,
Raughlie, and Rauleigh. In a warrant he was Raleighe, and in the
register of Stepney Church, Raylie. Naunton wrote Rawleigh and Raghley,
and Milton, in a manuscript commonplace book, Raugleigh. Sir Edward
Peyton in his book spelt the name Rawliegh. Stukely in his Apology spelt
it Raligh. The name to his verses printed in Gascoigne's volume is
Rawely, and in a manuscript poem it is Wrawly. In another manuscript
poem it is Raghlie. Puttenham printed it Rawleygh. In the wonderful mass
of manuscripts at Lambeth, collected by Sir George Carew, who kept every
paper sent him, though his correspondents might beg him to burn their
letters, the name, beside forms already given, appears spelt as Ralighe,
Raule, Rawlee, Rauley, Rawleye, Raulyghe, Rawlyghe, and Ralleigh. In a
letter from Sir Thomas Norreys in the equally wonderful, but less
admirable, pile of Lismore papers, he is Raulighe. In the books of the
Stationers' Company he is Rawleighe, and Rauleighe in the copy in the
Harleian MSS. of the discourse of 1602 on a War with Spain. In
Drummond's Conversations with Ben Jonson he is Raughlie. References
occur to him in Mr. Andrew Clark's _Oxford Register_, as Rallegh,
Rawlei, Rauly, Raughley, Raughly, Raughleigh, Raylye, and Rolye.
Foreigners referred to him as Ralle, Rallé, Raleghus, Raleich, Raleik,
Raulaeus, Rale, Real, Reali, Ralego, and Rhalegh. In addition, I have
found in lists compiled by Dr. Brushfield the name spelt Raley, Raleye,
Raleagh, Raleygh, Raleyghe, Ralli, Raughleye, Rauleghe, Raulghe,
Raweleigh, Raylygh, Reigley, Rhaleigh, Rhaley, Rhaly, and Wrawley.

Ralegh himself had not kept the same spelling throughout his life. Down
to 1583 his more usual signature had been the phonetic Rauley. But in
1578 he signed as Rawleyghe a deed which his father signed as Ralegh,
and his brother Carew as Rawlygh. A letter of March 17, 1583, is the
first he is known to have signed as Ralegh; and in the following April
and May he reverted to the signature Rauley. From June 9, 1584, he used
till his death no other signature than Ralegh. It appears in his books
when the name is mentioned. It is used in a pedigree drawn up for him in
1601. Of the hundred and sixty-nine letters collected by Mr. Edward
Edwards, a hundred and thirty-five are thus signed. Six signed Rauley,
one Raleghe, and one Rauleigh, belong to an earlier date. The rest are
either unsigned or initialled. The reason of his adoption of the
spelling Ralegh from 1584, unless that it was his dead father's, is
unknown. Of the fact there is no doubt. The spelling Raleigh, which
posterity has preferred, happens to be one he is not known to have ever
employed.




CHAPTER IV.

OFFICES AND ENDOWMENTS (1582-1587).


[Sidenote: _Employment._]

[Sidenote: _Envoy and Counsellor._]

His promotion, when it commenced, was liberal; it was not meteoric. He
had won his full entry at Court before he gained permanent offices and
emoluments. For a time he continued dependent upon the long-suffering
Irish Exchequer. In February he received an order for £200 upon the
entertainment due to him in Ireland. That, however, seems to have been
payment of arrears for previous and actual service. Notwithstanding an
angry protest by the Lord Deputy, already alluded to, a fresh commission
was issued to him in April, 1582, as Captain of the late Captain
Appesley's band of footmen in Ireland. The reason assigned was that he
might be required for some time longer in that realm for his better
experience in martial affairs. He had leave to appoint a lieutenant,
while he was 'for some considerations by Us excused to stay here.' He
did not want for employment, though he was given no fixed duties. A
system of personal government like that of the Tutors demanded
extraordinary services of various degrees of importance. Any and all
Ralegh could excellently render. Frequently he acted as the Queen's
private secretary. Sometimes he had to escort a foreign envoy.
Negotiations were pending for the marriage of Elizabeth to the Duke of
Anjou. Leicester was jealous of the Duke and of Simier, his dexterous
and personally fascinating agent. Simier was returning to France in the
autumn of 1581. He had to be protected, it was rumoured, from Flushing
pirates known to be in Leicester's pay. Ralegh's professed adhesion to
Leicester did not prevent his appointment as one of the escort. In the
publication by an anonymous contemporary, called _Leicester's
Commonwealth_, it is related that the vessel containing the returning
escort was chased for several hours: 'Master Ralegh well knoweth it,
being there present.' Anjou himself quitted England in February, 1582,
to assume the sovereignty of the Netherlands. Ralegh again was of the
company sent to introduce the Duke to the Queen's allies. He stayed
behind the rest, and was entrusted by the Prince of Orange with letters
to the Queen. He has recorded that the Prince confided to him a private,
if not very particular, message to her: 'Sub umbra alarum tuarum
protegimur.' Probably that was only a text upon which the Prince's
communications enabled him to enlarge. He was consulted much concerning
Ireland, both by the Council and by the Queen. In March, 1582, articles
were exhibited against Ormond for alleged indulgence in his government
of Munster towards Irish rebels. He was suspected, for example, of
having apprised the Seneschal of Imokelly that 'two choice persons' had
stolen into the Seneschal's camp to murder him. Ralegh was named among
those who were to be called upon to prove the charges. Burleigh himself,
who did not approve of the fierceness of Ralegh's method of dealing with
Irish turbulence, respected his experience. In October, 1582, the Lord
Treasurer is said to have taken careful notes of his advice how to
secure the adhesion of some Munster lords. Lord Grey's reception of a
letter from the Treasurer in the preceding January citing an opinion of
'Mr. Rawley' on the mode of levying Irish taxes for the support of the
English troops, has already been described. Use was made also of his
engineering ability. There are references to reports by him on estimates
for the repair of the fortifications of Portsmouth, and to his
discussion of the question with Burleigh and Sussex in the Queen's
presence. He is even found sitting on a commission with Sir Thomas
Heneage to investigate a complaint against Lord Mayor Pullison, of
having attached, to satisfy a debt to himself, the ransom of a Barbary
captive.

[Sidenote: _The Stannaries and the Guard._]

Not till after a probation of years did he obtain definite official
rank. In 1584 he had been elected one of the members for Devonshire,
with Sir William Courtenay. Apparently in the early part of the same
year he was knighted; for in his colonizing patent of March, 1584, he is
styled 'Mr. Walter Ralegh, Knight.' In 1585 he succeeded the Earl of
Bedford as Warden of the Stannaries. He had as Warden to regulate mining
privileges in Devon and Cornwall, to hold the Stannary Parliament on the
wild heights of Crockern Tor, and judicially to decide disputes on the
customs, which, though written, he has said, in the Stannary of Devon,
were unwritten in Cornwall. Long after his death the rules he had
prescribed prevailed. As Warden he commanded the Cornish militia. He had
a claim, which was resisted by the Earl of Bath, the Lord Lieutenant of
Devonshire, to military powers there also. His prerogatives were
strengthened by his appointment shortly afterwards to the Lieutenancy of
Cornwall, and to the Vice-Admiralty of the two counties. The
Vice-Admiralty was a very convenient office for a dealer in
privateering. He nominated as his deputies in the Vice-Admiralty Lord
Beauchamp for Cornwall, and his eldest half-brother, Sir John Gilbert,
for Devon. Beside his other offices, he is supposed to have held the
post of a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber. Later he received a more
signal token than any of royal confidence. He was appointed Captain of
the Yeomen of the Guard. For several years Sir Christopher Hatton had
united the offices of Captain and Vice-Chamberlain. On April 29, 1587,
by a preposterous exercise of royal patronage, he became Lord
Chancellor. He had already ceased to command the Guard, though the
actual date of his retirement is not specified. His immediate successor,
appointed perhaps as a stop-gap, was Sir Henry Goodier. Sir Anthony
Paulett also is sometimes mentioned in connexion with the post. But the
office was permanently filled by the nomination of Ralegh in the early
summer of 1586. The Captain's pay consisted of a yearly uniform. Six
yards of tawney medley at 13_s._ 4_d._ a yard, with a fur of black budge
rated at £10, is the warrant for 1592. The cost in the next reign was
estimated at £14. Ralegh had to fill vacancies in his band of fifty. He
was known to have a sharp eye for suitable recruits, young, tall,
strong, and handsome. The regular duty was to guard the Queen from
weapons and from poison; to watch over her safety by day and night
wherever she went, by land or water. At the Palace the Captain's place
was in the antechamber, where he could almost hear the conversations
between her and her counsellors. To share them he had but to be beckoned
within. Naturally the command seemed to be a stepping-stone to a
Vice-Chamberlainship at least, if not to the Keepership of the Queen's
conscience.

[Sidenote: _Royal Parsimony._]

None of these offices were in themselves lucrative. A maintenance for
the new favourite and the new public servant had otherwise to be found.
His endowment came from the usual sources. Naunton says that, 'though he
gained much at the Court, he took it not out of the Exchequer, or merely
out of the Queen's purse, but by his wit and the help of the
prerogative; for the Queen was never profuse in delivering over her
treasures, but paid most of her servants, part in money, and the rest
with grace.' He adds, it may be hoped, before October 29, 1618: 'Leaving
the arrears of recompense due for their merit to her great successor,
who paid them all with advantage.' Ralegh himself, after a similar
compliment to James, laments in his History the Queen's parsimony to her
'martial men, both by sea and land,' none of whom, he remembers, 'the
Lord Admiral excepted, her eldest and most prosperous commander,' did
she 'either enrich, or otherwise honour, for any service by them
performed.' Notices in official documents of pecuniary grants to himself
are rare. An order in September, 1587, for a payment of £2000 to be
spent according to her Majesty's direction appears to have been for
works at Portsmouth. No meagre substitute was supplied by forfeitures,
by enforced demises of collegiate, capitular, and episcopal estates, by
monopolies, and by letters of marque.

[Sidenote: _Farm of Wines._]

[Sidenote: _Broadcloths._]

To All Souls College, Oxford, belongs the honour of having been the
first to help to make his fortune. In April, 1583, he wrote to Egerton,
then Solicitor-General, mentioning a grant of two beneficial leases of
lands which the Queen had extorted from the college after her manner. On
May 4, 1583, he received a more lucrative gift, the farm of wines. By
his patent every vintner was bound to pay him for his life an annual
retail licence fee of a pound. To save himself trouble, he underlet his
rights to one Richard Browne for seven years at £700, or, according to
another account, £800, a year. Browne promoted a large increase in the
number of licensed taverners. Ralegh had reason to believe that he had
not his fair share of profits. Egerton advised him that the demise was
disadvantageous, but that it might be hard to terminate it without
Browne's concurrence. Ralegh, to compel a surrender from Browne before
the expiration of the term, obtained a revocation of his own patent in
1588. On August 9, 1588, a new patent for thirty-one years was granted.
It does not seem to have freed him wholly from Browne's claims. This
licence again he leased. The lessee was William Sanderson, the husband
of his niece, Margaret Snedale. At a later period he had disputes with
Sanderson also on the profits. By an account of 1592, he estimated them
at a couple of thousand a year. It was never a very popular office to be
chief publican. The year after the original grant, it involved Ralegh in
a troublesome quarrel. He or Browne had licensed a vintner, John Keymer,
at Cambridge, in defiance of the Vice-Chancellor's jurisdiction. The
undergraduates loyally beat the intruder, and they frightened his wife
nearly to death. The Vice-Chancellor sent him to gaol. The University
also invoked the aid of its Chancellor, the Queen's Minister, against
the Queen's favourite. Burleigh procured an opinion of the two Chief
Justices against the licence. Ralegh was obliged in the end to give way
to his assured loving friend the Vice-Chancellor. In the second patent
the privileges of Oxford and Cambridge were expressly saved. In other
respects it was wider. It allowed Ralegh a moiety of the penalties
accruing to the Crown. The controversy with Cambridge may have been due
only to Browne, and his eagerness for fees. In general, Ralegh appears
to have exercised his powers moderately. A grantee who succeeded
commended him for having 'ever had a special care to carry a very tender
hand upon the business for avoiding of noise and clamour, well knowing
it to be a thing extracted from the subject upon a nice point of a
statute law.' A year after the first patent of wines he received a
similar boon. This was a licence in March, 1584, to export for a
twelvemonth woollen broadcloths. A payment to the Crown was reserved. In
1585, 1587, and 1589 the same privilege was conferred and enlarged. One
grant authorized him to export overlengths. Burleigh protested. He
declared the conditions too beneficial to the grantee. Probably they
were. The privilege brought him into collision with several bodies of
merchants. Soon after the earliest of the licences had been granted, in
June, 1584, we read of a petition, backed by Walsingham, for the release
of ships which had infringed his patent. The Queen would not consent
unless upon the terms that the offenders compounded with him. In 1586
the Merchant Adventurers of Exeter obtained a commission of inquiry
whether his officers did not levy excessive fees upon certificates. He
is represented by a local antiquary as less popular in that city than
elsewhere in Devonshire. His patent rights as well as his official
duties caused ill-will between it and him.

[Sidenote: _An Irish Seigniory._]

A gift in appearance much more magnificent, though the gains eventually
were meagre, was the Irish grant of 1586. At last the Earl of Desmond's
insurrection had been quelled, at the cost of the utter devastation of a
province. The curse of God was, it was lamented, so great, and the land
so barren, that whosoever did travel from one end to the other of all
Munster, even from Waterford to Limerick, about six score miles, he
should not meet man, woman, nor child, save in cities or towns, nor yet
see any beast, save foxes and wolves, or other ravening creatures. The
few survivors fed upon weeds and carrion, robbing the graves and gibbets
of their dead. It was determined to repeople the 574,268 forfeited
acres. Ralegh retained his Irish captain's commission. In 1587 his name
occurs at the head of the list. He, Ormond, Hatton, and Fitton were
among the principal Undertakers for the resettlement. By the scheme
nobody was to undertake for more than twelve thousand acres. On each
portion of that size eighty-six families were to be planted. In Ralegh's
favour, by express words and warrant in a special letter from her
Majesty, the Crown rent was fixed at a hundred marks, calculated
subsequently as £60 13_s._ 4_d._; and the limitation of acreage was
relaxed. Seigniories varied in extent from twelve to four thousand
acres. Possibly in order to avoid too gross an appearance of indulgence
to him, Sir John Stowell and Sir John Clyston, according to the
Boyle-Lismore papers, were associated or named with him as joint
undertakers. A Privy Seal warrant in February, 1586, confirmed by
letters patent in the following October, awarded to the three three
seigniories and a half in Waterford, Cork, and perhaps Tipperary. A
certificate of March, 1587, stated that, if the lands assigned to them
and their tenants should not be found to amount to 'three seigniories of
twelve thousand acres apiece, and one seigniory of six thousand acres,
then other lands should be added.' The patronage of the Wardenship of
Our Lady's College of Youghal was added to Ralegh's share with several
other lucrative privileges. Three centuries afterwards the House of
Lords decided that an exclusive salmon fishery in the tidal waters of
the Blackwater was among them. The domain stretched along both banks of
the river from Youghal harbour. The soil was rich; but the royal
commissioners for the survey reported it waste from neglect. Generally
it was overgrown with deep grass, and in most places with heath,
brambles, and furze.

[Sidenote: _English Forfeitures._]

In 1587 he added English estates to his Irish. The Babington conspiracy
had been detected the year before. By a grant which passed the Great
Seal without fee in March, 1587, he acquired much of the principal
plotter's property. He obtained lands in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, and
Notts, together with all goods and personalty, except a curious clock
reserved to the Queen's own use. According to modern taste, the pillage
of confiscated estates is not an honourable basis for a great man's
prosperity. In the reign of Elizabeth it was still the orthodox
foundation. It was give and take, as Ralegh had to experience. That the
unfortunate Babington had rested some hope of life on Ralegh's known
Court influence is but a coincidence. He wrote on the 19th of September,
1586, the day before his execution, of 'Master Rawley having been moved
for him, and been promised a thousand pounds, if he could get his
pardon.' There was a traffic in pardons at Court. Odious and suspicious
as was the practice, and liable to the grossest abuse, the presentation
of money in return did not necessarily mean that the leniency had been
bought. The Sovereign levied fines thus for the benefit of favourites on
men too guilty to be let off scot-free, and not guilty enough to be
capitally punished. Ralegh himself appears in after years to have
received large sums from two pardoned accomplices of Essex, Sir Edward
Bainham and Mr. John Littleton. From Littleton he is said to have had
£10,000. But in the present instance no evidence has been discovered
that Babington's overtures were countenanced in the least by Ralegh, or
that he accepted money for urging them.

[Sidenote: _Luxury and splendour._]

Five years separated the needy Munster Captain from the Lord Warden of
the Stannaries, the magnificent Captain of the Queen's Guard, the owner
of broad lands in England, and Irish seigniories. He had climbed high,
though not so high as the insignificant Hatton. He had progressed fast,
though another was soon to beat him in swiftness of advancement. He had
gathered wealth and power. He was profuse in his application of both.
Much of his gains went in ostentation. He was fond of exquisite armour,
gorgeous raiment, lace, embroideries, furs, diamonds, and great pearls.
As early as 1583 he must have begun to indulge his taste. On April 26 in
that year the Middlesex Registers show that Hugh Pewe, gentleman, was
tried for the theft of 'a jewel worth £80, a hat band of pearls worth
£30, and five yards of damask silk worth £3, goods and chattels of
Walter Rawley, Esq., at Westminster.' Pewe was enough of a gentleman to
read 'like a clerk,' and thus save his neck. Later Ralegh was satirized
by the Jesuit Parsons as the courtier too high in the regard of the
English Cleopatra, who wore in his shoes jewels worth 6600 gold pieces.
Tradition speaks, with exaggeration as obvious, of one court dress which
carried £60,000 worth of jewels. He loved architecture and building,
gardens, pictures, books, furniture, and immense retinues of servants.
In his taste for personal luxury he resembled the entire tribe of
contemporary courtiers. It was a sumptuous age everywhere. England,
which had suddenly begun to be able to gratify a love of splendour,
seemed in haste to make up for lost time. Elizabeth encouraged the
propensity at her Court. Her statesmen, warriors, and favourites
enriched themselves with sinecures, confiscations, and shares in trading
and buccaneering adventures. They spent as rapidly. They were all
extravagant, and mortgaged the future. Almost all were continually
straitened for money. Impecuniosity rendered them rapacious. The Lord
Admiral received, as Ralegh has intimated, enormous gains from the Queen
and from prizes, and was perpetually in need. Robert Cecil had to
supplement his vast legitimate revenues from illicit sources, and died
£38,000 in debt. Essex, whose disinterestedness is eulogized, had
£300,000 from the Queen, in addition to most lucrative offices. The
whole was insufficient for his wants. All alike, old friends and old
foes, fed on one another, when there was nobody else to spoil.
Prodigality and greediness in money matters were, it is to be feared,
common traits of Elizabethan heroes. They were far from perfect; their
defects differed from those of their modern descendants in the ethical
consequences; they did not make offenders ashamed of themselves, and
afraid of being found out; they did not necessarily vitiate the
substance of their characters, and destroy their self-respect.




CHAPTER V.

VIRGINIA (1583-1587).


[Sidenote: _Gilbert and Ralegh._]

Ralegh was not freer from the faults of his class than the rest. Beyond
the rest, he showed public spirit in his expenditure. By arguments, by
his influence, by his example, he fanned the rising flame of national
enterprise. From the first he devoted a large part of his sudden
opulence to the promotion of the maritime prosperity of the nation.
Among his earliest subjects of outlay was the construction in 1583 of
the Ark Ralegh. It was, according to a probable account, of two hundred
tons burden, and cost £2000. Mr. Payne Collier gives its burden as eight
hundred tons, and its worth as £5000. None understood better than Ralegh
the ship-building art. Ten years of prison, it will be hereafter
noticed, did not deaden his instinct. Humphrey Gilbert was again
preparing for a voyage to 'the Unknown Goal.' Two-thirds of the six
years of his patent for discoveries had run out. He was anxious to
utilize the residue. Ralegh would gladly have accepted his invitation to
accompany him as vice-admiral. The Queen had tried to hold back Gilbert
'of her especial care, as a man noted of no good hap by sea.' By earnest
representations that he had no other means of maintaining his family, he
prevailed upon her, through Walsingham, to give him leave. In a letter
from Ralegh, she sent him a token, an anchor guided by a lady, with her
wish of as great good-hap and safety to his ship, as if herself were
there in person. She prayed him to be careful of himself, 'as of that
which she tendereth,' and to leave his portrait with Ralegh for her.
Ralegh she peremptorily forbade to go. He had to content himself with
lending his ship. It had not been more than two days out from Plymouth
when a contagious sickness attacked the crew. It returned on June 13,
1583. Gilbert did not know the cause. He only saw the ship run away in
fair and clear weather, having a large wind. So home he wrote denouncing
the men as knaves. How he took possession of Newfoundland, and how, on
his return, he died, with his memorable last words, are matters
belonging to his history, though incidentally that crosses Ralegh's. But
his companionship, example, and affection had contributed to form his
brother, whom his courage fired, and his fate did not daunt.

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Patent._]

Ralegh immediately sought and obtained a royal licence corresponding to
that bestowed on Gilbert. March 25, 1584, is an eventful date in the
annals of colonization. On that day was sealed a patent for him to hold
by homage remote heathen and barbarous lands, not actually possessed by
any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people, which he might
discover within the next six years. A fifth of the gold and silver
acquired was reserved to the Crown. His eyes were bent on the region
stretching to the north of the Gulf of Florida, and of any settled
Spanish territory. In 1562 a French Protestant settlement had been
attempted in Florida. Laudonnière reinforced it a couple of years later.
But the jealousy of Spain was aroused. Pedro Melendez de Avila pounced
down in 1565. He captured the forts. Eight or nine hundred Huguenots he
hanged on the neighbouring trees as heretics, not as Frenchmen.
Dominique de Gorgues, of Gascony, avenged their fate by hanging their
Spanish supplanters in 1567, not as Spaniards, but as assassins. There
the experiment at colonization ended. Neither Spain nor France had
repeated the attempt. The whole land was vacant of white men.

[Sidenote: _The Discovery._]

Ralegh's fancy was inspired with visions, destined to be more than
realized ultimately, of an English counterpart in the north to the
Spanish empire in the south. He had already begun to equip a couple of
vessels. He despatched them to America on April 27, 1584, under Captains
Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow. They took the roundabout route by the
Canaries and West Indies. In July they were saluted with a most fragrant
gale from the land they were seeking. Sailing into the mouth of a river
they saw vines laden with grapes, climbing up tall cedars. On July 13
they proclaimed the Queen's sovereignty, afterwards delivering the
country over to the use of Ralegh. It was the isle of Wokoken, in
Ocracoke Inlet, off the North Carolina coast. In the neighbourhood were
a hundred other islands. One of the largest was named Roanoke. They were
visited by Granganimeo, father or brother to King Wingina, who lay ill
of wounds received in war. The visit was returned by them. They bought
of Granganimeo twenty skins, worth as many nobles, for a tin dish which
he coveted as a gorget. His wife offered a great box of pearls for
armour and a sword. After some stay with the friendly and timid people,
they returned to England about the middle of September. They brought to
Ralegh chamois and other skins, a bracelet of pearls as big as peas, and
two Indians, Manteo and Wanchese.

[Sidenote: _Colonization._]

Elizabeth herself devised for the virgin land discovered in the reign of
a virgin queen the appellation of Virginia. Possibly the name was
favoured by some resemblance to a native phrase Wynganda coia. This
means, writes Ralegh, in the _History of the World_, 'You wear good
clothes,' which the settlers supposed to be the reply to their question
of the name of the country. The similarity of the king's name may have
assisted the choice. Spenser entitles Elizabeth, in the dedication of
his great poem, 'Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and of
Virginia.' Ralegh had a seal of his arms cut, with the legend, 'Walteri
Ralegh, militis, Domini et Gubernatoris Virginiae propria insignia,
1584, amore et virtute.' He hastened to realize his lordship, which was
still somewhat in the air. He obtained a fair amount of support, though
his brother, Carew Ralegh, could not prevail upon the Exeter merchants
to become partners. They were not moved by his catalogue of the
merchantable commodities which had been found. They stigmatized the
undertaking as 'a pretended voyage,' which certainly it was not. On
April 9, 1585, 'at the pleasant prime,' says Holinshed, a fleet of seven
sail set forth from Plymouth, under Ralegh's cousin, Sir Richard
Grenville, as general of the expedition. Mr. Ralph Lane was Governor of
the colony, and Captain Philip Amadas was his Deputy. Lane had an Irish
commission. Elizabeth ordered that a substitute should be found for him,
that he might go to Virginia for Ralegh. Ralegh drew up rules, which
have been lost, for the political government. Thomas Cavendish, a future
circumnavigator of the globe, and Thomas Hariot, or Harriot, were among
the colonists. Hariot, who describes himself as 'servant to Sir Walter
Ralegh,' was commissioned to survey and report. He published a
remarkable description of the territory in 1588. Manteo and Wanchese
returned to America with the expedition. On the way out, by Hispaniola
and Florida, Grenville took two Spanish frigates. He reached Wokoken in
June, and visited the mainland. He was not happy in the conduct of the
expedition, being reported by Lane, writing to Walsingham on September
8, 1585, to have exhibited intolerable pride and ambition towards the
entire company. Already, on August 25, not a day too soon, he had sailed
for England. He had, he reported at his return to Walsingham, peopled
the new country, and stored it with cattle, fruits, and plants. He left
Governor Lane and 107 colonists. On the homeward voyage a third Spanish
ship was captured. Stukely, a kinsman both of Grenville and of Ralegh,
was with Grenville on board the Tiger. For some unintelligible reason he
thought himself entitled to £10,000 of the booty. According to his
estimate, as reported by his mendacious son, Sir Lewis, the whole was
worth £50,000. Much of the treasure consisted of a cabinet of pearls.
Sir Lewis Stukely alleged that Ralegh charged Elizabeth with taking all
to herself 'without so much as even giving him one pearl.' The Queen was
as fond of large pearls as he.

[Sidenote: _Failure._]

Grenville had promised he would bring supplies by the next Easter at
latest. Lane and his companions occupied themselves meanwhile with
surveys of the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven, as they
described it. They had planted corn, and perceived signs of pearl
fisheries and mines. Hariot, observing the native use of tobacco, had
tried and liked it. The nutritious qualities of the tubers of the potato
had been discovered. Unfortunately the planters quarrelled with the
natives, whom they found, though gentle in manner, cunning and
murderous. Their friend, Granganimeo, died, and they slew King Wingina
and his chiefs without warning, for alleged plots. At this crisis Sir
Francis Drake arrived with a fleet of twenty-five sail, fresh from the
sack of St. Domingo and Cartagena. He gave Lane a bark of seventy tons,
pinnaces, and provisions, and lent him two of his captains. But a storm
sank the bark. The colonists, losing courage, insisted on being taken
home. On June 19, 1586, they set sail, on the eve of the arrival of a
ship laden with provisions, which Ralegh had sent. A fortnight later
came Grenville with three ships, also well stored. He could do nothing
but leave fifteen men with supplies on Roanoke and return. Not even now
was Ralegh disheartened. In the spring of 1587 he fitted out a fourth
expedition. He had meant to conduct it himself. The Queen would not let
him go. It comprised 150 householders. Some were married, and brought
their wives with them. Agricultural implements were taken. Captain John
White was in command. He and eleven others of the company were
incorporated as the Governor and Assistants of the City of Ralegh in
Virginia. Ralegh had fixed upon Chesapeake Bay as the site of the
settlement. Roanoke was preferred. White could detect no trace of
Grenville's fifteen men, and Lane's fort had been razed to the ground.
Vainly the new colonists endeavoured to conciliate or awe the natives by
baptizing and investing Manteo with the Barony of Roanoke. Jealousies
arose between them and the tribes. They aggravated their difficulties by
murdering in error a number of friendly Indians. Misfortunes of various
kinds beset them. Supplies failed, and Governor White came home for
more. At his departure the colony included eighty-nine men, seventeen
women, and two children. Among them were White's daughter, Eleanor Dare,
and her child. The time was inopportune. An embargo had been laid on all
shipping, in expectation of the Spanish invasion. By Ralegh's influence
it was raised in favour of a couple of merchantmen, equipped for a West
Indian voyage, on condition that they transported men and necessaries to
Virginia. They broke the compact. Though they embarked White, they took
no colonists. They chased Spanish ships, fought with men-of-war from
Rochelle, and came back to England shattered.

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's persistency._]

Ralegh had other calls upon his resources. For the present he could do
no more for Virginia. He reckoned he had spent £40,000 on the
plantation. As Hakluyt wrote, 'it demanded a prince's purse to have the
action thoroughly fulfilled without lingering.' Elizabeth was not
willing to play the part of godmother in the fairy-tale sense. For a
substitute, the founder, being in difficulties, had recourse to the very
modern expedient of a company. In March, 1589, as Chief Governor, he
assigned a right to trade in Virginia, not his patent, to Thomas Smith,
John White, Richard Hakluyt, and others. He reserved a fifth of all the
gold and silver extracted. The Adventurers were not very active. Ralegh
still felt himself responsible for the colony, if it could be described
as one. Such expeditions as sailed he mainly promoted. Southey's
accusation that he 'abandoned the poor colonists' is ludicrously unjust.
If, as has without due cause been imputed to Bacon, the charge in the
essay on Plantations of the sinfulness of 'forsaking or destituting a
plantation once in forwardness' refer to Ralegh, Bacon would be as
calumnious. In 1590 White prosecuted the search for his daughter and
grandchild, and the rest of the vanished planters. Ralegh despatched
other expeditions for the same object, and with as little success. One,
under Samuel Mace, with that purpose sailed in 1602 or 1603. By the time
Mace returned, the Chief Governor was attainted, and his proprietorship
of Virginia had escheated to the Crown.

[Sidenote: _Reward of an idea._]

Ralegh never relinquished hope in his nursling. 'I shall yet live,' he
wrote just before his fall, 'to see it an English nation.' In 1606 a new
and strong colony was sent out, and his confidence was justified. From
an old account of the career of his nephew, Captain Ralph Gilbert, a son
of Sir Humphrey, it would seem he still considered in 1607 that his
connexion with the country continued. In that year Ralph Gilbert is said
to have voyaged to Virginia on his behalf. Though his direct exertions
were confined to the region of the James and Potomac, his jurisdiction
in the north was recognized. The term Virginia covered a very wide area.
It included, not only the present Virginias, but the Carolinas and more
besides. New England itself originally was supposed to be comprised.
Captain Gosnold, Captain Bartholomew Gilbert, and others, when they
planned the occupation of Martha's Vineyard in 1602, described it as
'the north part of Virginia,' and sought and obtained Ralegh's
permission and encouragement. Posterity has rewarded his faith and
perseverance. He never set foot anywhere in the country called generally
Virginia. His expeditions by deputy were themselves confined to the part
which is now North Carolina. All his experiments at the colonization of
that were failures. His £40,000, his colonists, and the polity he framed
for them, had disappeared before any white settlement took root. But he
will always be esteemed the true parent of North American colonization.
An idea like his has life in it, though the plant may not spring up at
once. When it rises above the surface the sower can claim it. Had the
particular region of the New World not eventually become a permanent
English settlement, he would still have earned the merit of authorship
of the English colonizing movement. As Humboldt has said, without him,
and without Cabot, North America might never have grown into a home of
the English tongue.

[Sidenote: _Potatoes and Tobacco._]

Ralegh's Virginian scheme cost much money, and brought in little. It
gave him fame, which he craved still more, and kept the town talking.
His distant seigniory excited the English imagination. He was believed
to have endowed his Sovereign with a new realm. He had the glory of
having enriched his country with new fruits, plants, and flowers. The
nature of the man was that he could touch nothing but immediately it
appropriated itself to him. He is fabled to have been the first to
import mahogany into England from Guiana. He set orange trees in the
garden of his wife's uncle, Sir Francis Carew, at Beddington; and he has
been credited with their first introduction. The Spaniards first brought
potatoes into Europe. Hariot and Lane first discovered them in North
Carolina. He grew them at Youghal, and they became his. Hariot
discoursed learnedly on the virtues of tobacco, and Drake conveyed the
leaf to England. Ralegh smoked, and none but he has the repute of the
fashion. He gave the taste vogue, teaching the courtiers to smoke their
pipes with silver bowls, and supplying them with the leaf. Sir John
Stanhope excuses himself in 1601 from sending George Carew in Ireland
any 'tabacca, because Mr. Secretary and Sir Walter have stored you of
late.' Till he mounted the scaffold, having first 'taken tobacco,' the
kingdom resounded with legends, doubtful enough, of his devotion to this
his familiar genius. It was told how his old manservant deluged him at
Sherborne with spiced ale to put out the combustion inside him; how he
won wagers of the Queen that he could weigh vapours; how he smoked as
Essex died. Society stared to see him take a pipe at Sir Robert
Poyntz's. His gilt leather tobacco case was a prize for a Yorkshire
museum. For words, ways, and doings, he was the observed of all
observers. He was active in twenty different directions at once. He was
always before the eyes of the world. His name was on every lip.

[Sidenote: _Pioneer and Privateer._]

Among his constant motives of action was a fiery indignation at the
spectacle of the Spanish monopoly of the New World. No sentiment could
stir more of English sympathy. The people heartily shared his
determination to rival Spain, and to pillage Spain. He had the Viking
spirit, and he burnt with a freebooter's passion for the sea. But he had
an intuition also of the national capacity for colonization, in which
the purest patriot must have concurred. He was resolved to direct the
maritime enthusiasm of his countrymen and their age to that definite
end. He succeeded, though destined to the lot rather of Moses than of
Joshua. His outlay on Virginia did not bound his expenditure in these
ways. Adrian his half-brother, and his habitual associate, had resumed
Sir Humphrey Gilbert's old project for the discovery of a North-West
Passage to India and China. A patent was granted him in 1583. He
established a 'Fellowship' to work it. Ralegh joined. Captain John Davys
was appointed commander, and two barks were equipped. Davys discovered
Davis's Straits. Mount Ralegh, shining like gold, he christened after
one of his most celebrated patrons. Hakluyt in 1587 stated that Ralegh
had thrice contributed with the forwardest to Davys's North-West
voyages. From a mixture of patriotism, maritime adventurousness, and the
love of gain, he employed his various opportunities to engage in
privateering as a regular business. Privy Council minutes for 1585
mention captures by him, through his officers, of Spanish ships, with
600 Spaniards, at the Newfoundland fisheries. He sent forth in June,
1586, his ships Serpent and Mary Spark, under Captains Jacob Whiddon and
John Evesham, to fight the Spaniards at the Azores. In a battle of
thirty-two hours, against twenty-four Spanish ships, they failed to
capture two great caracks which they coveted. They brought home three
less valuable, but remunerative, prizes. Don Pedro Sarmiento de Genaboa,
Governor of the Straits of Magellan, and other captives were worth heavy
ransoms. Ralegh repeats in the History, 'a pretty jest' told him
'merrily' by the worthy Don Pedro, on whom he clearly did not allow
thraldom to weigh heavily, how the draftsman of the chart of the Straits
invented an island in them at his wife's instance, that she might have
something specially her own in the chart. In the same year, 1586, he
contributed a pinnace to a plundering expedition of the Earl of
Cumberland's to the South Sea. Though he was not allowed to be often at
sea in person, he vindicated by his eager promotion of maritime
adventures a full right to be entered, as we find him in January, 1586,
in an official list of 'sea captains.'

[Sidenote: _Charges of Piracy._]

[Sidenote: _His Defence._]

As Vice-Admiral of the South-West, he possessed advantages beyond most
for private raids upon Spanish commerce. When he was not on the spot,
his faithful and affectionate deputy in Devonshire, Sir John Gilbert,
was at hand to look after his ships' stores. Doubtless outrages were
committed under shelter of his Court favour. He joined the evil
experiences of the sailor with those of the soldier and courtier in his
dying regrets. Occasionally the Privy Council had to expostulate
energetically. In 1589 a ship of his took two barks of Cherbourg. He and
his officers were charged to minister no cause of grief to any of the
French king's subjects. In the same year, Albert Reynerson was lodging
complaints against Ralegh's captain of the Roebuck. Another of his
captains, John Floyer, in 1592, was accused of having captured a ship of
Bayonne with a load of cod, beside a waistcoat of carnation colour,
curiously embroidered. Filippo Corsini sued him in that year for a ship
his people had seized. In 1600 the Republic of Venice was aggrieved at
the capture of a Venetian merchantman by Sir John Gilbert, junior,
eldest son of Sir Humphrey, in command of one of Ralegh's vessels. At
other times Venice claimed the surrender of Venetian goods in Spanish
bottoms, though Ralegh stoutly argued against the claim. Sometimes the
Government could not but interfere when neutrals had been pillaged. It
was always reluctant to discourage the buccaneering trade, which it knew
to be very lucrative. For instance, Ralegh and eleven other adventurers
in 1591 equipped, at a cost of £8000, privateers which brought home
prizes worth £31,150. The profit to the partnership was £14,952, which
must be multiplied five times to express the present value. In high
places no repugnance to the pursuit was felt. The Queen not rarely
adventured, and looked for the lion's share of the spoil. Robert Cecil,
after he had succeeded to his father's ascendency, was willing to
speculate, if his association might be kept secret: 'For though, I thank
God, I have no other meaning than becometh an honest man in any of my
actions, yet that which were another man's _Pater noster_, would be
accounted in me a charm.' Ralegh's views and character obliged him to no
bashful dissimulation of the practice. To him privateering seemed
strictly legal, and unequivocally laudable. He boasted in 1586 that he
had consumed the best part of his fortune in abating the tyrannous
prosperity of Spain. He acted as much in defence and retaliation as for
offence. He stated in the House of Commons in 1592 that the West Country
had, since the Parliament began, been plundered of the worth of
£440,000. In 1603 he wrote that a few Dunkirk privateers under Spanish
protection had 'taken from the West Country merchants within two years
above three thousand vessels, beside all they had gotten from the rest
of the ports of England.' He himself, as the State Papers testify, had
often to lament losses of ships through Spanish and French privateers.
Public opinion entirely justified the vigour with which he conducted his
retaliation. If he were unpopular among his countrymen, or any section
of them, the fact is not to be explained by the employment of his riches
and influence in onslaughts upon foreign commerce. As he has written in
his History, Englishmen never objected to the most fearful odds, when
'royals of plate and pistolets' were in view. They might have been
expected to be grateful to a leading promoter of lucratively perilous
enterprises; and in the West they were.




CHAPTER VI.

PATRON AND COURTIER (1583-1590).


[Sidenote: _Hakluyt._]

In social and private as well as public life Ralegh was open-handed and
liberal in kind offices. Those are not unpopular characteristics. He was
a patron of letters. His name may be read in many dedications. Few of
them can have been gratuitous. Martin Bassanière of Paris inscribed to
him very appropriately his publication of Laudonnière's narrative of the
French expedition to Florida. Richard Hakluyt, junior, during his
residence in France, had lighted upon Laudonnière's manuscript. From him
Bassanière received it. He translated the volume in 1587, and dedicated
his version to Ralegh. Hakluyt had to thank Ralegh also for material
assistance both with money and with advice in the compilation of his
celebrated collection of voyages. The manuscript, for example, of the
Portuguese narrative of de Gama's voyage in 1541 to the Red Sea had been
bought for £60 by Ralegh, who presented it to him. Ralegh again was 'at
no small charges' towards the production by the French painter, Jacques
Morgues, of a series of coloured illustrations of Florida, whither he
had accompanied Laudonnière. In 1586 the publisher of John Case's
_Praise of Music_ dedicated it to Ralegh, as a virtuoso. In 1588
Churchyard dedicated to him the _Spark of Friendship_. Hooker, the
antiquary, introduced the continuation of the Irish history of Giraldus
Cambrensis with a fervent encomium on the illustrious Warden of the
Stannaries, who was 'rather a servant than a commander to his own
fortune.' A medical treatise was inscribed to him as an expert. A list
which has been preserved of his signs for chemical substances and drugs,
shows that as early as 1592 he had paid attention to medicine. He
appears to have kept amanuenses to copy interesting manuscripts. Thus,
John Peirson who, in 1585, was in trouble in connexion with a tract
entitled _Reasons why the King of Scots is unacceptable to the People of
England_, deposed that he delivered one of the five copies he made to
'Sir Walter Ralegh, my master.'

[Sidenote: _Hariot._]

[Sidenote: _Udal._]

Throughout life he befriended Hariot, the universal philosopher, as he
has been called. Hariot has been credited with the invention of the
system of notation in Algebra. He discovered the solar spots before, and
the satellites of Jupiter almost simultaneously with, Galileo. Hariot,
who numbered Bishops among his admirers, was accused by zealots of
atheism, because his cosmogony was not orthodox. They discerned a
judgment in his death in 1621 from cancer in the lip or nose. His ill
repute for free-thinking was reflected on Ralegh who hired him to teach
him mathematics, and engaged him in his colonizing projects. Ralegh
introduced him to the Earl of Northumberland, who allowed him a liberal
pension. But new ties did not weaken the old. Hariot and he remained
constantly attached. Hariot was the friend whose society he chiefly
craved when he was recovering from his wound in the Tower. During his
long imprisonment Hariot was the faithful companion of his studies.
Hariot brought to his notice another Oxford man, Lawrence Keymis. Keymis
is described by Wood as well read in geography and mathematics. I am
indebted to Professor Jowett for a confirmation from the Register of
Balliol, which Keymis entered in 1579, graduating Master of Arts in
1586, of Wood's statement that he was elected a probationer Fellow in
November, 1582. He was then nineteen years old, and an undergraduate.
Five Bachelors of Arts were elected with him. To him also, of whom there
will be much, too much, hereafter to say, Ralegh was a generous patron.
Ralegh was equally ready to spend his court interest in the service of a
pious theologian like John Udal the Hebraist. Udal in 1590 published of
the Bishops, that they 'cared for nothing but the maintenance of their
dignities, be it the damnation of their own souls, and infinite millions
more.' He was tried for treason, since the Bishops, it was averred,
governed the Church for the Queen. A jury convicted him of authorship of
the book. The Judges iniquitously held that to amount to a conviction of
felony. They therefore sentenced him to death. He prayed Ralegh to
intercede with the Queen to commute his punishment to banishment, 'that
the land might not be charged with his blood.' Ralegh accepted the
office, and Essex combined with him. Retailers of court gossip
conjectured that his kindness was policy. They imagined that he and
Essex were secretly allied, and that Essex was employing him as 'an
instrument from the Puritans to the Queen upon any particular question
of relieving them.' A simpler and more generous motive is the more
probable. He fought for Udal against the same lying spirit of legal
casuistry which was to destroy himself. King James to his honour joined
subsequently in mediating. Among them they saved the enthusiast's neck;
but he died in the Marshalsea, pending a dispute whether he could safely
be permitted to carry his anti-prelatic zeal and immense learning into a
chaplaincy in Guinea.

[Sidenote: _Good Offices._]

Other instances could be mentioned of Ralegh's disposition to pass his
favour on. 'When, Sir Walter,' asked Elizabeth of him, as he came with a
petition from a friend, 'will you cease to be a beggar?' 'When your
gracious Majesty,' was the answer, 'ceases to be a benefactor.' He has
had attributed to him, though obscurely, the project of an institution,
described as an 'office of address,' a species of entrepôt at which
either information and useful services, or both, might be exchanged.
Southey interprets it in the former sense, and regards it as an
anticipation of the Royal Society. That was the view of Evelyn, who says
that Ralegh put this 'fountain of communication in practice.' How is not
remembered. At any rate, in the second sense he energetically applied
the principle in his own conduct. Not less from kindness than from the
wish to secure personal adherents, he was generally helpful. Now, his
client was a poor wounded officer, whose arrears of pay he was praying
the Treasury to discharge; partly, for love of him; partly, for honest
consideration. Now, it was some prosperous placeman, his equal, or his
superior in rank. As he boasts, in claiming a return from an Irish law
officer, 'I assure you, on mine honour, I have deserved it at his hands
in places where it may most stead him.' He used like language of the
Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam. Before he rose he had ranked himself among
Leicester's followers. Leicester speedily grew jealous of his
prosperity. Sir Henry Wotton, who imputed the beginning of Ralegh's rise
to Leicester, has stated in his Parallel between Essex and George
Villiers, that the Earl soon found him such an apprentice as knew well
enough how to set up for himself. Ralegh never withheld due marks of
deference from his elder. Churchyard the poet described, or undertook to
describe, a grand Shrovetide show prepared by Ralegh, in which the
gentlemen of the Guard represented the Earl's exploits in Flanders.
Ralegh was ever at pains to remove any specific grievance. On March 29,
1586, he writes to assure Leicester that he had urged the Queen to grant
the request for pioneers in the Netherlands. He seems to have been
accused, as he was to be accused seventeen years later, of intrigues on
behalf of Spain, which he had constantly been attacking. He could not
have had much difficulty in defending himself from the charge, about
which he remarks he had been 'of late very pestilent reported.' It was
not so clear that he recognized the Earl's paramount title as Queen's
favourite. To disarm suspicion on that score he adds a postscript: 'The
Queen is in very good terms with you, and, thank be to God, well
pacified; and you are again her Sweet Robyn.' He cannot have esteemed
Leicester. A stinging epitaph, attributed to him with the usual scarcity
of evidence, may express his real view of the poor-spirited soldier, the
deceitful courtier, the statesman and noble 'that all the world did
hate.' But he was no backbiter. Elizabeth vouched for his claim to
Leicester's friendliness. She bade Walsingham declare to Leicester, upon
her honour, that the gentleman had done good offices for him in the time
of her displeasure.

[Sidenote: _The Earl of Oxford._]

He could be useful to the greatest; whether only great, or great and
deserving too. He had been always solicitous of Burleigh's goodwill. As
a rival at Court of Leicester, he had it. Burleigh loved no Court
favourites. 'Seek not to be Essex; shun to be Ralegh,' was his warning
to his son. Robert Cecil, awkward and deformed, was in no danger.
Favourites represented a side of the Queen's nature which continually
troubled the wise Minister. Their accomplishments were not his. They
were costly. While he cannot have failed to perceive something admirable
in Ralegh, he would not value the majority of his merits. The poetry and
imaginativeness he despised. Still he always preserved amicable
relations. He condescended to use Ralegh's personal influence as well as
Hatton's. In the spring of 1583 he solicited the mediation of both those
favourites with the Queen for his son-in-law, Edward Vere, Earl of
Oxford. Oxford was in disgrace on the charge, not very heavy in those
days as against an Earl, of having slain Long Tom, a retainer of Mr.
Knyvett's. The Queen had rejected Burleigh's own intercession. She
appears to have granted forgiveness at Ralegh's suit. Oxford's arrogance
had provoked Sir Philip Sidney. It had not spared Ralegh, who, Aubrey
says, had been 'a second with him in a duel.' Ralegh pretended no
kindliness for the Earl; he avowed to Burleigh that as a mediator he
acted for the Minister's sake alone: 'I am content to lay the serpent
before the fire, as much as in me lieth, that, having recovered
strength, myself may be more in danger of his poison and sting.'
Eighteen years after, not that he cared, he found the venom was not
exhausted.

[Sidenote: _His Unpopularity._]

[Sidenote: _An Excess of Capability._]

Ralegh did not hoard or keep to himself the wealth and power conferred
upon him. His was an age of patronage. Other successful courtiers had,
like him, their trains of dependants. He was at least as bountiful as
any and as sympathetic. His followers believed in and worshipped him.
Posterity he has captivated. Yet throughout his active career he aroused
bitter hatred, unless in the West, and in his own home circle. The fact
requires to be noted for the purpose of appraising contemporary comments
upon his acts. Apologists and impartial chroniclers are as distinct as
enemies in intimating that he was a constant mark for 'detraction' and
'envyings.' He was unpopular on account alike of his demeanour, of the
Queen's favour, and of the monopolizing energy in the public service by
which to posterity he has justified it. All students recollect Aubrey's
description of him as one whose blemish or 'næve it was that he was
damnably proud.' In serious illustration of the charge, Aubrey repeats a
tale related by an old attendant, who had seen the Lord High Admiral in
the Privy Garden wipe with his cloak the dust from Ralegh's shoes 'in
compliment.' Aubrey's description of Ralegh is all hearsay; since he was
not born till 1627. He may have been told anecdotes by members of the
family; for his grandfather was a Wiltshire neighbour of Sir Carew
Ralegh, and he was himself a schoolfellow of Sir Carew's grandchildren.
But he was utterly uncritical, and his bare assertion would carry little
weight. The testimony of a sworn foe, like Lord Henry Howard, to
Ralegh's extraordinary haughtiness, may be regarded even with more
suspicion. An old acquaintance, however, and a political ally, the Earl
of Northumberland, similarly describes Ralegh as 'insolent, extremely
heated, a man that desired to seem to be able to sway all men's
courses.' That this was the current opinion, due, as it was, more or
less to misconception, is borne out by a mass of authority. Ralegh must
have profoundly impressed all about him with a sense that he felt
himself better fitted than themselves to regulate their lives. His air
of conscious superiority silenced opposition, but was resented. Neither
a mob, nor Howards and Percies pardoned his assumption of an infinite
superiority of capacity. His gaiety and splendour were treated as proofs
of arrogance. His evident contempt of 'the rascal multitude' added to
the odium which dogged his course. He never condescended to allude to
the subject in writing or in authenticated speech. Though he courted
occasions for renown, he did not seek applause. His position as a
Queen's favourite in any case must have brought aversion upon him.
Tarleton, as he half acted, half improvised, is said to have shuffled a
pack of cards, and pointed at him, standing behind the Queen's chair, an
insolent innuendo: 'See, the knave commands the Queen.' The comedian, if
the story be true, could reckon upon the support of a vast body of
popular malevolence. Still, as a favourite, Ralegh only shared the lot
of his class. The same privileged player is alleged to have proceeded to
satirize Leicester as well. Hatton was a frequent butt for fierce
sarcasms upon royal favouritism. The phenomenon in Ralegh's unpopularity
is that proof absolutely irrefutable of the grandeur of his powers, and
all the evidence of his exploits, should never have won him an amnesty
for the original sin of his sovereign's kindness. Pride itself, it might
have been thought, would have been pardoned at last in the doer of such
deeds. His inexpiable offences really were his restless activity, and
his passion for personal management. He was a born manager of men.
Whatever was in hand, he saw what ought to be done, and was conscious of
ability to arrange for the doing. He could never be connected with an
enterprise which he was not determined to direct. He could endure to be
a subordinate only if his masters would be in leading-strings.




CHAPTER VII.

ESSEX. THE ARMADA (1587-1589).


[Sidenote: _Popularity of Essex._]

As a favourite Ralegh was certain to have originally been hated by the
people. His favour might have been tolerated by courtiers, or by a
sufficient section of them, if he had been content to parade and enjoy
his pomps, and had let them govern. His strenuous vigour exasperated
them as much as his evident conviction of a right to rule. They never
ceased to regard him on that account as a soldier of fortune, and an
upstart. So poor a creature as Hatton had his party at Court. When he
retired to the country in dudgeon at a display of royal grace to Ralegh,
his friends, as Sir Thomas Heneage, were busy for him so late as April,
1585. Elizabeth was persuaded by them to let them give him assurances on
her behalf, that she would rather see Ralegh hanged than equal him with
Hatton, or allow the world to think she did. When Hatton was out of date
the courtiers combined to set up Essex against him, and had the
assistance of the multitude in their tactics. The popular attitude
towards Essex is the solitary exception to the rule of the national
abhorrence of favourites. It is explained as much by the dislike of
Ralegh as by Essex's ingratiating characteristics. Animosity against
Ralegh stimulated courtiers and the populace to sing in chorus the
praises of the stepson of the detested Leicester. No anger was exhibited
at the elevation of a lad of twenty to the Mastership of the Horse.
Stories of the Queen's supposed infatuation, how she 'kept him at cards,
or one game or another, the whole night, and he cometh not to his own
lodgings till birds sing in the morning,' amused, and did not incense.
Meanwhile the approved soldier, the planter of Virginia, was in the same
May, 1587, truthfully described as 'the best hated man of the world in
Court, city, and country.'

[Sidenote: _His Antipathy to Ralegh._]

For the crowd Essex may have had the merit of being of an ancient
nobility, which needed no intricate demonstration by antiquaries and
genealogists. He had enough patrimonial wealth to justify the Sovereign
in showering largess upon him. He was not one of the irrepressible west
countrymen who brought their nimble wits, comeliness, and courage to the
market of the Court. He was more bright than stately. His petulance did
not produce an impression of haughtiness. For the courtier class he
possessed the yet higher virtue of willingness to be at once a centre
and watchword and an instrument. From the first he was manipulated as an
engine against Ralegh. In a letter to one of his many confidants he
shows the readiness with which he accepted the office. In 1587 Elizabeth
was on a progress, and was staying at North Hall in Hertfordshire.
Ralegh, as Captain of the Guard, and Essex both attended her. Essex
writes to his friend, Edward Dyer, that he reproached the Queen for
having slighted his sister, Lady Dorothy Perrot, the wife of Ralegh's
old antagonist, Sir Thomas. He declared to her 'the true cause of this
disgrace to me and to my sister, which was only to please that knave
Ralegh, for whose sake I saw she would both grieve me and my love, and
disgrace me in the eyes of the world. From thence she came to speak of
Ralegh, and it seemed she could not well endure anything to be spoken
against him; and taking hold of the word "disdain," she said there was
"no such cause why I should disdain him." This speech did touch me so
much that, as near as I could, I did describe unto her what he had been,
and what he was. I 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,
what of grief and choler, as much against him as I could, and I think
he, standing at the door, might very well hear the very worst that I
spoke of himself. In the end I saw she was resolved to defend him, and
to cross me. For myself, I told her I had no joy to be in any place, but
was loth to be near about her, when I knew my affection so much thrown
down, and such a wretch as Ralegh highly esteemed of her.' When he
called Ralegh a wretch the Queen expressed her disgust at the
impertinence by turning away to Lady Warwick, and closed the interview.

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Decline._]

Essex spoke, and perhaps thought, thus of Ralegh in 1587. So the nation
at large spoke and thought of him then, and for many years afterwards.
If he had only been such as he had as yet shown himself, posterity might
have found it difficult to prove the condemnation unjust. He had risen
in virtue of a handsome person and a courtly wit. He had equipped
expeditions of discovery, in which he took no share of the perils, and
the whole of the glory. He had fought and spoiled the Spaniards, chiefly
by deputy, risking his own person as little as 'the noble warrior' of
his reputed epigram, 'that never blunted sword.' The hardships and
dangers he had sturdily braved in France and Ireland were for his
contemporaries simple myths, as they would have been for us, had he died
at thirty-five. Had he retained the Queen's favour uninterrupted, had
she not been capricious, had there been no Essex, had there been no
Elizabeth Throckmorton, he might have died at sixty, at seventy, or at
eighty, and a verdict hardly less severe been pronounced. It is not
certain. Possibly in any event, the vigour inherent in the man, his
curiosity, his instinct for stamping his will on the world outside, his
eagerness to impel his nation to empire westwards, might have had their
way. They might have mastered the contradictory ambition to be
victorious in a contest of factions. While he was still absorbed in
Court strifes, and in the seductive labour of building up a fortune, he
had proved that he was no mere carpet knight. But it was well that his
natural tendencies towards a life of action were braced by the
experience of a chill in the ardour of royal benevolence. From 1587, as
the star of Essex rose, and his was supposed to be waning, his orbit can
be seen widening. It became more independent. As reigning favourite he
had vicariously explored, colonized, plundered, and fought. Henceforth
he was to do a substantial part of his own work.

[Sidenote: _Antedated._]

Essex, at the period of the North Hall scene, was new to the Court. He
must soon have discovered that Ralegh was not to be spurned as a clown,
or to be stormed out of the Queen's graces by insolence. He did not grow
therefore the less hostile. He rejected Elizabeth's inducements to him
to live on terms of amity with a rival in all essential respects
infinitely his superior. Persuaded that she could not dispense with
himself, he persisted in putting her to her option between them. The
rank and file at Elizabeth's Court had a keen scent for their
Sovereign's bias. They foresaw the inevitable end, though they antedated
by several years the actual catastrophe. In 1587 Arabella Stuart, a girl
of twelve, was at Court. She supped at Lord Burleigh's. The other guests
were her uncle, Sir Charles Cavendish, and Ralegh. Cavendish mentions
the entertainment in a letter to a friend. He relates that Burleigh
praised to Ralegh 'Lady Arbell,' who had been congratulating herself
that 'the Queen had examined her nothing touching her book,' for her
French, Italian, music, dancing, and writing. Burleigh wished she were
fifteen years old. 'With that he rounded Sir Walter in the ear, who
answered, it would be a very happy thing.' Cavendish goes on to observe
that Sir Walter was in wonderful declination, yet laboured to underprop
himself by my Lord Treasurer and his friends. He inferred from the
contrast between Ralegh's former pride and his present too great
humility, that he would never rise again. My Lord Treasurer and his
friends were not given to the support of discarded favourites. Ralegh's
presence at so intimate a gathering, and the confidence vouchsafed him,
are signs that he was still potent. The stream of the royal bounty
continued to flow. The Babington grant was in 1587. For several years
to come other similar tokens of regard were accorded him. Towards the
close of 1587 itself signal testimony was offered of the trust of the
Queen and her counsellors in his wisdom and martial skill.

[Sidenote: _A Council of War._]

In February, 1587, Queen Mary Stuart was executed. It is the one
important event of the period with which Ralegh's name is not connected.
He does not appear to have been consulted, nor to have spoken on the
matter either in or out of Parliament. Its consequences concerned him.
The act quickened the Spanish preparations for the invasion of England.
King Philip had no thought of concealment. He published his designs to
all Europe. The menaced kingdom had full notice. In November, 1587, a
council of war was instructed to consider the means of defence. Its
members were Lord Grey, Sir Thomas Knolles, Sir Thomas Leighton, Sir
Walter Ralegh, described as Lieutenant-General of Cornwall, Sir John
Norris, Sir Richard Grenville, Sir Richard Bingham, who had been
Ralegh's early comrade in Ireland, Sir Roger Williams, and Mr. Ralph
Lane. They advised that Milford Haven, the Isle of Wight, the Downs,
Margate, the Thames, and Portland should be fortified against Spanish
descents. They thought it improbable the King of Spain would venture his
fleet far within the Sleeve before he had mastered some good harbour.
Consequently they recommended the defence of Plymouth by strong works,
and a garrison of 5000 men from Cornwall and Devon. Portland they
reported should be guarded by 2700 from Dorset and Wilts. If the enemy
landed, the country was to be driven so as to leave no victuals for the
invader. Ralegh separately petitioned Burleigh for cannon for Portland
and Weymouth. Thence some have inferred that he was now Governor of the
former.

[Sidenote: _The Armada._]

In December, 1587, he was employed, in concert with Sir John Gilbert and
Lord Bath, in levying a force of 2000 foot and 200 horse in Cornwall and
Devon. Exeter claimed exemption on account of its heavy expenses for the
defence of its trade against Barbary corsairs. By the beginning of 1588
the immediate fear of attack had abated. The invasion was thought to
have been put off. Ralegh took the opportunity to visit Ireland. There
he had both public and private duties. He retained his commission in the
army. Moreover, he was answerable, as a Crown tenant, for twenty
horsemen, though his charges for them were refunded. Thus, in March,
1588, an order was made for the payment to him of £244 for the previous
half year. Always he had his estate to put in order, and functions
connected with it to perform. According to the local records, he served
this year the office of Mayor of Youghal. During a considerable portion
of the term he must have been an absentee. In Ireland the news reached
him that the Armada had started or was starting. Hastening back he
commenced by mustering troops in the West, and strengthening Portland
Castle. But his own trust was in the fleet. In his _History of the
World_ he propounds the question whether England without its fleet would
be able to debar an enemy from landing. He answers by showing how easily
ships, without putting themselves out of breath, will outrun soldiers
marching along the coast. The Spaniards in July, 1588, could, in his
opinion, but for the English ships, have chosen a landing-place with no
sufficient army at hand to resist them. The Armada might have failed, he
admits, against the choice troops gathered about the Queen. He did not
believe in the ability of the remainder round the coast to encounter an
army like that which the Prince of Parma could have landed in England.
His advice had its weight in inducing Elizabeth to fit out the fleet,
which did noble service under Howard of Effingham.

[Sidenote: _Against 'Grappling'._]

He acted upon his own doctrine. On July 21 the Defiance assailed a
Spanish ship near the Eddystone. On the 23rd the Spaniards were over
against Portland. Thereupon Ralegh gave over his land charge to others.
With a body of gentlemen volunteers he embarked, and joined in the
universal rush at and about the enemy. All day the battle raged. Ships
started out of every haven, to the number of a hundred. All hurried to
Portland, 'as unto a sea-field where immortal fame and glory was to be
attained, and faithful service to be performed unto their prince and
country.' It was for the Englishmen 'a morris dance upon the waters.' We
may be sure he applied his principle of the worse armed but handier
fleet, not 'grappling,' as 'a great many malignant fools' contended Lord
Howard ought, but 'fighting loose or at large.' 'The guns of a slow
ship,' he observes, 'make as great holes as those of a swift. The
Spaniards had an army aboard them, and Howard 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. But our admiral knew his advantage,
and held it; which had he not done he had not been worthy to have held
his head.' Camden reports advice given to Howard by one of his officers
to grapple on July 23. It has been surmised that Ralegh dissuaded him.
It may be so; and Ralegh can be construed as wishing it to be so
understood.

Next day the Spaniards lay by to breathe. The English had leisure to
send ashore for powder and shot. These for the great guns had, he has
recorded, been unduly stinted. On July 25 the battle was resumed, as the
enemy sailed towards the Isle of Wight. A Portuguese galleon was
captured. On moved both fleets to the Straits of Dover. Many fresh
English volunteer ships kept streaming in till the English fleet
numbered 140 sail. Here Camden alludes to Ralegh by name. So does a
correspondent of Mendoza, describing him as 'a gentleman of the Queen's
Privy Chamber.' He must have been at the decisive struggle before
Calais; 'Never was seen by any man living such a battery.' He was
present at the desperate stand of the Spaniards opposite Gravelines. He
helped to hunt the enemy into the northern seas. In a passage,
attributed by Strype to Drake, of his _Report of the Truth of the Fight
about the Isles of the Azores_, he writes: 'The navy of 140 sail, was by
thirty of the Queen's ships of war and a few merchantmen, beaten and
shuffled together, even from the Lizard Point, in Cornwall, to Portland,
where they shamefully left Don Pedro de Valdez with his mighty ship;
from Portland to Calais, where they lost Hugo de Monçada, with the
galleys of which he was captain; and from Calais, driven with squibs
from their anchors, were chased out of the sight of England round about
Scotland and Ireland; where, for the sympathy of their barbarous
religion, hoping to find succour and assistance, a great part of them
were crushed against the rocks; and those others who landed, being very
many in number, were, notwithstanding, broken, slain, and taken, and so
sent from village to village, coupled with halters, to be shipped into
England; where her Majesty, of her princely and "invincible"
disposition, disdaining to put them to death, and scorning either to
retain or entertain them, they were all sent back again to their own
country, to witness and recount the worthy achievements of their
"invincible navy".'

[Sidenote: _Retaliation on Spain._]

Ralegh had much to do with the preliminary arrangements for the repulse
of the Armada. He advised on the manner in which the victory might be
improved. Several of the noble Spanish prisoners were committed to his
charge. A plan was formed, which the completeness of the Spanish
overthrow rendered unnecessary, for the despatch of Sir Richard
Grenville and him to Ireland for the suppression of any armed body of
Spanish fugitives. His part in the actual Channel fighting had been that
simply of one among many gallant captains. When next the State made a
naval demonstration he continued to play a secondary character. In
April, 1589, an expedition, under Drake and Norris, of six Queen's
men-of-war and 120 volunteer sail, started to restore Don Antonio to the
throne of Portugal. It was retaliation for the Armada. Ralegh sailed in
a ship of his own, as a volunteer without a command. Lisbon was assailed
and Vigo burnt. Otherwise the chief result of the attempt was spoil. In
the Tagus 200 vessels were burnt. Many of them were easterling hulks
laden with stores for a new invasion of England. Disease, arising from
intemperate indulgence in new wine, crippled the fleet, and led to a
quarrel between Ralegh and another Adventurer. Colonel Roger Williams
had lent men to bring home one of Ralegh's prizes. Williams treated
ship and cargo as therefore his in virtue of salvage. Ralegh, always
tenacious of his rights, resisted, and the Privy Council upheld him. The
expedition, which ended in June, though it did not gain much glory, was
profitable. He, for example, effected some lucrative captures, and was
paid £4000 as his share of the general booty.




CHAPTER VIII.

THE POET. (1589-1593).


[Sidenote: _Out of Favour._]

Ralegh would have been happier if he could have gone on fighting Spain
instead of returning to the discord of Court rivalries. Before the
summer was over he was again immersed in bickerings with Essex. The Earl
was prone to take offence. After the defeat of the Armada he had
challenged Ralegh to mortal combat. The unknown grievance was probably
not more serious than the title to a ribbon of the Queen's, for which, a
little later, he provoked a duel with Blount, Lord Mountjoy. Between him
and Ralegh the Council interposed. It averted a combat, and endeavoured
to suppress the fact of the challenge. The two could be bound over to
keep the peace. They could not be reconciled. Too many indiscreet or
malignant partisans were interested in inflaming the conflict. Elizabeth
tried with more or less success to adjust the balance by a rebuff to
each. She rejected Ralegh's solicitation of the rangership of the New
Forest for Lord Pembroke. She gave the post to Blount, Essex's recent
antagonist. Still, on the whole, there appears to have been some
foundation for the gossip of courtiers that Ralegh was more really in
the shade. Soon after his return from Portugal he had quitted the Court,
first, for the West, and then for Ireland. Captain Francis Allen wrote,
on August 17, 1589, to Francis Bacon's elder brother, Anthony, who
subsequently conducted Essex's foreign correspondence: 'My Lord of Essex
hath chased Mr. Ralegh from the Court, and hath confined him into
Ireland.' The statement was not accurate. Ralegh was able practically
to contradict it by his return, after a visit to Munster of a few
months. In a letter of December, 1589, he assured his cousin Carew,
'noble George,' then Master of the Ordnance in Ireland: 'For my retreat
from Court, it was upon good cause to take order for my prize. If in
Ireland they think I am not worth the respecting, they shall much
deceive themselves. I am in place to be believed not inferior to any
man, to pleasure or displeasure the greatest; and my opinion is so
received and believed as I can anger the best of them. And therefore, if
the Deputy be not as ready to stead me as I have been to defend him--be
it as it may. When Sir William Fitzwilliams shall be in England, I take
myself for his better by the honourable offices I hold, as also by that
nearness to her Majesty which I still enjoy.'

[Sidenote: _At Youghal._]

He could truly deny any permanent manifestation of a loss of royal
goodwill. He had been receiving fresh marks of it. He was about to
receive more. His Irish estate afforded sufficient ground for absence
from Court, though no less agreeable motive had concurred. He had
rounded off his huge concession by procuring from the Bishop of Lismore,
in 1587, a lease of Lismore Manor at a rent of £13 _6s. 8d._ He was
building on the site of the castle a stately habitation, which his
wealthy successors have again transformed out of all resemblance to his
work. He had conceived an affection for the Warden's house attached to
the Dominican Friary at Youghal, Myrtle Grove, or Ralegh's House, as it
came to be styled. Its present owner, Sir John Pope Hennessy, who has
made it the occasion of a picturesque but bitter monograph, thinks he
liked it because it reminded him of Hayes Barton. Other observers have
failed to see the resemblance. At present it remains much as it was when
Ralegh sat in its deep bays, or by its carved fire-place. The great
myrtles in its garden must be almost his contemporaries. He had his
experiments to watch, his potatoes and tobacco, his yellow wallflowers,
in the pleasant garden by the Blackwater. He had to replenish his farms
with well affected Englishmen whom he imported from Devon, Somerset,
and Dorset. In 1592 it is officially recorded that, beside fifty Irish
families, 120 Englishmen, many of whom had families, were settled on his
property. He was developing a mineral industry by the help of miners he
had hired from Cornwall. He was conducting, at a cost of some £200 a
year, a lively litigation with his Lismore neighbours, of which he wrote
in a few months to his cousin: 'I will shortly send over an order from
the Queen for a dismiss of their cavillations.' It was the short way of
composing law proceedings against Court favourites. He was planning the
confusion by similar means of the unfriendly Fitzwilliam's 'connivances
with usurpers of his land.' Yet a cloud there seems to have been, if
only a passing one. A memorable incident of literary history, connected
with this sojourn in Ireland, verifies the talk of the Court, and lends
it importance. It may even point to a relation between the haze dimly
discernible now, and the tempest which burst three years later.

[Sidenote: _Edmund Spenser._]

[Sidenote: _The Faerie Queene._]

Edmund Spenser had been with Lord Deputy Grey when Ralegh was a Munster
captain. But, if the poet be taken literally, they were not acquainted
before 1589. His Irish services, as Ralegh's, were rewarded out of the
Desmond forfeitures. He received 3028 acres in Cork, with Kilcolman
Castle, two miles from Doneraile. The estate formed part of a wide
plain, well watered, and, in the sixteenth century, well wooded. The
castle is now a roofless ivy-clad ruin. The poet was turning it into a
pleasant residence. Ralegh came to see it and him. Spenser has described
the visit in the tenderest and least artificial of his poems. _Colin
Clout's Come Home Again_, printed in 1595, was inscribed to his friend
in 1591. The dedication was expressed to be in part payment of an
infinite debt. The poet declared it unworthy of Sir Walter's higher
conceit for the meanness of the style, but agreeable to the truth in
circumstance and matter. Lines in the poem corroborate the hypothesis
that Elizabeth had for a time, perhaps in the summer of 1589, been
estranged from Ralegh:--

    His song was all a lamentable lay
    Of great unkindness, and of usage hard,
    Of Cynthia, the Ladie of the Sea,
    Which from her presence faultlesse him debard.

They equally imply that, before Colin Clout's lay was indited, great
Cynthia had been induced by his complainings to abate her sore
displeasure--

    And moved to take him to her grace againe.

The circumstances of Spenser's own introduction to Court indicate that
Ralegh had recovered favour. He read or lent to Ralegh during the visit
to Kilcolman the first three books of the _Faerie Queene_. According to
Ben Jonson he also delivered to him now or later 'the meaning of the
Allegory in papers.' The poem enchanted the visitor, who offered to
become the author's sponsor to Elizabeth. Together, if Colin Clout is to
be believed, they crossed the sea, and repaired to the Court. There--

    The Shepheard of the Ocean--quoth he--
    Unto that Goddesse grace me first enhanced,
    And to my oaten pipe enclin'd her eare.

The first three books of the _Faerie Queene_ were published early in
1590, with an expository letter from the most humbly affectionate author
to the Right Noble and Valorous Sir Walter Ralegh. First of all the
copies of commendatory verses prefixed to the poems stood two signed
W.R.

Spenser, in _Colin Clout_, lauded Ralegh as a poet:--

    Full sweetly tempered is that Muse of his,
    That can empierce a Princes mightie hart.

[Sidenote:_Cynthia._]

[Sidenote:_Date of the Poem._]

Ralegh must have shown him part of a poem addressed to Elizabeth as
Cynthia, and estimated to have contained as many as 15,000 lines when
completed, if ever. This prodigious elegy was never published by Ralegh,
and no entire manuscript of it is known to exist. Some years ago a paper
was found in the Hatfield collection, endorsed as 'in Sir Walter's own
hand.' The handwriting resembles that of Ralegh in 1603. It comprises
altogether 568 verses. Two short poems, of seven and fourteen lines,
come first; and the manuscript terminates with an unfinished poem of
seven stanzas in a variety of terza rima. The body of the contents
consists of 526 elegiac verses, described in the manuscript as 'The
twenty-first and last book of the Ocean, to Cynthia.' Archdeacon Hannah,
in his _Courtly Poets from Ralegh to Montrose_, concludes, with some
hesitation, that the whole was composed as a sequel, between 1603 and
1612, to a much earlier poem. He sees in it allusions to the death of
the Queen, which would more or less fix the date. Mr. Edmund Gosse, in
the _Athenaeum_, in January, 1886, has contested that hypothesis. He
thinks, in the first place, that the twenty-one lines which precede, and
the twenty-one which follow, the so-called twenty-first book, have no
relation to the poem of _Cynthia_. The rest he holds to be not a
continuation of _Cynthia_, but an integral portion of the original work.
That work, as a whole, he has convinced himself, was produced during the
author's transient disgrace, between August, 1589, and its end, which
may be taken to have been not later than December in the same year. That
no part of _Cynthia_, as we have it, was written later than 1603
scarcely admits of doubt. Ralegh would not have sat down in the reign of
James to write love ditties to Elizabeth. His repinings and upbraidings
are manifestly all pointed at a dead heart, not at a dead queen. Mr.
Gosse is, however, more successful in his argument that the main
Hatfield poem was written in the lifetime of Elizabeth, than in his
attempt to date it in 1589. He assumes that the poem was a finished
composition when Ralegh read from it to Spenser. It is not likely that
it ever was finished. Spenser's allusions to it point to a conception
fully formed, rather than to a work ready for publication. In the latter
case it is improbable, to the verge of impossibility, that Ralegh should
not have communicated it to his circle. An initial objection to the view
that the twenty-first book was penned in 1589 is its reference to the--

    Twelve years entire I wasted on this war,

that war being his struggle for the affection of Elizabeth. This Mr.
Gosse ingeniously, but not satisfactorily, appropriates as the main
support of his chronology. In the Paunsford recognizance Ralegh is set
down as of the Court in 1577. On no other evidence Mr. Gosse infers that
he was laying siege to Elizabeth's heart before he went to Ireland. Thus
the dozen years of the campaign would be conveniently over by the autumn
of 1589. A simpler solution seems to be to assign the rough-hewing
of the entire project of _Cynthia_, and its partial accomplishment, to
the term of Ralegh's short occultation in 1589. He might well have
disclosed to Spenser his project, and read out passages. They would be
melancholy for their sorrow's crown of sorrow, their recalling of former
undimmed felicity--

    Of all which past the sorrow only stays.

They would exaggerate royal unkindness. They would hardly have descanted
on the tenderness as absolutely extinct. Even before Spenser extolled
the _Cynthia_ in _Colin Clout_ in 1591, the harshness was softened, and
had melted back to the playing at love in which Elizabeth was wont to
indulge with her courtiers. When he resumed the theme on his banishment
from Court in 1592, he would feel that he had solid cause for
lamentation. By 1594 his disgrace seemed definite; the royal kindness
won by years of devotion--

    Twelve years of my most happy younger days--

appeared to have been utterly killed; and he was preparing to sail away
into space. The twenty-first book might have been written at any time
between 1592 and 1595, and its most dismal groans be fairly explicable.
Looking back to his regrets in 1589 for an episode of neglect, he could
wonder at himself--

    At middle day my sun seemed under land,
    When any little cloud did it obscure.

Had Spenser seen the twenty-first book of _Cynthia_ in 1591, with its
real or unreal blackness of despair, he would not have spoken of Ralegh
as basking in the renewed radiance of happy prospects. So _Cynthia_, as
far as it was ever composed, may be considered one poem, to which the
extant twenty-first book essentially belongs. There is not, therefore,
necessarily any hope, or fear, that the whole exists, or ever existed,
in a perfect shape. Ralegh would nurse the idea for all the years in
which the Queen's withdrawal of the light of her countenance gave him
comparative leisure. The twenty-first book itself would be written with
the direct purpose of softening his mistress's obduracy. The explanation
of its preservation among the Hatfield papers may be that, on the eve of
his departure, forsaken, withered, hopeless, for Guiana, it was
confided, in 1594 or 1595, to Cecil, then a good friend, for seasonable
production to the Queen. Viewed as written either in 1589, or in the
reign of James, much of the twenty-first book is without meaning. Its
tone is plain and significant for the years 1592 to 1595. If traced to
that period, it tells both of the bold coming adventure of 1595,

    To kingdoms strange, to lands far-off addressed,

and of the irresistible power of 'her memory' in 1592

    To call me back, to leave great honour's thought,
      To leave my friends, my fortune, my attempt;
    To leave the purpose I so long had sought,
      And hold both cares and comforts in contempt.

[Sidenote: _Belphoebe._]

Concurrent testimony in favour of a date for the book later than 1589,
though much prior to 1603, is afforded by the use in it of the name
Belphoebe:

    A queen she was to me--no more Belphoebe;
      A lion then--no more a milk-white dove;
    A prisoner in her breast I could not be;
      She did untie the gentle chains of love.

Belphoebe was a word coined apparently by Spenser. To the poem of
_Cynthia_ Spenser had said he owed the idea of the name, implying that
it was of his coinage. It was fashioned, he stated, 'according to
Ralegh's excellent conceit of Cynthia, Cynthia and Phoebe being both
names of Diana.' Ralegh, by the introduction of the name into his
_Cynthia_, at once has dated the canto in which it occurs as not earlier
than 1591, or, perhaps, than 1595, and indicated his desire to link his
own verses to the eventful meeting

                       among the coolly shade
    Of the green alders, by the Mulla's shore.

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Sonnet._]

Spenser referred again to the poem of _Cynthia_, and to Ralegh's poetic
greatness, in the most beautiful of the sonnets offered to his several
patrons at the end of his surpassing romance and allegory:

    To thee, that art the Summer's Nightingale,
    Thy Sovereign Goddess's most dear delight,
    Why do I send this rustic Madrigal,
    That may thy tuneful ear unseason quite?
    Thou only fit this argument to write,
    In whose high thoughts Pleasure hath built her bower,
    And dainty Love learned sweetly to indite.
    My rhymes I know unsavoury and sour,
    To taste the streams that, like a golden shower,
    Flow from the fruitful head of thy Love's praise;
    Fitter perhaps to thunder martial stowre,
    Whenso thee list thy lofty Muse to raise;
    Yet, till that thou thy Poem wilt make known,
    Let thy fair Cynthia's praises be thus rudely shown.

It was his return for tribute in kind. By the side of Ralegh's sonnet
its flattery hardly seems extravagant:--

    Methought I saw the grave where Laura lay,
    Within that temple where the vestal flame
    Was wont to burn; and passing by that way,
    To see that buried dust of living fame,
    Whose tomb fair Love and fairer Virtue kept,
    All suddenly I saw the Fairy Queen,
    At whose approach the soul of Petrarch wept;
    And from thenceforth those graces were not seen,
    For they this Queen attended; in whose stead
    Oblivion laid him down on Laura's hearse.
    Hereat the hardest stones were seen to bleed,
    And groans of buried ghosts the heavens did pierce:
    Where Homer's spright did tremble all for grief,
    And cursed the access of that celestial thief.

[Sidenote: _Poetic Gifts._]

Before this, or Spenser's eulogy on him, was printed, Ralegh had
acquired the reputation at Court of a poet. Puttenham, a critic of high
repute, had, in _The Art of English Poesy_, printed in 1589, pronounced
'for ditty and amorous ode, Sir Walter Ralegh's vein most lofty,
insolent, and passionate.' By 'insolent,' not 'condolent,' as Anthony
Wood quotes, Puttenham meant original. His first public appearance as a
poet was in 1576, when in grave and sounding lines he maintained
Gascoigne's merits against envious detractors, as if with a presentiment
of his own fate--

    For whoso reaps renown above the rest,
    With heaps of hate shall surely be oppressed.

His flow of inspiration never dried up till his head rolled in the dust.
But the years between 1583 and 1593 seem, so far as dates, always in
Ralegh's career distracting, can be fixed, to have been the period of
his most copious poetic fruitfulness.

[Sidenote: _Their Limitations._]

Throughout his life he won the belief of men of letters and refinement
in his poetic power. Their admiration has never failed him in the
centuries which have followed. He has not been as fortunate in gaining
and keeping the ear of the reading public. For that a poet has not only
to be born, but to be made. Ralegh had a poet's gifts. He had music in
his soul. He chose to think for himself. He possessed the art of the
grand style. The twenty-first book of the _Cynthia_ errs in being
overcharged with thought. It abounds in noble imagery. There is pathos
as well as dignity. Its author, had he lived in the nineteenth century,
in default of new worlds to explore, or Armadas to fight, might have
written an _In Memoriam_. In previous English poetry no such dirge is to
be found as his Epitaph on Sir Philip Sidney. A couple of stanzas will
indicate its solemn music:--

      There didst thou vanquish shame and tedious age,
    Grief, sorrow, sickness, and base fortune's might;
    Thy rising day saw never woeful night,
      But passed with praise from off this worldly stage.

      What hath he lost that such great grace hath won?
    Young years for endless years, and hope unsure
    Of fortune's gifts for wealth that still shall dure:
      O happy race, with so great praises run!

He had as light a touch. He understood how to play with a conceit till
it glances and dances and dazzles, as in his, for probably it is his,
_Grace of Wit, of Tongue, of Face_, and in _Fain would I, but I dare
not_. Praed was not happier in elaborate trifling than he in his _Cards
and Dice_. Prior might have envied him _The Silent Lover_. His _Nymph's
Reply to the Passionate Shepherd_, if it be his, as Izaak Walton without
suspicion assumes, and, if it did not compel comparison with Marlowe's
more exquisite melody, would assure his place among the poets of the
age. He was able to barb a fierce sarcasm with courtly grace. How his
fancy could swoop down and strike, and pierce as it flashed, may be felt
in each ringing stanza of _The Lie_--

    Say to the Court, it glows
      And shines like rotten wood;
    Say to the Church, it shows
      What's good, and doth no good:
    If Church and Court reply,
      Then give them both the lie.

His fancy could inspire in his _Pilgrimage_ one of the loftiest appeals
in all literature to Heaven from the pedantry of human justice or
injustice. He could match Cowley in metaphysical verse, as in _A Poesy
to prove Affection is not Love_. But the Court spoilt him for a national
poet, as it spoilt Cowley; as it might, if it had been more generous,
have spoilt Dryden. He desired to be read between the lines by a class
which loved to think its own separate thoughts, and express its own
separate feelings in its own diction, sometimes in its own jargon. He
hunted for epigrams, and too often sparkled rather than burned. He was
afraid not to be witty, to wrangle, as he himself has said,

    In tickle points of niceness.

[Sidenote: _Disputed Authorship._]

Often he refined instead of soaring. In place of sympathising he was
ever striving to concentrate men's regards on himself. Egotism is not
inconsistent with the heat of inspiration, when it is unconscious, when
the poet sings because he must, and bares his own heart. Ralegh rarely
loses command of himself. He is perpetually seen registering the effects
his flights produce. Apparently he had no ambition for popular renown as
a poet. He did not print his verses. He cannot be said to have claimed
any of them but the _Farewell to the Court_. His authorship of some, now
admitted to be by him, has been confidently questioned. A critic so
judicious as Hallam, for reasons which he does not hint, and a student
as laborious as Isaac D'Israeli, have doubted his title to _The Lie_,
otherwise described as _The Soul's Errand_, which seems to demonstrate
his authorship by its scornful and cynical haughtiness embodied in a
wave of magnificent rhythm. Verses, instinct with his peculiar wit, like
_The Silent Lover_, have been given away to Lord Pembroke, Sir Robert
Ayton, and others. Its famous stanza--

    Silence in love bewrays more woe
      Than words, though ne'er so witty;
    A beggar that is dumb, you know,
      Deserveth double pity!

was in the middle of last century boldly assigned to Lord Chesterfield.
His compositions circulated from hand to hand at Court. They were read
in polished coteries. So little did they ever become a national
possession that, complete or incomplete, the most considerable of them
has vanished, all but a fragment. Small as is the whole body of verse
attributed to him, not all is clearly his. Dr. Hannah, and other ardent
admirers of his muse, have been unable to satisfy themselves whether he
really wrote _False Love and True Love_, with its shifting rhythm, and
its bewitching scattered phrases; the Shepherd's fantastically witty
_Description of Love_, or _Anatomy of Love_--

    It is a yea, it is a nay;

or the perfect conceit, which Waller could not have bettered in wit or
equalled in vivacity, with the refrain--

    What care I how fair she be!

Twenty-seven other poems, among them, the bright sneering _Invective
against Women_, have been put down to him on no other ground than that
they cannot be traced to a different source. He might have been the
author of the graceful _Praise of his Sacred Diana_. He might have
sighed for a land devoid of envy,

                              Unless among
    The birds, for prize of their sweet song.

From him might have come the airy melody of the charming eclogue
_Phyllida's Love-call to her Corydon_, which invites the genius of a
Mendelssohn to frame it in music. He might have penned in his prison
cell the knell for the tragedy of human life, _De Morte_. He might have
been the shepherd minstrel of the flowers--

    You pretty daughters of the earth and sun.

But, unfortunately, the sole pretext for affirming his title, as the
editors of the 1829 collection of his works affirmed it, is that the
poems are found in the _Reliquiae Wottonianae_, in Davison's _Poetical
Rhapsody_, or in _England's Helicon_, and are there marked 'Ignoto.'

[Sidenote: _Carelessness of Literary Renown._]

The assignment, often, as Mr. Bullen shows in his editions of _England's
Helicon_, and _A Poetical Rhapsody_, without the slightest authority or
foundation, of poetic foundlings of rare charm and distinction to Ralegh
is a token of the prevalent belief in the unfathomed range of his
powers. At the same time it implies that he had never been adopted, and
identified, by the contemporary public specifically as a poet. He would
not be discontented with the degree and kind of the poetic fame conceded
to him. Had he coveted more he would have been at more pains to stamp
his verses. His poetic gift he valued merely as a weapon in his armoury,
like many others. It held its own and a more important place in his
career. Imagination, which might have made a poet, elevated and
illuminated the captain's and the courtier's ambition and acts. If it
put him at a disadvantage in a race for power with a Robert Cecil, it
carried him to Guiana, and gave him the palm in the glorious struggle at
the mouth of Cadiz harbour; it inspired him in the more tremendous
strife with judicial obliquity; it supported him on the scaffold in
Palace Yard.




CHAPTER IX.

THE REVENGE. (September, 1591).


[Sidenote: _Sir Richard Grenville._]

Long after Ralegh began to be recognized in his new circle as a poet, he
first showed himself a master of prose diction. The occasion came from
his loss of an opportunity for personal distinction of a kind he
preferred to literary laurels. The hope and the disappointment alike
testify that, whatever had been the Queen's demeanour in 1589, she
frowned no longer in 1591. Essex's temporary disgrace, on account of his
marriage with Lady Sidney in 1590, had improved Ralegh's prospects. So
much in favour was he that, in the spring of 1591, he had been
commissioned as Vice-Admiral of a fleet of six Queen's ships, attended
by volunteer vessels and provision boats. Lord Thomas Howard, second son
of the Duke of Norfolk beheaded in 1572, commanded in chief. The object
of the expedition was to intercept the Spanish plate fleet at the
Azores. Ralegh's cousin and friend, the stern and wayward but gallant
Sir Richard Grenville, finally was substituted for him. There is no
evidence that the change was meant for a censure. Much more probably it
was a token of the Queen's personal regard. He sent with the squadron
his ship, the Ark Ralegh, under the command of Captain Thynne, another
of his innumerable connexions in the West. The English had to wait for
the plate galleons so long at the Azores that news was brought to Spain.
A fleet of fifty-three Spanish sail was despatched as convoy. Ralegh was
engaged officially in Devonshire. The Council directed him in May to
send off a pinnace to tell Howard that this great Spanish force had been
descried off Scilly.

[Sidenote: _The Fight._]

The warning arrived too late. The Spaniards surprised the fleet on
September 10, when many of its men were ashore. Grenville in the Revenge
covered the embarkation. Thus he lost the wind. He mustered on board his
flagship scarce a hundred sound men. Soon he was hemmed in. The
Foresight stayed near him for two hours, and battled bravely, but
finally had to retire. For fifteen hours he fought the squadron of
Seville, five great galleons, with ten more to back them. Crippled by
many wounds, he kept the upper deck. Nothing was to be seen but the
naked hull of a ship, and that almost a skeleton. She had received 800
shot of great artillery, some under water. The deck was covered with the
limbs and carcases of forty valiant men. The rest were all wounded and
painted with their own blood. Her masts had been shot overboard. All her
tackle was cut asunder. Her upper works were razed and level with the
water. She was incapable of receiving any direction or motion, except
that given her by the billows. Three Spanish galleons had been burnt.
One had been run aground to save her company. A thousand Spaniards had
been slain or drowned. Grenville wished to blow up his shattered hulk. A
majority of the handful of survivors preferred to accept the Spanish
Admiral's terms. They were that all lives should be spared, the crew be
sent to England, and the better sort be released on payment of ransom.
Grenville was conveyed on board a Spanish galley, where he was
chivalrously treated. He lingered till September 13 or 14 in sore pain,
which he disdained to betray. Jan Huygen van Linschoten, a Dutch
adventurer, who was at the time in the island of Terceira, heard of the
struggle both from the Spaniards and from one of the English prisoners.
He describes it briefly in a diary he kept. He was told how the English
admiral would amaze the Spanish captains by crushing wine-glasses
between his teeth, after he had tossed off the contents. The fragments
he swallowed, while the blood ran out of his mouth. It is Linschoten,
not Ralegh, who has preserved Grenville's dying words: 'Here die I,
Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended
my life, as a true soldier ought, that hath fought for his country,
Queen, religion, and honour.'

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Narrative._]

[Sidenote: _An Indictment of Spain._]

Ralegh might have met Grenville's fate. He took up the pen to celebrate
his kinsman's heroism, and to point the moral for England of the feats
valour like his could accomplish against Spain. His _Report of the Truth
of the Fight about the Isles of Azores_ was first published anonymously
in November, 1591. Hakluyt reprinted it, as 'penned by Sir Walter
Ralegh,' in his Collection of Voyages in 1599. Few finer specimens of
Elizabethan prose diction exist. It is full of grandeur, and of
generosity towards every one but Spaniards. Of the commander-in-chief,
Thomas Howard, he spoke with especial courtesy. Ralegh's relations to
the Howards, though always professionally intimate, were not always very
friendly, either now or hereafter. About the period of Grenville's
death, in particular, there had been some sharp dispute with the High
Admiral. A letter written in the following October by Thomas Phelippes
to Thomas Barnes, alludes to a quarrel and offer of combat between
Ralegh and him. Ralegh was only the more careful on that account to do
justice to a member of the family. Howard, it seems, had been severely
criticised for a supposed abandonment of his comrade. Ralegh vindicated
him from the calumny. The admiral's first impulse had been to return
within the harbour to succour Grenville. It was a happy thing, in
Ralegh's judgment, that he suffered himself to be dissuaded. 'The very
hugeness of the Spanish fleet would have crushed the English ships to
atoms; it had ill sorted with the discretion of a General to commit
himself and his charge to assured destruction.' But the real aim of the
narrative was to preach a crusade against Spanish predominance in the
Old and New Worlds. Towards Grenville personally the behaviour of the
Spaniards, it could not be denied, was magnanimous. Ralegh saw nothing
but perfidy in their conduct otherwise. They broke, he declares, their
engagement to send the captives home. Morrice FitzJohn of Desmond was
allowed to endeavour to induce them to apostatize and enter the service
of their enemy. That was the Spanish system, he exclaims: 'to entertain
basely the traitors and vagabonds of all nations; by all kinds of
devices to gratify covetousness of dominion,' 'as if the Kings of
Castile were the natural heirs of all the world.' Yet 'what good,
honour, or fortune ever man by them achieved, is unheard of or
unwritten.' 'The obedience even of the Turk is easy, and a liberty, in
respect of the slavery and tyranny of Spain. What have they done in
Sicily, Naples, Milan, and the Low Countries?' 'In one only island,
called Hispaniola, they have wasted three millions of the natural
people, beside many millions else in other places of the Indies; a poor
and harmless people, created of God, and might have been won to his
knowledge, as many of them were.' 'Who, therefore, would repose trust in
such a nation of ravenous strangers, and especially in these Spaniards,
who more greedily thirst after English blood than after the lives of any
other people in Europe;' 'whose weakness we have discovered to the
world.' Historians, with whom Ralegh has never been a favourite, treat
as merely dishonest rhetoric the compassion he now and again expressed
for the millions of innocent men, women, and children, branded, roasted,
mangled, ripped alive, by Spaniards, though as free by nature as any
Christians. There is no just reason to think him insincere. The pity
gave dignity and a tone of chivalry to his more local feeling,
Protestant, political, commercial, of hatred and jealousy of Spain.
Spain, he declared, was ever conspiring against us. She had bought the
aid of Denmark, Norway, the French Parliament-towns, the Irish and
Scotch malcontents. She threatened the foundations of English liberty of
thought. She tried to starve the rising English instinct for territorial
expansion. He summoned Englishmen eager for foreign trade to protest
against the Spanish embargo, which everywhere they encountered. He
pointed out to them, as they began to feel the appetite for wealth, the
colonial treasury of Spain glittering in full view before them.

A multitude of Englishmen, especially in Ralegh's own country of the
West, were conscious of all this. Ralegh gave the sentiment a voice in
his story of his cousin's gallant death. Henceforth he never ceased to
consecrate his energies and influence directly to the work of lowering
the flag of Spain, and replacing it by that of England. From the
beginning of his career he had been a labourer in this field. He now
asserted his title to be the champion of his nation. Previously he had
usually striven by deputy. Now he was to display his personal prowess as
a warrior and a great captain. For years he was to be seen battling with
Philip's empire by sea and land, plundering his merchantmen, storming
his strongholds, bursting through his frontiers, and teaching Englishmen
to think that sheer usurpation which for Spaniards was right divine. His
own countrymen did not at first accept his leadership. They affirmed his
principle, but preferred that others than he should have the primary
honour of applying it. Gradually competitors dropped off; and he
remained. Through popular odium, popular curiosity, and, finally,
popular enthusiasm, he grew to be identified with the double idea of
English rivalry with Spain and of English naval supremacy. The act in
which he appears challenging the right to be its representative is about
to open. But previously the curtain has to fall upon the courtier. The
conqueror at Cadiz, the explorer of Guiana, steps from behind a veil of
darkness and disgrace which would have overwhelmed other men utterly,
and served him as a foil.

[Sidenote: _Proposed Expedition to Panama._]

[Sidenote: _Sails and returns._]

Philip replied to Lord Thomas Howard's unfortunate expedition by the
equipment of a fleet of sixty ships. Plymouth was understood to be their
object. Ralegh persuaded the Queen to parry the blow by striking at
Panama, and at the plate fleet which would be gathered in its harbour.
Elizabeth contributed the Garland and Foresight. Ralegh provided the
Roebuck, and his elder brother, Carew Ralegh, the Galleon Ralegh. Two
ships were equipped by the citizens of London. Lord Cumberland had been
arranging for an independent cruise. Ultimately he joined with six
vessels. The Queen also invested £1800 in the adventure, and London
£6000. Ralegh had been named General of the Fleet. He exhausted all his
resources to ensure success. 'I protest,' he wrote, 'both my three
years' pension of the Custom-house, and all I have besides, is in this
journey.' He had borrowed £11,000 at interest; and in addition was
heavily in debt to the Crown. In part discharge of his obligations, he
assigned to the Queen the Ark Ralegh at the price of £5000. Calumny
asserted that the apparent sale was a mere pretext for a present from
the Treasury to him. The preparations were still incomplete in February,
1592. He travelled to the West for additional stores. When all was ready
for departure westerly winds set in. For many weeks the fleet was
weather-bound in the Thames. Some time before it was able to move his
own relation to it was become uncertain. Elizabeth, he was aware, wished
to keep him at Court. He was not unwilling to consent to a compromise.
He wrote to Robert Cecil from Chatham on March 10: 'I have promised her
Majesty, if I can persuade the companies to follow Sir Martin Frobisher,
I will, without fail, return, and bring them but into the sea some fifty
or threescore leagues, though I dare not be known thereof to any
creature.' Certainly he meant to embark. In May he was angrily
complaining of 'this cross weather.' 'I am not able to live to row up
and down with every tide from Gravesend to London.' At length on the 6th
of May, 1592, the fleet was under sail with him on board. On the 7th, he
was overtaken by Frobisher with orders to come back. He was to leave Sir
John Burgh, Borough, or Brough, and Frobisher to command as his
lieutenants. Choosing to construe the orders as optional in date, Ralegh
proceeded as far as Cape Finisterre. Thence, after weathering a terrific
storm on May 11, he himself returned. Before his departure he arranged
the plan of operations. Half the fleet he stationed under Frobisher off
the Spanish coast to distract the attention of the Spaniards. The rest
he sent to watch for the treasure fleet at the Azores. For an attack on
Panama the season was too late.




CHAPTER X.

IN THE TOWER. THE GREAT CARACK. (1592).


[Sidenote: _Elizabeth Throckmorton._]

Immediately on his return, if not before, he understood the reason of
his recall. He had written to Cecil on March 10: '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 should have imparted it unto 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,
there is none on the face of the earth that I would be fastened unto.'
As soon as he reached London in June, he was thrown into the Tower. He
had seemed before to be enjoying the plenitude of royal favour. So
lately as in January it had been shown by the grant of a fine estate in
Dorset. No official record is discoverable of the cause of his
imprisonment. Disobedience to the order to quit the fleet would have
been a sufficient pretext. It was not mentioned. The imprisonment was a
domestic punishment within her own fortress-palace, inflicted by the
Queen as head of her household. The true reason was his courtship of
Elizabeth, daughter to the Queen's devoted but turbulent servant and
confidant, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. He had died in 1571, at the age of
fifty-seven, in Leicester's house. His eldest son, Nicholas, was adopted
by a maternal uncle, the last Carew of Beddington, and became Sir
Nicholas Carew. Elizabeth Throckmorton, who had as many cousins in high
positions as Ralegh, was appointed a maid of honour. Her portrait
proves her to have been handsome. She was tall, slender, blue-eyed and
golden-haired. Her mental qualities will be in evidence during the rest
of Ralegh's life. Never were written more charming letters than hers, in
more unembarrassed phonetic spelling.

[Sidenote: _Scantiness of Testimony._]

[Sidenote: _Hard to believe._]

The Captain of the Guard and she attended on the Queen together. He made
her an exception to his rule as to maids of honour, that, 'like witches,
they can do hurt, but no good.' He found her only too amiable. Camden,
in his _Annals_, published in 1615, explains Ralegh's crime and
punishment: 'honorariâ Reginae virgine vitiatâ, quam postea in uxorem
duxit.' Wood says the same in his Latinized English, merely translating
Camden. A letter from Sir Edward Stafford to Sir Anthony Bacon, with the
impossible date, July 30, couples Ralegh's and Miss Throckmorton's names
in a burst of exultation, natural to Essex's friends: 'If you have
anything to do with Sir Walter Ralegh, or any love to make to Mrs.
Throckmorton, at the Tower to-morrow you may speak with them; if the
countermand come not to-night, as some think will not be, and
particularly he that hath charge to send them thither.' Stafford does
not specify the offence. The sole independent testimony is the single
sentence of Camden's. Yet posterity has had no option but to accept the
account. The error, if other courtiers had been the culprits, would have
excited little surprise. Elizabeth's maids of honour were not more
beyond suspicion than Swift asserts Anne's to have been. Essex's
gallantries at Court, after as before his marriage, were notorious and
many. Lord Southampton and his bride were the subjects of a similar tale
a few years later. Palace gossip treated it as a very ordinary
peccadillo. Cecil in February, 1601, tells Carew of the 'misfortune' of
one of the maids, Mistress Fitton, with Lord Pembroke, as if it were a
jest. Both the culprits, he remarks, 'will dwell in the Tower a while.'
His phrases show none of the horror they breathed when he spoke of
Ralegh, and the Queen was likely to read them. The English Court was
pure in the time of Elizabeth for its time. It degenerated greatly under
her successor. Harington contrasts manners then with the previous 'good
order, discretion, and sobriety.' But no little licence was permitted,
and the tales of it commonly excite small surprise. As told of Ralegh,
and yet more of Elizabeth Throckmorton, the story startles still. No
evidence exists upon which he can justly be pronounced a libertine. How
she, refined, faithful, heroic, should have been led astray, is hardly
intelligible. She must have now been several years over twenty, probably
twenty-eight or twenty-nine, and in her long after-life she bore herself
as entitled to all social respect. She was allowed it by every one,
except her Mistress, who never restored her to favour. By the Cecils she
was treated with unfailing regard. In the whole of her struggle, by her
husband's side, and over his grave, for his and her son's rights, not a
whisper was heard of the blot on her fair fame. If Camden had not
spoken, and if Ralegh and she had not stood mute, it would have been
easy to believe that the imagined liaison was simply a secret marriage
resented as such by the Queen, as, two years before, she had resented
Essex's secret marriage to Sidney's widow. That seems to have been
asserted by their friends, at the first explosion of the scandal. A
letter, written on the eve of Ralegh's committal to the Tower, by one
who manifestly did not hold the benevolent opinion, says, after a
spitefully prophetic comparison of Ralegh with his own

     Hermit poor in pensive place obscure:

'It is affirmed that they are married; but the Queen is most fiercely
incensed.'

[Sidenote: _Harder to disbelieve._]

That the royal anger had a better foundation than the mere jealousy of
affection or of domination, it is to be feared, is the inevitable inference
from the evidence, however concise and circumstantial. Had contradiction
been possible, Camden would have been contradicted in 1615 by Ralegh and
his wife. Cecil alluded to Ralegh's offence in 1592 as 'brutish.' With all
his zeal to indulge the Queen's indignation, he could not have used the
term of a secret marriage. The prevailing absence of Court talk on the
occurrence is not traceable to any doubt of its true character.
Courtiers simply believed it dangerous to be outspoken on a matter
affecting the purity of the Virgin Queen's household circle. Her prudery
may indeed go some way towards accounting for, if not excusing, the
fault. It was dangerous for one of her counsellors to be suspected of an
attachment. So late as March, 1602, Cecil was writing earnestly to Carew
in repudiation of a rumour that he was like to be enchanted for love or
marriage. Almost borrowing Ralegh's words to himself of ten years
earlier, he declares upon his soul he knows none on earth that he was,
or, if he might, would be, married unto. In Elizabeth's view
love-making, except to herself, was so criminal that at Court it had to
be done by stealth. Any show of affection was deemed an act of guilt.
From a consciousness of guilt to the reality is not always a wide step.
In Ralegh's references and language to his wife may be detected a tone
in the tenderness as though he owed reparation as well as attachment.
The redeeming feature of their passion is that they loved with true love
also, and with a love which grew. His published opinions, as in his
_Instructions to his Son_, on wives and marriage, like those of other
writers of aphorisms in his age, ring harshly and coldly. But he did not
act on frigid fragments of sententious suspiciousness. He was careful
for his widow's worldly welfare. With death, as it seemed, imminent, he
trusted with all, and in everything, his 'sweet Besse,' his 'faithful
wife,' as scoffing Harington with enthusiasm called her. His constant
desire was to have her by his side, but to spare her grieving.

[Sidenote: _A Rhapsody._]

[Sidenote: _A Comedy in the Tower._]

When and where they were married is unknown. So careful were they to
avoid publicity that Lady Ralegh's brother, Arthur Throckmorton, for
some time questioned the fact, though his suspicions were dissipated,
and he became an attached friend of the husband's. Probably the ceremony
was performed after the imprisonment and not before. If the threat of
detention in the Tower, mentioned by Stafford, were carried into effect
against the lady, Ralegh at all events betrayed no consciousness that
she was his neighbour. In his correspondence at the time he never speaks
of her. His business was to obtain his release. He understood that
allusions to the partner in his misdeed would not move the Queen to
kindness. Like Leicester, and like Essex, he continued, though married,
to use loverlike phrases of the Queen, whenever they were in the least
likely to reach her ear. The Cecils were his allies against Essex. In
July, 1592, under cover of an account for the Yeomen's coats for an
approaching royal progress, he burst into a wonderful effusion to, not
for, Robert Cecil: '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; sometimes sitting in the shade like a Goddess; sometimes
singing like an angel; sometimes 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 sighs, the sorrows, the desires--can they not weigh
down one frail misfortune? Cannot one drop of gall 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; which, if it
had been for her, as it is by her, I had been too happily born.' Did
ever tailor's bill, though for the most resplendent scarlet liveries
bespangled with golden roses, inspire a like rhapsody! By one writer on
Ralegh it has been characterized, so various are tastes, as 'tawdry and
fulsome.' To most it will seem a delightful extravagance. To
contemporaries the extravagance itself would appear not very glaring.
Elizabeth aroused both fascination and awe in her own period which
justified high flights. After her goodness and wrath were become alike
unavailing this is how a cynic like Harington spoke of her: 'When she
smiled it was a pure sunshine that every one did choose to bask in if
they could; but anon came a storm, and the thunder fell in wondrous
manner on all alike.' Ralegh doubtless was sincere in repining for the
radiance as in deprecating the scowls, though he overrated his ability
to conjure that back, and these away. In the same July, apparently, on
July 26, he played a little comedy of Orlando Furioso,--not the approach
to a tragedy of eleven years after. His chamber in the Tower was the
scene. The spectators were his Keeper and cousin, Sir George Carew, and
Arthur Gorges. Gorges was still, like Carew, his friend in 1614, and was
sung by him then as one

    Who never sought nor ever cared to climb
      By flattery, or seeking worthless men.

He now wrote to Cecil that Ralegh, hearing the Queen was on the Thames,
prayed Carew to let him row himself in disguise near enough to look upon
her. On Carew's necessary refusal he went mad, and tore Carew's new
periwig off. At last they drew out their daggers, whereupon Gorges
interposed, and had his knuckles rapped. 'They continue,' he proceeds,
'in malice and snarling. But, good Sir, let nobody know thereof.' He
adds in a more veracious postscript: 'If you let the Queen's Majesty
know hereof, as you think good, be it.'

[Sidenote: _The Brick Tower._]

Ralegh thought he understood his royal Mistress, of whom he had written
not very respectfully to Carew himself two or three years before: 'The
Queen thinks that George Carew longs to see her; and, therefore, see
her.' Like others he perceived her weaknesses; he did not appreciate her
strength. To his surprise she remained offended; and none can blame her.
His conduct had been treason to her sovereign charms. Her indignation on
that ground may be ridiculed. But she had a sincerer love for purity of
manners than posterity has commonly believed. Ralegh had set an ill
example. He had broken his trust; the seduction of a maid of honour was
a personal affront to his sovereign; he properly suffered for it, and
not in excess of the offence. His confinement was not rigorous. George
Carew since February, 1588, had been Master of the Ordnance in Ireland.
He was acting as Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance for England in
August, 1592; being confirmed in the post in 1603, and made
Master-General in 1609. In virtue of his office he had now as well as
later apartments in the Brick tower, which was considered to be under
the charge of the Master of the Ordnance. To the Brick tower Ralegh had
been sent, and he was committed to Carew's easy custody. He had his own
servants, whom he was allowed to lodge on the upper floor of the tower.
His friends were granted liberal access to him. From his window he could
see the river and the country beyond. The old Tower story that he was
shut up in a cell in the crypt, is a fiction. Not even his offices or
their emoluments were taken away. He could perform the duties by deputy.
But from June to December he was in confinement; and for long afterwards
he was forbidden to come into the royal presence.

[Sidenote: _Anger against the Irish Lord Deputy._]

[Sidenote: _New Combinations._]

He chafed at the light restraint. He affected indignation at the
severity of the penalty with which his 'great treasons,' as he called
them in mockery, were visited. He did not attempt to dispute its
legality, more than questionable as that was. Almost from the first he
evinced the extraordinary elasticity of nature, which was to be tried a
hundredfold hereafter. While he protested against the inevitable he
carved his life to suit it. From his gaol issued messages of despair and
of business in the strangest medley. He was much exercised about his
Irish estate; and he cast his burden upon Cecil: 'Your cousin, the
doting Deputy,' Fitzwilliam, he wrote, had been distraining on his
tenants for a supposed debt from himself as Undertaker. A sum of £400
for arrears of rent was demanded, though all Munster had scarce so much
money in it. The same Fitzwilliam, he alleges, had been mulcting the
Queen £1200 a year for a band of worthless soldiers in Youghal, under 'a
base fellow, O'Dodall.' Perhaps his estimate of the Captain may not be
unbiassed. A Sir John Dowdall seems to have disputed his title to, and,
two years later, to have ejected him from possession of, the manor of
Ardmore and other lands demised to him in 1592 by Bishop Witherhead of
Lismore. He was aggrieved by Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam's slowness to aid
him in his litigations. He thought it, as it was, 'a sign how my
disgraces have passed the seas.' At least his warnings of a rising of
the Burkes, O'Donells, and O'Neales need not have been neglected. 'I
wrote,' he complained, 'in a letter of Mr. Killigrew's ten days past a
prophecy of this rebellion, which when the Queen read she made a scorn
of my conceit.' Not that it was anything in reality to him. He cared not
either for life or lands. He was become, he declared with some
zoological confusion, 'like a fish cast on dry land, gasping for breath,
with lame legs and lamer lungs.' Still, he felt bound to point out the
pity of it. Then too, he reminded the High Admiral, there was the Great
Susan, 'which nobody but myself would undertake to set out.' It could
hardly be more profitable to punish him than that he 'should either
strengthen the fleet, or do many other things that lie in the ditches.'
Among them, for instance, was the business of keeping in order, as he
alone could, the soldiers and mariners 'that came in the prize.' They
ran up and down, he says, exclaiming for pay. So, again, in vain he knew
of the warships of the French League lying in wait for English
merchantmen, and threatening to make us a laughing-stock for all
nations. His information and his zeal were fruitless, through 'this
unfortunate accident,' of which neither he nor his correspondents ever
state the nature. 'I see,' he cries to the High Admiral, who appears to
have been mediating, 'there is a determination to disgrace me and ruin
me. Therefore I beseech your Lordship not to offend her Majesty any
farther by suing for me. I am now resolved of the matter. I only desire
that I may be stayed not one hour from all the extremity that either law
or precedent can avow. And if that be too little, would God it were
withall concluded that I might feed the lions, as I go by, to save
labour. For the torment of the mind cannot be greater; and, for the
body, would others did respect themselves as much as I value it at
little.' He was always impatient, inordinately despairing in
misfortunes, till the last extremity. He was always astonished that the
world pretended to go on without him, and certain it could not. As
constantly he was framing new combinations and keeping straight the old.
He let not a clue slip from his crippled hands. Throughout the long
interval of disgrace he was as active as in his sunniest prosperity,
perhaps more so.

[Sidenote: _The Prize._]

An accident freed him in September from actual duress. His disposition
of the fleet of which he continued titular 'General,' though Frobisher
and Burgh had royal commissions, proved successful. Already a Biscayan
of 600 tons burden, the Santa Clara, had been captured and sent to
England. This was the prize of which, and its prize crew, Ralegh wrote
to the High Admiral. The squadron under Frobisher deceived and perplexed
the Spaniards. Sir John Burgh slipped by and made for the Azores. His
ships spread themselves six or seven leagues west of Flores. They were
disappointed of the Santa Cruz, of 900 tons, which on July 29 her
officers burnt. On August 3 the great Crown of Portugal carack, the
Madre de Dios, came in sight. Three engaged her, and she was prevented
from running ashore. She was of 1600 tons burden, had seven decks, and
carried 800 men. The struggle lasted from 10 a.m. to 1 or 2 a.m. next
morning. The captors hotly debated their rival merits. Lord Cumberland
argued that the Roebuck and Foresight were both disabled, and that his
soldiers boarded and took the ship. Burgh accused Cumberland's people of
plundering. All agreed on the magnificence of the prize. Burgh wrote: 'I
hope, for all the spoil that has been made, her Majesty shall receive
more profit by her than by any ship that ever came into England.' The
purser of the Santa Cruz deposed that the Madre de Dios contained
precious stones, pearls, amber, and musk worth 400,000 crusados. She
brought two great crosses and a jewel of diamonds, presents from the
Viceroy to the King. She had 537 tons of spices. The pepper alone was
represented by Burleigh as worth £102,000. It fell to the Crown's share.
She carried fifteen tons of ebony, beside tapestries, silks, and satins.

After a stormy voyage she reached Dartmouth on September 8. At once the
eagles rushed upon the carcase. The ports of arrival looked like
Bartholomew Fair, said an eye-witness. The Council ordered the search of
all trunks and bundles conveyed from Plymouth or Dartmouth. It sent
Robert Cecil post-haste to hinder more plundering. Sir John Hawkins,
next chief adventurer after Ralegh, had written already to Burleigh to
say that for the partition of the spoil 'Sir Walter Ralegh is the
especial man. I see none of so ready a disposition to lay the ground how
her Majesty's portion may be increased as he is, and can best bring it
about.' Ralegh was permitted to quit the Tower. After a stay of two days
in London, he was despatched westwards. He travelled as a State prisoner
in charge of a keeper, Blount. As he went, he wrote, on September 17, of
London jewellers who had been buying secretly the fine goods: 'If I meet
any of them coming up, if it be upon the wildest heath in all the way, I
mean to strip them as naked as ever they were born. For it is infinite
that her Majesty hath been robbed, and that of the most rare things.'
Cecil was in front, and on September 19 reached Exeter. He had turned
back all he met on the road from Dartmouth or Plymouth. He could smell
them almost; such had been the spoils of amber and musk among them. 'I
fear that the birds be flown, for jewels, pearls, and amber; yet I will
not doubt but to save her Majesty that which shall be worth the journey.
My Lord, there never was such spoil! I will suppress the confluence of
the buyers, of which there are above 2000.' He adds: 'I found an armlet
of gold, and a fork and spoon of crystal with rubies, which I reserve
for the Queen. Her Majesty's captive comes after me, but I have outrid
him, and will be at Dartmouth before him.'

[Sidenote: _At Dartmouth._]

Ralegh never grudged praise. He testified freely to Cecil's zeal. He
wrote on September 21 from Dartmouth: 'I dare give the Queen £10,000 for
that which is gained by Sir Robert Cecil coming down, which I speak
without all affection, or partiality, for he hath more rifled my ship
than all the rest.' Cecil in turn, though in a more qualified tone,
commended Ralegh's exertions, in a very interesting letter to Sir Thomas
Heneage: 'Within one half hour Sir Walter Ralegh arrived with his
keeper, Mr. Blount. I assure you, Sir, his poor servants, to the number
of 140 goodly men, and all the mariners, came to him with shouts of joy;
I never saw a man more troubled to quiet them. But his heart is broken,
as he is extremely pensive, unless he is busied, in which he can toil
terribly. The meeting between him and Sir John Gilbert was with tears on
Sir John's part. But he, finding it is known that he has a keeper,
whenever he is saluted with congratulations for liberty, doth answer,
"No, I am still the Queen of England's poor captive." I wished him to
conceal it, because here it doth diminish his credit, which I do vow to
you before God is greater among the mariners than I thought for. I do
grace him as much as I may, for I find him marvellous greedy to do
anything to recover the conceit of his brutish offence.'

[Sidenote: _Division of the Spoil._]

Cecil, Raleigh, and William Killigrew were appointed joint
commissioners. They examined even Burgh's chests. They paid the mariners
their wages. They gave 20_s._ in addition to each from whom they had
taken pillage. On August 27, Ralegh and Hawkins had jointly written to
the High Admiral, asking for convoy for the carack. They computed it
worth £500,000. About the middle of September Ralegh wrote to Burleigh
from the Tower, that its value he estimated at £200,000. It turned out
to be £141,000. Whatever it was, the general rule for distributing the
value of privateer prizes was a third to the owner, a third to the
victuallers, a third to the officers and crew. Elizabeth contributed
1100 tons of shipping out of 5000, and £1800 out of £18,000. So she was
entitled to a tenth, that is, from £20,000 to £14,000. Ralegh was ready,
after negotiation with Sir George Carew, to add £80,000 for the Queen.
'Four score thousand pounds is more than ever a man presented her
Majesty as yet. If God have sent it for my ransom, I hope her Majesty of
her abundant goodness will accept it. If her Majesty cannot beat me from
her affection, I hope her sweet nature will think it no conquest to
afflict me.' Finally £36,000 was allowed to Ralegh and Hawkins, who
between them had, they said, spent £34,000. To Lord Cumberland, who had
spent only £19,000, was awarded £36,000, and £12,000 to the City of
London, which had spent £6000. Ralegh, who was, he boasted, 'the
greatest adventurer,' grievously complained to Burleigh. He asserted
also that, while he had deprived Spain in 1591 of £300,000, he had lost
in Lord Thomas Howard's voyage £1600. He reckoned up, besides, the
interest he had been paying on £11,000 since the voyage began. The Queen
was grasping in such matters. So, too, was her Lord Treasurer. Sir John
Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer, had to remonstrate: 'It were
utterly to overthrow all service if due regard were not had of my Lord
of Cumberland and Sir Walter Ralegh, with the rest of the Adventurers,
who would never be induced to further adventure if they were not
princely considered of.' He added in a courtly strain: 'And herein I
found her Majesty very princely disposed.'




CHAPTER XI.

AT HOME; AND IN PARLIAMENT. (1592-1594).


[Sidenote: _Negotiation for Hayes._]

Ralegh generally could hold his own, even in a bargain with his Queen.
In 1592 his hands were tied. He had to use his prize, as he said
himself, for his ransom; and it effected his purpose. Once more he was a
free man, and he had much to render liberty precious and delightful. He
had a bride beautiful, witty, and devoted; and in 1594 a son was born to
him, whom he named Walter. He had many pursuits, and wealth which should
have been abundant, though all Elizabeth's courtiers were impecunious.
An important addition had been made to his possessions shortly before
his disgrace. For some time after his rise he had intended to fix his
country residence in Devonshire. He is said to have had a house in
Mill-street, Ottery St. Mary. In 1584 he had asked Mr. Duke, of
Otterton, to sell him Hayes. His written request, which Aubrey copied,
with omissions and inaccuracies due to the creases and stains undergone
by the paper through careless handling, is, on uncertain authority, said
to have been at one time preserved at the farmhouse. Subsequently, if
not from the first, it was kept at the residence of the Duke family,
Otterton House, between two and three miles off. Polwhele saw it at
Otterton House shortly before 1793. Afterwards it disappeared. Dr.
Brushfield found the original, as he believes, at Plymouth, in the 1888
collection of Armada and Elizabethan relics. It is the property of Miss
Glubb, of Great Torrington. The letter was written from the Court, on
July 26, 1584, by Mr. Duke's 'very willing frinde in all I shal be able,
W. Ralegh,' and runs as follows: 'Mr Duke--I wrote to Mr Prideux to
move yow for the purchase of hayes a farme som tyme in my fathers
possession. I will most willingly geve yow what so ever in your
conscience yow shall deeme it worth: and if yow shall att any tyme have
occasion to vse mee, yow Shall find mee a thanckfull frind to yow and
yours. I have dealt wth Mr Sprinte for suche things as he hathe at
colliton and ther abouts and he hath promised mee to dept wth the moety
of otertowne vnto yow in consideration of hayes accordinge to the valew,
and yow shall not find mee an ill neighbore vnto yow here after. I am
resolved if I cannot 'ntreat yow, to build att colliton but for the
naturall disposition I have to that place being borne in that howse I
had rather seat my sealf ther then any wher els thus leving the matter
att large unto Mr Sprint I take my leve resting reedy to countervail
all your courteses to the vttermost of my power.'

[Sidenote: _Colaton Ralegh._]

His offer was not accepted, the Dukes, it is conjectured by Polwhele,
not choosing to have so great a man for so near a neighbour. According
to a local tradition, he carried out his alternative project of building
at Colaton Ralegh, on land which he may be presumed to have bought of
his father or eldest brother. In the garden of the Place he is said to
have planted, as elsewhere, the first potatoes grown in England. But
himself he never rooted there, though he was described as 'of Colaton
Ralegh' in a deed of 1588. The royal bounty soon tempted him away; and
he sold any property which had entitled him to that designation. The
estate of Sherborne, which is inseparably connected with his memory,
consisted of an ancient castle and picturesque park, together with
several adjacent manors. It had belonged to the see of Salisbury since
the time of Bishop Osmund, who cursed all who should alienate it, or
profit by its alienation. Ralegh was not deterred by the threat. He is
rumoured to have been impressed by the charms of the domain as he rode
past it on his journeys from Plymouth to London. Towards the close of
1591 the bishopric of Salisbury, which had been vacant for three years,
was filled by the appointment of Dr. Coldwell. Dean Bennett of Windsor,
and Dr. Tobias Matthew, or Matthews, afterwards Bishop of Durham and
Archbishop of York, father to the wit and letter-writer, Sir Toby, had
declined it on account of a condition that the new Bishop must consent
to part with Sherborne. Ralegh subsequently declared that he had given
the Queen a jewel worth, £250 'to make the Bishop.' He not rarely
concerned himself about vacant bishoprics for his own purposes. His
present fit of ecclesiastical zeal was explained by Dr. Coldwell's
execution of a lease to the Crown in January, 1592, of Sherborne and its
dependencies for ninety-nine years. A rent was reserved to the see of
£260, which, according to the Bishop, was not regularly paid. The Queen
at once assigned the lease to Ralegh. The manor of Banwell, which lay
conveniently for the property, belonged to the see of Bath and Wells.
Elizabeth demanded this of Bishop Godwin. The Bishop in his gouty old
age had contracted a marriage which offended the Queen's notions of
propriety, with a rich city widow. This was employed as a lever to
oblige him to one of the forced exchanges for Crown impropriations
which, though not illegal, friends of the Church styled sacrilege. Sir
John Harington, Elizabeth's witty godson, writing in the reign of James,
is fond of the term. He admits that he himself conveyed one of the sharp
messages by which Elizabeth tried to obtain Banwell. Finally a
compromise was effected. Godwin courageously clung to Banwell, but
redeemed it by the grant in Ralegh's favour of a ninety-nine years'
lease of Wilscombe.

[Sidenote: _Sherborne Castle._]

[Sidenote: _Falconry._]

Ralegh found occupation at Sherborne. We know something of his life
there. We know, though not nearly enough, much more of it than when
Gibbon assigned the absence of the 'details of private life' as a
principal reason for the abandonment of his original decision to take
Ralegh for his literary theme. It was varied and animated. He pursued
amusement and business with equal earnestness. In his _Farewell to the
Court_, which foreshadows the sentiment of this period, though probably
written earlier, he mourns for his 'sweet spring spent,' his 'summer
well-nigh done;' but he had energy for other matters than repining at
'joys expired like truthless dreams.' He built. He planted. He diverted
himself with rural pastimes, especially with falconry. Throughout his
career he always was ready for a hawking match or a bargain for falcons.
He once offered the reversion in fee of an Irish leasehold for a
goshawk. An incident of his Munster estate, which doubtless he valued
highly, was his title to half the produce of an eyrie of hawks in the
wood of Mogelly. Amidst the anxieties of his final expedition he found
spirits and strength for a trial of hawks at Cloyne. The leisure and
opportunities of Sherborne stimulated his ardour for the sport. Cecil
kept falcons. In August 1593, Ralegh wrote to him from Gillingham
Forest, of which he and his brother Carew were joint rangers: 'The
Indian falcon is sick of the backworm, and therefore, if you will be so
bountiful to give another falcon, I will provide you a running gelding.'
He chased another sort of game than herons. In April, 1594, he boasted
that he had caught in the Lady Stourton's house a notable stout villain,
with his copes and bulls. 'He calls himself John Mooney; but he is an
Irishman, and, I think, can say much.' Both his wife and he soon grew
fond of Sherborne, 'his fortune's fold,' as he called it alike in verse
and in a letter of 1593 to Cecil. Thither they always gladly returned,
though they were often called elsewhere. The plague dislodged the family
in 1594. It was, he wrote in September, 1594, raging in the town of
Sherborne 'very hot.' 'Our Bess,' he added, 'is one way sent, her son
another way; and I am in great trouble therewith.' Less alarming
occasions were constantly taking him away. He had to be in Devonshire
and Cornwall, discharging the duties of his Wardenship and Lieutenancy.
Every year he went to Bath for the waters. He resorted to Weymouth for
sea bathing for his wife and child. He was much at all seasons in
London.

[Sidenote: _Durham House._]

[Sidenote: _Mile End and Islington._]

Though banished from the Court he went on frequenting its neighbourhood.
He had more than one London residence. As a student of the law, he may
have lived in Lyon's Inn and the Middle Temple. In the early period of
his attendance on the Queen he had been lodged in the Palace, at
Greenwich, Whitehall, Somerset House, St. James, and Richmond. Since
1584 he possessed a London house of his own. The Church supplied him, as
at Sherborne and Lismore. Durham House, strictly called Duresme Place,
was the town house of the see of Durham. It covered nearly the whole
site of Adelphi Terrace, and the streets between this and the Strand. In
the reign of Edward VI the Crown seized it, and granted it successively
to the Princess Elizabeth and to Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. There,
the year after Ralegh's birth, Lady Jane Grey had been wedded to
Dudley's son. Mary restored it to Bishop Tunstall. Elizabeth resumed it.
In 1583 or 1584 she gave the use of a principal part of the spacious
mansion to Ralegh. The remainder she permitted Sir Edward Darcy to
inhabit. At Durham House the famous Dr. Dee, mathematician, astrologer,
and spiritualist, who, in his diary for 1583, mentions him gratefully,
records that he dined with him in October, 1593. There he held on
various occasions his Court as Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and heard
important suits. Aubrey speaks of Ralegh as living there 'when he came
to his greatness.' He knew well his study, in a little turret looking
over the Thames, with a prospect now, as in Aubrey's day, 'as pleasant
perhaps as anything in the world.' Ralegh is reported to have owned
other dwellings also in and about London. Probably he already possessed,
though, till he left Durham House, he is not likely to have occupied, a
house in Broad Street. It may be presumed to have been part of his
wife's share in the Throckmorton property. Several residences have been
put down to him, without sufficient evidence. Ralegh House, at Brixton
Rise, has been assigned to him, in mistake perhaps for his nephew,
Captain George Ralegh, who lived in Lambeth parish. Because he visited
his wife's relatives at Beddington Park, he is alleged to have occupied
the mansion. He is rumoured to have lived at West Horsley, which his
son, Carew Ralegh, first acquired in 1643 from the Carews of Beddington.
On testimony so far more substantial that Lady Ralegh had inherited a
small estate in the parish from her father, he is said to have lived at
Mitcham. The house his wife owned seems to have been Ralegh House, at
the corner of Wykford Lane, though two other houses at Mitcham have
pretended to the honour. More certainly he lived in a villa at Mile End
in 1596. That is known through the entry of the burial at Stepney of a
manservant who died at Mile End in 1596, and from the addresses of two
letters of his dated within two and four months of the same time. Dr.
Brushfield thinks the house may have been hired for a season for the
sake of country air. Mile End is described in 1597 as a common where
penny-royal grew in great abundance. Ralegh would find its vicinity to
Stepney, the general resort of seamen, convenient. The publication of
the Middlesex Registers has corroborated the tradition, which gave him a
suburban abode at Islington, on a site possibly afterwards occupied by
the Pied Bull. For the local belief that he built, or patronized, and
smoked in, the Old Queen's Head, Dr. Brushfield considers there is no
foundation. His choice of any part of Islington for residence would have
been determined by its contiguity to the vast royal chase in which the
Queen delighted to hunt. But his occupancy of a house there commenced
before the days of his grandeur, and probably had ceased before them.

[Sidenote: _In Parliament._]

His dwellings were not more numerous than his avocations. Never was his
activity more various than during this interval of royal disfavour. He
overflowed with public spirit. He had been sitting in the House of
Commons in the spring of 1592. He was a frequent and effective speaker.
His voice is reported to have been small. That would be after sickness,
toil, and imprisonment had enfeebled him. He omitted no opportunity of
proclaiming his hostility to Spain. Before his disgrace he had argued
for a declaration of open war. He knew, he said, of many who held it not
lawful in conscience, as the time was, to take prize from the Spaniards.
Of those weak brethren he was never one. After his liberation from the
Tower, when the House met he again attended. He was not so strangely in
advance of his protectionist age as not to support a Bill for
prohibiting Dutch and German aliens from retailing foreign wares in
England. His view of Dutchmen would have satisfied Canning: 'The nature
of the Dutchman is to fly to no man but for his profit. They are the
people that maintain the King of Spain in his greatness. Were it not for
them he were never able to make out such armies and navies by sea.'
While politically he was attached to Holland, he was persistently
jealous of her commercially. In the next reign he drew up an elaborate
plan for abstracting her lucrative carrying trade. On questions of
liberty of thought he was far beyond his time. He stoutly opposed a
cruel capital measure against the Brownists: 'That law is hard that
taketh life, and sendeth into banishment, when men's intentions shall be
judged by a jury, and they shall be judges what another means.' He
prevailed to have the Bill handed for revision to a Committee of
Members. On the Committee his name stands first. His disgrace had left
him sufficiently prominent to be thought worth libelling by Robert
Parsons the Jesuit, 'Andraeus Philopater.' Parsons described him as
keeping a school of atheism, wherein the Old and New Testaments were
jested at, and scholars taught to spell God backwards.

[Sidenote: _Irish Policy._]

In the shade though he was, he would abide no wrong to his official
authority. In February, 1592, before his disgrace, he had found leisure
in the midst of the preparations for his expedition to reprove the Devon
justices of the peace for the application of their 'foreign authority'
to compel his tinners to contribute to the repair of a private bridge.
Still under a cloud in May, 1594, he was not afraid to protest highly to
Lord Keeper Egerton against an encroachment by the Star Chamber on his
Stannary jurisdiction. A year later the county magistrates do not seem
to have thought his continuing obscuration exonerated them from
defending themselves against the charge of 'intermeddling' with his
prerogatives. He regarded himself as holding a commission to watch and
warn against all danger by sea. In June, 1594, he was informing the Lord
High Admiral that Spain had an armed fleet in the Breton ports. He
prayed the Admiral to ask her Majesty's leave that his 'poor kinsman'
might serve as a volunteer soldier or mariner in an attack upon it.
Apparently he had his wish and was allowed to embark. But his advice had
been followed tardily. He writes from the Foreland on August 25, that
the season was too late. The only hope was that the enemy might approach
the Thames. When he was not at sea he was contracting for the
victualling and equipment of ships of war. That was among his frequent
occupations. At all periods he had his eye upon Ireland. Neither royal
coldness nor bodily ailments could force him to be silent on Irish
affairs. In May, 1593, sick, and 'tumbled down the hill by every
practice,' he would go on exclaiming against the administrative blunders
which had let England be baffled and 'beggared' by a nation without
fortifications, and, for long, without effective arms. 'The beggarly,
the accursed kingdom,' had cost a million not many years since. 'A
better kingdom might have been purchased at a less price, and that same
defended with as many pence, if good order had been taken.' Though he
was not admitted to the Queen's presence, she seems to have read
memorials he drew up on the subject of Ireland. It is impossible not to
reprobate his sentiments on the treatment of the native Irish. His
correspondence with Cecil shows, that he was as willing to connive at
their treacherous murder as other contemporary English statesmen, though
not Burleigh, or perhaps Burleigh's son. But he believed honestly in the
rectitude of his doctrines. He was patriotic in insisting upon their
application for the benefit of a Government which, he thought,
persecuted him. It may even be acknowledged that the resolute and
consistent despotism he advocated might have been more tolerable, as
well as more successful, than the spasmodic and fitful violence which
discredited the Irish policy of the reign. He was indisputably right in
condemning a system under which the island was 'governed neither as a
country conquered nor free.'




CHAPTER XII.

GUIANA (1594-1595).


[Sidenote: _Continuance of Disgrace._]

[Sidenote: _A Project, and its Motive._]

Had not history preserved the memory of Ralegh's exile from Court, his
public life was so animated that the displeasure of the Queen need
hardly have been remarked. To himself the blight on his prospects was
always and dismally visible. The Queen had raised him from obscurity,
and afforded his genius scope for shining. Well as he understood the
value of his powers, he knew they derived still from her, as ten or a
dozen years before, their opportunity of exercise. He was not blind to
the jealousy of competitors, or to popular odium. As by an instinct of
life, of the working life which alone he prized, he was continually
striving to retrieve his fall by the ordinary devices of courtiers, and
not without gleams of hope. Nicholas Faunt had been private secretary to
Walsingham, and was therefore naturally of the Essex faction. He wrote
to Anthony Bacon in January, 1594, that Ralegh was expecting to be
nominated a Privy Councillor: 'And it is now feared of all honest men
that he shall presently come to the Court; yet it is well withstood. God
grant him some further resistance!' The further resistance came, whether
from rivals, or from the rankling anger in Elizabeth's breast. Nowhere
does it appear that he had speech of her. He continued to be forbidden
to perform in person the duties of Captain of the Guard. Between 1592
and 1597 they seem to have been discharged by John Best, described as
Champion of England. His disappointment was fortunate for his fame, if
not for his future tranquillity. In his enforced retirement he brooded
on schemes of maritime adventure. He determined to prove the
impossibility of suppressing him. His Panama project had been imputed to
his discovery that 'the Queen's love was beginning to decline.' That
could not then have been truly asserted. Naunton has similarly explained
the Guiana expedition:--'Finding his favour declining, he undertook a
new peregrination to leave that terra infirma of the Court for that of
the wars, and by declining himself, and by absence, to expel his and the
passion of his enemies; which in Court was a strange device of recovery,
but that he knew there was some ill office done him, that he durst not
attempt to mend any other ways than by going aside, thereby to teach
envy a new way of forgetfulness, and not so much as to think of him;
howsoever, he had it always in mind never to forget himself; and his
device took so well, that, at his return, he came in, as rams do by
going backwards, with the greater strength; and so continued to the last
in the Queen's grace.' Nothing, it is certain, ever was farther from
Ralegh's thoughts than a wish to be forgotten, whether by enemies or by
friends; yet Naunton's theory is true at bottom. The persistency of the
shadow at Court was as plain to Ralegh as to others. Its own merits
might else have recommended to him the Guiana expedition. But at this
especial juncture it was his engine for storming his way back into his
Sovereign's kindness.

[Sidenote: _Difficulties._]

Guiana had one important merit as a field for enterprise. It was known
to be free from European occupation, as well as reputed to be rich.
Camden describes it as 'aurifera Guiana ab Hispanis decantata.' Many
Spanish expeditions, from the year 1531 onwards, had been fitted out to
find the King el Dorado, who loved to anoint his body with turpentine,
and then roll in gold dust. Neither he nor his city, called by the same
name, had been discovered. Attempts to penetrate into the interior had
all failed. The Indians were warlike and united; the country was a
jungle, environed with vast waters not easily navigated; and the
invaders had quarrelled among themselves. The latest effort had been
made in 1582 by Don Antonio de Berreo. Berreo was son-in-law to Quesada,
who had annexed New Grenada to Spain. Berreo alleged that he spent
300,000 ducats, and journeyed 1500 miles, before he arrived within
Guiana. He seems never to have actually entered. From a tribe on the
confines he received gifts of gold images and ornaments which he sent to
King Philip by his officer Domingo de Vera. But other Indians on the
borders blocked further progress by firing the savannahs. He was forced
to retire to Trinidad, of which he was appointed Governor. From Trinidad
he concerted raids on the mainland. One of his captains ascended the
Orinoko for some distance, and on April 23, 1593, took formal possession
of the country for Spain. Ralegh's own subsequent experience proved that
individual Spaniards had stolen in, searching for gold. He questioned
seamen who had been in or near this wonderful land. He studied every
published narrative which touched upon it. A treatise, never printed,
and now lost, which he had himself composed on the West Indies, may have
embodied the results of his enquiries. The information he collected
filled him at once with admiration for the invincible constancy, as he
described it, of the Spaniards, and with hatred of their rapacity and
cruelty. He abhorred their barbarous treatment of the native owners of
the New World. As always, he could not comprehend by what right they
claimed a monopoly of its sovereignty for themselves against the rest of
Europe.

Lady Ralegh perceived the bent of his thoughts. She wrote in February,
1594, to invoke the aid of Cecil, in diverting her husband from the
perilous temptation. I reproduce her letter in the original spelling: 'I
hope for my sake you will rather draw sur watar towardes the est then
heulp hyme forward touard the soonsett, if ani respecke to me or love to
him be not forgotten. But everi monthe hath his flower and everi season
his contentement, and you greate counselares ar so full of new councels
as you are steddi in nothing; but wee poore soules that hath bought
sorrow at a high price desiar, and can be plesed with, the same
misfortun wee hold, fering alltarracions will but multiply misseri, of
wich we have allredi felte sufficiant. I knoo unly your parswadcions ar
of efecke with him, and hild as orrekeles tied to them by Love; therfore
I humbelle besiech you rathar stay him then furdar him. By the wich you
shall bind me for ever. As yet you have ever geveng me caus.'

[Sidenote: _A Royal Commission._]

If Cecil tried dissuasion, he did not succeed. In the course of 1594
Ralegh sent out as a pioneer his 'most valiant and honest' old officer,
Captain Whiddon, to explore the Orinoko and gather information. Whiddon
sailed to Trinidad. There Berreo received him amicably, as it seemed,
though Whiddon thought the imprisonment of some of his crew implied
treachery. Berreo, with the assistance of de Vera in Spain, was
promoting an expedition of his own, and was not likely to be
communicative. Whiddon was back before 1595. Ralegh forthwith began
preparations for an expedition to be conducted by himself. He procured a
Royal Commission to 'our servant Sir Walter Ralegh,' neither 'trusty'
nor 'well-beloved,' to offend and enfeeble the King of Spain and his
subjects in his dominions to the uttermost; to discover and subdue
heathen lands not in the possession of any Christian prince, nor
inhabited by any Christian people; to resist and expel by force of arms
all persons who should attempt to settle within 200 leagues of the place
where he or his people might fix their habitations within the six
following years; and to capture all ships trading within the limits
aforesaid. He speedily equipped several ships. The cost was such that,
as he said at his trial, if he had died in Guiana, he had not left 300
marks a year to his wife and son. Captain Laurence Keymis was in command
of a galley. Captain Whiddon sailed again, to his grave as it happened
in Trinidad. Believers in Ralegh assisted. Thus, the High Admiral lent
the Lion's Whelp, which Anthony Wells King commanded. Two barks joined
the expedition, one under Captain Crosse, the other under Captain
Caulfield. There were 100 officers, gentlemen volunteers, and soldiers.
In the number was John Gilbert, Sir Humphrey's son. He was a close ally
of Ralegh's in maritime adventures, notwithstanding occasional
disagreement on their respective proportions of the profits. Cecil
contributed money. Two ships, under Captains Amias Preston and Sommers,
or Summers, which were expected to unite in the undertaking, never came.
The squadron when collected was detained by contrary winds. Ralegh
boasted to Cecil that he was indifferent to good fortune or adversity.
But in another letter he confessed: 'This wind breaks my heart.' The
delay was the more exasperating that other ships had run out, 'bound to
the wars, a multitude going for the Indies.' He was afraid the chiefest
places of his enterprise might be attempted, and he should be undone.
Others would reap no advantage; for he knew 'they would be beaten, and
do no good.'

[Sidenote: _The Voyage._]

[Sidenote: _Capture of Berreo._]

However, at last, on February 6, 1595, he was off. He had bequeathed to
Cecil the charge of staying litigation against him. He was especially
afraid of a suretyship suit instituted by Widow Smith. The widow 'hath a
son that waits on the keeper, and a daughter married to Mr. Wilkes, so
it will be harder to clear.' He captured a Spanish ship at the Canaries
with firearms, and a Fleming with wine. At Teneriffe he paused in vain
for Preston and Sommers. They had assumed that he would have quitted
Teneriffe before they could arrive. At least that was their explanation.
So they were gone on an adventure of their own. Finally Ralegh set sail.
He reached Trinidad on March 22. He stayed a month for the Lion's Whelp,
and also for Preston and Sommers. He employed his leisure in a careful
survey of the coast. On the shore he found clumps of mangroves bearing
oysters. He satisfied his mind that the Indian fig-tree is not the Tree
of Knowledge, its only fruit being oysters, which adhere to its
pendulous fibres. Terrible tales were told him of the Spanish habit of
chaining and torturing native chiefs. He heard also that five months
before Berreo had sent to Spain for reinforcements. It seemed dangerous
to leave an enemy behind him. He had, moreover, a grievance for the
maltreatment of Whiddon's men the year before. A combination of motives
induced him to lead a hundred of his company in a night attack on
Berreo's new city of St. Joseph. By dawn he took it. He burnt it down,
having first released from a dungeon five caciques fastened together
with a single chain. The proceeding was high-handed and summary. Now it
would be criminal. It did not bear that character then. Lingard has
stigmatised Ralegh as a murderer, on account of the Spanish lives lost
during the assault. Berreo and the Spanish Government were less
particular. They saw nothing in his conduct adverse to the laws of war
and nations. If their soldiers had arrived in time, they would have
anticipated him in the aggression. Throughout this whole period
Spaniards and Englishmen, on the ocean and in the Indies, fought or
fought not, as suited not merely their mutual, but their several,
convenience. Neither side held it treachery to be assailed without a
solemn declaration of war. Berreo, as there is no real reason to doubt,
though Southey has questioned it, was captured in the town. Ralegh
speaks of him as a well descended gentleman, of great assuredness, and
of a great heart. He had his defects. He tortured natives, and was so
ignorant as not to know east from west. These blemishes of feeling and
education did not prevent Ralegh from behaving as a polished English
gentleman to a polished Spanish hidalgo. They lived together in great
amity, and conversed much. Berreo was so far from showing rancour that
he told all he knew of previous attempts upon Guiana. He did not
under-rate the difficulties, partly because he had reason to believe in
them, partly from a wish to put his captor off a project he hoped
hereafter to accomplish himself. Among other impediments to an entrance
he mentioned that the main land was 600 miles farther from the sea than
Whiddon had understood it to be. Ralegh concealed the disquieting fact
from his men.

[Sidenote: _A Maze of Waters._]

He assembled a conclave of island chiefs. His Sovereign, a virgin Queen,
he informed them, had commissioned him to free them from the Castilian
yoke. Then he set forth from Curiapan in an old gallego boat cut down
to draw but five feet of water. It was fitted with banks of oars. Sixty
officers and gentlemen volunteers embarked with him. A boat, two
wherries, and a barge carried forty more. They were victualled for a
month. The ships anchored near los Gallos in the Gulf of Paria. Twenty
miles of sea were crossed 'in a great billow' to Guanipa Bay, where
dwelt savages who shot poisoned arrows. Then the expedition was
entangled in a labyrinth of rivers. These were the eight branches of the
Orinoko. 'All the earth,' wrote Ralegh, 'doth not yield the like
confluence of streams.' That is hardly an exaggerated statement about
the Orinoko, which is fed by more than 436 rivers, and a couple of
thousand rivulets. A young Indian pilot, whom Ralegh had brought, named
Ferdinando, became bewildered. The boats might have wandered a whole
year had not, partly by force, and partly by good treatment, the
services of an old native been secured. Though often sorely perplexed,
he piloted them along a succession of narrow reaches of the Caño Manamo.
By Ralegh's orders he and the other Indian promised an outlet by every
next day, to cheer the crews. All were, however, on the verge of utter
despair, when suddenly the tangled thickets on the banks opened up into
a lovely champaign country. It was a paradise of birds and beasts. The
turf was diversified by groves of trees, disposed in order as if by all
the art and labour in the world. Still as the oarsmen rowed the deer
came down feeding by the water's side, as if they had been used to a
keeper's call. On an excursion off the route they were following they
overtook two canoes laden with bread. Among the bushes they found a
refiner's basket. In it were quicksilver and saltpetre, prepared for
assay, and the dust of ore which had been refined. It belonged to some
Spaniards who escaped; but the natives, their companions, were caught.
One of them, called Martino, proved a better pilot than Ferdinando and
the old man. Naturally the refining apparatus suggested a hunt after
gold. Ralegh was of a different opinion. The attempt, he considered,
would give notice to other nations of the riches of the country. To the
present expedition it could not have been very profitable from lack of
tools. He had no mind to dig with his nails. Had he wanted gold he
might, he says, have obtained much in actual bullion from the Indians.
But he 'shot at another mark than present profit.' He decided to
advance, his men being of good courage, and crying out to go on, they
cared not how far.

[Sidenote: _Friendly Chiefs._]

On the fifteenth day they discovered afar the Guiana mountains. Towards
evening they entered the main channel of the Orinoko. No Englishman had
preceded them. Consequently Captain Keymis afterwards re-named the
river, after his commander, Raleana. Now they were in a more populous
region. But the natives did not obstruct their advance. Ralegh had the
art of impressing them with faith and admiration. Hard as it was, he
hindered his men from robbing the villagers, insulting their women, or,
like the Spaniards in Peru, ransacking their hallowed graves for
treasure. A border prince, Toparimaca, regaled Ralegh's captains with
pine-apple wine till some of them were 'reasonable pleasant.' He also
lent his elderly brother for pilot. Under his guidance a branch of the
river, edged with rocks of a blue colour, like steel ore, was explored.
On the right bank were seen the plains of the Sayma, reaching to Cumana
and Caraccas, 120 leagues to the north. There dwelt the black
smooth-haired Aroras, accustomed to use poisoned arrows. No Spaniard
knew how to cure hurts from urari, which seems to be strychnine. 'Yet
they taught me,' writes Ralegh, 'the best way of healing as well this as
all other poisons.' Humboldt speaks of the Guaikas, who still use
poisoned darts, and by the terror of them have repelled intruders.

[Sidenote: _Indigenous Marvels._]

On they voyaged as far as Aromaia and its port, Morequito, 300 miles
from the sea. Here Ralegh was visited by wise Topiowari, King of
Aromaia, 110 years old. His nephew and predecessor, Morequito, had been
murdered by the Spaniards. He himself had been dragged for seventeen
days in a chain, like a dog, till he ransomed himself with a hundred
plates of gold and several chains of spleen stones. The old chief, who
walked to and fro, twenty-eight miles, brought a present of flesh, fish,
fowl, Guiana pine-apples, the prince of fruits, declares Ralegh, bread,
wine, parakeets, and an armadillo, which Ralegh afterwards ate. Ralegh
told him he had been sent by his Queen to deliver the Indians from
Spanish tyranny. Thence he would have ascended the Caroni, but his men
could not row a stone's throw in an hour. So he pushed on by land to
view the falls, ten or a dozen in number, each as high above the other
as a church tower. Deer flitted across every path. Birds at evening sang
a thousand different tunes. Cranes and herons, white, crimson,
carnation, perched on the banks. Fresh easterly breezes blew. Every
stone they stooped to take up promised either gold or silver by its
complexion. A Captain George, who had been captured with Berreo, had
told them a rich silver mine was near the Caroni. Topiowari's only son,
Caworako, informed him of the Carolians. He said they were foes to the
Spaniards. They had a feud also with the Epirumei, subjects of the Inca
of Manoa, who abounded in gold. The Carolians and three tribes at the
head of the Caroni, he asserted, would help Ralegh against both Spain
and the Inca. He spoke too of the Ewaipanomas, with eyes in their
shoulders and mouths in their breasts, living on the Caora. He was sure
of the eyes and mouths, for they had lately fought and slain many
hundreds of his father's people. Ralegh vouches neither for the Amazons
in the province of Topago, nor for these Ewaipanomas, 'For my part I saw
them not, but am resolved that so many people did not all combine, or
forethink to make the report.' Nineteen years later he took occasion in
his History to justify by the Greek belief in Amazons 'mine own relation
of them, which was held for vain and improbable.'

[Sidenote: _Sparrow and Goodwin._]

By this time the summer was over. Winter in the Tropics is the rainy
season. It shows itself less by any sensible change of vegetation than
by floods, gusts, thunder and lightning. The streams rose and raged; the
men were wetted to the skins ten times a day, and had no dry clothes to
put on. The fleet was some hundred miles away. Ralegh set his face
homewards. The boats glided down the Orinoko at a rate, though against
the wind, of little less than 100 miles a day. On his arrival at
Morequito Topiowari came on a parting visit. He brought a plentiful
supply of provisions, which Ralegh bought at fair prices. Every day,
said the old man, had death called for him; but he was animated by a
sagacious anxiety for his country, which the Spaniards threatened.
Ralegh's noble courtesy was as unstinted to the patriarchal savage as to
the Queen of England. He had infused the like temper into his officers,
and Topiowari's confidence was won. Already they had talked freely on
the politics and nature of Guiana, and how to obtain access to its
heart. Now the chief definitely offered to join in a march upon golden
Manoa if Ralegh would leave fifty Englishmen to defend him from the
vengeance of the Inca and Spain. Ralegh was timid for his men. He
compromised by engaging to return next year. Topiowari sent with him his
son, who was christened in England Gualtero. Ralegh left in Aromaia
Francis Sparrow, or Sparrie, to sketch and describe the country and
travel to Manoa with merchandise. Sparrow trafficked in Indian slaves.
At last the Spaniards captured him and forwarded him to Spain, from
which he made his way home in 1602. A boy, Hugh Goodwin, remained by his
own wish to learn the language. Ralegh found him at Caliana in 1617. He
had almost forgotten his native tongue. When these arrangements were
being made Ralegh steadfastly purposed to come back shortly. For the
moment his plan rather was to lay the foundation of friendships, and to
acquire information, than to conquer territory or open mines. For
example, he gave away, he states, more money's worth in gold guineas
than he received in gold plates. He had seen enough to be persuaded the
region was a land of gold. He was shown specimens of gold wrought by the
Epirumei, and the process had been explained to him. In Aromaia itself
he observed all the hills spread with stones of the colour of gold and
silver. At first he had conjectured they were marquesite. He tested
them and ascertained they were _el madre del oro_. Where that is, the
presence of gold below was supposed to be indicated. He remarked also
the outside of many mines of white spar, from which he drew as
flattering a conclusion.

[Sidenote: _Keymis's Gold Mine._]

From Aromaia a cacique Putijma accompanied him towards Mount Iconuri,
which contained a gold mine. 'Being a very ill footman,' he soon gave
in. He sent Keymis on, arranging that they should meet at the Cumaca.
Putijma conducted Keymis to the mine. On his own route Ralegh passed
many rocks like gold ore, a round mountain of mineral stone, and a
mountain of crystal. The crystal mountain he did not find crowned with
the diamond, which, according to Berreo, blazed afar. Its true diadem
was a mighty river, rushing down with a noise as of a thousand enormous
jangling bells. Near Mount Roraima the natives were solemnizing a
festival, 'all as drunk as beggars.' They pressed upon the strangers
abundance of delicate pine-apple wine. On the Cumaca Keymis rejoined
Ralegh. They bade adieu to sorrowing Putijma. They were themselves
downcast. 'Their hearts were cold to behold the great rage and increase
of Orinoko,' 'the sea without a shore,' as Humboldt has termed its
mouth. The Caño Manamo too, by which they had entered Guiana, was now
violently in flood. They had to follow the Capuri branch. At its mouth a
fierce gale was blowing, and the galley was near sinking. Ralegh,
embarking in his barge with Gifford, Caulfield, and his cousin,
Grenville, thrust into the sea at midnight. The galley he left to come
by day. 'Thus, faintly cheering one another in show of courage, it
pleased God about nine o'clock the next morning we descried the Isle of
Trinidad.' The ships were riding at anchor at Curiapan on the south-west
of the island. 'Never was there to us a more joyful sight.' Only one man
had perished, a very proper young negro, who, leaping into the river of
Lagartos to swim, was instantly devoured before them all by a crocodile.
The rest, in spite of wet, heat, want of sleep, clean clothes, and
shelter, and a diet of rotting fruit, crocodile, sea-cow, tapir, and
armadillo, all survived. They had suffered from no pestilence.
Schomburgk thinks Ralegh coloured too highly the mineral riches of
Guiana. He attests the veracity of the praises both of its prodigious
vegetable and animal fruitfulness, and of its healthiness away from the
malaria of the coast. His opinion was formed on an experience of eight
years of exploration.

[Sidenote: _Voyage Homewards._]

Ralegh had intended to sail to Virginia, and endeavour to relieve his
settlers. Extremity of weather forced him to abandon the design. He
demanded supplies at Cumana, where he left Berreo, at St. Mary's, and at
Rio de la Hacha. Being refused them, he sacked and burnt all three.
Incidentally he mentions that he found 'not a real of plate.' But he had
punished the settlements for their churlishness, not for the sake of
booty. He did not care to look out for spoil. 'It would have sorted
ill,' he wrote, 'with the offices of honour which by her Majesty's grace
I hold this day in England, to run from cape to cape for the pillage of
ordinary prizes.' On July 13, off Cuba, Preston and Sommers met, as
states their chronicler, the Honourable Knight Sir Walter Ralegh
returning from his painful and happy discovery of Guiana, and his
surprise of the Isle of Trinidad. Their two ships and his three remained
in company for twenty days. In August, 1595, he is understood to have
been back in England, 'a beggar,' as he expressed it, 'and withered.'
His wife had been watching over his interests. Her letter to Cecil of
March 20, 1595, is pleasantly characteristic. She explained in it her
urgency in a suit against Lord Huntingdon: 'I rather choose this time to
follow it in Sir Walter's absence, that myself may bear the unkindness,
and not he.' The subject of the proceedings was a refusal by the Earl to
surrender for Ralegh's use Lady Ralegh's portion, which was in his
hands, and had become payable through her mother's death.

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Book on Guiana._]

[Sidenote: _Vindication of his Veracity._]

The return did not excite much popular sensation. Cecil seems to have
doubted the genuineness or value of the minerals. He cannot have
profited by his investment in the adventure, and was not disposed to be
fervent in its praise. Hakluyt remarks how careful the cold Secretary of
State was not to be overtaken with any partial affection for the
planting of Guiana. Even in Devonshire there seem to have circulated
'slanderous and scoffing speeches touching Sir Walter's late occasion at
sea.' His enemies before he went predicted he would never return, but
would become 'a servant to the Spanish King.' Now that he was back, they
depreciated the importance of the enterprise, and especially his part in
it. Very absurdly they contended that he was too easeful and sensual to
have undertaken a journey of so great travail, and had been hiding in
Cornwall. Some gold he had helped to dig out with his own dagger. A
London alderman persuaded an officer of the Mint to report this
worthless; but Westwood, a refiner of Wood Street, and Dulmar Dimoke,
and Palmer, Controllers of the Mint, pronounced it very rich.
Calumniators, taking up a different position, alleged that the whole had
been imported from Barbary into Guiana. Ralegh himself wrote to Cecil on
November 21, 1595: 'What becomes of Guiana I much desire to hear,
whether it pass for a history or a fable.' He had to take pen in hand,
and defend himself from slanders by his _Discovery of the large, rich,
and beautiful Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden
city of Manoa_. The volume was published in 1596, with a grateful
dedication to his friends in adversity, his kinsman, the Lord Admiral,
and Cecil. Hume characterizes the account as 'full of the grossest and
most palpable lies.' The sole apparent ground for the accusation is that
Ralegh quoted Indian tales of strange creatures, giving the Indian
narrators as his authorities. It is not necessary to deny that he may
have been prone to believe in them too. The legend of a nation of
Amazons is of venerable antiquity. His was an age of faith in portents,
in witches, and wizards. If he did not sternly refuse credence even to
the shoulder-eyed Ewaipanomas, it must be remembered that a world of
'stranger things than are to be seen between London and Staines,' as he
has said, was being opened up to wondering Europe. Ralegh's personal
evidence, as I have mentioned, Schomburgk has tested; and he certifies
that it is not open to Hume's condemnation. Humboldt concurs. In
particular, the geographical knowledge exhibited in Ralegh's narrative
has been proved to be, for the period, curiously wide and accurate. His
observations on the natural phenomena of the region are equally faithful
and sagacious. The trust he reposed in its metallic riches is being now
demonstrated to have been more solidly founded than even Sir Robert
Schomburgk thought it. International disputes have recently arisen out
of the discovery of gold in the country still known as Guiana. Of the
gold field in Venezuela, which was comprised in Ralegh's Guiana, a
Government Inspector of Mines stated in 1889 that he believed we had in
it Sir Walter's el Dorado itself.

Contemporaries were captivated by the charm of the narrative. It
suffered from no dearth of readers at home. Abroad it was admired almost
more warmly. Four German editions appeared between 1599 and 1602, the
first three being published at Nuremberg. It was translated into Dutch
in 1598, and again in 1605, 1617, 1707, 1727, and 1747. Latin versions
were issued at Nuremberg and Frankfort in 1599. Ralegh's comrade,
Keymis, glorified the author and discoverer in Latin verse. George
Chapman sang the exploit in English. The Queen continued obdurate.
Ralegh's friends in vain interceded for his recall to Court. In vain he
waited for a summons, 'living about London,' as was said in December,
1595, perhaps at Mitcham or Mile End, 'very gallant.' He would not have
minded his toil had it brought his pardon. If he could thereby have
appeased the Queen's 'so powerful displeasure,' he would for a year more
have 'held fast his soul in his teeth.' But he imagined himself not at
all advanced towards forgiveness by his feat. Elizabeth, he complained,
persisted in 'the ungrateful custom of making one failing eclipse the
merit of many virtuous actions.' Personal resentment, he supposed,
closed her ears to his eloquent entreaties that she should keep a small
army afoot in Guiana marching towards Manoa. In that event, he was
certain, the Inca would yield to her Majesty so many hundred thousand
pounds yearly as should both defend her from all enemies abroad and
defray all expenses at home. She would have the means of foiling the
wiles by which, through his American gold, Philip 'crept into councils,
and set loyalty at liberty in the greatest monarchies.'

[Sidenote: _The Gold of Guiana._]

Guiana contained, he asserted, all things precious. Its lord would
possess as many diamonds as the princes of India, and more gold, a more
beautiful empire, more cities and people than either the King of Spain
or the Great Turk. He understood the temper of his age. He was aware
that 'where there is store of gold, it is in effect needless to remember
other commodities for trade.' Therefore he dilated on the gold and
diamonds of Guiana rather beyond measure, though not without reason. But
he had a quick eye for its other and more permanent advantages.
Throughout his career, to its end, and in all his writings, he differed
from other Elizabethan statesmen and explorers in regarding war with
Spain not merely in its retaliatory, defensive, and plundering aspects,
but as a means of enlarging the national boundaries. He desired to endow
England with a colonial empire. He pointed out that the new country had
everything which could render it habitable for Europeans. It was only a
six weeks' voyage from England. It was free from white occupants, and
had escaped spoliation. It was a region in which, he was convinced,
Englishmen could thrive and be happy. With his military instinct he had
truly discerned how easily it might be guarded by a couple of forts on
sites commanding the entrance into the Orinoko.

[Sidenote: _Spanish Plantation of San Thome._]

[Sidenote: _Another of Keymis's Gold Mines._]

He trusted she who was the lady of ladies would be inspired to accept
the direct dominion. If not, he was ready to judge those men worthy to
be its kings who by her grace and leave should undertake the task of
themselves. Unlicensed Undertakers were not wanting, much to his
disgust. He wrote to Cecil in November, 1595, that he heard Mr. Dudley
and others were sending ships. He besought that none be suffered to soil
the enterprise, and that he should be thought worthy to govern the
country he had discovered. The whole duty of sovereignty properly, he
held, appertained to the State. If it could not afford the requisite
funds, he expounded in an unpublished essay how a few hundred English
artificers might teach the Indians to arm themselves against the
Spaniards. By an able and generous argument he reconciled the
indefeasible right of the natives to their territory with the industrial
colony he was planning. As the State could in no shape be induced to
interest itself, he maintained the English connexion with Guiana at his
private charge. In the January of 1596 he despatched Keymis with the
Darling and Discovery. They were laden with merchandise to comfort and
assure the people that they should not yield to any composition with
other nations. Burleigh and Robert Cecil were joint adventurers with
Ralegh. Burleigh advanced £500, and his son lent a new ship bravely
furnished. Keymis learnt they had been forestalled. King Philip,
perturbed by the tidings of Ralegh's enterprise, had granted Berreo's
application by de Vera for troops. On May 16, 1595, before Ralegh's own
return, Sir John Gilbert heard from a Frenchman that the King had sent
forces to el Dorado. A powerful force for the conquest of Manoa arrived
in Trinidad in 1596. Finally, it is true, the majority miserably
perished, and the expedition effected nothing. But a village had already
been planted near the port of Topiowari, who, Keymis heard, was dead.
This settlement, known as San Thome, Santo Thomè, San Tomè, Santo Tomas,
or St. Thomas, did not owe its actual beginning to Berreo. It was first
founded by Jesuits in 1576, close to the confluence of the Caroni and
Orinoko. At the period of Ralegh's voyage it had become deserted. Berreo
reoccupied the site; and Keymis found the mouth of the Caroni blocked,
and guarded by a battery. 'Thus,' wrote Lady Ralegh indignantly to
Cecil, on Keymis's return, Ralegh being away in Spain, 'you hear your
poor absent friend's fortune, who, if he had been as well credited in
his reports and knowledges as it seemeth the Spaniards were, they had
not now been possessors of that place.' Keymis had to alter his route.
His passage to the mine from which the ores and white stones had been
taken the year before was intercepted. He went in the direction of Mount
Aio. Putijma had pointed out a gold mine in that neighbourhood to a
pilot. Even this mine, however, he did not actually reach, though he was
within fifteen miles of it. He was afraid, he said, that he and his men
might be cut off in the attempt, and the secret of the treasure be
buried with them. He was content to foster the amity of the Indians, to
remark additional signs of gold and spleen stones, and to discover above
fifty fresh rivers and tribes. After an absence of five months, he
arrived off Portland at the end of June. In a published narrative of his
expedition he apologised for having emptied Ralegh's purse in the
prosecution of patriotic designs thwarted by 'envy and private
respects.'




CHAPTER XIII.

CADIZ. THE ISLANDS VOYAGE. (1596-1597).


[Sidenote: _A Policy of Offence._]

Ralegh, like his wife and Keymis, may have thought his labour and his
money thrown away. They had not been. Guiana, after all, rehabilitated
him. His advice that England should not let herself be constrained to a
defensive war by the power of the Indian gold of Spain, was followed.
Again he emerged into official prominence as a warrior. He had never
ceased to carry himself as one who owed it to the State to counsel and
to lead. In November, 1595, he was warning Cecil of a fleet of sixty
sail preparing in Spain for Ireland. He was urging the necessity for the
quality, 'not plentiful in Ministers,' of despatch. 'Expedition in a
little is better than much too late. If we be once driven to the
defensive, farewell might.' Within the same month he was admonishing the
Council by letter of the imminent danger of a Spanish invasion of
England from Brittany. Disasters themselves favoured his advice and
projects. An expedition conducted by Hawkins and Drake against Panama
had been unsuccessful. The commanders died, Hawkins in November, 1595,
Drake in the next January; both, Ralegh has written, broken-hearted from
disappointment and vexation. Spain was encouraged by the failure. A
Spanish league with the Earl of Tyrone frightened and exasperated
Elizabeth. She equipped ninety-six sail, and the Dutch added
twenty-four. They carried 14,000 Englishmen, 1000 being gentlemen
volunteers, and 2600 Dutchmen.

[Sidenote: _Distribution of Commands._]

Lord Admiral Howard and Essex were joint Generals. They had a council of
war of five members. Lord Thomas Howard and Ralegh served for the seas.
Sir Francis Vere and Sir Coniers Clifford represented the troops. The
fifth on the council was Sir George Carew. All five were charged, as
they would answer before God, to give their counsels to both Generals
without any private respect to either, for love or fear. The English
fleet was divided into four squadrons. Ralegh commanded twenty-two
ships, manned by 1352 mariners and 1875 soldiers. As usually happened,
the expedition was detained by cross weather, which caused Ralegh, he
declared, deeper grief than he ever felt for anything of this world. His
anguish did not wholly occupy him. Some of his enforced leisure he
employed in petitioning for the appointment to the bishoprics of Lismore
and Waterford of the very learned Hugh Broughton. The ground partly was
the comfort Broughton would be to all the English nation thereabouts.
Partly, he wished to requite old Archbishop Magrath, who was usurping
the two sees, for having dealt badly with him touching divers leases and
lands. He was less successful in pleading for learning than for folly.
Broughton was not given the mitre. But four years later Cecil, writing
to Carew of a nominee for the Kerry Bishopric, described him
significantly as 'another manner of man than Sir Walter Ralegh's last
silly priest.' Now Ralegh was busy also begging a grant of 'concealed
lands' in Ireland for a former servant, and an Exeter prebend for Mr.
William Hilliard. He was inducing Cecil to be 'bound for me for the
£500, which I stand in danger to the Widow Smith for.' At last the wind
became more accommodating. Ralegh, whom carping gouty Anthony Bacon
pretended to suspect of having contributed to the delay from underhand
motives, collected the truant ships and seamen. On June 1, 1596, the
armament quitted Plymouth.

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Strategy._]

Until the fleet was at sea its destination had been kept secret. On June
20 it anchored half a league from Cadiz. A council was held from which
Ralegh was absent, being engaged in intercepting runaway Spanish ships.
It was resolved to attack the town first. On his return, he found Essex
in the act of putting soldiers in boats on a stormy sea. One barge had
sunk. First he dissuaded the Earl from prosecuting that plan. Next, he
won over the Lord Admiral. When he came back from Howard's ship, crying
out 'Entramos! Entramos!' Essex in exultation threw his plumed hat into
the water. Again by Ralegh's counsels, the attack was postponed till the
morning for the sake of the light. He drew up a scheme of operations and
sent it to the Lord Admiral, who and Essex, he says, were willing to be
'advised by so mean an understanding.' His project was to batter the
galleons first, and to appoint to each two great fly-boats to board
afterwards. The Generals were to stay with the main body of the fleet.
Ralegh obtained permission to lead the van in the Warspright, which had
a crew of 290. He was to be seconded by five other ships. Carew
commanded the Mary Rose, named after the ill-fated ship which foundered
at Portsmouth in the presence of Henry the Eighth, with its crew and
captain, another Sir George Carew, the present George's cousin. Marshal
Vere was in the Rainbow, Southwell in the Lion, Conyers Clifford in the
Dreadnought, and Lord Thomas Howard in the Nonparilla. An anonymous
contemporary writer, supposed to be Sir William Monson, who, it must be
admitted, says little of Ralegh's extraordinary prominence in the
action, states that Lord Thomas Howard challenged the leadership of the
van by right of his place as Vice-Admiral, and was granted it. Ralegh
was in this, at all events, not to be thwarted.

[Sidenote: _The Attack._]

At dawn he started, well in advance of all. Thereupon the St. Philip,
St. Matthew, St. Andrew, and St. Thomas, all mighty galleons, sailed
into the strait of the harbour towards Puerto Real. They moored under
the fort of Puntal, with a fringe of galleys, three about each, to
assist. The Warspright was cannonaded on her way by the fort and by the
galleys, which she esteemed but as wasps in respect of the powerfulness
of the others. She made no answer except by 'a blare with a trumpet to
each discharge.' Sailing on she anchored close against the St. Philip
and St. Andrew, the biggest ships in the Spanish navy. They had
overpowered Grenville's ship at the Azores. Ralegh determined 'to be
revenged for the Revenge, or to second her with mine own life.' He at
once cannonaded them while waiting for the fly-boats, which were to
board. The five supporting ships were at hand, but behind. Essex in his
flagship now came up. He was eager to join, and anchored beside him.
After a struggle of three hours the Warspright was near sinking. Ralegh
was rowed to Essex's ship. He told the Earl he meant, in default of the
fly-boats, to board from his ship: 'To burn or sink is the same loss;
and I must endure one or the other.' 'I will second you upon my honour,'
cried Essex. Ralegh, on his return after a quarter of an hour's absence,
found that the Nonparilla and the Rainbow had headed the Warspright.
Thomas Howard had on board his ship the Lord Admiral. Nevertheless,
Ralegh would not yield precedence, 'holding mine own reputation dearest,
and remembering my great duty to her Majesty.' Determined to be 'single
in the head of all,' he pushed between the Nonparilla and Rainbow, and
'thrust himself athwart the channel, so as I was sure none should
outstart me again for that day.' Vere pulled the Rainbow close up by a
hawser he had ordered to be fastened to the Warspright's side. But
Ralegh's sailors cut it; and back slipped into his place the Marshal,
'whom,' writes Ralegh, 'I guarded, all but his very prow, from the sight
of the enemy.' At length he proceeded to grapple the St. Philip. His
companions were following his example, when a panic seized the
Spaniards. All four galleons slipped anchor, and tried to run aground,
'tumbling into the sea heaps of soldiers, so thick as if coals had been
poured out of a sack.' The St. Matthew and the St. Andrew, of ten to
twelve hundred tons burden, were captured before there was time for
their officers to burn them. In his wonderfully vivid letter, undated
and unaddressed, known as _A Relation of Cadiz Action_, he does not name
the captor. But a note in his own hand, in his copy of a French account,
_Les Lauriers de Nassau_, affirms, 'J'ay pris tous deux.' The St. Philip
and the St. Thomas were blown up by their captains. A multitude of the
men were drowned, or horribly scorched. 'There was so huge a fire, and
such tearing of the ordnance, as, if any man had a desire to see Hell
itself, it was there most lively figured.' The English, Ralegh says,
spared the lives of all after the victory; the Flemings, who did little
or nothing in the fight, slaughtered mercilessly, till Ralegh first, and
then the Lord Admiral, beat them off. Towards the close of the three
hours' struggle, Ralegh received from a spent shot a grievous wound,
'interlaced and deformed with splinters,' in the leg.

[Sidenote: _Occupation of Cadiz._]

So stunned were the Spaniards by the naval disaster that the English
troops when they landed had an easy victory. They routed eight hundred
horsemen who met them. Then, hotly pursuing, they forced their way in
under Essex along with the fugitives. Before 8 o'clock that night the
English were masters of the market-place, forts, town, and all but the
castle. It held out till break of day. Ralegh was carried ashore on his
men's shoulders; but his wound was painful, and he was anxious for the
fleet. That was practically deserted. The superior officers had all run
headlong to the sack. So he retired on board. A promise was made him of
a full share of the spoil. He wrote on his copy of _Les Lauriers_ that
the engagement was not kept. Cadiz agreed to pay a hundred and twenty
thousand crowns as ransom for the persons of the citizens. All the rich
merchandise in the town, and forty thousand ducats in cash, were spoil
of war. A grander booty might have been gained if the Generals had been
guided by him, though Sir William Monson arrogates to himself the honour
of the suggestion. At daybreak he had sent his step-brother, Sir John
Gilbert, and his brother-in-law, Sir Arthur Throckmorton, who were in
his ship, to ask authority to follow the Indian fleet into Puerto Real
road. The cargoes were worth eight million crowns. The Generals
demurred. He says in their excuse that 'the confusion was great; it was
almost impossible for them to order many things at once.' They declined
also an offer by the Cadiz and Seville merchants in the afternoon to
redeem the ships for two million ducats. Ralegh himself preferred
capture first, and ransom afterwards. Essex desired to take the vessels;
but he wished to employ his land officers, Blount and others, not Ralegh
and his sailors. The Lord Admiral was against any composition. 'We
came,' he said, 'to consume them, and not to compound with them.' The
Spanish commander, the Duke of Medina, settled the difficulty. On the
following morning, June 23, he set fire to the whole, galleons,
frigates, and argosies. Among them were several ships which had been
fitted out for Guiana. The galleys escaped both Spanish and English
fury.

[Sidenote: _The Spoil._]

To the English leaders were allotted many rich prisoners. 'Some,' wrote
Ralegh, 'had for them sixty-six, or twenty, thousand ducats, some ten
thousand, beside great houses of merchandise.' Had it not been for his
wound, he avows with candour that he also should have possessed himself
of 'some house.' As it was, his part of the spoils was 'a lame leg and
deformed. I have not been wanting in good words, or exceeding kind and
regardful usage, but have possession of nought but poverty and pain.'
His complaint was an exaggeration. It is inconsistent with the report of
the royal commissioners. They drew up an inventory subsequently at
Plymouth of the spoil appropriated by the chiefs, except Essex and the
two Howards. In their tables Ralegh's plunder is valued at £1769, which
he was allowed to keep. But he fared ill in comparison, for example,
with Vere, who secured an amount of £3628. He appears also to have been
disappointed in an expectancy he had of £3000 prize-money from the
proceeds, among other booty, of those two well-furnished Apostles
aforesaid, as he familiarly terms the St. Matthew and St. Andrew.
Another and more generous grievance was the inferiority of the gains of
his seamen to those of the soldiers. With other principal officers of
the fleet he offended Vere by backing the sailors in their demand for a
search of the soldiers' chests. Throughout there had been ill-will
between Vere and him. Before they set out they disputed precedence. The
contention was compromised on the terms that Vere should have priority
on land, and Ralegh on water. During the voyage the strife was inflamed
by Sir Arthur Throckmorton's hot temper. On the return to England a
fresh outburst of professional jealousy fretted the sore.

[Sidenote: _Return of the Expedition._]

Essex was for holding Cadiz; and Vere engaged for its retention if he
might keep four thousand men. But it was known the measure would be
disliked at Court. The owners of booty, moreover, wanted to convey it
home. Consequently, most of the town was demolished, and its
fortifications were dismantled. As Ralegh writes in the _History of the
World_, describing Cadiz as one of the three keys of the Spanish Empire,
bequeathed by Charles the Fifth to Philip: 'We stayed not to pick any
lock, but brake open the doors, and, having rifled all, threw the key
into the fire.' On July 5 the army embarked. A descent was made upon
Faro; and the noble library of Bishop Osorius was taken. It became the
nucleus of the commencing Bodleian. Then the fleet set off homewards.
This was against the wishes of Essex, but accorded with those of Ralegh.
Provisions were scarce. In his own ship sickness had broken out, and his
wound troubled him. Sir William Monson adds an insinuation gratuitous
and baseless in respect of him, that 'riches kept them who got much from
attempting more.' Preceding the rest he reached Plymouth Sound on August
6. He went up to London, whither his praises had preceded him. Sir
George Carew had written to Cecil on June 30: 'Sir Walter Ralegh's
service was so much praiseworth as those which were formerly his enemies
do now hold him in great estimation; for that which he did in the sea
service could not be bettered.' As warm testimony was furnished by
friends of Essex. Sir Anthony Standen, a very close adherent of the
Earl's, who, however, in the next reign was one of Ralegh's
fellow-prisoners, had looked upon him with extreme suspicion. At the
commencement of the expedition he had written to an acquaintance: 'Sir
Walter Ralegh's carriage to my Lord of Essex is with the cunningest
respect and deepest humility that ever I saw.' He could not resist the
evidence of Ralegh's conduct. He wrote to Burleigh from Cadiz on July 5:
'Sir Walter Ralegh did in my judgment, no man better; and his artillery
most effect. I never knew the gentleman until this time, and I am sorry
for it, for there are in him excellent things beside his valour; and the
observation he hath in this voyage used with my Lord of Essex hath made
me love him.'

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's real reward._]

Ralegh murmured at the scantiness of his spoil. His real reward was his
restoration at Court. He sent a letter by Sir Anthony Ashley to Cecil on
July 7. After extolling Essex for having behaved both valiantly and
advisedly in the highest degree, without pride and without cruelty, he
expressed a hope that her Majesty would take his own labours and
endeavours in good part. His prayer was granted. Elizabeth finally was
induced to abate her wrath. It can never have been vindictive, or she
would have deprived him of his Captaincy. He was reported in May, 1597,
to be daily at Court, and to be likely to be admitted to the execution
of his office before he should go to sea. The rumour was well founded.
His deeds at Cadiz gave the Queen an excuse for showing indulgence, of
which she would be glad to avail herself on another account also. She
felt an obligation to him for his part in smoothing the relations
between her young favourite and her young Minister. Already, in
February, 1597, Essex and Ralegh were known to be holding frequent
conferences. Ralegh was acting as a mediator between the Earl and Cecil.
Their reconciliation was an object ardently desired by Elizabeth. He
succeeded, and they combined to requite him.

[Sidenote: _On Guard._]

On June 1, 1597, Cecil obtained leave to bring him to the Palace.
Elizabeth, writes a courtier, Whyte, used him very graciously, and gave
him full authority to execute his place as Captain of the Guard. This he
immediately undertook, and swore many men into the void places. In the
evening he rode abroad with the Queen, and had private conference with
her. From that time, the same indefatigable observer noted, he came
boldly to the Privy Chamber, as he had been wont. Though on June 1 Essex
was away from Town, it is especially remarked by Whyte that the
re-establishment of Ralegh was due to a large extent to him. Ralegh, he,
and Cecil were in league to gain the consent of the Queen to a fresh
foray upon Spain and its commerce. That was a main object of the
consultations which stirred the wonder of courtiers. The victualling of
the expedition was confided to Ralegh. He contracted to provision 6000
men for three months at the rate of ninepence a head. He complained that
he was out of pocket, which was not believed, though it was acknowledged
that the work was very well done. It was sure to be. He appreciated
fully Coligny's advice, as quoted by himself, that 'who will shape that
beast war must begin with his belly.' If he made a good bargain with the
State, he executed its conditions honestly. Not all of the profit could
he retain on this, or probably on other occasions. He had to supply
Essex with much for his private consumption. None of Elizabeth's
courtiers objected to such irregular gains. But Essex was chiefly
anxious for the glory he expected from the enterprise. His mind was said
to be 'full of conquering and overcoming the enemy;' and he had learnt
at Cadiz the value of Ralegh as a colleague. The triumvirate, it was
noticed, dined together one day at Essex House and conversed for three
hours after. Another day, early in July, Cecil was host. In return Essex
again, and Ralegh, entertained Cecil. An allusion to this festivity in a
letter of Ralegh's has furnished his biographers with a pet puzzle. 'I
acquainted the Lord General,' wrote Ralegh to Cecil on July 6, 1597,
'with your kind acceptance of your entertainment; he was also wonderful
merry at your conceit of Richard the Second. I hope it shall never
alter, and whereof I shall be most glad of, as the true way to all our
good, quiet, and advancement, and most of all for Her sake, whose
affairs shall thereby find better progression.' Commentators have been
tempted to discern some shadow before of the fatality four years later,
when the patronage by Essex and his partisans of the play of _Henry IV_
at the Globe Theatre became an article of indictment. The passage forms
a conundrum to which the clue has not yet been found. If the reference
be to Shakespeare's drama which Essex, Cecil, and Ralegh may have seen
acted in this July, it constitutes the only ascertained association of
the hand which could do all and the brain which could conceive all.

[Sidenote: _The Islands Voyage._]

Evidence of the amity of the three was afforded by the liberal scale of
the expedition, which started on July 10. A fleet of 120 vessels sailed
from Plymouth. Twenty were Queen's ships. Ten were contributed by the
Low Countries. The rest were volunteers. Essex commanded in chief, as
lieutenant-general and admiral. Lord Thomas Howard was vice-admiral.
Ralegh was rear-admiral. Lord Mountjoy was lieutenant of the land
forces. Vere was marshal, and George Carew master of the ordnance. The
serjeant-major was Sir Ferdinand Gorges. Sir Arthur Gorges was captain
of Ralegh's flagship. Essex feared that Vere and Ralegh might harbour a
mutual grudge on account of the strife over the Cadiz spoil. He
persuaded them to shake hands at Weymouth. 'This,' chronicles Vere, 'we
both did, the more willingly because there had nothing passed between us
that might blemish reputation.' Ralegh, in the _History of the World_,
has spoken in the same spirit of Vere, as constituting with Sir John
Norris 'the most famous' pair of captains by land, and is indignant that
he should have left behind him neither title nor estate.

[Sidenote: _Weather-bound._]

The object of the expedition was to destroy the navy a Ferrol, and
capture the Indian treasure ships. It was intended also to take and
garrison Terceira, and any others of the Azores. Hence it has been known
as the Islands or Island Voyage. The enterprise commenced ill. Four days
of storm drove the armament back to Plymouth. There it lay for a month.
Essex was in despair. Ralegh suggested to Cecil that the Queen might
send a comforting message. A truer man, he said, there could not be upon
the earth; but God having turned the heavens with such fury against the
fleet, it was a matter beyond human power, valour, or wit to resist. The
programme had to be revised. Essex and Ralegh rode post to Court to
consult the Queen and Council. The decision was that all the soldiers
but a thousand Dutchmen should be disbanded. The attack on Ferrol was to
be limited to an attempt by Ralegh to fire the ships in the harbour.
Essex was forbidden to participate, whether from regard for his safety,
or to secure to his subordinate a free hand. The modification was in
conformity with Ralegh's advice. He had expressed to Cecil his doubt of
the prudence of prosecuting the original design. The Spanish force at
Ferrol he thought too strong, and the season too advanced. He and Essex
returned together to Plymouth, where the Earl was his guest on board the
Warspright. 'Her Majesty may now be sure his Lordship shall sleep the
sounder, though he fare the worse, by being with me; for I am an
excellent watchman at sea,' wrote Ralegh. The fare would not be
extremely rough. Ralegh could bear hardships, if necessary, anywhere. He
was ready at any moment, and in any weather, to go to sea, though, like
Lord Nelson, he was liable to visitations of sea-sickness. But at sea,
as elsewhere, he liked comfort, refinement, and even luxury, if
compatible with duty. He had many servants. He took chests of books. He
hung his walls with pictures, and furnished his cabin sumptuously. Among
the treasures of the Carews of Beddington was a bedstead, reputed to
have been part of his ship furniture, with upholstery of green silk, and
with gilt dolphins for legs. The stately chair, which was in the late
Mr. Godwin's collection of the chairs of great men, may have been its
companion.

[Sidenote: _Mischief-making._]

At Plymouth the fleet delayed weather-bound till August 18. It had not
been five days at sea before another tempest arose off Cape Ortegal.
Carew in the St. Matthew was driven into Rochelle. Eventually he had to
return to Plymouth. The wind blew out of Ferrol, and the curtailed
scheme for an assault on it, and on Terceira too, had to be abandoned.
All that remained was to intercept the Indian ships. The fleet was
divided by stress of weather. Ralegh wrote to Cecil on September 8 that
in ten days he had never come so much as into bed or cabin. He did not
rejoin the main body till Essex had been ten days at the Island of
Flores. Essex 'seemed to be the joyfullest man living for our arrival,'
says Arthur Gorges. Some had tried to persuade him that Ralegh had kept
away intentionally with the victuallers; but Essex told Ralegh he saw
through 'their scandalous and cankered dispositions.' Gorges believed he
spoke sincerely; 'for though the Earl had many doubts and jealousies
buzzed into his ears against Sir Walter, yet I have often observed that
both in his greatest actions of service, and in the times of his
chiefest recreations, he would ever accept of his counsel and company
before many others who thought themselves more in his favour.'

[Sidenote: _Attack on Fayal._]

At Flores it was determined at a council of war that Essex and Ralegh
should lay waste Fayal. Essex sailed away. Ralegh following arrived
first. The forts fired; and the islanders began carrying off their goods
to the interior. Ralegh still paused. The officers, except a few of
Essex's sycophants, like Sir Guilly Meyricke, chafed. Delay, as Monson,
no admirer of Ralegh, has intimated in his narrative of the affair,
might have enabled the Spaniards to provide themselves better. Ralegh's
own patience was not inexhaustible. He cannot have been sorry to be
afforded a reasonable pretext for separate action. He states in the
_History of the World_ that his delay was in deference to the desire of
some in the company who would have 'reserved the title of such an
exploit, though it was not great, for a greater person.' When the
difficulty of the enterprise was urged, he felt bound to prove by
example that the 'defence of a coast is harder than its invasion.' On
the fourth day he landed. He took no soldiers, but only 260 seamen and
gentlemen volunteers, with some ordnance, in pinnaces. They were met by
double the number of Spaniards, and by a sharp fire. So staggered were
his men that Ralegh had to order his own barge to be rowed full upon the
beach. Other boats followed. Landing, the invaders waded through the
water, clambered over rocks, and forced their way up to and through the
narrow entrance. The town itself, called Villa Dorta, was four miles
off, and a fort guarded it. Up to the front deliberately marched Ralegh,
with his leading staff in his hand. He wore no armour except his collar.
His men were less serenely indifferent to the shot, especially the Low
Countries soldiers, who were now come ashore to his help. The garrison,
driven from the lower works, mounted to the higher. Ralegh, perceiving a
disinclination in his force to go on, preceded with Gorges and eight or
ten servants. Amidst a hail of ball and stones, he in his white, and
Gorges in his red, scarf, presented excellent marks. They discovered the
best passage, and then their men came up. But by the time they reached
the fort and town both had been deserted.

[Sidenote: _Essex's Jealousy._]

Early next morning, September 22, the rest of the fleet, which had been
roving after the treasure ships, was descried bearing in. Essex was
grievously disappointed at having missed the one opportunity of glory on
this unlucky expedition. Pernicious counsellors like Blount, Shirley,
and Meyricke, recommended him to bring Ralegh before a court-martial.
Some actually asserted he deserved to be executed. Not unconscious of
the Earl's mood he paid him a state visit in his barge. He was at once
taxed with breach of discipline. He was reminded of an article that
none, on pain of death, should land any of the troops without the
General's presence or his order. His reply was that the provision was
confined to captains. It could not apply to him, a principal commander,
with a right of succession to the supreme command, in default of Essex
and Thomas Howard. Most of all, he protested against orders which he
heard had been given for the arrest of the officers who accompanied him
in the landing. He insisted that whatsoever his Lordship conceived to be
misdone he must take it wholly on himself to answer, being at that time
commander-in-chief. Essex seemed so far impressed by his arguments as to
visit him at his lodgings, though he graduated the return to good humour
by declining to stay and sup. In the morning he paid Essex a second
visit, though not without hesitation. At one moment the prospect of ill
treatment was so threatening that he was disposed to go off to his
squadron and prepare to repel force. Lord Thomas Howard hindered
extremities by pledging his honour to make himself a party if wrong or
violence were offered. Essex could not overcome his mortification. He
evinced it in a puerile manner by omitting all mention of the capture of
Fayal from his official reports. Monson, who was with the expedition,
expresses an opinion that if Essex, being 'by nature timorous and
flexible, had not feared how it would be taken in England, Sir Walter
Ralegh would have smarted for it.' In appearance the Earl ultimately
allowed himself to be pacified by a solemn discussion of Ralegh's
conduct, and a severe censure voted by a majority of the principal
officers. According to one incredible account, Ralegh was gravely
declared on the occasion to have rendered himself, by his assumption of
independent power, liable to a capital penalty. Posterity will be
inclined to transfer the actual condemnation to the commander-in-chief,
whose freakish pique stopped only short of an outrage. But Essex had the
fortune or misfortune to have all his errors popularly accounted
virtues. In relating this occurrence, for instance, Vere, though he
admits the matter was 'grievously aggravated by the most,' speaks of
Ralegh's act as a 'crime,' which it was very good of the General to
visit simply 'with a wise and noble admonition.' Sir Henry Wotton later
mentions, as if it were an act of heroic self-denial, that the Earl
replied to advice to send Ralegh before a court-martial: 'I would if he
were my friend.'

[Sidenote: _Caracks captured and missed._]

[Sidenote: _Historian of the Expedition._]

To cement the hollow reconciliation, Villa Dorta was burnt, after the
kindly usage, and the fleet went prize hunting. Three Spanish ships from
the Havannah were captured. The largest, of 400 tons, was laden with
gold, cochineal, indigo, civet, musk, and ambergris, beside many
valuable passengers. Enough of cochineal and indigo was taken 'to be
used in this realm for many years,' according to an official report.
Ralegh was its captor. He expressed his pleasure either magnanimously or
contemptuously: 'Although we shall be little the better, the prizes will
in great measure give content to her Majesty, so that there may be no
repining against this poor lord for the expense of the voyage.' They
missed forty India-men, which escaped into the strong harbour of
Terceira. The colonels bragged they were ready to storm the forts.
Howard and Ralegh, who thought the enterprise impracticable, offered as
a test of the sincerity of the soldiers to back them with 3000 seamen.
Thereupon the project was dropped. At St. Michael's, Essex, according to
Gorges, who it must be remembered was Ralegh's officer, wasted precious
days at Villa Franca. He let his men revel in fruit and wine, and lost
the moment for surprising the capital. Ralegh meanwhile, in the road,
took a Brazil ship, which, when sold in England, paid the wages of the
whole of the 400 sailors and soldiers of the Warspright. Through a Dutch
captain's over-haste, an 1800 ton carack 'of infinite wealth, laden with
the riches of the East and West,' eluded him. She ran herself aground,
and was burnt by her crew. He in his barge crossed the furious surf too
late to put out the flames. Very speedily she was all over thunder and
lightning. Her ordnance discharged from every port, and the clouds
exhaled from her spicy entrails perfumed the air for many hours. By this
time autumn was come. Not too soon, the fleet, which had assembled off
Villa Franca, set sail. The town was spared the customary flames, for
causes unknown to Gorges. After suffering from want of water, and from
tempests, in which the skill of John Davys, Essex's famous pilot, proved
inferior to that of Broadbent, who was Ralegh's, St. Ives was reached.
Ralegh's return rejoiced Cornwall, which had been alarmed by descents of
Spanish caravels. The whole tale was set forth vividly by Sir Arthur
Gorges in his _Relation of the Island Voyage_, written in 1607, and
printed, it is said, at the request of Prince Henry.




CHAPTER XIV.

FINAL FEUD WITH ESSEX (1597-1601).


[Sidenote: _A Busy Life._]

The Islands Voyage was the last for many years of Ralegh's personal
adventures at sea. After it he found enough, and too much, to occupy him
at home. He speaks of himself as 'mad with intricate affairs and want of
means.' As soon as he returned he had to take precautions against an
expected attack on Falmouth by a Spanish fleet of 110 or 160 sail. Only
the tempest which had troubled Essex and him prevented its arrival while
he was away. He was arranging for the journey into Spain of a spy, who
had a pass from Philip, whereby he might safely look into the ports. He
was urging on the Council the despatch of light warships against the
Spanish treasure fleet. He represented it as a complement to the
preceding expedition, less hazardous and likely to be much more
lucrative. The squadron would be absent only in the dead of winter, and
could be back by spring, 'sufficient timely to answer any attempt from
Spain.' He was provisioning Western ports, paying their garrisons, and
reckoning the cost of maintenance of captive Spaniards. He was scolding
a presumptuous nephew, John Gilbert. He was upholding the ancient
tenures of the Duchy of Cornwall, and resisting the exaction of obsolete
licences for drying and packing fish. He was relieving miners from
extortions by merchants. He was advocating an Irish policy of terrorism,
in the course perhaps of a visit to Munster, as Mr. Payne Collier has
inferred from the language of his letter itself, rather more confidently
than it warrants, though a current rumour that he was out of heart at
the moment with his Court prospects favours the hypothesis of
self-banishment. At any rate, in October, 1598, he was writing to
shame-faced Cecil in defence, it is sad to say, of official connivance
at the assassination of Irish rebels: 'It can be no disgrace if it were
known that the killing of a rebel were practised. But, for yourself, you
are not to be touched in the matter.' In his History he condemns lying
in wait privily for blood as wilful murder. In return for his activity
and his fierceness he was recognised as both hostile and important
enough to be singled out as a mark for the Ultramontane fury which
kindled and fed Irish revolts. That at times assumed strange forms. His
name is joined in 1597 with those of Cecil and the Lord Admiral as among
the Englishmen whom Tempest the Jesuit destined to destruction. The
instrument was a poison, for which the sole antidote was the utterance
of the word Eguldarphe three times before drinking. Then the glass would
break, or the wine, if in a silver cup, would froth and fume.

[Sidenote: _Counsellor and Debater._]

Public affairs and private affairs, small things and great, filled
Ralegh's life to overflowing. They were all transacted at high pressure.
Everything he did he did with his whole might. He always 'toiled
terribly.' He sat in the House of Commons in the winter of 1597-8, and
his name often occurs in reports of debates and committees. He spoke on
the infesting of the country by pretended soldiers and sailors, on the
cognate subject of sturdy vagabonds and beggars, on the fruitful topic
of the Queen's debts. He took part in the burning controversy whether
the Lords were entitled to receive, seated, Members sent by the Lower
House to confer on a Bill, instead of coming down to the bar. He was
being consulted by the Privy Council on the right way of dealing with
Tyrone's Ulster rising. He was praying a licence for a translation from
the Italian of a history of King Sebastian's and Thomas Stukely's
invasion of Morocco, on the ground that he had perused and corrected
something therein. He was soliciting and obtaining a Governorship. He
was seeking the enlargement out of prison of his cousin Henry Carew's
'distressed son.' He was nursing at Bath his ailments, of which their
Lordships of the Council were very sorry to hear, and wished him speedy
recovery. He was, through Cecil, and with the Queen's leave, applying
pressure to Bishop Cotton of Salisbury, at the end of 1598, for the
change of his lease of Sherborne into the fee. He was building there a
new mansion. He was playing primero at the Palace with Lord Southampton,
and doubtless as eagerly, though he did not, like the Peer, threaten to
cudgel the Royal Usher who told them they must go to bed. He was
exclaiming at the supineness which suffered Spain to prepare expeditions
against Flanders or Ireland, capture 'our small men-of-war,' and send
safe into Amsterdam 'the ship of the South Sea of Holland, with a
lantern of clear gold in her stern, infinite rich--and none of yours
stayed her!'

[Sidenote: _The Rivalry with Essex._]

[Sidenote: _Attempts at Friendship._]

Never was there a busier existence, or one apparently more evenly
occupied. But at this period it had really a single engrossing care, and
that was the rivalry with Essex. Once it had looked as if the two might
become friends. Before the Islands Voyage, Essex had been closely allied
both with him and with Cecil. Afterwards, on an alarm of a Spanish
invasion in 1596, Essex and he seem to have been jointly directed to
advise on a system of coast defence. Essex drew up a series of
questions, to which Ralegh categorically replied. He expressed an
opinion that it was not worth while to attempt to fortify aught but 'the
river of Thames.' He thought it unwise either to hazard a battle, or to
store much ammunition anywhere but in London. His reason was that 'we
have few places guardable, Portsmouth excepted.' Essex and he hoped
apparently to be given another foreign command. In October, 1597, Ralegh
was prompt to report to Cecil the testimony of a Plymouth captain just
come from abroad, that 'the Earl our General hath as much fame and
reputation in Spain and Italy as ever, and more than, any of our nation
had; and that for an enemy he is the most honoured man in Europe.' He
appeared to nurse no anger for the reproaches and menaces used at Flores
and Fayal. Those were reported by Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney to have
been greatly misliked at Court, where Ralegh was 'happy to have good and
constant friends able by their wisdom and authority to protect and
comfort him.' He did not take advantage of his influence there to direct
attention to his commander's blunders at St. Michael's. On the contrary,
he seized every opportunity, with seeming sincerity, of dwelling upon
his courage and capacity. He exhibited friendliness in various ways. In
December, 1597, he had accepted a mission from the Queen to compromise a
question of precedence between Essex and the Lord High Admiral. Towards
the beginning of 1598 he, Essex, and Cecil again met often at Essex
House and Cecil House in secret conclave. Cecil in February, 1598, was
sent to France on a mission to dissuade Henry IV from concluding a
separate peace with Spain. His journey was made an occasion for special
demonstrations of goodwill among the rival courtiers. Entertainments
were given him in which Ralegh with Lady Ralegh, and members of the
Essex party, like Lord Southampton and Lady Walsingham, equally
participated. Essex accepted favours from Ralegh and Cecil. Ralegh
offered him a third of the prizes he had captured. Cecil procured him a
grant of £7000 from the sale of the cochineal belonging to the Crown. He
was believed to have reciprocated the kindness of each by promising
Cecil that in his absence nothing disagreeable to him should be done,
and Ralegh, that he would join Cecil in having him appointed a Privy
Councillor, if not Vice-Chamberlain. But the show of cordiality was
deceptive, and Essex chose to imagine himself continually aggrieved. The
Islands Voyage had been a failure. The Queen told him it had been. She
blamed him for having accomplished nothing at Ferrol. She reproached him
with the escape of the plate fleet. He was discontented with himself.
His flatterers consoled him by assurances that others were in fault
rather than he. They pointed at Ralegh; and the old jealousy revived
with redoubled violence.

[Sidenote: _Tolerance of Disappointments._]

Ralegh was no longer an object for generosity. He was become again a
power at Court. He was perpetually consulted on maritime and Irish
affairs. Conferences were held between him and the Council in 1599
concerning Ireland, and his advice for the victualling of the garrisons
was adopted in the January of the same year. His Western command, at a
time when Spanish incursions were from moment to moment possible,
brought him into peculiar prominence. When his hopes in 1598 either of
the Vice-Chamberlainship, or of a seat at the Privy Council, were
frustrated, he was disappointed; unlike his adversary, he could bear
disappointment. He was at once the most patient and the most impatient
of men. His was the healthy form of disappointment, which, if an outlet
in one quarter be closed, incites to the discovery of another. The
gossip of the town reported in October, 1598, that he was meditating a
voyage to Guiana in company with Sir John Gilbert: 'He is discontented
he thrives no better.' It was one of a Court life's passing clouds, and
he treated it so that it should pass. To the diseased mind of Essex he
appeared prosperous and triumphant at all points, and beyond all
deserving. Even the few laurels of the late expedition had been gathered
by him. When they had been at variance, Ralegh had put him in the wrong.
Ralegh could not tolerate an insolent superior. Essex could endure no
equal. He was ever sulking at Wanstead, or raging. Ralegh's name was the
established text for his outbursts of wrath. An anecdote told by the
anonymous author, said to be Lord Clarendon, of _The Difference between
George Duke of Buckingham and Robert Earl of Essex_, is supposed to
illustrate the humiliations to which his temper exposed him. On the
Queen's birthday, November 17, 1598, the accustomed tournament was being
held in the Tilt-yard before her Majesty. Ralegh, not brooding on late
rebuffs, led a gallant retinue in orange-tawny plumes. Essex had heard
of Ralegh's preparations. He entered with his visor down, at the head of
a larger and more magnificent troop flaunting 2000 feathers of the same
colour. It must be admitted that, as Horace Walpole remarks, 'the
affront is not very intelligible at present.' Apparently, he wished to
produce an impression by his 'glorious feather triumph' that Ralegh and
his followers were a company of esquires or pages. But the two bodies
tilted, and Essex 'ran very ill.'

[Sidenote: _Essex in Ireland._]

In chagrin, and almost despair, Essex at the end of March, 1599, went
over to Ireland as Lord Deputy. The vacancy had been a theme of much
dispute at Court. In 1598, Ralegh, Sir Robert Sidney, and Sir
Christopher Blount, Essex's step-father, had been mentioned by rumour
for the appointment. In March, Rowland Whyte had written positively to
Sir Robert Sidney that it had been decided to nominate either Sir
William Russell or Ralegh, but Russell had absolutely declined, and 'the
other doth little like it.' Perilous as the post was, 'a fair way to
destruction,' as Whyte described it, a refusal of it by Ralegh, had the
choice been given him, is incredible. Essex in any case preserved enough
influence to have hindered his nomination. At last, to exclude others,
and to keep himself before the world, Essex consented to be appointed.
As soon as he had landed in Ireland he began to bemoan his 'banishment
and proscription into the cursedest of all islands.' So loud was his
discontent as to give rise to extraordinary popular fancies. London was
in the August of 1599 barricaded for a fortnight. A fleet was put in
commission under Lord Thomas Howard as Admiral. Ralegh was Vice-Admiral,
and 'took leave at Court of all the ladies' about August 18. He stayed
in the Downs for three weeks or a month. The ostensible, and doubtless
the true, reason was the threat of a Spanish descent upon the Isle of
Wight. But not a few believed that it was a precaution, less against the
Spaniard than against an apprehended invasion by Essex from Ireland.
Wild as was the rumour, it was favoured by the reckless talk of Essex
and his companions. Sir Christopher Blount on the scaffold confessed to
Ralegh that some had designed the transport of a choice part of the army
of Ireland to Milford, and a march upon London.

[Sidenote: _Attacks on Ralegh._]

Essex before this, on June 25, 1599, had been writing to Elizabeth: 'Is
it not lamented by your Majesty's faithfullest subjects, both there and
here, that a Cobham and Ralegh--I will forbear others for their places'
sakes--should have such credit and favour with your Majesty, when they
wish the ill success of your Majesty's most important action, the decay
of your greatest strength, and the destruction of your faithfullest
servants?' His fury against Ralegh seems too excessive to have been
genuine. In part it may be explained by his knowledge, on which Sir John
Pope Hennessy has laid inordinate stress, that Ralegh was the most
strenuous opponent of his Irish policy. He would detect the voice and
hand of Ralegh in all the hindrances to, and in every criticism upon,
his measures. He would imagine he heard him arguing adversely at
sittings of the Council, to which he was informally admitted, and in the
Queen's chamber. Sympathy may reasonably be felt now both with his
special difficulties, and with his general tendencies in Irish
administration, rather than with his rival's doctrines. His, however,
were only tendencies. His conduct both in Ireland and in England proves
that he thought of Irish administration as a weapon of combat for Court
ascendency, not as a means of correcting the wrongs of ages. The tone of
his tirades upon his condemnation to residence in Ireland is wholly
inconsistent with the romantic theory that he had undertaken the
government as a humanitarian mission of peace and benevolence to the
Celt.

[Sidenote: _Despair and Cabals._]

His abrupt return was but the climax in a series of extravagances which
had terrified the Queen. He was indignant at any delay in a restoration
of the old royal kindness. At first he condescended to a few overtures
for forgiveness. His friends could not believe that he would not be
welcomed back. They were persuaded that, if Elizabeth saw him, all would
be as it had been. Leave was importuned for him to run again in the ring
at Whitehall on the Queen's birthday. He was induced to affect
penitence. It was noted hopefully that the royal favour to Ralegh was
not without breaks. He had wished to be a Commissioner for the peace
negotiations with Spain at Boulogne. The Queen refused, as his
appointment would have confirmed his title to a Privy Councillorship. In
June he was said to have been scolded worse than cat and dog, and
dismissed into the country bag and baggage. Obediently he went over to
his Cork estate, where he aided Carew in his Munster Presidency with his
'strong counsel' in July. As before, he kept his temper, and the Queen
relented. She sent comforting messages when he fell ill from vexation,
as was said, and recalled him to Court. Essex was not content to work
upon her compassion. He grew contemptuously impatient. He was much more
resentful than grateful when his pardon came without a renewal of his
farm of sweet wines. Everybody has heard of his rude taunt thereupon at
Elizabeth, that 'her conditions were as crooked as her carcase.' Ralegh
in his _Prerogative of Parliaments_ applies it as an illustration how
'undutiful words of a subject do often take deeper root than the memory
of ill deeds.' He asserts that the saying 'cost the Earl his head, which
his insurrection had not cost him, but for that speech.' Essex did not
stop at sneers. He caballed with persecuted Papists and Puritans alike,
and with various desperados. He alarmed King James with fantastic
accounts of conspiracies for the Infanta's succession. In the plot were,
he intimated, Ralegh potent in the West and Channel Islands; Cobham,
Warden of the Cinque Ports; the Lord Treasurer; the Lord Admiral;
Burleigh, Cecil's brother, President of the North; and Carew, President
of Munster. All were persons, he alleged, well affected to the King of
Spain. He urged James to require a public recognition of his title. He
'pretended,' wrote Cecil to Carew, 'an intention to remove me from the
Queen, as one who would sell the kingdom of England to the Infanta of
Spain, with such other hyperbolical inventions.' He desired to replace
Ralegh in the Captaincy of the Guard by Sir William Russell.

[Sidenote: _Gorges and Blount._]

On Sunday, Feb. 8, 1601, came the explosion. Very little secrecy had
been preserved, and the guard at Court was doubled. In the morning
Ralegh invited Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Governor of Plymouth Fort, to come
by water to him at Durham House. Essex was willing Gorges should meet
Ralegh on conditions: he must take a couple of companions for his
protection, and the meeting must be on the river, not at Ralegh's
lodgings. Ralegh consented. Gorges, some time later, during his
confinement at the Gate-house, on June 14, 1601, wrote an account of the
interview. At his examination by several Privy Councillors he had stated
that Sir Christopher Blount tried to persuade him to seize or kill
Ralegh. He refused, 'unless Sir Walter had given me the first occasion
by violent deeds or unkind words, for either of which I was both
resolved and prepared.' He admitted the 'intent was particular against
Sir Walter Ralegh and others.' He thought this a proof that 'it was no
matter of treason against her Majesty, but rather a manifestation of the
contrary.' Essex gave out that his rising was prompted by a discovery
that there was an ambuscade of musketeers placed upon the water by the
device of Lord Cobham and Ralegh, to murder him in the way as he passed.
Blount, at his trial, confessed there was no foundation for the
allegation. In reply to Cecil, who asked if he thought Cobham and Ralegh
had projected the murder of the Earl, he said he did not believe they
ever meant any such thing, nor that the Earl himself feared it; only it
was a word cast out to colour other matters. Essex himself subsequently
made a similar admission with respect to his charges against Ralegh and
Cobham of treason to the Queen and State. Blount, it is said, being
unable to induce Gorges to commit the crime, himself from a boat fired
four shot at Ralegh. Ralegh was present officially at his execution, and
interposed on his behalf when the Sheriff would have forbidden him to go
on speaking. Blount reciprocated the courtesy by asking Ralegh's
forgiveness, 'both for the wrong done you, and for my particular ill
intent towards you.' Ralegh was a witness at the trial of Essex, on
February 19. When he was called, Essex rudely cried: 'What booteth it
to swear this fox!' He insisted upon the oath being administered upon a
folio, not upon a small, Testament. Ralegh was not to be irritated into
retorting angrily. He calmly explained that on the river Gorges said
this would be the bloodiest day's work that ever was, and wished Ralegh
would speed to Court for the prevention of it. Gorges admitted the
accuracy of the account. Essex denied its agreement with the report made
by Gorges to him at Essex House.

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Demeanour towards Essex._]

Essex was a popular idol. Ralegh, till his fall, never was. A
contemporary said that Essex's reverses endeared him, and Ralegh's
successes seemed to deepen the public dislike. The populace deluded
itself with the fancy, absolutely groundless, that Essex's ruin was due
to Ralegh, and that Ralegh must have exulted at it. Malignant anecdotes
were current of his demeanour at his rival's last moments. He was said
to have snatched at the pleasure of conveying to the Lieutenant of the
Tower the instructions for the execution. He was described as, on
February 25, standing in a window over against the scaffold, and puffing
out tobacco smoke in defiance. After his own death, Sir Lewis Stukely
alleged him to have said that the great boy died like a calf, and like a
craven; to have vaunted to one who asked if in the Islands Voyage the
Earl had not brought him to his mercy, that he trusted they were now
quits. Against such gross tales Ralegh needs no defence. He could not
have behaved like a boorish ruffian to an adversary in the death agony.
He could not have spoken unmannerly words of his dead Cadiz comrade. He
had been present at the Earl's trial as Captain of the Guard. In spite
of taunts, he had given his evidence with dignity and moderation. As
Captain of the Guard he had escorted several of the insurgents, though
not Essex himself, to prison. In his official capacity he carried the
order for the execution. In the same character he was present in the
Tower. At first he had stood near the scaffold, supposing that Essex
might wish to speak to him. To avoid misconstruction by lookers-on he
soon withdrew. He stationed himself in the distant Armoury, where he
could see without being seen. Afterwards he was sorry, he said, for it;
since he heard that the Earl had inquired for him, desiring to have been
reconciled.

[Sidenote: _His Part in the Catastrophe._]

His aspect is reported to have been sad and gloomy, as he was rowed back
to Durham House. With his nature, and his gifts of imagination, he could
not but have been awed by the consummation he had witnessed of a tragic
doom. Later he believed he had always lamented the fate of Essex as the
beginning of a new peril to himself from those who before had needed his
support against a powerful rival. He may already have had a
presentiment. He could rightly declare that the death was not his work.
Essex was his own undoer. A time had been at which Ralegh would gladly
have become his firm friend. His emphatic concurrence, recorded by
Rowland Whyte, with Lady Ralegh's wish that there were 'love and concord
amongst all' was not hypocritical. In all sincerity he had written twice
in that spirit in the spring of 1600 to Lady Essex. He had found it of
no use; and a period came when he rejoiced in an inveterate enemy's
discomfiture. It is fanciful to affirm that he would have been pleased
to assist in turning aside the final shock of ruin. His sentiments
towards Essex at the end, unhappily, are too certain for the precise
meaning of his enigmatical undated letter to Cecil, discovered among the
Hatfield papers, to be of much consequence. Of its authenticity there is
no real doubt, though Mr. Charles Kingsley, whose enthusiasm for Ralegh
is delightful and unmixed, chooses to question it on the slender ground
that it is signed by initials, and that the style is, to his taste,
unlike Ralegh's. Its exact meaning is much more open to dispute. Here it
is:--

[Sidenote: _Advice to Cecil._]

'I am not wise enough to give you advice; but 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 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, that was esteemed to
be the contriver of Norfolk's ruin, yet his son followeth your father's
son and loveth him. Humours of men succeed not, but grow by occasions
and accidents of time and power. Somerset made no revenge on the Duke of
Northumberland's heirs. Northumberland, that now is, thinks not of
Hatton's issue. Kelloway lives that murdered the brother of Horsey; and
Horsey let him go by all his lifetime. I could name you a thousand of
those; and therefore after-fears are but prophecies, or rather
conjectures, from causes remote. Look to the present, and you do wisely.
His son shall be the youngest Earl of England but one, and if his father
be now kept down, Will Cecil shall be able to keep as many men at his
heels as he, and more too. He may also match in a better house than his;
and so that fear is not worth the fearing. But if the father continue,
he will be able to break the branches, and pull up the tree, root and
all. Lose not your advantage; if you do, I rede your destiny. Yours to
the end, W.R. Let the Queen hold Bothwell while she hath him. He will
ever be the canker of her estate and safety. Princes are lost by
security; and preserved by prevention. I have seen the last of her good
days, and all ours, after his liberty.' By Bothwell is meant Essex. The
real Bothwell was a natural son of James V. of Scotland, who had plotted
against the reigning king, and been pardoned, and had plotted again.

[Sidenote: _Difficulties of Construction._]

On the date of the letter depends whether it signify doing to death, or
grinding into obscurity. It is endorsed in Cecil's hand, 'Sir Walter
Ralegh,' and in a later hand, '1601.' That is hardly a possible date.
The civil, ecclesiastical, and legal year in England, by which a
secretary at Hatfield is likely to have reckoned, closed on March 24.
Consequently '1601' had not begun when Essex was already dead. The only
question is, when in the legal year 1600 the letter was written. If at
the end, when judgment had been pronounced, its object would be the
accomplishment of the capital sentence. If it were written early in 1600
its more probable purpose would be to induce Cecil to urge the Queen to
strip Essex of all his dignities and offices. Ralegh's apologists can
adduce for the less bloodthirsty interpretation the passage: 'If her
Majesty's favour fail him, he will again decline to a common person.'
The words naturally refer to disgrace, not to death. It has been
imagined that the plan was to incapacitate him by law for employment,
and to hold him a State prisoner. The remark, 'His son shall be the
youngest Earl of England but one,' remains equally puzzling on either
construction. Advocates of that which treats the letter as a plea for
imprisonment and disqualification for office have to show how he could
have been kept a State prisoner for life for offences he had committed
before the rising of February, and, moreover, how the imprisoned living
father was to make way in his peerage for the son. On the other theory
which presumes it to have been an argument for sending Essex to the
scaffold, it is as unintelligible how the father's fate, with its
necessary attainder of blood, could legally transmit his dignity.

The inherent inconsistencies of the document are scarcely more
perplexing than the circumstances of its origin. It has been suggested
that the idea of the letter was Cecil's, and that he plotted to deceive
posterity by inducing Ralegh to hold the pen. In the crude shape, that
is an incredible hypothesis. But Cecil was of a nature to discuss
questions of policy with his confidants, and extract their views, while
he revealed only half his own. Very possibly the letter may have arisen
out of a conversation in which the Minister had canvassed the question
of acting with prudent magnanimity towards the fallen favourite. He may
have requested Ralegh to repeat in writing objections urged orally by
him to such a course for the exposition of the case on both its sides.
At all events, it would be convenient for Cecil to have the document if
in future it should be doubted which of the confederates had been the
more vindictive. Ralegh could easily be drawn to try his hand, between
fancy and earnest, at an academic theme on the lines of fashionable
Italian state-craft. If the paper be indeed nothing but an exercise in
pleading, the author deserves to be applauded for the artistic
assumption of an air of sincerity which chills the reader's blood.




CHAPTER XV.

THE ZENITH (1601-1603).


[Sidenote: _Lord Oxford._]

From Essex's execution to the death of Elizabeth, on March 24, 1603, is
a period of two years wanting a month. It constitutes another stage in
Ralegh's career. No more fascinating Court favourite, no Leicester,
Essex, or mere Hatton, stood now in his way. If even Elizabeth's
vivacious temperament may have ceased to require attentions as from a
lover, she never grew insensible to wit, grace, versatility, and valour
like his. The jealousy he continued to arouse was a tribute to his
power. To this time belongs the story, contained in Bacon's
_Apophthegms_, of Lord Oxford's insolence. The malicious Earl had
returned, the Mirror of Tuscanismo, from his seven years' self-inflicted
exile at Florence. He had gone thither to spite his father-in-law,
Burleigh, by deserting his wife, and squandering his estate. The Queen
was playing on the virginals before him and another nobleman, while
Ralegh was on duty near at hand. The ledge in front happened to have
been taken away, so that the jacks were seen. Oxford and his companion
smiled and whispered. Elizabeth inquired the reason. They were amused,
answered Oxford, to see that when jacks went up heads went down. The
point of the sarcasm is presumed to have been the connexion of Ralegh's
influence with the decapitation of Essex. That the reference was to
Ralegh might have seemed rather dubious had not Bacon taken it for
granted. The fact of the favour of the Queen is certain.

[Sidenote: _Sully and Biron._]

Courtiers wrote to one another how 'good his credit with the Queen had
lately grown.' He had a multiplicity of Court duties thrown upon him.
His acquaintance with other lands and their languages brought him
forward whenever intercourse had to be held with foreigners. As Sir John
Harington said of him, he was 'especially versed in foreign matters, his
skill therein being always estimable and praiseworthy.' When Prince
Maurice was endeavouring to relieve Ostend, which the Archduke and
Infanta were besieging, Ralegh and Cobham paid his camp a visit. They
were stated by Cecil to have no charge, and to have 'stolen over, having
obtained leave with importunity to see this one action.' The English
envoy wrote to Cecil that the two gallants had been entertained with
much honour and extraordinary respect, but had seen little. Sir Henry
Neville, however, told Winwood their journey was not for curiosity only.
They 'carried some message, which did no harm.' In March, 1601, Ralegh,
by the Queen's order, had been escorting a Spanish envoy, sent to
negotiate a truce, round London. Later, during the Queen's summer
progress to Dover, he, with Cobham and Sidney, received Sully. As
Captain of the Guard he playfully took Sully into custody, and conducted
him to the Queen. The great Minister had been privately sent over by
King Henry, who was at Calais. On September 5, the Duc de Biron arrived,
to announce to Elizabeth the marriage of Mary de Medici to Henry.
Several noblemen had been directed by the Council to provide for the
Marshal's solemn reception in London. By some accident they were absent.
Ralegh, who had not been especially commissioned, happened to be in
town. Apparently Sir Arthur Savage and Sir Arthur Gorges, who spoke
French fluently, came to his help. Among them they amused the Frenchmen
till horses were ready to convey them to Hampshire. The Queen was at
Basing House. Ralegh wrote to Cecil: 'We have carried them to
Westminster to see the monuments; and this Monday we entertained them at
the Bear Garden, which they had great pleasure to see. I sent to and
fro, and have laboured like a mule.' On the Wednesday he rode with the
Marshal and his numerous company to the Vyne. The fair and large house
of Lord Sandys has formed the subject of an interesting volume by its
present owner, Mr. Chaloner Chute. It had been furnished from the royal
apartments at the Tower, Hampton Court, and neighbouring country houses,
for the accommodation of the foreign visitors. The Hampshire gentry lent
seven score beds. Not when Ralegh had seen all housed were his cares
over. He told Cobham, 'The French wear all black, and no kind of bravery
at all.' His wardrobe, plentiful as assuredly it was, had not been
equipped in unison with such demureness. So, 'this Saturday night,
late,' he wrote on September 12 to Cobham from Basing, 'I am now going
to London to provide me a plain taffeta suit, and a plain black saddle.'
Elizabeth rewarded his exertions in rendering the stay of the Frenchmen
agreeable by knighting his brother, Carew Ralegh, on her departure from
Basing House. Mr. Benjamin Tichborne received the same honour.

[Sidenote: _The Mermaid._]

Ralegh was a patron of literature, and had to devote evenings to the
wits. To him has been ascribed the institution, at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, of the Mermaid Tavern meetings in Bread Street,
Shakespeare's, Jonson's, Beaumont's, Fletcher's, Selden's, Cotton's,
Camden's, and Donne's club. It is very likely; so likely that the
intrinsic probability of the fact might be a motive for a fiction.
Whether as founder or guest it is more than likely he would take
occasional part in the wit combats of which Beaumont has sung. We may
lament that there was no Boswell, or even a Drummond, to report an
encounter between Ralegh and Shakespeare. Ralegh abhorred drunkenness.
'It were better,' he has said, 'for a man to be subject to any vice than
to drunkenness.' But teetotalism had not been invented in the days of
Elizabeth. Not wholly unconnected with the social evenings at the
Mermaid may have been the frequent trouble he experienced from bodily
ailments. On September 19, 1601, he pronounced himself too grievously
ill to be able to travel to Bath for his annual cure. His ailments did
not prevent him from warning Cecil of a powerful Spanish fleet held
ready, with 6000 or 7000 soldiers, to descend either upon Ireland or the
Low Countries. Fresh intelligence, which on September 26 he despatched
to Cecil for transmission to the Lord Admiral, led him to believe the
expedition was designed for Cork or Limerick. He inferred from the
presence of many women on board that a 'Plantation' was meant. It was no
false alarm. He announced to Cecil, on October 13, 1601, the landing of
a strong body of Spaniards, and their intrenchment, as he had
prognosticated, outside the town of Kinsale. His readiness to accept
responsibility was met in the same spirit, particularly when Ireland was
concerned. Later, Cecil admitted that Ralegh, though no Privy
Councillor, was often invited to confer with the Council. Only three
months before Elizabeth was seized with her mortal sickness, in 1602,
he, with Cecil, was consulted by her on the treatment of Cormac
McCarthy, Lord of Muskerry. Cecil was for leniency. Ralegh advised that
no mercy should be shown, Cormac McCarthy's country being worth the
Queen's keeping. Elizabeth accepted his frankly selfish advice.

[Sidenote: _In Parliament._]

[Sidenote: _Monopolies._]

He sat as senior member for the County of Cornwall in the Parliament
which met on October 27, 1601. He had been previously a Cornish
representative, as member for Michell, in the House which was elected in
1593. In November, 1601, he obtained the rejection of a Bill to compel
the sowing of hemp for cables and cordage. 'I do not like,' he said, in
a spirit much in advance of his age, 'this constraining of men to manure
or use their ground at our wills; but rather let every man use his
ground to that which it is most fit for, and therein use his own
discretion.' The Tillage Act he held up for a warning. It ordered every
man to plough a third of his land, often to great loss. The land, 'if
unploughed, would have been good pasture for beasts.' Later in the
Session he supported a motion for the repeal of that Statute. He pleaded
for a subsidy. The Queen wanted it urgently, having in vain raised money
by the sale of her own jewels, by loans, and by savings out of her purse
and apparel. He argued for its equal payment by every class. The burden
he acknowledged was not the same to all, as Bacon had contended, _dulcis
tractus pari jugo_. 'Call you this _par jugum_,' cried Ralegh, 'when a
poor man pays as much as a rich, and peradventure his estate is no
better than it is set at, while our estates are £3 or £4 in the Queen's
books, and it is not the hundredth part of our wealth?' But he knew all
must be taxed, in order that the necessary sums might be levied. In his
_Prerogative of Parliaments_ he mentions that he once moved an exemption
'by commandment of Queen Elizabeth, who desired much to spare the common
people.' On calculation, it was found that the exemption reduced the
subsidy to a trifle. He delivered a 'sharp speech' in his own defence,
in a debate against monopolies. The Crown in May, 1599, had arrogated a
right of preemption of tin in the Duchy of Cornwall, and had committed
the management of the business to the Warden of the Stannaries.
Deliverance of the miners from the oppression of the merchants was
alleged as the motive. The real object was popularly believed to be the
increase of Ralegh's emoluments. In Parliament he took the other ground.
Previously, whether tin were 17s. or 50s. a hundred, the workman, he
argued, had only 'two shillings a week, finding himself.' Since the
grant of his patent, every miner, be tin at what price soever, had 4s. a
week truly paid. Yet, if other patents were cancelled, he would, he
said, freely consent to the abrogation of his. A great and uncommon
silence is reported to have followed this speech. Other patentees in the
House were probably not inclined to be as self-denying. He supported a
proposal to prohibit the exportation of ordnance, notwithstanding the
rise, under the existing law, of the duty to £3000 a year. He said: 'I
am sure heretofore one ship of her Majesty's was able to beat ten
Spaniards; but now, by reason of our own ordnance, we are hardly matched
one to one.' He supported the continuance of the tax for the improvement
of Dover harbour. The amount was 1000 marks a year. Mr. Swale objected
that the port was never the better. Ralegh thought it one of the best
and most necessary harbours in England. The debate might have been held
in any of the last dozen Sessions, with as much practical effect. He
obtained the rejection, by 106 to 105, of a Bill against recusants. The
measure was designed to enforce a more regular attendance in Church on
Sundays. Its loss vexed Cecil, who gibed at very flexible consciences.

[Sidenote: _Governorship of Jersey._]

Whatever the work in hand, legislation, public administration, or
private maritime enterprise, he laboured at it as zealously as if it
were his sole business. All his desire was for more and more work. He
was not always disappointed in that pursuit. Though his frequent hopes
of appointment to the Vice-Chamberlainship or a seat at the Privy
Council were constantly foiled, he had been consoled in 1600 with the
Governorship of Jersey. On Sir Anthony Paulett's death, the post was
conferred upon him, with the lordship of St. Germain. Out of the
emoluments he had to pay a rent of £300 to the Crown for the benefit of
Lord Henry Seymour. Seymour had been a rival candidate for the
Governorship. Ralegh's appointment was one of the irritations of Essex,
who befriended another suitor. He speedily visited the island. The
passage from Weymouth took him two days and nights at sea. The islanders
'royally entertained him with joy,' wrote Lady Ralegh in October to
Cecil. He had told her, she said, that he never saw a pleasanter island;
but he protested unfeignedly his post was not in value the very third
part that was reported, or that indeed he believed. Without delay he
undertook the completion of the fort Isabella Bellissima, 'for the name
sake,' he wrote from the island to Cecil on October 15, 1600. He would
not think of 'any penny receipt till that piece of work were past the
recovery of any enemies.' He deprecated the demolition of Mont Orgueil,
'a stately fort of great capacity,' which had cost more than 20,000
marks. He had left, he said, some men in it at his own charge. He
criticised the late Governor's 'immeasurable reckoning' of her Majesty's
moneys. In July, 1602, he went again over, and spent several weeks. He
saw that the castles were defensible enough, and the country reasonably
well provided. The tradition is that he promoted a profitable trade
between Jersey and Newfoundland. With Newfoundland he had a near family
connexion through Humphrey Gilbert. He instituted a register of Jersey
lands, and abolished compulsory service of the inhabitants of the
district in the Mont Orgueil garrison. During his visits he sat as judge
in the island Court. Faculties and energy with him were elastic. He
always had leisure for new labours.

[Sidenote: _Maritime Enterprises._]

Above all, his schemes of colonization were never intermitted. Down to
1603 he went on sending expeditions to Virginia. He was as solicitous
for Guiana. In October, 1596, he had despatched from Limehouse his
pinnace, the Watt, under Captain Leonard Berry. Mr. Thomas Masham's
account of the voyage is in Hakluyt. Berry further explored the country.
He collected fresh evidence of its fertility, salubrity, and riches, and
of the goodwill of the natives towards Englishmen. He returned in June,
1597. His departure from Guiana was accelerated by the importunities of
his Indian friends for an alliance with them against a hostile tribe. He
feared such a league might prove embarrassing on Ralegh's next visit.
Before the Queen's death Ralegh equipped yet another expedition, under
Captain Samuel Mace, to look after both his potential dominions of
Virginia and Guiana. It effected nothing; but the failure was powerless
to impair Ralegh's faith in the value and feasibility of his
discoveries.

[Sidenote: _Irish Pipe Staves._]

[Sidenote: _Sale of Lismore._]

In addition to his many public or semi-public toils, he was busy with a
host of private affairs. Until a short time before the Queen's death he
owned an extensive Irish as well as an English estate. Property was
always for him an incentive to labour. While he had his Irish property
he developed it in every possible way. Lismore Castle, which he rented
from the See and Chapter of Lismore, he rebuilt. In 1589 he had written
to George Carew: 'I pray, if my builders want, supply them.' His factory
employed a couple of hundred men in the fabrication of hogsheads. By his
influence with the Privy Council he often obtained, in favour of ships
which he freighted, a waiver of the restraint of 'the transportation of
pipe staves out of the realm of Ireland into the Islands,' that is, the
Canaries, and to Seville. The thinnings, he said, of his vast woods
sufficed for the supply of materials. He denied that he denuded the land
of timber. Against that wasteful and impoverishing practice he
constantly remonstrated. There had not been taken, he stated to the
Lords of the Council, the hundredth tree. Sir John Pope Hennessy holds a
different view, and asserts that no man cut down more timber, to the
irreparable hurt of the land. His principle of moderation may, it is
possible, have been observed by himself, and not by his agents. Latterly
he founded a company to work the property. With his chief partners,
Bathurst, and a foreign merchant, Veronio Martens, he complained in 1601
to the English Council that the Undertakers were being robbed by the
managing director, Henry Pine or Pyne. A sum of £5000 had, it was
affirmed, been expended. Not half had been returned in profits, though
Ralegh had received no payment for his wood. The Privy Council listened
to the prayer of 'our loving friend, Sir Walter Ralegh,' and instructed
Carew, the President of Munster, to forbid Pine to export more pipe
staves. Ralegh had other disputes with Pine. At one time he even
questioned if Pine had not conspired with his Sherborne bailiff to palm
off a forged lease for a long term of the lands of Mogelly. He was
involved also in endless disputes with other farm tenants, as an
absentee landlord might have expected to be. Ultimately he resolved, by
the advice of Carew and of Cecil, to free himself from the burden. In
December, 1602, he sold his interest in all, except the old castle of
Inchiquin Ralegh. Of that, Katherine, dowager Countess of Desmond,
fabled to have been born in 1464, was, and remained till 1604, tenant
for life. Boyle, since distinguished as the Great Earl of Cork, bought
the rest, lands, castles, and fisheries, with Ralegh's ship Pilgrim
thrown in as a make-weight. The amount paid, according to Boyle's
assertion, fifteen years later, in reply to Lady Ralegh, and thirty
years later, in reply to Carew Ralegh, was a full price for a property
at the time, it is admitted, woefully dilapidated. Boyle declared that
it was not worth nearly the amount he paid. He complained of having been
forced to an expenditure, for which the vendor was liable, of £3700 to
clear the title. So shrewd a man of business would hardly have thus
defrauded himself. He is sure to have had an excellent bargain. But it
does not follow that the arrangement was unfair to a speculative
absentee like Ralegh. In his hands the land was notoriously
unprofitable. Lady Ralegh's estimate of it as worth £2000 a year at the
time cannot be accepted.

[Sidenote: _Sherborne Castle._]

Ralegh never parted with a scheme before he had another ready to occupy
him. Sherborne more than replaced Lismore as an object of affection, and
as a subject of care and anxiety also. He had not spared trouble and
outlay on it since the Queen in the height of his favour first gave him
a foothold as a lessee. We have seen how, to develop his term into the
fee, he created and transplanted Bishops. His assiduity was rewarded in
1598 by Bishop Cotton's accommodating acceptance of a surrender of the
lease, and grant of the fee to the Crown, subject to the old rent of
£260. From the Crown the fee was conveyed to him. The transfer comprised
the lordship of the Hundred of Yetminster, with the manor of Sherborne,
five other manors in Dorset and Somerset, and the Castle, lodge, and
parks of Sherborne and Castleton. Ralegh added to the estate by buying
out leases with his own money, and by the purchase of several adjacent
properties. Then he set himself seriously to the perfecting of the
whole. He did not stint his expenditure. Sir John Harington says that
with less money than he bestowed in building, drawing the river into his
garden, and buying out leases, he might, without offence to Church or
State, have compassed a much better purchase. He had begun by trying to
improve the existing castle. In 1594 he altered his plan, and designed a
new house at some distance. Only the centre of the present Sherborne
Castle, a four-storied edifice with hexagonal towers at the ends, was
erected by him. Aubrey described it as a delicate lodge of brick, not
big, but very convenient for the bigness, a place to retire to from the
Court in summer time, for contemplation. Digby, when he became its
owner, added four wings with a tower to each. Pope visited Lord Bristol
there, and has sketched the place in one of his graceful letters to Miss
Blount. He dwells particularly on the lofty woods clothing the
amphitheatre of hills, the irregular lovely gardens, the masses of
honeysuckle, the ruins of the old fortress, the sequestered
bowling-green, and the grove Ralegh planted, with the stone seat from
which he overlooked the town and minster, and dreamt and smoked. The
spirit of Ralegh still dominates Sherborne, after all the efforts of the
first Lord Bristol to lay it by swelling the lodge into a sumptuous
castle, and of the sixth by turning Capability Brown loose into his
pleasure grounds.

[Sidenote: _Strife with Meere._]

He loved Sherborne, and his wife was perhaps still more attached to it.
In October, 1601, he wrote: 'My wife says that every day this place
amends, and London to her grows worse and worse.' He had his worries
there, as was his self-imposed fate wherever he was. He was premature in
reposing confidence. He has written that he had lost more than he was
worth by trusting dependents with his purse and delaying to take their
account. He was almost excessively resentful of frauds on his
trustfulness when he detected them. He was masterful in small things, as
in great. While in the Tower in August, 1592, he had appointed his 'man,
John Meere,' Bailiff of the manor of Sherborne, with extensive powers of
management. He had invested him with copyhold lands. Several years
later, in 1596, Adrian Gilbert took up his regular abode at Sherborne,
and superintended his brother's improvements, under the title of
Constable of Sherborne Castle. Meere quarrelled with him about the rival
prerogatives of Constable and Bailiff to license the killing of animals
for meat in Lent. Ralegh nominated another Bailiff, but Meere refused to
retire. The family had interest with one of the Howards, Viscount
Bindon, of whose 'extortions' and 'poisoning of his wife' Ralegh takes
merit to himself for not having spoken. Mrs. Meere, too, was a kinswoman
of Lady Essex. Long strife had prejudiced Ralegh so bitterly against
both Meere and Essex that he believed either capable of any monstrosity.
He did the Earl's memory the injustice of fancying that he secretly had
meant to use the Bailiff for a malicious forgery; 'for,' said Ralegh,
'he writes my hand so perfectly as I cannot any way discern the
difference.' Colour is given to the charge against him of the forgery of
an Irish lease, by the fact that Digby afterwards prosecuted him for the
forgery of Ralegh's signature to a conveyance of English lands to
Captain Caufeilde. Meere in August, 1601, arrested the opposition
Bailiff. For this Ralegh put him in the stocks in Sherborne
market-place, and had him bound over to good behaviour by the county
justices. Thereupon Meere served upon Ralegh and others twenty-six
subpoenas. Next year the conflict went on raging. Meere succeeded at
the assizes in sustaining his right to the bailiwick. As Ralegh kept him
out nevertheless, he petitioned the Star Chamber. Ralegh on his part
complained loudly that, through Lord Bindon's influence, Meere, at once
'a notorious cowardly brute, and of a strong villainous spirit,' had
been allowed to sue him, though out of the land in Jersey.

[Sidenote: _Sir Amias Preston's Challenge._]

Yet these vexations only made him cling the more fondly to his Sherborne
home. He hoped to dwell happily and splendidly there himself, to be
buried in its minster, and to leave it to a long line of descendants.
While he had only a ninety-nine years' lease, he had conveyed his term
to trustees for his son Walter. He had done this by two conveyances.
These he revoked in 1598. His motives, he explained later, were several:
'I found my fortune at Court towards the end of her Majesty's reign to
be at a stand, and that I daily expected dangerous employments against
her Majesty's enemies, and had not in the former grants made any
provision for my wife.' He re-settled the property on his son, reserving
£200 a year to Lady Ralegh for her life. After he had acquired the fee,
he conveyed it by deed at Midsummer, 1602, to himself for life, with
successive remainders to his son Walter, to any future sons, and to his
brother Carew Ralegh. The deed had been drawn by Doddridge, afterwards a
judge, many months before it was sealed. The reason of the date chosen
for its formal execution was stated by himself at his trial to have been
a challenge from Sir Amias Preston in the summer of 1602. Preston was
the captain who, being too late to join the Guiana expedition, went off
with Sommers on an independent quest. He had signalized himself at
Cadiz, where Essex knighted him. The challenge may have arisen out of
the Essex feud, for Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Essex's vehement partisan, is
known to have been concerned in it. No duel was fought. Fuller, who errs
in describing Ralegh as a Privy Councillor, says in his _Worthies_: 'Sir
Walter Ralegh declined the challenge without any abatement to his
valour; for having a fair and fixed estate, with wife and children,
being a Privy Councillor, and Lord Warden of the Stannaries, he looked
upon it as an uneven lay to stake himself against Sir Amias, a private
and single person, though of good birth and courage, yet of no
considerable estate.' Fuller's account is not to be rejected because the
ground assigned may not seem very heroic. Duelling was governed by
prosaic laws. Nobody was expected to risk his life on unequal terms.
There had to be a parity of ranks; and the same principle might well
apply to fortunes. Ralegh himself had no such fondness for the
fashionable mode of adjusting quarrels as to waive any orthodox right of
refusal. In his History he denounces 'the audacious, common, and brave,
yet outrageous vanity of duellists.' Men who die in single combat he
styles 'martyrs of the Devil.' He derides the victor's honours, 'where
the hangman gives the garland,' and the folly of the duellist's
principle, that rudeness 'ought to be civilized with death.' In the
essay entitled _Instructions to his Son_, he declares a challenge
justifiable only if the offence proceed from another; it is not, he
says, 'if the offence proceed from thyself, for if thou overcome, thou
art under the cruelty of the law; if thou art overcome, thou art dead or
dishonoured.'

[Sidenote: _Its consequences._]

At any rate, whatever the origin or issue of the dispute, he thought he
was going to fight. In consequence, as he stated subsequently, he
resolved to leave his estate settled. An incident of his preparations,
which seemed trivial at the time, assumed preposterous gravity later on.
He had spread out his loose papers, and among them a book by one Snagge,
which he had borrowed from the dead Lord Burleigh's library. In it the
title of the King of Scots to the succession was contested. Cobham, who
may well have been Ralegh's intended second, happened to see and carry
off the volume. It was found at a critical moment in his possession, and
was traced to Ralegh. That was an affair of the future. For the present
Ralegh probably associated Sir Amias Preston's challenge chiefly with
the definite disposition of his property in a manner consonant with the
creation of an affluent and permanent county family.




CHAPTER XVI.

COBHAM AND CECIL (1601-1603).


[Sidenote: _Impatience of Subordination._]

[Sidenote: _The Privy Council._]

He did not know it, but he was now at the culmination of his prosperity.
His kinsman, the learned Richard Carew, dedicated to him at the
beginning of 1602 the _Survey of Cornwall_, in terms, which, however
exalted, were not exaggerated. He had a noble estate, his sovereign's
renewed confidence, and many important offices. In politics he was still
among those who followed rather than led, who executed, and did not
direct. Of constant subordination he was become impatient. He was not
content to be nothing more than 'a swordsman,' an instrument, though
highly distinguished and favoured. His aim was to force his entrance
within the citadel of administrative power. As a counsellor he exerted
commanding weight on two main branches of national policy, Ireland and
armaments. His Irish policy has been refuted by events. It is open to
all the accusations which have been brought against it of cruelty and
remorselessness. But its temper was that of a large body of English
statesmen; and he understood much better than the rest the true method
of putting it in practice. Had he been a Minister, and not only a royal
confidant, he might have succeeded for a time in establishing in Ireland
a peace of silence. He held as fixed and more generous views on the
subject of national defences, and on the proper strategy in dealing with
Spain. He fretted at being condemned to urge them from the outside
instead of within. His exclusion from partnership in responsible
authority was, he felt, perpetual, unless he could break in. Probably at
no period did he aspire after supremacy, or expect to dispossess Cecil.
His ambition, though restricted to the hope of admittance to
association, would not the less bring him into collision with the
jealous Secretary. He was reported in 1598 to be ambitious of a peerage.
He cared more for power than titles, and his ancient friends, like his
ancient rivals, thwarted his plans. We know that Cecil could not bear
even so moderate an approximation for him to official trust as his
regular introduction into the Privy Council. For that he had so long
been craving and looking, that, according to Henry Howard's taunt, he by
this time 'found no view for Paradise out of a Council board.' In June,
1601, there had been, as in 1598, a prospect of his nomination. Lords
Shrewsbury and Worcester instead were sworn in. Cecil intimated his
satisfaction. He told Sir George Carew that Ralegh should never have his
consent to be a Councillor, unless he surrendered to Carew the Captaincy
of the Guard.

Ralegh's efforts for a line of his own in statesmanship, and Cecil's
consequent antagonism, are the special features of the coming chapter in
his biography. His relations to the Cecils had always been intimate.
Lord Burleigh, notwithstanding differences concerning Ireland,
encouraged him as a counterpoise to Leicester. He repaid the kindness,
it will be recollected, by interceding for the Lord Treasurer's
son-in-law. He was a guest at the entertainment Burleigh gave to
Arabella Stuart. With Robert Cecil Ralegh's connexion was much closer.
Cecil valued his help at Court, and his society. In February, 1598,
during his mission to France, he mentions him to Burleigh as one 'with
whose kindness he has been long and truly fastened.' 'If some idle
errand,' he writes word, 'can send over Sir Walter, let us have him.'
With seeming sincerity he wrote in 1600 of him as one 'whose judgment I
hold great, as his person dear.' He was a companion of Ralegh in several
of his privateering speculations. Lady Ralegh wrote of Lady Cecil as of
a sympathetic friend. Perpetually she was appealing to her 'cousin'
Cecil as a support against Sir Walter's tribulations and hers. He is 'a
comfort to the grieved.' She 'presumes of his honourable favour ever.'
She confided to him her view of her Mistress the Queen as, like herself,
'a great believer.' In January, 1597, Ralegh condoled as a most loving
comrade with Cecil on gracious Lady Cecil's death. His letter exhorting
to implacability testifies to the closeness of their league against
Essex. The Earl's fiery anger had burnt against both alike. Had his mad
freak of treason succeeded, both would have been sacrificed in company.

[Sidenote: _Intimacy with Robert Cecil._]

After Essex succumbed the alliance appeared as strict as before. The two
households, as well as the masters, were affectionately familiar.
Cecil's son, William, was a most welcome guest at Sherborne. No stronger
proof of trust, it might have been thought, could be given by the
father. There is talk how 'the beloved creature's stomach is altogether
amended, and he doth now eat well and digest rightly;' how 'he is also
better kept to his book.' As one intimately conversant with Cecil's
affairs, Ralegh undertook in August, 1601, the supervision of his
recently purchased estate at Rushmore. Pleasant postscripts are
interposed on Lady Ralegh's behalf: 'Bess returns you her best wishes,
notwithstanding all quarrels.' 'Bess says that she must envy any fingers
whosoever that shall wear her gloves but your own.' There are threats
from her that for the breach of a recent engagement he shall on his next
visit have plain fare. Ralegh relied on Cecil to protect his monopoly of
Virginian trade under his patent against unlicensed Adventurers. They
cheapen, he complained, by their imports sassafras from its proper price
of 20s. to 12s. a pound; they 'cloy the market;' 'they go far towards
overthrowing the enterprise' of the plantation of Virginia, 'which I
shall yet live to see an English nation.' In addition they introduced
contraband cedar-trees. These, if the Lord Admiral would order their
seizure, Ralegh intended to divide 'into three parts--to ciel cabinets,
and make bords, and many other delicate things.' He asked for Cecil's
aid; 'but what you think unfit to be done for me shall never be a
quarrel either internal or external. If we cannot have what we would,
methinks it is a great bond to find a friend that will strain himself in
his friend's cause in whatsoever--as this world fareth.'

[Sidenote: _Cecil's Sentiments._]

Throughout Elizabeth's reign, and beyond it, Ralegh's language to Cecil
keeps the same tone of implicit faith. In words Cecil was not behind his
more fluent and continuous correspondent. At heart he would appear, from
his communications to others, to have come to regard Ralegh as a
dangerous rival before the Queen's death. Shrewd observers detected the
growth of the sentiment, in spite of the alliance against the common
foe, and even, for reasons which are not obvious, in consequence of it.
'Cecil,' wrote Harington, who had been a trusted comrade of Essex, in
his _Nugae_, 'doth bear no love to Ralegh in the matter of Essex.' An
important letter found among the Burleigh papers, without date or
signature, but for good cause attributed to Lord Henry Howard, and
probably written towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, shows how eagerly
Cecil and Ralegh were regarded by their respective partisans as hostile
competitors. Probably its genesis resembled that of Ralegh's argument
for the thorough overthrow of Essex. It seems to have been an elaborate
written embodiment of a policy which the Minister may have heard before
from its author's mouth. It differs from Ralegh's letter in being
absolutely in harmony with Howard's conduct at the time and after. In it
the writer, with the 'Asiatic endless' prolixity which James himself
ridiculed, propounded a plan for arranging that 'Cobham, the block all
mighty that gives oracles, and Ralegh, the cogging spirit that prompteth
it,' should be set in responsible positions in which they would be sure
to fail. There is no reason to suppose that Cecil accepted the
particular advice. He would be inclined to doubt the certainty of
Ralegh's failure, should an opportunity of distinction be afforded him.
But the document could not have been written unless its author had been
positive of Cecil's sympathy with its object, the reduction of Ralegh,
by whatever means, to a condition of confirmed obscurity and dependence.

[Sidenote: _Rival Camps._]

As the termination of the Queen's reign more manifestly approached, the
interests of Cecil and Ralegh seemed to grow more and more widely
separated. Researches into the secret history of the final year or two
reveal Ralegh and Cobham on one side, and Cecil and Lord Henry Howard on
the other, as chiefs of opposite camps, with a converging outlook upon
King James. Cecil, like his father, had been regarded by James as
hostile to his proclamation as Elizabeth's heir. The death of 'my martyr
Essex' increased his dislike. He was not assured of the baselessness of
Essex's cry as he rode through the city: 'The crown of England is sold
to the Spaniard!' He may have suspected the existence of schemes for the
elevation of Arabella Stuart. Henry Howard brought him and Cecil to a
mutual understanding. Howard, now remembered chiefly as the builder of
Northumberland House, took a leading part in the machinations of
Elizabeth's and James's reigns. As a Catholic, though at times
conforming, and as brother of the hapless Duke of Norfolk, he had hated
the Cecils. His dislike of Robert Cecil had been inflamed by
partizanship for his kinsman Essex; notwithstanding, with his insatiable
love of intrigue, he is said to have played off the two against one
another. Now, convinced that Cecil was too strong, or too necessary, to
be discarded, and possessing James's full confidence, he set himself to
the cure of the King's distrust. Finally Cecil became for James 'my
dearest Cecil.' James accepted him so entirely as to promise that
Cecil's friends and foes should be his. Thenceforward a league was
formed, and a correspondence was opened, between the King on one side
and Cecil and Howard on the other, which are equally discreditable to
all three.

[Sidenote: _The Succession._]

The compact was not the work of a moment, and Cecil's rivals do not
appear to the end to have understood how absolute it was. Neither was it
of very old standing. For long Elizabeth's councillors hesitated to
throw in their lot with the Scottish claim to the succession. They
could not read clearly the national inclination. The country had been
undecided. As Cecil confessed he had once said, there were several
competitors for whose right it was possible to argue. The Suffolk family
possessed some sort of Parliamentary title. Arabella Stuart was not,
like James, an alien, or a foreign sovereign. Discussion, or even
advocacy, of either title, whether by Cecil, Ralegh, or Cobham, was,
till the actual proclamation of James, not treasonable. But after the
death of Mary Stuart, and, more plainly still, after that of Essex, it
became manifest that the English people meant to crown the King of
Scots. Cecil and Ralegh equally discerned the certainty. Both acted
accordingly, and each suspected the other's procedure. Both started
evenly with the same stain, in James's eyes, of enmity to Essex. Cecil,
however, had the advantage of partnership with Henry Howard, and Ralegh
the disadvantage of partnership with Cobham. He had to overcome the more
invincible obstacle of his possession of a character, demeanour, and
policy, in good features as well as bad, essentially distasteful to the
Prince he had to conciliate.

[Sidenote: _Prejudices of King James._]

Without Elizabeth's knowledge, Cecil kept up an active correspondence
with the Scottish Court. Ralegh had his concealed relations with it too.
Neither is to be severely blamed for feeling an attraction to the
nearest heir to the throne. Something even of personal enthusiasm at the
prospect was not so absurd a sentiment as it seems to posterity. The
nature of James was not well understood, and hope was placed in his
youth. Contrasts were drawn, as Ralegh expressed it at his trial,
between a lady whom time had surprised, and an active king. Ralegh had
recognised that no other successor was possible. Lord Northumberland,
writing to persuade James to be courteous to him, declared that he 'must
allow Ralegh's ever allowance of the King's right.' Ralegh indeed had
never favoured any rival candidate, Arabella Stuart as little as the
Infanta. About Arabella there is no cause to doubt the veracity of his
assertion, reported by Dudley Carleton, that 'of all women he ever saw
he never liked her.' Simply he had opposed, as Elizabeth herself
opposed, and in his character of her faithful servant, the termination
of the abeyance of the dignity of heir presumptive. In the interest of
her tranquillity he had addressed to Elizabeth a written argument
against the announcement of a successor. Eventually, some time before
Elizabeth's death, he had perceived that it was useless to act as if any
successor but James were possible. With his sanguine temperament he
acquiesced in the inevitable as if it were positively advantageous. He
saw his way to render as excellent service to the State under King James
as he was rendering now. He was conscious of the obstacles in his path;
he was unconscious that they were insuperable. He knew he had been
always ranked as of the anti-Scottish party. He knew the specific
meaning James would put upon his resistance to the formal declaration of
a successor. His antagonism to Essex, he was aware, had created a strong
repulsion against him in the King's mind. But he overrated the amount of
the resources at his disposal for his protection from the weight of
aversion he had excited. He equally underrated the inveteracy of the
dislike, and the degree of additional suspicion which his measures of
self-defence would awaken. James had long looked forward to a day when
he should 'have account of the presumption of the base instruments about
the Queen who abused her ear.' That was his way of thinking of the
Queen's favourite councillors. Cecil knew how to purchase his pardon.
Ralegh, gathering strength about him to render his friendship worth
buying, only deepened the king's conviction that he could be
mischievous; he did not implant a conviction that he was a desirable
auxiliary. The 'consultations of Durham House' became notorious. They
alarmed both Howard and James just sufficiently to induce them to
temporise. They fixed the resolution sooner or later to ruin the
promoter. The Duke of Lennox came to London in November, 1601. He
cultivated Ralegh's acquaintance through Sir Arthur Savage. James
characterized Savage in a letter of 1602 to Howard as 'trucheman,' or
interpreter, 'to Raulie, though of a nature far different, and a very
honest plain gentleman.' Terms were offered by the Duke which Ralegh
boasted he had rejected. To Cecil he protested that he had been
over-deeply engaged and obliged to his own mistress to seek favour
anywhere else. According to Howard, Ralegh asked Cecil to divulge this
to the Queen; but Cecil, with good sense, represented to him that the
Queen 'would rather mark a weakness than praise his resolution.'

[Sidenote: _Lord Henry Howard._]

Whatever he had done or left undone, whatever promises had been made,
and however they had been entertained, the end would have been the same.
Henry Howard inflamed the instinctive aversion which James had long felt
for Ralegh. Howard hated Ralegh with a virulence not easily explicable,
which appeared to be doubled by its abatement towards Cecil. He had
resolved to destroy both Ralegh and Cobham. On the testimony of his own
letters it is clear he did not mind how tortuously and perfidiously he
worked. He calculated upon Cobham's weakness, and upon the inflammation
of Ralegh with 'some so violent desire upon the sudden as to bring him
into that snare which he would shun otherwise.' He poisoned James's mind
incurably against 'those wicked villains,' 'that crew,' and its
'hypocrisy,' the 'accursed duality,' or 'the triplicity that denies the
Trinity.' By the triplicity he signified Ralegh, Cobham, and
Northumberland. Ralegh had other enemies besides. Among them was
Cobham's new wife, Frances Howard, Countess dowager of Kildare, daughter
of the Lord Admiral. Henry Howard, who did not like her, admitted that
she had helped in persuading Cecil to side with King James. She and Lady
Ralegh had 'an ancient acquaintance,' which had resulted in mutual
detestation.

[Sidenote: _Spite against Lady Ralegh._]

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's 'Humours.'_]

Lady Ralegh in March, 1602, reminded Cecil how 'unfavourable my Lady
Kildare hath dealt with me to the Queen. I wish she would be as
ambitious to do good as she is apt to the contrary.' Lady Kildare had
infused her own animosity into her father, whose official 'weakness and
oversights' it is very likely Ralegh was, as Henry Howard had said,
given to 'studying.' 'My Lord Admiral,' wrote Howard to Mar, James's
ambassador, 'the other day wished from his soul he had but the same
commission to carry the cannon to Durham House, that he had this time
twelve months to carry it to Essex House, to prove what sport he could
make in that fellowship.' In its larger sense the alleged fellowship
comprised the Earl of Northumberland, who played fast and loose with it,
Lady Shrewsbury, known as Lady Arabella's custodian, and Lady Ralegh, in
addition to her husband and Cobham. Howard honoured Lady Ralegh with his
particular hostility. 'She is a most dangerous woman,' he exclaims, 'and
full of her father's inventions.' He was much alarmed at the possible
success of some project for bringing her to her old place in the Privy
Chamber. To its failure he ascribed her determination to 'bend her whole
wit and industry to the disturbance of the possibility of others' hopes
since her own cannot be settled.' He urged Cecil to arrange that it
should be brought to Elizabeth's knowledge 'what canons are concluded in
the chapter of Durham, where Ralegh's wife is president.' Ralegh himself
and Cobham were, however, the universal objects of his copious
invectives: 'You may well believe,' he wrote, 'that hell did never vomit
up such a couple.' Cecil's own language to James was almost as
vituperative. He was furious at the bare notion that any should vie with
him for the heir's confidence. He represented Cobham and Ralegh, who
were trying to obtain a share of James's favour, as mere hypocrites who
hated the King at heart. If they held themselves out as his friends, or
he held himself out as theirs, James was not to believe it. He excused
himself for 'casting sometimes a stone into the mouth of these gaping
crabs' to prevent them from 'confessing their repugnance to be under his
Majesty's sovereignty.' He hoped to be pardoned if from ancient 'private
affection' he had the semblance of supporting Ralegh in particular, 'a
person whom most religious men do hold anathema,' who had, moreover,
shown 'ingratitude to me.' He could not imagine that he owed as much to
Ralegh as Ralegh to him. But that was natural. If James should hear that
he had not checked demonstrations by Ralegh, in his 'light and sudden
humours,' against the King, he prayed James to ascribe it to a desire to
retain sufficient influence over him 'to dissuade him, under pretext of
extraordinary care of his well doing, from engaging himself too far.' He
warned James especially against being beguiled into thinking Ralegh a
man of a good and affectionate disposition. If 'upon any new humour of
kindness, whereof sometimes he will be replete,' he should write in
Cecil's favour, 'be it never so much in my commendation,' James was not
to believe it. The correspondence of Howard and Cecil with James
breathes throughout a jealous terror that Cobham and Ralegh, and chiefly
Ralegh, might either supersede them in James's kindness, or steal into
his confidence under the pretext of fellowship with them, and claim a
share in the advantages. Ralegh's correspondence with the King, as
theirs implies, has no such malignant, envious features. The King,
however, was already incurably prejudiced. Howard's and Cecil's
imputations only confirmed an impression of long standing.

[Sidenote: _Character of Cobham._]

Against two enemies of this force and animosity Ralegh had no actual
ally except Lord Cobham. Henry Howard had mentioned Northumberland as a
confederate. How far the Earl, who had married Essex's sister, Dorothy,
widow of Sir Thomas Perrot, could be reckoned upon may be judged from
his description of Ralegh to James as 'a man whose love is
disadvantageous to me in some sort, which I cherish rather out of
constancy than policy.' Cobham was Cecil's brother-in-law, and their
interests had long been inseparable. Ralegh would originally have
desired his friendship as a means of cementing the intimacy with his
potent connexion. He had been of the league against Essex. In opposition
to Essex's solicitations for Sir Robert Sidney he had obtained the Lord
Wardenship of the Cinque Ports. Essex had joined him with Cecil and
Ralegh in the charges of perfidy. His personal favour with Elizabeth had
been useful to the family compact. He was wealthy, and Cecil valued
wealth in his domestic circle. Houses and lands brought him in £7000 a
year; and he had woods and goods worth a capital sum of £30,000 besides.
His furniture was as rich as any man's of his rank. One piece of plate
was priced at £3500, and a ring at £500. He spent £150 at a time upon
books. He was not devoid of good instincts; for he could repent of a
misdeed or unkindness, and, after repeating it, repent again. But he was
garrulous, puffed up with a sense of his own importance, full of levity
and passion, and morally, if not physically, a coward. Ralegh, whom some
social brilliancy in the man, as well as his rank and fortune, may have
dazzled, can at no time have been wholly unconscious of the defects
which later he resentfully characterized: of the 'dispositions of such
violence, which his best friends cannot temper'; 'his known fashion to
do any friend he hath wrong, and then repent it'; and 'his fashion to
utter things easily.' Cecil regarded a nature like this scornfully.
Infirmities might be tolerated in a brother-in-law who was a trusty
ally. They could not be endured in a competitor.

[Sidenote: _Cecil's Jealousy._]

Neither Ralegh nor Cobham appears to have detected the growth of rancour
in Cecil. Ralegh maintained confidential intercourse with him on affairs
of state. Together they were, as has been seen, conferring privately
with Elizabeth on the policy to be adopted towards Munster rebels a few
months before her death. Ralegh's correspondence with him betrays no
suspicion of estrangement. It keeps throughout the old amiable style.
There is talk of the price of timber at Rushmore. Salutations were sent
so late as July 20, 1602, to 'my Lord Cobham and you, both in one
letter,' with vows to 'do you both service with all I have, and my life
to boot.' Ten weeks before Elizabeth's death Cecil was writing to Ralegh
about partnership in a privateer. Ralegh in a memorable letter to his
wife in July, 1603, spoke of the business association as still
subsisting. It is difficult to believe that Cecil reciprocated, unless
from complaisance and policy, the ferocity against Ralegh and Cobham, or
either, which inspired Henry Howard's venomous canting mystifications,
and was echoed by James. His correspondence with Ralegh's cousin, George
Carew, countenances the view that his hostility had something in it of
hurt affection. He was capable of tenderness for men who were willing to
be his auxiliaries, who at all events would not be, and could not be,
his rivals. But he was mistrustful. He readily confused any increased
intimacy between friends of his with enmity to himself. He wrote to
Carew in Ireland in June, 1601, to excuse himself, in his enigmatical
manner, for an appearance of unkindness: 'If I did not know that you do
measure me by your own heart towards me, it might be a doubtfulness in
me that the mutinies of those I do love and will--howsoever they do
me--might incite in you some belief that I was ungrateful towards them.
But, sir, for the better man, the second always sways him, and to what
passion he is subject who is subject to his lady, I leave to your
judgment and experience.' Later, in 1602, he complained to Carew: 'Our
two old friends do use me unkindly. But I have covenanted with my heart
not to know it. In show we are great. All my revenge shall be to heap
coals of fire on their heads.' He carried out his promise, and his coals
scorched. Yet it may be questioned if he were conscious of a virulent
humour towards his friend and his brother-in-law. Merely they were in
his way, and threatened to embarrass the career which was his life. They
were presuming to act independently. They pursued schemes which, if
successful, would disturb his monopoly of power. If unsuccessful, they
might, through his connexion with them, compromise him. He would not be
sorry if circumstances combined against them, and brushed them as
politicians from his path.




CHAPTER XVII.

THE FALL (April-June, 1603).


[Sidenote: _Death of the Queen._]

[Sidenote: _Introduction to the Successor._]

Elizabeth died on March 24, 1603. In the previous September Howard had
reported her 'never so gallant many years, nor so set upon jollity.'
James set out from Scotland on April 5. Ralegh at the Queen's death was
in the West. He returned hastily to London. There is a legend,
countenanced by Sir John Hawles, that, with Sir John Fortescue and
Cobham, he tried a movement for 'articling' with James before
proclaiming him. Unsuspicious Aubrey narrates that at a consultation at
Whitehall he went to the length of recommending the establishment of a
'commonwealth.' His object, he is said to have explained, was to save
Englishmen from being subject to a needy, beggarly nation like the
Scotch. Neither story rests on any foundation, except some possible
light taunt of his. His name was not appended to the Proclamation, as he
was not a Privy Councillor; but he was present at a meeting in the
evening, when a loyal letter of welcome to the King was drawn up, and he
signed it. Immediately afterwards he started, like many others,
northwards, and met the King at Burleigh House. Cecil had taken credit
for having stayed, he said, the journey of the Captain of the Guard, who
was conducting many suitors to James. Ralegh did not suffer himself to
be stopped either by Cecil's advice or by a Proclamation against the
resort to the King of persons holding public offices, to the injury of
public business. He assigned as the cause of his arrival the need of a
royal letter to authorize the continuance of legal process in the Duchy
of Cornwall, and to check the waste of royal woods and parks within it.
Unmannerly James is said by Aubrey to have received him with a poor rude
pun on his name: 'Rawly! Rawly! true enough, for I think of thee very
rawly, mon.' Isaac D'Israeli credits the story. He superfluously thinks
it settles, as without better authority than the King's broad Scotch it
certainly could not, the proper pronunciation of the name. In itself it
may be rather more plausible than Aubrey's tale of Ralegh's reply to the
King's boast that he could have won the succession by force: 'Would
God,' cried Ralegh, 'that had been put to the trial!' 'Why?' asked
James. 'Because,' was the oracular answer--'never,' says Aubrey,
'forgotten or forgiven'--'your Majesty would then have known your
friends from your foes.' It is much easier to agree with the apparent
meaning of Aubrey's interrupted general reflection on the first meeting
of King and subject: 'Sir Walter Ralegh had that awfulness and
ascendency in his aspect over other mortals that the K---- '. At all
events, the King ordered the speedy delivery of the authorization, that
Ralegh might have no excuse for delay. The unwelcome guest took the
hint. Acting-Secretary Sir Thomas Lake reported to Cecil that he was
gone, having 'to my seeming taken no great root here.'

[Sidenote: _Odium._]

At a council held by James at Cecil's seat of Theobald's, monopolies
granted by Elizabeth were called in. The measure was based by its
authors upon the need of popularity for the new reign. They were not
sorry to hit Ralegh with the same stone. A question was raised at the
Board whether the office of wine licenser were not a monopoly. Until the
Council should have decided, the levy of all dues was suspended. A large
part of Ralegh's income was at once cut off. He was summoned a few days
later to the Council Chamber at Whitehall, to be informed that the King
had appointed Sir Thomas Erskine, afterwards Earl of Kellie, Captain of
the Guard. To this he is related to have in very humble manner submitted
himself. His enemies knew they could in this as in other ways wound him
with a certainty of applause for the gratification of their spite.
Within a month of the Queen's decease a prayer of 'poor men' had been
addressed to James against monopolies. The manifesto contained an
especial allusion to Ralegh, of whom it wildly spoke as about to be
created Earl of Pembroke. So, on the occasion of the dismissal from the
command of the Guard, Beaumont, the French Ambassador, informed his
Court that Cecil had induced the King to make the change on the ground
of Ralegh's unpopularity, which would render his removal highly
acceptable to the country. Henry Howard, before the demise of the Crown,
when the effect of Ralegh's blandishments upon James was feared, had
preached to the King on the same text. He reported a refusal by
Elizabeth of the command of a regiment to Northumberland, for the reason
that 'Ralegh had made the Earl as odious as himself, because he would
not be singular, and such were not to be employed by princes of sound
policy.'

For the present a semblance of consideration was preserved. The loss of
the Captaincy was apparently sweetened by the elimination from his
patent for the Governorship of Jersey of the reservation of £300 a year
to the Crown or Seymour, and by the condonation of some arrears due from
him. His fall elicited from him no symptom of anger against the King. If
a letter purporting to be addressed by him to James be genuine, though
the evidence for it is not strong, he was not as placid with respect to
others. There the loss of his captaincy is angrily imputed to Cecil, who
is accused of having brought about the deaths both of Essex and Queen
Mary. Chronology must have forbidden James to attach weight to the
latter allegation, if he had cared for it. On the former he would be
better inclined to credit Howard, who asserted that Cecil had worked for
Essex's deliverance. Cecil himself could produce the letter of 1600-1,
signed 'W.R.' Soon Ralegh experienced a fresh proof of his helplessness,
in a notice of ejectment from Durham House. Bishop Tobias Matthew of
Durham met James at Berwick, and gained his ear. He used his influence
and Ralegh's odium to procure an order for the restoration of the
London episcopal residence. It was retaliation for his loss of the See
of Sarum through Ralegh. On May 31 a royal warrant was issued for the
removal of the present occupants, Ralegh and Sir Edward Darcy. Ralegh
wrote on June 8 or 9, asking permission to stay till Michaelmas. He
pleaded the £2000 he had spent on the structure during the twenty years
of his tenancy. He recounted his outlay on autumn and winter provisions
for a household of forty persons and twenty horses. He complained to no
purpose. He was ordered to quit by Midsummer.

[Sidenote: _Inopportune Advice._]

[Sidenote: _The Fourth Party._]

Notwithstanding rebuffs, he continued to frequent the Court. He was at
Beddington Park when the King on his Progress visited Sir Francis Carew,
Lady Ralegh's uncle. Ralegh previously had laid before James a
_Discourse touching a War with Spain, and of the Protecting of the
Netherlands_. It is a most forcible, and, from its own point of view,
sagacious disquisition in favour of persistency in the war with Spain,
and the alliance with Holland, as well for offensive purposes against
the Spaniards, as for defence, whether against Spain or France. As a
controversial pamphlet it evinces none of the want of judgment with
which Hallam charges Ralegh, though the defect appears plainly in his
obtrusion of such views upon James. At Beddington he had an opportunity
of clenching his argument, and the King's suspicions, by an offer, of
which he subsequently boasted, to invade the Spanish dominions, at no
cost to the King, with 2000 men. In the treatise he opposed the
conclusion of any hasty peace with Spain. He referred to another essay,
now lost, and never published, in which he had indicated _How War may be
made against Spain and the Indies_. Spain was anxious for peace, and
desired to consolidate it by separating England from France and Holland.
The negotiations had begun in the lifetime of Elizabeth. They had
excited much party spirit at Court, where Cobham already was conspicuous
as their advocate, and Ralegh as their opponent. James's accession
infused additional keenness into the contest. France was apprehensive of
the King's proclivity towards an alliance, not merely peace, with Spain.
Henry IV was not disinclined to the restoration of tranquillity in
Europe. He was afraid of an Anglo-Spanish pacification of a character so
cordial as to affect the league between the French and English
Governments as it had existed in the late reign. He sent Sully over to
cement the good understanding of the two States by arguments and gifts
to the leading courtiers. Sully found the new Court honeycombed with
intrigues. His fixed idea was that Spain was meditating much beyond the
simple alienation of England from her ancient allies; 'qu'il se tramait
quelque chose de bien plus important.' By means of the competing
factions he tried to discover this great secret design. His researches
were not confined to statesmen in authority, like Cecil, whom he
characterizes in his candid _Memoirs_ as 'tout mystère,' caring for no
combination except so far as it might serve his individual political
interests. He pursued his inquiries also among politicians out of power.
They composed, he says, a 'Fourth Party,' with no basis of agreement,
unless that its members could agree with no other party. He names as its
leaders Northumberland, Southampton, Cumberland, Cobham, Ralegh, and
Griffin Markham. They are described by him as 'gens seditieux, de
caractère purement Anglais, et prêts a tout entreprendre en faveur des
nouveautés, fut-ce contre le Roi.' Northumberland he induced by a large
pension to collect for him secret intelligence, though he did not
believe it. All he obtained from 'Milords Cobham et Raleich' was that,
when he broached to them his notion of the dark schemes of Spain, they
replied 'conformement à cet avis.'

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Egotism._]

His communications with Ralegh were limited to the extraction of this
expression of assent. Nowhere does he assert or imply that Ralegh
accepted any present from him, or entered into any compact. Yet Hume
founds on the bald statement of sympathy a formal allegation that Ralegh
offered his services to France, and that the offer was repulsed. It is a
sample of the way in which he has been traduced. Sully's evidence
exhibits him in his invariable attitude of an adversary of Spain and
Spanish pretensions. It does not indicate the smallest tendency in him
to further his own policy by means of illegitimate foreign influences.
His mistake was the belief that he could by perseverance impose his
doctrines and himself upon the sovereign. In theory he understood, as he
lays down in his History, that it is not sufficient to be wise with a
wise prince, valiant with a valiant, and just with a just; a courtier,
who would have an estate in his prosperity, must, he teaches, live
altogether out of himself, study other men's humours, and change with
the successor to the throne. In practice none ever disobeyed this law of
advancement more signally than Ralegh in relation to James. His egotism
often before had blinded him to the idiosyncrasies of others. He seems
to have been more than ordinarily incapable of comprehending those of
his present ruler. He presumed eagerness in a young King to signalize
his accession by feats of arms. The high spirit of James was the source
from which he hoped to draw the motive force necessary for the
accomplishment of his vast designs against the colonial empire of Spain.
An accidental conjunction of circumstances enabled him to see speedily
the effect of his attempt to storm the royal confidence by displaying
his own martial propensities.




CHAPTER XVIII.

AWAITING TRIAL (July-November, 1603).


[Sidenote: _The Plots._]

We now enter the period of the plot and plot within plot in which
Anthony Copley, the priests William Watson and Francis Clarke, George
Brooke and his brother Cobham, Sir Griffin Markham and his brothers, the
Puritan Lord Grey of Wilton, and Sir Edward Parham were variously and
confusedly implicated. The intrigue, 'a dark kind of treason,' as
Rushworth calls it, 'a sham plot' as it is styled by Sir John Hawles,
belongs to our story only so far as the cross machinations involved
Ralegh. His slender relation to it is as hard to fix as a cobweb or a
nightmare. Even in his own age his part in it was, as obsolete Echard
says, 'all riddle and mystery.' Cobham had an old acquaintance with the
Count of Arenberg, Minister to the Archduke Albert and the Infanta
Isabel, joint sovereigns of the Low Countries. The Infanta was that
daughter of Philip II whose claims to the English throne Jesuits had
asserted, and Essex had affected to fear. During the late reign Cobham
had been in the habit of corresponding with the Count both openly and
secretly. De la Fayle and an Antwerp merchant, la Renzi or de Laurencie,
carried letters and messages to and fro. In November, 1602, the Count
had invited Cobham to come over and confer about peace, of which Cobham
was a strong advocate. After James's accession he wrote again. Cobham
inquired of Cecil and the King how he was to reply. James answered that
Cobham should know his pleasure on the meeting of the Council. To
Lennox he remarked angrily that Cobham was more busy in it than he
needed to be. Cobham meanwhile thought of going abroad; but Cecil
dissuaded him. In May, 1603, Arenberg sent a third letter by de la
Fayle.

[Sidenote: _Cobham's Projects._]

During this period Cobham frequently met Ralegh. He was negotiating the
purchase of a fee farm from the Crown, and trusted much to Ralegh's
advice. He had confided to Ralegh £4000 worth of jewels to complete the
contract. Their talk, Ralegh admitted later, though commonly about
private affairs, would sometimes turn upon questions of State. Before
the Queen's death, it must be repeated, Ralegh would have committed no
crime, or even impropriety, in listening, if he ever listened, without
disapproval to Cobham's most intemperate assertions in favour of the
title of Arabella, and against that of James. The evidence adduced of
their talk on politics after the King's accession contains no reference
to any such topic. Even if its subject then had been improper, nothing
worse than passive complicity was proved against Ralegh. Thus, one day
at dinner, in Cobham's house at Blackfriars, Cobham declared that the
Count, when he came, would yield such strong arguments for peace as
would satisfy any man. He specified great sums of money to be given to
certain Councillors for their aid. Cecil and Lord Mar were instanced by
him. On the same occasion he held out liberal offers to Ralegh. Ralegh,
by his own account, which was not contradicted by other testimony, only
listened. When he was taxed at his trial with having given ear to
matters he had not to deal in, he exclaimed: 'Could I stop my Lord
Cobham's mouth!' The teaching of adversity showed him that in prudence
he should have removed himself from the possibility of hearing. 'Venture
not thy estate,' he wrote in his _Instructions to his Son and to
Posterity_, 'with any of those great ones that shall attempt unlawful
things, for thou shalt be sure to be part with them in the danger, but
not in the honour. I myself know it, and have tasted it in all the
course of my life.' But the application of the warning, and the regret,
to the hearing of Cobham's vague after-dinner flights might have
seemed, unless for the result, impossibly remote.

[Sidenote: _Negotiations with Arenberg._]

Early in June the Count arrived in London, under the escort of Henry
Howard. Cobham, with la Renzi, visited him on June 9. At night Cobham
supped with Ralegh at Durham House; or Ralegh supped with Cobham at
Blackfriars, being accompanied by him back to Durham House afterwards.
From Durham House Cobham was alleged to have gone privily with la Renzi
to obtain a promise of money from the Count. According to Cecil's
narrative in the following August to Sir Thomas Parry, the Ambassador at
Paris, Cobham had told Arenberg that if he would provide four or five
hundred thousand crowns, 'he could show him a better way to prosper than
by peace.' Scaramelli, the Secretary to the Venetian Legation, wrote
home on December 1, 1603, that Arenberg promised 300,000 ducats in cash,
and an equal sum when he should have returned to Flanders. Ralegh
subsequently was accused of having on this occasion been offered money
by Cobham to be a promoter of peace. Cobham, in the written statement
read at the trial, alleged that Ralegh had bargained for £1500 a year
for divulging Court secrets. How Ralegh, out of favour and wholly
eclipsed, was to learn them, Cobham did not indicate. Ralegh mentioned
subsequently he had noticed from a window of Durham House that Lord
Cobham once or twice after visiting him was rowed past his own mansion
at Blackfriars. He went to St. Saviour's, on the other side of the
river. There la Renzi was known to be residing. This is the sum of the
facts out of which the large fabric of Ralegh's guilt was to be
constructed.

[Sidenote: _The 'Surprising Treason.'_]

He had attended the Court to Windsor. There he heard of the arrest of
Anthony Copley in Sussex on July 6. From Copley, according to Cecil at
the trial, the first discovery of the Bye or Surprising Treason came. By
letter from Windsor, Ralegh informed Cobham. On July 12 Copley was
examined. George Brooke was arrested on the 14th, and the arrests of
Lord Grey of Wilton and Sir Griffin Markham were ordered. One day
between the 12th and the 16th Ralegh was on the Terrace at Windsor. The
King was preparing to hunt, and Ralegh was waiting to join the
cavalcade. Cecil came out, and bade him, as from the King, stay. The
Lords in the Chamber, Cecil said, had some questions to put to him. How
far he was interrogated on the intercourse of Cobham with the Count, and
how much he disclosed, is obscure. At his trial he gave his story of the
transaction. He said he was examined at Windsor touching the conspiracy
to surprise and coerce the King; next, about plotting for Arabella;
thirdly, about practices with the Lord Cobham. He added: 'It is true I
suspected that Lord Cobham kept intelligence with Arenberg. For long
since he held that course with him in the Low Countries, as was well
known to my Lord Treasurer and to my Lord Cecil. La Renzi being a man
also well known to me, I, so seeing him and the Lord Cobham together,
thought that was the time they both had been to Count d'Arenberg. I gave
intimation thereof. But I was willed by my Lord Cecil not to speak of
this, because the King at the first coming of Arenberg would not give
him occasion of suspicion. Wherefore I wrote to the Lord Cecil that if
la Renzi were not taken the matter would not be discovered. Yet, if he
were then apprehended, it would give matter of suspicion to the Lord
Cobham. This letter of mine being presently shown to the Lord Cobham, he
spake bitterly of me; yet, ere he came to the stairs' foot, he repented
him, and, as I hear, acknowledged that he had done me wrong.'

Ralegh's account of the matter, in a court of honour, might have been
that Cobham's understanding with Arenberg did not seem to him of much
importance. As it perplexed the Council he, not perceiving the possible
prejudice to his friend, volunteered his services in clearing it up.
When it was discovered to be deadly, or had been inflated into an
appearance of capital criminality, his letter to Cecil was employed to
represent to Cobham an act, it must be admitted, at best of not very
friendly officiousness as black treachery. His suggestion to Cecil is
in any case inconsistent with consciousness of a guilty connexion with
treason, if there were treason. Nobody of the least sagacity, much less
the 'master of wiles,' such as contemporaries accounted Ralegh, if he
had been concerned in a plot, and if his implication in it had been
known to a single person, would have been so foolish as to provoke his
one accomplice to retaliate by accusing him.

[Sidenote: _Ralegh in Confinement._]

[Sidenote: _The Message by Keymis._]

From the examination at Windsor he returned a prisoner, confined to his
own house. Some intercourse was then held between him and Cobham,
through Captain Keymis. He said he sent Keymis to explain to Cobham
that, being under restraint, he could not come himself, and to mention
what he had done with Mr. Attorney in the matter of a great pearl and
diamond given him by Cobham in order to arrange the business of the fee
farm Cobham was purchasing from the Crown. He had added that he 'had
cleared him,' which was, he asserted, true, as he had remarked to Cecil
that he believed Cobham had no concern with the plot of the priests.
Cecil's statement disagrees both as to Ralegh's examination, and as to
the message to Cobham. According to Cecil, Ralegh was not examined at
Windsor on any matter concerning Cobham. Yet, though Cobham was not then
suspected, and though Ralegh had been examined about himself alone, he
immediately, it is alleged, sent Keymis to tell Cobham that he had been
examined concerning him, and that he had cleared him of all to the
Lords. Keymis is stated, though not by Cecil, to have added verbally, as
if from Ralegh, an exhortation to Cobham to be 'of good comfort, for one
witness could not condemn a man for treason.' Ralegh denied positively
that any such message came from him. Mr. S.R. Gardiner, in his _History
of England from the Accession of James I to the Disgrace of Chief
Justice Coke_, condemns this as 'an unlucky falsehood.' His reason for
the violent charge is that he does not suppose so loyal a friend as
Keymis would have invented a damaging calumny. Keymis would not have
invented it to injure; he may, in the hope that the effect would be
beneficial, have repeated to Cobham casual expressions he had heard from
Ralegh; or Cobham may have himself imagined the message was from Ralegh
without any authority to that purport from Keymis. The former hypothesis
is not inconsistent with the character of the messenger. Keymis could
endure much for his leader. Without flinching he bore imprisonment in
the Tower and Fleet, from which he was not released till December 31,
1603. He was a brave and loyal follower, but not very prudent, as
after-events evinced. If the prosecution thought it could prove that he
really used the words as from Ralegh, it is strange that it did not
venture to produce him in court to testify to it.

Cobham could not have escaped suspicion. Ralegh's allusion to his
dealings with Arenberg was not needed to direct it against him. He was
notoriously reckless in his language. It had been remarked by Beaumont,
the French Ambassador, in the previous May that he could scarcely
mention Cecil without abusing him as a traitor. He was not likely to
have been reticent on his relations with the Archduke's envoy. He was
examined before the Privy Council several times at Richmond after July
15. On July 20 he confessed that he had asked Arenberg to procure five
or six hundred thousand crowns for distribution among English
malcontents. He had purposed to go on, after an interview with the
Archduke in the Netherlands, and seek the money from the King of Spain.
From Spain he intended, if the report of his examination can be
credited, to return home by way of Jersey, where he expected to meet
Ralegh. With him he meant to discuss the application of the money. So
far his statement indicated reliance on his power of persuading Ralegh
to abet the design. It showed no present complicity on Ralegh's part. At
this point, according to the official narrative, 'a note under Ralegh's
hand was shown to Examinate. Examinate, when he had perused the same,
brake forth, saying, "O, Traitor! O, Villain! I will now tell you all
the truth." And then said that he had never entered into these courses
but by Ralegh's instigation; and that he would never let him alone.' He
referred to suggestions by Ralegh of plots and invasions, and said he
feared when he had him in Jersey, he would send him to the King.
Convinced believers in Ralegh's duplicity will accept as satisfactory
confirmation of that extraordinary apprehension an opinion attributed by
Aubrey to Lord Southampton, an old enemy, that Ralegh joined the
conspiracy in order to buy his peace by betraying it, and had schemed to
inveigle Cobham and others over to Jersey, where he might secure them
for the Government.

[Sidenote: _Weaving a web for Ralegh._]

[Sidenote: _Extorted Evidence._]

By this time various circumstances supposed to criminate Ralegh had been
collected from the answers of the other accused persons. Each had been
given over to one or more Commissioners to worry into confessions. Sir
William Waad, or Wade, had charge of Ralegh, as of others. It was Waad
who had broken open Queen Mary's cabinet at Chartley Hall. He was fitted
for any dirty work. Keymis also had been arrested, and was examined by
Waad and the Solicitor-General on Ralegh's communications with Cobham.
They told him he deserved the rack. Waad hereafter denied that they ever
'threatened him with it.' La Renzi was examined, and deposed that Ralegh
had been in Cobham's company when Cobham received letters from Arenberg,
and sent others to him. The contents of the voluminous inquisitorial
dust-heap were perpetually being sorted, and distributed, or,
reluctantly, discarded. Any answers reflecting on another, particularly
if reflecting on Ralegh, were carefully put aside, to fill gaps in the
direct evidence against him. Thus, Brooke, according to Sir William
Waad, 'confidently thinketh what his brother knows was known to the
other.' On July 17, Brooke said that the conspirators among themselves
thought Sir Walter Ralegh a fit man to be of the action. No account was
made of the report by Markham of an express warning given him by Brooke
himself against communications to Cobham, on the ground that whatever
Cobham knew, Ralegh the witch would get out of him. In August, Brooke
affirmed that both Ralegh and Cobham had resolved to destroy the King
'with all his cubs.' Watson mentioned that he and Brooke, and apparently
Copley, had consulted concerning Sir Walter's surprising of the King's
fleet. Copley reported a remark by Brooke that the project of causing
stirs in Scotland came out of Ralegh's head. Watson had said of an
assembly at Cobham's house reported to him by Brooke, that, beside
Brooke and Cobham, my Lord Grey and Sir Walter Ralegh were there, and
showed every one of them great discontent, but especially the two Lords.
My Lord Cobham discovered his revenge to no less than the depriving of
his Majesty and all his Royal issue both of crown, kingdom, life, and
all at once; and my Lord Grey, to use Master Brooke's own words, uttered
nothing but treason at every word. At a subsequent examination Watson
stated to Sir William Waad that from Brooke's words it was evident the
great mass of money reported to be at the disposal of the Jesuits was,
most of it, from the Count of Arenberg. It was impossible for all the
Catholics in England to raise so much of themselves. Brooke, moreover,
it was recorded, had stated that his brother, Cobham, told him Lord Grey
and others were only on the Bye, but he and Ralegh were on the Main. By
the Main was signified the dethronement of James in favour of Arabella.

[Sidenote: _Attempt at Suicide._]

Such second or third hand tales were to be used to point and colour the
particle of direct testimony. This was Cobham's allegation that Ralegh
had instigated the dealings with Arenberg. Otherwise, as Cecil almost
officially admitted in a letter of August 4 to Parry, the only ground
for proceedings against him was that he had been discontented _in
conspectu omnium_ ever since the King came. Without Cobham's charge it
would have been impossible to prosecute him with any show of justice.
Immediately after Cobham's examination he was committed to the Tower. He
was conveyed thither from Fulham Palace, where he had been examined
before Bishop Bancroft, one of the Royal Commissioners. He believed his
doom decided. He found himself treated as convicted before he was tried.
A resignation of the Wardenship of the Stannaries had been extorted from
him. 'He underwent,' Sir John Harington wrote, 'a downfall of despair
as his greatest enemy could not have wished him so much harm as he would
have done himself.' Sir John spoke of a period before 1618. He did not
know how Ralegh's enemies could accumulate hate. Ralegh never put any
faith in the equity of English criminal procedure. He was resolved, if
the story about to be related is to be credited, to disappoint it of
some of its cruel fruits. Very soon after his arrival at the Tower, it
has been supposed on July 20, he is said to have attempted his life. He
was lodged in two small rooms in the Bloody tower. A couple of servants
of his own waited on him. He dined with the Lieutenant, Sir John Peyton.
Being at table, he was reported to have suddenly torn his vest open,
seized a knife, and plunged it into his breast. It struck a rib and
glanced aside. Being prevented from repeating the blow, he threw the
knife down, crying, 'There! An end!' The wound appeared at first
dangerous, though it turned out not very serious. For the details of the
occurrence we have to rely upon Cecil's correspondence, together with a
few words from Scaramelli, Secretary to the Venetian Legation. Cecil
wrote of it to Parry, at Paris, on August 4: '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 Ralegh
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 humour he had wounded himself under the right pap, but no way
mortally; being, in truth, rather a cut than a stab.' Cecil adds: 'He is
very well cured both in body and mind.' Several days earlier, on July
30, Peyton had written to Cecil that the hurt was nearly well. James had
been informed of the event by Cecil. His comment was that Ralegh should
be well probed by a good preacher, and induced to wound his spirit, not
his body. Beaumont, the French Ambassador, observed on the matter to
Henry IV: 'Sir Walter Ralegh is said to have declared that his design
to kill himself arose from no feeling of fear, but was formed in order
that his fate might not serve as a triumph to his enemies, whose power
to put him to death, despite his innocency, he well knows.' Confiscation
was the triumph of which he wished to deprive his persecutors, if he
really contemplated suicide. His motive would be the rescue of Sherborne
for his wife and child from forfeiture through attainder, the sure
result, as he truly foresaw, of a trial for treason.

[Sidenote: _A Disputed Letter._]

'After he had hurt himself,' it is stated on the extant copy of the
letter, though more probably, if at all, on the eve of the attempt, he
is alleged to have written to apprise his wife of his approaching death.
In 1839, in an edition of Bishop Goodman's _Court of King James the
First_, the late Professor John Brewer printed an unsigned paper,
purporting to be such a letter, which had been found in All Souls
College Library. Mr. Brewer describes it as in Sir Henry Yelverton's
Collection, for no other apparent reason than that the document is in a
commonplace book, which includes three speeches by Yelverton. The
contents are miscellaneous, ranging from satirical verses to State
papers, and of dates from 1500 to 1617. Mr. Oman, of All Souls,
considers that the hand, the same throughout, of the copyist is of
ordinary seventeenth century character. The volume came to the college
from the collection of Narcissus Luttrell. The name of the original
owner, for or by whom the matter was compiled and transcribed, is not
known. Consequently, belief in the authenticity of the supposed letter
from Ralegh depends on its own intrinsic probability.

[Sidenote: _An Apocryphal Daughter._]

In the course of it, Ralegh, 'for his sake who was about to be cruel to
himself, to preserve' his wife, begged her to be charitable 'to my poor
daughter, to whom I have given nothing,' and to 'teach my son to love
her for his father's sake.' Nowhere else is an allusion to this daughter
discoverable. Nothing is known of her or her mother. Almost a necessary
presumption is, that, if she existed, she was an illegitimate child. One
benevolent writer has suggested, without a shadow of evidence, a prior
marriage to that with Elizabeth Throckmorton. The manner in which she is
commended to Lady Ralegh's compassion excludes the explanation that Lady
Ralegh was her mother, whether before or after marriage. Ralegh
proceeded to ask his wife's 'kindness for his brother Adrian Gilbert,'
and for Keemis, 'a perfect honest man who hath much wrong for my sake.'
He advised her to marry, not to please sense, but to avoid poverty, and
in order to preserve their son. Very bitterly he cries: '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 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. For myself, I am left of all men, that have done
good to many. All my good turns forgotten; all my errors revived and
expounded to all extremity of ill. All my services, hazards, and
expenses for my country--plantings, discoveries, fights, councils, and
whatever else--malice hath now covered over. I am now made an enemy and
traitor by the word of an unworthy man. He hath proclaimed me to be a
partaker of his vain imaginations, notwithstanding the whole course of
my life hath approved the contrary, as my death shall approve it. Woe,
woe, woe be unto him by whose falsehood we are lost. He hath separated
us asunder. He hath slain my honour, my fortune. He hath robbed thee of
thy husband, thy child of his father, and me of you both. O God! Thou
dost know my wrongs. Know then, thou my wife and child; know then, thou
my Lord and King, that I ever thought them too honest to betray, and too
good to conspire against. But, my wife, forgive them all, as I do. Live
humble, for thou hast but a time also. God forgive my Lord Harry, 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 my child, and may have
compassion of him. Be not dismayed that I died in despair of God's
mercies. Strive not to dispute it. But assure thyself that God hath 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.
The mercy of God is immeasurable; the cogitations of men comprehend it
not. In the Lord I have ever trusted; and I know that my Redeemer
liveth. Far is it from me to be tempted with Satan; I am only tempted
with Sorrow, whose sharp teeth devour my heart. O God! Thou art goodness
itself; Thou canst not but be good to me. O God! that art mercy itself;
Thou canst not but be merciful to me!

[Sidenote: _Apology for Self-Destruction._]

'Oh, what will my poor servants think at their return, when they hear I
am accused to be Spanish, who sent them, at very great charge, to plant
and discover upon his territory. Oh, intolerable infamy! O God! I cannot
resist these thoughts. I cannot bear to think how I am derided, 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! O Death! hasten thou unto me, that thou mayest destroy
the memory of these, and lay me up in dark forgetfulness. O Death!
destroy my memory, which is my tormentor; my thoughts and my life cannot
dwell in one body. But do thou forget me, poor wife, that thou mayest
live to bring up my poor child. The Lord knows my sorrow to part from
thee and my poor child. But part I must, by enemies and injuries; part
with shame, and triumph of my detractors. And therefore be contented
with this work of God and forget me in all things, but thine own honour,
and the love of mine.

'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.'

[Sidenote: _Doubts._]

The obstacles to the acceptance of this composition as authentic are
almost insuperable. It does not ring truly. Hard as it may be to
distinguish rhetoric and passion in the death-bed phrases of men who
have lived before the world, the contrast here with the natural pathos
of the other, and undisputed, farewell of December, is too
irreconcilably vivid. Then there is the extraordinary apparition of an
otherwise invisible daughter. It is not the more intelligible for the
opposite difficulty that few forgers would have been likely to venture
upon so surprising an invention. The total disappearance of the original
manuscript, and the absence for more than two centuries of all knowledge
of its contents, are still stronger elements of doubt. Together, the
circumstances fully justify the scepticism of Mr. Hepworth Dixon in the
copious compilation styled by him a _History of the Tower_, though it is
not requisite to adopt his amusing surmise that a document allowed to
repose in the dark till the present age was fabricated to taint the
credit of Ralegh as a virtuous husband. Probably the epistle was
innocently concocted as a literary exercise by an admirer, who wished to
explain or apologise for his temporary loss of self-control.

[Sidenote: _Reasons for Silence._]

Notwithstanding a fire and indignation, occasionally approaching
grandeur, which, it must be admitted, raise another perplexing question,
who, if not Ralegh, had the wit to pen the epistle, it seems necessary
to surrender the letter. But it is too great a leap from repudiation of
it to the disbelief, first insinuated by Mr. Tytler, and more boldly and
absolutely enunciated by Mr. Dixon, in the attempt itself at suicide.
Their theory is that the whole was an invention of Ralegh's enemies. It
may be admitted that the stab, like the letter, has its difficulties. If
he tried to kill himself, it is strange that a practised swordsman
should not have succeeded. Whether he meant death or not, the reserve of
the Crown advocates at Winchester is equally mysterious. They were, it
might have been thought, sure to dwell upon the act in the one case as
contemptible, in the other as presumptive proof of a sense of guilt. The
latter is the obvious way in which it would strike the mind. Sir Toby
Matthew, son of the Bishop who had lately ejected Ralegh from his London
house, described it as 'a guilty blow.' Two centuries later, it
suggested to Hallam, 'a presumption of consciousness that something
could be proved against him.' Why did Ralegh's contemporary and official
adversaries not press the presumption home, if they could? On the other
side, there is the yet weightier evidence of Ralegh's own conduct. He
and his wife and friends must have heard the rumour, and their tongues
were not tied. Whatever reasons counsel and judges had for reticence,
the town had none. If Ralegh could have contradicted the discreditable
tale, it is, as in the case of an earlier scandal, inconceivable that he
should not. The explanation of his absolute silence, and the partial,
not entire, silence of his adversaries, is that he was ashamed of his
despair, and they were ashamed of having brought him to it. Cecil, after
the trial, referred to the matter, after the fashion of Matthew and of
Hallam, as 'suspicious.' At the time of the occurrence he mentioned it
to Sir Thomas Parry in a tone more of apology. He appeared to be afraid
European opinion might imagine that Ralegh had been driven mad by
merciless treatment. Had death ensued, a worse suspicion, however in
this instance unjust, was to be feared. Cecil would remember that there
had been Tower suicides before, and that they had been interpreted as
evidence rather against the gaolers than the prisoners.

[Sidenote: _Improbability of Ralegh's Complicity._]

For a moment it seemed as if Ralegh had been superfluously mistrustful
of English justice. A mass of tremendous charges had been rolled
together. To Waad's hopeful fancy they appeared, he told Cecil, to have
gravely implicated Ralegh, as well as Cobham. Investigated with a view
to a positive arraignment, the pile broke up and evaporated. Watson's
and Brooke's stories proved as unsubstantial as the astonishing romance
adopted by grave de Thou. According to the French annalist, Ralegh, in
disgust at the loss of his Captaincy of the Guard, had joined in a plot
to kill the King, started by a band of Englishmen incensed at the
Scottish irruption. He had accepted the post of assassin. But his
sister's report of his agitation, of which she misapprehended the
cause, induced inquiry. Arrested, he confessed the whole to James, and
bought his life by the betrayal of Grey, Cobham, and Markham. Silly as
is that tale, there was almost a more obvious dearth of motive for the
prominent part assigned to him in the most circumstantial of the
extorted depositions. Evidence was given that the other conspirators had
agreed upon the apportionment among themselves of the high offices of
State. No one testified that any had been reserved for the most
competent, the most distinguished, and the most ambitious of the
company. Ralegh's sole reward for the alleged terrible risk was, by
Waad's report of Brooke's and Watson's admissions, to be some such sum
of eight or ten thousand crowns as was to be offered to Cecil and
Northumberland, who incurred no danger.

Soon it must have become apparent that success in a prosecution of
Ralegh depended solely on the plausibility and consistency of Cobham's
accusations. They were peculiarly deficient in those qualities. Ralegh
has recorded that Cobham's remorse for the evil wrought by his charges
of July 20 commenced within the building in which they had been uttered.
At any rate, on the 29th he retracted them more or less completely. By a
letter of that date, addressed to the Lords of the Council, he admitted
he had pressed Arenberg for four or five hundred thousand crowns, though
nothing was decided about their application. He had expected, he said, a
general discontentment, and the money was to be expended as occasion
offered. At his oral examination on the same day he is stated by Cecil,
in a letter to Parry, to have 'cleared Sir Walter in most things, and to
have taken all the burden to himself.' It may be inferred from an
allusion by him in a letter that some of the Lords who had been
interrogating him allowed their indignation at his apparent calumnies
against Ralegh to be perceptible. The result was a growing impression
that the proceedings against Ralegh would have to be abandoned. Lord
Grey, an austere Protestant, and Sir Griffin Markham, a Catholic,
already, it was rumoured, had denied that he had been a conspirator.
They had affirmed they would have given up their project upon any
suspicion that he was mixed up with it. Now Cobham also was become a
broken reed. M. de Beaumont wrote to King Henry that the Lords found it
difficult in consequence to sustain Ralegh's prosecution. 'God forgive
Sir Walter Ralegh,' Cobham had exclaimed in August to Sir John Peyton's
son; 'he hath accused me; but I cannot accuse him.'

[Sidenote: _Cobham's Remorse._]

[Sidenote: _Written Retractations._]

Cobham's awakened sense of justice prompted him in the autumn to a step
which might have been decisive. Peyton was no longer at the Tower.
Ralegh's guilt had so far been presumed, as early as August, that his
patent as Governor of Jersey had been declared forfeited through his
grievous treason intended against the King. The office was conferred on
Peyton, in some measure, perhaps, that he might be removed from the
charge of Ralegh. The current belief was that his preferment was
disgrace for connivance at communications between him and Cobham. To his
successor, Sir George Harvey, Cobham wrote on October 24, desiring the
grant of facilities to him to address the Council on Ralegh's behalf:
'Mr. Lieutenant, If that I may write unto the Lords I would, touching
Sir Walter Ralegh; besides my letter to my Lord Cecil; God is my
witness, it doth touch my conscience. As you shall send me word so I
will do, that my letter may be ready against your son's going. I would
very fain have the words that the Lords used of my barbarousness in
accusing him falsely.' Harvey received this brief and not very coherent,
but significant, epistle, and locked the request up in his own bosom. He
did worse. From the language of his tardy explanation to Cecil it is
plain that he effectually discouraged Cobham's disposition to be
Ralegh's apologist to the Council. He underrated, however, Ralegh's
energy and dexterity. Cecil imagined that Ralegh had solicited from
Cobham the original retractation. Messages, he suspected, had passed
between the two in which Ralegh had 'expostulated Cobham's unkind using
of him.' The correctness of his conjecture for the past is unknown. It
was true of the present. Ralegh managed to have a letter, inclosed in,
or fastened to, an apple, thrown, in November, four nights before they
came to Winchester, into Cobham's window in Wardrobe tower. At the time
the Lieutenant was at supper. In it he entreated Cobham to do him
justice by his answer, and to signify to him that he had wronged him in
his accusation. He added: 'Do not, as my Lord of Essex did, take heed of
a preacher. By his persuasion he confessed, and so made himself guilty.'
Cobham, though later he forgot the fact, appears to have duly replied in
a letter, which was pushed under Ralegh's door. In it he admitted the
wrong he had done to Ralegh. The language was not distinct enough. It
was 'not to my contenting,' as afterwards said Ralegh, who wrote again.
He did not ask for another written confession. Instead, he besought
Cobham to declare his innocence when he should himself be arraigned.
Thereupon Cobham sent a letter described by Ralegh as 'very good,' a
complete and solemn justification, of which Howell in his _State Trials_
adopts the following transcript: 'Seeing myself so near my end, for the
discharge of my own conscience, and freeing myself from your blood,
which else will cry vengeance against me, I protest upon my salvation I
never practised with Spain by your procurement. God so comfort me in
this my affliction, as you are a true subject for anything that I know.
I will say, as Daniel, _Purus sum a sanguine hujus_. So God have mercy
upon my soul as I know no treason by you.' According to another version,
differing in language, not in tenor, the letter ran: 'To free myself
from the cry of blood, I protest upon my soul, and before God and His
angels, I never had conference with you in any treason, nor was ever
moved by you to the things I heretofore accused you of; and, for
anything I know, you are as innocent and as clear from any treasons
against the King as is any subject living. And God so deal with me and
have mercy upon my soul, as this is true.' Ralegh seems to have kept to
himself the knowledge of the existence of this letter for the present,
as Sir George Harvey, with less excuse, concealed the fact of Cobham's
prayer to himself.

[Sidenote: _Sir George Harvey's Disclosure._]

The correspondence was arranged partly through Edward Cottrell, a Tower
servant who waited upon Ralegh. Partly it was through the Lieutenant's
son, George, whom Ralegh had won over, as he had won over Sir John
Peyton's son, John. It was on account of the discovery by the Council,
through Ralegh's production at the trial of Cobham's letter to him, of
George Harvey's mediation, and of the youth's imprisonment for it, that
on December 17, several weeks after the end of the trial, at which it
might have benefited Ralegh, the Lieutenant gave Cecil the letter of
October 24. In the confidence that the infraction of discipline by his
son, as well as by his two prisoners, would be extenuated by his own
confession of an excess of official zeal, he acknowledged his
suppression of the October letter. Incidentally he testified to the
sincerity of Cobham's remorse. Cobham's 'great desire to justify Sir
Walter,' he admitted to Cecil, 'having been by me then stopped, he
diverted it, as I conceive, and it is very likely, unto Sir Walter
himself.' In this penitent mood Cobham had confessed his misdeeds to
others besides. He is reported to have told the vicar of Cobham parish
that Ralegh 'had done him no hurt, but he had done Ralegh a great deal.'
At last Ralegh might think that Cobham had ceased to be his accuser.
Prepared as he was for his companion's 'fashion of uttering things
easily,' he could scarcely have anticipated the layers of retractation
still latent in that voluminous repository.

[Sidenote: _Animosity of the Howards._]

His trust in the return of Cobham's veracity would not blind him to the
peril he continued to incur from the 'cruelty' of the law of treason;
from its willingness, in jealousy for the sovereign's safety, to have an
innocent scapegoat rather than no example. He knew that the people took
his guilt for granted, and that a jury would reflect popular opinion. He
could look for no real help in any quarter. To honest, but
unimaginative, politicians, he was an enigma and a trouble with his
ideas. They simply wished him out of the way. He was sure of the hatred
of the new men, 'very honourable men,' like the Tissaphernes of his
History, 'if honour may be valued by greatness and place in Court.' He
could calculate on no benevolence from the old courtiers. His claims of
equality had always been an offence to the ancient nobility, which held
itself entitled to precedence in glory as in its rewards. One from whom
better things were to have been expected, the Lord Admiral, though he
did not actively join in the prosecution, had his personal reasons for
rejoicing in the downfall of a sharp censor of his naval administration.
Between him and the Howard interest in general there had been frequent
feuds, and they were opposed on many important questions. Lord Henry was
not the only Howard who bore him ill-will, though the rest were not
equally malignant.

[Sidenote: _Cecil's Coldness._]

Henry Howard's confederate in the Scottish intrigues, Robert Cecil, had
no family grievances to avenge. If he once feared Ralegh's rivalry, he
could fear it no more. It is very difficult now, as before, to believe
that he entertained sentiments of positive animosity or vindictiveness
against Ralegh. Canon Kingsley's description of him as one of the most
'accomplished villains in history,' as the archplotter, who had managed
the whole conspiracy against Ralegh, though Ralegh knew nothing of it
till after the trial, is extravagant. Even Hallam's reference to 'the
hostility of Cecil, so insidious and implacable,' seems exaggerated and
unjust. The Minister was conscious of no malice. He took no pleasure in
the present prosecution. But moral cowardice and incapacity to dispense
with power now, as formerly, explain an attitude, which, it must be
admitted, is hardly to be distinguished from that of an inveterate
enemy. He could not afford, having, after a struggle, clambered on board
the new ship of State, to identify himself with wrecked comrades known
to be distasteful to his present master. It was convenient for him to
assume an air of reluctant conviction that his friend was guilty, and
that the only question was whether sufficient evidence could be
collected to prove it judicially. On October 3 he wrote that Cobham's
original accusation was 'so well fortified with other demonstrative
circumstances, and the retractation so blemished by the discovery of the
intelligence which they had, as few men can conceive Sir Walter Ralegh's
denial comes from a clear heart.' He who knew well the habits of judges
and juries in trials for treason, affected to think Ralegh could desire
no fairer opportunity. 'Always,' he wrote in October to Winwood, 'he
shall be left to the law, which is the right all men are born to.' His
elaborate statements of the charges and proceedings to Parry, which were
intended for circulation through Europe, convey the same impression of
willingness to warp facts under cover of a cold concern for nothing but
the truth. He did not deceive foreigners. M. de Beaumont, whose
diplomatic interest it was to abet a prosecution which implicated Spain,
spoke of him, in language already quoted, as undertaking the affair with
so much warmth that it was said he acted more from interest and passion
than for the good of the kingdom. He did not deceive unbiassed
Englishmen. Harington wrote in 1603: 'I doubt the dice not fairly
thrown, if Ralegh's life be the losing stake.' He has not deceived
posterity.

To the new Court, its head, and his Scotch favourites, Ralegh
necessarily was an object of aversion. He was not the less odious that
he was incomprehensible. For years he and his designs had been subjects
of suspicion and dread at Holyrood. Now, when he was no longer directly
dangerous, he was an obstruction and a perplexity. In spite of the
current charges against him, he represented hatred of Spain, with which
James was eager to be on terms of amity. He represented the spirit of
national unrest and adventurousness, which James abhorred. The obstinate
calumny of his scepticism served as a pretext to the King's conscience
for the unworthier instinct of personal dislike. His wisdom, learning,
and wit were no passports to the favour of the one privileged Solomon of
these isles.

[Sidenote: _Compensations for Ralegh's Sufferings._]

He understood all he had to face. Vehemently as he fretted and
complained, he was equal to the ordeal. He may be said to have been
happy in undergoing it. Unless for it, neither his contemporaries nor
posterity could have fully comprehended the scope and strength of his
character. Unversed in law, he was more than a match for the
incomparable legal learning of Coke and for his docile bench of judges.
His trial, which is the opprobrium of forensic and judicial annals,
makes a bright page in national history for the unique personality it
reveals, with all its wealth of subtlety, courage, and versatility.
Figures of purer metal have often stood in the dock, with as small
chance of safety. Ralegh was a compound of gold, silver, iron, and clay.
The trial, and all its circumstances, brought into conspicuous relief
the diversity which is no less the wonder of the character than it is of
the career. The Ralegh who has stamped himself upon English history, who
has fascinated English imagination, is not so much the favourite of
Elizabeth, the soldier and sailor; it is the baited prey of Coke and
Popham, the browbeaten convict of Winchester, the attainted prisoner of
the Tower. Against the Court of James and its obsequious lawyers he was
struggling for bare life, for no sublime cause, for no impersonal ideal.
Yet so high was his spirit, and his bearing so undaunted, that he has
ever appeared to subsequent generations a martyr on the altar of English
liberties.




CHAPTER XIX.

THE TRIAL (November 17).


[Sidenote: _The Indictment._]

On September 21 Ralegh had been indicted at Staines for having, with
Cobham and Brooke, compassed in the Parish of St. Martin in the Fields
to deprive the King of his crown, to alter the true religion, and to
levy war. The indictment alleged that Cobham had discoursed with him on
the means of raising Arabella Stuart to the crown; that Cobham had
treated with Arenberg for 600,000 crowns from the King of Spain, and had
meant to go to Spain in quest of support for Arabella. It alleged that
Ralegh and Cobham had agreed Arabella should by letter promise the
Archduke of Austria, the King of Spain, and the Duke of Savoy, to
maintain a firm truce with Spain, to tolerate Papistry, and be guided by
the three princes in her marriage. It alleged the publication and
delivery by Ralegh to Cobham of a book traitorously devised against the
King's title to the crown. Finally, it alleged that Cobham had agreed,
when he should have received the money from Arenberg, to deliver eight
or ten thousand crowns to Ralegh to enable him the better to effect the
intended treasons. Jurors were summoned in September for the trial of
this indictment. But for some reason the hearing was deferred till
November.

[Sidenote: _Mob Judgments._]

The plague raging in London and the neighbourhood may account for the
delay. Pym relates in his _Diary_ that it killed 2000 a week. The Tower
was reported in September, 1603, to be infected. The King's Bench kept
the next term at Winchester. So to Winchester their respective
custodians conveyed Brooke, Sir Griffin Markham, Sir Edward Parham, who
finally was acquitted, Brooksby, Copley, Watson, Clarke, Cobham, and
Grey. They were escorted by under-wardens of the Tower, the Keeper of
the Westminster Gate-house, and fifty light horse. Ralegh set out on
November 10 in his own coach, under the charge of Sir Robert Mansel and
Sir William Waad. Waad wrote to Cecil that he found his prisoner much
altered. At Wimbledon a group of friends and relatives had assembled to
greet him as he passed. Generally he encountered none but looks of
hatred. Precautions had to be taken to steal the planter of Virginia,
the hero of Cadiz, the wit and poet, the splendid gentleman, the lavish
patron, from the curs of London, without outrage, or murder. It was 'hob
or nob,' writes Waad to Cecil, whether or not Ralegh 'should have been
brought alive through such multitudes of unruly people as did exclaim
against him.' He adds, that it would hardly have been believed the
plague was hot in London in presence of such a mob. Watches had to be
set through all the streets, both in London and the suburbs. 'If one
hare-brain fellow amongst so great a multitude had begun to set upon
him, as they were near to do it, no entreaty or means could have
prevailed; the fury and tumult of the people was so great.'
Tobacco-pipes, stones, and mud were, wrote Cecil's secretary, Mr.
Michael Hickes, to Lord Shrewsbury, thrown by the rabble, both in London
and in other towns on the road. Ralegh is stated to have scorned these
proofs of the aversion of base and rascal people. Mr. Macvey Napier, in
his thoughtful essay, attributes to him 'a total want of sympathy with,
if not a dislike of, the lower orders.' His disgust, perhaps, was rather
evoked by the want of discrimination in all masses. He was habitually
good to his dependents, and was beloved by them. A multitude, whatever
the rank of its constituents, he regarded as 'dogs who always bark at
those they know not.' He had never flattered a mob. He did not now cower
before it. To manifestations of popular odium his nature rose, as to
every peremptory call upon his powers. He foresaw that posterity would
understand him, and would right him.

[Sidenote: _Chief Justice Popham._]

[Sidenote: _The Jury._]

Two days were taken to reach Bagshot, and three more to traverse the
remaining thirty miles to Winchester. Ralegh and others of the accused
were lodged in the Royal Castle of Winchester, built by Bishop Henry,
Stephen's brother. A King's Bench Court had been fitted up in Wolvesey
Castle, the old episcopal palace, now a ruin. There the trial opened on
November 17. Sir John Popham was Lord Chief Justice of England. He was
not prepossessing in appearance, 'a huge, heavy, ugly man,' and he had
an uncouth history. As a child he had been stolen by gipsies. In early
manhood he was a notorious gamester and reveller. He took purses, it is
stoutly affirmed, on Shooter's Hill, when he was a barrister, and thirty
years of age. Then he reformed his morals, read law, and entered the
House of Commons. In 1581 he was elected Speaker, and in 1592 was
appointed Chief Justice. Essex had imprisoned him in Essex House on the
day of the rising, but protected his life from his crazy followers. He
had the generosity to requite the favour by venturing to advise the
Queen to grant a pardon. He amassed a vast estate, part of it being
Littlecote, which he was fabled to have wrested, together with an
hereditary curse, from a murderer, Sir Richard Dayrell. With Popham,
Chief Justice Anderson, and Justices Gawdy and Warburton, there sat as
Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, Lord Thomas Howard, since July Earl
of Suffolk and Lord Chamberlain, Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy and Earl
of Devonshire, Lord Henry Howard, Robert Cecil, now Lord Cecil, Lord
Wotton, Vice-Chamberlain Sir John Stanhope, and Sir William Waad. That
the King, with his personal knowledge of Henry Howard's fierce hatred of
Ralegh, as evinced in the whole private correspondence with Holyrood,
should have appointed him a judge was an outrage upon decency.
Attorney-General Coke, Serjeant Hele, who had been Ralegh's counsel
against Meere, and Serjeant Phillips, prosecuted. The law allowed no
counsel to prisoners. Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir Edward Darcy, Ralegh's
neighbour in Durham House, and Sir William Killigrew, had been, it was
rumoured, on the jury panel, but were 'changed overnight, being found
not for their turn.' The report of a sudden modification in the list is
not necessarily untrue, though the jury, it is said, was a Middlesex
jury, and had been ordered long before to attend at Winchester. Other
Middlesex men, of whom many were at Winchester, may have been
substituted. At any rate, Ralegh did not except to any names. 'I know,'
said he, 'none of them. They are all Christians and honest gentlemen.'
Sir Thomas, or John, Fowler was chosen foreman.

Ralegh asked leave to answer the points particularly as they were
delivered, on account of his failing memory and sickness. Coke objected
to having the King's evidence dismembered, 'whereby it might lose much
of its grace and vigour.' Popham was more considerate. He promised to
let Ralegh, after the King's counsel should have produced all the
evidence, answer particularly what he would. Hele opened. I cull a few
flowers of his eloquence and logic: 'You have heard of Ralegh's bloody
attempt to kill the King, in whom consists all our happiness, and the
true use of the Gospel, and his royal children, poor babes that never
gave offence. Since the Conquest there was never the like treason. But
out of whose head came it? Out of Ralegh's. Cobham said to Brooke: "It
will never be well in England till the King and his cubs are taken
away." It appears that Cobham took Ralegh to be either a god or an idol.
Bred in England, Cobham hath no experience abroad. But Ralegh is a man
of great wit, military, and a swordsman. Now, whether these things were
bred in a hollow tree, I leave to them to speak of who can speak far
better than myself.'

[Sidenote: _The Main, and the Bye._]

He meant Sir Edward Coke, who then addressed the Court. He started
gently: 'We carry a just mind, to condemn no man but upon plain
evidence.' Thence he proceeded: 'Here is mischief, mischief _in summo
gradu_, exorbitant mischief!' He first explained 'the treason of the
Bye.' That was the alleged plot of Grey, Brooke, and Markham to surprise
the King, and carry him to the Tower. Ralegh reminded the jury that he
was not charged with the Bye. 'No,' retorted Coke, but 'all these
treasons, though they consisted of several points, closed in together;
like Samson's foxes, which were joined in the tails, though the heads
were severed.' He anticipated the objection that the Crown had but one
witness, Cobham. It had, he argued, more than two witnesses: 'When a man
by his accusation of another shall by the same accusation also condemn
himself, and make himself liable to the same punishment, this is by law
more forcible than many witnesses, and is as the inquest of twelve men.
For the law presumes that a man will not accuse himself in order to
accuse another.' That is, Coke chose to confuse an argument for the
sufficiency of a man's evidence of his own guilt with its cogency as
evidence of another's. After this, he declaimed upon the horror of the
treason in the present case. 'To take away the fox and his cubs! To
whom, Sir Walter, did you bear malice? To the royal children?' Ralegh
protested: 'What is the treason of Markham and the priests to me?' Coke
burst forth: 'I will then come close to you. I will prove you to be the
most notorious traitor that ever came to the bar. You, indeed, are upon
the Main; but you followed them of the Bye in imitation.' Ralegh asked
for proof. 'Nay,' cried Coke, 'I will prove all. Thou art a monster;
thou hast an English face, but a Spanish heart. Your intent was to set
up the Lady Arabella, and to depose our rightful King, the lineal
descendant of Edward IV.' Coke, it will be seen, did not choose to trace
the Stuarts to Henry VII. He treated the Tudors as interlopers. 'You
pretend,' he continued, that the money expected from Arenberg was to
'forward the Peace with Spain. Your jargon was peace, which meant
Spanish invasion and Scottish subversion.' Cobham, argued Coke, never
was a politician, nor a swordsman. Ralegh was both. Ralegh and Cobham
both were discontented, and Cobham's discontent grew by Ralegh. Such was
Ralegh's machiavellian policy that he would never confer with but one
at once. He would talk with none but Cobham; 'because, saith he, one
witness can never condemn me.'

[Sidenote: _Master Attorney's zeal._]

Next, Coke turned to the communications between Ralegh and Cobham in the
Tower. He exclaimed to the jury: 'And now you shall see the most
horrible practices that ever came out of the bottomless pit of the
lowest hell.' In reply to a protest by Ralegh as to his liability for
some underhand practices of Cobham, as Warden of the Cinque Ports, Coke
foamed out: 'All he did was by thy instigation, thou viper; for I thou
thee, thou traitor! I will prove thee the rankest traitor in all
England.' 'No, Master Attorney,' was the answer: 'I am no traitor.
Whether I live or die, I shall stand as true a subject as ever the King
hath. You may call me a traitor at your pleasure; yet it becomes not a
man of quality or virtue to do so. But I take comfort in it; it is all
that you can do; for I do not yet hear that you charge me with any
treason.' The Lord Chief Justice interposed: 'Sir Walter Ralegh, Master
Attorney speaks out of the zeal of his duty for the service of the King,
and you for your life; be patient on both sides.' It is hard to see how
Ralegh had shown impatience. Some impatience he manifested on the
reading of Cobham's declaration of July 20. 'Cobham,' said he, 'is not
such a babe as you make him. He hath dispositions of such violence which
his best friends could never temper.' He was not of a nature to be
easily persuaded by Ralegh. Assuredly Ralegh was not likely to 'conspire
with a man that hath neither love nor following,' against a vigorous and
youthful King, in reliance on a State so impoverished and weak as Spain,
and so detested by himself. He ridiculed the notion that King Philip
either could or would freely disburse 600,000 crowns on the mere word of
Cobham. Elizabeth's own Londoners did not lend to her without lands in
pawn. Yet more absurd was the supposition that Ralegh was in the plot.
Thrice had he served against Spain at sea. Against Spain he had
expended, of his own property, 40,000 marks. 'Spanish as you term me, I
had at this time writ a treatise to the King's Majesty of the present
state of Spain, and reasons against the peace.'

[Sidenote: _Call for Cobham._]

When the first or second examination of Cobham was cited, Popham offered
himself practically as a witness. He had heard Cobham say of Ralegh, as
he signed his deposition: 'That wretch! That traitor Ralegh!' 'And
surely,' added the Chief Justice, 'his countenance and action much
satisfied me that what he had confessed was true, and that he surely
thought Sir Walter had betrayed him.' Upon this Ralegh demanded to have
his accuser, who was under the same roof, brought in, and examined face
to face. Long before, and equally in vain, had his father-in-law, Sir
Nicholas Throckmorton, called, as Sir Michael Foster mentions, for the
witnesses against him 'to be brought face to face upon the trial.'
Ralegh cited 1 Edward VI, that no man shall be condemned of treason,
unless he be accused by two lawful accusers. He referred also to 1 and 2
Phil. and Mary, which ordained that an accuser of another of treason
shall, if living and in the realm, be brought forth in person before the
party arraigned, if he require it. The Canon of God itself in
Deuteronomy, he urged, requires two witnesses. 'I beseech you then, my
Lords, let Cobham be sent for. Let him be charged upon his soul, upon
his allegiance to the King; and if he will then maintain his accusation
to my face, I will confess myself guilty.' Popham's answer was: 'This
thing cannot be granted; for then a number of treasons should flourish.
The accuser may be drawn by practice while he is in prison.' Again and
again Ralegh called for Cobham. Popham objected that he might
prevaricate in order to procure the acquittal of his 'old friend.' 'To
absolve me,' cried Ralegh sarcastically, 'me, the infuser of these
treasons! Me, the cause of all his miseries, and the destruction of his
house!' Coke asserted: 'He is a party and cannot come. The law is
against it.' 'It is a toy to tell me of law,' was the reply, 'I defy
law. I stand on the facts.' At one moment his passionate appeal seemed
to have awed the Court into justice. Cecil asked if he would really
abide by Cobham's words. 'Yes, in a main point.' 'If he say you have
been the instigator of him to deal with the Spanish King, had not the
Council cause to draw you hither?' asked Cecil. 'I put myself on it,'
answered Ralegh. 'Then, call to God, Sir Walter,' said Cecil; 'and
prepare yourself; for I verily believe my Lord will prove it.' Cecil
knew of Cobham's recent reiteration of his charge, and supposed he could
be trusted to insist upon it in Court. The Lords Commissioners, on
consultation, doubted this, and finally decided to keep him back, and
rely upon his letter.

[Sidenote: _Two Witnesses._]

[Sidenote: _A Spider of Hell._]

The trial pursued its course. Popham laid it down that 1 Edw. VI. c. 12,
was repealed by 1 and 2 Phil. and Mary. Mr. Justice Gawdy corroborated
this, uttering the solitary judicial dictum recorded of him, that 'the
statute of Edward had been found inconvenient, and had therefore been
repealed.' The provision cited by Ralegh from Philip and Mary's
repealing statute, Popham ruled, applied solely to the specific treasons
it mentioned. The Act ordained that the trial of treasons in general
should follow common law procedure, as before the reign of Edward VI.
But by common law one witness was sufficient. The confession of
confederates was full proof, even though not subscribed, if it were
attested by credible witnesses. Indeed, remarked Popham, echoing Coke,
'of all other proofs the accusation of one, who by his confession first
accuseth himself, is the strongest. It hath the force of a verdict of
twelve men.' Coke himself later, when, as Mr. Justice Michael Foster
expresses it, 'his disgrace at Court had given him leisure for cool
reflection,' intimated in his _Institutes_ that the statute of Edward
the Sixth had not been repealed, and that the obligation, as specified
by it, to produce two witnesses to charges of treason remained in force.
That was not the view of Elizabethan Judges. At the trial of the Duke of
Norfolk it was laid down that the necessity no longer existed. In
fairness it must be admitted that Popham and his brethren were bound to
assume the law had then been correctly stated. They were equally bound
by a series of precedents to allow written depositions to be treated as
valid testimony. Only by the assent of counsel for the Crown was the
oral examination of witnesses permitted. Ralegh did not struggle against
the ruling. He could but plead, 'though, by the rigour and severity of
the law, this may be sufficient evidence without producing the witness,
yet, your Lordships, as ministers of the King, are bound to administer
the law in equity.' 'No,' replied Popham: 'equity must proceed from the
King; you can have only justice from us.' Coke triumphantly exclaimed:
'This dilemma of yours about two witnesses led you into treason.'
Cobham's letter of July 29 to the Council about the money asked of
Arenberg was read. In it occurred the expression: 'We did expect the
general discontentment.' Coke's comment was: 'The peace pretended by Sir
Walter Ralegh is merely jargon; for it is clear the money was for
discontented persons. Now Ralegh was to have part of the money;
therefore, he was a discontented person, and, therefore, a traitor.'
That was the logic thought good enough at a trial for treason. So, to
Ralegh's indignant remonstrance at the use of the evidence of 'hellish
spiders,' like Clarke and Watson, concerning 'the King and his cubs' as
evidence against him, Coke answered: 'Thou hast a Spanish heart, and
thyself art a spider of hell; for thou confessest the King to be a most
sweet and gracious Prince, and yet thou hast conspired against him.'
With equal relevancy he cited from the depositions: 'Brooke thinketh the
project for the murder of the King was infused by Ralegh into his
brother's head.' For Coke this was valid evidence against Ralegh.

[Sidenote: _Serjeant Phillips._]

On rolled the muddy stream of inconsequential testimony, and of
reasoning to match; the 'irregular ramble,' as Sir John Hawles has
termed it. Snagge's book was discussed; how Ralegh borrowed it from
Burleigh's library; and how Cobham had it, whether by gift from Ralegh,
or by borrowing it when Ralegh was asleep. To Ralegh the whole appeared
the triviality it was. 'It is well known,' said he, 'that there came out
nothing in those times but I had it. I believe they will find in my
house almost all the libels writ against the late Queen.' As utterly
irrelevant against him was the introduction of Arabella Stuart to deny
her knowledge of any plots in her pretended interest. Worse than
irrelevant was pilot Dyer's gossip with a gentleman at Lisbon, to whom
Dyer had observed that the King of England was shortly to be crowned.
'Nay,' saith the Portugal, 'that shall never be; for his throat will be
cut by Don Ralegh and Don Cobham before he be crowned.' 'What will you
infer upon that?' asked Ralegh. 'That your treason hath wings,' replied
Coke. Hereupon Serjeant Phillips relieved Coke, and almost outdid him.
Phillips argued that the object of procuring money was to raise up
tumults in Scotland, and to take the lives of his Majesty and his issue.
For those purposes a treasonable book against the King's right to the
Crown was 'divulged.' Commencing with the unproved allegation that 'Sir
Walter Ralegh confesseth my Lord Cobham guilty of all these treasons,'
Phillips proceeded: 'The question is, whether Ralegh be guilty, as
joining with or instigating him. If Lord Cobham's accusation be true, he
is guilty. If not, he is clear. Ralegh hath no answer. Of as much wit as
the wit of man can devise, he useth his bare denial. A denial by the
defendant must not move the jury.' Nothing could be more crushing than
the calm rejoinder: 'You have not proved any one thing by direct proofs,
but all by circumstances. I appeal to God and the King on this point
whether Cobham's accusation be sufficient to condemn me.'

[Sidenote: _Cobham's New Statement._]

So weak was the case for the prosecution that to this stage, by the
admission of a reporter of the trial, the result was very doubtful.
Coke, however, with the cognizance, it may be presumed, of the Court,
had prepared a dramatic surprise. Cobham, the day before, had written or
signed a repetition of his charge. Ralegh's account of the transaction
at the trial was that Lady Kildare, Lady Ralegh's enemy, had persuaded
Cobham to accuse Ralegh, as the sole way of saving his own life. A
letter from her to him goes some length towards confirming the
allegation. She writes: 'Help yourself, if it may be. I say no more; but
draw not the weight of others' burdens.' According to another, and not
very likely, story, told by Sir Anthony Welldon in his _Court of King
James_, Cobham subsequently stated that Waad had induced him by a trick
to sign his name on a blank page, which afterwards was thus filled in.
The paper alleged a request by Ralegh to obtain for him a pension of
£1500 for intelligence. 'But,' it ambiguously proceeded, 'upon this
motion for £1500 per annum for intelligence I never dealt with Count
Arenberg.' 'Now,' added the writer, as if it were a conclusion from
premisses, 'as by this may appear to your Lordships, he hath been the
original cause of my ruin. For, but by his instigation, I had never
dealt with Count Arenberg. And so hath he been the only cause of my
discontentment; I never coming from the Count, or Court, but still he
filled and possessed me with new causes of discontentments.' The reading
of the statement was set in a more than usually decorated framework of
Coke's amenities. Ralegh throughout the trial had been for the King's
Attorney an 'odious fellow;' the 'most vile and execrable traitor.' He
had been stigmatized as 'hateful to all the realm for his pride,' to
which Ralegh had retorted: 'It will go near to prove a measuring cast,
Mr. Attorney, between you and me.' With Cobham's deposition in his hand,
Coke cried: 'I will lay thee on thy back for the confidentest traitor
that ever came to a bar.' When Cecil prayed him not to be so impatient,
Coke flew out: 'If I may not be patiently heard, you will encourage
traitors.' Sulkily down he sat, and would speak no more till the
Commissioners entreated him to go on. Resuming, he criticized Ralegh's
letter to Cobham in the Tower, which was next read: 'O damnable Atheist!
He hath learned some text of Scripture to serve his own purpose. Essex
died the child of God. Thou wast by.

     Et lupus et turpes instant morientibus ursae.'

Being asked what he said of Cobham's statement to the Lords, 'I say,'
answered Ralegh, 'that Cobham is a base, dishonourable, poor soul!' 'Is
he base?' retorted Coke. 'I return it into thy throat on his behalf. But
for thee he had been a good subject.'

[Sidenote: _Exaggeration of its Importance._]

The document did not amount to a confession by Cobham even of his own
treason. At highest it was evidence against him of negotiations with
Count Arenberg which might have been 'warrantable,' and of discontent
which need not have been in the least criminal. If such secondary
testimony had been legal when its author was available as a witness, and
if its statements had been incontrovertible, it ought to have been held
worthless against Ralegh. Nothing, so far as appears even from the
paper, was ever done towards the gratification of the desire for a
foreign pension imputed to him. Within limits, Cobham's allegation that
Ralegh had fomented his anger against the new state of things is
plausible enough. It would be strange if the two disgraced favourites
did not at their frequent meetings club and inflame their mutual pique.
Obviously, apart from acts, of which there was no evidence, no
irritation by Ralegh, however envenomed, as it was not shown to have
been, of Cobham's discontent, could in him have been treason. Judged by
all sound laws of evidence, the testimony of the statement was as flimsy
as all the rest of the proofs. To attach importance to it was a
burlesque of justice. It was treated as demonstrative by a packed Bench,
a Bar hungering for place, and a faint-hearted jury, anxious above all
things to vindicate authority, and not caring to discriminate among the
prisoners on the charges against them. To the whole court it came like a
godsend. The author of the fullest report, that which is preserved in
the Harleian MSS., expresses the sentiment of Jacobean lawyers: 'This
confession gave a great satisfaction, and cleared all the former
evidence, which before stood very doubtful.'

[Sidenote: _The Prior Recantation._]

In the reporter's judgment it overwhelmed the defendant himself.
Reasonably Ralegh 'was much amazed.' He could not have anticipated
Cobham's retractation of his retractation. He perceived the new peril in
which he was plunged by the statement that he had solicited, or been
offered by Cobham, a Spanish pension, though, as he told the King in
January, 1604, so little account had he made at the time of the
conversation in which the offer was made, that he never remembered any
such thing till it was at his trial objected against him. He felt public
opinion shaken. His faith in himself was not weakened. 'By and by,' says
the reporter, 'he seemed to gather his spirits again.' Pulling out of
his pocket the recantation, the second, which Cobham had addressed to
him from the Tower, and attested by his hope of salvation and God's
mercy on his soul, he insisted upon having it too read in court.
Hereupon, says the reporter, 'was much ado, Mr. Attorney alleging that
the letter was politicly and cunningly urged from the Lord Cobham,' and
that the latest paper was 'simply the truth.' When Ralegh raised the
natural objection that a statement written by Cobham on the eve of his
own trial might be supposed to have been extorted in some sort by
compulsion, Coke appealed to Popham to interrogate the Commissioners.
Devonshire, as their mouthpiece, declared to the jury that it was 'mere
voluntary,' and had not been written under a promise of pardon. But
Cecil supported Ralegh in the demand that the jury should have before it
the earlier letter also. Coke, in a report printed in 1648 under the
name of Sir Thomas Overbury, is represented as exclaiming: 'My Lord
Cecil, mar not a good cause.' Cecil replied: 'Master Attorney, you are
more peremptory than honest; you must not come here to show me what to
do.' Throughout he had been careful to blend the friend with the judge,
so far as professions of regret went. He had spoken of the former
dearness between himself and this gentleman, tied upon the knot of his
virtues. He had declared that his friendship was not extinguished, but
slaked. He had vowed himself still his friend, 'excepting faults, I call
them no worse.' Now he strained that friendship to the extent of the
simple justice of undertaking the duty, 'because he only knew Cobham's
hand,' of reading out the letter, which, if the construction put by the
prosecution on the other paper were correct, proved the writer a
perjured liar either in the Tower or at Winchester.

Coke need not have feared the consequences. Both judges and jurymen had
comfortably made up their minds. They were not to be moved by so slight
a thing as a contradiction of Cobham in one place by Cobham in another.
So prejudiced were they that the Tower letter does not appear to have
produced any effect at all. Ralegh, at all events, could do no more. He
had striven for many hours, and was utterly exhausted. Without more
words he let the jury be dismissed to consider its verdict.

[Sidenote: _The Verdict and Judgment._]

[Sidenote: _Popham's Exhortation._]

In a quarter of an hour it returned into court with a verdict of guilty
of high treason. Ralegh received the decision with dignity: 'My Lords,'
said he, 'the jury hath found me guilty. They must do as they are
directed. I can say nothing why judgment should not proceed. You see
whereof Cobham hath accused me. You remember his protestation that I was
never guilty. I desire the King should know the wrong I have been done
to since I came hither.' Then Popham pronounced judgment. Addressing
Ralegh, he said: 'In my conscience I am persuaded Cobham hath accused
you truly. You cannot deny that you were dealt with to have a pension of
£1500 a year to be a spy for Spain; therefore, you are not so true to
the King as you have protested yourself to be.' He lamented the fall of
one of 'so great parts,' who 'had showed wit enough this day,' 'who
might have lived well with £3000 a year; for so I have heard your
revenues to be.' Spite and covetousness he held to have been Ralegh's
temptations. Yet the King could not be blamed for wishing to have for
Captain of the Guard 'one of his own knowledge, whom he might trust,' or
for desiring no longer to burden his people with a wine monopoly for
Ralegh's particular good. Popham embellished his confused discourse,
partly apologetic, and partly condemnatory, but not intentionally brutal
or malevolent, by a glance at Ralegh's reputed free-thinking. He had
been taxed, said Popham, by the world with the defence of most
heathenish and blasphemous opinions. 'You will do well,' the virtuous
Chief Justice exhorted him, 'before you go out of the world, to give
satisfaction therein. Let not any devil,' or, according to the Harleian
MSS. version, 'Hariot nor any such doctor, persuade you there is no
eternity in Heaven; if you think thus, you shall find eternity in Hell
fire.' Ralegh had warned Cobham against confessions. Let him not apply
the advice to himself. 'Your conceit of not confessing anything is very
inhuman and wicked. In this world is the time of confessing, that we may
be absolved at the Day of Judgment.' By way of peroration he added: 'It
now comes into my mind why you may not have your accuser face to face.
When traitors see themselves must die, they think it best to see their
fellow live, that he may commit the like treason again, and so in some
sort seek revenge.' Lastly, he pronounced the savage legal sentence.

When Popham had ended Ralegh spoke a few words. He prayed that the jury
might never have to answer for its verdict. He 'only craved pardon for
having concealed Lord Cobham's offer to him, which he did through a
confidence that he had diverted him from those humours.' Praying then
permission to speak to Lords Suffolk, Devonshire, Henry Howard, and
Cecil, he entreated their intercession, which they promised, Cecil with
tears, that his death might be honourable and not ignominious. He is
alleged further to have requested their mediation with the King for a
pardon, or, at least, that, if Cobham too were convicted, and if the
sentence were to be carried out, Cobham might die first. The petition
was not an ebullition of vindictiveness. It had a practical purpose. On
the scaffold he could say nothing for Cobham; Cobham might say much for
him. It was possible that, when nothing more was to be gained by
falsehoods, his recreant friend would clear his fame once for all. Then
he quitted the hall, accompanying Sir Benjamin Tichborne, the High
Sheriff, to the prison, according to Sir Thomas Overbury, 'with
admirable erection, yet in such sort as a condemned man should.'




CHAPTER XX.

JUSTICE AND EQUITY OF THE CONVICTION.


[Sidenote: _Exceptionally iniquitous._]

Students of English judicial history, with all their recollections of
the strange processes by which criminal courts in Ralegh's age leaped to
a presumption of a State prisoner's guilt, stand aghast at his
conviction. Mr. Justice Foster, in his book, already cited, on _The
Trial of the Rebels in Surrey in 1746_, professes his inability to see
how the case, excepting the extraordinary behaviour of the King's
Attorney, differed in hardship from many before it. He is referring to
the legal points ruled by the judges against Ralegh. Possibly previous
prisoners had been as ill-treated; and the fact amounts to a terrible
indictment of English justice. But one broad distinction separates this
from earlier convictions. Other prisoners in general were guilty, though
their guilt may have been a form of patriotism, or may not have been
logically proved. Ralegh's guilt of the crime imputed to him was not
proved at Winchester, and has never been proved since. If to have
cherished resentment for the loss of offices, to have incurred popular
odium, to be reputed superhumanly subtle, to have been the sagacious
comrade of a foolish malcontent, to have been alleged by that man, whom
he was not permitted to interrogate, to be disaffected at a time at
which strangers to him happened to be plotting rebellion, to have
abstained from betraying overtures for the exertion by him of an
influence he never used and did not possess on behalf of a pacification
which the sovereign was negotiating, be high treason, then it is
possible, though even then not certain, that Ralegh was a traitor. If
none of these possibilities amount to the crime of treason, then he was
not.

[Sidenote: _The Spanish Pension._]

[Sidenote: _James and Arenberg._]

He was alleged to have listened to disclosures by Cobham of a scheme for
obtaining money from the Archduke, or the King of Spain. He was alleged
to have been offered a share. He was alleged to have asked for a pension
as the price of the revelation of Court secrets. No other relevant
charges were brought. Of the evidence against him, the second or third
hand hearsay depositions of Brooke, Watson, Copley, and Clarke, like the
gossip of Dyer, had no effect even upon the Lords Commissioners and the
jury. The fragments of testimony actually credited were contributed by
Cobham alone, himself the principal in the supposed transaction, who had
retracted his original statement over and over again, whom the Court
refused to confront with the man he accused. Had the allegations been
ever so consistent, cogent, credible, and corroborated, they proved
nothing, except that Ralegh might, not would, have accepted foreign gold
if it had been proffered to him. Cecil accepted it for years to come,
and died at once Prime Minister and pensioner of Spain. Northumberland
had recently taken a pension to furnish France with secret intelligence.
The fact does not abate the admiration of Lingard, who yet thinks it
reasonable that a jury should have convicted Ralegh on the bare
suspicion of a similar offer by Spaniards to induce him to help them
towards peace. James was eager for peace. He placed the utmost faith in
the possibility of permanent amity with Spain. He was enthusiastically
certain of its importance and value to the kingdom and his dynasty. So
little did he object to the agent of Ralegh's alleged intrigue through
Cobham with the Spanish Court that he never allowed a symptom of
impatience on that side to escape him. Ralegh's guilt at worst depended
wholly on the reality of his partnership in Cobham's dealings with
Arenberg. In the spring of 1604, Arenberg, who had left England at the
end of the previous October, before the Winchester trials commenced,
returned as the Archduke's envoy for the negotiation of peace between
Spain and this country. He went away finally in the summer. To the
Archduke who had commissioned this suspected plotter of treason James
wrote in August, 1604: 'We thank you most affectionately for the
sincerity and affection you have shown yourself to bear towards the
conclusion of this peace and friendship by the choice you have made of
such worthy and eminent instruments as are our cousin the Prince Count
of Arenberg and his colleague, who, by their sufficiency, prudence, and
integrity, have so conducted this important affair that we have received
therein very great satisfaction.' He had used the same benevolent tone
with respect to the Count during the Winchester proceedings. Cecil
officially informed Sir Thomas Parry that the Count had always been made
by Cobham to understand that the combinations and money were to be
employed simply for the advancement of the peace. An identical defence
might be offered for Ralegh, if not for Cobham himself. But it was
convenient for James and his Court to exonerate the envoy; it was
convenient for them to use the same transaction for a deadly weapon
against Ralegh. Of any care or sense of actual truthfulness in King or
counsellors throughout the whole business, not a trace can be found.

All concerned in Ralegh's trial and conviction have a heavy burden of
bloodguiltiness to bear. But the Judges were less culpable than their
lay colleagues and the Crown counsel; the whole bench of Commissioners
and the Bar than the jury; the jury than the King, his Ministers, and
courtiers. Sir John Hawles, afterwards Solicitor-General, in a printed
reply in 1689 to Shower's apology, called _The Magistracy and Government
of England Vindicated_, for Lord Russell's conviction, censured Popham
for dispensing with a second witness, and with the presence of Cobham.
He argued from the practice of a later period, that Judges who had
deviated from it must have been violating their consciences. That is
unreasonable. The course taken by the Chief Justice and his brethren
conformed, as we have seen, to the legal usage of their time, however
opposed to natural justice. The fault was greater in the lay members of
the Court, and in the Attorney-General, who might undoubtedly, as
representing more directly the Crown, have produced Cobham. All that the
Judges declared was that the Crown need not, not that it must not. Still
more heinous was the verdict based upon evidence which, if enough in
quantity, was manifestly worthless in quality. Twelve worthy gentlemen
awarded a horrible death to a man guilty of no other offence, as they
knew, than that he had been offered a sum of Spanish money, which he
denied he would have accepted, and certainly never received. Most
shameful of all was the conduct of the Government which knew the
emptiness of the entire case, yet strained every nerve to extort a
conviction.

[Sidenote: _Legal and Moral Innocence._]

The question of Ralegh's moral innocence is not the same as that of his
legal innocence. All writers answer the latter unanimously in his
favour. On the former they are divided. Hume, indeed, a far from partial
critic, who could not sympathise with one of his 'great but ill
regulated mind,' pronounces wholly for him. He finds no proof or any
circumstance to justify the condemnation, which he roundly stigmatises
as contrary to all law and equity. Historians since Hume have commonly
been willing to suppose that the Government proceeded upon some solid
ground. In Lingard's Catholic eyes, Ralegh was simply an unscrupulous
flatterer of Elizabeth, and an immoral adventurer. Not pledging his own
judgment to the righteousness of the verdict, he remarks that 'the guilt
of Ralegh was no longer doubted after the solemn asseveration of Cobham'
on the scaffold. Hallam had no bias. Though he thought Ralegh 'faulty,'
'rash,' destitute of 'discretion,' and not 'very scrupulous about the
truth,' he admired him as a bright genius, 'a splendid ornament of his
country,' 'the bravest and most renowned of Englishmen.' He has declared
the verdict against him contrary to law, but thinks it 'very probable
that the charge of plotting to raise Arabella to the throne was partly
at least founded in truth.' Mr. Gardiner condemns the particular
accusation as 'frivolous and false,' but believes it had some basis in
his character, in his habit of 'looking down from the eminence of
genius upon the acts of lesser men.'

[Sidenote: _Absence of Evidence of Guilt._]

[Sidenote: _Apologies for Condemnation._]

For such support of the prosecution and verdict, qualified as it is,
there is a difficulty in perceiving any foundation, except the
improbability that a Government should have conspired to obtain the
capital condemnation of an illustrious Englishman on no better testimony
than that which it vouchsafed or dared to offer. That even Cobham had
engaged in plots for the deposition of James in favour of Arabella,
which the Ambassador of the Infanta, herself a Pretender, would not have
been in the least likely to further, no evidence except French hearsay
from James's Ministers exists to prove. That he may have intrigued for
the exercise of illegitimate pressure in Spanish interests upon the
King, is very probable on his own admission, though 'it does not
follow,' as Ralegh writes in his History, 'that every man ought to be
believed of himself to his own prejudice.' It is not equally clear, but
it is credible, that he had sounded Ralegh, and had appealed to his
constant pecuniary necessities, with a view to his engagement in the
design. Ralegh may well have suspected enough, without direct
complicity, to be able, if he had chosen, to deliver up Cobham to the
Government some time before his interview with the Council at Windsor.
His omission may have been a breach of his legal duty as a loyal
subject, as his hint to Cecil of the transactions with la Renzi was a
breach of perfect faithfulness to friendship. But there is no sufficient
ground for questioning his own apology, that he regarded the scheme as
the vapouring it for the most part was. Moreover, it is not impossible,
or improbable, that he may, as he stated to the Lords Commissioners,
have endeavoured to dissuade Cobham from plotting. He may have used
threats for the purpose, though he did not carry them out. This would
explain Cobham's alarm, otherwise unintelligible, that Ralegh meant to
inveigle him and other agitators into Jersey, and then give them up.
That he actively abetted a conspiracy, either with Arenberg, or against
James, is in itself as improbable as it is in fact unproved. James, on
his side, may have believed that Ralegh was willing to acquiesce in a
treasonable conspiracy, and to enjoy some of its fruits. In this mode
the King, and Cecil also, would lull their consciences, while they
availed themselves of law for the ruin of one whom they disliked and
dreaded. They acted upon surmises, and historians have followed them.
Honest-minded writers have been ashamed to think the State could have
persecuted an innocent man as it persecuted Ralegh without other
evidence than that it disclosed. They have tried to explain the
incomprehensible by the unknown. Forgetting the characters of James and
his Minister, they have inferred Ralegh's criminality from his
subjection to the treatment of a criminal.

Every effort was made at the time to demonstrate his capital guilt. The
efforts were continued for thirteen years without success. As Ralegh
ironically wrote in 1618, Gondomar's readiest way of stopping the Guiana
expedition would have been, had he been guilty, 'to discover the great
practices I had with his Master against the King in the first year of
his Majesty's reign.' In default of direct testimony, apologists for
Ralegh's condemnation have even attempted to plead a remark by the
French Ambassador, Beaumont, to his Court before the trial that, though
there was no sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction, yet the truth
was 'Cobham with Ralegh had conducted the practices with the Archduke.'
As Hallam observes, Beaumont possessed no more information than the
English Government gave out. He arrived at his conclusion against Ralegh
on the testimony of Arenberg's intercepted letters, which James had
shown him. Of the correctness of the inference from them, Lingard
admits, 'we have no opportunity of judging.' That the Frenchman would
rejoice to believe a rival diplomatist had traitors for his
confederates, and that they had tampered with assassination plots, is
obvious. His bias towards such a result must have been so strong as to
incapacitate him, even beyond de Thou, for a neutral scrutiny of the
facts. Inquirers since have ransacked all sources of information,
official and unofficial, English, Spanish, French, and Venetian. No
higher criminality has been discovered in him than that he may have been
aware of the project of an acquaintance to influence by means of Spanish
gold the King's policy. If he were guilty of worse than this, it is a
solecism in the history of treasons that in the course of three
centuries not a tittle of evidence of it should have been unearthed.

[Sidenote: _Cobham's Trial._]

Ralegh, to the last, clung to the chance of rehabilitation through
Cobham. He should have understood the man too well by this time to
repose the most slender trust in his truthfulness, generosity, or
courage. Privy Councillors examined him after Ralegh's trial, and he
repeated his calumnies. On the following Friday he was tried by his
peers in the County hall, the great hall of Winchester Castle, known as
Arthur's Hall from a picture of the Round Table at the east end.
'Never,' reported Sir Dudley Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, who
was present at both trials, 'was there so poor and abject a spirit.' He
listened to his indictment with fear and trembling. He confessed he had
hammered in his brains imaginations of the matters charged against him,
but never had purposed to bring them to effect. He repeated in an
incoherent manner his charges against Ralegh. Ralegh, he asserted, had
stirred him up to discontent, and thereby overthrown his fortunes.
Ralegh had proposed the despatch of a Spanish army to Milford Haven.
Ralegh had made himself a pensioner of Spain. As earnest of services for
which he expected a salary of 1500 crowns, Ralegh had disclosed to
Arenberg State deliberations at Greenwich. Ralegh had nothing to hope
from the compiler of this wonderful medley, who was willing to buy his
life by calumnies upon his friend. He had nothing to hope from the legal
justice of his cause. His only real hope was in a discovery by the
Fountain of Mercy that the prosecution of him was a mistake; that he was
too precious a weapon in the royal armoury to be thrown away, or be let
rust; that though law condemned, the national conscience had acquitted
him, and cancelled his sentence. His trust, at all events, in public
opinion was justified. In 1603 it was not plain to his contemporaries
that not a shadow of evidence had ever existed on which he could justly
be sent to trial. They saw no absurdity in the association of his name
as a traitor in scurrilous ballads with those of Watson and Brooke. But
they had seen him in the dock. He had compelled them to weigh the proofs
against him and recognise their hollowness and inconclusiveness. The
manliness with which he had stood at bay against Coke's insolence,
Cobham's perfidy, and Cecil's damaging apologies for estrangement had
brought over to him the sympathy of public opinion. The tide of popular
feeling turned, and ceased henceforth to run turbulently against him.

[Sidenote: _Public Opinion._]

The Court had been densely thronged. A multitude of eye-witnesses spread
through the kingdom their own 'great admiration.' 'Never man,' writes
Sir Toby Matthew, 'spoke better for himself. So worthily, so wisely, so
temperately he behaved himself that in half a day the mind of all the
company was changed from the extremest hate to the extremest pity.' His
demeanour was extolled as perfect; to the Lords humble, yet not
prostrate, to the jury affable, not fawning, rather showing love of life
than fear of death, to the King's counsel patient, but not insensibly
neglecting, not yielding to imputations laid against him in words.
Michael Hickes wrote to Lord Shrewsbury that his conduct 'wrought both
admiration for his good parts and pity towards his person.' His
demeanour and eloquence, Hickes heard, had elicited some tears from Mar
and Cecil. It was 'wondered that a man of his heroic spirit could be so
valiant in suffering that he was never overtaken in passion.' Carleton's
account to Chamberlain was that he answered Coke and the rest 'with that
temper, wit, learning, courage, and judgment, that, save it went with
the hazard of his life, it was the happiest day that ever he spent. And
so well he shifted all advantages that were taken against him, that,
were not _fama malum gravius quam res_, and an ill name half hanged, in
the opinion of all men he had been acquitted. In one word, never was a
man so hated and so popular in so short a time.' James wished to have an
independent account of the trial, and had commissioned two gentlemen,
Roger Ashton and a Scotchman, to report. They carried the news of the
trial to the King at Wilton House. 'Never,' stated Ashton, according to
Carleton, 'man spake so well in the time past, nor would in the time to
come.' The Scotchman seems to have reported that, 'whereas, when he saw
Sir Walter Ralegh first, he was so led with the common hatred that he
would have gone a hundred miles to see him hanged, he would, ere they
parted, have gone a thousand to save his life.'

[Sidenote: _Legends._]

The shock inflicted upon the national instinct of fairness by the
conviction of such a man, on such evidence, and after such a defence,
showed itself by legends which clustered round the facts of the trial.
'Some of the jury,' it is related by Francis Osborn in his _Memorials on
the Reign of King James_, 'were, after he was cast, so far touched in
conscience as to demand of him pardon on their knees.' Coke himself was
rumoured to have been astonished at the form of the verdict. He was in a
garden resting his brazen lungs and his venomous temper, when his man
announced that the jury had brought in Ralegh guilty of treason.
'Surely,' observed Coke, 'thou art mistaken; for I myself accused him
but of misprision of treason.' The story, which its narrator, in the
anonymous _Observations upon Sanderson's History of Queen Mary and King
James_, issued in 1656, 'upon the word of a Christian received from Sir
Edward Coke's own mouth,' will appear to any reader of the trial a
manifest fable. Not the less does it, like the myth of the fraud by
which Cobham's accusing Winchester deposition is alleged to have been
procured, testify to the difficulty the public experienced in digesting
the judicial outrage upon reason. Similarly must be explained the
anecdote, though told by Ralegh himself to the Privy Council after his
return from Guiana, on the authority of his physician, Dr. Turner, of
Sir Francis Gawdy's death-bed lament that 'Never before had the justice
of England been so depraved and injured as in the condemnation of Sir
Walter Ralegh.' Gawdy had uttered no word of protest against the
shameless misbehaviour of his Chief and the Attorney throughout the
hearing. On the contrary, his one remark was against the prisoner. If he
really considered the conduct or result of the trial iniquitous, it is a
pity he was not more prompt in denouncing it. His judicial sensitiveness
needed to be awakened by a fit of apoplexy which carried him off in 1606
to his grave in the next parish, he having turned his own church at
Wellington into a dog kennel.




CHAPTER XXI.

REPRIEVE (December 10, 1603).


[Sidenote: _Bathos._]

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Abasement._]

The nation was doing a great man justice, though tardily. Not even its
hero's temporary self-abasement could put it out of conceit with him.
One of the many curious surprises in Ralegh's history is the manner in
which a sudden change in his demeanour seemed to give the lie to the
general admiration. Almost a worse grievance against the Court and its
legal tools than their persecution is the effect it had in humiliating
and degrading him for a time. Though the proceedings had been a travesty
of justice, they had been invested hitherto with a scenic stateliness.
Ralegh had borne himself gallantly. He had kept and left the stage with
unfailing dignity. The prosecution had at least evinced the respectable
earnestness of stubborn hate. At the moment after the catastrophe the
nobility, whether of persecuted greatness or of murderous vengefulness,
evaporated. Ralegh's enemies appeared to have lost their motive and
plan. They seemed no longer sure why or how they wished to wreak their
rage. He, from his condemned cell, demanded justice for wronged
innocence in the accents of a detected cut-throat. To the Lords
Commissioners he wrote: 'The law is passed against me. The mercy of my
Sovereign is all that remaineth for my comfort. If I may no