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diff --git a/old/srwal10.txt b/old/srwal10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..92a7671 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/srwal10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3590 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Sir Walter Raleigh and his Times, by Kingsley +#10 in our series by Charles Kingsley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced from the 1890 Macmillan and Co. "Plays and +Puritans and Other Historical Essays" edition by David Price, email +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND HIS TIME {1} + +by Charles Kingsley + + + + +'Truth is stranger than fiction.' A trite remark. We all say it +again and again: but how few of us believe it! How few of us, when +we read the history of heroical times and heroical men, take the +story simply as it stands! On the contrary, we try to explain it +away; to prove it all not to have been so very wonderful; to impute +accident, circumstance, mean and commonplace motives; to lower every +story down to the level of our own littleness, or what we (unjustly +to ourselves and to the God who is near us all) choose to consider +our level; to rationalise away all the wonders, till we make them at +last impossible, and give up caring to believe them; and prove to our +own melancholy satisfaction that Alexander conquered the world with a +pin, in his sleep, by accident. + +And yet in this mood, as in most, there is a sort of left-handed +truth involved. These heroes are not so far removed from us after +all. They were men of like passions with ourselves, with the same +flesh about them, the same spirit within them, the same world +outside, the same devil beneath, the same God above. They and their +deeds were not so very wonderful. Every child who is born into the +world is just as wonderful, and, for aught we know, might, 'mutatis +mutandis, do just as wonderful deeds. If accident and circumstance +helped them, the same may help us: have helped us, if we will look +back down our years, far more than we have made use of. + +They were men, certainly, very much of our own level: but may we not +put that level somewhat too low? They were certainly not what we +are; for if they had been, they would have done no more than we: but +is not a man's real level not what he is, but what he can be, and +therefore ought to be? No doubt they were compact of good and evil, +just as we: but so was David, no man more; though a more heroical +personage (save One) appears not in all human records but may not the +secret of their success have been that, on the whole (though they +found it a sore battle), they refused the evil and chose the good? +It is true, again, that their great deeds may be more or less +explained, attributed to laws, rationalised: but is explaining +always explaining away? Is it to degrade a thing to attribute it to +a law? And do you do anything more by 'rationalising' men's deeds +than prove that they were rational men; men who saw certain fixed +laws, and obeyed them, and succeeded thereby, according to the +Baconian apophthegm, that nature is conquered by obeying her? + +But what laws? + +To that question, perhaps, the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the +Hebrews will give the best answer, where it says, that by faith were +done all the truly great deeds, and by faith lived all the truly +great men who have ever appeared on earth. + +There are, of course, higher and lower degrees of this faith; its +object is one more or less worthy: but it is in all cases the belief +in certain unseen eternal facts, by keeping true to which a man must +in the long run succeed. Must; because he is more or less in harmony +with heaven, and earth, and the Maker thereof, and has therefore +fighting on his side a great portion of the universe; perhaps the +whole; for as he who breaks one commandment of the law is guilty of +the whole, because he denies the fount of all law, so he who with his +whole soul keeps one commandment of it is likely to be in harmony +with the whole, because he testifies of the fount of all law. + +I shall devote a few pages to the story of an old hero, of a man of +like passions with ourselves; of one who had the most intense and +awful sense of the unseen laws, and succeeded mightily thereby; of +one who had hard struggles with a flesh and blood which made him at +times forget those laws, and failed mightily thereby; of one whom God +so loved that He caused each slightest sin, as with David, to bring +its own punishment with it, that while the flesh was delivered over +to Satan, the man himself might be saved in the Day of the Lord; of +one, finally, of whom nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a +thousand may say, 'I have done worse deeds than he: but I have never +done as good ones.' + +In a poor farm-house among the pleasant valleys of South Devon, among +the white apple-orchards and the rich water-meadows, and the red +fallows and red kine, in the year of grace 1552, a boy was born, as +beautiful as day, and christened Walter Raleigh. His father was a +gentleman of ancient blood: few older in the land: but, +impoverished, he had settled down upon the wreck of his estate, in +that poor farm-house. No record of him now remains; but he must have +been a man worth knowing and worth loving, or he would not have won +the wife he did. She was a Champernoun, proudest of Norman squires, +and could probably boast of having in her veins the blood of +Courtneys, Emperors of Byzant. She had been the wife of the famous +knight Sir Otho Gilbert, and lady of Compton Castle, and had borne +him three brave sons, John, Humphrey, and Adrian; all three destined +to win knighthood also in due time, and the two latter already giving +promises, which they well fulfilled, of becoming most remarkable men +of their time. And yet the fair Champernoun, at her husband's death, +had chosen to wed Mr. Raleigh, and share life with him in the little +farm-house at Hayes. She must have been a grand woman, if the law +holds true that great men always have great mothers; an especially +grand woman, indeed; for few can boast of having borne to two +different husbands such sons as she bore. No record, as far as we +know, remains of her; nor of her boy's early years. One can imagine +them, nevertheless. + +Just as he awakes to consciousness, the Smithfield fires are +extinguished. He can recollect, perhaps, hearing of the burning of +the Exeter martyrs: and he does not forget it; no one forgot or +dared forget it in those days. He is brought up in the simple and +manly, yet high-bred ways of English gentlemen in the times of 'an +old courtier of the Queen's.' His two elder half-brothers also, +living some thirty miles away, in the quaint and gloomy towers of +Compton Castle, amid the apple-orchards of Torbay, are men as noble +as ever formed a young lad's taste. Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert, who +afterwards, both of them, rise to knighthood, are--what are they +not?--soldiers, scholars, Christians, discoverers and 'planters' of +foreign lands, geographers, alchemists, miners, Platonical +philosophers; many-sided, high-minded men, not without fantastic +enthusiasm; living heroic lives, and destined, one of them, to die a +heroic death. From them Raleigh's fancy has been fired, and his +appetite for learning quickened, while he is yet a daring boy, +fishing in the gray trout-brooks, or going up with his father to the +Dartmoor hills to hunt the deer with hound and horn, amid the wooded +gorges of Holne, or over the dreary downs of Hartland Warren, and the +cloud-capt thickets of Cator's Beam, and looking down from thence +upon the far blue southern sea, wondering when he shall sail thereon, +to fight the Spaniard, and discover, like Columbus, some fairy-land +of gold and gems. + +For before this boy's mind, as before all intense English minds of +that day, rise, from the first, three fixed ideas, which yet are but +one--the Pope, the Spaniard, and America. + +The two first are the sworn and internecine enemies (whether they +pretend a formal peace or not) of Law and Freedom, Bible and Queen, +and all that makes an Englishman's life dear to him. Are they not +the incarnations of Antichrist? Their Moloch sacrifices flame +through all lands. The earth groans because of them, and refuses to +cover the blood of her slain. And America is the new world of +boundless wonder and beauty, wealth and fertility, to which these two +evil powers arrogate an exclusive and divine right; and God has +delivered it into their hands; and they have done evil therein with +all their might, till the story of their greed and cruelty rings +through all earth and heaven. Is this the will of God? Will he not +avenge for these things, as surely as he is the Lord who executeth +justice and judgment in the earth? + +These are the young boy's thoughts. These were his thoughts for +sixty-six eventful years. In whatsoever else he wavered, he never +wavered in that creed. He learnt it in his boyhood, while he read +'Fox's Martyrs' beside his mother's knee. He learnt it as a lad, +when he saw his neighbours Hawkins and Drake changed by Spanish +tyranny and treachery from peaceful merchantmen into fierce scourges +of God. He learnt it scholastically, from fathers and divines, as an +Oxford scholar, in days when Oxford was a Protestant indeed, in whom +there was no guile. He learnt it when he went over, at seventeen +years old, with his gallant kinsman Henry Champernoun, and his band +of a hundred gentlemen volunteers, to flesh his maiden sword in +behalf of the persecuted French Protestants. He learnt it as he +listened to the shrieks of the San Bartholomew; he learnt it as he +watched the dragonnades, the tortures, the massacres of the +Netherlands, and fought manfully under Norris in behalf of those +victims of 'the Pope and Spain.' He preached it in far stronger and +wiser words than I can express it for him, in that noble tract of +1591, on Sir Richard Grenville's death at the Azores--a Tyrtaean +trumpet-blast such as has seldom rung in human ears; he discussed it +like a cool statesman in his pamphlet of 1596, on 'A War with Spain.' +He sacrificed for it the last hopes of his old age, the wreck of his +fortunes, his just recovered liberty; and he died with the old God's +battle-cry upon his lips, when it awoke no response from the hearts +of a coward, profligate, and unbelieving generation. This is the +background, the keynote of the man's whole life. If we lose the +recollection of it, and content ourselves by slurring it over in the +last pages of his biography with some half-sneer about his putting, +like the rest of Elizabeth's old admirals, 'the Spaniard, the Pope, +and the Devil' in the same category, then we shall understand very +little about Raleigh; though, of course, we shall save ourselves the +trouble of pronouncing as to whether the Spaniard and the Pope were +really in the same category as the devil; or, indeed, which might be +equally puzzling to a good many historians of the last century and a +half, whether there be any devil at all. + +The books which I have chosen to head this review are all of them +more or less good, with one exception, and that is Bishop Goodman's +Memoirs, on which much stress has been lately laid, as throwing light +on various passages of Raleigh, Essex, Cecil, and James's lives. +Having read it carefully, I must say plainly, that I think the book +an altogether foolish, pedantic, and untrustworthy book, without any +power of insight or gleam of reason; without even the care to be +self-consistent; having but one object, the whitewashing of James, +and of every noble lord whom the bishop has ever known: but in +whitewashing each, the poor old flunkey so bespatters all the rest of +his pets, that when the work is done, the whole party look, if +possible, rather dirtier than before. And so I leave Bishop Goodman. + +Mr. Fraser Tytler's book is well known; and it is on the whole a good +one; because he really loves and admires the man of whom he writes: +but he is sometimes careless as to authorities, and too often makes +the wish father to the thought. Moreover, he has the usual sentiment +about Mary Queen of Scots, and the usual scandal about Elizabeth, +which is simply anathema; and which prevents his really seeing the +time in which Raleigh lived, and the element in which he moved. This +sort of talk is happily dying out just now; but no one can approach +the history of the Elizabethan age (perhaps of any age) without +finding that truth is all but buried under mountains of dirt and +chaff--an Augaean stable, which, perhaps, will never be swept clean. +Yet I have seen, with great delight, several attempts toward removal +of the said superstratum of dirt and chaff from the Elizabethan +histories, in several articles, all evidently from the same pen (and +that one, more perfectly master of English prose than any man +living), in the 'Westminster Review' and 'Fraser's Magazine.' {2} + +Sir Robert Schomburgk's edition of the Guiana Voyage contains an +excellent Life of Raleigh, perhaps the best yet written; of which I +only complain, when it gives in to the stock-charges against Raleigh, +as it were at second-hand, and just because they are stock-charges, +and when, too, the illustrious editor (unable to conceal his +admiration of a discoverer in many points so like himself) takes all +through an apologetic tone of 'Please don't laugh at me. I daresay +it is very foolish; but I can't help loving the man.' + +Mr. Napier's little book is a reprint of two 'Edinburgh Review' +articles on Bacon and Raleigh. The first, a learned statement of +facts in answer to some unwisdom of a 'Quarterly' reviewer (possibly +an Oxford Aristotelian; for 'we think we do know that sweet Roman +hand'). It is clear, accurate, convincing, complete. There is no +more to be said about the matter, save that facts are stubborn +things. + +The article on Raleigh is very valuable; first, because Mr. Napier +has had access to many documents unknown to former biographers; and +next, because he clears Raleigh completely from the old imputation of +deceit about the Guiana mine, as well as of other minor charges. +With his general opinion of Raleigh's last and fatal Guiana voyage, I +have the misfortune to differ from him toto coelo, on the strength of +the very documents which he quotes. But Mr. Napier is always +careful, always temperate, and always just, except where he, as I +think, does not enter into the feelings of the man whom he is +analysing. Let readers buy the book (it will tell them a hundred +things they do not know) and be judge between Mr. Napier and me. + +In the meanwhile, one cannot help watching with a smile how good old +Time's scrubbing-brush, which clears away paint and whitewash from +church pillars, does the same by such characters as Raleigh's. After +each fresh examination, some fresh count in the hundred-headed +indictment breaks down. The truth is, that as people begin to +believe more in nobleness, and to gird up their loins to the doing of +noble deeds, they discover more nobleness in others. Raleigh's +character was in its lowest nadir in the days of Voltaire and Hume. +What shame to him? For so were more sacred characters than his. +Shall the disciple be above his master? especially when that disciple +was but too inconsistent, and gave occasion to the uncircumcised to +blaspheme? But Cayley, after a few years, refutes triumphantly +Hume's silly slanders. He is a stupid writer: but he has sense +enough, being patient, honest, and loving, to do that. + +Mr. Fraser Tytler shovels away a little more of the dirt-heap; Mr. +Napier clears him (for which we owe him many thanks), by simple +statement of facts, from the charge of having deserted and neglected +his Virginia colonists; Humboldt and Schomburgk clear him from the +charge of having lied about Guiana; and so on; each successive writer +giving in generally on merest hearsay to the general complaint +against him, either from fear of running counter to big names, or +from mere laziness, and yet absolving him from that particular charge +of which his own knowledge enables him to judge. In the trust that I +may be able to clear him from a few more charges, I write these +pages, premising that I do not profess to have access to any new and +recondite documents. I merely take the broad facts of the story from +documents open to all; and comment on them as every man should wish +his own life to be commented on. + +But I do so on a method which I cannot give up; and that is the Bible +method. I say boldly that historians have hitherto failed in +understanding not only Raleigh and Elizabeth, but nine-tenths of the +persons and facts in his day, because they will not judge them by the +canons which the Bible lays down--by which I mean not only the New +Testament but the Old, which, as English Churchmen say, and Scotch +Presbyterians have ere now testified with sacred blood, is 'not +contrary to the New.' + +Mr. Napier has a passage about Raleigh for which I am sorry, coming +as it does from a countryman of John Knox. 'Society, it would seem, +was yet in a state in which such a man could seriously plead, that +the madness he feigned was justified' (his last word is unfair, for +Raleigh only hopes that it is no sin) 'by the example of David, King +of Israel.' What a shocking state of society when men actually +believed their Bibles, not too little, but too much. For my part, I +think that if poor dear Raleigh had considered the example of David a +little more closely, he need never have feigned madness at all; and +that his error lay quite in an opposite direction from looking on the +Bible heroes, David especially, as too sure models. At all events, +let us try Raleigh by the very scriptural standard which he himself +lays down, not merely in this case unwisely, but in his 'History of +the World' more wisely than any historian whom I have ever read; and +say, 'Judged as the Bible taught our Puritan forefathers to judge +every man, the character is intelligible enough; tragic, but noble +and triumphant: judged as men have been judged in history for the +last hundred years, by hardly any canon save those of the private +judgment, which philosophic cant, maudlin sentimentality, or fear of +public opinion, may happen to have forged, the man is a phenomenon, +only less confused, abnormal, suspicious than his biographers' +notions about him.' Again I say, I have not solved the problem: but +it will be enough if I make some think it both soluble and worth +solving. Let us look round, then, and see into what sort of a +country, into what sort of a world, the young adventurer is going +forth, at seventeen years of age, to seek his fortune. + +Born in 1552, his young life has sprung up and grown with the young +life of England. The earliest fact, perhaps, which he can recollect +is the flash of joy on every face which proclaims that Mary Tudor is +dead, and Elizabeth reigns at last. As he grows, the young man sees +all the hope and adoration of the English people centre in that +wondrous maid, and his own centre in her likewise. He had been base +had he been otherwise. She comes to the throne with such a prestige +as never sovereign came since the days when Isaiah sang his paean +over young Hezekiah's accession. Young, learned, witty, beautiful +(as with such a father and mother she could not help being), with an +expression of countenance remarkable (I speak of those early days) +rather for its tenderness and intellectual depth than its strength, +she comes forward as the champion of the Reformed Faith, the +interpretress of the will and conscience of the people of England-- +herself persecuted all but to the death, and purified by affliction, +like gold tried in the fire. She gathers round her, one by one, +young men of promise, and trains them herself to their work. And +they fulfil it, and serve her, and grow gray-headed in her service, +working as faithfully, as righteously, as patriotically, as men ever +worked on earth. They are her 'favourites'; because they are men who +deserve favour; men who count not their own lives dear to themselves +for the sake of the queen and of that commonweal which their hearts +and reasons tell them is one with her. They are still men, though; +and some of them have their grudgings and envyings against each +other: she keeps the balance even between them, on the whole, +skilfully, gently, justly, in spite of weaknesses and prejudices, +without which she had been more than human. Some have their +conceited hopes of marrying her, becoming her masters. She rebukes +and pardons. 'Out of the dust I took you, sir! go and do your duty, +humbly and rationally, henceforth, or into the dust I trample you +again!' And they reconsider themselves, and obey. But many, or most +of them, are new men, country gentlemen, and younger sons. She will +follow her father's plan, of keeping down the overgrown feudal +princes, who, though brought low by the wars of the Roses, are still +strong enough to throw everything into confusion by resisting at once +the Crown and Commons. Proud nobles reply by rebellion, come down +southwards with ignorant Popish henchmen at their backs; will restore +Popery, marry the Queen of Scots, make the middle class and the +majority submit to the feudal lords and the minority. Elizabeth, +with her 'aristocracy of genius,' is too strong for them: the +people's heart is with her, and not with dukes. Each mine only blows +up its diggers; and there are many dry eyes at their ruin. Her +people ask her to marry. She answers gently, proudly, eloquently: +'She is married--the people of England is her husband. She has vowed +it.' And yet there is a tone of sadness in that great speech. Her +woman's heart yearns after love, after children; after a strong bosom +on which to repose that weary head. More than once she is ready to +give way. But she knows that it must not be. She has her reward. +'Whosoever gives up husband or child for my sake and the gospel's, +shall receive them back a hundredfold in this present life,' as +Elizabeth does. Her reward is an adoration from high and low, which +is to us now inexplicable, impossible, overstrained, which was not so +then. + +For the whole nation is in a mood of exaltation; England is +fairyland; the times are the last days--strange, terrible, and +glorious. At home are Jesuits plotting; dark, crooked-pathed, going +up and down in all manner of disguises, doing the devil's work if men +ever did it; trying to sow discord between man and man, class and +class; putting out books full of filthy calumnies, declaring the +queen illegitimate, excommunicate, a usurper; English law null, and +all state appointments void, by virtue of a certain 'Bull'; and +calling on the subjects to rebellion and assassination, even on the +bedchamber--woman to do to her 'as Judith did to Holofernes.' She +answers by calm contempt. Now and then Burleigh and Walsingham catch +some of the rogues, and they meet their deserts; but she for the most +part lets them have their way. God is on her side, and she will not +fear what man can do to her. + +Abroad, the sky is dark and wild, and yet full of fantastic +splendour. Spain stands strong and awful, a rising world-tyranny, +with its dark-souled Cortezes and Pizarros, Alvas, Don Johns, and +Parmas, men whose path is like the lava stream; who go forth slaying +and to slay, in the name of their gods, like those old Assyrian +conquerors on the walls of Nineveh, with tutelary genii flying above +their heads, mingled with the eagles who trail the entrails of the +slain. By conquest, intermarriage, or intrigue, she has made all the +southern nations her vassals or her tools; close to our own shores, +the Netherlands are struggling vainly for their liberties; abroad, +the Western Islands, and the whole trade of Africa and India, will in +a few years be hers. And already the Pope, whose 'most Catholic' and +faithful servant she is, has repaid her services in the cause of +darkness by the gift of the whole New World--a gift which she has +claimed by cruelties and massacres unexampled since the days of +Timour and Zinghis Khan. There she spreads and spreads, as Drake +found her picture in the Government House at St. Domingo, the horse +leaping through the globe, and underneath, Non sufficit orbis. Who +shall withstand her, armed as she is with the three-edged sword of +Antichrist--superstition, strength, and gold? + +English merchantmen, longing for some share in the riches of the New +World, go out to trade in Guinea, in the Azores, in New Spain: and +are answered by shot and steel. 'Both policy and religion,' as Fray +Simon says, fifty years afterwards, 'forbid Christians to trade with +heretics!' 'Lutheran devils, and enemies of God,' are the answer +they get in words: in deeds, whenever they have a superior force +they may be allowed to land, and to water their ships, even to trade, +under exorbitant restrictions: but generally this is merely a trap +for them. Forces are hurried up; and the English are attacked +treacherously, in spite of solemn compacts; for 'No faith need be +kept with heretics.' And woe to them if any be taken prisoners, even +wrecked. The galleys, and the rack, and the stake are their certain +doom; for the Inquisition claims the bodies and souls of heretics all +over the world, and thinks it sin to lose its own. A few years of +such wrong raise questions in the sturdy English heart. What right +have these Spaniards to the New World? The Pope's gift? Why, he +gave it by the same authority by which he claims the whole world. +The formula used when an Indian village is sacked is, that God gave +the whole world to St. Peter, and that he has given it to his +successors, and they the Indies to the King of Spain. To acknowledge +that lie would be to acknowledge the very power by which the Pope +claims a right to depose Queen Elizabeth, and give her dominions to +whomsoever he will. A fico for bulls! + +By possession, then? That may hold for Mexico, Peru, New Grenada, +Paraguay, which have been colonised; though they were gained by means +which make every one concerned in conquering them worthy of the +gallows; and the right is only that of the thief to the purse, whose +owner he has murdered. But as for the rest--Why the Spaniard has not +colonised, even explored, one-fifth of the New World, not even one- +fifth of the coast. Is the existence of a few petty factories, often +hundreds of miles apart, at a few river-mouths to give them a claim +to the whole intermediate coast, much less to the vast unknown tracts +inside? We will try that. If they appeal to the sword, so be it. +The men are treacherous robbers; we will indemnify ourselves for our +losses, and God defend the right. + +So argued the English; and so sprung up that strange war of +reprisals, in which, for eighteen years, it was held that there was +no peace between England and Spain beyond the line, i.e., beyond the +parallel of longitude where the Pope's gift of the western world was +said to begin; and, as the quarrel thickened and neared, extended to +the Azores, Canaries, and coasts of Africa, where English and +Spaniards flew at each other as soon as seen, mutually and by common +consent, as natural enemies, each invoking God in the battle with +Antichrist. + +Into such a world as this goes forth young Raleigh, his heart full of +chivalrous worship for England's tutelary genius, his brain aflame +with the true miracles of the new-found Hesperides, full of vague +hopes, vast imaginations, and consciousness of enormous power. And +yet he is no wayward dreamer, unfit for this work-day world. With a +vein of song 'most lofty, insolent, and passionate,' indeed unable to +see aught without a poetic glow over the whole, he is eminently +practical, contented to begin at the beginning that he may end at the +end; one who could 'toil terribly,' 'who always laboured at the +matter in hand as if he were born only for that.' Accordingly, he +sets to work faithfully and stoutly, to learn his trade of +soldiering, and learns it in silence and obscurity. He shares (it +seems) in the retreat at Moncontour, and is by at the death of Conde, +and toils on for five years, marching and skirmishing, smoking the +enemy out of mountain-caves in Languedoc, and all the wild work of +war. During the San Bartholomew massacre we hear nothing of him; +perhaps he took refuge with Sidney and others in Walsingham's house. +No records of these years remain, save a few scattered reminiscences +in his works, which mark the shrewd, observant eye of the future +statesman. + +When he returned we know not. We trace him, in 1576, by some verses +prefixed to Gascoigne's satire, the 'Steele Glass,' solid, stately, +epigrammatic, 'by Walter Rawley of the Middle Temple.' The style is +his; spelling of names matters nought in days in which a man would +spell his own name three different ways in one document. + +Gascoigne, like Raleigh, knew Lord Grey of Wilton, and most men about +town too; and had been a soldier abroad, like Raleigh, probably with +him. It seems to have been the fashion for young idlers to lodge +among the Templars; indeed, toward the end of the century, they had +to be cleared out, as crowding the wigs and gowns too much; and +perhaps proving noisy neighbours, as Raleigh may have done. To this +period may be referred, probably, his Justice done on Mr. Charles +Chester (Ben Jonson's Carlo Buffone), 'a perpetual talker, and made a +noise like a drum in a room; so one time, at a tavern, Raleigh beats +him and seals up his mouth, his upper and nether beard, with hard +wax.' For there is a great laugh in Raleigh's heart, a genial +contempt of asses; and one that will make him enemies hereafter: +perhaps shorten his days. + +One hears of him next, but only by report, in the Netherlands under +Norris, where the nucleus of the English line (especially of its +musquetry) was training. For Don John of Austria intends not only to +crush the liberties and creeds of the Flemings, but afterwards to +marry the Queen of Scots, and conquer England: and Elizabeth, +unwillingly and slowly, for she cannot stomach rebels, has sent men +and money to the States to stop Don John in time; which the valiant +English and Scotch do on Lammas day, 1578, and that in a fashion till +then unseen in war. For coming up late and panting, and 'being more +sensible of a little heat of the sun than of any cold fear of death,' +they throw off their armour and clothes, and, in their shirts (not +over-clean, one fears), give Don John's rashness such a rebuff, that +two months more see that wild meteor, with lost hopes and tarnished +fame, lie down and vanish below the stormy horizon. In these days, +probably, it is that he knew Colonel Bingham, a soldier of fortune, +of a 'fancy high and wild, too desultory and over-voluble,' who had, +among his hundred and one schemes, one for the plantation of America +as poor Sir Thomas Stukely (whom Raleigh must have known well), uncle +of the traitor Lewis, had for the peopling of Florida. + +Raleigh returns. Ten years has he been learning his soldier's trade +in silence. He will take a lesson in seamanship next. The court may +come in time: for by now the poor squire's younger son must have +discovered--perhaps even too fully--that he is not as other men are; +that he can speak, and watch, and dare, and endure, as none around +him can do. However, there are 'good adventures toward,' as the +'Morte d'Arthur' would say; and he will off with his half-brother +Humphrey Gilbert to carry out his patent for planting Meta Incognita- +-'The Unknown Goal,' as Queen Elizabeth has named it--which will +prove to be too truly and fatally unknown. In a latitude south of +England, and with an Italian summer, who can guess that the winter +will outfreeze Russia itself? The merchant-seaman, like the +statesman, had yet many a thing to learn. Instead of smiling at our +forefathers' ignorance, let us honour the men who bought knowledge +for us their children at the price of lives nobler than our own. + +So Raleigh goes on his voyage with Humphrey Gilbert, to carry out the +patent for discovering and planting in Meta Incognita; but the voyage +prospers not. A 'smart brush with the Spaniards' sends them home +again, with the loss of Morgan, their best captain, and 'a tall +ship'; and Meta Incognita is forgotten for a while; but not the +Spaniards. Who are these who forbid all English, by virtue of the +Pope's bull, to cross the Atlantic? That must be settled hereafter; +and Raleigh, ever busy, is off to Ireland to command a company in +that 'common weal, or rather common woe', as he calls it in a letter +to Leicester. Two years and more pass here; and all the records of +him which remain are of a man valiant, daring, and yet prudent beyond +his fellows. He hates his work, and is not on too good terms with +stern and sour, but brave and faithful Lord Grey; but Lord Grey is +Leicester's friend, and Raleigh works patiently under him, like a +sensible man, just because he is Leicester's friend. Some modern +gentleman of note--I forget who, and do not care to recollect--says +that Raleigh's 'prudence never bore any proportion to his genius.' +The next biographer we open accuses him of being too calculating, +cunning, timeserving; and so forth. Perhaps both are true. The +man's was a character very likely to fall alternately into either +sin--doubtless did so a hundred times. Perhaps both are false. The +man's character was, on occasion, certain to rise above both faults. +We have evidence that he did so his whole life long. + +He is tired of Ireland at last: nothing goes right there:- When has +it? Nothing is to be done there. That which is crooked cannot be +made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. He +comes to London and to court. But how? By spreading his cloak over +a muddy place for Queen Elizabeth to step on? It is very likely to +be a true story; but biographers have slurred over a few facts in +their hurry to carry out their theory of 'favourites,' and to prove +that Elizabeth took up Raleigh on the same grounds that a boarding- +school miss might have done. Not that I deny the cloak story to be a +very pretty story; perhaps it justifies, taken alone, Elizabeth's +fondness for him. There may have been self-interest in it; we are +bound, as 'men of the world,' to impute the dirtiest motive that we +can find; but how many self-interested men do we know who would have +had quickness and daring to do such a thing? Men who are thinking +about themselves are not generally either so quick-witted, or so +inclined to throw away a good cloak, when by much scraping and saving +they have got one. I never met a cunning, selfish, ambitious man who +would have done such a thing. The reader may; but even if he has, we +must ask him, for Queen Elizabeth's sake, to consider that this young +Quixote is the close relation of three of the finest public men then +living, Champernoun, Gilbert, and Carew. That he is a friend of +Sidney, a pet of Leicester; that he has left behind him at Oxford, +and brought with him from Ireland, the reputation of being a rara +avis, a new star in the firmament; that he had been a soldier in her +Majesty's service (and in one in which she has a peculiar private +interest) for twelve years; that he has held her commission as one of +the triumvirate for governing Munster, and has been the commander of +the garrison at Cork; and that it is possible that she may have heard +something of him before he threw his cloak under her feet, especially +as there has been some controversy (which we have in vain tried to +fathom) between him and Lord Grey about that terrible Smerwick +slaughter; of the results of which we know little, but that Raleigh, +being called in question about it in London, made such good play with +his tongue, that his reputation as an orator and a man of talent was +fixed once and for ever. + +Within the twelve months he is sent on some secret diplomatic mission +about the Anjou marriage; he is in fact now installed in his place as +'a favourite.' And why not? If a man is found to be wise and witty, +ready and useful, able to do whatsoever he is put to, why is a +sovereign, who has eyes to see the man's worth and courage to use it, +to be accused of I know not what, because the said man happens to be +good-looking? + +Now comes the turning-point of Raleigh's life. What does he intend +to be? Soldier, statesman, scholar, or sea-adventurer? He takes the +most natural, yet not the wisest course. He will try and be all four +at once. He has intellect for it; by worldly wisdom he may have +money for it also. Even now he has contrived (no one can tell +whence) to build a good bark of two hundred tons, and send her out +with Humphrey Gilbert on his second and fatal voyage. Luckily for +Raleigh she deserts and comes home, while not yet out of the Channel, +or she surely had gone the way of the rest of Gilbert's squadron. +Raleigh, of course, loses money by the failure, as well as the hopes +which he had grounded on his brother's Transatlantic viceroyalty. +And a bitter pang it must have been to him to find himself bereft of +that pure and heroic counsellor just at his entering into life. But +with the same elasticity which sent him to the grave, he is busy +within six months in a fresh expedition. If Meta Incognita be not +worth planting, there must be, so Raleigh thinks, a vast extent of +coast between it and Florida, which is more genial in climate, +perhaps more rich in produce; and he sends Philip Amadas and Arthur +Barlow to look for the same, and not in vain. + +On these Virginian discoveries I shall say but little. Those who +wish to enjoy them should read them in all their naive freshness in +the originals; and they will subscribe to S. T. Coleridge's dictum, +that no one nowadays can write travels as well as the old worthies +who figure in Hakluyt and Purchas. + +But to return to the question--What does this man intend to be? A +discoverer and colonist; a vindicator of some part at least of +America from Spanish claims? Perhaps not altogether: else he would +have gone himself to Virginia, at least the second voyage, instead of +sending others. But here, it seems, is the fatal, and yet pardonable +mistake, which haunts the man throughout. He tries to be too many +men at once. Fatal: because, though he leaves his trace on more +things than one man is wont to do, he, strictly speaking, conquers +nothing, brings nothing to a consummation. Virginia, Guiana, the +'History of the World,' his own career as a statesman--as dictator +(for he might have been dictator had he chosen)--all are left +unfinished. And yet most pardonable; for if a man feels that he can +do many different things, how hard to teach himself that he must not +do them all! How hard to say to himself, 'I must cut off the right +hand, and pluck out the right eye. I must be less than myself, in +order really to be anything. I must concentrate my powers on one +subject, and that perhaps by no means the most seemingly noble or +useful, still less the most pleasant, and forego so many branches of +activity in which I might be so distinguished, so useful.' This is a +hard lesson. Raleigh took just sixty-six years learning it; and had +to carry the result of his experience to the other side of the dark +river, for there was no time left to use it on this side. Some +readers may have learnt the lesson already. If so, happy and blessed +are they. But let them not therefore exalt themselves above Walter +Raleigh; for that lesson is, of course, soonest learnt by the man who +can excel in few things, later by him who can excel in many, and +latest of all by him who, like Raleigh, can excel in all. + +Few details remain concerning the earlier court days of Raleigh. He +rises rapidly, as we have seen. He has an estate given him in +Ireland, near his friend Spenser, where he tries to do well and +wisely, colonising, tilling, and planting it: but like his Virginia +expeditions, principally at second hand. For he has swallowed (there +is no denying it) the painted bait. He will discover, he will +colonise, he will do all manner of beautiful things, at second hand: +but he himself will be a courtier. It is very tempting. Who would +not, at the age of thirty, have wished to have been one of that +chosen band of geniuses and heroes whom Elizabeth had gathered round +her? Who would not, at the age of thirty, have given his pound of +flesh to be captain of her guard, and to go with her whithersoever +she went? It is not merely the intense gratification to carnal +vanity--which if any man denies or scoffs at, always mark him down as +especially guilty--which is to be considered; but the real, actual +honour, in the mind of one who looked on Elizabeth as the most +precious and glorious being which the earth had seen for centuries. +To be appreciated by her; to be loved by her; to serve her; to guard +her; what could man desire more on earth? + +Beside, he becomes a member of Parliament now; Lord Warden of the +Stannaries; business which of course keeps him in England, business +which he performs, as he does all things, wisely and well. Such a +generation as this ought really to respect Raleigh a little more, if +it be only for his excellence in their own especial sphere--that of +business. Raleigh is a thorough man of business. He can 'toil +terribly,' and what is more, toil to the purpose. In all the +everyday affairs of life, he remains without a blot; a diligent, +methodical, prudent man, who, though he plays for great stakes, +ventures and loses his whole fortune again and again, yet never seems +to omit the 'doing the duty which lies nearest him'; never gets into +mean money scrapes; never neglects tenants or duty; never gives way +for one instant to 'the eccentricities of genius.' + +If he had done so, be sure that we should have heard of it. For no +man can become what he has become without making many an enemy; and +he has his enemies already. On which statement naturally occurs the +question--why? An important question too; because several of his +later biographers seem to have running in their minds some such train +of thought as this--Raleigh must have been a bad fellow, or he would +not have had so many enemies; and because he was a bad fellow, there +is an a priori reason that charges against him are true. Whether +this be arguing in a circle or not, it is worth searching out the +beginning of this enmity, and the reputed causes of it. In after +years it will be because he is 'damnable proud,' because he hated +Essex, and so forth: of which in their places. But what is the +earliest count against him? Naunton, who hated Raleigh, and was +moreover a rogue, has no reason to give, but that 'the Queen took him +for a kind of oracle, which much nettled them all; yea, those he +relied on began to take this his sudden favour for an alarm; to be +sensible of their own supplantation, and to project his; which +shortly made him to sing, "Fortune my foe."' + +Now, be this true or not, and we do not put much faith in it, it +gives no reason for the early dislike of Raleigh, save the somewhat +unsatisfactory one which Cain would have given for his dislike of +Abel. Moreover, there exists a letter of Essex's, written as +thoroughly in the Cain spirit as any we ever read; and we wonder +that, after reading that letter, men can find courage to repeat the +old sentimentalism about the 'noble and unfortunate' Earl. His +hatred of Raleigh--which, as we shall see hereafter, Raleigh not only +bears patiently, but requites with good deeds as long as he can-- +springs, by his own confession, simply from envy and disappointed +vanity. The spoilt boy insults Queen Elizabeth about her liking for +the 'knave Raleigh.' She, 'taking hold of one word disdain,' tells +Essex that 'there was no such cause why I should thus disdain him.' +On which, says Essex, 'as near as I could I did describe unto her +what he had been, and what he was; and then I did let her see, +whether I had come to disdain his competition of love, or whether I +could have comfort to give myself over to the service of a mistress +that was in awe of such a man. I spake for grief and choler as much +against him as I could: and I think he standing at the door might +very well hear the worst that I spoke of him. In the end, I saw she +was resolved to defend him, and to cross me.' Whereupon follows a +'scene,' the naughty boy raging and stamping, till he insults the +Queen, and calls Raleigh 'a wretch'; whereon poor Elizabeth, who +loved the coxcomb for his father's sake, 'turned her away to my Lady +Warwick,' and Essex goes grumbling forth. + +Raleigh's next few years are brilliant and busy ones; and gladly, did +space permit, would I give details of those brilliant adventures +which make this part of his life that of a true knight-errant. But +they are mere episodes in the history; and we must pass them quickly +by, only saying that they corroborate in all things our original +notion of the man--just, humane, wise, greatly daring and enduring +greatly; and filled with the one fixed idea, which has grown with his +growth and strengthened with his strength, the destruction of the +Spanish power, and colonisation of America by English. His brother +Humphrey makes a second attempt to colonise Newfoundland, and +perishes as heroically as he had lived. Raleigh, undaunted by his +own loss in the adventure and his brother's failure, sends out a +fleet of his own to discover to the southward, and finds Virginia. +One might spend pages on this beautiful episode; on the simple +descriptions of the fair new land which the sea-kings bring home; on +the profound (for those times at least) knowledge which prompted +Raleigh to make the attempt in that particular direction which had as +yet escaped the notice of the Spaniards; on the quiet patience with +which, undaunted by the ill-success of the first colonists, he sends +out fleet after fleet, to keep the hold which he had once gained; +till, unable any longer to support the huge expense, he makes over +his patent for discovery to a company of merchants, who fare for many +years as ill as Raleigh himself did: but one thing one has a right +to say, that to this one man, under the providence of Almighty God, +do the whole of the United States of America owe their existence. +The work was double. The colony, however small, had to be kept in +possession at all hazards; and he did it. But that was not enough. +Spain must be prevented from extending her operations northward from +Florida; she must be crippled along the whole east coast of America. +And Raleigh did that too. We find him for years to come a part- +adventurer in almost every attack on the Spaniards: we find him +preaching war against them on these very grounds, and setting others +to preach it also. Good old Hariot (Raleigh's mathematical tutor, +whom he sent to Virginia) re-echoes his pupil's trumpet-blast. +Hooker, in his epistle dedicatory of his Irish History, strikes the +same note, and a right noble one it is. 'These Spaniards are trying +to build up a world-tyranny by rapine and cruelty. You, sir, call on +us to deliver the earth from them, by doing justly and loving mercy; +and we will obey you!' is the answer which Raleigh receives, as far +as I can find, from every nobler-natured Englishman. + +It was an immense conception: a glorious one: it stood out so +clear: there was no mistake about its being the absolutely right, +wise, patriotic thing; and so feasible, too, if Raleigh could but +find 'six cents hommes qui savaient mourir.' But that was just what +he could not find. He could draw round him, and did, by the +spiritual magnetism of his genius, many a noble soul; but he could +not organise them, as he seems to have tried to do, into a coherent +body. The English spirit of independent action, never stronger than +in that age, and most wisely encouraged, for other reasons, by good +Queen Bess, was too strong for him. His pupils will 'fight on their +own hook' like so many Yankee rangers: quarrel with each other: +grumble at him. For the truth is, he demands of them too high a +standard of thought and purpose. He is often a whole heaven above +them in the hugeness of his imagination, the nobleness of his motive; +and Don Quixote can often find no better squire than Sancho Panza. +Even glorious Sir Richard Grenvile makes a mistake: burns an Indian +village because they steal a silver cup; throws back the colonisation +of Virginia ten years with his over-strict notions of discipline and +retributive justice; and Raleigh requites him for his offence by +embalming him, his valour and his death, not in immortal verse, but +in immortal prose. The 'True Relation of the Fight at the Azores' +gives the keynote of Raleigh's heart. If readers will not take that +as the text on which his whole life is a commentary they may know a +great deal about him, but him they will never know. + +The game becomes fiercer and fiercer. Blow and counterblow between +the Spanish king, for the whole West-Indian commerce was a government +job, and the merchant nobles of England. At last the Great Armada +comes, and the Great Armada goes again. Venit, vidit, fugit, as the +medals said of it. And to Walter Raleigh's counsel, by the testimony +of all contemporaries, the mighty victory is to be principally +attributed. Where all men did heroically, it were invidious to +bestow on him alone a crown, ob patriam servatam. But henceforth, +Elizabeth knows well that she has not been mistaken in her choice; +and Raleigh is better loved than ever, heaped with fresh wealth and +honours. And who deserves them better? + +The immense value of his services in the defence of England should +excuse him from the complaint which one has been often inclined to +bring against him,--Why, instead of sending others Westward Ho, did +be not go himself? Surely he could have reconciled the jarring +instruments with which he was working. He could have organised such +a body of men as perhaps never went out before or since on the same +errand. He could have done all that Cortez did, and more; and done +it more justly and mercifully. + +True. And here seems (as far as little folk dare judge great folk) +to have been Raleigh's mistake. He is too wide for real success. He +has too many plans; he is fond of too many pursuits. The man who +succeeds is generally the narrow mall; the man of one idea, who works +at nothing but that; sees everything only through the light of that; +sacrifices everything to that: the fanatic, in short. By fanatics, +whether military, commercial, or religious, and not by 'liberal- +minded men' at all, has the world's work been done in all ages. Amid +the modern cants, one of the most mistaken is the cant about the +'mission of genius,' the 'mission of the poet.' Poets, we hear in +some quarters, are the anointed kings of mankind--at least, so the +little poets sing, each to his little fiddle. There is no greater +mistake. It is the practical, prosaical fanatic who does the work; +and the poet, if he tries to do it, is certain to put down his spade +every five minutes, to look at the prospect, and pick flowers, and +moralise on dead asses, till he ends a Neron malgre lui-meme, +fiddling melodiously while Rome is burning. And perhaps this is the +secret of Raleigh's failure. He is a fanatic, no doubt, a true +knight-errant: but he is too much of a poet withal. The sense of +beauty enthrals him at every step. Gloriana's fairy court, with its +chivalries and its euphuisms, its masques and its tourneys, and he +the most charming personage in it, are too charming for him--as they +would have been for us, reader: and he cannot give them up and go +about the one work. He justifies his double-mindedness to himself, +no doubt, as he does to the world, by working wisely, indefatigably, +and bravely: but still he has put his trust in princes, and in the +children of men. His sin, as far as we can see, is not against man, +but against God; one which we do not nowadays call a sin, but a +weakness. Be it so. God punished him for it, swiftly and sharply; +which I hold to be a sure sign that God also forgave him for it. + +So he stays at home, spends, sooner or later, 40,000 pounds on +Virginia, writes charming court-poetry with Oxford, Buckhurst, and +Paget, brings over Spenser from Ireland and introduces Colin Clout to +Gloriana, who loves--as who would not have loved?--that most +beautiful of faces and of souls; helps poor puritan Udall out of his +scrape as far as he can; begs for Captain Spring, begs for many more, +whose names are only known by being connected with some good deed of +his. 'When, Sir Walter,' asks Queen Bess, 'will you cease to be a +beggar?' 'When your Majesty ceases to be a benefactor.' Perhaps it +is in these days that he set up his 'office of address'--some sort of +agency for discovering and relieving the wants of worthy men. So all +seems to go well. If he has lost in Virginia, he has gained by +Spanish prizes; his wine-patent is bringing him in a large revenue, +and the heavens smile on him. Thou sayest, 'I am rich and increased +in goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art +poor and miserable and blind and naked.' Thou shalt learn it, then, +and pay dearly for thy lesson. + +For, in the meanwhile, Raleigh falls into a very great sin, for +which, as usual with his elect, God inflicts swift and instant +punishment; on which, as usual, biographers talk much unwisdom. He +seduces Miss Throgmorton, one of the maids of honour. Elizabeth is +very wroth; and had she not good reason to be wroth? Is it either +fair or reasonable to talk of her 'demanding a monopoly of love,' and +'being incensed at the temerity of her favourite, in presuming to +fall in love and marry without her consent?' Away with such cant. +The plain facts are: that a man nearly forty years old abuses his +wonderful gifts of body and mind, to ruin a girl nearly twenty years +younger than himself. What wonder if a virtuous woman--and Queen +Elizabeth was virtuous--thought it a base deed, and punished it +accordingly? There is no more to be discovered in the matter, save +by the vulturine nose which smells carrion in every rose-bed. +Raleigh has a great attempt on the Plate-fleets in hand; he hurries +off from Chatham, and writes to young Cecil on the 10th of March, 'I +mean not to come away, as some say I will, for fear of a marriage, +and I know not what . . . For I protest before God, there is none on +the face of the earth that I would be fastened unto.' + +This famous passage is one of those over which the virtuosity of +modern times, rejoicing in evil, has hung so fondly, as giving +melancholy proof of the 'duplicity of Raleigh's character'; as if a +man who once in his life had told an untruth was proved by that fact +to be a rogue from birth to death: while others have kindly given +him the benefit of a doubt whether the letter were not written after +a private marriage, and therefore Raleigh, being 'joined unto' some +one already, had a right to say that he did not wish to be joined to +any one. But I do not concur in this doubt. Four months after, Sir +Edward Stafford writes to Anthony Bacon, 'If you have anything to do +with Sir W. R., or any love to make to Mistress Throgmorton, at the +Tower to-morrow you may speak with them.' This implies that no +marriage had yet taken place. And surely, if there had been private +marriage, two people who were about to be sent to the Tower for their +folly would have made the marriage public at once, as the only +possible self-justification. But it is a pity, in my opinion, that +biographers, before pronouncing upon that supposed lie of Raleigh's, +had not taken the trouble to find out what the words mean. In their +virtuous haste to prove him a liar, they have overlooked the fact +that the words, as they stand, are unintelligible, and the argument +self-contradictory. He wants to prove, we suppose, that he does not +go to sea for fear of being forced to marry Miss Throgmorton. It is, +at least, an unexpected method of so doing in a shrewd man like +Raleigh, to say that he wishes to marry no one at all. 'Don't think +that I run away for fear of a marriage, for I do not wish to marry +any one on the face of the earth,' is a speech which may prove +Raleigh to have been a fool, and we must understand it before we can +say that it proves him a rogue. If we had received such a letter +from a friend, we should have said at once, 'Why the man, in his +hurry and confusion, has omitted THE word; he must have meant to +write, not "There is none on the face of the earth that I would be +fastened to," but "There is none on the face of the earth that I +would RATHER be fastened to,"' which would at once make sense and +suit fact. For Raleigh not only married Miss Throgmorton forthwith, +but made her the best of husbands. My conjectural emendation may go +for what it is worth: but that the passage, as it stands in Murdin's +State Papers (the MSS. I have not seen) is either misquoted, or mis- +written by Raleigh himself, I cannot doubt. He was not one to think +nonsense, even if he scribbled it. + +The Spanish raid turns out well. Raleigh overlooks Elizabeth's +letters of recall till he finds out that the King of Spain has +stopped the Plate-fleet for fear of his coming; and then returns, +sending on Sir John Burrough to the Azores, where he takes the 'Great +Carack,' the largest prize (1600 tons) which had ever been brought +into England. The details of that gallant fight stand in the pages +of Hakluyt. It raised Raleigh once more to wealth, though not to +favour. Shortly after he returns from the sea, he finds himself, +where he deserves to be, in the Tower, where he does more than one +thing which brought him no credit. How far we are justified in +calling his quarrel with Sir George Carew, his keeper, for not +letting him 'disguise himself, and get into a pair of oars to ease +his mind but with a sight of the Queen, or his heart would break,' +hypocrisy, is a very different matter. Honest Arthur Gorges, a +staunch friend of Raleigh's, tells the story laughingly and lovingly, +as if he thought Raleigh sincere, but somewhat mad: and yet honest +Gorges has a good right to say a bitter thing; for after having been +'ready to break with laughing at seeing them two brawl and scramble +like madmen, and Sir George's new periwig torn off his crown,' he +sees 'the iron walking' and daggers out, and playing the part of him +who taketh a dog by the ears, 'purchased such a rap on the knuckles, +that I wished both their pates broken, and so with much ado they +staid their brawl to see my bloody fingers,' and then set to work to +abuse the hapless peacemaker. After which things Raleigh writes a +letter to Cecil, which is still more offensive in the eyes of +virtuous biographers--how 'his heart was never broken till this day, +when he hears the Queen goes so far off, whom he followed with love +and desire on so many journeys, and am now left behind in a dark +prison all alone.' . . . '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,' and so forth, in a +style in which the vulturine nose must needs scent carrion, just +because the roses are more fragrant than they should be in a world +where all ought to be either vultures or carrion for their dinners. +As for his despair, had he not good reason to be in despair? By his +own sin he has hurled himself down the hill which he has so painfully +climbed. He is in the Tower--surely no pleasant or hopeful place for +any man. Elizabeth is exceedingly wroth with him; and what is worse, +he deserves what he has got. His whole fortune is ventured in an +expedition over which he has no control, which has been unsuccessful +in its first object, and which may be altogether unsuccessful in that +which it has undertaken as a pis-aller, and so leave him penniless. +There want not, too, those who will trample on the fallen. The +deputy has been cruelly distraining on his Irish tenants for a +'supposed debt of his to the Queen of 400 pounds for rent,' which was +indeed but fifty marks, and which was paid, and has carried off 500 +milch kine from the poor settlers whom he has planted there, and +forcibly thrust him out of possession of a castle. Moreover, the +whole Irish estates are likely to come to ruin; for nothing prevails +but rascality among the English soldiers, impotence among the +governors, and rebellion among the natives. Three thousand Burkes +are up in arms; his 'prophecy of this rebellion' ten days ago was +laughed at, and now has come true; and altogether, Walter Raleigh and +all belonging to him is in as evil case as he ever was on earth. No +wonder, poor fellow, if he behowls himself lustily, and not always +wisely, to Cecil, and every one else who will listen to him. + +As for his fine speeches about Elizabeth, why forget the standing- +point from which such speeches were made? Over and above his present +ruin, it was (and ought to have been) an utterly horrible and +unbearable thing to Raleigh, or any man, to have fallen into disgrace +with Elizabeth by his own fault. He feels (and perhaps rightly) that +he is as it were excommunicated from England, and the mission and the +glory of England. Instead of being, as he was till now, one of a +body of brave men working together in one great common cause, he has +cut himself off from the congregation by his own selfish lust, and +there he is left alone with his shame. We must try to realise to +ourselves the way in which such men as Raleigh looked not only at +Elizabeth, but at all the world. There was, in plain palpable fact, +something about the Queen, her history, her policy, the times, the +glorious part which England, and she as the incarnation of the then +English spirit, were playing upon earth, which raised imaginative and +heroical souls into a permanent exaltation--a 'fairyland,' as they +called it themselves, which seems to us fantastic, and would be +fantastic in us, because we are not at their work, or in their days. +There can be no doubt that a number of as noble men as ever stood +together on the earth did worship that woman, fight for her, toil for +her, risk all for her, with a pure chivalrous affection which has +furnished one of the most beautiful pages in all the book of history. +Blots there must needs have been, and inconsistencies, selfishnesses, +follies; for they too were men of like passions with ourselves; but +let us look at the fair vision as a whole, and thank God that such a +thing has for once existed even imperfectly on this sinful earth, +instead of playing the part of Ham and falling under his curse,--the +penalty of slavishness, cowardice, loss of noble daring, which surely +falls on any generation which is 'banausos,' to use Aristotle's word; +which rejoices in its forefathers' shame, and, unable to believe in +the nobleness of others, is unable to become noble itself. + +As for the 'Alexander and Diana' affectations, they were the language +of the time: and certainly this generation has no reason to find +fault with them, or with a good deal more of the 'affectations' and +'flattery' of Elizabethan times, while it listens complacently night +after night 'to honourable members' complimenting not Queen +Elizabeth, but Sir Jabesh Windbag, Fiddle, Faddle, Red-tape, and +party with protestations of deepest respect and fullest confidence in +the very speeches in which they bring accusations of every offence +short of high treason--to be understood, of course, in a +'parliamentary sense,' as Mr. Pickwick's were in a 'Pickwickian' one. +If a generation of Knoxes and Mortons, Burleighs and Raleighs, shall +ever arise again, one wonders by what name they will call the +parliamentary morality and parliamentary courtesy of a generation +which has meted out such measure to their ancestors' failings? + +'But Queen Elizabeth was an old woman then.' I thank the objector +even for that 'then'; for it is much nowadays to find any one who +believes that Queen Elizabeth was ever young, or who does not talk of +her as if she was born about seventy years of age covered with rouge +and wrinkles. I will undertake to say that as to the beauty of this +woman there is a greater mass of testimony, and from the very best +judges too, than there is of the beauty of any personage in history; +and yet it has become the fashion now to deny even that. The plain +facts seem that she was very graceful, active, accomplished in all +outward manners, of a perfect figure, and of that style of +intellectual beauty, depending on expression, which attracted (and we +trust always will attract) Britons far more than that merely sensuous +loveliness in which no doubt Mary Stuart far surpassed her. And +there seems little doubt that, like many Englishwomen, she retained +her beauty to a very late period in life, not to mention that she +was, in 1592, just at that age of rejuvenescence which makes many a +woman more lovely at sixty than she has been since she was thirty- +five. No doubt, too, she used every artificial means to preserve her +famous complexion; and quite right she was. This beauty of hers had +been a talent, as all beauty is, committed to her by God; it had been +an important element in her great success; men had accepted it as +what beauty of form and expression generally is, an outward and +visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace; and while the inward +was unchanged, what wonder if she tried to preserve the outward? If +she was the same, why should she not try to look the same? And what +blame to those who worshipped her, if, knowing that she was the same, +they too should fancy that she looked the same, the Elizabeth of +their youth, and should talk as if the fair flesh, as well as the +fair spirit, was immortal? Does not every loving husband do so when +he forgets the gray hair and the sunken cheek, and all the wastes of +time, and sees the partner of many joys and sorrows not as she has +become, but as she was, ay, and is to him, and will be to him, he +trusts, through all eternity? There is no feeling in these +Elizabethan worshippers which we have not seen, potential and crude, +again and again in the best and noblest of young men whom we have +met, till it was crushed in them by the luxury, effeminacy, and +unbelief in chivalry, which are the sure accompaniment of a long +peace, which war may burn up with beneficent fire. + +But we must hasten on now; for Raleigh is out of prison in September, +and by the next spring in parliament speaking wisely and well, +especially on his fixed idea, war with Spain, which he is rewarded +for forthwith in Father Parson's 'Andreae Philopatris Responsio' by a +charge of founding a school of Atheism for the corruption of young +gentlemen; a charge which Lord Chief-Justice Popham, Protestant as he +is, will find it useful one day to recollect. + +Elizabeth, however, now that Raleigh has married the fair Throgmorton +and done wisely in other matters, restores him to favour. If he has +sinned, he has suffered: but he is as useful as ever, now that his +senses have returned to him; and he is making good speeches in +parliament, instead of bad ones to weak maidens; so we find him once +more in favour, and possessor of Sherborne Manor, where he builds and +beautifies, with 'groves and gardens of much variety and great +delight.' And God, too, seems to have forgiven him; perhaps has +forgiven; for there the fair Throgmorton brings him a noble boy. Ut +sis vitalis metuo puer! + +Raleigh will quote David's example one day, not wisely or well. Does +David's example ever cross him now, and those sad words,--'The Lord +hath put away thy sin, . . . nevertheless the child that is born unto +thee shall die?' + +Let that be as it may, all is sunshine once more. Sherborne Manor, a +rich share in the great carack, a beautiful wife, a child; what more +does this man want to make him happy? Why should he not settle down +upon his lees, like ninety-nine out of the hundred, or at least try a +peaceful and easy path toward more 'praise and pudding?' The world +answers, or his biographers answer for him, that he needs to +reinstate himself in his mistress's affection; which is true or not, +according as we take it. If they mean thereby, as most seem to mean, +that it was a mere selfish and ambitious scheme by which to wriggle +into court favour once more--why, let them mean it: I shall only +observe that the method which Raleigh took was a rather more +dangerous and self-sacrificing one than courtiers are wont to take. +But if it be meant that Walter Raleigh spoke somewhat thus with +himself,--'I have done a base and dirty deed, and have been punished +for it. I have hurt the good name of a sweet woman who loves me, and +whom I find to be a treasure; and God, instead of punishing me by +taking her from me, has rendered me good for evil by giving her to +me. I have justly offended a mistress whom I worship, and who, after +having shown her just indignation, has returned me good for evil by +giving me these fair lands of Sherborne, and only forbid me her +presence till the scandal has passed away. She sees and rewards my +good in spite of my evil; and I, too, know that I am better than I +have seemed; that I am fit for nobler deeds than seducing maids of +honour. How can I prove that? How can I redeem my lost name for +patriotism and public daring? How can I win glory for my wife, seek +that men shall forget her past shame in the thought, "She is Walter +Raleigh's wife?" How can I show my mistress that I loved her all +along, that I acknowledge her bounty, her mingled justice and mercy? +How can I render to God for all the benefits which He has done unto +me? How can I do a deed the like of which was never done in +England?' + +If all this had passed through Walter Raleigh's mind, what could we +say of it, but that it was the natural and rational feeling of an +honourable and right-hearted man, burning to rise to the level which +he knew ought to be his, because he knew that he had fallen below it? +And what right better way of testifying these feelings than to do +what, as we shall see, Raleigh did? What right have we to impute to +him lower motives than these, while we confess that these righteous +and noble motives would have been natural and rational;--indeed, just +what we flatter ourselves that we should have felt in his place? Of +course, in his grand scheme, the thought came in, 'And I shall win to +myself honour, and glory, and wealth,'--of course. And pray, sir, +does it not come in in your grand schemes; and yours; and yours? If +you made a fortune to-morrow by some wisely and benevolently managed +factory, would you forbid all speech of the said wisdom and +benevolence, because you had intended that wisdom and benevolence +should pay you a good percentage? Away with cant, and let him that +is without sin among you cast the first stone. + +So Raleigh hits upon a noble project; a desperate one, true: but he +will do it or die. He will leave pleasant Sherborne, and the bosom +of the beautiful bride, and the first-born son, and all which to most +makes life worth having, and which Raleigh enjoys more intensely than +most men; for he is a poet, and a man of strong nervous passions +withal. But, - + + +'I could not love thee, dear, so much, +Loved I not honour more.' + + +And he will go forth to endure heat, hunger, fever, danger of death +in battle, danger of the Inquisition, rack, and stake, in search of +El Dorado. What so strange in that? I have known half a dozen men +who, in his case, and conscious of his powers, would have done the +same from the same noble motive. + +He begins prudently; and sends a Devonshire man, Captain Whiddon-- +probably one of The Whiddons of beautiful Chagford--to spy out the +Orinoco. He finds that the Spaniards are there already; that Berreo, +who has attempted El Dorado from the westward, starting from New +Granada and going down the rivers, is trying to settle on the Orinoco +mouth; that he is hanging the poor natives, encouraging the Caribs to +hunt them and sell them for slaves, imprisoning the caciques to +extort their gold, torturing, ravishing, kidnapping, and conducting +himself as was usual among Spaniards of those days. + +Raleigh's spirit is stirred within him. If 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' +fiction as it is, once excited us, how must a far worse reality have +excited Raleigh, as he remembered that these Spaniards are as yet +triumphant in iniquity, and as he remembered, too, that these same +men are the sworn foes of England, her liberty, her Bible, and her +Queen? What a deed, to be beforehand with them for once! To +dispossess them of one corner of that western world, where they have +left no trace but blood and flame! He will go himself: he will find +El Dorado and its golden Emperor; and instead of conquering, +plundering, and murdering him, as Cortez did Montezuma, and Pizarro +Atahuallpa, he will show him English strength; espouse his quarrel +against the Spaniards; make him glad to become Queen Elizabeth's +vassal tributary, perhaps leave him a bodyguard of English veterans, +perhaps colonise his country, and so at once avenge and protect the +oppressed Indians, and fill the Queen's treasury with the riches of a +land equal, if not superior, to Peru and Mexico. + +Such is his dream; vague perhaps: but far less vague than those with +which Cortez and Pizarro started, and succeeded. After a careful +survey of the whole matter, I must give it as my deliberate opinion, +that Raleigh was more reasonable in his attempt, and had more fair +evidence of its feasibility, than either Cortez or Pizarro had for +theirs. It is a bold assertion. If any reader doubts its truth, he +cannot do better than to read the whole of the documents connected +with the two successful, and the one unsuccessful, attempts at +finding a golden kingdom. Let them read first Prescott's 'Conquests +of Mexico and Peru,' and then Schomburgk's edition of Raleigh's +'Guiana.' They will at least confess, when they have finished, that +truth is stranger than fiction. + +Of Raleigh's credulity in believing in El Dorado, much has been said. +I am sorry to find even so wise a man as Sir Robert Schomburgk, after +bearing good testimony to Raleigh's wonderful accuracy about all +matters which he had an opportunity of observing, using this term of +credulity. I must dare to differ on that point even with Sir Robert, +and ask by what right the word is used? First, Raleigh says nothing +about El Dorado (as every one is forced to confess) but what Spaniard +on Spaniard had been saying for fifty years. Therefore the blame of +credulity ought to rest with the Spaniards, from Philip von Huten, +Orellano, and George of Spires, upward to Berreo. But it rests +really with no one. For nothing, if we will examine the documents, +is told of the riches of El Dorado which had not been found to be +true, and seen by the eyes of men still living, in Peru and Mexico. +Not one-fifth of America had been explored, and already two El +Dorados had been found and conquered. What more rational than to +suppose that there was a third, a fourth, a fifth, in the remaining +four-fifths? The reports of El Dorado among the savages were just of +the same kind as those by which Cortez and Pizarro hunted out Mexico +and Peru, saving that they were far more widely spread, and confirmed +by a succession of adventurers. I entreat readers to examine this +matter in Raleigh, Schomburgk, Humboldt, and Condamine, and judge for +themselves. As for Hume's accusations, I pass them by as equally +silly and shameless, only saying, for the benefit of readers, that +they have been refuted completely by every one who has written since +Hume's days; and to those who are inclined to laugh at Raleigh for +believing in Amazons and 'men whose heads do grow beneath their +shoulders' I can only answer thus - + +About the Amazons, Raleigh told what he was told; what the Spaniards +who went before him, and Condamine who came after him, were told. +Humboldt thinks the story possibly founded on fact; and I must say +that, after reviewing all that has been said thereon, it does seem to +me the simplest solution of the matter just to believe it true; to +believe that there was, about his time, or a little before, somewhere +about the Upper Orinoco, a warlike community of women. Humboldt +shows how likely such would be to spring up where women flee from +their male tyrants into the forests. As for the fable which +connected them with the Lake Manoa and the city of El Dorado, we can +only answer, 'If not true there and then, it is true elsewhere now'; +for the Amazonian guards of the King of Dahomey at this moment, as +all know, surpass in strangeness and in ferocity all that has been +reported of the Orinocquan viragos, and thus prove once more that +truth is stranger than fiction. {3} + +Beside--and here I stand stubborn, regardless of gibes and sneers--it +is not yet proven that there was not, in the sixteenth century, some +rich and civilised kingdom like Peru or Mexico in the interior of +South America. Sir Robert Schomburgk has disproved the existence of +Lake Parima; but it will take a long time, and more explorers than +one, to prove that there are no ruins of ancient cities, such as +Stephens stumbled on in Yucatan, still buried in the depths of the +forest. Fifty years of ruin would suffice to wrap them in a leafy +veil which would hide them from every one who did not literally run +against them. Tribes would die out, or change place, as the Atures +and other great nations have done in those parts, and every +traditional record of them perish gradually; for it is only gradually +and lately that it has perished: while if it be asked, What has +become of the people themselves? the answer is, that when any race +(like most of the American races in the sixteenth century) is in a +dying state, it hardly needs war to thin it down, and reduce the +remnant to savagery. Greater nations than El Dorado was even +supposed to be have vanished ere now, and left not a trace behind: +and so may they. But enough of this. I leave the quarrel to that +honest and patient warder of tourneys, Old Time, who will surely do +right at last, and go on to the dogheaded worthies, without necks, +and long hair hanging down behind, who, as a cacique told Raleigh, +that 'they had of late years slain many hundreds of his father's +people,' and in whom even Humboldt was not always allowed, he says, +to disbelieve (so much for Hume's scoff at Raleigh as a liar), one +old cacique boasting to him that he had seen them with his own eyes. +Humboldt's explanation is, that the Caribs, being the cleverest and +strongest Indians, are also the most imaginative; and therefore, +being fallen children of Adam, the greatest liars; and that they +invented both El Dorado and the dog-heads out of pure wickedness. Be +it so. But all lies crystallise round some nucleus of truth; and it +really seems to me nothing very wonderful if the story should be on +the whole true, and these worthies were in the habit of dressing +themselves up, like foolish savages as they were, in the skins of the +Aguara dog, with what not of stuffing, and tails, and so forth, in +order to astonish the weak minds of the Caribs, just as the Red +Indians dress up in their feasts as bears, wolves, and deer, with +foxtails, false bustles of bison skin, and so forth. There are +plenty of traces of such foolish attempts at playing 'bogy' in the +history of savages, even of our own Teutonic forefathers; and this I +suspect to be the simple explanation of the whole mare's nest. As +for Raleigh being a fool for believing it; the reasons he gives for +believing it are very rational; the reasons Hume gives for calling +him a fool rest merely on the story's being strange: on which +grounds one might disbelieve most matters in heaven and earth, from +one's own existence to what one sees in every drop of water under the +microscope, yea, to the growth of every seed. The only sound proof +that dog-headed men are impossible is to be found in comparative +anatomy, a science of which Hume knew no more than Raleigh, and which +for one marvel it has destroyed has revealed a hundred. I do not +doubt that if Raleigh had seen and described a kangaroo, especially +its all but miraculous process of gestation, Hume would have called +that a lie also; but I will waste no more time in proving that no man +is so credulous as the unbeliever--the man who has such mighty and +world-embracing faith in himself that he makes his own little brain +the measure of the universe. Let the dead bury their dead. + +Raleigh sails for Guiana. The details of his voyage should be read +at length. Everywhere they show the eye of a poet as well as of a +man of science. He sees enough to excite his hopes more wildly than +ever; he goes hundreds of miles up the Orinoco in an open boat, +suffering every misery, but keeping up the hearts of his men, who cry +out, 'Let us go on, we care not how far.' He makes friendship with +the caciques, and enters into alliance with them on behalf of Queen +Elizabeth against the Spaniards. Unable to pass the falls of the +Caroli, and the rainy season drawing on, he returns, beloved and +honoured by all the Indians, boasting that, during the whole time he +was there, no woman was the worse for any man of his crew. +Altogether, we know few episodes of history so noble, righteous, and +merciful as this Guiana voyage. But he has not forgotten the +Spaniards. At Trinidad he payed his ships with the asphalt of the +famous Pitch-lake, and stood--and with what awe such a man must have +stood--beneath the noble forest of Moriche fan-palms on its brink. +He then attacked, not, by his own confession, without something too +like treachery, the new town of San Jose, takes Berreo prisoner, and +delivers from captivity five caciques, whom Berreo kept bound in one +chain, 'basting their bodies with burning bacon'--an old trick of the +Conquistadores--to make them discover their gold. He tells them that +he was 'the servant of a Queen who was the greatest cacique of the +north, and a virgin; who had more caciqui under her than there were +trees on that island; that she was an enemy of the Castellani +(Spaniards) in behalf of their tyranny and oppression, and that she +delivered all such nations about her as were by them oppressed, and +having freed all the coast of the northern world from their +servitude, had sent me to free them also, and withal to defend the +country of Guiana from their invasion and conquest.' After which +perfectly true and rational speech, he subjoins (as we think equally +honestly and rationally), 'I showed them her Majesty's picture, which +they so admired and honoured, as it had been easy to have brought +them idolaters thereof.' + +This is one of the stock charges against Raleigh, at which all +biographers (except quiet, sensible Oldys, who, dull as he is, is far +more fair and rational than most of his successors) break into +virtuous shrieks of 'flattery,' 'meanness,' 'adulation,' +'courtiership,' and so forth. One biographer is of opinion that the +Indians would have admired far more the picture of a 'red monkey.' +Sir Robert Schomburgk, unfortunately for the red monkey theory, +though he quite agrees that Raleigh's flattery was very shocking, +says that from what he knows--and no man knows more--of Indian taste, +they would have far preferred to the portrait which Raleigh showed +them--not a red monkey, but--such a picture as that at Hampton Court, +in which Elizabeth is represented in a fantastic court dress. +Raleigh, it seems, must be made out a rogue at all risks, though by +the most opposite charges. The monkey theory is answered, however, +by Sir Robert; and Sir Robert is answered, I think, by the plain fact +that, of course, Raleigh's portrait was exactly such a one as Sir +Robert says they would have admired; a picture probably in a tawdry +frame, representing Queen Bess, just as queens were always painted +then, bedizened with 'browches, pearls, and owches,' satin and ruff, +and probably with crown on head and sceptre in hand, made up, as +likely as not, expressly for the purpose for which it was used. In +the name of all simplicity and honesty, I ask, why is Raleigh to be +accused of saying that the Indians admired Queen Elizabeth's beauty +when he never even hints at it? And why do all commentators +deliberately forget the preceding paragraph--Raleigh's proclamation +to the Indians, and the circumstances under which it was spoken? The +Indians are being murdered, ravished, sold for slaves, basted with +burning fat; and grand white men come like avenging angels, and in +one day sweep their tyrants out of the land, restore them to liberty +and life, and say to them, 'A great Queen far across the seas has +sent us to do this. Thousands of miles away she has heard of your +misery and taken pity on you; and if you will be faithful to her she +will love you, and deal justly with you, and protect you against +these Spaniards who are devouring you as they have devoured all the +Indians round you; and for a token of it--a sign that we tell you +truth, and that there is really such a great Queen, who is the +Indian's friend--here is the picture of her.' What wonder if the +poor idolatrous creatures had fallen down and worshipped the picture- +-just as millions do that of the Virgin Mary without a thousandth +part as sound and practical reason--as that of a divine, all-knowing, +all-merciful deliverer? As for its being the picture of a beautiful +woman or not, they would never think of that. The fair complexion +and golden hair would be a sign to them that she belonged to the +mighty white people, even if there were no bedizenment of jewels and +crowns over and above; and that would be enough for them. When will +biographers learn to do common justice to their fellow-men by +exerting now and then some small amount of dramatic imagination, just +sufficient to put themselves for a moment in the place of those of +whom they write? + +So ends his voyage, in which, he says, 'from myself I have deserved +no thanks, for I am returned a beggar and withered.' The only thing +which, as far as I can find, he brought home was some of the +delicious scaly peaches of the Moriche palm--the Arbol de Vida, or +tree of life, which gives sustenance and all else needful to whole +tribes of Indians. 'But I might have bettered my poor estate if I +had not only respected her Majesty's future honour and riches. It +became not the former fortune in which I once lived to go journeys of +piccory' (pillage); 'and it had sorted ill with the offices of honour +which, by her Majesty's grace, I hold this day in England, to run +from cape to cape and place to place for the pillage of ordinary +prizes.' + +So speaks one whom it has been the fashion to consider as little +better than a pirate, and that, too, in days when the noblest blood +in England thought no shame (as indeed it was no shame) to enrich +themselves with Spanish gold. But so it is throughout this man's +life. If there be a nobler word than usual to be spoken, or a more +wise word either, if there be a more chivalrous deed to be done, or a +more prudent deed either, that word and that deed are pretty sure to +be Walter Raleigh's. + +But the blatant beast has been busy at home; and, in spite of +Chapman's heroical verses, he meets with little but cold looks. +Never mind. If the world will not help to do the deed, he will do it +by himself; and no time must be lost, for the Spaniards on their part +will lose none. So, after six months, the faithful Keymis sails +again, again helped by the Lord High Admiral and Sir Robert Cecil. +It is a hard race for one private man against the whole power and +wealth of Spain; and the Spaniard has been beforehand with them, and +re-occupied the country. They have fortified themselves at the mouth +of the Caroli, so it is impossible to get to the gold mines; they are +enslaving the wretched Indians, carrying off their women, intending +to transplant some tribes and to expel others, and arming cannibal +tribes against the inhabitants. All is misery and rapine; the +scattered remnant comes asking piteously why Raleigh does not come +over to deliver them? Have the Spaniards slain him, too? Keymis +comforts them as he best can; hears of more gold mines; and gets back +safe, a little to his own astonishment; for eight-and-twenty ships of +war have been sent to Trinidad to guard the entrance to El Dorado, +not surely, as Keymis well says, 'to keep us only from tobacco.' A +colony of 500 persons is expected from Spain. The Spaniard is well +aware of the richness of the prize, says Keymis, who all through +shows himself a worthy pupil of his master. A careful, observant man +he seems to have been, trained by that great example to overlook no +fact, even the smallest. He brings home lists of rivers, towns, +caciques, poison-herbs, words, what not; he has fresh news of gold, +spleen-stones, kidney-stones, and some fresh specimens; but be that +as it may, he, 'without going as far as his eyes can warrant, can +promise Brazil-wood, honey, cotton, balsamum, and drugs, to defray +charges.' He would fain copy Raleigh's style, too, and 'whence his +lamp had oil, borrow light also,' 'seasoning his unsavoury speech' +with some of the 'leaven of Raleigh's discourse.' Which, indeed, he +does even to little pedantries and attempts at classicality; and +after professing that himself and the remnant of his few years he +hath bequeathed wholly to Raleana, and his thoughts live only in that +action, he rises into something like grandeur when he begins to speak +of that ever-fertile subject, the Spanish cruelties to the Indians; +'Doth not the cry of the poor succourless ascend unto the heavens? +Hath God forgotten to be gracious to the work of his own hands. Or +shall not his judgments in a day of visitation by the ministry of his +chosen servant come upon these bloodthirsty butchers, like rain into +a fleece of wool?' Poor Keymis! To us he is by no means the least +beautiful figure in this romance; a faithful, diligent, loving man, +unable, as the event proved, to do great deeds by himself, but +inspired with a great idea by contact with a mightier spirit, to whom +he clings through evil report, and poverty, and prison, careless of +self to the last, and ends tragically, 'faithful unto death' in the +most awful sense. + +But here remark two things: first, that Cecil believes in Raleigh's +Guiana scheme; next, that the occupation of Orinoco by the Spaniards, +which Raleigh is accused of having concealed from James in 1617, has +been ever since 1595 matter of the most public notoriety. + +Raleigh has not been idle in the meanwhile. It has been found +necessary after all to take the counsel which he gave in vain in +1588, to burn the Spanish fleet in harbour; and the heroes are gone +down to Cadiz fight, and in one day of thunder storm the Sevastopol +of Spain. Here, as usual, we find Raleigh, though in an inferior +command, leading the whole by virtue of superior wisdom. When the +good Lord Admiral will needs be cautious, and land the soldiers +first, it is Raleigh who persuades him to force his way into the +harbour, to the joy of all captains. When hotheaded Essex, casting +his hat into the sea for joy, shouts 'Intramos,' and will in at once, +Raleigh's time for caution comes, and he persuades them to wait till +the next morning, and arrange the order of attack. That, too, +Raleigh has to do, and moreover to lead it; and lead it he does. +Under the forts are seventeen galleys; the channel is 'scoured' with +cannon: but on holds Raleigh's 'Warspite,' far ahead of the rest, +through the thickest of the fire, answering forts and galleys 'with a +blur of the trumpet to each piece, disdaining to shoot at those +esteemed dreadful monsters.' For there is a nobler enemy ahead. +Right in front lie the galleons; and among them the 'Philip' and the +'Andrew,' two of those who boarded the 'Revenge.' This day there +shall be a reckoning for the blood of his old friend; he is 'resolved +to be revenged for the "Revenge,"' Sir Richard Grenvile's fatal ship, +or second her with his own life'; and well he keeps his vow. Three +hours pass of desperate valour, during which, so narrow is the +passage, only seven English ships, thrusting past each other, all but +quarrelling in their noble rivalry, engage the whole Spanish fleet of +fifty-seven sail, and destroy it utterly. The 'Philip' and 'Thomas' +burn themselves despairing. The English boats save the 'Andrew' and +'Matthew.' One passes over the hideous record. 'If any man,' says +Raleigh, 'had a desire to see hell itself, it was there most lively +figured.' Keymis's prayer is answered in part, even while he writes +it; and the cry of the Indians has not ascended in vain before the +throne of God! + +The soldiers are landed; the city stormed and sacked, not without +mercies and courtesies, though, to women and unarmed folk, which win +the hearts of the vanquished, and live till this day in well-known +ballads. The Flemings begin a 'merciless slaughter.' Raleigh and +the Lord Admiral beat them off. Raleigh is carried on shore with a +splinter wound in the leg, which lames him for life: but returns on +board in an hour in agony; for there is no admiral left to order the +fleet, and all are run headlong to the sack. In vain he attempts to +get together sailors the following morning, and attack the Indian +fleet in Porto Real Roads; within twenty-four hours it is burnt by +the Spaniards themselves; and all Raleigh wins is no booty, a lame +leg, and the honour of having been the real author of a victory even +more glorious than that of 1588. + +So he returns; having written to Cecil the highest praises of Essex, +whom he treats with all courtesy and fairness; which those who will +may call cunning: we have as good a right to say that he was +returning good for evil. There were noble qualities in Essex. All +the world gave him credit for them, and far more than he deserved; +why should not Raleigh have been just to him; even have conceived, +like the rest of the world, high hopes of him, till he himself +destroyed these hopes? For now storms are rising fast. On their +return Cecil is in power. He has been made Secretary of State +instead of Bodley, Essex's pet, and the spoilt child begins to sulk. +On which matter, I am sorry to say, historians talk much unwisdom, +about Essex's being too 'open and generous, etc., for a courtier,' +and 'presuming on his mistress's passion for him'; and representing +Elizabeth as desiring to be thought beautiful, and 'affecting at +sixty the sighs, loves, tears, and tastes of a girl of sixteen,' and +so forth. It is really time to get rid of some of this fulsome talk, +culled from such triflers as Osborne, if not from the darker and +fouler sources of Parsons and the Jesuit slanderers, which I meet +with a flat denial. There is simply no proof. She in love with +Essex or Cecil? Yes, as a mother with a son. Were they not the +children of her dearest and most faithful servants, men who had lived +heroic lives for her sake? What wonder if she fancied that she saw +the fathers in the sons? They had been trained under her eye. What +wonder if she fancied that they could work as their fathers worked +before them? And what shame if her childless heart yearned over them +with unspeakable affection, and longed in her old age to lay her +hands upon the shoulders of those two young men, and say to England, +'Behold the children which God, and not the flesh, has given me!' +Most strange it is, too, that women, who ought at least to know a +woman's heart, have been especially forward in publishing these +scandals, and sullying their pages by retailing pruriences against +such a one as Queen Elizabeth. + +But to return. Raleigh attaches himself to Cecil; and he has good +reason. Cecil is the cleverest man in England, saving himself. He +has trusted and helped him, too, in two Guiana voyages; so the +connection is one of gratitude as well as prudence. We know not +whether he helped him in the third Guiana voyage in the same year, +under Captain Berry, a north Devon man, from Grenvile's country; who +found a 'mighty folk,' who were 'something pleasant, having drunk +much that day,' and carried bows with golden handles: but failed in +finding the Lake Parima, and so came home. + +Raleigh's first use of his friendship with Cecil is to reconcile him, +to the astonishment of the world, with Essex, alleging how much good +may grow by it; for now 'the Queen's continual unquietness will grow +to contentment.' That, too, those who will may call policy. We have +as good a right to call it the act of a wise and faithful subject, +and to say, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called +the children of God.' He has his reward for it in full restoration +to the Queen's favour; he deserves it. He proves himself once more +worthy of power, and it is given to him. Then there is to be a +second great expedition: but this time its aim is the Azores. +Philip, only maddened by the loss at Cadiz, is preparing a third +armament for the invasion of England and Ireland, and it is said to +lie at the islands to protect the Indian fleet. Raleigh has the +victualling of the land-forces, and, like everything else he takes in +hand, 'it is very well done.' Lord Howard declines the chief +command, and it is given to Essex. Raleigh is to be rear-admiral. + +By the time they reach the Azores, Essex has got up a foolish quarrel +against Raleigh for disrespect in having stayed behind to bring up +some stragglers. But when no Armada is to be found at the Azores, +Essex has after all to ask Raleigh what he shall do next. Conquer +the Azores, says Raleigh, and the thing is agreed on. Raleigh and +Essex are to attack Fayal. Essex sails away before Raleigh has +watered. Raleigh follows as fast as he can, and at Fayal finds no +Essex. He must water there, then and at once. His own veterans want +him to attack forthwith, for the Spaniards are fortifying fast: but +he will wait for Essex. Still no Essex comes. Raleigh attempts to +water, is defied, finds himself 'in for it,' and takes the island out +of hand in the most masterly fashion, to the infuriation of Essex. +Good Lord Howard patches up the matter, and the hot-headed coxcomb is +once more pacified. They go on to Graciosa, where Essex's weakness +of will again comes out, and he does not take the island. Three rich +Caracks, however, are picked up. 'Though we shall be little the +better for them,' says Raleigh privately to Sir Arthur Gorges, his +faithful captain, 'yet I am heartily glad for our General's sake; +because they 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.' + +Raleigh begins to see that Essex is only to be pitied; that the +voyage is not over likely to end well: but he takes it, in spite of +ill-usage, as a kind-hearted man should. Again Essex makes a fool of +himself. They are to steer one way in order to intercept the Plate- +fleet. Essex having agreed to the course pointed out, alters his +course on a fancy; then alters it a second time, though the hapless +Monson, with the whole Plate-fleet in sight, is hanging out lights, +firing guns, and shrieking vainly for the General, who is gone on a +new course, in which he might have caught the fleet after all, in +spite of his two mistakes, but that he chooses to go a roundabout way +instead of a short one; and away goes the whole fleet, save one +Carack, which runs itself on shore and burns, and the game is played +out and lost. + +All want Essex to go home, as the season is getting late: but the +wilful and weak man will linger still, and while he is hovering to +the south, Philip's armament has sailed from the Groyne, on the +undefended shores of England, and only God's hand saves us from the +effects of Essex's folly. A third time the Armadas of Spain are +overwhelmed by the avenging tempests, and Essex returns to disgrace, +having proved himself at once intemperate and incapable. Even in +coming home there is confusion, and Essex is all but lost on the +Bishop and Clerks, by Scilly, in spite of the warnings of Raleigh's +sailing-master, 'Old Broadbent,' who is so exasperated at the general +stupidity that he wants Raleigh to leave Essex and his squadron to +get out of their own scrape as they can. + +Essex goes off to sulk at Wanstead; but Vere excuses him, and in a +few days he comes back, and will needs fight good Lord Howard for +being made Earl of Nottingham for his services against the Armada and +at Cadiz. Baulked of this, he begins laying the blame of the failure +at the Azores on Raleigh. Let the spoilt naughty boy take care; even +that 'admirable temper' for which Raleigh is famed may be worn out at +last. + +These years are Raleigh's noon--stormy enough at best, yet brilliant. +There is a pomp about him, outward and inward, which is terrible to +others, dangerous to himself. One has gorgeous glimpses of that +grand Durham House of his, with its carvings and its antique marbles, +armorial escutcheons, 'beds with green silk hangings and legs like +dolphins, overlaid with gold': and the man himself, tall, beautiful, +and graceful, perfect alike in body and in mind, walking to and fro, +his beautiful wife upon his arm, his noble boy beside his knee, in +his 'white satin doublet, embroidered with pearls, and a great chain +of pearls about his neck,' lording it among the lords with an +'awfulness and ascendency above other mortals,' for which men say +that 'his naeve is, that he is damnable proud'; and no wonder. The +reduced squire's younger son has gone forth to conquer the world; and +he fancies, poor fool, that he has conquered it, just as it really +has conquered him; and he will stand now on his blood and his +pedigree (no bad one either), and all the more stiffly because +puppies like Lord Oxford, who instead of making their fortunes have +squandered them, call him 'jack and upstart,' and make impertinent +faces while the Queen is playing the virginals, about 'how when jacks +go up, heads go down.' Proud? No wonder if the man be proud! 'Is +not this great Babylon, which I have built?' And yet all the while +he has the most affecting consciousness that all this is not God's +will, but the will of the flesh; that the house of fame is not the +house of God; that its floor is not the rock of ages, but the sea of +glass mingled with fire, which may crack beneath him any moment, and +let the nether flame burst up. He knows that he is living in a +splendid lie; that he is not what God meant him to be. He longs to +flee away and be at peace. It is to this period, not to his death- +hour, that 'The Lie' belongs; {4} saddest of poems, with its +melodious contempt and life-weariness. All is a lie--court, church, +statesmen, courtiers, wit and science, town and country, all are +shams; the days are evil; the canker is at the root of all things; +the old heroes are dying one by one; the Elizabethan age is rotting +down, as all human things do, and nothing is left but to bewail with +Spenser 'The Ruins of Time'; the glory and virtue which have been-- +the greater glory and virtue which might be even now, if men would +but arise and repent, and work righteousness, as their fathers did +before them. But no. Even to such a world as this he will cling, +and flaunt it about as captain of the guard in the Queen's progresses +and masques and pageants, with sword-belt studded with diamonds and +rubies, or at tournaments, in armour of solid silver, and a gallant +train with orange-tawny feathers, provoking Essex to bring in a far +larger train in the same colours, and swallow up Raleigh's pomp in +his own, so achieving that famous 'feather triumph' by which he gains +little but bad blood and a good jest. For Essex is no better tilter +than he is general; and having 'run very ill' in his orange-tawny, +comes next day in green, and runs still worse, and yet is seen to be +the same cavalier; whereon a spectator shrewdly observes that he +changed his colours 'that it may be reported that there was one in +green who ran worse than he in orange-tawny.' But enough of these +toys, while God's handwriting is upon the wall above all heads. + +Raleigh knows that the handwriting is there. The spirit which drove +him forth to Virginia and Guiana is fallen asleep: but he longs for +Sherborne and quiet country life, and escapes thither during Essex's +imprisonment, taking Cecil's son with him, and writes as only he can +write about the shepherd's peaceful joys, contrasted with 'courts' +and 'masques' and 'proud towers' - + + + 'Here are no false entrapping baits + Too hasty for too hasty fates, + Unless it be + The fond credulity +Of silly fish, that worlding who still look +Upon the bait, but never on the hook; + Nor envy, unless among + The birds, for prize of their sweet song. + + 'Go! let the diving negro seek + For pearls hid in some forlorn creek, + We all pearls scorn, + Save what the dewy morn +Congeals upon some little spire of grass, +Which careless shepherds beat down as they pass + And gold ne'er here appears + Save what the yellow Ceres bears.' + + +Tragic enough are the after scenes of Raleigh's life: but most +tragic of all are these scenes of vain-glory, in which he sees the +better part, and yet chooses the worse, and pours out his self- +discontent in song which proves the fount of delicacy and beauty +which lies pure and bright beneath the gaudy artificial crust. What +might not this man have been! And he knows that too. The stately +rooms of Durham House pall on him, and he delights to hide up in his +little study among his books and his chemical experiments, and smoke +his silver pipe, and look out on the clear Thames and the green +Surrey hills, and dream about Guiana and the Tropics; or to sit in +the society of antiquaries with Selden and Cotton, Camden and Stow; +or in his own Mermaid Club, with Ben Jonson, Fletcher, Beaumont, and +at last with Shakspeare's self to hear and utter + + + 'Words that have been +So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, +As if that every one from whom they came +Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest.' + + +Anything to forget the handwriting on the wall, which will not be +forgotten. But he will do all the good which he can meanwhile, +nevertheless. He will serve God and Mammon. So complete a man will +surely be able to do both. Unfortunately the thing is impossible, as +he discovers too late: but he certainly goes as near success in the +attempt as ever man did. Everywhere we find him doing justly and +loving mercy. Wherever this man steps he leaves his footprint +ineffaceably in deeds of benevolence. For one year only, it seems, +he is governor of Jersey; yet to this day, it is said, the islanders +honour his name, only second to that of Duke Rollo, as their great +benefactor, the founder of their Newfoundland trade. In the west +country he is 'as a king,' 'with ears and mouth always open to hear +and deliver their grievances, feet and hands ready to go and work +their redress.' The tin-merchants have become usurers 'of fifty in +the hundred.' Raleigh works till he has put down their 'abominable +and cut-throat dealing.' There is a burdensome west-country tax on +curing fish; Raleigh works till it is revoked. In Parliament he is +busy with liberal measures, always before his generation. He puts +down a foolish act for compulsory sowing of hemp in a speech on the +freedom of labour worthy of the nineteenth century. He argues +against raising the subsidy from the three-pound men--'Call you this, +Mr. Francis Bacon, par jugum, when a poor man pays as much as a +rich?' He is equally rational and spirited against the exportation +of ordnance to the enemy; and when the question of abolishing +monopolies is mooted he has his wise word. He too is a monopolist of +tin, as Lord Warden of the Stannaries. But he has so wrought as to +bring good out of evil; for 'before the granting of his patent, let +the price of tin be never so high, the poor workman never had but two +shillings a week'; yet now, so has he extended and organised the tin- +works, 'that any man who will can find work, be tin at what price +soever, and have four shillings a week truly paid . . . Yet if all +others may be repealed, I will give my consent as freely to the +cancelling of this as any member of this house.' Most of the +monopolies were repealed: but we do not find that Raleigh's was +among them. Why should it be if its issue was more tin, full work, +and double wages? In all things this man approves himself faithful +in his generation. His sins are not against man, but against God; +such as the world thinks no sins, and hates them, not from morality, +but from envy. + +In the meanwhile, the evil which, so Spenser had prophesied, only +waited Raleigh's death breaks out in his absence, and Ireland is all +aflame with Tyrone's rebellion. Raleigh is sent for. He will not +accept the post of Lord Deputy and go to put it down. Perhaps he +does not expect fair play as long as Essex is at home. Perhaps he +knows too much of the 'common weal, or rather common woe,' and thinks +that what is crooked cannot be made straight. Perhaps he is afraid +to lose by absence his ground at court. Would that he had gone, for +Ireland's sake and his own. However, it must not be. Ormond is +recalled, and Knollys shall be sent: but Essex will have none but +Sir George Carew; whom, Naunton says, he hates, and wishes to oust +from court. He and Elizabeth argue it out. He turns his back on +her, and she gives him--or does not give him, for one has found so +many of these racy anecdotes vanish on inspection into simple wind, +that one believes none of them--a box on the ear; which if she did, +she did the most wise, just, and practical thing which she could do +with such a puppy. He claps his hand--or does not--to his sword, 'He +would not have taken it from Henry VIII.,' and is turned out +forthwith. In vain Egerton, the Lord Keeper, tries to bring him to +reason. He storms insanely. Every one on earth is wrong but he: +every one is conspiring against him; he talks of 'Solomon's fool' +too. Had he read the Proverbs a little more closely, he might have +left the said fool alone, as being a too painfully exact likeness of +himself. It ends by his being worsted, and Raleigh rising higher +than ever. + +I cannot see why Raleigh should be represented as henceforth becoming +Essex's 'avowed enemy,' save on the ground that all good men are and +ought to be the enemies of bad men, when they see them about to do +harm, and to ruin the country. Essex is one of the many persons upon +whom this age has lavished a quantity of sentimentality, which suits +oddly enough with its professions of impartiality. But there is an +impartiality which ends in utter injustice; which by saying +carelessly to every quarrel, 'Both are right, and both are wrong,' +leaves only the impression that all men are wrong, and ends by being +unjust to every one. So has Elizabeth and Essex's quarrel been +treated. There was some evil in Essex; therefore Elizabeth was a +fool for liking him. There was some good in Essex; therefore +Elizabeth was cruel in punishing him. This is the sort of slipshod +dilemma by which Elizabeth is proved to be wrong, even while Essex is +confessed to be wrong too; while the patent facts of the case are, +that Elizabeth bore with him as long as she could, and a great deal +longer than any one else could. Why Raleigh should be accused of +helping to send Essex into Ireland, I do not know. Camden confesses +(at the same time that he gives a hint of the kind) that Essex would +let no one go but himself. And if this was his humour, one can +hardly wonder at Cecil and Raleigh, as well as Elizabeth, bidding the +man begone and try his hand at government, and be filled with the +fruit of his own devices. He goes; does nothing; or rather worse +than nothing; for in addition to the notorious ill-management of the +whole matter, we may fairly say that he killed Elizabeth. She never +held up her head again after Tyrone's rebellion. Elizabeth still +clings to him, changing her mind about him every hour, and at last +writes him such a letter as he deserves. He has had power, money, +men, such as no one ever had before. Why has he done nothing but +bring England to shame? He comes home frantically--the story of his +bursting into the dressing-room rests on no good authority--with a +party of friends at his heels, leaving Ireland to take care of +itself. Whatever entertainment he met with from the fond old woman, +he met with the coldness which he deserved from Raleigh and Cecil. +Who can wonder? What had he done to deserve aught else? But he all +but conquers; and Raleigh takes to his bed in consequence, sick of +the whole matter; as one would have been inclined to do oneself. He +is examined and arraigned; writes a maudlin letter to Elizabeth. +Elizabeth has been called a fool for listening to such pathetical +'love letters': and then hardhearted for not listening to them. +Poor Lady! do what she would, she found it hard enough to please all +parties while alive; must she be condemned over and above in aeternum +to be wrong whatsoever she did? Why is she not to have the benefit +of the plain straightforward interpretation which would be allowed to +any other human being; namely, that she approved of such fine talk as +long as it was proved to be sincere by fine deeds: but that when +these were wanting, the fine talk became hollow, fulsome, a fresh +cause of anger and disgust? Yet still she weeps over Essex when he +falls sick, as any mother would; and would visit him if she could +with honour. But a 'malignant influence counteracts every +disposition to relent.' No doubt, a man's own folly, passion, and +insolence has generally a very malignant influence on his fortunes; +and he may consider himself a very happy man if all that befalls to +him thereby is what befell Essex, namely, deprivation of his offices +and imprisonment in his own house. He is forgiven after all; but the +spoilt child refuses his bread and butter without sugar. What is the +pardon to him without a renewal of his licence of sweet wines? +Because he is not to have that, the Queen's 'conditions are as +crooked as her carcase.' Flesh and blood can stand no more, and +ought to stand no more. After all that Elizabeth has been to him, +that speech is the speech of a brutal and ungrateful nature. And +such he shows himself to be in the hour of trial. What if the patent +for sweet wines is refused him? Such gifts were meant as the reward +of merit; and what merit has he to show? He never thinks of that. +Blind with fury, he begins to intrigue with James, and slanders to +him, under colour of helping his succession, all whom he fancies +opposed to him. What is worse, he intrigues with Tyrone about +bringing over an army of Irish Papists to help him against the Queen, +and this at the very time that his sole claim to popularity rests on +his being the leader of the Puritans. A man must have been very far +gone, either in baseness or in hatred, who represents Raleigh to +James as dangerous to the commonweal on account of his great power in +the west of England and Jersey, 'places fit for the Spaniard to land +in.' Cobham, as Warden of the Cinque Ports, is included in his +slander; and both he and Raleigh will hear of it again. + +Some make much of a letter, supposed to be written about this time by +Raleigh to Cecil, bidding Cecil keep down Essex, even crush him, now +that he is once down. I do not happen to think the letter to be +Raleigh's. His initials are subscribed to it; but not his name and +the style is not like his. But as for seeing 'unforgiveness and +revenge in it,' whose soever it may be, I hold and say there is not a +word which can bear such a construction. It is a dark letter: but +about a dark matter and a dark man. It is a worldly and expediential +letter, appealing to low motives in Cecil, though for a right end; +such a letter, in short, as statesmen are wont to write nowadays. If +Raleigh wrote it, God punished him for doing so speedily enough. He +does not usually punish statesmen nowadays for such letters; perhaps +because He does not love them as well as Raleigh. But as for the +letter itself. Essex is called a 'tyrant,' because he had shown +himself one. The Queen is to 'hold Bothwell,' because 'while she +hath him, he will even be the canker of her estate and safety,' and +the writer has 'seen the last of her good days and of ours after his +liberty.' On which accounts, Cecil is not to be deterred from doing +what is right and necessary 'by any fear of after-revenges' and +'conjectures from causes remote,' as many a stronger instance--given- +-will prove, but 'look to the present,' and so 'do wisely.' There is +no real cause for Cecil's fear. If the man who has now lost a power +which he ought never to have had be now kept down, then neither he +nor his son will ever be able to harm the man who has kept him at his +just level. What 'revenge, selfishness, and craft' there can be in +all this it is difficult to see; as difficult as to see why Essex is +to be talked of as 'unfortunate,' and the blame of his frightful end +thrown on every one but himself: the fact being that Essex's end was +brought on by his having chosen one Sunday morning for breaking out +into open rebellion, for the purpose of seizing the city of London +and the Queen's person, and compelling her to make him lord and +master of the British Isles; in which attempt he and his fought with +the civil and military authorities, till artillery had to be brought +up and many lives were lost. Such little escapades may be pardonable +enough in 'noble and unfortunate' earls: but readers will perhaps +agree that if they chose to try a similar experiment, they could not +complain if they found themselves shortly after in company with Mr. +Mitchell at Spike Island or Mr. Oxford in Bedlam. However, those +were days in which such Sabbath amusements on the part of one of the +most important and powerful personages of the realm could not be +passed over so lightly, especially when accompanied by severe loss of +life; and as there existed in England certain statutes concerning +rebellion and high treason, which must needs have been framed for +some purpose or other, the authorities of England may be excused for +fancying that they bore some reference to such acts as that which the +noble and unfortunate earl had just committed, as wantonly, +selfishly, and needlessly, it seems to me, as ever did man on earth. + +I may seem to jest too much upon so solemn a matter as the life of a +human being: but if I am not to touch the popular talk about Essex +in this tone, I can only touch it in a far sterner one; and if +ridicule is forbidden, express disgust instead. + +I have entered into this matter of Essex somewhat at length, because +on it is founded one of the mean slanders from which Raleigh never +completely recovered. The very mob who, after Raleigh's death, made +him a Protestant martyr--as, indeed, he was--looked upon Essex in the +same light, hated Raleigh as the cause of his death, and accused him +of glutting his eyes with Essex's misery, puffing tobacco out of a +window, and what not--all mere inventions, so Raleigh declared upon +the scaffold. He was there in his office as captain of the guard, +and could do no less than be there. Essex, it is said, asked for +Raleigh just before he died: but Raleigh had withdrawn, the mob +having murmured. What had Essex to say to him? Was it, asks Oldys, +shrewdly enough, to ask him pardon for the wicked slanders which he +had been pouring into James's credulous and cowardly ears? We will +hope so; and leave poor Essex to God and the mercy of God, asserting +once more that no man ever brought ruin and death more thoroughly on +himself by his own act, needing no imaginary help downwards from +Raleigh, Cecil, or other human being. + +And now begins the fourth act of this strange tragedy. Queen +Elizabeth dies; and dies of grief. It has been the fashion to +attribute to her, I know not why, remorse for Essex's death; and the +foolish and false tale about Lady Nottingham and the ring has been +accepted as history. The fact seems to be that she never really held +up her head after Burleigh's death. She could not speak of him +without tears; forbade his name to be mentioned in the Council. No +wonder; never had mistress a better servant. For nearly half a +century have these two noble souls loved each other, trusted each +other, worked with each other; and God's blessing has been on their +deeds; and now the faithful God-fearing man is gone to his reward; +and she is growing old, and knows that the ancient fire is dying out +in her; and who will be to her what he was? Buckhurst is a good man, +and one of her old pupils; and she makes him Lord Treasurer in +Burleigh's place: but beyond that all is dark. 'I am a miserable +forlorn woman; there is none about me that I can trust.' She sees +through Cecil; through Henry Howard. Essex has proved himself +worthless, and pays the penalty of his sins. Men are growing worse +than their fathers. Spanish gold is bringing in luxury and sin. The +last ten years of her reign are years of decadence, profligacy, +falsehood; and she cannot but see it. Tyrone's rebellion is the last +drop which fills the cup. After fifty years of war, after a drain of +money all but fabulous expended on keeping Ireland quiet, the volcano +bursts forth again just as it seemed extinguished, more fiercely than +ever, and the whole work has to be done over again, when there is +neither time nor a man to do it. And ahead, what hope is there for +England? Who will be her successor? She knows in her heart that it +will be James: but she cannot bring herself to name him. To +bequeath the fruit of all her labours to a tyrant, a liar, and a +coward: for she knows the man but too well. It is too hideous to be +faced. This is the end then? 'Oh that I were a milke maide, with a +paile upon mine arm!' But it cannot be. It never could have been; +and she must endure to the end. + +'Therefore I hated life; yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken +under the sun; because I should leave it to the man that shall be +after me. And who knows whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? +yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have showed +myself wise, in wisdom, and knowledge, and equity . . . Vanity of +vanities, and vexation of spirit!' And so, with a whole book of +Ecclesiastes written on that mighty heart, the old lioness coils +herself up in her lair, refuses food, and dies. I know few passages +in the world's history more tragic than that death. + +Why did she not trust Raleigh? First, because Raleigh, as we have +seen, was not the sort of man whom she needed. He was not the +steadfast single-eyed statesman; but the many-sided genius. Besides, +he was the ringleader of the war-party. And she, like Burleigh +before his death, was tired of the war; saw that it was demoralising +England; was anxious for peace. Raleigh would not see that. It was +to him a divine mission which must be fulfilled at all risks. As +long as the Spaniards were opposing the Indians, conquering America, +there must be no peace. Both were right from their own point of +view. God ordered the matter from a third point of view. + +Besides, we know that Essex, and after him Cecil and Henry Howard, +had been slandering Raleigh basely to James. Can we doubt that the +same poison had been poured into Elizabeth's ears? She might +distrust Cecil too much to act upon what he said of Raleigh; and yet +distrust Raleigh too much to put the kingdom into his hands. +However, she is gone now, and a new king has arisen, who knoweth not +Joseph. + +James comes down to take possession. Insolence, luxury, and +lawlessness mark his first steps on his going amid the adulations of +a fallen people; he hangs a poor wretch without trial; wastes his +time in hunting by the way;--a bad and base man, whose only redeeming +point--if in his case it be one--is his fondness for little children. +But that will not make a king. The wiser elders take counsel +together. Raleigh and good Judge Fortescue are for requiring +conditions from the newcomer; and constitutional liberty makes its +last stand among the men of Devon, the old county of warriors, +discoverers, and statesmen, of which Queen Bess had said that the men +of Devon were her right hand. But in vain; James has his way; Cecil +and Henry Howard are willing enough to give it him. + +So down comes Rehoboam, taking counsel with the young men, and makes +answer to England, 'My father chastised you with whips; but I will +chastise you with scorpions.' He takes a base pleasure, shocking to +the French ambassador, in sneering at the memory of Queen Elizabeth; +a perverse delight in honouring every rascal whom she had punished. +Tyrone must come to England to be received into favour, maddening the +soul of honest Sir John Harrington. Essex is christened 'my martyr,' +apparently for having plotted treason against Elizabeth with Tyrone. +Raleigh is received with a pun--'By my soul, I have heard rawly of +thee, mon'; and when the great nobles and gentlemen come to court +with their retinues, James tries to hide his dread of them in an +insult; pooh-poohs their splendour, and says, 'he doubts not that he +should have been able to win England for himself, had they kept him +out.' Raleigh answers boldly, 'Would God that had been put to the +trial.' 'Why?' 'Because then you would have known your friends from +your foes.' 'A reason,' says old Aubrey, 'never forgotten or +forgiven.' Aubrey is no great authority; but the speech smacks so of +Raleigh's offhand daring that one cannot but believe it; as one does +also the other story of his having advised the lords to keep out +James and erect a republic. Not that he could have been silly enough +to propose such a thing seriously at that moment; but that he most +likely, in his bold way, may have said, 'Well, if we are to have this +man in without conditions, better a republic at once.' Which, if he +did say, he said what the next forty years proved to be strictly +true. However, he will go on his own way as best he can. If James +will give him a loan, he and the rest of the old heroes will join, +fit out a fleet against Spain, and crush her, now that she is +tottering and impoverished, once and for ever. But James has no +stomach for fighting; cannot abide the sight of a drawn sword; would +not provoke Spain for the world--why, they might send Jesuits and +assassinate him; and as for the money, he wants that for very +different purposes. So the answer which he makes to Raleigh's +proposal of war against Spain is to send him to the Tower, and +sentence him to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, on a charge of +plotting with Spain. + +Having read, I believe, nearly all that has been written on the +subject of this dark 'Cobham plot,' I find but one thing come +brightly out of the infinite confusion and mystery, which will never +be cleared up till the day of judgment, and that is Raleigh's +innocence. He, and all England, and the very men who condemned him, +knew that he was innocent. Every biographer is forced to confess +this, more or less, in spite of all efforts to be what is called +'impartial.' So I shall waste no words upon the matter, only +observing that whereas Raleigh is said to have slandered Cecil to +James, in the same way that Cecil had slandered him, one passage of +this Cobham plot disproves utterly such a story, which, after all, +rests (as far as I know) only on hearsay, being 'spoken of in a +manuscript written by one Buck, secretary to Chancellor Egerton.' +For in writing to his own wife, in the expectation of immediate +death, Raleigh speaks of Cecil in a very different tone, as one in +whom he trusted most, and who has left him in the hour of need. I +ask the reader to peruse that letter, and say whether any man would +write thus, with death and judgment before his face, of one whom he +knew that he had betrayed; or, indeed, of one who he knew had +betrayed him. I see no reason to doubt that Raleigh kept good faith +with Cecil, and that he was ignorant till after his trial that Cecil +was in the plot against him. + +I do not care to enter into the tracasseries of this Cobham plot. +Every one knows them; no one can unravel them. The moral and +spiritual significance of the fact is more interesting than all +questions as to Cobham's lies, Brooke's lies, Aremberg's lies, Coke's +lies, James's lies:- Let the dead bury their dead. It is the broad +aspect of the thing which is so wonderful; to see how + + +'The eagle, towering in his pride of place, +Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.' + + +This is the man who six months ago, perhaps, thought that he and +Cecil were to rule England together, while all else were the puppets +whose wires they pulled. 'The Lord hath taken him up and dashed him +down;' and by such means, too, and on such a charge! Betraying his +country to Spain! Absurd--incredible--he would laugh it to scorn: +but it is bitter earnest. There is no escape. True or false, he +sees that his enemies will have his head. It is maddening: a +horrible nightmare. He cannot bear it; he cannot face--so he writes +to that beloved wife--'the scorn, the taunts, the loss of honour, the +cruel words of lawyers.' He stabs himself. Read that letter of his, +written after the mad blow had been struck; it is sublime from +intensity of agony. The way in which the chastisement was taken +proves how utterly it was needed, ere that proud, success-swollen, +world-entangled heart could be brought right with God. + +And it is brought right. The wound is not mortal. He comes slowly +to a better mind, and takes his doom like a man. That first farewell +to his wife was written out of hell. The second rather out of +heaven. Read it, too, and compare; and then see how the Lord has +been working upon this great soul: infinite sadness, infinite +tenderness and patience, and trust in God for himself and his poor +wife: 'God is my witness, it was for you and yours that I desired +life; but it is true that I disdain myself for begging it. For know, +dear wife, that your son is the son of a true man, and one who, in +his own respect, despiseth death and all his ugly and misshapen forms +. . . The everlasting, powerful, infinite, and omnipotent God, who is +goodness itself, the true life and light, keep thee and thine, have +mercy upon me, and teach me to forgive my persecutors and accusers, +and send us to meet in His glorious kingdom.' + +Is it come to this then? Is he fit to die at last? Then he is fit +to live; and live he shall. The tyrants have not the heart to carry +out their own crime, and Raleigh shall be respited. + +But not pardoned. No more return for him into that sinful world, +where he flaunted on the edge of the precipice, and dropped heedless +over it. God will hide him in the secret place of His presence, and +keep him in His tabernacle from the strife of tongues; and a new life +shall begin for him; a wiser, perhaps a happier, than he has known +since he was a little lad in the farmhouse in pleasant Devon far +away. On the 15th of December he enters the Tower. Little dreams he +that for more than twelve years those doleful walls would be his +home. Lady Raleigh obtains leave to share his prison with him, and, +after having passed ten years without a child, brings him a boy to +comfort the weary heart. The child of sorrow is christened Carew. + +Little think those around him what strange things that child will see +before his hairs be gray. She has her maid, and he his three +servants; some five or six friends are allowed 'to repair to him at +convenient times.' He has a chamber-door always open into the +lieutenant's garden, where he 'has converted a little hen-house into +a still-room, and spends his time all the day in distillation.' The +next spring a grant is made of his goods and chattels, forfeited by +attainder, to trustees named by himself, for the benefit of his +family. So far, so well; or, at least, not as ill as it might be: +but there are those who cannot leave the caged lion in peace. + +Sanderson, who had married his niece, instead of paying up the +arrears which he owes on the wine and other offices, brings in a +claim of 2000 pounds. But the rogue meets his match, and finds +himself, at the end of a lawsuit, in prison for debt. Greater +rogues, however, will have better fortune, and break through the law- +cobwebs which have stopped a poor little fly like Sanderson. For +Carr, afterwards Lord Somerset, casts his eyes on the Sherborne land. +It has been included in the conveyance, and should be safe; but there +are others who, by instigation surely of the devil himself, have had +eyes to see a flaw in the deed. Sir John Popham is appealed to. Who +could doubt the result? He answers that there is no doubt that the +words were omitted by the inattention of the engrosser--Carew Raleigh +says that but one single word was wanting, which word was found +notwithstanding in the paper-book, i.e. the draft--but that the word +not being there, the deed is worthless, and the devil may have his +way. To Carr, who has nothing of his own, it seems reasonable enough +to help himself to what belongs to others, and James gives him the +land. Raleigh writes to him, gently, gracefully, loftily. Here is +an extract: 'And for yourself, sir, seeing your fair day is now in +the dawn, and mine drawn to the evening, your own virtues and the +king's grace assuring you of many favours and much honour, I beseech +you not to begin your first building upon the ruins of the innocent; +and that their sorrows, with mine, may not attend your first +plantation.' He speaks strongly of the fairness, sympathy, and pity +by which the Scots in general had laid him under obligation: argues +from it his own evident innocence; and ends with a quiet warning to +the young favourite not to 'undergo the curse of them that enter into +the fields of the fatherless.' In vain. Lady Raleigh, with her +children, entreats James on her knees: in vain again. 'I mun ha' +the land,' is the answer; 'I mun ha' it for Carr.' And he has it; +patching up the matter after a while by a gift of 8000 pounds to her +and her elder son, in requital for an estate of 5000 pounds a year. + +So there sits Raleigh, growing poorer day by day, and clinging more +and more to that fair wife, and her noble boy, and the babe whose +laughter makes music within that dreary cage. And all day long, as +we have seen, he sits over his still, compounding and discovering, +and sometimes showing himself on the wall to the people, who gather +to gaze at him, till Wade forbids it, fearing popular feeling. In +fact, the world outside has a sort of mysterious awe of him, as if he +were a chained magician, who, if he were let loose, might do with +them all what he would. Certain great nobles are of the same mind. +Woe to them if that silver tongue should once again be unlocked! + +The Queen, with a woman's faith in greatness, sends to him for +'cordials.' Here is one of them, famous in Charles the Second's days +as 'Sir Walter's Cordial':- + + +B. Zedoary and Saffron, each 0.5 lb. +Distilled water 3 pints. +Macerate, etc., and reduce to 1.5 pint. +Compound powder of crabs' claws 16 oz. +Cinnamon and Nutmegs 2 oz. +Cloves 1 oz. +Cardamom seeds 0.5 oz. + Double refined sugar 2 lb. + Make a confection. + + +Which, so the world believes, will cure all ills which flesh is heir +to. It does not seem that Raleigh so boasted himself; but the +people, after the fashion of the time, seem to have called all his +medicines 'cordials,' and probably took for granted that it was by +this particular one that the enchanter cured Queen Anne of a +desperate sickness, 'whereof the physicians were at the farthest end +of their studies' (no great way to go in those days) 'to find the +cause, and at a nonplus for the cure.' + +Raleigh--this is Sir Anthony Welden's account, which may go for what +it is worth--asks for his reward, only justice. Will the Queen ask +that certain lords may be sent to examine Cobham, 'whether he had at +any time accused Sir Walter of any treason under his hand?' Six are +sent. Cobham answers, 'Never; nor could I: that villain Wade often +solicited me, and not so prevailing, got me by a trick to write my +name on a piece of white paper. So that if a charge come under my +hand it was forged by that villain Wade, by writing something above +my hand, without my consent or knowledge.' They return. An +equivocation was ready. 'Sir, my Lord Cobham has made good all that +ever he wrote or said'; having, by his own account, written nothing +but his name. This is Sir Anthony Welden's story. One hopes, for +the six lords' sake, it may not be true; but there is no reason, in +the morality of James's court, why it should not have been. + +So Raleigh must remain where he is, and work on. And he does work. +As his captivity becomes more and more hopeless, so comes out more +and more the stateliness, self-help, and energy of the man. Till now +he has played with his pen: now he will use it in earnest; and use +it as few prisoners have done. Many a good book has been written in +a dungeon--'Don Quixote,' the 'Pilgrim's Progress': beautiful each +in its way, and destined to immortality: Raleigh begins the 'History +of the World,' the most God-fearing and God-seeing history which I +know of among English writings; though blotted by flattery of James +in the preface: wrong: but pardonable in a man trying in the Tower +to get out of that doleful prison. But all his writings are thirty +years too late; they express the creed of a buried generation, of the +men who defied Spain in the name of a God of righteousness,--not of +men who cringe before her in the name of a God of power and cunning. +The captive eagle has written with a quill from his own wing--a quill +which has been wont ere now to soar to heaven. Every line smacks of +the memories of Nombre and of Zutphen, of Tilbury Fort and of Calais +Roads; and many a gray-headed veteran, as he read them, must have +turned away his face to hide the noble tears, as Ulysses from +Demodocus when he sang the song of Troy. So there sits Raleigh, like +the prophet of old, in his lonely tower above the Thames, watching +the darkness gather upon the land year by year, 'like the morning +spread over the mountains,' the darkness which comes before the dawn +of the Day of The Lord; which he shall never see on earth, though it +be very near at hand; and asks of each newcomer, 'Watchman, what of +the night?' + +But there is one bright point at least in the darkness; one on whom +Raleigh's eyes, and those of all England, are fixed in boundless +hope; one who, by the sympathy which attracts all noble natures to +each other, clings to the hero utterly; Henry, the Crown Prince. 'No +king but my father would keep such a bird in a cage.' The noble lad +tries to open the door for the captive eagle; but in vain. At least +he will make what use he can of his wisdom. He asks him for advice +about the new ship he is building, and has a simple practical letter +in return, and over and above probably the two valuable pamphlets, +'Of the Invention of Ships,' and 'Observations on the Navy and Sea +Service'; which the Prince will never see. In 1611 he asks Raleigh's +advice about the foolish double marriage with the Prince and Princess +of Savoy, and receives for answer two plain-spoken discourses as full +of historical learning as of practical sound sense. + +These are benefits which must be repaid. The father will repay them +hereafter in his own way. In the meanwhile the son does so in his +way, by soliciting the Sherborne estate as for himself, intending to +restore it to Raleigh. He succeeds. Carr is bought off for 25,000 +pounds, where Lady Raleigh has been bought off with 8000 pounds; but +neither Raleigh nor his widow will ever be the better for that +bargain, and Carr will get Sherborne back again, and probably, in the +King's silly dotage, keep the 25,000 pounds also. + +In November 1612 Prince Henry falls sick. + +When he is at the last gasp, the poor Queen sends to Raleigh for some +of the same cordial which had cured her. Medicine is sent, with a +tender letter, as it well might be; for Raleigh knew how much hung, +not only for himself, but for England, on the cracking threads of +that fair young life. It is questioned at first whether it shall be +administered. 'The cordial,' Raleigh says, 'will cure him or any +other of a fever, except in case of poison.' + +The cordial is administered; but it comes too late. The prince dies, +and with him the hopes of all good men. + +* * * + +At last, after twelve years of prison, Raleigh is free. He is sixty- +six years old now, gray-headed and worn down by confinement, study, +and want of exercise: but he will not remember that. + + +'Still in his ashes live their wonted fire.' + + +Now for Guiana, at last! which he has never forgotten; to which he +has been sending, with his slender means, ship after ship to keep the +Indians in hope. + +He is freed in March. At once he is busy in his project. In August +he has obtained the King's commission, by the help of Sir Ralph +Winwood, Secretary of State, who seems to have believed in Raleigh. +At least Raleigh believed in him. In March next year he has sailed, +and with him thirteen ships, and more than a hundred knights and +gentlemen, and among them, strange to say, Sir Warham St. Leger. +This is certainly not the quondam Marshal of Munster under whom +Raleigh served at Smerwick six-and-thirty years ago. He would be +nearly eighty years old; and as Lord Doneraile's pedigree gives three +Sir Warhams, we cannot identify the man. But it is a strong argument +in Raleigh's favour that a St. Leger, of a Devon family which had +served with him in Ireland, and intimately connected with him his +whole life, should keep his faith in Raleigh after all his reverses. +Nevertheless, the mere fact of an unpardoned criminal, said to be non +ens in law, being able in a few months to gather round him such a +party, is proof patent of what slender grounds there are for calling +Raleigh 'suspected' and 'unpopular.' + +But he does not sail without a struggle or two. James is too proud +to allow his heir to match with any but a mighty king, is infatuated +about the Spanish marriage; and Gondomar is with him, playing with +his hopes and with his fears also. + +The people are furious, and have to be silenced again and again: +there is even fear of rioting. The charming and smooth-tongued +Gondomar can hate, and can revenge, too. Five 'prentices who have +insulted him for striking a little child, are imprisoned and fined +several hundred pounds each. And as for hating Raleigh, Gondomar had +been no Spaniard (to let alone the private reasons which some have +supposed) had he not hated Spain's ancient scourge and unswerving +enemy. He comes to James, complaining that Raleigh is about to break +the peace with Spain. Nothing is to be refused him which can further +the one darling fancy of James; and Raleigh has to give in writing +the number of his ships, men, and ordnance, and, moreover, the name +of the country and the very river whither he is going. This paper +was given, Carew Raleigh asserts positively, under James's solemn +promise not to reveal it; and Raleigh himself seems to have believed +that it was to be kept private; for he writes afterwards to Secretary +Winwood in a tone of astonishment and indignation, that the +information contained in his paper had been sent on to the King of +Spain before he sailed from the Thames. Winwood could have told him +as much already; for Buckingham had written to Winwood, on March 28, +to ask him why he had not been to the Spanish Ambassador 'to acquaint +him with the order taken by his Majesty about Sir W. R.'s voyage.' +But however unwilling the Secretary (as one of the furtherers of the +voyage) may have been to meddle in the matter, Gondomar had had news +enough from another source; perhaps from James's own mouth. For the +first letter to the West Indies about Raleigh was dated from Madrid, +March 19; and most remarkable it is that in James's 'Declaration,' or +rather apology for his own conduct, no mention whatsoever is made of +his having given information to Gondomar. + +Gondomar offered, says James, to let Raleigh go with one or two ships +only. He might work a mine, and the King of Spain would give him a +safe convoy home with all his gold. How kind. And how likely would +Raleigh and his fellow-adventurers have been to accept such an offer; +how likely, too, to find men who would sail with them on such an +errand, to be 'flayed alive,' as many who travelled to the Indies of +late years had been, or to have their throats cut, tied back to back, +after trading unarmed and peaceably for a month, as thirty-six of +Raleigh's men had been but two or three years before in that very +Orinoco. So James is forced to let the large fleet go; and to let it +go well armed also; for the plain reason, that otherwise it dare not +go at all; and in the meanwhile letters are sent from Spain, in which +the Spaniards call the fleet 'English enemies,' and ships and troops +are moved up as fast as possible from the Spanish main. + +But, say some, James was justified in telling Gondomar, and the +Spaniards in defending themselves. On the latter point there is no +doubt. + + +'They may get who have the will, +And they may keep who can.' + + +But it does seem hard on Raleigh, after having laboured in this +Guiana business for years, and after having spent his money in vain +attempts to deliver these Guianians from their oppressors. It is +hard, and he feels it so. He sees that he is not trusted; that, as +James himself confesses, his pardon is refused simply to keep a hold +on him; that, if he fails, he is ruined. + +As he well asks afterwards, 'If the King did not think that Guiana +was his, why let me go thither at all? He knows that it was his by +the law of nations, for he made Mr. Harcourt a grant of part of it. +If it be, as Gondomar says, the King of Spain's, then I had no more +right to work a mine in it than to burn a town.' An argument which +seems to me unanswerable. But, says James, and others with him, he +was forbid to meddle with any country occupate or possessed by +Spaniards. Southey, too, blames him severely for not having told +James that the country was already settled by Spaniards. I can +excuse Southey, but not James, for overlooking the broad fact that +all England knew it, as I have shown, since 1594; that if they did +not, Gondomar would have taken care to tell them; and that he could +not go to Guiana without meddling with Spaniards. His former voyages +and publications made no secret of it. On the contrary, one chief +argument for the plan had been all through the delivery of the +Indians from these very Spaniards, who, though they could not conquer +them, ill-used them in every way: and in his agreement with the +Lords about the Guiana voyage in 1611, he makes especial mention of +the very place which will soon fill such a part in our story, 'San +Thome, where the Spaniards inhabit,' and tells the Lords whom to ask +as to the number of men who will be wanted 'to secure Keymish's +passage to the mine' against these very Spaniards. What can be more +clear, save to those who will not see? + +The plain fact is that Raleigh went, with his eyes open, to take +possession of a country to which he believed that he and King James +had a right, and that James and his favourites, when they, as he +pleads, might have stopped him by a word, let him go, knowing as well +as the Spaniards what he intended; for what purpose, but to have an +excuse for the tragedy which ended all, it is difficult to conceive. +'It is evident,' wisely says Sir Robert Schomburgk, 'that they winked +at consequences which they must have foreseen.' + +And here Mr. Napier, on the authority of Count Desmarets, brings a +grave charge against Raleigh. Raleigh in his 'Apology' protests that +he only saw Desmarets once on board of his vessel. Desmarets says in +his despatches that he was on board of her several times--whether he +saw Raleigh more than once does not appear--and that Raleigh +complained to him of having been unjustly imprisoned, stripped of his +estate, and so forth; and that he was on that account resolved to +abandon his country, and, if the expedition succeeded, offer himself +and the fruit of his labour to the King of France. + +If this be true, Raleigh was very wrong. But Sir Robert Schomburgk +points out that this passage, which Mr. Napier says occurs in the +last despatch, was written a month after Raleigh had sailed; and that +the previous despatch, written only four days after Raleigh sailed, +says nothing about the matter. So that it could not have been a very +important or fixed resolution on Raleigh's part, if it was only to be +recollected a month after. I do not say--as Sir Robert Schomburgk is +very much inclined to do--that it was altogether a bubble of French +fancy. It is possible that Raleigh, in his just rage at finding that +James was betraying him and sending him out with a halter round his +neck, to all but certain ruin, did say wild words--That it was better +for him to serve the Frenchman than such a master--that perhaps he +might go over to the Frenchman after all--or some folly of the kind, +in that same rash tone which, as we have seen, has got him into +trouble so often already: and so I leave the matter, saying, Beware +of making any man an offender for a word, much less one who is being +hunted to death in his old age, and knows it. + +However this may be, the fleet sails; but with no bright auguries. +The mass of the sailors are 'a scum of men'; they are mutinous and +troublesome; and what is worse, have got among them (as, perhaps, +they were intended to have) the notion that Raleigh's being still non +ens in law absolves them from obeying him when they do not choose, +and permits them to say of him behind his back what they list. They +have long delays at Plymouth. Sir Warham's ship cannot get out of +the Thames. Pennington, at the Isle of Wight, 'cannot redeem his +bread from the bakers,' and has to ride back to London to get money +from Lady Raleigh. The poor lady has it not, and gives a note of +hand to Mr. Wood of Portsmouth. Alas for her! She has sunk her 8000 +pounds, and, beside that, sold her Wickham estate for 2500 pounds; +and all is on board the fleet. 'A hundred pieces' are all the ready +money the hapless pair had left on earth, and they have parted them +together. Raleigh has fifty-five and she forty-five till God send it +back--if, indeed, He ever send it. The star is sinking low in the +west. Trouble on trouble. Sir John Fane has neither men nor money; +Captain Witney has not provisions enough, and Raleigh has to sell his +plate in Plymouth to help him. Courage! one last struggle to redeem +his good name. + +Then storms off Sicily--a pinnace is sunk; faithful Captain King +drives back into Bristol; the rest have to lie by a while in some +Irish port for a fair wind. Then Bailey deserts with the +'Southampton' at the Canaries; then 'unnatural weather,' so that a +fourteen days' voyage takes forty days. Then 'the distemper' breaks +out under the line. The simple diary of that sad voyage still +remains, full of curious and valuable nautical hints; but recording +the loss of friend on friend; four or five officers, and, 'to our +great grief, our principal refiner, Mr. Fowler.' 'Crab, my old +servant.' Next a lamentable twenty-four hours, in which they lose +Pigott, the lieutenant-general, 'mine honest frinde, Mr. John Talbot, +one that had lived with me a leven yeeres in the Tower, an excellent +general skoller, and a faithful and true man as ever lived,' with two +'very fair conditioned gentleman,' and 'mine own cook Francis.' Then +more officers and men, and my 'cusen Payton.' Then the water is near +spent, and they are forced to come to half allowance, till they save +and drink greedily whole canfuls of the bitter rain water. At last +Raleigh's own turn comes; running on deck in a squall, he gets wet +through, and has twenty days of burning fever; 'never man suffered a +more furious heat,' during which he eats nothing but now and then a +stewed prune. + +At last they make the land at the mouth of the Urapoho, far south of +their intended goal. They ask for Leonard the Indian, 'who lived +with me in England three or four years, the same man that took Mr. +Harcourt's brother and fifty men when they were in extreme distress, +and had no means to live there but by the help of this Indian, whom +they made believe that they were my men'; but the faithful Indian is +gone up the country, and they stand away for Cayenne, 'where the +cacique (Harry) was also my servant, and had lived with me in the +Tower two years.' + +Courage once more, brave old heart! Here at least thou art among +friends, who know thee for what thou art, and look out longingly for +thee as their deliverer. Courage; for thou art in fairyland once +more; the land of boundless hope and possibility. Though England and +England's heart be changed, yet God's earth endures, and the harvest +is still here, waiting to be reaped by those who dare. Twenty stormy +years may have changed thee, but they have not changed the fairyland +of thy prison dreams. Still the mighty Ceiba trees with their wealth +of parasites and creepers tower above the palm-fringed islets; still +the dark mangrove thickets guard the mouths of unknown streams, whose +granite sands are rich with gold. Friendly Indians come, and Harry +with them, bringing maize, peccari pork, and armadillos, plantains +and pine-apples, and all eat and gather strength; and Raleigh writes +home to his wife, 'to say that I may yet be King of the Indians here +were a vanity. But my name hath lived among them'--as well it might. +For many a year those simple hearts shall look for him in vain, and +more than two centuries and a half afterwards, dim traditions of the +great white chief who bade them stand out to the last against the +Spaniards, and he would come and dwell among them, shall linger among +the Carib tribes; even, say some, the tattered relics of an English +flag, which he left among them that they might distinguish his +countrymen. + +Happy for him had he stayed there indeed, and been their king. How +easy for him to have grown old in peace at Cayenne. But no; he must +on for honour's sake, and bring home if it were but a basketful of +that ore to show the king, that he may save his credit. He has +promised Arundel that he will return. And return he will. So onward +he goes to the 'Triangle Islands.' There he sends off five small +vessels for the Orinoco, with four hundred men. The faithful Keymis +has to command and guide the expedition. Sir Warham is lying ill of +the fever, all but dead; so George Raleigh is sent in his place as +sergeant-major, and with him five land companies, one of which is +commanded by young Walter, Raleigh's son; another by a Captain +Parker, of whom we shall have a word to say presently. + +Keymis's orders are explicit. He is to go up; find the mine, and +open it; and if the Spaniards attack him, repel force by force: but +he is to avoid, if possible, an encounter with them: not for fear of +breaking the peace, but because he has 'a scum of men, a few +gentlemen excepted, and I would not for all the world receive a blow +from the Spaniards to the dishonour of our nation.' There we have no +concealment of hostile instructions, any more than in Raleigh's +admirable instructions to his fleet, which, after laying down +excellent laws for morality, religion, and discipline, go on with +clause after clause as to what is to be done if they meet 'the +enemy.' What enemy? Why, all Spanish ships which sail the seas; and +who, if they happen to be sufficiently numerous, will assuredly +attack, sink, burn, and destroy Raleigh's whole squadron, for daring +to sail for that continent which Spain claims as its own. + +Raleigh runs up the coast to Trinidad once more, in through the +Serpent's Mouth, and round Punto Gallo to the lake of pitch, where +all recruit themselves with fish and armadillos, 'pheasant' +(Penelope), 'palmitos' (Moriche palm fruit?), and guavas, and await +the return of the expedition from the last day of December to the +middle of February. They see something of the Spaniards meanwhile. +Sir John Ferns is sent up to Port of Spain to try if they will trade +for tobacco. The Spaniards parley; in the midst of the parley pour a +volley of musketry into them at forty paces, yet hurt never a man; +and send them off calling them thieves and traitors. Fray Simon's +Spanish account of the matter is that Raleigh intended to disembark +his men, that they might march inland on San Joseph. He may be +excused for the guess; seeing that Raleigh had done the very same +thing some seventeen years before. If Raleigh was treacherous then, +his treason punished itself now. However, I must believe that +Raleigh is not likely to have told a lie for his own private +amusement in his own private diary. + +On the 29th the Spaniards attack three men and a boy who are ashore +boiling the fossil pitch; kill one man, and carry off the boy. +Raleigh, instead of going up to Port of Spain and demanding +satisfaction, as he would have been justified in doing after this +second attack, remains quietly where he is, expecting daily to be +attacked by Spanish armadas, and resolved to 'burn by their sides.' +Happily, or unhappily, he escapes them. Probably he thinks they +waited for him at Margarita, expecting him to range the Spanish main. + +At last the weary days of sickness and anxiety succeeded to days of +terror. On the 1st of February a strange report comes by an Indian. +An inland savage has brought confused and contradictory news down the +river that San Thome is sacked, the governor and two Spanish captains +slain (names given) and two English captains, nameless. After this +entry follow a few confused ones, set down as happening in January, +concerning attempts to extract the truth from the Indians, and the +negligence of the mariners, who are diligent in nothing but pillaging +and stealing. And so ends abruptly this sad document. + +The truth comes at last--but when, does not appear--in a letter from +Keymis, dated January 8. San Thome has been stormed, sacked, and +burnt. Four refiners' houses were found in it; the best in the town; +so that the Spaniards have been mining there; but no coin or bullion +except a little plate. One English captain is killed, and that +captain is Walter Raleigh, his firstborn. He died leading them on, +when some, 'more careful of valour and safety, began to recoil +shamefully.' His last words were, 'Lord have mercy upon me and +prosper our enterprise.' A Spanish captain, Erinetta, struck him +down with the butt of a musket after he had received a bullet. John +Plessington, his sergeant, avenged him by running Erinetta through +with his halbert. + +Keymis has not yet been to the mine; he could not, 'by reason of the +murmurings, discords, and vexations'; but he will go at once, make +trial of the mine, and come down to Trinidad by the Macareo mouth. +He sends a parcel of scattered papers, a roll of tobacco, a tortoise, +some oranges and lemons. 'Praying God to give you health and +strength of body, and a mind armed against all extremities, I rest +ever to be commanded, your lordship's, Keymish.' + +'Oh Absalom, my son, my son, would God I had died for thee!' But +weeping is in vain. The noble lad sleeps there under the palm-trees, +beside the mighty tropic stream, while the fair Basset, 'his bride in +the sight of God,' recks not of him as she wanders in the woods of +Umberleigh, wife to the son of Raleigh's deadliest foe. Raleigh, +Raleigh, surely God's blessing is not on this voyage of thine. +Surely He hath set thy misdeeds before Him, and thy secret sins in +the light of His countenance. + +Another blank of misery: but his honour is still safe. Keymis will +return with that gold ore, that pledge of his good faith for which he +has ventured all. Surely God will let that come after all, now that +he has paid as its price his first-born's blood? + +At last Keymis returns with thinned numbers. All are weary, spirit- +broken, discontented, mutinous. Where is the gold ore? + +There is none. Keymis has never been to the mine after all. His +companions curse him as a traitor who has helped Raleigh to deceive +them into ruin; the mine is imaginary--a lie. The crews are ready to +break into open mutiny; after a while they will do so. + +Yes, God is setting this man's secret sins in the light of His +countenance. If he has been ambitious, his ambition has punished +itself now. If he has cared more for his own honour than for his +wife and children, that sin too has punished itself. If he has +(which I affirm not) tampered with truth for the sake of what seemed +to him noble and just ends, that too has punished itself; for his men +do not trust him. If he has (which I affirm not) done any wrong in +that matter of Cobham, that too has punished itself: for his men, +counting him as non ens in law, will not respect or obey him. If he +has spoken, after his old fashion, rash and exaggerated words, and +goes on speaking them, even though it be through the pressure of +despair, that too shall punish itself; and for every idle word that +he shall say, God will bring him into judgment. And why, but because +he is noble? Why, but because he is nearer to God by a whole heaven +than others whom God lets fatten on their own sins, having no +understanding, because they are in honour, and having children at +their hearts' desire, and leaving the rest of their substance to +their babes? Not so does God deal with His elect when they will try +to worship at once self and Him; He requires truth in the inward +parts, and will purge them till they are true, and single-eyed, and +full of light. + +Keymis returns with the wreck of his party. The scene between him +and Raleigh may be guessed. Keymis has excuse on excuse. He could +not get obeyed after young Raleigh's death: he expected to find that +Sir Walter was either dead of his sickness or of grief for his son, +and had no wish 'to enrich a company of rascals who made no account +of him.' He dare not go up to the mine because (and here Raleigh +thinks his excuse fair) the fugitive Spaniards lay in the craggy +woods through which he would have to pass, and that he had not men +enough even to hold the town securely. If he reached the mine and +left a company there, he had no provisions for them; and he dared not +send backward and forward to the town while the Spaniards were in the +woods. The warnings sent by Gondomar had undone all, and James's +treachery had done its work. So Keymis, 'thinking it a greater +error, so he said, to discover the mine to the Spaniards than to +excuse himself to the Company, said that he could not find it.' From +all which one thing at least is evident, that Keymis believed in the +existence of the mine. + +Raleigh 'rejects these fancies'; tells him before divers gentlemen +that 'a blind man might find it by the marks which Keymis himself had +set down under his hand': that 'his case of losing so many men in +the woods' was a mere pretence: after Walter was slain, he knew that +Keymis had no care of any man's surviving. 'You have undone me, +wounded my credit with the King past recovery. As you have followed +your own advice, and not mine, you must satisfy his Majesty. It +shall be glad if you can do it: but I cannot.' There is no use +dwelling on such vain regrets and reproaches. Raleigh perhaps is +bitter, unjust. As he himself writes twice, to his wife and Sir +Ralph Winwood, his 'brains are broken.' He writes to them both, and +re-opens the letters to add long postscripts, at his wits' end. +Keymis goes off; spends a few miserable days; and then enters +Raleigh's cabin. He has written his apology to Lord Arundel, and +begs Raleigh to allow of it. 'No. You have undone me by your +obstinacy. I will not favour or colour your former folly.' 'Is that +your resolution, sir?' 'It is.' 'I know not then, sir, what course +to take.' And so he goes out, and into his own cabin overhead. A +minute after a pistol-shot is heard. Raleigh sends up a boy to know +the reason. Keymis answers from within that he has fired it off +because it had been long charged; and all is quiet. + +Half an hour after the boy goes into the cabin. Keymis is lying on +his bed, the pistol by him. The boy moves him. The pistol-shot has +broken a rib, and gone no further; but as the corpse is turned over, +a long knife is buried in that desperate heart. Another of the old +heroes is gone to his wild account. + +Gradually drops of explanation ooze out. The 'Sergeant-major, +Raleigh's nephew, and others, confess that Keymis told them that he +could have brought them in two hours to the mine: but as the young +heir was slain, and his father was unpardoned and not like to live, +he had no reason to open the mine, either for the Spaniard or the +King.' Those latter words are significant. What cared the old +Elizabethan seaman for the weal of such a king? And, indeed, what +good to such a king would all the mines in Guiana be? They answered +that the King, nevertheless, had 'granted Raleigh his heart's desire +under the great seal.' He replied that 'the grant to Raleigh was to +a man non ens in law, and therefore of no force.' Here, too, James's +policy has worked well. How could men dare or persevere under such a +cloud? + +How, indeed, could they have found heart to sail at all? The only +answer is that they knew Raleigh well enough to have utter faith in +him, and that Keymis himself knew of the mine. + +Puppies at home in England gave out that he had killed himself from +remorse at having deceived so many gentlemen with an imaginary +phantom. Every one, of course, according to his measure of charity, +has power and liberty to assume any motive which he will. Mine is +simply the one which shows upon the face of the documents; that the +old follower, devoted alike to the dead son and to the doomed father, +feeling that he had, he scarce knew how, failed in the hour of need, +frittered away the last chance of a mighty enterprise which had been +his fixed idea for years, and ruined the man whom he adored, avenged +upon himself the fault of having disobeyed orders, given +peremptorily, and to be peremptorily executed. + +Here, perhaps, my tale should end; for all beyond is but the waking +of the corpse. The last death-struggle of the Elizabethan heroism is +over, and all its remains vanish slowly in an undignified, sickening +way. All epics end so. After the war of Troy, Achilles must die by +coward Paris's arrow, in some mysterious, confused, pitiful fashion; +and stately Hecuba must rail herself into a very dog, and bark for +ever shamefully around lonely Cynossema. Young David ends as a +dotard--Solomon as worse. Glorious Alexander must die, half of +fever, half of drunkenness, as the fool dieth. Charles the Fifth, +having thrown all away but his follies, ends in a convent, a +superstitious imbecile; Napoleon squabbles to the last with Sir +Hudson Lowe about champagne. It must be so; and the glory must be +God's alone. For in great men, and great times, there is nothing +good or vital but what is of God, and not of man's self; and when He +taketh away that divine breath they die, and return again to their +dust. But the earth does not lose; for when He sendeth forth His +Spirit they live, and renew the face of the earth. A new generation +arises, with clearer sight, with fuller experience, sometimes with +nobler aims; and + + +'The old order changeth, giveth place to the new, +And God fulfils himself in many ways. + + +The Elizabethan epic did not end a day too soon. There was no more +life left in it; and God had something better in store for England. +Raleigh's ideal was a noble one: but God's was nobler far. Raleigh +would have made her a gold kingdom, like Spain, and destroyed her +very vitals by that gold, as Spain was destroyed. And all the while +the great and good God was looking steadfastly upon that little +struggling Virginian village, Raleigh's first-born, forgotten in his +new mighty dreams, and saying, 'Here will I dwell, for I have a +delight therein.' There, and not in Guiana; upon the simple tillers +of the soil, not among wild reckless gold-hunters, would His blessing +rest. The very coming darkness would bring brighter light. The evil +age itself would be the parent of new good, and drive across the seas +steadfast Pilgrim Fathers and generous Royalist Cavaliers, to be the +parents of a mightier nation than has ever yet possessed the earth. +Verily, God's ways are wonderful, and His counsels in the great deep. + +So ends the Elizabethan epic. Must we follow the corpse to the +grave? It is necessary. + +And now, 'you gentlemen of England, who sit at home at ease,' what +would you have done in like case?--Your last die thrown; your last +stake lost; your honour, as you fancy, stained for ever; your eldest +son dead in battle--What would you have done? What Walter Raleigh +did was this. He kept his promise. He had promised Lord Arundel to +return to England; and return he did. + +But it is said his real intention, as he himself confessed, was to +turn pirate and take the Mexico fleet. + +That wild thoughts of such a deed may have crossed his mind, may have +been a terrible temptation to him, may even have broken out in hasty +words, one does not deny. He himself says that he spoke of such a +thing 'to keep his men together.' All depends on how the words were +spoken. The form of the sentence, the tone of voice, is everything. +Who could blame him, if seeing some of the captains whom he had most +trusted deserting him, his men heaping him with every slander, and, +as he solemnly swore on the scaffold, calling witnesses thereto by +name, forcing him to take an oath that he would not return to England +before they would have him, and locking him into his own cabin--who +could blame him, I ask, for saying in that daring off-hand way of +his, which has so often before got him into trouble, 'Come, my lads, +do not despair. If the worst comes to the worst, there is the Plate- +fleet to fall back upon'? When I remember, too, that the taking of +the said Plate-fleet was in Raleigh's eyes an altogether just thing; +and that he knew perfectly that if he succeeded therein he would be +backed by the public opinion of all England, and probably buy his +pardon of James, who, if he loved Spain well, loved money better; my +surprise rather is, that he did not go and do it. As for any meeting +of captains in his cabin and serious proposal of such a plan, I +believe it to be simply one of the innumerable lies which James +inserted in his 'Declaration,' gathered from the tales of men who, +fearing (and reasonably) lest their heads should follow Raleigh's, +tried to curry favour by slandering him. This 'Declaration' has been +so often exposed that I may safely pass it by; and pass by almost as +safely the argument which some have drawn from a chance expression of +his in his pathetic letter to Lady Raleigh, in which he 'hopes that +God would send him somewhat before his return.' To prove an +intention of piracy in the despairing words of a ruined man writing +to comfort a ruined wife for the loss of her first-born is surely to +deal out hard measure. Heaven have mercy upon us, if all the hasty +words which woe has wrung from our hearts are to be so judged either +by man or God! + +Sir Julius Caesar, again, one of the commission appointed to examine +him, informs us that, on being confronted with Captains St. Leger and +Pennington, he confessed that he proposed the taking of the Mexico +fleet if the mine failed. To which I can only answer, that all +depends on how the thing was said, and that this is the last fact +which we should find in Sir Julius's notes, which are, it is +confessed, so confused, obscure, and full of gaps, as to be often +hardly intelligible. The same remark applies to Wilson's story, +which I agree with Mr. Tytler in thinking worthless. Wilson, it must +be understood, is employed after Raleigh's return as a spy upon him, +which office he executes, all confess (and Wilson himself as much as +any), as falsely, treacherously, and hypocritically as did ever +sinful man; and, inter alia, he has this, 'This day he told me what +discourse he and the Lord Chancellor had about taking the Plate- +fleet, which he confessed he would have taken had he lighted on it.' +To which my Lord Chancellor said, 'Why, you would have been a +pirate.' 'Oh,' quoth he, 'did you ever know of any that were pirates +for millions? They only that wish for small things are pirates.' +Now, setting aside the improbability that Raleigh should go out of +his way to impeach himself to the man whom he must have known was set +there to find matter for his death, all, we say, depends on how it +was said. If the Lord Chancellor ever said to Raleigh, 'To take the +Mexico fleet would be piracy,' it would have been just like Raleigh +to give such an answer. The speech is a perfectly true one: Raleigh +knew the world, no man better; and saw through its hollowness, and +the cant and hypocrisy of his generation; and he sardonically states +an undeniable fact. He is not expressing his own morality, but that +of the world; just as he is doing in that passage of his 'Apology,' +about which I must complain of Mr. Napier. 'It was a maxim of his,' +says Mr. Napier, 'that good success admits of no examination.' This +is not fair. The sentence in the original goes on, 'so the contrary +allows of no excuse, however reasonable and just whatsoever.' His +argument all through the beginning of the 'Apology,' supported by +instance on instance from history, is--I cannot get a just hearing, +because I have failed in opening this mine. So it is always. Glory +covers the multitude of sins. But a man who has failed is a fair +mark for every slanderer, puppy, ignoramus, discontented mutineer; as +I am now. What else, in the name of common sense, could have been +his argument? Does Mr. Napier really think that Raleigh, even if, in +the face of all the noble and pious words which he had written, he +held so immoral a doctrine, would have been shameless and senseless +enough to assert his own rascality in an apology addressed to the +most 'religious' of kings in the most canting of generations? + +But still more astonished am I at the use which has been made of +Captain Parker's letter. The letter is written by a man in a state +of frantic rage and disappointment. There never was any mine, he +believes now. Keymis's 'delays we found mere delusions; for he was +false to all men and hateful to himself, loathing to live since he +could do no more villany. I will speak no more of this hateful +fellow to God and man.' And it is on the testimony of a man in this +temper that we are asked to believe that 'the admiral and vice- +admiral,' Raleigh and St. Leger, are going to the Western Islands 'to +look for homeward-bound men': if, indeed, the looking for homeward- +bound men means really looking for the Spanish fleet, and not merely +for recruits for their crews. I never recollect--and I have read +pretty fully the sea-records of those days--such a synonym used +either for the Mexican or Indian fleet. But let this be as it may, +the letter proves too much. For, first, it proves that whosoever is +not going to turn 'pirate,' our calm and charitable friend Captain +Parker is; 'for my part, by the permission of God, I will either MAKE +A VOYAGE or bury myself in the sea.' Now, what making a voyage meant +there is no doubt; and the sum total of the letter is, that a man +intending to turn rover himself accuses, under the influence of +violent passion, his comrades of doing the like. We may believe him +about himself: about others, we shall wait for testimony a little +less interested. + +But the letter proves too much again. For Parker says that 'Witney +and Woolaston are gone off a-head to look for homeward-bound men,' +thus agreeing with Raleigh's message to his wife, that 'Witney, for +whom I sold all my plate at Plymouth, and to whom I gave more credit +and countenance than to all the captains of my fleet, ran from me at +the Grenadas, and Woolaston with him.' + +And now, reader, how does this of Witney, and Woolaston, and Parker's +intentions to 'pirate' separately, if it be true, agree with King +James's story of Raleigh's calling a council of war and proposing an +attack on the Plate-fleet? One or the other must needs be a lie; +probably both. Witney's ship was of only 160 tons; Woolaston's +probably smaller. Five such ships would be required, as any reader +of Hakluyt must know, to take a single Carack; and it would be no use +running the risk of hanging for any less prize. The Spanish main was +warned and armed, and the Western Isles also. Is it possible that +these two men would have been insane enough in such circumstances to +go without Raleigh, if they could have gone with him? And is it +possible that he, if he had any set purpose of attacking the Plate- +fleet, would not have kept them, in order to attempt that with him +which neither they nor he could do without each other. Moreover, no +'piratical' act ever took place; if any had, we should have heard +enough about it; and why is Parker to be believed against Raleigh +alone, when there is little doubt that he slandered all the rest of +the captains? Lastly, it was to this very Parker, with Mr. Tresham +and another gentleman, that Raleigh appealed by name on the scaffold, +as witnesses that it was his crew who tried to keep him from going +home, and not he them. + +My own belief is, and it is surely simple and rational enough, that +Raleigh's 'brains,' as he said, 'were broken'; that he had no +distinct plan: but that, loth to leave the New World without a +second attempt on Guiana, he went up to Newfoundland to re-victual, +'and with good hope,' as he wrote to Winwood himself, 'of keeping the +sea till August with some four reasonable good ships,' probably, as +Oldys remarks, to try a trading voyage; but found his gentlemen too +dispirited and incredulous, his men too mutinous to do anything; and +seeing his ships go home one by one, at last followed them himself, +because he had promised Arundel and Pembroke so to do; having, after +all, as he declared on the scaffold, extreme difficulty in persuading +his men to land at all in England. The other lies about him, as of +his having intended to desert his soldiers in Guiana, his having +taken no tools to work the mine, and so forth, one only notices to +say that the 'Declaration' takes care to make the most of them, +without deigning, after its fashion, to adduce any proof but +anonymous hearsays. If it be true that Bacon drew up that famous +document, it reflects no credit either on his honesty or his +'inductive science.' + +So Raleigh returns, anchors in Plymouth. He finds that Captain North +has brought home the news of his mishaps, and that there is a +proclamation against him, which, by the bye, lies, for it talks of +limitations and cautions given to Raleigh which do not appear in his +commission; and, moreover, that a warrant is out for his +apprehension. He sends his men on shore, and starts for London to +surrender himself, in company with faithful Captain King, who alone +clings to him to the last, and from whom we have details of the next +few days. Near Ashburton he is met by Sir Lewis Stukely, his near +kinsman, Vice-Admiral of Devon, who has orders to arrest him. +Raleigh tells him that he has saved him the trouble; and the two +return to Plymouth, where Stukely, strangely enough, leaves him at +liberty and rides about the country. We should be slow in imputing +baseness: but one cannot help suspecting from Stukely's subsequent +conduct that he had from the first private orders to give Raleigh a +chance of trying to escape, in order to have a handle against him, +such as his own deeds had not yet given. + +The ruse, if it existed then, as it did afterwards, succeeds. +Raleigh hears bad news. Gondomar has--or has not--told his story to +the king by crying, 'Piratas! piratas! piratas!' and then rushing out +without explanation. James is in terror lest what had happened +should break off the darling Spanish match. + +Raleigh foresees ruin, perhaps death. Life is sweet, and Guiana is +yet where it was. He may win a basketful of the ore still, and prove +himself no liar. He will escape to France. Faithful King finds him +a Rochelle ship; he takes boat to her, goes half way, and returns. +Honour is sweeter than life, and James may yet be just. The next day +he bribes the master to wait for him one more day, starts for the +ship once more, and again returns to Plymouth--so King will make +oath--of his own free will. The temptation must have been terrible +and the sin none. What kept him from yielding but innocence and +honour? He will clear himself; and if not, abide the worst. Stukely +and James found out these facts, and made good use of them +afterwards. For now comes 'a severe letter from my Lords' to bring +Raleigh up as speedily as his health will permit; and with it comes +one Mannourie, a French quack, of whom honest King takes little note +at the time, but who will make himself remembered. + +And now begins a series of scenes most pitiable; Raleigh's brains are +indeed broken. He is old, worn-out with the effects of his fever, +lamed, ruined, broken-hearted, and, for the first time in his life, +weak and silly. He takes into his head the paltriest notion that he +can gain time to pacify the King by feigning himself sick. He puts +implicit faith in the rogue Mannourie, whom he has never seen before. +He sends forward Lady Raleigh to London--perhaps ashamed--as who +would not have been?--to play the fool in that sweet presence; and +with her good Captain King, who is to engage one Cotterell, an old +servant of Raleigh's, to find a ship wherein to escape, if the worst +comes to the worst. Cotterell sends King to an old boatswain of his, +who owns a ketch. She is to lie off Tilbury; and so King waits +Raleigh's arrival. What passed in the next four or five days will +never be truly known, for our only account comes from two self- +convicted villains, Stukely and Mannourie. On these details I shall +not enter. First, because one cannot trust a word of them; secondly, +because no one will wish to hear them who feels, as I do, how +pitiable and painful is the sight of a great heart and mind utterly +broken. Neither shall I spend time on Stukely's villanous treatment +of Raleigh, for which he had a commission from James in writing; his +pretending to help him to escape, his going down the Thames in a boat +with him, his trying in vain to make honest King as great a rogue as +himself. Like most rascalities, Stukely's conduct, even as he +himself states it, is very obscure. All that we can see is, that +Cotterell told Stukely everything: that Stukely bade Cotterell carry +on the deceit; that Stukely had orders from headquarters to incite +Raleigh to say or do something which might form a fresh ground of +accusal; that, being a clumsy rogue, he failed, and fell back on +abetting Raleigh's escape, as a last resource. Be it as it may, he +throws off the mask as soon as Raleigh has done enough to prove an +intent to escape; arrests him, and conducts him to the Tower. + +There two shameful months are spent in trying to find out some excuse +for Raleigh's murder. Wilson is set over him as a spy; his letters +to his wife are intercepted. Every art is used to extort a +confession of a great plot with France, and every art fails utterly-- +simply, it seems to me, because there was no plot. Raleigh writes an +apology, letters of entreaty, self-justification, what not; all, in +my opinion, just and true enough; but like his speech on the +scaffold, weak, confused--the product of a 'broken brain.' However, +his head must come off; and as a last resource, it must be taken off +upon the sentence of fifteen years ago, and he who was condemned for +plotting with Spain must die for plotting against her. It is a +pitiable business: but as Osborne says, in a passage (p.108 of his +Memoirs of James) for which one freely forgives him all his sins and +lies, and they are many--'As the foolish idolaters were wont to +sacrifice the choicest of their children to the devil, so our king +gave up his incomparable jewel to the will of this monster of +ambition (the Spaniard), under the pretence of a superannuated +transgression, contrary to the opinion of the more honest sort of +gownsmen, who maintained that his Majesty's pardon lay inclusively in +the commission he gave him on his setting out to sea; it being +incongruous that he, who remained under the notion of one dead in the +law, should as a general dispose of the lives of others, not being +himself master of his own.' + +But no matter. He must die. The Queen intercedes for him, as do all +honest men: but in vain. He has twenty-four hours' notice to +prepare for death; eats a good breakfast; takes a cup of sack and a +pipe; makes a rambling speech, in which one notes only the intense +belief that he is an honest man, and the intense desire to make +others believe so, in the very smallest matters; and then dies +smilingly, as one weary of life. One makes no comment. Raleigh's +life really ended on that day that poor Keymis returned from San +Thome.' + +And then? + +As we said, Truth is stranger than fiction. No dramatist dare invent +a 'poetic justice' more perfect than fell upon the traitor. It is +not always so, no doubt. God reserves many a greater sinner for that +most awful of all punishments--impunity. But there are crises in a +nation's life in which God makes terrible examples, to put before the +most stupid and sensual the choice of Hercules, the upward road of +life, the downward one which leads to the pit. Since the time of +Pharaoh and the Red Sea host, history is full of such palpable, +unmistakable revelations of the Divine Nemesis; and in England, too, +at that moment, the crisis was there; and the judgment of God was +revealed accordingly. Sir Lewis Stukely remained, it seems, at +court; high in favour with James: but he found, nevertheless, that +people looked darkly on him. Like many self-convicted rogues, he +must needs thrust his head into his own shame; and one day he goes to +good old Lord Charles Howard's house; for being Vice-Admiral of +Devon, he has affairs with the old Armada hero. + +The old lion explodes in an unexpected roar. 'Darest thou come into +my presence, thou base fellow, who art reputed the common scorn and +contempt of all men? Were it not in mine own house I would cudgel +thee with my staff for presuming to speak to me!' Stukely, his tail +between his legs, goes off and complains to James. 'What should I do +with him? Hang him? On my sawle, mon, if I hung all that spoke ill +of thee, all the trees in the island were too few.' Such is the +gratitude of kings, thinks Stukely; and retires to write foolish +pamphlets in self-justification, which, unfortunately for his memory, +still remain to make bad worse. + +Within twelve months he, the rich and proud Vice-Admiral of Devon, +with a shield of sixteen quarterings and the blood-royal in his +veins, was detected debasing the King's coin within the precincts of +the royal palace, together with his old accomplice Mannourie, who, +being taken, confessed that his charges against Raleigh were false. +He fled, a ruined man, back to his native county and his noble old +seat of Affton; but Ate is on the heels of such - + + +'Slowly she tracks him and sure, as a lyme-hound, sudden she grips +him, +Crushing him, blind in his pride, for a sign and a terror to +mortals.' + + +A terrible plebiscitum had been passed in the West country against +the betrayer of its last Worthy. The gentlemen closed their doors +against him; the poor refused him--so goes the legend--fire and +water. Driven by the Furies, he fled from Affton, and wandered +westward down the vale of Taw, away to Appledore, and there took +boat, and out into the boundless Atlantic, over the bar, now crowded +with shipping, for which Raleigh's genius had discovered a new trade +and a new world. + +Sixteen miles to the westward, like a blue cloud on the horizon, +rises the ultima Thule of Devon, the little isle of Lundy. There one +outlying peak of granite, carrying up a shelf of slate upon its +southern flank, has defied the waves, and formed an island some three +miles long, desolate, flat-headed, fretted by every frost and storm, +walled all round with four hundred feet of granite cliff, sacred +only, then at least, to puffins and pirates. Over the single +landing-place frowns from the cliff the keep of an old ruin, 'Moresco +Castle,' as they call it still, where some bold rover, Sir John de +Moresco, in the times of the old Edwards, worked his works of +darkness: a gray, weird, uncanny pile of moorstone, through which +all the winds of heaven howl day and night. + +In a chamber of that ruin died Sir Lewis Stukely, Lord of Affton, +cursing God and man. + +These things are true. Said I not well that reality is stranger than +romance? + +But no Nemesis followed James. + +The answer will depend much upon what readers consider to be a +Nemesis. If to have found England one of the greatest countries in +Europe, and to have left it one of the most inconsiderable and +despicable; if to be fooled by flatterers to the top of his bent, +until he fancied himself all but a god, while he was not even a man, +and could neither speak the truth, keep himself sober, nor look on a +drawn sword without shrinking; if, lastly, to have left behind him a +son who, in spite of many chivalrous instincts unknown to his father, +had been so indoctrinated in that father's vices as to find it +impossible to speak the truth even when it served his purpose; if all +these things be no Nemesis, then none fell on James Stuart. + +But of that son, at least, the innocent blood was required. He, too, +had his share in the sin. In Carew Raleigh's simple and manful +petition to the Commons of England for the restoration of his +inheritance we find a significant fact stated without one word of +comment, bitter or otherwise. At Prince Henry's death the Sherborne +lands had been given again to Carr, Lord Somerset. To him, too, 'the +whirligig of time brought round its revenges,' and he lost them when +arraigned and condemned for poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury. Then Sir +John Digby, afterwards Earl of Bristol, begged Sherborne of the King, +and had it. Pembroke (Shakspeare's Pembroke) brought young Carew to +court, hoping to move the tyrant's heart. James saw him and +shuddered; perhaps conscience stricken, perhaps of mere cowardice. +'He looked like the ghost of his father,' as he well might, to that +guilty soul. Good Pembroke advised his young kinsman to travel, +which he did till James's death in the next year. Then coming over-- +this is his own story--he asked of Parliament to be restored in +blood, that he might inherit aught that might fall to him in England. +His petition was read twice in the Lords. Whereon 'King Charles sent +Sir James Fullarton, then of the bed-chamber, to Mr. Raleigh to +command him to come to him; and being brought in, the King, after +using him with great civility, notwithstanding told him plainly that +when he was prince he had promised the Earl of Bristol to secure his +title to Sherborne against the heirs of Sir Walter Raleigh; whereon +the earl had given him, then prince, ten thousand pounds; that now he +was bound to make good his promise, being king; that, therefore, +unless he would quit his right and title to Sherborne, he neither +could nor would pass his bill of restoration.' + +Young Raleigh, like a good Englishman, 'urged,' he says, 'the +justness of his cause; that he desired only the liberty of the +subject, and to be left to the law, which was never denied any +freeman.' The King remained obstinate. His noble brother's love for +the mighty dead weighed nothing with him, much less justice. Poor +young Raleigh was forced to submit. The act for his restoration was +passed, reserving Sherborne for Lord Bristol, and Charles patched up +the affair by allowing to Lady Raleigh and her son after her a life +pension of four hundred a year. + +Young Carew tells his story simply, and without a note of bitterness; +though he professes his intent to range himself and his two sons for +the future 'under the banner of the Commons of England,' he may be a +royalist for any word beside. Even where he mentions the awful curse +of his mother, he only alludes to its fulfilment by--'that which hath +happened since to that royal family is too sad and disastrous for me +to repeat, and yet too visible not to be discerned.' We can have no +doubt that he tells the exact truth. Indeed the whole story fits +Charles's character to the smallest details. The want of any real +sense of justice, combined with the false notion of honour; the +implacable obstinacy; the contempt for that law by which alone he +held his crown; the combination of unkingliness in commanding a +private interview and shamelessness in confessing his own meanness-- +all these are true notes of the man whose deliberate suicide stands +written, a warning to all bad rulers till the end of time. But he +must have been a rogue early in life, and a needy rogue too. That +ten thousand pounds of Lord Bristol's money should make many a +sentimentalist reconsider--if, indeed, sentimentalists can be made to +reconsider, or even to consider, anything--their notion of him as the +incarnation of pious chivalry. + +At least the ten thousand pounds cost Charles dear. + +The widow's curse followed him home. Naseby fight and the Whitehall +scaffold were surely God's judgment of such deeds, whatever man's may +be. + + + +Footnotes: + + +{1} North British Review, No. XLV.--1. 'Life of Sir Walter +Raleigh.' By P. Fraser Tytler, F.R.S. London, 1853.--2. 'Raleigh's +Discovery of Guiana.' Edited by Sir Robert Schomburgk (Hakluyt +Society), 1848.--3. 'Lord Bacon and Sir Walter Raleigh.' By M. +Napier. Cambridge, 1853.--4. 'Raleigh's Works, with Lives by Oldys +and Birch.' Oxford, 1829--5. 'Bishop Goodman's History of his own +Times.' London, 1839. + +{2} I especially entreat readers' attention to two articles in +vindication of the morals of Queen Elizabeth, in 'Fraser's Magazine' +of 1854; to one in the 'Westminster' of 1854, on Mary Stuart; and one +in the same of 1852, on England's Forgotten Worthies, by a pen now +happily well known in English literature, Mr. Anthony Froude's. + +{3} Since this was written, a similar Amazonian bodyguard has been +discovered, I hear, in Pegu. + +{4} It is to be found in a MS. of 1596. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Sir Walter Raleigh and his Time, by Kingsley + diff --git a/old/srwal10.zip b/old/srwal10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d075563 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/srwal10.zip |