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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37080-8.txt b/37080-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ca719e --- /dev/null +++ b/37080-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10173 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Great Ralegh, by Hugh De Selincourt + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Great Ralegh + +Author: Hugh De Selincourt + +Release Date: August 14, 2011 [EBook #37080] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT RALEGH *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Katie Hernandez and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEGH] + + + + + GREAT RALEGH + + BY + HUGH DE SÉLINCOURT + + WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS + + NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS + LONDON: METHUEN & CO. + 1908 + + + + + + + TO + + MURIEL LEE MATHEWS + + _High Cross_ + + + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book has been written for the general reader. Caveat scholasticus. +My aim has been to make the character of Ralegh live again, and to draw +a picture of the times in as lively a manner as I see it. England in +Elizabeth's maturity touched greatness; in Elizabeth's old age and +during the reign of King James, England declined. Ralegh embodied the +greatest qualities of the great days, and survived to carry on the +Elizabethan tradition when the great Elizabethans had passed away. + +The books to which reference has been made are too many to need mention +in a book of this kind: dramatists, poets, pamphleteers, memoirists have +been freely pillaged. But I should like to acknowledge here my extreme +indebtedness to the works of Major Martin Hume, Mr. T. N. Brushfield, +and the late Mr. Edward Edwards, and to thank again Miss Janet Wheeler +for her kind help, notably in that arduous task--the making of an Index. + + H. DE S. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I + BIRTH PAGE + + The spread of news--Birth--Influence of birthplace--His + father--His mother 1 + + CHAPTER II + EARLY DAYS + + His early going to Oxford--Old Ascham on quick wit and + education--Life at a University--The Queen at Oxford--To + the wars in France--Henry Champernoun--Stories of the wars 11 + + CHAPTER III + TOWARDS MANHOOD + + Friendship with George Gascoyne--Its importance--Ralegh + in London--The arch-gossip Aubrey--Elizabethan London-- + Ralegh and Sir Humfrey Gilbert--The beginning of the great + enterprise 21 + + CHAPTER IV + THE ARRIVAL + + In Ireland--The state of the country--Cruelty of the + wars--At Rakele--Illustrative anecdotes--Smerwick-- + Ralegh's initiative--Lord Grey de Wilton--Exploit at + Bally--In touch with the home authorities 33 + + CHAPTER V + QUEEN'S FAVOURITE + + Court life--The Queen's position--Her character--She takes + notice of Ralegh--Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester--Sir + Philip Sidney--Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, and + Walsingham--Robert Cecil--The dress of the courtier--The + language of the courtier--The other side, and the other + Queen--Mary, Queen of Scots--The great intrigue--Its + discovery--Death of Queen Mary 44 + + CHAPTER VI + THE GREAT ENTERPRISE + + Scheme of colonization--Preparation--The sailing--Queen's + interest--Death of Sir Humfrey Gilbert--Another charter + obtained--King Wingina--Hospitality--Sir Richard + Grenville--Difficulties of first colonists--Personal + outfit--Misfortune 71 + + CHAPTER VII + BUSINESS MAN + + The Stannaries--His grasp of detail--"Do it with thy + might"--Estimate of squadron--Scheme of coast defence-- + The clash-mills of Mr. Crymes--Irish plans 88 + + CHAPTER VIII + AGAINST SPAIN + + Spain's enmity--The Armada--Ralegh's opinion of tactics-- + With Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys--The privateers 97 + + CHAPTER IX + RALEGH AND SPENSER + + Rise of Essex--Ralegh retires to Ireland--At Kilcolman-- + At Youghal--Friendship with Spenser--Brings Spenser to + Court--Their dreams 106 + + CHAPTER X + EVIL TIMES + + Ralegh and the Puritans--John Udall--Blount--Ralegh's + marriage--Queen's anger--In the Tower--His sincerity--The + Episode in the "Faërie Queene"--_Madre de Dios_--Robert + Cecil--Sherborne 114 + + CHAPTER XI + THE KINGDOM IN GUIANA + + Ralegh leaves England--Arrives at Trinidad--Taking of S. + Joseph--Interviews with Berreo--Dealings with natives-- + Starts up the river in boats--Dangers overcome-- + Adventures--They reach River Amana--Indian village-- + Within sight of Guiana--Toparimaca--Beauty of the land-- + Falls of the Caroli--The return--Voyage home--Arrival in + England 127 + + CHAPTER XII + CADIZ AND FAYAL + + Division of command--Ralegh's delay--Unwillingness of men + to serve--Disputes--Ralegh's wise plan of action--The + attack--The sack--Ralegh wounded--His small share of + spoil--Return home--Sends ship to Guiana--Death of Lady + Cecil--Robert Cecil's policy--Expedition to Azores-- + Fayal--Quarrel with Essex 150 + + CHAPTER XIII + THE UNDERMINING + + Robert Cecil in power--Downfall of Essex--Ralegh's opinion + of Essex--Governor of Jersey--Peril imminent 167 + + CHAPTER XIV + SUCCESSION PLOTS + + Possible successors to Elizabeth--Lord Henry Howard-- + Spies--Ralegh's position--The net is drawn round him-- + Letter of Cecil--Last illness and death of Elizabeth-- + Carey's ride to the North 178 + + CHAPTER XV + THE TRIAL + + Arrival of James VI. of Scotland--Ralegh in immediate + disfavour--Gondomar comments on James--Ralegh accused of + treason--Cobham and Brooke--Ralegh attempts suicide-- + Cobham's retractions--November 17--And the trial's infamy 195 + + CHAPTER XVI + THE KING'S FARCE + + Comments on Ralegh's fall--In the prison at Winchester-- + Ralegh begs mercy--His attitude explained--The King's own + farce--Ralegh removed to London 227 + + CHAPTER XVII + THE LONG IMPRISONMENT + + Ralegh's efforts to avert complete ruin--True greatness-- + Keeps in touch with life--First two years--The history-- + The first sentence--Reasons for incompleteness--James's + dislike of the work--Its greatness 238 + + CHAPTER XVIII + THE LAST JOURNEY + + Ralegh's influence with Queen and Prince Henry--Death of + Robert Cecil--Rise of Villiers--Liberty--The undying + endeavour--Anecdote--Preparations for expedition--Delays + and uncertainty--The King's treachery--The expedition + starts--Further delays--Storms--Captain Bailey--Ralegh's + illness--At Terra de Bri--His son's death--Return of + Keymis--Suicide of Keymis--Mutiny--The return 253 + + CHAPTER XIX + DEATH + + His reception--Arrest--Journey from Plymouth--Stukeley + and Manourie--The final scene 287 + + INDEX 305 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + SIR WALTER RALEGH _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + THE BIRTHPLACE OF SIR WALTER RALEGH, BUDLEIGH-SALTERTON 6 + _From a Photograph by F. Frith & Co., Ltd._ + + FRANCIS BACON 14 + + MAP OF LONDON 26 + _By kind permission of Dr. F. J. Furnivall_ + + QUEEN ELIZABETH 46 + + WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY 54 + + MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 68 + + A SAILING SHIP IN THE TIME OF RALEGH 78 + + GENERAL VIEW OF LONDON 100 + _From Thornton's "London_," 1784 + + ROBERT CECIL 124 + + KING JAMES I. 195 + + COUNT ARENBERGH 206 + + HENRY PRINCE OF WALES 254 + + PHILIP III. OF SPAIN 260 + + SIR WALTER RALEGH 270 + _From an Engraving by Vaughan_ + + TRAITOR'S GATE 294 + + + + +GREAT RALEGH + + + + +CHAPTER I + +BIRTH + + The spread of news--Birth--Influence of birthplace--His + father--His mother. + + +Life is a series of accidents more or less controlled; the play of +circumstances upon character infinitely various and infinitely involved. +Elizabethan life was superb for the reason that there were fewer men, +and they had the immense advantage of realizing their power and of +possessing scope for their energy. It was the age of discovery, not only +of new lands, but of discovery in every branch of life. Now, a man may +grow old before he has acquired an inkling of what has been found out, +before he has read what has been written finely. The world stands at +ease uneasily, and has time for shuffling and discontent. Vitality and +opportunity then worked in wonderful harmony. We are not less vital, but +our energy is apt to be stifled. Everything is so easy. We read day by +day what has happened throughout the world. There is nothing surprising +except our friends and ourselves--and they are apt to surprise us too +much. Effort begets effort, and effort, strength. The Elizabethan, +without railways, without posts, without telegraphs, was bound to rely +upon himself for everything. + +Man brought news to man by word of mouth, without warning or previous +discussion, or the help of photography. An errand-boy can now know more +easily what is happening in the whole world than a wise man could then +know of what was happening in his county. You did not know of a battle +till you saw the wounded fighters. + +They were shut out from the outside world, and from time to time +dramatically news fired their imagination and minds. And their minds +were trained so that they did not gape and wonder. Their minds were +stored with the wisdom of the Greeks and Romans, and were thrilled as +only trained minds can be thrilled, and roused to a veritable storm of +energy by the huge possibilities of life. The difficulties to be +overcome were material and romantic, and triumphs were more easily +attained. Life was as adventurous as the true tales of adventure that +were circulated at every fireside. + +Nowhere were these tales more frequent or fresher than near the great +sea-ports in Devonshire, where Walter Ralegh was born. The farmhouse +still stands, at Hayes, near Budleigh-Salterton. The country-side has +remained strangely the same in its appearance, a little more populous, +and, after waking to the arrival of trains, has sunk back to its long, +prosperous sleep, contented. No longer do strange ships with stranger +tidings disturb its rest; they are watched for and quietly expected; the +sailors land to learn news, and can tell little but gossip in return. No +longer do horses carry messengers on the Queen's service with packets +marked "_Haste_," "_Post Haste_," "_For Life_," galloping to the Queen's +Chief Secretary, in London. + +News was spread slowly; its effect must have been incredibly impressive. + +In the year 1552 Walter Ralegh was born. He was the second son of his +father's third wife, and so the universal accident of birth seems in his +case to be intensified. It was the sixth year of Edward VI.'s reign, and +an astrologer has noted that year as "a year remarkable in our +chronicles, first, for that strange shoal of the largest sea-fishes +which, quitting their native waters for fresh and untasted streams, +wandered up the Thames so high, till the river no longer retained any +brackishness; and, secondly, for that it is thought to have been +somewhat stained in our annals with the blood of the noble Seymer, Duke +of Somerset--events surprisingly analogous both to the life of this +adventurous voyager, Sir Walter Ralegh, whose delight was in the +hazardous discovery of unfrequented coasts, and also to his unfortunate +death." + +It is not possible to determine exactly the effect of these largest "sea +fishes" on his after-life; their coming may have been mere coincidence, +or it may have been that the same element of an unknown power that sent +the fishes hurrying to untasted streams, made Ralegh restless as the +fish. The point lends itself to straining by its nature, though it is +staidly mentioned by the staid biographer who has been quoted. + +The dominating influence of his life was not the date of his birth, but +his birthplace in the quiet of the country, and yet within the easiest +reach of the fabulous outside world. That influence cannot be +exaggerated. + +Old sailors, who, as young men, had sailed with Jaques Carthier, of St. +Malo, must have stirred the boy's mind with the stories of their +adventures up the river of Canada to Saguenay, where there was gold and +silver and red copper; how they visited the town of Hochelaga, their +captain very gorgeously attired; and how, when their guides had led them +to the midst of the town, they were saluted by the women first and then +by the men; and a comedy was rehearsed for their amusement until, borne +on ten men's shoulders, Agouhanna, the lord and king of the country, +wearing the skins of red hedgehogs in place of a crown, was brought in +and placed by the side of their captain, on a great stag's skin; and how +their captain, seeing the people's misery, read them in a loud, clear +voice the first chapter of St. John's Gospel. Tales, too, young Ralegh +would hear of other wild men and of their prodigious wealth, which they +knew not the value of; of rubies and of pearls bartered for iron and +toys; of the great creatures morses or sea-oxen, "which fish is very +big, and hath two great teeth, and the skinne of them is like Buffe's +leather, and they will not go away from their young ones." And at +Bristol was living Mr. Alexander Woodson, an excellent mathematician and +skilful physician, and he, writes Hakluyt, "shewed me one of these +beast's teeth which were brought from the isle of Ramea in the first +prize, which was half a yard long or very little less; and assured mee +that he had made tryall of it in ministring medicine to his patients, +and had found it as soveraigne against poyson as any Unicornes horne." + +With only a little less eagerness and a wiser discrimination between +fact and fable would the elders of the great Devonshire families, with +many of whom the Raleghs were connected, hear the news and plan schemes +for outwitting their rivals on the sea--the Spaniards--and perhaps +foresee the great part their sons would play in gaining for their +country prestige in this unclosing of the outside world. They would +spare no pains to make the youngsters worthy to carry on the great +tradition of Devonshire gentlemen under the splendid new conditions, +which were daily becoming more apparent. + +A fine stock were the Devonshire gentlemen who watched over the years of +Walter Ralegh's boyhood, whetting no doubt by their interest his +keenness in Latin and Greek, in fencing and riding, and training his +knowledge of men. Among the Gilberts and Champernounes and Raleghs and +Carews, there would be men as skilful in the handling of a ship as in +the proper management of a farm, and to all would young Ralegh listen +with his mind feverishly alert for information, and from all he would +learn what each could teach him. + +Old John Hooker, who lived at Exeter, and helped to write the +continuation of Holinshed's chronicle, knew the boy and took an interest +in him; as is easy to see from his proud reference to the Raleghs' +illustrious descent--royal even he would have it in despite of Sir +William Pole--and from his fine warning to young Ralegh when he was +emerging into distinction to remain worthy of it. "These all," he +writes, "were men of great honour and nobility whose virtues are highly +recorded sparsim in the Chronicles of England. But yet, as nothing is +permanent in this life and all things variable under the sun, and Time +hath devoured and consumed greatest men and mightiest monarchs and most +noble communities in the world--according to the old country saying, 'Be +the day never so long, yet at length it will ring to even-song'--so +this honourable race ... continued in great honour, nobility and +reputation, yet in process of time seemed at length to be buried in +oblivion. + +"Now it hath pleased God to raise the same even from the dead.... And +whereof cometh this that the Lord hath so blessed you, but only that you +should be beneficial and profitable to all men?" And he ends his +discourse, in which a note of almost fatherly concern is heard, with an +apt euphuism about the bee, to clinch his argument and perhaps to show +his knowledge of courtly style (did not he too go to London as member +for Exeter?) "As the bee is no longer suffered to have a place in the +hive than whiles he worketh, no more is that man to have place in the +public weal than whiles he doth some good therein." + +His father, too, was a man to know and appreciate his son's worth. He +had led no uneventful life, though he was, for the most part, +sequestered in the country. He took a leading part in the affairs of the +little town of Budleigh-Salterton. In the great Rising of the West, in +1549, he came perilously near to losing his life. He was riding with +some mariners from Hayes to Exeter, when he came upon an old woman +telling her beads; he stopped to ask her why she defied authority by +telling beads, and the old woman, furious, rushed into the church of +Clyst St. Mary, and inveighed against the gentlemen who would burn the +houses of poor folk over their heads. Ralegh had ridden on towards +Exeter; a body of insurgents overtook him, and he was saved from being +murdered only by hastening into a chapel by the road-side. But he went +on his way again, and again fell into the hands of the rebels; and this +time he did not manage to escape, but was shut up in the tower of a +church at St. Sidwell's--a suburb of Exeter in the hands of the +rebels--until Lord Grey of Wilton won the great battle of Clyst Heath, +in which four thousand perished, and relieved the siege of Exeter. The +incident serves to show the calibre of the father. + +[Illustration: THE BIRTHPLACE OF SIR WALTER RALEGH, BUDLEIGH, SALTERTON] + +But when young Ralegh was a boy, his father's adventurous days were +over; and in 1561 he is mentioned as churchwarden of East Budleigh +parish, and no doubt led his family regularly each Sunday to the family +pew, on which the family arms are still discernible, though much +disfigured--probably too at the command of King James I. of England, who +feared his too ambitious subject even after his death. Little the father +thought of that as he watched the little boy to see that he behaved with +propriety in church and did not sleep or play as little boys are wont to +do during a sermon. Old Ralegh, remembering the terrible reaction during +Mary's reign, would be specially punctilious in such matters; and +fathers then were not lenient to their children. Young Peter Carew, when +he played truant at Exeter Grammar School, was leashed to a great hound +by his father: and we are not told whether Peter and the dog were on +friendly terms. They may have become so; we will hope for Peter's sake +that they did. Certainly, with three young Gilberts, young Walter's +step-brothers--sons of Otho Gilbert--and a family of Raleghs of all +ages, there would be need for stern discipline in church as well as out +of church, and there is little reason for doubting of its existence, +though no account has been handed down of severity as ingenious as that +shown by Peter Carew's honest father. Probably, in young Walter's +upbringing, there was a touch of the ewe lamb, that would account in a +measure for the "naeve of pride" which was such a conspicuous feature of +his developed character. Not that he was spoiled; but his parents had a +soft place in their hearts for him, which he well would know of, and he +was not suppressed so rigorously as he would have been otherwise ... but +this is pleasant conjecture. + +His mother was a woman of character: "a woman of noble wit, and of good +and godly opinions," writes John Foxe of her, and proceeds to tell how +she visited poor Agnes Prest when she was in prison for having +Protestant opinions (that was when Mary was on the throne, and Philip +of Spain was powerful in England), and conversed with her before she was +burned at the stake on Southernhay. "Mistress Ralegh came home to her +husband and declared to him that in her life she never heard any woman, +of such simplicity to see, to talk so godly and so earnestly; insomuch +that if God were not with her she could not speak such things. I was not +able to answer her: I, who can read, and she cannot." + +The story does not relate what answer Mistress Ralegh wanted to give; it +does not necessarily show her a Catholic in sympathy, though she +probably did not sympathize with Agnes Prest's desire for martyrdom, and +wanted to prevent the old woman from losing her life in such a terrible +way. The story illustrates how inextricably religion was bound up with +patriotism, and what a quandary the ordinary peace-loving gentlefolk, +whose wish was to serve God and their country, must have been in, when +the interests of either changed with the sovereign. That was why +Elizabeth, by her policy of gradually cutting the ties that linked +England to the Pope and the countries under his authority, gave such +immense strength to the English; she united, as it were, the strength +drawn from patriotism and the strength drawn from religion, by forcing +England to rely on herself alone; and so she overcame the countries +weakened by the constant antagonism between the welfare of their +religion and the welfare of their state. She saw, as her father Henry +had seen, the value of religion as a political asset; and with cold +common sense she used that asset for all its peculiar worth. Her policy +is more praiseworthy than her religion. Never was woman less religious; +few women have been dowered with her state-craft. Religion and +patriotism became practically identical: their interests were no longer +conflicting. + +The Pope and his followers became, for adventurous Englishmen, +comfortingly akin to the devil and the devil's workers, to have at whom +has always been the privilege of good men since the world began. +Moreover, in this case the powers of evil were wealthy and pompous, but +unwarlike; and wealth is a pleasant perquisite to virtue. + +The time did not lend itself to contemplation. There was too much to be +done. It was a time of action. The material world, with all its +tremendous possibilities, was opening out before the astonished gaze of +Englishmen, and left but little time for the exploration of the +spiritual world. Men of action and men of art passed on their way +triumphantly, "if not to heaven--then hand in hand to hell." + +Young Ralegh would accept his religion from his parents much as he +accepted his sword, resolved to keep both bright and becoming a +gentleman. He was a man of the world; and the world then was boisterous +and unruly. Men revelled in life like boys; their code of honour was as +chivalrous and strange as that of boys. They lived, and they relished +living. + +Into this world young Ralegh went to make his way. He was poor, but had +friends who had caused the spirit of life to thrive in him, who had +nurtured his own belief in himself, and showed him what the world had in +store for the courageous and skilful man. He was proud and ambitious, +and few men have had better reason for pride, or have carried out their +ambition with such success as he. He was always an aristocrat; so +distinguished that ostentation became him, which, on a meaner man, would +have passed into vulgarity. He was the most romantic figure of the most +romantic age in the annals of English history. + +His life was fuller of great accidents than life is wont to be, and all +these accidents of good fortune and of bad he used to the full extent of +a man's power, and by so doing he controlled them and became the master +of his fate. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +EARLY DAYS + + His early going to Oxford--Old Ascham on quick wit and + education--Life at a University--The Queen at Oxford--To + the wars in France--Henry Champernoun--Stories of the wars. + + +Of Ralegh's early education little is known: it is uncertain whether he +was taught at home, or went to one of the Grammar Schools which Stowe +records with pride existed in nearly every country town. When he was +sixteen he went to Oriel College, Oxford, of which his kinsman, C. +Champernoun, was already a commoner, and sixteen was an early age, even +for an Elizabethan to go to the University. + +His kinsman's presence accounts in a measure for this early going (he +started most of his life's enterprises under their shelter, though in +the end he grew to overtop them), but his quick wit was another and the +chief reason. Old Ascham begs the fond schoolmaster to modify his +propensity for caning, and to discriminate between "the harde witte and +the quicke witte. But this I will say, that even the wisest of your +great beaters do as oft punishe nature as they do correcte faultes. Yea, +many times the better nature is sorer punished; for if one by quicknes +of witte take his lesson readelie, another by hardnes of witte taketh it +not speedilie: the first is alwaies commended, the other is commonlie +punished, when a wise schoolmaster should ... not so much wey what +either of them is able to do now, as what either of them is likelie to +do hereafter." He will have none of the quick wit. Slow and sure is his +adage. To him quick wits are "even like over-sharpe tooles whose edges +be verie soone turned." And Ascham was the Queen's tutor, and was +striking out a new line in his theme, in his treatment of it and in his +language. For a scholar of his calibre to write of the education of +little boys, and to write of it in English (fine English it is, too, +with its balanced cadences), demanded profuse apologies, which he is not +slow to offer, and to offer at full length in his preface. No apology +would be necessary now, when Education Bills have been known to overturn +Governments, or even a very few years later than Ascham himself; but in +Ascham's actual day, Latin was regarded as the language of the learned, +and dignity, which Ascham never lost, an attribute of learning. His +remarks are always judicious, and his summing up of the temperament, +which he calls the quick wit, is brilliant if not final. It is in the +nature of generalization to be limited. For there are many wits where +quickness and hardness, which he distinguishes so sharply, are as +memorably, as in the case of young Ralegh, combined--"sharpe tooles" +whose edges be never turned. Such incontestably was Ralegh. His mind and +his character (the motive force) were on the same level of strength; +neither preyed on the other, and he lived in a time when the world +offered scope, as never perhaps in quite the same way before or since, +to the resistless energy of united strength. + +But to return to Ascham, whose little treatise throws an invaluable +quiet light of its own upon the methods of the time, when he was old and +Ralegh was young, and upon the making of great men and the great need +of them--from its conception at the dinner party in the palace at +Windsor, to its finish, years later, when the old man turned once more +to the proper teaching of rudiments, doing his best for the younger +generation whose best would outstrip all that he had ever dreamed of in +his least scholastic moments. There is more than a touch of pathos in +his warnings, for all their staid wisdom, and in his fears lest the +young should be overcome by their "stout wilfulness"; blind as he could +not but be to the goal to which stout wilfulness alone could lead them. + +With a schoolmaster's conscious effort at broad-mindedness he would not +have the young one sit all day at his studies. "To joyne learnyng with +cumlie exercises Conto Baldesoer Castiglione in his booke Cortegiane +doth trimlie teache: which booke advisedlie read and diligentlie +folowed, but one year at home in England would do a yong ientleman more +good, I wisse, then three yeares travell abrode spent in Italie." And he +passes by way of example "two noble Primeroses of nobilitie, the yong +Duke of Suffolk and Lord H. Matrevers" (such a two as "our tyme may +rather wishe than looke for agayne") on to his famous invective against +the Italianating of Englishmen, with that constant note of sadness at +the falling off of the present generation. His ears were deaf to such +names as Sidney, Gilbert, Champernoun, Ralegh, names which time has set +at their proper value, and against which Ascham's noble primroses sink +into their proper insignificance. + +Ralegh was at Oxford only one year, and Anthony Wood writes: "His +natural parts being strangely advanced by academical learning, under the +care of an excellent tutor, he became the ornament of the juniors, and +was worthily esteemed a proficient in Oratory and Philosophy." He +seasoned his primer years at Oxford in knowledge and learning, a good +ground, as Hooker says, and a sure foundation to build thereupon good +actions. + +Only one incident is recorded of that year of his life, and that is +recorded by the illustrious Bacon in his apothegms. "... When Ralegh was +a scholar at Oxford there was a cowardly fellow who happened to be a +very good archer; but having been grossly abused by another, he bemoaned +himself to Ralegh, and asked his advice what he should do to repair the +wrong that had been offered him. Why, challenge him, answered Ralegh, to +a match of shooting." It would be interesting to know how the repartee +came to Lord Bacon's knowledge. + +[Illustration: FRANCIS BACON] + +It is about in the proportion that Ralegh filled his life, compared with +the ordinary way of living, that he took in one year out of Oxford what +most men required seven years to take; for seven years was the usual +time for a full course, and often, as in Germany to-day, men went from +one University to another. + + "Ein jeder lernt das was man lernen kann + Nur wer den Augenblick ergreifft das ist der rechte Mann." + +Not that life at the University was restrained and dull. Far from it. +Listen to Thomas Lever, who spoke of the work some twenty years before +Ralegh's time. "From 5 to 6 a.m. there was common prayer with an +exhortation of God's word in a common chapel, and from 6 to 10 either +private study or common lectures. At 10 o'clock generally came dinner, +most being content with a penny piece of beef amongst four. After this +slender dinner the youths were either teaching or learning until 5 p.m., +when they have a supper not much better than their dinner. Immediately +after they went either to reasoning in problems or unto some other study +until 9 or 10 of the clock, and then being without fire were fain to +walk or run up and down half an hour to get a heat on their feet before +they went to bed." This sounds splendidly strenuous, and shows what was +expected by the authorities, and the standard of the dons to which +doubtless many conformed. From Nash's trenchant pamphlets we see the +other side of the picture. Thomas Lever was a preacher: Thomas Nash was +not. It is while he is engaged in "pouring hot boiling ink on this +contemptible Heggledepeg's barrain scalp" (or as we should put it, +proving in controversy the errors of Gabriel Harvey) that he gives his +sudden glimpses of life and customs in town and university. "What will +you give me when I bring him uppon the Stage in one of the principallest +Colledges in Cambridge? Lay anie wager with me and I will: or if you +laye no wager at all, Ile fetch him aloft in Pedantius, that exquisite +Comedie in Trinitie Colledge: where under the cheife part from which it +tooke his name, as namely the concise and firking finicaldo fine +Schoolmaster, hee was full drawen and delineated from the soale of his +foot to the crowne of his head. The just manner of his phrase in his +Orations and Disputations they stufft his mouth with and no Buffianism +throughout his whole bookes but they bolstered out his part with ... +whereupon Dick came and broke the Colledge glasse windowes and Doctor +Perne (being then either for himself or Deputie Vice Chancellour) caused +him to be fetcht in and set in the Stockes till the Shew was ended and a +great part of the night after." + +This tells a less sombre tale, and when Nash begins to be scurrilous +about John Harvey, the third brother, and records "the olde reakes hee +kept with the wenches in Queenes Colledge Lane" (how strangely places +retain their character!), the tale becomes less sombre still. + +The Queen, too, would make journeys with royal visitors to the +University, as in 1566, when Stowe tells with pride that she made "on +the sodain an oration in Latin to the whole universitie of Oxford in the +presence of the Spanish ambassadors;" so that neither university would +be out of touch with the great world. Nor did the undergraduates keep at +the same respectful distance from royalty that they are wont to now, as +another delightful story of Nash about Harvey shows, who when the Court +was at Audley End came "ruffling it out huffty-tuffty on his suite of +velvet, to doo his countrey more worship and glory." He disputed with +the courtiers and maids of honour, and at last was brought to kiss the +Queen's hand, and the Queen was pleased to say that he looked like an +Italian, a compliment from which he never quite recovered. + +So there would be much to occupy the thoughts and attention of an +ordinary boy of sixteen. But Ralegh in a year was ripe for other things, +and left Oxford for the wars in France. The opportunity came through his +kinsman, Henry Champernoun, son of John Champernoun of Modbury, his +mother's eldest brother, raising a company of gentlemen to fight on the +Huguenot side: and Ralegh took the opportunity of active service. + +Very interesting are the steps in a great man's life. Chance seems to +play so small a part. The instinct to get the most out of his +personality becomes the conscious effort to which perhaps a great man +chiefly owes his greatness. + +Precisely in this way is the boy the father of the man, and Ralegh's +life is a pregnant example of it. He had, of course, no serious motive +for leaving Oxford. He longed for fighting and adventures, and seized +without a thought on the reckless impulse that led him to the wars, +laughing probably at the sad head-shaking of his staid tutors. But he +had learned how to learn: and his passion for life never damped his +passion for knowledge, and impulse led him to the discipline which his +nature demanded. The stern discipline and hardship of war were wanted to +impress him, while still pliant, with the proper value of things by +showing him with war's crude force the bare facts of life and death and +human nature. + +The strength and ability of the body told in those times, when man dealt +directly with man, and encountered nature at closer quarters than he +need now do, when her forces are fended off him and controlled for his +use in ways then only dreamed of. Being weaker, men were rougher and +more cruel. + +That is manifest in the punishments of the Government. Executions were +public. There was no other means for making the punishment known than by +making the punishment visible. A man paid for trespass against the laws +by disfigurement of his body--by branding on the forehead or palm, by +loss of ear or hand: any one dangerous, or who threatened danger to the +order with such difficulty established, was hung and quartered, or +burned, or beheaded, and his execution was public and a sight not to be +missed. The limbs of malefactors were exposed conspicuously at the +Queen's pleasure. + +Cruelty breeds fear, and fear breeds cunning. There was no longer the +shelter of the monastery for the timid or the thoughtful. Accordingly, +craftiness and conspiracy and secrecy prevailed in every corner of the +country. + +But there is the contrary side. The man who was able to be independent +of these circumstances of cruelty, rose above them to heights of +bravery and self-reliance and strength, which are almost unknown in more +peaceful times. There could be no monotony, or slackness of endeavour +when a mistake or a careless word, or even a foolish gesture, might +bring with it the consequence of death. A man was braced to continual +effort and unconquerable control, when a moment's lack of either might +mean life's actual ending, or a lifetime's long disgrace. There was no +place for mediocrity. Those were the days of heroes and nonentities; +soaring heroes, crawling nonentities. + +Thus the chance which led Ralegh to the French wars, and Ralegh's +readiness to seize that chance (chance by itself does little), were +fortunate in the extreme for the best furtherance of his personality's +development. + +In France the religious wars between the Guisards and the Huguenots had +broken out in the year 1562; and as Hayward, a contemporary chronicler, +recounts, "In regarde to her owne person and state the Queen considered +that if the Duke of Guise should prevail these fires of France both +easilie might and readilie would cast dangerous sparkes over the ocean +into England." She could not give aid openly to the Huguenots: but +privately she sanctioned the enterprises of gentlemen who offered their +services in aid of the Huguenots. For the real danger was that if the +Huguenots were wiped out, a formidably close union between France and +Spain might result. It was thus convenient that France should remain in +a state of unrest until England should become properly strengthened and +solidified in her isolated position. Elizabeth's actions were ruled in +this case, as in all cases, not by religious faith or by sympathy with +the people who were suffering death for their faith, but wholly by +political expediency. Religion with her was only a piece in the game, +and she respected it as the most valuable piece. It is easy to cry +"Shame!" and "Treachery!" when modern power over time and space has +modified the rules of the diplomatic game; but game it remains, and +truth in it still plays, and will always play, the subservient part of a +nice convention or a fine pretext. + +So those gallant gentlemen, who longed to fight and could find no more +excellent reason than faith for fighting, went with their companies to +France and fought their fill for the Huguenots. They realized the +unfortunate necessity to which the Queen of England was put in ordaining +that if they were taken prisoners a scroll should be pinned on their +breasts as they dangled from the gallows, on which it was declared that +they met their fate "for having come against the will of the Queen of +England to the help of the Huguenots." That, probably, only lent zest to +their endeavour. They would realize, too, that however the Queen of +England might be forced to act, Elizabeth in her woman's heart +sympathized deeply with the cause for which they fought; and Elizabeth, +be sure, with her woman's wit, did her utmost to encourage them in this +belief, and not without sincerity. + +Henry Champernoun, of whose band of gentlemen volunteers, gathered +mostly from Devonshire, Camden asserts that Ralegh was a member, was +famous among these Huguenot supporters, though not so famous as his +cousin, Gawen Champernoun, a son of Katherine, Ralegh's younger brother, +Sir Arthur. Gawen progressed so far that he became son-in-law to the +celebrated Count of Montgomery. No doubt Ralegh the nephew looked up to +his uncles. + +About his five or six years' absence in France (the date of his return +is uncertain) Ralegh is reticent, partly, as Edwards suggests, in +obedience to the maxim laid down in his "History of the World" which +runs, "Whosoever in writing a Modern Historie shall follow Truth too +near the heels it may haply strike out his teeth;" and partly, too, for +the reason that his experiences as a boy would be adventurous rather +than suggestive. He would have been too young to be enough behind the +scenes to know the motives of movements in which he took part, and the +motives would alone lend a broad or historical value to the adventures. +Among relations, youngness is commonly taken into full account. And +Ralegh, for all his ability, had not probably the opportunity given him +of seeing things other than as isolated incidents. As likely as not, he +was asked to leave the tent or the room when matters of moment were +about to be discussed. + +But certain anecdotes he recalls in his "History of the World," one of +which is well worth telling in his own good words, because it shows the +manner of fighting that prevailed in these wars: "I saw in the third +Civil War of France certain caves in Languedoc which had but one +entrance, and that very narrow, cut out in the midway of high rocks, +which we knew not how to enter by any ladder or engine; till at last by +certain bundles of straw, let down by an iron chain, and a weighty stone +in the midst, those that defended it were so smothered as they rendered +themselves with their plate, money and other goods therein hidden." + +He was not, however, always among the caves and hedgerows; almost +certainly he was in Paris in 1572, sheltering with Philip Sidney in the +house of the ambassador, Walsingham, when the terrible and famous +massacre took place during the night of St. Bartholomew's Eve, in which +the friends of the Duke of Guise boasted that more Protestants were +slain than in the whole of the twelve years of the war. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +TOWARDS MANHOOD + + Friendship with George Gascoyne--Its importance--Ralegh in + London--The arch-gossip Aubrey--Elizabethan London--Ralegh and + Sir Humfrey Gilbert--The beginning of the great enterprise. + + +Ralegh returned from France in 1575 or 1576; and there are three years +of his life--important years, from the age of twenty-three to +twenty-six--which contain little or no record of his doings. Some +authors, on the slenderest authority, maintain that he trailed a pike in +the Lowlands, under Sir John Norris. But this is unlikely. The time of +his possible presence there has been adroitly whittled down by William +Oldys to the early part of the year 1578, and quite recently a document +has been discovered bearing his signature, and the date of the deed is +April 11th, 1578. If the signature is genuine, and expert evidence +points to the fact that it is so, this is an additional, almost +conclusive, proof that during these three years he remained in England. + +There is another matter, intrinsically small, but exceedingly important +because it throws a great light on his pursuits at this time. To George +Gascoigne's satirical poem "The Steele Glas" is appended, among other +commendatory verses, a poem by Walter Rawely, of the Middle Temple, +which runs as follows-- + + "Swete were the sauce, would please ech kind of tast + The life likewise, were pure that never swerved + For spyteful tongs, in cankred stomaches plaste, + Deeme worst of things, which best (percase) deserved: + But what for that? this medcine may suffyse, + To scorne the rest, and seke to please the wise. + + "Though sundry mindes in sundry sorte do deeme + Yet worthiest wights yelde praise for every payne, + But envious braynes, do nought (or light) esteeme + Such stately steppes as they cannot attaine. + For who so reapes, renowne above the rest, + With heapes of hate, shal surely be opprest. + + "Wherefore to write, my censure of this booke + This Glasse of Steele impartially doth shewe, + Abuses all, to such as in it looke, + From prince to poore, from high estate to lowe + As for the verse, who lists like trade to trye, + I feare me much, shal hardly reache so high." + +Edwards thinks, and rightly, that the verses show an intimate friendship +with the poet in whose honour they were written; and "the poem itself to +me discovers," writes Oldys, with his own quaint charm, "in the very +first line of it a great air of that solid axiomatical vein which is +observable in other productions of Ralegh's muse. And the whole middle +hexastic is such an indication of his own fortune or fate, such a +caution against that envy of superior merit which he himself ever +struggled with, that it could proceed from no hand more properly than +his own." + +And these conjectures are strengthened into fact when it is remembered +(and this point seems hitherto to have been passed over) that Gascoigne +was a close friend of Sir Humfrey Gilbert, and a kinsman to Martin +Frobisher. "Now it happened," writes Gascoigne ("in a letter from my +lodging, where I march among the Muses for lacke of exercise in martial +exploytes"), "now it happened that my selfe being one (amongst manie) +beholding to the said S. Humfrey Gilbert for sundrie curtesies did come +to visit him in Winter last past at his house in Limehouse, and beeing +verie bolde to demande of him howe he spente his time in this loytering +vacation from martial stratagems: he curteously tooke me up into his +studie and there shewed me sundrie profitable and verie commendable +exercises which he had perfected painefully with his own penne: And +amongst the rest this present Discourse. The which as well because it +was not long, as also because I understoode that M. Fourboiser (a +kinsman of mine) did pretend to travaile in the same Discouverie, I +craved at the said S. Humfreyes handes for two or three dayes to reade +and peruse. And hee verie friendly granted my request, but still seming +to doubt that thereby the same might, contrarie to his former +determination be Imprinted." + +Ralegh would meet Gascoigne often at Sir Humfrey's house, and to +Gascoigne he probably owed his first impulse towards literature. For +George Gascoigne was the most considerable man writing at that time; and +though his work contained no actual greatness, it was very much on the +right lines, that is to say, he was steeped in Chaucer and Gower, and +acknowledged them his masters, rather than classical authors. Not that +he was ignorant of either Latin or Greek; on the contrary, he was +intimate with both, and his "Jocasta," which he adapted from an Italian +translation by Dolce of the "Phoenissć" of Euripides, was not only one +of the first plays in blank verse, but also was the first known attempt +to produce translated tragedy upon the English stage. + +And therein lies Gascoigne's chief quality. He was an innovator and +original, and that bespeaks force of character, a trait which must have +drawn young Ralegh to him. For like attracts like in a mysterious +manner. + +Gascoigne holds an interesting place in the literature of the time. +Since the publication of "Tottel's Miscellany," in 1557, there had, for +some thirty years, been a distinct lull in the output of poetry, and the +work of Gascoigne was a prelude to the revival that came about the years +1579-1582, when Sidney, Spenser, Watson, and Lyly first made their +appearance, the true harbingers of the mighty tempest of song that broke +upon the world in 1590, and continued for some twenty amazing years. + +He tried his hand, diffidently, as became a gentleman, at every form; +realizing and pointing out, as it were, the capacity of the great +instrument of the English language. "It is no mean feat," as an eminent +scholar says, "to rank in history as George Gascoigne ranks with fair +documentary evidence to prove his title as the actual first practitioner +in English of comedy in prose, satire in regular verse, short prose +tales, translated tragedy and literary animadversion" (in which word the +eminent scholar refers to a short technical account of the making of +English verse, prefixed to the "Steele Glas"). + +And apart from his writing, to which he devoted specially the last years +of his life, there would be much that he would have in common with young +Ralegh. Indeed, his life resembles in little the subsequent career of +Ralegh himself, and the device, "Tam Marti quam Mercurio," suited him as +nicely as it suited Ralegh who afterwards, by adopting the device, made +it famous. He was the son of a gentleman of Bedfordshire, Sir John +Gascoigne, and after going to Cambridge and being a member of Grays Inn, +he served in Holland fighting for the Dutch under William, Prince of +Orange, and had many strange adventures. On his return to London he had +some post at Court, the exact nature of which is not known, and he sat +twice as Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire. What is of special +interest is, that he was in close touch with the Earl of Leicester, and +Lord Grey de Wilton; for in 1575, when the Queen made her famous visit +to Kenilworth, it was Gascoigne who was commissioned to devise masks for +her entertainment; and it is Lord Grey de Wilton to whom he dedicates +the chief of his poems. Therefore it is extremely probable that young +Ralegh owed to him, if not his actual introduction to Leicester, at any +rate a great furtherance of Leicester's notice of Ralegh. It is surely +more than coincidence that Gascoigne's chief patrons should have also +been among Ralegh's principal helpers. + +And Gascoigne's early death, at the age of forty, in 1577, would impress +his influence upon his young friend, and that influence is discoverable +in the directness and freedom from literary affectation of any kind, +which is very noticeable in the work of both. And it is interesting to +speculate whether, without Gascoigne, Ralegh would ever have possessed +knowledge and insight enough to realize later Spenser's worth, which the +scholar Harvey (no mean authority at that time) completely failed to +see. Be that as it may, the friendship of Gascoigne and Ralegh +anticipates pregnantly that friendship of his with Spenser which was of +importance to the literature of the world. + +But Ralegh was no paragon of a young man continually engaged in staid +discourse with his elders. It is refreshing to have authority for a +different and delightfully human glimpse of his life. The authority is +Aubrey, and Aubrey loved gossip--and especially scandalous gossip--so +fervidly, that his stories bear the hall-mark of truth, apart from the +fact that they are too ridiculous to be worth even Aubrey's while to +fabricate. This is the tale, which Aubrey is careful to mention (his +solemnity in telling his gossip comes little short of genius), was +recounted to him by Dr. John Gell. "In his youthful time was one Charles +Chester, that often kept company in his acquaintance: he was a bold, +impertinent fellow, and they could never be at quiet for him; a +perpetual talker and made a noise like a drumme in a roome. So one time +at a taverne Sir W. R. beates him and seales up his mouthe (_i.e._ his +upper and neather beard) with hard wax." Probably Charles Chester took +this summary Elizabethan hint, but Aubrey throws no light on the hint's +effect. + +[Illustration: MAP OF LONDON] + +The little incident is typical, not so much of Ralegh, though it shows +his swift vigour, as of the times. Such a thing happening now would be +likely to cause a scandal which would be known to most of the civilized +world. Then the continents were being discovered which would now join in +the outcry of amazement or laughter. + +London was small. St. Paul's was the centre of life: Chepeside was the +main and fashionable street; the streets were narrow and the houses were +chiefly built of wood. The Mermaid Tavern was in Friday Street. There +were large residences with gardens in the city, public gardens on Tower +Hill, and green graveyards round the churches. The river, crossed by one +bridge--London Bridge--was in constant use; and a wall ran round the +semicircle of the city. Temple Bar, Holborn Bar, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, +Aldersgate, the bar at Smithfield, the bar on the Whitechapel +highway--the gates and bars tell the city area, and outside the walls +clustered the Liberties, where vagrants had their quarters. + +London was becoming crowded. In 1580 the Lord Burghley took measures to +stop the expansion of the city, and from his table of births and deaths +the population has been estimated at about ninety thousand. That figure +is only approximate. There was no actual census until some eighty years +later, when John Graunt, of Birchin Lane, at length succeeded in his +scheme. + +London was lively. Men lived much more in the streets. Merchants met +customers there, and lawyers conversed with their clients. "Newgate +Market, Cheapeside, Leaden Hall, and Gracechurch Street were +unmeasurably pestered with the unimaginable increase and multiplicity of +Market folkes, as well by carts as otherwise, to the great vexation of +all the inhabitants, annoyance of the streete trouble, and danger to all +passengers as well Coaches, Carts, etc. Horses as otherwise," writes +Howes, giving the reason why magistrates of the City, in 1615, reduced +the rude vast place of Smithfield into comely order for a market, and +the citizens began their new pavement of broad free-stone close to their +shops, and took down all the high causes in the Strand and Holborn. West +Smithfield was called Ruffian's Hall, because there the young men used +to fight with sword and buckler. Duelling was prevalent--one of the +sincerities of human life which bursts through the thickest quilted +formulas, as Carlyle ejaculates. Fighting was as common an amusement and +exercise as cricket and football are now. Every serving man, from the +base to the best, carried a buckler at his back. Rapier and dagger, +however, which began about this time, made fighting less common, for it +was far more dangerous than the manner of fighting with buckler and +sword. "It was usuall to have Frays, Fightes and Quarrels upon the +Sundayes and Holidayes, sometimes twenty, thirty and forty Swords and +Bucklers, halfe against halfe, as well by quarrells of appointment as by +chance: especially from the midst of Aprill untill the end of October by +reason that Smithfield was then free from dirte and plashes. And in the +winter season, all the high streetes were much annoyed and troubled with +hourely frayes of sword and buckler men who took pleasure in that +bragging fight. And although they made great shew of muche furie and +fought often, yet seldom any man hurt, for thrusting was not then in +use; neither would one in twentie strike beneath the waste by reason +that they held it cowardly and beastly." + +Pageants and processions enlivened the streets. The Queen and her +courtiers could not hold aloof, and did not wish to. The Queen shared +her father's liking for being on terms of cheerful repartee with the +people. A courtier's arrival was a small event, for he travelled in +state with a large retinue. Young gentlemen attached themselves to a +great man, and wore his colours. And the great man needed a large number +of followers, for his only means of keeping in touch with affairs and +with friends was by messenger, and such messengers were necessarily +brave and trustworthy men. + +Up the Thames came ships loaded, perhaps, with treasure from foreign +countries, and their men would land and spread news of battles in the +Netherlands or Spain; or they would have strange tales to tell of new +lands which they had found, of the manners of strange new peoples, of +adventures with bears or morses or Spaniards, tales of marvellous wealth +waiting for a daring hand to take, of countries where the sun never +set, of seas where meremaiden swam, and where the sound of the cracking +ice was loud as the crash of artillery. Small wonder that the poets +found inspiration in the London taverns, and that men lived almost in +the streets, where at any moment they might meet some fellow with a new +tale of the world's wonder that might very likely be true. + +London was no place in which a man could easily remain inert. The +unexpected constantly occurred on account of the dramatic way that news +was inevitably brought. News came like vivid flashes of light on +darkness, and these flashes were continual. + +Ralegh's energy had always been conspicuous, even in those times. He was +no slug, as Aubrey pithily puts it. And now it is that one of the great +ideas of his life came to him, perhaps the greatest. We hear of him as +connected with Sir Humfrey Gilbert's enterprise for discovering the +north-west passage. Sir Humfrey was instigated by his navigator's desire +to find a nearer passage to the East. But Ralegh widened in his mind the +scope of the scheme, with him it expanded into something immeasurably +greater. He saw the overcrowding of London beyond the limits of health +and of comfort, and this overcrowding was troubling the level head of +the great Burghley, who tried to cope with it by restricting the +building of new houses. Ralegh was a man whose nature always was "to +turn necessity to glorious gain." He saw the tremendous possibilities of +this superabundance of men, how, if they could be placed in these new +lands, they would prove of infinite value to the old country which, by +their presence, they were annoying. He knew that Spaniards had settled +in wild new lands, and lived there for a time like marauders, and +returned home with wealth which they had wrung from the natives. But his +idea was larger; it was the first proper plan of colonization, for his +imagination carried him far on into the future beyond the time of a +generation or two, beyond the seizing of immediate wealth. The vastness +of the scheme appealed to him; the difficulties he realized to be so +great that they were worth a man's while to grapple with. + +And the scheme held him by its enthralling interest, not only because he +was ambitious (as all men worth anything are), and saw in it a means of +furthering his ambitions; not only because he was patriotic, and saw in +it a means of furthering his country's good, but primarily for the +scheme's own sake. The idea obsessed him as an idea quite apart from its +consequences, and whether the result would be good or bad; that would +only be proved by the event, and that doubtless added enormously to the +interest. But an inventor or a pioneer in any new field, who thinks +chiefly of the consequences, does not get far on his journey. That part +of any action is more profitably left to his friends and his advisers, +and they are never far to seek. + +Those were not the days of specialization. Affairs were not so intricate +that an expert was needed to work out every branch of a subject. Less +was known too; and a man of average intelligence could learn all there +was to learn of most things without the standard of knowledge in each +making him appear ignorant of all. + +In June, 1578, Sir Humfrey Gilbert who, as has been said, had been +busily engaged for many years in the discovery of a north-west passage, +obtained a royal charter for the greater purpose. "Elizabeth by the +grace of God, Queen of England, etc. To all people to whom these +presents shall come, greeting. Know that of our especial grace certaine +science and mere motion we have given and granted and by these presents +for us our heires and successours doe give and grant to our trustie and +well beloved servant Sir Humfrey Gilbert of Compton in our Countie of +Devonshire knight, and to his heires and assignes for ever free libertie +and license from time to time and at all times for ever hereafter to +discover, finde, searche out and view such remote heathen and barbarous +landes countries and territories, not actually possessed of any +Christian prince or people, as to him his heires and assignes and to +every or anie of them shall seem good: and the same to have hold, occupy +and enjoy...." run the letters patent with their royal paraphernalia of +phrase. + +And in September, 1578, Gilbert had overcome the initial difficulty of +collecting provisions sufficient to victual his eleven ships for a year, +and of picking the right men for the enterprise, two matters of enormous +importance. In the latter he was not successful. Sir Francis Knollys +owned some of the ships, and his son went on the expedition. This son +sowed dissension where unity was a vital necessity; he insulted Sir +Humfrey Gilbert, and at length deserted. Contrary winds delayed the +expedition, which became disorganized, and after a fight with the +Spaniards was recalled. Ralegh was captain of a ship named the _Falcon_, +and that was in all probability his first engagement at sea. + +The expedition was on such a large scale that the Spanish authorities in +England clamoured for its recall; and there is ample evidence, as +Edwards remarks, to show that Ralegh was as much feared and hated in +1578 by the Spaniards, as ever he was at any later period of his +career. They tried always to thwart his great scheme of colonization, +the greatness of which they realized, seeing the danger of it to their +own possessions, and for a time they succeeded in their aims. + +It is in connection with this expedition that Ralegh's name first +appears in the Council Book. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ARRIVAL + + In Ireland--The state of the country--Cruelty of the wars--At + Rakele--Illustrative anecdotes--Smerwick--Ralegh's initiative-- + Lord Grey de Wilton--Exploit at Bally--In touch with the home + authorities. + + +The scene changes to Ireland, where the continual fighting served as a +training-ground--with France and the Netherlands--for the energies of +the young gentleman of the period. Ireland seemed at this time to popish +powers a suitable starting-place from which to overset the rule of the +woman Elizabeth, who dared to establish again a Church independent of +Rome, and to put her woman's self at the head of it. But the popish +powers were mistaken in their choice. It is true that the Irish were +devoutly Catholic; they were better pleased however to fight out their +own feuds than to join together in any way for any cause. They were +lawless and savage; and not even their hatred of the invading English +could serve to concentrate them. They were far too impatient for serious +warfare. They liked to come upon a foe--a Butler on a Geraldine--like a +whirlwind, fight a terrific battle, and make off to their homes to +listen to the songs by their bards, chanted in praise of their undying +prowess, "as those Bardes and rythmers doe for a little reward or a +share of a stolen cow," until the man of prowess praised "waxed most +insolent and halfe madde with the love of himself and his own lewd +deeds. Of a most notorious thiefe ... one of their Bardes will say, That +he was none of the milkesops that was brought up by the fireside, but +that most of his dayes he spent in armes and valiant enterprises, that +he did never eat his meat until it was won by the sword, that he lay not +all night slugging under his mantle but used commonly to keep others +waking to defend their lives, and did light his candle at the flames of +their houses to bade him in the darknesse ... and finally that he died +not bewayled of many, but made many waile when he died, that dearly +bought his death." + +Such men were not ripe for the burden of a great cause. But one Sanders, +an English Jesuit already past middle age, meeting with Fitzmaurice in +Spain, formed a capital project of passing over to Ireland, subduing it, +and passing from Ireland to England and driving out Elizabeth and her +nation of Protestants. + +In May, 1579, they landed at Dingle, after having on their voyage taken +a small Bristol vessel, the sailors and captain of which they pitched +into the sea. The landing at Dingle was impressive as the ceremony, +which inaugurated the coming of the true religion, must needs be. "Two +friars stepped first on shore; a bishop followed, mitre on head and +crosier in hand, then Sanders, with the consecrated banner, and after +him Fitzmaurice." + +But the expedition did not rise to the level of its inauguration. It +served only to stir up a savage rebellion in Munster, and to bring +devastation upon the country. + +It was to help quell the insurrection that Ralegh came to Ireland as +captain of a company of one hundred foot-soldiers at the end of 1579, or +the beginning of 1580. + +The war--if war it can be called--was carried on with savage cruelty on +both sides. Less could not be expected. The times were not gentle, when +little girls in London might see men hung and quartered, and limbs +stared down from the chief gates of most cities. Nor would mercy be +expected from generals who came to Ireland as Pelham came, and as Lord +Grey de Wilton came, regarding Ireland as the grave of reputation. To +Ralegh, too, the service was itself distasteful. He writes with +characteristic vigour of phrase to the Earl of Leicester, "I would +disdayn it as mich to keap sheepe. I will not trouble your honor with +the busyness of this loste land; for that Sir Warram Sentleger can best +of any man deliver unto your lordshipe the good, the bad, the mischief, +the means to amende, and all in all of this common welthe or rather +common woe." + +The English soldiery regarded the Irish as savages who would not live at +peace, and must be exterminated, with the exception of the actual +tillers of the ground or churls as they were called. And this point of +view was encouraged by those in authority, who had neither men nor money +to spare for guarding and feeding prisoners. "Death," as Froude says, +"was the only gaoler their finances could support." Nothing can +extenuate cruelty; but it is well to face the fact that cruelty, and +cruelty not greatly less atrocious than this, was an absolute attribute +of the Elizabethan age. The one quality, which runs through all the +pages of every history of every man and every movement, is +vitality--intense, burning vitality; and this vitality illumined the +literature, chaotic as much of it is, and beat pulsing through the veins +of the nation, explaining its magnificent advance, and enthusiasm and +greatness, even as it explains its brutality. England was like a boy who +is suddenly conscious of being strong and of being free, with all the +capacity of some young Hercules and all his reckless faults. + +When Ralegh joined the Irish service, Lord Justice Pelham was in the +position of Lord Deputy. Soon after his arrival, however, Pelham was +recalled, greatly to his pleasure, and Lord Grey de Wilton, Gascoigne's +patron and general in the Netherlands, undertook the command of the +forces, and the Earl of Ormond, an Irishman, was made Lieutenant of +Munster. These were Ralegh's chiefs; and his criticism of their methods +of management first brought him, as will be seen later, under the direct +notice of the great Burghley. + +As an active soldier, however, his exploits are exciting and +adventurous, and they are not hidden in the obscurity which hid his +exploits in France. The same Hooker who has been already quoted, records +them with pride in his continuation of Holinshed's Chronicles. + +Ralegh was once stationed with a troop of cavalry at Rakele under Lord +Grey. He was always a well-eyed man and observed that the Irish were in +the habit of hurrying down upon an encampment immediately it had been +abandoned. Accordingly, he made a plan to surprise them, and the plan +was successful. He captured a considerable number of prisoners. One of +the Irish carried a bundle of withies, and Ralegh went up to him and +asked him why he carried the withies. "To hang English churls with," was +the blunt answer. "Is that so?" said Ralegh. "They shall now serve for +an Irish kerne." And without more ado he bade his men hang him to the +nearest tree. The repartee was prompt and savage. It is typical of the +time that it should have happened; and intensely typical that a careful +record should have been made in contemporary history. + +Another time we read that Ralegh, on a small expedition to a certain +Lord Barry, of Barry Court, in a fight against great odds, twice at his +own personal peril rescued one Henry Moyle, who twice was caught in the +soft bog. "He was unhorsed, and stood with his pistol and quarter-staff, +one man against twenty." History does not relate what he said to Henry +Moyle on his return to camp. The two stories stand well side by side. At +the tragic sacking of Smerwick Ralegh was one of the captains ordered to +carry out the last desperate instructions: the siege is illustrative not +only of that bad Irish campaign, but also shows what a personal part +high officers used to take in battles. + +A second band of Papal soldiers, comprised of Italians, Spaniards and +Frenchmen, came to Ireland in 1580, and made Smerwick their +headquarters, a fort on the shore fully exposed to the Atlantic winds. +Here Lord Grey came upon them, but was obliged to wait eight days with +his men until Sir William Winter arrived in Ventry harbour with cannon +and ammunition, and at length joined Admiral Bingham in Smerwick Bay. +Lord Grey galloped down over the sands to welcome Winter. Speedily the +cannon were landed and placed in position before the fort, and the +bombardment began. The English crept nearer after the first day, until +the cannon were within a cable's length of the wall, and Sir William +Winter himself taking careful aim, brought down the enemy's chief piece, +and a man appeared on the ramparts waving a white hand-kerchief. The +firing ceased. Then Signor Jeffrey, an Italian, came to entreat grace +from the Lord Deputy, but grace was refused him. "Afterward their +Coronnel Don Sebastian came forth to intreate that they might part with +their armes like souldiers, at the least with their lives according to +the custome of war ... it was strongly denied him and told him by the +Lord Deputie himselfe that they could not justly pleade either custome +of warre or lawe of nations--for that they were not any lawfull +enemies...." The Pope sent them? asked Lord Grey de Wilton, and declared +himself surprised, the bitter old enthusiast, that gentlemen should +undertake a commission from "a detestable shaveling the right antichrist +and patron of the doctrine of devils." He would only agree to wait till +morning. So on the morning of the next November day, the garrison, seven +hundred men, piled their arms, and with a few women and children stood +waiting, while the great Atlantic waves beat coldly, sullenly on the +shore. "Then put I in certain bands who fell straight to execution," +writes Grey, with grim brevity. Six hundred men in all were slain that +November morning, and Grey had the bodies stripped and laid in neat +lines upon the shore, and Grey looked at them without emotion, and +thought them "as gallant and goodly personages as ever I saw." So he +wrote to the Queen, informing her of the victory, and the Queen wrote +back thanking him, adding a postscript in her own hand (a special mark +of honour) warmly approving of his action: and Camden courteously lies +when he says that Grey shed tears and Elizabeth wished the cruelty had +been unnecessary. Captain of one of these "certain bands" was Walter +Ralegh. Edmund Spenser was at this time secretary to Lord Grey de +Wilton, and he writes in that scholarly graphic treatise in dialogue +form, which has been already quoted, namely the "View of the State of +Ireland"--"Whereupon the said Coronell did absolutely yeeld himselfe and +the fort, with all therein, and craved only mercy, which it being not +thought good to shew them, for danger of them, if, being saved they +should afterwards join with the Irish; and also for terrour to the Irish +who are much imboldened by those forraigne succours, and also put in +hope of more ere long: there was no other way, but to make that short +end of them as was made." Thus writes Edmund Spenser, the author of the +"Faërie Queen," a man not famous for his ferity. + +Praise and blame are easy to dispense: but they are dangerous +commodities. They raise too freely the thick white dust of prejudice +which even dims eyes which are anxious to observe a neighbour, and +effectually blinds eyes that wish to peer into the recesses of a bygone +age. Let us be glad if we are more human and more humane, and avoid +hugging ourselves too closely on imagined superiority. Violent death +stalked down every alley of life; and violent death is not more dreadful +than the haggard existence in which millions are nursed to-day. Our +cruelty is a little less apparent, and more respectable. That is at any +rate something. Let us be thankful for that, and let us by all means +subscribe to the Home for Lost Cats. + +But Ralegh was not content with the perils and excitement of active +service. He possessed initiative. He saw the masses of money that were +being spent, and saw that full value was not being obtained. The war in +his opinion was being mismanaged. He did not hesitate to write to the +authorities at home, stating in round terms what his opinion was. It is +not surprising that Lord Grey de Wilton was annoyed by the young man's +audacity. "I neither like his carriage," he writes to Walsingham, "nor +his company: and therefore other than by direction and commandment, and +what his right can require he is not to expect at my hands." Apart from +the administration of the war there was little in common between the two +men. Lord Grey was a staunch Protestant, unwavering in his religious +zeal, and blind in his hatred of Popery. He would have passed through +Ireland, had he had his will, with the sword gripped in one hand and the +Bible and the English Prayer-book clasped tightly in the other. + +Ralegh was not that order of man. There was nothing grim and nothing +austere about him. He was a man of address. Lord Grey was stiff and +blunt, a Puritan a little before his proper time. Very characteristic is +the sentence in his letter to the Queen, telling of the death of young +Cheke. "So wrought in him God's spirit, plainly declaring him a child of +his; elected to be no less comfort of his good and godly friends than +great instruction and manifest motion of every other hearer that stood +by, of whom there was a good troop." He was inclined to regard most +things from the standpoint of religious experience. He was not addicted +to humanity. + +The Irish were not only rebels against his country; they were what was +far worse--rebels against his own faith, and he sullenly objected to any +measures which might serve to bring them into line with English +interests. He wished to force his own salvation upon them rather than to +make them useful subjects of the Queen. + +That must have been where Ralegh chiefly differed from him. And there is +an interesting example of this difference and of one of Ralegh's chief +powers, to wit his influence over men. For Ralegh was wise and politic. +He saw the state of affairs in Ireland and formed in his mind a definite +plan of action--to use Irish factions to English purpose, and not to +allow them to try and join under the cause of another religion. The most +dangerous enemies were the crafty instigators in the background; and one +of the most influential of these was an Anglo-Irish chieftain, named +Lord Roche, who lived at Bally, some twenty miles from Cork where Ralegh +was stationed. Ralegh convinced Lord Grey of the importance of bringing +this feeder of revolt as prisoner to Cork, and undertook to do so +himself with his small band of followers. And this he did by sheer +dexterity and daring in the teeth of overwhelming difficulty. For the +Seneschal of Imokelly, one Fitz-Edmonds, had wind of Ralegh's intention, +and lay in ambush for him with eight hundred men. But Ralegh outwitted +him by his speed and dashed with his small party through the ambuscade. +That was not all. Arrived at Bally, he was met by five hundred townsmen +and tenantry of Lord Roche. These men he held at bay with the larger +part of his band, and himself, with six chosen men, rode on to Lord +Roche's castle. At the gate he called out that he desired to speak with +Lord Roche, and was answered that he would not be permitted to enter +with more than two followers. But while he and the seneschal were +parleying, the six of them slipped into the gate, and gained admission +for another party which Ralegh had bidden follow him at a short +interval, the attention of the warders being engaged by Ralegh, so that +before the Irish knew what had happened, they found the castle courtyard +full of musketeers, armed and standing to attention. Ralegh meanwhile +was in the presence of Lord Roche, who was forced to treat the intruder +as a guest, and sturdily maintaining his loyalty to the Queen, ordered +his servants to bring in a banquet. Ralegh listened with all courtesy; +and said that it was the will of the Lord Deputy of Ireland to hear with +his own ears this noble confession of loyalty, and that he must beg +leave to escort Lord Roche and his family to Cork. Lord Roche demurred. +Ralegh insisted. It is difficult to decide whether the situation +appealed more strongly to his sense of humour or to his sense of power. +The Irish chieftain at his own table in the banqueting-hall of his own +castle, surrounded by his men and the young captain with his two +soldiers inside, some dozen in the courtyard and a few more dozen in the +town, twenty miles from any assistance! "Desperation begetteth courage +but not greater nor so lively as doth assured confidence," he wrote some +thirty years later. Now his courage was certainly backed by both. + +Gradually Lord Roche came to realize the inflexible determination of the +young man; and agreed to what by Ralegh's inevitable personal strength +of will became his only possible course. He consented to go to Cork, and +went. The story does not end here. Not only did he go to Cork, but from +being the Queen's dangerous foe, he became, through Ralegh's influence, +the Queen's loyal supporter and staunch friend, and three of his sons +actually were slain fighting for the Queen's cause in Ireland. That was +one of Ralegh's triumphs. It shows the mettle of the man and his power +over others, and more than that it bears out strikingly a distinct line +of policy, which he formed then and expressed later, in dealing with the +disaffected. Minding these Irish experiences, it is interesting to read +what he says of Amilcar's treatment of the mercenaries in revolt. +"Against these inconveniences, Mercy and Severity, used with due +respect, are the best remedies. In neither of which Amilcar failed. For +as long as these his own soldiours were in any way likely to be +reclaimed by gentle courses, his humanitie was ready to invite them. But +when they were transported with beastly outrage beyond all regard of +honesty and shame, he rewarded their villainie with answerable +vengeance, casting them unto wilde beasts to be devoured." + +Moreover, it is certain that Lord Burghley respected Ralegh's judgment, +for there is a remarkable paper extant written in the handwriting of +both, which shows that Burghley conferred privately with Ralegh about +the Irish rebellion. The document is dated October 25, 1582, and is +inscribed with the words, "The opinion of Mr. Rawley upon motions made +to hym for the meanes of subduyng the Rebellion in Monster." And in it +the point upon which Ralegh chiefly insists is the pressing need to win +over the Irish chieftains to the Queen's cause; as he had himself +already done conspicuously in the case of Lord Roche. + +There is a story that Ralegh owed his first introduction to the Queen's +favour by his address in a conference before her, in which he proved his +opinion, man to man, against Lord Grey de Wilton, his superior; but +whether this story with all its dramatic possibilities is valid or not, +it is certain that his conduct in Ireland brought him into great notice: +and he was not the man easily to slip from any advantage he had gained. +We hear of him joining the Earl of Leicester in a state mission to the +Netherlands, and then he bursts into final brilliant prominence as +courtier and his Queen's favourite. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +QUEEN'S FAVOURITE + + Court life--The Queen's position--Her character--She takes + notice of Ralegh--Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester--Sir Philip + Sidney--Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, and Walsingham-- + Robert Cecil--The dress of the courtier--The language of the + courtier--The other side, and the other Queen--Mary, Queen of + Scots--The great intrigue--Its discovery--Death of Queen Mary. + + +The Court was the brilliant feature of the time. The Court was not +confined to ceremonial functions and presentations--it was not a bath in +which a man or a woman must be dipped before he or she could lay any +real claim to distinguished respectability. The Court had a vivid +existence of its own. "It was the centre, not of government alone, but +of the fine arts: the exemplar of culture and civilization." The Court +held a lien on the gaiety and life of the time. Courtiers and merchants +(the two chief classes) were as distinct as a little later were town and +gown at the Universities. To be a proper courtier became a cult. + +Three great books, extraordinarily typical of the Renaissance, were +written in almost identical years, books which pointed to new scope for +the State, for the Prince, and for the private man. In 1513 Machiavel +completed _The Prince_, in 1516 Sir Thomas More's _Utopia_ was +published, and in the same year Count Baldassare Castiglione finished +his _Book of the Courtier_. + +The dream of the Utopia may never be realized; but in some seventy-five +years a close example of the Prince and of the Courtier were found in +Queen Elizabeth, and in many of the men who surrounded her. _The Book of +the Courtier_ was translated into all the languages of Europe, and +became the text-book of the cult. Its English translator was Thomas +Hoby, and his work, as has been seen, was commended by the judicious +Ascham. Castiglione was chaffed for moulding his own conduct precisely +on the model of the perfect courtier he portrays in his book; and he +could not but confess that the man of his imagination was the man he +would choose to be. And, indeed, it would be what every courtier would +aspire to be, as Wordsworth's Happy Warrior, + + "This is the happy Warrior, this is he + That every man in arms should wish to be." + +The Courtier must be gallant in the use of arms, proficient in all +exercises of the body, skilled in all exercises of the mind; he must be +ready and witty of tongue; he must be well-born and distinguished. But +his realm is beyond the mere enterprise of accomplishments and birth. +For the book ends with Bembo's great praise of Beauty--that Beauty +"which is the origin of all other beawtye, whiche never encreaseth nor +diminisheth always bewtifull and of itself ... most simple. This is the +beawtye unseperable from the high bountye, whiche with her voyce calleth +and draweth to her all thynges...," and an understanding of this +Heavenly Beauty must be the final trait of the Perfect Courtier. + +And it is well to bear this in mind. For this feeling for beauty existed +in the Elizabethan courtier, just as it gave the finishing touch to +Castiglione's hero; and existed as really as the more conspicuous +qualities of gallantry and strength and intellect. Vitality, as has +been said again and again, was the keynote of the age; and it is +apparent in this aspiration towards beauty, just as it is apparent in +reckless cruelty. The compass of the age was immense. And every +instinct, every tendency of brute or god, raged with intense life, and +was expressed Nothing lay dormant. The centre of all this life, of all +this genius for living was the Court; and the illustrious head of the +Court was Queen Elizabeth. + +Guy de Maupassant has written a story of a small band of French soldiers +who are at the last gasp with hunger and weariness and cold. They cannot +march any further. They are content to lie down in the snow and die. But +two fugitives come running to them, an old man and his grand-daughter, a +young girl. "Allons les camarades," cries the Sergeant Pratique, "faut +porter cette demoiselle-lŕ ou bien nous n' sommes pu Français, nom d'un +chien." So the worn-out men forget their weariness and carry her; they +dare the cold and strip off their overcoats to keep her warm; they find +new courage and drive back a party of the enemy, and they reach the +French lines in safety. "What's that you're carrying?" asks a soldier. +"Aussitôt une petite figure blonde apparut, depeignée et souriante qui +répondit, 'C'est moi, monsieur.' Un rire s'éleva parmi les hommes et une +joie courut dans leurs coeurs. Alors Pratique agita son képi en +vociferant, 'Vive la France.'" + +There in little is the exact nature of Elizabeth's influence, and her +influence was conscious and acted, not upon the immediate Court alone, +but upon England. De Maupassant does not give any details of the girl, +nothing of her character, not even her name. They are not relevant to +his purpose. She may have as many faults in her small way as Elizabeth +had in her great way. He does not mention them. + +[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH] + +Such a mass of detail, however, is known about Elizabeth, and her +faults have been so relentlessly exposed in the interest of Truth--her +meanness, her avarice, her treachery, her wantonness, and what not--that +the whole picture of the woman who was learned enough to speak in public +impromptu in Latin and could converse in many languages, of the woman +who was great enough to cause her own worship to be the fashion, and the +sincere fashion, of the woman who was sufficiently beautiful and +sufficiently distinguished to shine like a diamond on the forehead of +that resplendent age,--is almost lost to view, so clouded with the dust +of detraction has that picture become. + +She was the very epitome of the time. All the brutality and energy and +brilliance of that brutal, vital age found their counterpart in her. And +she was a woman, a fitting contemporary of Catherine de Medicis. But she +was too much a politician to be a good woman; and too much a woman to be +a good politician. + +To all the power which a beautiful woman, and a woman strong in body and +intellect and passion, always has possessed and always will possess, she +added the prestige of being Queen of England. Whereas the passions of +her father threw Europe into confusion, the love affairs of Elizabeth, +less impetuously managed, often held the balance between nations and +brought every royal prince to England as suitor for her hand, and the +great English courtiers scowled or laughed at them, but were kept in +allegiance by their sovereign. + +Wit, birth, and bearing found favour in her sight. There was no room at +her Court for a fool. She loved wit as she loved splendour. + +The Queen had heard of Humfrey Gilbert's nephew from Humfrey Gilbert's +aunt, one of her intimate attendant women; and when Ralegh first came +into notice by his exploits in Ireland, she was inclined to favour him. +She was interested in his career, as a letter bears witness in which she +writes, "... for that our pleasure is to have our Servaunt Walter Rawley +treyned some longer tyme in that our realme for his better experience in +Martiall affaires, and for the special care we have to doe him good in +respect of his kyndred that have served us some of them (as you knowe) +neer aboute our Parson: theise are to require youe that the leading of +the said bande may be committed to the said Rawley." + +Many stories are extant about his first meeting with Elizabeth. Truth +hides in all of them. Some say that the Queen was present when Lord Grey +de Wilton and young Ralegh were put face to face in a council chamber +before Lord Burghley, and that she was struck by the power and skill +with which he made good his case, proving the lack of judgment Lord Grey +had shown in conducting the affairs of the war. Old Thomas Fuller, that +worthiest of his own worthies (he had an eye for romantic effect, +steadfast as he was for truth in matters of importance), relates that +"Her Majesty, meeting with a plashy place, made some scruple to go on; +when Ralegh (dressed in the gay and genteel habit of those times) +presently cast off and spread his new plush cloak on the ground, whereon +the Queen trod gently over, rewarding him afterwards with many suits for +his so free and seasonable tender of so fair a footcloth. Thus an +advantageous admission into the notice of a prince is more than half a +degree to preferment." Industrious Fuller does not leave it at that; he +proceeds to tell how Ralegh wrote on a window in the Queen's presence, + + "Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall," + +and how the Queen added with more grace than rhythm, + + "If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all." + +Ralegh's heart did not fail him. He became the Queen's lover; and his +influence over the Queen was so recognized that Tarleton, the famous +comedian, dared, during a performance, to add point to the words, "See, +the knave commands the queen," by stretching out his hand towards +Ralegh, who stood by the Queen. And Elizabeth, it is recorded, frowned. +Swift was his ascent to fortune, came the first step how it may. + +Elizabeth was too clever to try to lay aside her sex, though she was a +skilful markswoman, an able horse-woman. Even her staid Archbishop +Whitgift she used to tease, saying (as Isaac Walton gravely records as a +fair testimony of her piety) that "she would never eat flesh in Lent +without obtaining a License from her little black husband: and that she +pitied him because she trusted him." + +She was so born a Queen that she was able to do and say the most +dangerous things without losing her distinction, or lessening her +dignity. + +And it is small wonder in those days when in England the whole force of +the Renaissance turned as it were to a rapture of patriotism that such a +Queen should be the visible emblem of the country, and be herself +worshipped. Men might rave at her whims, they were driven frantic by +them, but in their hearts they cherished her as Queen of themselves and +Queen of their country. Fortunately for herself, and fortunately for +England, her intellect mastered her passions, though that does not +prove that she was passionless: far from it. There is nothing to justify +that last scandal of a moral age which would damn her as a feelingless +flirt. Lord Bacon, the wise Baron of Verulam, summed the matter up +pithily, attaching its right value to the question, which, after all, is +a paltry one, when, in writing on the Fortunate Memory, he says: "She +suffered herself to be honoured and carressed and celebrated and +extolled with the name of Love; and wished it, and continued it beyond +the suitability of her age. If you take these things more softly, they +may not even be without some admiration, because such things are +commonly found in our fabulous narratives of a Queen in the Islands of +Bliss, with her hall and her institutes, who receives the +administrations of Love, but prohibits its licentiousness. If you judge +them more severely, still they have this admirable circumstance, that +gratifications of this sort did not much hurt her reputation, and not at +all her majesty; nor ever relaxed her government, nor were any notable +impediment to her State affairs." And it must be remembered that the +times were neither fastidious nor gentle, and that when Bacon says +licentiousness (_lasciviam_ is the Latin word he uses) he meant +licentiousness. Elizabeth was too sane, and too clever, and too busy to +have time to be licentious: just as she could not have retained her +control over men and control over herself, seen in the adroit way in +which she managed the foreign princes, if she had remained what is +called pure. + +Masterly was her knowledge and treatment of men. Roughly speaking, they +were divided into two classes; those whom she liked, and those whom she +valued: but she kept them all imperiously to her will. The great +Burghley was her man of business; he and his son Robert Cecil were her +chief statesmen, and well she knew their value: capricious and exacting +as she might be, she respected their advice and gave way to it. +"Burghley," wrote Leicester, at the height of his arrogant power, "could +do more with her in an hour than others in seven years." And he wrote +concerning some political business. Never, when Leicester had most +influence with the Queen, did she ever allow him to control her +political actions, or in any way to supplant Cecil. + +Robert Dudley, born about the year 1532, made Earl of Leicester in 1564, +enjoyed the Queen's good-will more continuously and more to his +advantage than any other of her lovers. He was regarded as the chief man +in England by the ambassadors of foreign princes: he was for a long time +the most magnificent. But Elizabeth kept always to her maxim, that +England should be a country with one mistress and no master; much to +Leicester's displeasure. His desire was to be master. He suggests a +comparison with Milton's Satan, "better to reign in Hell than to serve +in Heav'n," when he tried, and tried with conspicuous ill-success, to +become King of the Netherlands. By the old nobility, staunch Sussex and +proud Norfolk, he was hated. With the Duke of Norfolk, he on one +occasion came to blows, when, during a game of tennis, of which the +Queen was a spectator, he snatched her pocket-hand-kerchief to wipe the +sweat from his forehead. They thought him saucy and overweening. To the +Queen his insolence was not unpleasant. Cecil disliked him (he does not +appear a man to hate any one) and judiciously draws up papers +contrasting Leicester and other suitors, especially the Archduke +Charles, much to Leicester's disadvantage. But for all his glitter and +influence, he was hated by the English people. His name had an ill sound +ever since the untoward death of his wife, Amy Robsart. Though the +pamphlet _Leicester's Commonwealth_ is wholly unreliable, which among +other slanders, states that the Lady Amy was actually murdered at his +command, it is most probable that she committed suicide through misery +at her neglect. Well enough men knew what was meant when the husband in +the _Yorkshire Tragedy_ says, after he has thrown his wife down and +slain her: + + "The surest way to charm a woman's tongue + Is--break her neck: a politician did it." + +They thought of the stone staircase at Cumnor and shuddered. The people +did not like his way of cheapening their Queen's good name: they did not +like the man who caused scandals to arise round her. In 1560 Anne Dowe +of Brentford was imprisoned for asserting that Elizabeth was with child +by Robert Dudley; and she was the first of a long line of offenders who +were punished for the same assertion. + +And just as men hated Dudley for his arrogance, and for his daring to +think even of setting himself beside their Queen, so they loved his +nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, for the grace which his hand brought to +everything which he touched. He fulfilled the ideal of Castiglione's +Courtier. He was the antithesis of the rough, unmannered Dudley. In +Dudley all the cruelty and ostentation and savage power of the time seem +to find expression; whereas in Philip Sidney, all its grace and skill +and poetry were manifest. Men vied with one another in his praises, men +fought for the right to call him friend, and a woman became immortal by +being "Sidney's sister." "Sidney, the Siren of this latter age," writes +Barnefield; "divine Sir Philip," Michael Drayton calls him; and Ben +Jonson, as though in defiance of the charge of exaggeration utters (you +can hear him say it), "the godlike Sidney." Even the ribald Nash lowers +his mad voice to the note of reverence, "Apollo hath resigned his Ivory +Harpe unto Astrophel and he, like Mercury, must lull you a sleep with +his musicke. Sleepe Argus, sleep Ignorance, sleep Impudence, for Mercury +hath Io and onely Io Paean belongeth to Astrophel. Deare Astrophel, that +in the ashes of thy Love livest againe like the Phoenix; o might thy +bodie (as thy name) live againe likewise here amongst us; but the +earthe, the mother of mortality hath snacht thee too soone into her +chilled cold armes, and will not let thee by any meanes be drawne from +her deadly imbrace; and thy divine Soule, carried on an Angels wings to +heaven, is installed in Hermes place sole prolocutor to the Gods." His +life was a poem, which all the men who lived with him, and all the men +who knew his name, were great enough to read and to appreciate; his +death is an example for all time. Fame with its common story cannot +sully the brightness of the superb sacrifice of that superb self. + +Dudley expressed the presumptuous vitality of the Court, and Sidney its +vital poetry. A little aloof from the Court, which he was apt to regard +with kindly disdain at its frivolity, moved the staid figure of +Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer of England, Elizabeth's great man of +business, perhaps the finest political intelligence that has ever +thought out a way for a country through the most complicated +difficulties, at a time when disaster crouched ever ready to spring and +involve that country in ruin. + +William Cecil had an absolute mastery over every detail; he possessed a +genius for arrangement. Nothing escaped his notice. He was a kind of +machine which attracted all the wild impulses of the time; they passed +into the machine's mouth disordered, unarranged; and they passed out +shaped, controlled by his slow inevitable will. As a statesman he +appears hardly human in his freedom from all personality; he seems a +mask hiding the brain of England, and regulating it to the only end +where success could be. Men rose to fame fiercely struggling, and did +brilliant acts or mad acts, and sank again or settled as the case might +be; but always at the supreme head, always alert, always careful, +impassive as some Eastern Buddha, sat the Lord Burghley, managing the +affairs of the state, managing even the state's impulsive, whimsical +mistress. His impassivity afflicted her at times, so that she played +pranks on him, vainly endeavouring to upset his restraint and his +dignity; but her pranks were hardly heeded. He was English to the solid +backbone, and resisted unequivocally the rage of fashion that went out +towards all that was foreign; and yet his foreign policy was unswerving +and level-headed; he looked upon war as the last terrible resource of +state-craft, in an age in which fighting was regarded as the highroad to +glory, and was loved for its own wild sake. Elizabeth showed her +knowledge of the right word when she called him her "spirit" and her +"oracle"; and the courtiers their discernment of the obvious, when they +called him "old fox." Together the two names describe him with some +accuracy. + +At his right hand worked Sir Francis Walsingham, who was more astute, +but lacked Burghley's greatness of mind. Walsingham was an admirable +servant: he would never have been successful under the full weight of +responsibility. It was he who developed the system of espionage through +every country in Europe, and brought it to an uncanny perfection. That +system of secret messages was typical of the day; it was so easy to +keep facts hidden, and to pervert them advantageously when news +travelled so slowly, that it was a necessity to have reliable men on +every spot to check statements and to watch events and tendencies. When +Walsingham died in 1590, Burghley showed his indomitable energy by +mastering the intricate cyphers and details connected with the business; +he was then at the good age of seventy. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY] + +As his health failed, his son, Robert Cecil, took more and more of his +great father's responsibilities upon himself; and "The Little +Secretary," as the queen called him, became gradually the most important +man in the realm. He was craftier than his father, and more adaptable, +but he never rose to the greatness of Lord Burghley. His figure is not +so imposing; there was something under-hand about his conduct, which +does not appear in the slow, diplomatic wisdom of the older man. + +There comes a strange interest in knowing that this great intelligence +of Burghley arranged not only the affairs of the State, but the details +of his household with the same impassive power. His steward writes to +him about a new gown which is wanted for his mother: "The gown that you +would make it must be for every day and yet because it comes from you +(except you write to her to the contrary) she will make it her holiday +gown, whereof she hath great store already, both of silk and cloth. But +I think, sir, if you make her one of cloth with some velvet on it, with +your letter to desire her for your sake to wear it daily, she would +accustom herself to it: so as she would forget to go any longer in such +base apparel as she hath used to have a delight in which is too mean for +one of a lower estate than she is." + +And of Burghley's earlier days, Roger Ascham gives an attractive glimpse +in his introduction to _The Schoolmaster_, where he shows the man's +methodical life and wide interests; for the renewal of learning did not +at all pass Burghley by; he was an enthusiast about the proper +pronunciation of the Greek tongue, and in 1541 was hotly engaged in the +disputes. But to old Ascham: he writes about the important dinner, in +1563, at which the subject of his book was suggested to him: "M. +Secretary hath this accustomed manner though his head be never so full +of most weightie matters of the Realme, yet, at diner time he doth seeme +to lay them alwaies aside; and findeth ever fit occasion to taulke +pleasantly of other matters, but most gladly of some matter of learning: +wherein he will curteslie heare the minde of the meanest at his table." + +It is refreshing to see how in his private life he was a simple-minded +man, who suffered from the gout and was plagued with quack remedies, all +of which he carefully docketed, having no doubt tried their efficacy +before he set them on one side. + +Such were the chief figures when Ralegh came to the Court. + +Nothing illustrates his rapid rise in favour so well as a letter which +Ralegh writes to Lord Burghley from the Court at Greenwich. The letter +shows that Burghley had asked for his help on behalf of his son-in-law, +the Earl of Oxford, who was bitterly hostile to Ralegh and had, as may +be gathered from the letter, gone out of his way to do him an injury. "I +delivered Her Your Lordship's letter. What I said further, how honorable +and profittabell it weare for Her Majestie to have regard to Your +Lordship's healthe and quiett, I leve to the witnesse of God and good +reporte of Her Highnesse. And the more to witnesse how desirous I am of +Your Lordship's favor and good opinion, I am contente, for your sake, to +laye the sarpente before the fire, as miche as in me lieth, that, +having recovered strengthe, myself may be moste in danger of his poyson +and stinge. For answere, Her Majestie would give me none other, but that +she woulde satisfye Your Lordship, of whom she ever had, and would ever +have, special regard.... I humblie take my lave. From Grenewiche this +present Friday, May 12, 1583." + +Here is Lord Burghley using the help of the young man whose valour and +address in Ireland he had observed and whom he had helped to make. +Ralegh is now prominent among the courtiers; he takes a leading part in +the life of the Court, and the life of the Court is brilliant and +occupied. The town was too small and the streets of the town too narrow +for the courtiers to hold themselves aloof, as money allows the +fashionable to do now; no special quarter of the town was assigned to +them. They kept themselves distinct from the townspeople without the +help of locality or space. The laws helped them, however, in the matter +of dress. Curious sumptuary laws were still in force, which forbade any +one under the degree of baron to have more than three linings to his +breeches; which forbade any one whose income was less than Ł100 a year +to wear satin, damask, silk, camlet, or taffeta, and any one who was not +worth more than Ł200 to wear velvet or embroidery. "The English," writes +Van Meteron, a Dutch historian and contemporary, "dress in elegant light +and costly garments but they are very inconstant and desirous of +novelties, changing their fashions every year, both men and women. When +they go abroad riding or travelling, they don their best clothes, +contrary to the practice of other nations." And to this craze for +constant novelty in dress a contemporary poem bears amusing witness-- + + "Hees Hatted Spanyard-like, and bearded to, + Ruft Itallyon-like, pac'd like them also; + His hose and doublet Frenche: his boots and shoes + Are fashond Pole in heeles, but French in toes. + Oh! hees complete: what shall I descant on? + A compleate Foole? noe, compleate Englishe mon." + +This fashion of dress lent wide scope to bad taste, and such books as +Dekker's delightful _Guls Hornbook_ show how hard gulls tried to be +gallants and how ridiculously they often failed. And it gave the genuine +courtier full scope for magnificence. Ralegh could wear white satin and +pearls. + +Not only in dress was the courtier distinct, but also in language. +Fashions in speech were constantly in vogue. None was more pronounced +than the fashion set by John Lyly, who wrote elegant court plays and the +novel _Euphues_. Of Euphues with his instructive letters and sound moral +tone Sir Charles Grandison is the direct descendant: Richardson owed as +much to Lyly, as Defoe to Thomas Nash or Fielding to Defoe. But that is +a literary by-path which leads to the history of fiction. His immediate +influence was on the speech of the courtiers and the language of the +Court. "That beautie in Court which could not parley Euphuisme was as +shee which now there speaks not French." John Lyly came to Court about +1577 and was helped by Lord Burghley; perhaps the rage of affectation +which he started, gave the stern Lord Treasurer a distaste for poets and +was one of the reasons which made him disinclined to favour Spenser +afterwards. Probably Lyly seemed innocuous enough at first, with his +modest desire to lie shut in a lady's casket rather than open in a +scholar's library. No one could have foreseen the frenzied fashion which +he inaugurated and which with its stilted periphrases must have been +sorely irritating to the great matter-of-fact man of business. No wonder +he looked askance at poets. Euphuism, as the jargon is called, has been +described many times; it was the first effort in English towards +ornament in speech. In itself it was wholly good; in its excess it was +wholly bad. + +As a fashion of speech it must have been not a little wearisome. And +indeed that proved to be the case; for its place was taken about as soon +as dull people were beginning to obtain the knack of it by another +fashion, no less elaborate, but of a different manner of elaborateness +taken from Sir Philip Sidney's _Arcadia_. Here a jingle on one word was +the effect to be obtained, as for example, "Each senselesse thing had +sense of pity; only they that had sense were senselesse." This fashion +set by a writer upon the speech of the fashionable finds a modern +counterpart in the influence of Oscar Wilde, with this difference that +his pointed epigram becomes feeble nonsense and his genius for using the +right word degenerates into amiable talk about passionate neckties and +purple sin; whereas with Lyly's and Sidney's manner no imitation could +be feebler or more exaggerated than the original often is--not always. +Lyly has real wit and fancy, especially in his charming court plays, as +when he writes, "They give us pap with a spoon before we can speak, and +when we speake for that we love, pap with a hatchet"; there he is +inimitable. + +The common task of dress and language was sufficiently elaborate to keep +a courtier of average intelligence busy. And when he was equipped in +mind and body there were countless ceremonies and functions at which his +presence was expected. The Queen was in continual progress, and every +progress was a pageant, whether by land or river, whether she were +journeying from one palace to another, or visiting a university to +encourage learning, a town or a noble subject to show her gracious +favour and to give her subjects the opportunity of proving by their +hospitality their loyalty. She kept in constant touch with her people. +And on her progresses she was accompanied by her principal courtiers, +who were themselves followed by a suite of gentlemen retainers. In this +excellent display of the superficial side of life--the very panoply of +existence--Ralegh by his wit and by his bearing was conspicuous. He was +as famous for his power of turning a neat phrase as he was famous for +his power of wearing with grace a fortune in one suit. Many men were +obliged to give all their attention to the brilliant outside of things +to keep pace at all with the changes of phrase and habit; and would +never be at ease in either. Ralegh owed his envied distinction in both +chiefly to the reason that he always held them at their proper value. +His nature was magnificent, and instinct led him naturally to a height +which others could not climb to with the greatest conscious effort. In +that he was like his mistress, Queen Elizabeth. + +It is fitting that such life should be gorgeously caparisoned; there was +no homespun in its disposition. + +But there is another side to the picture of this Court, a second party +in the Court and the country. For some fifteen years another woman had +been living under restraint in England--a woman who was the mother of a +king; who had been queen of two kingdoms and aspired to be queen of a +third; she was of great personal power though not so powerful as +Elizabeth. She was a devout Catholic and was called Mary, Queen of +Scots. A large number of gentlemen had remained faithful to their +religion. These Catholics were divided roughly into two classes, those +who were faithful to their religion and to their country, and those who +were primarily faithful to their religion and would stop at nothing to +establish Catholicism again in England They looked on Mary, Queen of +Scots, as their rightful head. The moderate Catholics wanted to make +sure that she would succeed Elizabeth; the fanatical Catholics wanted to +kill the usurper at once and let Mary reign in her stead. + +As years passed by and Elizabeth remained unmarried and averse to the +mention even of a successor, the question became acute, not in England +only but throughout Europe. Spain and France were anxious to have a +Catholic sovereign in England; but neither wanted the other to have the +added strength of England as a dependency. Elizabeth kept playing them +off one against the other with her various matrimonial schemes; and Mary +was in correspondence with them, trying to exact promises of assistance. +Intrigue grew more and more involved. At last matters came to a head. It +became recognized, after the dismissal of the Duc d'Anjou as a suitor, +that Time itself would no longer permit a marriage for Elizabeth. The +Catholics in larger numbers resolved that her death was imperative and +the death of her strong supporters. Elizabeth with the fearlessness of +true strength had allowed Mary great freedom of correspondence in her +confinement. Now she cut her off from the outside world, until a +diplomatic necessity arose to know exactly how far foreign powers were +prepared to support Mary, how far they were speaking their true +intentions in their dealings with Elizabeth. Walsingham had spies in +every influential Catholic household in England, at all the Courts and +even the Jesuitical centres in Spain and France. But the information was +not yet sufficient. Nothing illustrates more effectively the +extraordinary difficulty of obtaining accurate news in those days of +slow travelling and messengers, than the elaborate method which +Walsingham and Elizabeth were obliged to arrange at this juncture. It is +a mistake to suppose it illustrates the treachery and deceitfulness of +the times. The times have changed not in moral tone but in quickness of +transit. Men are very much the same; but steam and electricity, the +telegraph, the telephone, and a postal system have altered the aspect of +affairs and the methods of conducting business or intrigue. + +The plan they contrived was both ingenious and successful. With the help +of one Gilbert Gifford, trained in unscrupulous cunning by the Jesuits, +they encouraged Mary to open a correspondence with her confederates +abroad, and they tapped this correspondence at the fountain-head. Mary +was removed to Chartley, near the home of Gifford, whose family was +staunchly Catholic. A brewer at Burton supplied Chartley with beer. Into +the cask of specially good beer for Mary and her attendants and +secretaries was fitted a water-tight box, and in this box were placed +the letters. With the brewer was staying Walsingham's secretary +Phillipps, a thin red-haired man skilled in cypher, and he transcribed +all the letters at Burton before they were sent through an underground +post, which had been carefully arranged by the young and +innocent-looking Gilbert Gifford, to the Jesuit agency in London. Only +six people knew of the whole scheme. Elizabeth, Walsingham, Gifford, +Phillipps, Paulet, Mary's Puritan keeper, and the brewer of Burton. The +brewer was evidently a man whose business instinct was fully developed. +Not only did he receive large and complicated bribes from Elizabeth and +from Mary, but he demanded also a higher price for his beer. This demand +shocked the good Paulet unspeakably, and throws an interesting sidelight +upon the moral sense of the day, and proves that it worked as subtly +then as it works now. + +From this correspondence Elizabeth learned, what her strange foresight +taught her to expect, that France and Spain were too frightened of each +other to take any resolute step against her in favour of Mary. But it +happened also that she learnt something quite unexpected and of extreme +importance, and that was the plot which is known as the Babington +conspiracy. She was able to thwart a national calamity and to preserve +her own life. + +Among the most fanatical of the Catholic disaffected was a Jesuit, named +John Ballard. He had obtained a private bull from Gregory XIII., +sanctioning the murder of Elizabeth, and was unremitting in his efforts +to find a man daring enough to undertake the task. He travelled through +England, disguised in blue velvet, as Captain Fortescue, rousing all the +Catholic gentlemen to concerted action, and convincing them that +Elizabeth's death was a papal necessity. Lord Arundel vouched that he +could answer for the Tower, though he was a prisoner within its walls; +his uncle, Lord Henry, would raise the eastern counties; Sir William +Courtenay promised to seize Plymouth; Lord Montague, Lord Vaux, Lord +Stourton, Lord Windsor, and many others, whose names on earth are dark, +swore a great oath to stand by the cause and by themselves. Everything +was in readiness for a general rising so soon as the blow should fall +which should rid England of Elizabeth. The letters of Mendoza, the +Spanish ambassador, show how confident he is of a complete revolution. +Certainly Elizabeth had need of staunch friends whom she was wise to +bind to herself by every tie her personality could fashion, and staunch +friends she possessed and held in her possession. + +And now the men were found at last by Ballard who were ready to strike +the blow. They were men who waited upon the Queen's person. The chief +amongst them was Anthony Babington, of Dethick, in Derbyshire. He had +been a page at Sheffield when the Queen of Scots was first in charge of +Lord Shrewsbury, and, like many other men, young and old, who came under +the fascination of her influence, he was passionately devoted to her, +with all the strength of devotion that a beautiful woman in +distress--still more, a beautiful queen--must inevitably arouse. The +spirit of chivalry which the great rival Queens infuse into these plots +takes away the sordidness and pettiness which breathes from mere +political intrigue, and lends a poignant majesty to the terrible +dramatic end of it all. This Anthony Babington obtained the help of +Charles Tilney, one of Elizabeth's gentleman pensioners, of Edward +Abington, the son of her under-treasurer, of Jones, of Dunn, of Robert +Barnwell, who was an Irishman on a visit to the Court, and of other +young men. Walsingham and Elizabeth knew of them all, and watched them +continually. Elizabeth's bravery was magnificent Any moment she might +have met death at the hand of an assassin; but she remained undaunted. +Her fearlessness no doubt affected the conspirators, though quite +unconsciously. They did not know that their every action was watched. +Like many other young enthusiasts, they were reckless and self-confident +to the verge of lunacy, and as soon as they came to realize that their +plot was found out, they lost their heads completely. Abject fear took +the place of their courage. They saw the resistless power that was +ranged against them, waiting. They fled; but it was too late. The plot +was revealed to the public. Ignominy and shameful death awaited the men +who hoped to be welcomed as the saviours of their religion, the daring +knights of their queen-lady. Their names were proclaimed and the nature +of their intentions. Babington had fled to St. John's Wood, which was +then a "forest interspersed with farms," and from there he managed to +make his way to Harrow, where he with four others lay hid on haystacks +and in the straw of barns. But they did not remain long undiscovered. +Amid the ringing of bells and the wildest rejoicings they were taken +back to London. And very soon they were hung, drawn and quartered +publicly. + +How many knew of the Queen's imminent danger is not certain. Probably +she kept it from her most intimate friends. Her strength was equal even +to that. Nor is it known how much Ralegh knew of his mistress's danger; +it is not likely that he was entirely ignorant of it, for to him was +given the whole of Babington's estates, which were large and +remunerative. It is certainly a last proof of Queen Elizabeth's amazing +vitality, that in the midst of this dangerous turmoil of plot and +counterplot which surrounded her, she was able to find occasion for the +display of love and affection. For it was during these last desperate +endeavours of the Catholic party that she first drew Ralegh to herself. +She had seen to his advancement, and taken care that he was provided +with the wealth that he needed for his position at Court and that his +personal taste for magnificence desired. She had given him the Farm of +Wines, which, even allowing for the money that one Richard Browne +tricked him out of, brought him in a good income; and, in 1585, he +succeeded Francis, Earl of Bedford, as Lord Warden of the Stannaries, +and shortly afterwards became Lieutenant of the county of Cornwall, and +Vice-Admiral of the counties of Cornwall and Devon. The Queen had need +of staunch friends around her. And it is not due only to a woman's +whim, at which many have mocked, that she kept these men, her +favourites, at Court even sometimes against their will, as when she +prevented Sidney, in 1585, from heading the Virginian colonists, and, a +year or two later, sent Sir Robert Carey to fetch back the Earl of +Essex. Their presence became a necessity to her, because their presence +helped to vouch for her personal safety. It gave her an assurance of +security to see such men by her side, though doubtless their presence +flattered her vanity as well. Moreover, there seems to be something +exhilarating in a woman who could go in perpetual danger and known +danger of murder, and yet keep to the end her woman's desire for +admiration, which is the producer of many graces, and not at all in +itself a proof of pettiness. It depends upon what she considers to be +admirable. + +The Babington conspiracy by which Ralegh was ultimately enriched brought +about a crisis between the loyal and disaffected. The result of the +ingenuity of Walsingham and Elizabeth in contriving the plan by which +Mary, Queen of Scots betrayed herself, placed her intentions beyond all +question. It was clear that she intended to stop at nothing; that she +was anxious for Elizabeth's murder. It was certainly the easiest +solution to her difficulties, and she was the protectress of the true +religion, the head of which had sanctioned the murder. She was that most +dangerous of enemies, a sincerely religious woman of great cleverness +and no principles. Without discussing the ethics of murder and +execution, it is easy to understand Mary's position; and it is not easy +to understand Elizabeth's conduct. Mary was found guilty of high +treason, and the law of the land assessed the penalty for high treason +at death. But Elizabeth could not bring herself to sign the death +warrant. It is difficult to understand why. She was supported by the +authority of the kingdom, but she tried to avoid this last +responsibility. Her conduct illustrates the peculiar blend of craft and +sensitiveness which circumstances had developed in her character, and +which, be it noted, were conspicuous traits of many other great +characters of the time--conspicuously, for example, of Bacon and of +Ralegh. She tried to make Walsingham incur the responsibility and the +odium of the deed. She abused him when he demurred at her proposal. And +finally, when she had given her signature, she swore that it had been by +a mistake, and Walsingham, for ever impoverished by her displeasure, +retired indignant to his house at Barnelms. He became hateful to her, +and nothing could reinstate him in her favour. It was as though he were +a tool which she had cut herself in using, which she flung from her in +anger and without compunction. + +But at length the day of Mary's death came. That was pre-eminently the +time of pageant and display--the display of gorgeous life in the great +Court functions; the display of dreadful death in the public executions. +Both were combined in dramatic intensity at this last scene of Mary's +life. Hers was a Queen's death. + +In November of the year 1586 her sentence was passed. For three months +Europe was agitated by uncertainty whether the sentence would be carried +out, and what would be the result of her death, if it were. For three +months she held her ground as the martyr of her religion, an +unassailable position. For three months she decked her tragedy with the +robes of majesty and of pathetic grace. When Paulet tore down the regal +hangings from her room, saying that they no longer became a traitress, +she hung the crucifix in their place and pointed to it in silence when +he came to her again. + +The day of her execution was the second Wednesday in February, 1587. +Three hundred knights were assembled in the hall of Fotheringay Castle. +When the Provost-Marshal and the Sheriff came to fetch her from her +room, they found her no longer dressed in the customary grey cloth, but +clothed in a robe of black satin. Her hand on the arm of one of the +guard, she passed tall and erect down the broad oak staircase to the +hall. At the end of the hall loomed the scaffold swathed in black; the +dancing flames of a great crackling wood fire moved light shadows across +its blackness, and flickered on the bright steel of the axe which was +leaning against the block. By the block stood the executioners, masked +and in black. She who was cousin to the Queen of England, who was a +married Queen of France and anointed Queen of Scotland, passed up the +hall, followed by her six friends. Her waiting women tried and tried +vainly to keep back their sobs--Elizabeth Kennedy and Barbara Mowbray. +She ascended the black scaffold and sat down--smiling. Beale read aloud +the sentence. + +"Madam," said Lord Shrewsbury, "you hear what we are commanded to do." +"You will do your duty," was her reply. Then the Dean of Peterborough +endeavoured to play his accorded part, but three times he broke down in +addressing her. When he at length began to pray, Mary too prayed in +Latin, and at length her voice alone sounded through the hall. No longer +she prayed in Latin as she had prayed at first, she prayed in English +without a falter in her voice. With sublime audacity she prayed that God +might forgive and bless her son, James VI. of Scotland, and her cousin, +Elizabeth of England, and that He might avert His wrath from Elizabeth's +country. She finished; the black mutes stepped forward. The scaffold +creaked under their movement. They asked her forgiveness for what they +were going to do, according to the custom; and forgiveness was granted +them. "I forgive you," she said, "because now I hope that you will end +all my troubles." Her ladies, Elizabeth Kennedy and Barbara Mowbray, +mounted the steps of the black scaffold in order that they might help +her to make ready. They lifted the lawn veil carefully, not to +disarrange her hair. Swiftly they removed the black robe; swiftly they +took her arms from out the black jacket, slashed with velvet, and set +the jacket on one side. Dazzling in crimson satin she stood on the black +scaffold, revealed in red satin between the black mutes, as she drew +over her white arms crimson sleeves, which her ladies, now trembling, +handed to her. But she drew them on as a lady her gloves, without haste. +"Ne criez-vous, j'ai promis pour vous," she turned to them and said. She +knelt and laid her head on the block: it was hard to her soft neck, so +she put her hand underneath, murmuring the Psalm "In Te, Domine, +confido." But the headsman moved her hand away, fearing its softness +might hinder his business. Then he struck, but the blow fell lightly, +and fell on the knot of the hand-kerchief with which her eyes were +bound. He struck again, and had only to move the axe across the block to +cut the last shred of skin. "So perish all the enemies of the Queen," +called out the Dean of Peterborough, as the executioner held out the +head at his arm's length. Only the strength of her vitality and her +cleverness had kept beauty in her face. The head that was thus held up +at arm's length was the head of an old and wrinkled woman. Death +grinned. + +[Illustration: MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS] + +As they set about stripping the body, a lap-dog, hidden in her clothes, +howled and lay down crying out by the neck from which the blood was +flowing. It was carried away. + +Then all her things--dress, beads, Paternoster, hand-kerchief--were +taken to the great wood fire which still burned merrily, and burned +before all the people. No relics must be left. + +Henry Talbot, son of Lord Shrewsbury, was given the account of the +proceedings, and rode off with them post-haste from Fotheringay along +the bad roads to London. + +So died Mary, Queen of Scots, and her death was one of the surest, most +definite steps that was ever taken towards cutting England off from +papal authority. Henceforward, England stood alone. Henceforward, the +force of patriotism and of religion were to be combined. + +Such things happened in the time of Walter Ralegh. He may have been +present. If he were, the memory of it must have come to his mind some +thirty years later, when he touched the edge of another axe with his +thumb and approved of its sharpness. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE GREAT ENTERPRISE + + Scheme of colonization--Preparation--The sailing--Queen's + interest--Death of Sir Humfrey Gilbert--Another charter + obtained--King Wingina--Hospitality--Sir Richard + Grenville--Difficulties of first colonists--Personal + outfit--Misfortune. + + +Court life, for all its brilliance and excitement, did not monopolize +Ralegh's attention. He had gained wealth and position: he was near the +Queen. That did not suffice him. He was a man of imagination, who could +never rest content with the attainment which, as man of action, he had +achieved. Rarely have the two qualities been so often combined as they +were in the Elizabethan times, and rarely, even then, were they combined +with such force and in so high a degree as they were in great Ralegh. He +bent his energies on the scheme for colonization. The old idea was that +Paradise lay somewhere on the surface of the world; all through the +Middle Ages the dream existed. Columbus thought that the earth was +probably shaped like a pear, not spherical but elongated, and "on the +summit of the protuberance was situated the earthly Paradise, 'whither +no one can go but by God's permission.'" + +That dream continued. It came to Marlowe and obsessed him. But Marlowe +dreamed of no medićval Paradise. + + "Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed + In one self-place; for where we are is hell + And where hell is there must we ever be." + +And his god was power; his demi-god, the man who, like Scythian +Tamburlaine, lived-- + + "Threatening the world with high astounding terms + And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword." + +There was no limit set to the enterprise of man's energy; his power was +measureless and divine. Only in the realm of beauty his step might +falter; beyond all achievement, and all the beauty of achievement, there +would always hover-- + + "One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least + Which into words no virtue can digest." + +Marlowe wrote intoxicated with this elixir of infinite possibility. The +sea-dogs, men of action, seemed almost to be realizing his dreams, +fighting the next ship that met them, like Drake always sailing a little +further on, coming home with spoils and tales of wonder, and starting +out in search of fresh adventures; or there were men like Frobisher, who +combined the buccaneer with the spirit of the scientist, and who were +anxious to learn new geographical facts; or men like Gilbert, who were +serious-minded enough to be whole-hearted in the cause of science; or +men like Ralegh, in whom all these elements seem to have been +struggling. This paradise of unknown lands worked in all ways upon his +mind. Not Columbus before him, not Balzac after him, realized more +keenly the power of money. He saw, with Gilbert and the industrious +Hakluyt, the value of geographical knowledge, but what fired his +imagination was the vision of another Empire across the seas, and that +vision he was impatient to realize. He inspired the painstaking Hakluyt, +and he quietly made it his life's purpose to further the project. It was +Ralegh who grasped the true meaning of the vague aspirations and whose +personality was big enough to set the first slow forces at work. His +immediate schemes failed, but without those initial failures Captain +John Smith would never have succeeded, as he did succeed some fifteen +years later, in founding the colony of Virginia, from which has at +length grown, in the space of four hundred years, the present American +nation. So are our dreams of Paradise materialized into fact. + +The attempt which Gilbert and Ralegh had made at colonization in 1578 +had failed. + +But Ralegh, in his influential position, saw a means of turning his +scheme to advantage. As has been seen, the unrest of the Catholic party +was becoming more and more acute, until it reached its climax in the +Babington conspiracy and the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Ralegh +saw his opportunity. He knew as well as Walsingham that there were a +large number of Catholic gentlemen who were desirous of remaining loyal +to their country and loyal to their religion. The wish was as sane as it +was difficult to realize. Naturally (and rightly from their point of +view) the Jesuits and other Catholics, whose enthusiasm made them +fanatical, hated these moderate gentlemen, and called them Schismatics. +Ralegh saw how they might be employed to the advantage of his scheme, +just as a few years previously, when the overcrowding of London was +troubling Burghley, that overcrowding suggested the immediate material +of his scheme. He suggested to Walsingham a solution of the difficulty, +that these gentlemen should form a separate kingdom, should found the +colony in Virginia. In June, 1582, Sir George Gerrard and Sir Thomas +Peckham were empowered to do this. The new plan was set in motion in +spite of Papal warnings and even Papal veto. Two ships were sent to spy +out the land that summer, and in the spring of the following year all +was at length in readiness for actual sailing. Ralegh himself intended +to be vice-admiral,[A] but the Queen forbade him to join the expedition. +He had, however, constructed, on plans of his own devising, an immense +sailing-vessel of 200 tons, which was called the _Bark-Ralegh_ (not to +be confused with the flagship of the fleet which repulsed the Armada +five years later, called the _Ark-Ralegh_). The other vessels were the +_Delight_ alias the _George_, of 120 tons, "which was the Admirall;" the +_Golden Hinde_ of 40 tons, "which was the Reare Admirall;" the +_Swallow_, of 40 tons, and the _Squirrill_, of 10 tons. "We were in +number," writes Mr. Edward Hayes, gentleman, who sailed on the _Golden +Hinde_, "in all about 260 men: among whom we had of every faculty good +choice, as Shipwrights, Masons, Carpenters, Smithes and such like, +requisite to such an action: also Minerall men and Refiners. Besides for +solace of our people and allurement of the Savages, we were provided of +Musike in good variety: not omitting the least toyes, as Morris dancers, +Hobby horsse, and Maylike conceits to delight the savage people whom we +intended to winne by all faire meanes possible. And to that end we were +indifferently furnished of all petty haberdasherie wares to barter with +those simple people." + + [A] Professor Raleigh writes: "Ralegh, who never took kindly to + a subordinate command, deserted the expedition for some + reason unknown." But it is not at all probable that he + ever started.--"The English Voyages," p. 58. + +On June 11 the expedition sailed from Causon Bay. The day was Tuesday. +Misfortune came very soon upon them. On Thursday evening the news was +signalled from the _Bark-Ralegh_ that the captain and very many of the +men were fallen sick; and at midnight, "notwithstanding we had the wind +East, faire and good," the vice-admiral forsook them. The reason Mr. +Hayes could never understand, he says in his account, and adds, "Sure I +am, no cost was spared by their owner Master Ralegh in setting them +forth: Therefore I leave it unto God." Sir Humfrey Gilbert was not so +philosophic about the desertion; he wrote to his brother-admiral, Sir +George Peckham, in wrath: "The _Bark-Ralegh_ ran from me in fair and +clear weather, having a large wind. I pray you solicit my brother Ralegh +to make them an example to all knaves." + +After this defection the _Golden Hinde_ took the place of the +Vice-Admiral, and hoisted her flag from the mizzen to the foretop. As +they sailed northward they were "incumbered with much fogge and mists in +maner palpable," so that great difficulty was experienced by the ships +in keeping in touch one with the other. The danger of separation always +threatened sailing vessels, and elaborate devices and instructions were +always prepared to lessen its likelihood and to face the emergency. But +on July 20 the _Swallow_ and the _Squirrill_ became separated from the +company, and were not discovered again until the Newfoundland coast was +reached on August 3. Soon after another misfortune occurred owing to the +unruliness of the men on the _Squirrill_, who could not be restrained +from plundering a fishing-boat. This bad act was sufficient to wreck the +success of the expedition, and caused much dissatisfaction among the +sailors, who were always superstitious. Moreover, the men's unruliness +was a serious danger on such an expedition, apart from the question of +God's wrath, which Mr. Hayes feared, and which fell upon the _Squirrill_ +and requited the ill-doers with death. + +On August 5 Sir Humfrey Gilbert took possession of the harbour of St. +John, and invested the Queen's Majesty with the title and dignity +thereof. The arms of England, engraved in lead, were fixed upon a pillar +of wood and erected. Men were sent to explore the land, and to make maps +of it, while the ships were being overhauled and repaired. The report +only survives; the maps were lost when the general died. + +On August 27 they set sail again, and on the next day a great wind +arose, bringing with it rain and thick mist, and drove the vessels upon +the sands and flats. The _Admirall_ struck; her stern and hinder parts +were broken in pieces by the waves; the men leapt into the sea. "This +was a heavy and grievous event to lose at one blow our chiefe shippe +fraighted with great provision, gathered together with much travell, +care, long time, and difficultie. But more was the losse of our men +which perished to the number almost of a hundreth soules." Among the +drowned was Budaeus, a learned man who was minded to record in the Latin +tongue the gests and things worthy of remembrance; Daniel, a refiner of +metals; and Captain Maurice Brawn, a virtuous, honest, and discreet +gentleman. A few men, however, managed to keep afloat in a small boat +for six days, and though two of them died of starvation, the others were +rescued. This disaster brought dismay to the company and they lost +courage. Winter, too, was drawing on, provisions were becoming scant, +their clothes were worn out. Accordingly, Sir Humfrey Gilbert determined +to make for home. "Be content," he said to the men, "we have seen +enough: and take no care of expence past: I will set you forth royally +the next Spring if God send us safe home. Therefore I pray you let us no +longer strive here, where we fight against the elements." But calamity +did not forsake them. Sir Humfrey Gilbert did not reach home. Before the +expedition sailed in June, Elizabeth for her own reasons had persisted +in denying Sir Humfrey the right to accompany his expedition; but his +step-brother, Sir Walter Ralegh, had continued to use his influence to +obtain permission, and the requisite permission had at last been +granted. + + "BROTHER, + + "I have sent you a token from her Majesty, an ancor guided by + a lady, as you see; and further, her Highness willed me to sende + you worde that she wished you as great good-hap and safty to + your ship, as if her sealf were ther in parson; desiring you to + have care of your sealf as of that which she tendereth; and + therefore for her sake, you must provide for hit accordingly. + + "Farther, she commandeth that you leve your picture with me. + For the rest I leve till our meeting, or to the report of this + bearer, who would needs be the messengre of this good newse. So + I committ you to the will and protection of God, who send us + such life or death as He shall please or hath appointed. + + "Richmonde this Friday morning. + "Your treu brother + "W. RALEGH" + +The letter shows the Queen's interest and concern--her attitude towards +the gentlemen who adventured their lives for the glory of her kingdom. +But good-hap and safety were not vouchsafed to Gilbert's ship. The will +and protection of God did not send life; death had been appointed. + +They reached the Azores without mishap, except that the general caused +himself great pain and inconvenience by treading upon a nail. The last +conference took place on the _Golden Hinde_, on September 3, when he +made merry with the company on board; his hopes of success ran high for +the enterprise, he vowed to undertake once more the next spring. They +were now coming near to England and the end of their distresses. But +they met with foul weather, and terrible seas, breaking short and high, +pyramid-wise. "Men which all their lifetime had occupied the Sea, never +saw more outragious Seas." Upon the main-yard of the _Golden Hinde_ +appeared an apparition of a little fire by night. The little fire is an +evil omen, and is called Castor and Pollux. "Munday the ninth of +September, in the afternoon, the Frigat was neere cast away, oppressed +by waves, yet at that time recovered: and giving forth signes of joy, +the Generall sitting abaft with a book in his hand, cried out unto us in +the Hinde (so oft as we did approach within hearing), 'We are as neare +to Heaven by sea as by land.' Reiterating the same speech, +well-beseeming a souldier, resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testifie +he was." + +Sir Humfrey Gilbert was seen no more. Sitting abaft with a book in his +hand--that was the last sight of him, and those were his last words, +the great saying of a great sailor. For at midnight the lights of his +vessel suddenly disappeared. The frigate was devoured and swallowed of +the sea. So died Sir Humfrey Gilbert in the prime of his manhood at the +age of forty-four. + +The _Golden Hinde_ managed to reach the coast of England, and brought +the bad news of disaster to Sir Walter Ralegh, his step-brother, and to +Adrian Gilbert, his younger brother. + +They wasted no time in grief or mourning. They paid proper respect to +the memory of the brave dead, and immediately made renewed efforts to +further the enterprise to which their brother had devoted his life. + +[Illustration: A SAILING-SHIP IN THE TIME OF RALEGH] + +Within six months Ralegh obtained another charter from the Queen with +larger powers. He and Adrian Gilbert and John Davies were incorporated +under the new charter as "The College of the Fellowship for the +Discovery of the North-west passage." That was the dream of the dead +navigator. Ralegh always had a greater purpose in view, and the charter +was later extended by clauses giving him powers to colonize. Directly +these first steps were taken, a month after the charter's final signing, +Ralegh despatched two captains, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow. + +Captain John Smith gives an account of their voyage in his "History of +Virginia." (John Smith it was who, profiting by initial failures, +succeeded some years later in the fulfilment of the great scheme.) "The +27 of Aprill," he writes, "they set sail from the Thames, the tenth of +May passed the Canaries, and the tenth of June the West Indies: which +unneedful Southerly course (but then no better was knowne) occasioned +them in that season much sicknesse." His interpolation--then no better +was known--is significant. It throws a clear light on the difficulties +with which these early colonizers were called upon to cope; they had not +yet learned the best way even of reaching their destination. + +However, on the 2nd of July the two captains arrived at Florida, "where +they felt a most delicate sweete smell, though they saw no land, which +ere long they espied, _thinking it the Continent: an hundred and twenty +miles they sailed not finding any harbour_." That again is significant, +taking into consideration the limited room on a sailing vessel for food +and other necessaries. When they came to land, they had not yet the +means of knowing anything about that land whatsoever. At length they +discovered that they were upon an island, the island of Wokokon. It was +fertile past all belief. Grapes grew in profusion right down to the +water's edge, that the very surge of the sea sometimes over-flowed them. +In the valleys tall cedars grew, and from the black cedars great cranes +flew in white flocks, when the men discharged their muskets, "with such +a cry as if an army of men had shouted together." The island was thickly +wooded with other trees of excellent smell and quality; and in the woods +there were conies and deere and fowle in incredible abundance. For three +days none of the people were seen. On the third day, in a little boat, +three of them appeared and showed no sign of fear. One of them stopped +and conferred with the sailors, who gave him a shirt and a hat, meat and +wine, which he liked. Then he went away; but soon returned with his boat +quite full of fish, which he gave to the sailors. He had come from the +mainland. + +Next day the king's brother visited the ships, with forty or fifty men, +"proper people and in their behaviour very civill." The king's brother's +name was Granganamen. Soon after the king himself, Wingina, came. A mat +was spread for him on the sea shore, and he sat down upon it. When the +sailors came to him, he stroked his head and breast, and he stroked +their heads and breasts, to express his love. He made a long speech, and +divers toys, "which he kindly accepted," were presented to him. +Especially a pewter pleased the king's fancy. He drilled a hole in it +and hung it round his neck. It made him a capital breastplate, for which +he was ready to give, and gave, twenty skin of deer, worth twenty +crowns. He was so pleased with his bargain and treatment that a few days +later he brought his wife and children on board. During all their stay +in his kingdom, which was called Wingandacoa, King Wingina sent them +almost every day a brace of bucks, conies, hares, fish and vegetables. +The soil was fertile, as the woods were plentifully stocked with +game--for the sailors put some peas in the ground, and in ten days they +had grown to the height of fourteen inches. + +They had, indeed, found the Land of Promise; and the people who +inhabited the land were as friendly as their king. A party went on a +little expedition to the island of Roanoak, which was distant some seven +leagues. There the wife of the chief man, who was absent, welcomed them +with much courtesy. She had their clothes taken off and washed; she had +their feet bathed in warm water, while she herself attended to the +preparation of food. While they were eating, warriors entered the room +armed with bows and arrows. The sailors, fearful of treachery, grasped +their muskets. There was no need for alarm, however. The woman saw their +fear, and ordered the warriors immediately to snap their bows and arrows +across their knees. + +Hospitality could go no farther. The whole account of the land +"luxuriant to the water's edge, and of their joyous reception by the +Indians, makes the dreams of the pastoral poets seem true," as Professor +Raleigh puts it. Indeed, the people were such as live after the manner +of the Golden Age. Such, too, the Burmese were found to be some three +hundred years later; they had the same childlike simplicity, the same +earnest kindliness; they, too, were unspoiled and happy. The Indians +were regarded as savages; they were not closely observed or +sympathetically described by these stout-hearted adventurers, as the +Burmese have been by Fielding Hall in his notable books. Their +subsequent history bears out the resemblance. The Indians, simpler, more +childish people--savages in fact--came into contact with a sterner +younger civilization. Their history is known. The history of the subject +Burmese is still in the making. + +Captain Amadas and Captain Barlow returned in September. They brought +with them two of the natives, many skins, and pearls as big as peas, +which they duly delivered to Sir Walter Ralegh. He was overjoyed with +the success of their voyage, and he obtained permission from the Queen +to call his new land of Wingandacoa, Virginia, in her honour. He ordered +a new seal of his arms to be cut, engraved with the legend, "Propria +insignia Walteri Ralegh, militis, Domini et Gubernatoris Virginiae." + +In the spring of the following year his colonizing fleet was ready. The +command of the expedition was given to Sir Richard Grenville, the +valiant, as John Smith calls him. The colony was to be under the +management of Captain Ralph Lane. Sir Richard Grenville was not the man +for the business, and the expedition would have had a very different +result had Sir Philip Sidney undertaken its command, as it was intended +that he should. Sir Richard was supreme as a fighter: his tactics were +to hit first, and to hit hardest, and never to give way. He was +indomitable, but more than sheer bravery was necessary for the +undertaking, and more than sheer bravery Sir Richard Grenville did not +possess. + +The fleet of seven ships departed from Plymouth in April, and, without +any serious mishap, they arrived on May 12 at the Bay of Moskito in the +island of St. John's, where they cast anchor, and where in seven days +they were joined amidst great rejoicing by Master Candish, captain of +one of the ships which had been separated in a storm. The island of St. +John was in possession of the Spaniards. It is probable that Sir +Richard Grenville hated the Spaniards more than he loved the project of +colonization; for in St. John he stayed till the end of May. He built a +fort, and succeeded in capturing two Spanish frigates, one of which was +well freighted with treasure, and having ransomed the Spaniards of +account for good round sums, he went on his way to Isabella, on the +north side of Hispaniola. Here again they delayed, hoping, as it would +seem, for an opportunity to attack the Spaniards in possession; but the +Spaniards, overawed, as the writer thinks, by their numbers, exhibited +only the greatest courtesy. So they sailed on June 7, and eventually +arrived a fortnight later at Wokokon, after having narrowly escaped +complete shipwreck "on a breach called the Cape of Fear." + +The colony was now on the verge of plantation. But the men did not see +the immense need of living at amity with the natives, that they might +win their support and trust, without which their task would be +insuperable in difficulty. They had hardly lived among them for two days +before strife broke out, in which, of course, the Englishmen were easily +victorious. For it appears that a silver cup was missed, and theft was +suspected. For this trivial reason the town of Aquascogok, which was +supposed to shelter the culprit, was burned, and all the neighbouring +cornfields were laid waste. Enmity was thus kindled, and the fire of +enmity cannot easily be extinguished. + +After that Sir Richard Grenville sailed away with his convoy, and +passing on his way home a richly laden Spanish ship of three hundred +tons, he boarded her (note the prodigious daring of the fellow!) with a +boat made with boards of a chest, "which fell asunder and sunk at the +ship's side as soon as ever he and his men were out of it." That was on +the last day of August: on September 18 he sailed into Plymouth harbour, +well-contented with his prize, "and was courteously received by divers +of his worshipful friends." + +But Ralph Lane was left behind in Virginia with his colonists, to the +number of some hundred house-holders, and the hostile natives. From the +New Fort he writes an enthusiastic letter, on September 3, to Master +Richard Hakluyt. His report of the fertility of the country is more +glowing even than the account of Amadas and Barlow, or than Ralegh +himself could have dared imagine in his brightest dreams. "It is the +goodliest and most pleasing territory of the world; for the continent is +of a huge and unknown greatness, and very well peopled and towned, +though savagely: and the climate is wholesome, that we had not one sick +since we touched the land here." Horses and kine and sufficient +Englishmen are alone needed, and no realm in Christendom would be +comparable with Virginia. The men set to work to build themselves a +settlement, making use of the equipment with which each man was +provided. + +Captain John Smith, who succeeded, some thirty years later, in erecting +the colony on the ruins of these previous failures, gives an exact +outfit, with the cost of each article, which a colonist would require. +He could learn from the experience of others, and was wise enough to +tabulate his own experience in minute lists that others might learn from +him. Lane's colonists could not have been so well provided. They must +have lacked many little necessaries which the wisest forethought could +not have provided, they must have encumbered themselves with much that +was comparatively useless. Here are some articles of personal outfit +which John Smith--and John Smith knew--deemed indispensable. They read +quaintly with their prices:-- + + A Monmouth Cap 1_s._ 10_d._ + Three Shirts 7_s._ 6_d._ + One Waste Coat 2_s._ 2_d._ + One Suit of Canvase 7_s._ 6_d._ + " " Frize 10_s._ 0_d._ + " " Cloth 15_s._ 0_d._ + Three pair of Irish Stockings 4_s._ 0_d._ + Four pair of shoes 8_s._ 8_d._ + One pair of garters 0_s._ 10_d._ + One dozen of points 8_s._ 0_d._ + One pair of Canvase sheets 8_s._ 0_d._ + Seven ells of Canvase to make a bed a + bolster to be filled in Virginia, + serving for two men + Five ells of coarse canvase to make a bed 5_s._ 0_d._ + One Coarse rug to be used at sea for + two men + +Lane's colonists remained exactly one year in Virginia. Their life was +varied and exciting. At first the Indians, in spite of the silver cup +and the summary vengeance for its theft, were still inclined towards +friendliness. Their kings visited New Fort. Menatonou, King of +Chawanook, was especially well-disposed. He was a "man impotent in his +limbs, but otherwise, for a savage, a very grave and wise man, and of a +very singular good discourse in matters concerning the state, not only +of his own country and the disposition of his own men, but also of his +neighbours round about him as well far as near, and of the commodities +that each country yieldeth." Among other things, he told Lane where +pearls in large quantities could be found, and Lane devised a plan for +making an expedition to that river of Moratoc. + +And from this plan, which Lane records in full in a subsequent letter to +Ralegh, peers out the mistake in judgment which brought disaster upon +this first enterprise. These colonists had too much the spirit of Sir +Richard Grenville. They were too adventurous, and esteemed the natives +of too little account. Instead of quietly settling and making their base +secure, while the Indians became gradually used to their presence, they +must needs be hurrying further inland in pursuit of immediate and +enormous wealth. Theirs was too much the spirit of the lion-hearted +freebooter and not enough the spirit of the determined settler. + +Misfortune awaited them. For there lived an old king in this land of +fabulous wealth by the swift river of Moratoc or Moratico. Ensenore was +his name, and he was friendly to the English. Not so his son Pemisapan. +And at this crucial time Ensenore died and Pemisapan took his place at +the head of the province, and immediately began his endeavours to +undermine the little influence which the English had already gained +among the neighbouring peoples. The position of the colonists became one +of extreme danger in consequence. They found that they must not only +struggle against the elements to secure food and shelter, but also fight +for their lives against the inhabitants. They had expected support from +England in the spring, with reinforcements of every kind. None, however, +came, and probably the fear of isolation, brought about by events of +which they had heard nothing, was added to their other fears. Small +wonder then that, when Sir Francis Drake came to them with twenty tall +ships, they should clamour to leave the perilous spot and return to +England. They returned in June, Drake's fleet laden with the spoils he +had garnered from the sack of the Spanish cities, St. Iago, St. Domingo, +Carthagena, St. Anthony, and St. Helens. With them, too, they are said +to have brought, for the first time, specimens of the plant Nicotiana, +of which Ralegh discovered the sovereign virtues, and which, in despite +of King James from Scotland and his counterblast, has soothed many +millions of honest Englishmen. + +A fortnight after the colonists departed, fearing that they were +forsaken, the ship of a hundred tons which Ralegh had stored with +provisions and other necessaries arrived, and a month after Sir Richard +Grenville came with three ships, and found neither colonists nor the +ship which Ralegh had sent out for their relief. Accordingly, after he +had searched long in vain and made certain explorations on his own +initiative, he landed fifteen brave men to retain possession of the +country for England and sailed home. Nothing more was heard of the +fifteen brave men. + +So ended the first series of attempts to found an English colony in +Virginia, doubtless, efforts which themselves just failed of success, +but without which the final colonization of Virginia would have been +impossible. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BUSINESS MAN + + The Stannaries--His grasp of detail--"Do it with thy + might"--Estimate of squadron--Scheme of coast defence-- + The clash-mills of Mr. Crymes--Irish plans. + + +The Virginian enterprise did not engage all Ralegh's energy in affairs. +Undoubtedly it was his greatest scheme. Its eventual results were of no +less than world-wide importance, for they include the American nation, +they include tobacco; and without either commodity modern civilization +would surely be desolate. Ralegh had a capacity for business which +approached genius; and would have attained to genius had his imagination +not run a little in advance of his power over detail. + +In his hands the posts which he obtained were no sinecures. Proper +arrangement of things in being fascinated him almost as deeply as the +possible development of the embryonic. + +The various expeditions to Virginia involved a vast amount of work. But +during that time he was actively engaged in the management of lesser +matters. + +As Lord Warden of the Stannaries his duties were to look after the +interests of the tin-miners in Devonshire and Cornwall. He was head of +the Stannary Courts in which justice was legally administered to the +tinners; and he would be obliged to see that his substitutes performed +their functions properly. For a privilege was granted to the tin-workers +to have their disputes settled upon the spot in their own court, in +order that they might not be drawn from their business during the long +time that a visit to another court would involve. All through the time +when he was engaged in great things at Court, or in great dreams of an +Eldorado in South America, he always paid proper attention to the +exacting little business of these tinners in Cornwall. In 1600 he writes +a minute account to the Lord Treasurer, Buckhurst, and Secretary, Sir +Robert Cecil, about the abatement of some tax on tin. He kept the +interests of the tinners always in mind. In the same year he enters into +the case of a gentleman, Mr. Crymes, who had erected certain clash-mills +upon Roxburgh Down "to worke the tynn which upon that place is gott with +extreame labour and charge out of the ground." But the townsmen of +Plymouth objected to the mills, because they said that the mills +diverted the course of their water. Ralegh went to view the clash-mills +on Roxburgh Down in person, though it was the autumn of the year, and +decided against the townsmen of Plymouth. If they had their way, as +according to the letter of the law only they should, countless tinners +would be thrown out of work. In reality no harm was done to the course +of the river. + +Accordingly Ralegh asks Secretary Sir Robert Cecil to take the matter +from the Star Chamber, where the townsmen of Plymouth had sent it, and +to let it be tried, as it was fitting that such a matter should be +tried, in the Stannary Courts. "If this be suffered to proceed in the +Starre Chamber it will not be avaylable to speake of her Majesties late +imposicion or encrease of Custom, or to establish good laws among +Tynners; when others who can by a great purse or procuring +extraordinary meanes, diminish to their power her Majesties duties and +the common benefytt of the people." + +_Do it with thy might_ was as sincerely his motto in little things as in +big; and this it is well to remember in protest against those who are +inclined to regard Ralegh merely as an unsuccessful dreamer of great +dreams. + +He was Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall. Among other duties which the post +entailed, was the important duty of keeping the county ready to ward off +an invasion, which was a very real danger all through his period of +office. His letters to Lord Burghley give ample evidence of his care and +wisdom. In 1587, one year before the Armada, he sent the Lord Treasurer +a letter in which he gave it as his opinion that a company of two +thousand foot and a troop of two hundred should be levied from the +counties of Cornwall and Devon, and should be trained to be ready for +defence at a moment's notice against surprise. The difficulties of his +plan he saw clearly. There was, in the first place, a feeling of rivalry +between the two Duchies which increased the difficulty of combination. +The Lord Lieutenant of Devonshire, the Earl of Bath, was not easily +brought to see the wisdom of the plan, though Sir John Gilbert and Sir +Richard Grenville, staunch Devon men, were its supporters. The merchants +of Exeter were not disposed to bear willingly any additional outlay in +the matter of defence, because they were obliged to pay heavily to +defend their merchandise against Barbary and other pirates. Ralegh +incloses a tabulated list in his letter, showing exactly how these +levies could be raised, and the exact cost of the raising. The payment +of the troop of horse is of much interest. The men were to receive +1_s._ a day (the pay of an infantry man was 8d.). The horsemen were to +be divided into four cornets: that would imply four captains at 5s., +four lieutenants at 3_s._, four guidons at 2_s._ 6_d._, four clerks at +1_s._ 6_d._, four trumpetts at 1_s._ 6_d._ per day. He adds the charge +of ammunition. "There is allowed for each soldier for this service of +sixteen daies, tenn pounde of Powder at 12_d._ the pounde and is Ł500. +Ther is allowed of matche for each soldier at halfe a pounde the daye, +at 6_d._ the pounde and is Ł200. Of leade for each mann one pounde at +1˝_d._ the pounde, and is Ł6 8_s._ + +The whole estimated cost of training and raising came to Ł2163 5_s._ and +unlike the majority of estimates, the one drawn up by Ralegh is as clear +as it is concise. + +But his best contribution to the problem of defence is a letter, written +in the year 1595 to the Lords of the Council. It had been decided that +"mutual succour be gyven from the Counties of Devon and Cornwall to each +other," and the point of the letter is to show that Devonshire should be +supplied with reinforcements from Somerset rather than from Cornwall. +His reasons are well put and convincing. "If there shall any discent be +made by the enymye in either county by the waie of surprise, and that +the enymye doe but burne or sacke, and departe, then can nether be +releeved as aforesaid, bycause there wilbe no tyme given to unite the +forces of the same shere, where such attempt shalbe offered, much lesse +for the drawing in of any numbers from affarr; and for any such +enterpryze, where there is no purpose to hold and possesse the places +gotten, each shire with 4000 men shalbe able either to repel or to +resiste the same. But if the enymy dispose himself to fortyfye any part +in Cornewall or to strengthen any neck of land of advantage, and thereby +begyne to dryve us to a defensive warr, then there is noe country +adjoyneth to Cornwall but Devon from whence any spedy supplie maie be +had to impeach the begining of such a purpose. And if ought be attempted +in Devon--of which Plymouth is most to be feared, having, in one +indraught, two goodly harboroughes, as Cattwater and Aishewater--then it +is also very likely that the enymye will either assure Cornewall, or +seeke utterly to waste yt, because yt is next his supplies, both from +Spayne and Brittaine (Brittany); and hath divers ports and good rodes to +receive a fleete." + +He proceeds to point out the length and narrowness of Cornwall, and the +extreme difficulty of sending succour to Plymouth. The river can only be +forded in two places, and that by small ferries at Stonehouse and Aishe, +which would be of little use for horses or ammunition. Moreover, the +enemy would bring "gallies" with them, which would enable them to +command the river Tamar. If four thousand men were taken from Cornwall, +the enemy would certainly become cognizant of the fact, and nothing +would be easier for them, in that event, than to lay waste the whole +shire, either by sending round a ship from Plymouth or across from +Brittany. Three hundred soldiers would be sufficient. + +He points out that no county in England is so dangerously situated as +Cornwall, with the sea on both sides of it, and with sparse inhabitants. +It is so narrow that if the enemy were to possess any of two or three +straits, the men of the West would be quite cut off from the men of the +East, for between Mount's Bay and the sea entering within St. Tees, it +is but three miles and a half from sea to sea; between Truro and St. +Pirom but five miles. He concludes the letter by making manifest the +advantages of the position of Somerset, its breadth, its richness, and +lack of separating rivers. + +And he set his mind to these details of his defence at the time when his +mind was eager to bring down to the realm of reality those high dreams +by which Guiana caused him to be obsessed. A few days afterwards he +writes to Sir Robert Cecil: "I beseich you lett us know whether wee +shalbe travelers or tinkers; conquerors or novices. For if the winter +pass without making provision there can be no vitling in the summer; and +if it be now fore-slowed, farewell Guiana for ever.... Honor and gold +and all good, for ever hopeless." + +A great man, this Elizabethan, whose imperial dreams did not prevent him +from mastering the little businesses under his hand! Visions of Eldorado +did not blurr his view of Minnett or lessen his interest in the +clash-mills of Mr. Crymes. + +Not only was Ralegh Lord Warden of the Stannaries and Lord Lieutenant of +Cornwall, but he was also what Edwards calls Captain of Industry in +Ireland. The work connected with these duties was what may be looked +upon as the _business_ of his life. Each entailed work and +responsibility which would suffice the energy of an ordinary man of +business, a little above the modern average of capacity. It was typical +of Ralegh's immense vitality that he dealt with them with as much +thoroughness and ease as he managed his own household, and always he +inspired them with new ideas and new life, even as his garden was the +first in which orange-trees were cultivated. His imagination made him an +originator. He was never content with the old way of doing things--he +found a better. He was always seeing old facts for the first time, as +though he had never seen them before, as all men of vigorous intellect +do. Consequently he trusted his own opinion, and he had good cause to +trust it. + +Ralegh had first become prominent by his actions in Ireland, and very +soon after he had attained to eminence he was employed by the Crown in +their endeavour to bring some kind of prosperity to the country ravaged +to desolation by war. Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. Six hundred +thousand acres of land had been confiscated from the Earl of Desmond, +and probably at his own suggestion Ralegh undertook to plant an English +colony there. Others joined in the enterprise. Ralegh's share consisted +of some twelve thousand acres in the counties of Cork, Waterford, and +Tipperary, and he rented, in addition, Lismore Castle at the annual +charge of Ł13 6_s_. 8_d_., from Meyler Magrath, Bishop of the See of +Lismore and Archbishop of Cashel. His tenants he had taken from men of +Devon (the stamp of man he knew and approved), and his land was soon +recognized as the most prosperous among all the estates which these +"gentlemen under-takers," as they were called, were opening out. +Fertility did not satisfy him. His acres were well forested, and an idea +occurred to him by which he could turn the timber to good account. His +scheme was to construct pipe-staves and hogsheads and barrel boards, and +to transport them to the wine growers of Spain and France. It was a good +scheme and practical. But he found the utmost difficulty in obtaining a +licence from the Privy Council for their export. He was not in favour +with Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord-Deputy of Ireland, nor the deputy's +cousin, one Richard Wingfield. By the time that sanction was obtained, +Ireland was again in too unsettled a state for prosperity in quiet +commerce, and Ralegh sold his estate to Richard Boyle, who afterwards +became Earl of Cork. He had planted many products, which his men had +brought from Virginia, on the land of his Irish estate, and among these +was the potato. He also tried to cultivate tobacco, but with less +success. + +Had Ralegh been supported during the last ten years of the Queen's +reign, he would have benefited Ireland considerably by his activity, +even though he was, at the same time, engaged in many other affairs, +naval, political, and commercial. But he was badly hampered in his +projects by loss of favour. His enemies were many, and they found +pleasure in vexing him in small matters. This enmity, while Elizabeth +lived, did not seriously injure his power or his reputation, but it set +obstacles in the way of his projects which were just sufficient to +thwart them. + +Such were Ralegh's chief business activities, which were the groundwork +of his life, these and the duties of Captain of the Guard, which were +chiefly decorative. It is not easy to realize, in a time of great +splendour, the day to day existence of the men who made that time +splendid. The mind is apt to leap from dramatic moment to dramatic +moment, when mighty exploits mark out a time's history like +stepping-stones. When events are sufficiently great to stand prominently +forth, not only in the history of the reign, but in the history of all +time, the prosaic intervals of dull hard work are apt to be forgotten; +but they are the essential training, without which those events would +not have happened. + +The life of the man is the life of the nation in little. Just as Ralegh +thought nothing beneath his notice, thought nothing to which he put his +hand too insignificant not to be done with his might, so England, under +her great Queen, was working and working to collect her strength, so +that, when the moment at last came to strike, she might strike with +effect. + +Sir Walter Ralegh, Captain of the Guard, superb in pearls and silver, +whom magnificence became, did not disdain on occasion to ride for many +miles through the muddy roads of Devonshire to inspect the river at +Roxburgh Down, and found time to write at length to Secretary Sir Robert +Cecil, his opinion that the clash-mills of Mr. Crymes, the tinner, did +not harm the townsmen of Plymouth. That incident is as significant of +the time's energy as the defeat of the Spanish Armament. + +[Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH + +From an oil-painting made, probably by Federigo Zuccaro, in 1586 + +Copyright, Emery Walker, London, E. C.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AGAINST SPAIN + + Spain's enmity--The Armada--Ralegh's opinion of tactics--With + Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys--The privateers. + + +Indeed Ralegh's immense energy is typical of the time. _Do it with thy +might_ could fitly have been the motto of the nation. Their capacity for +hard work was unequalled. The Armada was England's day of triumph. Men +applaud a prima-donna on the night of her success, and are apt to forget +the long years of training and privation and self-control that have +preceded the glory of the moment. It is even so with a nation. The +little hour of triumph is as nothing compared with the long years of +life which made that triumph possible; and only the greatest artist and +the greatest nation can bear the added burthen of success. England +lapsed after the impulse of that great action had died away. The nation +as a whole was too young and too boisterous with youth to support a +victory so overpowering in its magnificence. + +The triumph itself was like few in the history of nations, and events +conspired to lend a vivid dramatic colour to its greatness. + +The time had come when Philip the Second at last decided that the +insolence of England must be punished. The exploits of men like Hawkins +and Drake and Ralegh and Frobisher were becoming intolerable, and +though Elizabeth had at first given no sanction to their enterprises, +treating them much as she had treated the English supporters of the +Protestant cause in France, yet the knighthood of Drake on the deck of +his own ship at length declared the bent of her sympathy. The time had +come for action: and the time seemed specially favourable to Philip. +Sextus the Fifth was Pope, and he had created the league for the +subversion of heresy, and the arch-heretic of Europe must be put away. +The Prince of Parma was in the Netherlands ready to invade England. The +Catholics in England would be united by the execution of Mary, Queen of +Scots, and the Protestants themselves would be averse to the surrender +of the throne to her son and his Scotch followers. So Philip thought, +and slowly set the immense machinery of preparation to work. + +Elizabeth possessed remarkable foresight and a remarkable dislike for +definite action. Her foresight was as uncanny as an instinct, or her +power of dissimulation, which is the art of diplomacy. Accordingly, it +is probable that her efforts for peace, and the treaty which she patched +up with the Prince of Parma, did not arise from any fear of war, but +were a clever design to increase the proud confidence of the enemy by +making him think that England was in reality in a state of panic, quite +unprepared for war. She knew well of the preparations, and of their huge +scale. Drake had sent news to Lord Burghley: "Assuredly," he wrote, +"there never was heard of or known so great preparations as the King of +Spain hath and daily maketh ready for the invasion of England." With +daring he sailed into the very harbour of Cadiz and damaged more than a +hundred tall ships. He was forbidden to do further damage. Spain's +enterprise was not destined to be strangled at home. Elizabeth's fear, +if her fear existed, allowed Philip to spend untold sums of money on his +fleet, and to adorn it with the flower of his nobility, and allowed +England to overcome her enemy in the full ostentation of his display. +Certainly Lord Howard of Effingham, Admiral of the Fleet, knew nothing +of Elizabeth's intentions, nor did Sir John Hawkins, the paymaster. They +wrote angry letters to Walsingham when the movements of their ships were +confined, and some of their men disbanded. "Never," wrote Lord Howard, +"never since England was England was there such a stratagem and mask +made to deceive us as this treaty." And Sir John Hawkins was even more +vehement: "We are wasting money, wasting strength, dishonouring and +discrediting ourselves by our uncertain dallying." Naturally they +desired to repeat Drake's exploit, to run every risk, like brave +Englishmen, and to crush the Spanish fleet in the Spanish harbours. But +they must wait. Elizabeth's fears or Elizabeth's diplomacy (conscious or +unconscious in its working a strange instinct for the good of England +was here) determined another course of action. "The Queen took upon +herself the detailed management of everything. Lord Howard's letters +prove that she and she only was responsible," as Froude, who accepts the +view of her perverseness and levity, declared. + +Meanwhile the King of Spain's preparations were at length completed. The +galleons, "built high like castles," had been baptized each with the +name of a saint, St. Matthew, St. Philip, St. John, ceremonially, as it +was fitting that vessels about to fight for the Catholic cause should be +baptised. The one hundred and twenty-nine vessels of the Armada, +galleons and galleasses, set sail. They were strong only in pride and in +the sense of their cause's sacredness. + +Their vessels were unwieldy and old-fashioned, their ammunition was +insufficient, and their admiral was high-born but incapable. For the +veteran Don Alvarez de Baçan, Marquis of Santa Cruz, had died suddenly, +and his place had been taken by the Duke of Medina Sidonia. On July 19 +the Armada was reported off Plymouth. Beacons lit from hilltop to +hilltop flamed the news to London. + +The English fleet was ready. "Their ships had warped out into the Sound +on the evening of the 19th: on the 20th they had plied out, to windward, +against a fresh south-westerly breeze; and the Armada running to the +eastward all night had, by daybreak on the 21st, given the English the +weather-gage for which they had been working." + +On the afternoon of the 21st the battle began. The _Ark-Ralegh_, built +on Sir Walter's own design, in which was the Lord High Admiral, Howard +of Effingham, and three other ships sailed along the rear of the Spanish +line, sending quick volleys into the great vessels, and sailed back. The +Spaniards vainly tried to grapple with them: the English ships were too +swift and easily manoeuvred. And then, on the very opening of the long +battle, the Spaniards recognized their weakness, that their great +vessels were cumbrous, and so crank that their cannon sent their balls +on the weather side high into space, and on the lee side very nearly +plump into the water. For a week (there was little sleep for the men +during that week) the fleets fought down the Channel till the Spanish +fleet lay at last at Calais, but not for long. The English sent +fire-ships among them and drove them out. "This great preparation," +writes Bacon, "passed away like a dream. The Invincible Navy neither +took any one barque of ours neither yet once offered to land; but after +they had been well beaten and chased, made a perambulation about the +Northern seas, ennobling many coasts with wrecks of mighty ships; and so +returned home with greater derision than they set forth with +expectation." + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF LONDON] + +Two things are specially worthy of notice about this great battle. The +first is the continued ignorance of the commanders of various English +ships as to the actual damage which had been inflicted upon the enemy. +They had, of course, only their unaided eyes to trust to, and great +difficulty in announcing news from ship to ship. Lord Howard writes as +late as August 8: "Although we have put the Spanish Fleet past the +Firth, and I think past the Isles, yet God knoweth whether they go to +the Nase of Norway or into Denmark or to the Isles of Orkney to refresh +themselves and so to return." And Drake, too, wrote on the evening of +the battle: "God hath given us so good a day in forcing the enemy so far +to leeward, as I hope in God the Prince of Parma and the Duke of Sidonia +shall not shake hands this few days." + +And the second point is that though the English loss was small during +the actual days of the battle, yet the strain and the food and the +sanitation were such that directly they came to port, a frightful +epidemic broke out among the men, who died, we are told, by hundreds in +consequence. + +In the actual fighting Ralegh probably took no part. When the first news +came of the Armada's approach, he was in Ireland, attending to his +duties as Mayor of Youghal. With the utmost speed at that time possible +he sailed from Ireland and rode to the English coast. Certain it is, +however, that he arrived too late for any official post to be assigned +him, for the battle had been in progress for two days before his +arrival. But many private gentlemen joined the fleet in craft hastily +equipped for warfare, and it would be a thing to wonder at if Ralegh was +behindhand when such doings were happening. No positive information is, +however, forthcoming. Only it is known that the Lord High Admiral's ship +was built from designs which Ralegh had matured, and that he agreed +completely with the plan of the Lord High Admiral's attack. Many an +evening Drake and Effingham and Ralegh would have spent in discussing +the tactics of sea-battles, proud, as they well might be, of the +swiftness and ease with which an English ship could be manoeuvred in +comparison with the large unwieldiness of the carracks of Spain, who +still considered herself (God help her) mistress of the sea. + +In his "History of the World" occurs a passage about the tactics +employed by the English against the Armada. There is a strong element of +pathos in the idea of the man shut up in the little room in the Tower of +London (he could watch the ships making their way down the Thames) +writing of this great action, which he had seen, and writing with +ardour, which nothing could extinguish. He had been recounting a fight +between Roman vessels, heavy and slow, and the swift African galleys. +Then he bursts out into this great paragraph of reminiscence, as though +once again he were convincing some obstinate fellow of the patent +rightness of the plan of attack. + +"Certainly, hee that will happily perform a fight at sea must be skilful +in making choice of vessels to fight in: he must beleeve that there is +more belonging to a good man of war upon the waters, than great during; +and must know that there is a great deale of difference betweene +fighting loose or at large, and grapling. The guns of a slow ship pierce +as well, and make as great holes, as those in a swift. To clap ships +together without consideration, belongs rather to a madman than to a man +of warre: for by such an ignorant braverie was Peter Strozzi lost at the +Azores when he fought against the Marquesse of Santa Cruz. In like sort +had the Lord Charles Howard, Admirall of England beene lost in the year +1588, if he had not been better advised than a great many malignant +fooles were, that found fault with his demeanour. The Spaniards had an +armie aboord them; and he had none; they had more ships than he had and +of higher building and charging; so that had he intangled himself with +those great and powerfull Vessels, he had greatly endangered this +Kingdom of England.... But our Admirall knew his advantage, and held it: +which had he not done, he had not beene worthy to have held his head. +Heere to speake in generall of sea-fight (for particulars are fitter for +private hands than for the Presse) I say, That a fleete of twentie ships +all good sailers and goode ships have the advantage on the open Sea, of +an hundred as good ships, and of slower sayling. For if the fleete of an +hundred saile keep themselves neere together in a grosse squadron: the +twentie ships charging them upon any angle, shall force them to give +ground and to fall back upon their owne next fellowes: of which so many +as intangle, are made unserviceable or lost. Force them they may easily, +because the twentie ships, which give themselves scope, after they have +given one broad side of Artillerie, by clapping into the winde, and +staying, they may give them the other: and so the twentie ships batter +them in pieces with a perpetuall vollie; whereas those, that fight in a +troop, have no roome to turn and can alwaies use but one and the same +beaten side." + +And this is precisely what had taken place in the Armada. It is +interesting to know that there was divergency of opinion about the +proper tactics to follow, and it would be still more interesting to know +who the "malignant fools" were, to whom Ralegh refers. Men who confuse +the strategy of war with their own idea of manliness, are common to all +times, and must indeed be the most desperate fellows for a proper +soldier to convince. You can hear them saying, with that dreadful +assumption of finality with which the pompous imbecile seems gifted, +those runaway tactics may be very well for buccaneers, but are they +seemly for the ships of the navy of England? Small wonder the memory of +them once more exasperated Ralegh in his prison-room to renewed anger. + +Before the Armada there had been many privateering expeditions against +Spain on different waters; after the Armada these expeditions naturally +became even more numerous, when they possessed the prestige of the +Crown's authority. + +Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys were sent with a small fleet to +reinstate Don Antonio on the throne of Portugal which had lapsed into +the possession of Philip of Spain. Ralegh went on that expedition, which +failed to attain its object but captured sixty Hanseatic vessels, laden +with victual and ammunition, which report said, were intended to +provision a new Armada. + +Reprisals against Spain became the vogue, into which Ralegh threw +himself with spirit. Every man whom money and opportunity favoured, +fitted out his ship to spoil the Egyptian. The Queen's person, forsooth, +was not to be harmed: she was to be conveyed to his Holiness the Pope at +Rome? Such things, men knew, were said with happy confidence before the +Armada, and such things, remembered and repeated, spurred Englishmen on +to activity in which the hope of personal gain was small in comparison +with the fury of personal resentment that their Queen should be so +lightly valued and thought to be so sorrily championed. Nor did they +always discriminate nicely between the nationality of ships which they +waylaid. Ralegh, as Vice-Admiral of Devon, often received instructions +to see to the restitution of ships to subjects of the French King; and a +ship of his own had taken "two barks of Cherbourg from two of the French +King's subjects." There is a wild recklessness in the exploits of these +years; these gentlemen of England, whose names sound through history, +exulted: and there is much in their exultation that resembles the +behaviour of schoolboys rejoicing in an unexpected half-holiday in +spring. The grave way in which their doings are recorded heightens by +contrast the similarity. Ralegh and his men are bidden be careful "to +minister no cause of grief unto any of the (French) King's subjects, in +respect of the good amity and correspondence between Her Majesty and the +French King, their realm and subjects." Austerely the records run; +austerely, too, is related her Majesty's desire that a certain perfect +waist-coat, the fame of which had reached her ears, should be put on one +side for her Majesty's personal use. + +They had the godlike capacity of remaining young, these Elizabethans; +they did not outgrow their taste for splendid waistcoats. And the world +found them irresistible. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +RALEGH AND SPENSER + + Rise of Essex--Ralegh retires to Ireland--At Kilcolman--At + Youghal--Friendship with Spenser--Brings Spenser to Court-- + Their dreams. + + +In 1588 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, died. His influence with the +Queen had for some years been decreasing, and there is a report, which +bears the likelihood of truth, that he had summoned to Court his +step-son Robert, the young Earl of Essex, in order that he might +counteract the growing influence of Ralegh. Be that report true or +false, young Essex came to Court about the year 1587, and his youth and +spirit took the Queen's fancy mightily. Essex was as arrogant as his +stepfather. Elizabeth was now an old woman in years and in appearance. +She felt that her power as a woman was leaving her, and that drove her +to make a last effort to regain it, defying age then as she defied death +later. She cared for decorum less than she cared for life. That is the +pathetic side of her immense vitality, if the word pathetic can ever be +used of such a woman. She felt that she could take something of the +youth which had left her, from the boy: he was little more than a boy. +To his natural arrogance was added the arrogance of youth. He, too, was +capricious and wilful, even as the old Queen was capricious; but he +gained charm, and the Queen lost dignity thereby. + +There was rivalry between Essex and Ralegh, who could not endure this +spoiled boy. His impertinence to the Queen was distasteful to one who, +like Ralegh, knew the meaning of reverence, and was able to understand +greatness. This abasement of his sovereign lady hurt him, and he had no +faith in Essex, neither in his character nor in his ability. + +Small wonder, then, that Ralegh fell into disgrace, and in 1589 he went +to Ireland to attend to his Irish estates. Gossip said, My Lord of Essex +had chased him from the Court. The boy took his position with +intolerable seriousness: he had even challenged Ralegh to mortal combat, +and it was necessary to hush the matter up that the Queen might not hear +of it. Ralegh went. Destiny led him to Kilcolman Castle, where Edmund +Spenser was living. + +But first he probably went to the Warden's house of the College of +Youghal: the house was dear to him because it resembled the manor-house +at Budleigh-Salterton, where he was born. The house was long and low; +and the rooms were lined with small panels of Irish oak.[B] A large +dining-room is on the ground floor, from which runs a subterranean +passage connecting the house with the old tower of St. Mary's Church. In +one of the kitchens the ancient wide arched fireplace remains. Sir +Walter Ralegh's study had fine dark wainscot, deep, projecting windows, +and a richly carved oak mantelpiece, which rose to the full height of +the ceiling. The cornice rested upon three figures--of Faith, Hope, and +Charity, and the rest of the structure was covered with dexterous +carving, circular-headed panels, and strangely wrought emblematical +devices. His bedroom adjoined the study: in it, too, was a carved +mantelpiece of oak, and in the fireplace Dutch tiles, four inches +square. Behind the wainscoting of this room was a recess, in which a +part of the old monkish library was hidden at the time of the +Reformation. Here Ralegh worked, taking notes, perhaps, for the great +history which he was to write later: here he read Peter Comestor's +"Historia Scolastica;" and a black-letter book, printed at Mantua in +1479, which tells of the events of the world from the Creation to the +days of the Twelve Apostles. It is pleasant to brood upon the change +from the turbulent Court life to the quiet of this monastic retreat at +Youghal--the little town in Ireland of which the illustrious courtier +was mayor. Not only in black-letter quartos was he interested, but also +in the garden. He planted great yellow wallflowers and cedars and +tobacco and Affane cherry trees: potatoes he introduced, and they were +cultivated all through Munster. You can read, too, in a _Gentleman's +Magazine_ of some ninety years ago: "Potatoes were first planted here +(that is, in Lancashire), having been brought from Ireland to England by +the immortal Ralegh." The writer must have had a tooth for potatoes, he +is spurred to such enthusiasm over the matter. _Il faut cultiver le +jardin._ + + [B] From the description by Rev. Samuel Hayman, historiographer + of Youghal, 1852. + +And at Kilcolman Castle Edmund Spenser was living, conscious of the +loneliness of the country. + + "One day (quoth he) I sat (as was my trade) + Under the foote of Mole, that mountain hore + Keeping my sheepe amongst the cooly shade + Of the greene alders by the Mullaes shore: + There a strange shepheard chaunst to find me out, + Whether allured with my pipes delight, + Whose pleasing sound yshrilled far about + Or thither led by chaunce, I know not right: + Whom when I asked from what place he came, + And how he hight, himself he did ycleepe + The Shepheard of the Ocean by name, + And said he came far from the main-sea deepe. + + He sitting me beside in that same shade, + Provoked me to plaie some pleasant fit; + And when he heard the musicke which I made, + He found himselfe full greatly pleased at it: + Yet, oemuling my pipe, he took in hond + My pipe, before that oemuled of many, + And played thereon; (for well that skill he cond;) + Himself as skilfull in that art as any. + He piped, I sung; and, when he sung, I piped. + By chaunge of turnes, each making other mery; + Neither envying other, nor envied, + So piped we, untill we both were weary." + +That is Spenser's account--a very pretty account--of the time which he +spent with Ralegh. It is written in "Colin Clouts Come Home Againe." +They had, of course, met before, as young men and soldiers by Smerwick, +when Spenser was secretary to Lord Grey of Wilton. But now many years +had passed by: they met again, and knew that they were friends. The +movement of a leaf is enough to show the direction of a large wind: and +a phrase may point the attitude of a friendship between two men. A +sentence thus pregnant occurs in Spenser's dedication to his pastoral +account of his visit to London. With a whimsical humour, which is +characteristic of him, he writes to the right worthy and noble knight, +Sir Walter Ralegh, Captain of her Majesties Guard, Lord Warden of the +Stannaries, and Lieutenant of the County of Cornwall. + + + "SIR, + + "That you may see that I am not alwaies ydle as yee thinke, + though not greatly well occupied, nor altogither undutifull, + though not precisely officious, I make you present of this + simple Pastorall...." + +You can see Spenser smile, as he writes, to think of this "strange +shepheard's" terrific energy: how Ralegh came upon him when he was +oppressed with melancholy and high dreams, which this melancholy did not +allow him to express: how intercourse with Ralegh inspired him with new +life. He would brood, too, of many things, which the memory of those +days stirred up within him. For Ralegh, like Sidney, the friend of +Spenser's earliest youth, was a poet as well as a man of action; and +though Spenser was a bigger poet than either he was not a bigger man. +The poet in Ralegh would draw him in reverence near to Spenser; and then +he would break out into denunciation of the inertia which was inclined +to creep over Spenser, and hold him in its long tentacles. The dreamer +had a certain dependance on others. Yet almost against his will it would +be that he submitted to the journey to Court, catching Ralegh's glow of +admiration for his work--those three books of the "Faërie Queene," which +Gabriel Harvey had told him were rubbish, but which he loved himself. He +was ready to believe in their worth, too, though the dreamer could not +help smiling at his friend's so restless energy, which could not allow +him to sit and dream his life away, but which drove him always on to be +up and doing. Ralegh was the Shepherd of the Ocean, and the Ocean (God +wot) is-- + + "A world of waters heaped up on hie + Rolling like mountaines in wide wildernesse, + Horrible, hideous, roaring with hoarse crie. + And is the sea (quoth Coridon) so fearfull? + Fearfull much more (quoth he) than hart can fear: + Thousand wyld beastes with deep mouthes gaping direfull + Therin stil wait poore passengers to teare." + +And yet it was good for the dreamer to know that the world wanted to +listen to his dreams. The plaintive whimsical humour of his fancy, which +fascinated Ralegh, has fascinated poets down the generations (even old +Ben Jonson, though his honesty forced him to square those shoulders of +his and pronounce--Spenser, in copying the ancients, writ no language), +for any one who has heard the echo even of the music of the spheres, +hears it again as he reads the strange cadence of Spenser's verse. No +one can realize the homeliness of his insight and his boundless +imagination, without coming under the mysterious spell of the +combination: that homeliness indeed gives a magic strength to the wings +of his magic fancy. + +The life of a dreamer is apt to be sad; if the world touches him, he +finds the touch heavy and hurtful. And Spenser could not free himself +from state duties which forced him to live for ever witness of the +misery and savageness of the peasants, and of the country's weird beauty +which made a terrible contrast to their misery. In Ireland he felt +solitary and neglected: but he had time and scope for his dreams. In +England he quickly felt the pettiness of the busy Court life, to which +he could not accustom himself. He never found the life which was most in +harmony with his spirit. He was not the man to grapple effectually with +circumstances: they hurt him. Those must have been halcyon days for him +when he was able to enjoy intercourse with a mind like Ralegh's, in the +peace and beauty of the country. Small wonder that he was encouraged to +proceed with his fairy fashioning of the perfect gentleman, which +Sidney's friendship had encouraged him to begin. + +He went with Ralegh to the Court, and both were well received. Spenser +was given a small pension by Elizabeth. But the ways of the Court did +not please him. He had sat too long dreaming by the green alders of +Mulla's stream to take kindly to the bustle and ceremony and coarseness +of that life. He must have returned with gladness to Kilcolman, and to +the work which he now knew the world deemed excellent. But he ever bore +in mind one side of Court life which he describes with vividness, +remembering probably what Ralegh had told him in their first long talks +together. + + "Cause have I none (quoth he) of cancred will + To quite them ill, that me demeaned so well: + But selfe-regard of private good or ill + Moves me of each, so as I found, to tell + And else to warne young shepheards wandring wit, + Which, through report of that lives painted blisse, + Abandon quiet home, to seeke for it, + And leave their lambes to losse misled amisse. + For sooth to say it is no sort of life + For shepheard fit to lead in that same place, + Where each one seeks with malice, and with strife, + To thrust down other into foule disgrace, + Himself to raise: and he doth soonest rise + That best can handle his deceitful wit + In subtil shifts, and finest sleights devise." + +Ralegh knew this dark side of the Court life as well as Spenser knew it: +he knew how some men were ready to slander a well-deemed name by lies +and by forgery: how some men were pleased to creep into a man's secrecy +and betray him: he knew the frequency of + + "A filed toung furnisht with tearmes of art, + No art of schoole, but courtiers schoolery." + +For there were many impostors at the Court; men eager to touch a great +man's cloak-hem, and still more eager to raise the cry of _Treason_ +which should send that great man to his ruin. Ralegh, when he was well, +was roused by these dangers to grapple with them: it stirred his +fighting instinct and his pride. It proved his knowledge of men and +tested his power of dealing with men. He liked to pass on his way with +his head erect, scorning the clamour of the little men, that he might +stoop the lower in reverence to his great Queen. But Spenser looked +upon this darker side of Court life, and turned away from it in disgust. +He had neither the power nor the instinct to overcome such +circumstances: they merely tired and offended him. He was king of the +land of dreams: a leader of men he could never be. And he did not +complain against his kingdom, though his waking hours were troubled by +care and sorrow. + +It is uncommonly pleasant to linger over these quiet months of Ralegh's +life: it is pleasant to think of Ralegh, one of the greatest men that +have ever lived, finding that Edmund Spenser whom he remembered well +enough, was his friend: hearing him read those three books of the +"Faërie Queene," and finding that his new and gentle friend was a very +great poet. Each man had his dream of a kingdom: Spenser, the realm of +Faërie, where he would fashion the allegory of a perfect chivalry: +Ralegh, the kingdom of Guiana, which was to make his Queen mighty and +his country the greatest in the world. Neither dream was wrought out to +its end. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +EVIL TIMES + + Ralegh and the Puritans--John Udall--Blount--Ralegh's + marriage--Queen's anger--In the Tower--His sincerity--The + Episode in the "Faërie Queene"--_Madre de Dios_--Robert + Cecil--Sherborne. + + +Ralegh returned to Court in 1591, bringing the greatest poet who had yet +come to English literature with him. He was able after his respite to +manage circumstances once more, even that most trying circumstance of +all, young Essex, and joined with him in helping the Puritans who were +at that time being treated more hardly even than they deserved. + +It is unlikely that their views influenced Ralegh in any way. He was +beyond the constraint of any fixed creed. But he saw sincere men and +honest men receiving injuries; and he exerted himself on their behalf. +He was called an atheist, naturally enough; that has always been the cry +against men who dared to think beyond the scope of sects' understanding. +Not even Shelley was less of an atheist, however. + +One, John Udall, who was an eminent Hebrew scholar, had come under +ecclesiastical disgrace (dissenters are apt to be malignant to other +forms of dissent--witness the hues and cries raised lately against a new +Theology) by writing a book in which he pointed out the need of reform +in the reformed church. The book had the portentous name of "The +Demonstration of Discipline which Christ hath prescribed in His Word for +the government of the Church, in all times and places, until the World's +end." The English Church was in too shocking a state to allow such a +book to go quietly on its way. They laid hands on John Udall, put him in +a prison at Southwark, and sentenced him to death. Something about the +man's straightforwardness and sincerity seems to have appealed to +Ralegh. He advised Udall to draw up a schedule of his opinions, which he +promised to show to the Queen. These opinions had been twisted and +exaggerated into treasonable utterances by enemies, who had thus turned +the Queen against Udall; but Ralegh was convinced that he would be able +to change the Queen's mind by his own influence. Essex, too, was in +favour of Udall's release. Their efforts were so far successful that the +sentence was mitigated to one of banishment, but while the exact nature +of the sentence was under discussion, John Udall died in the prison at +Southwark. The bishops could not be hurried in their deliberations. +Rigorous repression begun thus early, strengthened the cause of the +Puritans beyond all reasonable necessity. There is nothing to show that +Ralegh was in any sympathy with their cause or with their hatred of +playhouses and dancing and games. He probably did not take them more +seriously than Spenser when he wrote of the Crab on which jolly June was +riding. + + "And backward yode, as bargemen wont to fare + Bending their force contrary to their face + Like that ungracious crew which faines demurest grace." + +But John Udall was a scholar and an honest man; and Ralegh reverenced +scholarship and honesty, knowing the value of letters and the courage +that honesty required. Moreover he always favoured tolerance in dealing +with those whose consciences gave them peculiar views, as is seen by his +speech in Parliament a few years later, when he opposed the banishment +of the sect called Brownists. + +Meanwhile Essex had not grown in any way less arrogant. About this time +a younger brother of Lord Mountjoy attracted the Queen's notice; his +name was Charles Blount, and Naunton described him as "brown-haired, of +a sweet face, and of a most neat composure tall in his person." The +Queen seeing him at dinner at Whitehall gave him her hand to kiss, and +afterwards a chessman as favour. Blount wore the piece on his sleeve, +and Essex remarking it and being told whose favour it was, said, "Ah! I +see every fool must have a favour now-aday." Blount challenged Essex. +They fought in what is now called Regent's Park, and Essex was wounded +in the thigh. "God's death," cried out Elizabeth when she heard of it, +"it was time that some one or other should take him down and teach him +better manners; otherwise there would be no rule with him." + +And now an event of some importance occurred in the life of Sir Walter +Ralegh--his marriage. His behaviour has called down much censure upon +him. Macaulay invented a phrase which has had potent results, "the +disease of biographers." Every man seems fearful lest he should be +branded with the ignominy of the complaint; yet he must be a strange +fellow who can live again with a man like Ralegh in times like Ralegh's +times and not catch the fire of enthusiasm. But enough. At this point in +his career, writers are wont to show their breadth of judgment: "There +could have been no true nobility in the man ..." writes one of his +letter to the Queen. Fortunately ideas differ as to the nature of true +nobility. Now this is the basis of the censures levelled against him. Of +the facts of his courtship very little is known, and what is known is +strangely mingled with the business of reprisals against Spain, in which +Ralegh was actively engaged. This is the letter which he wrote to Sir +Robert Cecil:-- + + "SIR, + + "I received your letters this present day at Chattame + concerninge the wages of the mariners and others. For myne own + part, I am very willing to enter bonde, as you persuaded me, so + as the Privey Seale be first sente for my injoyinge the third: + but I pray consider that I have layd all that I am worth, and + must do, ere I depart on this voyage. If it fall not out well, + I can but loose all, and if nothinge be remayning, wherewith + shall I pay the wages.... And farther I have promised Her + Majestie that, if I can perswade the Cumpanies to follow Sir + Martin Furbresher, I will without fail returne.... But, Sir, + for mee then to be bounde for so great a sume, uppon the hope + of another man's fortune, I will be loth: and besides, if I + weare able, I see no privy seale for my thirds. I mean not to + cume away, as they say I will, for feare of a marriage and I + know not what. If any such thinge were, I would have imparted + it unto yoursealf before any man livinge: and therefore I pray + believe it not, and I beseich you to suppress, what you can, + any such mallicious report. For I protest before God, ther is + none on the face of the yearth that I would be fastned unto. + And so in haste I take my leave of your Honor. From Chattame, + the 10th of Marche. + + "Your's ever to be commanded, + "W. RALEGH" + +Ralegh was anxious to stop this gossip about the relations between +himself and Elizabeth Throgmorton. What they were, was entirely his own +affair. At any rate he wanted Secretary Cecil to be quite clear that +they would in no way affect his willingness to work as he had always +worked for his country. And so little was he "fastned" to any on the +face of the earth that he relaxed no effort to forward his enterprise of +Guiana, and in three years' time he set sail for Guiana, though his +marriage was then an established fact. + +It was for many reasons advisable to crush, if possible, the spread of +gossip, and especially because the Queen Elizabeth hated her favourites +to marry. As she grew old and began to lose her power as a woman, this +feeling increased in violence. Whether that feeling be good or bad, is +of no importance. It existed, and Ralegh knew well that it existed. Many +consider that his devotion (and that of most of her courtiers) was +merely based upon the advantages which he could get from the old woman: +that he really flattered and despised her; that his conduct was base and +unscrupulous. This view would seem to be at fundamental variance with +the facts of his nature, of the Queen's extraordinary power, and of the +whole tendency of the time. Not for nothing were love-sonnets the +fashion: though there are men who think that fashion sufficient to prove +once for all the coldheartedness and insincerity of the time. + +When Ralegh returned, he was sent to the Tower, avowedly because he had +disobeyed orders in setting sail at all, really because the Queen looked +upon his marriage as a kind of personal treason. She detested marriage, +thinking it did not improve the efficiency of a man. And Ralegh, without +any treachery to his wife, whom he continued to love until the end of +his life, was thrown into misery by the Queen's anger. There are men +whose nature will not admit of more than one call upon their affection, +and that of a limited kind. You will find that they are apt to preen +themselves upon their loyalty, wisely enough. Ralegh was not made on +those lines. His feeling for the Queen was a real and vital feeling, +and was not swayed by every circumstance of his life. She was a woman +whom he had loved, and a great woman for all her caprices: she was his +Queen and an illustrious Queen: she was Queen of England, which under +her rule had crushed Spain's power. It would have been strange if her +fierce resentment of his action had not affected him. As it was he wrote +from the Tower--men, English men, were not then ashamed of their +feelings: they liked to try and express them-- + + "My heart was never broken till this day, that I hear the Queen + goes away so far off--whom I have followed so many years with + so great love and desire, in so many journeys and am now left + behind her, in a dark prison all alone. While she was yet nire + at hand, that I might hear of her once in two or three dayes, + my sorrows were the less: but even now my heart is cast into + the depth of all misery. I that was wont to behold her riding + like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus, the + gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks, like a + nymph: sometime siting in the shade like a Goddess; sometime + singing like an angell; sometime playing like Orpheus. Behold + the sorrow of this world! Once amiss, hath bereaved me of all. + O Glory that only shineth in misfortune, what is becum of thy + assurance? Al wounds have skares, but that of fantasie, all + affections their relenting, but that of womankind. Who is the + judge of friendship but adversity? or when is grace witnessed + but in offences? There were no divinety, but by reason of + compassion; for revenges are brutish and mortall. All those + times past,--the loves, the sythes, the sorrows, the desires, + can they not way down one frail misfortune? Cannot one dropp of + gall be hidden in so great heapes of sweetness? I may then + conclude _Spes et fortuna valete_. She is gone in whom I + trusted, and of me hath not one thought of mercy, nor any + respect of that that was. Do with me now, therefore, what you + list. I am more weary of life than they are desirous I should + perish; which if it had been for her, as it is by her, I had + been too happily born. + + "Your's not worthy any name or like, + "W. R." + +There are some who see in this letter merely an artifice to play upon +the senile affections of a doting woman. They write nimbly of true +nobility: they describe the deterioration of an old woman's body; they +ask, could a man care for such a person? and assert that all Ralegh +desired was money and appointments. Their point of view is wearisome and +false: it leaves the bad taste that the report of divorce-court +proceedings leaves--with that pettiness and familiarity, which is +disgusting. + +Meanwhile Ralegh remained in prison: and his enemies triumphed at his +downfall. + +It is refreshing to read Spenser's account of the story, written a +little after the event, as an episode of the "Faërie Queene." It clears +the air with its gentleness and that sweet mingling of humour and +sadness. + +Belphoebe has left the squire with Amoret, and comes back. + + "There she him found by that new lovely Mate + Who lay the whiles in swoune, full sadly set, + From her faire eyes wiping the deawy wet + Which softly stild and kissing them atweene, + And handling soft the hurts which she did get:... + + "Which when she saw with sodaine glauncing eye, + Her noble heart, with sight thereof was fild + With deep disdaine and great indignity, + That in her wrath she thought them both have thrild + With that selfe arrow which the Carle had kild: + Yet held her wrathfull hand from vengeance sore: + But drawing nigh, ere he her well beheld, + 'Is this the paith?' she said--and said no more + But turned her face and fled away for evermore." + +He smiles a little at the intensity of the squire's grief, but makes no +hint at his insincerity, and he could have done so quite easily without +injuring his friend, Ralegh. All through the character of Timias the +Squire, he dwells on the impetuosity of his feeling with kindly humour. +For Spenser must have often teased Ralegh on that terrible restless +energy which drove him from experience to experience, and from the +height of enthusiasm to the depth of despair. "Do it with thy Might" was +a singularly characteristic device. + + "And his faire lockes, that wont with ointment sweet + To be embalm'd, and sweat out dainty dew, + He let to grow and griesly to concrew, + Uncomb'd, uncurl'd, and carelesly unshed." + +His wife was a lady named Elizabeth Throgmorton, daughter of Sir +Nicholas Throgmorton. Much is not known of her: enough, however, is +known to prove that she was a woman of character and attainments. The +marriage, in spite of its inaugural storm, was a success. + +Ralegh's imprisonment occurred when he was busily engaged in fitting out +expeditions against the Spaniards to command the trade-route through the +Azores. In 1591 a rough squadron had been despatched under Lord Howard; +but the enemy had got wind of it, and had sent a powerful fleet to +protect their vessels. Of this Lord Howard heard in time to avoid +disaster; he weighed anchor from Flores where he was anchoring, and +escaped. Sir Richard Grenville, however, refused to fly: with his small +ship the _Revenge_ he awaited the attack, and the full fury of the +Spanish Fleet fell upon him. His resistance was as gallant as his +disobedience had been audacious. Ralegh wrote a superb account of his +friend's undaunted valour, and his friend's death spurred him on to +renewed enterprise against the Spaniards. + +In the following year, 1592, he took the chief part in an expedition +which, under his management, was far more successful. "Sir Walter +Ralegh," writes Hakluyt, "upon commission received from her Majesty for +an expedition to be made to the West Indies, slacked not his uttermost +diligence to make full provision of all things necessary, as both in his +choice of good ships, and sufficient men to performe the action +evidently appeared. For his shippes, which were in number 14 or 15, +those two of her Majesties, the _Garland_ and the _Foresight_ were the +chiefest; the rest either his owne or his good friends or adventurers in +London." Sir John Burrough was in command, and under him was the stern +Sir Martin Frobisher, whose rigour even the hardiest sailors disliked. +Contrary winds prevented the fleet from sailing for some weeks from the +western ports where they were anchored; and the Queen, disliking the +delay, recalled Ralegh. But Ralegh, being deeply involved in the +enterprise, did not obey her first summons. The wind at length became +favourable; and he set sail. But when they were, on May 11th, off Cape +Finisterre, "a tempest of strange and uncouth violence" arose, and Sir +Walter himself in the _Garland_ was in danger of being swallowed up by +the sea. The storm did much damage to the vessels. Moreover, they had +learned from two ships homeward bound for London, that no Spanish vessel +would move that year, and that the hope of plunder in the West Indies +was small. Accordingly, Ralegh determined to divide his fleet into two +squadrons, one under the command of Sir John Burrough, and one under the +command of Sir Martin Frobisher, and to lie in wait, the first at the +Azores, the second by the Spanish coast "to amuse the home fleet." He +himself then returned home, and forthwith on his arrival was imprisoned +in the Tower of London. + +On August 3rd, an immense Spanish galleon, the _Madre de Dios_, was +sighted by Captain Thomson, in _The Dainty_. He immediately attacked, +and was beaten off with some loss, until Sir John Burrough came up with +the _Roebuck_, and the attack was resumed at close range. Still, +however, the galleon held her own: Sir R. Cross then sailed up in the +_Foresight_, and Sir John Burrough conferred with him as to the best +course to pursue. At all costs they must prevent the Portuguese from +taking her to shore and firing her, as they had fired the _Santa Cruz_, +a few months earlier. They decided to board the _Madre de Dios_. Their +first attack was repulsed: the galleon slowly kept on her way to the +island. Then Sir R. Cross encouraged his men to make a final attempt. +For three hours they fought on alone, when two ships of the Earl of +Cumberland arrived, and the galleon was at length taken. + +Naturally there was considerable anger among the men of Ralegh's fleet, +when the Earl of Cumberland's captains demanded their share of the +spoils. Feeling ran high between both parties, and many valuables were +stolen, for the galleon was beyond all belief, rich in treasure. And +when, on the eighth of September, they arrived with the capture at +Dartmouth, and learned that Ralegh was in the Tower, the disorder grew +perilously near to mutiny. Ralegh's presence became a necessity, and he +was released. He went to the West as a State prisoner. Sir Robert Cecil +preceded him. + +News of the treasure on the captured ship had spread far and wide: and a +proclamation was issued throughout the towns in Devon and Cornwall "that +all passengers should be stopped, and that all trunks, carriers, packs, +hampers, cloak-bags, portmanteaus, and fardells, that are likely to have +in them any part of the goods lately arrived in the ports of Dartmouth +or Plymouth in a Spanish carrock ... should be stayed and searched." For +the galleon, besides jewels and bullion, contained spices, drugs, silks, +calicoes, carpets and quilts, to the value of about Ł150,000. + +So, Cecil writes in a letter to his father, that "Whomsoever I met by +the way within seven miles, that either had anything in cloak-bag, or in +mail, which did but smell of the prizes (for I assure your Lordship I +could smell them almost, such hath been the spoils of amber and musk +amongst them) I did, though he had little about him, return him with me +to the town of Exeter.... I have taken order to search every bag or mail +coming from the West.... My Lord, there never was such spoil! I will +suppress the confluence of these buyers, of which there are above two +thousand. And except they be removed there will be no good.... Fouler +ways, desperater ways, nor more obstinate people did I never meet +with.... Her Majesty's captive comes after, but I have outrid him." + +And in a second letter, written a few days later, he describes Ralegh's +arrival, and the enthusiastic welcome which his men of Devon gave him: +"I assure you, Sir, poor servants to the number of a hundred and forty +goodly men, and all the mariners came to him with such shouts and joy, +as I never saw a man more troubled to quiet them in my life. But his +heart is broken, for he is very extreme pensive longer than he is +busied, in which he can toil terribly." + +[Illustration: ROBERT CECIL] + +Ralegh himself came very badly out of the division (probably through +the cleverness of Robert Cecil), and he did not scruple to write very +frankly to Lord Burghley his opinion of the business. "The Erle of +Cumberland is allowed Ł36,000, and his accompt came but to Ł19,000: so +as he hath Ł17,000 profytt, who adventured for himselfe; and we that +served the Queen and assisted her service, have not our own again. +Besides I gave my ship's sayles and cables to furnish the Caraque and +bring her home, or else she had perished: my ship first bourded her, and +onely staid with her; and brought her into harborough or else she had +perished uppon Silley. I was not present, and therefore had no +extraordinary profytt: I was the cause that all this came to the +Queene.... I that adventured all my estate, lose of my principall and +they have double...." + +Robert Cecil was one of the few Elizabethan men with any pretence to +greatness who was before all else designing and crafty. He had a genius +for cold scheming. About this time he began to realize that Ralegh was +too impetuous, and too great to be a convenient friend. And so he +quietly set about to sap Ralegh's influence, though on the surface he +remained as friendly as he had ever been, and let his son stay with the +Raleghs at Sherborne. Robert Cecil was a politician and nothing else. + +And now Ralegh made Sherborne, in the county of Dorset, his centre, from +which he transacted all the manifold business of his life. Here, as in +Youghal, he planted trees and flowers. He thought with Lord Bacon that +"God Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed, it is the purest of +human pleasures: it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of a man; +without which buildings and handiworks are but gross handiworks:" even +as he would think with Bacon, "It is a poor centre of a man's actions, +himself. It is right earth; for that only stands fast upon his own +centre, whereas all things that have affinity with the heavens, move +upon the centre of another, which they benefit." For he was working +towards the realization of his great dream, which would bring prosperity +and wealth once for all to England and England's greatest Queen, +Elizabeth. He now had all the things which are wont to make for comfort +and contentment: but he was not a man for whom ease had any attraction. +He strained every effort, even amidst the peace and beauty of the +country which he loved, to the arduous enterprise which he had set +himself--to explore the little-known country of Guiana--an enterprise in +which many brave men were known to have lost their lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE KINGDOM IN GUIANA + + Ralegh leaves England--Arrives at Trinidad--Taking of S. + Joseph--Interviews with Berreo--Dealings with natives-- + Starts up the river in boats--Dangers overcome--Adventures-- + They reach River Amana--Indian village--Within sight of + Guiana--Toparimaca--Beauty of the land--Falls of the + Caroli--The return--Voyage home--Arrival in England. + + +Although travel was slow and involved great physical endurance, there +was never a time when men less loved their homes and firesides. The +scene again changes. Many things called Ralegh; the spirit of unrest was +always strong in him; he was always longing to get right away. The +little things of life pressed upon him, and drove him to seek respite +and quiet in the Unknown. And the Unknown held for him immense +possibilities; the kingdom he desired to establish haunted his +imagination more imperiously even than the actual release from the life +and surroundings which quickly to his spirit became dull and +commonplace. His nature was too high bred to endure with patience, until +it was confronted by the inevitable; and there was very little that to +his nature was inevitable. The barriers that would have stopped a +smaller nature were pushed on one side by him, and even when Fate held +him fast, he ultimately triumphed by turning his bondage to magnificent +account. The spirit of life was with him always stronger than his fear +of being called a coward, stronger even than his pride. And always when +he at length realized a thing to be inevitable, he faced it at his full +stature. + +He had lived the life of the courtier, he had fought against Spain, he +had attended to the numberless duties in Devonshire, in Cornwall, in +Ireland; everything was becoming wearisome to him, and while he was +unconsciously losing interest in his life, he was also losing his power +over others. He was in disfavour. He was prouder than the proud men +amongst whom he lived, and in consequence he had many enemies, who +longed to humble his pride. He grew tired of the life; his imagination +moved ever in advance of the present, and kept him ever unsatisfied and +alert. In himself rather than in the influence of others lay the primary +reason for his loss of favour. It is almost invariably so with a great +personality even when he is himself unconscious of the cause. + +He put all his energy into making preparations for carrying out his +project of founding a new kingdom in Guiana. If he were successful, +fortune would be remade, and favour would be regained. The prospect was +exciting, but more alluring than the excitement was the knowledge that +the sea and the unknown would bring to his soul immediate peace; that +new sights, new dangers, and new interests would soothe his mind, +fretted by the immanent pettiness of passing days. Change is the law of +life, and Ralegh was immensely alive. Such a nature as his must always +find expression for itself, must find scope and occupation for its +greatness, or the spirit preys upon itself and pines into uneasiness. +Whatever the force be from which vitality comes, brain or blood or soul, +that force is irresistible. Death alone can free a man from its +tyranny. + +So Ralegh turned towards that kingdom in Guiana, towards "that great and +golden city which the Spaniards call El Dorado," and on Thursday, +February 6, 1595, he left England. The previous year he had sent his +servant, Jacob Whiddon, to get "knowledge of the passages," and he had +"some light from Captain Parker," but yet his journey's end was vaguely +known. Jacob Whiddon and Captain Parker only conjectured that the place +existed somewhere southward of the great bay Charuas, or Guanipa; and +their conjecture was incorrect by some six hundred miles. Information of +the kind was apt then to be inaccurate. Spaniards, indeed, knew +something of this vast empire of Guiana, but naturally they kept such +knowledge to their own use. That this destination was six hundred miles +farther inland than he had been led to believe, Ralegh did not discover +until he arrived at Trinidad, which he reached with no mishap other than +the usual one of separation. + +One of the pieces of gossip which old Aubrey recounts, and which is +pleasant to believe, is that Ralegh was in the habit of taking many +books with him on a voyage, and of reading them assiduously in his +cabin. He knew Spanish well, and was conversant with the travel-lore of +Spain. Among his books would surely be the "large discourses" of Pedro +de Cieza and Francisco Lopez, recounting the marvels of the land to +which he was making and the adventures which the Spaniards endured in +conquering it. + +All the terrible hardships of these first explorers had often fired his +imagination, but never as now, when every movement of the ship brought +him nearer to the actual scene of his endeavour. He would succeed where +they had failed. And his heart must have warmed to these brave +adventurers in spite of the fact that they were his enemies. He +remembered their hardships, and his own, when he wrote in his "History +of the World," "I cannot forbeare to commend the patient virtue of the +Spaniards. We seldome or never finde that any Nation hath endured so +many misadventures and miseries as the Spaniards have done in their +Indian discoveries.... Tempests and shipwrecks, famine, overthrowes, +mutinies, heat and cold, pestilence, and all manner of diseases, both +old and new, together with extreme povertie, and want of all things +needefull, have beene the enemies wherewith every one of their most +noble Discoverers, at one time or other hath encountered. Many yeeres +have passed over some of their heads in the search of not so many +leagues; yea, more than one or two have spent their labour, their wealth +and their lives in search of a golden Kingdom without getting further +notice of it than what they had at their first setting forth. All which, +notwithstanding the third, fourth, and fifth under-takers, have not been +disheartened. Surely they are worthily rewarded with those Treasuries +and Paradises which they enjoy; and well they deserve to hold them +quietly, if they hinder not the like virtue in others, which (perhaps) +will not be found." Men who lived through the same elemental perils have +something in common, and a man like Ralegh is able to realize and to +express the fact; he is able to rise above the claims of nationality at +a time when his nation struggled for its very life, and he with it, +against the rival nation of Spain. + +He arrived at the island of Trinidad, and punished, after the manner of +the time, the treachery of the Spaniards against Jacob Whiddon; for the +year before Berreo, Governor of Trinidad, had broken his word of truce +to Whiddon, and having set an ambuscade for his men when they landed, +slew some eight of them. "So as both to be revenged of this wrong, as +also considering that to enter Guiana by small boats, to depart four or +five hundred miles from my ships and to have a garrison in my back +interested in the same enterprise, who also daily expected supplies out +of Spain, I should have savoured very much of the ass; and therefore, +taking a time of most advantage, I set upon the corp du gard in the +evening, and having put them to the sword, sent Captain Galfield onward +with sixty soldiers, and myself followed with forty more, and so took +their new city, which they called S. Joseph, by break of day; they abode +not any fight after a few shot, and all being dismissed but only Berreo +and his companion. I brought them with me aboard, and at the instance of +the Indians I set their new city of S. Joseph on fire." + +And now Ralegh shows once more his extraordinary power over other men, +and shows it even more vividly than in the case of the Irish chieftain +whom he changed from a leader of rebels to a staunch servant of the +Queen. He wanted all the information he could obtain, and from Berreo he +obtained it, though he was bitterly opposed, as might be expected, to +the English and to Ralegh. A Boswellian record of their conversations +would be of value to all business men. + +"Having Berreo my prisoner, I gathered from him as much of Guiana as he +knew. This Berreo is a gentleman well descended and had long served the +Spanish King in Milan, Naples, the Low Countries, and elsewhere, very +valiant and liberal, and a gentleman of great assuredness, and of a +great heart. I used him according to his estate and worth in all things +I could, according to the small means I had." Berreo well knew the +importance of such knowledge to Ralegh; for he had spread reports far +and wide among the Indians that the English meant them the deadliest +mischief, and he had announced that any native found to have had any +intercourse with the English would be forthwith hanged. But Berreo, an +old man, was constrained to give a full account of his journey; and +Ralegh's narrative of his own expedition is punctuated by what Berreo +saw and heard, and conjectured, and by repeated corroboration of +Berreo's statements. Ralegh must have smiled to himself when the old man +so far relented towards him as even to beg him not to venture his life +and the lives of the company in attempting a task which had proved too +much for his own capability. There must have been a singular mingling of +affection and cunning in the petition. "Berreo," writes Ralegh, "Berreo +was stricken into a great melancholy and sadness, and used all the +arguments he could to dissuade me, and also assured the gentlemen of my +company that it would be labour lost, and that they should suffer many +miseries if they proceeded." And he went on to explain the nature of the +difficulties, how the mouths of the rivers were sandy and full of flats, +which could only be entered in the smallest boats; how the current ran +swift and strong; how the natives were hostile, and how the kings of the +natives had decreed that none should trade with the English for gold, +"because the same would be their own overthrow, and that for the love of +gold the Christians meant to conquer and dispossess them of all +together." To which Ralegh adds drily, "Many and the most of these I +found to be true." + +Naturally he did not let experience alone prove the truth of his valiant +prisoner's statements. He called all the captains of the island together +that were enemies to the Spaniards and conversed with them by means of +an + +Indian interpreter whom he had brought out of England. "I made them +understand that I was the servant of a queen who was the great Cassiqui +of the north, and a virgin, and had more Cassiqui under her than there +were trees in their island; that she was an enemy to the Castellans in +respect 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. I showed them Her Majesty's picture, which they +so admired and honoured as it had been easy to have brought them +idolatrous thereof.... They now call her Ezrabeta Cassipuna Aquerewana." + +That was his policy always with the natives. The Spaniards desired +immediate wealth, which they wrung from the Indians by all means in +their power; Ralegh desired a new English kingdom, and knew that for his +purpose the aid of the Indians was invaluable. And accordingly wherever +he went he was always at the utmost pains to conciliate them with +presents and carefully sought expressions of regard and good will. The +Indian chieftains fell under the spell of his personality in the same +way as the Irish rebel and his Spanish prisoner, or, indeed, any one +over whom he sought from the first moment of acquaintance to exercise +influence. + +To estimate at its proper value the gigantic proportions of the task +which Ralegh had sailed some thousand miles to achieve, it is necessary +to remember something of the geography of the country which is now +called Venezuela, and the innumerable rivers which there flow into the +sea, forming a complicated network. + +Having at length discovered from Berreo and the natives as much as he +could about the lie of the land--that is to say, about a quarter of that +which an intelligent Council School teacher could have told him in ten +minutes at the present day--Ralegh started up the river to Guiana, +"resolving," as he puts it, "to make trial of all, whatsoever happened." +He sent ships to reconnoitre and take soundings. Captain Calfield in his +bark and the vice-admiral George Gifford in the _Lion's Whelp_ eastward +to the mouth of the river called Capuri; King, master of the _Lion's +Whelp_ in his ship's boat to try another branch of the river in the +bottom of the bay of Guanipa, and to see if there was water enough to +admit the passage of a small ship. This branch was called the Amana; but +it, like the other, presented the same difficulties. The rush of water +was dangerous for a small boat, and the shallowness prevented the use of +a ship. King could only make hurried investigations, because his Indian +guide assured him that the natives of Guanipa, who were cannibals, might +any moment attack them, and that the attack would be terrible, for they +paddled swiftly in canoes and shot poisoned arrows with deadly effect. + +Nothing could deter Ralegh from his enterprise. He gave instructions to +his carpenters to cut down a gallego-boat, to draw five feet of water, +and to fit her with banks to row on. John Douglas was sent in his barge +to look after King, who had not returned, and to take careful soundings +in the bottom of the bay. For old John Hampton of Plymouth, and others +who had come from Trinidad, had told him dreadful stories of its danger. +"It hath been held for infallible that whatsoever ship or boat shall +fall therein can never disembogue again by reason of the violent current +which setteth into the said bay, as also for that the breeze and +easterly wind bloweth directly into the same." + +John Douglas took with him an old cassique of Trinidad for a pilot, and +was successful. Four goodly entrances were found, whereof the least was +as big as the Thames at Woolwich, but only six feet deep. Ralegh +accordingly gave up hope of finding passage for his ship, and decided to +go on with the boats, and the gallego which he had prepared, and which +held sixty men. In the boat of _Lion's Whelp_ and in its wherry there +was room for twenty men, in Captain Calfield's wherry for ten, and in +Ralegh's barge for ten more. They carried victuals for a month. Among +the gentlemen were Ralegh's cousins Butshead Gorges and John Grenville, +his nephew John Gilbert, Captain Keymis and Captain Clarke. "We had as +much sea to cross over in our wherries as between Dover and Calais, and +in a great billow, the wind and current being both very strong, so as we +were driven to go in those small boats directly before the wind into the +bottom of the bay of Guanipa." Their pilot was an Arwacan, an Indian of +Barema, which is a river to the south of the Orinoco. Ralegh had caught +and pressed him into his service as he was paddling in his canoe to sell +bread at Marquerita; but now the Arwacan confessed himself quite +ignorant of the river up which they were rowing; he told them he had not +been on it for twelve years, "at which time he was very young and of no +judgment." The position of the adventurers was one of extreme danger; +they might have rowed in that labyrinth of rivers for a year without +finding a way either out or in, for they only discovered the Arwacan's +ignorance after four days. Ralegh realized their plight to the full, and +the extraordinary good fortune which drew them out of it. A small canoe +was espied in which three Indians were paddling. Ralegh, in his +eight-oared barge, immediately gave chase, and succeeded in overtaking +the canoe before it crossed the river ("which because it had no name we +called the river of the Red Cross, ourselves being the first Christians +that ever came therein"). Natives on the thickly wooded bank watched the +chase with eagerness, and the captain with anxiety, fearing what might +happen to their fellows. But when they saw that Ralegh treated the three +with deference, the people on the shore made friendly signs and showed +no fear as the eight-oared barge drew in, but offered to traffic in such +commodities as they possessed. + +As the adventurers stopped there for a while at the mouth of a little +creek which came from the Indian village into the river, Ferdinando the +pilot, who came with them originally, and his brother, must needs go to +the village to drink the wine of the place, and upon him the chief men +of the village fell, threatening to punish them with death for having +thus brought white strangers into their midst. But Ferdinando, "being +quick and of a disposed body," escaped to the woods, and his brother +raced back to the barge, where he cried out panting that the Indians had +slain Ferdinando. Ralegh immediately laid hands on a very old man, who +was with him to serve as hostage, and if Ferdinando were indeed dead, to +take his place as pilot. Meanwhile the Indians were pursuing Ferdinando +with deer-dogs, and the woods sounded with their shouts; nor could the +old man stay them, though he called out as loudly as he could the sad +consequences in which they would involve him. At last Ferdinando reached +a part of the shore and climbed a tall tree which hung over the river, +and the barge happening to pass by, he plunged into the water and swam +to it, half dead with fear. "But our good hap was that we kept the other +old Indian, which we hand-fasted to redeem our pilot withal, for being +natural of those rivers we assured ourselves he knew the way better +than any stranger could; and, indeed, but for this chance, I think we +had never found the way either to Guiana or back to our ships; for +Ferdinando, after a few days, knew nothing at all nor which way to turn, +yea and many times the old man himself was in great doubt which river to +take." + +They rowed on through the maze of rivers and islands, which were +inhabited by the Ciawani and the Waraweete, goodly people, carpenters +for the most part of canoes, who dwell in little houses in the summer, +and, when the river rises (and it rises thirty feet, amazingly, as +Ralegh discovered), in the tops of trees. He relates their customs; how +some beat the bones of their chiefs into powder and the wives and +friends drink it all, that the bones may have a kindly resting-place; +how others take up the buried corpse of a dead chieftain, when the flesh +has departed from the bones, and hang the skeleton in his own house, +decking the skull with feathers and fitting his gold plates about the +bones of his arms and thighs and legs. + +On the third day the gallego "came on ground and stuck so fast as we +thought that even there our discovery had ended and that we must have +left sixty of our men to have inhabited like rooks upon trees with those +nations; but the next morning, after we had cast out all her ballast, +with tugging and hauling to and fro we got her afloat." + +Four days more they rowed on until they came into the river Amana, which +ran more directly, without windings and twistings, than the other, and +then a fresh difficulty met them. For the flood of the sea no longer +gave any help and "we were enforced either by main strength to row +against a violent current or to return as wise as we went out." The men +complained that the work was too much for them; but they consented to +pull on when Ralegh and the other captains and gentlemen offered to take +each his turn at the oar. Each spell of rowing lasted one hour. Thus +they proceeded slowly and with tremendous effort for three more days, +when the men began to despair; the current became each day stronger and +the river appeared interminable in length. "But we evermore commanded +our pilots to promise an end by next day, and used it so long as we were +driven to assure them from four reaches of the river to three, and so to +two, and so to the next reach." The men, too, were hungry; food was +giving out; the sun was scorching, and there was nothing to drink but +the thick and troubled water of the river. Sometimes they found fruits +on the trees that were good to eat; sometimes they shot birds. Birds +there were of every brilliant colour, "carnation, crimson, orange-tawny, +purple, green watchet, and of all sorts, both simple and mixt, as it was +unto us a great good passing of the time to behold them." But the men +were hungry and tired. Then a pilot, the very old man, whom they had +hand-fasted, said that he would bring them soon to a town of the +Arwacas, where they would find a store of bread, hens, fish, and the +wine of the country, if they would turn with their barge and wherries +down a branch of the river on the right hand. The men were cheered at +the prospect. Ralegh and Gifford and Calfield determined to make their +way to the town for food; so, leaving the majority of their men at the +river's entrance, they set out. They rowed three hours without seeing a +sign of human life, and they began to suspect that the pilot was playing +them false. It grew towards night, but still he kept assuring them that +the village lay only four reaches farther on. "When we had rowed four +and four we saw no sign, and our poor watermen even, heartbroken and +tired, were ready to give up the ghost; for we had now come from the +galleye near forty miles." + +Then they determined to hang the very old man, their pilot. But the +river began to narrow. It became so narrow that the trees with which +either bank was thickly covered touched branches across the water, and +they were obliged to draw their swords and cut a passage through. "We +were very desirous to find this town, hoping of a feast, because we made +but a short breakfast aboard the galley in the morning, and it was now +eight o'clock at night and our stomachs began to gnaw apace." At last +they saw a light, heard the dogs of the village bark, and one hour after +midnight they arrived. The old pilot had not deceived them in any way. +They found good store of hens, bread, fish, and Indian drink. + +Meanwhile the company which was left behind in the galley, fearing that +some mishap must have come to the wherries, sent out a party after them +in the ship's boat of the _Lion's Whelp_, under Captain Whiddon. But +Ralegh was so pleased with the prospect which the morning light +disclosed to his view, that he had rowed some forty miles farther on. +For no longer was the country beshrubbed with thorns and thickets and +closely growing trees. Great plains, twenty miles in length, covered +with fair green grass spread out before him, "and in divers parts groves +of trees by themselves (he writes with his keen eye for effects of +landscape), as if they had been by all the art and labour in the world +so made of purpose, and still as we rowed the deer came down, feeding by +the water's side, as if they had been used to a keeper's call." But all +was not beautiful and quiet. In the river swam fishes of a monstrous +size, and thousands of ugly serpents, called lagartos. A negro, a very +proper young fellow, leapt from Ralegh's barge to swim to the shore, and +in the sight of all the men, one of these lagartos ate him. Those +monstrous serpents are now called alligators. + +They came back to the great river and resumed their course, pulling ever +with difficulty against the current. And again they were reduced to +hunger, and again they were on the brink of despair, when Captain +Gifford, who was a little in advance of the others seeking a place to +land and make a fire, saw four canoes, and with no small joy he urged +his men to try the uttermost of their strength to come up with them. At +last they overtook them, as they paddled up a creek off the main stream, +and found bread in two canoes, which they captured, and learned that +three Spaniards were in the other canoes, one a cavallero, one a +soldier, and one a refiner of metals. The bread roused the courage of +the hungry men, and "Let us go on!" they cried; "we care not how far!" +as they lit fires for the night's encampment. Immediately Ralegh sent +Captain Thyn and Captain Gifford in one direction, Captain Calfield in +another, to follow the men who had fled away. As he himself was creeping +through the bushes he saw an Indian basket which was insecurely hidden. +In the basket was a refiner's outfit, quicksilver, saltpetre, and other +things to test the quality of minerals, and the dust of ore which had +been refined. They could not, however, catch the Spaniards, but they +discovered some Arwacas concealed in the woods who had acted as pilots +to the Spaniards. Them they questioned, and one they took with them for +their own pilot. + +Ralegh had no mining tools with him, nor had he come for small and +immediate gain. His purpose was no other than to open out the resources +of the whole country for England, not to snatch a cargo load of gold. +Moreover, a month had passed since they had seen the ships. Time was +precious; there was much to be done; "and to stay," he says pithily, "to +dig out gold with our nails had been _opus laboris_ but not _ingenii_." +He stayed only to survey the neighbourhood. During his short stay the +natives came in numbers to him, and with his usual policy he treated +them with elaborate kindness in contrast to the cruelty of the +Spaniards. He paid for everything which he used, and took every means to +prevent violence to their women, and theft. If the offender was +discovered he was punished before the Indians; and, more than that, if +an Indian complained of a theft which could not be laid to any man's +account, he was paid to the full amount of his loss. + +Here Ralegh sent back Ferdinando and the very old man in a canoe with +presents for themselves and a message to deliver to the ships, and the +company rowed on their way, taking with them as pilot, Martin, the +native who was captured from the three Spaniards. But the next day the +galley ran aground, and "we were like to cast her away with all our +victual and provision and so lay on the sand one whole night, and were +far more in despair at this time to free her than before, because we had +no tide of flood to help us; and therefore feared that all our hopes +would have ended in mishaps. But we fastened an anchor upon the land, +and with main strength drew her off." + +Then at last, to their great joy, the mountains of Guiana rose before +them, and in the evening of the same day a fresh northerly wind sprang +up, and before it they passed on till they were brought in sight of the +great river of Orinoco, "out of which the river descended wherein we +were." As their boats entered the Orinoco they espied three canoes +manned by natives, who, when they saw the English, paddled fast away +westward towards Guiana, thinking they were Spaniards. The boats, giving +chase, came up with one of the canoes, and explained by their +interpreter that they were not Spaniards but friends. Thereupon the +natives were cordial, gladly gave them fish and tortoise eggs, and +promised to bring their chief man to the boats in the morning. In the +morning the chief man, whose name was Toparimaca, came with some forty +followers, bringing presents of bread and fruit and wine. With him +Ralegh conferred about the nearest way to Guiana, and he escorted Ralegh +to his own port, and from his port escorted Ralegh and some of his +captains to the town, where the captains caroused until they were +"reasonable pleasant." The name of the town was Arowocai, and in it was +staying a stranger cassique with his wife and retainers. Of this wife +Ralegh gives a characteristic description: "In all my life I have seldom +seen a better favoured woman. She was of good stature, with black eyes, +fat of body, of an excellent countenance, her hair almost as long as +herself, tied up again in pretty knots, and it seemed that she stood not +in that awe of her husband as the rest, for she spake and discoursed and +drank among the gentlemen and captains and was very pleasant, knowing +her own comeliness, and taking great pride therein. I have seen a lady +in England so like her as, but for the difference of colour, I would +have sworn might have been the same." Toparimaca gave them a pilot, an +old man of great experience and travel, who knew his way by day or night +on the river, and they rowed on. Without him, mishap would have befallen +them, because the river is exceedingly broad, at places extending to +twenty miles, and its course is full of wonderful eddies, islands, +shoals, currents, and dangerous rocks. + +They passed up the great river, sailing, for a wind rose up behind them, +along the shore of the island of Assapana, past the river Europa, which +poured its waters into the great river; they sailed on ever westward, +wide green plains spread out on the right hand, and the banks of the +river were a very perfect red. Now they must make all speed possible, +for the time was drawing near when the rain would fall, and the river +rising, would, by the violence of its current, hinder all further +progress. On they sailed, past the high mountains of Aroami and Aio, +past the great island Manoripano, until, on the sixth day, they reached +the land of that Morequito whom Berreo had slain. They anchored in the +port, and Ralegh despatched one of his pilots to the uncle of Morequito, +King of Aromaia. In the morning, before noon, the old king came with his +followers, walking the fourteen miles to the shore; he was one hundred +and ten years old. A little tent had been set up on the shore, and in it +the old king rested. When he was rested, Ralegh conversed with him by +means of an interpreter. He explained how he had been sent out by his +Queen specially to free the land from the tyranny of the Spaniards; he +dilated at large on "Her Majesty's greatness, her justice, her charity +to oppressed nations, with as many of the rest of her beauties and +virtues as either I could express or they conceive, all which being with +great admiration attentively heard and marvellously admired. I began to +sound the old man as touching Guiana." They talked for a long space of +time, the old king relating memories of his youth, how "there came down +into that large valley of Guiana a nation from so far off as the sun +slept (Ralegh liked that phrase and mentions it as the old king's own +expression), with so great a multitude as they could not be numbered nor +resisted; and that they wore large coats and hats of crimson; ... that +they had slain and rooted out so many of the ancient people as there +were leaves in the wood upon all the trees." When the Christians came, +however, they joined forces together and lived at peace, each one +holding the Spaniard as a common enemy. And as the old king talked, +Ralegh marvelled to find a man of such gravity and judgment and of so +good discourse that had no help of learning nor breed. + +Then the old king "desired leave to depart, saying that he had far to +go; that he was old and weak and was every day called for by death." +Ralegh begged him to remain during the night, but he could not prevail +upon him to do so; and, though the weather was hot, the old king walked +back fourteen miles to his town, having promised to wait upon Ralegh on +his return. And that he did not fail to do. It was not for nothing that +he was held to be the proudest and the wisest of all the Oroonokoponi. + +Still they sailed westward, eager to see the famous river Caroli, which +led to the frontiers of the people who were most hostile to Tuga, the +Emperor of Guiana, and anchored by the island Caiama. The next day they +came, after ten miles, to the mouth of the Caroli; when they were yet +far distant they heard the great roar and fall of the river. So violent +was the rush of the current that they were unable to make any headway up +the stream--not a stone's cast in an hour. Accordingly, a halt was made, +and messengers were sent inland to invite the native king to a parley. +The king came, and Ralegh discoursed with him about the purpose of his +coming and his Queen's goodness and beauty; and learned from him about +his people and country. By this time, all the rivers having risen five +feet and more, further progress became impossible; and Ralegh, dividing +his company into bands, sent them inland in every direction to explore. +He himself went to the top of the first hills of the plain adjoining the +river, and in the distance the celebrated falls of the Caroli were +visible. "There appeared some ten or twelve overfalls in sight, every +one as high over the other as a church tower, which fell with that fury +that the rebound of waters made it seem as if it had all been covered +over with a great shower of rain; and in some places we took it at the +first for a smoke that had arisen over some great town. For my own part +I was well persuaded from thence to have returned, being a very ill +footman, but the rest were all so desirous to go near the strange +thunder of waters, as they drew me on by little and little till we came +into the next valley where we might better discern the same." The men of +each band returned and brought with them stones and minerals, lustre, +marquesite crystal, and stones that resembled sapphire. + +Ralegh, as he looked at the stones and heard the reports of the +wonderful fertility and resources of the land which lay in splendid +expanse around him, must have felt within him that his dream of El +Dorado was at last realized. Indeed, it seemed that he had only to come +out and take possession. + +But now "the fury of Oroonoco began daily to threaten us with +dangers ... for no half day passed but the river began to rage and +overflow very fearfully and the rains came down in terrible showers, and +gusts in great abundance, and withal our men began to cry out for want +of shift, for no man had place to bestow any other apparel than that +which he wore upon his back, and that was thoroughly washed on his body +for the most part ten times in one day; and we had now been well near a +month, every day passing to the westward farther and farther from our +ships. We therefore turned towards the east and spent the rest of the +time in discovering the river towards the sea which we had not yet +viewed and which was most material." + +The first day of their return they sped down the stream of the great +river against the wind one hundred miles, and anchored at the port of +Morequito; and immediately a messenger was sent to bid the old king +come. Once more Ralegh had a long conference with him concerning the +kingdom of Guiana, and once more he was impressed by the wisdom of the +old man's replies to his questions. Francis Sparrow and a boy, Harry +Gordon, were left to learn the language till Ralegh came next year, +equipped to conquer the land; and a young native was to go with them to +England. + +On their journey back to the sea they stayed several times to confer +with native kings and find out how they were disposed towards the +Spaniards and towards Tuga, the Emperor of Guiana. At the very end of +their expedition they found the greatest peril awaiting them. "When we +were arrived at the seaside, then grew our greatest doubt and the +bitterest of all our journey fore-passed, for I protest before God we +were in a most desperate estate.... There arose a mighty storm, and the +river's mouth was at least a league broad, so as we ran before night +close under the land with our small boats and brought the galley as near +as we could, but she had as much ado to live as could be, and there +wanted little of her sinking and all those in her.... The longer we +tarried the worse it was, and therefore I took Captain Gifford, Captain +Calfield, and my cousin Grenville into my barge, and after it cleared +up about midnight we put ourselves to God's keeping and thrust out into +the sea, leaving the galley at anchor, who durst not adventure out but +by daylight. And so being all very sober and melancholy, one faintly +cheering another to shew courage, it pleased God that the next day, +about nine of the clock, we descried the island of Trinidado, and +steering for the nearest part of it, we kept the shore until we came to +Curiapan, where we found our ships an anchor, than which there was never +to us a more joyful sight. + +"Now it have pleased God to send us safe to our ships it is time to +leave Guiana to the sun whom they worship, and steer away to the north." + +So Ralegh and his brave men set their sails for England. Many hours in +his cabin he must have enjoyed the luxury of rest, working out in his +mind the time and proper equipment for the great expedition which he +would lead back to the land which he had prospected. His imagination +would picture to him the careful opponents who would be ready to put +forward drawbacks and dangers; and he would answer them with such +conviction that the most careful would gradually catch a part of his +ardour. Guiana would be the topic of all Englishmen, and England's +ultimate glory. He would view again the beauty of the land and its +fertility, the broad plains and the thick woods, where birds of every +brilliant colour flew, he would see the deer coming to drink at the +water's edge, the refiner's basket, and the gold waiting to be worked +out of the ground, and the precious stones waiting to be cut; the +crystal, the sapphire, the lustre. He had his map, he had friends among +the natives, he had made all ready for the great occupation. "The common +soldier shall here fight for gold, and pay himself, instead of pence, +with plates of half-a-foot broad, whereas he breaketh his bones in other +wars for provant and penury. Those commanders and chieftains that shoot +at honour and abundance, shall find there more rich and beautiful +cities, more temples adorned with golden images, more sepulchres filled +with treasure than either Cortez found in Mexico, or Pizzaro in Peru, +and the shining glory of this conquest will eclipse all those so far +extended beams of the Spanish nation." + +He arrived in England in August, 1595, having been absent not quite +seven months. On all sides he met with opposition and disbelief. Some, +the graver sort, considered it better to husband their forces, to repel +the threatened invasion of Philip, who had sworn "to avenge the +destruction of the Armada on Elizabeth, if he were reduced to pawn the +last candlestick on his domestic altar." Others were angry that Ralegh +had brought back no cargoes of gold and precious stones; others, again, +laughed at him, saying that he had never been to Guiana at all, but had +been lurking in Cornwall: that the whole thing was a cock and bull story +to regain favour at Court. He, sneered they, was too easeful and sensual +to endure the discomfort of so long a journey. Where were the riches +which he would have taken, as Drake took, had he really been to Guiana? +To which Ralegh answered proudly, "It became not the former fortune in +which I once lived to go journies of picory: and it had sorted ill with +the offices of honour, which, by her Majestie's grace I hold this day in +England, to run from cape to cape, and from place to place, for the +pillage of ordinary prizes." + +His reception exasperated him; but he did not give way. In five months +he fitted out another expedition under Captain Keymis; and wrote a full +account of the voyage he had himself taken. But this second expedition +was too small to do anything else than keep in touch with the native +friends, and to find fresh information. + +Ralegh's efforts were unavailing. To found the empire in Guiana became +his life's purpose, and he strove to attain it with all the resources of +his energy. But the course of events was too strong for him, and he +could not make men see far enough ahead of immediate gain. Many years +later his scorn at their apathy broke out again, when, in writing his +"History of the World," he is describing Roman energy in the founding of +colonies: "Such an offer, were it made in England, concerning either +Virginia or Guiana, it selfe would not overjoy the multitude. But the +Commonalty of Rome tooke this in so good part, notwithstanding all +danger, joined with the benefit, that Flaminius had ever after their +good will." There is something indescribably pathetic in this personal +touch--of the prisoner recording the fame of a man who had been honoured +for offering less to his people than the prisoner himself had offered, +and at less personal risk--Flaminius supported, Ralegh hindered--each by +the nation which he most desired to serve. + +Edmund Spenser felt for him a friend's sympathy when he wrote in the +_Faërie Queene_-- + + And shame on you, O Men, which boast your strong + And valiant hearts, in thoughts lesse hard and bold, + Yet quaile in conquest of that Land of Gold! + But this to you, O Britons, most pertaines, + To whom the right hereof itselfe hath sold, + The whiche, for sparing little cost or paines, + Loose so immortall glory, and so endless gaines. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CADIZ AND FAYAL + + Division of command--Ralegh's delay--Unwillingness of men to + serve--Disputes--Ralegh's wise plan of action--The attack-- + The sack--Ralegh wounded--His small share of spoil--Return + home--Sends ship to Guiana--Death of Lady Cecil--Robert Cecil's + policy--expedition to Azores--Fayal--Quarrel with Essex. + + +Ralegh did not long remain inactive. He found that a great adventure was +in course of preparation in which he must needs take his part. A year +before the Armada Sir John Hawkins had planned an attack on Spain's +chief harbour, Cadiz, and in this year of 1596 Lord Howard of Effingham, +High Admiral of England, determined to carry the plan into effect. The +Earl of Essex was put in command of the land forces, Effingham of the +fleet. Elizabeth invariably favoured the dangerous policy of divided +command, which Ralegh in his "History of the World" cannot censure too +strongly. The reason why such a clever woman continued to make this +mistake is not known. Probably she feared that one man by a conspicuous +victory would become too powerful for a subject. If this were the +reason, and it seems likely that it was, her fears would naturally +increase with her age. The same feeling, no doubt, prompted her strange +choice of the inexperienced Essex. He, at any rate, she would think, +would remain her loyal subject, and would not aspire to rebel against +his royal mistress. + +The preparations were on an extensive scale. The fleet was divided into +four squadrons, which were led by Essex, by the Lord Admiral, by Ralegh, +and by Lord Thomas Howard. The total muster numbered seventeen Queen's +ships and seventy-six hired ships, which were chiefly used for +transport, besides pinnaces and small craft. They were assisted by a +Dutch squadron of twenty-four vessels. The men were nearly sixteen +thousand in all, land-soldiers and mariners. + +Essex was waiting with the fleet at Plymouth for Ralegh, who had been +commissioned to find men for the expedition. Ralegh's delay was the +cause of much anxiety, and naturally there were not wanting men ready to +construe that delay into treachery. Gossip Bacon suggests that he was +endeavouring to undermine the position of Essex and get himself +nominated general of the land forces in his stead. The true reason of +his delay is, however, available. On May 4 he writes from Northfleet on +the Thames to Sir Robert Cecil, telling him of the difficulty he +experienced in obtaining ships and men for the service. "Mr. Pope presst +all the ships. Hee can also informe you how little her Majestie's +autoretie is respected. For as fast as wee press men one day they come +away another and say they will not serve." He recommends Mr. Pope to Sir +Robert Cecil for his keenness, and proceeds, "Here are at Gravesend ... +sume 22 saile. Thos above that ar of great draught of water cannot tide +it down, for they must take the high water and dare not make after an +houre ebb untill they be past Barking Shelf. And now the wind is so +strong as it is impossible to turne down, or to warpe down or to tooe +downe. I cannot writ to our generalls all this tyme; for the pursevant +found me in a countre villag, a mile from Gravend honting after runaway +marriners and dragging in the mire from ale-house to ale-house, and +could gett no paper, butt that the pursevant had this peece." + +The unwillingness to serve on a foreign expedition was common in England +then: men began to weary of the hardships of fighting: they knew too +intimately the horrors of a sea-battle. Essex, too, found the men at +Plymouth ready to mutiny and desert. He immediately took stringent +measures: soldiers were tried by martial law, and two were executed +forthwith "on a very fair pleasant green called the Ho." + +On June 1 the fleet at length put out to sea, and came to anchor on June +20 in the bay of St. Sebastians, which is half a league distant from +Cadiz. The voyage had been taken without any mishap, except that the +unwisdom of a divided command soon became apparent. From Dover Lord +Howard of Effingham wrote to Robert Cecil: "My commission in being +joined to the Earl is an idle thing; I am used but as a drag." But the +weather was favourable, and several prizes were taken. From St. +Sebastians Ralegh had instructions to sail with the ships under his +charge and the Dutch squadron to the Main, and to lie just outside the +harbour; he was bidden to take special care that the ships riding near +Cadiz did not escape, but not to fight, except in self-defence, without +further direction. "When I was arrived back again (which was two hours +after the rest) I found the Earl of Essex disembarking his soldiers; and +he had put many companies into boats, purposing to make his descent on +the west side of Cales; but such was the greatness of the billow, by +reason of a forcible southerly wind, as the boats were ready to sink at +the stern of the Earl; and indeed divers did so, and in them some of the +armed men; but because it was formerly resolved (and that to cast +doubts would have been esteemed an effect of fear) the Earl purposed to +go on until such time as I came aboard him, and in the presence of all +the collonels protested against the resolution; giving him reasons and +making apparent demonstrations that he thereby ran the way of our +general ruin, to the utter overthrow of the whole armies, their own +lives, and her Majesty's future safety. The Earl excused himself, and +laid it before the Lord Admiral, who (he said) 'would not consent to +enter with the fleet till the town were first possessed.' All the +commanders and gentlemen present besought me to dissuade the attempt, +for they all perceived the danger, and were resolved that the most part +could not but perish in the sea, ere they came to set foot on ground, +and if any arrived on shoar, yet were they sure to have their boats cast +on their heads; and that twenty men in so desperate a descent would have +defeated them all. The Earl hereupon prayed me to perswade my Lord +Admiral, who, finding a certain destruction by the former resolution, +was content to enter the port. + +"When I brought news of this agreement to the Earl, calling out of my +boat Entramus, he cast his hat into the sea for joy and prepared to +weigh anchor." + +In these words Ralegh tells how he saved England from a great disaster. +It is not known to whom he wrote this account, but it was found and +printed by his grandson, Philip Ralegh, just one hundred and three years +later. Probably Lord Howard took a negative attitude; he found, no +doubt, a grim satisfaction in seeing the impetuous young fool, Essex, +send the land force which he commanded to its inevitable destruction. He +would think that he could easily set matters right again with his fleet, +and Essex would be once for all humiliated, if not slain. Ralegh saved +the situation. He had the moral courage to disdain the charge of +cowardice, and the ability to prove in words the complete wrongness of +the plan of attack. That was not all. The situation was still perilous +to a degree. The day was drawing to a close; boats were filled in +disorder with men from different ships. They were an attacking force +with whom time was of the utmost value, and they were without a plan of +attack. Ralegh was indefatigable. All his powers were called into +play--his influence over men, his capacity of managing affairs, his +knowledge of tactics in sea-fighting and land-fighting--and he mastered +the crisis. + +The men were disposed to their ships, and the ships were anchored at the +very mouth of the harbour, and probably Ralegh was at the pains to prove +to them that this retirement was no disgrace. Order was not restored +until ten o'clock at night, and then Ralegh drew up a full account of +the manner in which the attack should be conducted, full in every detail +of the arrangement of the ships and the precedence of the commanders. +His plan was accepted, and at his own request he was allowed the post of +honour, much coveted, as leader of the van. Lord Thomas Howard +especially coveted the foremost position; "he pressed the Generals to +have the service committed unto him, and left the _Meer Honour_ to Mr. +Dudley, putting himself in the _Nonpareill_. For mine own part, as I was +willing to give honour to my Lord Thomas, having both precedency in the +army, and being a nobleman whom I much honoured, so yet I was resolved +to give and not take example for this service; holding mine own +reputation dearest, and remembering my great duty to her Majesty. With +the first peep of day, therefore, I weighed anchor, and bare with the +Spanish fleet, taking the start of all ours a good distance." + +Within the harbour the enemy were waiting in readiness and in force. +Great galleons and galleys, manned with oarsmen, were drawn up in front +of the forts, which opened fire upon Ralegh's ships; the men in the +galleys gripped their oars in readiness to row out and board any ship +which the cannon from the forts or the galleons might disable. Ralegh +sailed right into the harbour, disdaining to answer the fire from the +forts and the curtain with anything but a contemptuous blare from a +trumpet, and leaving the ships that followed him to scatter with their +fire the galleys. Ralegh sailed right into the harbour; "the _St. +Philip_, the great and famous Admiral of Spain, was the mark I shot at, +esteeming these galleys but as wasps in respect of the powerfulness of +the other; and being resolved to be revenged for the _Revenge_, or to +second her with mine own life." For on the _Revenge_ had perished his +gallant friend and kinsman, Sir Richard Grenville; and many times +through that day Grenville's dying words must have thrilled his mind, +those words that are the most illustrious requiem of a dying soldier, +spoken in the Spanish of his conquerrors, "Here die I, Richard +Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind, having ended my life like a +true soldier that has fought for his country, his Queen, his religion, +and his honour." For three hours Ralegh, at anchor, kept up an incessant +cannonade against the galleons and the forts; the volleys of cannon and +culverin came as thick as if it had been a skirmish of musketeers. On +one side lay Lord Thomas Howard's ship, the _Lyon_; on the other lay the +_Mary Rose_ and the _Dreadnaught_. When Essex heard the tremendous roar +of the cannon he could no longer stop outside the harbour, but sailed in +the _Swiftsure_ as far to the van as he was able, regardless of battle +order. But "always I must without glory say for myself that I held +single in the head of all." At last the cannonade became too heavy. +Ralegh had been told not to board until fly-boats came from the fleet; +and no fly-boats came. Accordingly, in a little skiff, he was rowed to +the _Swiftsure_ and besought Essex to let him board with his own +ship--"for it was the same loss to burn or sink, for I must endure the +one." He convinced Essex, who promised upon his honour to second him in +whatsoever he did. Ralegh had been away from his ship for a quarter of +an hour; but during that quarter of an hour Sir Francis Vere, the +Marshal, and Lord Thomas Howard had pushed their ships quietly in front +of the _Warspite_. This Ralegh could not brook. "At my return, finding +myself from being the first to be but the third, I presently let slip +anchor, and thrust in between my Lord Thomas and the Marshal, and went +up further ahead than all them before and thrust myself athwart the +channel, so as I was sure none should outstart me again, for that day." +But though the battle continued to rage furiously and at close quarters, +Sir Francis Vere and Lord Thomas Howard could not rest content with +second places. Sir Francis Vere secretly caused a rope to be fastened to +the _Warspite_ that he might draw his ship ahead of her. But sailors +told Ralegh of this, and he ordered the rope to be severed. + +Then Ralegh started to board. He laid out a warp by the side of the +_Philip_ "to shake hands with her," and the other English ships followed +suit. Fear seized the Spaniards. "They all let slip, and ran aground, +tumbling into the sea heaps of souldiers, so thick as if coals had been +powred out of a sack in many ports at once: some drowned and some +sticking in the mud.... The spectacle was very lamentable on their side; +for many drowned themselves; many, half-burnt, leapt into the water; +very many hanging by the ropes' ends by the ship's side under the water +even to the lips; many swimming with grievous wounds, strucken under +water and put out of their pain: and so huge a fire, and such tearing of +the ordnance in the great _Philip_ and the rest, when the fire came to +them, as, if any man had a desire to see Hell itself, it was there most +lively figured." + +Then followed the capture and sack of Cadiz. In the assault Ralegh +received "a grievous blow in the leg interlaced and deformed with +splinters." But he was carried on shore on men's shoulders until a horse +was forthcoming, when he mounted. For an hour he remained in the town, +but then the pain of the wound became intolerable; the streets were +filled with jostling tumultuous soldiers, and they pressed against his +leg in their disorder, do what he would to prevent them. So he returned +to his ship to rest, while the sack raged in the town. + +The plunder taken was immense in quantity and value: and as was +invariably the case, there was much ill-feeling as to its distribution. +The Queen quarrelled with the generals, thinking that they had much held +back, and the generals with each other, thinking that the share of each +was disproportionate. Ralegh especially fared ill. "For my own part I +have gotten a lame leg and a deformed. For the rest either I spake too +late, or it was otherwise resolved. I have not wanted good words, and +exceeding kind and regardful usance. But I have possession of naught but +poverty and pain." Ralegh was better able to win a first place in the +fighting-line, than in the prize list. This he resented with absolute +candour: but to deduce from his resentment that he cared only for gain +is totally to misunderstand the nature of the man. + +The results of the victory, for which Ralegh was chiefly responsible, +were far-reaching and decisive. It crippled Spain's power more +effectually even than the Armada. Cadiz was razed to the ground; as the +Council of State decided that to raze the town was safer than to +garrison it for English purposes. + +Ralegh gained the respect of his fellow soldiers for his genius and his +bravery; even men who, like Sir Anthony Standen, were hostile to him, +wrote in enthusiastic praise of his conduct. "Sir Walter Ralegh did (in +my judgment) no man better: and his artillery most effect. I never knew +the gentleman till this time, and I am sorry for it, for there are in +him excellent things, beside his valour. And the observation he hath in +this voyage used with my Lord of Essex hath made me love him." But at +the Court little had changed. Essex remained arrogant and hostile, and +for the time his influence appears to have been dominant. + +Immediately on his return Ralegh busied himself in the preparation and +despatch of another ship to Guiana, to keep in touch with the natives +whose alliance he had on his own visit obtained. Mr. Thomas Masham +sailed in a pinnace called the _Wat_ on the 14th of October from +Limehouse upon the Thames. Ralegh never ceased from ardour in this great +enterprise of his; nothing drove it from his mind; he was convinced of +its ultimate success, believing in it as he believed in himself. But he +could not go in person, the time was not yet ripe. So he with his +wounded leg was glad to retire to Sherborne for a season to the quiet of +his Dorsetshire garden. In Sherborne was brought him the news of the +death of Lady Cecil, to whom Sir Robert was much devoted, and Ralegh's +letter of sympathy is beautiful in thought and expression, though, such +is the interesting divergency of human opinion, there are those who +think the letter crude, sententious and laboured. + + "SIR, + + "Because I know not how you dispose of your sealf, I forbeare + to visitt you, preferringe your plesinge before myne owne + desire. I had rather be with you now then att any other tyme, + if I could thereby ether take off frome you the burden of your + sorrows, or lay the greater part thereof on myne owne hart.... + There is no man sorry for death it sealf, butt only for the + tyme of death; every one knowing that it is a bonnd never + forfeted to God.... If then we know the same to be certayne and + inevitable, wee ought withall to take the tyme of his arrivall + in as good part as the knowledge; and not to lament att the + instant of every seeminge adversity, which we ar asured have + byn on ther way towards us from the begininge.... I beleve it + that sorrows are dangerus companions, converting badd into + yevill and yevill into worse, and do no other service then + multeply harms. They ar the treasures of weak harts and of the + foolishe. The minde that entertayneth them is as the yearth and + dust whereon sorrows and adversetes of the world do as the + beasts of the field, tread trample and defile. The minde of man + is that part of God which is in us, which, by how mich it is + subject to passion, by so mich it is farther from Hyme that + gave it us. Sorrows draw not the dead to life, butt the livinge + to deathe...." + +So Ralegh wrote; he was acquainted with grief, and familiar with death +in every horrid guise. Twenty years later he was to prove with his own +example the truth of what he wrote: "It apartayneth to every man of a +wize and worthy spiritt to draw together into sufferance the unknown +future to the known present; lookinge no less with the eyes of the +minde then thos of the body--the one beholdinge afar off and the other +att hand--that thos things of this worlde in which we live be not +strange unto us when they approach...." + +But Sir Robert Cecil was playing a deep and subtle game which was to +make him the chief man in England during the few years that remained to +the Queen of life and after her death. Essex and Ralegh he feared. He +encouraged Essex to pass on his proud way to disaster, using Essex to +thwart the rise of Ralegh. And Essex needed small encouragement. He +coveted the popularity, which was to end in his utter undoing. Meanwhile +his star was in the ascendant. His pride had not yet outgrown his +strength. + +Outwardly Cecil was friendly to Ralegh and hostile to Essex. He hated +Essex; the two men's _natures_ were in fierce opposition. + +Ralegh was still suspended from his post of Captain of the Guard; but in +June he was brought by Cecil to the Queen's presence. The Queen received +him graciously, and reinstated him. Moreover, Ralegh and Essex were no +longer in open enmity. Mr. Rowland Whyte records that "Sir Walter Ralegh +hath been very often very private with the Earl of Essex and is the +mediator of a peace between him and Sir Robert Cecil." And again in a +letter dated April 9: "This day being Monday Sir Robert Cecil went in +coach with the Earl of Essex to his house where Sir Walter Ralegh came, +and they dined there together. After dinner they were very private all +three for two hours, where the treaty of peace was confirmed." Between +Ralegh and Essex there was something in common at certain moments; there +was a gallantry about both men, which, in spite of everything, each +could not fail to recognize in the other. This Sir A. Gorges noticed; +he wrote with much acumen: "Though the Earl had many doubts and +jealousies buzzed into his ears against Sir Walter Ralegh, yet I have +often observed that both in his greatest actions of service, and in the +times of his chiefest recreations, he would ever accept of his counsel +and company before many others who thought themselves more in his +favour." + +Ralegh's rest was brief. Almost immediately after despatching the _Wat_ +to Guiana, he was engaged in raising levies and supplies with Essex for +a new expedition against Spain. For the Spanish king was resolved to +revenge his bad defeat at Cadiz by another invasion of England. Ralegh +always believed that the surest manner of defence against such an +invasion was an immediate attack. And that was the step which the Lords +of the Council determined to take. About the time that Ralegh's ship, +the _Wat_, returned from Guiana with the news which its captain, Mr. +Thomas Masham, brought, the expedition was ready to put out to sea. The +fleet was divided into three squadrons; the first was commanded by the +Earl of Essex, who was Admiral and General-in-Chief; the second by Lord +Thomas Howard; the third by Sir Walter Ralegh, whose position was that +of Rear-Admiral, and in whose squadron sailed the great galleons, the +_St. Andrew_ and the _St. Matthew_, which he had captured at Cadiz. On +Sunday the 10th of July the fleet set sail. Their destination was +Ferroll in the Azores, where the Spanish fleet was reported to be +harbouring. Their instructions were firstly to attack the fleet, and if +it had gone away, to follow in pursuit; secondly, to intercept and +capture the homeward-bound fleets from the East and West Indies. The +expedition has passed into history under the name of the Islands +Voyage. + +The very day after the fleet weighed anchor a storm beat upon the ships +with such violence that they were eventually forced to return to +whatsoever harbour each could make. Many came very near to sinking, so +high was the wind, so strong the waves, and there were sailors who died +of exhaustion on their return to shore. The damage done to the heavy +ships was very great, and time was necessary to refit them for the sea; +the delay involved the necessity of revictualling the ships. On the 26th +of July Ralegh reported from Plymouth, "Wee only attend the winde, +having repayred as much as we can our bruses. Butt we shall not bee in +any great corage for winter weather and longe nights, in thes ships." + +The weather was unpropitious on their second venture, though they were +obliged to wait until the second week in August. Ralegh's squadron was +separated from the fleet, and was forced by the wind into the Bay of +Biscay, out of which he found the greatest difficulty in making his way. +Later in the voyage Sydney's flyboat foundered; but he and all his +soldiers were rescued. "I have notwithstanding," writes Ralegh, +"followed my Lord's order to cum to the Ilands, and I am now this 8 of +September, in sight of Tercera, having chosen rather to perishe than to +relinquishe the enterprize; and, the Lord douth know, in a torne shipp. +Butt her Majestye shall find that I valew not my life; although I hope +that her Majestye would not that I perishe in vayne. I hope after too +dayes to fynde my Lorde Generall and the fleet with whom, I thinke, all +the rest of her Majesties shipps ar, butt the _Mathew_ with poore Georg +Carew. It is a carfull and perelus tyme of the yeare for thes wayghty +shipps. The Lorde of Heaven send us all well to returne, and send us the +good hope to do her Majestie acceptable service; to performe which wee +have already suffered miche. For my particular, I have never dared to +rest since my wreacks, and God doth judge that I never for thes 10 dayes +came so mich as in to bedd or cabbin." + +Ralegh's squadron did not join the fleet until Essex had been ten days +at Flores. Then it was determined to make a joint attack upon Fayal, as +they had heard that it was unlikely the Spanish ships from the Indies +would sail at all that year, and if they did sail, that they would avoid +Flores. Essex sailed first for Fayal, because Ralegh's squadron was +obliged to delay for repairs and revictualling. But Ralegh's squadron +arrived first at Fayal, and, having waited three days for Essex, Ralegh +at length, on the fourth day, attacked and captured Fayal by himself. He +writes in the "History of the World:" "There were indeede some which +were in that voyage who advised me not to undertake it: and I harkened +unto them, somewhat longer than was requisite, especially whilest they +desired me to reserve the title of such an exploit (though it were not +great) for a greater person. But when they began to tell me of +difficulty: I gave them to understand, the same which I now maintaine, +that it was more difficult to defend a coast then to invade it. The +truth is, that I could have landed my men with more ease than I did; yea +without finding any resistance if I would have rowed to another place, +yea even there where I landed if I would have taken more company to +helpe me. But, without fearing any imputation of rashnesse, I may say +that I had more regard of reputation in that businesse, than of safetie. +For I thought it to belong unto the honour of our Prince and Nation, +that a few Ilanders should not thinke any advantage great enough, +against a fleet set forth by Q. Elizabeth: and further I was unwilling +that some Low Countrie Captaines and others, not of mine own squadron, +whose assistance I had refused, should please themselves with a sweet +conceit ... that for want of their helpe I was driven to turne taile." + +The passage is one of interest, larger than the mere description of an +engagement. It shows Ralegh's immense and correct confidence in his +judgment; and how his outlook always embraced much more than the actual +event in hand, though its outline was never blurred for that reason. The +theory he pronounced on the deck of his ship, and proved next day in the +engagement, he reiterates in his History in one of the most notable of +his digressions, that an island's only safe defence is her fleet. He +ends his remarks with the very typical sentence, "I hope that this +question shall never come to triall; his Majesties many moveable Forts +will forbid the experience. And thoughe the Englishe will no lesse +disdaine, than any Nation under heaven can doe, to be beaten upon their +owne ground or elsewhere by a forraigne enemy; yet to entertaine those +that shall assaile us with their own beefe in their bellies, and before +they eate of oure Kentish capons, I take it to be the wisest way. To doe +whiche, his Majesty, after God, will imploy his good ships on the Sea +and not trust to any intrenchment upon the shore." + +But to the actual action. The men who foretold trouble from the greater +man spoke as truly as Ralegh proved his courage and foresight in the +event. The fort on the shore was quickly taken; but behind rose a high +hill, topped by another strong fort, and the men at the sight wavered to +withdraw. None were willing to reconnoitre. Ralegh was furious, and +swore that he would do scout's work himself. Sir Arthur Gorges and some +dozen personal followers would not suffer him to go alone. So they made +their way together up the hill under continual fire from the enemy. +Ralegh's clothes were torn by bullets. Gorges was shot in the leg. The +ascent impressed the enemy. When the final attack was made, the fort was +found to be deserted. + +When Essex arrived, Ralegh was master of the island. Ralegh's enemies (a +great man seldom lacks such enemies) had long been trying to enflame the +antagonism between him and Essex, and now they insisted to Essex that +Ralegh's success was flat disobedience, and warranted a heavy penalty. A +court martial should be called, and should punish him with death. So +when Ralegh visited the Earl's vessel to give an official account of the +victory, he was surprised to meet with angry looks and the charge of a +breach of the orders. But he convinced Essex that he was within his +rights. "None should land any of the troops without the General's +presence or his order," said Essex. "There is an Article," replied +Ralegh, "that no captain of any ship or company, if he be severed from +the fleet shall land anywhere without directions from the General or +some principal commander upon pain of death. But I take upon myself to +be a principal commander under your Lordship, and therefore not subject +to that Article." And he proceeded to explain how the delay of Essex +made him think that he was adventuring upon some other enterprise, and +how his own company began to murmur and hint at fear. Essex was not +easily convinced. Weakness dreads to be slighted, where strength relies +upon its own authority. Monson observes in his narrative of the Island +Voyage, "The act was urged with that vehemency by those that hated Sir +Walter that if my Lord, who by nature was timorous and flexible had not +feared how it would be taken in England, I think Sir Walter had smarted +for it." + +The incident illustrates Ralegh's address, a quality which was essential +at that time for any success in life; that was the time when man dealt +immediately with man. The mind must always be alive and on the alert. +Here was Ralegh, coming to report a successful and daring exploit, +suddenly obliged to defend himself against a trumped-up charge. If he +failed to take in the whole situation in a moment, and to stand his own +ground, death would result from the failure. Nor could he simply rely +upon justice; he must know the man with whom he was dealing, and the men +who were poisoning the General's mind. Ralegh's self-control is as +amazing as his address. He had need of both. + +The General was an arrogant, spoiled youth, angry at the knowledge that +his subordinate was a better man, angry at his renewed success. A rash +word on Ralegh's part would have been his last. And Ralegh had much +cause to hate the young man. They were rivals for the love of a +magnificent woman whom they served; their rivalry would accentuate the +elder man's dislike of the younger's youth. But there is a dignity about +Ralegh's conduct and defence which shows no cringing before the reigning +favourite, but a superiority to all pettiness, a kind of freedom from +what may quickly become the fetters of personality. + +Such was Ralegh's last great enterprise against Spanish power. Hereafter +the policy of England was to undergo a change, and in the new scheme of +things a man like Ralegh could find no place. He was too great to be +used by a small mind; pettiness is always full of fear and distrust and +envy of powers which are not within its little scope of understanding. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE UNDERMINING + + Robert Cecil in power--Downfall of Essex--Ralegh's opinion of + Essex--Governor of Jersey--Peril imminent. + + +With the fall of Fayal the naval war with Spain came to an end, for +Philip II. died in the early autumn of the following year, 1598, which +was the year of the great Lord Treasurer Burghley's death. His son, Sir +Robert Cecil, became the chief man in England. + +Time and experience did not soften the arrogance of Essex. On his return +he set himself more than ever to the task of becoming supreme in the +kingdom. Always there has been a certain rivalry between the statesman +who manages affairs at home, and the successful soldier. Each is +inclined to underrate the value of the other's service. Essex naturally +thought the highest place in the government should be occupied by a +dashing soldier like himself. He had whatever prestige popularity gives, +and he had influence with the Queen, but not so much as he thought. +Robert Cecil knew his man, and quietly determined his downfall. Through +his mediation Lord Howard of Effingham was raised to the earldom of +Nottingham, which, combined with his position of Lord High Admiral, gave +him precedence of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. This Essex, in his +arrogance, could not tolerate. He absented himself from Court, and all +Howard's efforts to pacify his anger were futile. But the Queen began +to weary at his absence. She asked Ralegh to try and make Howard waive +his right of precedence, but this Howard refused to do. Accordingly, +again at Ralegh's suggestion, who valued the Queen's happiness more +highly than his personal likes and dislikes, Essex was created Earl +Marshal of England, and Howard retired in his turn from Court. + +On the return of Essex, Cecil began to play a game at which he was an +adept. He wanted Essex to feel that his importance was properly +recognized without admitting him into any State matters. So he arranged +long conferences with Essex, and with Ralegh, about projects which he +never had the least intention of bringing to any issue; and these +conferences about nothing were carefully attended by all the pomp of +formality. Essex would thereby be flattered, would grow in pride to his +own undoing, and would be likely to reveal the trend of his own scheme. +Essex, in spite of his almost childish arrogance, was a man to be +reckoned with. He had many friends of importance, the most distinguished +of whom was Francis Bacon. By means of his own spies he kept in touch +with foreign affairs that he might criticize the Queen's advisers; he +became friendly with King James of Scotland; he could rely on the help +of every one who was disappointed of office or reward by Burghley or his +son. + +But he was no match for the astute Sir Robert Cecil. And the very year +of Burghley's death, at one of the heated Council meetings, Essex had +weakened by his uncontrolled conduct his influence with the Queen. The +Queen had interfered on Burghley's behalf against Essex; and Essex in a +rage "turned his back on the Queen with a gesture of contempt, muttering +an unpardonable insult," as Mr. Sidney Lee has it. + +He was not a safe person to leave idle. The office of Lord Deputy of +Ireland was vacant; it was offered him, and after some dissent on his +part was accepted. His ruin was now imminent. He felt his power grow +less; and on Ralegh in particular he looked with hatred as upon the +chief cause of his downfall. And small wonder if Ralegh hated the man +who had offered gross insult to the old Queen in public. "Why do I talk +of victory or success?" writes Essex from Ireland to the Queen. "Is it +not known that from England I receive nothing but discomforts and soul's +wounds.... Is it not lamented both there and here that a Cobham and +Ralegh ... should have such credit and favour with your Majesty...." But +without Ralegh, who, as his subordinate, had won him fame at Cadiz and +at Fayal, and warded off disaster, the enterprise of Essex in Ireland +was a failure. He wasted time and money, and achieved nothing. Then +Essex resolved upon an impetuous step characteristic of him. He +determined to return home, and to drive away by force the men who were +keeping him from his proper place of supremacy; he even enlisted the +support of James of Scotland, who was favourable to his scheme, but +temporized, saying that he would send messengers to the Queen to beg her +to restore Essex to her favour. What Essex needed for his mad project, +however, was an army, not messages. Essex returned from Ireland, but +Cecil was perfectly ready for him, and the people of London did not rise +at his protest against the Queen's ministers; they gaped and wondered, +as they would gape and wonder at a madman. Essex was arrested, was +impeached for high treason, and beheaded. + +The impetuousness of Essex approached very near to madness, and a +dangerous form of madness. If any one has ever deserved death for +treason, Essex deserved it. Ralegh wrote his opinion quite frankly to +Sir Robert about him. The letter has raised much feeling against Ralegh. +But he had good reason to know the peril a nature like that of Essex +could bring to a nation or to anything with which he was connected, and +he was perfectly just and honest in the opinion he gave that Essex's +wings should be clipped. The letter runs as follows:-- + + + "SIR, + + "I am not wize enough to geve yow advise; but if you take it + for a good councell to relent towards this tirant, yow will + repent it when it shalbe too late. His mallice is fixt, and + will not evaporate by any your mild courses. For he will + ascribe the alteration to her Majesties pusillanimitye and not + to your good nature; knowing that yow worke but uppon her humor + and not out of any love towards hyme. The less yow make hyme, + the less he shalbe able to harme yow and your's. And if her + Majesties favor faile hyme, hee will agayne decline to a common + parson. For after-revenges, feare them not; for your own father + that was estemed to be the contriver of Norfolk's ruin, yet his + son followeth your father's son and loveth him. Humours of men + succeed not; butt grow by occasions and accidents of tyme and + poure.... I could name you a thowsand of thos; and therefore + after fears are but profesies--or rather conjectures--from + causes remote. Looke to the present, and yow do wisely. His + sonne shalbe the youngest Earle of Ingland butt on, and, if his + father be now keipt down Will Cecill shalbe abell to keip as + many men att his heeles as hee, and more too. Hee may also + mache in a better howse then his; and so that feare is not + worth the fearinge. Butt if the father continew, he wilbe able + to break the branches and pull up the tree; root and all. Lose + not your advantage; if you do, I rede your destiney. + + "Let the Q. hold Bothwell while she hath hyme. Hee will ever be + the canker of her estate and sauftye. Princes are lost by + securetye; and preserved by prevention. I have seen the last of + her good dayes, and all ours, after his libertye." + +It is strange and it is memorable how the sentiment of the last sentence +but one, "Princes are lost by securetye," ran through the minds of men +at this time: again and again it occurs. The witches in Macbeth chant-- + + "Security + Is mortals' chiefest enemy." + +Spenser writes-- + + "Little wist he his fatall future woe + But was secure: the liker he to fall." + +It is more than the turn of phrase (though great expressions were common +enough then--as for example, "millions of mischief" which Ralegh uses in +a letter and which arrests you in Julius Cćsar-- + + "Men that smile have in their hearts I fear + Millions of mischiefs.") + +It is the trend of thought. It illustrates a feature of Elizabethan life +that was common to every rank, but most common in the highest. Men were +tremendously vital, but life was not valued for its own sake: life was +not looked upon as sacred; rather life was regarded as a possession to +hold which it was worth while fighting to the death. + +During the rebellion--the word can hardly be applied to such a +ridiculous outburst--Ralegh sent for Sir Ferdinando Gorges at Durham +House. He wanted to warn Gorges, who had served under him, that his +arrest had been ordered. Gorges feared treachery, that their +conversation might be overheard or that he might be suddenly seized, and +consulting Essex, with whom he was staying, at length decided to meet +Ralegh in the one safe place--namely, on the river. They rowed out into +mid-stream, met, and conferred. In mid-stream their words were safe; +their bodies were not. Sir Christopher Blount, who was a partisan of +Essex, heard of the prospective meeting, and urged Gorges to kill Ralegh +and thus to rid the Earl of his chief enemy at a blow. Gorges was a man +of honour and refused. But Blount was strongly in favour of Ralegh's +death. As Ralegh was pulled to the place of conference, Blount fired +with a musket at him four times. Essex, Gorges, Blount, and other brave +men were beheaded, and Ralegh, as Captain of the Guard, was present at +their executions. On the scaffold Blount asked, "Is Sir Walter Ralegh +here?" Ralegh came forward. "Sir Walter Ralegh," said Blount, "I thank +God that you are present. I had an infinite desire to speak with you, to +ask your forgiveness ere I died. Both for the wrong done you and for my +particular ill-intent towards you, I beseech you forgive me." + +"I most willingly," Ralegh replied, "and I beseech God to forgive you, +and to give you His divine comfort." He turned to those standing round: +"I protest before God that whatever Sir Christopher Blount meant towards +me, I, for my part, never bore him any ill-intent." + +After the death of Essex, the boy who had recklessly thrown himself +against the astute Cecil to gain political power, men watched the +demeanour of Ralegh closely; he too was the favourite of his Queen; they +watched him and saw that sadness brooded on his face. There were many +things to create sadness. + +The great Queen was growing old, and in her age had been forced to sign +the death-warrant of the young man who was dear to her and who had +presumed on her affection. The old Lord Treasurer was dead; Burghley, +whom the Queen tended with her own hand in his last illness, knowing the +worth of the man who had served his country well for forty years; his +son, the astute Cecil, had taken his place; but Robert Cecil played his +own game: he was too astute. He desired advantage for his country, but +that advantage must come through himself. + +The great days were passing. Ralegh had seen the Queen ruling the nation +as only a woman and a woman of genius and of beauty could rule it; he +saw her when the power of her womanhood was declining and its weakness +was in evidence. Who could take her place? What man or what woman? And +must not the place itself be changed and its absolute authority be +modified? Time was converting the Queen into her country's encumbrance. +And who would succeed his Queen Elizabeth? Where were the men to carry +on the great traditions of Elizabeth? Robert Cecil was too astute.... + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile Ralegh continued the duties of his own life, at Sherborne and +at Durham House. Lord Cobham's name is often found at this time in +association with Ralegh. Cobham was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and +often on his way to the coast he managed to make a short visit to the +Raleghs at Sherborne. He was a weak man, as the event proved. And Ralegh +liked him; a strong man is often led into liking a weak man, whom he is +able to render pliant to his will. + +About this time, too, Ralegh was made Governor of Jersey, and +immediately he set about his new duties, which were many and various, +with his own energy. There is an interesting letter from Lady Ralegh to +Cecil; it tells not only of her husband's first journey to Jersey but +also of a fire at Durham House, and in the telling shows something of +Lady Ralegh's character. + + + "SUR, + + "Hit tis trew that your packet brought me the newes of the + mischans of feeiar at Durram Houes, wher, I thanke God hit went + noo fardar. Other wies, hit had rid ous of all our poour + substans of plat and other thinges. Unly now the loos is of + your cumpani and my Lord Cobham's wich I thinke by this menes + wee cannot injoy this winter.... + + "I ded heer from Sur Walter within too dayes after he landed at + Jarsi: wher he was safly landed and rioly intertained with + joye. But he was too dayes and too nites on the sea, with + contrari windes, not withstanding hee went from Wamouthe in so + fayer a wind and weether, as littell Wat and myselfe brought + him abord the shipt. Hee writeth to me hee never saw a + plesanttar iland; but protesteth unfannedly hit tis not, in + valew, the veri third part that was reported, or inded hee + beliffed. My cossin Will is heer, very will and louketh will + and fat with his batheinge. This, wishing you all honnar and + the full contentements of your hart, I ever rest + + "Your asured poour frind + "E. RALEGH + + "I am glad this mischans of feeiar cam not by ani neckelegans + of ani sarvant of mine, but by me cossin Darci's sarvant,--a + woman that delleth just under our logging, and anoyeth ous + infenitly. I hope hee will now remoueve heer. I humbelly besuch + you let this lettar heer inclosed be sent." + +The little Will Cecil, who was well, and looked well and fat from his +bathing, grew up into the second Earl of Salisbury. We can only hope +that Darcy's servant, who was evidently a constant thorn in the flesh of +the orderly Lady Ralegh, was removed; no positive facts are known. + +The letter discovers a side of Ralegh's life about which little has been +written, but which is none the less interesting and valuable. Little Wat +and little Will were bathing and getting fat by the sea-side, while +Essex was under sentence of death, while the great Queen was growing +old, and while huge disorders were pending in the kingdom on the event +of the Queen's death. Little things and big are jostled strangely +together in the course of a man's life. + +Meanwhile Ralegh's new duties as Governor of Jersey were occupying his +attention. Always he entered a position untrammelled by what had been +done there before his coming, and determined to do the best possible. It +was so in his Governorship of Jersey. His changes were entirely for the +good. He found a compulsory system of defence which pressed heavily on +the inhabitants in what was called the Corps-de-Garde. He did away with +the Corps-de-Garde. While he pondered on the great issues which were +pending in England, he settled the small disputes of the islanders under +his rule; for he was supreme judge in civil and Crown causes. He was at +the pains to see to the proper fortification of the island, and to all +the many businesses that his office entailed. + +During these years he travelled often backwards and forwards between +Durham House and Sherborne and the island of Jersey. He found on one +occasion that by some curious oversight the Duc de Biron, who had come +on an embassy from Henry of France, was at Crosby Hall, with not one +nobleman or gentleman to accompany or guide him. "I never saw so great +a person neglected," he writes to Sir Robert Cecil. "Wee have caried +them to Westminster to see the monuments; and this Monnday we +entertayned them at the Bear Garden, which they had great pleasure to +see.... I sent to and fro and have labored like a moyle to fashion +things so as on Wensday night they wilbe att Bagshoot and Thursday at +the Vine." The Queen was at this time staying with the Marquis of +Winchester at Basing, and to her the Duc de Biron rode, escorted by +Ralegh. From Basing Ralegh wrote to Lord Cobham telling him of the +Queen's wish for his attendance. He says that the French were only +stopping three days, and were all wearing black. "So as I have only made +mee a black taffeta sute to be in; and leave all my other sutes:" and he +adds to the letter a postscript, which shows how punctilious he was in +matters of dress: "I am yeven now going att night to London to provide +me a playne taffeta sute and a playne black saddell, and wil be here +agayne by Twesday night." He wrote late on Saturday night. + +Little resulted from the Due de Biron's embassy. But he had the audacity +to question Elizabeth about the fate of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, +and to express sympathy for him. Sully, the famous memoirist, reports +their conversation, and points out the singular resemblance between the +characters of Essex and of the Duc de Biron, and between the end each +met. The Duc de Biron was beheaded ten months later for treason. This is +the irony of things. Sully credits Elizabeth with the insight of knowing +how like Biron was to Robert Devereux, that she almost augured his +downfall, and warned him against his rash courses. The parallel between +the two men is remarkable. + +So Ralegh went about his various business as Governor of Jersey, as +Captain of the Guard, transacted, too, the affairs of his own estates in +Munster, Sherborne, and Durham House, while he and every man of +influence in England kept pondering on the great question, vital to the +welfare of the country, vital to the welfare of each man, who should +succeed to the Queen Elizabeth? And Elizabeth was growing old. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +SUCCESSION PLOTS + + Possible successors to Elizabeth--Lord Henry Howard--Spies-- + Ralegh's position--The net is drawn round him--Letter of + Cecil--Last illness and death of Elizabeth--Carey's ride to + the North. + + +The position was one of acute interest. For Elizabeth had maintained her +father's tradition that the sovereign reigned by divine right, and by +her genius made the tradition credible. The responsibility of vesting +any man or any woman with such power was immense. The choice might bring +disaster to the nation, and it might bring disaster upon the men who +opposed the final choice, even upon the men who supported it. And +Elizabeth would not tolerate a mention even of her death, still less +would she help to appoint a successor. Peter Wentworth had proposed to +the House of Lords that a joint petition should be addressed to her, +requesting her humbly to consider the question. Peter Wentworth was +forthwith sent to the Tower, where he died after three years' +imprisonment. All the hints of her higher ministers she treated with +disdain. That she, Elizabeth, must die, it was impossible! But death was +slowly approaching. + +Sir Robert Cecil watched the approach of death, and made his secret +preparations; for the greatest disaster of all would be that death +should find the country unprepared. Mystery, carefully planned against +the unravelling of chance or surprise, shrouds all the correspondence +of the time. No one can properly tell what letters are authentic, what +are written purposely to be discovered and to deceive. It was dangerous +for any man to trust any man with his solution to the great problem. But +Cecil was the political leader; in the Council he was informed of the +undercurrents of opinion at home and abroad. He kept his hold upon that +most important item--news, so difficult to acquire, so hard to test, +that that alone made his position strong; and he determined that King +James VI. of Scotland must succeed to the Crown. The accession of James +would ensure his own prosperity, and James, being manageable, would +ensure the prosperity of the country, for Cecil himself would continue +to govern. He secretly corresponded with James; he explained his +authority, and asserted his zeal on James's behalf. + +Arabella Stuart and William Seymour, both of royal blood, were married +in 1603, and their claim to the throne was strong and supported by those +who desired the reintroduction of the Catholic religion. At one time +Philip of Spain was anxious that the Infanta should become Queen of +England. He thought that the Catholic party in England would welcome +her. But he had neither the money nor the power to enforce such a claim, +and the project was abandoned in favour of Arabella Stuart and William +Seymour, as James VI. of Scotland, though his mother was a Catholic and +he kept hinting that he was himself open to conversion, could not be +trusted. Cecil, however, succeeded in proving to James that only through +his own agency could he hope to wear the crown of England. Cecil's chief +helper in this was Lord Henry Howard. They corresponded at length with +James. Lord Henry Howard was an absolutely unscrupulous man, and he +hated Ralegh. Whether or not he influenced Cecil against Ralegh is not +known. Probably Cecil did not need much influence to see that Ralegh was +too powerful a man to be kept in a properly subordinate place, and to +work his undoing. + +Lord Henry Howard stopped at nothing to poison James's mind against +Ralegh. He always referred to him as the arch-enemy, the most dangerous +man in England. James was ready to believe all that he was told. The +Earl of Essex he had at one time regarded as his chief supporter in +England; after his death James used to refer to him as "my martyr." +Therefore the rival of Essex, whom many men said had brought Essex to +the scaffold, was not one likely to be looked upon with favour by James. + +Cecil saw that Essex and Ralegh were the only men considerable enough to +thwart his own project of supremacy. He had disposed of Essex; he had +urged him on to his ruin by appearing to favour his ambitions. Ralegh +remained. And Ralegh's overthrow was deliberately schemed, and quietly +carried into execution. + +In Cecil's scheme the most unpleasant aspect of the time is apparent. +The acquisition of home and foreign knowledge was necessarily +accompanied by an intricate system of espionage. It was incumbent upon a +man in Cecil's position to use spies and agents at home and abroad, to +check and recheck all information that came to him. He must keep himself +in touch with the under-current of feeling, in order that he might be +prepared for emergency; and to a large extent upon this knowledge, which +he was bound to acquire, was based his own power, and on his power he +was perfectly justified in thinking that the safety of the country +rested. It is for the moralist to decide between what is under-hand and +what is politic. It would seem that the two were inextricably mingled, +not because of the depravity of the men living at that time, but simply +because of the extreme difficulty of acquiring exact information. +Morality has perhaps changed less than appears on the surface. Morality, +however, has been modified by the application of the powers of steam and +of electricity more perceptibly than by the spread of religion. The +character of life has changed rather than the character of men. Deceit +is a confession of weakness, either in the deceiver or in the deceived; +and the range of man's power was then limited by barriers which no +longer exist. + +There was a demand for spies, and therefore, according to an unwritten +law, there was an ample supply. An undesirable class of man was +developed because the weakness of man in grappling with the problems of +time and space made that class a necessity. Continual contact with such +men infected the character of Cecil, as it influenced in a less degree +the character of all the greatest men of the time. Lord Henry Howard, +Cecil's right hand in his secret dealings with James, was the most +complete example of the species. Lord Henry Howard is the type of man on +whom it is pleasant to heap abuse. Abuse is a luxury. It relieves the +feelings. There is no term of abuse which is not applicable to him and +to his methods. But it is well to remember that, without Cecil, this +tool (however sharp) would have been powerless to do mischief. +Mischief--was what these two men accomplished mischievous to the +country? They were scheming primarily to bring in James VI. of Scotland +to the throne of England, and to do so without involving the country in +civil war. And they succeeded. James came to the throne, and civil war +did not break out until some years after their death. It is interesting +to know that the men who, as some think, freed England from tyranny were +deeply influenced by Ralegh's writings, and it is almost certain that +Ralegh was so far ahead of the thought of the time that he foresaw the +disaster that must come to the country if it were hampered by a +sovereign possessed with the prestige of divine right. His idea of +government was far more modern in conception. Rumour, which is apt to be +an exaggeration of the truth, relates that he was in favour of a +republic. Probably he wanted a form of government far nearer to that +which exists at the present day. He wanted a sovereign who was legally +bound to be guided by his Council of State and by the wishes of the +people. The days of Elizabeth's greatness showed the best features of +tyranny, the days of her decline its worst features. And the worst +feature is that undue power was placed in the hands of incompetent +favourites. + +After Elizabeth's death would have been the time to work the change +without bloodshed. But that would have meant for Cecil that he must have +shared his power with others. That was sufficient for Cecil. Always with +Cecil his own prestige came first and blinded him to the ultimate +benefit, which he sincerely wished might come to his country as it came +to him. + +But the warnings of Elizabeth's decline were not taken, and the prestige +of her greatness was sufficient to carry on its tide the weight of her +declining years and the reigns of two incompetent kings. Then matters +came to such a point that only a bloody war could set them right, and +the Puritan element, grown strong by abuses, triumphed, and its triumph +swept away much that was valuable, and much that could ill be spared. + +Sir Robert Cecil, however, and his tool, the Lord Henry Howard, +determined to carry on the old tradition, and to make James VI. of +Scotland King of England; and their scheme, as has been said, entailed +the overthrow of Ralegh. They considered his overthrow necessary to the +safety of their own position, and the safety of their own position was +necessary to the welfare of the country. As a man who sees a little +farther than the majority in matters of religion is apt to be called an +atheist--Ralegh was called an atheist--so a man who sees a little +farther in politics than the majority is apt to be called a +traitor--Ralegh was called a traitor. + +In November, 1601, the Duke of Lennox came into contact with Ralegh and +Cobham. He had been sent by James to Henry IV. of France to win his +support for James's claim to the English throne. Howard was furious that +the Duke should be on terms of friendship with Ralegh; he wrote to the +Earl of Mar suspicions of the Duke's fidelity, and to James that Ralegh +and Cobham were his inveterate enemies. "Hell did never vomit up such a +couple." That was not all. Howard knew that Cobham was weak and +vacillating, he knew that many of Cobham's family were disposed to +favour the Catholic cause. It would be easy to magnify any move of +Cobham's in the Catholic direction into an absolute espousal of the +Catholic claim. And what would be more likely than that the weak Cobham +should be moved by the influence of his strong friend, Ralegh? In that +way Ralegh could easily be caught in the toils of a conspiracy. The +scheme was very subtle. To work its gradual fulfilment the Queen's mind +must be turned against them. So Howard wrote to Cecil: "Hir Majesty must +knowe the rage of their discontent for want of being called to that +height which they affect; and be made to taste the perill that grows out +of discontented minds.... So that roundly Hir Majestie must daily and by +divers meanes be let to know the world's apprehendinge hir deepe wisdome +in discerning the secret flawes of their affections. She must see some +advertisements from forrain parts of the grief which the Queene's +enemies doo take at their (_i.e._ Ralegh and Cobham) sittinge out, +hoping that their placinge in authority would so far alienate the +people's reverent affection as some mischief would succeed of it.... +Rawlie that in pride exceedeth all men alive finds no vent for paradoxis +out of a Council board ... and inspireth Cobham with his own passions. +His wife as furious as Proserpina with failing of that restitution at +Court which flatterie had moved her to expect." Cecil was instructed to +inform the Queen of these things "that she may be more apt to receive +impressions of more important reasons when time serves with +opportunity." And then the crucial point of the deep plot to entrap +Ralegh is clearly stated: "You must embark this gallant Cobham by your +witt and interest, in some course the Spanish way as either may reveale +his weaknesse or snare his ambition.... For my own part I account it +impossible for him to escape the snares which wit may sett and weaknesse +is apt to fall into."[C] + + [C] Major Martin Hume gives an account of the scheme itself + with admirable clearness; his quotations from the letters + of the period I use. + +It is evident that Ralegh had some suspicion of what was being wrought +against him; in sending a paper to the Queen against the proposals to +declare a successor--the paper has unfortunately been lost--he writes a +letter containing the following sentence: + +"Your Majestye may, perchance, speake herof to thos seeminge my great +frinds, but I finde poore effects of that or any other supposed ametye. +For, your Majesty havinge left mee I am left all alone in the worlde, +and am sorry that ever I was att all. What I have donn is oat of zeale +and love, and not by any incorngement: for I am only forgotten in all +rights and in all affaires; and myne enemis have their wills and desires +over mee. Ther ar many other things concerninge your Majesty's present +service, which, meethinks are not, as they ought, remembered, and the +tymes pass away, unmesured, of which more profitt might be taken." + +He may have known that Lord Henry Howard was mischievously inclined +towards him; Howard had always been his enemy. But it is unlikely that +he could have suspected Cecil, for Cecil was at the pains to show all +the appearance of friendship both to him and to Lady Ralegh. + +Yet Cecil was, from the beginning of his own correspondence, working +against his friend. "Your Majestie," he writes to King James, "will +fynde it, in your case that a choyce election of a feaw in the present +wilbe of more use than any general acclamation of many." And in his +third letter he praises Howard for his fidelity, and refers bitterly to +Ralegh. + +"I do profess in the presence of Hym that knoweth and searcheth all +men's harts, that if I dyd not sometyme cast a stone into the mouth of +these gaping crabbs (i.e. Ralegh and Cobham) when they are in their +prodigall humour of discourses, they wold not stick to confess dayly how +contrary it is to their nature to resolve to be under your soverainty; +though they confess--Ralegh especially--that (_rebus sic stantibus_) +naturall pollicy forceth them to keep on foot such a trade against the +great day of mart. In all which light and soddain humours of his, though +I do no way chock him, because he shall not think I reject his freedome +or his affection, but alwaies ... use contestation with him that I +neyther had nor ever wold _in individus_ contemplate future idea, nor +ever hoped for more than justice in time of change; yet under pretext of +extraordinary care of his well-doing, I have seemed to disswade him from +ingaging himself to farr, even for himself; much more therefore to +forbeare to assume for me or my present intentions. Let me, therefore, +presume thus farr upon your Majesties favour that whatsoever he (_i.e._ +Ralegh) shall take uppon him to say for me, uppon any new humor of +kyndnes,--wherof sometime he wilbe replete, uppon the recept of privat +benefite,--you will no more believe it, if it come in other shape, be it +never so much in my commendation--then that his own conscience thoght it +needfull for him to undertake to keep me from any humor of inanity; +when, I, thank God, my greatest adversaries and my owne sowle have ever +acquited me from that, of all other vices. Wold God I were as free from +ofense towards God in seeking for private affection to support a person +whom most religious men do hold _anathema_." + +This is probably one of the most crafty letters that even the astute +Cecil ever wrote. He wants James to think badly of Ralegh, and he has no +reason which he can urge for this. He is afraid that James may suspect +his motives. He is afraid that James may hear from others of the +friendship between him and Ralegh, that Ralegh may speak well of him. So +he warns James against this: he hints that Ralegh will speak well of him +only to gain some private benefit, fearing Cecil's inanity or animosity. +Then, lest James should suspect him of such a defect, he hastens to +explain that animosity is quite foreign to his nature. Only men like +Ralegh would suspect him of it. Indeed, his heart is so kind that he +must needs have affection for Ralegh in spite of all, in spite even (and +this is a touch which would go far with the religious James) of the fact +that many godly men consider Ralegh anathema, indeed, little better than +an atheist. + +On the surface nothing was changed. Ralegh continued to make efforts to +rouse fresh interest in his colonization schemes, both in Virginia and +in Guiana, but without success. He joined with Cecil in organizing +privateering enterprises. He wrote to Cecil about the threatened +invasion of Ireland by Spain, and warned him on no account to put trust +in the friendly protestations of Florence McCarthy, whom he well knew to +be a rebel. He continued to devote much energy to the duties which his +Governorship of Jersey entailed. And all the while Howard and Cecil were +watching him and planning his destruction. They were waiting for him to +fall into one of the snares which were set for him; it mattered not +whether the decoy was Arabella Stuart or the Infanta and her husband, +the Count Arembergh. Cobham about this time was in communication with +the Count, who was Archduke of the Netherlands, and who desired to make +a peace between England and Spain. James and Cecil too desired peace +with Spain, but did not wish it to come through any other channel but +their own. So they watched Cobham that they might surprise him in an +indiscretion, as they had watched him in his dealings with Arabella +Stuart. And once they held him they could easily lay hands on the friend +who had influenced the poor impressionable fellow to take a traitorous +step. It would be incredible to all that such a man as Cobham was known +to be could have taken such a step on his own initiative. + +Failure is the cause of many crimes. While a great financier is +successful, everything is forgotten in the rush to make his acquaintance +and to make money. No one is indiscreet enough to inquire into his +methods. If he should fail to be successful, it fares ill with him. The +rush to leave him is as swift as the previous rush to be near him. His +methods are exposed relentlessly, and men blush with shame to think that +such a scoundrel could have been in their midst. The blush is the token +of innocence (easily paid) to morality. That was recognized to be the +position in all the various projects about the Succession. Whoever +failed became a traitor. Exactly what Ralegh did or did not do, is not +known. It is enough that he eventually got into the power of Cecil. He +failed, that is to say, he was not sufficiently alert to suspect the +intrigues of his friends against him. + +The last years of the Queen's reign are as tragic as the last years of +the woman's life. The strength of the country was in a strange way bound +up with the strength of Elizabeth, and as her strength declined so did +the greatness of the country. Never has a woman used her power with such +magnificent results. England was the husband, for whom her life was +lived, and all the greatest men in England lived fiercely to win glory +and her smile of approval; and they strove the harder because within +them was the knowledge (such knowledge was an inspiration) that their +great Queen could also be a beautiful woman to the man who found favour +in her eyes. She lived greatly, and created almost an age of great men +with such puissance did she employ one side of a woman's creative power. +A child is not the only new life which a woman may produce, if she has +once outgrown the little limits of what is miscalled purity. Coarse, as +in many ways the Elizabethan age undoubtedly was, men did not fall into +the fantastic error of confusing celibacy with chastity. The body had +full scope, and in consequence the spirit throve untrammelled. + +But Elizabeth was growing old. To the end she kept her grip on life; but +effort was necessary. In that effort alone weakness became apparent. +Strength was used not to plunder life as she had plundered it hitherto, +but to withstand its encroachments. She would not yield. There is +something great and yet something infinitely pathetic, childish even, in +her indomitable will to resist the slow inevitable power of Time. + +At last illness, which she had always dreaded with superstitious horror, +and against which she had always defended herself with every charm which +superstition could devise, laid hold on her. + +Sir Robert Carey, who was Lord Warden of the Border, came to the Court, +which was then at Richmond, in March, 1603, to see his friends and to +renew his acquaintance. He found the Queen ill-disposed. "I found her in +one of her withdrawing rooms sitting low upon her cushions. She called +me to her. I kissed her hand, and told her, It was my chiefest happiness +to see her in safety and health, which I wished might long continue. + +"She took me by the hand, and wrung it hard, and said, 'No, Robin, I am +not well!' and then discoursed with me of her indisposition, and that +her heart had been sad and heavy for ten or twelve days: and in her +discourse, she fetched not so few as forty or fifty great sighs. + +"I was grieved at the first to see her in this plight: for in all my +lifetime before, I never knew her fetch a sigh, but when the Queen of +Scots was beheaded.... I used the best words I could to persuade her +from this melancholy humour; but I found by her, it was too deep rooted +in her heart, and hardly to be removed. This was upon a Saturday night: +and she gave command that the Great Closet should be prepared for her to +go to Chapel the next morning." + +But they waited in vain for her coming, she was not well enough to +attend the service. From that day her body grew weaker and weaker. She +felt that death was approaching, and grimly she welcomed the approach of +death. With a kind of fierce disdain she refused all food, and she +refused to leave the chair in which she sat waiting. Night and day in +silence she sat staring in front of her, face to face with death. Music +was played to her in the hope that it might dispel the black gloom which +had settled upon her. She did not hear the music. She sat motionless in +her chair staring in front of her, greater than Cleopatra, but without +the solace of the asp's quick kiss. Her eyes had no expression in them +now. Her waiting-women were terrified. Cecil came to her and told her +"to content the people she _must_ go to bed." Then she spoke, saying +that "_must_ was not a word fit to be used to princes;" she dismissed +Cecil from her presence, and as he went away she spoke again. "Little +man, little man," she said, "if your father had lived ye durst not have +said so much, but ye know I must die, and that makes ye so +presumptuous." Lord Admiral Howard, Earl of Nottingham, remained with +her. At last she spoke to him. "My lord, I am tied with a chain of iron +about my neck." He bade her have courage, but she answered in a low +voice, "I am tied, I am tied, and the case is altered with me." + +Her waiting women were terrified. The powers of darkness seemed at play +in the Palace at Richmond. Lady Southwell affirms that the queen of +hearts was nailed under the Queen's chair, the nail through the +forehead; "they durst not pull it out remembering that the like thing +was used to the old Countess of Sussex and afterwards proved a +witchcraft for which certain persons were hanged as instruments of the +same." Lady Guildford left the Queen, as she thought, sleeping, but saw +her walking from one room to another; she hurried back, and there she +found the Queen still, as she thought, sleeping. Lady Guildford swore +that it must have been the Queen's ghost which she had seen, while the +Queen was yet living. + +At length, after this long vigil of four days and four nights staring in +the face of death, she was constrained to lie down in her bed. But the +tired old woman might not die in peace; while she breathed she was Queen +of England. + +"By signs she called for her Council: and by putting her hand to her +head," writes Sir Robert Carey, "when the King of Scots was named to +succeed her, they all knew he was the man she desired should reign after +her." It is easy to see how the astute Cecil would construe the dying +Queen's movements into the right meaning for his own schemes. There is +something fantastic in this solemn farce played round the great Queen's +death-bed, made more fantastic and more terrible by the fact that it +sprang from her own strange detestation of naming a successor. "Being +given over by all and at the last gasp keeping still her sense in +everything and giving apt answers, though she spake but seldom, having +then a sore throat, the council required admittance, and she wished to +wash her throat that she might answer freely to what they demanded which +was to know whom she would have for king. Her throat troubling her much +they desired her to hold up her finger when they named who she liked; +whereupon they named the King of France (this was to try her intellect), +she never stirred; the King of Scotland, she made no sign; then they +named Lord Beauchamp--this was the heir of Seymour ... and words came to +the dying lips, 'I will have--no rascal's son--in my seat--but +one--worthy--to be a king,'" The effort of speech convulsed her: she put +her hands to her head: her head was in pain: and Cecil pointed out how +evident it was that she meant, a crowned king should rule in her stead. +That is the irony of things: the State left: the Church entered. + +"About six at night she made signs for the Archbishop, and her Chaplains +to come to her, at which time I went in with them; and sat upon my knees +full of tears to see that heavy sight. + +"Her Majesty lay upon her back; with one hand in the bed, and the other +without. + +"The Archbishop kneeled down by her, and examined her first of her +faith: and she so punctually answered all his several questions by +lifting up her eyes and holding up her hand, as it was a comfort to all +beholders. + +"Then the good man told her plainly, What she was; and what she was come +to: and though she had been long a great Queen here upon earth, yet +shortly she was to yield an account of her stewardship to the King of +Kings. + +"After this he began to pray: and all that were by did answer him. After +he had continued long in prayer, till the old man's knees were weary, he +blessed her, and meant to rise and leave her. + +"The Queen made a sign with her hand. + +"My sister Scroope, knowing her meaning, told the Bishop, the Queen +desired he would pray still. + +"He did so for a long half-hour after, and then thought to have left +her. The second time she made sign to have him continue in prayer. He +did so for half an hour more, with earnest cries to God for her soul's +health, which he uttered with that fervency of spirit as the Queen, to +all our sight, much rejoiced thereat: and gave testimony to us all of +her Christian and comfortable end. By this time it grew late; and every +one departed: all but her women that attended her." + +That evening Queen Elizabeth died. + +Every precaution had been taken that the news of her death might not +precede the Council's power of action. Every gate was locked; every +approach was guarded. But Sir Robert Carey, the dead Queen's kinsman, +realized, like many another, that all his means of life were now at the +disposal of the new king, whoever he might be, and so he determined to +be the bearer of the tidings to James of Scotland. He had quietly made +his preparations for the emergency, and his sister, Philadelphia Lady +Scroope, had in her possession a ring which would prove to James that +the news of the Queen's death was authentic. It was necessary to take +every precaution against treachery in such a crisis. How far Cecil knew +of Carey's complicity with James is not certain. Probably James had kept +it secret: he was not apt to trust any man wholly. + +Carey found some difficulty in getting away, but he gave money to the +right men and succeeded. Lady Scroope had been unable to give him the +sapphire ring, "but waiting at the window till she saw him at the +outside of the gate she threw it out to him; and he well knew to what +purpose he received it." Efforts were made to detain him, but he managed +to evade them, and next night at ten o'clock he started his great ride +to the north, to bear the tidings to James at Edinburgh. That Thursday +night he rode to Doncaster, which is one hundred and sixty-two miles +from London. + +"The Friday night I came to my own house at Widdrington (298 miles), and +presently took order with my Deputies to see the Borders kept in quiet; +which they had much to do; and gave order, the next morning, the King of +Scotland should be proclaimed King of England and at Morpeth and at +Alnwick. Very early on Saturday I took horse for Edinburgh and came to +Norham (331 miles) about twelve at noon. So that I might well have been +with the King at supper time: but I got a great fall by the way, and my +horse, with one of his heels, gave me a great blow on the head that made +me shed much blood. It made me so weak, that I was forced to ride a soft +pace after: so that the King was newly gone to bed by the time I knocked +at the gate." + +The King received him immediately and at once asked him, on hearing of +the Queen's death, what message he brought from the Council. Sir Robert +Carey bore no message, but he gave the King the blue ring; and the King +said, "It is enough. I know by this that you are a true messenger." + +Every attention was paid to the messenger, worn out by his great ride +and his fall. In four days he recovered and he was sworn one of the +gentlemen of the bedchamber; "and presently I helped to take off his +clothes and stayed till he was in bed. + +"After this, there came, daily, Gentlemen and Noblemen from our Court; +and the King set down a fixed day for his departure towards London." + +The day fixed was April 5th, 1603. + +[Illustration: KING JAMES I.] + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE TRIAL + + Arrival of James VI. of Scotland--Ralegh in immediate + disfavour--Gondomar comments on James--Ralegh accused of + treason--Cobham and Brooke--Ralegh attempts suicide-- + Cobham's retractions--November 17--And the trial's infamy. + + +Slowly King James moved on his royal progress to London to the +acclamation of the people of all the towns through which he passed. "The +Council of State and the Nobility, no doubt assisted with the Spirit of +Truth, considering the infallible right of our Sovereign Lord, King +James, took such order that the news of the Queen's death should no +sooner be spread to deject the hearts of the people, but, at the +instant, they should be comforted with the Proclaiming of the King." The +people were intoxicated with the prospect of the new king coming +peaceably to reign over the kingdom, for the fear of a civil war had +been imminent and universal. The country burst into a salvo of welcome; +a new era of peace and prosperity was to be inaugurated. Scotland now +joined to England lessened the fear of invasion. "They now began duly to +think upon his unmatched virtues, which never the most malicious enemy +could impeach ... they now considered his affability mercy justice and +magnanimity." The hopes of every party ran high. The Catholics knew that +he was inclined towards friendliness; the Churchmen felt sure that they +who had been chief instigators in bringing him to the throne of +England, could rely upon his support. The Puritans had heard of his +godliness and his tolerance to their views. Each vied with the other in +sounding the praises of the new King. "But our King coming through the +North," writes Mr. Arthur Wilson, "(Banquetting and Feasting by the way) +the applause of the people in so obsequious and submissive a manner +(still admiring change) was checkt by an honest plain Scotsman ... with +a propheticall expression. _This people will spoil a gud King._ The King +as unused, so tired with multitudes, especially in his Huntinge (which +he did as he went) caused an inhibition to be published, to restrain his +people from hunting him. Happily being fearful of so great a concourse, +as this novelty produced, the old hatred betwixt the Borderers not yet +forgotten, might make him apprehend it to be of a greater extent: though +it was generally imputed to a desire of enjoying his recreations without +interruption." + +Few kings have received such a welcome; few kings have proved themselves +so unworthy as the event proved James. But the prestige of his welcome +and his rescue from the Gunpowder Plot hid his true character for many +years from the people under the obscuring cloud of sentiment. + + "Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits + Sets all to hazard." + +Every one connected with the Court and Court appointments hastened to +meet him and win his good will: and James was lavish in his treatment. +He created innumerable knights, and raised so many to the peerage that +"some unhappy fancy pasted up a Pasquil in Pauls, wherein he pretended +an art to help weak memories to a competent knowledge of the names of +the Nobility." Sir Robert Cecil was created Baron of Essingdon and soon +after Viscount Cranborn and Earl of Salisbury. Lord Henry Howard was +made Earl of Northampton. + +During the Queen's last illness Ralegh was in Devonshire. Directly he +heard of the news of her death he hastened with Sir Robert Cross to pay +his respects to the new sovereign. Cecil advised him to spare himself +the trouble; but he did not listen to Cecil's advice. He came to the +King at Burghley House, trusting in his power to impress himself +favourably upon the King. But James had been too carefully primed +against him. Old Aubrey's gossip bears the stamp of truth; it is so +characteristic of James, that he should have met the great Ralegh with a +pun upon his name--"I have heard but rawly of thee." Ralegh spoke with +James about business connected with the Duchy of Cornwall; he wanted a +royal letter authorizing the continuance of legal process, and a warrant +to stop "the waste of woods and parks" which he said was due to Lord +Treasurer Buckhurst's heedlessness. James listened, and gave +instructions to his secretary, Sir Thomas Lake, to write the necessary +letters as quickly as possible, that he might be rid of the man whom he +feared and disliked. "Let them be delivered speedily that Ralegh may be +gone again." + +James was not slow in compassing Ralegh's downfall. Two weeks passed by +and Ralegh was summoned to the Council Chamber, where the Lord President +informed him that James no longer desired his services as Captain of the +Guard; that the honour had been conferred upon the King's countryman, +Sir Thomas Erskine, to whom Ralegh was bidden to hand all appurtenances +of the office. + +Ralegh had increased James's dislike of him by suggesting that articles +should be framed which should prevent the King's countrymen from +devouring the kingdom like locusts. The advisability of such a measure +became manifest to all later, when it was too late. Naturally the first +man to suffer was Ralegh himself. But the indignity was glossed +over--not for Ralegh's sake so much as to hinder unpleasant gossip about +the new appointment--by increasing Ralegh's salary as Governor of Jersey +by three hundred pounds per annum. Ralegh's loss was directly due to +Cecil, to whom James had given the disposal of the office, and who +gained new favour with James by electing a Scotchman. For seven weeks +Ralegh enjoyed the added emolument. + +His last interview with James took place at Beddington Park, in Surrey, +which was the seat of his uncle, Sir Nicolas Carew. There Ralegh, +anxious to prove his loyalty to the King, gave him his "Discourse +touching a War with Spain, and of the protecting of the Netherlands," +and offered to carry on his enterprises against Spain (he always had his +great Guiana scheme in the front of his mind) by offering "to carry two +thousand men to invade him without the King's charge." He could not have +made a more inauspicious suggestion to the timorous James; but Ralegh +did not realize how the King was influenced against him to such an +extent that he would be quick to think that the man who could raise so +many men to fight the Spaniard, could at less expense raise them to +fight his own Majesty. Moreover, James, from no high motives, but merely +from terror at the sight even of a drawn sword, hated war and fighting +of any kind, and distrusted, as is shown by his choice of favourites, +the quality of bravery in others. All Ralegh's grip of a situation, his +clearness of exposition, his courage would be against him in a +conference with James. The standard by which a man was judged had +changed, now that the great Queen was in her grave. The clever Gondomar +summed James up to a nicety when he wrote, without any need (for once) +of diplomacy, "James has a vanity so enormous that, in order to make him +play his adversary's game, you have simply to let James believe that it +is from himself that the adversary has learnt to know how to play." His +favourites were men who were more adroit in the use of poison than in +the use of the sword. It is easy to imagine what were the feelings of +James as Ralegh propounded his masterly exposition of the Spanish +situation, and offered his own services. There would be something +burlesque in this interview between the brave man and the coward, if +absolute power of life and death were not in the hands of the coward, +and if the coward had not already determined to use his power to the +detriment of the brave man. + +The carefully planned toils were closing round Ralegh. Copley was +arrested in Sussex, and in consequence of his first examination, which +was dated July 12, George Brooke was arrested two days afterwards, and +orders were given for the arrest of Lord Grey and Sir Griffin Markham. +On the 14th or 15th, Cobham, George Brooke's brother, was examined by +the Council. They were accused of complicity with the "Treason of the +Priests." Now, treason at that time was formidable, and it was necessary +to treat it in a summary fashion. In every nation there must be a large +number of discontented people who would combine if there was a man of +sufficient influence to lead them in any way; very little was known in +spite of spies; man dealt with man; there was no proper way of gauging +public opinion; a spark might set all the disaffected into a dangerous +fire. Now discontent is aired in the newspapers; every one can read +what happens in Parliament. Treason is no longer a thing to dread. But +then it was a constant danger, and the least suspicion of treasonable +practices was sufficient to condemn a man to a death of horrible +ignominy. Justice was swift but not unerring. A man had not only to keep +clear of treason, but must have the wit to avoid even the suspicion. It +is easy to see how the power thus put into the hands of the Government, +though such power was essential to its safety and the welfare of the +citizens, could be abused. And there is probably no instance in history +where its abuse is more conspicuous than in the treatment of Ralegh. +Cecil feared Ralegh; James feared Ralegh. There is nothing so +unscrupulous, nothing so dangerous and so cruel as fear. The world lay +obscured by the dark cloud of Time and of Space; and terrible scope was +given to fear by the insuperable darkness. + +The suspected man was shut up alone, and a Bishop or a Judge or a +Councillor was told off to examine him; and the man knew quite well that +his answers might be made more satisfactory by the help of the rack, and +that his examiner would earn reward and distinction by discovering +treason and his associates in treason. The promise, too, of a pardon was +often dangled before his eyes to loosen his tongue. Such promises were +not often kept. Brooke implicated Cobham, and Cobham implicated Ralegh. + +George Brooke, Cobham's brother, was a light-hearted fellow, who was +drawn into listening to the priest's conspiracy, because he had been +disappointed of some small office upon which he had set his heart. To +Bishop Bancroft was assigned the task of examining him. Large rewards +were offered the Bishop if he were successful in finding out the +details of the conspiracy. "The only way to procure favour is to open +all that possibly you can" were the words with which the good Bishop +began his inquiry. And gradually he played upon the fears and hopes of +the prisoner to such an extent that the wretched man burst into a kind +of rapture of confession, stating all he knew and all he imagined to be +fact, about the treason against King James. Day after day the +examination was continued relentlessly; statements made by other +prisoners, or said to have been made, were told him; lists of written +questions were given him. It would have taken a man of extraordinary +strength and control to have kept his balance under such circumstances. +George Brooke was a very ordinary man. On July 17 he said: "The +conspirators among themselves thought Sir Walter Ralegh a fit man to be +of the action." The good Bishop did not leave such an important +statement undeveloped; under his careful management the statement by the +end of August had grown; Brooke was ready to swear that Ralegh and +Cobham had resolved to kill the King and his cubs. + +Cobham, too, was examined in the same relentless manner. He was a little +stronger than his brother, George Brooke, but no match for the +examiners. He began by steadfastly denying everything; his nerves, +however, could not bear the terrible suspense. He had been suddenly +removed to solitary confinement; the horror of a dreadful death loomed +over him. He did not know who might be arrested, who might desire his +death. At length some of the confessions of his brother were disclosed +to him; but the examiners named Ralegh, not Brooke, as the authority; +and Cobham, knowing that Ralegh must have invented or guessed at such +things, broke into an outcry of disgust (who can blame him!), "Oh +traitor, oh villain! I will now tell you all the truth." And he said +that he had never entered into these courses but by Ralegh's +instigation, and that Ralegh would never let him alone. It was very +cleverly done by the examiner. Cobham was led into confessing, helped by +questions from George Brooke's statements, that "he had conferred with +Arenberg about procuring 500,000 or 600,000 crowns from the King of +Spain; and that nothing should be done with the money until he had +spoken with Sir Walter Ralegh, for distribution of the money to them +which were discontented in England." Then part of a letter from Ralegh +to Cecil--for Cecil knew much of the intercourse between Arenberg and +England in his official capacity--was shown to Cobham, in which it was +written, "If da Renzy were not secured, the matter would not be +discovered, for da Renzy would fly; yet if he were then apprehended, it +would give matter of suspicion to Lord Cobham." Naturally Cobham, +reading such words at the moment when they were shown him, constructed +them into his death sentence, and broke out into fury of denunciation +sufficient for the bad purpose of the examiners--to close the net round +Ralegh. Lord Henry Howard justly remarks in his "Adversaria," "It is an +old observation of jugglers to make others give fire to the piece after +they themselves have charged it, and thereby put them into the peril of +recoil or breaking, if any mischief follow." Lord Henry Howard may be +taken as an authority on this subject. + +Immediately after Cobham's outbreak, Ralegh was arrested and sent to the +Tower, to await the slow, strange process of justice. His arrest took +place at the beginning of August. Almost immediately the Government of +Jersey was transferred to Sir John Peyton, Governor of the Tower. James +in his grant stated that the post was forfeited by Sir Walter Ralegh +through the grievous treason against the Crown. With the King thus +quickly convinced of his guilt, Ralegh knew that he had small chance of +proving his innocence. Dismay came upon him and despair. His hopes fell +from a great height and were broken. Suddenly shut closely in by four +stone walls, he was obliged to wait the slow approach of an ignominious +death--a death which would involve the ruin of his family, and the +immediate disgrace of his name. He was a man of action; he could not sit +and do nothing but think. Despair brought madness to him; he tried to +kill himself in a fit of impotent despair. This is the way in which +Cecil, once Ralegh's friend, writes of it. "Although lodged and attended +as well as in his own house, yet one afternoon, while divers of us were +in the Tower examining these prisoners, Sir Walter Ralegh attempted to +have murdered himself. Whereof, when we were advertised, we came to him +and found him in some agony, seeming to be unable to bear his +misfortune, and protesting innocency, with carelessness of life. In that +humour he had wounded himself under the right pap, but no way mortally; +being in truth rather a cut than a stab." + +On August 13, Ralegh was examined about Cobham's negotiations with +Arenberg. His statement was: "Lord Cobham offered me 10,000 crowns of +the money, for the furthering of the Peace between England and Spain; +and he said that I should have it within three days. I told him, 'When I +see the money I will make you an answer.' For I thought it one of his +ordinary idle conceits, and therefore made no account thereof. But this +was as I think before Count Arenberg's coming over." And in a letter +written to the Lords of the Council a few days after this examination, +in which he proclaims his innocence of any treasonable practice, he +breaks out, after enumerating his exploits against Spain, in bitterness +at the irony of the charge. "Alas, to what end should we live in the +world if all the endeavours of so many testimonies shall be blown off +with one blast of breath, or be prevented by one man's charge." + +Lord Cobham had made several retractions of his outburst against Ralegh, +both at Ralegh's instigation and on his own initiative. Sir George +Harvey, the Governor of the Tower, was discreet enough to keep back the +latter retraction until one month after the trial, when he showed Cecil +a letter in which Cobham wrote of his accusation, "God is my wittness, +it doth troble my contiens." Terror had unhinged Cobham's mind, he +accused Ralegh and retracted his accusations in such a way that one +retraction more or less mattered little; Sir George Harvey's sense of +duty, however, is significant. + +The indictment was drawn up at Staines on the 21st of September. Three +months were allowed to elapse before the trial took place. Meanwhile, +Sir Francis Godolphin, High Sheriff of Cornwall, was authorized to take +the muster of the county, "the Commission of Lieutenancy granted to Sir +Walter Ralegh being become void and determined." In October Arenberg +left England for Flanders, overwhelmed with evidence of the King's +favour. The plague was raging in London, and accordingly the trial was +to be held at Winchester. Sir William Waad was ordered to bring Sir +Walter Ralegh to Wolvesey Castle--the episcopal palace of Winchester. +Waad wrote to Cecil, "It was hob or nob whether Ralegh should have been +brought alive through such multitudes of unruly people as did exclaim +against him. We took the best order we could in setting watches through +the streets, both in London and the suburbs. If one hare-brain fellow +amongst so great multitudes had begun to set upon him--as they were very +near to do it--no entreaty or means could have prevailed; the fury and +tumult of the people was so great." Ralegh was driven in his own +carriage; he faced the mob with disdain. + +On the 17th of November the trial began; and the after comment of one of +"these my judges" was true: "That trial injured and degraded the justice +of England." The Commissioners were eleven in number: Thomas Howard, +Earl of Suffolk, who had fought with Ralegh at Cadiz; Charles Blount, +Earl of Devonshire; Lord Henry Howard; Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury; +Edward, Lord Wotton of Morley; Sir William Waad; Sir John Stanhope, +Vice-Chamberlain; the Lord Chief Justice of England, Popham; the Lord +Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Anderson; Mr. Justice Gawdie and Mr. +Justice Warburton. Coke, as Attorney-General, conducted the prosecution, +and was assisted by Serjeant Hale. The Clerk of the Crown Office, having +read the commission of Oyer and Terminer, the prisoner was bidden to +hold up his hand, and then the indictment was read, the gist of which is +as follows:-- + +That he did conspire and go about to deprive the King of his government, +to raise up sedition within the realm, to alter religion, to bring in +the Roman superstition, and to procure foreign enemies to invade the +kingdom. That the Lord Cobham, the 9th of June last, did meet with the +said Sir Walter Ralegh, in Durham House, and then and there had +conference with him how to advance Arabella Stuart to the crown and +royal throne of this kingdom. And that then and there it was agreed +that Cobham should treat with Arenberg, ambassador from the Archduke of +Austria, to obtain of him 600,000 crowns to bring to pass their intended +treason. It was agreed that Cobham should go to the Archduke Albert to +procure him to advance the pretended title of Arabella. From thence, +knowing that Albert had not sufficient means to maintain his own army in +the Low Countries, Cobham should go to Spain, to procure the king to +assist and further her pretended title. It was agreed, the better to +effect all this conspiracy, that Arabella should write three letters, +one to the Archduke, another to the King of Spain, and a third to the +Duke of Savoy, and promise three things-- + + First.--To establish a firm peace between England and Spain. + + Secondly.--To tolerate the popish and Roman superstition. + + Thirdly.--To be ruled by them in contracting of her marriage. + +And further, that Cobham and his brother Brooke met on the 9th of June +last, and Cobham told Brooke all these treasons; to the which treasons +Brooke gave his assent and did join himself to all these. And after, on +the Thursday following, Cobham and Brooke did speak these words, _that +there would never be a good world in England till the King_ (meaning our +sovereign lord) _and his cubs_ (meaning the royal issue) _were taken +away_. + +And the more to disable and deprive the King of his crown, and to +confirm the said Cobham in his intents Ralegh did publish a book falsely +written against the most just and royal title of the King, which book +Cobham after that received of him, and did deliver unto Brooke. And +further by the traitorous instigation of Ralegh, Cobham did incite +Brooke to move Arabella to write to the three forenamed princes to +procure them to advance her title. Further, Cobham, by the instigation +of Ralegh did write letters to the Count Arenberg for the obtaining of +the 600,000 crowns, which money by other letters Count Arenberg did +promise to perform the payment of. And then did Cobham promise to Ralegh +that when he had received the said money he would deliver 8000 crowns to +him. + +[Illustration: COUNT ARENBERGH] + +To the indictment Sir Walter Ralegh pleaded NOT GUILTY. Sir Walter +Ralegh was then asked whether he would take exception to any of the +jury; and he made answer, "I know none of them; they are all Christians +and honest gentlemen. I except against none." He did not know that the +original jurymen had been changed; he did not know that the names of +three near servants to the Queen Elizabeth had been erased from the +panel overnight, being thought unsuitable for their purpose. + +_Earl Suffolk._--You, gentlemen of the King's learned counsel follow the +same course as you did the other day. + +_Ralegh._--My lord, I pray you I may answer the points particularly as +they are delivered, by reason of the weakness of my memory and sickness. + +_Lord Chief Justice Popham._--After the King's learned counsel have +delivered all the evidence, Sir Walter, you may answer particularly to +what you will. + +Then spake the King's Serjeant at Law, by name Hele; of this man Edwards +points out that "he was more notable as a brawler and a buffoon--and +also as a moneylender, in which capacity he hoped to win a very large +stake by the ruin of Lord Cobham--than as a lawyer." The tone of his +short speech may be gathered from this typical sentence at the +conclusion. "It appears that Cobham took Ralegh to be either a god or +an idol. Cobham endeavours to set up a new king, or governor: God forbid +mine eyes should ever see so unhappy a change! As for the Lady Arabella, +she, upon my conscience hath no more title to the crown than I have, +which before God I utterly renounce. Cobham, a man bred in England, hath +no experience abroad; but Ralegh, a man of great wit, military and a +swordman. Now whether these things were bred in a hollow tree, I leave +to them to speak of, who can speak far better than myself." + +Sir Edward Coke, the King's Attorney, then rose to his feet. It is well +to remember that it was Coke's business, as the King's Attorney, to +prove Ralegh guilty of treason, and that as he had almost no evidence in +his support, his business was one of extreme difficulty. Cobham's +accusation was his only evidence, and that must be used with caution, +owing to Cobham's retractations. The trial was of the utmost importance; +his professional reputation was at stake; the very difficulty put him on +his mettle. He rose magnificently to the occasion. With such evidence at +his disposal he could not quietly prove Ralegh's guilt. His chief +weapons were the appeal to the jury's loyalty and abuse of the +prisoner--especially abuse, by which he hoped to brow-beat him. His +speech was long and learned. He began by dividing the mischief of +treason into three divisions--imitation, supportation, and defence, and +by enlarging upon the main conspiracy of the priests Watson and Copley, +with which, as Ralegh pointed out, he was in no way connected, even in +the indictment. Undeterred, Coke continued his oration. He gave +instances of treason, he defined treason at length, and then he suddenly +began to praise the character of King James, and, turning angrily to +Ralegh, exclaimed: "To whom Sir Walter did you bear malice? To the royal +children?" To which Ralegh answered: "Master Attorney, I pray you to +whom or to what end speak you all this? I protest I do not understand +what a word of this means, except it be to tell me news. What is the +treason of Markham and the priests to me?" + +_Coke._ "I will then come close to you. I will prove you to be the most +notorious traitor that ever came to the bar." + +_Ralegh._ "Your words cannot condemn me; my innocency is my defence. +_Prove_ against me any one thing of the many that you have broken, and I +will confess all the Indictment, and that I am the most horrible traitor +that ever lived." + +_Coke._ "Nay I will prove all. Thou art a monster; thou hast an English +face, but a Spanish heart." + +Then Coke proceeded to give a minute account of Cobham's plots in such a +way that, as Edwards notes, only the most unprejudiced and attentive +listener would fail to be trapped into thinking that he was relating the +plots of Ralegh. The device was clever, but it was unscrupulous. Ralegh, +in spite of his recent imprisonment and his imminent danger, remained +master of himself and of the situation. He withstood Coke's implications +as resolutely as he withstood Coke's abuse. "What is that to me?" he +asked the Court, after Coke had ended his clever recital of Cobham's +practices. "What is that to me? I do not hear yet that you have spoken +one word against _me_. Here is no treason of mine done. If my Lord +Cobham be a traitor, what is that to me?" + +At this the King's Attorney broke into savage abuse. "All that he did +was by thy instigation, thou viper; for I _thou_ thee, thou traitor! I +will prove thee the rankest traitor in all England." + +But Ralegh was not to be inveigled into losing his presence of mind by +Coke's insults, as Coke, of course, knowing Ralegh's temperament, +intended him to do. Never did Ralegh show greater proof of his power +than at this his trial, when circumstances were pressing most hardly +upon him; he answered--there is the suavity of strength in his +answer--"No, no, Master Attorney, I am no traitor. Whether I live or die +I shall stand as true a subject as ever the King hath. _You_ may call me +a traitor, at your pleasure; yet it becomes not a man of quality or +virtue to do so. But I take comfort in it. It is all that you can do, +for I do not yet hear that you charge me with any treason." + +The Lord Chief Justice Popham was here obliged to come to the help of +the King's Attorney, who was finding the case more difficult than he +expected. It was important that the people present, by whom the news of +the trial would be spread through England, should not be impressed in +the prisoner's favour. He said, realizing that Coke's last _coup_ had +been a failure: "Sir Walter Ralegh, Master Attorney speaks out of the +zeal of his duty for the service of the King, and you for your life; be +patient, on both sides." + +Then Coke proceeded: "I charge Sir Walter Ralegh with contriving and +conspiring all this that I have recited. And now I will read my proofs +for it." He did so. That is to say, he read the most incriminating of +the confessions which the distraught Lord Cobham had made. While Coke +read this Declaration, there was silence in the hall--certainly a +haunting silence. Then Ralegh spoke. "This is absolutely all the +evidence that can be brought against me. But now I beseech you, hear +me. I was examined at Windsor touching the Surprising Treason; next of +plotting for Arabella; thirdly of practices with the Lord Cobham. From +all which God knows I was free, for I never was privy to any of them. It +is true that I suspected that the Lord Cobham kept intelligence with +D'Arenberg. For I knew that long since--in the late Queen's time--he +held that course with him in the Low Countries, as was well known to my +Lord Treasurer, and to my Lord Cecil. La Renzi being a man also well +known to me, I, seeing him and the Lord Cobham together, thought that +was the time they both had been to Count D'Arenberg. I gave intimation +thereof. But I was willed by my Lord Cecil not to speak of this; because +the King, at the first coming of D'Arenbergh, would not give him +occasion of suspicion. Wherefore I wrote to the Lord Cecil that if La +Renzi were not taken, the matter would not be discovered. Yet if he were +then apprehended, it would give matter of suspicion to the Lord Cobham. +This letter of mine being presently showed to the Lord Cobham, he +presently entered into a rage against me and spake bitterly and +railingly of me; yet ere he came to the stairs'-foot, he repented him, +and, as I heard, acknowledged that he had done me wrong." + +Ralegh paused: up till now he had been speaking to the Court and to the +jury, quietly replying to the charges that had been brought against him. +Now he turned to Sir Edward Coke, the King's Attorney, and made this +speech, magnificent in its effect even in the version of the reporter, +even after more than three hundred years, now when no one feels anything +but great friendliness towards Spain; you can see the man draw himself +up to his full height, the man who had risked his life for his +country--Spain's most dreadful enemy, as he faced the attorney whose +business it was to brow-beat him to ruin. + +"Master Attorney, whether to favour or to disable my Lord Cobham you +speak as you will of him; yet he is not such a babe as you make him. He +hath dispositions of such violence, which his best friends could never +temper. But it is very strange that I, at this time, should be thought +to plot with the Lord Cobham knowing him a man that hath neither love +nor following; and myself, at this time having resigned a place of my +best command, in an office I had in Cornwall. I was not so bare of sense +but I saw that, if even this State was strong, it was now that we have +the kingdom of Scotland united whence we were wont to fear all our +troubles; Ireland quieted where our forces were wont to be divided; +Denmark assured whom before we were always wont to have in jealousy; the +Low Countries our nearest neighbours. And, instead of a Lady whom Time +had surprised, we had now an active King who would be present at his own +businesses. For me at this time to make myself a Robin Hood, a Watt +Tyler, a Kett, or a Jack Cade! I was not so mad! I knew the state of +Spain well--his weakness, his poorness, his humbleness at this time. I +knew that six times we had repulsed his forces: thrice in Ireland, +thrice at sea--once upon our coast, twice upon his own. Thrice had I +served against him myself at sea, wherein for my Country's sake, I had +expended of my own property forty thousand marks. I knew that where +beforetime he was wont to have forty great sails, at the least, in his +ports, now he hath not past six or seven. But for sending to his Indies, +he was driven to have strange vessels--a thing contrary to the +institutions of his ancestors who straitly forbade that, even in case +of necessity, they should make their necessity known to strangers. I +knew that of twenty-five millions which he had from his Indies, he had +scarce any left. Nay, I knew his poorness to be such at this time, as +that the Jesuits, his imps, begged at his church-doors; his pride so +abated that, notwithstanding his former high terms, he was become glad +to congratulate His Majesty and send unto him. Whoso knew what great +assurances he stood upon with other States, for smaller sums, would not +think he would so freely disburse to my Lord Cobham six hundred thousand +crowns! And, if I had minded to set my Lord Cobham awork in such a case, +I would have given him some instructions how to persuade the King. For I +knew Cobham no such minion that could persuade a King that was in want +to disburse so great a sum, without great reason and some assurance for +his money. I knew the Queen of England lent not her money to the States, +but she had Flushing, Brill, and other towns, in assurance for it. She +lent not money to the King of France without she had Newhaven for it. +Nay, her own subjects, the merchants of London, did not lend her money, +without they had their lands to pawn for it. And to show I am not +Spanish--as you term me--at this time I had writ a treatise to the +King's Majesty of the present state of Spain, and reasons against the +Peace." + +So spake Sir Walter Ralegh, summing up the whole question of policy +which was occupying the minds of all men, and drawing attention to the +great part which he had played in gaining naval supremacy for England. + +He then went on to explain that the business which had brought him of +late years so much in Cobham's company was of a private nature, +concerning the improvement of Cobham's estate, and the purchase of a +fee-farm from the Duke of Lennox. He showed that Cobham was a wealthy +and prosperous man, not one who could easily be moulded to treason from +despair at his poverty. + +Then another examination of Cobham was read, in which a second time he +had exclaimed, "O wretch, O traitor." The trickery is absurdly patent. +It resembles a game of chess in which one player as often as his black +queen is taken, hastily substitutes another black queen in its place. At +this juncture the foreman of the jury, Sir Thomas Fowler, was +ill-advised enough to ask a simple question. "I desire to understand of +the Court the time of Sir Walter Ralegh's first letter, and of the Lord +Cobham's accusation." The Court looked at him in amazement, and Lord +Cecil rose to his feet and immediately began a long and cunning speech. +"I am divided in myself and at great dispute what to say of this +gentleman at the bar. For it is impossible, be the obligations never so +great, but the affections of nature and love will show themselves. A +former dearness betwixt me and this gentleman tied upon the knot of his +virtues, though slacked since by his actions, I cannot but acknowledge; +and the most of you know it." The speech was cunning and involved. He +made no mention of time; he harped upon his personal sorrow in being +obliged to speak against a man whom he once loved; his personal loyalty, +which was stronger than his affection had ever been, alone compelled +him. Two dates were all that were wanted; they could not be given. So +Cecil gave vent to his sorrow. Hypocrisy could go no further. + +Directly that Lord Cecil had finished, Sir Edward Coke, the King's +Attorney, continued his accusation, trying to turn Ralegh's great +outburst about the state of Spain to Ralegh's disadvantage, trying to +prove it only another instance of his treachery. "Methinks it would have +been better for you to have stayed in Guiana than to be so well +acquainted with the state of Spain. As to the six overthrows of the King +of Spain, I answer 'he hath the more malice' because repulses breed +desire of revenge. As for you writing against the Peace with Spain, you +sought but to cloak a Spanish traitor's heart," and more to the same +effect. + +When he had finished Ralegh rose to make his last claim on justice. "My +lords," he said, "I claim to have my accuser brought here to speak face +to face. Though I know not how to make my best defence by law, yet, +since I was a prisoner, I have learned that by the Law and Statutes of +this realm in case of treason a man ought to be convicted by the +testimony of two witnesses. I will not take upon me to defend the matter +upon the Statute of the twenty-fifth of Edward the Third, though that +requires an overt act. But remember I beseech your Lordships, the +Statute of the first of Edward the Sixth which saith: 'No man shall be +condemned of treason, unless he be accused by two lawful accusers.' And +by the Statute of the fifth and sixth of Edward the Sixth, those +accusers must be brought in person before the party accused, at his +arraignment if living!" He continued to instance other laws; he pointed +out that Cobham was not only living but in the same town, in the same +palace. He called to mind the case of Fortescue, who had condemned a +woman to death on the witness of one man for the murder of her husband, +and who could never forgive himself for the injustice when the servant +of the man confessed at length to the murder. He drew instances from the +Bible, and the Canon of God, and concluded with this appeal for +justice: "If then by the Statute Law, by the Civil Law and by God's +Word, it be required that there be two witnesses, at the least, bear +with me if I desire one. Prove me guilty of these things by one witness +only, and I will confess the Indictment, I stand not upon the niceties +of the law. If I have done these things I deserve not to live; whether +they be treasons by the law or no. I beseech you then, my Lords, let +Cobham be sent for. Let him be charged upon his soul, upon his +allegiance to the King; and if he will then maintain his accusation to +my face, I will confess myself guilty." The Court were at first taken +aback by this unexpected knowledge of the law, but not for long. The +Lord Chief Justice Popham, who played the strange triple part of +assistant in the examination, of witness for the prosecution, and of +presiding judge, explained that such a course was quite out of the +question. "The statutes you speak of in cases of treason were found to +be inconvenient and were taken away by another law. Those of Edward the +Sixth are general, but were repealed by the first and second of Philip +and Mary, which you have mentioned, which Statute goes only to the +treasons therein comprised, and also appoints the trial of treasons to +be as before it was at the Common Law. Now the twenty-fifth of Edward +the Third makes declaration what the Common Law was. All is now +therefore put to the Common Law. And by the Common Law one witness is +sufficient and the accusation of confederates or the confession of +others is full proof." And Mr. Justice Warburton went one further in +making this point strong for the prosecution; he added the personal +touch of insult, which is characteristic of the trial. "I marvel, Sir +Walter," he said, "that you, being of such experience and wit, should +stand on this point. For many horse-stealers should escape, if they may +not be condemned without witnesses. By law a man may be condemned upon +presumption and circumstances without any witness to the main fact. As, +if the King, whom God defend, should be slain in his chamber and one be +shown to have come forth of the chamber with his sword drawn and bloody. +Were not this evidence both in law and opinion, without further +inquisition?" + +The point was discussed at some length, and then it became time again to +bring forward accusations of Cobham, which were accordingly read; this +time also depositions of Copley, Watson, and George Brooke were also +read to the effect that somebody had heard from somebody else how Cobham +and Ralegh stood for the Spanish faction. Again Ralegh pointed out that +this had nothing to do with his charge, and again asked, "Good, my +Lords, let my accuser come face to face and be deposed." But that was +not permitted. + +_Coke._ "Now let us come to the words of destroying of the 'King and his +cubs.'" + +_Ralegh._ "O barbarous! if they like unnatural vilains spoke such words, +shall I be charged with them? I will not hear it! I was never false to +the Crown of England. I have spent Ł40,000 of mine own against the +Spanish faction for the good of my country. Do you bring the words of +those hellish spiders Clarke, Watson, and others against me?" + +_Coke._ "Thou hast a Spanish heart and thyself art a spider of hell. For +thou confessest the King to be a most sweet and gracious prince, and yet +thou hast conspired against him." + +The reading of Cobham's examination was continued, wherein Cobham said +he had a book "written against the title of the king which he had of +Ralegh, and that he gave it to his brother Brooke, and Ralegh said it +was foolishly written. + +_Coke._ "After the king came within twelve miles of London, Cobham never +came to see him; and intended to travel without seeing the queen and the +prince. Now in this discontentment you gave him the book, and he gave it +his brother." + +_Ralegh._ "I never gave it him, he took it off my table. For I well +remember a little before that time I received a challenge from Sir Amias +Preston, and for that I did intend to answer it, I resolved to leave my +estate settled, therefore laid out all my loose papers, among which was +this book." + +_Ld. Howard._ "Where had you this book?" + +_Ralegh._ "In the old Lord-Treasurer's study, after his death." + +_Cecil._ "Did you ever show or make known the book to me?" + +_Ralegh._ "No, my lord." + +_Cecil._ "Was it one of the books which was left to me or my brother?" + +_Ralegh._ "I took it out of the study in my Lord-Treasurer's house in +the Strand." + +Then Cecil explained that after his father's death Ralegh was allowed to +search in the library for cosmo-graphical descriptions of the Indies. +Again he referred to his great love for Ralegh, and said he thought it a +little unkindly done on Sir Walter's part to remove the book without his +knowledge. It was a book in manuscript on which the Lord-Treasurer had +written, "_This is the book of Robert Snagg_." Brooke burned it; the +most was made of this incident. + +Popham asked, "Wherefore should this book be burnt?" + +_Ralegh._ "I burned it not." + +_Serjeant Philips._ "You presented your friend with it when he was +discontented. If it had been before the queen's death it had been a less +matter, but you gave it him presently when he came from the king, which +was the time of his discontentment." + +_Ralegh._ "Here is a book supposed to be treasonable; I never read it, +commended it, or delivered it, nor urged it." + +_Coke._ "Why, this is cunning." + +_Ralegh._ "Everything that doth make for me is cunning, and everything +that maketh against me is probable." + +_The point was then raised_ about Captain Keymis, who had been +rigorously examined. He was well known to be friendly to Ralegh. He +proved, however, a faithful friend. Cobham said that Keymis came to him +with a letter torn. But of this nothing came; Keymis had been too +staunch to add anything to the truth, and the matter was dropped. More +testimony of Cobham was then read concerning letters to Arabella, and +again Ralegh insisted on Cobham's presence. "Let me speak for my life," +cried Ralegh; "it can be no hurt for him to be brought; he dares not +accuse me. If you grant me not this favour, I am strangely used. Campian +was not denied to have his accusers face to face." + +_Popham._ "Since he must needs have justice, the acquitting of his old +friend may move him to speak otherwise than the truth." + +_Ralegh._ "If I had been the infuser of all these treasons into him--you +Gentlemen of the Jury, mark this, he said I have been the cause of all +his miseries, and the destruction of his house, and that all evil hath +happened unto him by my wicked counsel--if this be true, whom hath he +cause to accuse and to be revenged on, but on me? And I know him to be +as revengeful as any man on earth." + +_Coke._ "He is a party, and may not come; the law is against it." + +_Ralegh._ "It is a toy to tell me of law; I defy such law, I stand on +the fact." + +_Cecil._ "I am afraid my often speaking (who am inferior to my lords +here present) will make the world think I delight to hear myself talk. +My affection to you, Sir Walter Ralegh, was not extinguished but slaked +in regard of your deserts. You know the law of the realm (to which your +mind doth not contest) that my Lord Cobham cannot be brought." The +King's Attorney, Sir Edward Coke, took up the thread of his +much-interrupted discourse, and this time he brought forward a witness, +one Dyer, a pilot. Dyer was accordingly sworn, and delivered this +evidence: "I came to a merchant's house in Lisbon to see a boy that I +had there, there came a gentleman into the house, and enquiring what +countryman I was, I said, an Englishman. Whereupon he asked me if the +King was crowned. And I answered, no, but that I hoped he should be so +shortly. Nay, saith he, he shall never be crowned; for Don Ralegh and +Don Cobham will cut his throat ere that day come." + +Ralegh naturally asked, "What infer you from this?" And the King's +Attorney answered him, "That your treason hath wings." Ralegh had a +convincing reply, "Why did they name the Duke of Buckingham with Jack +Straw's treason, and the Duke of York with Jack Cade, but that it was to +countenance his treason?" + +The King's Attorney was worsted in this point; and accordingly Serjeant +Philips came to his assistance by repeating, as usual, the gist of +Cobham's accusations. To which Ralegh answered, "If truth be constant +and constancy be in truth, why hath he forsworn that that he hath said? +You have not proved any one thing against me by direct proofs, but all +by circumstances." + +Coke was becoming more and more impatient. "Have you done?" he cried. +"The King must have the last." + +_Ralegh._ "Nay, Master Attorney, he which speaketh for his life must +speak last. False repetitions and mistakings must not mar my cause." + +_Coke._ "The King's safety and your clearing cannot agree. I protest +before God, I never knew a clearer treason." + +The Attorney's impatience grew so much that, in the words of one report, +he sat down in a chafe and would speak no more, until the commissioners +urged and entreated him. After much ado he went on, and made a long +repetition of all the evidence; and at the repeating of some things Sir +Walter Ralegh interrupted him, and said he did him wrong. + +_Coke._ "Thou art the most vile and execrable traitor that ever lived." + +_Ralegh._ "You speak indiscreetly, barbarously and uncivilly." + +_Coke._ "I want words sufficient to express thy viperous treasons." + +_Ralegh._ "I think you want words indeed, for you have spoken one thing +half a dozen times." + +_Coke._ "Thou art an odious fellow; thy name is hateful to all the realm +of England for thy pride." + +_Ralegh._ "It will go near to prove a measuring cast between you and me, +Master Attorney." + +_Coke._ "Well, I will now make it appear to the world that there never +lived a viler viper upon the face of the world than thou." And he +proceeded to work up his speech to his last chief point of all--that was +the production of a letter from Cobham, which he read. He interspersed +his reading with exclamations of triumph. "I have thought fit to set +down this to My Lords, wherein I protest on my soul to write nothing but +the truth. I am now come near the period of my time, therefore I confess +the whole truth before God and his angels. Ralegh, four days before I +came from the Tower, caused an apple (Eve's apple, cried out the King's +Attorney) to be thrown in at my chamber window; the effect of it was to +entreat me to right the wrong I had done him, in saying, that I should +have come home by Jersey, which under my hand to him I have +retracted.... At Aremberg's coming Ralegh was to have procured a pension +of Ł1500 a year, for which he promised, that no action should be against +Spain, the Low Countries, or the Indies, but he would give knowledge +beforehand. (Ah! is not this a Spanish heart in an English body?) He +hath also been the cause of my discontentment; he advised me not to be +overtaken with preachers, as Essex was; and that the king would better +allow of a constant denial, than to accuse any." + +"Oh! damnable atheist!" cried Coke. "He counsels him not to be +counselled by preachers as Essex was; he died the child of God. God +honoured him at his death." + +_Ralegh._ "You have heard a strange tale of a strange man. Now he thinks +he hath matter enough to destroy me; but the king and all of you shall +witness, by our deaths, which of us was the ruin of the other. I bid a +poor fellow throw in the letter at his window, written to this purpose: +You know you have undone me, now write three lines to justify me. In +this will I die that he hath done me wrong." + +Then Ralegh pulled a letter out of his pocket, which the Lord Cobham had +written to him, and desired my Lord Cecil to read it because he only +knew his hand. Cecil read the letter. "Seeing myself so near my end, for +the discharge of my own conscience, and freeing myself from your blood, +which also will cry vengeance against me, I protest upon my salvation I +never practised with Spain upon your procurement: God so comfort me in +this my affliction, as you are a true subject, for anything that I know. +I will say as Daniel, _Purus sum a sanguine hujus_. So God have mercy +upon my soul, as I know no treason by you!" + +"Now I wonder," said Ralegh, "how many souls this man hath; he damns one +in this letter: another in that." + +Such were Ralegh's last recorded words before the verdict was given. He +had said all that was to be said. He had stood his ground undismayed for +many hours, though the chief men in England and the cleverest lawyers in +England were set against him. He must gradually have realized that all +were resolute to condemn him: he must gradually have realized that all +his efforts were futile against such malignant opposition. + +The King's Attorney alleged that the last letter was politicly and +cunningly urged from the Lord Cobham, and the first was simply the +truth. The Earl of Devonshire assured the Lord Chief Justice that Cobham +had written the first letter of his own free will, uninfluenced by any +hope or promise of pardon. A marshal was sworn to keep the jury private. +The jury retired. In less than a quarter of an hour the jury returned +and gave their verdict. The verdict was _GUILTY_. "Sir Walter Ralegh," +said the Clerk of the Crown, "thou hast been indicted, arraigned, and +pleaded _not guilty_, for all these several treasons and for trial +thereof hast put thyself upon thy country, which country are these who +have found thee guilty. What canst thou say for thyself why judgment and +execution of death should not pass against thee?" + +And Ralegh, now doomed, made answer, "My Lords, the jury have found me +guilty, they must do as they are directed. I can say nothing why +judgment should not proceed. You see whereof Cobham hath accused me: you +remember his protestations that I was never guilty...." And later he +said, "I submit myself to the king's mercy. I know his mercy is greater +than my offence. I recommend my wife, and son of tender years, +unbrought-up, to his compassion." + +And then the Lord Chief Justice Popham rose to deliver judgment, which +he prefaced by a pompous and insulting speech. "I thought I should never +have seen this day, to have stood in this place to give sentence of +death against you; because I thought it impossible that one of so great +parts should have fallen so grievously. God hath bestowed on you many +benefits. You had been a man fit and able to have served the king in +good place--you have brought yourself into a good state of living.... It +is best for man not to seek to climb too high, lest he fall; nor yet to +creep too low lest he be trodden on.... + +"You have been taxed by the world with the defence of the most +heathenish and blasphemous opinions; which I list not to repeat because +Christian ears cannot endure to hear them, nor the authors and +maintainers of them be suffered to live in any Christian +commonwealth.... You shall do well before you go out of the world, to +give satisfaction therein, and not to die with these imputations on you. +Let not any devil persuade you to think there is no eternity in heaven. +For if you think thus you shall find eternity in hell-fire. In the first +accusation of my Lord Cobham I observed his manner of speaking: I +protest before the living God I am persuaded he spoke nothing but the +truth! You wrote that he should not in any case confess anything to a +preacher, telling him an example of my Lord Essex, that noble Earl that +is gone. Who if he had not been carried away with others had lived in +honour to this day among us. He confessed his offences, and obtained +mercy of the Lord; for I am verily persuaded in my heart he died a +worthy servant of God. Your conceit of not confessing anything is very +inhuman and wicked. In this world is the time of confessing that we may +be absolved at the day of judgment. You have shewed a fearful sign of +denying God in advising a man not to confess the truth. It now comes in +my mind why you may not have your accuser come face to face; for such an +one is easily brought to retract, when he seeth there is no hope of his +own life. It is dangerous that any traitors should have access to or +conference with, one another. When they see themselves must die, they +will think it best to have their fellow live that he may commit the like +treason again, and so in some sort seek revenge. + +"Now it resteth to pronounce the judgment which I wish you had not been +this day to have received of me. + +"For if the fear of God in you had been answerable to your other great +parts you might have lived to have been a singular good subject. I never +saw the like trial, and hope I shall never see the like again. + +"But since you have been found guilty of these horrible treasons, the +judgment of this court is, that you shall be had from hence to the place +whence you came, there to remain until the day of execution; and from +thence you shall be drawn upon an hurdle through the open streets to the +place of execution, there to be hanged and cut down alive; and your body +shall be opened, your heart and bowels plucked out, and your privy +members cut off, and thrown into the fire before your eyes; then your +head to be stricken off from your body, and your body shall be divided +into four quarters, to be disposed of at the King's pleasure; and God +have mercy upon your soul!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE KING'S FARCE + + Comments on Ralegh's fall--In the prison at Winchester--Ralegh + begs mercy--His attitude explained--The King's own farce-- + Ralegh removed to London. + + +So ended the worst and greatest day of Ralegh's life. The Lord Cecil was +victorious. Ralegh was overthrown. But from despair so poignant that +reason yielded to its sway and he was driven to attempt madly to make +away with himself, he had risen to make a defence so admirable against +his accusers that men who heard and saw him at the trial, heard him with +wonder and watched him with astonishment. And well they might. The man +whose judgment had saved the situation at Cadiz from the reckless +inexperience of Essex, whose patience and courage had taken an +expedition far up the dangerous unknown rivers to Guiana, whose insight +had discovered the poet Spenser and made him known to the world, showed +the same insight and courage and patience and judgment at this trial +when he was standing for his life against the combined assault of the +cleverest brains in England, combined by the hope of future favours from +a new King to work his overthrow. When one tired or stumbled, another +was prompt to take his place; but always Ralegh remained alert and ready +and steadfast--alone. + +Sir Dudley Carleton was present at the trial and wrote an account of it +to his friend, Mr. John Chamberlain. Carleton was at that time Secretary +to the Earl of Northumberland. This is how he describes Ralegh's +demeanour. "He answered with that temper, wit, learning, courage and +judgment that save it went with the hazard of his life, it was the +happiest day that ever he spent. And so well he shifted all advantages +that were taken against him, that were not _fama malum gravius quam +res_, and an ill-name half hanged, in the opinion of all men, he had +been acquitted." + +Carleton proceeds to tell his friend of two others who were present and +who were the first to bring the news of the trial to the King at Wilton. +One was Roger Ashton. He said that never any one spoke so well in times +past nor would do in the world to come. The other was a Scotchman. He +said that whereas when he saw Ralegh first, he was so led with the +common hatred that he would have gone a hundred miles to have seen him +hanged, he would ere he parted, have gone a thousand to have saved his +life. And Carleton comments on this aptly enough: "In one word never was +a man so hated and so popular in so short a time." + +Dudley Carleton was quite right in saying an "ill name is half hanged." +The trial was the merest farce. The judges were determined that Ralegh +must be condemned, as soon as Ralegh was arrested. They knew that such +was the King's will: and Ralegh's condemnation had become the King's +will owing to the astute management of Cecil. There were many reasons +for Cecil's line of action. Both James and he knew that there must be a +large number of people in England disaffected to the new sovereign. It +was advisable to open the reign by an illustrious example. Ralegh was a +powerful man, whose powers Cecil knew and feared. Moreover, Ralegh had +original ideas about government which fitted ill with Cecil's conception +of himself as the chief man in England under an absolute King. So Cecil +for a long time had been playing upon the King's fears, knowing well the +King's timorous nature. And then, when the time came, he showed his zeal +for the King by delivering Ralegh into his power. His known intimacy +with Ralegh, upon which he took every opportunity of harping at the +trial and elsewhere, would lend bright colour to his loyalty to the +King. + +The judges are as little to blame as the system of which they were a +part is much to blame. Here was Ralegh, whom Cecil, his friend and the +first man in England, thought guilty of treason, just at a crucial +moment in the history of the nation, when a new King was coming to the +throne from another country. Naturally they would do their utmost to +show their loyalty. The very vagueness and mystery of the charge +increased their anxiety to condemn him. Fear, too, played a prominent +part. Which of them could tell, if he showed any clemency to the +prisoner, whether it would not be his turn to be charged next for +complicity with the traitor? So they vied with one another in eagerness +to crush Ralegh. Cecil was well aware of this; he had made his +arrangements with infinite precaution. He was the first man in England, +partly because he was his father's son, but chiefly because of his +astuteness. His astuteness touched genius. + +Ralegh was undoubtedly innocent of conspiring against King James. But +that he received money from foreign powers is probable, and so laid +himself open to the charge of treason. It is easy to exclaim against him +for this. But to do so is an error of judgment. It was a common practice +of the time. All the chief men in England were in the pay of some +foreign prince. It was part of an ambassador's duty to spend money in +this way; the custom resembles the custom, prevalent in commerce, of +giving presents to customers at Christmas. Lord Cecil is known to have +received money from Spain during all the years that he held office. The +custom has fallen into abeyance, not so much from the development of +morality, as from the improvements that have come about in the means of +travelling and communication. By knowledge man advances. + +Ralegh was marked down by Cecil, and Ralegh fell. He knew that his +career was at an end, as he passed from the palace at Winchester to the +castle. His last request had been that his death might not be an +ignominious one. His life was filled with great schemes of absorbing +interest; he was at the height of his great powers. He had felt them in +full play as he withstood the charges. Nothing availed him any more. As +he sat in the prison-room of the castle awaiting the news and manner of +his death, a sudden furious passion to continue the life, over which he +had such mastery, seized and took possession of him. He must live. At +any cost he must live. There was so much that he had not yet done. The +immense vitality of the man rose within him and tortured him by its +resistless strength. He must make one last effort for life; and his wife +and child--they would be poor and shamed. He was famous throughout +England for his pride. Pride and vitality fought within him. For now his +only hope of reprieve lay in the King's mercy, and James liked the +consciousness of power that comes from a great man's supplication. +Vitality conquered. He supplicated the King for his life. He, who had +dared death in all death's guises, could not wait for death to come +slowly while still there remained one chance of life. The spirit of +life was too strong in him for that. + +His letters to the King do not, as many have said, point to meanness of +spirit; they bear witness to the indomitable vitality, which was his +characteristic, and which would not allow him to rest. Be sure he knew, +with that amazing intellect, well enough the stress of his future life; +he knew well enough that it was no great boon for which he pleaded. His +youth was gone; his possessions had been taken away; his name was +sullied. He knew that the four walls of a prison would be his probable +horizon, he who desired to explore new countries. But the spirit of +life, which made him a great man, mastered him and forced him now to +plead for his life like a little man, which he could never be. "No +poltroon could have begged for life more abjectly than he did." So they +write of him. But his letters sound the deep note of tragedy. They do +not make Ralegh's name odious, but they stigmatize the name of the King +for whose benefit they could be composed and upon whom they could take +effect. Ralegh at last knew the man with whom he was dealing for his +life, and he brought all his power of intellect to bear upon making use +of the knowledge in this his ultimate emergency. + +"I do therefore most humblie beseich my soverayne Lord not to beleve any +of thos, in my particuler, who under pretence of offences to kings, doe +easily work their particuler revenges. I trust that no man (under the +culler of making examples) shall perswade your Majesty to leve the word +'mercifull' out of your stile; for it will noe less profite your +Majesty; and becume your gretnes, than the word 'invincibell'.... I do +therefore, on the knees of my hart, beseich your Majesty to take +councell from your own sweet and mercifull disposition and to remember +that I have loved your Majesty now twenty yeares for which your Majestie +hath yett geven me no reward. And it is fitter that I should be indebted +to my soverayne Lord, then the King to his poore vassall. Save me, +therefore, most mercifull Prince, that I may owe your Majesty my life +itt sealf; then which ther cannot be a greter dett. Lend it me att lest, +my soverayne Lord that I may pay it agayne for your service when your +Majesty shall pleas." + +Slowly time passed, and little by little all hope of reprieve died in +him. The spirit of life was, as it were, appeased at this his +effort--this supplication--and allowed him rest. He wrote farewell to +his wife. + + "You shall receave, dear wief, my last words in these my last + lynes. My love I send you, that you may keepe it when I am + dead; and my councell, that you may remember it when I am noe + more. I would not with my last will present you with sorrowes, + deare Bess. Lett them goe to the grave with and be buried in + the dust. And seeing it is not the will of God that ever I + shall see you in this lief, beare my destruccion gentlie, and + with a hart like yourself. + + "First I send you all the thanks my hart cann conceive, or my + penn expresse, for your many troubles and cares taken for me, + which--though they may have not taken effect as you wished--yet + my debt is to you never the lesse; and paye it I never shall in + this world. + + "Secondlie, I beseich you, for the love you beare me living, + that you doe not hide yourself many dayes, but by your travell + seeke to help your miserable fortunes and the right of your + poore childe. Your mourning cannot avayle me that am but + dust.... + + "To what frind to direct thee I knowe not, for all mine have + left mee in the true tyme of triall: and I plainly perceive + that my death was determyned from the first day.... But God + hath prevented all my determinations; the great God that + worketh all in all. If you can live free from want, care for no + more; for the rest is but vanity. Love God and beginne betymes + to repose yourself on Him; therein shall you find true and + lastinge ritches, and endles comfort. For the rest when you + have travelled and wearied your thoughts on all sorts of + worldly cogitacions, you shall sit downe by Sorrow in the + end.... + + "When I am gonne no doubt you shalbe sought unto by many, for + the world thinks that I was very ritch; but take heed of the + pretences of men and of their affections; for they last but in + honest and worthy men.... I speak it (God knowes) not to + disswad you from marriage,--for that wilbe best for you--both + in respect of God and the world. As for me I am no more your's + nor you myne. Death hath cutt us asunder; and God hath devided + me from the world, and you from me.... And know itt (deare + wief) that your sonne is the childe of a true man, and who, in + his own respect, despiseth Death, and all his misshapen and + ouglie forms. + + "I cannot wright much, God knowes howe hardlie I stole this + tyme when all sleep; and it is tyme to separate my thoughts + from the world.... I can wright noe more. Tyme and Death call + me awaye.... My true wief, farewell. Blesse my poore boye, pray + for me. My true God hold you both in His armes. + + "Written with the dyeing hand of sometime thy husband, but now + (alasse!) overthrowne. + + "Your's that was; but nowe not my owne + "W. RALEGH" + +It is sad to remember how the thought of some passages in this letter +resembles those in the letter which he had written not quite seven years +before to Lord Cecil on the death of his wife. "I believe it," he wrote +then, "that sorrows are dangerous companions, converting badd unto +yevill and yevill in worse, and do no other service then multeply +harms." + +The first week of December slowly approached. No hope came to the +prisoner. But underneath the windows carpenters began to set up a +scaffold: he was able to watch them at their work. Then he saw the two +priests, Watson and Clarke, led to execution. They were very bloodily +handled, writes an eye-witness; the same Carleton, who had written of +the trial, for they were both cut down alive. He may have heard Clarke's +wild-shouted words after he had been cut down. He saw Brooke beheaded. +When it would be his own turn, he was still ignorant. + +At last the Bishop of Winchester came to him, at the King's express +order. The Bishop found Ralegh well settled for his conscience and +resolved to die a Christian: but resolute in the assurance of his +innocence. He would not yield to Cobham's accusations. The Bishop left +him. Through the rain that was quietly falling Ralegh saw from his +window on Friday morning Markham brought to the scaffold. He watched him +take leave of his friends, watched him at his last devotions. While he +was making ready for the executioner, the Sheriff was drawn aside: a man +was whispering--one John Gib, a Scotchman. The execution was stayed. +Markham was led away from the scaffold, and locked into the great hall +of the castle. Ralegh must have wondered. Then he watched Lord Grey +mount the scaffold, escorted by a troop of young courtiers. He had such +gaiety and cheer in his countenance that he seemed a dapper young +bridegroom. He, too, said farewell to his friends, made confession to +his God, and prepared himself for the executioner. The Sheriff again +came forward. He said it was the King's will for Cobham to die first. +Lord Grey was led away to the great hall of the castle. Cobham was +brought on to the scaffold. "The Lord Cobham, who was now to play his +part (writes the same eye-witness), and by his former actions promised +nothing but _matiere pour rire_, did much cozen the world; for he came +to the scaffold with good assurance and contempt of death." Again, just +as he was about to lay his head on the block, the Sheriff came forward +and stopped the execution. Grey and Markham were brought from the great +hall of the castle back once more to the scaffold. Ralegh, at his +window, must have wondered more than ever. + +On the scaffold the Sheriff harangued the three men on the heinousness +of their crimes, while the rain continued to fall: and he at last +brought his harangue to an end with the words, "Now see the mercy of +your prince, who, of himself hath sent hither a countermand and given +you your lives." + +The shouts of applause that greeted the unexpected finish, must have +revealed the meaning of the strange scene to Ralegh. The shouting was +taken up all through the town. Men loudly rejoiced in the clemency of +the new King. + +So weak men in authority love to display their power. James had +carefully arranged this trivial cat's-play. Nearly it failed of its +effect. He forgot to sign the pardon. In Winchester too the messenger, +John Gib, the Scotchman, could not get near enough to speak with the +Sheriff, but was thrust out among the boys and was forced to call out to +Sir James Hayes or else Markham might have lost his neck. Ralegh was to +have been executed on Monday. News of his reprieve was brought him after +he had witnessed the singular farce on the scaffold, in which the King's +feline cruelty was shown. + +At Wilton too, where the Court was being held (the plague still raged +in London) the new King enacted another farce. He signed the +death-warrants of Cobham, Grey, and Markham: Ralegh's sentence he +withheld in case more light was thrown upon his case by confessions on +the scaffold. He gave special instructions that no hope of pardon should +be given to any of the prisoners. He kept his intentions from his most +intimate ministers. Then he assembled the council, the day after the +execution was to have taken place. He began a complicated speech, which +puzzled his hearers, who were expecting a messenger every moment to +bring news of the execution. "He contrasted the ardent and resolute +spirit of Grey with the base and cowardly nature of Cobham; and then +asked if it were at all consistent with kingly justice to execute the +high-spirited Grey and to spare that pitiful creature, Cobham." He went +on to point out the insolence of Grey who disdained to entreat for his +life; the penitence of Cobham, who begged his life with humility. And so +he continued until the minds of all the men who heard him were +sufficiently muddled, and ended with what Edwards well calls, the +triumphant tag, "So I have saved the lives of them all." + +Again loud applause broke out in recognition of his clemency. But such +applause, though it deafens the ears, does not last on in the hearts of +men. His showily arranged mercy captivated the unthinking multitude. +Wise men were not pleased that a King could stoop to such pettiness. It +boded ill for the country that supreme power should be vested in a man +who could behave in this manner. To them the action bore proof that the +King was a little cruel man. But the people shouted for joy. The action +made him popular: and when the Gunpowder Plot was dramatically +discovered the following year, and the King's life was saved by a +presentiment, his popularity increased a thousand-fold. Who could doubt +that in very truth King James was the Lord's anointed? Only as the years +went by, dark events happened. Why did the Prince die suddenly in the +prime of his vigorous youth? Who was Car that he should enjoy such +favour? Why was Gondomar the Spanish ambassador held in such esteem? +There was the scandal of Overbury's death. Men began to wonder and fear. +Men heard the bitterness spoken in Troilus and Cressida or in Timon, and +the bitterness began to find an answer in their hearts. + +A week after the royal farce at Winchester Ralegh was removed to London: +first to the Tower, then to the Fleet, and finally to the Tower, where +he remained. + +Thus Ralegh was overthrown, who, if the time had been ripe, might have +proved a Mirabeau to England, and saved the country from Civil War and +the destructive power of the Puritans, which eventually became necessary +to purge England from the mischief of weak rulers with absolute power, +kings who could not carry on the tradition of the great Elizabeth. In +very truth, with Elizabeth, as de Thou said of Catherine, not a woman +but royalty died. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE LONG IMPRISONMENT + + Ralegh's efforts to avert complete ruin--True greatness--Keeps + in touch with life--First two years--The history--The first + sentence--Reasons for incompleteness--James's dislike of the + work--Its greatness. + + +Such things happened in actual life at the beginning of the seventeenth +century. There was the same fantastic blending in life of melodrama and +farce and poetry as was shown upon the stage. Beaumont and Fletcher, +wild and exaggerated as they often appear, gave as faithful a picture of +the life around them as Bernard Shaw gives of modern life; and in some +ways they gave a more faithful picture, for they had no principle which +they desired to inculcate, and a principle, though it is a fine +stimulant, is apt to be a sad distortioner. There exactly lies the +salient point of contrast between that century and modern times. Life +then was confined and intense--with limitless possibilities. The pageant +passed compact, and yet in gorgeous disarray. Art was informed by its +positive spirit; glowed with animation at its touch. Life has become +vast and voluminous; its horizon seems limited, as though for a time it +had outgrown its strength, and was sprawling. The pageant crawls by in +its interminable length, and yet in dully determined order. Art lives by +battling against its dreadful hold--the hold that slowly fastens and +stifles with its long, persistent tentacles. The apathy of convention +gradually settled, like an obscuring mist, but new knowledge is +scattering the mist like a wind, and knowledge brings new +responsibilities and fresh life and fresh light. The sun peers through +the clouds, and the sun will lend warmth and colour to the pageant. + +But such things happened at the beginning of the seventeenth century in +actual life. That farce at the scaffold was the first manifestation that +King James gave in England of his royal power. + +Ralegh was taken from Winchester to the Tower on December 16. His future +life was now dreadfully apparent to him. His lot was confinement. But +not yet was his indomitable spirit of life dead. Crushed he felt and +pinioned, but still he was obliged to strain every nerve to force all +that could be forced from the life that henceforward awaited him. He +could not submit in proud, becoming silence, as a fabled hero would +undoubtedly have done, and as the code of present honour would have him +submit--a code which, it is well to remember, is considerably assisted +in its conduct by the press. + +The only possibility of living with any pretence of decency lay in the +favour of other men, who must on no account be permitted to forget him. +It is unwise to praise the work which he accomplished in captivity, and +to censure him for employing the only possible means in his power to get +that work accomplished. + +Again he put all his strength into the only task left him, and he +succeeded in saving something from the ruin of his estates and the +complete curtailment of his liberty, by renewed supplication. Being a +man of vivid imagination, he entered so completely into the part which +was forced upon him--the part of supplicator--that his letters are the +letters of the broken man that he wished to appear, and that his future +work proved conclusively he was not. How little his spirit was broken is +seen from the tremendous work which he undertook, and from the personal +influence which he continued to exercise, and which his imprisonment did +not seem to lessen. The scope of his activity was limited, but his +activity did not abate. + +His letters of supplication throw a light upon the nature of a great +man. They show something of that strange quality which men call +greatness. Ralegh was not a little man magnified by position or +circumstances. He was a great man. Not in success is greatness apparent, +not in attainment, but in effort, in vitality, in power of feeling and +in control--but essentially in power of feeling. That power broke even +the barrier of Ralegh's immense self-control--for a time only. + +A great man does not walk exalted, like some demi-god to whom all things +are easy; he knows dismay, he knows weakness, and all the legion of +infirmities, but in spite of all, he wrests from life what life must +yield him. + +Ralegh had lost the Governorship of Jersey, the Patent of the Wine +Office, the Wardenship of the Stannaries, the Rangership of Gillingham +Forest, and the Lieutenancy of Portland Castle, from which together he +drew an income of Ł3000 a year; men to whom he owed money fastened upon +his estate at Sherborne. It was to save Sherborne from them that he did +his utmost. Lord Cecil came to his assistance: "A secound effect of your +Lordship's great favor was the preservation of my moveabells, which the +ravenus Sherifs were in hand to have seised, and att my gates to have +rifled, if your Lordship's letters had not then cum to have +countermanded it; which it also pleased yow, soon after, to procure me." + +But Ralegh's possession of Sherborne was temporary and uncertain. He +tried to save it entirely from the ruin of his fortune, that his wife +and children might have a place in which to live. On this subject he +writes continually to Cecil and Lord Cranborne. Sorrow sat by him as he +wrote, and for long and long he could not resign himself to the prospect +of captivity. "If I had a pardon, I may notwithstanding be restraynd or +confined. If I may not be here about London (which God caste my sowle +into hell if I desire, but to do your Lordship some kind of service) I +shalbe most contented to be confined within the Hundred of Sherburn; or +if I cannot be allowed so much I shalbe contented to live in Holland, +wher, I shall perchance gett some imployment uppon the Indies, or else, +if I be apoyncted to any bishope or other gentelman or nobelman, or that +your Lordship would lett me keep but a park of yours--which I will buy +from some one that hath it--your Lordship shalbe sure that I will never +break the order which you shall pleas to undertake for me. And, if I bee +any wher nire yow, yow shall find that in sume kind or other I shall do +your Lordship service. For God douth know that if I cannot go to the +Bathe this fall I am undun, for my health; and shalbe dead, or disabled +for ever." + +He wrote to Viscount Cranborne, imploring his aid to preserve this +remnant of his fortune. "That life which cann be of no use to others and +is now also weery of mee, at parting putts mee in mind of thos whom +Nature and Charetie commands me not to neglect--a wife and a childe, and +a wife with childe, whom, God knowes, have nothing else to inherite then +my shame and ther own misery. How to healp it or to whom to complain, I +know not, whose fortune is over darck for the reason of the world to +peirce.... And while I know that the best of men are but the spoyles of +Tyme and certayne images wherwith childish Fortune useth to play--kisse +them to-day and break them to-morrow--and therefore can lament in my +sealf but a common destiney, yet the pitifull estate of thos who are +altogether healpless and who dayly wound my sowle with the memory of +their miseries, force mee in despite of all resolvednesse, bothe to +bewayle them and labor for them.... For my own tyme, good my Lord +consider that it cannot be calde a life, but only misery drawne out and +spoone into a long thride without all hope of other end then Death shall +provide for mee; who without the healp of kings or frinds, will deliver +me out of prison." + +The humiliation of his position was forced upon his notice, for little +men began to cheat him in little ways, and he could find no redress. The +law knew him but as dead. He writes to Levinus Muncke, secretary to Lord +Cranborne.... "I solde of late two peeces of ordenance to one Mr. +Aloblaster, a marchant, whome you knowe. Hee that made the bargayne +between us was one Thomas Scott, a broker,--one that I have done much +for in my tyme, and one that, since I came back from Winchester, offred +to sell his howse for me, if I wanted, with protestations too shamless +to be dissembled. But having gotten my mony into his hands which Mr. +Aloblaster sent mee and five pound waight of tobacco, hath sold the +tobacco and reteyneth my money; finding mee now fitt for all men to +tread on." + +The man jackal is more impatient than his animal brother. For nearly two +years Ralegh beat against the prison walls, bruising himself, unable to +give up hope that some measure of freedom might be his. His health +failed. The plague broke out in the Tower. A woman with the plague on +her slept in the next room to his eldest son, with only a partition of +paper between them. Every trouble and annoyance fell upon him. +Indifference could not come to him with its peace of apathy. He +continued to live and to resent and to suffer. A weaker man would have +broken down, would have given up this horrible struggle for existence +against such overwhelming odds. Ralegh did not. And slowly he emerged +from the struggle the conqueror even of these circumstances. He found +work and worked. At first he obtained permission to turn a little +disused hen-house that leant against a wall in the Tower into a +laboratory. He made lotions and a medicine, which remained in constant +use for very many years after his death. In modern times that alone +would have been sufficient to give him the prestige of millions, and +probably with a little discreet management, a peerage. + +Few men have turned necessity to gain (that is the quality of the +warrior in life) so greatly as Ralegh, such constricting necessity to +such glorious gain. By sheer will power he kept in touch with the life, +from which he was excluded. He wrote pamphlets on questions that were +paramount in interest. His treatise on _The Prerogative of Parliaments_ +shows him in the vanguard of the fighters for liberty of thought, before +that movement developed into a baser servitude. He wrote arguments +against an alliance by marriage with Spain. He wrote at Prince Henry's +request a treatise on the building and management of ships. In every +sphere his presence was felt. Ladies were eager to use his lotions for +the preservation of beauty. His medicine was famous. The Queen sent an +urgent messenger to the Tower when the Prince was dying, thinking to +save her son's life by its means. But it was too late. The medicine only +served to alleviate the agony of his last moments. + +So Ralegh gradually came to arrange his life according to its new +limitations. And it came about that those years in the Tower were far +from being the unhappiest in his life. Ralegh, like his friend Spenser +who had died tragically a few years before his imprisonment, knew well +the value of Court life; and though he was not cut off from intelligent +society as completely in the Tower as Spenser was in Ireland; yet he was +cut off from much that had no attraction to Spenser. But in spite of his +disgrace, and in spite of the work he desired to do, he must surely have +found something of the same peace that comforted Spenser among the +savage Irish, before their outbreak took from him his wife and home and +all that was dear to him on earth. There is a strange analogy in what +life offered to the two men. Lady Ralegh was allowed to visit and stay +with her husband, until she offended Waad, who had become governor, by +driving into the courtyard of the Tower in her carriage. Then the +privilege was curtailed. Ralegh had many visitors. Men who had returned +from travels came to tell him their experiences; men who were starting +on some voyage, came to ask his advice and listen to his counsel. Ben +Jonson visited him, and other scholars and poets. Certainly gossiping +cheery Coryat, who amused himself by walking through all countries of +the world, would come and recount his experiences. The Odcombian leg +stretcher, as he liked to call himself, was hail-fellow-well-met with +every man in London and in the principal cities of Europe. A sort of +standing amiable joke was Tom of Odcombe. "There is no man but to enjoy +his company would neglect anything but business." + +For two years he turned in prison as in a cage. Then he began to live. +His mind expanded beyond the limits of body and his discomfort and of +himself. Some sort of expression must be found for his mind's activity, +and his means of expression were limited. As health came to him while he +worked in his laboratory the proper expression for his mind's activity +evolved itself. During the months of his retreat in Ireland, in his +cabin as he made his way across the silent sea, he had read deeply and +thought deeply about the past; in his active life at the Court and +elsewhere he had known men who made history, and he had taken part in +events which were history. He had seen and conversed with men whom +civilization had not touched, he had known men of every country whom +civilization had shaped to its culminating point; and now as he lived in +the Tower from which he could see the ships sailing down the Thames to +the unknown lands, from which he could look down upon the busy men of +London, slowly there formed itself in his great mind a project. The +project was to write the history of the whole great world, from which he +was now cut off, from its very beginnings down to the days in which he +was living, aloof from the life around. He determined to write the +History of the World. That was the proper expression for his great +mind's activity. He felt unconsciously that in so doing he could express +himself. He set to work. He felt he had the grip of everything from the +creation of the world to his own birth and tempestuous life of more than +fifty years. We have burrowed more deeply into the mystery of things +than the great Elizabethan, as sublimely unaware of his ignorance, as +we are of ours; he had complete confidence in his knowledge. We +hesitate, we feel always on the brink of some great discovery, to which +acquired knowledge is leading us. He explored continents, feeling +limitless possibilities of the earth; and doubted not about the +spiritual world. We know the limits of the earth; and explore these +spiritual worlds, the mystery of existence. Therein lies the difference +between two ages; therein without a boast, lies the progress, even, +which has happened in the last three hundred years of man's existence. +The adventurous whom the Unknown attracts are not drawn to explore the +earth's surface; they turn towards the mystery of their own souls from +which comes much profitless self-searching and a little eternal gain; +they turn towards the mysteries of life and death and birth; they try to +unravel the skein which men were then living tempestuously to entangle. + +So Ralegh began his great work, greatly conceived and greatly executed, +in the very spirit of the age to which he belonged--the age of +Elizabeth, and to which King James's little favourites, Car and the +rest, could never belong. Shut away from the bustle of the court and its +splendour, now sinking to ignoble display; shut away from the voice of +the nation, singing after the nation's deeds, as it had never sung +before and has not sung since, he dreamed his great dream and found +peace as he forced it to take shape and reality to his vision. From the +creation of the world to the death of his own great Queen +Elizabeth--everything that was--that was his subject; nothing less could +satisfy him. He set the huge machinery of his idea slowly to work. His +authorities were vast in number. He searched them all, and began to +write. As he wrote the first sentences, he felt the world lay before +his ken, outstretched with all its strange happenings, the rise and the +fall of dynasties, the rise and fall of kingdoms and nations. All were +within his knowledge and grip. And above he saw the God, who had called +the world into existence, and man into being. About that God he writes +his first paragraph, untroubled by any simian suspicions. The immense +power of the man overawes you as you begin his tremendous task. That is +the first impression, and the impression thrills, as every supreme +evidence of man's power must. Then you realize that his whole vision of +the world is wrong--is a myth, and you see the futility of man's +power--that is the second impression. The two are singularly vivid; they +clash splendidly--and the issue? You see limitless possibilities of life +for the brave man and the strong man, as they only can be seen, when two +ideas--two sincerities--have clashed splendidly. + + "And on through brave wars waged." + +One is feign to cry out, when the dream of things has passed. + +The first sentence of the History should be read aloud with a great +voice in a cathedral. + +"God, whom the wisest men acknowledge to be a Power uneffable and vertue +infinite, a Light by abundant charitie invisible; an Understanding which +itself can only comprehend, an essence eternal and spiritual, of +absolute purenesse and simplicitie; was and is pleased to make himself +knowne by the work of the World: in the wonderful magnitude whereof (all +which Hee imbraceth, filleth, and sustayneth) we behold the Image of +that glorie which cannot be measured, and withall that one and yet +universal Nature, which cannot be defined. In the glorious Lights of +Heaven, we perceive a shadow of his divine Countenance; in his +mercifull provision for all that live, his manifold goodness, and lastly +in creating and making existent the World universall, by the absolute +Arte of his owne Word, his Power and Almightinesse; which Power Light +Vertue Wisdome and Goodnesse, being all but attributes of one simple +Essence and one God, we in all admire, and in part discern, per speculam +creaturaram, that is in the disposition, order, and varietie of +Celestiall and Terrestriall bodies: Terrestriall, in their strange and +manifold diversities: Celestiall in their beautie and magnitude; which +in their continuall and contrary motions are neither repugnant, +intermixt nor confounded. By these potent effects we approch to the +knowledge of the Omnipotent cause, and by these motions, their Almightie +mover." + +The History is based upon a fallacy; but the History is written in great +prose--the prose of Ralegh. Even when the subject comes from remote +authorities on antedeluvian epochs, it is shaped and filled with +perpetual life by contact with the great living personality of Ralegh. +Error in life or art matters little. It is vitality that matters. + +Mr. Edmund Gosse remarks that "the entire absence of humour is +characteristic.... The story of Periander's burning the clothes of the +women closes with a jest; there is, perhaps, no other occasion on which +the solemn historian is detected with a smile upon his lips." The remark +is almost as astounding as that of Mr. Edwards, who, after a careful +summary of the History, is obliged to say, "The three or four thousand +pages of the _History of the World_ contain, I believe, no line or word +within which there lies the tiniest spark of prurient suggestion." Mr. +Edwards is, of course, pleased at this; but there is no reason for Mr. +Gosse's lament. Ralegh did not write with the continual bubble of +humour which makes the Church History of Great Britain (of all +impossible subjects) endeavoured by that inimitable old Thomas Fuller, +one of the wittiest and most readable books in the language. Humour +constantly occurs. Two instances in one paragraph are quite +unforgetable. It is the fourth paragraph of the twenty-third chapter of +the second book of the first part of the History (what portentous +dimensions the book has!). + +"Touching all that was said before of Phul Belosus, for the proving that +Phul and Belosus were not sundry Kings, Joseph Scaliger pities their +ignorance that have spent their labour to little purpose. Honest and +painefull men he confesseth that they were, who by their diligence might +have won the good liking of their Readers had they not by mentioning +Annius his Authors given such offence that men refused thereupon to +reade their Bookes and Chronologies. A short answere. + +"For mine owne part, howsoever, I believe nothing that Annius his +Berosus, Metasthenes, and others of that stampe affirme, in respect of +their bare authority; yet am I not so squeamish, but that I can well +enough digest a good Booke, though I finde the wordes of one or two of +these good fellows alleaged in it: I have (somewhat peradventure too +often) already spoken my mind of Annius, his Authors.... Neither indeed +are those honest and painfull men (as Scaliger tearmes them, meaning if +I mistake him not; good silly fellowes) who set down the Assyrian Kings +from Pul forwards as Lords also of Babylon, taking Pul for Belosus and +Salmanassar for Nabonassar, such writers as a man should be ashamed or +unwilling to reade." + +In such a passage even a student of Ralegh can see not only his lips +smile, but his eyes twinkle with humour, which is a characteristic of +their solemn historian. And he ends the paragraph by recounting a +singularly pertinent and amusing jest. + +"Therefore the fictions (or let them be called conjectures) painted in +Maps doe serve only to mislead such discoverers as rashly beleeve them; +drawing upon the publishers eyther some angry curses or well deserved +scorne.... To which purpose I remember a pretie jest of Don Pedro de +Sarmiento, a worthy Spanish Gentleman who had been employed by his King +in planting a Colonie upon the Streights of Magellan; for when I asked +him being then my Prisoner, some question about an Island in those +Streights which me thought, might have done eyther benefit or +displeasure to his enterprise, he told me merrily that it was to be +called the Painters Wives Island; saying That whilest the fellow drew +that Map, his Wife sitting by, desired to put in one Countrey for her; +that she, in imagination might have an island of her owne. But in +filling up the blankes of old Histories, wee need not be so scrupulous. +For it is not to be feared that time should runne backward, and by +restoring the things themselves to knowledge, make our conjectures +appeare ridiculous...." + +But the great work was never brought to an end. The first immense half +of it, however, was finished, and that half is equal in bulk to about +thirty modern novels. Many traditions survive as to the reason which +caused Ralegh to discontinue his task. One is that Burr, the publisher, +complained of the loss which the production of the first folio involved, +and that Ralegh instantly laid hands on the heap of manuscript which lay +on the table before him and, laying it on the fire, pushed it deep into +the red embers with his foot, saying that no man should be the loser +through his work. Another is (and this commends itself to the +imagination of M. Anatole France) that Ralegh saw from his window two +men fighting in the courtyard below; that he asked the cause of the +quarrel and that, when two eye-witnesses gave him two essentially +different accounts, he was so overcome with the mystery that must ever +surround all truth, that he thereupon destroyed the remaining manuscript +of his History. These stories are interesting but not authentic enough +to carry any weight against the reason which Ralegh himself gives for +leaving his work unfinished, though they may possibly be reckoned among +the discouragements which he mentions. For these are his words: + +"Lastly whereas this book by the title it hath, calls itselfe, The first +part of Generall Historie of the World, implying a Second and Third +Volume; which I also intended and have hewne out; besides many other +discouragements perswading my silence; it hath pleased God to take that +glorious Prince out of the world, to whom they were directed, whose +unspeakable and never enough lamented losse hath taught mee to say with +Job _Versa est in luctum Cithara mea, et Organum meum in vocem +flentium_." + +James did not like the History. He did not consider that Ralegh bated +his breath sufficiently when writing of kings, who obtained their power, +in his opinion, directly from a divine source. And he went farther in +his dislike. For into what Ralegh had written of kings and men, long +dead, he read criticisms against himself and his favourites; and these +he could ill brook. James, like most cruel men, was sensitive, but he +was "sensitive within alone, Inly only thrilling shrewd;" where others +were concerned, he was, as is seen in his treatment of Ralegh, hard, +"scaly as in clefts of pine." + +James had no real cause to do this. Certain it is that Ralegh never +consciously committed the offence. But certain it also is that he, like +any other writer of his calibre, would write with greater feeling the +account of some happening or some character, with which the +circumstances of his own life brought into sympathy. And exactly because +his life and his knowledge of men was profound and varied, his history +gains in vitality. For always he keeps his relation in contact with +life--that is of course to say, his own experience of life--by which +each man is limited--and never does his work degenerate into a mere +recital of facts. Only when he is weighing authority against authority +is he lifeless, and almost necessarily lifeless, but even then--witness +the passage quoted a little earlier in this chapter--he is not often +dull. + +All through the length of the history, passage after passage of deep +wisdom and insight occur, so that his work is still a comment upon that +greatest and most enthralling of all mysteries--life. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE LAST JOURNEY + + Ralegh's influence with Queen and Prince Henry--Death + of Robert Cecil--Rise of Villiers--Liberty--The undying + endeavour--Anecdote--Preparations for expedition--Delays + and uncertainty--The King's treachery--The expedition + starts--Further delays--Storms--Captain Bailey--Ralegh's + illness--At Terra de Bri--His son's death--Return of + Keymis--Suicide of Keymis--Mutiny--The return. + + +Ralegh in the Tower managed to gain influence of a remarkable nature +over the Queen and over Prince Henry, who was the idol of the nation. It +availed him not, however. James was jealous of the immense popularity of +his son, and feared his high spirit. Gradually the tall white-haired man +in the Tower became the most talked of man in London. Round him centred +the tradition of Elizabeth, which was looked back upon with vain regret. +Men did not like the deference that was paid to Gondomar, the Spanish +ambassador; they did not like the rise and supremacy of Car. They looked +askance at Cecil. But Cecil and Car did not for many years lose their +hold on the King, whom they treated adroitly. Nor were James's fear and +hatred of Ralegh allowed by them to abate. Whenever the Queen or the +Prince sued for favour towards Ralegh, they would not fail to point out +the power and influence which caused such appeals to be made, and to +play on the King's timidity. Moreover, in spite of Lady Ralegh's +supplications and Prince Henry's frequent entreaties, the Sherborne +estates were handed over to Car at a price. + +The position, however, suddenly changed. Cecil died. Car was sent to the +Tower for complicity in the poisoning of Overbury. Henry Howard, Earl of +Northampton died, the bitterest of Ralegh's enemies. Sir Ralph Winwood, +who was kindly disposed towards Ralegh and an honest man, became +Secretary of State. A new favourite of the same stamp as Car, one George +Villiers rose to power, and he, for his own reasons, hated the Howards. +Ralegh approached him in the usual way. He gave Ł750 each to his +brothers, and obtained in consequence the regard of George Villiers. + +Through all the years of his imprisonment Ralegh had continued quietly +to urge--through the Prince, through the Queen, through Cecil--how +foolish it was to keep imprisoned a man like himself, who could fill the +treasury of England with gold from a mine in Guiana, of which he alone +knew the site. He persisted always upon the wealth of Guiana, so that +little by little it grew to be common talk. To Ralegh, as to Cecil +Rhodes, gold meant power; but, more than gold, he desired the sensation +of freedom on the wide sea, and the long journey to the unknown land. +More than gold, he desired the attainment of the great dream which had +become inextricably part of his life. That was his life's object, and +nothing could keep him from any possible means of its fulfilment. The +quiet labour in the Tower at his history and in the little laboratory +only served to lull the pain of captivity, and gave scope to but a part +of his great nature, though many men, and many by no means inferior men, +have spent their lives in doing work less excellent and less valuable +than Ralegh packed into the years of his imprisonment. + +[Illustration: HENRY PRINCE OF WALES] + +For twelve years Ralegh had been in prison. He was sixty-three years +old when he regained his liberty. Most men would have been content to +continue the quiet habit of work formed during his long imprisonment. +Ralegh's spirit was, however, undaunted; not even habit could deaden his +unconquerable vitality. His release had been gained that he might +arrange and lead an expedition to Guiana. Indeed, he was still under the +charge of a keeper, and his sole permitted business was to arrange the +detail for the fitting out of the expedition--ships, men, supplies and +so forth. + +It would throw a light on all life if we could know what were Ralegh's +feelings as he left the Tower; if we could know how long the first +exhilaration of freedom held him, and when that exhilaration yielded to +intense unutterable consciousness of the stress and the pain of life; +for he must surely have felt as if he were beginning the whole business +of life again, and many moments must have come even to Ralegh when he +asked himself, "_Is_ it _good_ enough?" and looked back to the quiet of +his room in the Tower with active regret--the room where he had dreamed +and worked, had had the satisfaction of a persistent desire, and from +which he had watched great ships making their way down the Thames to the +sea. The same detail of his old life awaited him, in transacting the +manifold business which he knew so well--countless interviews with +innumerable men, endowed with the same amount of ignorance, or +astuteness, or malice, or knowledge, or good-will. In some ways the +world must have appeared to him to have remained very dully the same; +but its aspect must have changed amazingly. Different fashions were in +vogue; different favourites caught the public eye; new faces showed +everywhere. The streets had been widened; many were better paved. They +were more crowded with carriages than they were twelve years before. New +buildings had arisen, among which the New Exchange, close to Durham +House, and the Banqueting House at Whitehall were the most notable. The +first thing Ralegh did was to walk round London. In the twentieth +century, an active man might, by clever arrangement of train and tube +and electric tram, traverse the extent of London in a day without seeing +any of the sights, and but few of the streets. Ralegh could see +everything in London, poor walker as he was, in three or four hours, +less than three hundred years ago. For London clung to the banks of the +river which was the main way, and by which watermen thronged at +countless landing-stages with innumerable boats and barges. It must have +been a strange experience for Ralegh to notice the new fashions of the +Court, to pass among men unknown, himself almost unheeded, who had been +the great Queen's lover, and to see faces of new favourites, acclaimed +at their passing through the streets. For he had become to the people +little more than a name and a tradition; he would be recognizable at his +window in the Tower, but in the ordinary surroundings of life he would +be regarded with surprise rather than recognition. And men who +recognized would hesitate to notice his presence, not knowing whether +suspicion might not cling to them of treasonable intentions if they +appeared too glad at his release. + +To this time belongs probably a story which Aubrey tells, and which, +like other stories of that inimitable gossip, bears the stamp of truth. +Its telling lightens the gloom that these first months of freedom, with +their terrible realization of time gone, inevitably raise. Aubrey had it +from his old friend, James Harrington, who was well acquainted with Sir +Benjamin Ruddyer, a friend of Ralegh's. In Aubrey's own delightful words +the story runs as follows: "Sir Walter Ralegh, being invited to dinner +to some great person where his son was to go with him, he sayd to his +son 'Thou art expected to-day at dinner to goe along with me, but thou +art such a quarrelsome affronting ... (Aubrey has forgotten the exact +word) that I am ashamed to have such a beare in my company.' Mr. Walter +humbled himself to his father and promised he would behave himself +mighty mannerly. So away they went, and Sir Benjamin I think with them. +He sate next to his father and was very demure at least halfe dinner +time. Then sayd he 'I this morning not having the feare of God before my +eyes but by the instigation of the devil went....' Sir Walter being +strangely surprised and put out of countenance at so great a table gives +his son a damned blow over the face. His son, as rude as he was, would +not strike his father, but strikes over the face the gentleman that sate +next him, and sayd 'Box about; it will come to my father anon.' Tis now +a common proverb." + +The story is far too good to be false. Gossip needs no verification. It +stands or falls unsupported by the props which the stern matter of +history demands, like an authentic relic which has survived to please. + +Meanwhile the business of the expedition went on apace. Ralegh had from +King James a commission which empowered him to voyage "to places in +South America, or elsewhere, inhabited by heathen and savage people, +etc." The commission was very similarly worded to others which he had +had from Queen Elizabeth, and Ralegh set no greater store by the clause +which forbade him to attack the subjects of any European king, +especially of the King of Spain, than he had done before. Ralegh did not +realize how much things had changed since his Queen ruled. He knew as +well as every one else that the Spaniards in Guiana would not allow him +to land and proceed quietly to the mine without a determined effort to +stop his progress. But he did not know what a hold Sarmiento, the +Spanish ambassador, had acquired over James, and how well-disposed James +had become towards Spain. He did not understand that he was the last man +in England who upheld the Elizabethan tradition, and that therefore he +was the man whom Spain best hated. + +One month after Ralegh's release Sarmiento wrote to the King of Spain +warning him that another company was being prepared "for Guiana and the +river Orinoco, which is near Trinidad, the prime promoter and originator +of which is Sir Walter Ralegh, a great seaman.... I am informed that he +will sail in the month of October with six or eight ships of 200 to 500 +tons, some belonging to himself, some to his companions, all well +provided. He will also take with him launches in which to ascend the +Orinoco, and he is trying to get two ships of very light draught to take +them as high up the river as possible. He has already been in the +country and assures people here that he knows of a mine that will swell +all England with gold." He urges the King of Spain to increase the navy +and not to allow any merchant to sail without a proper convoy; and +assures him that he in England will do all in his power to prevent the +expedition. Sarmiento's power was very great. + +Sir Ralph Winwood, the Secretary of State, was the only man in authority +who was not in favour of a Spanish alliance. The King, as Major Martin +Hume points out, "was besotted with Gondomar and the Spanish power; +Digby and Cottington were humbly negotiating in Madrid for the marriage +of the Prince of Wales with the Infanta, and greedy Buckingham was +bribed by the Spaniards to his heart's content." + +King James played with Ralegh. The King wanted money, and wanted the +friendship of Spain. There was a remote chance that Ralegh might obtain +the money. In that case the money would be useful and Ralegh could be +disposed of at his convenience, as an atonement to Spain. On the other +hand, if the expedition failed, Ralegh could even more easily be +disposed of, and his sacrifice would strengthen the tie between Spain +and England. In either case James saw carefully to it that he should +lose nothing and Ralegh everything. + +The King's treatment of Ralegh is absolutely typical of him, and +illustrates his treacherous weak nature with decision. + +Men did not believe that Guiana was the object of Ralegh's journey. The +whole scheme seemed incredible as affairs then stood. The general +opinion was that the mine was the merest blind; for how could a sane man +give, or a sane man accept, the conditions under which the search was to +be carried out? Some thought that Ralegh was taking any opportunity that +might lead to his freedom; that once he found the wide sea round him he +would not again return to England where he had been so badly handled. +Some thought that the expedition was intended not for Guiana but for a +sudden raid on Genoa; others thought that Ralegh was going to succour +the Huguenots at the King's wish. All the foreign ambassadors were +uneasy as to the real intent of the voyage, and had long conferences +with Ralegh and wrote long letters to their powers at home. Ralegh +alone, loyal to his traditions of Elizabeth, remained steadfast in his +purpose. + +James demanded from Ralegh the details of the expedition, the number of +ships and men and arms, promising on his honour as a king (what more +fragile pledge could he find?) not to divulge the secrets to any man. +But Sarmiento, the Spanish ambassador, had the exact measure of James. +He laughed at the story of the mine, and laughed at James for his +childishness in thinking that a man who was no fool would be gulled by +such a child's tale. The real motive of the expedition, Sarmiento +assured James with laughing suavity, he and all the world knew very well +was nothing else than to rob Spain at the distant source of her wealth +while keeping her off her guard by the show of friendliness at home. +James could not bear his ridicule and his assurance. He swore to +Sarmiento that if a hair on the head of one Spanish subject were +touched, Ralegh should be sent to Madrid in chains to be hanged in +Madrid's chief square. That was not all. To prove that Ralegh's end was +the mine, he handed over to Sarmiento all the secret papers of the +expedition. So Sarmiento gained his purpose; he had the papers carefully +copied and a special messenger was soon on his way to Spain bearing the +copy to the Spanish king, as has been seen. + +James was friendly with Sarmiento. A weak man likes to deceive himself. +James wanted to be friendly with Spain, from fear of Spain's power. But +if Ralegh could break Spain's power at the risk only of his life, James +was quite content to accept the first place in Europe and then dispose +of Ralegh. It was not his nature, however, to face anything and strike +boldly. He kept up the illusion in his own mind that the mine was all he +wanted, and all that Ralegh intended to make for and, like the weak +creature he was, he allowed his personal dislike of Ralegh to hinder his +plan, and his fear of ridicule to render the whole scheme ridiculous. + +[Illustration: PHILIP III. OF SPAIN] + +Meanwhile Ralegh's arrangements were proceeding, and gradually the new +ship, the _Destiny_, which he had built, became a fashionable resort, +even as his destination was the common talk not only of the Court in +London, but also of many foreign Courts. Did England intend to support +Spain and the Catholics, or the Protestant cause? The diplomacy of James +was even more intricate and twisted than diplomacy is wont to be. + +At length, at the beginning of April, Ralegh's small fleet of seven +vessels weighed anchor, and sailed down the Thames. Even at the very +moment of his sailing his purpose was not credited. Lionello, a Venetian +resident, wrote to the Senate of Venice, "I know very well that Sir +Walter Ralegh's only object in embarking in this enterprise was to free +himself from his imprisonment. He would gladly change this scheme for +any other. Many people know the fact as well as I." + +But Ralegh was firm in his purpose. He was now an old man, if age be +counted in years; he was still vigorous and alert, if age be counted by +the measure of a man's vitality. Now, at the age when most men take to +the fireside and friendly counsel, Ralegh was glad to undertake a +desperate venture to win freedom and wealth for himself and for his +family, prosperity and greatness for his country. + +The seven ships in the Thames weighed anchor. They were: the _Destiny_, +of 440 tons, carrying 36 pieces of ordnance; the _Jason_, of 240 tons, +carrying 25 pieces of ordnance, of which the commander was John +Pennington, "of whom to do him right," as Ralegh wrote, "I dare say he +is one of the sufficientest gentlemen for the sea that England hath"; +the _Encounter_, of 160 tons, commanded at first by Edward Hastings and +afterwards by Whitney, carrying 17 pieces; the _Thunder_, of 180 tons, +commanded by Sir Warham St. Leger, carrying 20 pieces; the _Flying +Joan_, the _Husband_, alias the _Southampton_, and the _Page_, all +smaller vessels of 120, 80, and 25 tons respectively. The fleet was +joined before it left the coast of England by Keymis in the Convertine, +Wollaston in the _Confidence_, and Sir John Ferne in the _Flying Hart_. +The _Destiny_ was the flagship. It had been built at Sir Walter's own +charge, and his son Walter was placed in the position of captain. Of the +two hundred men on board, eighty were gentlemen volunteers, who were for +the most part friends or relations of Sir Walter. + +But months of valuable summer weather elapsed before the fleet left the +coast of England. From the outset evil chance brooded over the +expedition. Captain Pennington put in to the Isle of Wight with the +_Jason_ to obtain provisions, and had not the needful money. He +accordingly was obliged to ride post haste to Lady Ralegh in London and +wait while she went through the business of a bond, on which the money +was raised. At Plymouth Captain Whitney had the same experience, and +Ralegh was obliged to sell his plate to the silversmith; Sir John Ferne +was also insufficiently supplied with money, and Ralegh borrowed Ł200 +from two friends. The men began to feel that the expedition found no +favour, and that their commanders were not trusted. In consequence, they +grew uneasy and discontented. The delay lasted nearly three months, +their enthusiasm began to abate, their resolution to weaken. The proper +time of the year was passing. + +While the fleet lay in Plymouth harbour Ralegh issued orders for the +conduct of his men to be observed by the Commanders of the Fleet and +Land Companies. He ordained that divine service should be read in every +ship twice every day: in the morning before dinner and at night before +supper; or at least, if there be interruption by foul weather, once the +day, praising God every night with singing of a psalm at the setting of +the watch. He ordained special care to be taken that God be not +blasphemed in the ships. The offender is to be admonished and then fined +out of his adventures, and then if no amendment be found the matter is +to be reported to Ralegh himself. For if it be threatened in the +Scriptures that the curse shall not depart from the house of the +swearer, much less shall it depart from the ship of the swearer. Two +captains of the watch must be chosen, and they shall pick two soldiers +every night to search between the decks that no fire nor candle-light be +carried about the ship, nor that any candles be burning in any cabin +without a lanthorn. "For there is no danger so inevitable as the ship's +firing which may as well happen by taking of tobacco between the decks, +and therefore forbidden to all men but aloft the upper deck." + +The landsmen must be taught the names and places of the ropes in order +that they may assist the sailors in their labours upon the decks, though +they cannot go up to the tops and yards. And the sailors must learn the +art of land-fighting, otherwise the troops will be very weak when they +come to land without the assistance of the sea-faring men. No vessel +should be pursued or disfurnished in any way, except under compulsion of +absolute necessity, and then bonds shall be entered into for the repayal +of what was taken. "You shall every night fall astern the general's +ship, and follow his light, receiving instructions in the morning what +course to hold, and if you shall at any time be separated by foul +weather, you shall receive certain billets sealed up, the first to be +opened on this side of North Cape, if there be cause; the second to be +opened at the South Cape; the third after you shall pass twenty-three +degrees; and the fourth from the height of Cape de Verd." Minute +instructions were given for signalling in case of distress or attack, or +the sighting of a foreign vessel. In foul weather every man shall fit +his sails to keep company with the rest of the fleet and not run so far +ahead by day but that he may fall astern the admiral before night. He +gave full instructions to the captains how to fight their ships. They +are of exceptional interest. "In case we should be set upon by sea the +captain will appoint a sufficient company to assist the gunners, after +which if the fight require it, the cabins between the decks shall be +taken down, and all beds and sacks employed for bulwarks. The gunners +shall not shoot any great ordnance at other distance than point blank. +An officer or two shall be appointed to take care that no loose powder +be carried between the decks, or near any linstock or match in hand. You +shall saw divers hogheads in two parts and filled with water set them +aloft the decks. You shall divide your carpenters, some in the hold, if +any shot come between wind and water, and the rest between the decks, +with plates of lead, plugs, and all things necessary laid by them. The +master and boatswain shall appoint a certain number of sailors to every +sail, and to every such company a master's mate, boatswain, mate, or +quarter-master, so as when every man knows his charge and place, things +may be done without noise or confusion, and no man to speak but the +officers.... You shall take a special care for the keeping of the ship +clean between the decks, to have your ordnance in order, and not cloyed +with trunks and chests." + +Then follow further instructions as to conduct, which forbid any man to +play at cards or dice, either for his apparel or arms, upon pain of +being disarmed and made a swabber. And whosoever shall show himself a +coward upon any landing or otherwise, he shall be disarmed and made a +labourer and carrier of victuals for the rest. + +And finally a few essential points are mentioned for all fully to +realize when God shall suffer them to land in the Indies, namely, the +danger of sleeping on the ground, of eating unknown fruits, or any flesh +until it be salted, of bathing in rivers. Especial stress is laid upon +the necessity of treating the Indians with courtesy in order to win +their help and friendship. "For other orders on the land we will +establish them (when God shall send us thither) by general consent. In +the mean time I will value every man's honour according to their degree +and valour, and taking care for the service of God and prosperity of our +enterprise." + +On the 12th of June the fleet at last set sail. But as in the Islands +voyage, just twenty years before, a great storm broke upon the ships and +drove some back to Falmouth harbour. The bad weather raged for weeks and +ended in a tempest that scattered the fleet and wrought fearful havoc +among all. + +Ralegh was forced to take refuge with his fleet in Cork harbour, where +another long delay ensued. Delay was disastrous. It meant lack of +confidence among the men. And well Ralegh knew that his authority had +been lessened by the reports which had been industriously spread among +his company that his commission being granted to a man _non ens_ in law, +took from him both arms and actions: "it gave boldness to every petty +companion to spread rumours to my defamation and the wounding of my +reputation in all places where I could not be present to make them +knaves and liars." + +Delay meant expenditure of money which was desperately wanted; and what +was most serious of all, delay meant loss of time, for only at the most +favourable season of the year could these heavily equipped vessels hope +to make their voyage with any likelihood of success, and only at the +most favourable season could they hope to carry out the great task which +awaited them at the end of their long voyage. + +Ralegh was once again in Ireland, where he had started his career. +Thirty-six years before he had written to Robert Dudley, Earl of +Leicester, now long dead, "I have spent some time here under the Deputy +in such poore place and charge, as were it not that I knew him to be one +of yours, I would disdayne it as much as to keepe sheepe." Here, too, he +had spent those quiet months with Edmund Spenser, his friend, by Mulla's +shore; nearly twenty years had passed since rebels burned Spenser's +house to the ground and Spenser himself died of very grief. And here was +Ralegh still living, still in quest of the dream's fulfilment, of which +he had talked with the poet who was at rest, and still fretting at this +last delay which was quietly ravelling away the fabric of all his hopes. +Spenser had given the world his vision of the fairy realm into which his +spirit had now passed; Ralegh had written the first half of his great +History of the World, over which he desired to extend his country's +dominion. + +Richard Boyle was still at Cork. Boyle had bought Ralegh's estates in +Ireland and they were flourishing under his direction. Here as +elsewhere Ralegh broke the ground from which others reaped a rich +harvest. One Henry Pine of Mogelie was vexing Boyle as grievously as he +had in years gone by vexed Ralegh with whom he was connected in +industrial enterprises. So Boyle took advantage of Ralegh's visit to +Cork to question him concerning the terms of a lease, and Ralegh spoke +vigorously against the claims of Henry Pine, remembering well Pine's +former bad treatment of him. He spoke so vigorously that in the +following year, when he was reviewing all the many events of his great +life, his words came back to him. He was then on the threshold of +departure, and not wishing to think that any man had been harmed by him +unjustly, he expressed a strong desire that the terms of this lease +might be examined closely again. The action witnesses Ralegh's attention +to justice and to detail. + +But at last a favourable wind sprang up, and on the 19th of August, +though late in the year for its enterprise, the fleet set sail from Cork +harbour. Nothing could deter Ralegh from his last venture. The wide sea +opened out before him once again, and far away the rich land of his +dreams, where wealth was waiting for him and greatness for his country. +Behind him he left his adventurous past life, and his soul was inclined +towards this new adventure. + +From Cork they set sail for Cape St. Vincent, and presently four ships +hove in sight, to which Ralegh at once gave chase. The long delay made +it dangerous to allow ships to pass unheeded, for by this time Ralegh +must have known to some extent how much the Spaniards knew. Neither he +nor any man could have suspected the scope of King James's treachery. +The pursuit was long and stirring. Eventually the strange vessels were +overhauled. Their leader said that they were French vessels bound for +Seville. His tale bore small signs of truth. His vessels were so heavily +armed, their cut so questionable, that Ralegh's men affirmed that they +were merely pirates, and should be treated as pirates. But Ralegh was +not in a position to run any risk, which might bring down upon him the +King's anger afresh. Accordingly he took the four ships with him for a +length of time, sufficient to ensure the harmlessness of any +intelligence which they might carry, and treated them with courtesy. The +men grumbled. Why should they be expected to believe in a trumped-up +story, when the vessels were full of Spanish apparel and Spanish +merchandise and unmistakable pirates, and why should they be deprived of +their proper spoil? To them Ralegh answered that it was lawful for the +French to make prize of the Spaniards to south of the Canaries and to +west of the Azores. "And if it were not so, it is no business of mine to +examine the subjects of the French King." He bought commodities from +them--oil, a pinnace, a fishing-net--to the value of sixty crowns, and +let them go on their way. His scruples were well considered, but they +did not tend to mollify the feeling of discontent which the untoward +delays at the outset of the voyage had brought into existence among the +men. The ill-feeling was increased when a little afterwards a Spanish +vessel was encountered which had been pillaged by them. + +On September 7 the fleet reaching the Canary Islands anchored off +Lanzarote, and at Lanzarote an event of importance occurred which +exposed the full treachery that was lying hid in the expedition, as well +as in its false launching. There is small doubt that the Spaniards on +the island had received news of the fleet, and had been advised as to +its proper treatment by Gondomar, the ambassador in London. +Circumstances lent a specious cover to their conduct. For a band of +Moorish pirates was known to be in the proximity of the Canaries, and +their presence justified the hostile reception which awaited Ralegh's +fleet. Nor would they easily believe that the vessels were English. They +demanded that two officers should land unarmed, except with rapiers, and +unaccompanied. Ralegh and an officer named Bradshaw landed and conferred +with them in a plain, sufficiently open to prevent any secret treachery. +Ralegh's demands were simple. All he desired was fresh water and food +for his company. The governor of the island consented to supply him, and +agreed to sell him the provisions by means of an English merchant, whose +ship was at anchor in the harbour. "I sent the English factor according +to our agreement, but the governor put it off from one morning to +another, and in the end sent me word that except I would embark my men +who lay on the seaside, the islanders were so jealous as they durst not +sever themselves to make our provisions. I did so: but when the one half +were gotten aboard two of our sentinels were forced, one slain, and the +English factor sent to tell me that he had nothing for us, whom he still +believed to be a fleet of the Turks who had lately taken and destroyed +Puerto Sancto. Hereupon all the companies would have marched toward the +town and have sacked it, but I knew it would not only dislike his +Majesty, but that our merchants having a continual trade with these +islands that their goods would have been stayed, and among the rest the +poor Englishman riding in the road having all that he brought thither +ashore, would have been utterly undone." + +But sufficient had happened for the spy, Captain Bailey. He needed +little evidence for his pretty tale, and having asked and obtained from +Ralegh some ordnance and some ironbound casks, he weighed anchor in the +night, and set all sail for England, where his employers would listen +eagerly to his pretty tale, and pay him for it. It is sad to read all +that Ralegh could write of him afterwards in his apology, "what should +move Bailey to leave me as he did at the Canaries, from whence he might +have departed with my love and leave, and at his return to do me all the +wrong he could devise, I cannot conceive.... I never gave him +ill-language, nor offered him the least unkindness to my knowledge." + +When the spy, Captain Bailey, arrived in England he despatched his +account of the proceedings at Lanzarote to Buckingham, and Buckingham +lost no time in acquainting King James. On October 22 Gondomar wrote +fully to the King of Spain about the expedition, and Philip was more +urgent than ever in pressing Sir John Digby and Lord Cottington and Lord +Roos, who had been sent to Madrid by James to arrange the terms of the +marriage between the Infanta and Prince Charles, that Ralegh might be +immediately recalled and punished. King James was abject in his apology, +and became more and more inclined to the sacrifice of Ralegh. But the +spy Captain Bailey's account was too carelessly prepared; Cottington +discovered divergences; Lord Carew, Master of the Ordnance, declared +"those who malice Sir Walter boldly affirm him to be a pirate, which for +my part I will never believe." Moreover "the poor Englishman riding in +the road," whose name was Reeks, arrived on the scene and told a +different story of the event. It was most unfortunate for the spy, +Captain Bailey, who was sent to the Gatehouse at Westminster. + +[Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEGH] + +His pretty story was proved to be an invention, but that mattered +little subsequently; the invention served its purpose. + +Meanwhile Ralegh's fleet had arrived at Gomera, "one of the strongest +and best defenced places of all the islands, and the best port; the town +being seated upon the very wash of the sea." Guns were fired at the +ships at their first approach, and the ships answered. But as soon as +Ralegh came up in the _Destiny_ he gave orders that the firing should +immediately cease, and sent a Spaniard, whom he had taken on a bark +which came from Cape Blanc, to assure the governor of the town that he +intended no harm of any kind to the subjects of the Spanish King. The +governor replied that he had mistaken the fleet for the Turks who had +sacked Puerto Sancto, "but being resolved by the messenger that we were +Christians and English, and sought nothing but water, he would willingly +afford us as much as we were pleased to take, if he might be assured +that we would not attempt his town houses nor destroy his gardens and +fruits." Ralegh gave full assurance, vowing to hang up in the +market-place any man of his who should lay marauding hands on so much as +one orange or a grape. Their courtesies did not end here. The governor's +wife happened to be an English gentlewoman, and she sent Ralegh gifts of +fruits, of sugar, of rusks, and saw to it that his stay at the island +was agreeable. Sir Walter sent her presents of gloves and scent, and a +picture of Mary Magdalen which hung in his cabin. These days which he +spent at Gomera could have been the only time in this last great +adventure of which he could have a pleasant memory. + +The governor too was kindly disposed towards Ralegh, and not realizing +how deeply his guest was disliked and feared by the authorities at +home, he sent a letter to Gondomar, the ambassador in London, in which +he stated how exemplary had been the conduct of Ralegh's men. + +The respite from the stress of the voyage was short. On September 24, +three days after they left the Canary Islands, the sickness which had +been prevalent among the men during their fortnight's stay, broke out +with fury. On the evening of the 24th fifty men lay helpless on the +_Destiny_. The other ships were not exempt. Two captains and a +provost-marshal died on them. The chief surgeon and several officers +followed on the 31st. As the plague-stricken ships made for the Brava +roads a hurricane burst over them; the hurricane sank one ship and +inflicted terrible damage upon the others. The storm abated, but the +sickness continued. Four more officers died, and most of Ralegh's +personal servants, so that, though he was himself suffering from a +severe calenture, he was attended only by pages. The death of John +Talbot grieved him sorely. John Talbot was one of those completely +trustworthy old servants that a man of Ralegh's calibre is wont to have. +"He was my honest friend," wrote Ralegh, "an excellent general scholar +and as faithful and true a man as lived. I lost him to my inestimable +grief." John Talbot had shared Ralegh's imprisonment of his own free +will. He was as devoted to Ralegh as Keymis even himself. Pigott, the +Lieutenant-General of the land service, died on October 13. + +It is finely typical of Ralegh that in spite of the calamities which +fell thickly upon him, the plague, the tempest, his own illness--he made +and recorded observations which, as Edwards points out, furthered +nautical science considerably. + +On November 11 the fleet arrived at Cape Orange, which was then called +Cape Wiapoco, and on the 14th they sailed into the harbour, made by the +River Cayenne, which Ralegh calls Caliana. On this voyage every possible +disaster had fallen upon the fleet, and yet the full business of the +expedition had only now begun. Ralegh lay on a sick-bed, an old man, but +he did not falter, though all the weight of arrangement was upon him. As +soon as he arrived he wrote to Lady Ralegh. The bearer of the letter was +one Captain Alley, who was suffering from an infirmity in his head, and +obliged on that account to return home with all speed--"an honest, +valiant man," according to Ralegh's description. + +"Sweetheart, I can write unto you but with a weak hand, for I have +suffered the most violent calenture for fifteen days that ever man did +and lived. But God, that gave me a strong heart in all my adversities, +hath also now strengthened it in the hell-fire of heat.... We are yet +two hundred men, and the rest of our fleet are reasonable strong. Strong +enough, I hope, to perform what we have undertaken, if the diligent care +at London to make our strength known to the Spanish King by his +ambassador have not taught the Spanish King to fortify all the entrances +against us." He tells her that their son is in excellent health, "having +had no distemper in all the heat under the line," and after recording +the names of those who had died, and the disasters which had fallen upon +the survivors, he ends the letter with this characteristic sentence: "To +tell you that I might be here King of the Indians were a vanity. But my +name hath still lived among them here. They feed me with fresh meat and +all that the country yields; all offer to obey me." He would always +rather be King even of the Indians than king only of his griefs. + +The ship remained at anchor in the harbour of the river Cayenne until +December 4. The sick men were landed, the ships were washed, fresh water +was taken in; the barges and shallops which were brought out of England +in quarters were put together, ready for the inland voyage to the mine. +Ralegh reaped the full benefit of his courtesy to the Indians on his +previous visit. Well they remembered him, as he wrote to his wife, and +without their kindness it would have fared ill with the plague-stricken, +tempest-tossed company. As it was, the Indians tended the sick with +every attention possible, and helped the expedition by every means in +their power. Ralegh was still too ill to walk. He was carried about in a +chair, and in a condition in which most men would need all their +strength to fight disease and death, he superintended the arrangements +for the five ships which were to make their way up the great river to +the mine under Captain Keymis. + +In the five ships were five companies, each of fifty men. The +Lieutenant-General of the land force, John Piggot, had died of fever on +the way out; Sir Warham St. Leger lay sick without hope of life; and +accordingly the command of the whole expedition was entrusted to +Ralegh's nephew, George Ralegh, "who had served long with infinite +commendation," but who was somewhat too young to have over the men the +absolute authority which his position required. The five companies were +separately commanded by Captain Parker and Captain North, "brethren to +the Lord Mounteagle and the Lord North, valiant gentlemen, and of +infinite patience for the labour, hunger and heat which they have +endured;" by Ralegh's son, Walter; by Captain Thornhurst of Kent, and by +Captain Chudleigh's lieutenant. + +Ralegh himself stayed with the five larger ships at Puncto Gallo by +Trinidad. He was constrained to do so, partly because his health would +not allow him to undergo the hardships of the inland voyage, but +principally because, a Spanish fleet being expected, no one would +venture to pass up the river unless one whom they could trust remained +at the base in charge of the big ships. Ralegh vowed that they should +find him at Puncto Gallo on their return, dead or alive: "and if you +find not my ships there yet you shall find their ashes. For I will fire +with the galleons if it come to extremity, but run away will I never." + +At last, on December 10, the five ships set sail, and Ralegh moved away +with the main fleet. They made Point Barimy on December 15; on the 17th +Point Hicacos, which is at the extreme south-west of the island of +Trinidad; and on the last day of the year 1617 they anchored at Terra de +Bri. + +At Terra de Bri Ralegh began his slow period of suspense. The success of +the whole scheme was hanging in the balance, the scheme which had been +his life's chief business to fulfil, and he was doomed to inaction--to +wait while others sought the final prize. Bitter must have been this +waiting for Ralegh, bitter all the reasons that combined to keep him +back, each in themselves paltry, and united, irresistible. For the first +time a bodily ailment hindered him; old age was creeping on. For the +first time the great commander found a lack of loyalty in his men; and +that lack of loyalty had been generated and nourished by the treachery +of his King. How could any man gain the confidence of his men, and have +power over them, when he was still under sentence of death for treason? +The men who served him were the scum of the earth, bent only on +plunder, such, verily, as an unpardoned man would attract to his +service. But Keymis, Keymis and his own son--and the few valiant +gentlemen--his heart lightened as he thought of them; they were brave +and greathearted; they were loyal and steadfast. And George Ralegh, he +was young, but nothing would turn him back. Still Ralegh waited. There +was no sign of the Spanish fleet, which was expected, and for which he +kept ever on the alert. Ah! why had His Majesty been pleased to hold +them at so little value as to command him upon his allegiance to set +down under his hand the country of his destination and the very river of +entry; to set down the number of his men, the burthen of his ships, and +the ordnance each ship was bearing! Why had it pleased His Majesty to +hand over the document to the Spanish ambassador and break his royal +oath? + +Still Ralegh waited. No news came from the land force. He tried to break +the monotony of suspense by searching out botanical specimens, and +examining the chemical properties of the plants; he busied himself with +the preparing of balsams, he who pined to be exploring the wealth of the +land of his dreams. How could he trust any man's judgment but his own in +such an enterprise, at such a time, when success meant prosperity for +his country, wealth and freedom for himself and his family; when failure +meant ruin, disgrace, and death? Yet Keymis, Keymis was faithful, and +young Wat had his father's blood in him. + +Still Ralegh waited. At length one day a little boat came in sight, and +as it drew nearer it was seen to contain an Indian pilot and a sailor, +who had been with the land force. His name was Peter Andrews. A letter +was handed to Ralegh, a letter from Keymis. He broke the seal and +read-- + + "All things that appertain to human condition, in that proper nature + and sense that of fate and necessity belongeth unto them, being now + over with your son, maketh me chuse rather with grief to let you + know from the certain truth, than uncertainties from others. Which + is, viz. that had not his extraordinary valour and forwardness + (which with constant vigour of mind, being in the hands of death, + his last breath expressed in these words, _Lord have mercy upon me + and prosper your enterprise_) led them all on, when some began to + pause and recoil shamefully, this action had neither been attempted + as it was, nor performed as it is, with this surviving honour.... + We have the governor's servant prisoner that waited on him in his + bedchamber and knows all things that concerned his master. We find + there are four refiners' houses in the town; the best houses in the + town. I have not seen one piece of coin or bullion, neither gold or + silver; a small deal of plate only excepted. + + "Captain Whitney and Wollaston are but now come to us and now I + purpose (God willing) without delay to visit the mine, which is not + eight miles from the town. Sooner I could not go by reason of the + murmurings, the discords and vexations, wherewith the sergeant major + is perpetually tormented and tired, having no man to assist him but + myself only. Things are now in some reasonable order, and so soon as + I have made trial of the mine I will seek to come to Your Lordship + by way of the river Macario.... I have sent Your Lordship a parcel + of scattered papers (I reserve a cart-load), one roll of tobacco, + one tortoise, and some oranges and lemons. Praying God to give you + strength and health of body and a mind armed against all + extremities, I rest ever to be commanded this 8th day of January + 1617-1618. + + "Your Lordship's + "KEYMIS" + +His son was dead. His men were unruly and murmuring ... but yet the four +refiners' houses, and they were the best houses. Keymis had the +governor's servant in his hands, Keymis was within eight miles of the +mine: gallant was the death his son had died.... (Would God he were +there in person within eight miles of the mine!) He turned to Peter +Andrews and the Indian pilot and began to question them eagerly. From +them he learned the details of the expedition, since their start on the +10th of December. They came in sight of Point Araya on New Year's Day, +and soldiers were landed before sunset. Ralegh frowned to hear that the +Spaniards at the newly raised village--San Thome they called it,--were +in readiness, and that an ambuscade had been prepared. Palomeque de +Acuna had been forewarned by despatch from Madrid--Ah! the accursed +delay and the still more accursed disloyalty of his King--Ralegh learned +of the treachery and the disaster--slowly, for his heart and mind were +heavy at the bad news of his son's death, and Peter Andrews was often +interrupted in his confused story by the impatience of his admiral. But +this is the gist of what had happened. + +The Englishmen had encamped by the river bank. As soon as night fell on +the land, Geronimo de Grados led his men from their ambuscade in front +of the village down upon the English, who were taken completely at +unawares. The common sort were panic-stricken, and had not the captains +and some valiant gentlemen, among whom was one John Hampden (a staunch +admirer of Ralegh and famous in history), set a valiant example, the +whole company would have been cut to pieces. As it was, the Spaniards +were at last driven back. They were driven right back to the village of +St. Thomas, the position of which was not known. There the retreating +men of Geronimo de Grados were joined by a fresh force under Diego +Palomeque, the governor, and then the English were checked in their +pursuit. They began to waver. But young Walter Ralegh cried out +cheerily to the pikemen, who were ahead of the musketeers, to advance +after him, and waving his sword he led them to the fight afresh. +Straight for Palomeque, the governor, he dashed and slew him. A hand to +hand jabbing fight ensued, and muskets were fired at very close +quarters. Young Ralegh was wounded. He paid no heed to his wound; with +blood streaming from his wound he advanced against a Spaniard named +Erinetta. But his quickness had lessened, as his strength ebbed from +him. Erinetta swung his musket and the stock crashed on young Ralegh's +skull: but Erinetta could not recover himself and he was immediately +beaten to the ground. The Spaniards began to give way again. They fled. +They fled for refuge to a monastery of St. Francis; the soldiers under +George Ralegh and Keymis stormed the monastery and drove the Spaniards +into the woods, and finally for refuge into their last stronghold where +the women and children had been taken from St. Thomas. The battle was at +an end. But the new governor, Garcia de Aguilar, was a man of resource. +He gave orders that the survivors should form themselves into small +bands, should harass the English whenever an opportunity offered, and +fall upon all stragglers. While the funeral ceremony was being conducted +over the body of young Walter, Captains Whitney and Wollaston arrived, +and Peter Andrews and the Indian pilot were sent back, bearing their +tidings to the main body at Terra de Bri. + +That was all Ralegh could learn. That his son was dead; that the +Spaniards were forewarned and keenly hostile; that his men were shaken. + +The suspense became well-nigh intolerable for him as he settled to +endure the second long period of inaction--of waiting whilst with +others lay the excitement of finishing for good or ill the scheme of his +life's imagining. His son was dead. He could not bring himself to write +the bitter news to his wife. He himself, an old man, still lived--and +waited on the threshold of discovery. Keymis, however, was a trusted +man, and nothing would hinder George Ralegh from his purpose. Keymis +wrote that he was within some few hours of the mine. Perhaps even now +Keymis was on his way back again, his ships laden with gold--and if gold +were once found, there would be little difficulty in founding the colony +which would become England's great empire across the seas. No old man +could live to see that, but his son might ... if his son were not +already dead. He would wait to tell the bad news to his wife until he +had some good news--the news of prosperity--that she might know his +other son, Carew, though not of young Walter's mettle, would be able to +continue his father's tradition. + +Still he waited--day after day, week after week, month after month, but +no fresh news came from Keymis, and no signs were anywhere apparent of a +Spanish fleet. He went on with his botanical studies as much as his +enfeebled strength would allow him. He studied the little plants that +renew their life each year. + + Bow down and worship; more than we + Is the least flower whose life returns + Least weed renascent in the sea. + +For Ralegh was a poet and so lost his personal sense of loss in the +great mystery of things, which his personal griefs made more vivid to +his mind. He was a poet and saw much that he could not express. The idea +of Death fascinated him always. Death had slain the young Prince, the +hope of the nation; his friend, who would have helped him in his +project; had left untouched the father, King James, who had betrayed +him. And now Death had taken his son, who had only lived twenty-three +years, and left him an old man--once again waiting, as he waited those +long years in the Tower, waiting whilst others made or marred the +fulfilment of his dream. Why was he thus often doomed to inactivity? + +Still he waited.... At twenty-three, the age at which his son met death +in a Spanish ambuscade on the eve of a great discovery, with a shining +future before him, he himself was fighting in Ireland, an obscure +soldier of fortune. The days of his past life appeared before him, his +Queen's favour, his Queen's displeasure, the high mark which he had +touched, the low place to which he had sunk, his captivity, his renewal +of hope through the gallant Prince who was dead, his freedom, and this +last tremendous effort to bring greatness to his country, prosperity to +his family; and he was still waiting, while Keymis and George Ralegh +took the last great step. He would tell his wife of their son's death +when he could console her with the knowledge of what he had himself +achieved. But no news came from Keymis. He could trust Keymis. He knew +the man well and cared for him. All through his captivity who had served +him as faithfully as Keymis? Who had believed in him so staunchly as +Keymis? Who had helped him even so well? Perhaps Keymis and all his men +were slain, or lost, or drowned. + +Just before the middle of March Keymis returned. There was gladness on +his face to see his master alive, but the gladness did not continue. He +brought bad news. The faces of his men showed anger and discontent. +Keymis brought the worst news that any man could have brought to Ralegh +after his long days of waiting. The scheme had failed, failed beyond all +hope of recovery, and there was nothing to show for all the lives that +had been thrown away, all the dangers and difficulties that had been +surmounted. + +For this is what had happened. + +After the reinforcement of Captains Whitney and Wollaston, Captain +Keymis took two boats further up the Orinoco in search of the mine, +leaving the remainder of the company near St. Thomas. Their destination +was Seiba, a village on the banks of the river within a two hours' march +of the mine. The party made their way without mishap to the creek by the +landing-place. But there, too, the Spaniards were in readiness. As the +first boat neared the shore, a volley was fired, and nearly all the men +in the boat were hit. His force thus enfeebled, Captain Keymis decided +to return to St. Thomas for fresh soldiers. He found the company at St. +Thomas harassed by sickness and continual attacks of the Spaniards; but +they still had spirit enough to make one further effort. This time +George Ralegh with three boats made his way right up the Orinoco to +inspect the country from the point of view of colonization. He, too, was +struck by its richness and beauty. He returned and found the company +still more weakened by sickness and assault. The Spaniards made an +attempt to burn the English camp. This so infuriated the men that they +set upon St. Thomas and razed it to the ground. Captain Keymis +discovered from the Indians that in the neighbourhood of St. Thomas also +there were rich mines, which lack of labour alone prevented the +Spaniards from working; but no other attempt was made to locate them or +to test their richness. Then the whole expedition returned. The one +actual sign of their toils which they brought, were papers taken from +the governor at the sack of St. Thomas, and these papers were documents +from Madrid, proving how falsely King James had dealt with Ralegh. + +Such was the report which Keymis gave to Ralegh. Ralegh was silent as he +listened to the account of the overthrow of all his hopes. When the sad +tale was finished, he asked Keymis why he had not obeyed his +instructions, why he had not opened the mine and brought back some +visible sign of its existence. Keymis gave his reasons at full length. +There were not enough men to hold the mine; young Ralegh was dead; his +master was ill, dying, nay, for all Keymis knew, he was dead. Why should +the mine be opened that others might reap the benefit? But still Ralegh +insisted, unwavering in dreadful firmness, on his question, Why had not +instructions been obeyed? There were many interviews; there were long +discussions that day and the next. Still Ralegh answered, "You should +have obeyed instructions." "When I was resolved to write unto your +Honour (wrote Ralegh to Sir Ralph Winwood, not knowing that his friend, +the Secretary of State, had been dead for five months) he prayed me to +joyne with him in excusing his not going to the mine. I answered him, I +would not doe it; that if himself could satisfy the King and the State +that he had reason not to open it, I should be glad of it; but for my +part, I must avow it that he knew it and that he might with little losse +have done it; other excuse I would not frame." + +The position was a terrible one. Ralegh had been waiting for months, +trusting to the loyalty of Keymis to execute his great enterprise; and +it was Keymis's very loyalty to Ralegh which was the real cause of his +failure; for he would not open the mine unless he was quite sure that +his master alone should benefit. Keymis was wrong. But he could not bear +Ralegh to think that his conduct had been remiss; he could not bear to +think that he had injured the master for whom he would gladly have given +his life. Nor could he make Ralegh understand even the reason of his +action. "I know then, sir, what course to take," said Keymis, when he +found he could not move Ralegh from his attitude of censure, and he went +away "out of my cabin into his own, in which he was no sooner entered, +but I heard a pistol go off. I sent up to know who had shot a pistol. +Keymis himself made answer, lying on his bed, that he had shot it off +because it had long been charged, with which I was satisfied. Some +half-hour after this, the boy going into his cabin found him dead, +having a long knife thrust under his left pap through his heart, and his +pistol lying by him, with which it appeared that he had shot himself, +but the bullet lighting upon a rib, had but broken the rib, and went no +farther." + +Such was the end of Ralegh's long period of waiting. The tragedy is +great and real. He had trusted to Captain Keymis implicitly; and Keymis, +through excess of loyalty, had failed him. The only fault in either is +that each was a little too true to his own character. Keymis's death +shook Ralegh to the depths of his nature. Now more than ever he had need +of men staunch as the dead Keymis. + +For mutiny broke out among the men. Captains Whitney and Wollaston +deserted. The men declared that they had joined the expedition merely to +loot the Spaniards and plunder they would have. The mine had failed. +Well, they would turn pirates and attack the Spanish fleet on its way +home. They threatened to throw Ralegh into the sea if he persisted in +his resolution to return. He quieted them as much as lay in his power; +but at last his great power was shaken and enfeebled, by imprisonment, +by long sickness, by age, by the King's treachery, by disaster on +disaster. He had still sufficient power to keep to his resolution and to +force his men to some semblance of obedience, but in the old days no +mutiny would have happened. Sulkily the men set sail for home, and +Ralegh knew from the letters which Keymis had brought him from St. +Thomas, that he was returning to disgrace and death. + +From St. Christopher's, on this sad journey back, he forced himself to +tell his wife the bad news of their son's death. He had no comfort for +her. He was inured to grief. "God knows I never knewe what sorrow meant +till now," he writes. "My braines are broken, and it is a torment for me +to write, and especially of misery." And in a postscript, "I protest +before the Majesty of God that as Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins +died hart broken when they failed of their enterprize, I could willingly +doe the like did I not contend against sorrow for your sake in hope to +provide somewhat for you, and to comfort and relieve you." + +The remainder of the voyage back was as disastrous as had been the +outward voyage. Storms broke upon the ships and separated them. Some put +in at Ireland; Captain Pennington, who had ridden back at the last +moment to obtain money for supplies from Lady Ralegh, put in at Kinsale, +and his ship was immediately seized. The _Destiny_ arrived at Plymouth +on June 21 alone; and at Plymouth Ralegh met his wife, and there he +stayed until the second week of July. + +In his last great enterprize he had failed, and he returned to give an +account of his failure, and to face the ignominy which his failure +entailed. He was resolved, however, to make one last effort to clear his +name, and to reinstate his family in some semblance of prosperity. He +was an old man now, and one who had been buffeted by misfortune, but the +spirit of life was still strong in him. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +DEATH + + His reception--Arrest--Journey from Plymouth--Stukeley and + Manourie--The final scene. + + +Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, had been active during Ralegh's +absence to work his complete overthrow, but Ralegh remained some weeks +at Plymouth before he knew the exact nature of the reception which +awaited him. + +Masterly was the way in which Gondomar handled James. He was about to +start for Madrid on leave, when the news arrived from the townspeople of +St. Thomas of the English attack. "Exaggerate as much as you can +Ralegh's guilt and try to get the King to make a great demonstration," +wrote Philip from Madrid. "Do not," he went on, "threaten him; but make +him understand that I am offended, and that if a proper remedy be not +forthcoming at once, we shall make reprisals and seize English property +in Spain." Gondomar set about his task forthwith. He rushed into the +royal presence crying with uplifted hands, "Pirates! pirates! pirates!" +and urged James to remember his promise, that Ralegh should be sent in +chains to Spain to be hanged in the Plaza of Madrid. This was no time +for delay, for judicial examination: Ralegh should be despatched +immediately on his landing, with all his pirate followers. But James +could not, though he would, act thus uncompromisingly. Ralegh was too +considerable a man, and feeling towards him had changed very much since +the time of his first trial when he was hooted through the streets of +London as a traitor. There was a large party in the country who were +averse to James's wish of an alliance by marriage with Spain. For forty +years Spain had tried to humble England, and for forty years England had +more than held her own. And now was the King to be bullied into +sacrificing one of his greatest subjects, unheard, unjudged, at the +bidding of Spain's ambassador? Moreover, James felt that he was losing +the popularity which he had won at the beginning of his reign. His +favourites were disliked. The personal influence of Gondomar over him +was disliked. So James temporised--in his habitual way he temporized--so +that he might, like the weak man he was, enjoy the sense of power which +he felt as he slowly tightened the rope round Ralegh. "James wants peace +and must be frightened," wrote Gondomar. "The English have changed their +tone since I came and I have shown them that I will stand no nonsense." +And his boast was amply justified. + +Sir Lewis Stukeley was sent to Plymouth to arrest Ralegh and take +possession of his ship and cargo. Ralegh had already started from +Plymouth with his wife and Captain King when he met Stukeley, near the +old stannary town of Ashburton on the edge of Dartmoor, twenty miles on +his way to London. Stukeley made him return with him to Plymouth: for +Stukeley was anxious to make as much as possible for himself out of +Ralegh's cargo on board the _Destiny_, for he was vice-admiral of Devon. + +Sir Lewis Stukeley was a Devon man and kinsman of Ralegh, for he was +nephew to the valiant Sir Richard Grenville. He did not maintain the +traditions of his family or of his county. Ralegh stayed in Plymouth +some ten days at the house of Sir Christopher Harris. He was not yet +aware of the fate that awaited him, for Stukeley had only an order from +the King and no warrant from the Lords of the Council. And Stukeley too +was full of friendliness and soft words, partly to put Ralegh off his +guard and partly because it was easier for him to be agreeable to a man +like Ralegh, whom he could not bully. Lady Ralegh and Captain King were +full of grave fears for Sir Walter. They begged him, valuing his life as +they did, before everything else, to escape to France. They made all +necessary preparations: a barque was in readiness just outside the +harbour. Ralegh, still uncertain as to the best way of conducting the +little business of life that remained to him, listened to their +entreaties and actually went out in a small boat almost to the barque. +But he turned back at the last moment, determined to face every danger +that awaited him in order that he might clear his name in the eyes of +posterity from the slur of false charges that he knew would be made +against him. Exactly how that was to be compassed he did not yet know. +Now, as before, in the troubled periods of his life, a kind of apathy, +of weariness of life, closed in upon him; the apathy that comes from +uncertainty, and which in his case preceded a great and definite action. +His powers were slowly collecting for the last great moment of his life. + +Towards the end of July a messenger arrived from the Privy Council, +bearing an urgent summons to Stukeley to bring Ralegh to their presence +without a moment's delay. "We command you," the message ran, "upon your +allegiance, that you do safely and speedily bring hither the person of +Sir Walter Ralegh, to answer before us such matters as shall be objected +against him in His Majesty's behalf." + +The message was sent on July 21, and arrived four days later. On the +same day, July 25, Ralegh began his journey from Plymouth to London, as +Stukeley's prisoner. + +Slowly in Ralegh's mind a plan of action matured. He knew that in London +he had with the King's enmity little hope of life. It remained for him +to clear his name of slander; his own life was now of small consequence +to him: he was considering how best to leave a fair name and some means +of decent living for his family. He saw that time was an essential to +him. He must take care not to be hurried to London, hurried before the +Council, and hurried to the scaffold before men were properly aware of +his presence, and aware of the importance of the event. He must contrive +to die greatly, as acquittal was beyond man's power. He knew that he was +innocent, he knew that James desired his death, and that innocence was +of small account when pitted against a King's wish. He lived long enough +not only to see but to experience the bad consequences which he had +foreseen of absolute monarchy under a weak King. Civil war fell on +England, and the rule of the Puritans before the policy which he had +thought out when Elizabeth was an old woman, became established. He +brooded long over many things on that sad journey from Plymouth--over +the roads which he knew so well. All the country-side was dear to him. +He had done with it all now. + +He passed Sherborne, where he had lived and been happy; he spent the +night quite close to Sherborne at the house of his acquaintance Parham. +It was a melancholy home-coming. What now remained of his great hopes +and his great doings? In the eyes of the world he had failed. But he +must open the world's eyes to see his failure in its proper light. + +At Salisbury, where they arrived the following day, his plan matured. It +would not do to come nearer London and his judges unprepared and +dreaming of his past life. Something still remained to be done. He must +gain time. He must be expected too, that all might be ready to hear what +he had to say. His device was brave and was pathetic. He determined to +feign illness. + +Now, at Plymouth he had met a man named Manourie, a Frenchman who was +interested in chemistry. In Manourie Ralegh had the faith which a man is +inclined to have in a fellow-craftsman on other matters than his craft. +His confidence was unwise. Thinking over great matters, he was not +sufficiently alert and not sufficiently distrustful. Nor is it certain +that Manourie was false from the beginning. It is probable that he came +to realize how dangerous a business he had undertaken, and, becoming +alarmed, fell an easy prey to Stukeley's promises and suggestions. + +Within sight of Salisbury Ralegh asked Manourie for a vomit. "It will be +good," he said, "to evacuate bad humours. And by its means I shall gain +time to work my friends and order my affairs; perhaps even to pacify His +Majesty. Otherwise, as soon as ever I come to London, they will have me +to the Tower, and cut off my head. I cannot escape it without +counterfeiting sickness." + +They arrived in Salisbury a few days before King James and the Court +were expected. Ralegh strung himself to his pathetic part, and played it +so bravely that Stukeley and the whole retinue were convinced that a +deadly sickness was approaching. On entering the house where he was to +be lodged in Salisbury he staggered, as a man staggers who is overcome +by sudden sickness, and fell against a pillar in the doorway, bruising +his head. A delay was ordered. Lady Ralegh, with her retinue of servants +and Captain King, was sent on towards London. Hardly had they started +when a servant came to Stukeley's room, and said he, "My master is out +of his wits. I have just found him in his shirt, upon all fours, gnawing +at the rushes on the floor." Stukeley was amazed and perplexed. King +James and the Court were daily expected at Salisbury, and his special +instructions to hurry on the prisoner could only mean that the King was +anxious not to be in Salisbury at the same time as Ralegh. And yet the +prisoner must not be allowed to die. Moreover, pustules broke out all +over Ralegh's body, and Stukeley could not have then known that they +were produced by a cunning ointment which Manourie had given to Ralegh. +Stukeley went to Bishop Andrewes, the bishop sent physicians to Ralegh, +and they signed a certificate to say that he was not in a fit state of +health to travel further. Ralegh's point was gained. He set to work and +wrote his "Apology for the Voyage to Guiana," in which he stated his +good case to the world. + +It has been remarked, almost with astonishment, by some that Ralegh was +not in the least ashamed of his action. But there was no reason why he +should be ashamed. He decided in his own mind that to gain time was a +necessity to him, and having done so he set about the business in the +only way that he could, and he succeeded. Afterwards he was reproached +for the lack of dignity he showed, and answered, "I hope it was no sin. +The prophet David did make himself a fool, and suffered spittle to fall +upon his beard, that he might escape the hands of his enemies; and to +him it was not imputed as a sin." Men like Ralegh have different values +from the values of ordinary men; in that, perhaps, chiefly lies their +greatness. Dignity is a thing which can very well be left to look after +itself; the dignity which needs any careful bolstering is not in itself +of great value. + +Meanwhile King James and his Court arrived at Salisbury, and orders were +immediately issued that Ralegh should continue his journey to London. It +was probably about this time that Manourie learned the full importance +of the fellow-chemist whom he was assisting, and became afraid. +Hereafter Stukeley was informed of all the things which Ralegh said and +did, and of many things doubtless which he had never said and never +done. + +So Ralegh continued his journey with his two false friends. As they +neared London, the French resident in London, by name Le Clerc, and +David de Novion, Sieur de la Chesnaye, met the party. De Novion was +awaiting Ralegh's arrival at Brentford. He was empowered by the French +minister to offer Ralegh means of escape to France. Men in authority at +the French Court considered that such an enemy of Spain, whose head the +Spanish ambassador desired to fall as a tribute to Spain's power over +James, would be a useful man to save. But Ralegh appears to have +listened with no great eagerness to their proposals. He was no longer +anxious to continue his life in a strange country under a strange king, +to whom he was indebted. He needed all his strength for the last +achievement on which his heart was set--to clear his name from slanders, +and he was not sure that escape was the best means to his end; though +he listened later to the entreaties of his wife and Captain King, to +whom his very life was dear. But Ralegh must have listened with some +pleasure: the anxiety shown on his account, for whatever reason, must +have made it clear to him that now, at any rate, he could not be huddled +away to the Tower and to his death, unheard, as he had feared. He +desired publicity, that he might die, as he had lived--greatly. + +On August 7 Ralegh reached London, and, instead of going to the Tower, +was allowed to go to his own house, which was in Broad Street. Captain +King was waiting for him. He had arrived some days previously, and had +wasted no time. A barque was in readiness at Tilbury to take his master +to France. Had Ralegh's whole mind been centred on escape, there is no +doubt that he could have escaped, in spite of Stukeley's treachery. But +his mind was divided. His own desire was to stay in England, and meet +whatever his fate might be; but his desire was, no doubt, obscured by +his wife's entreaties that he should seize any opportunity of life under +any conditions. He allowed himself to be rowed down the Thames. Stukeley +was actually with him, vowing that he wished his escape. A boat, +however, was seen to be in pursuit. The men at the oars grew suspicious; +they slackened their rowing, and at length turned back. At Greenwich +Stukeley declared himself, and arrested Captain King and his master. +Ralegh turned to Stukeley and said quietly, "Sir Lewis, these actions +will not turn out to your credit," and to Captain King, from whom he +took leave at the Tower gates, "You need be in fear of no danger. It is +I only that am the mark shot at." + +[Illustration: TRAITOR'S GATE] + +Once again Ralegh was in the Tower--the day he entered it was August +10. Manourie received Ł20 for his part of the treachery, Sir Lewis +Stukeley Ł965 _6s._ _3d._; the money was made up, for the most part, of +the price of jewels which were taken from Sir Walter's person on this +day of his last entry to the Tower. Among these jewels was the ring he +had always worn since it was put on his finger by Queen Elizabeth. + +The attempt to escape had been encouraged by enemies who wished to +strengthen the case against Ralegh. That was clear enough to him, even +before he was brought face to face with the Lords of the Council at his +trial. They strove again, as they had striven before, to win the King's +favour by maligning him. They affirmed that the whole enterprise to +Guiana was a fraud, which Ralegh had invented to gain his freedom. For +two months they considered the most plausible means of bringing him to +execution. During that time Ralegh wrote letters to those in authority, +and especially a noteworthy letter to the King, thinking that there +might remain some spark of just feeling in him. + + "If it were lawfull," he wrote, "if it were lawfull for the + Spanish to murther 26 Englishmen, tyenge them back to backe and + then to cutt theire throtes, when they had traded with them a + whole moneth, and came to them on the land without so much as + one sword amongst them all; and that it may not be lawfull for + your Majesties subjects, being forced by them, to repel force + by force, we may justly say, 'O miserable English!' + + "If Parker and Mutton took Campeach and other places in the + Honduraes seated in the hart of the Spanish Indies; burnt + townes, killed the Spaniards; and had nothing sayed to them at + their returne--and that my selfe forbore to looke into the + Indies, because I would not offend, I may as justly say, 'O + miserable Sir Walter Ralegh!' + + "If I had spent my poore estate, lost my sonne, suffred by + sicknes and otherwise, a world of miseries; if I had resisted + with the manifest hazard of my life the rebells and spoiles + which my companyes would have made; if when I was poore I could + have made my selfe rich; if when I had gotten my libertye which + all men and Nature it selfe doth so much prise, I voluntarily + lost it; if when I was master of my life, I rendred it again; + if [though] I might elsewhere have sould my shipp and goods and + put five or six thousand pounds in my purse, I have brought her + into England; I beseech your Majestie to beleeve that all this + I have done because it should not be sayed to your Majestie + that your Majestie had given libertie and trust to a man whose + ende was but the recovery of his libertie, and whoe had + betrayed your Majesties trust." + +It was to no purpose. Ralegh well knew by this time of what base fabric +was the King's mind. The Lords in Council only delayed sentence because +they could not determine on what grounds to execute their prisoner. At +last, on October 24, Ralegh was told that sentence of death had been +passed upon him. On October 28 he was summoned to Westminster, from his +room in the Tower. A sharp attack of ague lessened the strength that +still remained to him. He was old now and white haired as he stood +before his judges. The Attorney-General read the writ against him and +said: "My Lords, Sir Walter Ralegh, the prisoner at the bar, was fifteen +years since convicted of high treason, by him committed against the +person of His Majesty and the state of this kingdom, and then received +the judgment of death, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. His Majesty +of his abundant grace hath been pleased to shew mercy upon him till now, +that justice calls upon him for execution. Sir Walter Ralegh hath been +a statesman, and a man who in regard of his parts and quality is to be +pitied. He hath been as a star at which the world hath gazed; but stars +may fall, nay, they must fall when they trouble the sphere wherein they +abide. It is, therefore, His Majesty's pleasure now to call for +execution of the former judgment, and I now require order for the same." + +Ralegh listened to this pompous mockery and said, when asked what he +could say for himself why execution should not be awarded against him, +"My Lords, my voice is grown weak by reason of my late sickness, and an +ague which I now have; for I was now brought hither out of it." And the +Lord Chief Justice answered: "Sir Walter, your voice is audible enough." + +Indeed, there was little to be said by Ralegh, or any man, against a +charge thus raked up from the past. The affair of this trial was a mere +form, and Ralegh reserved his strength for his last great avowal at the +supreme moment of his life. + +He was taken away to the Gatehouse prison. Immediately the carpenters +set to work to erect the scaffold. His execution was fixed for an early +hour on the following morning. For on that day men's attention would be +turned from the happenings at Westminster; and towards the City where +the Lord Mayor's show would take place. Men's attention was not desired +for the morrow's deed at Westminster. + + * * * * * + +Ralegh was a poet. A man cannot be a poet in his spare time. There is a +realm which Beauty rules--that Beauty which Castiglione celebrated, and +the understanding of which he made the last and chief attribute of his +Courtier, with that realm Ralegh was in communion. From it he drew +strength for his life. Such communion does unfit a man for the business +of life, but gives him power to cope with its difficulties by enabling +him to look a little beyond them. It raises him above the pettiness of +things, and makes him see more clearly because he sees things at their +proper value and in their right proportion. This perception--this +sensitiveness--made him suffer more acutely, but endowed him with the +power of detachment, the power to rise above his personal griefs. + +Ralegh was a poet. He expressed himself in his life in a way strangely +akin to that in which he expressed himself in his actual poetry. He +resembles some knight in a Morris romance in his adoration for his +Queen, and in his love for his wife. + + But true love is a durable fire, + In the mind ever burning, + Never sick, never old, never dead, + From itself never turning. + +That spirit informed his life, and is linked with his every achievement. +"Schönheit geniessen heiss die Welt verstehn." And one of the most +memorable facts of the Russo-Japanese war was that the invincible +Admiral Togo wrote home asking for plum trees in flower to be sent to +him; he needed the strength which he drew from looking at their beauty. +Castiglione was right. This perception of beauty is the last quality of +the perfect courtier; from that alone can strength be gathered and +stored for this strange struggle of life. + +And now Ralegh had reached the last day of his life. Early next morning +he was destined to solve the mighty problem with which poets and +philosophers have always wrestled in vain--the problem which is the +mightiest in life, which lends life colour and poignancy--the problem +of death. The excitement of knowing that in a few hours he would be +taken into that great mystery must have been overpowering. He no longer +needed consolation: fear was lost in eagerness to know. And a sense of +relief came to him that he would be driven no longer to fight on in the +long battle of life with the fierce energy that mastered him. He had +sufficient experience to be a little weary of life; he had sufficient +vitality to welcome death. He knew that he saw the sun set for the last +time; that for the last time he saw the approach of night, the familiar +faces of men, and all the surroundings of man's life. His consciousness +was coming to an end. "Do not carry it with too much bravery," said his +kinsman, Francis Thynne. "It is my last mirth in this world," answered +Ralegh. "Do not grudge it to me." + +For the last time? Yet who can tell? What is man's knowledge when +confronted by the portentous fact of death? + +Once more Ralegh was about to journey into the unknown, and his spirit +thrilled with excitement at this his last and most adventurous journey. +Dr. Tounson, the worthy Dean of Westminster, came to visit him in the +little room which was allotted to him in the Gatehouse prison. "When I +began to encourage him against the fear of death he seemed to make so +light of it that I wondered at him." + +His body was weak; his spirit was strong. Sorrow he was leaving behind +him. And until the clock struck the hour of midnight he who was to meet +death in the morning of that very day sympathized and strengthened his +wife, who had many days more through which she must live. + +At midnight Lady Ralegh left him, and for the last time he began to set +his affairs in order. He knew now how he could clear his name before the +world. His spirit was so alive that he never doubted his power to die as +he had lived--splendidly. He determined what he would say in the +morning--quietly, resolutely--and having done so, still there was some +time at his disposal. He opened the Bible that lay on the table and upon +the first blank page he wrote-- + + Even such is time! who takes in trust + Our youth, our joys, and all we have, + And pays us but with earth and dust; + Who in the dark and silent grave, + When we have wandered all our ways, + Shuts up the story of our days. + But from that earth, that grave and dust + The Lord shall raise me up, I trust. + +And now the time had come for him to face the high ordeal of public +death, which was to be the last triumph of his great spirit. A goblet of +sack was brought him and he made his way to the scaffold. A crowd was +already assembled--waiting. + +Ralegh walked to the scaffold with head erect, complete master of the +terrible situation. He noticed an old man standing in the front of the +crowd with uncovered head, and taking off the covering he wore under his +hat, he gave it to the old man, saying, "You need this, my friend, more +than I do." The crowd pressed upon Ralegh and the struggle to reach the +scaffold made his body, still weak from the ague, breathless. It is in +accordance with the irony of things that even this last path was not +clear for him. At last he stood upon the scaffold, erect and smiling. +The crowd listened for his death speech. The chief men in England were +there to hear his last words and to witness his death. Ralegh began to +speak. He said-- + +"I have had fits of ague for these two days. If therefore you perceive +any weakness in me, ascribe it to my sickness rather than to myself. I +am infinitely bound to God that He hath vouchsafed me to die in the +sight of so noble an assembly, and not in darkness, in that Tower where +I have suffered so much adversity and a long sickness. I thank God that +my fever hath not taken me at this time, as I prayed to God it might +not." + +His voice grew weak. He feared that the nobles who were in the balconies +would not hear him. So he asked them to come upon the scaffold. They +consented and came. Each shook Ralegh's hand, as he thanked them for +this last courtesy. + +He continued his speech amidst the silence of the crowd. He defended +himself against the charges of complicity with France, of disloyalty to +the King, and then he said-- + +"For my going to Guiana many thought I never intended it, but intended +only to gain my liberty,--which I would I had been so wise as to have +kept. But as I shall answer it before the same God before whom I am +shortly to appear, I endeavoured, and I hoped to have enriched the King, +myself, and my partners. But I was undone by Keymis, a wilful fellow, +who seeing my son slain and myself unpardoned, would not open the mine, +and killed himself. + +"It was also told the King that I was brought by force into England, and +that I did not intend to come back again. I protest that when the voyage +succeeded not, and that I resolved to come home, my company mutinied +against me. They fortified the gun-room against me, and kept me within +my own cabin; and would not be satisfied except I would take a corporal +oath not to bring them into England until I had gotten the pardons of +four of them,--there being four men unpardoned. So I took that oath. And +we came into Ireland, where they would have landed in the north parts. +But I would not, because there the inhabitants were all Redshanks. So we +came to the south, hoping from thence to write to his Majesty for their +pardons. In the meantime I offered to places in Devon and Cornwall, to +lie safe till they had been pardoned." + +Ralegh now turned towards Lord Arundel, who was standing on the +scaffold. "I am glad that my Lord of Arundel is here. For when I went +down to my ship, his Lordship and divers others were with me. At the +parting salutation, his Lordship took me aside and desired me freely and +faithfully to resolve him in one request, which was, 'Whether I made a +good voyage or a bad, yet I should return again into England.' I made +you a promise and gave you my faith that I would." + +Lord Arundel said in a loud voice, "And so you did. It is true that they +were the last words I spake unto you." + +And Ralegh went on: "Other reports are raised of me, touching that +voyage which I value not.... I will yet borrow a little time of Master +Sheriff to speak of one thing more. It doth make my heart bleed to hear +such an imputation laid upon me. It was said that I was a persecutor of +my Lord of Essex, and that I stood in a window over against him when he +suffered, and puffed out tobacco in disdain of him. I take God to +witness that my eyes shed tears for him when he died. And as I hope to +look in the face of God hereafter, my Lord of Essex did not see my face +when he suffered. I was afar off, in the Armoury, where I saw him but he +saw not me. And my soul hath been many times grieved that I was not near +unto him when he died, because I understood that he asked for me, at his +death, to be reconciled to me. I confess I was of a contrary faction. +But I knew that my Lord of Essex was a noble gentleman, and that it +would be worse with me when he was gone. For those that set me up +against him did afterwards set themselves against me." + +Ralegh knelt in prayer, asking the assembled crowd to pray with him. He +rose and the executioner knelt before him to ask his forgiveness. Ralegh +put his hand on the masked figure's two shoulders and said that he +forgave him with all his heart. "Show me the axe," he cried, "show me +the axe." Then he felt the edge with his thumb and approved of its +sharpness. "This gives me no fear. It is a sharp and fair medicine to +cure me of all my diseases." And presently, "When I stretch forth my +hands despatch me." He turned to all the people and said in a loud +voice, "Give me heartily your prayers." + +His velvet cloak was taken off. He knelt in prayer. He laid his neck +upon the block and stretched out his hands. But the masked figure in +black, the executioner, was unmanned by the scene. He could not raise +the axe. Again Ralegh stretched out his hands. The man remained +motionless. Then Ralegh cried out, "What dost thou fear? Strike, man, +strike!" It was necessary for him to give the man courage to kill him. +At last the axe was lifted, and with two swift blows his neck was +severed. + +So lived Sir Walter Ralegh, and so he died. + +"O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast +persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world +hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised: thou +hast drawne together all the farre stretched greatnesse, all the pride, +crueltie, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two +narrow words--_Hîc jacet_." + + + + +INDEX + + +A + + Abington, Edward, 64 + + Agouhanna, 4 + + Albert, Archduke of Austria, 206 + + Alley, Captain, 273 + + Aloblaster, Mr., 242 + + Amadas, Philip, 79, 82, 84 + + Anderson, Lord Chief Justice, 205 + + Andrewes, Bishop, 292 + + Andrews, Peter, 276, 278, 279 + + Anjou, Duc d', 61 + + Arenbergh, Count, 187, 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 211, 222 + + Armada, 97, 99, 100, 102, 104, 148 + + Arundel, Lord, 63, 302 + + Ascham, Roger, 11, 13, 55, 56 + + Ashton, Roger, 228 + + Aubrey, 25, 26, 29, 129, 197, 256, 257 + + Azores, 77, 161, 268 + + +B + + Babington, Antony, 63, 64, 65, 66, 73 + + Bacon, Francis, Baron of Verulam, 14, 50, 67, 100, 125, 168 + + Bailey, Captain, 270 + + Ballard, John, 63, 64 + + Balzac, H. de, 72 + + Bancroft, Bishop, 200 + + Barlow, Arthur, 79, 82, 84 + + Barnefield, 52 + + Barnwell, Robert, 64 + + Barry, Lord, 36 + + Bath, Earl of, 90 + + Beale, Bishop, 68, 69 + + Beauchamp, Lord, 192 + + Beaumont, Francis, 238 + + Bedford, Francis Earl of, 65 + + Berreo, 130, 131, 132, 133, 143 + + Bingham, Admiral, 37 + + Biron, Duc de, 175, 176 + + Blount, Charles, 116 + + Blount, Sir Christopher, 172 + + Boyle, Richard, Earl of Cork, 94 + + Bradshaw, Captain, 269 + + Bristol, 4 + + Brooke, George, 199, 200, 201, 202, 206, 207, 217, 218, 234 + + Brown, Richard, 65 + + Brownists, 116 + + Buckhurst, Lord Treasurer, 89, 197 + + Budaeus, 76 + + Budleigh Salterton, 2, 6, 107 + + Burghley. _See_ CECIL, WILLIAM + + Burr, 250 + + Burrough, Sir John, 122, 123 + + Burton, 62 + + +C + + Cadiz, 150, 152, 157, 158, 161, 169, 205, 227 + + Calfield, Captain, 131, 134, 135, 138, 140, 146 + + Camden, 19, 38 + + Campian, 219 + + Carew, George, 162 + + Carew, Sir Nicholas, 198 + + Carew, Peter, 7 + + Carey, Sir Robert, 66, 189, 191, 193, 194 + + Carleton, Sir Dudley, 227, 228, 234 + + Caroli, Falls of, 144, 145 + + Carr, Robert, 237, 246, 253 + + Carthier, Jacques, 3 + + Castiglione, 13, 44, 52, 297, 298 + + Cecil, Lady, 158 + + Cecil, Sir Robert, Earl of Salisbury, 50, 55, 89, 93, 96, 117, 123, + 124, 125, 151, 152, 158, 160, 167, 168, 169, 170, 172, 173, 174, + 176, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 190, + 191, 192, 193, 197, 198, 200, 202, 203, 204, 205, 211, 214, 218, + 220, 223, 227, 228, 229, 230, 233, 240, 241 + + Cecil, William (son of Sir Robert), 170, 174, 175 + + Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, 27, 29, 36, 42, 47, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, + 58, 73, 90, 98, 125, 167, 168, 173 + + Chamberlain, John, 228 + + Champernoun, C., 11 + + Champernoun, Gawen, 19 + + Champernoun, Henry, 16, 19 + + Champernoun, John, 16 + + Charles, Archduke, 51 + + Charles, Prince, 270 + + Chartley, 62 + + Chester, Charles, 26 + + Chudleigh, Captain, 274 + + Cieza, Pedro de, 129 + + Clark, Captain, 135 + + Clarke, 217, 234 + + Clyst, St. Mary, 6 + + Cobham, Lord, 169, 173, 174, 176, 183, 184, 185, 187, 188, 199, 200, + 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, + 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 234, + 235, 236 + + Coke, Attorney-General, 205, 208, 209, 210, 211, 214, 217, 218, 219, + 220, 221, 222, 223 + + Columbus, Christopher, 71, 72 + + Comestor, Peter, 108 + + Copley, 199, 208, 217 + + Cortez, 148 + + Coryat, Thomas, 244, 245 + + Cottington, Lord, 259, 270 + + Courtenay, Sir William, 63 + + Cranbourne, Lord, 241, 242 + + Crosby Hall, 175 + + Cross, Sir Robert, 123, 197 + + Crymes, Mr., 89, 96 + + Cumberland, Earl of, 123, 125 + + +D + + Davis, John, 79 + + Defoe, Daniel, 58 + + Dekker, Thomas, 58 + + Desmond, Earl of, 94 + + De Thou, 237 + + Devereux, Robert, Earl of Essex, 66, 106, 107, 114, 115, 116, 150, + 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 158, 160, 161, 163, 165, 167, 168, 170, + 172, 175, 176, 180, 225, 227, 302, 303 + + Devonshire, Earl of, 223 + + Digby, Sir John, 259, 270 + + Dingle, 34 + + Douglas, John, 134, 135 + + Dowe, Ann, 52 + + Drake, Sir Francis, 72, 86, 97, 98, 101, 102, 104, 148, 285 + + Drayton, Michael, 52 + + Dudley, Mr., 154 + + Dudley, Robert, Earl of Leicester, 25, 43, 51, 52, 53, 106, 266 + + Dunn, 64 + + Durham House, 171, 173, 174, 175, 177, 205, 256 + + Dyer, 220 + + +E + + Edward VI., 3 + + Edwards, Edward, 19, 22, 31, 93, 207, 209, 236, 248, 272 + + Elizabeth of Austria, 253 + + Elizabeth, Queen of England, 8, 16, 19, 28, 38, 46-7, 52, 54, 60, + etc., 68, 77, 98-9, 107, 111, 115-6, 118-9, 126, 150, 157, 163, + 168-9, 173, 175, etc., 182, 184, 188-9, 191, etc., 207, 237, 246, + 257, 281, 295 + + Elizabethan Life, 1, 9, 17, 27, 44, 99, 245 + + Erinetta, 279 + + Erskine, Sir Thomas, 197 + + Essex, Earl of. _See_ DEVEREUX, ROBERT + + Euphuism, 58, 59 + + Exeter, 5, 6 + + +F + + Fayal, 163, 167, 169 + + Ferdinando, the pilot, 136, 137, 141 + + Ferne, Sir John, 262 + + Fielding, Henry, 58 + + Fitzmaurice, 33 + + Fitzwilliam, Sir W., 94 + + Fletcher, John, 238 + + Flores, 163 + + Florida, 79 + + Fortescue, Justice, 215 + + Fortescue, Captain, 63 + + Fotheringay Castle, 68 + + Fowler, Sir Thomas, 214 + + Foxe, John, 7 + + France, Anatole, 251 + + Frobisher, Martin, 22, 72, 97, 117, 122 + + Froude, J. A., 35, 99 + + Fuller, Thomas, 48, 249 + + +G + + Garcia de Aguilar, 279 + + Gascoyne, George, 21, etc. + + Gascoyne, Sir John, 24 + + Gatehouse, The, 270, 297, 299 + + Gawdy, Justice, 205 + + Gell, John, 26 + + Gerrard, Sir George, 73 + + Gib, John, 234-5 + + Gifford, George, 134, 138, 140, 146 + + Gifford, Gilbert, 62 + + Gilbert, Adrian, 78-9 + + Gilbert, Sir Humfrey, 22-3, 29-30, 72-3, 75, etc. + + Gilbert, Sir John, 90, 135 + + Gilbert, Otho, 7 + + Godolphin, Sir Francis, 204 + + Gomera, 271 + + Gondomar, Count of, Sarmiento de Aguńar, 199, 237, 253, 258, 260, + 269-70, 272, 287-8 + + Gordon, Harry, 146 + + Gorges, Sir A., 161, 164-5 + + Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 171-2 + + Gosse, Edmond, 248 + + Granganamen, 80 + + Gaunt, John, 27 + + Gregory XIII., 63 + + Grenville, John, 135, 147 + + Grenville, Sir Richard, 82-3, 86-7, 90, 121, 155, 289 + + Grey, Lord, 199, 234, etc. + + Grey de Wilton, Lord, 6, 25, 35, etc., 48, 109 + + Guiana, 113, 118, 126, 128-9, 131, 133-4, 137, 141, etc., 146, etc., + 158, 161, 187, 198, 215, 227, 254-5, 258-9, 295, 301 + + Guanipa, Bay of, 129, 134-5 + + Guildford, Lady, 191 + + Guise, Duke of, 18, 20 + + +H + + Hakluyt, 4, 72, 84, 122 + + Hale, Serjeant, 205, 207 + + Hall, Fielding, 81 + + Hampden, John, 278 + + Harrington, James, 256 + + Harris, Sir Christopher, 289 + + Harvey, Gabriel, 15-6, 25, 110 + + Harvey, Sir George, 204 + + Harvey, John, 15 + + Harvey, Richard, 15 + + Hastings, Captain Edward, 262 + + Hawkins, Sir John, 97, 99, 150, 285 + + Hayes, 2, 6 + + Hayes, Edward, 74-5 + + Hayes, Sir James, 235 + + Hayman, Samuel, 107 + + Henry IV. of France, 183, 192 + + Henry, Prince, 243, 251, 253-4, 281 + + History of the World, 20, 42, 102, 130, 149-50, 163, 245, 247, 249, + 251 + + Hochelaga, 3 + + Holinshed, 5, 36 + + Hooker, John, 5, 14, 36 + + Howard, Lord Charles, of Effingham, 99, etc., 121, 150, 152, 153, + 167-8, 190 + + Howard, Lord Henry, 179, etc., 183, 185, 187, 197, 202, 205, 218, + 254 + + Howard, Lord Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, 151, 154, etc., 161, 205, 207 + + Howes, 27 + + Huguenots, 16, 18, 259 + + Hume, Major Martin, 184, 258 + + +I + + Infanta, 179, 259, 270 + + Ireland, 33 + + Irish, 33 + + Islands Voyage, 161, 165 + + +J + + James I., King of England, 7, 68, 168-9, 179, etc., 183, etc., 191, + etc., 203, 209, 228, etc., 235-7, 239, 246, 251-2, 259, 261, 267, + 270, 283, 287-8, 290-3, 295-7, 301-2 + + Jersey, 173-4, 177, 187, 198, 203, 240 + + Jones, 64 + + Jonson, Ben, 52, 111, 244 + + +K + + Kennedy, Elizabeth, 68-9 + + Keymis, Captain, 135, 149, 219, 262, 272, 274, 276, 278, 280-2, 284, + 301 + + Kilcolman Castle, 107-8, 111 + + King, Captain, 134, 288-9, 292, 294 + + Knollys, Sir Francis, 31 + + +L + + Lake, Thomas, 197 + + Lane, Captain Ralph, 82, 84-5 + + Languedoc, Caves of, 20 + + La Renzi, 202, 211 + + Le Clerc, 293 + + Lee, Sydney, 168 + + Leicester, Earl of. _See_ DUDLEY, ROBERT + + Lennox, Duke of, 183, 214 + + Lever, Thomas, 14 + + Lionello, 261 + + London, description of, 26-7, 256 + + Lopez, Francisco, 129 + + Lyly, John, 58-9 + + +M + + Macaulay, Lord, 116 + + Manourie, Dr., 291, 295 + + Mar, Earl of, 183 + + Markham, Sir Griffin, 199, 209, 234-6 + + Marlowe, Christopher, 71-2 + + Mary, Queen of Scots, 60-4, 66-8, 70 + + Masham, Thomas, 158, 161 + + Maupassant, Guy de, 46 + + McCarthy, Florence, 187 + + Medicis, Catherine de, 47 + + Medina Sidonia, Duke of, 100-1 + + Menatonon, King, 85 + + Mendoza, 63 + + Meteren, Van, 57 + + Milton, John, 51 + + Mirabeau, 237 + + Modbury, 16 + + Moncke, Levinus, 242 + + Monson, 165 + + Montagu, Lord, 63 + + Morris, William, 298 + + Mountjoy, Lord, 116 + + Mowbray, Barbara, 68-9 + + Moyle, Henry, 37 + + Munster, 34, 36, 177 + + +N + + Nash, Thomas, 15, 53, 58 + + Naunton, Sir T., 116 + + Nicotiana, 87 + + Norris, or Norreys, Sir John, 21, 104 + + North, Captain, 274 + + Novion, David de, 293 + + +O + + Oldys, William, 21-2 + + Orinoco, 141-2, 145, 258, 282 + + Ormond, Earl of, 36 + + Overbury, 237 + + Oxford, 11, 16 + + Oxford, Earl of, 56 + + +P + + Palomeque d'Acuna, 278-9 + + Parker, Captain, 129, 274 + + Parma, Prince of, 98, 101 + + Paulet, 62, 67 + + Peckham, Sir Thomas, 73 + + Pelham, Lord Justice, 35-6 + + Pennington, John, 261, 285 + + Peyton, Sir John, 203 + + Philip II. of Spain, 8, 97-9, 104, 131, 148, 167, 179 + + Phillips, 62 + + Phillips, Serjeant, 219, 220 + + Pigott, Captain John, 272, 274 + + Pine, Henry, 267 + + Pizzaro, 148 + + Plymouth, 63, 151-2, 162, 262, 285, 289, 290-1 + + Pole, Sir William, 5 + + Pope, Mr., 151 + + Popham, Lord Chief Justice, 205, 207, 210, 216, 218-9, 224 + + Prest, Agnes, 7 + + Preston, Sir Amias, 218 + + +R + + Rakele, 36 + + Ralegh, Carew, 280 + + Ralegh, Lady, 174, 185, 253, 273, 285, 289, 292, 299 + + Ralegh, George, 274, 276, 279, 280-2 + + Ralegh, Sir Walter, _passim_. + + Ralegh, Walter (son of Sir Walter), 174-5, 256-7, 276-7, 279-80 + + Raleigh, Professor, 74, 81 + + Ramea, 4 + + Reeks, 270 + + Rhodes, Cecil, 254 + + Richardson, Samuel, 58 + + Roanoak, 81 + + Robsart, Amy, 51-2 + + Roche, Lord, 40-3 + + Roos, Lord, 270 + + Ruddyer, Sir Benjamin, 257 + + +S + + Saguenay, 3 + + St. Bartholomew's Eve, 20 + + St. Leger, Sir Warham, 262, 274 + + St. Thomas, 283, 285 + + Sanders, 34 + + Santa Cruz, Marquis of, 100, 103 + + Sarmiento. _See_ GONDOMAR + + Savoy, Duke of, 206 + + Scott, Thomas, 242 + + Scroope, Lady, 193 + + Sextus V., 98 + + Seymour, William, 179 + + Shaw, Bernard, 238 + + Shelley, P. B., 114 + + Sherborne, 125, 158, 173, 175, 177, 240-1, 290 + + Shrewsbury, Lord, 64, 68 + + Sidney, Sir Philip, 13, 20, 24, 52-3, 59, 66, 82, 110, 111 + + Smerwick, or Smerthwick, 37, 109 + + Smith, Captain John, 73, 79, 84-5 + + Sparrow, Francis, 146 + + Spenser, Edmund, 24-5, 58, 107, etc., 115, 120-1, 149, 171, 227, 244, + 266 + + Standen, Sir Anthony, 158 + + Stanhope, Sir John, 205 + + Stannaries, 88, 93, 109, 240 + + Steele Glas, the, 21, 24 + + Stourton, Lord, 63 + + Stowe, 11, 16 + + Strozzi, Peter, 103 + + Stuart, Arabella, 179, 187, 205-8, 211, 219, 292, 294 + + Stukeley, Sir Lewis, 288, etc., 294 + + Sully, 176 + + Sussex, Duke of, 51 + + +T + + Talbot, Lord, 70 + + Talbot, John, 272 + + Terra de Bri, 275, 279 + + Thames, 3, 28, 245 + + Thomson, Captain, 123 + + Thornhurst, Captain, 274 + + Throgmorton, Elizabeth, 117, 121 + + Throgmorton, Sir Nicholas, 121 + + Thyn, Captain, 140 + + Thynne, Francis, 299 + + Tilney, Charles, 64 + + Togo, Admiral, 298 + + Toparimaca, 142 + + Tounson, Dr., 299 + + Trinidad, 129-30, 134-5, 147, 258, 275 + + Trinity College, Cambridge, 15 + + Tuga, Emperor of Guiana, 144, 146 + + +U + + Udall, John, 114, 115 + + +V + + Vaux, Lord, 63 + + Vere, Sir Francis, 156 + + Villiers, George, Duke of Buckingham, 254, 259, 270 + + Virginia, 73, 80, 82, 87, 149, 187 + + +W + + Waad, Sir William, 204, 205, 244 + + Walsingham, Sir Francis, 20, 39, 54-5, 61-2, 64, 66-7, 73, 99 + + Walton, Isaac, 49 + + Warburton, Justice, 205, 216 + + Watson, 208, 217, 234 + + Wentworth, Peter, 178 + + Whidden, Jacob, 129-30, 139 + + Whitgift, Archbishop, 49 + + Whitney, Captain, 262, 277, 279, 282, 284 + + Whyte, Rowland, 160 + + Wilde, Oscar, 59 + + Wilson, Arthur, 196 + + Winchester, 204, 230, 235, 237, 239, 242 + + Winchester, Marquis of, 176 + + Windsor, Lord, 63 + + Wingandacoa. _See_ VIRGINIA + + Wingina, 80, 81 + + Wingfield, Richard, 94 + + Winter, Sir William, 37 + + Winwood, Sir Ralph, 254, 258 + + Wokokon, 80, 83 + + Wollaston, Captain, 262, 277, 279, 282, 284 + + Wood, Anthony, 13 + + Woodson, Alexander, 4 + + Wotton, Lord, 205 + + +Y + + Yorkshire Tragedy, the, 52 + + Youghal, 101, 108, 125 + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Great Ralegh, by Hugh De Selincourt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT RALEGH *** + +***** This file should be named 37080-8.txt or 37080-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/0/8/37080/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Katie Hernandez and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Great Ralegh + +Author: Hugh De Selincourt + +Release Date: August 14, 2011 [EBook #37080] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT RALEGH *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Katie Hernandez and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 662px;"> +<a name="Frontis" id="Frontis"></a> +<img src="images/illus001.jpg" width="662" height="1024" alt="SIR WALTER RALEGH" title="" /> +<span class="caption">SIR WALTER RALEGH</span> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p> </p> + +<h1>GREAT RALEGH</h1> + +<p> </p> +<h5>BY</h5> +<h2>HUGH DE SÉLINCOURT</h2> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h4>WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS</h4> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">New York</span>: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>: METHUEN & CO.<br /> +1908</p> + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p> </p> +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='center'>TO</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'><big>MURIEL LEE MATHEWS</big></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><i>High Cross</i></td></tr> +</table></div> +<p> </p> + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[ vii]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>This book has been written for the general reader. +Caveat scholasticus. My aim has been to make +the character of Ralegh live again, and to draw a picture +of the times in as lively a manner as I see it. England +in Elizabeth's maturity touched greatness; in Elizabeth's +old age and during the reign of King James, England +declined. Ralegh embodied the greatest qualities of the +great days, and survived to carry on the Elizabethan +tradition when the great Elizabethans had passed away.</p> + +<p>The books to which reference has been made are +too many to need mention in a book of this kind: +dramatists, poets, pamphleteers, memoirists have been +freely pillaged. But I should like to acknowledge here +my extreme indebtedness to the works of Major Martin +Hume, Mr. T. N. Brushfield, and the late Mr. Edward +Edwards, and to thank again Miss Janet Wheeler for +her kind help, notably in that arduous task—the making +of an Index.</p> + +<p style='text-align: right'><span class="smcap">H. de S.</span></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[ viii]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ ix]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="2" summary="" width="70%"> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER I</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>BIRTH</small></td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">The spread of news—Birth—Influence of birthplace—His +father—His mother</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER II</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>EARLY DAYS</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">His early going to Oxford—Old Ascham on quick wit and +education—Life at a University—The Queen at Oxford—To +the wars in France—Henry Champernoun—Stories +of the wars</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER III</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>TOWARDS MANHOOD</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Friendship with George Gascoyne—Its importance—Ralegh +in London—The arch-gossip Aubrey—Elizabethan +London—Ralegh and Sir Humfrey Gilbert—The beginning +of the great enterprise</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER IV</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>THE ARRIVAL</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">In Ireland—The state of the country—Cruelty of the wars—At +Rakele—Illustrative anecdotes—Smerwick—Ralegh's +initiative—Lord Grey de Wilton—Exploit at Bally—In +touch with the home authorities</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER V</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>QUEEN'S FAVOURITE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Court life—The Queen's position—Her character—She takes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[ x]</a></span>notice of Ralegh—Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester—Sir +Philip Sidney—Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, and +Walsingham—Robert Cecil—The dress of the courtier—The +language of the courtier—The other side, and the +other Queen—Mary, Queen of Scots—The great intrigue—Its +discovery—Death of Queen Mary</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER VI</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>THE GREAT ENTERPRISE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Scheme of colonization—Preparation—The sailing—Queen's +interest—Death of Sir Humfrey Gilbert—Another +charter obtained—King Wingina—Hospitality—Sir +Richard Grenville—Difficulties of first colonists—Personal +outfit—Misfortune</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER VII</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>BUSINESS MAN</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">The Stannaries—His grasp of detail—"Do it with thy might"—Estimate +of squadron—Scheme of coast defence—The +clash-mills of Mr. Crymes—Irish plans</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER VIII</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>AGAINST SPAIN</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Spain's enmity—The Armada—Ralegh's opinion of tactics—With +Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys—The +privateers</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER IX</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>RALEGH AND SPENSER</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Rise of Essex—Ralegh retires to Ireland—At Kilcolman—At +Youghal—Friendship with Spenser—Brings Spenser +to Court—Their dreams</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER X</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>EVIL TIMES</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Ralegh and the Puritans—John Udall—Blount—Ralegh's +marriage—Queen's anger—In the Tower—His sincerity—The +Episode in the "Faërie Queene"—<i>Madre de Dios</i>—Robert +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[ xi]</a></span>Cecil—Sherborne</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER XI</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>THE KINGDOM IN GUIANA</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Ralegh leaves England—Arrives at Trinidad—Taking of +S. Joseph—Interviews with Berreo—Dealings with +natives—Starts up the river in boats—Dangers overcome—Adventures—They +reach River Amana—Indian village—Within +sight of Guiana—Toparimaca—Beauty of the +land—Falls of the Caroli—The return—Voyage home—Arrival +in England</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER XII</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>CADIZ AND FAYAL</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Division of command—Ralegh's delay—Unwillingness of +men to serve—Disputes—Ralegh's wise plan of action—The +attack—The sack—Ralegh wounded—His small +share of spoil—Return home—Sends ship to Guiana—Death +of Lady Cecil—Robert Cecil's policy—Expedition +to Azores—Fayal—Quarrel with Essex</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER XIII</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>THE UNDERMINING</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Robert Cecil in power—Downfall of Essex—Ralegh's opinion +of Essex—Governor of Jersey—Peril imminent</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER XIV</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>SUCCESSION PLOTS</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Possible successors to Elizabeth—Lord Henry Howard—Spies—Ralegh's +position—The net is drawn round him—Letter +of Cecil—Last illness and death of Elizabeth—Carey's +ride to the North</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_178">178</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER XV</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>THE TRIAL</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Arrival of James VI. of Scotland—Ralegh in immediate +disfavour—Gondomar comments on James—Ralegh +accused of treason—Cobham and Brooke—Ralegh +attempts suicide—Cobham's retractions—November 17—And +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[ xii]</a></span>the trial's infamy</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER XVI</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>THE KING'S FARCE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Comments on Ralegh's fall—In the prison at Winchester—Ralegh +begs mercy—His attitude explained—The King's +own farce—Ralegh removed to London</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER XVII</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>THE LONG IMPRISONMENT</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Ralegh's efforts to avert complete ruin—True greatness—Keeps +in touch with life—First two years—The history—The +first sentence—Reasons for incompleteness—James's +dislike of the work—Its greatness</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER XVIII</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>THE LAST JOURNEY</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">Ralegh's influence with Queen and Prince Henry—Death of +Robert Cecil—Rise of Villiers—Liberty—The undying +endeavour—Anecdote—Preparations for expedition—Delays +and uncertainty—The King's treachery—The +expedition starts—Further delays—Storms—Captain +Bailey—Ralegh's illness—At Terra de Bri—His son's +death—Return of Keymis—Suicide of Keymis—Mutiny—The +return</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_253">253</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">CHAPTER XIX</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><small>DEATH</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="justify">His reception—Arrest—Journey from Plymouth—Stukeley +and Manourie—The final scene</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_287">287</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Index</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_305">305</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[ xiii]</a></span></p> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="5" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">SIR WALTER RALEGH</td><td align="right"><a href="#Frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="right"><small>FACING PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE BIRTHPLACE OF SIR WALTER RALEGH, BUDLEIGH-SALTERTON<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>From a Photograph by F. Frith & Co., Ltd.</i></span></td><td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#Page_6">6</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">FRANCIS BACON</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">MAP OF LONDON<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>By kind permission of Dr. F. J. Furnivall</i></span></td><td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">QUEEN ELIZABETH</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">A SAILING SHIP IN THE TIME OF RALEGH</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">GENERAL VIEW OF LONDON<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>From Thornton's "London</i>," 1784</span></td><td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">ROBERT CECIL</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">KING JAMES I.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">COUNT ARENBERGH</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">HENRY PRINCE OF WALES</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">PHILIP III. OF SPAIN</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_260">260</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">SIR WALTER RALEGH<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>From an Engraving by Vaughan</i></span></td><td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">TRAITOR'S GATE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_294">294</a></td></tr> +</table></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[ xiv]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<h1>GREAT RALEGH</h1> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[ 1]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<h2>BIRTH</h2> + +<blockquote><p>The spread of news—Birth—Influence of birthplace—His +father—His mother.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Life is a series of accidents more or less controlled; +the play of circumstances upon character infinitely +various and infinitely involved. Elizabethan life was +superb for the reason that there were fewer men, and +they had the immense advantage of realizing their power +and of possessing scope for their energy. It was the +age of discovery, not only of new lands, but of discovery +in every branch of life. Now, a man may grow old +before he has acquired an inkling of what has been +found out, before he has read what has been written +finely. The world stands at ease uneasily, and has time +for shuffling and discontent. Vitality and opportunity +then worked in wonderful harmony. We are not less +vital, but our energy is apt to be stifled. Everything is +so easy. We read day by day what has happened +throughout the world. There is nothing surprising +except our friends and ourselves—and they are apt to +surprise us too much. Effort begets effort, and effort, +strength. The Elizabethan, without railways, without +posts, without telegraphs, was bound to rely upon himself +for everything.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[ 2]</a></span></p> + +<p>Man brought news to man by word of mouth, without +warning or previous discussion, or the help of photography. +An errand-boy can now know more easily what is +happening in the whole world than a wise man could +then know of what was happening in his county. You +did not know of a battle till you saw the wounded fighters.</p> + +<p>They were shut out from the outside world, and +from time to time dramatically news fired their imagination +and minds. And their minds were trained so that +they did not gape and wonder. Their minds were stored +with the wisdom of the Greeks and Romans, and were +thrilled as only trained minds can be thrilled, and roused +to a veritable storm of energy by the huge possibilities +of life. The difficulties to be overcome were material +and romantic, and triumphs were more easily attained. +Life was as adventurous as the true tales of adventure +that were circulated at every fireside.</p> + +<p>Nowhere were these tales more frequent or fresher +than near the great sea-ports in Devonshire, where Walter +Ralegh was born. The farmhouse still stands, at Hayes, +near Budleigh-Salterton. The country-side has remained +strangely the same in its appearance, a little more +populous, and, after waking to the arrival of trains, +has sunk back to its long, prosperous sleep, contented. +No longer do strange ships with stranger tidings disturb +its rest; they are watched for and quietly expected; the +sailors land to learn news, and can tell little but gossip +in return. No longer do horses carry messengers on the +Queen's service with packets marked "<i>Haste</i>," "<i>Post +Haste</i>," "<i>For Life</i>," galloping to the Queen's Chief +Secretary, in London.</p> + +<p>News was spread slowly; its effect must have been +incredibly impressive.</p> + +<p>In the year 1552 Walter Ralegh was born. He was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[ 3]</a></span> +the second son of his father's third wife, and so the +universal accident of birth seems in his case to be +intensified. It was the sixth year of Edward VI.'s reign, +and an astrologer has noted that year as "a year +remarkable in our chronicles, first, for that strange shoal +of the largest sea-fishes which, quitting their native +waters for fresh and untasted streams, wandered up the +Thames so high, till the river no longer retained any +brackishness; and, secondly, for that it is thought to have +been somewhat stained in our annals with the blood of +the noble Seymer, Duke of Somerset—events surprisingly +analogous both to the life of this adventurous voyager, +Sir Walter Ralegh, whose delight was in the hazardous +discovery of unfrequented coasts, and also to his +unfortunate death."</p> + +<p>It is not possible to determine exactly the effect of +these largest "sea fishes" on his after-life; their coming +may have been mere coincidence, or it may have been +that the same element of an unknown power that sent +the fishes hurrying to untasted streams, made Ralegh +restless as the fish. The point lends itself to straining +by its nature, though it is staidly mentioned by the staid +biographer who has been quoted.</p> + +<p>The dominating influence of his life was not the date +of his birth, but his birthplace in the quiet of the country, +and yet within the easiest reach of the fabulous outside +world. That influence cannot be exaggerated.</p> + +<p>Old sailors, who, as young men, had sailed with +Jaques Carthier, of St. Malo, must have stirred the boy's +mind with the stories of their adventures up the river of +Canada to Saguenay, where there was gold and silver +and red copper; how they visited the town of Hochelaga, +their captain very gorgeously attired; and how, when +their guides had led them to the midst of the town, they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[ 4]</a></span> +were saluted by the women first and then by the men; +and a comedy was rehearsed for their amusement until, +borne on ten men's shoulders, Agouhanna, the lord and +king of the country, wearing the skins of red hedgehogs +in place of a crown, was brought in and placed by the +side of their captain, on a great stag's skin; and how +their captain, seeing the people's misery, read them in a +loud, clear voice the first chapter of St. John's Gospel. +Tales, too, young Ralegh would hear of other wild men +and of their prodigious wealth, which they knew not the +value of; of rubies and of pearls bartered for iron and +toys; of the great creatures morses or sea-oxen, "which +fish is very big, and hath two great teeth, and the skinne +of them is like Buffe's leather, and they will not go away +from their young ones." And at Bristol was living Mr. +Alexander Woodson, an excellent mathematician and +skilful physician, and he, writes Hakluyt, "shewed me +one of these beast's teeth which were brought from the +isle of Ramea in the first prize, which was half a yard +long or very little less; and assured mee that he had +made tryall of it in ministring medicine to his patients, +and had found it as soveraigne against poyson as any +Unicornes horne."</p> + +<p>With only a little less eagerness and a wiser discrimination +between fact and fable would the elders of +the great Devonshire families, with many of whom the +Raleghs were connected, hear the news and plan schemes +for outwitting their rivals on the sea—the Spaniards—and +perhaps foresee the great part their sons would play in +gaining for their country prestige in this unclosing of the +outside world. They would spare no pains to make the +youngsters worthy to carry on the great tradition of +Devonshire gentlemen under the splendid new conditions, +which were daily becoming more apparent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[ 5]</a></span></p> + +<p>A fine stock were the Devonshire gentlemen who +watched over the years of Walter Ralegh's boyhood, +whetting no doubt by their interest his keenness in Latin +and Greek, in fencing and riding, and training his knowledge +of men. Among the Gilberts and Champernounes +and Raleghs and Carews, there would be men as skilful +in the handling of a ship as in the proper management of +a farm, and to all would young Ralegh listen with his +mind feverishly alert for information, and from all he +would learn what each could teach him.</p> + +<p>Old John Hooker, who lived at Exeter, and helped to +write the continuation of Holinshed's chronicle, knew the +boy and took an interest in him; as is easy to see from +his proud reference to the Raleghs' illustrious descent—royal +even he would have it in despite of Sir William +Pole—and from his fine warning to young Ralegh when +he was emerging into distinction to remain worthy of it. +"These all," he writes, "were men of great honour and +nobility whose virtues are highly recorded sparsim in +the Chronicles of England. But yet, as nothing is +permanent in this life and all things variable under the +sun, and Time hath devoured and consumed greatest men +and mightiest monarchs and most noble communities in +the world—according to the old country saying, 'Be the +day never so long, yet at length it will ring to even-song'—so +this honourable race ... continued in great honour, +nobility and reputation, yet in process of time seemed at +length to be buried in oblivion.</p> + +<p>"Now it hath pleased God to raise the same even from +the dead.... And whereof cometh this that the Lord +hath so blessed you, but only that you should be beneficial +and profitable to all men?" And he ends his +discourse, in which a note of almost fatherly concern is +heard, with an apt euphuism about the bee, to clinch his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[ 6]</a></span> +argument and perhaps to show his knowledge of courtly +style (did not he too go to London as member for +Exeter?) "As the bee is no longer suffered to have a +place in the hive than whiles he worketh, no more is that +man to have place in the public weal than whiles he doth +some good therein."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 1024px;"> +<img src="images/illus020.jpg" width="1024" height="707" alt="THE BIRTHPLACE OF SIR WALTER RALEGH, BUDLEIGH, SALTERTON" title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE BIRTHPLACE OF SIR WALTER RALEGH, BUDLEIGH, SALTERTON</span> +</div> + +<p>His father, too, was a man to know and appreciate +his son's worth. He had led no uneventful life, though +he was, for the most part, sequestered in the country. +He took a leading part in the affairs of the little town of +Budleigh-Salterton. In the great Rising of the West, in +1549, he came perilously near to losing his life. He was +riding with some mariners from Hayes to Exeter, when +he came upon an old woman telling her beads; he +stopped to ask her why she defied authority by telling +beads, and the old woman, furious, rushed into the church +of Clyst St. Mary, and inveighed against the gentlemen +who would burn the houses of poor folk over their heads. +Ralegh had ridden on towards Exeter; a body of insurgents +overtook him, and he was saved from being +murdered only by hastening into a chapel by the road-side. +But he went on his way again, and again fell into +the hands of the rebels; and this time he did not manage +to escape, but was shut up in the tower of a church at +St. Sidwell's—a suburb of Exeter in the hands of the +rebels—until Lord Grey of Wilton won the great battle +of Clyst Heath, in which four thousand perished, and +relieved the siege of Exeter. The incident serves to +show the calibre of the father.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[ 7]</a></span></p> +<p>But when young Ralegh was a boy, his father's +adventurous days were over; and in 1561 he is mentioned +as churchwarden of East Budleigh parish, and no +doubt led his family regularly each Sunday to the family +pew, on which the family arms are still discernible, +though much disfigured—probably too at the command +of King James I. of England, who feared his too +ambitious subject even after his death. Little the father +thought of that as he watched the little boy to see that +he behaved with propriety in church and did not sleep +or play as little boys are wont to do during a sermon. +Old Ralegh, remembering the terrible reaction during +Mary's reign, would be specially punctilious in such +matters; and fathers then were not lenient to their +children. Young Peter Carew, when he played truant +at Exeter Grammar School, was leashed to a great +hound by his father: and we are not told whether Peter +and the dog were on friendly terms. They may have +become so; we will hope for Peter's sake that they did. +Certainly, with three young Gilberts, young Walter's +step-brothers—sons of Otho Gilbert—and a family of +Raleghs of all ages, there would be need for stern +discipline in church as well as out of church, and there is +little reason for doubting of its existence, though no +account has been handed down of severity as ingenious +as that shown by Peter Carew's honest father. Probably, +in young Walter's upbringing, there was a touch of the +ewe lamb, that would account in a measure for the +"naeve of pride" which was such a conspicuous feature +of his developed character. Not that he was spoiled; +but his parents had a soft place in their hearts for him, +which he well would know of, and he was not suppressed +so rigorously as he would have been otherwise ... but +this is pleasant conjecture.</p> + +<p>His mother was a woman of character: "a woman of +noble wit, and of good and godly opinions," writes John +Foxe of her, and proceeds to tell how she visited poor +Agnes Prest when she was in prison for having Protestant +opinions (that was when Mary was on the throne, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[ 8]</a></span> +Philip of Spain was powerful in England), and conversed +with her before she was burned at the stake on Southernhay. +"Mistress Ralegh came home to her husband and +declared to him that in her life she never heard any +woman, of such simplicity to see, to talk so godly and so +earnestly; insomuch that if God were not with her she +could not speak such things. I was not able to answer +her: I, who can read, and she cannot."</p> + +<p>The story does not relate what answer Mistress +Ralegh wanted to give; it does not necessarily show +her a Catholic in sympathy, though she probably did +not sympathize with Agnes Prest's desire for martyrdom, +and wanted to prevent the old woman from losing her +life in such a terrible way. The story illustrates how +inextricably religion was bound up with patriotism, and +what a quandary the ordinary peace-loving gentlefolk, +whose wish was to serve God and their country, must +have been in, when the interests of either changed with +the sovereign. That was why Elizabeth, by her policy +of gradually cutting the ties that linked England to the +Pope and the countries under his authority, gave such +immense strength to the English; she united, as it were, +the strength drawn from patriotism and the strength +drawn from religion, by forcing England to rely on +herself alone; and so she overcame the countries weakened +by the constant antagonism between the welfare of +their religion and the welfare of their state. She saw, as +her father Henry had seen, the value of religion as a +political asset; and with cold common sense she used +that asset for all its peculiar worth. Her policy is more +praiseworthy than her religion. Never was woman less +religious; few women have been dowered with her state-craft. +Religion and patriotism became practically identical: +their interests were no longer conflicting.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[ 9]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Pope and his followers became, for adventurous +Englishmen, comfortingly akin to the devil and the +devil's workers, to have at whom has always been the +privilege of good men since the world began. Moreover, +in this case the powers of evil were wealthy and +pompous, but unwarlike; and wealth is a pleasant +perquisite to virtue.</p> + +<p>The time did not lend itself to contemplation. There +was too much to be done. It was a time of action. +The material world, with all its tremendous possibilities, +was opening out before the astonished gaze of Englishmen, +and left but little time for the exploration of the +spiritual world. Men of action and men of art passed +on their way triumphantly, "if not to heaven—then +hand in hand to hell."</p> + +<p>Young Ralegh would accept his religion from his +parents much as he accepted his sword, resolved to keep +both bright and becoming a gentleman. He was a man +of the world; and the world then was boisterous and +unruly. Men revelled in life like boys; their code of +honour was as chivalrous and strange as that of boys. +They lived, and they relished living.</p> + +<p>Into this world young Ralegh went to make his way. +He was poor, but had friends who had caused the spirit +of life to thrive in him, who had nurtured his own belief +in himself, and showed him what the world had in store +for the courageous and skilful man. He was proud and +ambitious, and few men have had better reason for pride, +or have carried out their ambition with such success as +he. He was always an aristocrat; so distinguished that +ostentation became him, which, on a meaner man, would +have passed into vulgarity. He was the most romantic +figure of the most romantic age in the annals of English +history.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[ 10]</a></span></p> + +<p>His life was fuller of great accidents than life is wont +to be, and all these accidents of good fortune and of +bad he used to the full extent of a man's power, and by +so doing he controlled them and became the master of +his fate.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[ 11]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> + +<h2>EARLY DAYS</h2> + +<blockquote><p>His early going to Oxford—Old Ascham on quick wit and +education—Life at a University—The Queen at Oxford—To the +wars in France—Henry Champernoun—Stories of the wars.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Of Ralegh's early education little is known: it is +uncertain whether he was taught at home, or went +to one of the Grammar Schools which Stowe records with +pride existed in nearly every country town. When he was +sixteen he went to Oriel College, Oxford, of which his +kinsman, C. Champernoun, was already a commoner, +and sixteen was an early age, even for an Elizabethan to +go to the University.</p> + +<p>His kinsman's presence accounts in a measure for +this early going (he started most of his life's enterprises +under their shelter, though in the end he grew to overtop +them), but his quick wit was another and the chief +reason. Old Ascham begs the fond schoolmaster to +modify his propensity for caning, and to discriminate +between "the harde witte and the quicke witte. But +this I will say, that even the wisest of your great beaters +do as oft punishe nature as they do correcte faultes. +Yea, many times the better nature is sorer punished; for +if one by quicknes of witte take his lesson readelie, +another by hardnes of witte taketh it not speedilie: the +first is alwaies commended, the other is commonlie +punished, when a wise schoolmaster should ... not so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[ 12]</a></span> +much wey what either of them is able to do now, as +what either of them is likelie to do hereafter." He will +have none of the quick wit. Slow and sure is his adage. +To him quick wits are "even like over-sharpe tooles +whose edges be verie soone turned." And Ascham was +the Queen's tutor, and was striking out a new line in his +theme, in his treatment of it and in his language. For a +scholar of his calibre to write of the education of little +boys, and to write of it in English (fine English it is, too, +with its balanced cadences), demanded profuse apologies, +which he is not slow to offer, and to offer at full length +in his preface. No apology would be necessary now, +when Education Bills have been known to overturn +Governments, or even a very few years later than Ascham +himself; but in Ascham's actual day, Latin was regarded +as the language of the learned, and dignity, which +Ascham never lost, an attribute of learning. His +remarks are always judicious, and his summing up of the +temperament, which he calls the quick wit, is brilliant if +not final. It is in the nature of generalization to be +limited. For there are many wits where quickness and +hardness, which he distinguishes so sharply, are as +memorably, as in the case of young Ralegh, combined—"sharpe +tooles" whose edges be never turned. Such +incontestably was Ralegh. His mind and his character +(the motive force) were on the same level of strength; +neither preyed on the other, and he lived in a time when +the world offered scope, as never perhaps in quite the +same way before or since, to the resistless energy of +united strength.</p> + +<p>But to return to Ascham, whose little treatise throws +an invaluable quiet light of its own upon the methods of +the time, when he was old and Ralegh was young, and +upon the making of great men and the great need of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[ 13]</a></span> +them—from its conception at the dinner party in the +palace at Windsor, to its finish, years later, when the old +man turned once more to the proper teaching of rudiments, +doing his best for the younger generation whose +best would outstrip all that he had ever dreamed of in his +least scholastic moments. There is more than a touch +of pathos in his warnings, for all their staid wisdom, and +in his fears lest the young should be overcome by their +"stout wilfulness"; blind as he could not but be to the +goal to which stout wilfulness alone could lead them.</p> + +<p>With a schoolmaster's conscious effort at broad-mindedness +he would not have the young one sit all day +at his studies. "To joyne learnyng with cumlie +exercises Conto Baldesoer Castiglione in his booke +Cortegiane doth trimlie teache: which booke advisedlie +read and diligentlie folowed, but one year at home in +England would do a yong ientleman more good, I wisse, +then three yeares travell abrode spent in Italie." And +he passes by way of example "two noble Primeroses of +nobilitie, the yong Duke of Suffolk and Lord H. +Matrevers" (such a two as "our tyme may rather wishe +than looke for agayne") on to his famous invective +against the Italianating of Englishmen, with that +constant note of sadness at the falling off of the present +generation. His ears were deaf to such names as +Sidney, Gilbert, Champernoun, Ralegh, names which +time has set at their proper value, and against which +Ascham's noble primroses sink into their proper insignificance.</p> + +<p>Ralegh was at Oxford only one year, and Anthony +Wood writes: "His natural parts being strangely +advanced by academical learning, under the care of an +excellent tutor, he became the ornament of the juniors, +and was worthily esteemed a proficient in Oratory and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[ 14]</a></span> +Philosophy." He seasoned his primer years at Oxford +in knowledge and learning, a good ground, as Hooker +says, and a sure foundation to build thereupon good +actions.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 795px;"> +<img src="images/illus030.jpg" width="795" height="768" alt="FRANCIS BACON" title="" /> +<span class="caption">FRANCIS BACON</span> +</div> + +<p>Only one incident is recorded of that year of his +life, and that is recorded by the illustrious Bacon in +his apothegms. "... When Ralegh was a scholar at +Oxford there was a cowardly fellow who happened to be +a very good archer; but having been grossly abused by +another, he bemoaned himself to Ralegh, and asked his +advice what he should do to repair the wrong that had +been offered him. Why, challenge him, answered +Ralegh, to a match of shooting." It would be interesting +to know how the repartee came to Lord Bacon's +knowledge.</p> + +<p>It is about in the proportion that Ralegh filled his +life, compared with the ordinary way of living, that he +took in one year out of Oxford what most men required +seven years to take; for seven years was the usual time +for a full course, and often, as in Germany to-day, men +went from one University to another.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Ein jeder lernt das was man lernen kann<br /> +Nur wer den Augenblick ergreifft das ist der rechte Mann."<br /> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[ 15]</a></span></p> +<p>Not that life at the University was restrained and dull. +Far from it. Listen to Thomas Lever, who spoke of the +work some twenty years before Ralegh's time. "From +5 to 6 a.m. there was common prayer with an exhortation +of God's word in a common chapel, and from 6 to +10 either private study or common lectures. At 10 +o'clock generally came dinner, most being content with +a penny piece of beef amongst four. After this slender +dinner the youths were either teaching or learning until +5 p.m., when they have a supper not much better than +their dinner. Immediately after they went either to +reasoning in problems or unto some other study until +9 or 10 of the clock, and then being without fire were +fain to walk or run up and down half an hour to get +a heat on their feet before they went to bed." This +sounds splendidly strenuous, and shows what was expected +by the authorities, and the standard of the dons +to which doubtless many conformed. From Nash's +trenchant pamphlets we see the other side of the picture. +Thomas Lever was a preacher: Thomas Nash was not. +It is while he is engaged in "pouring hot boiling ink on +this contemptible Heggledepeg's barrain scalp" (or as +we should put it, proving in controversy the errors of +Gabriel Harvey) that he gives his sudden glimpses of +life and customs in town and university. "What will +you give me when I bring him uppon the Stage in one of +the principallest Colledges in Cambridge? Lay anie +wager with me and I will: or if you laye no wager at all, +Ile fetch him aloft in Pedantius, that exquisite Comedie +in Trinitie Colledge: where under the cheife part from +which it tooke his name, as namely the concise and +firking finicaldo fine Schoolmaster, hee was full drawen +and delineated from the soale of his foot to the crowne +of his head. The just manner of his phrase in his +Orations and Disputations they stufft his mouth with and +no Buffianism throughout his whole bookes but they +bolstered out his part with ... whereupon Dick came +and broke the Colledge glasse windowes and Doctor +Perne (being then either for himself or Deputie Vice +Chancellour) caused him to be fetcht in and set in the +Stockes till the Shew was ended and a great part of the +night after."</p> + +<p>This tells a less sombre tale, and when Nash begins +to be scurrilous about John Harvey, the third brother,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[ 16]</a></span> +and records "the olde reakes hee kept with the wenches +in Queenes Colledge Lane" (how strangely places retain +their character!), the tale becomes less sombre still.</p> + +<p>The Queen, too, would make journeys with royal +visitors to the University, as in 1566, when Stowe tells +with pride that she made "on the sodain an oration in +Latin to the whole universitie of Oxford in the presence +of the Spanish ambassadors;" so that neither university +would be out of touch with the great world. Nor did +the undergraduates keep at the same respectful distance +from royalty that they are wont to now, as another +delightful story of Nash about Harvey shows, who when +the Court was at Audley End came "ruffling it out +huffty-tuffty on his suite of velvet, to doo his countrey +more worship and glory." He disputed with the +courtiers and maids of honour, and at last was brought +to kiss the Queen's hand, and the Queen was pleased to +say that he looked like an Italian, a compliment from +which he never quite recovered.</p> + +<p>So there would be much to occupy the thoughts and +attention of an ordinary boy of sixteen. But Ralegh in +a year was ripe for other things, and left Oxford for the +wars in France. The opportunity came through his +kinsman, Henry Champernoun, son of John Champernoun +of Modbury, his mother's eldest brother, raising a company +of gentlemen to fight on the Huguenot side: and +Ralegh took the opportunity of active service.</p> + +<p>Very interesting are the steps in a great man's life. +Chance seems to play so small a part. The instinct to +get the most out of his personality becomes the conscious +effort to which perhaps a great man chiefly owes his +greatness.</p> + +<p>Precisely in this way is the boy the father of the +man, and Ralegh's life is a pregnant example of it. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[ 17]</a></span> +had, of course, no serious motive for leaving Oxford. He +longed for fighting and adventures, and seized without +a thought on the reckless impulse that led him to the +wars, laughing probably at the sad head-shaking of his +staid tutors. But he had learned how to learn: and his +passion for life never damped his passion for knowledge, +and impulse led him to the discipline which his nature +demanded. The stern discipline and hardship of war +were wanted to impress him, while still pliant, with the +proper value of things by showing him with war's crude +force the bare facts of life and death and human nature.</p> + +<p>The strength and ability of the body told in those +times, when man dealt directly with man, and encountered +nature at closer quarters than he need now do, +when her forces are fended off him and controlled for +his use in ways then only dreamed of. Being weaker, +men were rougher and more cruel.</p> + +<p>That is manifest in the punishments of the Government. +Executions were public. There was no other +means for making the punishment known than by making +the punishment visible. A man paid for trespass against +the laws by disfigurement of his body—by branding +on the forehead or palm, by loss of ear or hand: any one +dangerous, or who threatened danger to the order with +such difficulty established, was hung and quartered, or +burned, or beheaded, and his execution was public and a +sight not to be missed. The limbs of malefactors were +exposed conspicuously at the Queen's pleasure.</p> + +<p>Cruelty breeds fear, and fear breeds cunning. There +was no longer the shelter of the monastery for the timid +or the thoughtful. Accordingly, craftiness and conspiracy +and secrecy prevailed in every corner of the country.</p> + +<p>But there is the contrary side. The man who was +able to be independent of these circumstances of cruelty,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[ 18]</a></span> +rose above them to heights of bravery and self-reliance +and strength, which are almost unknown in more peaceful +times. There could be no monotony, or slackness of +endeavour when a mistake or a careless word, or even a +foolish gesture, might bring with it the consequence of +death. A man was braced to continual effort and unconquerable +control, when a moment's lack of either +might mean life's actual ending, or a lifetime's long disgrace. +There was no place for mediocrity. Those were +the days of heroes and nonentities; soaring heroes, crawling +nonentities.</p> + +<p>Thus the chance which led Ralegh to the French +wars, and Ralegh's readiness to seize that chance (chance +by itself does little), were fortunate in the extreme for the +best furtherance of his personality's development.</p> + +<p>In France the religious wars between the Guisards +and the Huguenots had broken out in the year 1562; +and as Hayward, a contemporary chronicler, recounts, +"In regarde to her owne person and state the Queen +considered that if the Duke of Guise should prevail these +fires of France both easilie might and readilie would cast +dangerous sparkes over the ocean into England." She +could not give aid openly to the Huguenots: but privately +she sanctioned the enterprises of gentlemen who offered +their services in aid of the Huguenots. For the real +danger was that if the Huguenots were wiped out, a +formidably close union between France and Spain might +result. It was thus convenient that France should +remain in a state of unrest until England should become +properly strengthened and solidified in her isolated +position. Elizabeth's actions were ruled in this case, as +in all cases, not by religious faith or by sympathy with +the people who were suffering death for their faith, but +wholly by political expediency. Religion with her was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[ 19]</a></span> +only a piece in the game, and she respected it as the +most valuable piece. It is easy to cry "Shame!" and +"Treachery!" when modern power over time and space +has modified the rules of the diplomatic game; but game +it remains, and truth in it still plays, and will always play, +the subservient part of a nice convention or a fine pretext.</p> + +<p>So those gallant gentlemen, who longed to fight and +could find no more excellent reason than faith for fighting, +went with their companies to France and fought +their fill for the Huguenots. They realized the unfortunate +necessity to which the Queen of England was put +in ordaining that if they were taken prisoners a scroll +should be pinned on their breasts as they dangled from +the gallows, on which it was declared that they met their +fate "for having come against the will of the Queen of +England to the help of the Huguenots." That, probably, +only lent zest to their endeavour. They would realize, +too, that however the Queen of England might be forced +to act, Elizabeth in her woman's heart sympathized deeply +with the cause for which they fought; and Elizabeth, be +sure, with her woman's wit, did her utmost to encourage +them in this belief, and not without sincerity.</p> + +<p>Henry Champernoun, of whose band of gentlemen +volunteers, gathered mostly from Devonshire, Camden +asserts that Ralegh was a member, was famous among +these Huguenot supporters, though not so famous as +his cousin, Gawen Champernoun, a son of Katherine, +Ralegh's younger brother, Sir Arthur. Gawen progressed +so far that he became son-in-law to the celebrated Count +of Montgomery. No doubt Ralegh the nephew looked +up to his uncles.</p> + +<p>About his five or six years' absence in France (the +date of his return is uncertain) Ralegh is reticent, partly, +as Edwards suggests, in obedience to the maxim laid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[ 20]</a></span> +down in his "History of the World" which runs, "Whosoever +in writing a Modern Historie shall follow Truth +too near the heels it may haply strike out his teeth;" and +partly, too, for the reason that his experiences as a boy +would be adventurous rather than suggestive. He would +have been too young to be enough behind the scenes to +know the motives of movements in which he took part, +and the motives would alone lend a broad or historical +value to the adventures. Among relations, youngness is +commonly taken into full account. And Ralegh, for all +his ability, had not probably the opportunity given him +of seeing things other than as isolated incidents. As +likely as not, he was asked to leave the tent or the room +when matters of moment were about to be discussed.</p> + +<p>But certain anecdotes he recalls in his "History of +the World," one of which is well worth telling in his +own good words, because it shows the manner of fighting +that prevailed in these wars: "I saw in the third Civil +War of France certain caves in Languedoc which had +but one entrance, and that very narrow, cut out in the +midway of high rocks, which we knew not how to enter +by any ladder or engine; till at last by certain bundles +of straw, let down by an iron chain, and a weighty stone +in the midst, those that defended it were so smothered +as they rendered themselves with their plate, money and +other goods therein hidden."</p> + +<p>He was not, however, always among the caves and +hedgerows; almost certainly he was in Paris in 1572, +sheltering with Philip Sidney in the house of the ambassador, +Walsingham, when the terrible and famous massacre +took place during the night of St. Bartholomew's +Eve, in which the friends of the Duke of Guise boasted +that more Protestants were slain than in the whole of +the twelve years of the war.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[ 21]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER III</h3> + +<h2>TOWARDS MANHOOD</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Friendship with George Gascoyne—Its importance—Ralegh +in London—The arch-gossip Aubrey—Elizabethan London—Ralegh +and Sir Humfrey Gilbert—The beginning of the great +enterprise.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Ralegh returned from France in 1575 or 1576; +and there are three years of his life—important +years, from the age of twenty-three to twenty-six—which +contain little or no record of his doings. Some authors, +on the slenderest authority, maintain that he trailed a +pike in the Lowlands, under Sir John Norris. But this +is unlikely. The time of his possible presence there has +been adroitly whittled down by William Oldys to the +early part of the year 1578, and quite recently a document +has been discovered bearing his signature, and the date +of the deed is April 11th, 1578. If the signature is +genuine, and expert evidence points to the fact that it +is so, this is an additional, almost conclusive, proof that +during these three years he remained in England.</p> + +<p>There is another matter, intrinsically small, but +exceedingly important because it throws a great light +on his pursuits at this time. To George Gascoigne's +satirical poem "The Steele Glas" is appended, among +other commendatory verses, a poem by Walter Rawely, +of the Middle Temple, which runs as follows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[ 22]</a></span>—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Swete were the sauce, would please ech kind of tast<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The life likewise, were pure that never swerved</span><br /> +For spyteful tongs, in cankred stomaches plaste,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Deeme worst of things, which best (percase) deserved:</span><br /> +But what for that? this medcine may suffyse,<br /> +To scorne the rest, and seke to please the wise.<br /> +<br /> +"Though sundry mindes in sundry sorte do deeme<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet worthiest wights yelde praise for every payne,</span><br /> +But envious braynes, do nought (or light) esteeme<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Such stately steppes as they cannot attaine.</span><br /> +For who so reapes, renowne above the rest,<br /> +With heapes of hate, shal surely be opprest.<br /> +<br /> +"Wherefore to write, my censure of this booke<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This Glasse of Steele impartially doth shewe,</span><br /> +Abuses all, to such as in it looke,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From prince to poore, from high estate to lowe</span><br /> +As for the verse, who lists like trade to trye,<br /> +I feare me much, shal hardly reache so high."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Edwards thinks, and rightly, that the verses show an +intimate friendship with the poet in whose honour they +were written; and "the poem itself to me discovers," +writes Oldys, with his own quaint charm, "in the very +first line of it a great air of that solid axiomatical vein +which is observable in other productions of Ralegh's +muse. And the whole middle hexastic is such an +indication of his own fortune or fate, such a caution +against that envy of superior merit which he himself +ever struggled with, that it could proceed from no hand +more properly than his own."</p> + +<p>And these conjectures are strengthened into fact +when it is remembered (and this point seems hitherto +to have been passed over) that Gascoigne was a close +friend of Sir Humfrey Gilbert, and a kinsman to Martin +Frobisher. "Now it happened," writes Gascoigne ("in a +letter from my lodging, where I march among the +Muses for lacke of exercise in martial exploytes"),<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[ 23]</a></span> +"now it happened that my selfe being one (amongst +manie) beholding to the said S. Humfrey Gilbert for +sundrie curtesies did come to visit him in Winter last +past at his house in Limehouse, and beeing verie bolde +to demande of him howe he spente his time in this +loytering vacation from martial stratagems: he curteously +tooke me up into his studie and there shewed me +sundrie profitable and verie commendable exercises +which he had perfected painefully with his own penne: +And amongst the rest this present Discourse. The +which as well because it was not long, as also because I +understoode that M. Fourboiser (a kinsman of mine) +did pretend to travaile in the same Discouverie, I craved +at the said S. Humfreyes handes for two or three dayes +to reade and peruse. And hee verie friendly granted +my request, but still seming to doubt that thereby the +same might, contrarie to his former determination be +Imprinted."</p> + +<p>Ralegh would meet Gascoigne often at Sir Humfrey's +house, and to Gascoigne he probably owed his first +impulse towards literature. For George Gascoigne was +the most considerable man writing at that time; and +though his work contained no actual greatness, it was +very much on the right lines, that is to say, he was +steeped in Chaucer and Gower, and acknowledged +them his masters, rather than classical authors. Not +that he was ignorant of either Latin or Greek; on the +contrary, he was intimate with both, and his "Jocasta," +which he adapted from an Italian translation by Dolce +of the "Ph[oe]nissć" of Euripides, was not only one of the +first plays in blank verse, but also was the first known +attempt to produce translated tragedy upon the English +stage.</p> + +<p>And therein lies Gascoigne's chief quality. He was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[ 24]</a></span> +an innovator and original, and that bespeaks force of +character, a trait which must have drawn young Ralegh +to him. For like attracts like in a mysterious manner.</p> + +<p>Gascoigne holds an interesting place in the literature +of the time. Since the publication of "Tottel's Miscellany," +in 1557, there had, for some thirty years, been +a distinct lull in the output of poetry, and the work of +Gascoigne was a prelude to the revival that came about +the years 1579-1582, when Sidney, Spenser, Watson, +and Lyly first made their appearance, the true harbingers +of the mighty tempest of song that broke upon the +world in 1590, and continued for some twenty amazing +years.</p> + +<p>He tried his hand, diffidently, as became a gentleman, +at every form; realizing and pointing out, as it +were, the capacity of the great instrument of the +English language. "It is no mean feat," as an eminent +scholar says, "to rank in history as George Gascoigne +ranks with fair documentary evidence to prove his title +as the actual first practitioner in English of comedy in +prose, satire in regular verse, short prose tales, translated +tragedy and literary animadversion" (in which word the +eminent scholar refers to a short technical account of the +making of English verse, prefixed to the "Steele Glas").</p> + +<p>And apart from his writing, to which he devoted +specially the last years of his life, there would be much +that he would have in common with young Ralegh. +Indeed, his life resembles in little the subsequent career +of Ralegh himself, and the device, "Tam Marti quam +Mercurio," suited him as nicely as it suited Ralegh who +afterwards, by adopting the device, made it famous. He +was the son of a gentleman of Bedfordshire, Sir John +Gascoigne, and after going to Cambridge and being a +member of Grays Inn, he served in Holland fighting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[ 25]</a></span> +for the Dutch under William, Prince of Orange, and had +many strange adventures. On his return to London he +had some post at Court, the exact nature of which is +not known, and he sat twice as Member of Parliament +for Bedfordshire. What is of special interest is, that he +was in close touch with the Earl of Leicester, and Lord +Grey de Wilton; for in 1575, when the Queen made her +famous visit to Kenilworth, it was Gascoigne who was +commissioned to devise masks for her entertainment; +and it is Lord Grey de Wilton to whom he dedicates +the chief of his poems. Therefore it is extremely probable +that young Ralegh owed to him, if not his actual +introduction to Leicester, at any rate a great furtherance +of Leicester's notice of Ralegh. It is surely more than +coincidence that Gascoigne's chief patrons should have +also been among Ralegh's principal helpers.</p> + +<p>And Gascoigne's early death, at the age of forty, +in 1577, would impress his influence upon his young +friend, and that influence is discoverable in the directness +and freedom from literary affectation of any kind, +which is very noticeable in the work of both. And it +is interesting to speculate whether, without Gascoigne, +Ralegh would ever have possessed knowledge and +insight enough to realize later Spenser's worth, which +the scholar Harvey (no mean authority at that time) +completely failed to see. Be that as it may, the friendship +of Gascoigne and Ralegh anticipates pregnantly +that friendship of his with Spenser which was of +importance to the literature of the world.</p> + +<p>But Ralegh was no paragon of a young man +continually engaged in staid discourse with his elders. +It is refreshing to have authority for a different and +delightfully human glimpse of his life. The authority +is Aubrey, and Aubrey loved gossip—and especially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[ 26]</a></span> +scandalous gossip—so fervidly, that his stories bear the +hall-mark of truth, apart from the fact that they are +too ridiculous to be worth even Aubrey's while to +fabricate. This is the tale, which Aubrey is careful to +mention (his solemnity in telling his gossip comes little +short of genius), was recounted to him by Dr. John Gell. +"In his youthful time was one Charles Chester, that +often kept company in his acquaintance: he was a bold, +impertinent fellow, and they could never be at quiet for +him; a perpetual talker and made a noise like a drumme +in a roome. So one time at a taverne Sir W. R. beates +him and seales up his mouthe (<i>i.e.</i> his upper and neather +beard) with hard wax." Probably Charles Chester took +this summary Elizabethan hint, but Aubrey throws no +light on the hint's effect.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 972px;"> +<img src="images/illus043a.jpg" width="972" height="768" alt="MAP OF LONDON" title="" /> +<span class="caption">MAP OF LONDON</span> +<p class="center"><small><a href="images/illus043large.jpg">Click here for larger image.</a></small></p> +</div> + +<p>The little incident is typical, not so much of +Ralegh, though it shows his swift vigour, as of the +times. Such a thing happening now would be likely +to cause a scandal which would be known to most of +the civilized world. Then the continents were being +discovered which would now join in the outcry of +amazement or laughter.</p> + +<p>London was small. St. Paul's was the centre of +life: Chepeside was the main and fashionable street; +the streets were narrow and the houses were chiefly +built of wood. The Mermaid Tavern was in Friday +Street. There were large residences with gardens in +the city, public gardens on Tower Hill, and green graveyards +round the churches. The river, crossed by one +bridge—London Bridge—was in constant use; and a +wall ran round the semicircle of the city. Temple Bar, +Holborn Bar, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Aldersgate, the bar +at Smithfield, the bar on the Whitechapel highway—the +gates and bars tell the city area, and outside the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[ 27]</a></span> +walls clustered the Liberties, where vagrants had their +quarters.</p> + +<p>London was becoming crowded. In 1580 the Lord +Burghley took measures to stop the expansion of the +city, and from his table of births and deaths the population +has been estimated at about ninety thousand. +That figure is only approximate. There was no actual +census until some eighty years later, when John Graunt, +of Birchin Lane, at length succeeded in his scheme.</p> + +<p>London was lively. Men lived much more in the +streets. Merchants met customers there, and lawyers +conversed with their clients. "Newgate Market, +Cheapeside, Leaden Hall, and Gracechurch Street were +unmeasurably pestered with the unimaginable increase +and multiplicity of Market folkes, as well by carts as +otherwise, to the great vexation of all the inhabitants, +annoyance of the streete trouble, and danger to all +passengers as well Coaches, Carts, etc. Horses as +otherwise," writes Howes, giving the reason why +magistrates of the City, in 1615, reduced the rude vast +place of Smithfield into comely order for a market, and +the citizens began their new pavement of broad free-stone +close to their shops, and took down all the high +causes in the Strand and Holborn. West Smithfield +was called Ruffian's Hall, because there the young men +used to fight with sword and buckler. Duelling was +prevalent—one of the sincerities of human life which +bursts through the thickest quilted formulas, as Carlyle +ejaculates. Fighting was as common an amusement +and exercise as cricket and football are now. Every +serving man, from the base to the best, carried a +buckler at his back. Rapier and dagger, however, +which began about this time, made fighting less +common, for it was far more dangerous than the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[ 28]</a></span> +manner of fighting with buckler and sword. "It was +usuall to have Frays, Fightes and Quarrels upon the +Sundayes and Holidayes, sometimes twenty, thirty and +forty Swords and Bucklers, halfe against halfe, as well +by quarrells of appointment as by chance: especially +from the midst of Aprill untill the end of October by +reason that Smithfield was then free from dirte and +plashes. And in the winter season, all the high streetes +were much annoyed and troubled with hourely frayes +of sword and buckler men who took pleasure in that +bragging fight. And although they made great shew +of muche furie and fought often, yet seldom any man +hurt, for thrusting was not then in use; neither would +one in twentie strike beneath the waste by reason that +they held it cowardly and beastly."</p> + +<p>Pageants and processions enlivened the streets. +The Queen and her courtiers could not hold aloof, and +did not wish to. The Queen shared her father's liking +for being on terms of cheerful repartee with the people. +A courtier's arrival was a small event, for he travelled +in state with a large retinue. Young gentlemen +attached themselves to a great man, and wore his +colours. And the great man needed a large number of +followers, for his only means of keeping in touch with +affairs and with friends was by messenger, and such +messengers were necessarily brave and trustworthy +men.</p> + +<p>Up the Thames came ships loaded, perhaps, with +treasure from foreign countries, and their men would +land and spread news of battles in the Netherlands or +Spain; or they would have strange tales to tell of new +lands which they had found, of the manners of strange +new peoples, of adventures with bears or morses or +Spaniards, tales of marvellous wealth waiting for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[ 29]</a></span> +daring hand to take, of countries where the sun never +set, of seas where meremaiden swam, and where the +sound of the cracking ice was loud as the crash of +artillery. Small wonder that the poets found inspiration +in the London taverns, and that men lived almost in the +streets, where at any moment they might meet some +fellow with a new tale of the world's wonder that might +very likely be true.</p> + +<p>London was no place in which a man could easily +remain inert. The unexpected constantly occurred on +account of the dramatic way that news was inevitably +brought. News came like vivid flashes of light on +darkness, and these flashes were continual.</p> + +<p>Ralegh's energy had always been conspicuous, even +in those times. He was no slug, as Aubrey pithily puts +it. And now it is that one of the great ideas of his +life came to him, perhaps the greatest. We hear of +him as connected with Sir Humfrey Gilbert's enterprise +for discovering the north-west passage. Sir Humfrey +was instigated by his navigator's desire to find a nearer +passage to the East. But Ralegh widened in his mind +the scope of the scheme, with him it expanded into +something immeasurably greater. He saw the overcrowding +of London beyond the limits of health and of +comfort, and this overcrowding was troubling the level +head of the great Burghley, who tried to cope with it by +restricting the building of new houses. Ralegh was a +man whose nature always was "to turn necessity to +glorious gain." He saw the tremendous possibilities +of this superabundance of men, how, if they could be +placed in these new lands, they would prove of infinite +value to the old country which, by their presence, they +were annoying. He knew that Spaniards had settled +in wild new lands, and lived there for a time like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[ 30]</a></span> +marauders, and returned home with wealth which they +had wrung from the natives. But his idea was larger; +it was the first proper plan of colonization, for his +imagination carried him far on into the future beyond +the time of a generation or two, beyond the seizing of +immediate wealth. The vastness of the scheme appealed +to him; the difficulties he realized to be so great that +they were worth a man's while to grapple with.</p> + +<p>And the scheme held him by its enthralling interest, +not only because he was ambitious (as all men worth +anything are), and saw in it a means of furthering his +ambitions; not only because he was patriotic, and saw +in it a means of furthering his country's good, but +primarily for the scheme's own sake. The idea obsessed +him as an idea quite apart from its consequences, and +whether the result would be good or bad; that would +only be proved by the event, and that doubtless added +enormously to the interest. But an inventor or a pioneer +in any new field, who thinks chiefly of the consequences, +does not get far on his journey. That part of any action +is more profitably left to his friends and his advisers, +and they are never far to seek.</p> + +<p>Those were not the days of specialization. Affairs +were not so intricate that an expert was needed to work +out every branch of a subject. Less was known too; +and a man of average intelligence could learn all there +was to learn of most things without the standard of +knowledge in each making him appear ignorant of all.</p> + +<p>In June, 1578, Sir Humfrey Gilbert who, as has +been said, had been busily engaged for many years in +the discovery of a north-west passage, obtained a royal +charter for the greater purpose. "Elizabeth by the +grace of God, Queen of England, etc. To all people +to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[ 31]</a></span> +that of our especial grace certaine science and mere +motion we have given and granted and by these +presents for us our heires and successours doe give +and grant to our trustie and well beloved servant Sir +Humfrey Gilbert of Compton in our Countie of Devonshire +knight, and to his heires and assignes for ever +free libertie and license from time to time and at all +times for ever hereafter to discover, finde, searche out +and view such remote heathen and barbarous landes +countries and territories, not actually possessed of any +Christian prince or people, as to him his heires and +assignes and to every or anie of them shall seem good: +and the same to have hold, occupy and enjoy...." +run the letters patent with their royal paraphernalia of +phrase.</p> + +<p>And in September, 1578, Gilbert had overcome the +initial difficulty of collecting provisions sufficient to +victual his eleven ships for a year, and of picking the +right men for the enterprise, two matters of enormous +importance. In the latter he was not successful. Sir +Francis Knollys owned some of the ships, and his son +went on the expedition. This son sowed dissension +where unity was a vital necessity; he insulted Sir +Humfrey Gilbert, and at length deserted. Contrary +winds delayed the expedition, which became disorganized, +and after a fight with the Spaniards was +recalled. Ralegh was captain of a ship named the +<i>Falcon</i>, and that was in all probability his first engagement +at sea.</p> + +<p>The expedition was on such a large scale that the +Spanish authorities in England clamoured for its recall; +and there is ample evidence, as Edwards remarks, to +show that Ralegh was as much feared and hated in +1578 by the Spaniards, as ever he was at any later<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[ 32]</a></span> +period of his career. They tried always to thwart his +great scheme of colonization, the greatness of which +they realized, seeing the danger of it to their own +possessions, and for a time they succeeded in their +aims.</p> + +<p>It is in connection with this expedition that Ralegh's +name first appears in the Council Book.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[ 33]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3> + +<h2>THE ARRIVAL</h2> + +<blockquote><p>In Ireland—The state of the country—Cruelty of the wars—At +Rakele—Illustrative anecdotes—Smerwick—Ralegh's initiative—Lord +Grey de Wilton—Exploit at Bally—In touch with the home +authorities.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>The scene changes to Ireland, where the continual +fighting served as a training-ground—with France +and the Netherlands—for the energies of the young +gentleman of the period. Ireland seemed at this time to +popish powers a suitable starting-place from which to +overset the rule of the woman Elizabeth, who dared +to establish again a Church independent of Rome, and to +put her woman's self at the head of it. But the popish +powers were mistaken in their choice. It is true that the +Irish were devoutly Catholic; they were better pleased +however to fight out their own feuds than to join together +in any way for any cause. They were lawless and +savage; and not even their hatred of the invading +English could serve to concentrate them. They were far +too impatient for serious warfare. They liked to come +upon a foe—a Butler on a Geraldine—like a whirlwind, +fight a terrific battle, and make off to their homes to +listen to the songs by their bards, chanted in praise of +their undying prowess, "as those Bardes and rythmers +doe for a little reward or a share of a stolen cow," until +the man of prowess praised "waxed most insolent and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[ 34]</a></span> +halfe madde with the love of himself and his own lewd +deeds. Of a most notorious thiefe ... one of their +Bardes will say, That he was none of the milkesops +that was brought up by the fireside, but that most +of his dayes he spent in armes and valiant enterprises, +that he did never eat his meat until it was won by the +sword, that he lay not all night slugging under his mantle +but used commonly to keep others waking to defend their +lives, and did light his candle at the flames of their houses +to bade him in the darknesse ... and finally that he +died not bewayled of many, but made many waile when +he died, that dearly bought his death."</p> + +<p>Such men were not ripe for the burden of a great +cause. But one Sanders, an English Jesuit already past +middle age, meeting with Fitzmaurice in Spain, formed +a capital project of passing over to Ireland, subduing it, +and passing from Ireland to England and driving out +Elizabeth and her nation of Protestants.</p> + +<p>In May, 1579, they landed at Dingle, after having on +their voyage taken a small Bristol vessel, the sailors and +captain of which they pitched into the sea. The landing +at Dingle was impressive as the ceremony, which inaugurated +the coming of the true religion, must needs be. +"Two friars stepped first on shore; a bishop followed, +mitre on head and crosier in hand, then Sanders, with the +consecrated banner, and after him Fitzmaurice."</p> + +<p>But the expedition did not rise to the level of its +inauguration. It served only to stir up a savage rebellion +in Munster, and to bring devastation upon the country.</p> + +<p>It was to help quell the insurrection that Ralegh came +to Ireland as captain of a company of one hundred foot-soldiers +at the end of 1579, or the beginning of 1580.</p> + +<p>The war—if war it can be called—was carried on +with savage cruelty on both sides. Less could not be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[ 35]</a></span> +expected. The times were not gentle, when little girls +in London might see men hung and quartered, and limbs +stared down from the chief gates of most cities. Nor +would mercy be expected from generals who came to +Ireland as Pelham came, and as Lord Grey de Wilton +came, regarding Ireland as the grave of reputation. To +Ralegh, too, the service was itself distasteful. He writes +with characteristic vigour of phrase to the Earl of Leicester, +"I would disdayn it as mich to keap sheepe. I will not +trouble your honor with the busyness of this loste land; +for that Sir Warram Sentleger can best of any man +deliver unto your lordshipe the good, the bad, the mischief, +the means to amende, and all in all of this common +welthe or rather common woe."</p> + +<p>The English soldiery regarded the Irish as savages +who would not live at peace, and must be exterminated, +with the exception of the actual tillers of the ground or +churls as they were called. And this point of view was +encouraged by those in authority, who had neither men +nor money to spare for guarding and feeding prisoners. +"Death," as Froude says, "was the only gaoler their +finances could support." Nothing can extenuate cruelty; +but it is well to face the fact that cruelty, and cruelty not +greatly less atrocious than this, was an absolute attribute +of the Elizabethan age. The one quality, which runs +through all the pages of every history of every man and +every movement, is vitality—intense, burning vitality; and +this vitality illumined the literature, chaotic as much of +it is, and beat pulsing through the veins of the nation, +explaining its magnificent advance, and enthusiasm and +greatness, even as it explains its brutality. England was +like a boy who is suddenly conscious of being strong and +of being free, with all the capacity of some young Hercules +and all his reckless faults.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[ 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>When Ralegh joined the Irish service, Lord Justice +Pelham was in the position of Lord Deputy. Soon after +his arrival, however, Pelham was recalled, greatly to his +pleasure, and Lord Grey de Wilton, Gascoigne's patron +and general in the Netherlands, undertook the command +of the forces, and the Earl of Ormond, an Irishman, was +made Lieutenant of Munster. These were Ralegh's +chiefs; and his criticism of their methods of management +first brought him, as will be seen later, under the direct +notice of the great Burghley.</p> + +<p>As an active soldier, however, his exploits are exciting +and adventurous, and they are not hidden in the obscurity +which hid his exploits in France. The same Hooker +who has been already quoted, records them with pride in +his continuation of Holinshed's Chronicles.</p> + +<p>Ralegh was once stationed with a troop of cavalry +at Rakele under Lord Grey. He was always a well-eyed +man and observed that the Irish were in the habit +of hurrying down upon an encampment immediately it +had been abandoned. Accordingly, he made a plan to +surprise them, and the plan was successful. He captured +a considerable number of prisoners. One of the Irish +carried a bundle of withies, and Ralegh went up to him +and asked him why he carried the withies. "To hang +English churls with," was the blunt answer. "Is that +so?" said Ralegh. "They shall now serve for an Irish +kerne." And without more ado he bade his men hang +him to the nearest tree. The repartee was prompt and +savage. It is typical of the time that it should have +happened; and intensely typical that a careful record +should have been made in contemporary history.</p> + +<p>Another time we read that Ralegh, on a small expedition +to a certain Lord Barry, of Barry Court, in a +fight against great odds, twice at his own personal peril<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[ 37]</a></span> +rescued one Henry Moyle, who twice was caught in the +soft bog. "He was unhorsed, and stood with his pistol +and quarter-staff, one man against twenty." History +does not relate what he said to Henry Moyle on his +return to camp. The two stories stand well side by side. +At the tragic sacking of Smerwick Ralegh was one of +the captains ordered to carry out the last desperate +instructions: the siege is illustrative not only of that bad +Irish campaign, but also shows what a personal part high +officers used to take in battles.</p> + +<p>A second band of Papal soldiers, comprised of +Italians, Spaniards and Frenchmen, came to Ireland in +1580, and made Smerwick their headquarters, a fort on +the shore fully exposed to the Atlantic winds. Here +Lord Grey came upon them, but was obliged to wait +eight days with his men until Sir William Winter arrived +in Ventry harbour with cannon and ammunition, and at +length joined Admiral Bingham in Smerwick Bay. +Lord Grey galloped down over the sands to welcome +Winter. Speedily the cannon were landed and placed +in position before the fort, and the bombardment began. +The English crept nearer after the first day, until the +cannon were within a cable's length of the wall, and Sir +William Winter himself taking careful aim, brought +down the enemy's chief piece, and a man appeared on +the ramparts waving a white hand-kerchief. The firing +ceased. Then Signor Jeffrey, an Italian, came to entreat +grace from the Lord Deputy, but grace was refused him. +"Afterward their Coronnel Don Sebastian came forth +to intreate that they might part with their armes like +souldiers, at the least with their lives according to the +custome of war ... it was strongly denied him and told +him by the Lord Deputie himselfe that they could not +justly pleade either custome of warre or lawe of +nations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[ 38]</a></span>—for that they were not any lawfull enemies...." The +Pope sent them? asked Lord Grey de Wilton, and +declared himself surprised, the bitter old enthusiast, that +gentlemen should undertake a commission from "a +detestable shaveling the right antichrist and patron of +the doctrine of devils." He would only agree to wait +till morning. So on the morning of the next November +day, the garrison, seven hundred men, piled their arms, +and with a few women and children stood waiting, while +the great Atlantic waves beat coldly, sullenly on the +shore. "Then put I in certain bands who fell straight to +execution," writes Grey, with grim brevity. Six +hundred men in all were slain that November morning, +and Grey had the bodies stripped and laid in neat lines +upon the shore, and Grey looked at them without +emotion, and thought them "as gallant and goodly +personages as ever I saw." So he wrote to the Queen, +informing her of the victory, and the Queen wrote back +thanking him, adding a postscript in her own hand (a +special mark of honour) warmly approving of his action: +and Camden courteously lies when he says that Grey +shed tears and Elizabeth wished the cruelty had been +unnecessary. Captain of one of these "certain bands" +was Walter Ralegh. Edmund Spenser was at this time +secretary to Lord Grey de Wilton, and he writes in that +scholarly graphic treatise in dialogue form, which has +been already quoted, namely the "View of the State of +Ireland"—"Whereupon the said Coronell did absolutely +yeeld himselfe and the fort, with all therein, and +craved only mercy, which it being not thought good to +shew them, for danger of them, if, being saved they +should afterwards join with the Irish; and also for +terrour to the Irish who are much imboldened by those +forraigne succours, and also put in hope of more ere long:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[ 39]</a></span> +there was no other way, but to make that short end of +them as was made." Thus writes Edmund Spenser, the +author of the "Faërie Queen," a man not famous for his +ferity.</p> + +<p>Praise and blame are easy to dispense: but they are +dangerous commodities. They raise too freely the thick +white dust of prejudice which even dims eyes which are +anxious to observe a neighbour, and effectually blinds +eyes that wish to peer into the recesses of a bygone age. +Let us be glad if we are more human and more humane, +and avoid hugging ourselves too closely on imagined +superiority. Violent death stalked down every alley of +life; and violent death is not more dreadful than the +haggard existence in which millions are nursed to-day. +Our cruelty is a little less apparent, and more respectable. +That is at any rate something. Let us be +thankful for that, and let us by all means subscribe to the +Home for Lost Cats.</p> + +<p>But Ralegh was not content with the perils and +excitement of active service. He possessed initiative. +He saw the masses of money that were being spent, and +saw that full value was not being obtained. The war in +his opinion was being mismanaged. He did not hesitate +to write to the authorities at home, stating in round +terms what his opinion was. It is not surprising that +Lord Grey de Wilton was annoyed by the young man's +audacity. "I neither like his carriage," he writes to +Walsingham, "nor his company: and therefore other +than by direction and commandment, and what his right +can require he is not to expect at my hands." Apart +from the administration of the war there was little in +common between the two men. Lord Grey was a +staunch Protestant, unwavering in his religious zeal, and +blind in his hatred of Popery. He would have passed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[ 40]</a></span> +through Ireland, had he had his will, with the sword +gripped in one hand and the Bible and the English +Prayer-book clasped tightly in the other.</p> + +<p>Ralegh was not that order of man. There was +nothing grim and nothing austere about him. He was +a man of address. Lord Grey was stiff and blunt, +a Puritan a little before his proper time. Very characteristic +is the sentence in his letter to the Queen, telling +of the death of young Cheke. "So wrought in him +God's spirit, plainly declaring him a child of his; elected +to be no less comfort of his good and godly friends than +great instruction and manifest motion of every other +hearer that stood by, of whom there was a good troop." +He was inclined to regard most things from the standpoint +of religious experience. He was not addicted to +humanity.</p> + +<p>The Irish were not only rebels against his country; +they were what was far worse—rebels against his own +faith, and he sullenly objected to any measures which +might serve to bring them into line with English interests. +He wished to force his own salvation upon them rather +than to make them useful subjects of the Queen.</p> + +<p>That must have been where Ralegh chiefly differed +from him. And there is an interesting example of this +difference and of one of Ralegh's chief powers, to wit his +influence over men. For Ralegh was wise and politic. +He saw the state of affairs in Ireland and formed in his +mind a definite plan of action—to use Irish factions to +English purpose, and not to allow them to try and join +under the cause of another religion. The most dangerous +enemies were the crafty instigators in the background; +and one of the most influential of these was an Anglo-Irish +chieftain, named Lord Roche, who lived at Bally, +some twenty miles from Cork where Ralegh was stationed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[ 41]</a></span> +Ralegh convinced Lord Grey of the importance of bringing +this feeder of revolt as prisoner to Cork, and undertook +to do so himself with his small band of followers. +And this he did by sheer dexterity and daring in the +teeth of overwhelming difficulty. For the Seneschal of +Imokelly, one Fitz-Edmonds, had wind of Ralegh's intention, +and lay in ambush for him with eight hundred +men. But Ralegh outwitted him by his speed and dashed +with his small party through the ambuscade. That was +not all. Arrived at Bally, he was met by five hundred +townsmen and tenantry of Lord Roche. These men he +held at bay with the larger part of his band, and himself, +with six chosen men, rode on to Lord Roche's castle. +At the gate he called out that he desired to speak with +Lord Roche, and was answered that he would not be +permitted to enter with more than two followers. But +while he and the seneschal were parleying, the six of +them slipped into the gate, and gained admission for +another party which Ralegh had bidden follow him at a +short interval, the attention of the warders being engaged +by Ralegh, so that before the Irish knew what had +happened, they found the castle courtyard full of +musketeers, armed and standing to attention. Ralegh +meanwhile was in the presence of Lord Roche, who was +forced to treat the intruder as a guest, and sturdily +maintaining his loyalty to the Queen, ordered his servants +to bring in a banquet. Ralegh listened with all courtesy; +and said that it was the will of the Lord Deputy of +Ireland to hear with his own ears this noble confession of +loyalty, and that he must beg leave to escort Lord Roche +and his family to Cork. Lord Roche demurred. Ralegh +insisted. It is difficult to decide whether the situation +appealed more strongly to his sense of humour or to his +sense of power. The Irish chieftain at his own table in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[ 42]</a></span> +the banqueting-hall of his own castle, surrounded by his +men and the young captain with his two soldiers inside, +some dozen in the courtyard and a few more dozen in +the town, twenty miles from any assistance! "Desperation +begetteth courage but not greater nor so lively as +doth assured confidence," he wrote some thirty years +later. Now his courage was certainly backed by both.</p> + +<p>Gradually Lord Roche came to realize the inflexible +determination of the young man; and agreed to what by +Ralegh's inevitable personal strength of will became his +only possible course. He consented to go to Cork, and +went. The story does not end here. Not only did he +go to Cork, but from being the Queen's dangerous foe, +he became, through Ralegh's influence, the Queen's loyal +supporter and staunch friend, and three of his sons +actually were slain fighting for the Queen's cause in +Ireland. That was one of Ralegh's triumphs. It shows +the mettle of the man and his power over others, and +more than that it bears out strikingly a distinct line of +policy, which he formed then and expressed later, in +dealing with the disaffected. Minding these Irish experiences, +it is interesting to read what he says of Amilcar's +treatment of the mercenaries in revolt. "Against +these inconveniences, Mercy and Severity, used with due +respect, are the best remedies. In neither of which +Amilcar failed. For as long as these his own soldiours +were in any way likely to be reclaimed by gentle courses, +his humanitie was ready to invite them. But when they +were transported with beastly outrage beyond all regard +of honesty and shame, he rewarded their villainie with +answerable vengeance, casting them unto wilde beasts to +be devoured."</p> + +<p>Moreover, it is certain that Lord Burghley respected +Ralegh's judgment, for there is a remarkable paper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[ 43]</a></span> +extant written in the handwriting of both, which shows +that Burghley conferred privately with Ralegh about the +Irish rebellion. The document is dated October 25, +1582, and is inscribed with the words, "The opinion of +Mr. Rawley upon motions made to hym for the meanes +of subduyng the Rebellion in Monster." And in it the +point upon which Ralegh chiefly insists is the pressing +need to win over the Irish chieftains to the Queen's +cause; as he had himself already done conspicuously in +the case of Lord Roche.</p> + +<p>There is a story that Ralegh owed his first introduction +to the Queen's favour by his address in a conference +before her, in which he proved his opinion, man to man, +against Lord Grey de Wilton, his superior; but whether +this story with all its dramatic possibilities is valid or not, +it is certain that his conduct in Ireland brought him into +great notice: and he was not the man easily to slip from +any advantage he had gained. We hear of him joining +the Earl of Leicester in a state mission to the Netherlands, +and then he bursts into final brilliant prominence as +courtier and his Queen's favourite.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[ 44]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER V</h3> + +<h2>QUEEN'S FAVOURITE</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Court life—The Queen's position—Her character—She takes +notice of Ralegh—Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester—Sir Philip +Sidney—Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, and Walsingham—Robert +Cecil—The dress of the courtier—The language of the +courtier—The other side, and the other Queen—Mary, Queen of +Scots—The great intrigue—Its discovery—Death of Queen Mary.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>The Court was the brilliant feature of the time. The +Court was not confined to ceremonial functions +and presentations—it was not a bath in which a man or +a woman must be dipped before he or she could lay any +real claim to distinguished respectability. The Court +had a vivid existence of its own. "It was the centre, not +of government alone, but of the fine arts: the exemplar +of culture and civilization." The Court held a lien on +the gaiety and life of the time. Courtiers and merchants +(the two chief classes) were as distinct as a little later +were town and gown at the Universities. To be a +proper courtier became a cult.</p> + +<p>Three great books, extraordinarily typical of the +Renaissance, were written in almost identical years, +books which pointed to new scope for the State, for the +Prince, and for the private man. In 1513 Machiavel +completed <i>The Prince</i>, in 1516 Sir Thomas More's +<i>Utopia</i> was published, and in the same year Count +Baldassare Castiglione finished his <i>Book of the Courtier</i>.</p> + +<p>The dream of the Utopia may never be realized;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[ 45]</a></span> +but in some seventy-five years a close example of the +Prince and of the Courtier were found in Queen Elizabeth, +and in many of the men who surrounded her. +<i>The Book of the Courtier</i> was translated into all the +languages of Europe, and became the text-book of the +cult. Its English translator was Thomas Hoby, and his +work, as has been seen, was commended by the judicious +Ascham. Castiglione was chaffed for moulding his own +conduct precisely on the model of the perfect courtier +he portrays in his book; and he could not but confess +that the man of his imagination was the man he would +choose to be. And, indeed, it would be what every +courtier would aspire to be, as Wordsworth's Happy +Warrior,</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"This is the happy Warrior, this is he<br /> +That every man in arms should wish to be."<br /> +</p> + +<p>The Courtier must be gallant in the use of arms, +proficient in all exercises of the body, skilled in all +exercises of the mind; he must be ready and witty of +tongue; he must be well-born and distinguished. But +his realm is beyond the mere enterprise of accomplishments +and birth. For the book ends with Bembo's +great praise of Beauty—that Beauty "which is the origin +of all other beawtye, whiche never encreaseth nor diminisheth +always bewtifull and of itself ... most simple. +This is the beawtye unseperable from the high bountye, +whiche with her voyce calleth and draweth to her all +thynges...," and an understanding of this Heavenly +Beauty must be the final trait of the Perfect Courtier.</p> + +<p>And it is well to bear this in mind. For this feeling +for beauty existed in the Elizabethan courtier, just as it +gave the finishing touch to Castiglione's hero; and +existed as really as the more conspicuous qualities of +gallantry and strength and intellect. Vitality, as has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[ 46]</a></span> +been said again and again, was the keynote of the age; +and it is apparent in this aspiration towards beauty, just +as it is apparent in reckless cruelty. The compass of the +age was immense. And every instinct, every tendency +of brute or god, raged with intense life, and was expressed +Nothing lay dormant. The centre of all this +life, of all this genius for living was the Court; and the +illustrious head of the Court was Queen Elizabeth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 738px;"> +<img src="images/illus064.jpg" width="738" height="1024" alt="QUEEN ELIZABETH" title="" /> +<span class="caption">QUEEN ELIZABETH</span> +</div> + +<p>Guy de Maupassant has written a story of a small +band of French soldiers who are at the last gasp with +hunger and weariness and cold. They cannot march +any further. They are content to lie down in the snow +and die. But two fugitives come running to them, an +old man and his grand-daughter, a young girl. "Allons +les camarades," cries the Sergeant Pratique, "faut porter +cette demoiselle-lŕ ou bien nous n' sommes pu Français, +nom d'un chien." So the worn-out men forget their +weariness and carry her; they dare the cold and strip +off their overcoats to keep her warm; they find new +courage and drive back a party of the enemy, and they +reach the French lines in safety. "What's that you're +carrying?" asks a soldier. "Aussitôt une petite figure +blonde apparut, depeignée et souriante qui répondit, +'C'est moi, monsieur.' Un rire s'éleva parmi les hommes +et une joie courut dans leurs c[oe]urs. Alors Pratique +agita son képi en vociferant, 'Vive la France.'"</p> + +<p>There in little is the exact nature of Elizabeth's +influence, and her influence was conscious and acted, not +upon the immediate Court alone, but upon England. +De Maupassant does not give any details of the girl, +nothing of her character, not even her name. They are +not relevant to his purpose. She may have as many +faults in her small way as Elizabeth had in her great +way. He does not mention them.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[ 47]</a></span></p><p>Such a mass of detail, however, is known about +Elizabeth, and her faults have been so relentlessly exposed +in the interest of Truth—her meanness, her +avarice, her treachery, her wantonness, and what not—that +the whole picture of the woman who was learned +enough to speak in public impromptu in Latin and +could converse in many languages, of the woman who +was great enough to cause her own worship to be the +fashion, and the sincere fashion, of the woman who +was sufficiently beautiful and sufficiently distinguished +to shine like a diamond on the forehead of that resplendent +age,—is almost lost to view, so clouded with +the dust of detraction has that picture become.</p> + +<p>She was the very epitome of the time. All the +brutality and energy and brilliance of that brutal, vital +age found their counterpart in her. And she was +a woman, a fitting contemporary of Catherine de +Medicis. But she was too much a politician to be +a good woman; and too much a woman to be a good +politician.</p> + +<p>To all the power which a beautiful woman, and a +woman strong in body and intellect and passion, always +has possessed and always will possess, she added the +prestige of being Queen of England. Whereas the +passions of her father threw Europe into confusion, the +love affairs of Elizabeth, less impetuously managed, +often held the balance between nations and brought +every royal prince to England as suitor for her +hand, and the great English courtiers scowled or +laughed at them, but were kept in allegiance by their +sovereign.</p> + +<p>Wit, birth, and bearing found favour in her sight. +There was no room at her Court for a fool. She loved +wit as she loved splendour.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[ 48]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Queen had heard of Humfrey Gilbert's nephew +from Humfrey Gilbert's aunt, one of her intimate +attendant women; and when Ralegh first came into +notice by his exploits in Ireland, she was inclined to +favour him. She was interested in his career, as a letter +bears witness in which she writes, "... for that our +pleasure is to have our Servaunt Walter Rawley treyned +some longer tyme in that our realme for his better +experience in Martiall affaires, and for the special care +we have to doe him good in respect of his kyndred that +have served us some of them (as you knowe) neer +aboute our Parson: theise are to require youe that the +leading of the said bande may be committed to the +said Rawley."</p> + +<p>Many stories are extant about his first meeting with +Elizabeth. Truth hides in all of them. Some say that +the Queen was present when Lord Grey de Wilton and +young Ralegh were put face to face in a council chamber +before Lord Burghley, and that she was struck by the +power and skill with which he made good his case, +proving the lack of judgment Lord Grey had shown in +conducting the affairs of the war. Old Thomas Fuller, +that worthiest of his own worthies (he had an eye for +romantic effect, steadfast as he was for truth in matters +of importance), relates that "Her Majesty, meeting with +a plashy place, made some scruple to go on; when +Ralegh (dressed in the gay and genteel habit of those +times) presently cast off and spread his new plush cloak +on the ground, whereon the Queen trod gently over, +rewarding him afterwards with many suits for his so free +and seasonable tender of so fair a footcloth. Thus an +advantageous admission into the notice of a prince is +more than half a degree to preferment." Industrious +Fuller does not leave it at that; he proceeds to tell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[ 49]</a></span> +how Ralegh wrote on a window in the Queen's +presence,</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall,"<br /> +</p> + +<p>and how the Queen added with more grace than rhythm,</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Ralegh's heart did not fail him. He became the Queen's +lover; and his influence over the Queen was so recognized +that Tarleton, the famous comedian, dared, during +a performance, to add point to the words, "See, the +knave commands the queen," by stretching out his hand +towards Ralegh, who stood by the Queen. And Elizabeth, +it is recorded, frowned. Swift was his ascent to +fortune, came the first step how it may.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth was too clever to try to lay aside her sex, +though she was a skilful markswoman, an able horse-woman. +Even her staid Archbishop Whitgift she used +to tease, saying (as Isaac Walton gravely records as a +fair testimony of her piety) that "she would never eat +flesh in Lent without obtaining a License from her little +black husband: and that she pitied him because she +trusted him."</p> + +<p>She was so born a Queen that she was able to do and +say the most dangerous things without losing her distinction, +or lessening her dignity.</p> + +<p>And it is small wonder in those days when in +England the whole force of the Renaissance turned as it +were to a rapture of patriotism that such a Queen should +be the visible emblem of the country, and be herself +worshipped. Men might rave at her whims, they were +driven frantic by them, but in their hearts they cherished +her as Queen of themselves and Queen of their country. +Fortunately for herself, and fortunately for England, +her intellect mastered her passions, though that does not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[ 50]</a></span> +prove that she was passionless: far from it. There is +nothing to justify that last scandal of a moral age which +would damn her as a feelingless flirt. Lord Bacon, the +wise Baron of Verulam, summed the matter up pithily, +attaching its right value to the question, which, after all, +is a paltry one, when, in writing on the Fortunate +Memory, he says: "She suffered herself to be honoured +and carressed and celebrated and extolled with the name +of Love; and wished it, and continued it beyond the +suitability of her age. If you take these things more +softly, they may not even be without some admiration, +because such things are commonly found in our fabulous +narratives of a Queen in the Islands of Bliss, with her +hall and her institutes, who receives the administrations +of Love, but prohibits its licentiousness. If you judge +them more severely, still they have this admirable +circumstance, that gratifications of this sort did not much +hurt her reputation, and not at all her majesty; nor ever +relaxed her government, nor were any notable impediment +to her State affairs." And it must be remembered +that the times were neither fastidious nor gentle, and that +when Bacon says licentiousness (<i>lasciviam</i> is the Latin +word he uses) he meant licentiousness. Elizabeth was +too sane, and too clever, and too busy to have time to +be licentious: just as she could not have retained her +control over men and control over herself, seen in the +adroit way in which she managed the foreign princes, if +she had remained what is called pure.</p> + +<p>Masterly was her knowledge and treatment of men. +Roughly speaking, they were divided into two classes; +those whom she liked, and those whom she valued: but +she kept them all imperiously to her will. The great +Burghley was her man of business; he and his son +Robert Cecil were her chief statesmen, and well she knew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[ 51]</a></span> +their value: capricious and exacting as she might be, she +respected their advice and gave way to it. "Burghley," +wrote Leicester, at the height of his arrogant power, +"could do more with her in an hour than others in +seven years." And he wrote concerning some political +business. Never, when Leicester had most influence +with the Queen, did she ever allow him to control her +political actions, or in any way to supplant Cecil.</p> + +<p>Robert Dudley, born about the year 1532, made Earl +of Leicester in 1564, enjoyed the Queen's good-will more +continuously and more to his advantage than any other +of her lovers. He was regarded as the chief man in +England by the ambassadors of foreign princes: he was +for a long time the most magnificent. But Elizabeth +kept always to her maxim, that England should be a +country with one mistress and no master; much to +Leicester's displeasure. His desire was to be master. +He suggests a comparison with Milton's Satan, "better +to reign in Hell than to serve in Heav'n," when he tried, +and tried with conspicuous ill-success, to become King of +the Netherlands. By the old nobility, staunch Sussex +and proud Norfolk, he was hated. With the Duke of +Norfolk, he on one occasion came to blows, when, +during a game of tennis, of which the Queen was a +spectator, he snatched her pocket-hand-kerchief to wipe +the sweat from his forehead. They thought him saucy +and overweening. To the Queen his insolence was not +unpleasant. Cecil disliked him (he does not appear a +man to hate any one) and judiciously draws up papers +contrasting Leicester and other suitors, especially the +Archduke Charles, much to Leicester's disadvantage. +But for all his glitter and influence, he was hated by the +English people. His name had an ill sound ever since +the untoward death of his wife, Amy Robsart. Though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[ 52]</a></span> +the pamphlet <i>Leicester's Commonwealth</i> is wholly unreliable, +which among other slanders, states that the +Lady Amy was actually murdered at his command, it is +most probable that she committed suicide through misery +at her neglect. Well enough men knew what was meant +when the husband in the <i>Yorkshire Tragedy</i> says, after +he has thrown his wife down and slain her:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"The surest way to charm a woman's tongue<br /> +Is—break her neck: a politician did it."<br /> +</p> + +<p>They thought of the stone staircase at Cumnor and +shuddered. The people did not like his way of cheapening +their Queen's good name: they did not like the man +who caused scandals to arise round her. In 1560 Anne +Dowe of Brentford was imprisoned for asserting that +Elizabeth was with child by Robert Dudley; and she +was the first of a long line of offenders who were punished +for the same assertion.</p> + +<p>And just as men hated Dudley for his arrogance, and +for his daring to think even of setting himself beside +their Queen, so they loved his nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, +for the grace which his hand brought to everything +which he touched. He fulfilled the ideal of Castiglione's +Courtier. He was the antithesis of the rough, unmannered +Dudley. In Dudley all the cruelty and ostentation +and savage power of the time seem to find +expression; whereas in Philip Sidney, all its grace and +skill and poetry were manifest. Men vied with one +another in his praises, men fought for the right to call +him friend, and a woman became immortal by being +"Sidney's sister." "Sidney, the Siren of this latter age," +writes Barnefield; "divine Sir Philip," Michael Drayton +calls him; and Ben Jonson, as though in defiance of the +charge of exaggeration utters (you can hear him say it),<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[ 53]</a></span> +"the godlike Sidney." Even the ribald Nash lowers his +mad voice to the note of reverence, "Apollo hath +resigned his Ivory Harpe unto Astrophel and he, like +Mercury, must lull you a sleep with his musicke. Sleepe +Argus, sleep Ignorance, sleep Impudence, for Mercury +hath Io and onely Io Paean belongeth to Astrophel. +Deare Astrophel, that in the ashes of thy Love livest +againe like the Phoenix; o might thy bodie (as thy +name) live againe likewise here amongst us; but the +earthe, the mother of mortality hath snacht thee too +soone into her chilled cold armes, and will not let thee +by any meanes be drawne from her deadly imbrace; and +thy divine Soule, carried on an Angels wings to heaven, +is installed in Hermes place sole prolocutor to the Gods." +His life was a poem, which all the men who lived with +him, and all the men who knew his name, were great +enough to read and to appreciate; his death is an +example for all time. Fame with its common story +cannot sully the brightness of the superb sacrifice of that +superb self.</p> + +<p>Dudley expressed the presumptuous vitality of the +Court, and Sidney its vital poetry. A little aloof from +the Court, which he was apt to regard with kindly disdain +at its frivolity, moved the staid figure of Burghley, the +Lord High Treasurer of England, Elizabeth's great man +of business, perhaps the finest political intelligence that +has ever thought out a way for a country through the +most complicated difficulties, at a time when disaster +crouched ever ready to spring and involve that country +in ruin.</p> + +<p>William Cecil had an absolute mastery over every +detail; he possessed a genius for arrangement. Nothing +escaped his notice. He was a kind of machine which +attracted all the wild impulses of the time; they passed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[ 54]</a></span> +into the machine's mouth disordered, unarranged; and +they passed out shaped, controlled by his slow inevitable +will. As a statesman he appears hardly human in his +freedom from all personality; he seems a mask hiding +the brain of England, and regulating it to the only end +where success could be. Men rose to fame fiercely +struggling, and did brilliant acts or mad acts, and sank +again or settled as the case might be; but always at the +supreme head, always alert, always careful, impassive as +some Eastern Buddha, sat the Lord Burghley, managing +the affairs of the state, managing even the state's +impulsive, whimsical mistress. His impassivity afflicted +her at times, so that she played pranks on him, vainly +endeavouring to upset his restraint and his dignity; but +her pranks were hardly heeded. He was English to the +solid backbone, and resisted unequivocally the rage of +fashion that went out towards all that was foreign; and +yet his foreign policy was unswerving and level-headed; +he looked upon war as the last terrible resource of state-craft, +in an age in which fighting was regarded as the +highroad to glory, and was loved for its own wild sake. +Elizabeth showed her knowledge of the right word when +she called him her "spirit" and her "oracle"; and the +courtiers their discernment of the obvious, when they +called him "old fox." Together the two names describe +him with some accuracy.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 768px;"> +<img src="images/illus074.jpg" width="768" height="843" alt="WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY" title="" /> +<span class="caption">WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY</span> +</div> + +<p>At his right hand worked Sir Francis Walsingham, +who was more astute, but lacked Burghley's greatness of +mind. Walsingham was an admirable servant: he would +never have been successful under the full weight of +responsibility. It was he who developed the system of +espionage through every country in Europe, and brought +it to an uncanny perfection. That system of secret +messages was typical of the day; it was so easy to keep +facts hidden, and to pervert them advantageously when +news travelled so slowly, that it was a necessity to have +reliable men on every spot to check statements and to +watch events and tendencies. When Walsingham died +in 1590, Burghley showed his indomitable energy by +mastering the intricate cyphers and details connected +with the business; he was then at the good age of +seventy.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[ 55]</a></span></p><p>As his health failed, his son, Robert Cecil, took more +and more of his great father's responsibilities upon himself; +and "The Little Secretary," as the queen called +him, became gradually the most important man in the +realm. He was craftier than his father, and more adaptable, +but he never rose to the greatness of Lord Burghley. +His figure is not so imposing; there was something under-hand +about his conduct, which does not appear in the +slow, diplomatic wisdom of the older man.</p> + +<p>There comes a strange interest in knowing that this +great intelligence of Burghley arranged not only the +affairs of the State, but the details of his household with +the same impassive power. His steward writes to him +about a new gown which is wanted for his mother: +"The gown that you would make it must be for every +day and yet because it comes from you (except you write +to her to the contrary) she will make it her holiday gown, +whereof she hath great store already, both of silk and +cloth. But I think, sir, if you make her one of cloth +with some velvet on it, with your letter to desire her for +your sake to wear it daily, she would accustom herself to +it: so as she would forget to go any longer in such base +apparel as she hath used to have a delight in which is +too mean for one of a lower estate than she is."</p> + +<p>And of Burghley's earlier days, Roger Ascham +gives an attractive glimpse in his introduction to <i>The</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[ 56]</a></span> +<i>Schoolmaster</i>, where he shows the man's methodical life +and wide interests; for the renewal of learning did not at all +pass Burghley by; he was an enthusiast about the proper +pronunciation of the Greek tongue, and in 1541 was hotly +engaged in the disputes. But to old Ascham: he writes +about the important dinner, in 1563, at which the subject +of his book was suggested to him: "M. Secretary hath +this accustomed manner though his head be never so full +of most weightie matters of the Realme, yet, at diner time +he doth seeme to lay them alwaies aside; and findeth +ever fit occasion to taulke pleasantly of other matters, +but most gladly of some matter of learning: wherein he +will curteslie heare the minde of the meanest at his +table."</p> + +<p>It is refreshing to see how in his private life he was +a simple-minded man, who suffered from the gout and +was plagued with quack remedies, all of which he carefully +docketed, having no doubt tried their efficacy before +he set them on one side.</p> + +<p>Such were the chief figures when Ralegh came to the +Court.</p> + +<p>Nothing illustrates his rapid rise in favour so well as +a letter which Ralegh writes to Lord Burghley from the +Court at Greenwich. The letter shows that Burghley had +asked for his help on behalf of his son-in-law, the Earl +of Oxford, who was bitterly hostile to Ralegh and had, +as may be gathered from the letter, gone out of his way +to do him an injury. "I delivered Her Your Lordship's +letter. What I said further, how honorable and profittabell +it weare for Her Majestie to have regard to Your +Lordship's healthe and quiett, I leve to the witnesse of +God and good reporte of Her Highnesse. And the more +to witnesse how desirous I am of Your Lordship's favor +and good opinion, I am contente, for your sake, to laye<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[ 57]</a></span> +the sarpente before the fire, as miche as in me lieth, that, +having recovered strengthe, myself may be moste in +danger of his poyson and stinge. For answere, Her +Majestie would give me none other, but that she woulde +satisfye Your Lordship, of whom she ever had, and +would ever have, special regard.... I humblie take my +lave. From Grenewiche this present Friday, May 12, +1583."</p> + +<p>Here is Lord Burghley using the help of the young +man whose valour and address in Ireland he had observed +and whom he had helped to make. Ralegh is now +prominent among the courtiers; he takes a leading part +in the life of the Court, and the life of the Court is brilliant +and occupied. The town was too small and the streets +of the town too narrow for the courtiers to hold themselves +aloof, as money allows the fashionable to do now; +no special quarter of the town was assigned to them. +They kept themselves distinct from the townspeople without +the help of locality or space. The laws helped them, +however, in the matter of dress. Curious sumptuary laws +were still in force, which forbade any one under the +degree of baron to have more than three linings to his +breeches; which forbade any one whose income was less +than Ł100 a year to wear satin, damask, silk, camlet, or +taffeta, and any one who was not worth more than Ł200 +to wear velvet or embroidery. "The English," writes +Van Meteron, a Dutch historian and contemporary, "dress +in elegant light and costly garments but they are very +inconstant and desirous of novelties, changing their +fashions every year, both men and women. When they +go abroad riding or travelling, they don their best clothes, +contrary to the practice of other nations." And to this +craze for constant novelty in dress a contemporary poem +bears amusing witness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[ 58]</a></span>—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Hees Hatted Spanyard-like, and bearded to,<br /> +Ruft Itallyon-like, pac'd like them also;<br /> +His hose and doublet Frenche: his boots and shoes<br /> +Are fashond Pole in heeles, but French in toes.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh! hees complete: what shall I descant on?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A compleate Foole? noe, compleate Englishe mon."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>This fashion of dress lent wide scope to bad taste, +and such books as Dekker's delightful <i>Guls Hornbook</i> +show how hard gulls tried to be gallants and how ridiculously +they often failed. And it gave the genuine courtier +full scope for magnificence. Ralegh could wear white +satin and pearls.</p> + +<p>Not only in dress was the courtier distinct, but also +in language. Fashions in speech were constantly in +vogue. None was more pronounced than the fashion set +by John Lyly, who wrote elegant court plays and the +novel <i>Euphues</i>. Of Euphues with his instructive letters +and sound moral tone Sir Charles Grandison is the direct +descendant: Richardson owed as much to Lyly, as +Defoe to Thomas Nash or Fielding to Defoe. But that +is a literary by-path which leads to the history of fiction. +His immediate influence was on the speech of the courtiers +and the language of the Court. "That beautie in Court +which could not parley Euphuisme was as shee which +now there speaks not French." John Lyly came to +Court about 1577 and was helped by Lord Burghley; +perhaps the rage of affectation which he started, gave the +stern Lord Treasurer a distaste for poets and was one of +the reasons which made him disinclined to favour Spenser +afterwards. Probably Lyly seemed innocuous enough at +first, with his modest desire to lie shut in a lady's casket +rather than open in a scholar's library. No one could +have foreseen the frenzied fashion which he inaugurated +and which with its stilted periphrases must have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[ 59]</a></span> +sorely irritating to the great matter-of-fact man of business. +No wonder he looked askance at poets. Euphuism, +as the jargon is called, has been described many times; +it was the first effort in English towards ornament in +speech. In itself it was wholly good; in its excess it +was wholly bad.</p> + +<p>As a fashion of speech it must have been not a little +wearisome. And indeed that proved to be the case; for +its place was taken about as soon as dull people were +beginning to obtain the knack of it by another fashion, +no less elaborate, but of a different manner of elaborateness +taken from Sir Philip Sidney's <i>Arcadia</i>. Here a +jingle on one word was the effect to be obtained, as for +example, "Each senselesse thing had sense of pity; only +they that had sense were senselesse." This fashion set +by a writer upon the speech of the fashionable finds a +modern counterpart in the influence of Oscar Wilde, with +this difference that his pointed epigram becomes feeble +nonsense and his genius for using the right word degenerates +into amiable talk about passionate neckties and +purple sin; whereas with Lyly's and Sidney's manner no +imitation could be feebler or more exaggerated than the +original often is—not always. Lyly has real wit and +fancy, especially in his charming court plays, as when he +writes, "They give us pap with a spoon before we can +speak, and when we speake for that we love, pap with a +hatchet"; there he is inimitable.</p> + +<p>The common task of dress and language was +sufficiently elaborate to keep a courtier of average +intelligence busy. And when he was equipped in mind +and body there were countless ceremonies and functions +at which his presence was expected. The Queen was in +continual progress, and every progress was a pageant, +whether by land or river, whether she were journeying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[ 60]</a></span> +from one palace to another, or visiting a university to +encourage learning, a town or a noble subject to show her +gracious favour and to give her subjects the opportunity +of proving by their hospitality their loyalty. She kept +in constant touch with her people. And on her progresses +she was accompanied by her principal courtiers, +who were themselves followed by a suite of gentlemen +retainers. In this excellent display of the superficial side +of life—the very panoply of existence—Ralegh by his wit +and by his bearing was conspicuous. He was as famous +for his power of turning a neat phrase as he was famous +for his power of wearing with grace a fortune in one suit. +Many men were obliged to give all their attention to the +brilliant outside of things to keep pace at all with the +changes of phrase and habit; and would never be at ease +in either. Ralegh owed his envied distinction in both +chiefly to the reason that he always held them at their +proper value. His nature was magnificent, and instinct +led him naturally to a height which others could not +climb to with the greatest conscious effort. In that he +was like his mistress, Queen Elizabeth.</p> + +<p>It is fitting that such life should be gorgeously +caparisoned; there was no homespun in its disposition.</p> + +<p>But there is another side to the picture of this Court, +a second party in the Court and the country. For some +fifteen years another woman had been living under +restraint in England—a woman who was the mother of +a king; who had been queen of two kingdoms and +aspired to be queen of a third; she was of great personal +power though not so powerful as Elizabeth. She was a +devout Catholic and was called Mary, Queen of Scots. +A large number of gentlemen had remained faithful to +their religion. These Catholics were divided roughly +into two classes, those who were faithful to their religion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[ 61]</a></span> +and to their country, and those who were primarily faithful +to their religion and would stop at nothing to establish +Catholicism again in England They looked on Mary, +Queen of Scots, as their rightful head. The moderate +Catholics wanted to make sure that she would succeed +Elizabeth; the fanatical Catholics wanted to kill the +usurper at once and let Mary reign in her stead.</p> + +<p>As years passed by and Elizabeth remained unmarried +and averse to the mention even of a successor, +the question became acute, not in England only but +throughout Europe. Spain and France were anxious +to have a Catholic sovereign in England; but neither +wanted the other to have the added strength of England +as a dependency. Elizabeth kept playing them off one +against the other with her various matrimonial schemes; +and Mary was in correspondence with them, trying to exact +promises of assistance. Intrigue grew more and more +involved. At last matters came to a head. It became +recognized, after the dismissal of the Duc d'Anjou as a +suitor, that Time itself would no longer permit a marriage +for Elizabeth. The Catholics in larger numbers resolved +that her death was imperative and the death of her strong +supporters. Elizabeth with the fearlessness of true +strength had allowed Mary great freedom of correspondence +in her confinement. Now she cut her off from +the outside world, until a diplomatic necessity arose to +know exactly how far foreign powers were prepared to +support Mary, how far they were speaking their true +intentions in their dealings with Elizabeth. Walsingham +had spies in every influential Catholic household in +England, at all the Courts and even the Jesuitical centres +in Spain and France. But the information was not yet +sufficient. Nothing illustrates more effectively the extraordinary +difficulty of obtaining accurate news in those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[ 62]</a></span> +days of slow travelling and messengers, than the elaborate +method which Walsingham and Elizabeth were obliged +to arrange at this juncture. It is a mistake to suppose +it illustrates the treachery and deceitfulness of the times. +The times have changed not in moral tone but in quickness +of transit. Men are very much the same; but steam +and electricity, the telegraph, the telephone, and a postal +system have altered the aspect of affairs and the methods +of conducting business or intrigue.</p> + +<p>The plan they contrived was both ingenious and +successful. With the help of one Gilbert Gifford, trained +in unscrupulous cunning by the Jesuits, they encouraged +Mary to open a correspondence with her confederates +abroad, and they tapped this correspondence at the +fountain-head. Mary was removed to Chartley, near the +home of Gifford, whose family was staunchly Catholic. +A brewer at Burton supplied Chartley with beer. Into +the cask of specially good beer for Mary and her +attendants and secretaries was fitted a water-tight box, +and in this box were placed the letters. With the brewer +was staying Walsingham's secretary Phillipps, a thin red-haired +man skilled in cypher, and he transcribed all the +letters at Burton before they were sent through an underground +post, which had been carefully arranged by the +young and innocent-looking Gilbert Gifford, to the Jesuit +agency in London. Only six people knew of the whole +scheme. Elizabeth, Walsingham, Gifford, Phillipps, Paulet, +Mary's Puritan keeper, and the brewer of Burton. The +brewer was evidently a man whose business instinct was +fully developed. Not only did he receive large and +complicated bribes from Elizabeth and from Mary, but +he demanded also a higher price for his beer. This +demand shocked the good Paulet unspeakably, and +throws an interesting sidelight upon the moral sense of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[ 63]</a></span> +the day, and proves that it worked as subtly then as it +works now.</p> + +<p>From this correspondence Elizabeth learned, what her +strange foresight taught her to expect, that France and +Spain were too frightened of each other to take any +resolute step against her in favour of Mary. But it +happened also that she learnt something quite unexpected +and of extreme importance, and that was the plot +which is known as the Babington conspiracy. She was +able to thwart a national calamity and to preserve her +own life.</p> + +<p>Among the most fanatical of the Catholic disaffected +was a Jesuit, named John Ballard. He had obtained a +private bull from Gregory XIII., sanctioning the murder +of Elizabeth, and was unremitting in his efforts to find a +man daring enough to undertake the task. He travelled +through England, disguised in blue velvet, as Captain +Fortescue, rousing all the Catholic gentlemen to concerted +action, and convincing them that Elizabeth's death was a +papal necessity. Lord Arundel vouched that he could +answer for the Tower, though he was a prisoner within +its walls; his uncle, Lord Henry, would raise the eastern +counties; Sir William Courtenay promised to seize +Plymouth; Lord Montague, Lord Vaux, Lord Stourton, +Lord Windsor, and many others, whose names on earth +are dark, swore a great oath to stand by the cause and +by themselves. Everything was in readiness for a +general rising so soon as the blow should fall which +should rid England of Elizabeth. The letters of Mendoza, +the Spanish ambassador, show how confident he is of a +complete revolution. Certainly Elizabeth had need of +staunch friends whom she was wise to bind to herself by +every tie her personality could fashion, and staunch +friends she possessed and held in her possession.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[ 64]</a></span></p> + +<p>And now the men were found at last by Ballard who +were ready to strike the blow. They were men who waited +upon the Queen's person. The chief amongst them was +Anthony Babington, of Dethick, in Derbyshire. He had +been a page at Sheffield when the Queen of Scots was +first in charge of Lord Shrewsbury, and, like many other +men, young and old, who came under the fascination of +her influence, he was passionately devoted to her, with +all the strength of devotion that a beautiful woman in +distress—still more, a beautiful queen—must inevitably +arouse. The spirit of chivalry which the great rival +Queens infuse into these plots takes away the sordidness +and pettiness which breathes from mere political intrigue, +and lends a poignant majesty to the terrible dramatic +end of it all. This Anthony Babington obtained the +help of Charles Tilney, one of Elizabeth's gentleman +pensioners, of Edward Abington, the son of her under-treasurer, +of Jones, of Dunn, of Robert Barnwell, who +was an Irishman on a visit to the Court, and of other +young men. Walsingham and Elizabeth knew of them +all, and watched them continually. Elizabeth's bravery +was magnificent Any moment she might have met +death at the hand of an assassin; but she remained +undaunted. Her fearlessness no doubt affected the +conspirators, though quite unconsciously. They did not +know that their every action was watched. Like many +other young enthusiasts, they were reckless and self-confident +to the verge of lunacy, and as soon as they +came to realize that their plot was found out, they lost +their heads completely. Abject fear took the place of +their courage. They saw the resistless power that was +ranged against them, waiting. They fled; but it was +too late. The plot was revealed to the public. Ignominy +and shameful death awaited the men who hoped to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[ 65]</a></span> +welcomed as the saviours of their religion, the daring +knights of their queen-lady. Their names were proclaimed +and the nature of their intentions. Babington had fled to +St. John's Wood, which was then a "forest interspersed +with farms," and from there he managed to make his way +to Harrow, where he with four others lay hid on haystacks +and in the straw of barns. But they did not remain long +undiscovered. Amid the ringing of bells and the wildest +rejoicings they were taken back to London. And very +soon they were hung, drawn and quartered publicly.</p> + +<p>How many knew of the Queen's imminent danger is +not certain. Probably she kept it from her most intimate +friends. Her strength was equal even to that. Nor is +it known how much Ralegh knew of his mistress's danger; +it is not likely that he was entirely ignorant of it, for to +him was given the whole of Babington's estates, which +were large and remunerative. It is certainly a last proof +of Queen Elizabeth's amazing vitality, that in the midst +of this dangerous turmoil of plot and counterplot which +surrounded her, she was able to find occasion for the +display of love and affection. For it was during these +last desperate endeavours of the Catholic party that she +first drew Ralegh to herself. She had seen to his +advancement, and taken care that he was provided with +the wealth that he needed for his position at Court and +that his personal taste for magnificence desired. She +had given him the Farm of Wines, which, even allowing +for the money that one Richard Browne tricked him out +of, brought him in a good income; and, in 1585, he +succeeded Francis, Earl of Bedford, as Lord Warden of +the Stannaries, and shortly afterwards became Lieutenant +of the county of Cornwall, and Vice-Admiral of the +counties of Cornwall and Devon. The Queen had need +of staunch friends around her. And it is not due only to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[ 66]</a></span> +a woman's whim, at which many have mocked, that she +kept these men, her favourites, at Court even sometimes +against their will, as when she prevented Sidney, in 1585, +from heading the Virginian colonists, and, a year or two +later, sent Sir Robert Carey to fetch back the Earl of +Essex. Their presence became a necessity to her, +because their presence helped to vouch for her personal +safety. It gave her an assurance of security to see such +men by her side, though doubtless their presence flattered +her vanity as well. Moreover, there seems to be something +exhilarating in a woman who could go in perpetual +danger and known danger of murder, and yet keep to +the end her woman's desire for admiration, which is the +producer of many graces, and not at all in itself a proof +of pettiness. It depends upon what she considers to be +admirable.</p> + +<p>The Babington conspiracy by which Ralegh was +ultimately enriched brought about a crisis between the +loyal and disaffected. The result of the ingenuity of +Walsingham and Elizabeth in contriving the plan by +which Mary, Queen of Scots betrayed herself, placed her +intentions beyond all question. It was clear that she +intended to stop at nothing; that she was anxious for +Elizabeth's murder. It was certainly the easiest solution +to her difficulties, and she was the protectress of the true +religion, the head of which had sanctioned the murder. +She was that most dangerous of enemies, a sincerely +religious woman of great cleverness and no principles. +Without discussing the ethics of murder and execution, +it is easy to understand Mary's position; and it is not +easy to understand Elizabeth's conduct. Mary was found +guilty of high treason, and the law of the land assessed +the penalty for high treason at death. But Elizabeth +could not bring herself to sign the death warrant. It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[ 67]</a></span> +difficult to understand why. She was supported by the +authority of the kingdom, but she tried to avoid this last +responsibility. Her conduct illustrates the peculiar blend +of craft and sensitiveness which circumstances had +developed in her character, and which, be it noted, were +conspicuous traits of many other great characters of the +time—conspicuously, for example, of Bacon and of +Ralegh. She tried to make Walsingham incur the +responsibility and the odium of the deed. She abused +him when he demurred at her proposal. And finally, +when she had given her signature, she swore that it had +been by a mistake, and Walsingham, for ever impoverished +by her displeasure, retired indignant to his house at +Barnelms. He became hateful to her, and nothing could +reinstate him in her favour. It was as though he were +a tool which she had cut herself in using, which she flung +from her in anger and without compunction.</p> + +<p>But at length the day of Mary's death came. That +was pre-eminently the time of pageant and display—the +display of gorgeous life in the great Court functions; +the display of dreadful death in the public executions. +Both were combined in dramatic intensity at this last +scene of Mary's life. Hers was a Queen's death.</p> + +<p>In November of the year 1586 her sentence was +passed. For three months Europe was agitated by +uncertainty whether the sentence would be carried out, +and what would be the result of her death, if it were. +For three months she held her ground as the martyr of +her religion, an unassailable position. For three months +she decked her tragedy with the robes of majesty and +of pathetic grace. When Paulet tore down the regal +hangings from her room, saying that they no longer +became a traitress, she hung the crucifix in their place +and pointed to it in silence when he came to her again.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[ 68]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 759px;"> +<img src="images/illus090.jpg" width="759" height="1024" alt="MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS" title="" /> +<span class="caption">MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS</span> +</div> + +<p>The day of her execution was the second Wednesday +in February, 1587. Three hundred knights were +assembled in the hall of Fotheringay Castle. When the +Provost-Marshal and the Sheriff came to fetch her from +her room, they found her no longer dressed in the +customary grey cloth, but clothed in a robe of black +satin. Her hand on the arm of one of the guard, she +passed tall and erect down the broad oak staircase to the +hall. At the end of the hall loomed the scaffold swathed +in black; the dancing flames of a great crackling wood +fire moved light shadows across its blackness, and +flickered on the bright steel of the axe which was leaning +against the block. By the block stood the executioners, +masked and in black. She who was cousin to the Queen +of England, who was a married Queen of France and +anointed Queen of Scotland, passed up the hall, followed +by her six friends. Her waiting women tried and tried +vainly to keep back their sobs—Elizabeth Kennedy and +Barbara Mowbray. She ascended the black scaffold and +sat down—smiling. Beale read aloud the sentence.</p> + +<p>"Madam," said Lord Shrewsbury, "you hear what +we are commanded to do." "You will do your duty," +was her reply. Then the Dean of Peterborough +endeavoured to play his accorded part, but three times +he broke down in addressing her. When he at length +began to pray, Mary too prayed in Latin, and at length +her voice alone sounded through the hall. No longer +she prayed in Latin as she had prayed at first, she prayed +in English without a falter in her voice. With sublime +audacity she prayed that God might forgive and bless +her son, James VI. of Scotland, and her cousin, Elizabeth +of England, and that He might avert His wrath from +Elizabeth's country. She finished; the black mutes +stepped forward. The scaffold creaked under their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[ 69]</a></span> +movement. They asked her forgiveness for what they +were going to do, according to the custom; and forgiveness +was granted them. "I forgive you," she said, +"because now I hope that you will end all my troubles." +Her ladies, Elizabeth Kennedy and Barbara Mowbray, +mounted the steps of the black scaffold in order that +they might help her to make ready. They lifted the +lawn veil carefully, not to disarrange her hair. Swiftly +they removed the black robe; swiftly they took her arms +from out the black jacket, slashed with velvet, and set +the jacket on one side. Dazzling in crimson satin she +stood on the black scaffold, revealed in red satin between +the black mutes, as she drew over her white arms crimson +sleeves, which her ladies, now trembling, handed to her. +But she drew them on as a lady her gloves, without +haste. "Ne criez-vous, j'ai promis pour vous," she turned +to them and said. She knelt and laid her head on the +block: it was hard to her soft neck, so she put her hand +underneath, murmuring the Psalm "In Te, Domine, +confido." But the headsman moved her hand away, +fearing its softness might hinder his business. Then he +struck, but the blow fell lightly, and fell on the knot of +the hand-kerchief with which her eyes were bound. He +struck again, and had only to move the axe across the +block to cut the last shred of skin. "So perish all the +enemies of the Queen," called out the Dean of Peterborough, +as the executioner held out the head at his +arm's length. Only the strength of her vitality and her +cleverness had kept beauty in her face. The head that +was thus held up at arm's length was the head of an old +and wrinkled woman. Death grinned.</p> + +<p>As they set about stripping the body, a lap-dog, hidden +in her clothes, howled and lay down crying out by the neck +from which the blood was flowing. It was carried away.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[ 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then all her things—dress, beads, Paternoster, hand-kerchief—were +taken to the great wood fire which still +burned merrily, and burned before all the people. No +relics must be left.</p> + +<p>Henry Talbot, son of Lord Shrewsbury, was given +the account of the proceedings, and rode off with them +post-haste from Fotheringay along the bad roads to +London.</p> + +<p>So died Mary, Queen of Scots, and her death was one +of the surest, most definite steps that was ever taken +towards cutting England off from papal authority. +Henceforward, England stood alone. Henceforward, the +force of patriotism and of religion were to be combined.</p> + +<p>Such things happened in the time of Walter Ralegh. +He may have been present. If he were, the memory of +it must have come to his mind some thirty years later, +when he touched the edge of another axe with his thumb +and approved of its sharpness.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[ 71]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3> + +<h2>THE GREAT ENTERPRISE</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Scheme of colonization—Preparation—The sailing—Queen's +interest—Death of Sir Humfrey Gilbert—Another charter +obtained—King +Wingina—Hospitality—Sir Richard Grenville—Difficulties +of first colonists—Personal outfit—Misfortune.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Court life, for all its brilliance and excitement, +did not monopolize Ralegh's attention. He had +gained wealth and position: he was near the Queen. +That did not suffice him. He was a man of imagination, +who could never rest content with the attainment +which, as man of action, he had achieved. Rarely have +the two qualities been so often combined as they were +in the Elizabethan times, and rarely, even then, were +they combined with such force and in so high a degree +as they were in great Ralegh. He bent his energies +on the scheme for colonization. The old idea was that +Paradise lay somewhere on the surface of the world; all +through the Middle Ages the dream existed. Columbus +thought that the earth was probably shaped like a pear, +not spherical but elongated, and "on the summit of the +protuberance was situated the earthly Paradise, 'whither +no one can go but by God's permission.'"</p> + +<p>That dream continued. It came to Marlowe and +obsessed him. But Marlowe dreamed of no medićval +Paradise.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed<br /> +In one self-place; for where we are is hell<br /> +And where hell is there must we ever be."<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[ 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>And his god was power; his demi-god, the man who, +like Scythian Tamburlaine, lived—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Threatening the world with high astounding terms<br /> +And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword."<br /> +</p> + +<p>There was no limit set to the enterprise of man's energy; +his power was measureless and divine. Only in the +realm of beauty his step might falter; beyond all +achievement, and all the beauty of achievement, there +would always hover—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least<br /> +Which into words no virtue can digest."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Marlowe wrote intoxicated with this elixir of infinite +possibility. The sea-dogs, men of action, seemed +almost to be realizing his dreams, fighting the next +ship that met them, like Drake always sailing a little +further on, coming home with spoils and tales of wonder, +and starting out in search of fresh adventures; or there +were men like Frobisher, who combined the buccaneer +with the spirit of the scientist, and who were anxious +to learn new geographical facts; or men like Gilbert, +who were serious-minded enough to be whole-hearted +in the cause of science; or men like Ralegh, in whom +all these elements seem to have been struggling. This +paradise of unknown lands worked in all ways upon his +mind. Not Columbus before him, not Balzac after him, +realized more keenly the power of money. He saw, +with Gilbert and the industrious Hakluyt, the value of +geographical knowledge, but what fired his imagination +was the vision of another Empire across the seas, and +that vision he was impatient to realize. He inspired +the painstaking Hakluyt, and he quietly made it his +life's purpose to further the project. It was Ralegh +who grasped the true meaning of the vague aspirations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[ 73]</a></span> +and whose personality was big enough to set the first +slow forces at work. His immediate schemes failed, +but without those initial failures Captain John Smith +would never have succeeded, as he did succeed some +fifteen years later, in founding the colony of Virginia, +from which has at length grown, in the space of four +hundred years, the present American nation. So are +our dreams of Paradise materialized into fact.</p> + +<p>The attempt which Gilbert and Ralegh had made at +colonization in 1578 had failed.</p> + +<p>But Ralegh, in his influential position, saw a means +of turning his scheme to advantage. As has been seen, +the unrest of the Catholic party was becoming more and +more acute, until it reached its climax in the Babington +conspiracy and the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. +Ralegh saw his opportunity. He knew as well as +Walsingham that there were a large number of Catholic +gentlemen who were desirous of remaining loyal to +their country and loyal to their religion. The wish +was as sane as it was difficult to realize. Naturally +(and rightly from their point of view) the Jesuits and +other Catholics, whose enthusiasm made them fanatical, +hated these moderate gentlemen, and called them Schismatics. +Ralegh saw how they might be employed to +the advantage of his scheme, just as a few years previously, +when the overcrowding of London was troubling +Burghley, that overcrowding suggested the immediate +material of his scheme. He suggested to Walsingham +a solution of the difficulty, that these gentlemen should +form a separate kingdom, should found the colony in +Virginia. In June, 1582, Sir George Gerrard and Sir +Thomas Peckham were empowered to do this. The +new plan was set in motion in spite of Papal warnings +and even Papal veto. Two ships were sent to spy out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[ 74]</a></span> +the land that summer, and in the spring of the following +year all was at length in readiness for actual sailing. +Ralegh himself intended to be vice-admiral,<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> but the +Queen forbade him to join the expedition. He had, +however, constructed, on plans of his own devising, an +immense sailing-vessel of 200 tons, which was called +the <i>Bark-Ralegh</i> (not to be confused with the flagship +of the fleet which repulsed the Armada five years later, +called the <i>Ark-Ralegh</i>). The other vessels were the +<i>Delight</i> alias the <i>George</i>, of 120 tons, "which was the +Admirall;" the <i>Golden Hinde</i> of 40 tons, "which was the +Reare Admirall; "the <i>Swallow</i>, of 40 tons, and the +<i>Squirrill</i>, of 10 tons. "We were in number," writes +Mr. Edward Hayes, gentleman, who sailed on the +<i>Golden Hinde</i>, "in all about 260 men: among whom +we had of every faculty good choice, as Shipwrights, +Masons, Carpenters, Smithes and such like, requisite +to such an action: also Minerall men and Refiners. +Besides for solace of our people and allurement of the +Savages, we were provided of Musike in good variety: +not omitting the least toyes, as Morris dancers, Hobby +horsse, and Maylike conceits to delight the savage +people whom we intended to winne by all faire meanes +possible. And to that end we were indifferently +furnished of all petty haberdasherie wares to barter +with those simple people."</p> + +<p>On June 11 the expedition sailed from Causon +Bay. The day was Tuesday. Misfortune came very +soon upon them. On Thursday evening the news was +signalled from the <i>Bark-Ralegh</i> that the captain and +to a subordinate command, deserted the expedition for some +reason unknown." But it is not at all probable that he ever +started.—"The English Voyages," p. 58.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[ 75]</a></span> +very many of the men were fallen sick; and at midnight, +"notwithstanding we had the wind East, faire +and good," the vice-admiral forsook them. The reason +Mr. Hayes could never understand, he says in his +account, and adds, "Sure I am, no cost was spared +by their owner Master Ralegh in setting them forth: +Therefore I leave it unto God." Sir Humfrey Gilbert +was not so philosophic about the desertion; he wrote +to his brother-admiral, Sir George Peckham, in wrath: +"The <i>Bark-Ralegh</i> ran from me in fair and clear weather, +having a large wind. I pray you solicit my brother +Ralegh to make them an example to all knaves."</p> + +<p>After this defection the <i>Golden Hinde</i> took the place +of the Vice-Admiral, and hoisted her flag from the mizzen +to the foretop. As they sailed northward they were +"incumbered with much fogge and mists in maner +palpable," so that great difficulty was experienced by +the ships in keeping in touch one with the other. The +danger of separation always threatened sailing vessels, +and elaborate devices and instructions were always prepared +to lessen its likelihood and to face the emergency. +But on July 20 the <i>Swallow</i> and the <i>Squirrill</i> became +separated from the company, and were not discovered +again until the Newfoundland coast was reached on +August 3. Soon after another misfortune occurred +owing to the unruliness of the men on the <i>Squirrill</i>, +who could not be restrained from plundering a fishing-boat. +This bad act was sufficient to wreck the success +of the expedition, and caused much dissatisfaction +among the sailors, who were always superstitious. Moreover, +the men's unruliness was a serious danger on such +an expedition, apart from the question of God's wrath, +which Mr. Hayes feared, and which fell upon the +<i>Squirrill</i> and requited the ill-doers with death.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[ 76]</a></span></p> + +<p>On August 5 Sir Humfrey Gilbert took possession +of the harbour of St. John, and invested the Queen's +Majesty with the title and dignity thereof. The arms +of England, engraved in lead, were fixed upon a pillar of +wood and erected. Men were sent to explore the land, +and to make maps of it, while the ships were being +overhauled and repaired. The report only survives; the +maps were lost when the general died.</p> + +<p>On August 27 they set sail again, and on the next +day a great wind arose, bringing with it rain and thick +mist, and drove the vessels upon the sands and flats. +The <i>Admirall</i> struck; her stern and hinder parts were +broken in pieces by the waves; the men leapt into the +sea. "This was a heavy and grievous event to lose at +one blow our chiefe shippe fraighted with great provision, +gathered together with much travell, care, long +time, and difficultie. But more was the losse of our +men which perished to the number almost of a hundreth +soules." Among the drowned was Budaeus, a learned +man who was minded to record in the Latin tongue the +gests and things worthy of remembrance; Daniel, a +refiner of metals; and Captain Maurice Brawn, a virtuous, +honest, and discreet gentleman. A few men, however, +managed to keep afloat in a small boat for six days, +and though two of them died of starvation, the others +were rescued. This disaster brought dismay to the +company and they lost courage. Winter, too, was drawing +on, provisions were becoming scant, their clothes +were worn out. Accordingly, Sir Humfrey Gilbert +determined to make for home. "Be content," he said +to the men, "we have seen enough: and take no care +of expence past: I will set you forth royally the next +Spring if God send us safe home. Therefore I pray you +let us no longer strive here, where we fight against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[ 77]</a></span> +elements." But calamity did not forsake them. Sir +Humfrey Gilbert did not reach home. Before the +expedition sailed in June, Elizabeth for her own reasons +had persisted in denying Sir Humfrey the right to +accompany his expedition; but his step-brother, Sir +Walter Ralegh, had continued to use his influence to +obtain permission, and the requisite permission had at +last been granted.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +"<span class="smcap">Brother</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p> "I have sent you a token from her Majesty, an +ancor guided by a lady, as you see; and further, her +Highness willed me to sende you worde that she wished +you as great good-hap and safty to your ship, as if her +sealf were ther in parson; desiring you to have care of +your sealf as of that which she tendereth; and therefore +for her sake, you must provide for hit accordingly.</p> + +<p>"Farther, she commandeth that you leve your picture +with me. For the rest I leve till our meeting, or to the +report of this bearer, who would needs be the messengre +of this good newse. So I committ you to the will and +protection of God, who send us such life or death as +He shall please or hath appointed.</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +<span style="margin-right: 3em;">"Richmonde this Friday morning.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">"Your treu brother</span><br /> +"<span class="smcap">W. Ralegh</span>"<br /> +</p></blockquote> + +<p>The letter shows the Queen's interest and concern—her +attitude towards the gentlemen who adventured +their lives for the glory of her kingdom. But good-hap +and safety were not vouchsafed to Gilbert's ship. +The will and protection of God did not send life; death +had been appointed.</p> + +<p>They reached the Azores without mishap, except +that the general caused himself great pain and inconvenience +by treading upon a nail. The last conference +took place on the <i>Golden Hinde</i>, on September 3, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[ 78]</a></span> +he made merry with the company on board; his hopes +of success ran high for the enterprise, he vowed to +undertake once more the next spring. They were now +coming near to England and the end of their distresses. +But they met with foul weather, and terrible seas, +breaking short and high, pyramid-wise. "Men which +all their lifetime had occupied the Sea, never saw more +outragious Seas." Upon the main-yard of the <i>Golden +Hinde</i> appeared an apparition of a little fire by night. +The little fire is an evil omen, and is called Castor and +Pollux. "Munday the ninth of September, in the afternoon, +the Frigat was neere cast away, oppressed by +waves, yet at that time recovered: and giving forth +signes of joy, the Generall sitting abaft with a book in +his hand, cried out unto us in the Hinde (so oft as +we did approach within hearing), 'We are as neare to +Heaven by sea as by land.' Reiterating the same +speech, well-beseeming a souldier, resolute in Jesus +Christ, as I can testifie he was."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 690px;"> +<img src="images/illus102.jpg" width="690" height="600" alt="A SAILING-SHIP IN THE TIME OF RALEGH" title="" /> +<span class="caption">A SAILING-SHIP IN THE TIME OF RALEGH</span> +</div> + +<p>Sir Humfrey Gilbert was seen no more. Sitting +abaft with a book in his hand — that was the last sight +of him, and those were his last words, the great saying +of a great sailor. For at midnight the lights of his +vessel suddenly disappeared. The frigate was devoured +and swallowed of the sea. So died Sir Humfrey Gilbert +in the prime of his manhood at the age of forty-four.</p> + +<p>The <i>Golden Hinde</i> managed to reach the coast of +England, and brought the bad news of disaster to Sir +Walter Ralegh, his step-brother, and to Adrian Gilbert, +his younger brother.</p> + +<p>They wasted no time in grief or mourning. They +paid proper respect to the memory of the brave dead, +and immediately made renewed efforts to further the +enterprise to which their brother had devoted his life.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[ 79]</a></span></p><p>Within six months Ralegh obtained another charter +from the Queen with larger powers. He and Adrian +Gilbert and John Davies were incorporated under the +new charter as "The College of the Fellowship for the +Discovery of the North-west passage." That was the +dream of the dead navigator. Ralegh always had a +greater purpose in view, and the charter was later +extended by clauses giving him powers to colonize. +Directly these first steps were taken, a month after the +charter's final signing, Ralegh despatched two captains, +Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow.</p> + +<p>Captain John Smith gives an account of their voyage +in his "History of Virginia." (John Smith it was who, +profiting by initial failures, succeeded some years later +in the fulfilment of the great scheme.) "The 27 of +Aprill," he writes, "they set sail from the Thames, the +tenth of May passed the Canaries, and the tenth of +June the West Indies: which unneedful Southerly +course (but then no better was knowne) occasioned +them in that season much sicknesse." His interpolation—then +no better was known—is significant. It throws +a clear light on the difficulties with which these early +colonizers were called upon to cope; they had not yet +learned the best way even of reaching their destination.</p> + +<p>However, on the 2nd of July the two captains +arrived at Florida, "where they felt a most delicate +sweete smell, though they saw no land, which ere long +they espied, <i>thinking it the Continent: an hundred and +twenty miles they sailed not finding any harbour</i>." That +again is significant, taking into consideration the limited +room on a sailing vessel for food and other necessaries. +When they came to land, they had not yet the means +of knowing anything about that land whatsoever. At +length they discovered that they were upon an island,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[ 80]</a></span> +the island of Wokokon. It was fertile past all belief. +Grapes grew in profusion right down to the water's +edge, that the very surge of the sea sometimes over-flowed +them. In the valleys tall cedars grew, and from +the black cedars great cranes flew in white flocks, when +the men discharged their muskets, "with such a cry as +if an army of men had shouted together." The island +was thickly wooded with other trees of excellent smell +and quality; and in the woods there were conies and +deere and fowle in incredible abundance. For three +days none of the people were seen. On the third day, +in a little boat, three of them appeared and showed no +sign of fear. One of them stopped and conferred with +the sailors, who gave him a shirt and a hat, meat and +wine, which he liked. Then he went away; but soon +returned with his boat quite full of fish, which he gave +to the sailors. He had come from the mainland.</p> + +<p>Next day the king's brother visited the ships, with +forty or fifty men, "proper people and in their behaviour +very civill." The king's brother's name was Granganamen. +Soon after the king himself, Wingina, came. A +mat was spread for him on the sea shore, and he sat +down upon it. When the sailors came to him, he +stroked his head and breast, and he stroked their heads +and breasts, to express his love. He made a long +speech, and divers toys, "which he kindly accepted," +were presented to him. Especially a pewter pleased +the king's fancy. He drilled a hole in it and hung it +round his neck. It made him a capital breastplate, for +which he was ready to give, and gave, twenty skin of +deer, worth twenty crowns. He was so pleased with his +bargain and treatment that a few days later he brought +his wife and children on board. During all their stay +in his kingdom, which was called Wingandacoa, King<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[ 81]</a></span> +Wingina sent them almost every day a brace of bucks, +conies, hares, fish and vegetables. The soil was fertile, +as the woods were plentifully stocked with game—for +the sailors put some peas in the ground, and in ten days +they had grown to the height of fourteen inches.</p> + +<p>They had, indeed, found the Land of Promise; and +the people who inhabited the land were as friendly as +their king. A party went on a little expedition to the +island of Roanoak, which was distant some seven leagues. +There the wife of the chief man, who was absent, +welcomed them with much courtesy. She had their +clothes taken off and washed; she had their feet bathed +in warm water, while she herself attended to the preparation +of food. While they were eating, warriors +entered the room armed with bows and arrows. The +sailors, fearful of treachery, grasped their muskets. +There was no need for alarm, however. The woman +saw their fear, and ordered the warriors immediately to +snap their bows and arrows across their knees.</p> + +<p>Hospitality could go no farther. The whole account +of the land "luxuriant to the water's edge, and of their +joyous reception by the Indians, makes the dreams of +the pastoral poets seem true," as Professor Raleigh puts +it. Indeed, the people were such as live after the +manner of the Golden Age. Such, too, the Burmese +were found to be some three hundred years later; they +had the same childlike simplicity, the same earnest +kindliness; they, too, were unspoiled and happy. The +Indians were regarded as savages; they were not closely +observed or sympathetically described by these stout-hearted +adventurers, as the Burmese have been by +Fielding Hall in his notable books. Their subsequent +history bears out the resemblance. The Indians, simpler, +more childish people—savages in fact—came into contact<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[ 82]</a></span> +with a sterner younger civilization. Their history is +known. The history of the subject Burmese is still in +the making.</p> + +<p>Captain Amadas and Captain Barlow returned in +September. They brought with them two of the +natives, many skins, and pearls as big as peas, which +they duly delivered to Sir Walter Ralegh. He was +overjoyed with the success of their voyage, and he +obtained permission from the Queen to call his new land +of Wingandacoa, Virginia, in her honour. He ordered +a new seal of his arms to be cut, engraved with the +legend, "Propria insignia Walteri Ralegh, militis, Domini +et Gubernatoris Virginiae."</p> + +<p>In the spring of the following year his colonizing +fleet was ready. The command of the expedition was +given to Sir Richard Grenville, the valiant, as John +Smith calls him. The colony was to be under the +management of Captain Ralph Lane. Sir Richard +Grenville was not the man for the business, and the +expedition would have had a very different result had +Sir Philip Sidney undertaken its command, as it was +intended that he should. Sir Richard was supreme as +a fighter: his tactics were to hit first, and to hit hardest, +and never to give way. He was indomitable, but more +than sheer bravery was necessary for the undertaking, +and more than sheer bravery Sir Richard Grenville did +not possess.</p> + +<p>The fleet of seven ships departed from Plymouth in +April, and, without any serious mishap, they arrived on +May 12 at the Bay of Moskito in the island of St. +John's, where they cast anchor, and where in seven days +they were joined amidst great rejoicing by Master +Candish, captain of one of the ships which had been +separated in a storm. The island of St. John was in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[ 83]</a></span> +possession of the Spaniards. It is probable that Sir +Richard Grenville hated the Spaniards more than he +loved the project of colonization; for in St. John he +stayed till the end of May. He built a fort, and +succeeded in capturing two Spanish frigates, one of +which was well freighted with treasure, and having +ransomed the Spaniards of account for good round +sums, he went on his way to Isabella, on the north +side of Hispaniola. Here again they delayed, hoping, +as it would seem, for an opportunity to attack the +Spaniards in possession; but the Spaniards, overawed, +as the writer thinks, by their numbers, exhibited only +the greatest courtesy. So they sailed on June 7, and +eventually arrived a fortnight later at Wokokon, after +having narrowly escaped complete shipwreck "on a +breach called the Cape of Fear."</p> + +<p>The colony was now on the verge of plantation. +But the men did not see the immense need of living +at amity with the natives, that they might win their +support and trust, without which their task would be +insuperable in difficulty. They had hardly lived among +them for two days before strife broke out, in which, of +course, the Englishmen were easily victorious. For it +appears that a silver cup was missed, and theft was +suspected. For this trivial reason the town of Aquascogok, +which was supposed to shelter the culprit, was +burned, and all the neighbouring cornfields were laid +waste. Enmity was thus kindled, and the fire of +enmity cannot easily be extinguished.</p> + +<p>After that Sir Richard Grenville sailed away with +his convoy, and passing on his way home a richly laden +Spanish ship of three hundred tons, he boarded her +(note the prodigious daring of the fellow!) with a boat +made with boards of a chest, "which fell asunder and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[ 84]</a></span> +sunk at the ship's side as soon as ever he and his men +were out of it." That was on the last day of August: +on September 18 he sailed into Plymouth harbour, well-contented +with his prize, "and was courteously received +by divers of his worshipful friends."</p> + +<p>But Ralph Lane was left behind in Virginia with +his colonists, to the number of some hundred house-holders, +and the hostile natives. From the New Fort +he writes an enthusiastic letter, on September 3, to +Master Richard Hakluyt. His report of the fertility +of the country is more glowing even than the account +of Amadas and Barlow, or than Ralegh himself could +have dared imagine in his brightest dreams. "It is the +goodliest and most pleasing territory of the world; for +the continent is of a huge and unknown greatness, and +very well peopled and towned, though savagely: and +the climate is wholesome, that we had not one sick +since we touched the land here." Horses and kine +and sufficient Englishmen are alone needed, and no +realm in Christendom would be comparable with +Virginia. The men set to work to build themselves a +settlement, making use of the equipment with which +each man was provided.</p> + +<p>Captain John Smith, who succeeded, some thirty +years later, in erecting the colony on the ruins of these +previous failures, gives an exact outfit, with the cost of +each article, which a colonist would require. He could +learn from the experience of others, and was wise +enough to tabulate his own experience in minute lists +that others might learn from him. Lane's colonists could +not have been so well provided. They must have lacked +many little necessaries which the wisest forethought +could not have provided, they must have encumbered +themselves with much that was comparatively useless.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[ 85]</a></span> +Here are some articles of personal outfit which John +Smith—and John Smith knew—deemed indispensable. +They read quaintly with their prices:—</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="5" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>A Monmouth Cap</td><td align='right'>1<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>10<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Three Shirts</td><td align='right'>7<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>6<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One Waste Coat</td><td align='right'>2<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>2<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One Suit of Canvase</td><td align='right'>7<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>6<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " " Frize</td><td align='right'>10<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>0<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> " " Cloth</td><td align='right'>15<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>0<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Three pair of Irish Stockings</td><td align='right'>4<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>0<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Four pair of shoes</td><td align='right'>8<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>8<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One pair of garters</td><td align='right'>0<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>10<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One dozen of points</td><td align='right'>8<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>0<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One pair of Canvase sheets</td><td align='right'>8<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>0<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Seven ells of Canvase to make a bed a bolster to be<br /> + filled in Virginia, serving for two men</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Five ells of coarse canvase to make a bed</td><td align='right'>5<i>s.</i></td><td align='right'>0<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One Coarse rug to be used at sea for two men</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>Lane's colonists remained exactly one year in +Virginia. Their life was varied and exciting. At first +the Indians, in spite of the silver cup and the summary +vengeance for its theft, were still inclined towards +friendliness. Their kings visited New Fort. Menatonou, +King of Chawanook, was especially well-disposed. He +was a "man impotent in his limbs, but otherwise, for a +savage, a very grave and wise man, and of a very +singular good discourse in matters concerning the state, +not only of his own country and the disposition of his +own men, but also of his neighbours round about him +as well far as near, and of the commodities that each +country yieldeth." Among other things, he told Lane +where pearls in large quantities could be found, and +Lane devised a plan for making an expedition to that +river of Moratoc.</p> + +<p>And from this plan, which Lane records in full in +a subsequent letter to Ralegh, peers out the mistake +in judgment which brought disaster upon this first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[ 86]</a></span> +enterprise. These colonists had too much the spirit of +Sir Richard Grenville. They were too adventurous, and +esteemed the natives of too little account. Instead of +quietly settling and making their base secure, while the +Indians became gradually used to their presence, they +must needs be hurrying further inland in pursuit of +immediate and enormous wealth. Theirs was too much +the spirit of the lion-hearted freebooter and not enough +the spirit of the determined settler.</p> + +<p>Misfortune awaited them. For there lived an old +king in this land of fabulous wealth by the swift river +of Moratoc or Moratico. Ensenore was his name, and +he was friendly to the English. Not so his son +Pemisapan. And at this crucial time Ensenore died +and Pemisapan took his place at the head of the +province, and immediately began his endeavours to +undermine the little influence which the English had +already gained among the neighbouring peoples. The +position of the colonists became one of extreme danger +in consequence. They found that they must not only +struggle against the elements to secure food and shelter, +but also fight for their lives against the inhabitants. +They had expected support from England in the spring, +with reinforcements of every kind. None, however, +came, and probably the fear of isolation, brought about +by events of which they had heard nothing, was added +to their other fears. Small wonder then that, when +Sir Francis Drake came to them with twenty tall ships, +they should clamour to leave the perilous spot and +return to England. They returned in June, Drake's +fleet laden with the spoils he had garnered from the +sack of the Spanish cities, St. Iago, St. Domingo, +Carthagena, St. Anthony, and St. Helens. With them, +too, they are said to have brought, for the first time,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[ 87]</a></span> +specimens of the plant Nicotiana, of which Ralegh +discovered the sovereign virtues, and which, in despite +of King James from Scotland and his counterblast, has +soothed many millions of honest Englishmen.</p> + +<p>A fortnight after the colonists departed, fearing that +they were forsaken, the ship of a hundred tons which +Ralegh had stored with provisions and other necessaries +arrived, and a month after Sir Richard Grenville came +with three ships, and found neither colonists nor the +ship which Ralegh had sent out for their relief. +Accordingly, after he had searched long in vain and +made certain explorations on his own initiative, he +landed fifteen brave men to retain possession of the +country for England and sailed home. Nothing more +was heard of the fifteen brave men.</p> + +<p>So ended the first series of attempts to found an +English colony in Virginia, doubtless, efforts which +themselves just failed of success, but without which +the final colonization of Virginia would have been +impossible.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[ 88]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3> + +<h2>BUSINESS MAN</h2> + +<blockquote><p>The Stannaries—His grasp of detail—"Do it with thy might"—Estimate +of squadron—Scheme of coast defence—The clash-mills +of Mr. Crymes—Irish plans.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>The Virginian enterprise did not engage all Ralegh's +energy in affairs. Undoubtedly it was his +greatest scheme. Its eventual results were of no less +than world-wide importance, for they include the +American nation, they include tobacco; and without +either commodity modern civilization would surely be +desolate. Ralegh had a capacity for business which +approached genius; and would have attained to genius +had his imagination not run a little in advance of his +power over detail.</p> + +<p>In his hands the posts which he obtained were no +sinecures. Proper arrangement of things in being +fascinated him almost as deeply as the possible development +of the embryonic.</p> + +<p>The various expeditions to Virginia involved a vast +amount of work. But during that time he was actively +engaged in the management of lesser matters.</p> + +<p>As Lord Warden of the Stannaries his duties were +to look after the interests of the tin-miners in Devonshire +and Cornwall. He was head of the Stannary +Courts in which justice was legally administered to the +tinners; and he would be obliged to see that his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[ 89]</a></span> +substitutes performed their functions properly. For a +privilege was granted to the tin-workers to have their +disputes settled upon the spot in their own court, in +order that they might not be drawn from their business +during the long time that a visit to another court would +involve. All through the time when he was engaged +in great things at Court, or in great dreams of an +Eldorado in South America, he always paid proper +attention to the exacting little business of these tinners +in Cornwall. In 1600 he writes a minute account to the +Lord Treasurer, Buckhurst, and Secretary, Sir Robert +Cecil, about the abatement of some tax on tin. He +kept the interests of the tinners always in mind. In +the same year he enters into the case of a gentleman, +Mr. Crymes, who had erected certain clash-mills upon +Roxburgh Down "to worke the tynn which upon that +place is gott with extreame labour and charge out of +the ground." But the townsmen of Plymouth objected +to the mills, because they said that the mills diverted +the course of their water. Ralegh went to view the +clash-mills on Roxburgh Down in person, though it was +the autumn of the year, and decided against the townsmen +of Plymouth. If they had their way, as according +to the letter of the law only they should, countless +tinners would be thrown out of work. In reality no +harm was done to the course of the river.</p> + +<p>Accordingly Ralegh asks Secretary Sir Robert +Cecil to take the matter from the Star Chamber, where +the townsmen of Plymouth had sent it, and to let it be +tried, as it was fitting that such a matter should be tried, +in the Stannary Courts. "If this be suffered to proceed +in the Starre Chamber it will not be avaylable to speake +of her Majesties late imposicion or encrease of Custom, +or to establish good laws among Tynners; when others<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[ 90]</a></span> +who can by a great purse or procuring extraordinary +meanes, diminish to their power her Majesties duties +and the common benefytt of the people."</p> + +<p><i>Do it with thy might</i> was as sincerely his motto in +little things as in big; and this it is well to remember +in protest against those who are inclined to regard +Ralegh merely as an unsuccessful dreamer of great +dreams.</p> + +<p>He was Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall. Among +other duties which the post entailed, was the important +duty of keeping the county ready to ward off an +invasion, which was a very real danger all through his +period of office. His letters to Lord Burghley give +ample evidence of his care and wisdom. In 1587, one +year before the Armada, he sent the Lord Treasurer a +letter in which he gave it as his opinion that a company +of two thousand foot and a troop of two hundred should +be levied from the counties of Cornwall and Devon, and +should be trained to be ready for defence at a moment's +notice against surprise. The difficulties of his plan he +saw clearly. There was, in the first place, a feeling of +rivalry between the two Duchies which increased the +difficulty of combination. The Lord Lieutenant of +Devonshire, the Earl of Bath, was not easily brought to +see the wisdom of the plan, though Sir John Gilbert and +Sir Richard Grenville, staunch Devon men, were its +supporters. The merchants of Exeter were not disposed +to bear willingly any additional outlay in the matter of +defence, because they were obliged to pay heavily to +defend their merchandise against Barbary and other +pirates. Ralegh incloses a tabulated list in his letter, +showing exactly how these levies could be raised, and +the exact cost of the raising. The payment of the +troop of horse is of much interest. The men were to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[ 91]</a></span> +receive 1<i>s.</i> a day (the pay of an infantry man was 8d.). +The horsemen were to be divided into four cornets: +that would imply four captains at 5s., four lieutenants at +3<i>s.</i>, four guidons at 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>, four clerks at 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>, four +trumpetts at 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per day. He adds the charge of +ammunition. "There is allowed for each soldier for +this service of sixteen daies, tenn pounde of Powder at +12<i>d.</i> the pounde and is Ł500. Ther is allowed of +matche for each soldier at halfe a pounde the daye, +at 6<i>d.</i> the pounde and is Ł200. Of leade for each mann +one pounde at 1½<i>d.</i> the pounde, and is Ł6 8<i>s.</i></p> + +<p>The whole estimated cost of training and raising +came to Ł2163 5<i>s.</i> and unlike the majority of estimates, +the one drawn up by Ralegh is as clear as it is concise.</p> + +<p>But his best contribution to the problem of defence +is a letter, written in the year 1595 to the Lords of the +Council. It had been decided that "mutual succour be +gyven from the Counties of Devon and Cornwall to each +other," and the point of the letter is to show that Devonshire +should be supplied with reinforcements from +Somerset rather than from Cornwall. His reasons are +well put and convincing. "If there shall any discent +be made by the enymye in either county by the waie of +surprise, and that the enymye doe but burne or sacke, +and departe, then can nether be releeved as aforesaid, +bycause there wilbe no tyme given to unite the forces of +the same shere, where such attempt shalbe offered, much +lesse for the drawing in of any numbers from affarr; +and for any such enterpryze, where there is no purpose +to hold and possesse the places gotten, each shire with +4000 men shalbe able either to repel or to resiste the +same. But if the enymy dispose himself to fortyfye +any part in Cornewall or to strengthen any neck of +land of advantage, and thereby begyne to dryve us to a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[ 92]</a></span> +defensive warr, then there is noe country adjoyneth to +Cornwall but Devon from whence any spedy supplie +maie be had to impeach the begining of such a purpose. +And if ought be attempted in Devon—of which Plymouth +is most to be feared, having, in one indraught, two +goodly harboroughes, as Cattwater and Aishewater—then +it is also very likely that the enymye will either +assure Cornewall, or seeke utterly to waste yt, because +yt is next his supplies, both from Spayne and Brittaine +(Brittany); and hath divers ports and good rodes to +receive a fleete."</p> + +<p>He proceeds to point out the length and narrowness +of Cornwall, and the extreme difficulty of sending +succour to Plymouth. The river can only be forded +in two places, and that by small ferries at Stonehouse +and Aishe, which would be of little use for horses or +ammunition. Moreover, the enemy would bring +"gallies" with them, which would enable them to +command the river Tamar. If four thousand men were +taken from Cornwall, the enemy would certainly become +cognizant of the fact, and nothing would be easier for +them, in that event, than to lay waste the whole shire, +either by sending round a ship from Plymouth or +across from Brittany. Three hundred soldiers would +be sufficient.</p> + +<p>He points out that no county in England is so +dangerously situated as Cornwall, with the sea on both +sides of it, and with sparse inhabitants. It is so narrow +that if the enemy were to possess any of two or three +straits, the men of the West would be quite cut off from +the men of the East, for between Mount's Bay and the +sea entering within St. Tees, it is but three miles and +a half from sea to sea; between Truro and St. Pirom +but five miles. He concludes the letter by making<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[ 93]</a></span> +manifest the advantages of the position of Somerset, its +breadth, its richness, and lack of separating rivers.</p> + +<p>And he set his mind to these details of his defence +at the time when his mind was eager to bring down to +the realm of reality those high dreams by which Guiana +caused him to be obsessed. A few days afterwards he +writes to Sir Robert Cecil: "I beseich you lett us know +whether wee shalbe travelers or tinkers; conquerors or +novices. For if the winter pass without making provision +there can be no vitling in the summer; and if it +be now fore-slowed, farewell Guiana for ever.... Honor +and gold and all good, for ever hopeless."</p> + +<p>A great man, this Elizabethan, whose imperial +dreams did not prevent him from mastering the little +businesses under his hand! Visions of Eldorado did +not blurr his view of Minnett or lessen his interest in +the clash-mills of Mr. Crymes.</p> + +<p>Not only was Ralegh Lord Warden of the Stannaries +and Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, but he was also what +Edwards calls Captain of Industry in Ireland. The +work connected with these duties was what may be +looked upon as the <i>business</i> of his life. Each entailed +work and responsibility which would suffice the energy +of an ordinary man of business, a little above the +modern average of capacity. It was typical of Ralegh's +immense vitality that he dealt with them with as much +thoroughness and ease as he managed his own household, +and always he inspired them with new ideas and +new life, even as his garden was the first in which +orange-trees were cultivated. His imagination made +him an originator. He was never content with the old +way of doing things—he found a better. He was +always seeing old facts for the first time, as though he +had never seen them before, as all men of vigorous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[ 94]</a></span> +intellect do. Consequently he trusted his own opinion, +and he had good cause to trust it.</p> + +<p>Ralegh had first become prominent by his actions +in Ireland, and very soon after he had attained to +eminence he was employed by the Crown in their +endeavour to bring some kind of prosperity to the +country ravaged to desolation by war. Solitudinem +faciunt, pacem appellant. Six hundred thousand acres +of land had been confiscated from the Earl of Desmond, +and probably at his own suggestion Ralegh undertook +to plant an English colony there. Others joined in the +enterprise. Ralegh's share consisted of some twelve +thousand acres in the counties of Cork, Waterford, and +Tipperary, and he rented, in addition, Lismore Castle +at the annual charge of Ł13 6<i>s</i>. 8<i>d</i>., from Meyler +Magrath, Bishop of the See of Lismore and Archbishop +of Cashel. His tenants he had taken from men of +Devon (the stamp of man he knew and approved), and +his land was soon recognized as the most prosperous +among all the estates which these "gentlemen under-takers," +as they were called, were opening out. Fertility +did not satisfy him. His acres were well forested, and +an idea occurred to him by which he could turn the +timber to good account. His scheme was to construct +pipe-staves and hogsheads and barrel boards, and to +transport them to the wine growers of Spain and +France. It was a good scheme and practical. But he +found the utmost difficulty in obtaining a licence from +the Privy Council for their export. He was not in +favour with Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord-Deputy of +Ireland, nor the deputy's cousin, one Richard Wingfield. +By the time that sanction was obtained, Ireland was +again in too unsettled a state for prosperity in quiet +commerce, and Ralegh sold his estate to Richard Boyle,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[ 95]</a></span> +who afterwards became Earl of Cork. He had planted +many products, which his men had brought from +Virginia, on the land of his Irish estate, and among +these was the potato. He also tried to cultivate +tobacco, but with less success.</p> + +<p>Had Ralegh been supported during the last ten +years of the Queen's reign, he would have benefited +Ireland considerably by his activity, even though he +was, at the same time, engaged in many other affairs, +naval, political, and commercial. But he was badly +hampered in his projects by loss of favour. His +enemies were many, and they found pleasure in vexing +him in small matters. This enmity, while Elizabeth +lived, did not seriously injure his power or his reputation, +but it set obstacles in the way of his projects which +were just sufficient to thwart them.</p> + +<p>Such were Ralegh's chief business activities, which +were the groundwork of his life, these and the duties +of Captain of the Guard, which were chiefly decorative. +It is not easy to realize, in a time of great splendour, +the day to day existence of the men who made that +time splendid. The mind is apt to leap from dramatic +moment to dramatic moment, when mighty exploits +mark out a time's history like stepping-stones. When +events are sufficiently great to stand prominently forth, +not only in the history of the reign, but in the history +of all time, the prosaic intervals of dull hard work are +apt to be forgotten; but they are the essential training, +without which those events would not have happened.</p> + +<p>The life of the man is the life of the nation in +little. Just as Ralegh thought nothing beneath his +notice, thought nothing to which he put his hand too +insignificant not to be done with his might, so England, +under her great Queen, was working and working to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[ 96]</a></span> +collect her strength, so that, when the moment at last +came to strike, she might strike with effect.</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Ralegh, Captain of the Guard, superb in +pearls and silver, whom magnificence became, did not +disdain on occasion to ride for many miles through the +muddy roads of Devonshire to inspect the river at Roxburgh +Down, and found time to write at length to +Secretary Sir Robert Cecil, his opinion that the clash-mills +of Mr. Crymes, the tinner, did not harm the townsmen +of Plymouth. That incident is as significant of the +time's energy as the defeat of the Spanish Armament.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 768px;"> +<img src="images/illus122.jpg" width="768" height="1015" alt="Sir Walter Raleigh" title="" /> +<p class="ralign">Copyright, Emery Walker, London, E. C.</p> +<span class="caption smcap">Sir Walter Raleigh</span> +<p class="center">From an oil-painting made, probably by Federigo Zuccaro, in 1586</p> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[ 97]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3> + +<h2>AGAINST SPAIN</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Spain's enmity—The Armada—Ralegh's opinion of tactics—With +Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys—The privateers.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Indeed Ralegh's immense energy is typical of the +time. <i>Do it with thy might</i> could fitly have been +the motto of the nation. Their capacity for hard work +was unequalled. The Armada was England's day of +triumph. Men applaud a prima-donna on the night of +her success, and are apt to forget the long years +of training and privation and self-control that have +preceded the glory of the moment. It is even so with +a nation. The little hour of triumph is as nothing compared +with the long years of life which made that +triumph possible; and only the greatest artist and the +greatest nation can bear the added burthen of success. +England lapsed after the impulse of that great action +had died away. The nation as a whole was too young +and too boisterous with youth to support a victory so +overpowering in its magnificence.</p> + +<p>The triumph itself was like few in the history of +nations, and events conspired to lend a vivid dramatic +colour to its greatness.</p> + +<p>The time had come when Philip the Second at last +decided that the insolence of England must be punished. +The exploits of men like Hawkins and Drake and +Ralegh and Frobisher were becoming intolerable, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[ 98]</a></span> +though Elizabeth had at first given no sanction to their +enterprises, treating them much as she had treated the +English supporters of the Protestant cause in France, +yet the knighthood of Drake on the deck of his own +ship at length declared the bent of her sympathy. The +time had come for action: and the time seemed specially +favourable to Philip. Sextus the Fifth was Pope, and he +had created the league for the subversion of heresy, and +the arch-heretic of Europe must be put away. The +Prince of Parma was in the Netherlands ready to invade +England. The Catholics in England would be united +by the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the +Protestants themselves would be averse to the surrender +of the throne to her son and his Scotch followers. So +Philip thought, and slowly set the immense machinery +of preparation to work.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth possessed remarkable foresight and a +remarkable dislike for definite action. Her foresight was +as uncanny as an instinct, or her power of dissimulation, +which is the art of diplomacy. Accordingly, it is +probable that her efforts for peace, and the treaty which +she patched up with the Prince of Parma, did not arise +from any fear of war, but were a clever design to increase +the proud confidence of the enemy by making him think +that England was in reality in a state of panic, quite +unprepared for war. She knew well of the preparations, +and of their huge scale. Drake had sent news to Lord +Burghley: "Assuredly," he wrote, "there never was +heard of or known so great preparations as the King of +Spain hath and daily maketh ready for the invasion of +England." With daring he sailed into the very harbour +of Cadiz and damaged more than a hundred tall ships. +He was forbidden to do further damage. Spain's enterprise +was not destined to be strangled at home.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[ 99]</a></span> +Elizabeth's fear, if her fear existed, allowed Philip to +spend untold sums of money on his fleet, and to adorn +it with the flower of his nobility, and allowed England to +overcome her enemy in the full ostentation of his display. +Certainly Lord Howard of Effingham, Admiral of the +Fleet, knew nothing of Elizabeth's intentions, nor did Sir +John Hawkins, the paymaster. They wrote angry +letters to Walsingham when the movements of their +ships were confined, and some of their men disbanded. +"Never," wrote Lord Howard, "never since England +was England was there such a stratagem and mask +made to deceive us as this treaty." And Sir John +Hawkins was even more vehement: "We are wasting +money, wasting strength, dishonouring and discrediting +ourselves by our uncertain dallying." Naturally they +desired to repeat Drake's exploit, to run every risk, like +brave Englishmen, and to crush the Spanish fleet in the +Spanish harbours. But they must wait. Elizabeth's +fears or Elizabeth's diplomacy (conscious or unconscious +in its working a strange instinct for the good of England +was here) determined another course of action. "The +Queen took upon herself the detailed management of +everything. Lord Howard's letters prove that she and +she only was responsible," as Froude, who accepts the +view of her perverseness and levity, declared.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the King of Spain's preparations were +at length completed. The galleons, "built high like +castles," had been baptized each with the name of a +saint, St. Matthew, St. Philip, St. John, ceremonially, as +it was fitting that vessels about to fight for the Catholic +cause should be baptised. The one hundred and twenty-nine +vessels of the Armada, galleons and galleasses, set +sail. They were strong only in pride and in the sense +of their cause's sacredness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[ 100]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 1024px;"> +<img src="images/illus128.jpg" width="1024" height="610" alt="GENERAL VIEW OF LONDON" title="" /> +<span class="caption">GENERAL VIEW OF LONDON</span> +</div> + +<p>Their vessels were unwieldy and old-fashioned, their +ammunition was insufficient, and their admiral was high-born +but incapable. For the veteran Don Alvarez de +Baçan, Marquis of Santa Cruz, had died suddenly, and +his place had been taken by the Duke of Medina Sidonia. +On July 19 the Armada was reported off Plymouth. +Beacons lit from hilltop to hilltop flamed the news to +London.</p> + +<p>The English fleet was ready. "Their ships had +warped out into the Sound on the evening of the 19th: +on the 20th they had plied out, to windward, against a +fresh south-westerly breeze; and the Armada running to +the eastward all night had, by daybreak on the 21st, +given the English the weather-gage for which they had +been working."</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the 21st the battle began. The +<i>Ark-Ralegh</i>, built on Sir Walter's own design, in which +was the Lord High Admiral, Howard of Effingham, and +three other ships sailed along the rear of the Spanish +line, sending quick volleys into the great vessels, and +sailed back. The Spaniards vainly tried to grapple with +them: the English ships were too swift and easily +manoeuvred. And then, on the very opening of the long +battle, the Spaniards recognized their weakness, that +their great vessels were cumbrous, and so crank that +their cannon sent their balls on the weather side high +into space, and on the lee side very nearly plump into +the water. For a week (there was little sleep for the +men during that week) the fleets fought down the +Channel till the Spanish fleet lay at last at Calais, but +not for long. The English sent fire-ships among them +and drove them out. "This great preparation," writes +Bacon, "passed away like a dream. The Invincible +Navy neither took any one barque of ours neither yet +once offered to land; but after they had been well +beaten and chased, made a perambulation about the +Northern seas, ennobling many coasts with wrecks of +mighty ships; and so returned home with greater derision +than they set forth with expectation."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[ 101]</a></span></p><p>Two things are specially worthy of notice about this +great battle. The first is the continued ignorance of +the commanders of various English ships as to the actual +damage which had been inflicted upon the enemy. They +had, of course, only their unaided eyes to trust to, and +great difficulty in announcing news from ship to ship. +Lord Howard writes as late as August 8: "Although +we have put the Spanish Fleet past the Firth, and I +think past the Isles, yet God knoweth whether they go +to the Nase of Norway or into Denmark or to the Isles +of Orkney to refresh themselves and so to return." And +Drake, too, wrote on the evening of the battle: "God +hath given us so good a day in forcing the enemy so +far to leeward, as I hope in God the Prince of Parma +and the Duke of Sidonia shall not shake hands this +few days."</p> + +<p>And the second point is that though the English +loss was small during the actual days of the battle, yet +the strain and the food and the sanitation were such that +directly they came to port, a frightful epidemic broke out +among the men, who died, we are told, by hundreds in +consequence.</p> + +<p>In the actual fighting Ralegh probably took no part. +When the first news came of the Armada's approach, he +was in Ireland, attending to his duties as Mayor of Youghal. +With the utmost speed at that time possible he sailed +from Ireland and rode to the English coast. Certain +it is, however, that he arrived too late for any official +post to be assigned him, for the battle had been in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[ 102]</a></span> +progress for two days before his arrival. But many private +gentlemen joined the fleet in craft hastily equipped for +warfare, and it would be a thing to wonder at if Ralegh +was behindhand when such doings were happening. No +positive information is, however, forthcoming. Only it is +known that the Lord High Admiral's ship was built from +designs which Ralegh had matured, and that he agreed +completely with the plan of the Lord High Admiral's +attack. Many an evening Drake and Effingham and +Ralegh would have spent in discussing the tactics of +sea-battles, proud, as they well might be, of the swiftness +and ease with which an English ship could be +manoeuvred in comparison with the large unwieldiness +of the carracks of Spain, who still considered herself +(God help her) mistress of the sea.</p> + +<p>In his "History of the World" occurs a passage about +the tactics employed by the English against the Armada. +There is a strong element of pathos in the idea of the +man shut up in the little room in the Tower of London +(he could watch the ships making their way down the +Thames) writing of this great action, which he had seen, +and writing with ardour, which nothing could extinguish. +He had been recounting a fight between Roman vessels, +heavy and slow, and the swift African galleys. Then he +bursts out into this great paragraph of reminiscence, as +though once again he were convincing some obstinate +fellow of the patent rightness of the plan of attack.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, hee that will happily perform a fight at +sea must be skilful in making choice of vessels to fight +in: he must beleeve that there is more belonging to a +good man of war upon the waters, than great during; +and must know that there is a great deale of difference +betweene fighting loose or at large, and grapling. The +guns of a slow ship pierce as well, and make as great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[ 103]</a></span> +holes, as those in a swift. To clap ships together without +consideration, belongs rather to a madman than to +a man of warre: for by such an ignorant braverie was +Peter Strozzi lost at the Azores when he fought against +the Marquesse of Santa Cruz. In like sort had the Lord +Charles Howard, Admirall of England beene lost in the +year 1588, if he had not been better advised than a +great many malignant fooles were, that found fault with +his demeanour. The Spaniards had an armie aboord +them; and he had none; they had more ships than he +had and of higher building and charging; so that had +he intangled himself with those great and powerfull +Vessels, he had greatly endangered this Kingdom of +England.... But our Admirall knew his advantage, +and held it: which had he not done, he had not beene +worthy to have held his head. Heere to speake in +generall of sea-fight (for particulars are fitter for private +hands than for the Presse) I say, That a fleete of twentie +ships all good sailers and goode ships have the advantage +on the open Sea, of an hundred as good ships, and of +slower sayling. For if the fleete of an hundred saile +keep themselves neere together in a grosse squadron: +the twentie ships charging them upon any angle, shall +force them to give ground and to fall back upon their +owne next fellowes: of which so many as intangle, are +made unserviceable or lost. Force them they may easily, +because the twentie ships, which give themselves scope, +after they have given one broad side of Artillerie, by +clapping into the winde, and staying, they may give them +the other: and so the twentie ships batter them in pieces +with a perpetuall vollie; whereas those, that fight in a +troop, have no roome to turn and can alwaies use but +one and the same beaten side."</p> + +<p>And this is precisely what had taken place in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[ 104]</a></span> +Armada. It is interesting to know that there was +divergency of opinion about the proper tactics to follow, +and it would be still more interesting to know who the +"malignant fools" were, to whom Ralegh refers. Men +who confuse the strategy of war with their own idea of +manliness, are common to all times, and must indeed be +the most desperate fellows for a proper soldier to convince. +You can hear them saying, with that dreadful +assumption of finality with which the pompous imbecile +seems gifted, those runaway tactics may be very well for +buccaneers, but are they seemly for the ships of the navy +of England? Small wonder the memory of them once +more exasperated Ralegh in his prison-room to renewed +anger.</p> + +<p>Before the Armada there had been many privateering +expeditions against Spain on different waters; after the +Armada these expeditions naturally became even more +numerous, when they possessed the prestige of the Crown's +authority.</p> + +<p>Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys were sent +with a small fleet to reinstate Don Antonio on the throne +of Portugal which had lapsed into the possession of +Philip of Spain. Ralegh went on that expedition, +which failed to attain its object but captured sixty +Hanseatic vessels, laden with victual and ammunition, +which report said, were intended to provision a new +Armada.</p> + +<p>Reprisals against Spain became the vogue, into which +Ralegh threw himself with spirit. Every man whom +money and opportunity favoured, fitted out his ship to +spoil the Egyptian. The Queen's person, forsooth, was +not to be harmed: she was to be conveyed to his +Holiness the Pope at Rome? Such things, men knew, +were said with happy confidence before the Armada, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[ 105]</a></span> +such things, remembered and repeated, spurred Englishmen +on to activity in which the hope of personal gain +was small in comparison with the fury of personal resentment +that their Queen should be so lightly valued and +thought to be so sorrily championed. Nor did they +always discriminate nicely between the nationality of +ships which they waylaid. Ralegh, as Vice-Admiral of +Devon, often received instructions to see to the restitution +of ships to subjects of the French King; and a ship of +his own had taken "two barks of Cherbourg from two +of the French King's subjects." There is a wild recklessness +in the exploits of these years; these gentlemen +of England, whose names sound through history, exulted: +and there is much in their exultation that resembles the +behaviour of schoolboys rejoicing in an unexpected half-holiday +in spring. The grave way in which their doings +are recorded heightens by contrast the similarity. Ralegh +and his men are bidden be careful "to minister no +cause of grief unto any of the (French) King's subjects, +in respect of the good amity and correspondence between +Her Majesty and the French King, their realm and +subjects." Austerely the records run; austerely, too, is +related her Majesty's desire that a certain perfect waist-coat, +the fame of which had reached her ears, should be +put on one side for her Majesty's personal use.</p> + +<p>They had the godlike capacity of remaining young, +these Elizabethans; they did not outgrow their taste +for splendid waistcoats. And the world found them +irresistible.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[ 106]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3> + +<h2>RALEGH AND SPENSER</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Rise of Essex—Ralegh retires to Ireland—At Kilcolman—At +Youghal—Friendship with Spenser—Brings Spenser to Court—Their +dreams.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>In 1588 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, died. His +influence with the Queen had for some years been +decreasing, and there is a report, which bears the likelihood +of truth, that he had summoned to Court his step-son +Robert, the young Earl of Essex, in order that he +might counteract the growing influence of Ralegh. Be +that report true or false, young Essex came to Court +about the year 1587, and his youth and spirit took the +Queen's fancy mightily. Essex was as arrogant as his +stepfather. Elizabeth was now an old woman in years +and in appearance. She felt that her power as a woman +was leaving her, and that drove her to make a last effort +to regain it, defying age then as she defied death later. +She cared for decorum less than she cared for life. That +is the pathetic side of her immense vitality, if the word +pathetic can ever be used of such a woman. She felt +that she could take something of the youth which had +left her, from the boy: he was little more than a boy. To +his natural arrogance was added the arrogance of youth. +He, too, was capricious and wilful, even as the old Queen +was capricious; but he gained charm, and the Queen lost +dignity thereby.</p> + +<p>There was rivalry between Essex and Ralegh, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[ 107]</a></span> +could not endure this spoiled boy. His impertinence to +the Queen was distasteful to one who, like Ralegh, knew +the meaning of reverence, and was able to understand +greatness. This abasement of his sovereign lady hurt +him, and he had no faith in Essex, neither in his character +nor in his ability.</p> + +<p>Small wonder, then, that Ralegh fell into disgrace, +and in 1589 he went to Ireland to attend to his Irish +estates. Gossip said, My Lord of Essex had chased him +from the Court. The boy took his position with intolerable +seriousness: he had even challenged Ralegh to mortal +combat, and it was necessary to hush the matter up that +the Queen might not hear of it. Ralegh went. Destiny +led him to Kilcolman Castle, where Edmund Spenser was +living.</p> + +<p>But first he probably went to the Warden's house of +the College of Youghal: the house was dear to him +because it resembled the manor-house at Budleigh-Salterton, +where he was born. The house was long and low; +and the rooms were lined with small panels of Irish oak.<a name="FNanchor_A_2" id="FNanchor_A_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> +A large dining-room is on the ground floor, from which +runs a subterranean passage connecting the house with +the old tower of St. Mary's Church. In one of the +kitchens the ancient wide arched fireplace remains. Sir +Walter Ralegh's study had fine dark wainscot, deep, +projecting windows, and a richly carved oak mantelpiece, +which rose to the full height of the ceiling. The cornice +rested upon three figures—of Faith, Hope, and Charity, +and the rest of the structure was covered with dexterous +carving, circular-headed panels, and strangely wrought +emblematical devices. His bedroom adjoined the study: +in it, too, was a carved mantelpiece of oak, and in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[ 108]</a></span> +fireplace Dutch tiles, four inches square. Behind the +wainscoting of this room was a recess, in which a part of +the old monkish library was hidden at the time of the +Reformation. Here Ralegh worked, taking notes, perhaps, +for the great history which he was to write later: +here he read Peter Comestor's "Historia Scolastica;" +and a black-letter book, printed at Mantua in 1479, which +tells of the events of the world from the Creation to the +days of the Twelve Apostles. It is pleasant to brood +upon the change from the turbulent Court life to the +quiet of this monastic retreat at Youghal—the little town +in Ireland of which the illustrious courtier was mayor. +Not only in black-letter quartos was he interested, but also +in the garden. He planted great yellow wallflowers and +cedars and tobacco and Affane cherry trees: potatoes he +introduced, and they were cultivated all through Munster. +You can read, too, in a <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> of some +ninety years ago: "Potatoes were first planted here (that +is, in Lancashire), having been brought from Ireland to +England by the immortal Ralegh." The writer must +have had a tooth for potatoes, he is spurred to such +enthusiasm over the matter. <i>Il faut cultiver le jardin.</i></p> + +<p>And at Kilcolman Castle Edmund Spenser was living, +conscious of the loneliness of the country.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"One day (quoth he) I sat (as was my trade)<br /> +Under the foote of Mole, that mountain hore<br /> +Keeping my sheepe amongst the cooly shade<br /> +Of the greene alders by the Mullaes shore:<br /> +There a strange shepheard chaunst to find me out,<br /> +Whether allured with my pipes delight,<br /> +Whose pleasing sound yshrilled far about<br /> +Or thither led by chaunce, I know not right:<br /> +Whom when I asked from what place he came,<br /> +And how he hight, himself he did ycleepe<br /> +The Shepheard of the Ocean by name,<br /> +And said he came far from the main-sea deepe.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[ 109]</a></span><br /> +He sitting me beside in that same shade,<br /> +Provoked me to plaie some pleasant fit;<br /> +And when he heard the musicke which I made,<br /> +He found himselfe full greatly pleased at it:<br /> +Yet, oemuling my pipe, he took in hond<br /> +My pipe, before that oemuled of many,<br /> +And played thereon; (for well that skill he cond;)<br /> +Himself as skilfull in that art as any.<br /> +He piped, I sung; and, when he sung, I piped.<br /> +By chaunge of turnes, each making other mery;<br /> +Neither envying other, nor envied,<br /> +So piped we, untill we both were weary."<br /> +</p> + +<p>That is Spenser's account—a very pretty account—of +the time which he spent with Ralegh. It is written in +"Colin Clouts Come Home Againe." They had, of +course, met before, as young men and soldiers by Smerwick, +when Spenser was secretary to Lord Grey of Wilton. +But now many years had passed by: they met again, and +knew that they were friends. The movement of a leaf +is enough to show the direction of a large wind: and a +phrase may point the attitude of a friendship between +two men. A sentence thus pregnant occurs in Spenser's +dedication to his pastoral account of his visit to London. +With a whimsical humour, which is characteristic of him, +he writes to the right worthy and noble knight, Sir +Walter Ralegh, Captain of her Majesties Guard, Lord +Warden of the Stannaries, and Lieutenant of the County +of Cornwall.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p> "That you may see that I am not alwaies ydle as +yee thinke, though not greatly well occupied, nor altogither +undutifull, though not precisely officious, I make you present +of this simple Pastorall...."</p></blockquote> + +<p>You can see Spenser smile, as he writes, to think of +this "strange shepheard's" terrific energy: how Ralegh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[ 110]</a></span> +came upon him when he was oppressed with melancholy +and high dreams, which this melancholy did not allow +him to express: how intercourse with Ralegh inspired +him with new life. He would brood, too, of many things, +which the memory of those days stirred up within him. +For Ralegh, like Sidney, the friend of Spenser's earliest +youth, was a poet as well as a man of action; and though +Spenser was a bigger poet than either he was not a bigger +man. The poet in Ralegh would draw him in reverence +near to Spenser; and then he would break out into +denunciation of the inertia which was inclined to creep +over Spenser, and hold him in its long tentacles. The +dreamer had a certain dependance on others. Yet almost +against his will it would be that he submitted to the +journey to Court, catching Ralegh's glow of admiration +for his work—those three books of the "Faërie Queene," +which Gabriel Harvey had told him were rubbish, but +which he loved himself. He was ready to believe in their +worth, too, though the dreamer could not help smiling at +his friend's so restless energy, which could not allow him +to sit and dream his life away, but which drove him +always on to be up and doing. Ralegh was the Shepherd +of the Ocean, and the Ocean (God wot) is—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"A world of waters heaped up on hie<br /> +Rolling like mountaines in wide wildernesse,<br /> +Horrible, hideous, roaring with hoarse crie.<br /> +And is the sea (quoth Coridon) so fearfull?<br /> +Fearfull much more (quoth he) than hart can fear:<br /> +Thousand wyld beastes with deep mouthes gaping direfull<br /> +Therin stil wait poore passengers to teare."<br /> +</p> + +<p>And yet it was good for the dreamer to know that +the world wanted to listen to his dreams. The plaintive +whimsical humour of his fancy, which fascinated Ralegh, +has fascinated poets down the generations (even old Ben<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[ 111]</a></span> +Jonson, though his honesty forced him to square those +shoulders of his and pronounce—Spenser, in copying the +ancients, writ no language), for any one who has heard +the echo even of the music of the spheres, hears it again +as he reads the strange cadence of Spenser's verse. No +one can realize the homeliness of his insight and his +boundless imagination, without coming under the mysterious +spell of the combination: that homeliness indeed +gives a magic strength to the wings of his magic fancy.</p> + +<p>The life of a dreamer is apt to be sad; if the world +touches him, he finds the touch heavy and hurtful. And +Spenser could not free himself from state duties which +forced him to live for ever witness of the misery and +savageness of the peasants, and of the country's weird +beauty which made a terrible contrast to their misery. +In Ireland he felt solitary and neglected: but he had +time and scope for his dreams. In England he quickly +felt the pettiness of the busy Court life, to which he could +not accustom himself. He never found the life which +was most in harmony with his spirit. He was not the +man to grapple effectually with circumstances: they hurt +him. Those must have been halcyon days for him when +he was able to enjoy intercourse with a mind like +Ralegh's, in the peace and beauty of the country. Small +wonder that he was encouraged to proceed with his fairy +fashioning of the perfect gentleman, which Sidney's +friendship had encouraged him to begin.</p> + +<p>He went with Ralegh to the Court, and both were +well received. Spenser was given a small pension by +Elizabeth. But the ways of the Court did not please +him. He had sat too long dreaming by the green alders +of Mulla's stream to take kindly to the bustle and +ceremony and coarseness of that life. He must have +returned with gladness to Kilcolman, and to the work<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[ 112]</a></span> +which he now knew the world deemed excellent. But +he ever bore in mind one side of Court life which he +describes with vividness, remembering probably what +Ralegh had told him in their first long talks together.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Cause have I none (quoth he) of cancred will<br /> +To quite them ill, that me demeaned so well:<br /> +But selfe-regard of private good or ill<br /> +Moves me of each, so as I found, to tell<br /> +And else to warne young shepheards wandring wit,<br /> +Which, through report of that lives painted blisse,<br /> +Abandon quiet home, to seeke for it,<br /> +And leave their lambes to losse misled amisse.<br /> +For sooth to say it is no sort of life<br /> +For shepheard fit to lead in that same place,<br /> +Where each one seeks with malice, and with strife,<br /> +To thrust down other into foule disgrace,<br /> +Himself to raise: and he doth soonest rise<br /> +That best can handle his deceitful wit<br /> +In subtil shifts, and finest sleights devise."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Ralegh knew this dark side of the Court life as well +as Spenser knew it: he knew how some men were ready +to slander a well-deemed name by lies and by forgery: +how some men were pleased to creep into a man's secrecy +and betray him: he knew the frequency of</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"A filed toung furnisht with tearmes of art,<br /> +No art of schoole, but courtiers schoolery."<br /> +</p> + +<p>For there were many impostors at the Court; men +eager to touch a great man's cloak-hem, and still more +eager to raise the cry of <i>Treason</i> which should send that +great man to his ruin. Ralegh, when he was well, was +roused by these dangers to grapple with them: it stirred +his fighting instinct and his pride. It proved his knowledge +of men and tested his power of dealing with men. +He liked to pass on his way with his head erect, scorning +the clamour of the little men, that he might stoop the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[ 113]</a></span> +lower in reverence to his great Queen. But Spenser +looked upon this darker side of Court life, and turned +away from it in disgust. He had neither the power nor +the instinct to overcome such circumstances: they merely +tired and offended him. He was king of the land of +dreams: a leader of men he could never be. And he +did not complain against his kingdom, though his waking +hours were troubled by care and sorrow.</p> + +<p>It is uncommonly pleasant to linger over these quiet +months of Ralegh's life: it is pleasant to think of Ralegh, +one of the greatest men that have ever lived, finding that +Edmund Spenser whom he remembered well enough, +was his friend: hearing him read those three books of +the "Faërie Queene," and finding that his new and gentle +friend was a very great poet. Each man had his dream +of a kingdom: Spenser, the realm of Faërie, where he +would fashion the allegory of a perfect chivalry: Ralegh, +the kingdom of Guiana, which was to make his Queen +mighty and his country the greatest in the world. +Neither dream was wrought out to its end.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[ 114]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER X</h3> + +<h2>EVIL TIMES</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Ralegh and the Puritans—John Udall—Blount—Ralegh's +marriage—Queen's anger—In the Tower—His sincerity—The +Episode in the "Faërie Queene"—<i>Madre de Dios</i>—Robert Cecil—Sherborne.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Ralegh returned to Court in 1591, bringing the greatest +poet who had yet come to English literature with him. +He was able after his respite to manage circumstances +once more, even that most trying circumstance of all, +young Essex, and joined with him in helping the Puritans +who were at that time being treated more hardly even +than they deserved.</p> + +<p>It is unlikely that their views influenced Ralegh in +any way. He was beyond the constraint of any fixed +creed. But he saw sincere men and honest men receiving +injuries; and he exerted himself on their behalf. He +was called an atheist, naturally enough; that has always +been the cry against men who dared to think beyond the +scope of sects' understanding. Not even Shelley was less +of an atheist, however.</p> + +<p>One, John Udall, who was an eminent Hebrew +scholar, had come under ecclesiastical disgrace (dissenters +are apt to be malignant to other forms of dissent—witness +the hues and cries raised lately against a new Theology) +by writing a book in which he pointed out the need of +reform in the reformed church. The book had the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[ 115]</a></span> +portentous name of "The Demonstration of Discipline +which Christ hath prescribed in His Word for the +government of the Church, in all times and places, until +the World's end." The English Church was in too +shocking a state to allow such a book to go quietly on +its way. They laid hands on John Udall, put him in a +prison at Southwark, and sentenced him to death. Something +about the man's straightforwardness and sincerity +seems to have appealed to Ralegh. He advised Udall to +draw up a schedule of his opinions, which he promised to +show to the Queen. These opinions had been twisted +and exaggerated into treasonable utterances by enemies, +who had thus turned the Queen against Udall; but +Ralegh was convinced that he would be able to change +the Queen's mind by his own influence. Essex, too, was +in favour of Udall's release. Their efforts were so far +successful that the sentence was mitigated to one of +banishment, but while the exact nature of the sentence +was under discussion, John Udall died in the prison at +Southwark. The bishops could not be hurried in their +deliberations. Rigorous repression begun thus early, +strengthened the cause of the Puritans beyond all +reasonable necessity. There is nothing to show that +Ralegh was in any sympathy with their cause or with +their hatred of playhouses and dancing and games. He +probably did not take them more seriously than Spenser +when he wrote of the Crab on which jolly June was +riding.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"And backward yode, as bargemen wont to fare<br /> +Bending their force contrary to their face<br /> +Like that ungracious crew which faines demurest grace."<br /> +</p> + +<p>But John Udall was a scholar and an honest man; and +Ralegh reverenced scholarship and honesty, knowing the +value of letters and the courage that honesty required.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[ 116]</a></span> +Moreover he always favoured tolerance in dealing with +those whose consciences gave them peculiar views, as is +seen by his speech in Parliament a few years later, +when he opposed the banishment of the sect called +Brownists.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Essex had not grown in any way less +arrogant. About this time a younger brother of Lord +Mountjoy attracted the Queen's notice; his name was +Charles Blount, and Naunton described him as "brown-haired, +of a sweet face, and of a most neat composure tall +in his person." The Queen seeing him at dinner at +Whitehall gave him her hand to kiss, and afterwards a +chessman as favour. Blount wore the piece on his sleeve, +and Essex remarking it and being told whose favour it +was, said, "Ah! I see every fool must have a favour now-aday." +Blount challenged Essex. They fought in what +is now called Regent's Park, and Essex was wounded in +the thigh. "God's death," cried out Elizabeth when she +heard of it, "it was time that some one or other should +take him down and teach him better manners; otherwise +there would be no rule with him."</p> + +<p>And now an event of some importance occurred in +the life of Sir Walter Ralegh—his marriage. His +behaviour has called down much censure upon him. +Macaulay invented a phrase which has had potent +results, "the disease of biographers." Every man seems +fearful lest he should be branded with the ignominy of +the complaint; yet he must be a strange fellow who can +live again with a man like Ralegh in times like Ralegh's +times and not catch the fire of enthusiasm. But enough. +At this point in his career, writers are wont to show their +breadth of judgment: "There could have been no true +nobility in the man ..." writes one of his letter to the +Queen. Fortunately ideas differ as to the nature of true<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[ 117]</a></span> +nobility. Now this is the basis of the censures levelled +against him. Of the facts of his courtship very little is +known, and what is known is strangely mingled with the +business of reprisals against Spain, in which Ralegh was +actively engaged. This is the letter which he wrote to +Sir Robert Cecil:—</p> + +<blockquote><p> +"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> +<p> "I received your letters this present day at +Chattame concerninge the wages of the mariners and +others. For myne own part, I am very willing to enter +bonde, as you persuaded me, so as the Privey Seale be +first sente for my injoyinge the third: but I pray consider +that I have layd all that I am worth, and must do, +ere I depart on this voyage. If it fall not out well, I can +but loose all, and if nothinge be remayning, wherewith +shall I pay the wages.... And farther I have promised +Her Majestie that, if I can perswade the Cumpanies to +follow Sir Martin Furbresher, I will without fail returne.... But, +Sir, for mee then to be bounde for so great a +sume, uppon the hope of another man's fortune, I will be +loth: and besides, if I weare able, I see no privy seale for +my thirds. I mean not to cume away, as they say I will, +for feare of a marriage and I know not what. If any +such thinge were, I would have imparted it unto yoursealf +before any man livinge: and therefore I pray believe it +not, and I beseich you to suppress, what you can, any +such mallicious report. For I protest before God, ther is +none on the face of the yearth that I would be fastned +unto. And so in haste I take my leave of your Honor. +From Chattame, the 10th of Marche.</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +"Your's ever to be commanded,<br /> +"<span class="smcap">W. Ralegh</span>" <br /> +</p></blockquote> + +<p>Ralegh was anxious to stop this gossip about the +relations between himself and Elizabeth Throgmorton. +What they were, was entirely his own affair. At any +rate he wanted Secretary Cecil to be quite clear that they +would in no way affect his willingness to work as he had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[ 118]</a></span> +always worked for his country. And so little was he +"fastned" to any on the face of the earth that he relaxed +no effort to forward his enterprise of Guiana, and in three +years' time he set sail for Guiana, though his marriage +was then an established fact.</p> + +<p>It was for many reasons advisable to crush, if possible, +the spread of gossip, and especially because the Queen +Elizabeth hated her favourites to marry. As she grew +old and began to lose her power as a woman, this feeling +increased in violence. Whether that feeling be good or +bad, is of no importance. It existed, and Ralegh knew +well that it existed. Many consider that his devotion +(and that of most of her courtiers) was merely based +upon the advantages which he could get from the old +woman: that he really flattered and despised her; that +his conduct was base and unscrupulous. This view +would seem to be at fundamental variance with the facts +of his nature, of the Queen's extraordinary power, and of +the whole tendency of the time. Not for nothing were +love-sonnets the fashion: though there are men who +think that fashion sufficient to prove once for all the +coldheartedness and insincerity of the time.</p> + +<p>When Ralegh returned, he was sent to the Tower, +avowedly because he had disobeyed orders in setting sail +at all, really because the Queen looked upon his marriage +as a kind of personal treason. She detested marriage, +thinking it did not improve the efficiency of a man. +And Ralegh, without any treachery to his wife, whom he +continued to love until the end of his life, was thrown +into misery by the Queen's anger. There are men whose +nature will not admit of more than one call upon their +affection, and that of a limited kind. You will find that +they are apt to preen themselves upon their loyalty, +wisely enough. Ralegh was not made on those lines.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[ 119]</a></span> +His feeling for the Queen was a real and vital feeling, +and was not swayed by every circumstance of his life. +She was a woman whom he had loved, and a great +woman for all her caprices: she was his Queen and an +illustrious Queen: she was Queen of England, which +under her rule had crushed Spain's power. It would +have been strange if her fierce resentment of his action +had not affected him. As it was he wrote from the +Tower—men, English men, were not then ashamed of +their feelings: they liked to try and express them—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"My heart was never broken till this day, that I hear +the Queen goes away so far off—whom I have followed +so many years with so great love and desire, in so many +journeys and am now left behind her, in a dark prison all +alone. While she was yet nire at hand, that I might +hear of her once in two or three dayes, my sorrows were +the less: but even now my heart is cast into the depth of +all misery. I that was wont to behold her riding like +Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus, the +gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks, +like a nymph: sometime siting in the shade like a +Goddess; sometime singing like an angell; sometime +playing like Orpheus. Behold the sorrow of this world! +Once amiss, hath bereaved me of all. O Glory that only +shineth in misfortune, what is becum of thy assurance? +Al wounds have skares, but that of fantasie, all affections +their relenting, but that of womankind. Who is the +judge of friendship but adversity? or when is grace +witnessed but in offences? There were no divinety, but +by reason of compassion; for revenges are brutish and +mortall. All those times past,—the loves, the sythes, the +sorrows, the desires, can they not way down one frail +misfortune? Cannot one dropp of gall be hidden in so +great heapes of sweetness? I may then conclude <i>Spes et +fortuna valete</i>. She is gone in whom I trusted, and of +me hath not one thought of mercy, nor any respect of +that that was. Do with me now, therefore, what you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[ 120]</a></span> +list. I am more weary of life than they are desirous I +should perish; which if it had been for her, as it is by +her, I had been too happily born.</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +"Your's not worthy any name or like,<br /> +"W. R." <br /> +</p></blockquote> + +<p>There are some who see in this letter merely an +artifice to play upon the senile affections of a doting +woman. They write nimbly of true nobility: they +describe the deterioration of an old woman's body; they +ask, could a man care for such a person? and assert that +all Ralegh desired was money and appointments. Their +point of view is wearisome and false: it leaves the bad +taste that the report of divorce-court proceedings leaves—with +that pettiness and familiarity, which is disgusting.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Ralegh remained in prison: and his +enemies triumphed at his downfall.</p> + +<p>It is refreshing to read Spenser's account of the story, +written a little after the event, as an episode of the +"Faërie Queene." It clears the air with its gentleness +and that sweet mingling of humour and sadness.</p> + +<p>Belph[oe]be has left the squire with Amoret, and comes +back.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"There she him found by that new lovely Mate<br /> +Who lay the whiles in swoune, full sadly set,<br /> +From her faire eyes wiping the deawy wet<br /> +Which softly stild and kissing them atweene,<br /> +And handling soft the hurts which she did get:...<br /> +<br /> +"Which when she saw with sodaine glauncing eye,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her noble heart, with sight thereof was fild</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With deep disdaine and great indignity,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That in her wrath she thought them both have thrild</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With that selfe arrow which the Carle had kild:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet held her wrathfull hand from vengeance sore:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But drawing nigh, ere he her well beheld,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Is this the paith?' she said—and said no more</span><br /> +But turned her face and fled away for evermore."<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[ 121]</a></span></p> + +<p>He smiles a little at the intensity of the squire's grief, +but makes no hint at his insincerity, and he could have +done so quite easily without injuring his friend, Ralegh. +All through the character of Timias the Squire, he dwells +on the impetuosity of his feeling with kindly humour. +For Spenser must have often teased Ralegh on that +terrible restless energy which drove him from experience +to experience, and from the height of enthusiasm to the +depth of despair. "Do it with thy Might" was a +singularly characteristic device.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"And his faire lockes, that wont with ointment sweet<br /> +To be embalm'd, and sweat out dainty dew,<br /> +He let to grow and griesly to concrew,<br /> +Uncomb'd, uncurl'd, and carelesly unshed."<br /> +</p> + +<p>His wife was a lady named Elizabeth Throgmorton, +daughter of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton. Much is not +known of her: enough, however, is known to prove +that she was a woman of character and attainments. +The marriage, in spite of its inaugural storm, was a +success.</p> + +<p>Ralegh's imprisonment occurred when he was busily +engaged in fitting out expeditions against the Spaniards +to command the trade-route through the Azores. In +1591 a rough squadron had been despatched under Lord +Howard; but the enemy had got wind of it, and had sent +a powerful fleet to protect their vessels. Of this Lord +Howard heard in time to avoid disaster; he weighed +anchor from Flores where he was anchoring, and escaped. +Sir Richard Grenville, however, refused to fly: with his +small ship the <i>Revenge</i> he awaited the attack, and the +full fury of the Spanish Fleet fell upon him. His resistance +was as gallant as his disobedience had been +audacious. Ralegh wrote a superb account of his friend's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[ 122]</a></span> +undaunted valour, and his friend's death spurred him on +to renewed enterprise against the Spaniards.</p> + +<p>In the following year, 1592, he took the chief part in +an expedition which, under his management, was far +more successful. "Sir Walter Ralegh," writes Hakluyt, +"upon commission received from her Majesty for an +expedition to be made to the West Indies, slacked not +his uttermost diligence to make full provision of all +things necessary, as both in his choice of good ships, and +sufficient men to performe the action evidently appeared. +For his shippes, which were in number 14 or 15, +those two of her Majesties, the <i>Garland</i> and the +<i>Foresight</i> were the chiefest; the rest either his owne or +his good friends or adventurers in London." Sir John +Burrough was in command, and under him was the stern +Sir Martin Frobisher, whose rigour even the hardiest +sailors disliked. Contrary winds prevented the fleet +from sailing for some weeks from the western ports +where they were anchored; and the Queen, disliking the +delay, recalled Ralegh. But Ralegh, being deeply +involved in the enterprise, did not obey her first summons. +The wind at length became favourable; and he set sail. +But when they were, on May 11th, off Cape Finisterre, +"a tempest of strange and uncouth violence" arose, and +Sir Walter himself in the <i>Garland</i> was in danger of being +swallowed up by the sea. The storm did much damage +to the vessels. Moreover, they had learned from two ships +homeward bound for London, that no Spanish vessel +would move that year, and that the hope of plunder +in the West Indies was small. Accordingly, Ralegh +determined to divide his fleet into two squadrons, one +under the command of Sir John Burrough, and one +under the command of Sir Martin Frobisher, and to +lie in wait, the first at the Azores, the second by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[ 123]</a></span> +Spanish coast "to amuse the home fleet." He himself +then returned home, and forthwith on his arrival was +imprisoned in the Tower of London.</p> + +<p>On August 3rd, an immense Spanish galleon, the +<i>Madre de Dios</i>, was sighted by Captain Thomson, in +<i>The Dainty</i>. He immediately attacked, and was beaten +off with some loss, until Sir John Burrough came up with +the <i>Roebuck</i>, and the attack was resumed at close range. +Still, however, the galleon held her own: Sir R. Cross +then sailed up in the <i>Foresight</i>, and Sir John Burrough +conferred with him as to the best course to pursue. At +all costs they must prevent the Portuguese from taking +her to shore and firing her, as they had fired the <i>Santa +Cruz</i>, a few months earlier. They decided to board the +<i>Madre de Dios</i>. Their first attack was repulsed: the +galleon slowly kept on her way to the island. Then Sir +R. Cross encouraged his men to make a final attempt. +For three hours they fought on alone, when two ships of +the Earl of Cumberland arrived, and the galleon was at +length taken.</p> + +<p>Naturally there was considerable anger among the +men of Ralegh's fleet, when the Earl of Cumberland's +captains demanded their share of the spoils. Feeling ran +high between both parties, and many valuables were +stolen, for the galleon was beyond all belief, rich in +treasure. And when, on the eighth of September, they +arrived with the capture at Dartmouth, and learned that +Ralegh was in the Tower, the disorder grew perilously +near to mutiny. Ralegh's presence became a necessity, +and he was released. He went to the West as a State +prisoner. Sir Robert Cecil preceded him.</p> + +<p>News of the treasure on the captured ship had spread +far and wide: and a proclamation was issued throughout +the towns in Devon and Cornwall "that all passengers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[ 124]</a></span> +should be stopped, and that all trunks, carriers, packs, +hampers, cloak-bags, portmanteaus, and fardells, that are +likely to have in them any part of the goods lately +arrived in the ports of Dartmouth or Plymouth in a +Spanish carrock ... should be stayed and searched." +For the galleon, besides jewels and bullion, contained +spices, drugs, silks, calicoes, carpets and quilts, to the +value of about Ł150,000.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 664px;"> +<img src="images/illus154.jpg" width="664" height="1024" alt="ROBERT CECIL" title="" /> +<span class="caption">ROBERT CECIL</span> +</div> + +<p>So, Cecil writes in a letter to his father, that "Whomsoever +I met by the way within seven miles, that either +had anything in cloak-bag, or in mail, which did but +smell of the prizes (for I assure your Lordship I could +smell them almost, such hath been the spoils of amber +and musk amongst them) I did, though he had little +about him, return him with me to the town of Exeter.... +I have taken order to search every bag or mail coming +from the West.... My Lord, there never was such spoil! +I will suppress the confluence of these buyers, of which +there are above two thousand. And except they be +removed there will be no good.... Fouler ways, +desperater ways, nor more obstinate people did I never +meet with.... Her Majesty's captive comes after, but I +have outrid him."</p> + +<p>And in a second letter, written a few days later, he +describes Ralegh's arrival, and the enthusiastic welcome +which his men of Devon gave him: "I assure you, Sir, +poor servants to the number of a hundred and forty +goodly men, and all the mariners came to him with such +shouts and joy, as I never saw a man more troubled to +quiet them in my life. But his heart is broken, for he is +very extreme pensive longer than he is busied, in which +he can toil terribly."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[ 125]</a></span></p><p>Ralegh himself came very badly out of the division +(probably through the cleverness of Robert Cecil), and he +did not scruple to write very frankly to Lord Burghley +his opinion of the business. "The Erle of Cumberland +is allowed Ł36,000, and his accompt came but to +Ł19,000: so as he hath Ł17,000 profytt, who adventured +for himselfe; and we that served the Queen and +assisted her service, have not our own again. Besides I +gave my ship's sayles and cables to furnish the Caraque +and bring her home, or else she had perished: my ship +first bourded her, and onely staid with her; and brought +her into harborough or else she had perished uppon +Silley. I was not present, and therefore had no extraordinary +profytt: I was the cause that all this came to +the Queene.... I that adventured all my estate, lose of +my principall and they have double...."</p> + +<p>Robert Cecil was one of the few Elizabethan men +with any pretence to greatness who was before all else +designing and crafty. He had a genius for cold +scheming. About this time he began to realize that +Ralegh was too impetuous, and too great to be a +convenient friend. And so he quietly set about to sap +Ralegh's influence, though on the surface he remained as +friendly as he had ever been, and let his son stay with +the Raleghs at Sherborne. Robert Cecil was a politician +and nothing else.</p> + +<p>And now Ralegh made Sherborne, in the county of +Dorset, his centre, from which he transacted all the +manifold business of his life. Here, as in Youghal, he +planted trees and flowers. He thought with Lord Bacon +that "God Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed, +it is the purest of human pleasures: it is the greatest +refreshment to the spirits of a man; without which +buildings and handiworks are but gross handiworks:" +even as he would think with Bacon, "It is a poor centre +of a man's actions, himself. It is right earth; for that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[ 126]</a></span> +only stands fast upon his own centre, whereas all things +that have affinity with the heavens, move upon the centre +of another, which they benefit." For he was working +towards the realization of his great dream, which would +bring prosperity and wealth once for all to England and +England's greatest Queen, Elizabeth. He now had all +the things which are wont to make for comfort and +contentment: but he was not a man for whom ease had +any attraction. He strained every effort, even amidst +the peace and beauty of the country which he loved, to +the arduous enterprise which he had set himself—to +explore the little-known country of Guiana—an enterprise +in which many brave men were known to have lost their +lives.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[ 127]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3> + +<h2>THE KINGDOM IN GUIANA</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Ralegh leaves England—Arrives at Trinidad—Taking of +S. Joseph—Interviews with Berreo—Dealings with natives—Starts +up the river in boats—Dangers overcome—Adventures—They +reach River Amana—Indian village—Within sight of Guiana—Toparimaca—Beauty +of the land—Falls of the Caroli—The return—Voyage +home—Arrival in England.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Although travel was slow and involved great +physical endurance, there was never a time when +men less loved their homes and firesides. The scene +again changes. Many things called Ralegh; the spirit of +unrest was always strong in him; he was always longing +to get right away. The little things of life pressed upon +him, and drove him to seek respite and quiet in the +Unknown. And the Unknown held for him immense +possibilities; the kingdom he desired to establish +haunted his imagination more imperiously even than the +actual release from the life and surroundings which +quickly to his spirit became dull and commonplace. +His nature was too high bred to endure with patience, +until it was confronted by the inevitable; and there +was very little that to his nature was inevitable. The +barriers that would have stopped a smaller nature were +pushed on one side by him, and even when Fate held +him fast, he ultimately triumphed by turning his bondage +to magnificent account. The spirit of life was with him +always stronger than his fear of being called a coward,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[ 128]</a></span> +stronger even than his pride. And always when he at +length realized a thing to be inevitable, he faced it at his +full stature.</p> + +<p>He had lived the life of the courtier, he had fought +against Spain, he had attended to the numberless duties +in Devonshire, in Cornwall, in Ireland; everything was +becoming wearisome to him, and while he was unconsciously +losing interest in his life, he was also losing his +power over others. He was in disfavour. He was +prouder than the proud men amongst whom he lived, +and in consequence he had many enemies, who longed +to humble his pride. He grew tired of the life; his +imagination moved ever in advance of the present, and +kept him ever unsatisfied and alert. In himself rather +than in the influence of others lay the primary reason +for his loss of favour. It is almost invariably so with +a great personality even when he is himself unconscious +of the cause.</p> + +<p>He put all his energy into making preparations for +carrying out his project of founding a new kingdom in +Guiana. If he were successful, fortune would be remade, +and favour would be regained. The prospect was exciting, +but more alluring than the excitement was the knowledge +that the sea and the unknown would bring to his +soul immediate peace; that new sights, new dangers, +and new interests would soothe his mind, fretted by the +immanent pettiness of passing days. Change is the law +of life, and Ralegh was immensely alive. Such a nature +as his must always find expression for itself, must find +scope and occupation for its greatness, or the spirit preys +upon itself and pines into uneasiness. Whatever the +force be from which vitality comes, brain or blood or +soul, that force is irresistible. Death alone can free a +man from its tyranny.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[ 129]</a></span></p> + +<p>So Ralegh turned towards that kingdom in Guiana, +towards "that great and golden city which the Spaniards +call El Dorado," and on Thursday, February 6, 1595, +he left England. The previous year he had sent his +servant, Jacob Whiddon, to get "knowledge of the +passages," and he had "some light from Captain Parker," +but yet his journey's end was vaguely known. Jacob +Whiddon and Captain Parker only conjectured that the +place existed somewhere southward of the great bay +Charuas, or Guanipa; and their conjecture was incorrect +by some six hundred miles. Information of the kind +was apt then to be inaccurate. Spaniards, indeed, knew +something of this vast empire of Guiana, but naturally +they kept such knowledge to their own use. That this +destination was six hundred miles farther inland than he +had been led to believe, Ralegh did not discover until +he arrived at Trinidad, which he reached with no mishap +other than the usual one of separation.</p> + +<p>One of the pieces of gossip which old Aubrey +recounts, and which is pleasant to believe, is that Ralegh +was in the habit of taking many books with him on a +voyage, and of reading them assiduously in his cabin. +He knew Spanish well, and was conversant with the +travel-lore of Spain. Among his books would surely be +the "large discourses" of Pedro de Cieza and Francisco +Lopez, recounting the marvels of the land to which he +was making and the adventures which the Spaniards +endured in conquering it.</p> + +<p>All the terrible hardships of these first explorers had +often fired his imagination, but never as now, when +every movement of the ship brought him nearer to the +actual scene of his endeavour. He would succeed where +they had failed. And his heart must have warmed to +these brave adventurers in spite of the fact that they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[ 130]</a></span> +were his enemies. He remembered their hardships, and +his own, when he wrote in his "History of the World," "I +cannot forbeare to commend the patient virtue of the +Spaniards. We seldome or never finde that any Nation +hath endured so many misadventures and miseries as the +Spaniards have done in their Indian discoveries.... +Tempests and shipwrecks, famine, overthrowes, mutinies, +heat and cold, pestilence, and all manner of diseases, +both old and new, together with extreme povertie, and +want of all things needefull, have beene the enemies +wherewith every one of their most noble Discoverers, +at one time or other hath encountered. Many yeeres +have passed over some of their heads in the search of +not so many leagues; yea, more than one or two have +spent their labour, their wealth and their lives in search +of a golden Kingdom without getting further notice of +it than what they had at their first setting forth. All +which, notwithstanding the third, fourth, and fifth under-takers, +have not been disheartened. Surely they are +worthily rewarded with those Treasuries and Paradises +which they enjoy; and well they deserve to hold them +quietly, if they hinder not the like virtue in others, +which (perhaps) will not be found." Men who lived +through the same elemental perils have something in +common, and a man like Ralegh is able to realize and +to express the fact; he is able to rise above the claims +of nationality at a time when his nation struggled for its +very life, and he with it, against the rival nation of +Spain.</p> + +<p>He arrived at the island of Trinidad, and punished, +after the manner of the time, the treachery of the +Spaniards against Jacob Whiddon; for the year before +Berreo, Governor of Trinidad, had broken his word of +truce to Whiddon, and having set an ambuscade for his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[ 131]</a></span> +men when they landed, slew some eight of them. "So +as both to be revenged of this wrong, as also considering +that to enter Guiana by small boats, to depart four or +five hundred miles from my ships and to have a garrison +in my back interested in the same enterprise, who also +daily expected supplies out of Spain, I should have +savoured very much of the ass; and therefore, taking a +time of most advantage, I set upon the corp du gard in +the evening, and having put them to the sword, sent +Captain Galfield onward with sixty soldiers, and myself +followed with forty more, and so took their new city, +which they called S. Joseph, by break of day; they +abode not any fight after a few shot, and all being +dismissed but only Berreo and his companion. I +brought them with me aboard, and at the instance of +the Indians I set their new city of S. Joseph on fire."</p> + +<p>And now Ralegh shows once more his extraordinary +power over other men, and shows it even more vividly +than in the case of the Irish chieftain whom he changed +from a leader of rebels to a staunch servant of the +Queen. He wanted all the information he could obtain, +and from Berreo he obtained it, though he was bitterly +opposed, as might be expected, to the English and to +Ralegh. A Boswellian record of their conversations +would be of value to all business men.</p> + +<p>"Having Berreo my prisoner, I gathered from him as +much of Guiana as he knew. This Berreo is a gentleman +well descended and had long served the Spanish +King in Milan, Naples, the Low Countries, and elsewhere, +very valiant and liberal, and a gentleman of great +assuredness, and of a great heart. I used him according +to his estate and worth in all things I could, according to +the small means I had." Berreo well knew the importance +of such knowledge to Ralegh; for he had spread<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[ 132]</a></span> +reports far and wide among the Indians that the English +meant them the deadliest mischief, and he had announced +that any native found to have had any intercourse +with the English would be forthwith hanged. But +Berreo, an old man, was constrained to give a full +account of his journey; and Ralegh's narrative of his +own expedition is punctuated by what Berreo saw and +heard, and conjectured, and by repeated corroboration +of Berreo's statements. Ralegh must have smiled to +himself when the old man so far relented towards him +as even to beg him not to venture his life and the lives +of the company in attempting a task which had proved +too much for his own capability. There must have been +a singular mingling of affection and cunning in the +petition. "Berreo," writes Ralegh, "Berreo was stricken +into a great melancholy and sadness, and used all the +arguments he could to dissuade me, and also assured the +gentlemen of my company that it would be labour lost, +and that they should suffer many miseries if they +proceeded." And he went on to explain the nature +of the difficulties, how the mouths of the rivers were +sandy and full of flats, which could only be entered +in the smallest boats; how the current ran swift and +strong; how the natives were hostile, and how the +kings of the natives had decreed that none should trade +with the English for gold, "because the same would be +their own overthrow, and that for the love of gold the +Christians meant to conquer and dispossess them of all +together." To which Ralegh adds drily, "Many and +the most of these I found to be true."</p> + +<p>Naturally he did not let experience alone prove the +truth of his valiant prisoner's statements. He called all +the captains of the island together that were enemies to +the Spaniards and conversed with them by means of an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[ 133]</a></span></p> + +<p>Indian interpreter whom he had brought out of England. +"I made them understand that I was the servant of a +queen who was the great Cassiqui of the north, and +a virgin, and had more Cassiqui under her than there +were trees in their island; that she was an enemy to the +Castellans in respect 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. I showed them Her +Majesty's picture, which they so admired and honoured +as it had been easy to have brought them idolatrous +thereof.... They now call her Ezrabeta Cassipuna +Aquerewana."</p> + +<p>That was his policy always with the natives. The +Spaniards desired immediate wealth, which they wrung +from the Indians by all means in their power; Ralegh +desired a new English kingdom, and knew that for his +purpose the aid of the Indians was invaluable. And +accordingly wherever he went he was always at the +utmost pains to conciliate them with presents and carefully +sought expressions of regard and good will. The +Indian chieftains fell under the spell of his personality in +the same way as the Irish rebel and his Spanish prisoner, +or, indeed, any one over whom he sought from the first +moment of acquaintance to exercise influence.</p> + +<p>To estimate at its proper value the gigantic proportions +of the task which Ralegh had sailed some thousand +miles to achieve, it is necessary to remember something +of the geography of the country which is now called +Venezuela, and the innumerable rivers which there flow +into the sea, forming a complicated network.</p> + +<p>Having at length discovered from Berreo and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[ 134]</a></span> +natives as much as he could about the lie of the land—that +is to say, about a quarter of that which an intelligent +Council School teacher could have told him in ten minutes +at the present day—Ralegh started up the river to +Guiana, "resolving," as he puts it, "to make trial of all, +whatsoever happened." He sent ships to reconnoitre +and take soundings. Captain Calfield in his bark and +the vice-admiral George Gifford in the <i>Lion's Whelp</i> +eastward to the mouth of the river called Capuri; King, +master of the <i>Lion's Whelp</i> in his ship's boat to try +another branch of the river in the bottom of the bay of +Guanipa, and to see if there was water enough to admit +the passage of a small ship. This branch was called the +Amana; but it, like the other, presented the same difficulties. +The rush of water was dangerous for a small +boat, and the shallowness prevented the use of a ship. +King could only make hurried investigations, because +his Indian guide assured him that the natives of Guanipa, +who were cannibals, might any moment attack them, and +that the attack would be terrible, for they paddled swiftly +in canoes and shot poisoned arrows with deadly effect.</p> + +<p>Nothing could deter Ralegh from his enterprise. He +gave instructions to his carpenters to cut down a gallego-boat, +to draw five feet of water, and to fit her with banks +to row on. John Douglas was sent in his barge to look +after King, who had not returned, and to take careful +soundings in the bottom of the bay. For old John +Hampton of Plymouth, and others who had come from +Trinidad, had told him dreadful stories of its danger. "It +hath been held for infallible that whatsoever ship or boat +shall fall therein can never disembogue again by reason +of the violent current which setteth into the said bay, as +also for that the breeze and easterly wind bloweth directly +into the same."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[ 135]</a></span></p> + +<p>John Douglas took with him an old cassique of +Trinidad for a pilot, and was successful. Four goodly +entrances were found, whereof the least was as big as the +Thames at Woolwich, but only six feet deep. Ralegh +accordingly gave up hope of finding passage for his ship, +and decided to go on with the boats, and the gallego +which he had prepared, and which held sixty men. In +the boat of <i>Lion's Whelp</i> and in its wherry there was room +for twenty men, in Captain Calfield's wherry for ten, and +in Ralegh's barge for ten more. They carried victuals for +a month. Among the gentlemen were Ralegh's cousins +Butshead Gorges and John Grenville, his nephew John +Gilbert, Captain Keymis and Captain Clarke. "We had +as much sea to cross over in our wherries as between Dover +and Calais, and in a great billow, the wind and current +being both very strong, so as we were driven to go in +those small boats directly before the wind into the +bottom of the bay of Guanipa." Their pilot was an +Arwacan, an Indian of Barema, which is a river to the +south of the Orinoco. Ralegh had caught and pressed +him into his service as he was paddling in his canoe to +sell bread at Marquerita; but now the Arwacan confessed +himself quite ignorant of the river up which they +were rowing; he told them he had not been on it +for twelve years, "at which time he was very young and +of no judgment." The position of the adventurers was +one of extreme danger; they might have rowed in that +labyrinth of rivers for a year without finding a way +either out or in, for they only discovered the Arwacan's +ignorance after four days. Ralegh realized their plight +to the full, and the extraordinary good fortune which +drew them out of it. A small canoe was espied in +which three Indians were paddling. Ralegh, in his eight-oared +barge, immediately gave chase, and succeeded in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[ 136]</a></span> +overtaking the canoe before it crossed the river ("which +because it had no name we called the river of the Red +Cross, ourselves being the first Christians that ever came +therein"). Natives on the thickly wooded bank watched +the chase with eagerness, and the captain with anxiety, +fearing what might happen to their fellows. But when +they saw that Ralegh treated the three with deference, +the people on the shore made friendly signs and showed +no fear as the eight-oared barge drew in, but offered to +traffic in such commodities as they possessed.</p> + +<p>As the adventurers stopped there for a while at the +mouth of a little creek which came from the Indian +village into the river, Ferdinando the pilot, who came +with them originally, and his brother, must needs go to +the village to drink the wine of the place, and upon him +the chief men of the village fell, threatening to punish +them with death for having thus brought white strangers +into their midst. But Ferdinando, "being quick and of +a disposed body," escaped to the woods, and his brother +raced back to the barge, where he cried out panting that +the Indians had slain Ferdinando. Ralegh immediately +laid hands on a very old man, who was with him to +serve as hostage, and if Ferdinando were indeed dead, +to take his place as pilot. Meanwhile the Indians were +pursuing Ferdinando with deer-dogs, and the woods +sounded with their shouts; nor could the old man stay +them, though he called out as loudly as he could the sad +consequences in which they would involve him. At last +Ferdinando reached a part of the shore and climbed +a tall tree which hung over the river, and the barge +happening to pass by, he plunged into the water and +swam to it, half dead with fear. "But our good hap was +that we kept the other old Indian, which we hand-fasted +to redeem our pilot withal, for being natural of those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[ 137]</a></span> +rivers we assured ourselves he knew the way better than +any stranger could; and, indeed, but for this chance, I +think we had never found the way either to Guiana or +back to our ships; for Ferdinando, after a few days, +knew nothing at all nor which way to turn, yea and +many times the old man himself was in great doubt +which river to take."</p> + +<p>They rowed on through the maze of rivers and +islands, which were inhabited by the Ciawani and the +Waraweete, goodly people, carpenters for the most part +of canoes, who dwell in little houses in the summer, and, +when the river rises (and it rises thirty feet, amazingly, +as Ralegh discovered), in the tops of trees. He relates +their customs; how some beat the bones of their chiefs +into powder and the wives and friends drink it all, that +the bones may have a kindly resting-place; how others +take up the buried corpse of a dead chieftain, when the +flesh has departed from the bones, and hang the skeleton +in his own house, decking the skull with feathers and +fitting his gold plates about the bones of his arms and +thighs and legs.</p> + +<p>On the third day the gallego "came on ground and +stuck so fast as we thought that even there our discovery +had ended and that we must have left sixty of our +men to have inhabited like rooks upon trees with those +nations; but the next morning, after we had cast out all +her ballast, with tugging and hauling to and fro we got +her afloat."</p> + +<p>Four days more they rowed on until they came into +the river Amana, which ran more directly, without windings +and twistings, than the other, and then a fresh +difficulty met them. For the flood of the sea no longer +gave any help and "we were enforced either by main +strength to row against a violent current or to return as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[ 138]</a></span> +wise as we went out." The men complained that the +work was too much for them; but they consented to +pull on when Ralegh and the other captains and gentlemen +offered to take each his turn at the oar. Each spell +of rowing lasted one hour. Thus they proceeded slowly +and with tremendous effort for three more days, when +the men began to despair; the current became each day +stronger and the river appeared interminable in length. +"But we evermore commanded our pilots to promise an +end by next day, and used it so long as we were driven +to assure them from four reaches of the river to three, +and so to two, and so to the next reach." The men, +too, were hungry; food was giving out; the sun was +scorching, and there was nothing to drink but the thick +and troubled water of the river. Sometimes they found +fruits on the trees that were good to eat; sometimes +they shot birds. Birds there were of every brilliant +colour, "carnation, crimson, orange-tawny, purple, green +watchet, and of all sorts, both simple and mixt, as it +was unto us a great good passing of the time to behold +them." But the men were hungry and tired. Then a +pilot, the very old man, whom they had hand-fasted, +said that he would bring them soon to a town of the +Arwacas, where they would find a store of bread, hens, +fish, and the wine of the country, if they would turn +with their barge and wherries down a branch of the +river on the right hand. The men were cheered at the +prospect. Ralegh and Gifford and Calfield determined +to make their way to the town for food; so, leaving the +majority of their men at the river's entrance, they set +out. They rowed three hours without seeing a sign of +human life, and they began to suspect that the pilot was +playing them false. It grew towards night, but still he +kept assuring them that the village lay only four reaches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[ 139]</a></span> +farther on. "When we had rowed four and four we saw +no sign, and our poor watermen even, heartbroken and +tired, were ready to give up the ghost; for we had now +come from the galleye near forty miles."</p> + +<p>Then they determined to hang the very old man, +their pilot. But the river began to narrow. It became +so narrow that the trees with which either bank was +thickly covered touched branches across the water, and +they were obliged to draw their swords and cut a passage +through. "We were very desirous to find this town, +hoping of a feast, because we made but a short breakfast +aboard the galley in the morning, and it was now eight +o'clock at night and our stomachs began to gnaw apace." +At last they saw a light, heard the dogs of the village +bark, and one hour after midnight they arrived. The +old pilot had not deceived them in any way. They found +good store of hens, bread, fish, and Indian drink.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the company which was left behind in the +galley, fearing that some mishap must have come to the +wherries, sent out a party after them in the ship's boat +of the <i>Lion's Whelp</i>, under Captain Whiddon. But +Ralegh was so pleased with the prospect which the +morning light disclosed to his view, that he had rowed +some forty miles farther on. For no longer was the +country beshrubbed with thorns and thickets and closely +growing trees. Great plains, twenty miles in length, +covered with fair green grass spread out before him, "and +in divers parts groves of trees by themselves (he writes +with his keen eye for effects of landscape), as if they +had been by all the art and labour in the world so made +of purpose, and still as we rowed the deer came down, +feeding by the water's side, as if they had been used to +a keeper's call." But all was not beautiful and quiet. +In the river swam fishes of a monstrous size, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[ 140]</a></span> +thousands of ugly serpents, called lagartos. A negro, +a very proper young fellow, leapt from Ralegh's barge +to swim to the shore, and in the sight of all the men, one +of these lagartos ate him. Those monstrous serpents are +now called alligators.</p> + +<p>They came back to the great river and resumed their +course, pulling ever with difficulty against the current. +And again they were reduced to hunger, and again they +were on the brink of despair, when Captain Gifford, who +was a little in advance of the others seeking a place to +land and make a fire, saw four canoes, and with no small +joy he urged his men to try the uttermost of their +strength to come up with them. At last they overtook +them, as they paddled up a creek off the main stream, +and found bread in two canoes, which they captured, +and learned that three Spaniards were in the other +canoes, one a cavallero, one a soldier, and one a refiner +of metals. The bread roused the courage of the hungry +men, and "Let us go on!" they cried; "we care not +how far!" as they lit fires for the night's encampment. +Immediately Ralegh sent Captain Thyn and Captain +Gifford in one direction, Captain Calfield in another, to +follow the men who had fled away. As he himself was +creeping through the bushes he saw an Indian basket +which was insecurely hidden. In the basket was a +refiner's outfit, quicksilver, saltpetre, and other things to +test the quality of minerals, and the dust of ore which +had been refined. They could not, however, catch the +Spaniards, but they discovered some Arwacas concealed +in the woods who had acted as pilots to the Spaniards. +Them they questioned, and one they took with them for +their own pilot.</p> + +<p>Ralegh had no mining tools with him, nor had he +come for small and immediate gain. His purpose was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[ 141]</a></span> +no other than to open out the resources of the whole +country for England, not to snatch a cargo load of gold. +Moreover, a month had passed since they had seen the +ships. Time was precious; there was much to be done; +"and to stay," he says pithily, "to dig out gold with our +nails had been <i>opus laboris</i> but not <i>ingenii</i>." He stayed +only to survey the neighbourhood. During his short +stay the natives came in numbers to him, and with his +usual policy he treated them with elaborate kindness in +contrast to the cruelty of the Spaniards. He paid for +everything which he used, and took every means to +prevent violence to their women, and theft. If the +offender was discovered he was punished before the +Indians; and, more than that, if an Indian complained +of a theft which could not be laid to any man's account, +he was paid to the full amount of his loss.</p> + +<p>Here Ralegh sent back Ferdinando and the very old +man in a canoe with presents for themselves and a +message to deliver to the ships, and the company rowed +on their way, taking with them as pilot, Martin, the +native who was captured from the three Spaniards. But +the next day the galley ran aground, and "we were like +to cast her away with all our victual and provision and +so lay on the sand one whole night, and were far more +in despair at this time to free her than before, because +we had no tide of flood to help us; and therefore feared +that all our hopes would have ended in mishaps. But +we fastened an anchor upon the land, and with main +strength drew her off."</p> + +<p>Then at last, to their great joy, the mountains of +Guiana rose before them, and in the evening of the same +day a fresh northerly wind sprang up, and before it they +passed on till they were brought in sight of the great +river of Orinoco, "out of which the river descended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[ 142]</a></span> +wherein we were." As their boats entered the Orinoco +they espied three canoes manned by natives, who, when +they saw the English, paddled fast away westward +towards Guiana, thinking they were Spaniards. The +boats, giving chase, came up with one of the canoes, and +explained by their interpreter that they were not Spaniards +but friends. Thereupon the natives were cordial, gladly +gave them fish and tortoise eggs, and promised to bring +their chief man to the boats in the morning. In the +morning the chief man, whose name was Toparimaca, +came with some forty followers, bringing presents of +bread and fruit and wine. With him Ralegh conferred +about the nearest way to Guiana, and he escorted Ralegh +to his own port, and from his port escorted Ralegh and +some of his captains to the town, where the captains +caroused until they were "reasonable pleasant." The +name of the town was Arowocai, and in it was staying a +stranger cassique with his wife and retainers. Of this +wife Ralegh gives a characteristic description: "In all +my life I have seldom seen a better favoured woman. +She was of good stature, with black eyes, fat of body, of +an excellent countenance, her hair almost as long as +herself, tied up again in pretty knots, and it seemed that +she stood not in that awe of her husband as the rest, for +she spake and discoursed and drank among the gentlemen +and captains and was very pleasant, knowing her +own comeliness, and taking great pride therein. I have +seen a lady in England so like her as, but for the +difference of colour, I would have sworn might have +been the same." Toparimaca gave them a pilot, an old +man of great experience and travel, who knew his way +by day or night on the river, and they rowed on. +Without him, mishap would have befallen them, because +the river is exceedingly broad, at places extending to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[ 143]</a></span> +twenty miles, and its course is full of wonderful eddies, +islands, shoals, currents, and dangerous rocks.</p> + +<p>They passed up the great river, sailing, for a wind +rose up behind them, along the shore of the island of +Assapana, past the river Europa, which poured its waters +into the great river; they sailed on ever westward, wide +green plains spread out on the right hand, and the banks +of the river were a very perfect red. Now they must +make all speed possible, for the time was drawing near +when the rain would fall, and the river rising, would, by +the violence of its current, hinder all further progress. +On they sailed, past the high mountains of Aroami and +Aio, past the great island Manoripano, until, on the sixth +day, they reached the land of that Morequito whom +Berreo had slain. They anchored in the port, and Ralegh +despatched one of his pilots to the uncle of Morequito, +King of Aromaia. In the morning, before noon, the old +king came with his followers, walking the fourteen miles +to the shore; he was one hundred and ten years old. A +little tent had been set up on the shore, and in it the old +king rested. When he was rested, Ralegh conversed +with him by means of an interpreter. He explained +how he had been sent out by his Queen specially to free +the land from the tyranny of the Spaniards; he dilated +at large on "Her Majesty's greatness, her justice, her +charity to oppressed nations, with as many of the rest of +her beauties and virtues as either I could express or they +conceive, all which being with great admiration attentively +heard and marvellously admired. I began to sound the +old man as touching Guiana." They talked for a long +space of time, the old king relating memories of his +youth, how "there came down into that large valley of +Guiana a nation from so far off as the sun slept (Ralegh +liked that phrase and mentions it as the old king's own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[ 144]</a></span> +expression), with so great a multitude as they could not +be numbered nor resisted; and that they wore large +coats and hats of crimson; ... that they had slain and +rooted out so many of the ancient people as there were +leaves in the wood upon all the trees." When the +Christians came, however, they joined forces together +and lived at peace, each one holding the Spaniard as a +common enemy. And as the old king talked, Ralegh +marvelled to find a man of such gravity and judgment +and of so good discourse that had no help of learning +nor breed.</p> + +<p>Then the old king "desired leave to depart, saying +that he had far to go; that he was old and weak and +was every day called for by death." Ralegh begged him +to remain during the night, but he could not prevail upon +him to do so; and, though the weather was hot, the old +king walked back fourteen miles to his town, having +promised to wait upon Ralegh on his return. And that +he did not fail to do. It was not for nothing that he +was held to be the proudest and the wisest of all the +Oroonokoponi.</p> + +<p>Still they sailed westward, eager to see the famous +river Caroli, which led to the frontiers of the people who +were most hostile to Tuga, the Emperor of Guiana, and +anchored by the island Caiama. The next day they +came, after ten miles, to the mouth of the Caroli; when +they were yet far distant they heard the great roar and +fall of the river. So violent was the rush of the current +that they were unable to make any headway up the +stream—not a stone's cast in an hour. Accordingly, a +halt was made, and messengers were sent inland to invite +the native king to a parley. The king came, and Ralegh +discoursed with him about the purpose of his coming and +his Queen's goodness and beauty; and learned from him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[ 145]</a></span> +about his people and country. By this time, all the +rivers having risen five feet and more, further progress +became impossible; and Ralegh, dividing his company +into bands, sent them inland in every direction to explore. +He himself went to the top of the first hills of the plain +adjoining the river, and in the distance the celebrated +falls of the Caroli were visible. "There appeared some +ten or twelve overfalls in sight, every one as high over +the other as a church tower, which fell with that fury that +the rebound of waters made it seem as if it had all been +covered over with a great shower of rain; and in some +places we took it at the first for a smoke that had arisen +over some great town. For my own part I was well +persuaded from thence to have returned, being a very ill +footman, but the rest were all so desirous to go near the +strange thunder of waters, as they drew me on by little +and little till we came into the next valley where we +might better discern the same." The men of each band +returned and brought with them stones and minerals, +lustre, marquesite crystal, and stones that resembled +sapphire.</p> + +<p>Ralegh, as he looked at the stones and heard the +reports of the wonderful fertility and resources of the +land which lay in splendid expanse around him, must +have felt within him that his dream of El Dorado was at +last realized. Indeed, it seemed that he had only to +come out and take possession.</p> + +<p>But now "the fury of Oroonoco began daily to +threaten us with dangers ... for no half day passed +but the river began to rage and overflow very fearfully +and the rains came down in terrible showers, and gusts in +great abundance, and withal our men began to cry out +for want of shift, for no man had place to bestow any +other apparel than that which he wore upon his back,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[ 146]</a></span> +and that was thoroughly washed on his body for the +most part ten times in one day; and we had now been +well near a month, every day passing to the westward +farther and farther from our ships. We therefore turned +towards the east and spent the rest of the time in discovering +the river towards the sea which we had not yet +viewed and which was most material."</p> + +<p>The first day of their return they sped down the +stream of the great river against the wind one hundred +miles, and anchored at the port of Morequito; and +immediately a messenger was sent to bid the old king +come. Once more Ralegh had a long conference with +him concerning the kingdom of Guiana, and once more +he was impressed by the wisdom of the old man's replies +to his questions. Francis Sparrow and a boy, Harry +Gordon, were left to learn the language till Ralegh came +next year, equipped to conquer the land; and a young +native was to go with them to England.</p> + +<p>On their journey back to the sea they stayed several +times to confer with native kings and find out how they +were disposed towards the Spaniards and towards Tuga, +the Emperor of Guiana. At the very end of their expedition +they found the greatest peril awaiting them. +"When we were arrived at the seaside, then grew our +greatest doubt and the bitterest of all our journey fore-passed, +for I protest before God we were in a most +desperate estate.... There arose a mighty storm, and +the river's mouth was at least a league broad, so as we +ran before night close under the land with our small +boats and brought the galley as near as we could, but +she had as much ado to live as could be, and there +wanted little of her sinking and all those in her.... +The longer we tarried the worse it was, and therefore I +took Captain Gifford, Captain Calfield, and my cousin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[ 147]</a></span> +Grenville into my barge, and after it cleared up about +midnight we put ourselves to God's keeping and thrust out +into the sea, leaving the galley at anchor, who durst not +adventure out but by daylight. And so being all very +sober and melancholy, one faintly cheering another to +shew courage, it pleased God that the next day, about +nine of the clock, we descried the island of Trinidado, +and steering for the nearest part of it, we kept the shore +until we came to Curiapan, where we found our ships an +anchor, than which there was never to us a more joyful +sight.</p> + +<p>"Now it have pleased God to send us safe to our +ships it is time to leave Guiana to the sun whom they +worship, and steer away to the north."</p> + +<p>So Ralegh and his brave men set their sails for +England. Many hours in his cabin he must have +enjoyed the luxury of rest, working out in his mind the +time and proper equipment for the great expedition +which he would lead back to the land which he had +prospected. His imagination would picture to him the +careful opponents who would be ready to put forward +drawbacks and dangers; and he would answer them +with such conviction that the most careful would +gradually catch a part of his ardour. Guiana would be +the topic of all Englishmen, and England's ultimate +glory. He would view again the beauty of the land and +its fertility, the broad plains and the thick woods, where +birds of every brilliant colour flew, he would see the +deer coming to drink at the water's edge, the refiner's +basket, and the gold waiting to be worked out of the +ground, and the precious stones waiting to be cut; the +crystal, the sapphire, the lustre. He had his map, he +had friends among the natives, he had made all ready +for the great occupation. "The common soldier shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[ 148]</a></span> +here fight for gold, and pay himself, instead of pence, +with plates of half-a-foot broad, whereas he breaketh his +bones in other wars for provant and penury. Those +commanders and chieftains that shoot at honour and +abundance, shall find there more rich and beautiful cities, +more temples adorned with golden images, more +sepulchres filled with treasure than either Cortez found +in Mexico, or Pizzaro in Peru, and the shining glory of +this conquest will eclipse all those so far extended beams +of the Spanish nation."</p> + +<p>He arrived in England in August, 1595, having been +absent not quite seven months. On all sides he met +with opposition and disbelief. Some, the graver sort, +considered it better to husband their forces, to repel the +threatened invasion of Philip, who had sworn "to avenge +the destruction of the Armada on Elizabeth, if he were +reduced to pawn the last candlestick on his domestic +altar." Others were angry that Ralegh had brought +back no cargoes of gold and precious stones; others, +again, laughed at him, saying that he had never been to +Guiana at all, but had been lurking in Cornwall: that +the whole thing was a cock and bull story to regain +favour at Court. He, sneered they, was too easeful and +sensual to endure the discomfort of so long a journey. +Where were the riches which he would have taken, as +Drake took, had he really been to Guiana? To which +Ralegh answered proudly, "It became not the former +fortune in which I once lived to go journies of picory: +and it had sorted ill with the offices of honour, which, +by her Majestie's grace I hold this day in England, to run +from cape to cape, and from place to place, for the pillage +of ordinary prizes."</p> + +<p>His reception exasperated him; but he did not give +way. In five months he fitted out another expedition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[ 149]</a></span> +under Captain Keymis; and wrote a full account of the +voyage he had himself taken. But this second expedition +was too small to do anything else than keep in +touch with the native friends, and to find fresh information.</p> + +<p>Ralegh's efforts were unavailing. To found the +empire in Guiana became his life's purpose, and he strove +to attain it with all the resources of his energy. But the +course of events was too strong for him, and he could +not make men see far enough ahead of immediate gain. +Many years later his scorn at their apathy broke out +again, when, in writing his "History of the World," he is +describing Roman energy in the founding of colonies: +"Such an offer, were it made in England, concerning +either Virginia or Guiana, it selfe would not overjoy the +multitude. But the Commonalty of Rome tooke this in +so good part, notwithstanding all danger, joined with the +benefit, that Flaminius had ever after their good will." +There is something indescribably pathetic in this +personal touch—of the prisoner recording the fame of a +man who had been honoured for offering less to his +people than the prisoner himself had offered, and at +less personal risk—Flaminius supported, Ralegh hindered—each +by the nation which he most desired to serve.</p> + +<p>Edmund Spenser felt for him a friend's sympathy +when he wrote in the <i>Faërie Queene</i>—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And shame on you, O Men, which boast your strong</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And valiant hearts, in thoughts lesse hard and bold,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet quaile in conquest of that Land of Gold!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But this to you, O Britons, most pertaines,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To whom the right hereof itselfe hath sold,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The whiche, for sparing little cost or paines,</span><br /> +Loose so immortall glory, and so endless gaines.<br /> +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[ 150]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XII</h3> + +<h2>CADIZ AND FAYAL</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Division of command—Ralegh's delay—Unwillingness of men +to serve—Disputes—Ralegh's wise plan of action—The attack—The +sack—Ralegh wounded—His small share of spoil—Return home—Sends +ship to Guiana—Death of Lady Cecil—Robert Cecil's +policy—expedition to Azores—Fayal—Quarrel with Essex.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Ralegh did not long remain inactive. He found +that a great adventure was in course of preparation +in which he must needs take his part. A year +before the Armada Sir John Hawkins had planned an +attack on Spain's chief harbour, Cadiz, and in this year +of 1596 Lord Howard of Effingham, High Admiral of +England, determined to carry the plan into effect. The +Earl of Essex was put in command of the land forces, +Effingham of the fleet. Elizabeth invariably favoured +the dangerous policy of divided command, which Ralegh +in his "History of the World" cannot censure too +strongly. The reason why such a clever woman continued +to make this mistake is not known. Probably +she feared that one man by a conspicuous victory would +become too powerful for a subject. If this were the +reason, and it seems likely that it was, her fears would +naturally increase with her age. The same feeling, no +doubt, prompted her strange choice of the inexperienced +Essex. He, at any rate, she would think, would remain +her loyal subject, and would not aspire to rebel against +his royal mistress.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[ 151]</a></span></p> + +<p>The preparations were on an extensive scale. The +fleet was divided into four squadrons, which were led by +Essex, by the Lord Admiral, by Ralegh, and by Lord +Thomas Howard. The total muster numbered seventeen +Queen's ships and seventy-six hired ships, which were +chiefly used for transport, besides pinnaces and small +craft. They were assisted by a Dutch squadron of +twenty-four vessels. The men were nearly sixteen +thousand in all, land-soldiers and mariners.</p> + +<p>Essex was waiting with the fleet at Plymouth for +Ralegh, who had been commissioned to find men for the +expedition. Ralegh's delay was the cause of much +anxiety, and naturally there were not wanting men ready +to construe that delay into treachery. Gossip Bacon +suggests that he was endeavouring to undermine the +position of Essex and get himself nominated general of +the land forces in his stead. The true reason of his +delay is, however, available. On May 4 he writes from +Northfleet on the Thames to Sir Robert Cecil, telling +him of the difficulty he experienced in obtaining ships +and men for the service. "Mr. Pope presst all the ships. +Hee can also informe you how little her Majestie's +autoretie is respected. For as fast as wee press men one +day they come away another and say they will not +serve." He recommends Mr. Pope to Sir Robert Cecil +for his keenness, and proceeds, "Here are at Gravesend +... sume 22 saile. Thos above that ar of great draught +of water cannot tide it down, for they must take the high +water and dare not make after an houre ebb untill they +be past Barking Shelf. And now the wind is so strong +as it is impossible to turne down, or to warpe down or to +tooe downe. I cannot writ to our generalls all this tyme; +for the pursevant found me in a countre villag, a mile +from Gravend honting after runaway marriners and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[ 152]</a></span> +dragging in the mire from ale-house to ale-house, and +could gett no paper, butt that the pursevant had this +peece."</p> + +<p>The unwillingness to serve on a foreign expedition +was common in England then: men began to weary of +the hardships of fighting: they knew too intimately the +horrors of a sea-battle. Essex, too, found the men at +Plymouth ready to mutiny and desert. He immediately +took stringent measures: soldiers were tried by martial +law, and two were executed forthwith "on a very fair +pleasant green called the Ho."</p> + +<p>On June 1 the fleet at length put out to sea, and +came to anchor on June 20 in the bay of St. Sebastians, +which is half a league distant from Cadiz. The voyage +had been taken without any mishap, except that the +unwisdom of a divided command soon became apparent. +From Dover Lord Howard of Effingham wrote to Robert +Cecil: "My commission in being joined to the Earl is +an idle thing; I am used but as a drag." But the +weather was favourable, and several prizes were taken. +From St. Sebastians Ralegh had instructions to sail with +the ships under his charge and the Dutch squadron to +the Main, and to lie just outside the harbour; he was +bidden to take special care that the ships riding near +Cadiz did not escape, but not to fight, except in self-defence, +without further direction. "When I was arrived +back again (which was two hours after the rest) I found +the Earl of Essex disembarking his soldiers; and he had +put many companies into boats, purposing to make his +descent on the west side of Cales; but such was the +greatness of the billow, by reason of a forcible southerly +wind, as the boats were ready to sink at the stern of the +Earl; and indeed divers did so, and in them some of the +armed men; but because it was formerly resolved (and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[ 153]</a></span> +that to cast doubts would have been esteemed an effect +of fear) the Earl purposed to go on until such time as I +came aboard him, and in the presence of all the collonels +protested against the resolution; giving him reasons and +making apparent demonstrations that he thereby ran the +way of our general ruin, to the utter overthrow of the +whole armies, their own lives, and her Majesty's future +safety. The Earl excused himself, and laid it before +the Lord Admiral, who (he said) 'would not consent to +enter with the fleet till the town were first possessed.' +All the commanders and gentlemen present besought +me to dissuade the attempt, for they all perceived the +danger, and were resolved that the most part could not +but perish in the sea, ere they came to set foot on +ground, and if any arrived on shoar, yet were they sure +to have their boats cast on their heads; and that twenty +men in so desperate a descent would have defeated them +all. The Earl hereupon prayed me to perswade my +Lord Admiral, who, finding a certain destruction by the +former resolution, was content to enter the port.</p> + +<p>"When I brought news of this agreement to the Earl, +calling out of my boat Entramus, he cast his hat into the +sea for joy and prepared to weigh anchor."</p> + +<p>In these words Ralegh tells how he saved England +from a great disaster. It is not known to whom he +wrote this account, but it was found and printed by his +grandson, Philip Ralegh, just one hundred and three +years later. Probably Lord Howard took a negative +attitude; he found, no doubt, a grim satisfaction in +seeing the impetuous young fool, Essex, send the land +force which he commanded to its inevitable destruction. +He would think that he could easily set matters right +again with his fleet, and Essex would be once for all +humiliated, if not slain. Ralegh saved the situation. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[ 154]</a></span> +had the moral courage to disdain the charge of cowardice, +and the ability to prove in words the complete wrongness +of the plan of attack. That was not all. The situation +was still perilous to a degree. The day was drawing to +a close; boats were filled in disorder with men from +different ships. They were an attacking force with whom +time was of the utmost value, and they were without a +plan of attack. Ralegh was indefatigable. All his +powers were called into play—his influence over men, +his capacity of managing affairs, his knowledge of tactics +in sea-fighting and land-fighting—and he mastered the +crisis.</p> + +<p>The men were disposed to their ships, and the ships +were anchored at the very mouth of the harbour, and +probably Ralegh was at the pains to prove to them that +this retirement was no disgrace. Order was not restored +until ten o'clock at night, and then Ralegh drew up a +full account of the manner in which the attack should be +conducted, full in every detail of the arrangement of the +ships and the precedence of the commanders. His plan +was accepted, and at his own request he was allowed the +post of honour, much coveted, as leader of the van. +Lord Thomas Howard especially coveted the foremost +position; "he pressed the Generals to have the service +committed unto him, and left the <i>Meer Honour</i> to Mr. +Dudley, putting himself in the <i>Nonpareill</i>. For mine +own part, as I was willing to give honour to my Lord +Thomas, having both precedency in the army, and being +a nobleman whom I much honoured, so yet I was +resolved to give and not take example for this service; +holding mine own reputation dearest, and remembering +my great duty to her Majesty. With the first peep of day, +therefore, I weighed anchor, and bare with the Spanish +fleet, taking the start of all ours a good distance."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[ 155]</a></span></p> + +<p>Within the harbour the enemy were waiting in +readiness and in force. Great galleons and galleys, +manned with oarsmen, were drawn up in front of the +forts, which opened fire upon Ralegh's ships; the men in +the galleys gripped their oars in readiness to row out and +board any ship which the cannon from the forts or the +galleons might disable. Ralegh sailed right into the +harbour, disdaining to answer the fire from the forts and +the curtain with anything but a contemptuous blare from +a trumpet, and leaving the ships that followed him to +scatter with their fire the galleys. Ralegh sailed right +into the harbour; "the <i>St. Philip</i>, the great and famous +Admiral of Spain, was the mark I shot at, esteeming +these galleys but as wasps in respect of the powerfulness +of the other; and being resolved to be revenged for the +<i>Revenge</i>, or to second her with mine own life." For on +the <i>Revenge</i> had perished his gallant friend and kinsman, +Sir Richard Grenville; and many times through +that day Grenville's dying words must have thrilled his +mind, those words that are the most illustrious requiem +of a dying soldier, spoken in the Spanish of his conquerrors, +"Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and +quiet mind, having ended my life like a true soldier that +has fought for his country, his Queen, his religion, and +his honour." For three hours Ralegh, at anchor, kept +up an incessant cannonade against the galleons and the +forts; the volleys of cannon and culverin came as thick +as if it had been a skirmish of musketeers. On one side +lay Lord Thomas Howard's ship, the <i>Lyon</i>; on the other +lay the <i>Mary Rose</i> and the <i>Dreadnaught</i>. When Essex +heard the tremendous roar of the cannon he could no +longer stop outside the harbour, but sailed in the <i>Swiftsure</i> +as far to the van as he was able, regardless of battle +order. But "always I must without glory say for myself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[ 156]</a></span> +that I held single in the head of all." At last the +cannonade became too heavy. Ralegh had been told +not to board until fly-boats came from the fleet; +and no fly-boats came. Accordingly, in a little skiff, +he was rowed to the <i>Swiftsure</i> and besought Essex +to let him board with his own ship—"for it was the +same loss to burn or sink, for I must endure the one." +He convinced Essex, who promised upon his honour to +second him in whatsoever he did. Ralegh had been +away from his ship for a quarter of an hour; but during +that quarter of an hour Sir Francis Vere, the Marshal, +and Lord Thomas Howard had pushed their ships +quietly in front of the <i>Warspite</i>. This Ralegh could +not brook. "At my return, finding myself from being +the first to be but the third, I presently let slip anchor, +and thrust in between my Lord Thomas and the Marshal, +and went up further ahead than all them before and +thrust myself athwart the channel, so as I was sure none +should outstart me again, for that day." But though the +battle continued to rage furiously and at close quarters, +Sir Francis Vere and Lord Thomas Howard could not +rest content with second places. Sir Francis Vere +secretly caused a rope to be fastened to the <i>Warspite</i> +that he might draw his ship ahead of her. But sailors +told Ralegh of this, and he ordered the rope to be +severed.</p> + +<p>Then Ralegh started to board. He laid out a warp +by the side of the <i>Philip</i> "to shake hands with her," and +the other English ships followed suit. Fear seized +the Spaniards. "They all let slip, and ran aground, +tumbling into the sea heaps of souldiers, so thick as if +coals had been powred out of a sack in many ports at +once: some drowned and some sticking in the mud.... +The spectacle was very lamentable on their side; for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[ 157]</a></span> +many drowned themselves; many, half-burnt, leapt into +the water; very many hanging by the ropes' ends by +the ship's side under the water even to the lips; many +swimming with grievous wounds, strucken under water +and put out of their pain: and so huge a fire, and +such tearing of the ordnance in the great <i>Philip</i> and +the rest, when the fire came to them, as, if any man +had a desire to see Hell itself, it was there most +lively figured."</p> + +<p>Then followed the capture and sack of Cadiz. In +the assault Ralegh received "a grievous blow in the +leg interlaced and deformed with splinters." But he +was carried on shore on men's shoulders until a horse +was forthcoming, when he mounted. For an hour he +remained in the town, but then the pain of the wound +became intolerable; the streets were filled with jostling +tumultuous soldiers, and they pressed against his leg +in their disorder, do what he would to prevent them. +So he returned to his ship to rest, while the sack raged +in the town.</p> + +<p>The plunder taken was immense in quantity and +value: and as was invariably the case, there was much +ill-feeling as to its distribution. The Queen quarrelled +with the generals, thinking that they had much held +back, and the generals with each other, thinking that +the share of each was disproportionate. Ralegh +especially fared ill. "For my own part I have gotten +a lame leg and a deformed. For the rest either I spake +too late, or it was otherwise resolved. I have not +wanted good words, and exceeding kind and regardful +usance. But I have possession of naught but poverty +and pain." Ralegh was better able to win a first place +in the fighting-line, than in the prize list. This he +resented with absolute candour: but to deduce from his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[ 158]</a></span> +resentment that he cared only for gain is totally to +misunderstand the nature of the man.</p> + +<p>The results of the victory, for which Ralegh was +chiefly responsible, were far-reaching and decisive. It +crippled Spain's power more effectually even than the +Armada. Cadiz was razed to the ground; as the +Council of State decided that to raze the town was safer +than to garrison it for English purposes.</p> + +<p>Ralegh gained the respect of his fellow soldiers for +his genius and his bravery; even men who, like Sir +Anthony Standen, were hostile to him, wrote in enthusiastic +praise of his conduct. "Sir Walter Ralegh +did (in my judgment) no man better: and his artillery +most effect. I never knew the gentleman till this time, +and I am sorry for it, for there are in him excellent +things, beside his valour. And the observation he hath +in this voyage used with my Lord of Essex hath made +me love him." But at the Court little had changed. +Essex remained arrogant and hostile, and for the time +his influence appears to have been dominant.</p> + +<p>Immediately on his return Ralegh busied himself in +the preparation and despatch of another ship to Guiana, +to keep in touch with the natives whose alliance he had +on his own visit obtained. Mr. Thomas Masham sailed +in a pinnace called the <i>Wat</i> on the 14th of October from +Limehouse upon the Thames. Ralegh never ceased +from ardour in this great enterprise of his; nothing +drove it from his mind; he was convinced of its ultimate +success, believing in it as he believed in himself. But +he could not go in person, the time was not yet ripe. +So he with his wounded leg was glad to retire to +Sherborne for a season to the quiet of his Dorsetshire +garden. In Sherborne was brought him the news of +the death of Lady Cecil, to whom Sir Robert was much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[ 159]</a></span> +devoted, and Ralegh's letter of sympathy is beautiful in +thought and expression, though, such is the interesting +divergency of human opinion, there are those who think +the letter crude, sententious and laboured.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p> "Because I know not how you dispose of your +sealf, I forbeare to visitt you, preferringe your plesinge +before myne owne desire. I had rather be with you +now then att any other tyme, if I could thereby ether +take off frome you the burden of your sorrows, or lay +the greater part thereof on myne owne hart.... +There is no man sorry for death it sealf, butt only for +the tyme of death; every one knowing that it is a +bonnd never forfeted to God.... If then we know +the same to be certayne and inevitable, wee ought +withall to take the tyme of his arrivall in as good part +as the knowledge; and not to lament att the instant +of every seeminge adversity, which we ar asured have +byn on ther way towards us from the begininge.... +I beleve it that sorrows are dangerus companions, +converting badd into yevill and yevill into worse, and +do no other service then multeply harms. They ar +the treasures of weak harts and of the foolishe. The +minde that entertayneth them is as the yearth and +dust whereon sorrows and adversetes of the world do as +the beasts of the field, tread trample and defile. The +minde of man is that part of God which is in us, which, +by how mich it is subject to passion, by so mich it is +farther from Hyme that gave it us. Sorrows draw not +the dead to life, butt the livinge to deathe...."</p></blockquote> + +<p>So Ralegh wrote; he was acquainted with grief, and +familiar with death in every horrid guise. Twenty years +later he was to prove with his own example the truth +of what he wrote: "It apartayneth to every man of a +wize and worthy spiritt to draw together into sufferance +the unknown future to the known present; lookinge no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[ 160]</a></span> +less with the eyes of the minde then thos of the body—the +one beholdinge afar off and the other att hand—that +thos things of this worlde in which we live be not +strange unto us when they approach...."</p> + +<p>But Sir Robert Cecil was playing a deep and subtle +game which was to make him the chief man in England +during the few years that remained to the Queen of life +and after her death. Essex and Ralegh he feared. +He encouraged Essex to pass on his proud way to +disaster, using Essex to thwart the rise of Ralegh. +And Essex needed small encouragement. He coveted +the popularity, which was to end in his utter undoing. +Meanwhile his star was in the ascendant. His pride +had not yet outgrown his strength.</p> + +<p>Outwardly Cecil was friendly to Ralegh and hostile +to Essex. He hated Essex; the two men's <i>natures</i> were +in fierce opposition.</p> + +<p>Ralegh was still suspended from his post of Captain +of the Guard; but in June he was brought by Cecil +to the Queen's presence. The Queen received him +graciously, and reinstated him. Moreover, Ralegh and +Essex were no longer in open enmity. Mr. Rowland +Whyte records that "Sir Walter Ralegh hath been very +often very private with the Earl of Essex and is the +mediator of a peace between him and Sir Robert Cecil." +And again in a letter dated April 9: "This day being +Monday Sir Robert Cecil went in coach with the Earl +of Essex to his house where Sir Walter Ralegh came, +and they dined there together. After dinner they were +very private all three for two hours, where the treaty of +peace was confirmed." Between Ralegh and Essex there +was something in common at certain moments; there +was a gallantry about both men, which, in spite of everything, +each could not fail to recognize in the other. This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[ 161]</a></span> +Sir A. Gorges noticed; he wrote with much acumen: +"Though the Earl had many doubts and jealousies +buzzed into his ears against Sir Walter Ralegh, yet I +have often observed that both in his greatest actions of +service, and in the times of his chiefest recreations, he +would ever accept of his counsel and company before +many others who thought themselves more in his +favour."</p> + +<p>Ralegh's rest was brief. Almost immediately after +despatching the <i>Wat</i> to Guiana, he was engaged in +raising levies and supplies with Essex for a new expedition +against Spain. For the Spanish king was resolved +to revenge his bad defeat at Cadiz by another invasion +of England. Ralegh always believed that the surest +manner of defence against such an invasion was an +immediate attack. And that was the step which the +Lords of the Council determined to take. About the +time that Ralegh's ship, the <i>Wat</i>, returned from Guiana +with the news which its captain, Mr. Thomas Masham, +brought, the expedition was ready to put out to sea. +The fleet was divided into three squadrons; the first was +commanded by the Earl of Essex, who was Admiral and +General-in-Chief; the second by Lord Thomas Howard; +the third by Sir Walter Ralegh, whose position was that +of Rear-Admiral, and in whose squadron sailed the great +galleons, the <i>St. Andrew</i> and the <i>St. Matthew</i>, which he +had captured at Cadiz. On Sunday the 10th of July the +fleet set sail. Their destination was Ferroll in the Azores, +where the Spanish fleet was reported to be harbouring. +Their instructions were firstly to attack the fleet, and if +it had gone away, to follow in pursuit; secondly, to +intercept and capture the homeward-bound fleets from +the East and West Indies. The expedition has passed +into history under the name of the Islands Voyage.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[ 162]</a></span></p> + +<p>The very day after the fleet weighed anchor a storm +beat upon the ships with such violence that they were +eventually forced to return to whatsoever harbour each +could make. Many came very near to sinking, so high +was the wind, so strong the waves, and there were sailors +who died of exhaustion on their return to shore. The +damage done to the heavy ships was very great, and +time was necessary to refit them for the sea; the delay +involved the necessity of revictualling the ships. On the +26th of July Ralegh reported from Plymouth, "Wee only +attend the winde, having repayred as much as we can +our bruses. Butt we shall not bee in any great corage for +winter weather and longe nights, in thes ships."</p> + +<p>The weather was unpropitious on their second venture, +though they were obliged to wait until the second week +in August. Ralegh's squadron was separated from the +fleet, and was forced by the wind into the Bay of Biscay, +out of which he found the greatest difficulty in making his +way. Later in the voyage Sydney's flyboat foundered; +but he and all his soldiers were rescued. "I have notwithstanding," +writes Ralegh, "followed my Lord's order +to cum to the Ilands, and I am now this 8 of September, +in sight of Tercera, having chosen rather to perishe than +to relinquishe the enterprize; and, the Lord douth know, +in a torne shipp. Butt her Majestye shall find that I +valew not my life; although I hope that her Majestye +would not that I perishe in vayne. I hope after too +dayes to fynde my Lorde Generall and the fleet with +whom, I thinke, all the rest of her Majesties shipps ar, +butt the <i>Mathew</i> with poore Georg Carew. It is a carfull +and perelus tyme of the yeare for thes wayghty shipps. +The Lorde of Heaven send us all well to returne, and +send us the good hope to do her Majestie acceptable +service; to performe which wee have already suffered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[ 163]</a></span> +miche. For my particular, I have never dared to rest +since my wreacks, and God doth judge that I never for +thes 10 dayes came so mich as in to bedd or cabbin."</p> + +<p>Ralegh's squadron did not join the fleet until Essex +had been ten days at Flores. Then it was determined +to make a joint attack upon Fayal, as they had heard +that it was unlikely the Spanish ships from the Indies +would sail at all that year, and if they did sail, that they +would avoid Flores. Essex sailed first for Fayal, because +Ralegh's squadron was obliged to delay for repairs and +revictualling. But Ralegh's squadron arrived first at +Fayal, and, having waited three days for Essex, Ralegh +at length, on the fourth day, attacked and captured Fayal +by himself. He writes in the "History of the World:" +"There were indeede some which were in that voyage +who advised me not to undertake it: and I harkened +unto them, somewhat longer than was requisite, especially +whilest they desired me to reserve the title of such an +exploit (though it were not great) for a greater person. +But when they began to tell me of difficulty: I gave +them to understand, the same which I now maintaine, +that it was more difficult to defend a coast then to invade +it. The truth is, that I could have landed my men with +more ease than I did; yea without finding any resistance +if I would have rowed to another place, yea even there +where I landed if I would have taken more company to +helpe me. But, without fearing any imputation of rashnesse, +I may say that I had more regard of reputation +in that businesse, than of safetie. For I thought it to +belong unto the honour of our Prince and Nation, that +a few Ilanders should not thinke any advantage great +enough, against a fleet set forth by Q. Elizabeth: and +further I was unwilling that some Low Countrie +Captaines and others, not of mine own squadron, whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[ 164]</a></span> +assistance I had refused, should please themselves with +a sweet conceit ... that for want of their helpe I was +driven to turne taile."</p> + +<p>The passage is one of interest, larger than the mere +description of an engagement. It shows Ralegh's +immense and correct confidence in his judgment; and +how his outlook always embraced much more than the +actual event in hand, though its outline was never +blurred for that reason. The theory he pronounced +on the deck of his ship, and proved next day in the +engagement, he reiterates in his History in one of the +most notable of his digressions, that an island's only +safe defence is her fleet. He ends his remarks with +the very typical sentence, "I hope that this question +shall never come to triall; his Majesties many moveable +Forts will forbid the experience. And thoughe the +Englishe will no lesse disdaine, than any Nation under +heaven can doe, to be beaten upon their owne ground or +elsewhere by a forraigne enemy; yet to entertaine those +that shall assaile us with their own beefe in their bellies, +and before they eate of oure Kentish capons, I take it to +be the wisest way. To doe whiche, his Majesty, after +God, will imploy his good ships on the Sea and not trust +to any intrenchment upon the shore."</p> + +<p>But to the actual action. The men who foretold +trouble from the greater man spoke as truly as Ralegh +proved his courage and foresight in the event. The fort +on the shore was quickly taken; but behind rose a high +hill, topped by another strong fort, and the men at +the sight wavered to withdraw. None were willing to +reconnoitre. Ralegh was furious, and swore that he +would do scout's work himself. Sir Arthur Gorges and +some dozen personal followers would not suffer him to +go alone. So they made their way together up the hill<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[ 165]</a></span> +under continual fire from the enemy. Ralegh's clothes +were torn by bullets. Gorges was shot in the leg. The +ascent impressed the enemy. When the final attack was +made, the fort was found to be deserted.</p> + +<p>When Essex arrived, Ralegh was master of the +island. Ralegh's enemies (a great man seldom lacks +such enemies) had long been trying to enflame the +antagonism between him and Essex, and now they +insisted to Essex that Ralegh's success was flat disobedience, +and warranted a heavy penalty. A court +martial should be called, and should punish him with +death. So when Ralegh visited the Earl's vessel to +give an official account of the victory, he was surprised +to meet with angry looks and the charge of a breach of +the orders. But he convinced Essex that he was within +his rights. "None should land any of the troops without +the General's presence or his order," said Essex. "There +is an Article," replied Ralegh, "that no captain of any +ship or company, if he be severed from the fleet shall +land anywhere without directions from the General or +some principal commander upon pain of death. But I +take upon myself to be a principal commander under +your Lordship, and therefore not subject to that Article." +And he proceeded to explain how the delay of Essex +made him think that he was adventuring upon some +other enterprise, and how his own company began +to murmur and hint at fear. Essex was not easily +convinced. Weakness dreads to be slighted, where +strength relies upon its own authority. Monson observes +in his narrative of the Island Voyage, "The act was +urged with that vehemency by those that hated Sir +Walter that if my Lord, who by nature was timorous +and flexible had not feared how it would be taken in +England, I think Sir Walter had smarted for it."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[ 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>The incident illustrates Ralegh's address, a quality +which was essential at that time for any success in life; +that was the time when man dealt immediately with +man. The mind must always be alive and on the alert. +Here was Ralegh, coming to report a successful and +daring exploit, suddenly obliged to defend himself +against a trumped-up charge. If he failed to take in +the whole situation in a moment, and to stand his own +ground, death would result from the failure. Nor +could he simply rely upon justice; he must know the +man with whom he was dealing, and the men who were +poisoning the General's mind. Ralegh's self-control is +as amazing as his address. He had need of both.</p> + +<p>The General was an arrogant, spoiled youth, angry at +the knowledge that his subordinate was a better man, +angry at his renewed success. A rash word on Ralegh's +part would have been his last. And Ralegh had much +cause to hate the young man. They were rivals for the +love of a magnificent woman whom they served; their +rivalry would accentuate the elder man's dislike of the +younger's youth. But there is a dignity about Ralegh's +conduct and defence which shows no cringing before the +reigning favourite, but a superiority to all pettiness, a +kind of freedom from what may quickly become the +fetters of personality.</p> + +<p>Such was Ralegh's last great enterprise against +Spanish power. Hereafter the policy of England was +to undergo a change, and in the new scheme of things a +man like Ralegh could find no place. He was too great +to be used by a small mind; pettiness is always full of +fear and distrust and envy of powers which are not +within its little scope of understanding.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[ 167]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XIII</h3> + +<h2>THE UNDERMINING</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Robert Cecil in power—Downfall of Essex—Ralegh's opinion of +Essex—Governor of Jersey—Peril imminent.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>With the fall of Fayal the naval war with Spain +came to an end, for Philip II. died in the early +autumn of the following year, 1598, which was the year +of the great Lord Treasurer Burghley's death. His son, +Sir Robert Cecil, became the chief man in England.</p> + +<p>Time and experience did not soften the arrogance of +Essex. On his return he set himself more than ever to +the task of becoming supreme in the kingdom. Always +there has been a certain rivalry between the statesman +who manages affairs at home, and the successful soldier. +Each is inclined to underrate the value of the other's +service. Essex naturally thought the highest place in +the government should be occupied by a dashing soldier +like himself. He had whatever prestige popularity gives, +and he had influence with the Queen, but not so much +as he thought. Robert Cecil knew his man, and quietly +determined his downfall. Through his mediation Lord +Howard of Effingham was raised to the earldom of +Nottingham, which, combined with his position of Lord +High Admiral, gave him precedence of Robert Devereux, +Earl of Essex. This Essex, in his arrogance, could not +tolerate. He absented himself from Court, and all +Howard's efforts to pacify his anger were futile. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[ 168]</a></span> +the Queen began to weary at his absence. She asked +Ralegh to try and make Howard waive his right of +precedence, but this Howard refused to do. Accordingly, +again at Ralegh's suggestion, who valued the Queen's +happiness more highly than his personal likes and dislikes, +Essex was created Earl Marshal of England, and +Howard retired in his turn from Court.</p> + +<p>On the return of Essex, Cecil began to play a game +at which he was an adept. He wanted Essex to feel +that his importance was properly recognized without +admitting him into any State matters. So he arranged +long conferences with Essex, and with Ralegh, about +projects which he never had the least intention of +bringing to any issue; and these conferences about +nothing were carefully attended by all the pomp of +formality. Essex would thereby be flattered, would +grow in pride to his own undoing, and would be likely to +reveal the trend of his own scheme. Essex, in spite of +his almost childish arrogance, was a man to be reckoned +with. He had many friends of importance, the most +distinguished of whom was Francis Bacon. By means +of his own spies he kept in touch with foreign affairs +that he might criticize the Queen's advisers; he became +friendly with King James of Scotland; he could rely on +the help of every one who was disappointed of office or +reward by Burghley or his son.</p> + +<p>But he was no match for the astute Sir Robert Cecil. +And the very year of Burghley's death, at one of the +heated Council meetings, Essex had weakened by his +uncontrolled conduct his influence with the Queen. The +Queen had interfered on Burghley's behalf against +Essex; and Essex in a rage "turned his back on the +Queen with a gesture of contempt, muttering an unpardonable +insult," as Mr. Sidney Lee has it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[ 169]</a></span></p> + +<p>He was not a safe person to leave idle. The office +of Lord Deputy of Ireland was vacant; it was offered +him, and after some dissent on his part was accepted. +His ruin was now imminent. He felt his power grow +less; and on Ralegh in particular he looked with hatred +as upon the chief cause of his downfall. And small +wonder if Ralegh hated the man who had offered gross +insult to the old Queen in public. "Why do I talk of +victory or success?" writes Essex from Ireland to the +Queen. "Is it not known that from England I receive +nothing but discomforts and soul's wounds.... Is it not +lamented both there and here that a Cobham and +Ralegh ... should have such credit and favour with +your Majesty...." But without Ralegh, who, as his +subordinate, had won him fame at Cadiz and at Fayal, +and warded off disaster, the enterprise of Essex in +Ireland was a failure. He wasted time and money, and +achieved nothing. Then Essex resolved upon an +impetuous step characteristic of him. He determined to +return home, and to drive away by force the men who +were keeping him from his proper place of supremacy; +he even enlisted the support of James of Scotland, who +was favourable to his scheme, but temporized, saying +that he would send messengers to the Queen to beg her +to restore Essex to her favour. What Essex needed +for his mad project, however, was an army, not messages. +Essex returned from Ireland, but Cecil was perfectly +ready for him, and the people of London did not rise at +his protest against the Queen's ministers; they gaped +and wondered, as they would gape and wonder at a +madman. Essex was arrested, was impeached for high +treason, and beheaded.</p> + +<p>The impetuousness of Essex approached very near to +madness, and a dangerous form of madness. If any one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[ 170]</a></span> +has ever deserved death for treason, Essex deserved it. +Ralegh wrote his opinion quite frankly to Sir Robert +about him. The letter has raised much feeling against +Ralegh. But he had good reason to know the peril a +nature like that of Essex could bring to a nation or to +anything with which he was connected, and he was +perfectly just and honest in the opinion he gave that +Essex's wings should be clipped. The letter runs as +follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p> +"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p> "I am not wize enough to geve yow advise; but +if you take it for a good councell to relent towards this +tirant, yow will repent it when it shalbe too late. His +mallice is fixt, and will not evaporate by any your mild +courses. For he will ascribe the alteration to her +Majesties pusillanimitye and not to your good nature; +knowing that yow worke but uppon her humor and not +out of any love towards hyme. The less yow make hyme, +the less he shalbe able to harme yow and your's. And +if her Majesties favor faile hyme, hee will agayne +decline to a common parson. For after-revenges, feare +them not; for your own father that was estemed to be +the contriver of Norfolk's ruin, yet his son followeth your +father's son and loveth him. Humours of men succeed +not; butt grow by occasions and accidents of tyme and +poure.... I could name you a thowsand of thos; and +therefore after fears are but profesies—or rather conjectures—from +causes remote. Looke to the present, +and yow do wisely. His sonne shalbe the youngest +Earle of Ingland butt on, and, if his father be now keipt +down Will Cecill shalbe abell to keip as many men att +his heeles as hee, and more too. Hee may also mache +in a better howse then his; and so that feare is not +worth the fearinge. Butt if the father continew, he +wilbe able to break the branches and pull up the tree; +root and all. Lose not your advantage; if you do, I +rede your destiney.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[ 171]</a></span></p> +<p>"Let the Q. hold Bothwell while she hath hyme. +Hee will ever be the canker of her estate and sauftye. +Princes are lost by securetye; and preserved by prevention. +I have seen the last of her good dayes, and +all ours, after his libertye."</p></blockquote> + +<p>It is strange and it is memorable how the sentiment +of the last sentence but one, "Princes are lost by +securetye," ran through the minds of men at this time: +again and again it occurs. The witches in Macbeth +chant—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Security<br /> +Is mortals' chiefest enemy."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Spenser writes—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Little wist he his fatall future woe<br /> +But was secure: the liker he to fall."<br /> +</p> + +<p>It is more than the turn of phrase (though great expressions +were common enough then—as for example, +"millions of mischief" which Ralegh uses in a letter and +which arrests you in Julius Cćsar—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Men that smile have in their hearts I fear<br /> +Millions of mischiefs.")<br /> +</p> + +<p>It is the trend of thought. It illustrates a feature of +Elizabethan life that was common to every rank, but +most common in the highest. Men were tremendously +vital, but life was not valued for its own sake: life was +not looked upon as sacred; rather life was regarded as +a possession to hold which it was worth while fighting to +the death.</p> + +<p>During the rebellion—the word can hardly be +applied to such a ridiculous outburst—Ralegh sent for +Sir Ferdinando Gorges at Durham House. He wanted +to warn Gorges, who had served under him, that his +arrest had been ordered. Gorges feared treachery, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[ 172]</a></span> +their conversation might be overheard or that he might +be suddenly seized, and consulting Essex, with whom +he was staying, at length decided to meet Ralegh in the +one safe place—namely, on the river. They rowed out +into mid-stream, met, and conferred. In mid-stream their +words were safe; their bodies were not. Sir Christopher +Blount, who was a partisan of Essex, heard of the +prospective meeting, and urged Gorges to kill Ralegh +and thus to rid the Earl of his chief enemy at a blow. +Gorges was a man of honour and refused. But Blount +was strongly in favour of Ralegh's death. As Ralegh +was pulled to the place of conference, Blount fired with +a musket at him four times. Essex, Gorges, Blount, and +other brave men were beheaded, and Ralegh, as Captain +of the Guard, was present at their executions. On the +scaffold Blount asked, "Is Sir Walter Ralegh here?" +Ralegh came forward. "Sir Walter Ralegh," said +Blount, "I thank God that you are present. I had an +infinite desire to speak with you, to ask your forgiveness +ere I died. Both for the wrong done you and +for my particular ill-intent towards you, I beseech you +forgive me."</p> + +<p>"I most willingly," Ralegh replied, "and I beseech +God to forgive you, and to give you His divine comfort." +He turned to those standing round: "I protest before +God that whatever Sir Christopher Blount meant +towards me, I, for my part, never bore him any +ill-intent."</p> + +<p>After the death of Essex, the boy who had recklessly +thrown himself against the astute Cecil to gain political +power, men watched the demeanour of Ralegh closely; +he too was the favourite of his Queen; they watched +him and saw that sadness brooded on his face. There +were many things to create sadness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[ 173]</a></span></p> + +<p>The great Queen was growing old, and in her age +had been forced to sign the death-warrant of the young +man who was dear to her and who had presumed on her +affection. The old Lord Treasurer was dead; Burghley, +whom the Queen tended with her own hand in his last +illness, knowing the worth of the man who had served +his country well for forty years; his son, the astute Cecil, +had taken his place; but Robert Cecil played his own +game: he was too astute. He desired advantage for +his country, but that advantage must come through +himself.</p> + +<p>The great days were passing. Ralegh had seen the +Queen ruling the nation as only a woman and a woman +of genius and of beauty could rule it; he saw her when +the power of her womanhood was declining and its +weakness was in evidence. Who could take her place? +What man or what woman? And must not the place +itself be changed and its absolute authority be modified? +Time was converting the Queen into her +country's encumbrance. And who would succeed his +Queen Elizabeth? Where were the men to carry on +the great traditions of Elizabeth? Robert Cecil was too +astute....</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>Meanwhile Ralegh continued the duties of his own +life, at Sherborne and at Durham House. Lord +Cobham's name is often found at this time in association +with Ralegh. Cobham was Lord Warden of the Cinque +Ports, and often on his way to the coast he managed to +make a short visit to the Raleghs at Sherborne. He +was a weak man, as the event proved. And Ralegh +liked him; a strong man is often led into liking a weak +man, whom he is able to render pliant to his will.</p> + +<p>About this time, too, Ralegh was made Governor of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[ 174]</a></span> +Jersey, and immediately he set about his new duties, +which were many and various, with his own energy. +There is an interesting letter from Lady Ralegh to +Cecil; it tells not only of her husband's first journey to +Jersey but also of a fire at Durham House, and in the +telling shows something of Lady Ralegh's character.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +"<span class="smcap">Sur</span>,<br /> +</p> + +<p> "Hit tis trew that your packet brought me +the newes of the mischans of feeiar at Durram Houes, +wher, I thanke God hit went noo fardar. Other wies, +hit had rid ous of all our poour substans of plat and +other thinges. Unly now the loos is of your cumpani +and my Lord Cobham's wich I thinke by this menes +wee cannot injoy this winter....</p> + +<p>"I ded heer from Sur Walter within too dayes after +he landed at Jarsi: wher he was safly landed and rioly +intertained with joye. But he was too dayes and too +nites on the sea, with contrari windes, not withstanding +hee went from Wamouthe in so fayer a wind and weether, +as littell Wat and myselfe brought him abord the shipt. +Hee writeth to me hee never saw a plesanttar iland; +but protesteth unfannedly hit tis not, in valew, the veri +third part that was reported, or inded hee beliffed. My +cossin Will is heer, very will and louketh will and fat +with his batheinge. This, wishing you all honnar and +the full contentements of your hart, I ever rest</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +"Your asured poour frind <br /> +"<span class="smcap">E. Ralegh</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"I am glad this mischans of feeiar cam not by ani +neckelegans of ani sarvant of mine, but by me cossin +Darci's sarvant,—a woman that delleth just under our +logging, and anoyeth ous infenitly. I hope hee will +now remoueve heer. I humbelly besuch you let this +lettar heer inclosed be sent."</p></blockquote> + +<p>The little Will Cecil, who was well, and looked well +and fat from his bathing, grew up into the second Earl<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[ 175]</a></span> +of Salisbury. We can only hope that Darcy's servant, +who was evidently a constant thorn in the flesh of the +orderly Lady Ralegh, was removed; no positive facts +are known.</p> + +<p>The letter discovers a side of Ralegh's life about +which little has been written, but which is none the +less interesting and valuable. Little Wat and little Will +were bathing and getting fat by the sea-side, while +Essex was under sentence of death, while the great +Queen was growing old, and while huge disorders were +pending in the kingdom on the event of the Queen's +death. Little things and big are jostled strangely +together in the course of a man's life.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Ralegh's new duties as Governor of Jersey +were occupying his attention. Always he entered a +position untrammelled by what had been done there +before his coming, and determined to do the best +possible. It was so in his Governorship of Jersey. His +changes were entirely for the good. He found a compulsory +system of defence which pressed heavily on the +inhabitants in what was called the Corps-de-Garde. He +did away with the Corps-de-Garde. While he pondered +on the great issues which were pending in England, he +settled the small disputes of the islanders under his +rule; for he was supreme judge in civil and Crown +causes. He was at the pains to see to the proper fortification +of the island, and to all the many businesses +that his office entailed.</p> + +<p>During these years he travelled often backwards and +forwards between Durham House and Sherborne and +the island of Jersey. He found on one occasion that +by some curious oversight the Duc de Biron, who had +come on an embassy from Henry of France, was at +Crosby Hall, with not one nobleman or gentleman to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[ 176]</a></span> +accompany or guide him. "I never saw so great a +person neglected," he writes to Sir Robert Cecil. "Wee +have caried them to Westminster to see the monuments; +and this Monnday we entertayned them at the Bear +Garden, which they had great pleasure to see.... I +sent to and fro and have labored like a moyle to fashion +things so as on Wensday night they wilbe att Bagshoot +and Thursday at the Vine." The Queen was at this +time staying with the Marquis of Winchester at Basing, +and to her the Duc de Biron rode, escorted by Ralegh. +From Basing Ralegh wrote to Lord Cobham telling him +of the Queen's wish for his attendance. He says that +the French were only stopping three days, and were all +wearing black. "So as I have only made mee a black +taffeta sute to be in; and leave all my other sutes:" and +he adds to the letter a postscript, which shows how +punctilious he was in matters of dress: "I am yeven now +going att night to London to provide me a playne +taffeta sute and a playne black saddell, and wil be here +agayne by Twesday night." He wrote late on Saturday +night.</p> + +<p>Little resulted from the Due de Biron's embassy. +But he had the audacity to question Elizabeth about +the fate of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and to +express sympathy for him. Sully, the famous memoirist, +reports their conversation, and points out the singular +resemblance between the characters of Essex and of the +Duc de Biron, and between the end each met. The +Duc de Biron was beheaded ten months later for treason. +This is the irony of things. Sully credits Elizabeth +with the insight of knowing how like Biron was to +Robert Devereux, that she almost augured his downfall, +and warned him against his rash courses. The parallel +between the two men is remarkable.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[ 177]</a></span></p> + +<p>So Ralegh went about his various business as +Governor of Jersey, as Captain of the Guard, transacted, +too, the affairs of his own estates in Munster, Sherborne, +and Durham House, while he and every man of influence +in England kept pondering on the great question, vital +to the welfare of the country, vital to the welfare of +each man, who should succeed to the Queen Elizabeth? +And Elizabeth was growing old.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[ 178]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3> + +<h2>SUCCESSION PLOTS</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Possible successors to Elizabeth—Lord Henry Howard—Spies—Ralegh's +position—The net is drawn round him—Letter of Cecil—Last +illness and death of Elizabeth—Carey's ride to the North.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>The position was one of acute interest. For Elizabeth +had maintained her father's tradition that +the sovereign reigned by divine right, and by her genius +made the tradition credible. The responsibility of vesting +any man or any woman with such power was +immense. The choice might bring disaster to the +nation, and it might bring disaster upon the men who +opposed the final choice, even upon the men who supported +it. And Elizabeth would not tolerate a mention +even of her death, still less would she help to appoint a +successor. Peter Wentworth had proposed to the House +of Lords that a joint petition should be addressed to +her, requesting her humbly to consider the question. +Peter Wentworth was forthwith sent to the Tower, +where he died after three years' imprisonment. All the +hints of her higher ministers she treated with disdain. +That she, Elizabeth, must die, it was impossible! But +death was slowly approaching.</p> + +<p>Sir Robert Cecil watched the approach of death, and +made his secret preparations; for the greatest disaster +of all would be that death should find the country +unprepared. Mystery, carefully planned against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[ 179]</a></span> +unravelling of chance or surprise, shrouds all the correspondence +of the time. No one can properly tell +what letters are authentic, what are written purposely to +be discovered and to deceive. It was dangerous for any +man to trust any man with his solution to the great +problem. But Cecil was the political leader; in the +Council he was informed of the undercurrents of opinion +at home and abroad. He kept his hold upon that most +important item—news, so difficult to acquire, so hard to +test, that that alone made his position strong; and he +determined that King James VI. of Scotland must succeed +to the Crown. The accession of James would ensure +his own prosperity, and James, being manageable, would +ensure the prosperity of the country, for Cecil himself +would continue to govern. He secretly corresponded +with James; he explained his authority, and asserted +his zeal on James's behalf.</p> + +<p>Arabella Stuart and William Seymour, both of royal +blood, were married in 1603, and their claim to the +throne was strong and supported by those who desired +the reintroduction of the Catholic religion. At one +time Philip of Spain was anxious that the Infanta +should become Queen of England. He thought that +the Catholic party in England would welcome her. But +he had neither the money nor the power to enforce +such a claim, and the project was abandoned in favour +of Arabella Stuart and William Seymour, as James VI. +of Scotland, though his mother was a Catholic and he +kept hinting that he was himself open to conversion, +could not be trusted. Cecil, however, succeeded in +proving to James that only through his own agency +could he hope to wear the crown of England. Cecil's +chief helper in this was Lord Henry Howard. They +corresponded at length with James. Lord Henry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[ 180]</a></span> +Howard was an absolutely unscrupulous man, and he +hated Ralegh. Whether or not he influenced Cecil +against Ralegh is not known. Probably Cecil did not +need much influence to see that Ralegh was too powerful +a man to be kept in a properly subordinate place, and +to work his undoing.</p> + +<p>Lord Henry Howard stopped at nothing to poison +James's mind against Ralegh. He always referred to +him as the arch-enemy, the most dangerous man in +England. James was ready to believe all that he was +told. The Earl of Essex he had at one time regarded +as his chief supporter in England; after his death James +used to refer to him as "my martyr." Therefore the +rival of Essex, whom many men said had brought Essex +to the scaffold, was not one likely to be looked upon +with favour by James.</p> + +<p>Cecil saw that Essex and Ralegh were the only +men considerable enough to thwart his own project of +supremacy. He had disposed of Essex; he had urged +him on to his ruin by appearing to favour his ambitions. +Ralegh remained. And Ralegh's overthrow was +deliberately schemed, and quietly carried into execution.</p> + +<p>In Cecil's scheme the most unpleasant aspect of the +time is apparent. The acquisition of home and foreign +knowledge was necessarily accompanied by an intricate +system of espionage. It was incumbent upon a man in +Cecil's position to use spies and agents at home and +abroad, to check and recheck all information that came +to him. He must keep himself in touch with the under-current +of feeling, in order that he might be prepared +for emergency; and to a large extent upon this knowledge, +which he was bound to acquire, was based his +own power, and on his power he was perfectly justified +in thinking that the safety of the country rested. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[ 181]</a></span> +is for the moralist to decide between what is under-hand +and what is politic. It would seem that the two +were inextricably mingled, not because of the depravity +of the men living at that time, but simply because of +the extreme difficulty of acquiring exact information. +Morality has perhaps changed less than appears on the +surface. Morality, however, has been modified by the +application of the powers of steam and of electricity +more perceptibly than by the spread of religion. The +character of life has changed rather than the character +of men. Deceit is a confession of weakness, either in +the deceiver or in the deceived; and the range of +man's power was then limited by barriers which no +longer exist.</p> + +<p>There was a demand for spies, and therefore, according +to an unwritten law, there was an ample supply. An +undesirable class of man was developed because the +weakness of man in grappling with the problems of time +and space made that class a necessity. Continual contact +with such men infected the character of Cecil, as it +influenced in a less degree the character of all the greatest +men of the time. Lord Henry Howard, Cecil's right hand +in his secret dealings with James, was the most complete +example of the species. Lord Henry Howard is the +type of man on whom it is pleasant to heap abuse. +Abuse is a luxury. It relieves the feelings. There is +no term of abuse which is not applicable to him and to +his methods. But it is well to remember that, without +Cecil, this tool (however sharp) would have been powerless +to do mischief. Mischief—was what these two men +accomplished mischievous to the country? They were +scheming primarily to bring in James VI. of Scotland +to the throne of England, and to do so without involving +the country in civil war. And they succeeded. James<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[ 182]</a></span> +came to the throne, and civil war did not break out +until some years after their death. It is interesting to +know that the men who, as some think, freed England +from tyranny were deeply influenced by Ralegh's +writings, and it is almost certain that Ralegh was so +far ahead of the thought of the time that he foresaw +the disaster that must come to the country if it were +hampered by a sovereign possessed with the prestige of +divine right. His idea of government was far more +modern in conception. Rumour, which is apt to be an +exaggeration of the truth, relates that he was in favour +of a republic. Probably he wanted a form of government +far nearer to that which exists at the present day. +He wanted a sovereign who was legally bound to be +guided by his Council of State and by the wishes of the +people. The days of Elizabeth's greatness showed the +best features of tyranny, the days of her decline its worst +features. And the worst feature is that undue power +was placed in the hands of incompetent favourites.</p> + +<p>After Elizabeth's death would have been the time to +work the change without bloodshed. But that would +have meant for Cecil that he must have shared his +power with others. That was sufficient for Cecil. +Always with Cecil his own prestige came first and +blinded him to the ultimate benefit, which he sincerely +wished might come to his country as it came to him.</p> + +<p>But the warnings of Elizabeth's decline were not +taken, and the prestige of her greatness was sufficient to +carry on its tide the weight of her declining years and +the reigns of two incompetent kings. Then matters came +to such a point that only a bloody war could set them +right, and the Puritan element, grown strong by abuses, +triumphed, and its triumph swept away much that was +valuable, and much that could ill be spared.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[ 183]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sir Robert Cecil, however, and his tool, the Lord +Henry Howard, determined to carry on the old tradition, +and to make James VI. of Scotland King of +England; and their scheme, as has been said, entailed +the overthrow of Ralegh. They considered his overthrow +necessary to the safety of their own position, and +the safety of their own position was necessary to the +welfare of the country. As a man who sees a little +farther than the majority in matters of religion is apt to +be called an atheist—Ralegh was called an atheist—so +a man who sees a little farther in politics than the +majority is apt to be called a traitor—Ralegh was called +a traitor.</p> + +<p>In November, 1601, the Duke of Lennox came into +contact with Ralegh and Cobham. He had been sent +by James to Henry IV. of France to win his support for +James's claim to the English throne. Howard was +furious that the Duke should be on terms of friendship +with Ralegh; he wrote to the Earl of Mar suspicions +of the Duke's fidelity, and to James that Ralegh and +Cobham were his inveterate enemies. "Hell did never +vomit up such a couple." That was not all. Howard +knew that Cobham was weak and vacillating, he knew +that many of Cobham's family were disposed to favour +the Catholic cause. It would be easy to magnify any +move of Cobham's in the Catholic direction into an +absolute espousal of the Catholic claim. And what +would be more likely than that the weak Cobham +should be moved by the influence of his strong friend, +Ralegh? In that way Ralegh could easily be caught +in the toils of a conspiracy. The scheme was very +subtle. To work its gradual fulfilment the Queen's +mind must be turned against them. So Howard wrote +to Cecil: "Hir Majesty must knowe the rage of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[ 184]</a></span> +discontent for want of being called to that height which +they affect; and be made to taste the perill that grows +out of discontented minds.... So that roundly Hir +Majestie must daily and by divers meanes be let to +know the world's apprehendinge hir deepe wisdome in +discerning the secret flawes of their affections. She +must see some advertisements from forrain parts of the +grief which the Queene's enemies doo take at their (<i>i.e.</i> +Ralegh and Cobham) sittinge out, hoping that their +placinge in authority would so far alienate the people's +reverent affection as some mischief would succeed of +it.... Rawlie that in pride exceedeth all men alive +finds no vent for paradoxis out of a Council board ... and +inspireth Cobham with his own passions. His wife +as furious as Proserpina with failing of that restitution +at Court which flatterie had moved her to expect." +Cecil was instructed to inform the Queen of these things +"that she may be more apt to receive impressions of +more important reasons when time serves with opportunity." +And then the crucial point of the deep plot to +entrap Ralegh is clearly stated: "You must embark this +gallant Cobham by your witt and interest, in some +course the Spanish way as either may reveale his +weaknesse or snare his ambition.... For my own part +I account it impossible for him to escape the snares +which wit may sett and weaknesse is apt to fall into."<a name="FNanchor_A_3" id="FNanchor_A_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a></p> + +<p>It is evident that Ralegh had some suspicion of +what was being wrought against him; in sending +a paper to the Queen against the proposals to declare a +successor—the paper has unfortunately been lost—he +writes a letter containing the following sentence:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[ 185]</a></span>"Your Majestye may, perchance, speake herof to thos +seeminge my great frinds, but I finde poore effects of +that or any other supposed ametye. For, your Majesty +havinge left mee I am left all alone in the worlde, and +am sorry that ever I was att all. What I have donn is +oat of zeale and love, and not by any incorngement: for I +am only forgotten in all rights and in all affaires; and +myne enemis have their wills and desires over mee. +Ther ar many other things concerninge your Majesty's +present service, which, meethinks are not, as they ought, +remembered, and the tymes pass away, unmesured, of +which more profitt might be taken."</p> + +<p>He may have known that Lord Henry Howard was +mischievously inclined towards him; Howard had +always been his enemy. But it is unlikely that he +could have suspected Cecil, for Cecil was at the pains to +show all the appearance of friendship both to him and +to Lady Ralegh.</p> + +<p>Yet Cecil was, from the beginning of his own +correspondence, working against his friend. "Your +Majestie," he writes to King James, "will fynde it, in +your case that a choyce election of a feaw in the present +wilbe of more use than any general acclamation of +many." And in his third letter he praises Howard for +his fidelity, and refers bitterly to Ralegh.</p> + +<p>"I do profess in the presence of Hym that knoweth +and searcheth all men's harts, that if I dyd not sometyme +cast a stone into the mouth of these gaping crabbs (i.e. +Ralegh and Cobham) when they are in their prodigall +humour of discourses, they wold not stick to confess +dayly how contrary it is to their nature to resolve to be +under your soverainty; though they confess—Ralegh +especially—that (<i>rebus sic stantibus</i>) naturall pollicy +forceth them to keep on foot such a trade against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[ 186]</a></span> +great day of mart. In all which light and soddain +humours of his, though I do no way chock him, because +he shall not think I reject his freedome or his affection, +but alwaies ... use contestation with him that I +neyther had nor ever wold <i>in individus</i> contemplate +future idea, nor ever hoped for more than justice in time +of change; yet under pretext of extraordinary care of +his well-doing, I have seemed to disswade him from +ingaging himself to farr, even for himself; much more +therefore to forbeare to assume for me or my present +intentions. Let me, therefore, presume thus farr upon +your Majesties favour that whatsoever he (<i>i.e.</i> Ralegh) +shall take uppon him to say for me, uppon any new humor +of kyndnes,—wherof sometime he wilbe replete, uppon +the recept of privat benefite,—you will no more believe +it, if it come in other shape, be it never so much in my +commendation—then that his own conscience thoght it +needfull for him to undertake to keep me from any +humor of inanity; when, I, thank God, my greatest +adversaries and my owne sowle have ever acquited me +from that, of all other vices. Wold God I were as free +from ofense towards God in seeking for private affection +to support a person whom most religious men do hold +<i>anathema</i>."</p> + +<p>This is probably one of the most crafty letters that +even the astute Cecil ever wrote. He wants James to +think badly of Ralegh, and he has no reason which he +can urge for this. He is afraid that James may suspect +his motives. He is afraid that James may hear from +others of the friendship between him and Ralegh, that +Ralegh may speak well of him. So he warns James +against this: he hints that Ralegh will speak well of him +only to gain some private benefit, fearing Cecil's inanity +or animosity. Then, lest James should suspect him of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[ 187]</a></span> +such a defect, he hastens to explain that animosity is +quite foreign to his nature. Only men like Ralegh +would suspect him of it. Indeed, his heart is so kind +that he must needs have affection for Ralegh in spite of +all, in spite even (and this is a touch which would go far +with the religious James) of the fact that many godly +men consider Ralegh anathema, indeed, little better than +an atheist.</p> + +<p>On the surface nothing was changed. Ralegh +continued to make efforts to rouse fresh interest in his +colonization schemes, both in Virginia and in Guiana, +but without success. He joined with Cecil in organizing +privateering enterprises. He wrote to Cecil about the +threatened invasion of Ireland by Spain, and warned +him on no account to put trust in the friendly protestations +of Florence McCarthy, whom he well knew to be a +rebel. He continued to devote much energy to the +duties which his Governorship of Jersey entailed. And +all the while Howard and Cecil were watching him and +planning his destruction. They were waiting for him to +fall into one of the snares which were set for him; it +mattered not whether the decoy was Arabella Stuart or +the Infanta and her husband, the Count Arembergh. +Cobham about this time was in communication with the +Count, who was Archduke of the Netherlands, and who +desired to make a peace between England and Spain. +James and Cecil too desired peace with Spain, but did +not wish it to come through any other channel but their +own. So they watched Cobham that they might surprise +him in an indiscretion, as they had watched him in his +dealings with Arabella Stuart. And once they held +him they could easily lay hands on the friend who had +influenced the poor impressionable fellow to take a +traitorous step. It would be incredible to all that such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[ 188]</a></span> +a man as Cobham was known to be could have taken +such a step on his own initiative.</p> + +<p>Failure is the cause of many crimes. While a great +financier is successful, everything is forgotten in the rush +to make his acquaintance and to make money. No one +is indiscreet enough to inquire into his methods. If he +should fail to be successful, it fares ill with him. The +rush to leave him is as swift as the previous rush to be +near him. His methods are exposed relentlessly, and +men blush with shame to think that such a scoundrel +could have been in their midst. The blush is the token +of innocence (easily paid) to morality. That was +recognized to be the position in all the various projects +about the Succession. Whoever failed became a traitor. +Exactly what Ralegh did or did not do, is not known. +It is enough that he eventually got into the power of +Cecil. He failed, that is to say, he was not sufficiently +alert to suspect the intrigues of his friends against him.</p> + +<p>The last years of the Queen's reign are as tragic as +the last years of the woman's life. The strength of the +country was in a strange way bound up with the strength +of Elizabeth, and as her strength declined so did the +greatness of the country. Never has a woman used her +power with such magnificent results. England was the +husband, for whom her life was lived, and all the greatest +men in England lived fiercely to win glory and her smile +of approval; and they strove the harder because within +them was the knowledge (such knowledge was an inspiration) +that their great Queen could also be a beautiful +woman to the man who found favour in her eyes. She +lived greatly, and created almost an age of great men +with such puissance did she employ one side of a woman's +creative power. A child is not the only new life which +a woman may produce, if she has once outgrown the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[ 189]</a></span> +little limits of what is miscalled purity. Coarse, as in +many ways the Elizabethan age undoubtedly was, men +did not fall into the fantastic error of confusing celibacy +with chastity. The body had full scope, and in consequence +the spirit throve untrammelled.</p> + +<p>But Elizabeth was growing old. To the end she +kept her grip on life; but effort was necessary. In that +effort alone weakness became apparent. Strength was +used not to plunder life as she had plundered it hitherto, +but to withstand its encroachments. She would not +yield. There is something great and yet something +infinitely pathetic, childish even, in her indomitable will +to resist the slow inevitable power of Time.</p> + +<p>At last illness, which she had always dreaded with +superstitious horror, and against which she had always +defended herself with every charm which superstition +could devise, laid hold on her.</p> + +<p>Sir Robert Carey, who was Lord Warden of the +Border, came to the Court, which was then at Richmond, +in March, 1603, to see his friends and to renew his +acquaintance. He found the Queen ill-disposed. "I +found her in one of her withdrawing rooms sitting low +upon her cushions. She called me to her. I kissed +her hand, and told her, It was my chiefest happiness +to see her in safety and health, which I wished might +long continue.</p> + +<p>"She took me by the hand, and wrung it hard, and +said, 'No, Robin, I am not well!' and then discoursed +with me of her indisposition, and that her heart had +been sad and heavy for ten or twelve days: and in her +discourse, she fetched not so few as forty or fifty great +sighs.</p> + +<p>"I was grieved at the first to see her in this plight: +for in all my lifetime before, I never knew her fetch a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[ 190]</a></span> +sigh, but when the Queen of Scots was beheaded.... +I used the best words I could to persuade her from this +melancholy humour; but I found by her, it was too +deep rooted in her heart, and hardly to be removed. +This was upon a Saturday night: and she gave command +that the Great Closet should be prepared for her to go +to Chapel the next morning."</p> + +<p>But they waited in vain for her coming, she was not +well enough to attend the service. From that day her +body grew weaker and weaker. She felt that death was +approaching, and grimly she welcomed the approach of +death. With a kind of fierce disdain she refused all +food, and she refused to leave the chair in which she sat +waiting. Night and day in silence she sat staring in +front of her, face to face with death. Music was played +to her in the hope that it might dispel the black gloom +which had settled upon her. She did not hear the +music. She sat motionless in her chair staring in front +of her, greater than Cleopatra, but without the solace of +the asp's quick kiss. Her eyes had no expression in +them now. Her waiting-women were terrified. Cecil +came to her and told her "to content the people she +<i>must</i> go to bed." Then she spoke, saying that "<i>must</i> +was not a word fit to be used to princes;" she dismissed +Cecil from her presence, and as he went away she spoke +again. "Little man, little man," she said, "if your father +had lived ye durst not have said so much, but ye know +I must die, and that makes ye so presumptuous." Lord +Admiral Howard, Earl of Nottingham, remained with +her. At last she spoke to him. "My lord, I am tied +with a chain of iron about my neck." He bade her +have courage, but she answered in a low voice, "I am +tied, I am tied, and the case is altered with me."</p> + +<p>Her waiting women were terrified. The powers of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[ 191]</a></span> +darkness seemed at play in the Palace at Richmond. +Lady Southwell affirms that the queen of hearts was +nailed under the Queen's chair, the nail through the +forehead; "they durst not pull it out remembering that +the like thing was used to the old Countess of Sussex +and afterwards proved a witchcraft for which certain +persons were hanged as instruments of the same." Lady +Guildford left the Queen, as she thought, sleeping, but +saw her walking from one room to another; she hurried +back, and there she found the Queen still, as she thought, +sleeping. Lady Guildford swore that it must have been +the Queen's ghost which she had seen, while the Queen +was yet living.</p> + +<p>At length, after this long vigil of four days and four +nights staring in the face of death, she was constrained +to lie down in her bed. But the tired old woman might +not die in peace; while she breathed she was Queen of +England.</p> + +<p>"By signs she called for her Council: and by putting +her hand to her head," writes Sir Robert Carey, "when +the King of Scots was named to succeed her, they all +knew he was the man she desired should reign after +her." It is easy to see how the astute Cecil would +construe the dying Queen's movements into the right +meaning for his own schemes. There is something +fantastic in this solemn farce played round the great +Queen's death-bed, made more fantastic and more terrible +by the fact that it sprang from her own strange detestation +of naming a successor. "Being given over by +all and at the last gasp keeping still her sense in everything +and giving apt answers, though she spake but +seldom, having then a sore throat, the council required +admittance, and she wished to wash her throat that she +might answer freely to what they demanded which was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[ 192]</a></span> +to know whom she would have for king. Her throat +troubling her much they desired her to hold up her +finger when they named who she liked; whereupon they +named the King of France (this was to try her intellect), +she never stirred; the King of Scotland, she made no +sign; then they named Lord Beauchamp—this was the +heir of Seymour ... and words came to the dying lips, +'I will have—no rascal's son—in my seat—but one—worthy—to +be a king,'" The effort of speech convulsed +her: she put her hands to her head: her head was in +pain: and Cecil pointed out how evident it was that she +meant, a crowned king should rule in her stead. That +is the irony of things: the State left: the Church +entered.</p> + +<p>"About six at night she made signs for the Archbishop, +and her Chaplains to come to her, at which time +I went in with them; and sat upon my knees full of tears +to see that heavy sight.</p> + +<p>"Her Majesty lay upon her back; with one hand in +the bed, and the other without.</p> + +<p>"The Archbishop kneeled down by her, and examined +her first of her faith: and she so punctually answered +all his several questions by lifting up her eyes and +holding up her hand, as it was a comfort to all beholders.</p> + +<p>"Then the good man told her plainly, What she was; +and what she was come to: and though she had been +long a great Queen here upon earth, yet shortly she +was to yield an account of her stewardship to the King +of Kings.</p> + +<p>"After this he began to pray: and all that were by +did answer him. After he had continued long in prayer, +till the old man's knees were weary, he blessed her, and +meant to rise and leave her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[ 193]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The Queen made a sign with her hand.</p> + +<p>"My sister Scroope, knowing her meaning, told the +Bishop, the Queen desired he would pray still.</p> + +<p>"He did so for a long half-hour after, and then +thought to have left her. The second time she made +sign to have him continue in prayer. He did so for half +an hour more, with earnest cries to God for her soul's +health, which he uttered with that fervency of spirit as +the Queen, to all our sight, much rejoiced thereat: and +gave testimony to us all of her Christian and comfortable +end. By this time it grew late; and every one +departed: all but her women that attended her."</p> + +<p>That evening Queen Elizabeth died.</p> + +<p>Every precaution had been taken that the news of +her death might not precede the Council's power of +action. Every gate was locked; every approach was +guarded. But Sir Robert Carey, the dead Queen's +kinsman, realized, like many another, that all his means +of life were now at the disposal of the new king, whoever +he might be, and so he determined to be the +bearer of the tidings to James of Scotland. He had +quietly made his preparations for the emergency, and +his sister, Philadelphia Lady Scroope, had in her +possession a ring which would prove to James that the +news of the Queen's death was authentic. It was +necessary to take every precaution against treachery in +such a crisis. How far Cecil knew of Carey's complicity +with James is not certain. Probably James had kept it +secret: he was not apt to trust any man wholly.</p> + +<p>Carey found some difficulty in getting away, but he +gave money to the right men and succeeded. Lady +Scroope had been unable to give him the sapphire ring, +"but waiting at the window till she saw him at the +outside of the gate she threw it out to him; and he well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[ 194]</a></span> +knew to what purpose he received it." Efforts were +made to detain him, but he managed to evade them, and +next night at ten o'clock he started his great ride to +the north, to bear the tidings to James at Edinburgh. +That Thursday night he rode to Doncaster, which is one +hundred and sixty-two miles from London.</p> + +<p>"The Friday night I came to my own house at +Widdrington (298 miles), and presently took order with +my Deputies to see the Borders kept in quiet; which +they had much to do; and gave order, the next morning, +the King of Scotland should be proclaimed King of +England and at Morpeth and at Alnwick. Very early +on Saturday I took horse for Edinburgh and came to +Norham (331 miles) about twelve at noon. So that I +might well have been with the King at supper time: but +I got a great fall by the way, and my horse, with one of +his heels, gave me a great blow on the head that made +me shed much blood. It made me so weak, that I was +forced to ride a soft pace after: so that the King was +newly gone to bed by the time I knocked at the gate."</p> + +<p>The King received him immediately and at once +asked him, on hearing of the Queen's death, what +message he brought from the Council. Sir Robert +Carey bore no message, but he gave the King the blue +ring; and the King said, "It is enough. I know by this +that you are a true messenger."</p> + +<p>Every attention was paid to the messenger, worn out +by his great ride and his fall. In four days he recovered +and he was sworn one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber; +"and presently I helped to take off his clothes +and stayed till he was in bed.</p> + +<p>"After this, there came, daily, Gentlemen and Noblemen +from our Court; and the King set down a fixed day +for his departure towards London."</p> + +<p>The day fixed was April 5th, 1603.</p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 764px;"> +<img src="images/illus227.jpg" width="764" height="1024" alt="KING JAMES I." title="" /> +<span class="caption">KING JAMES I.</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[ 195]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XV</h3> + +<h2>THE TRIAL</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Arrival of James VI. of Scotland—Ralegh in immediate disfavour—Gondomar +comments on James—Ralegh accused of treason—Cobham +and Brooke—Ralegh attempts suicide—Cobham's retractions—November +17—And the trial's infamy.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Slowly King James moved on his royal progress +to London to the acclamation of the people of all +the towns through which he passed. "The Council of +State and the Nobility, no doubt assisted with the Spirit +of Truth, considering the infallible right of our Sovereign +Lord, King James, took such order that the news of the +Queen's death should no sooner be spread to deject the +hearts of the people, but, at the instant, they should be +comforted with the Proclaiming of the King." The +people were intoxicated with the prospect of the new +king coming peaceably to reign over the kingdom, for +the fear of a civil war had been imminent and universal. +The country burst into a salvo of welcome; a new era +of peace and prosperity was to be inaugurated. Scotland +now joined to England lessened the fear of invasion. +"They now began duly to think upon his unmatched +virtues, which never the most malicious enemy could +impeach ... they now considered his affability mercy +justice and magnanimity." The hopes of every party +ran high. The Catholics knew that he was inclined +towards friendliness; the Churchmen felt sure that they +who had been chief instigators in bringing him to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[ 196]</a></span> +throne of England, could rely upon his support. The +Puritans had heard of his godliness and his tolerance to +their views. Each vied with the other in sounding the +praises of the new King. "But our King coming +through the North," writes Mr. Arthur Wilson, "(Banquetting +and Feasting by the way) the applause of the +people in so obsequious and submissive a manner (still +admiring change) was checkt by an honest plain +Scotsman ... with a propheticall expression. <i>This +people will spoil a gud King.</i> The King as unused, so +tired with multitudes, especially in his Huntinge (which +he did as he went) caused an inhibition to be published, +to restrain his people from hunting him. Happily being +fearful of so great a concourse, as this novelty produced, +the old hatred betwixt the Borderers not yet forgotten, +might make him apprehend it to be of a greater extent: +though it was generally imputed to a desire of enjoying +his recreations without interruption."</p> + +<p>Few kings have received such a welcome; few kings +have proved themselves so unworthy as the event proved +James. But the prestige of his welcome and his rescue +from the Gunpowder Plot hid his true character for +many years from the people under the obscuring cloud +of sentiment.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits<br /> +Sets all to hazard."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Every one connected with the Court and Court appointments +hastened to meet him and win his good will: +and James was lavish in his treatment. He created +innumerable knights, and raised so many to the peerage +that "some unhappy fancy pasted up a Pasquil in Pauls, +wherein he pretended an art to help weak memories to +a competent knowledge of the names of the Nobility."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[ 197]</a></span> +Sir Robert Cecil was created Baron of Essingdon and +soon after Viscount Cranborn and Earl of Salisbury. +Lord Henry Howard was made Earl of Northampton.</p> + +<p>During the Queen's last illness Ralegh was in +Devonshire. Directly he heard of the news of her death +he hastened with Sir Robert Cross to pay his respects to +the new sovereign. Cecil advised him to spare himself +the trouble; but he did not listen to Cecil's advice. He +came to the King at Burghley House, trusting in his +power to impress himself favourably upon the King. +But James had been too carefully primed against him. +Old Aubrey's gossip bears the stamp of truth; it is so +characteristic of James, that he should have met the +great Ralegh with a pun upon his name—"I have heard +but rawly of thee." Ralegh spoke with James about +business connected with the Duchy of Cornwall; he +wanted a royal letter authorizing the continuance of +legal process, and a warrant to stop "the waste of woods +and parks" which he said was due to Lord Treasurer +Buckhurst's heedlessness. James listened, and gave +instructions to his secretary, Sir Thomas Lake, to write +the necessary letters as quickly as possible, that he +might be rid of the man whom he feared and disliked. +"Let them be delivered speedily that Ralegh may be +gone again."</p> + +<p>James was not slow in compassing Ralegh's downfall. +Two weeks passed by and Ralegh was summoned +to the Council Chamber, where the Lord President +informed him that James no longer desired his services +as Captain of the Guard; that the honour had been +conferred upon the King's countryman, Sir Thomas +Erskine, to whom Ralegh was bidden to hand all +appurtenances of the office.</p> + +<p>Ralegh had increased James's dislike of him by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[ 198]</a></span> +suggesting that articles should be framed which should +prevent the King's countrymen from devouring the +kingdom like locusts. The advisability of such a +measure became manifest to all later, when it was too +late. Naturally the first man to suffer was Ralegh +himself. But the indignity was glossed over—not for +Ralegh's sake so much as to hinder unpleasant gossip +about the new appointment—by increasing Ralegh's +salary as Governor of Jersey by three hundred pounds +per annum. Ralegh's loss was directly due to Cecil, to +whom James had given the disposal of the office, and +who gained new favour with James by electing a Scotchman. +For seven weeks Ralegh enjoyed the added +emolument.</p> + +<p>His last interview with James took place at Beddington +Park, in Surrey, which was the seat of his uncle, +Sir Nicolas Carew. There Ralegh, anxious to prove his +loyalty to the King, gave him his "Discourse touching a +War with Spain, and of the protecting of the Netherlands," +and offered to carry on his enterprises against Spain (he +always had his great Guiana scheme in the front of his +mind) by offering "to carry two thousand men to invade +him without the King's charge." He could not have +made a more inauspicious suggestion to the timorous +James; but Ralegh did not realize how the King was +influenced against him to such an extent that he would +be quick to think that the man who could raise so +many men to fight the Spaniard, could at less expense +raise them to fight his own Majesty. Moreover, James, +from no high motives, but merely from terror at the +sight even of a drawn sword, hated war and fighting of +any kind, and distrusted, as is shown by his choice of +favourites, the quality of bravery in others. All +Ralegh's grip of a situation, his clearness of exposition,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[ 199]</a></span> +his courage would be against him in a conference with +James. The standard by which a man was judged had +changed, now that the great Queen was in her grave. +The clever Gondomar summed James up to a nicety +when he wrote, without any need (for once) of diplomacy, +"James has a vanity so enormous that, in order to make +him play his adversary's game, you have simply to let +James believe that it is from himself that the adversary +has learnt to know how to play." His favourites were +men who were more adroit in the use of poison than in +the use of the sword. It is easy to imagine what were +the feelings of James as Ralegh propounded his masterly +exposition of the Spanish situation, and offered his own +services. There would be something burlesque in this +interview between the brave man and the coward, if absolute +power of life and death were not in the hands of the +coward, and if the coward had not already determined +to use his power to the detriment of the brave man.</p> + +<p>The carefully planned toils were closing round +Ralegh. Copley was arrested in Sussex, and in consequence +of his first examination, which was dated July +12, George Brooke was arrested two days afterwards, +and orders were given for the arrest of Lord Grey and +Sir Griffin Markham. On the 14th or 15th, Cobham, +George Brooke's brother, was examined by the Council. +They were accused of complicity with the "Treason of +the Priests." Now, treason at that time was formidable, +and it was necessary to treat it in a summary fashion. +In every nation there must be a large number of discontented +people who would combine if there was a man +of sufficient influence to lead them in any way; very +little was known in spite of spies; man dealt with man; +there was no proper way of gauging public opinion; a +spark might set all the disaffected into a dangerous fire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[ 200]</a></span> +Now discontent is aired in the newspapers; every one +can read what happens in Parliament. Treason is no +longer a thing to dread. But then it was a constant +danger, and the least suspicion of treasonable practices +was sufficient to condemn a man to a death of horrible +ignominy. Justice was swift but not unerring. A man +had not only to keep clear of treason, but must have +the wit to avoid even the suspicion. It is easy to see +how the power thus put into the hands of the Government, +though such power was essential to its safety and +the welfare of the citizens, could be abused. And there +is probably no instance in history where its abuse is +more conspicuous than in the treatment of Ralegh. +Cecil feared Ralegh; James feared Ralegh. There is +nothing so unscrupulous, nothing so dangerous and so +cruel as fear. The world lay obscured by the dark +cloud of Time and of Space; and terrible scope was +given to fear by the insuperable darkness.</p> + +<p>The suspected man was shut up alone, and a Bishop +or a Judge or a Councillor was told off to examine +him; and the man knew quite well that his answers +might be made more satisfactory by the help of the +rack, and that his examiner would earn reward and +distinction by discovering treason and his associates in +treason. The promise, too, of a pardon was often +dangled before his eyes to loosen his tongue. Such +promises were not often kept. Brooke implicated +Cobham, and Cobham implicated Ralegh.</p> + +<p>George Brooke, Cobham's brother, was a light-hearted +fellow, who was drawn into listening to the +priest's conspiracy, because he had been disappointed of +some small office upon which he had set his heart. To +Bishop Bancroft was assigned the task of examining +him. Large rewards were offered the Bishop if he were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[ 201]</a></span> +successful in finding out the details of the conspiracy. +"The only way to procure favour is to open all that +possibly you can" were the words with which the good +Bishop began his inquiry. And gradually he played +upon the fears and hopes of the prisoner to such an +extent that the wretched man burst into a kind of +rapture of confession, stating all he knew and all he +imagined to be fact, about the treason against King +James. Day after day the examination was continued +relentlessly; statements made by other prisoners, or +said to have been made, were told him; lists of written +questions were given him. It would have taken a man +of extraordinary strength and control to have kept his +balance under such circumstances. George Brooke was +a very ordinary man. On July 17 he said: "The conspirators +among themselves thought Sir Walter Ralegh +a fit man to be of the action." The good Bishop did +not leave such an important statement undeveloped; +under his careful management the statement by the end +of August had grown; Brooke was ready to swear that +Ralegh and Cobham had resolved to kill the King and +his cubs.</p> + +<p>Cobham, too, was examined in the same relentless +manner. He was a little stronger than his brother, +George Brooke, but no match for the examiners. He +began by steadfastly denying everything; his nerves, +however, could not bear the terrible suspense. He had +been suddenly removed to solitary confinement; the +horror of a dreadful death loomed over him. He did +not know who might be arrested, who might desire his +death. At length some of the confessions of his brother +were disclosed to him; but the examiners named Ralegh, +not Brooke, as the authority; and Cobham, knowing +that Ralegh must have invented or guessed at such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[ 202]</a></span> +things, broke into an outcry of disgust (who can blame +him!), "Oh traitor, oh villain! I will now tell you all +the truth." And he said that he had never entered into +these courses but by Ralegh's instigation, and that +Ralegh would never let him alone. It was very cleverly +done by the examiner. Cobham was led into confessing, +helped by questions from George Brooke's statements, +that "he had conferred with Arenberg about procuring +500,000 or 600,000 crowns from the King of Spain; and +that nothing should be done with the money until he +had spoken with Sir Walter Ralegh, for distribution of +the money to them which were discontented in England." +Then part of a letter from Ralegh to Cecil—for Cecil +knew much of the intercourse between Arenberg and +England in his official capacity—was shown to Cobham, +in which it was written, "If da Renzy were not secured, +the matter would not be discovered, for da Renzy would +fly; yet if he were then apprehended, it would give +matter of suspicion to Lord Cobham." Naturally Cobham, +reading such words at the moment when they were +shown him, constructed them into his death sentence, +and broke out into fury of denunciation sufficient for the +bad purpose of the examiners—to close the net round +Ralegh. Lord Henry Howard justly remarks in his +"Adversaria," "It is an old observation of jugglers to +make others give fire to the piece after they themselves +have charged it, and thereby put them into the peril +of recoil or breaking, if any mischief follow." Lord +Henry Howard may be taken as an authority on this +subject.</p> + +<p>Immediately after Cobham's outbreak, Ralegh was +arrested and sent to the Tower, to await the slow, strange +process of justice. His arrest took place at the beginning +of August. Almost immediately the Government<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[ 203]</a></span> +of Jersey was transferred to Sir John Peyton, Governor +of the Tower. James in his grant stated that the post +was forfeited by Sir Walter Ralegh through the grievous +treason against the Crown. With the King thus quickly +convinced of his guilt, Ralegh knew that he had small +chance of proving his innocence. Dismay came upon +him and despair. His hopes fell from a great height +and were broken. Suddenly shut closely in by four +stone walls, he was obliged to wait the slow approach of +an ignominious death—a death which would involve the +ruin of his family, and the immediate disgrace of his +name. He was a man of action; he could not sit and +do nothing but think. Despair brought madness to him; +he tried to kill himself in a fit of impotent despair. +This is the way in which Cecil, once Ralegh's friend, +writes of it. "Although lodged and attended as well as +in his own house, yet one afternoon, while divers of us +were in the Tower examining these prisoners, Sir Walter +Ralegh attempted to have murdered himself. Whereof, +when we were advertised, we came to him and found +him in some agony, seeming to be unable to bear his +misfortune, and protesting innocency, with carelessness +of life. In that humour he had wounded himself under +the right pap, but no way mortally; being in truth rather +a cut than a stab."</p> + +<p>On August 13, Ralegh was examined about Cobham's +negotiations with Arenberg. His statement was: +"Lord Cobham offered me 10,000 crowns of the money, +for the furthering of the Peace between England and +Spain; and he said that I should have it within three +days. I told him, 'When I see the money I will make +you an answer.' For I thought it one of his ordinary +idle conceits, and therefore made no account thereof. +But this was as I think before Count Arenberg's coming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[ 204]</a></span> +over." And in a letter written to the Lords of the +Council a few days after this examination, in which he +proclaims his innocence of any treasonable practice, he +breaks out, after enumerating his exploits against Spain, +in bitterness at the irony of the charge. "Alas, to what +end should we live in the world if all the endeavours of +so many testimonies shall be blown off with one blast +of breath, or be prevented by one man's charge."</p> + +<p>Lord Cobham had made several retractions of his +outburst against Ralegh, both at Ralegh's instigation and +on his own initiative. Sir George Harvey, the Governor +of the Tower, was discreet enough to keep back the +latter retraction until one month after the trial, when he +showed Cecil a letter in which Cobham wrote of his +accusation, "God is my wittness, it doth troble my +contiens." Terror had unhinged Cobham's mind, he +accused Ralegh and retracted his accusations in such a +way that one retraction more or less mattered little; +Sir George Harvey's sense of duty, however, is significant.</p> + +<p>The indictment was drawn up at Staines on the +21st of September. Three months were allowed to +elapse before the trial took place. Meanwhile, Sir +Francis Godolphin, High Sheriff of Cornwall, was +authorized to take the muster of the county, "the +Commission of Lieutenancy granted to Sir Walter +Ralegh being become void and determined." In October +Arenberg left England for Flanders, overwhelmed with +evidence of the King's favour. The plague was raging +in London, and accordingly the trial was to be held at +Winchester. Sir William Waad was ordered to bring +Sir Walter Ralegh to Wolvesey Castle—the episcopal +palace of Winchester. Waad wrote to Cecil, "It was +hob or nob whether Ralegh should have been brought +alive through such multitudes of unruly people as did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[ 205]</a></span> +exclaim against him. We took the best order we could +in setting watches through the streets, both in London +and the suburbs. If one hare-brain fellow amongst so +great multitudes had begun to set upon him—as they +were very near to do it—no entreaty or means could +have prevailed; the fury and tumult of the people was so +great." Ralegh was driven in his own carriage; he faced +the mob with disdain.</p> + +<p>On the 17th of November the trial began; and the +after comment of one of "these my judges" was true: +"That trial injured and degraded the justice of England." +The Commissioners were eleven in number: Thomas +Howard, Earl of Suffolk, who had fought with Ralegh +at Cadiz; Charles Blount, Earl of Devonshire; Lord +Henry Howard; Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury; Edward, +Lord Wotton of Morley; Sir William Waad; Sir John +Stanhope, Vice-Chamberlain; the Lord Chief Justice +of England, Popham; the Lord Chief Justice of the +Common Pleas, Anderson; Mr. Justice Gawdie and +Mr. Justice Warburton. Coke, as Attorney-General, +conducted the prosecution, and was assisted by Serjeant +Hale. The Clerk of the Crown Office, having read the +commission of Oyer and Terminer, the prisoner was +bidden to hold up his hand, and then the indictment was +read, the gist of which is as follows:—</p> + +<p>That he did conspire and go about to deprive the +King of his government, to raise up sedition within the +realm, to alter religion, to bring in the Roman superstition, +and to procure foreign enemies to invade the +kingdom. That the Lord Cobham, the 9th of June last, +did meet with the said Sir Walter Ralegh, in Durham +House, and then and there had conference with him how +to advance Arabella Stuart to the crown and royal throne +of this kingdom. And that then and there it was agreed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[ 206]</a></span> +that Cobham should treat with Arenberg, ambassador +from the Archduke of Austria, to obtain of him 600,000 +crowns to bring to pass their intended treason. It was +agreed that Cobham should go to the Archduke Albert +to procure him to advance the pretended title of Arabella. +From thence, knowing that Albert had not sufficient +means to maintain his own army in the Low Countries, +Cobham should go to Spain, to procure the king to assist +and further her pretended title. It was agreed, the +better to effect all this conspiracy, that Arabella should +write three letters, one to the Archduke, another to the +King of Spain, and a third to the Duke of Savoy, and +promise three things—</p> + +<blockquote><p>First.—To establish a firm peace between England and Spain.</p> + +<p>Secondly.—To tolerate the popish and Roman superstition.</p> + +<p>Thirdly.—To be ruled by them in contracting of her marriage.</p></blockquote> + +<p>And further, that Cobham and his brother Brooke +met on the 9th of June last, and Cobham told Brooke +all these treasons; to the which treasons Brooke gave +his assent and did join himself to all these. And after, +on the Thursday following, Cobham and Brooke did +speak these words, <i>that there would never be a good +world in England till the King</i> (meaning our sovereign +lord) <i>and his cubs</i> (meaning the royal issue) <i>were taken +away</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 750px;"> +<img src="images/illus240.jpg" width="750" height="1024" alt="COUNT ARENBERGH" title="" /> +<span class="caption">COUNT ARENBERGH</span> +</div> + +<p>And the more to disable and deprive the King of his +crown, and to confirm the said Cobham in his intents +Ralegh did publish a book falsely written against the +most just and royal title of the King, which book Cobham +after that received of him, and did deliver unto Brooke. +And further by the traitorous instigation of Ralegh, +Cobham did incite Brooke to move Arabella to write to +the three forenamed princes to procure them to advance +her title. Further, Cobham, by the instigation of Ralegh +did write letters to the Count Arenberg for the obtaining +of the 600,000 crowns, which money by other letters +Count Arenberg did promise to perform the payment of. +And then did Cobham promise to Ralegh that when he +had received the said money he would deliver 8000 crowns +to him.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[ 207]</a></span></p> +<p>To the indictment Sir Walter Ralegh pleaded <span class="smcap">NOT +GUILTY</span>. Sir Walter Ralegh was then asked whether he +would take exception to any of the jury; and he made +answer, "I know none of them; they are all Christians +and honest gentlemen. I except against none." He +did not know that the original jurymen had been +changed; he did not know that the names of three near +servants to the Queen Elizabeth had been erased from +the panel overnight, being thought unsuitable for their +purpose.</p> + +<p><i>Earl Suffolk.</i>—You, gentlemen of the King's learned +counsel follow the same course as you did the other day.</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i>—My lord, I pray you I may answer the +points particularly as they are delivered, by reason of +the weakness of my memory and sickness.</p> + +<p><i>Lord Chief Justice Popham.</i>—After the King's learned +counsel have delivered all the evidence, Sir Walter, you +may answer particularly to what you will.</p> + +<p>Then spake the King's Serjeant at Law, by name +Hele; of this man Edwards points out that "he was +more notable as a brawler and a buffoon—and also as a +moneylender, in which capacity he hoped to win a very +large stake by the ruin of Lord Cobham—than as a +lawyer." The tone of his short speech may be gathered +from this typical sentence at the conclusion. "It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[ 208]</a></span> +appears that Cobham took Ralegh to be either a god +or an idol. Cobham endeavours to set up a new king, +or governor: God forbid mine eyes should ever see so +unhappy a change! As for the Lady Arabella, she, +upon my conscience hath no more title to the crown +than I have, which before God I utterly renounce. +Cobham, a man bred in England, hath no experience +abroad; but Ralegh, a man of great wit, military and a +swordman. Now whether these things were bred in a +hollow tree, I leave to them to speak of, who can speak +far better than myself."</p> + +<p>Sir Edward Coke, the King's Attorney, then rose to +his feet. It is well to remember that it was Coke's +business, as the King's Attorney, to prove Ralegh +guilty of treason, and that as he had almost no evidence +in his support, his business was one of extreme difficulty. +Cobham's accusation was his only evidence, and that +must be used with caution, owing to Cobham's retractations. +The trial was of the utmost importance; his +professional reputation was at stake; the very difficulty +put him on his mettle. He rose magnificently to the +occasion. With such evidence at his disposal he could +not quietly prove Ralegh's guilt. His chief weapons +were the appeal to the jury's loyalty and abuse of the +prisoner—especially abuse, by which he hoped to brow-beat +him. His speech was long and learned. He +began by dividing the mischief of treason into three +divisions—imitation, supportation, and defence, and by +enlarging upon the main conspiracy of the priests +Watson and Copley, with which, as Ralegh pointed out, +he was in no way connected, even in the indictment. +Undeterred, Coke continued his oration. He gave +instances of treason, he defined treason at length, and +then he suddenly began to praise the character of King<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[ 209]</a></span> +James, and, turning angrily to Ralegh, exclaimed: +"To whom Sir Walter did you bear malice? To the +royal children?" To which Ralegh answered: "Master +Attorney, I pray you to whom or to what end speak you +all this? I protest I do not understand what a word of +this means, except it be to tell me news. What is the +treason of Markham and the priests to me?"</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "I will then come close to you. I will prove +you to be the most notorious traitor that ever came to +the bar."</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "Your words cannot condemn me; my +innocency is my defence. <i>Prove</i> against me any one +thing of the many that you have broken, and I will +confess all the Indictment, and that I am the most +horrible traitor that ever lived."</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "Nay I will prove all. Thou art a monster; +thou hast an English face, but a Spanish heart."</p> + +<p>Then Coke proceeded to give a minute account of +Cobham's plots in such a way that, as Edwards notes, +only the most unprejudiced and attentive listener would +fail to be trapped into thinking that he was relating the +plots of Ralegh. The device was clever, but it was +unscrupulous. Ralegh, in spite of his recent imprisonment +and his imminent danger, remained master of +himself and of the situation. He withstood Coke's +implications as resolutely as he withstood Coke's abuse. +"What is that to me?" he asked the Court, after Coke +had ended his clever recital of Cobham's practices. +"What is that to me? I do not hear yet that you +have spoken one word against <i>me</i>. Here is no treason +of mine done. If my Lord Cobham be a traitor, what +is that to me?"</p> + +<p>At this the King's Attorney broke into savage +abuse. "All that he did was by thy instigation, thou<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[ 210]</a></span> +viper; for I <i>thou</i> thee, thou traitor! I will prove thee +the rankest traitor in all England."</p> + +<p>But Ralegh was not to be inveigled into losing his +presence of mind by Coke's insults, as Coke, of course, +knowing Ralegh's temperament, intended him to do. +Never did Ralegh show greater proof of his power than +at this his trial, when circumstances were pressing most +hardly upon him; he answered—there is the suavity of +strength in his answer—"No, no, Master Attorney, I +am no traitor. Whether I live or die I shall stand as +true a subject as ever the King hath. <i>You</i> may call me +a traitor, at your pleasure; yet it becomes not a man of +quality or virtue to do so. But I take comfort in it. +It is all that you can do, for I do not yet hear that you +charge me with any treason."</p> + +<p>The Lord Chief Justice Popham was here obliged to +come to the help of the King's Attorney, who was +finding the case more difficult than he expected. It +was important that the people present, by whom the +news of the trial would be spread through England, +should not be impressed in the prisoner's favour. He +said, realizing that Coke's last <i>coup</i> had been a failure: +"Sir Walter Ralegh, Master Attorney speaks out of the +zeal of his duty for the service of the King, and you for +your life; be patient, on both sides."</p> + +<p>Then Coke proceeded: "I charge Sir Walter Ralegh +with contriving and conspiring all this that I have +recited. And now I will read my proofs for it." He +did so. That is to say, he read the most incriminating +of the confessions which the distraught Lord Cobham +had made. While Coke read this Declaration, there +was silence in the hall—certainly a haunting silence. +Then Ralegh spoke. "This is absolutely all the +evidence that can be brought against me. But now I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[ 211]</a></span> +beseech you, hear me. I was examined at Windsor +touching the Surprising Treason; next of plotting for +Arabella; thirdly of practices with the Lord Cobham. +From all which God knows I was free, for I never +was privy to any of them. It is true that I suspected +that the Lord Cobham kept intelligence with +D'Arenberg. For I knew that long since—in the late +Queen's time—he held that course with him in the Low +Countries, as was well known to my Lord Treasurer, and +to my Lord Cecil. La Renzi being a man also well +known to me, I, seeing him and the Lord Cobham together, +thought that was the time they both had been to +Count D'Arenberg. I gave intimation thereof. But I was +willed by my Lord Cecil not to speak of this; because +the King, at the first coming of D'Arenbergh, would +not give him occasion of suspicion. Wherefore I wrote +to the Lord Cecil that if La Renzi were not taken, the +matter would not be discovered. Yet if he were then +apprehended, it would give matter of suspicion to the +Lord Cobham. This letter of mine being presently +showed to the Lord Cobham, he presently entered into +a rage against me and spake bitterly and railingly of +me; yet ere he came to the stairs'-foot, he repented him, +and, as I heard, acknowledged that he had done me +wrong."</p> + +<p>Ralegh paused: up till now he had been speaking to +the Court and to the jury, quietly replying to the charges +that had been brought against him. Now he turned to +Sir Edward Coke, the King's Attorney, and made this +speech, magnificent in its effect even in the version of +the reporter, even after more than three hundred years, +now when no one feels anything but great friendliness +towards Spain; you can see the man draw himself up to +his full height, the man who had risked his life for his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[ 212]</a></span> +country—Spain's most dreadful enemy, as he faced the +attorney whose business it was to brow-beat him to +ruin.</p> + +<p>"Master Attorney, whether to favour or to disable my +Lord Cobham you speak as you will of him; yet he is +not such a babe as you make him. He hath dispositions +of such violence, which his best friends could never +temper. But it is very strange that I, at this time, +should be thought to plot with the Lord Cobham +knowing him a man that hath neither love nor following; +and myself, at this time having resigned a place of my +best command, in an office I had in Cornwall. I was +not so bare of sense but I saw that, if even this State +was strong, it was now that we have the kingdom of +Scotland united whence we were wont to fear all our +troubles; Ireland quieted where our forces were wont +to be divided; Denmark assured whom before we were +always wont to have in jealousy; the Low Countries our +nearest neighbours. And, instead of a Lady whom Time +had surprised, we had now an active King who would be +present at his own businesses. For me at this time to +make myself a Robin Hood, a Watt Tyler, a Kett, or a +Jack Cade! I was not so mad! I knew the state of +Spain well—his weakness, his poorness, his humbleness +at this time. I knew that six times we had repulsed his +forces: thrice in Ireland, thrice at sea—once upon our +coast, twice upon his own. Thrice had I served against +him myself at sea, wherein for my Country's sake, I had +expended of my own property forty thousand marks. I +knew that where beforetime he was wont to have forty +great sails, at the least, in his ports, now he hath not +past six or seven. But for sending to his Indies, he was +driven to have strange vessels—a thing contrary to the +institutions of his ancestors who straitly forbade that,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[ 213]</a></span> +even in case of necessity, they should make their +necessity known to strangers. I knew that of twenty-five +millions which he had from his Indies, he had scarce +any left. Nay, I knew his poorness to be such at this +time, as that the Jesuits, his imps, begged at his church-doors; +his pride so abated that, notwithstanding his +former high terms, he was become glad to congratulate +His Majesty and send unto him. Whoso knew what +great assurances he stood upon with other States, for +smaller sums, would not think he would so freely disburse +to my Lord Cobham six hundred thousand +crowns! And, if I had minded to set my Lord Cobham +awork in such a case, I would have given him some +instructions how to persuade the King. For I knew +Cobham no such minion that could persuade a King +that was in want to disburse so great a sum, without +great reason and some assurance for his money. I knew +the Queen of England lent not her money to the States, +but she had Flushing, Brill, and other towns, in assurance +for it. She lent not money to the King of France +without she had Newhaven for it. Nay, her own +subjects, the merchants of London, did not lend her +money, without they had their lands to pawn for it. +And to show I am not Spanish—as you term me—at this +time I had writ a treatise to the King's Majesty of the +present state of Spain, and reasons against the Peace."</p> + +<p>So spake Sir Walter Ralegh, summing up the whole +question of policy which was occupying the minds of all +men, and drawing attention to the great part which he +had played in gaining naval supremacy for England.</p> + +<p>He then went on to explain that the business which +had brought him of late years so much in Cobham's +company was of a private nature, concerning the improvement +of Cobham's estate, and the purchase of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[ 214]</a></span> +fee-farm from the Duke of Lennox. He showed that +Cobham was a wealthy and prosperous man, not one +who could easily be moulded to treason from despair at +his poverty.</p> + +<p>Then another examination of Cobham was read, in +which a second time he had exclaimed, "O wretch, O +traitor." The trickery is absurdly patent. It resembles a +game of chess in which one player as often as his black +queen is taken, hastily substitutes another black queen in +its place. At this juncture the foreman of the jury, Sir +Thomas Fowler, was ill-advised enough to ask a simple +question. "I desire to understand of the Court the +time of Sir Walter Ralegh's first letter, and of the +Lord Cobham's accusation." The Court looked at him +in amazement, and Lord Cecil rose to his feet and +immediately began a long and cunning speech. "I am +divided in myself and at great dispute what to say of +this gentleman at the bar. For it is impossible, be the +obligations never so great, but the affections of nature +and love will show themselves. A former dearness +betwixt me and this gentleman tied upon the knot of +his virtues, though slacked since by his actions, I cannot +but acknowledge; and the most of you know it." The +speech was cunning and involved. He made no +mention of time; he harped upon his personal sorrow in +being obliged to speak against a man whom he once +loved; his personal loyalty, which was stronger than his +affection had ever been, alone compelled him. Two +dates were all that were wanted; they could not be +given. So Cecil gave vent to his sorrow. Hypocrisy +could go no further.</p> + +<p>Directly that Lord Cecil had finished, Sir Edward +Coke, the King's Attorney, continued his accusation, +trying to turn Ralegh's great outburst about the state of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[ 215]</a></span> +Spain to Ralegh's disadvantage, trying to prove it only +another instance of his treachery. "Methinks it would +have been better for you to have stayed in Guiana than +to be so well acquainted with the state of Spain. As to +the six overthrows of the King of Spain, I answer 'he +hath the more malice' because repulses breed desire of +revenge. As for you writing against the Peace with +Spain, you sought but to cloak a Spanish traitor's +heart," and more to the same effect.</p> + +<p>When he had finished Ralegh rose to make his last +claim on justice. "My lords," he said, "I claim to have +my accuser brought here to speak face to face. Though +I know not how to make my best defence by law, yet, +since I was a prisoner, I have learned that by the Law +and Statutes of this realm in case of treason a man +ought to be convicted by the testimony of two witnesses. +I will not take upon me to defend the matter upon the +Statute of the twenty-fifth of Edward the Third, though +that requires an overt act. But remember I beseech your +Lordships, the Statute of the first of Edward the Sixth +which saith: 'No man shall be condemned of treason, +unless he be accused by two lawful accusers.' And by +the Statute of the fifth and sixth of Edward the Sixth, +those accusers must be brought in person before the +party accused, at his arraignment if living!" He +continued to instance other laws; he pointed out that +Cobham was not only living but in the same town, in +the same palace. He called to mind the case of +Fortescue, who had condemned a woman to death on +the witness of one man for the murder of her husband, +and who could never forgive himself for the injustice +when the servant of the man confessed at length to the +murder. He drew instances from the Bible, and the +Canon of God, and concluded with this appeal for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[ 216]</a></span> +justice: "If then by the Statute Law, by the Civil Law +and by God's Word, it be required that there be two +witnesses, at the least, bear with me if I desire one. +Prove me guilty of these things by one witness only, and +I will confess the Indictment, I stand not upon the +niceties of the law. If I have done these things I +deserve not to live; whether they be treasons by the +law or no. I beseech you then, my Lords, let Cobham +be sent for. Let him be charged upon his soul, upon his +allegiance to the King; and if he will then maintain his +accusation to my face, I will confess myself guilty." The +Court were at first taken aback by this unexpected +knowledge of the law, but not for long. The Lord Chief +Justice Popham, who played the strange triple part of +assistant in the examination, of witness for the prosecution, +and of presiding judge, explained that such a +course was quite out of the question. "The statutes you +speak of in cases of treason were found to be inconvenient +and were taken away by another law. Those of Edward +the Sixth are general, but were repealed by the first and +second of Philip and Mary, which you have mentioned, +which Statute goes only to the treasons therein comprised, +and also appoints the trial of treasons to be as before +it was at the Common Law. Now the twenty-fifth of +Edward the Third makes declaration what the Common +Law was. All is now therefore put to the Common Law. +And by the Common Law one witness is sufficient and +the accusation of confederates or the confession of others +is full proof." And Mr. Justice Warburton went one +further in making this point strong for the prosecution; +he added the personal touch of insult, which is characteristic +of the trial. "I marvel, Sir Walter," he said, +"that you, being of such experience and wit, should +stand on this point. For many horse-stealers should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[ 217]</a></span> +escape, if they may not be condemned without witnesses. +By law a man may be condemned upon presumption +and circumstances without any witness to the main fact. +As, if the King, whom God defend, should be slain in his +chamber and one be shown to have come forth of the +chamber with his sword drawn and bloody. Were not +this evidence both in law and opinion, without further +inquisition?"</p> + +<p>The point was discussed at some length, and then it +became time again to bring forward accusations of +Cobham, which were accordingly read; this time also +depositions of Copley, Watson, and George Brooke were +also read to the effect that somebody had heard from +somebody else how Cobham and Ralegh stood for the +Spanish faction. Again Ralegh pointed out that this +had nothing to do with his charge, and again asked, +"Good, my Lords, let my accuser come face to face and +be deposed." But that was not permitted.</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "Now let us come to the words of destroying +of the 'King and his cubs.'"</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "O barbarous! if they like unnatural vilains +spoke such words, shall I be charged with them? I +will not hear it! I was never false to the Crown of +England. I have spent Ł40,000 of mine own against +the Spanish faction for the good of my country. Do +you bring the words of those hellish spiders Clarke, +Watson, and others against me?"</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "Thou hast a Spanish heart and thyself art a +spider of hell. For thou confessest the King to be a +most sweet and gracious prince, and yet thou hast +conspired against him."</p> + +<p>The reading of Cobham's examination was continued, +wherein Cobham said he had a book "written against +the title of the king which he had of Ralegh, and that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[ 218]</a></span> +gave it to his brother Brooke, and Ralegh said it was +foolishly written.</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "After the king came within twelve miles of +London, Cobham never came to see him; and intended +to travel without seeing the queen and the prince. Now +in this discontentment you gave him the book, and he +gave it his brother."</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "I never gave it him, he took it off my +table. For I well remember a little before that time I +received a challenge from Sir Amias Preston, and for that +I did intend to answer it, I resolved to leave my estate +settled, therefore laid out all my loose papers, among +which was this book."</p> + +<p><i>Ld. Howard.</i> "Where had you this book?"</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "In the old Lord-Treasurer's study, after his +death."</p> + +<p><i>Cecil.</i> "Did you ever show or make known the book +to me?"</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "No, my lord."</p> + +<p><i>Cecil.</i> "Was it one of the books which was left to me +or my brother?"</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "I took it out of the study in my Lord-Treasurer's +house in the Strand."</p> + +<p>Then Cecil explained that after his father's death +Ralegh was allowed to search in the library for cosmo-graphical +descriptions of the Indies. Again he referred +to his great love for Ralegh, and said he thought it a little +unkindly done on Sir Walter's part to remove the book +without his knowledge. It was a book in manuscript on +which the Lord-Treasurer had written, "<i>This is the book +of Robert Snagg</i>." Brooke burned it; the most was +made of this incident.</p> + +<p>Popham asked, "Wherefore should this book be +burnt?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[ 219]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "I burned it not."</p> + +<p><i>Serjeant Philips.</i> "You presented your friend with it +when he was discontented. If it had been before the +queen's death it had been a less matter, but you gave it +him presently when he came from the king, which was +the time of his discontentment."</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "Here is a book supposed to be treasonable; +I never read it, commended it, or delivered it, nor +urged it."</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "Why, this is cunning."</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "Everything that doth make for me is +cunning, and everything that maketh against me is +probable."</p> + +<p><i>The point was then raised</i> about Captain Keymis, who +had been rigorously examined. He was well known to +be friendly to Ralegh. He proved, however, a faithful +friend. Cobham said that Keymis came to him with a +letter torn. But of this nothing came; Keymis had +been too staunch to add anything to the truth, and the +matter was dropped. More testimony of Cobham was +then read concerning letters to Arabella, and again +Ralegh insisted on Cobham's presence. "Let me speak +for my life," cried Ralegh; "it can be no hurt for him to +be brought; he dares not accuse me. If you grant me +not this favour, I am strangely used. Campian was not +denied to have his accusers face to face."</p> + +<p><i>Popham.</i> "Since he must needs have justice, the +acquitting of his old friend may move him to speak +otherwise than the truth."</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "If I had been the infuser of all these +treasons into him—you Gentlemen of the Jury, mark +this, he said I have been the cause of all his miseries, +and the destruction of his house, and that all evil hath +happened unto him by my wicked counsel—if this be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[ 220]</a></span> +true, whom hath he cause to accuse and to be revenged +on, but on me? And I know him to be as revengeful +as any man on earth."</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "He is a party, and may not come; the law is +against it."</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "It is a toy to tell me of law; I defy such +law, I stand on the fact."</p> + +<p><i>Cecil.</i> "I am afraid my often speaking (who am +inferior to my lords here present) will make the world +think I delight to hear myself talk. My affection to you, +Sir Walter Ralegh, was not extinguished but slaked in +regard of your deserts. You know the law of the realm +(to which your mind doth not contest) that my Lord +Cobham cannot be brought." The King's Attorney, +Sir Edward Coke, took up the thread of his much-interrupted +discourse, and this time he brought forward +a witness, one Dyer, a pilot. Dyer was accordingly +sworn, and delivered this evidence: "I came to a +merchant's house in Lisbon to see a boy that I had +there, there came a gentleman into the house, and +enquiring what countryman I was, I said, an Englishman. +Whereupon he asked me if the King was crowned. +And I answered, no, but that I hoped he should be so +shortly. Nay, saith he, he shall never be crowned; for +Don Ralegh and Don Cobham will cut his throat ere +that day come."</p> + +<p>Ralegh naturally asked, "What infer you from this?" +And the King's Attorney answered him, "That your +treason hath wings." Ralegh had a convincing reply, +"Why did they name the Duke of Buckingham with +Jack Straw's treason, and the Duke of York with Jack +Cade, but that it was to countenance his treason?"</p> + +<p>The King's Attorney was worsted in this point; and +accordingly Serjeant Philips came to his assistance by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[ 221]</a></span> +repeating, as usual, the gist of Cobham's accusations. +To which Ralegh answered, "If truth be constant and +constancy be in truth, why hath he forsworn that that +he hath said? You have not proved any one thing +against me by direct proofs, but all by circumstances."</p> + +<p>Coke was becoming more and more impatient. +"Have you done?" he cried. "The King must have +the last."</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "Nay, Master Attorney, he which speaketh +for his life must speak last. False repetitions and +mistakings must not mar my cause."</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "The King's safety and your clearing cannot +agree. I protest before God, I never knew a clearer +treason."</p> + +<p>The Attorney's impatience grew so much that, in +the words of one report, he sat down in a chafe and +would speak no more, until the commissioners urged +and entreated him. After much ado he went on, and +made a long repetition of all the evidence; and at the +repeating of some things Sir Walter Ralegh interrupted +him, and said he did him wrong.</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "Thou art the most vile and execrable traitor +that ever lived."</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "You speak indiscreetly, barbarously and +uncivilly."</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "I want words sufficient to express thy viperous +treasons."</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "I think you want words indeed, for you +have spoken one thing half a dozen times."</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "Thou art an odious fellow; thy name is +hateful to all the realm of England for thy pride."</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "It will go near to prove a measuring cast +between you and me, Master Attorney."</p> + +<p><i>Coke.</i> "Well, I will now make it appear to the world<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[ 222]</a></span> +that there never lived a viler viper upon the face of the +world than thou." And he proceeded to work up his +speech to his last chief point of all—that was the production +of a letter from Cobham, which he read. He +interspersed his reading with exclamations of triumph. +"I have thought fit to set down this to My Lords, +wherein I protest on my soul to write nothing but the +truth. I am now come near the period of my time, +therefore I confess the whole truth before God and his +angels. Ralegh, four days before I came from the +Tower, caused an apple (Eve's apple, cried out the +King's Attorney) to be thrown in at my chamber +window; the effect of it was to entreat me to right the +wrong I had done him, in saying, that I should have +come home by Jersey, which under my hand to him I +have retracted.... At Aremberg's coming Ralegh was +to have procured a pension of Ł1500 a year, for which he +promised, that no action should be against Spain, the +Low Countries, or the Indies, but he would give knowledge +beforehand. (Ah! is not this a Spanish heart in +an English body?) He hath also been the cause of +my discontentment; he advised me not to be overtaken +with preachers, as Essex was; and that the king would +better allow of a constant denial, than to accuse any."</p> + +<p>"Oh! damnable atheist!" cried Coke. "He counsels +him not to be counselled by preachers as Essex was; he +died the child of God. God honoured him at his +death."</p> + +<p><i>Ralegh.</i> "You have heard a strange tale of a strange +man. Now he thinks he hath matter enough to destroy +me; but the king and all of you shall witness, by our +deaths, which of us was the ruin of the other. I bid a +poor fellow throw in the letter at his window, written to +this purpose: You know you have undone me, now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[ 223]</a></span> +write three lines to justify me. In this will I die that +he hath done me wrong."</p> + +<p>Then Ralegh pulled a letter out of his pocket, +which the Lord Cobham had written to him, and +desired my Lord Cecil to read it because he only +knew his hand. Cecil read the letter. "Seeing myself +so near my end, for the discharge of my own conscience, +and freeing myself from your blood, which also will cry +vengeance against me, I protest upon my salvation I +never practised with Spain upon your procurement: +God so comfort me in this my affliction, as you are a +true subject, for anything that I know. I will say as +Daniel, <i>Purus sum a sanguine hujus</i>. So God have +mercy upon my soul, as I know no treason by you!"</p> + +<p>"Now I wonder," said Ralegh, "how many souls +this man hath; he damns one in this letter: another in +that."</p> + +<p>Such were Ralegh's last recorded words before the +verdict was given. He had said all that was to be said. +He had stood his ground undismayed for many hours, +though the chief men in England and the cleverest +lawyers in England were set against him. He must +gradually have realized that all were resolute to condemn +him: he must gradually have realized that all +his efforts were futile against such malignant opposition.</p> + +<p>The King's Attorney alleged that the last letter was +politicly and cunningly urged from the Lord Cobham, +and the first was simply the truth. The Earl of Devonshire +assured the Lord Chief Justice that Cobham had +written the first letter of his own free will, uninfluenced +by any hope or promise of pardon. A marshal was +sworn to keep the jury private. The jury retired. In +less than a quarter of an hour the jury returned and +gave their verdict. The verdict was <i>GUILTY</i>. "Sir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[ 224]</a></span> +Walter Ralegh," said the Clerk of the Crown, "thou +hast been indicted, arraigned, and pleaded <i>not guilty</i>, +for all these several treasons and for trial thereof hast +put thyself upon thy country, which country are these +who have found thee guilty. What canst thou say for +thyself why judgment and execution of death should +not pass against thee?"</p> + +<p>And Ralegh, now doomed, made answer, "My +Lords, the jury have found me guilty, they must do as +they are directed. I can say nothing why judgment +should not proceed. You see whereof Cobham hath +accused me: you remember his protestations that I was +never guilty...." And later he said, "I submit +myself to the king's mercy. I know his mercy is +greater than my offence. I recommend my wife, and +son of tender years, unbrought-up, to his compassion."</p> + +<p>And then the Lord Chief Justice Popham rose to +deliver judgment, which he prefaced by a pompous and +insulting speech. "I thought I should never have seen +this day, to have stood in this place to give sentence of +death against you; because I thought it impossible +that one of so great parts should have fallen so +grievously. God hath bestowed on you many benefits. +You had been a man fit and able to have served the +king in good place—you have brought yourself into a +good state of living.... It is best for man not to +seek to climb too high, lest he fall; nor yet to creep too +low lest he be trodden on....</p> + +<p>"You have been taxed by the world with the +defence of the most heathenish and blasphemous +opinions; which I list not to repeat because Christian +ears cannot endure to hear them, nor the authors and +maintainers of them be suffered to live in any Christian +commonwealth.... You shall do well before you go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[ 225]</a></span> +out of the world, to give satisfaction therein, and not to +die with these imputations on you. Let not any devil +persuade you to think there is no eternity in heaven. +For if you think thus you shall find eternity in hell-fire. +In the first accusation of my Lord Cobham I observed +his manner of speaking: I protest before the living God +I am persuaded he spoke nothing but the truth! You +wrote that he should not in any case confess anything +to a preacher, telling him an example of my Lord +Essex, that noble Earl that is gone. Who if he had +not been carried away with others had lived in honour +to this day among us. He confessed his offences, and +obtained mercy of the Lord; for I am verily persuaded +in my heart he died a worthy servant of God. Your +conceit of not confessing anything is very inhuman and +wicked. In this world is the time of confessing that we +may be absolved at the day of judgment. You have +shewed a fearful sign of denying God in advising a +man not to confess the truth. It now comes in my +mind why you may not have your accuser come face +to face; for such an one is easily brought to retract, +when he seeth there is no hope of his own life. It is +dangerous that any traitors should have access to or +conference with, one another. When they see themselves +must die, they will think it best to have their +fellow live that he may commit the like treason again, +and so in some sort seek revenge.</p> + +<p>"Now it resteth to pronounce the judgment which +I wish you had not been this day to have received of me.</p> + +<p>"For if the fear of God in you had been answerable +to your other great parts you might have lived to have +been a singular good subject. I never saw the like +trial, and hope I shall never see the like again.</p> + +<p>"But since you have been found guilty of these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[ 226]</a></span> +horrible treasons, the judgment of this court is, that +you shall be had from hence to the place whence you +came, there to remain until the day of execution; and +from thence you shall be drawn upon an hurdle +through the open streets to the place of execution, there +to be hanged and cut down alive; and your body shall +be opened, your heart and bowels plucked out, and +your privy members cut off, and thrown into the fire +before your eyes; then your head to be stricken off +from your body, and your body shall be divided into +four quarters, to be disposed of at the King's pleasure; +and God have mercy upon your soul!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[ 227]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XVI</h3> + +<h2>THE KING'S FARCE</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Comments on Ralegh's fall—In the prison at Winchester—Ralegh +begs mercy—His attitude explained—The King's own farce—Ralegh +removed to London.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>So ended the worst and greatest day of Ralegh's life. +The Lord Cecil was victorious. Ralegh was overthrown. +But from despair so poignant that reason +yielded to its sway and he was driven to attempt madly +to make away with himself, he had risen to make a +defence so admirable against his accusers that men who +heard and saw him at the trial, heard him with wonder +and watched him with astonishment. And well they +might. The man whose judgment had saved the +situation at Cadiz from the reckless inexperience of +Essex, whose patience and courage had taken an expedition +far up the dangerous unknown rivers to Guiana, +whose insight had discovered the poet Spenser and +made him known to the world, showed the same insight +and courage and patience and judgment at this trial +when he was standing for his life against the combined +assault of the cleverest brains in England, combined by +the hope of future favours from a new King to work his +overthrow. When one tired or stumbled, another was +prompt to take his place; but always Ralegh remained +alert and ready and steadfast—alone.</p> + +<p>Sir Dudley Carleton was present at the trial and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[ 228]</a></span> +wrote an account of it to his friend, Mr. John Chamberlain. +Carleton was at that time Secretary to the Earl +of Northumberland. This is how he describes Ralegh's +demeanour. "He answered with that temper, wit, +learning, courage and judgment that save it went with +the hazard of his life, it was the happiest day that ever +he spent. And so well he shifted all advantages that +were taken against him, that were not <i>fama malum +gravius quam res</i>, and an ill-name half hanged, in the +opinion of all men, he had been acquitted."</p> + +<p>Carleton proceeds to tell his friend of two others who +were present and who were the first to bring the news +of the trial to the King at Wilton. One was Roger +Ashton. He said that never any one spoke so well in +times past nor would do in the world to come. The +other was a Scotchman. He said that whereas when +he saw Ralegh first, he was so led with the common +hatred that he would have gone a hundred miles to have +seen him hanged, he would ere he parted, have gone a +thousand to have saved his life. And Carleton comments +on this aptly enough: "In one word never was a man so +hated and so popular in so short a time."</p> + +<p>Dudley Carleton was quite right in saying an "ill +name is half hanged." The trial was the merest farce. +The judges were determined that Ralegh must be condemned, +as soon as Ralegh was arrested. They knew +that such was the King's will: and Ralegh's condemnation +had become the King's will owing to the astute +management of Cecil. There were many reasons for +Cecil's line of action. Both James and he knew that +there must be a large number of people in England +disaffected to the new sovereign. It was advisable to +open the reign by an illustrious example. Ralegh was +a powerful man, whose powers Cecil knew and feared.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[ 229]</a></span> +Moreover, Ralegh had original ideas about government +which fitted ill with Cecil's conception of himself as the +chief man in England under an absolute King. So Cecil +for a long time had been playing upon the King's fears, +knowing well the King's timorous nature. And then, +when the time came, he showed his zeal for the King +by delivering Ralegh into his power. His known +intimacy with Ralegh, upon which he took every opportunity +of harping at the trial and elsewhere, would lend +bright colour to his loyalty to the King.</p> + +<p>The judges are as little to blame as the system of +which they were a part is much to blame. Here was +Ralegh, whom Cecil, his friend and the first man in +England, thought guilty of treason, just at a crucial +moment in the history of the nation, when a new +King was coming to the throne from another country. +Naturally they would do their utmost to show their +loyalty. The very vagueness and mystery of the charge +increased their anxiety to condemn him. Fear, too, +played a prominent part. Which of them could tell, +if he showed any clemency to the prisoner, whether it +would not be his turn to be charged next for complicity +with the traitor? So they vied with one another in +eagerness to crush Ralegh. Cecil was well aware of +this; he had made his arrangements with infinite precaution. +He was the first man in England, partly +because he was his father's son, but chiefly because of +his astuteness. His astuteness touched genius.</p> + +<p>Ralegh was undoubtedly innocent of conspiring +against King James. But that he received money from +foreign powers is probable, and so laid himself open +to the charge of treason. It is easy to exclaim against +him for this. But to do so is an error of judgment. It +was a common practice of the time. All the chief men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[ 230]</a></span> +in England were in the pay of some foreign prince. It +was part of an ambassador's duty to spend money in +this way; the custom resembles the custom, prevalent +in commerce, of giving presents to customers at Christmas. +Lord Cecil is known to have received money from +Spain during all the years that he held office. The +custom has fallen into abeyance, not so much from the +development of morality, as from the improvements that +have come about in the means of travelling and communication. +By knowledge man advances.</p> + +<p>Ralegh was marked down by Cecil, and Ralegh fell. +He knew that his career was at an end, as he passed +from the palace at Winchester to the castle. His last +request had been that his death might not be an +ignominious one. His life was filled with great schemes +of absorbing interest; he was at the height of his great +powers. He had felt them in full play as he withstood +the charges. Nothing availed him any more. As he +sat in the prison-room of the castle awaiting the news +and manner of his death, a sudden furious passion to +continue the life, over which he had such mastery, seized +and took possession of him. He must live. At any +cost he must live. There was so much that he had not +yet done. The immense vitality of the man rose within +him and tortured him by its resistless strength. He +must make one last effort for life; and his wife and +child—they would be poor and shamed. He was famous +throughout England for his pride. Pride and vitality +fought within him. For now his only hope of reprieve +lay in the King's mercy, and James liked the consciousness +of power that comes from a great man's supplication. +Vitality conquered. He supplicated the King +for his life. He, who had dared death in all death's +guises, could not wait for death to come slowly while still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[ 231]</a></span> +there remained one chance of life. The spirit of life was +too strong in him for that.</p> + +<p>His letters to the King do not, as many have said, +point to meanness of spirit; they bear witness to the +indomitable vitality, which was his characteristic, and +which would not allow him to rest. Be sure he knew, +with that amazing intellect, well enough the stress of +his future life; he knew well enough that it was no great +boon for which he pleaded. His youth was gone; his +possessions had been taken away; his name was sullied. +He knew that the four walls of a prison would be his +probable horizon, he who desired to explore new +countries. But the spirit of life, which made him a +great man, mastered him and forced him now to plead +for his life like a little man, which he could never be. +"No poltroon could have begged for life more abjectly +than he did." So they write of him. But his letters +sound the deep note of tragedy. They do not make +Ralegh's name odious, but they stigmatize the name of +the King for whose benefit they could be composed and +upon whom they could take effect. Ralegh at last knew +the man with whom he was dealing for his life, and he +brought all his power of intellect to bear upon making +use of the knowledge in this his ultimate emergency.</p> + +<p>"I do therefore most humblie beseich my soverayne +Lord not to beleve any of thos, in my particuler, who +under pretence of offences to kings, doe easily work +their particuler revenges. I trust that no man (under +the culler of making examples) shall perswade your +Majesty to leve the word 'mercifull' out of your stile; +for it will noe less profite your Majesty; and becume +your gretnes, than the word 'invincibell'.... I do +therefore, on the knees of my hart, beseich your +Majesty to take councell from your own sweet and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[ 232]</a></span> +mercifull disposition and to remember that I have loved +your Majesty now twenty yeares for which your Majestie +hath yett geven me no reward. And it is fitter that I +should be indebted to my soverayne Lord, then the +King to his poore vassall. Save me, therefore, most +mercifull Prince, that I may owe your Majesty my life +itt sealf; then which ther cannot be a greter dett. Lend +it me att lest, my soverayne Lord that I may pay it +agayne for your service when your Majesty shall pleas."</p> + +<p>Slowly time passed, and little by little all hope of +reprieve died in him. The spirit of life was, as it were, +appeased at this his effort—this supplication—and +allowed him rest. He wrote farewell to his wife.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"You shall receave, dear wief, my last words in +these my last lynes. My love I send you, that you may +keepe it when I am dead; and my councell, that you +may remember it when I am noe more. I would not +with my last will present you with sorrowes, deare Bess. +Lett them goe to the grave with and be buried in the +dust. And seeing it is not the will of God that ever I +shall see you in this lief, beare my destruccion gentlie, +and with a hart like yourself.</p> + +<p>"First I send you all the thanks my hart cann +conceive, or my penn expresse, for your many troubles +and cares taken for me, which—though they may have +not taken effect as you wished—yet my debt is to you +never the lesse; and paye it I never shall in this world.</p> + +<p>"Secondlie, I beseich you, for the love you beare me +living, that you doe not hide yourself many dayes, but +by your travell seeke to help your miserable fortunes +and the right of your poore childe. Your mourning +cannot avayle me that am but dust....</p> + +<p>"To what frind to direct thee I knowe not, for all +mine have left mee in the true tyme of triall: and I +plainly perceive that my death was determyned from +the first day.... But God hath prevented all my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[ 233]</a></span> +determinations; the great God that worketh all in all. +If you can live free from want, care for no more; for the +rest is but vanity. Love God and beginne betymes to +repose yourself on Him; therein shall you find true and +lastinge ritches, and endles comfort. For the rest when +you have travelled and wearied your thoughts on all +sorts of worldly cogitacions, you shall sit downe by +Sorrow in the end....</p> + +<p>"When I am gonne no doubt you shalbe sought +unto by many, for the world thinks that I was very +ritch; but take heed of the pretences of men and of +their affections; for they last but in honest and worthy +men.... I speak it (God knowes) not to disswad you +from marriage,—for that wilbe best for you—both in +respect of God and the world. As for me I am no +more your's nor you myne. Death hath cutt us +asunder; and God hath devided me from the world, +and you from me.... And know itt (deare wief) that +your sonne is the childe of a true man, and who, in +his own respect, despiseth Death, and all his misshapen +and ouglie forms.</p> + +<p>"I cannot wright much, God knowes howe hardlie I +stole this tyme when all sleep; and it is tyme to separate +my thoughts from the world.... I can wright noe more. +Tyme and Death call me awaye.... My true wief, +farewell. Blesse my poore boye, pray for me. My true +God hold you both in His armes.</p> + +<p>"Written with the dyeing hand of sometime thy +husband, but now (alasse!) overthrowne.</p> + +<p class="ralign">"Your's that was; but nowe not my owne <br /> +"<span class="smcap">W. Ralegh</span>"<br /> +</p></blockquote> + +<p>It is sad to remember how the thought of some +passages in this letter resembles those in the letter +which he had written not quite seven years before to +Lord Cecil on the death of his wife. "I believe it," he +wrote then, "that sorrows are dangerous companions, +converting badd unto yevill and yevill in worse, and do +no other service then multeply harms."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[ 234]</a></span></p> + +<p>The first week of December slowly approached. No +hope came to the prisoner. But underneath the windows +carpenters began to set up a scaffold: he was able to +watch them at their work. Then he saw the two priests, +Watson and Clarke, led to execution. They were +very bloodily handled, writes an eye-witness; the same +Carleton, who had written of the trial, for they were +both cut down alive. He may have heard Clarke's +wild-shouted words after he had been cut down. He +saw Brooke beheaded. When it would be his own +turn, he was still ignorant.</p> + +<p>At last the Bishop of Winchester came to him, at the +King's express order. The Bishop found Ralegh well +settled for his conscience and resolved to die a Christian: +but resolute in the assurance of his innocence. He +would not yield to Cobham's accusations. The Bishop +left him. Through the rain that was quietly falling +Ralegh saw from his window on Friday morning +Markham brought to the scaffold. He watched him +take leave of his friends, watched him at his last +devotions. While he was making ready for the +executioner, the Sheriff was drawn aside: a man was +whispering—one John Gib, a Scotchman. The execution +was stayed. Markham was led away from the +scaffold, and locked into the great hall of the castle. +Ralegh must have wondered. Then he watched Lord +Grey mount the scaffold, escorted by a troop of young +courtiers. He had such gaiety and cheer in his countenance +that he seemed a dapper young bridegroom. He, +too, said farewell to his friends, made confession to his +God, and prepared himself for the executioner. The +Sheriff again came forward. He said it was the King's +will for Cobham to die first. Lord Grey was led away +to the great hall of the castle. Cobham was brought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[ 235]</a></span> +on to the scaffold. "The Lord Cobham, who was now +to play his part (writes the same eye-witness), and by +his former actions promised nothing but <i>matiere pour +rire</i>, did much cozen the world; for he came to the +scaffold with good assurance and contempt of death." +Again, just as he was about to lay his head on the +block, the Sheriff came forward and stopped the +execution. Grey and Markham were brought from +the great hall of the castle back once more to the +scaffold. Ralegh, at his window, must have wondered +more than ever.</p> + +<p>On the scaffold the Sheriff harangued the three men +on the heinousness of their crimes, while the rain +continued to fall: and he at last brought his harangue +to an end with the words, "Now see the mercy of your +prince, who, of himself hath sent hither a countermand +and given you your lives."</p> + +<p>The shouts of applause that greeted the unexpected +finish, must have revealed the meaning of the strange +scene to Ralegh. The shouting was taken up all through +the town. Men loudly rejoiced in the clemency of the +new King.</p> + +<p>So weak men in authority love to display their power. +James had carefully arranged this trivial cat's-play. +Nearly it failed of its effect. He forgot to sign the +pardon. In Winchester too the messenger, John Gib, +the Scotchman, could not get near enough to speak with +the Sheriff, but was thrust out among the boys and was +forced to call out to Sir James Hayes or else Markham +might have lost his neck. Ralegh was to have been +executed on Monday. News of his reprieve was brought +him after he had witnessed the singular farce on the +scaffold, in which the King's feline cruelty was shown.</p> + +<p>At Wilton too, where the Court was being held (the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[ 236]</a></span> +plague still raged in London) the new King enacted +another farce. He signed the death-warrants of Cobham, +Grey, and Markham: Ralegh's sentence he withheld in +case more light was thrown upon his case by confessions +on the scaffold. He gave special instructions that no +hope of pardon should be given to any of the prisoners. +He kept his intentions from his most intimate ministers. +Then he assembled the council, the day after the execution +was to have taken place. He began a complicated +speech, which puzzled his hearers, who were expecting a +messenger every moment to bring news of the execution. +"He contrasted the ardent and resolute spirit of Grey +with the base and cowardly nature of Cobham; and +then asked if it were at all consistent with kingly justice +to execute the high-spirited Grey and to spare that +pitiful creature, Cobham." He went on to point out the +insolence of Grey who disdained to entreat for his life; +the penitence of Cobham, who begged his life with +humility. And so he continued until the minds of all +the men who heard him were sufficiently muddled, and +ended with what Edwards well calls, the triumphant tag, +"So I have saved the lives of them all."</p> + +<p>Again loud applause broke out in recognition of his +clemency. But such applause, though it deafens the +ears, does not last on in the hearts of men. His showily +arranged mercy captivated the unthinking multitude. +Wise men were not pleased that a King could stoop to +such pettiness. It boded ill for the country that supreme +power should be vested in a man who could behave in +this manner. To them the action bore proof that the +King was a little cruel man. But the people shouted for +joy. The action made him popular: and when the +Gunpowder Plot was dramatically discovered the following +year, and the King's life was saved by a presentiment,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[ 237]</a></span> +his popularity increased a thousand-fold. Who could +doubt that in very truth King James was the Lord's +anointed? Only as the years went by, dark events +happened. Why did the Prince die suddenly in the +prime of his vigorous youth? Who was Car that he +should enjoy such favour? Why was Gondomar the +Spanish ambassador held in such esteem? There was +the scandal of Overbury's death. Men began to wonder +and fear. Men heard the bitterness spoken in Troilus +and Cressida or in Timon, and the bitterness began to +find an answer in their hearts.</p> + +<p>A week after the royal farce at Winchester Ralegh +was removed to London: first to the Tower, then to the +Fleet, and finally to the Tower, where he remained.</p> + +<p>Thus Ralegh was overthrown, who, if the time had +been ripe, might have proved a Mirabeau to England, +and saved the country from Civil War and the destructive +power of the Puritans, which eventually became necessary +to purge England from the mischief of weak rulers with +absolute power, kings who could not carry on the +tradition of the great Elizabeth. In very truth, with +Elizabeth, as de Thou said of Catherine, not a woman +but royalty died.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[ 238]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XVII</h3> + +<h2>THE LONG IMPRISONMENT</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Ralegh's efforts to avert complete ruin—True greatness—Keeps +in touch with life—First two years—The history—The first sentence—Reasons +for incompleteness—James's dislike of the work—Its +greatness.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Such things happened in actual life at the beginning +of the seventeenth century. There was the +same fantastic blending in life of melodrama and farce +and poetry as was shown upon the stage. Beaumont +and Fletcher, wild and exaggerated as they often +appear, gave as faithful a picture of the life around them +as Bernard Shaw gives of modern life; and in some +ways they gave a more faithful picture, for they had no +principle which they desired to inculcate, and a principle, +though it is a fine stimulant, is apt to be a sad distortioner. +There exactly lies the salient point of contrast +between that century and modern times. Life +then was confined and intense—with limitless possibilities. +The pageant passed compact, and yet in +gorgeous disarray. Art was informed by its positive +spirit; glowed with animation at its touch. Life has +become vast and voluminous; its horizon seems limited, +as though for a time it had outgrown its strength, and +was sprawling. The pageant crawls by in its interminable +length, and yet in dully determined order. Art +lives by battling against its dreadful hold—the hold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[ 239]</a></span> +that slowly fastens and stifles with its long, persistent +tentacles. The apathy of convention gradually settled, +like an obscuring mist, but new knowledge is scattering +the mist like a wind, and knowledge brings new +responsibilities and fresh life and fresh light. The sun +peers through the clouds, and the sun will lend warmth +and colour to the pageant.</p> + +<p>But such things happened at the beginning of the +seventeenth century in actual life. That farce at the +scaffold was the first manifestation that King James +gave in England of his royal power.</p> + +<p>Ralegh was taken from Winchester to the Tower on +December 16. His future life was now dreadfully +apparent to him. His lot was confinement. But not +yet was his indomitable spirit of life dead. Crushed he +felt and pinioned, but still he was obliged to strain +every nerve to force all that could be forced from the +life that henceforward awaited him. He could not +submit in proud, becoming silence, as a fabled hero +would undoubtedly have done, and as the code of +present honour would have him submit—a code which, +it is well to remember, is considerably assisted in its +conduct by the press.</p> + +<p>The only possibility of living with any pretence of +decency lay in the favour of other men, who must on no +account be permitted to forget him. It is unwise to +praise the work which he accomplished in captivity, and +to censure him for employing the only possible means +in his power to get that work accomplished.</p> + +<p>Again he put all his strength into the only task left +him, and he succeeded in saving something from the +ruin of his estates and the complete curtailment of his +liberty, by renewed supplication. Being a man of vivid +imagination, he entered so completely into the part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[ 240]</a></span> +which was forced upon him—the part of supplicator—that +his letters are the letters of the broken man that he +wished to appear, and that his future work proved conclusively +he was not. How little his spirit was broken +is seen from the tremendous work which he undertook, +and from the personal influence which he continued to +exercise, and which his imprisonment did not seem to +lessen. The scope of his activity was limited, but his +activity did not abate.</p> + +<p>His letters of supplication throw a light upon the +nature of a great man. They show something of that +strange quality which men call greatness. Ralegh was +not a little man magnified by position or circumstances. +He was a great man. Not in success is greatness +apparent, not in attainment, but in effort, in vitality, in +power of feeling and in control—but essentially in power +of feeling. That power broke even the barrier of +Ralegh's immense self-control—for a time only.</p> + +<p>A great man does not walk exalted, like some demi-god +to whom all things are easy; he knows dismay, he +knows weakness, and all the legion of infirmities, but in +spite of all, he wrests from life what life must yield +him.</p> + +<p>Ralegh had lost the Governorship of Jersey, the +Patent of the Wine Office, the Wardenship of the +Stannaries, the Rangership of Gillingham Forest, and +the Lieutenancy of Portland Castle, from which together +he drew an income of Ł3000 a year; men to whom he +owed money fastened upon his estate at Sherborne. It +was to save Sherborne from them that he did his utmost. +Lord Cecil came to his assistance: "A secound effect of +your Lordship's great favor was the preservation of my +moveabells, which the ravenus Sherifs were in hand to +have seised, and att my gates to have rifled, if your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[ 241]</a></span> +Lordship's letters had not then cum to have countermanded +it; which it also pleased yow, soon after, to +procure me."</p> + +<p>But Ralegh's possession of Sherborne was temporary +and uncertain. He tried to save it entirely from the +ruin of his fortune, that his wife and children might +have a place in which to live. On this subject he +writes continually to Cecil and Lord Cranborne. Sorrow +sat by him as he wrote, and for long and long he could +not resign himself to the prospect of captivity. "If I +had a pardon, I may notwithstanding be restraynd or +confined. If I may not be here about London (which +God caste my sowle into hell if I desire, but to do your +Lordship some kind of service) I shalbe most contented +to be confined within the Hundred of Sherburn; or if I +cannot be allowed so much I shalbe contented to live in +Holland, wher, I shall perchance gett some imployment +uppon the Indies, or else, if I be apoyncted to any bishope +or other gentelman or nobelman, or that your Lordship +would lett me keep but a park of yours—which I will +buy from some one that hath it—your Lordship shalbe +sure that I will never break the order which you shall +pleas to undertake for me. And, if I bee any wher +nire yow, yow shall find that in sume kind or other I +shall do your Lordship service. For God douth know +that if I cannot go to the Bathe this fall I am undun, +for my health; and shalbe dead, or disabled for ever."</p> + +<p>He wrote to Viscount Cranborne, imploring his aid +to preserve this remnant of his fortune. "That life +which cann be of no use to others and is now also weery +of mee, at parting putts mee in mind of thos whom +Nature and Charetie commands me not to neglect—a +wife and a childe, and a wife with childe, whom, God +knowes, have nothing else to inherite then my shame<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[ 242]</a></span> +and ther own misery. How to healp it or to whom to +complain, I know not, whose fortune is over darck for +the reason of the world to peirce.... And while I +know that the best of men are but the spoyles of Tyme +and certayne images wherwith childish Fortune useth to +play—kisse them to-day and break them to-morrow—and +therefore can lament in my sealf but a common +destiney, yet the pitifull estate of thos who are altogether +healpless and who dayly wound my sowle with the +memory of their miseries, force mee in despite of all +resolvednesse, bothe to bewayle them and labor for +them.... For my own tyme, good my Lord consider +that it cannot be calde a life, but only misery drawne +out and spoone into a long thride without all hope of +other end then Death shall provide for mee; who +without the healp of kings or frinds, will deliver me out +of prison."</p> + +<p>The humiliation of his position was forced upon his +notice, for little men began to cheat him in little ways, +and he could find no redress. The law knew him but as +dead. He writes to Levinus Muncke, secretary to Lord +Cranborne.... "I solde of late two peeces of ordenance +to one Mr. Aloblaster, a marchant, whome you knowe. +Hee that made the bargayne between us was one +Thomas Scott, a broker,—one that I have done much +for in my tyme, and one that, since I came back from +Winchester, offred to sell his howse for me, if I wanted, +with protestations too shamless to be dissembled. But +having gotten my mony into his hands which Mr. +Aloblaster sent mee and five pound waight of tobacco, +hath sold the tobacco and reteyneth my money; finding +mee now fitt for all men to tread on."</p> + +<p>The man jackal is more impatient than his animal +brother. For nearly two years Ralegh beat against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[ 243]</a></span> +prison walls, bruising himself, unable to give up hope +that some measure of freedom might be his. His health +failed. The plague broke out in the Tower. A woman +with the plague on her slept in the next room to his +eldest son, with only a partition of paper between them. +Every trouble and annoyance fell upon him. Indifference +could not come to him with its peace of apathy. He +continued to live and to resent and to suffer. A weaker +man would have broken down, would have given up this +horrible struggle for existence against such overwhelming +odds. Ralegh did not. And slowly he emerged +from the struggle the conqueror even of these circumstances. +He found work and worked. At first he +obtained permission to turn a little disused hen-house +that leant against a wall in the Tower into a laboratory. +He made lotions and a medicine, which remained in +constant use for very many years after his death. In +modern times that alone would have been sufficient to +give him the prestige of millions, and probably with a +little discreet management, a peerage.</p> + +<p>Few men have turned necessity to gain (that is the +quality of the warrior in life) so greatly as Ralegh, such +constricting necessity to such glorious gain. By sheer +will power he kept in touch with the life, from which he +was excluded. He wrote pamphlets on questions that +were paramount in interest. His treatise on <i>The +Prerogative of Parliaments</i> shows him in the vanguard +of the fighters for liberty of thought, before that movement +developed into a baser servitude. He wrote +arguments against an alliance by marriage with Spain. +He wrote at Prince Henry's request a treatise on the +building and management of ships. In every sphere +his presence was felt. Ladies were eager to use his +lotions for the preservation of beauty. His medicine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[ 244]</a></span> +was famous. The Queen sent an urgent messenger to +the Tower when the Prince was dying, thinking to save +her son's life by its means. But it was too late. The +medicine only served to alleviate the agony of his last +moments.</p> + +<p>So Ralegh gradually came to arrange his life according +to its new limitations. And it came about that +those years in the Tower were far from being the +unhappiest in his life. Ralegh, like his friend Spenser +who had died tragically a few years before his imprisonment, +knew well the value of Court life; and though he +was not cut off from intelligent society as completely in +the Tower as Spenser was in Ireland; yet he was cut +off from much that had no attraction to Spenser. But +in spite of his disgrace, and in spite of the work he +desired to do, he must surely have found something of +the same peace that comforted Spenser among the +savage Irish, before their outbreak took from him his +wife and home and all that was dear to him on earth. +There is a strange analogy in what life offered to the +two men. Lady Ralegh was allowed to visit and stay +with her husband, until she offended Waad, who had +become governor, by driving into the courtyard of the +Tower in her carriage. Then the privilege was curtailed. +Ralegh had many visitors. Men who had returned +from travels came to tell him their experiences; men +who were starting on some voyage, came to ask his +advice and listen to his counsel. Ben Jonson visited +him, and other scholars and poets. Certainly gossiping +cheery Coryat, who amused himself by walking through +all countries of the world, would come and recount his +experiences. The Odcombian leg stretcher, as he liked +to call himself, was hail-fellow-well-met with every man +in London and in the principal cities of Europe. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[ 245]</a></span> +sort of standing amiable joke was Tom of Odcombe. +"There is no man but to enjoy his company would +neglect anything but business."</p> + +<p>For two years he turned in prison as in a cage. +Then he began to live. His mind expanded beyond +the limits of body and his discomfort and of himself. +Some sort of expression must be found for his mind's +activity, and his means of expression were limited. As +health came to him while he worked in his laboratory +the proper expression for his mind's activity evolved +itself. During the months of his retreat in Ireland, in +his cabin as he made his way across the silent sea, he +had read deeply and thought deeply about the past; in +his active life at the Court and elsewhere he had known +men who made history, and he had taken part in events +which were history. He had seen and conversed with +men whom civilization had not touched, he had known +men of every country whom civilization had shaped to +its culminating point; and now as he lived in the Tower- +from which he could see the ships sailing down the +Thames to the unknown lands, from which he could +look down upon the busy men of London, slowly there +formed itself in his great mind a project. The project +was to write the history of the whole great world, from +which he was now cut off, from its very beginnings +down to the days in which he was living, aloof from the +life around. He determined to write the History of the +World. That was the proper expression for his great +mind's activity. He felt unconsciously that in so doing +he could express himself. He set to work. He felt he +had the grip of everything from the creation of the world +to his own birth and tempestuous life of more than fifty +years. We have burrowed more deeply into the mystery +of things than the great Elizabethan, as sublimely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[ 246]</a></span> +unaware of his ignorance, as we are of ours; he had +complete confidence in his knowledge. We hesitate, +we feel always on the brink of some great discovery, to +which acquired knowledge is leading us. He explored +continents, feeling limitless possibilities of the earth; +and doubted not about the spiritual world. We know +the limits of the earth; and explore these spiritual +worlds, the mystery of existence. Therein lies the +difference between two ages; therein without a boast, +lies the progress, even, which has happened in the +last three hundred years of man's existence. The +adventurous whom the Unknown attracts are not drawn +to explore the earth's surface; they turn towards the +mystery of their own souls from which comes much +profitless self-searching and a little eternal gain; they +turn towards the mysteries of life and death and birth; +they try to unravel the skein which men were then +living tempestuously to entangle.</p> + +<p>So Ralegh began his great work, greatly conceived +and greatly executed, in the very spirit of the age to +which he belonged—the age of Elizabeth, and to which +King James's little favourites, Car and the rest, could +never belong. Shut away from the bustle of the court +and its splendour, now sinking to ignoble display; shut +away from the voice of the nation, singing after the +nation's deeds, as it had never sung before and has not +sung since, he dreamed his great dream and found peace +as he forced it to take shape and reality to his vision. +From the creation of the world to the death of his own +great Queen Elizabeth—everything that was—that was +his subject; nothing less could satisfy him. He set the +huge machinery of his idea slowly to work. His +authorities were vast in number. He searched them all, +and began to write. As he wrote the first sentences, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[ 247]</a></span> +felt the world lay before his ken, outstretched with all +its strange happenings, the rise and the fall of dynasties, +the rise and fall of kingdoms and nations. All were +within his knowledge and grip. And above he saw the +God, who had called the world into existence, and man +into being. About that God he writes his first paragraph, +untroubled by any simian suspicions. The immense +power of the man overawes you as you begin his +tremendous task. That is the first impression, and the +impression thrills, as every supreme evidence of man's +power must. Then you realize that his whole vision of +the world is wrong—is a myth, and you see the futility of +man's power—that is the second impression. The two +are singularly vivid; they clash splendidly—and the +issue? You see limitless possibilities of life for the brave +man and the strong man, as they only can be seen, +when two ideas—two sincerities—have clashed splendidly.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"And on through brave wars waged."<br /> +</p> + +<p>One is feign to cry out, when the dream of things has +passed.</p> + +<p>The first sentence of the History should be read aloud +with a great voice in a cathedral.</p> + +<p>"God, whom the wisest men acknowledge to be a +Power uneffable and vertue infinite, a Light by abundant +charitie invisible; an Understanding which itself can +only comprehend, an essence eternal and spiritual, of +absolute purenesse and simplicitie; was and is pleased +to make himself knowne by the work of the World: in +the wonderful magnitude whereof (all which Hee imbraceth, +filleth, and sustayneth) we behold the Image of +that glorie which cannot be measured, and withall that +one and yet universal Nature, which cannot be defined. +In the glorious Lights of Heaven, we perceive a shadow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[ 248]</a></span> +of his divine Countenance; in his mercifull provision for +all that live, his manifold goodness, and lastly in creating +and making existent the World universall, by the +absolute Arte of his owne Word, his Power and Almightinesse; +which Power Light Vertue Wisdome and Goodnesse, +being all but attributes of one simple Essence and +one God, we in all admire, and in part discern, per +speculam creaturaram, that is in the disposition, order, +and varietie of Celestiall and Terrestriall bodies: Terrestriall, +in their strange and manifold diversities: Celestiall +in their beautie and magnitude; which in their continuall +and contrary motions are neither repugnant, intermixt +nor confounded. By these potent effects we approch to +the knowledge of the Omnipotent cause, and by these +motions, their Almightie mover."</p> + +<p>The History is based upon a fallacy; but the History +is written in great prose—the prose of Ralegh. Even +when the subject comes from remote authorities on antedeluvian +epochs, it is shaped and filled with perpetual +life by contact with the great living personality of Ralegh. +Error in life or art matters little. It is vitality that +matters.</p> + +<p>Mr. Edmund Gosse remarks that "the entire absence +of humour is characteristic.... The story of Periander's +burning the clothes of the women closes with a jest; +there is, perhaps, no other occasion on which the solemn +historian is detected with a smile upon his lips." The +remark is almost as astounding as that of Mr. Edwards, +who, after a careful summary of the History, is obliged +to say, "The three or four thousand pages of the <i>History +of the World</i> contain, I believe, no line or word within +which there lies the tiniest spark of prurient suggestion." +Mr. Edwards is, of course, pleased at this; but there is +no reason for Mr. Gosse's lament. Ralegh did not write<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[ 249]</a></span> +with the continual bubble of humour which makes the +Church History of Great Britain (of all impossible +subjects) endeavoured by that inimitable old Thomas +Fuller, one of the wittiest and most readable books in +the language. Humour constantly occurs. Two instances +in one paragraph are quite unforgetable. It is the fourth +paragraph of the twenty-third chapter of the second +book of the first part of the History (what portentous +dimensions the book has!).</p> + +<p>"Touching all that was said before of Phul Belosus, +for the proving that Phul and Belosus were not sundry +Kings, Joseph Scaliger pities their ignorance that have +spent their labour to little purpose. Honest and painefull +men he confesseth that they were, who by their +diligence might have won the good liking of their +Readers had they not by mentioning Annius his Authors +given such offence that men refused thereupon to reade +their Bookes and Chronologies. A short answere.</p> + +<p>"For mine owne part, howsoever, I believe nothing +that Annius his Berosus, Metasthenes, and others of that +stampe affirme, in respect of their bare authority; yet am +I not so squeamish, but that I can well enough digest a +good Booke, though I finde the wordes of one or two of +these good fellows alleaged in it: I have (somewhat +peradventure too often) already spoken my mind of +Annius, his Authors.... Neither indeed are those +honest and painfull men (as Scaliger tearmes them, +meaning if I mistake him not; good silly fellowes) who +set down the Assyrian Kings from Pul forwards as Lords +also of Babylon, taking Pul for Belosus and Salmanassar +for Nabonassar, such writers as a man should be ashamed +or unwilling to reade."</p> + +<p>In such a passage even a student of Ralegh can see +not only his lips smile, but his eyes twinkle with humour,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[ 250]</a></span> +which is a characteristic of their solemn historian. And +he ends the paragraph by recounting a singularly +pertinent and amusing jest.</p> + +<p>"Therefore the fictions (or let them be called conjectures) +painted in Maps doe serve only to mislead such +discoverers as rashly beleeve them; drawing upon the +publishers eyther some angry curses or well deserved +scorne.... To which purpose I remember a pretie jest +of Don Pedro de Sarmiento, a worthy Spanish Gentleman +who had been employed by his King in planting a +Colonie upon the Streights of Magellan; for when I +asked him being then my Prisoner, some question about +an Island in those Streights which me thought, might +have done eyther benefit or displeasure to his enterprise, +he told me merrily that it was to be called the Painters +Wives Island; saying That whilest the fellow drew that +Map, his Wife sitting by, desired to put in one Countrey +for her; that she, in imagination might have an island +of her owne. But in filling up the blankes of old +Histories, wee need not be so scrupulous. For it is not +to be feared that time should runne backward, and by +restoring the things themselves to knowledge, make our +conjectures appeare ridiculous...."</p> + +<p>But the great work was never brought to an end. +The first immense half of it, however, was finished, and +that half is equal in bulk to about thirty modern novels. +Many traditions survive as to the reason which caused +Ralegh to discontinue his task. One is that Burr, the +publisher, complained of the loss which the production +of the first folio involved, and that Ralegh instantly laid +hands on the heap of manuscript which lay on the table +before him and, laying it on the fire, pushed it deep into +the red embers with his foot, saying that no man should +be the loser through his work. Another is (and this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[ 251]</a></span> +commends itself to the imagination of M. Anatole France) +that Ralegh saw from his window two men fighting in +the courtyard below; that he asked the cause of the +quarrel and that, when two eye-witnesses gave him two +essentially different accounts, he was so overcome with +the mystery that must ever surround all truth, that he +thereupon destroyed the remaining manuscript of his +History. These stories are interesting but not authentic +enough to carry any weight against the reason which +Ralegh himself gives for leaving his work unfinished, +though they may possibly be reckoned among the discouragements +which he mentions. For these are his +words:</p> + +<p>"Lastly whereas this book by the title it hath, calls +itselfe, The first part of Generall Historie of the World, +implying a Second and Third Volume; which I also +intended and have hewne out; besides many other discouragements +perswading my silence; it hath pleased +God to take that glorious Prince out of the world, to +whom they were directed, whose unspeakable and never +enough lamented losse hath taught mee to say with +Job <i>Versa est in luctum Cithara mea, et Organum meum +in vocem flentium</i>."</p> + +<p>James did not like the History. He did not consider +that Ralegh bated his breath sufficiently when writing +of kings, who obtained their power, in his opinion, +directly from a divine source. And he went farther in +his dislike. For into what Ralegh had written of kings +and men, long dead, he read criticisms against himself +and his favourites; and these he could ill brook. James, +like most cruel men, was sensitive, but he was "sensitive +within alone, Inly only thrilling shrewd;" where others +were concerned, he was, as is seen in his treatment of +Ralegh, hard, "scaly as in clefts of pine."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[ 252]</a></span></p> + +<p>James had no real cause to do this. Certain it is +that Ralegh never consciously committed the offence. +But certain it also is that he, like any other writer of +his calibre, would write with greater feeling the account +of some happening or some character, with which the +circumstances of his own life brought into sympathy. +And exactly because his life and his knowledge of men +was profound and varied, his history gains in vitality. +For always he keeps his relation in contact with life—that +is of course to say, his own experience of life—by +which each man is limited—and never does his work +degenerate into a mere recital of facts. Only when he +is weighing authority against authority is he lifeless, and +almost necessarily lifeless, but even then—witness the +passage quoted a little earlier in this chapter—he is not +often dull.</p> + +<p>All through the length of the history, passage after +passage of deep wisdom and insight occur, so that his +work is still a comment upon that greatest and most +enthralling of all mysteries—life.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[ 253]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII</h3> + +<h2>THE LAST JOURNEY</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Ralegh's influence with Queen and Prince Henry—Death of +Robert Cecil—Rise of Villiers—Liberty—The undying endeavour—Anecdote—Preparations +for expedition—Delays and uncertainty—The +King's treachery—The expedition starts—Further delays—Storms—Captain +Bailey—Ralegh's illness—At Terra de Bri—His +son's death—Return of Keymis—Suicide of Keymis—Mutiny—The +return.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Ralegh in the Tower managed to gain influence +of a remarkable nature over the Queen and +over Prince Henry, who was the idol of the nation. +It availed him not, however. James was jealous +of the immense popularity of his son, and feared +his high spirit. Gradually the tall white-haired man +in the Tower became the most talked of man in +London. Round him centred the tradition of Elizabeth, +which was looked back upon with vain regret. Men +did not like the deference that was paid to Gondomar, +the Spanish ambassador; they did not like the rise and +supremacy of Car. They looked askance at Cecil. But +Cecil and Car did not for many years lose their hold +on the King, whom they treated adroitly. Nor were +James's fear and hatred of Ralegh allowed by them to +abate. Whenever the Queen or the Prince sued for +favour towards Ralegh, they would not fail to point out +the power and influence which caused such appeals to +be made, and to play on the King's timidity. Moreover, +in spite of Lady Ralegh's supplications and Prince<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[ 254]</a></span> +Henry's frequent entreaties, the Sherborne estates were +handed over to Car at a price.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 768px;"> +<img src="images/illus290.jpg" width="768" height="814" alt="HENRY PRINCE OF WALES" title="" /> +<span class="caption">HENRY PRINCE OF WALES</span> +</div> + +<p>The position, however, suddenly changed. Cecil died. +Car was sent to the Tower for complicity in the +poisoning of Overbury. Henry Howard, Earl of +Northampton died, the bitterest of Ralegh's enemies. +Sir Ralph Winwood, who was kindly disposed towards +Ralegh and an honest man, became Secretary of State. +A new favourite of the same stamp as Car, one George +Villiers rose to power, and he, for his own reasons, hated +the Howards. Ralegh approached him in the usual way. +He gave Ł750 each to his brothers, and obtained in +consequence the regard of George Villiers.</p> + +<p>Through all the years of his imprisonment Ralegh +had continued quietly to urge—through the Prince, +through the Queen, through Cecil—how foolish it was +to keep imprisoned a man like himself, who could fill +the treasury of England with gold from a mine in +Guiana, of which he alone knew the site. He persisted +always upon the wealth of Guiana, so that little by little +it grew to be common talk. To Ralegh, as to Cecil +Rhodes, gold meant power; but, more than gold, he +desired the sensation of freedom on the wide sea, and +the long journey to the unknown land. More than gold, +he desired the attainment of the great dream which had +become inextricably part of his life. That was his +life's object, and nothing could keep him from any +possible means of its fulfilment. The quiet labour in +the Tower at his history and in the little laboratory +only served to lull the pain of captivity, and gave scope +to but a part of his great nature, though many men, and +many by no means inferior men, have spent their lives +in doing work less excellent and less valuable than +Ralegh packed into the years of his imprisonment.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[ 255]</a></span></p><p>For twelve years Ralegh had been in prison. He +was sixty-three years old when he regained his liberty. +Most men would have been content to continue the +quiet habit of work formed during his long imprisonment. +Ralegh's spirit was, however, undaunted; not +even habit could deaden his unconquerable vitality. +His release had been gained that he might arrange and +lead an expedition to Guiana. Indeed, he was still +under the charge of a keeper, and his sole permitted +business was to arrange the detail for the fitting out of +the expedition—ships, men, supplies and so forth.</p> + +<p>It would throw a light on all life if we could know +what were Ralegh's feelings as he left the Tower; if we +could know how long the first exhilaration of freedom +held him, and when that exhilaration yielded to +intense unutterable consciousness of the stress and the +pain of life; for he must surely have felt as if he were +beginning the whole business of life again, and many +moments must have come even to Ralegh when he +asked himself, "<i>Is</i> it <i>good</i> enough?" and looked back to +the quiet of his room in the Tower with active regret—the +room where he had dreamed and worked, had had +the satisfaction of a persistent desire, and from which +he had watched great ships making their way down the +Thames to the sea. The same detail of his old life +awaited him, in transacting the manifold business which +he knew so well—countless interviews with innumerable +men, endowed with the same amount of ignorance, or +astuteness, or malice, or knowledge, or good-will. In +some ways the world must have appeared to him +to have remained very dully the same; but its +aspect must have changed amazingly. Different +fashions were in vogue; different favourites caught +the public eye; new faces showed everywhere. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[ 256]</a></span> +streets had been widened; many were better paved. +They were more crowded with carriages than they were +twelve years before. New buildings had arisen, among +which the New Exchange, close to Durham House, and +the Banqueting House at Whitehall were the most +notable. The first thing Ralegh did was to walk round +London. In the twentieth century, an active man +might, by clever arrangement of train and tube and +electric tram, traverse the extent of London in a day +without seeing any of the sights, and but few of the +streets. Ralegh could see everything in London, poor +walker as he was, in three or four hours, less than three +hundred years ago. For London clung to the banks of +the river which was the main way, and by which watermen +thronged at countless landing-stages with innumerable +boats and barges. It must have been a strange +experience for Ralegh to notice the new fashions of the +Court, to pass among men unknown, himself almost +unheeded, who had been the great Queen's lover, and to +see faces of new favourites, acclaimed at their passing +through the streets. For he had become to the people +little more than a name and a tradition; he would be +recognizable at his window in the Tower, but in the +ordinary surroundings of life he would be regarded with +surprise rather than recognition. And men who recognized +would hesitate to notice his presence, not knowing +whether suspicion might not cling to them of treasonable +intentions if they appeared too glad at his release.</p> + +<p>To this time belongs probably a story which Aubrey +tells, and which, like other stories of that inimitable +gossip, bears the stamp of truth. Its telling lightens +the gloom that these first months of freedom, with +their terrible realization of time gone, inevitably raise. +Aubrey had it from his old friend, James Harrington,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[ 257]</a></span> +who was well acquainted with Sir Benjamin Ruddyer, +a friend of Ralegh's. In Aubrey's own delightful +words the story runs as follows: "Sir Walter Ralegh, +being invited to dinner to some great person where his +son was to go with him, he sayd to his son 'Thou art +expected to-day at dinner to goe along with me, but +thou art such a quarrelsome affronting ... (Aubrey +has forgotten the exact word) that I am ashamed +to have such a beare in my company.' Mr. Walter +humbled himself to his father and promised he would +behave himself mighty mannerly. So away they went, +and Sir Benjamin I think with them. He sate next to +his father and was very demure at least halfe dinner +time. Then sayd he 'I this morning not having the +feare of God before my eyes but by the instigation of +the devil went....' Sir Walter being strangely surprised +and put out of countenance at so great a table +gives his son a damned blow over the face. His son, as +rude as he was, would not strike his father, but strikes +over the face the gentleman that sate next him, and +sayd 'Box about; it will come to my father anon.' +Tis now a common proverb."</p> + +<p>The story is far too good to be false. Gossip needs +no verification. It stands or falls unsupported by the +props which the stern matter of history demands, like +an authentic relic which has survived to please.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the business of the expedition went on +apace. Ralegh had from King James a commission +which empowered him to voyage "to places in South +America, or elsewhere, inhabited by heathen and savage +people, etc." The commission was very similarly worded +to others which he had had from Queen Elizabeth, and +Ralegh set no greater store by the clause which forbade +him to attack the subjects of any European king,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[ 258]</a></span> +especially of the King of Spain, than he had done before. +Ralegh did not realize how much things had changed +since his Queen ruled. He knew as well as every one +else that the Spaniards in Guiana would not allow him +to land and proceed quietly to the mine without a +determined effort to stop his progress. But he did not +know what a hold Sarmiento, the Spanish ambassador, +had acquired over James, and how well-disposed James +had become towards Spain. He did not understand +that he was the last man in England who upheld the +Elizabethan tradition, and that therefore he was the man +whom Spain best hated.</p> + +<p>One month after Ralegh's release Sarmiento wrote +to the King of Spain warning him that another company +was being prepared "for Guiana and the river Orinoco, +which is near Trinidad, the prime promoter and originator +of which is Sir Walter Ralegh, a great seaman.... I +am informed that he will sail in the month of October +with six or eight ships of 200 to 500 tons, some belonging +to himself, some to his companions, all well provided. +He will also take with him launches in which to ascend +the Orinoco, and he is trying to get two ships of very +light draught to take them as high up the river as +possible. He has already been in the country and +assures people here that he knows of a mine that will +swell all England with gold." He urges the King of +Spain to increase the navy and not to allow any +merchant to sail without a proper convoy; and assures +him that he in England will do all in his power to +prevent the expedition. Sarmiento's power was very +great.</p> + +<p>Sir Ralph Winwood, the Secretary of State, was the +only man in authority who was not in favour of a Spanish +alliance. The King, as Major Martin Hume points out,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[ 259]</a></span> +"was besotted with Gondomar and the Spanish power; +Digby and Cottington were humbly negotiating in +Madrid for the marriage of the Prince of Wales with the +Infanta, and greedy Buckingham was bribed by the +Spaniards to his heart's content."</p> + +<p>King James played with Ralegh. The King wanted +money, and wanted the friendship of Spain. There was +a remote chance that Ralegh might obtain the money. +In that case the money would be useful and Ralegh +could be disposed of at his convenience, as an atonement +to Spain. On the other hand, if the expedition failed, +Ralegh could even more easily be disposed of, and his +sacrifice would strengthen the tie between Spain and +England. In either case James saw carefully to it that +he should lose nothing and Ralegh everything.</p> + +<p>The King's treatment of Ralegh is absolutely typical +of him, and illustrates his treacherous weak nature with +decision.</p> + +<p>Men did not believe that Guiana was the object of +Ralegh's journey. The whole scheme seemed incredible +as affairs then stood. The general opinion was that the +mine was the merest blind; for how could a sane man +give, or a sane man accept, the conditions under which +the search was to be carried out? Some thought that +Ralegh was taking any opportunity that might lead to +his freedom; that once he found the wide sea round +him he would not again return to England where he had +been so badly handled. Some thought that the expedition +was intended not for Guiana but for a sudden raid +on Genoa; others thought that Ralegh was going to +succour the Huguenots at the King's wish. All the +foreign ambassadors were uneasy as to the real intent of +the voyage, and had long conferences with Ralegh and +wrote long letters to their powers at home. Ralegh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[ 260]</a></span> +alone, loyal to his traditions of Elizabeth, remained +steadfast in his purpose.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 768px;"> +<img src="images/illus298.jpg" width="768" height="965" alt="PHILIP III. OF SPAIN" title="" /> +<span class="caption">PHILIP III. OF SPAIN</span> +</div> + +<p>James demanded from Ralegh the details of the +expedition, the number of ships and men and arms, +promising on his honour as a king (what more fragile +pledge could he find?) not to divulge the secrets to any +man. But Sarmiento, the Spanish ambassador, had the +exact measure of James. He laughed at the story of +the mine, and laughed at James for his childishness in +thinking that a man who was no fool would be gulled +by such a child's tale. The real motive of the expedition, +Sarmiento assured James with laughing suavity, he and +all the world knew very well was nothing else than to +rob Spain at the distant source of her wealth while +keeping her off her guard by the show of friendliness at +home. James could not bear his ridicule and his +assurance. He swore to Sarmiento that if a hair on the +head of one Spanish subject were touched, Ralegh should +be sent to Madrid in chains to be hanged in Madrid's +chief square. That was not all. To prove that Ralegh's +end was the mine, he handed over to Sarmiento all the +secret papers of the expedition. So Sarmiento gained +his purpose; he had the papers carefully copied and a +special messenger was soon on his way to Spain bearing +the copy to the Spanish king, as has been seen.</p> + +<p>James was friendly with Sarmiento. A weak man +likes to deceive himself. James wanted to be friendly +with Spain, from fear of Spain's power. But if Ralegh +could break Spain's power at the risk only of his life, +James was quite content to accept the first place in +Europe and then dispose of Ralegh. It was not his +nature, however, to face anything and strike boldly. He +kept up the illusion in his own mind that the mine was +all he wanted, and all that Ralegh intended to make for +and, like the weak creature he was, he allowed his +personal dislike of Ralegh to hinder his plan, and his +fear of ridicule to render the whole scheme ridiculous.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[ 261]</a></span></p><p>Meanwhile Ralegh's arrangements were proceeding, +and gradually the new ship, the <i>Destiny</i>, which he had +built, became a fashionable resort, even as his destination +was the common talk not only of the Court in London, +but also of many foreign Courts. Did England intend +to support Spain and the Catholics, or the Protestant +cause? The diplomacy of James was even more intricate +and twisted than diplomacy is wont to be.</p> + +<p>At length, at the beginning of April, Ralegh's small +fleet of seven vessels weighed anchor, and sailed down +the Thames. Even at the very moment of his sailing +his purpose was not credited. Lionello, a Venetian +resident, wrote to the Senate of Venice, "I know very +well that Sir Walter Ralegh's only object in embarking +in this enterprise was to free himself from his imprisonment. +He would gladly change this scheme for any +other. Many people know the fact as well as I."</p> + +<p>But Ralegh was firm in his purpose. He was now +an old man, if age be counted in years; he was still +vigorous and alert, if age be counted by the measure of +a man's vitality. Now, at the age when most men take +to the fireside and friendly counsel, Ralegh was glad to +undertake a desperate venture to win freedom and +wealth for himself and for his family, prosperity and +greatness for his country.</p> + +<p>The seven ships in the Thames weighed anchor. +They were: the <i>Destiny</i>, of 440 tons, carrying 36 pieces +of ordnance; the <i>Jason</i>, of 240 tons, carrying 25 pieces +of ordnance, of which the commander was John Pennington, +"of whom to do him right," as Ralegh wrote, +"I dare say he is one of the sufficientest gentlemen for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[ 262]</a></span> +the sea that England hath"; the <i>Encounter</i>, of 160 tons, +commanded at first by Edward Hastings and afterwards +by Whitney, carrying 17 pieces; the <i>Thunder</i>, of 180 +tons, commanded by Sir Warham St. Leger, carrying 20 +pieces; the <i>Flying Joan</i>, the <i>Husband</i>, alias the +<i>Southampton</i>, and the <i>Page</i>, all smaller vessels of 120, +80, and 25 tons respectively. The fleet was joined +before it left the coast of England by Keymis in the +Convertine, Wollaston in the <i>Confidence</i>, and Sir John +Ferne in the <i>Flying Hart</i>. The <i>Destiny</i> was the flagship. +It had been built at Sir Walter's own charge, and his +son Walter was placed in the position of captain. Of +the two hundred men on board, eighty were gentlemen +volunteers, who were for the most part friends or +relations of Sir Walter.</p> + +<p>But months of valuable summer weather elapsed +before the fleet left the coast of England. From the +outset evil chance brooded over the expedition. Captain +Pennington put in to the Isle of Wight with the <i>Jason</i> +to obtain provisions, and had not the needful money. +He accordingly was obliged to ride post haste to Lady +Ralegh in London and wait while she went through the +business of a bond, on which the money was raised. At +Plymouth Captain Whitney had the same experience, +and Ralegh was obliged to sell his plate to the silversmith; +Sir John Ferne was also insufficiently supplied +with money, and Ralegh borrowed Ł200 from two friends. +The men began to feel that the expedition found no +favour, and that their commanders were not trusted. +In consequence, they grew uneasy and discontented. +The delay lasted nearly three months, their enthusiasm +began to abate, their resolution to weaken. The proper +time of the year was passing.</p> + +<p>While the fleet lay in Plymouth harbour Ralegh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[ 263]</a></span> +issued orders for the conduct of his men to be observed +by the Commanders of the Fleet and Land Companies. +He ordained that divine service should be read in every +ship twice every day: in the morning before dinner and +at night before supper; or at least, if there be interruption +by foul weather, once the day, praising God +every night with singing of a psalm at the setting of the +watch. He ordained special care to be taken that God +be not blasphemed in the ships. The offender is to be +admonished and then fined out of his adventures, and +then if no amendment be found the matter is to be +reported to Ralegh himself. For if it be threatened in +the Scriptures that the curse shall not depart from the +house of the swearer, much less shall it depart from the +ship of the swearer. Two captains of the watch must be +chosen, and they shall pick two soldiers every night to +search between the decks that no fire nor candle-light +be carried about the ship, nor that any candles be +burning in any cabin without a lanthorn. "For there is +no danger so inevitable as the ship's firing which may as +well happen by taking of tobacco between the decks, +and therefore forbidden to all men but aloft the upper +deck."</p> + +<p>The landsmen must be taught the names and places +of the ropes in order that they may assist the sailors in +their labours upon the decks, though they cannot go up +to the tops and yards. And the sailors must learn the +art of land-fighting, otherwise the troops will be very +weak when they come to land without the assistance of +the sea-faring men. No vessel should be pursued or +disfurnished in any way, except under compulsion of +absolute necessity, and then bonds shall be entered into +for the repayal of what was taken. "You shall every +night fall astern the general's ship, and follow his light,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[ 264]</a></span> +receiving instructions in the morning what course to +hold, and if you shall at any time be separated by foul +weather, you shall receive certain billets sealed up, the +first to be opened on this side of North Cape, if there +be cause; the second to be opened at the South Cape; +the third after you shall pass twenty-three degrees; and +the fourth from the height of Cape de Verd." Minute +instructions were given for signalling in case of distress +or attack, or the sighting of a foreign vessel. In foul +weather every man shall fit his sails to keep company +with the rest of the fleet and not run so far ahead by +day but that he may fall astern the admiral before night. +He gave full instructions to the captains how to fight +their ships. They are of exceptional interest. "In case +we should be set upon by sea the captain will appoint +a sufficient company to assist the gunners, after which +if the fight require it, the cabins between the decks shall +be taken down, and all beds and sacks employed for +bulwarks. The gunners shall not shoot any great +ordnance at other distance than point blank. An officer +or two shall be appointed to take care that no loose +powder be carried between the decks, or near any +linstock or match in hand. You shall saw divers +hogheads in two parts and filled with water set them +aloft the decks. You shall divide your carpenters, +some in the hold, if any shot come between wind and +water, and the rest between the decks, with plates of +lead, plugs, and all things necessary laid by them. The +master and boatswain shall appoint a certain number +of sailors to every sail, and to every such company a +master's mate, boatswain, mate, or quarter-master, so as +when every man knows his charge and place, things may +be done without noise or confusion, and no man to +speak but the officers.... You shall take a special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[ 265]</a></span> +care for the keeping of the ship clean between the +decks, to have your ordnance in order, and not cloyed +with trunks and chests."</p> + +<p>Then follow further instructions as to conduct, which +forbid any man to play at cards or dice, either for his +apparel or arms, upon pain of being disarmed and made +a swabber. And whosoever shall show himself a coward +upon any landing or otherwise, he shall be disarmed +and made a labourer and carrier of victuals for the rest.</p> + +<p>And finally a few essential points are mentioned for +all fully to realize when God shall suffer them to land +in the Indies, namely, the danger of sleeping on the +ground, of eating unknown fruits, or any flesh until it +be salted, of bathing in rivers. Especial stress is laid +upon the necessity of treating the Indians with courtesy +in order to win their help and friendship. "For other +orders on the land we will establish them (when God +shall send us thither) by general consent. In the +mean time I will value every man's honour according +to their degree and valour, and taking care for the +service of God and prosperity of our enterprise."</p> + +<p>On the 12th of June the fleet at last set sail. But +as in the Islands voyage, just twenty years before, a +great storm broke upon the ships and drove some back +to Falmouth harbour. The bad weather raged for +weeks and ended in a tempest that scattered the fleet +and wrought fearful havoc among all.</p> + +<p>Ralegh was forced to take refuge with his fleet in +Cork harbour, where another long delay ensued. Delay +was disastrous. It meant lack of confidence among +the men. And well Ralegh knew that his authority +had been lessened by the reports which had been +industriously spread among his company that his commission +being granted to a man <i>non ens</i> in law, took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[ 266]</a></span> +from him both arms and actions: "it gave boldness +to every petty companion to spread rumours to my +defamation and the wounding of my reputation in all +places where I could not be present to make them +knaves and liars."</p> + +<p>Delay meant expenditure of money which was +desperately wanted; and what was most serious of +all, delay meant loss of time, for only at the most +favourable season of the year could these heavily +equipped vessels hope to make their voyage with any +likelihood of success, and only at the most favourable +season could they hope to carry out the great task +which awaited them at the end of their long voyage.</p> + +<p>Ralegh was once again in Ireland, where he had +started his career. Thirty-six years before he had written +to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, now long dead, "I +have spent some time here under the Deputy in such +poore place and charge, as were it not that I knew him +to be one of yours, I would disdayne it as much as to +keepe sheepe." Here, too, he had spent those quiet +months with Edmund Spenser, his friend, by Mulla's +shore; nearly twenty years had passed since rebels +burned Spenser's house to the ground and Spenser +himself died of very grief. And here was Ralegh still +living, still in quest of the dream's fulfilment, of which +he had talked with the poet who was at rest, and +still fretting at this last delay which was quietly ravelling +away the fabric of all his hopes. Spenser had +given the world his vision of the fairy realm into which +his spirit had now passed; Ralegh had written the first +half of his great History of the World, over which he +desired to extend his country's dominion.</p> + +<p>Richard Boyle was still at Cork. Boyle had bought +Ralegh's estates in Ireland and they were flourishing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[ 267]</a></span> +under his direction. Here as elsewhere Ralegh broke +the ground from which others reaped a rich harvest. +One Henry Pine of Mogelie was vexing Boyle as +grievously as he had in years gone by vexed Ralegh +with whom he was connected in industrial enterprises. +So Boyle took advantage of Ralegh's visit to Cork to +question him concerning the terms of a lease, and +Ralegh spoke vigorously against the claims of Henry +Pine, remembering well Pine's former bad treatment of +him. He spoke so vigorously that in the following +year, when he was reviewing all the many events of his +great life, his words came back to him. He was then +on the threshold of departure, and not wishing to +think that any man had been harmed by him unjustly, +he expressed a strong desire that the terms of +this lease might be examined closely again. The action +witnesses Ralegh's attention to justice and to detail.</p> + +<p>But at last a favourable wind sprang up, and on the +19th of August, though late in the year for its enterprise, +the fleet set sail from Cork harbour. Nothing +could deter Ralegh from his last venture. The wide +sea opened out before him once again, and far away +the rich land of his dreams, where wealth was waiting +for him and greatness for his country. Behind him he +left his adventurous past life, and his soul was inclined +towards this new adventure.</p> + +<p>From Cork they set sail for Cape St. Vincent, and +presently four ships hove in sight, to which Ralegh at +once gave chase. The long delay made it dangerous +to allow ships to pass unheeded, for by this time +Ralegh must have known to some extent how much +the Spaniards knew. Neither he nor any man could +have suspected the scope of King James's treachery. +The pursuit was long and stirring. Eventually the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[ 268]</a></span> +strange vessels were overhauled. Their leader said +that they were French vessels bound for Seville. His +tale bore small signs of truth. His vessels were so +heavily armed, their cut so questionable, that Ralegh's +men affirmed that they were merely pirates, and should +be treated as pirates. But Ralegh was not in a position +to run any risk, which might bring down upon him the +King's anger afresh. Accordingly he took the four +ships with him for a length of time, sufficient to ensure +the harmlessness of any intelligence which they might +carry, and treated them with courtesy. The men +grumbled. Why should they be expected to believe +in a trumped-up story, when the vessels were full of +Spanish apparel and Spanish merchandise and unmistakable +pirates, and why should they be deprived +of their proper spoil? To them Ralegh answered +that it was lawful for the French to make prize of the +Spaniards to south of the Canaries and to west of the +Azores. "And if it were not so, it is no business of +mine to examine the subjects of the French King." +He bought commodities from them—oil, a pinnace, a +fishing-net—to the value of sixty crowns, and let them +go on their way. His scruples were well considered, +but they did not tend to mollify the feeling of discontent +which the untoward delays at the outset of the +voyage had brought into existence among the men. +The ill-feeling was increased when a little afterwards a +Spanish vessel was encountered which had been pillaged +by them.</p> + +<p>On September 7 the fleet reaching the Canary +Islands anchored off Lanzarote, and at Lanzarote an +event of importance occurred which exposed the full +treachery that was lying hid in the expedition, as well +as in its false launching. There is small doubt that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[ 269]</a></span> +Spaniards on the island had received news of the fleet, +and had been advised as to its proper treatment by +Gondomar, the ambassador in London. Circumstances +lent a specious cover to their conduct. For a band of +Moorish pirates was known to be in the proximity of the +Canaries, and their presence justified the hostile reception +which awaited Ralegh's fleet. Nor would they easily +believe that the vessels were English. They demanded +that two officers should land unarmed, except with +rapiers, and unaccompanied. Ralegh and an officer +named Bradshaw landed and conferred with them in a +plain, sufficiently open to prevent any secret treachery. +Ralegh's demands were simple. All he desired was +fresh water and food for his company. The governor of +the island consented to supply him, and agreed to sell +him the provisions by means of an English merchant, +whose ship was at anchor in the harbour. "I sent the +English factor according to our agreement, but the +governor put it off from one morning to another, and in +the end sent me word that except I would embark my +men who lay on the seaside, the islanders were so +jealous as they durst not sever themselves to make our +provisions. I did so: but when the one half were gotten +aboard two of our sentinels were forced, one slain, and +the English factor sent to tell me that he had nothing +for us, whom he still believed to be a fleet of the Turks +who had lately taken and destroyed Puerto Sancto. +Hereupon all the companies would have marched toward +the town and have sacked it, but I knew it would not +only dislike his Majesty, but that our merchants having +a continual trade with these islands that their goods +would have been stayed, and among the rest the poor +Englishman riding in the road having all that he brought +thither ashore, would have been utterly undone."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[ 270]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 672px;"> +<img src="images/illus310.jpg" width="672" height="1024" alt="SIR WALTER RALEGH" title="" /> +<span class="caption">SIR WALTER RALEGH</span> +</div> + +<p>But sufficient had happened for the spy, Captain +Bailey. He needed little evidence for his pretty tale, +and having asked and obtained from Ralegh some +ordnance and some ironbound casks, he weighed anchor +in the night, and set all sail for England, where his +employers would listen eagerly to his pretty tale, and +pay him for it. It is sad to read all that Ralegh could +write of him afterwards in his apology, "what should +move Bailey to leave me as he did at the Canaries, from +whence he might have departed with my love and leave, +and at his return to do me all the wrong he could devise, +I cannot conceive.... I never gave him ill-language, +nor offered him the least unkindness to my knowledge."</p> + +<p>When the spy, Captain Bailey, arrived in England he +despatched his account of the proceedings at Lanzarote +to Buckingham, and Buckingham lost no time in +acquainting King James. On October 22 Gondomar +wrote fully to the King of Spain about the expedition, +and Philip was more urgent than ever in pressing +Sir John Digby and Lord Cottington and Lord Roos, who +had been sent to Madrid by James to arrange the terms +of the marriage between the Infanta and Prince Charles, +that Ralegh might be immediately recalled and punished. +King James was abject in his apology, and became +more and more inclined to the sacrifice of Ralegh. But +the spy Captain Bailey's account was too carelessly +prepared; Cottington discovered divergences; Lord +Carew, Master of the Ordnance, declared "those who +malice Sir Walter boldly affirm him to be a pirate, which +for my part I will never believe." Moreover "the poor +Englishman riding in the road," whose name was Reeks, +arrived on the scene and told a different story of the +event. It was most unfortunate for the spy, Captain +Bailey, who was sent to the Gatehouse at Westminster.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[ 271]</a></span></p><p>His pretty story was proved to be an invention, but that +mattered little subsequently; the invention served its +purpose.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Ralegh's fleet had arrived at Gomera, +"one of the strongest and best defenced places of all the +islands, and the best port; the town being seated upon +the very wash of the sea." Guns were fired at the ships +at their first approach, and the ships answered. But as +soon as Ralegh came up in the <i>Destiny</i> he gave orders +that the firing should immediately cease, and sent a +Spaniard, whom he had taken on a bark which came +from Cape Blanc, to assure the governor of the town +that he intended no harm of any kind to the subjects of +the Spanish King. The governor replied that he had +mistaken the fleet for the Turks who had sacked Puerto +Sancto, "but being resolved by the messenger that we were +Christians and English, and sought nothing but water, +he would willingly afford us as much as we were pleased +to take, if he might be assured that we would not attempt +his town houses nor destroy his gardens and fruits." +Ralegh gave full assurance, vowing to hang up in the +market-place any man of his who should lay marauding +hands on so much as one orange or a grape. Their +courtesies did not end here. The governor's wife +happened to be an English gentlewoman, and she sent +Ralegh gifts of fruits, of sugar, of rusks, and saw to it +that his stay at the island was agreeable. Sir Walter +sent her presents of gloves and scent, and a picture of +Mary Magdalen which hung in his cabin. These days +which he spent at Gomera could have been the only +time in this last great adventure of which he could +have a pleasant memory.</p> + +<p>The governor too was kindly disposed towards +Ralegh, and not realizing how deeply his guest was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[ 272]</a></span> +disliked and feared by the authorities at home, he sent a +letter to Gondomar, the ambassador in London, in which +he stated how exemplary had been the conduct of Ralegh's +men.</p> + +<p>The respite from the stress of the voyage was short. +On September 24, three days after they left the Canary +Islands, the sickness which had been prevalent among +the men during their fortnight's stay, broke out with +fury. On the evening of the 24th fifty men lay helpless +on the <i>Destiny</i>. The other ships were not exempt. +Two captains and a provost-marshal died on them. +The chief surgeon and several officers followed on the +31st. As the plague-stricken ships made for the Brava +roads a hurricane burst over them; the hurricane sank +one ship and inflicted terrible damage upon the others. +The storm abated, but the sickness continued. Four +more officers died, and most of Ralegh's personal +servants, so that, though he was himself suffering +from a severe calenture, he was attended only by pages. +The death of John Talbot grieved him sorely. John +Talbot was one of those completely trustworthy old +servants that a man of Ralegh's calibre is wont to have. +"He was my honest friend," wrote Ralegh, "an excellent +general scholar and as faithful and true a man as lived. +I lost him to my inestimable grief." John Talbot had +shared Ralegh's imprisonment of his own free will. He +was as devoted to Ralegh as Keymis even himself. +Pigott, the Lieutenant-General of the land service, died +on October 13.</p> + +<p>It is finely typical of Ralegh that in spite of the +calamities which fell thickly upon him, the plague, the +tempest, his own illness—he made and recorded observations +which, as Edwards points out, furthered nautical +science considerably.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[ 273]</a></span></p> + +<p>On November 11 the fleet arrived at Cape Orange, +which was then called Cape Wiapoco, and on the 14th +they sailed into the harbour, made by the River +Cayenne, which Ralegh calls Caliana. On this voyage +every possible disaster had fallen upon the fleet, and yet +the full business of the expedition had only now begun. +Ralegh lay on a sick-bed, an old man, but he did not +falter, though all the weight of arrangement was upon +him. As soon as he arrived he wrote to Lady Ralegh. +The bearer of the letter was one Captain Alley, who was +suffering from an infirmity in his head, and obliged on +that account to return home with all speed—"an honest, +valiant man," according to Ralegh's description.</p> + +<p>"Sweetheart, I can write unto you but with a weak +hand, for I have suffered the most violent calenture for +fifteen days that ever man did and lived. But God, that +gave me a strong heart in all my adversities, hath also +now strengthened it in the hell-fire of heat.... We +are yet two hundred men, and the rest of our fleet are +reasonable strong. Strong enough, I hope, to perform +what we have undertaken, if the diligent care at London +to make our strength known to the Spanish King by his +ambassador have not taught the Spanish King to fortify +all the entrances against us." He tells her that their +son is in excellent health, "having had no distemper in +all the heat under the line," and after recording the +names of those who had died, and the disasters which +had fallen upon the survivors, he ends the letter with +this characteristic sentence: "To tell you that I might +be here King of the Indians were a vanity. But my +name hath still lived among them here. They feed me +with fresh meat and all that the country yields; all +offer to obey me." He would always rather be King +even of the Indians than king only of his griefs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[ 274]</a></span></p> + +<p>The ship remained at anchor in the harbour of the +river Cayenne until December 4. The sick men were +landed, the ships were washed, fresh water was taken in; +the barges and shallops which were brought out of +England in quarters were put together, ready for the +inland voyage to the mine. Ralegh reaped the full +benefit of his courtesy to the Indians on his previous +visit. Well they remembered him, as he wrote to his +wife, and without their kindness it would have fared ill +with the plague-stricken, tempest-tossed company. As it +was, the Indians tended the sick with every attention +possible, and helped the expedition by every means in +their power. Ralegh was still too ill to walk. He was +carried about in a chair, and in a condition in which +most men would need all their strength to fight disease +and death, he superintended the arrangements for the +five ships which were to make their way up the great +river to the mine under Captain Keymis.</p> + +<p>In the five ships were five companies, each of fifty +men. The Lieutenant-General of the land force, John +Piggot, had died of fever on the way out; Sir Warham +St. Leger lay sick without hope of life; and accordingly +the command of the whole expedition was entrusted to +Ralegh's nephew, George Ralegh, "who had served +long with infinite commendation," but who was somewhat +too young to have over the men the absolute +authority which his position required. The five companies +were separately commanded by Captain Parker +and Captain North, "brethren to the Lord Mounteagle +and the Lord North, valiant gentlemen, and of infinite +patience for the labour, hunger and heat which they +have endured;" by Ralegh's son, Walter; by Captain +Thornhurst of Kent, and by Captain Chudleigh's +lieutenant.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[ 275]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ralegh himself stayed with the five larger ships at +Puncto Gallo by Trinidad. He was constrained to do +so, partly because his health would not allow him to +undergo the hardships of the inland voyage, but principally +because, a Spanish fleet being expected, no one +would venture to pass up the river unless one whom +they could trust remained at the base in charge of the +big ships. Ralegh vowed that they should find him at +Puncto Gallo on their return, dead or alive: "and if you +find not my ships there yet you shall find their ashes. +For I will fire with the galleons if it come to extremity, +but run away will I never."</p> + +<p>At last, on December 10, the five ships set sail, and +Ralegh moved away with the main fleet. They made +Point Barimy on December 15; on the 17th Point +Hicacos, which is at the extreme south-west of the +island of Trinidad; and on the last day of the year 1617 +they anchored at Terra de Bri.</p> + +<p>At Terra de Bri Ralegh began his slow period of +suspense. The success of the whole scheme was hanging +in the balance, the scheme which had been his +life's chief business to fulfil, and he was doomed to +inaction—to wait while others sought the final prize. +Bitter must have been this waiting for Ralegh, bitter all +the reasons that combined to keep him back, each in +themselves paltry, and united, irresistible. For the first +time a bodily ailment hindered him; old age was creeping +on. For the first time the great commander found +a lack of loyalty in his men; and that lack of loyalty +had been generated and nourished by the treachery of +his King. How could any man gain the confidence of +his men, and have power over them, when he was still +under sentence of death for treason? The men who +served him were the scum of the earth, bent only on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[ 276]</a></span> +plunder, such, verily, as an unpardoned man would +attract to his service. But Keymis, Keymis and his +own son—and the few valiant gentlemen—his heart +lightened as he thought of them; they were brave and +greathearted; they were loyal and steadfast. And +George Ralegh, he was young, but nothing would turn +him back. Still Ralegh waited. There was no sign of +the Spanish fleet, which was expected, and for which he +kept ever on the alert. Ah! why had His Majesty been +pleased to hold them at so little value as to command +him upon his allegiance to set down under his hand the +country of his destination and the very river of entry; +to set down the number of his men, the burthen of his +ships, and the ordnance each ship was bearing! Why +had it pleased His Majesty to hand over the document +to the Spanish ambassador and break his royal oath?</p> + +<p>Still Ralegh waited. No news came from the land +force. He tried to break the monotony of suspense by +searching out botanical specimens, and examining the +chemical properties of the plants; he busied himself +with the preparing of balsams, he who pined to be +exploring the wealth of the land of his dreams. How +could he trust any man's judgment but his own in such +an enterprise, at such a time, when success meant prosperity +for his country, wealth and freedom for himself +and his family; when failure meant ruin, disgrace, and +death? Yet Keymis, Keymis was faithful, and young +Wat had his father's blood in him.</p> + +<p>Still Ralegh waited. At length one day a little +boat came in sight, and as it drew nearer it was seen to +contain an Indian pilot and a sailor, who had been with +the land force. His name was Peter Andrews. A +letter was handed to Ralegh, a letter from Keymis. He +broke the seal and read—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[ 277]</a></span></p> +<blockquote><p>"All things that appertain to human condition, in +that proper nature and sense that of fate and necessity +belongeth unto them, being now over with your son, +maketh me chuse rather with grief to let you know +from the certain truth, than uncertainties from others. +Which is, viz. that had not his extraordinary valour and +forwardness (which with constant vigour of mind, being +in the hands of death, his last breath expressed in these +words, <i>Lord have mercy upon me and prosper your enterprise</i>) +led them all on, when some began to pause and +recoil shamefully, this action had neither been attempted +as it was, nor performed as it is, with this surviving +honour.... We have the governor's servant prisoner +that waited on him in his bedchamber and knows all +things that concerned his master. We find there are +four refiners' houses in the town; the best houses in the +town. I have not seen one piece of coin or bullion, +neither gold or silver; a small deal of plate only +excepted.</p> + +<p>"Captain Whitney and Wollaston are but now come +to us and now I purpose (God willing) without delay to +visit the mine, which is not eight miles from the town. +Sooner I could not go by reason of the murmurings, the +discords and vexations, wherewith the sergeant major is +perpetually tormented and tired, having no man to assist +him but myself only. Things are now in some reasonable +order, and so soon as I have made trial of the mine +I will seek to come to Your Lordship by way of the +river Macario.... I have sent Your Lordship a parcel +of scattered papers (I reserve a cart-load), one roll of +tobacco, one tortoise, and some oranges and lemons. +Praying God to give you strength and health of body +and a mind armed against all extremities, I rest ever to +be commanded this 8th day of January 1617-1618.</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">"Your Lordship's</span><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Keymis</span>"<br /> +</p></blockquote> + +<p>His son was dead. His men were unruly and +murmuring ... but yet the four refiners' houses, and +they were the best houses. Keymis had the governor's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[ 278]</a></span> +servant in his hands, Keymis was within eight miles of +the mine: gallant was the death his son had died.... +(Would God he were there in person within eight miles +of the mine!) He turned to Peter Andrews and the +Indian pilot and began to question them eagerly. From +them he learned the details of the expedition, since +their start on the 10th of December. They came in +sight of Point Araya on New Year's Day, and soldiers +were landed before sunset. Ralegh frowned to hear +that the Spaniards at the newly raised village—San +Thome they called it,—were in readiness, and that an +ambuscade had been prepared. Palomeque de Acuna +had been forewarned by despatch from Madrid—Ah! +the accursed delay and the still more accursed disloyalty +of his King—Ralegh learned of the treachery and the +disaster—slowly, for his heart and mind were heavy at +the bad news of his son's death, and Peter Andrews was +often interrupted in his confused story by the impatience +of his admiral. But this is the gist of what had happened.</p> + +<p>The Englishmen had encamped by the river bank. +As soon as night fell on the land, Geronimo de Grados +led his men from their ambuscade in front of the village +down upon the English, who were taken completely at +unawares. The common sort were panic-stricken, and +had not the captains and some valiant gentlemen, among +whom was one John Hampden (a staunch admirer of +Ralegh and famous in history), set a valiant example, +the whole company would have been cut to pieces. As +it was, the Spaniards were at last driven back. They +were driven right back to the village of St. Thomas, the +position of which was not known. There the retreating +men of Geronimo de Grados were joined by a fresh force +under Diego Palomeque, the governor, and then the +English were checked in their pursuit. They began to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[ 279]</a></span> +waver. But young Walter Ralegh cried out cheerily +to the pikemen, who were ahead of the musketeers, to +advance after him, and waving his sword he led them +to the fight afresh. Straight for Palomeque, the governor, +he dashed and slew him. A hand to hand jabbing fight +ensued, and muskets were fired at very close quarters. +Young Ralegh was wounded. He paid no heed to his +wound; with blood streaming from his wound he advanced +against a Spaniard named Erinetta. But his +quickness had lessened, as his strength ebbed from him. +Erinetta swung his musket and the stock crashed on +young Ralegh's skull: but Erinetta could not recover +himself and he was immediately beaten to the ground. +The Spaniards began to give way again. They fled. +They fled for refuge to a monastery of St. Francis; the +soldiers under George Ralegh and Keymis stormed the +monastery and drove the Spaniards into the woods, and +finally for refuge into their last stronghold where the +women and children had been taken from St. Thomas. +The battle was at an end. But the new governor, +Garcia de Aguilar, was a man of resource. He gave +orders that the survivors should form themselves into +small bands, should harass the English whenever an +opportunity offered, and fall upon all stragglers. While +the funeral ceremony was being conducted over the +body of young Walter, Captains Whitney and Wollaston +arrived, and Peter Andrews and the Indian pilot were +sent back, bearing their tidings to the main body at +Terra de Bri.</p> + +<p>That was all Ralegh could learn. That his son was +dead; that the Spaniards were forewarned and keenly +hostile; that his men were shaken.</p> + +<p>The suspense became well-nigh intolerable for him as +he settled to endure the second long period of inaction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[ 280]</a></span>—of +waiting whilst with others lay the excitement of +finishing for good or ill the scheme of his life's imagining. +His son was dead. He could not bring himself to write +the bitter news to his wife. He himself, an old man, +still lived—and waited on the threshold of discovery. +Keymis, however, was a trusted man, and nothing would +hinder George Ralegh from his purpose. Keymis wrote +that he was within some few hours of the mine. Perhaps +even now Keymis was on his way back again, his ships +laden with gold—and if gold were once found, there +would be little difficulty in founding the colony which +would become England's great empire across the seas. +No old man could live to see that, but his son might ... +if his son were not already dead. He would wait to tell +the bad news to his wife until he had some good news—the +news of prosperity—that she might know his other +son, Carew, though not of young Walter's mettle, would +be able to continue his father's tradition.</p> + +<p>Still he waited—day after day, week after week, +month after month, but no fresh news came from +Keymis, and no signs were anywhere apparent of a +Spanish fleet. He went on with his botanical studies +as much as his enfeebled strength would allow him. +He studied the little plants that renew their life each +year.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Bow down and worship; more than we<br /> +Is the least flower whose life returns<br /> +Least weed renascent in the sea.<br /> +</p> + +<p>For Ralegh was a poet and so lost his personal sense +of loss in the great mystery of things, which his personal +griefs made more vivid to his mind. He was a poet +and saw much that he could not express. The idea of +Death fascinated him always. Death had slain the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[ 281]</a></span> +young Prince, the hope of the nation; his friend, who +would have helped him in his project; had left untouched +the father, King James, who had betrayed him. And +now Death had taken his son, who had only lived +twenty-three years, and left him an old man—once +again waiting, as he waited those long years in the +Tower, waiting whilst others made or marred the fulfilment +of his dream. Why was he thus often doomed +to inactivity?</p> + +<p>Still he waited.... At twenty-three, the age at which +his son met death in a Spanish ambuscade on the eve +of a great discovery, with a shining future before him, +he himself was fighting in Ireland, an obscure soldier of +fortune. The days of his past life appeared before him, +his Queen's favour, his Queen's displeasure, the high +mark which he had touched, the low place to which he +had sunk, his captivity, his renewal of hope through the +gallant Prince who was dead, his freedom, and this last +tremendous effort to bring greatness to his country, +prosperity to his family; and he was still waiting, while +Keymis and George Ralegh took the last great step. +He would tell his wife of their son's death when he +could console her with the knowledge of what he had +himself achieved. But no news came from Keymis. +He could trust Keymis. He knew the man well and +cared for him. All through his captivity who had served +him as faithfully as Keymis? Who had believed in him +so staunchly as Keymis? Who had helped him even +so well? Perhaps Keymis and all his men were slain, +or lost, or drowned.</p> + +<p>Just before the middle of March Keymis returned. +There was gladness on his face to see his master alive, but +the gladness did not continue. He brought bad news. +The faces of his men showed anger and discontent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[ 282]</a></span> +Keymis brought the worst news that any man could +have brought to Ralegh after his long days of waiting. +The scheme had failed, failed beyond all hope of +recovery, and there was nothing to show for all the +lives that had been thrown away, all the dangers and +difficulties that had been surmounted.</p> + +<p>For this is what had happened.</p> + +<p>After the reinforcement of Captains Whitney and +Wollaston, Captain Keymis took two boats further up +the Orinoco in search of the mine, leaving the remainder +of the company near St. Thomas. Their destination +was Seiba, a village on the banks of the river within a +two hours' march of the mine. The party made their +way without mishap to the creek by the landing-place. +But there, too, the Spaniards were in readiness. As the +first boat neared the shore, a volley was fired, and nearly +all the men in the boat were hit. His force thus enfeebled, +Captain Keymis decided to return to St. Thomas +for fresh soldiers. He found the company at St. Thomas +harassed by sickness and continual attacks of the +Spaniards; but they still had spirit enough to make one +further effort. This time George Ralegh with three +boats made his way right up the Orinoco to inspect the +country from the point of view of colonization. He, too, +was struck by its richness and beauty. He returned +and found the company still more weakened by sickness +and assault. The Spaniards made an attempt to burn +the English camp. This so infuriated the men that +they set upon St. Thomas and razed it to the ground. +Captain Keymis discovered from the Indians that in +the neighbourhood of St. Thomas also there were rich +mines, which lack of labour alone prevented the +Spaniards from working; but no other attempt was made +to locate them or to test their richness. Then the whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[ 283]</a></span> +expedition returned. The one actual sign of their toils +which they brought, were papers taken from the governor +at the sack of St. Thomas, and these papers were documents +from Madrid, proving how falsely King James +had dealt with Ralegh.</p> + +<p>Such was the report which Keymis gave to Ralegh. +Ralegh was silent as he listened to the account of the +overthrow of all his hopes. When the sad tale was +finished, he asked Keymis why he had not obeyed his +instructions, why he had not opened the mine and +brought back some visible sign of its existence. Keymis +gave his reasons at full length. There were not enough +men to hold the mine; young Ralegh was dead; his +master was ill, dying, nay, for all Keymis knew, he was +dead. Why should the mine be opened that others might +reap the benefit? But still Ralegh insisted, unwavering +in dreadful firmness, on his question, Why had not +instructions been obeyed? There were many interviews; +there were long discussions that day and the next. Still +Ralegh answered, "You should have obeyed instructions." +"When I was resolved to write unto your Honour +(wrote Ralegh to Sir Ralph Winwood, not knowing that +his friend, the Secretary of State, had been dead for five +months) he prayed me to joyne with him in excusing his +not going to the mine. I answered him, I would not +doe it; that if himself could satisfy the King and the +State that he had reason not to open it, I should be glad +of it; but for my part, I must avow it that he knew it +and that he might with little losse have done it; other +excuse I would not frame."</p> + +<p>The position was a terrible one. Ralegh had been +waiting for months, trusting to the loyalty of Keymis to +execute his great enterprise; and it was Keymis's very +loyalty to Ralegh which was the real cause of his failure;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[ 284]</a></span> +for he would not open the mine unless he was quite sure +that his master alone should benefit. Keymis was +wrong. But he could not bear Ralegh to think that his +conduct had been remiss; he could not bear to think that +he had injured the master for whom he would gladly have +given his life. Nor could he make Ralegh understand +even the reason of his action. "I know then, sir, what +course to take," said Keymis, when he found he could +not move Ralegh from his attitude of censure, and he +went away "out of my cabin into his own, in which he +was no sooner entered, but I heard a pistol go off. I +sent up to know who had shot a pistol. Keymis himself +made answer, lying on his bed, that he had shot it off +because it had long been charged, with which I was +satisfied. Some half-hour after this, the boy going into +his cabin found him dead, having a long knife thrust +under his left pap through his heart, and his pistol lying +by him, with which it appeared that he had shot himself, +but the bullet lighting upon a rib, had but broken the +rib, and went no farther."</p> + +<p>Such was the end of Ralegh's long period of waiting. +The tragedy is great and real. He had trusted to +Captain Keymis implicitly; and Keymis, through excess +of loyalty, had failed him. The only fault in either is +that each was a little too true to his own character. +Keymis's death shook Ralegh to the depths of his +nature. Now more than ever he had need of men +staunch as the dead Keymis.</p> + +<p>For mutiny broke out among the men. Captains +Whitney and Wollaston deserted. The men declared +that they had joined the expedition merely to loot the +Spaniards and plunder they would have. The mine had +failed. Well, they would turn pirates and attack the +Spanish fleet on its way home. They threatened to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[ 285]</a></span> +throw Ralegh into the sea if he persisted in his resolution +to return. He quieted them as much as lay in his +power; but at last his great power was shaken and +enfeebled, by imprisonment, by long sickness, by age, by +the King's treachery, by disaster on disaster. He had +still sufficient power to keep to his resolution and to +force his men to some semblance of obedience, but in the +old days no mutiny would have happened. Sulkily the +men set sail for home, and Ralegh knew from the letters +which Keymis had brought him from St. Thomas, that +he was returning to disgrace and death.</p> + +<p>From St. Christopher's, on this sad journey back, he +forced himself to tell his wife the bad news of their son's +death. He had no comfort for her. He was inured to +grief. "God knows I never knewe what sorrow meant +till now," he writes. "My braines are broken, and it is +a torment for me to write, and especially of misery." +And in a postscript, "I protest before the Majesty of +God that as Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins +died hart broken when they failed of their enterprize, I +could willingly doe the like did I not contend against +sorrow for your sake in hope to provide somewhat for +you, and to comfort and relieve you."</p> + +<p>The remainder of the voyage back was as disastrous +as had been the outward voyage. Storms broke upon +the ships and separated them. Some put in at Ireland; +Captain Pennington, who had ridden back at the last +moment to obtain money for supplies from Lady Ralegh, +put in at Kinsale, and his ship was immediately seized. +The <i>Destiny</i> arrived at Plymouth on June 21 alone; +and at Plymouth Ralegh met his wife, and there he +stayed until the second week of July.</p> + +<p>In his last great enterprize he had failed, and he +returned to give an account of his failure, and to face the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[ 286]</a></span> +ignominy which his failure entailed. He was resolved, +however, to make one last effort to clear his name, and +to reinstate his family in some semblance of prosperity. +He was an old man now, and one who had been buffeted +by misfortune, but the spirit of life was still strong in +him.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[ 287]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XIX</h3> + +<h2>DEATH</h2> + +<blockquote><p>His reception—Arrest—Journey from Plymouth—Stukeley and +Manourie—The final scene.</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, had been +active during Ralegh's absence to work his +complete overthrow, but Ralegh remained some weeks +at Plymouth before he knew the exact nature of the +reception which awaited him.</p> + +<p>Masterly was the way in which Gondomar handled +James. He was about to start for Madrid on leave, +when the news arrived from the townspeople of St. +Thomas of the English attack. "Exaggerate as much +as you can Ralegh's guilt and try to get the King to +make a great demonstration," wrote Philip from Madrid. +"Do not," he went on, "threaten him; but make him +understand that I am offended, and that if a proper +remedy be not forthcoming at once, we shall make +reprisals and seize English property in Spain." Gondomar +set about his task forthwith. He rushed into the royal +presence crying with uplifted hands, "Pirates! pirates! +pirates!" and urged James to remember his promise, +that Ralegh should be sent in chains to Spain to be +hanged in the Plaza of Madrid. This was no time for +delay, for judicial examination: Ralegh should be +despatched immediately on his landing, with all his +pirate followers. But James could not, though he would,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[ 288]</a></span> +act thus uncompromisingly. Ralegh was too considerable +a man, and feeling towards him had changed very +much since the time of his first trial when he was hooted +through the streets of London as a traitor. There was +a large party in the country who were averse to James's +wish of an alliance by marriage with Spain. For forty +years Spain had tried to humble England, and for forty +years England had more than held her own. And now +was the King to be bullied into sacrificing one of his +greatest subjects, unheard, unjudged, at the bidding of +Spain's ambassador? Moreover, James felt that he was +losing the popularity which he had won at the beginning +of his reign. His favourites were disliked. The personal +influence of Gondomar over him was disliked. So +James temporised—in his habitual way he temporized—so +that he might, like the weak man he was, enjoy the +sense of power which he felt as he slowly tightened the +rope round Ralegh. "James wants peace and must be +frightened," wrote Gondomar. "The English have +changed their tone since I came and I have shown them +that I will stand no nonsense." And his boast was +amply justified.</p> + +<p>Sir Lewis Stukeley was sent to Plymouth to arrest +Ralegh and take possession of his ship and cargo. +Ralegh had already started from Plymouth with his wife +and Captain King when he met Stukeley, near the old +stannary town of Ashburton on the edge of Dartmoor, +twenty miles on his way to London. Stukeley made +him return with him to Plymouth: for Stukeley was +anxious to make as much as possible for himself out of +Ralegh's cargo on board the <i>Destiny</i>, for he was vice-admiral +of Devon.</p> + +<p>Sir Lewis Stukeley was a Devon man and kinsman +of Ralegh, for he was nephew to the valiant Sir Richard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[ 289]</a></span> +Grenville. He did not maintain the traditions of his +family or of his county. Ralegh stayed in Plymouth +some ten days at the house of Sir Christopher Harris. +He was not yet aware of the fate that awaited him, +for Stukeley had only an order from the King and no +warrant from the Lords of the Council. And Stukeley +too was full of friendliness and soft words, partly to put +Ralegh off his guard and partly because it was easier for +him to be agreeable to a man like Ralegh, whom he +could not bully. Lady Ralegh and Captain King were +full of grave fears for Sir Walter. They begged him, +valuing his life as they did, before everything else, to +escape to France. They made all necessary preparations: +a barque was in readiness just outside the +harbour. Ralegh, still uncertain as to the best way of +conducting the little business of life that remained to +him, listened to their entreaties and actually went out in +a small boat almost to the barque. But he turned back +at the last moment, determined to face every danger +that awaited him in order that he might clear his name +in the eyes of posterity from the slur of false charges +that he knew would be made against him. Exactly +how that was to be compassed he did not yet know. +Now, as before, in the troubled periods of his life, a kind +of apathy, of weariness of life, closed in upon him; the +apathy that comes from uncertainty, and which in his +case preceded a great and definite action. His powers +were slowly collecting for the last great moment of his +life.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of July a messenger arrived from +the Privy Council, bearing an urgent summons to +Stukeley to bring Ralegh to their presence without a +moment's delay. "We command you," the message ran, +"upon your allegiance, that you do safely and speedily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[ 290]</a></span> +bring hither the person of Sir Walter Ralegh, to answer +before us such matters as shall be objected against him +in His Majesty's behalf."</p> + +<p>The message was sent on July 21, and arrived +four days later. On the same day, July 25, Ralegh +began his journey from Plymouth to London, as +Stukeley's prisoner.</p> + +<p>Slowly in Ralegh's mind a plan of action matured. +He knew that in London he had with the King's enmity +little hope of life. It remained for him to clear his name +of slander; his own life was now of small consequence to +him: he was considering how best to leave a fair name +and some means of decent living for his family. He +saw that time was an essential to him. He must take +care not to be hurried to London, hurried before the +Council, and hurried to the scaffold before men were +properly aware of his presence, and aware of the importance +of the event. He must contrive to die greatly, as +acquittal was beyond man's power. He knew that he +was innocent, he knew that James desired his death, and +that innocence was of small account when pitted against +a King's wish. He lived long enough not only to see +but to experience the bad consequences which he had foreseen +of absolute monarchy under a weak King. Civil war +fell on England, and the rule of the Puritans before the +policy which he had thought out when Elizabeth was an +old woman, became established. He brooded long over +many things on that sad journey from Plymouth—over +the roads which he knew so well. All the country-side +was dear to him. He had done with it all now.</p> + +<p>He passed Sherborne, where he had lived and been +happy; he spent the night quite close to Sherborne at +the house of his acquaintance Parham. It was a +melancholy home-coming. What now remained of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[ 291]</a></span> +great hopes and his great doings? In the eyes of the +world he had failed. But he must open the world's +eyes to see his failure in its proper light.</p> + +<p>At Salisbury, where they arrived the following day, +his plan matured. It would not do to come nearer +London and his judges unprepared and dreaming of his +past life. Something still remained to be done. He +must gain time. He must be expected too, that all +might be ready to hear what he had to say. His +device was brave and was pathetic. He determined to +feign illness.</p> + +<p>Now, at Plymouth he had met a man named +Manourie, a Frenchman who was interested in chemistry. +In Manourie Ralegh had the faith which a man is +inclined to have in a fellow-craftsman on other matters +than his craft. His confidence was unwise. Thinking +over great matters, he was not sufficiently alert and not +sufficiently distrustful. Nor is it certain that Manourie +was false from the beginning. It is probable that he +came to realize how dangerous a business he had undertaken, +and, becoming alarmed, fell an easy prey to +Stukeley's promises and suggestions.</p> + +<p>Within sight of Salisbury Ralegh asked Manourie +for a vomit. "It will be good," he said, "to evacuate +bad humours. And by its means I shall gain time to +work my friends and order my affairs; perhaps even to +pacify His Majesty. Otherwise, as soon as ever I come +to London, they will have me to the Tower, and cut off +my head. I cannot escape it without counterfeiting +sickness."</p> + +<p>They arrived in Salisbury a few days before King +James and the Court were expected. Ralegh strung +himself to his pathetic part, and played it so bravely +that Stukeley and the whole retinue were convinced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[ 292]</a></span> +that a deadly sickness was approaching. On entering +the house where he was to be lodged in Salisbury he +staggered, as a man staggers who is overcome by +sudden sickness, and fell against a pillar in the doorway, +bruising his head. A delay was ordered. Lady Ralegh, +with her retinue of servants and Captain King, was +sent on towards London. Hardly had they started +when a servant came to Stukeley's room, and said he, +"My master is out of his wits. I have just found him +in his shirt, upon all fours, gnawing at the rushes on the +floor." Stukeley was amazed and perplexed. King +James and the Court were daily expected at Salisbury, +and his special instructions to hurry on the prisoner could +only mean that the King was anxious not to be in Salisbury +at the same time as Ralegh. And yet the prisoner +must not be allowed to die. Moreover, pustules broke +out all over Ralegh's body, and Stukeley could not have +then known that they were produced by a cunning +ointment which Manourie had given to Ralegh. +Stukeley went to Bishop Andrewes, the bishop sent +physicians to Ralegh, and they signed a certificate to say +that he was not in a fit state of health to travel further. +Ralegh's point was gained. He set to work and wrote +his "Apology for the Voyage to Guiana," in which he +stated his good case to the world.</p> + +<p>It has been remarked, almost with astonishment, +by some that Ralegh was not in the least ashamed of +his action. But there was no reason why he should be +ashamed. He decided in his own mind that to gain +time was a necessity to him, and having done so he set +about the business in the only way that he could, and +he succeeded. Afterwards he was reproached for the +lack of dignity he showed, and answered, "I hope it was +no sin. The prophet David did make himself a fool,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[ 293]</a></span> +and suffered spittle to fall upon his beard, that he might +escape the hands of his enemies; and to him it was +not imputed as a sin." Men like Ralegh have different +values from the values of ordinary men; in that, perhaps, +chiefly lies their greatness. Dignity is a thing which +can very well be left to look after itself; the dignity +which needs any careful bolstering is not in itself of +great value.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile King James and his Court arrived at +Salisbury, and orders were immediately issued that +Ralegh should continue his journey to London. It was +probably about this time that Manourie learned the full +importance of the fellow-chemist whom he was assisting, +and became afraid. Hereafter Stukeley was +informed of all the things which Ralegh said and did, +and of many things doubtless which he had never said +and never done.</p> + +<p>So Ralegh continued his journey with his two false +friends. As they neared London, the French resident +in London, by name Le Clerc, and David de Novion, +Sieur de la Chesnaye, met the party. De Novion was +awaiting Ralegh's arrival at Brentford. He was empowered +by the French minister to offer Ralegh means +of escape to France. Men in authority at the French +Court considered that such an enemy of Spain, whose +head the Spanish ambassador desired to fall as a +tribute to Spain's power over James, would be a useful +man to save. But Ralegh appears to have listened with +no great eagerness to their proposals. He was no +longer anxious to continue his life in a strange country +under a strange king, to whom he was indebted. He +needed all his strength for the last achievement on +which his heart was set—to clear his name from +slanders, and he was not sure that escape was the best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[ 294]</a></span> +means to his end; though he listened later to the +entreaties of his wife and Captain King, to whom his +very life was dear. But Ralegh must have listened with +some pleasure: the anxiety shown on his account, for +whatever reason, must have made it clear to him that +now, at any rate, he could not be huddled away to the +Tower and to his death, unheard, as he had feared. He +desired publicity, that he might die, as he had lived—greatly.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 768px;"> +<img src="images/illus336.jpg" width="768" height="836" alt="TRAITOR'S GATE" title="" /> +<span class="caption">TRAITOR’S GATE</span> +</div> + +<p>On August 7 Ralegh reached London, and, instead +of going to the Tower, was allowed to go to his own +house, which was in Broad Street. Captain King was +waiting for him. He had arrived some days previously, +and had wasted no time. A barque was in readiness at +Tilbury to take his master to France. Had Ralegh's +whole mind been centred on escape, there is no doubt +that he could have escaped, in spite of Stukeley's +treachery. But his mind was divided. His own desire +was to stay in England, and meet whatever his fate +might be; but his desire was, no doubt, obscured by +his wife's entreaties that he should seize any opportunity +of life under any conditions. He allowed himself to be +rowed down the Thames. Stukeley was actually with +him, vowing that he wished his escape. A boat, however, +was seen to be in pursuit. The men at the oars grew +suspicious; they slackened their rowing, and at length +turned back. At Greenwich Stukeley declared himself, +and arrested Captain King and his master. Ralegh +turned to Stukeley and said quietly, "Sir Lewis, these +actions will not turn out to your credit," and to Captain +King, from whom he took leave at the Tower gates, +"You need be in fear of no danger. It is I only that +am the mark shot at."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[ 295]</a></span></p><p>Once again Ralegh was in the Tower—the day he +entered it was August 10. Manourie received Ł20 +for his part of the treachery, Sir Lewis Stukeley +Ł965 <i>6s.</i> <i>3d.</i>; the money was made up, for the most +part, of the price of jewels which were taken from +Sir Walter's person on this day of his last entry to +the Tower. Among these jewels was the ring he had +always worn since it was put on his finger by Queen +Elizabeth.</p> + +<p>The attempt to escape had been encouraged by +enemies who wished to strengthen the case against +Ralegh. That was clear enough to him, even before +he was brought face to face with the Lords of the +Council at his trial. They strove again, as they had +striven before, to win the King's favour by maligning +him. They affirmed that the whole enterprise to +Guiana was a fraud, which Ralegh had invented to gain +his freedom. For two months they considered the +most plausible means of bringing him to execution. +During that time Ralegh wrote letters to those in +authority, and especially a noteworthy letter to the +King, thinking that there might remain some spark +of just feeling in him.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"If it were lawfull," he wrote, "if it were lawfull for +the Spanish to murther 26 Englishmen, tyenge them +back to backe and then to cutt theire throtes, when they +had traded with them a whole moneth, and came to +them on the land without so much as one sword amongst +them all; and that it may not be lawfull for your +Majesties subjects, being forced by them, to repel force +by force, we may justly say, 'O miserable English!'</p> + +<p>"If Parker and Mutton took Campeach and other +places in the Honduraes seated in the hart of the Spanish +Indies; burnt townes, killed the Spaniards; and had +nothing sayed to them at their returne—and that my +selfe forbore to looke into the Indies, because I would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[ 296]</a></span> +not offend, I may as justly say, 'O miserable Sir Walter +Ralegh!'</p> + +<p>"If I had spent my poore estate, lost my sonne, +suffred by sicknes and otherwise, a world of miseries; +if I had resisted with the manifest hazard of my life the +rebells and spoiles which my companyes would have +made; if when I was poore I could have made my selfe +rich; if when I had gotten my libertye which all men +and Nature it selfe doth so much prise, I voluntarily lost +it; if when I was master of my life, I rendred it again; +if [though] I might elsewhere have sould my shipp and +goods and put five or six thousand pounds in my purse, +I have brought her into England; I beseech your +Majestie to beleeve that all this I have done because +it should not be sayed to your Majestie that your +Majestie had given libertie and trust to a man whose +ende was but the recovery of his libertie, and whoe had +betrayed your Majesties trust."</p></blockquote> + +<p>It was to no purpose. Ralegh well knew by this +time of what base fabric was the King's mind. The +Lords in Council only delayed sentence because they +could not determine on what grounds to execute +their prisoner. At last, on October 24, Ralegh was told +that sentence of death had been passed upon him. +On October 28 he was summoned to Westminster, from +his room in the Tower. A sharp attack of ague lessened +the strength that still remained to him. He was old +now and white haired as he stood before his judges. +The Attorney-General read the writ against him and said: +"My Lords, Sir Walter Ralegh, the prisoner at the bar, +was fifteen years since convicted of high treason, by him +committed against the person of His Majesty and the +state of this kingdom, and then received the judgment +of death, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. His +Majesty of his abundant grace hath been pleased to +shew mercy upon him till now, that justice calls upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[ 297]</a></span> +him for execution. Sir Walter Ralegh hath been a +statesman, and a man who in regard of his parts and +quality is to be pitied. He hath been as a star at which +the world hath gazed; but stars may fall, nay, they must +fall when they trouble the sphere wherein they abide. +It is, therefore, His Majesty's pleasure now to call for +execution of the former judgment, and I now require +order for the same."</p> + +<p>Ralegh listened to this pompous mockery and said, +when asked what he could say for himself why execution +should not be awarded against him, "My Lords, my +voice is grown weak by reason of my late sickness, and +an ague which I now have; for I was now brought +hither out of it." And the Lord Chief Justice answered: +"Sir Walter, your voice is audible enough."</p> + +<p>Indeed, there was little to be said by Ralegh, or any +man, against a charge thus raked up from the past. The +affair of this trial was a mere form, and Ralegh reserved +his strength for his last great avowal at the supreme +moment of his life.</p> + +<p>He was taken away to the Gatehouse prison. +Immediately the carpenters set to work to erect the +scaffold. His execution was fixed for an early hour +on the following morning. For on that day men's +attention would be turned from the happenings at +Westminster; and towards the City where the Lord +Mayor's show would take place. Men's attention was +not desired for the morrow's deed at Westminster.</p> + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p>Ralegh was a poet. A man cannot be a poet in his +spare time. There is a realm which Beauty rules—that +Beauty which Castiglione celebrated, and the understanding +of which he made the last and chief attribute +of his Courtier, with that realm Ralegh was in communion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[ 298]</a></span> +From it he drew strength for his life. Such communion +does unfit a man for the business of life, but gives him +power to cope with its difficulties by enabling him to +look a little beyond them. It raises him above the +pettiness of things, and makes him see more clearly +because he sees things at their proper value and in their +right proportion. This perception—this sensitiveness—made +him suffer more acutely, but endowed him with +the power of detachment, the power to rise above his +personal griefs.</p> + +<p>Ralegh was a poet. He expressed himself in his life +in a way strangely akin to that in which he expressed +himself in his actual poetry. He resembles some knight +in a Morris romance in his adoration for his Queen, and +in his love for his wife.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +But true love is a durable fire,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In the mind ever burning,</span><br /> +Never sick, never old, never dead,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From itself never turning.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>That spirit informed his life, and is linked with his +every achievement. "Schönheit geniessen heiss die +Welt verstehn." And one of the most memorable facts +of the Russo-Japanese war was that the invincible +Admiral Togo wrote home asking for plum trees in +flower to be sent to him; he needed the strength which +he drew from looking at their beauty. Castiglione was +right. This perception of beauty is the last quality of +the perfect courtier; from that alone can strength be +gathered and stored for this strange struggle of life.</p> + +<p>And now Ralegh had reached the last day of his +life. Early next morning he was destined to solve the +mighty problem with which poets and philosophers +have always wrestled in vain—the problem which is the +mightiest in life, which lends life colour and +poignancy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[ 299]</a></span>—the +problem of death. The excitement of knowing that +in a few hours he would be taken into that great +mystery must have been overpowering. He no +longer needed consolation: fear was lost in eagerness +to know. And a sense of relief came to him that he +would be driven no longer to fight on in the long battle +of life with the fierce energy that mastered him. He +had sufficient experience to be a little weary of life; he +had sufficient vitality to welcome death. He knew that +he saw the sun set for the last time; that for the last time +he saw the approach of night, the familiar faces of men, +and all the surroundings of man's life. His consciousness +was coming to an end. "Do not carry it with too +much bravery," said his kinsman, Francis Thynne. "It +is my last mirth in this world," answered Ralegh. "Do +not grudge it to me."</p> + +<p>For the last time? Yet who can tell? What is +man's knowledge when confronted by the portentous +fact of death?</p> + +<p>Once more Ralegh was about to journey into the +unknown, and his spirit thrilled with excitement at +this his last and most adventurous journey. Dr. +Tounson, the worthy Dean of Westminster, came to +visit him in the little room which was allotted to him in +the Gatehouse prison. "When I began to encourage +him against the fear of death he seemed to make so +light of it that I wondered at him."</p> + +<p>His body was weak; his spirit was strong. Sorrow +he was leaving behind him. And until the clock struck +the hour of midnight he who was to meet death in the +morning of that very day sympathized and strengthened +his wife, who had many days more through which she +must live.</p> + +<p>At midnight Lady Ralegh left him, and for the last<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[ 300]</a></span> +time he began to set his affairs in order. He knew now +how he could clear his name before the world. His +spirit was so alive that he never doubted his power to +die as he had lived—splendidly. He determined what +he would say in the morning—quietly, resolutely—and +having done so, still there was some time at his disposal. +He opened the Bible that lay on the table and upon the +first blank page he wrote—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Even such is time! who takes in trust<br /> +Our youth, our joys, and all we have,<br /> +And pays us but with earth and dust;<br /> +Who in the dark and silent grave,<br /> +When we have wandered all our ways,<br /> +Shuts up the story of our days.<br /> +But from that earth, that grave and dust<br /> +The Lord shall raise me up, I trust.<br /> +</p> + +<p>And now the time had come for him to face the high +ordeal of public death, which was to be the last triumph of +his great spirit. A goblet of sack was brought him and +he made his way to the scaffold. A crowd was already +assembled—waiting.</p> + +<p>Ralegh walked to the scaffold with head erect, +complete master of the terrible situation. He noticed +an old man standing in the front of the crowd with +uncovered head, and taking off the covering he +wore under his hat, he gave it to the old man, saying, +"You need this, my friend, more than I do." The crowd +pressed upon Ralegh and the struggle to reach the +scaffold made his body, still weak from the ague, +breathless. It is in accordance with the irony of things +that even this last path was not clear for him. At last +he stood upon the scaffold, erect and smiling. The +crowd listened for his death speech. The chief men in +England were there to hear his last words and to +witness his death. Ralegh began to speak. He said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[ 301]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"I have had fits of ague for these two days. If therefore +you perceive any weakness in me, ascribe it to my +sickness rather than to myself. I am infinitely bound +to God that He hath vouchsafed me to die in the sight +of so noble an assembly, and not in darkness, in that +Tower where I have suffered so much adversity and +a long sickness. I thank God that my fever hath not +taken me at this time, as I prayed to God it might +not."</p> + +<p>His voice grew weak. He feared that the nobles +who were in the balconies would not hear him. So he +asked them to come upon the scaffold. They consented +and came. Each shook Ralegh's hand, as he thanked +them for this last courtesy.</p> + +<p>He continued his speech amidst the silence of the +crowd. He defended himself against the charges of +complicity with France, of disloyalty to the King, and +then he said—</p> + +<p>"For my going to Guiana many thought I never +intended it, but intended only to gain my liberty,—which +I would I had been so wise as to have kept. +But as I shall answer it before the same God before +whom I am shortly to appear, I endeavoured, and I +hoped to have enriched the King, myself, and my +partners. But I was undone by Keymis, a wilful +fellow, who seeing my son slain and myself unpardoned, +would not open the mine, and killed himself.</p> + +<p>"It was also told the King that I was brought by +force into England, and that I did not intend to come +back again. I protest that when the voyage succeeded +not, and that I resolved to come home, my company +mutinied against me. They fortified the gun-room +against me, and kept me within my own cabin; and +would not be satisfied except I would take a corporal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[ 302]</a></span> +oath not to bring them into England until I had +gotten the pardons of four of them,—there being four +men unpardoned. So I took that oath. And we came +into Ireland, where they would have landed in the +north parts. But I would not, because there the +inhabitants were all Redshanks. So we came to the +south, hoping from thence to write to his Majesty for +their pardons. In the meantime I offered to places +in Devon and Cornwall, to lie safe till they had been +pardoned."</p> + +<p>Ralegh now turned towards Lord Arundel, who was +standing on the scaffold. "I am glad that my Lord of +Arundel is here. For when I went down to my ship, +his Lordship and divers others were with me. At the +parting salutation, his Lordship took me aside and +desired me freely and faithfully to resolve him in one +request, which was, 'Whether I made a good voyage +or a bad, yet I should return again into England.' +I made you a promise and gave you my faith that +I would."</p> + +<p>Lord Arundel said in a loud voice, "And so you +did. It is true that they were the last words I spake +unto you."</p> + +<p>And Ralegh went on: "Other reports are raised +of me, touching that voyage which I value not.... +I will yet borrow a little time of Master Sheriff to +speak of one thing more. It doth make my heart bleed +to hear such an imputation laid upon me. It was said +that I was a persecutor of my Lord of Essex, and that +I stood in a window over against him when he suffered, +and puffed out tobacco in disdain of him. I take God +to witness that my eyes shed tears for him when he +died. And as I hope to look in the face of God +hereafter, my Lord of Essex did not see my face<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[ 303]</a></span> +when he suffered. I was afar off, in the Armoury, +where I saw him but he saw not me. And my soul +hath been many times grieved that I was not near +unto him when he died, because I understood that he +asked for me, at his death, to be reconciled to me. +I confess I was of a contrary faction. But I knew +that my Lord of Essex was a noble gentleman, and +that it would be worse with me when he was gone. +For those that set me up against him did afterwards +set themselves against me."</p> + +<p>Ralegh knelt in prayer, asking the assembled crowd +to pray with him. He rose and the executioner knelt +before him to ask his forgiveness. Ralegh put his hand +on the masked figure's two shoulders and said that he +forgave him with all his heart. "Show me the axe," +he cried, "show me the axe." Then he felt the edge +with his thumb and approved of its sharpness. "This +gives me no fear. It is a sharp and fair medicine to +cure me of all my diseases." And presently, "When +I stretch forth my hands despatch me." He turned to +all the people and said in a loud voice, "Give me +heartily your prayers."</p> + +<p>His velvet cloak was taken off. He knelt in prayer. +He laid his neck upon the block and stretched out +his hands. But the masked figure in black, the +executioner, was unmanned by the scene. He could +not raise the axe. Again Ralegh stretched out his +hands. The man remained motionless. Then Ralegh +cried out, "What dost thou fear? Strike, man, strike!" +It was necessary for him to give the man courage to +kill him. At last the axe was lifted, and with two swift +blows his neck was severed.</p> + +<p>So lived Sir Walter Ralegh, and so he died.</p> + +<p>"O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[ 304]</a></span> +could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath +dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath +flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and +despised: thou hast drawne together all the farre +stretched greatnesse, all the pride, crueltie, and ambition +of man, and covered it all over with these two +narrow words—<i>Hîc jacet</i>."</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Professor Raleigh writes: "Ralegh, who never took kindly +to a subordinate command, deserted the expedition for some +reason unkonwn." But it is not at all probably that he ever +started.—"The English Voyages," p. 58.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_2" id="Footnote_A_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> From the description by Rev. Samuel Hayman, historiographer +of Youghal, 1852.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_3" id="Footnote_A_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> Major Martin Hume gives an account of the scheme itself with +admirable clearness; his quotations from the letters of the period +I use.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 80%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[ 305]</a></span></p> +<h2>INDEX</h2> + + +<div class="centers"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">A</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Abington, Edward, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Agouhanna, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Albert, Archduke of Austria, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Alley, Captain, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Aloblaster, Mr., <a href="#Page_242">242</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Amadas, Philip, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, 82, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Anderson, Lord Chief Justice, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Andrewes, Bishop, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Andrews, Peter, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Anjou, Duc d', <a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Arenbergh, Count, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Armada, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Arundel, Lord, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ascham, Roger, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ashton, Roger, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Aubrey, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Azores, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />B</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Babington, Antony, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Bacon, Francis, Baron of Verulam, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Bailey, Captain, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ballard, John, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Balzac, H. de, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Bancroft, Bishop, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Barlow, Arthur, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Barnefield, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Barnwell, Robert, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Barry, Lord, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Bath, Earl of, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Beale, Bishop, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Beauchamp, Lord, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Beaumont, Francis, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Bedford, Francis Earl of, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Berreo, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Bingham, Admiral, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Biron, Duc de, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Blount, Charles, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Blount, Sir Christopher, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Boyle, Richard, Earl of Cork, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Bradshaw, Captain, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Bristol, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Brooke, George, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Brown, Richard, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Brownists, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Buckhurst, Lord Treasurer, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Budaeus, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Budleigh Salterton, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Burghley. <i>See</i> <span class="smcap">Cecil, William</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Burr, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Burrough, Sir John, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Burton, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />C</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cadiz, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Calfield, Captain, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Camden, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Campian, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Carew, George, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Carew, Sir Nicholas, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Carew, Peter, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Carey, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Carleton, Sir Dudley, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Caroli, Falls of, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Carr, Robert, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Carthier, Jacques, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Castiglione, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cecil, Lady, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cecil, Sir Robert, Earl of Salisbury, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cecil, William (son of Sir Robert), <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Chamberlain, John, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Champernoun, C., <a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Champernoun, Gawen, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Champernoun, Henry, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Champernoun, John, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Charles, Archduke, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Charles, Prince, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Chartley, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Chester, Charles, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Chudleigh, Captain, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cieza, Pedro de, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Clark, Captain, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Clarke, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Clyst, St. Mary, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cobham, Lord, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Coke, Attorney-General, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Columbus, Christopher, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Comestor, Peter, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Copley, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cortez, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Coryat, Thomas, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cottington, Lord, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Courtenay, Sir William, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cranbourne, Lord, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Crosby Hall, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cross, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Crymes, Mr., <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Cumberland, Earl of, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />D</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Davis, John, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Defoe, Daniel, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Dekker, Thomas, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Desmond, Earl of, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">De Thou, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Devereux, Robert, Earl of Essex, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Devonshire, Earl of, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Digby, Sir John, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Dingle, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Douglas, John, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Dowe, Ann, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Drake, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Drayton, Michael, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Dudley, Mr., <a href="#Page_154">154</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Dudley, Robert, Earl of Leicester, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Dunn, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Durham House, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Dyer, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />E</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Edward VI., <a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Edwards, Edward, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Elizabeth of Austria, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Elizabeth, Queen of England, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46-7</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98-9</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115-6</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118-9</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168-9</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188-9</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Elizabethan Life, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Erinetta, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Erskine, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Essex, Earl of. <i>See</i> <span class="smcap">Devereux, Robert</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Euphuism, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Exeter, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />F</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Fayal, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ferdinando, the pilot, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ferne, Sir John, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Fielding, Henry, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Fitzmaurice, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Fitzwilliam, Sir W., <a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Fletcher, John, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Flores, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Florida, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Fortescue, Justice, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Fortescue, Captain, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Fotheringay Castle, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Fowler, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Foxe, John, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">France, Anatole, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Frobisher, Martin, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Froude, J. A., <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Fuller, Thomas, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />G</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Garcia de Aguilar, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gascoyne, George, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, etc.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gascoyne, Sir John, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gatehouse, The, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gawdy, Justice, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gell, John, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gerrard, Sir George, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gib, John, <a href="#Page_234">234-5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gifford, George, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gifford, Gilbert, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gilbert, Adrian, <a href="#Page_78">78-9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gilbert, Sir Humfrey, <a href="#Page_22">22-3</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29-30</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72-3</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, etc.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gilbert, Sir John, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gilbert, Otho, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Godolphin, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gomera, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gondomar, Count of, Sarmiento de Aguńar, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269-70</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287-8</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gordon, Harry, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gorges, Sir A., <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164-5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, <a href="#Page_171">171-2</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gosse, Edmond, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Granganamen, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gaunt, John, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gregory XIII., <a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Grenville, John, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Grenville, Sir Richard, <a href="#Page_82">82-3</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86-7</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Grey, Lord, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, etc.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Grey de Wilton, Lord, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Guiana, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128-9</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133-4</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254-5</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258-9</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Guanipa, Bay of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134-5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Guildford, Lady, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Guise, Duke of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />H</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hakluyt, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hale, Serjeant, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hall, Fielding, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hampden, John, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Harrington, James, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Harris, Sir Christopher, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Harvey, Gabriel, <a href="#Page_15">15-6</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Harvey, Sir George, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Harvey, John, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Harvey, Richard, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hastings, Captain Edward, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hawkins, Sir John, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hayes, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hayes, Edward, <a href="#Page_74">74-5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hayes, Sir James, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hayman, Samuel, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Henry IV. of France, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Henry, Prince, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253-4</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">History of the World, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149-50</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hochelaga, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Holinshed, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hooker, John, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Howard, Lord Charles, of Effingham, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167-8</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Howard, Lord Henry, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Howard, Lord Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Howes, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Huguenots, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hume, Major Martin, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />I</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Infanta, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ireland, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Irish, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Islands Voyage, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />J</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">James I., King of England, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168-9</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_235">235-7</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251-2</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287-8</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290-3</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295-7</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301-2</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Jersey, <a href="#Page_173">173-4</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Jones, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Jonson, Ben, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />K</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Kennedy, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_68">68-9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Keymis, Captain, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280-2</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Kilcolman Castle, <a href="#Page_107">107-8</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">King, Captain, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288-9</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Knollys, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />L</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Lake, Thomas, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Lane, Captain Ralph, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84-5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Languedoc, Caves of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">La Renzi, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Le Clerc, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Lee, Sydney, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Leicester, Earl of. <i>See</i> <span class="smcap">Dudley, Robert</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Lennox, Duke of, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Lever, Thomas, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Lionello, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">London, description of, <a href="#Page_26">26-7</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Lopez, Francisco, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Lyly, John, <a href="#Page_58">58-9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />M</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Macaulay, Lord, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Manourie, Dr., <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Mar, Earl of, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Markham, Sir Griffin, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234-6</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Marlowe, Christopher, <a href="#Page_71">71-2</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Mary, Queen of Scots, <a href="#Page_60">60-4</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66-8</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Masham, Thomas, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Maupassant, Guy de, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">McCarthy, Florence, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Medicis, Catherine de, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Medina Sidonia, Duke of, <a href="#Page_100">100-1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Menatonon, King, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Mendoza, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Meteren, Van, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Milton, John, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Mirabeau, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Modbury, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Moncke, Levinus, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Monson, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Montagu, Lord, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Morris, William, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Mountjoy, Lord, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Mowbray, Barbara, <a href="#Page_68">68-9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Moyle, Henry, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Munster, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />N</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Nash, Thomas, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Naunton, Sir T., <a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Nicotiana, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Norris, or Norreys, Sir John, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">North, Captain, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Novion, David de, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />O</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Oldys, William, <a href="#Page_21">21-2</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Orinoco, <a href="#Page_141">141-2</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ormond, Earl of, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Overbury, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Oxford, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Oxford, Earl of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />P</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Palomeque d'Acuna, <a href="#Page_278">278-9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Parker, Captain, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Parma, Prince of, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Paulet, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Peckham, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Pelham, Lord Justice, <a href="#Page_35">35-6</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Pennington, John, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Peyton, Sir John, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Philip II. of Spain, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97-9</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Phillips, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Phillips, Serjeant, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Pigott, Captain John, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Pine, Henry, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Pizzaro, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Plymouth, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151-2</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290-1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Pole, Sir William, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Pope, Mr., <a href="#Page_151">151</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Popham, Lord Chief Justice, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218-9</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Prest, Agnes, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Preston, Sir Amias, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />R</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Rakele, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ralegh, Carew, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ralegh, Lady, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ralegh, George, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280-2</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ralegh, Sir Walter, <i>passim</i>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ralegh, Walter (son of Sir Walter), <a href="#Page_174">174-5</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256-7</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276-7</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279-80</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Raleigh, Professor, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ramea, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Reeks, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Rhodes, Cecil, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Richardson, Samuel, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Roanoak, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Robsart, Amy, <a href="#Page_51">51-2</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Roche, Lord, <a href="#Page_40">40-3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Roos, Lord, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Ruddyer, Sir Benjamin, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />S</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Saguenay, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">St. Bartholomew's Eve, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">St. Leger, Sir Warham, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">St. Thomas, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sanders, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Santa Cruz, Marquis of, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sarmiento. <i>See</i> <span class="smcap">Gondomar</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Savoy, Duke of, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Scott, Thomas, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Scroope, Lady, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sextus V., <a href="#Page_98">98</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Seymour, William, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Shaw, Bernard, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Shelley, P. B., <a href="#Page_114">114</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sherborne, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240-1</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Shrewsbury, Lord, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sidney, Sir Philip, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52-3</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Smerwick, or Smerthwick, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Smith, Captain John, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84-5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sparrow, Francis, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Spenser, Edmund, <a href="#Page_24">24-5</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120-1</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Standen, Sir Anthony, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Stanhope, Sir John, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Stannaries, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Steele Glas, the, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Stourton, Lord, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Stowe, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Strozzi, Peter, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Stuart, Arabella, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205-8</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Stukeley, Sir Lewis, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, etc., <a href="#Page_294">294</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sully, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sussex, Duke of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />T</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Talbot, Lord, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Talbot, John, <a href="#Page_272">272</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Terra de Bri, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Thames, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Thomson, Captain, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Thornhurst, Captain, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Throgmorton, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Throgmorton, Sir Nicholas, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Thyn, Captain, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Thynne, Francis, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Tilney, Charles, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Togo, Admiral, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Toparimaca, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Tounson, Dr., <a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Trinidad, <a href="#Page_129">129-30</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134-5</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Trinity College, Cambridge, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Tuga, Emperor of Guiana, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />U</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Udall, John, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />V</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Vaux, Lord, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Vere, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Villiers, George, Duke of Buckingham, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Virginia, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />W</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Waad, Sir William, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Walsingham, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54-5</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61-2</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66-7</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Walton, Isaac, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Warburton, Justice, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Watson, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Wentworth, Peter, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Whidden, Jacob, <a href="#Page_129">129-30</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Whitgift, Archbishop, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Whitney, Captain, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Whyte, Rowland, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Wilde, Oscar, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Wilson, Arthur, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Winchester, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Winchester, Marquis of, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Windsor, Lord, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Wingandacoa. <i>See</i> <span class="smcap">Virginia</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Wingina, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Wingfield, Richard, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Winter, Sir William, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Winwood, Sir Ralph, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Wokokon, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Wollaston, Captain, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Wood, Anthony, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Woodson, Alexander, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Wotton, Lord, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><br />Y</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Yorkshire Tragedy, the, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Youghal, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Great Ralegh + +Author: Hugh De Selincourt + +Release Date: August 14, 2011 [EBook #37080] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT RALEGH *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Katie Hernandez and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEGH] + + + + + GREAT RALEGH + + BY + HUGH DE SELINCOURT + + WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS + + NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS + LONDON: METHUEN & CO. + 1908 + + + + + + + TO + + MURIEL LEE MATHEWS + + _High Cross_ + + + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book has been written for the general reader. Caveat scholasticus. +My aim has been to make the character of Ralegh live again, and to draw +a picture of the times in as lively a manner as I see it. England in +Elizabeth's maturity touched greatness; in Elizabeth's old age and +during the reign of King James, England declined. Ralegh embodied the +greatest qualities of the great days, and survived to carry on the +Elizabethan tradition when the great Elizabethans had passed away. + +The books to which reference has been made are too many to need mention +in a book of this kind: dramatists, poets, pamphleteers, memoirists have +been freely pillaged. But I should like to acknowledge here my extreme +indebtedness to the works of Major Martin Hume, Mr. T. N. Brushfield, +and the late Mr. Edward Edwards, and to thank again Miss Janet Wheeler +for her kind help, notably in that arduous task--the making of an Index. + + H. DE S. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I + BIRTH PAGE + + The spread of news--Birth--Influence of birthplace--His + father--His mother 1 + + CHAPTER II + EARLY DAYS + + His early going to Oxford--Old Ascham on quick wit and + education--Life at a University--The Queen at Oxford--To + the wars in France--Henry Champernoun--Stories of the wars 11 + + CHAPTER III + TOWARDS MANHOOD + + Friendship with George Gascoyne--Its importance--Ralegh + in London--The arch-gossip Aubrey--Elizabethan London-- + Ralegh and Sir Humfrey Gilbert--The beginning of the great + enterprise 21 + + CHAPTER IV + THE ARRIVAL + + In Ireland--The state of the country--Cruelty of the + wars--At Rakele--Illustrative anecdotes--Smerwick-- + Ralegh's initiative--Lord Grey de Wilton--Exploit at + Bally--In touch with the home authorities 33 + + CHAPTER V + QUEEN'S FAVOURITE + + Court life--The Queen's position--Her character--She takes + notice of Ralegh--Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester--Sir + Philip Sidney--Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, and + Walsingham--Robert Cecil--The dress of the courtier--The + language of the courtier--The other side, and the other + Queen--Mary, Queen of Scots--The great intrigue--Its + discovery--Death of Queen Mary 44 + + CHAPTER VI + THE GREAT ENTERPRISE + + Scheme of colonization--Preparation--The sailing--Queen's + interest--Death of Sir Humfrey Gilbert--Another charter + obtained--King Wingina--Hospitality--Sir Richard + Grenville--Difficulties of first colonists--Personal + outfit--Misfortune 71 + + CHAPTER VII + BUSINESS MAN + + The Stannaries--His grasp of detail--"Do it with thy + might"--Estimate of squadron--Scheme of coast defence-- + The clash-mills of Mr. Crymes--Irish plans 88 + + CHAPTER VIII + AGAINST SPAIN + + Spain's enmity--The Armada--Ralegh's opinion of tactics-- + With Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys--The privateers 97 + + CHAPTER IX + RALEGH AND SPENSER + + Rise of Essex--Ralegh retires to Ireland--At Kilcolman-- + At Youghal--Friendship with Spenser--Brings Spenser to + Court--Their dreams 106 + + CHAPTER X + EVIL TIMES + + Ralegh and the Puritans--John Udall--Blount--Ralegh's + marriage--Queen's anger--In the Tower--His sincerity--The + Episode in the "Faerie Queene"--_Madre de Dios_--Robert + Cecil--Sherborne 114 + + CHAPTER XI + THE KINGDOM IN GUIANA + + Ralegh leaves England--Arrives at Trinidad--Taking of S. + Joseph--Interviews with Berreo--Dealings with natives-- + Starts up the river in boats--Dangers overcome-- + Adventures--They reach River Amana--Indian village-- + Within sight of Guiana--Toparimaca--Beauty of the land-- + Falls of the Caroli--The return--Voyage home--Arrival in + England 127 + + CHAPTER XII + CADIZ AND FAYAL + + Division of command--Ralegh's delay--Unwillingness of men + to serve--Disputes--Ralegh's wise plan of action--The + attack--The sack--Ralegh wounded--His small share of + spoil--Return home--Sends ship to Guiana--Death of Lady + Cecil--Robert Cecil's policy--Expedition to Azores-- + Fayal--Quarrel with Essex 150 + + CHAPTER XIII + THE UNDERMINING + + Robert Cecil in power--Downfall of Essex--Ralegh's opinion + of Essex--Governor of Jersey--Peril imminent 167 + + CHAPTER XIV + SUCCESSION PLOTS + + Possible successors to Elizabeth--Lord Henry Howard-- + Spies--Ralegh's position--The net is drawn round him-- + Letter of Cecil--Last illness and death of Elizabeth-- + Carey's ride to the North 178 + + CHAPTER XV + THE TRIAL + + Arrival of James VI. of Scotland--Ralegh in immediate + disfavour--Gondomar comments on James--Ralegh accused of + treason--Cobham and Brooke--Ralegh attempts suicide-- + Cobham's retractions--November 17--And the trial's infamy 195 + + CHAPTER XVI + THE KING'S FARCE + + Comments on Ralegh's fall--In the prison at Winchester-- + Ralegh begs mercy--His attitude explained--The King's own + farce--Ralegh removed to London 227 + + CHAPTER XVII + THE LONG IMPRISONMENT + + Ralegh's efforts to avert complete ruin--True greatness-- + Keeps in touch with life--First two years--The history-- + The first sentence--Reasons for incompleteness--James's + dislike of the work--Its greatness 238 + + CHAPTER XVIII + THE LAST JOURNEY + + Ralegh's influence with Queen and Prince Henry--Death of + Robert Cecil--Rise of Villiers--Liberty--The undying + endeavour--Anecdote--Preparations for expedition--Delays + and uncertainty--The King's treachery--The expedition + starts--Further delays--Storms--Captain Bailey--Ralegh's + illness--At Terra de Bri--His son's death--Return of + Keymis--Suicide of Keymis--Mutiny--The return 253 + + CHAPTER XIX + DEATH + + His reception--Arrest--Journey from Plymouth--Stukeley + and Manourie--The final scene 287 + + INDEX 305 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + SIR WALTER RALEGH _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + THE BIRTHPLACE OF SIR WALTER RALEGH, BUDLEIGH-SALTERTON 6 + _From a Photograph by F. Frith & Co., Ltd._ + + FRANCIS BACON 14 + + MAP OF LONDON 26 + _By kind permission of Dr. F. J. Furnivall_ + + QUEEN ELIZABETH 46 + + WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY 54 + + MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 68 + + A SAILING SHIP IN THE TIME OF RALEGH 78 + + GENERAL VIEW OF LONDON 100 + _From Thornton's "London_," 1784 + + ROBERT CECIL 124 + + KING JAMES I. 195 + + COUNT ARENBERGH 206 + + HENRY PRINCE OF WALES 254 + + PHILIP III. OF SPAIN 260 + + SIR WALTER RALEGH 270 + _From an Engraving by Vaughan_ + + TRAITOR'S GATE 294 + + + + +GREAT RALEGH + + + + +CHAPTER I + +BIRTH + + The spread of news--Birth--Influence of birthplace--His + father--His mother. + + +Life is a series of accidents more or less controlled; the play of +circumstances upon character infinitely various and infinitely involved. +Elizabethan life was superb for the reason that there were fewer men, +and they had the immense advantage of realizing their power and of +possessing scope for their energy. It was the age of discovery, not only +of new lands, but of discovery in every branch of life. Now, a man may +grow old before he has acquired an inkling of what has been found out, +before he has read what has been written finely. The world stands at +ease uneasily, and has time for shuffling and discontent. Vitality and +opportunity then worked in wonderful harmony. We are not less vital, but +our energy is apt to be stifled. Everything is so easy. We read day by +day what has happened throughout the world. There is nothing surprising +except our friends and ourselves--and they are apt to surprise us too +much. Effort begets effort, and effort, strength. The Elizabethan, +without railways, without posts, without telegraphs, was bound to rely +upon himself for everything. + +Man brought news to man by word of mouth, without warning or previous +discussion, or the help of photography. An errand-boy can now know more +easily what is happening in the whole world than a wise man could then +know of what was happening in his county. You did not know of a battle +till you saw the wounded fighters. + +They were shut out from the outside world, and from time to time +dramatically news fired their imagination and minds. And their minds +were trained so that they did not gape and wonder. Their minds were +stored with the wisdom of the Greeks and Romans, and were thrilled as +only trained minds can be thrilled, and roused to a veritable storm of +energy by the huge possibilities of life. The difficulties to be +overcome were material and romantic, and triumphs were more easily +attained. Life was as adventurous as the true tales of adventure that +were circulated at every fireside. + +Nowhere were these tales more frequent or fresher than near the great +sea-ports in Devonshire, where Walter Ralegh was born. The farmhouse +still stands, at Hayes, near Budleigh-Salterton. The country-side has +remained strangely the same in its appearance, a little more populous, +and, after waking to the arrival of trains, has sunk back to its long, +prosperous sleep, contented. No longer do strange ships with stranger +tidings disturb its rest; they are watched for and quietly expected; the +sailors land to learn news, and can tell little but gossip in return. No +longer do horses carry messengers on the Queen's service with packets +marked "_Haste_," "_Post Haste_," "_For Life_," galloping to the Queen's +Chief Secretary, in London. + +News was spread slowly; its effect must have been incredibly impressive. + +In the year 1552 Walter Ralegh was born. He was the second son of his +father's third wife, and so the universal accident of birth seems in his +case to be intensified. It was the sixth year of Edward VI.'s reign, and +an astrologer has noted that year as "a year remarkable in our +chronicles, first, for that strange shoal of the largest sea-fishes +which, quitting their native waters for fresh and untasted streams, +wandered up the Thames so high, till the river no longer retained any +brackishness; and, secondly, for that it is thought to have been +somewhat stained in our annals with the blood of the noble Seymer, Duke +of Somerset--events surprisingly analogous both to the life of this +adventurous voyager, Sir Walter Ralegh, whose delight was in the +hazardous discovery of unfrequented coasts, and also to his unfortunate +death." + +It is not possible to determine exactly the effect of these largest "sea +fishes" on his after-life; their coming may have been mere coincidence, +or it may have been that the same element of an unknown power that sent +the fishes hurrying to untasted streams, made Ralegh restless as the +fish. The point lends itself to straining by its nature, though it is +staidly mentioned by the staid biographer who has been quoted. + +The dominating influence of his life was not the date of his birth, but +his birthplace in the quiet of the country, and yet within the easiest +reach of the fabulous outside world. That influence cannot be +exaggerated. + +Old sailors, who, as young men, had sailed with Jaques Carthier, of St. +Malo, must have stirred the boy's mind with the stories of their +adventures up the river of Canada to Saguenay, where there was gold and +silver and red copper; how they visited the town of Hochelaga, their +captain very gorgeously attired; and how, when their guides had led them +to the midst of the town, they were saluted by the women first and then +by the men; and a comedy was rehearsed for their amusement until, borne +on ten men's shoulders, Agouhanna, the lord and king of the country, +wearing the skins of red hedgehogs in place of a crown, was brought in +and placed by the side of their captain, on a great stag's skin; and how +their captain, seeing the people's misery, read them in a loud, clear +voice the first chapter of St. John's Gospel. Tales, too, young Ralegh +would hear of other wild men and of their prodigious wealth, which they +knew not the value of; of rubies and of pearls bartered for iron and +toys; of the great creatures morses or sea-oxen, "which fish is very +big, and hath two great teeth, and the skinne of them is like Buffe's +leather, and they will not go away from their young ones." And at +Bristol was living Mr. Alexander Woodson, an excellent mathematician and +skilful physician, and he, writes Hakluyt, "shewed me one of these +beast's teeth which were brought from the isle of Ramea in the first +prize, which was half a yard long or very little less; and assured mee +that he had made tryall of it in ministring medicine to his patients, +and had found it as soveraigne against poyson as any Unicornes horne." + +With only a little less eagerness and a wiser discrimination between +fact and fable would the elders of the great Devonshire families, with +many of whom the Raleghs were connected, hear the news and plan schemes +for outwitting their rivals on the sea--the Spaniards--and perhaps +foresee the great part their sons would play in gaining for their +country prestige in this unclosing of the outside world. They would +spare no pains to make the youngsters worthy to carry on the great +tradition of Devonshire gentlemen under the splendid new conditions, +which were daily becoming more apparent. + +A fine stock were the Devonshire gentlemen who watched over the years of +Walter Ralegh's boyhood, whetting no doubt by their interest his +keenness in Latin and Greek, in fencing and riding, and training his +knowledge of men. Among the Gilberts and Champernounes and Raleghs and +Carews, there would be men as skilful in the handling of a ship as in +the proper management of a farm, and to all would young Ralegh listen +with his mind feverishly alert for information, and from all he would +learn what each could teach him. + +Old John Hooker, who lived at Exeter, and helped to write the +continuation of Holinshed's chronicle, knew the boy and took an interest +in him; as is easy to see from his proud reference to the Raleghs' +illustrious descent--royal even he would have it in despite of Sir +William Pole--and from his fine warning to young Ralegh when he was +emerging into distinction to remain worthy of it. "These all," he +writes, "were men of great honour and nobility whose virtues are highly +recorded sparsim in the Chronicles of England. But yet, as nothing is +permanent in this life and all things variable under the sun, and Time +hath devoured and consumed greatest men and mightiest monarchs and most +noble communities in the world--according to the old country saying, 'Be +the day never so long, yet at length it will ring to even-song'--so +this honourable race ... continued in great honour, nobility and +reputation, yet in process of time seemed at length to be buried in +oblivion. + +"Now it hath pleased God to raise the same even from the dead.... And +whereof cometh this that the Lord hath so blessed you, but only that you +should be beneficial and profitable to all men?" And he ends his +discourse, in which a note of almost fatherly concern is heard, with an +apt euphuism about the bee, to clinch his argument and perhaps to show +his knowledge of courtly style (did not he too go to London as member +for Exeter?) "As the bee is no longer suffered to have a place in the +hive than whiles he worketh, no more is that man to have place in the +public weal than whiles he doth some good therein." + +His father, too, was a man to know and appreciate his son's worth. He +had led no uneventful life, though he was, for the most part, +sequestered in the country. He took a leading part in the affairs of the +little town of Budleigh-Salterton. In the great Rising of the West, in +1549, he came perilously near to losing his life. He was riding with +some mariners from Hayes to Exeter, when he came upon an old woman +telling her beads; he stopped to ask her why she defied authority by +telling beads, and the old woman, furious, rushed into the church of +Clyst St. Mary, and inveighed against the gentlemen who would burn the +houses of poor folk over their heads. Ralegh had ridden on towards +Exeter; a body of insurgents overtook him, and he was saved from being +murdered only by hastening into a chapel by the road-side. But he went +on his way again, and again fell into the hands of the rebels; and this +time he did not manage to escape, but was shut up in the tower of a +church at St. Sidwell's--a suburb of Exeter in the hands of the +rebels--until Lord Grey of Wilton won the great battle of Clyst Heath, +in which four thousand perished, and relieved the siege of Exeter. The +incident serves to show the calibre of the father. + +[Illustration: THE BIRTHPLACE OF SIR WALTER RALEGH, BUDLEIGH, SALTERTON] + +But when young Ralegh was a boy, his father's adventurous days were +over; and in 1561 he is mentioned as churchwarden of East Budleigh +parish, and no doubt led his family regularly each Sunday to the family +pew, on which the family arms are still discernible, though much +disfigured--probably too at the command of King James I. of England, who +feared his too ambitious subject even after his death. Little the father +thought of that as he watched the little boy to see that he behaved with +propriety in church and did not sleep or play as little boys are wont to +do during a sermon. Old Ralegh, remembering the terrible reaction during +Mary's reign, would be specially punctilious in such matters; and +fathers then were not lenient to their children. Young Peter Carew, when +he played truant at Exeter Grammar School, was leashed to a great hound +by his father: and we are not told whether Peter and the dog were on +friendly terms. They may have become so; we will hope for Peter's sake +that they did. Certainly, with three young Gilberts, young Walter's +step-brothers--sons of Otho Gilbert--and a family of Raleghs of all +ages, there would be need for stern discipline in church as well as out +of church, and there is little reason for doubting of its existence, +though no account has been handed down of severity as ingenious as that +shown by Peter Carew's honest father. Probably, in young Walter's +upbringing, there was a touch of the ewe lamb, that would account in a +measure for the "naeve of pride" which was such a conspicuous feature of +his developed character. Not that he was spoiled; but his parents had a +soft place in their hearts for him, which he well would know of, and he +was not suppressed so rigorously as he would have been otherwise ... but +this is pleasant conjecture. + +His mother was a woman of character: "a woman of noble wit, and of good +and godly opinions," writes John Foxe of her, and proceeds to tell how +she visited poor Agnes Prest when she was in prison for having +Protestant opinions (that was when Mary was on the throne, and Philip +of Spain was powerful in England), and conversed with her before she was +burned at the stake on Southernhay. "Mistress Ralegh came home to her +husband and declared to him that in her life she never heard any woman, +of such simplicity to see, to talk so godly and so earnestly; insomuch +that if God were not with her she could not speak such things. I was not +able to answer her: I, who can read, and she cannot." + +The story does not relate what answer Mistress Ralegh wanted to give; it +does not necessarily show her a Catholic in sympathy, though she +probably did not sympathize with Agnes Prest's desire for martyrdom, and +wanted to prevent the old woman from losing her life in such a terrible +way. The story illustrates how inextricably religion was bound up with +patriotism, and what a quandary the ordinary peace-loving gentlefolk, +whose wish was to serve God and their country, must have been in, when +the interests of either changed with the sovereign. That was why +Elizabeth, by her policy of gradually cutting the ties that linked +England to the Pope and the countries under his authority, gave such +immense strength to the English; she united, as it were, the strength +drawn from patriotism and the strength drawn from religion, by forcing +England to rely on herself alone; and so she overcame the countries +weakened by the constant antagonism between the welfare of their +religion and the welfare of their state. She saw, as her father Henry +had seen, the value of religion as a political asset; and with cold +common sense she used that asset for all its peculiar worth. Her policy +is more praiseworthy than her religion. Never was woman less religious; +few women have been dowered with her state-craft. Religion and +patriotism became practically identical: their interests were no longer +conflicting. + +The Pope and his followers became, for adventurous Englishmen, +comfortingly akin to the devil and the devil's workers, to have at whom +has always been the privilege of good men since the world began. +Moreover, in this case the powers of evil were wealthy and pompous, but +unwarlike; and wealth is a pleasant perquisite to virtue. + +The time did not lend itself to contemplation. There was too much to be +done. It was a time of action. The material world, with all its +tremendous possibilities, was opening out before the astonished gaze of +Englishmen, and left but little time for the exploration of the +spiritual world. Men of action and men of art passed on their way +triumphantly, "if not to heaven--then hand in hand to hell." + +Young Ralegh would accept his religion from his parents much as he +accepted his sword, resolved to keep both bright and becoming a +gentleman. He was a man of the world; and the world then was boisterous +and unruly. Men revelled in life like boys; their code of honour was as +chivalrous and strange as that of boys. They lived, and they relished +living. + +Into this world young Ralegh went to make his way. He was poor, but had +friends who had caused the spirit of life to thrive in him, who had +nurtured his own belief in himself, and showed him what the world had in +store for the courageous and skilful man. He was proud and ambitious, +and few men have had better reason for pride, or have carried out their +ambition with such success as he. He was always an aristocrat; so +distinguished that ostentation became him, which, on a meaner man, would +have passed into vulgarity. He was the most romantic figure of the most +romantic age in the annals of English history. + +His life was fuller of great accidents than life is wont to be, and all +these accidents of good fortune and of bad he used to the full extent of +a man's power, and by so doing he controlled them and became the master +of his fate. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +EARLY DAYS + + His early going to Oxford--Old Ascham on quick wit and + education--Life at a University--The Queen at Oxford--To + the wars in France--Henry Champernoun--Stories of the wars. + + +Of Ralegh's early education little is known: it is uncertain whether he +was taught at home, or went to one of the Grammar Schools which Stowe +records with pride existed in nearly every country town. When he was +sixteen he went to Oriel College, Oxford, of which his kinsman, C. +Champernoun, was already a commoner, and sixteen was an early age, even +for an Elizabethan to go to the University. + +His kinsman's presence accounts in a measure for this early going (he +started most of his life's enterprises under their shelter, though in +the end he grew to overtop them), but his quick wit was another and the +chief reason. Old Ascham begs the fond schoolmaster to modify his +propensity for caning, and to discriminate between "the harde witte and +the quicke witte. But this I will say, that even the wisest of your +great beaters do as oft punishe nature as they do correcte faultes. Yea, +many times the better nature is sorer punished; for if one by quicknes +of witte take his lesson readelie, another by hardnes of witte taketh it +not speedilie: the first is alwaies commended, the other is commonlie +punished, when a wise schoolmaster should ... not so much wey what +either of them is able to do now, as what either of them is likelie to +do hereafter." He will have none of the quick wit. Slow and sure is his +adage. To him quick wits are "even like over-sharpe tooles whose edges +be verie soone turned." And Ascham was the Queen's tutor, and was +striking out a new line in his theme, in his treatment of it and in his +language. For a scholar of his calibre to write of the education of +little boys, and to write of it in English (fine English it is, too, +with its balanced cadences), demanded profuse apologies, which he is not +slow to offer, and to offer at full length in his preface. No apology +would be necessary now, when Education Bills have been known to overturn +Governments, or even a very few years later than Ascham himself; but in +Ascham's actual day, Latin was regarded as the language of the learned, +and dignity, which Ascham never lost, an attribute of learning. His +remarks are always judicious, and his summing up of the temperament, +which he calls the quick wit, is brilliant if not final. It is in the +nature of generalization to be limited. For there are many wits where +quickness and hardness, which he distinguishes so sharply, are as +memorably, as in the case of young Ralegh, combined--"sharpe tooles" +whose edges be never turned. Such incontestably was Ralegh. His mind and +his character (the motive force) were on the same level of strength; +neither preyed on the other, and he lived in a time when the world +offered scope, as never perhaps in quite the same way before or since, +to the resistless energy of united strength. + +But to return to Ascham, whose little treatise throws an invaluable +quiet light of its own upon the methods of the time, when he was old and +Ralegh was young, and upon the making of great men and the great need +of them--from its conception at the dinner party in the palace at +Windsor, to its finish, years later, when the old man turned once more +to the proper teaching of rudiments, doing his best for the younger +generation whose best would outstrip all that he had ever dreamed of in +his least scholastic moments. There is more than a touch of pathos in +his warnings, for all their staid wisdom, and in his fears lest the +young should be overcome by their "stout wilfulness"; blind as he could +not but be to the goal to which stout wilfulness alone could lead them. + +With a schoolmaster's conscious effort at broad-mindedness he would not +have the young one sit all day at his studies. "To joyne learnyng with +cumlie exercises Conto Baldesoer Castiglione in his booke Cortegiane +doth trimlie teache: which booke advisedlie read and diligentlie +folowed, but one year at home in England would do a yong ientleman more +good, I wisse, then three yeares travell abrode spent in Italie." And he +passes by way of example "two noble Primeroses of nobilitie, the yong +Duke of Suffolk and Lord H. Matrevers" (such a two as "our tyme may +rather wishe than looke for agayne") on to his famous invective against +the Italianating of Englishmen, with that constant note of sadness at +the falling off of the present generation. His ears were deaf to such +names as Sidney, Gilbert, Champernoun, Ralegh, names which time has set +at their proper value, and against which Ascham's noble primroses sink +into their proper insignificance. + +Ralegh was at Oxford only one year, and Anthony Wood writes: "His +natural parts being strangely advanced by academical learning, under the +care of an excellent tutor, he became the ornament of the juniors, and +was worthily esteemed a proficient in Oratory and Philosophy." He +seasoned his primer years at Oxford in knowledge and learning, a good +ground, as Hooker says, and a sure foundation to build thereupon good +actions. + +Only one incident is recorded of that year of his life, and that is +recorded by the illustrious Bacon in his apothegms. "... When Ralegh was +a scholar at Oxford there was a cowardly fellow who happened to be a +very good archer; but having been grossly abused by another, he bemoaned +himself to Ralegh, and asked his advice what he should do to repair the +wrong that had been offered him. Why, challenge him, answered Ralegh, to +a match of shooting." It would be interesting to know how the repartee +came to Lord Bacon's knowledge. + +[Illustration: FRANCIS BACON] + +It is about in the proportion that Ralegh filled his life, compared with +the ordinary way of living, that he took in one year out of Oxford what +most men required seven years to take; for seven years was the usual +time for a full course, and often, as in Germany to-day, men went from +one University to another. + + "Ein jeder lernt das was man lernen kann + Nur wer den Augenblick ergreifft das ist der rechte Mann." + +Not that life at the University was restrained and dull. Far from it. +Listen to Thomas Lever, who spoke of the work some twenty years before +Ralegh's time. "From 5 to 6 a.m. there was common prayer with an +exhortation of God's word in a common chapel, and from 6 to 10 either +private study or common lectures. At 10 o'clock generally came dinner, +most being content with a penny piece of beef amongst four. After this +slender dinner the youths were either teaching or learning until 5 p.m., +when they have a supper not much better than their dinner. Immediately +after they went either to reasoning in problems or unto some other study +until 9 or 10 of the clock, and then being without fire were fain to +walk or run up and down half an hour to get a heat on their feet before +they went to bed." This sounds splendidly strenuous, and shows what was +expected by the authorities, and the standard of the dons to which +doubtless many conformed. From Nash's trenchant pamphlets we see the +other side of the picture. Thomas Lever was a preacher: Thomas Nash was +not. It is while he is engaged in "pouring hot boiling ink on this +contemptible Heggledepeg's barrain scalp" (or as we should put it, +proving in controversy the errors of Gabriel Harvey) that he gives his +sudden glimpses of life and customs in town and university. "What will +you give me when I bring him uppon the Stage in one of the principallest +Colledges in Cambridge? Lay anie wager with me and I will: or if you +laye no wager at all, Ile fetch him aloft in Pedantius, that exquisite +Comedie in Trinitie Colledge: where under the cheife part from which it +tooke his name, as namely the concise and firking finicaldo fine +Schoolmaster, hee was full drawen and delineated from the soale of his +foot to the crowne of his head. The just manner of his phrase in his +Orations and Disputations they stufft his mouth with and no Buffianism +throughout his whole bookes but they bolstered out his part with ... +whereupon Dick came and broke the Colledge glasse windowes and Doctor +Perne (being then either for himself or Deputie Vice Chancellour) caused +him to be fetcht in and set in the Stockes till the Shew was ended and a +great part of the night after." + +This tells a less sombre tale, and when Nash begins to be scurrilous +about John Harvey, the third brother, and records "the olde reakes hee +kept with the wenches in Queenes Colledge Lane" (how strangely places +retain their character!), the tale becomes less sombre still. + +The Queen, too, would make journeys with royal visitors to the +University, as in 1566, when Stowe tells with pride that she made "on +the sodain an oration in Latin to the whole universitie of Oxford in the +presence of the Spanish ambassadors;" so that neither university would +be out of touch with the great world. Nor did the undergraduates keep at +the same respectful distance from royalty that they are wont to now, as +another delightful story of Nash about Harvey shows, who when the Court +was at Audley End came "ruffling it out huffty-tuffty on his suite of +velvet, to doo his countrey more worship and glory." He disputed with +the courtiers and maids of honour, and at last was brought to kiss the +Queen's hand, and the Queen was pleased to say that he looked like an +Italian, a compliment from which he never quite recovered. + +So there would be much to occupy the thoughts and attention of an +ordinary boy of sixteen. But Ralegh in a year was ripe for other things, +and left Oxford for the wars in France. The opportunity came through his +kinsman, Henry Champernoun, son of John Champernoun of Modbury, his +mother's eldest brother, raising a company of gentlemen to fight on the +Huguenot side: and Ralegh took the opportunity of active service. + +Very interesting are the steps in a great man's life. Chance seems to +play so small a part. The instinct to get the most out of his +personality becomes the conscious effort to which perhaps a great man +chiefly owes his greatness. + +Precisely in this way is the boy the father of the man, and Ralegh's +life is a pregnant example of it. He had, of course, no serious motive +for leaving Oxford. He longed for fighting and adventures, and seized +without a thought on the reckless impulse that led him to the wars, +laughing probably at the sad head-shaking of his staid tutors. But he +had learned how to learn: and his passion for life never damped his +passion for knowledge, and impulse led him to the discipline which his +nature demanded. The stern discipline and hardship of war were wanted to +impress him, while still pliant, with the proper value of things by +showing him with war's crude force the bare facts of life and death and +human nature. + +The strength and ability of the body told in those times, when man dealt +directly with man, and encountered nature at closer quarters than he +need now do, when her forces are fended off him and controlled for his +use in ways then only dreamed of. Being weaker, men were rougher and +more cruel. + +That is manifest in the punishments of the Government. Executions were +public. There was no other means for making the punishment known than by +making the punishment visible. A man paid for trespass against the laws +by disfigurement of his body--by branding on the forehead or palm, by +loss of ear or hand: any one dangerous, or who threatened danger to the +order with such difficulty established, was hung and quartered, or +burned, or beheaded, and his execution was public and a sight not to be +missed. The limbs of malefactors were exposed conspicuously at the +Queen's pleasure. + +Cruelty breeds fear, and fear breeds cunning. There was no longer the +shelter of the monastery for the timid or the thoughtful. Accordingly, +craftiness and conspiracy and secrecy prevailed in every corner of the +country. + +But there is the contrary side. The man who was able to be independent +of these circumstances of cruelty, rose above them to heights of +bravery and self-reliance and strength, which are almost unknown in more +peaceful times. There could be no monotony, or slackness of endeavour +when a mistake or a careless word, or even a foolish gesture, might +bring with it the consequence of death. A man was braced to continual +effort and unconquerable control, when a moment's lack of either might +mean life's actual ending, or a lifetime's long disgrace. There was no +place for mediocrity. Those were the days of heroes and nonentities; +soaring heroes, crawling nonentities. + +Thus the chance which led Ralegh to the French wars, and Ralegh's +readiness to seize that chance (chance by itself does little), were +fortunate in the extreme for the best furtherance of his personality's +development. + +In France the religious wars between the Guisards and the Huguenots had +broken out in the year 1562; and as Hayward, a contemporary chronicler, +recounts, "In regarde to her owne person and state the Queen considered +that if the Duke of Guise should prevail these fires of France both +easilie might and readilie would cast dangerous sparkes over the ocean +into England." She could not give aid openly to the Huguenots: but +privately she sanctioned the enterprises of gentlemen who offered their +services in aid of the Huguenots. For the real danger was that if the +Huguenots were wiped out, a formidably close union between France and +Spain might result. It was thus convenient that France should remain in +a state of unrest until England should become properly strengthened and +solidified in her isolated position. Elizabeth's actions were ruled in +this case, as in all cases, not by religious faith or by sympathy with +the people who were suffering death for their faith, but wholly by +political expediency. Religion with her was only a piece in the game, +and she respected it as the most valuable piece. It is easy to cry +"Shame!" and "Treachery!" when modern power over time and space has +modified the rules of the diplomatic game; but game it remains, and +truth in it still plays, and will always play, the subservient part of a +nice convention or a fine pretext. + +So those gallant gentlemen, who longed to fight and could find no more +excellent reason than faith for fighting, went with their companies to +France and fought their fill for the Huguenots. They realized the +unfortunate necessity to which the Queen of England was put in ordaining +that if they were taken prisoners a scroll should be pinned on their +breasts as they dangled from the gallows, on which it was declared that +they met their fate "for having come against the will of the Queen of +England to the help of the Huguenots." That, probably, only lent zest to +their endeavour. They would realize, too, that however the Queen of +England might be forced to act, Elizabeth in her woman's heart +sympathized deeply with the cause for which they fought; and Elizabeth, +be sure, with her woman's wit, did her utmost to encourage them in this +belief, and not without sincerity. + +Henry Champernoun, of whose band of gentlemen volunteers, gathered +mostly from Devonshire, Camden asserts that Ralegh was a member, was +famous among these Huguenot supporters, though not so famous as his +cousin, Gawen Champernoun, a son of Katherine, Ralegh's younger brother, +Sir Arthur. Gawen progressed so far that he became son-in-law to the +celebrated Count of Montgomery. No doubt Ralegh the nephew looked up to +his uncles. + +About his five or six years' absence in France (the date of his return +is uncertain) Ralegh is reticent, partly, as Edwards suggests, in +obedience to the maxim laid down in his "History of the World" which +runs, "Whosoever in writing a Modern Historie shall follow Truth too +near the heels it may haply strike out his teeth;" and partly, too, for +the reason that his experiences as a boy would be adventurous rather +than suggestive. He would have been too young to be enough behind the +scenes to know the motives of movements in which he took part, and the +motives would alone lend a broad or historical value to the adventures. +Among relations, youngness is commonly taken into full account. And +Ralegh, for all his ability, had not probably the opportunity given him +of seeing things other than as isolated incidents. As likely as not, he +was asked to leave the tent or the room when matters of moment were +about to be discussed. + +But certain anecdotes he recalls in his "History of the World," one of +which is well worth telling in his own good words, because it shows the +manner of fighting that prevailed in these wars: "I saw in the third +Civil War of France certain caves in Languedoc which had but one +entrance, and that very narrow, cut out in the midway of high rocks, +which we knew not how to enter by any ladder or engine; till at last by +certain bundles of straw, let down by an iron chain, and a weighty stone +in the midst, those that defended it were so smothered as they rendered +themselves with their plate, money and other goods therein hidden." + +He was not, however, always among the caves and hedgerows; almost +certainly he was in Paris in 1572, sheltering with Philip Sidney in the +house of the ambassador, Walsingham, when the terrible and famous +massacre took place during the night of St. Bartholomew's Eve, in which +the friends of the Duke of Guise boasted that more Protestants were +slain than in the whole of the twelve years of the war. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +TOWARDS MANHOOD + + Friendship with George Gascoyne--Its importance--Ralegh in + London--The arch-gossip Aubrey--Elizabethan London--Ralegh and + Sir Humfrey Gilbert--The beginning of the great enterprise. + + +Ralegh returned from France in 1575 or 1576; and there are three years +of his life--important years, from the age of twenty-three to +twenty-six--which contain little or no record of his doings. Some +authors, on the slenderest authority, maintain that he trailed a pike in +the Lowlands, under Sir John Norris. But this is unlikely. The time of +his possible presence there has been adroitly whittled down by William +Oldys to the early part of the year 1578, and quite recently a document +has been discovered bearing his signature, and the date of the deed is +April 11th, 1578. If the signature is genuine, and expert evidence +points to the fact that it is so, this is an additional, almost +conclusive, proof that during these three years he remained in England. + +There is another matter, intrinsically small, but exceedingly important +because it throws a great light on his pursuits at this time. To George +Gascoigne's satirical poem "The Steele Glas" is appended, among other +commendatory verses, a poem by Walter Rawely, of the Middle Temple, +which runs as follows-- + + "Swete were the sauce, would please ech kind of tast + The life likewise, were pure that never swerved + For spyteful tongs, in cankred stomaches plaste, + Deeme worst of things, which best (percase) deserved: + But what for that? this medcine may suffyse, + To scorne the rest, and seke to please the wise. + + "Though sundry mindes in sundry sorte do deeme + Yet worthiest wights yelde praise for every payne, + But envious braynes, do nought (or light) esteeme + Such stately steppes as they cannot attaine. + For who so reapes, renowne above the rest, + With heapes of hate, shal surely be opprest. + + "Wherefore to write, my censure of this booke + This Glasse of Steele impartially doth shewe, + Abuses all, to such as in it looke, + From prince to poore, from high estate to lowe + As for the verse, who lists like trade to trye, + I feare me much, shal hardly reache so high." + +Edwards thinks, and rightly, that the verses show an intimate friendship +with the poet in whose honour they were written; and "the poem itself to +me discovers," writes Oldys, with his own quaint charm, "in the very +first line of it a great air of that solid axiomatical vein which is +observable in other productions of Ralegh's muse. And the whole middle +hexastic is such an indication of his own fortune or fate, such a +caution against that envy of superior merit which he himself ever +struggled with, that it could proceed from no hand more properly than +his own." + +And these conjectures are strengthened into fact when it is remembered +(and this point seems hitherto to have been passed over) that Gascoigne +was a close friend of Sir Humfrey Gilbert, and a kinsman to Martin +Frobisher. "Now it happened," writes Gascoigne ("in a letter from my +lodging, where I march among the Muses for lacke of exercise in martial +exploytes"), "now it happened that my selfe being one (amongst manie) +beholding to the said S. Humfrey Gilbert for sundrie curtesies did come +to visit him in Winter last past at his house in Limehouse, and beeing +verie bolde to demande of him howe he spente his time in this loytering +vacation from martial stratagems: he curteously tooke me up into his +studie and there shewed me sundrie profitable and verie commendable +exercises which he had perfected painefully with his own penne: And +amongst the rest this present Discourse. The which as well because it +was not long, as also because I understoode that M. Fourboiser (a +kinsman of mine) did pretend to travaile in the same Discouverie, I +craved at the said S. Humfreyes handes for two or three dayes to reade +and peruse. And hee verie friendly granted my request, but still seming +to doubt that thereby the same might, contrarie to his former +determination be Imprinted." + +Ralegh would meet Gascoigne often at Sir Humfrey's house, and to +Gascoigne he probably owed his first impulse towards literature. For +George Gascoigne was the most considerable man writing at that time; and +though his work contained no actual greatness, it was very much on the +right lines, that is to say, he was steeped in Chaucer and Gower, and +acknowledged them his masters, rather than classical authors. Not that +he was ignorant of either Latin or Greek; on the contrary, he was +intimate with both, and his "Jocasta," which he adapted from an Italian +translation by Dolce of the "Phoenissae" of Euripides, was not only one +of the first plays in blank verse, but also was the first known attempt +to produce translated tragedy upon the English stage. + +And therein lies Gascoigne's chief quality. He was an innovator and +original, and that bespeaks force of character, a trait which must have +drawn young Ralegh to him. For like attracts like in a mysterious +manner. + +Gascoigne holds an interesting place in the literature of the time. +Since the publication of "Tottel's Miscellany," in 1557, there had, for +some thirty years, been a distinct lull in the output of poetry, and the +work of Gascoigne was a prelude to the revival that came about the years +1579-1582, when Sidney, Spenser, Watson, and Lyly first made their +appearance, the true harbingers of the mighty tempest of song that broke +upon the world in 1590, and continued for some twenty amazing years. + +He tried his hand, diffidently, as became a gentleman, at every form; +realizing and pointing out, as it were, the capacity of the great +instrument of the English language. "It is no mean feat," as an eminent +scholar says, "to rank in history as George Gascoigne ranks with fair +documentary evidence to prove his title as the actual first practitioner +in English of comedy in prose, satire in regular verse, short prose +tales, translated tragedy and literary animadversion" (in which word the +eminent scholar refers to a short technical account of the making of +English verse, prefixed to the "Steele Glas"). + +And apart from his writing, to which he devoted specially the last years +of his life, there would be much that he would have in common with young +Ralegh. Indeed, his life resembles in little the subsequent career of +Ralegh himself, and the device, "Tam Marti quam Mercurio," suited him as +nicely as it suited Ralegh who afterwards, by adopting the device, made +it famous. He was the son of a gentleman of Bedfordshire, Sir John +Gascoigne, and after going to Cambridge and being a member of Grays Inn, +he served in Holland fighting for the Dutch under William, Prince of +Orange, and had many strange adventures. On his return to London he had +some post at Court, the exact nature of which is not known, and he sat +twice as Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire. What is of special +interest is, that he was in close touch with the Earl of Leicester, and +Lord Grey de Wilton; for in 1575, when the Queen made her famous visit +to Kenilworth, it was Gascoigne who was commissioned to devise masks for +her entertainment; and it is Lord Grey de Wilton to whom he dedicates +the chief of his poems. Therefore it is extremely probable that young +Ralegh owed to him, if not his actual introduction to Leicester, at any +rate a great furtherance of Leicester's notice of Ralegh. It is surely +more than coincidence that Gascoigne's chief patrons should have also +been among Ralegh's principal helpers. + +And Gascoigne's early death, at the age of forty, in 1577, would impress +his influence upon his young friend, and that influence is discoverable +in the directness and freedom from literary affectation of any kind, +which is very noticeable in the work of both. And it is interesting to +speculate whether, without Gascoigne, Ralegh would ever have possessed +knowledge and insight enough to realize later Spenser's worth, which the +scholar Harvey (no mean authority at that time) completely failed to +see. Be that as it may, the friendship of Gascoigne and Ralegh +anticipates pregnantly that friendship of his with Spenser which was of +importance to the literature of the world. + +But Ralegh was no paragon of a young man continually engaged in staid +discourse with his elders. It is refreshing to have authority for a +different and delightfully human glimpse of his life. The authority is +Aubrey, and Aubrey loved gossip--and especially scandalous gossip--so +fervidly, that his stories bear the hall-mark of truth, apart from the +fact that they are too ridiculous to be worth even Aubrey's while to +fabricate. This is the tale, which Aubrey is careful to mention (his +solemnity in telling his gossip comes little short of genius), was +recounted to him by Dr. John Gell. "In his youthful time was one Charles +Chester, that often kept company in his acquaintance: he was a bold, +impertinent fellow, and they could never be at quiet for him; a +perpetual talker and made a noise like a drumme in a roome. So one time +at a taverne Sir W. R. beates him and seales up his mouthe (_i.e._ his +upper and neather beard) with hard wax." Probably Charles Chester took +this summary Elizabethan hint, but Aubrey throws no light on the hint's +effect. + +[Illustration: MAP OF LONDON] + +The little incident is typical, not so much of Ralegh, though it shows +his swift vigour, as of the times. Such a thing happening now would be +likely to cause a scandal which would be known to most of the civilized +world. Then the continents were being discovered which would now join in +the outcry of amazement or laughter. + +London was small. St. Paul's was the centre of life: Chepeside was the +main and fashionable street; the streets were narrow and the houses were +chiefly built of wood. The Mermaid Tavern was in Friday Street. There +were large residences with gardens in the city, public gardens on Tower +Hill, and green graveyards round the churches. The river, crossed by one +bridge--London Bridge--was in constant use; and a wall ran round the +semicircle of the city. Temple Bar, Holborn Bar, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, +Aldersgate, the bar at Smithfield, the bar on the Whitechapel +highway--the gates and bars tell the city area, and outside the walls +clustered the Liberties, where vagrants had their quarters. + +London was becoming crowded. In 1580 the Lord Burghley took measures to +stop the expansion of the city, and from his table of births and deaths +the population has been estimated at about ninety thousand. That figure +is only approximate. There was no actual census until some eighty years +later, when John Graunt, of Birchin Lane, at length succeeded in his +scheme. + +London was lively. Men lived much more in the streets. Merchants met +customers there, and lawyers conversed with their clients. "Newgate +Market, Cheapeside, Leaden Hall, and Gracechurch Street were +unmeasurably pestered with the unimaginable increase and multiplicity of +Market folkes, as well by carts as otherwise, to the great vexation of +all the inhabitants, annoyance of the streete trouble, and danger to all +passengers as well Coaches, Carts, etc. Horses as otherwise," writes +Howes, giving the reason why magistrates of the City, in 1615, reduced +the rude vast place of Smithfield into comely order for a market, and +the citizens began their new pavement of broad free-stone close to their +shops, and took down all the high causes in the Strand and Holborn. West +Smithfield was called Ruffian's Hall, because there the young men used +to fight with sword and buckler. Duelling was prevalent--one of the +sincerities of human life which bursts through the thickest quilted +formulas, as Carlyle ejaculates. Fighting was as common an amusement and +exercise as cricket and football are now. Every serving man, from the +base to the best, carried a buckler at his back. Rapier and dagger, +however, which began about this time, made fighting less common, for it +was far more dangerous than the manner of fighting with buckler and +sword. "It was usuall to have Frays, Fightes and Quarrels upon the +Sundayes and Holidayes, sometimes twenty, thirty and forty Swords and +Bucklers, halfe against halfe, as well by quarrells of appointment as by +chance: especially from the midst of Aprill untill the end of October by +reason that Smithfield was then free from dirte and plashes. And in the +winter season, all the high streetes were much annoyed and troubled with +hourely frayes of sword and buckler men who took pleasure in that +bragging fight. And although they made great shew of muche furie and +fought often, yet seldom any man hurt, for thrusting was not then in +use; neither would one in twentie strike beneath the waste by reason +that they held it cowardly and beastly." + +Pageants and processions enlivened the streets. The Queen and her +courtiers could not hold aloof, and did not wish to. The Queen shared +her father's liking for being on terms of cheerful repartee with the +people. A courtier's arrival was a small event, for he travelled in +state with a large retinue. Young gentlemen attached themselves to a +great man, and wore his colours. And the great man needed a large number +of followers, for his only means of keeping in touch with affairs and +with friends was by messenger, and such messengers were necessarily +brave and trustworthy men. + +Up the Thames came ships loaded, perhaps, with treasure from foreign +countries, and their men would land and spread news of battles in the +Netherlands or Spain; or they would have strange tales to tell of new +lands which they had found, of the manners of strange new peoples, of +adventures with bears or morses or Spaniards, tales of marvellous wealth +waiting for a daring hand to take, of countries where the sun never +set, of seas where meremaiden swam, and where the sound of the cracking +ice was loud as the crash of artillery. Small wonder that the poets +found inspiration in the London taverns, and that men lived almost in +the streets, where at any moment they might meet some fellow with a new +tale of the world's wonder that might very likely be true. + +London was no place in which a man could easily remain inert. The +unexpected constantly occurred on account of the dramatic way that news +was inevitably brought. News came like vivid flashes of light on +darkness, and these flashes were continual. + +Ralegh's energy had always been conspicuous, even in those times. He was +no slug, as Aubrey pithily puts it. And now it is that one of the great +ideas of his life came to him, perhaps the greatest. We hear of him as +connected with Sir Humfrey Gilbert's enterprise for discovering the +north-west passage. Sir Humfrey was instigated by his navigator's desire +to find a nearer passage to the East. But Ralegh widened in his mind the +scope of the scheme, with him it expanded into something immeasurably +greater. He saw the overcrowding of London beyond the limits of health +and of comfort, and this overcrowding was troubling the level head of +the great Burghley, who tried to cope with it by restricting the +building of new houses. Ralegh was a man whose nature always was "to +turn necessity to glorious gain." He saw the tremendous possibilities of +this superabundance of men, how, if they could be placed in these new +lands, they would prove of infinite value to the old country which, by +their presence, they were annoying. He knew that Spaniards had settled +in wild new lands, and lived there for a time like marauders, and +returned home with wealth which they had wrung from the natives. But his +idea was larger; it was the first proper plan of colonization, for his +imagination carried him far on into the future beyond the time of a +generation or two, beyond the seizing of immediate wealth. The vastness +of the scheme appealed to him; the difficulties he realized to be so +great that they were worth a man's while to grapple with. + +And the scheme held him by its enthralling interest, not only because he +was ambitious (as all men worth anything are), and saw in it a means of +furthering his ambitions; not only because he was patriotic, and saw in +it a means of furthering his country's good, but primarily for the +scheme's own sake. The idea obsessed him as an idea quite apart from its +consequences, and whether the result would be good or bad; that would +only be proved by the event, and that doubtless added enormously to the +interest. But an inventor or a pioneer in any new field, who thinks +chiefly of the consequences, does not get far on his journey. That part +of any action is more profitably left to his friends and his advisers, +and they are never far to seek. + +Those were not the days of specialization. Affairs were not so intricate +that an expert was needed to work out every branch of a subject. Less +was known too; and a man of average intelligence could learn all there +was to learn of most things without the standard of knowledge in each +making him appear ignorant of all. + +In June, 1578, Sir Humfrey Gilbert who, as has been said, had been +busily engaged for many years in the discovery of a north-west passage, +obtained a royal charter for the greater purpose. "Elizabeth by the +grace of God, Queen of England, etc. To all people to whom these +presents shall come, greeting. Know that of our especial grace certaine +science and mere motion we have given and granted and by these presents +for us our heires and successours doe give and grant to our trustie and +well beloved servant Sir Humfrey Gilbert of Compton in our Countie of +Devonshire knight, and to his heires and assignes for ever free libertie +and license from time to time and at all times for ever hereafter to +discover, finde, searche out and view such remote heathen and barbarous +landes countries and territories, not actually possessed of any +Christian prince or people, as to him his heires and assignes and to +every or anie of them shall seem good: and the same to have hold, occupy +and enjoy...." run the letters patent with their royal paraphernalia of +phrase. + +And in September, 1578, Gilbert had overcome the initial difficulty of +collecting provisions sufficient to victual his eleven ships for a year, +and of picking the right men for the enterprise, two matters of enormous +importance. In the latter he was not successful. Sir Francis Knollys +owned some of the ships, and his son went on the expedition. This son +sowed dissension where unity was a vital necessity; he insulted Sir +Humfrey Gilbert, and at length deserted. Contrary winds delayed the +expedition, which became disorganized, and after a fight with the +Spaniards was recalled. Ralegh was captain of a ship named the _Falcon_, +and that was in all probability his first engagement at sea. + +The expedition was on such a large scale that the Spanish authorities in +England clamoured for its recall; and there is ample evidence, as +Edwards remarks, to show that Ralegh was as much feared and hated in +1578 by the Spaniards, as ever he was at any later period of his +career. They tried always to thwart his great scheme of colonization, +the greatness of which they realized, seeing the danger of it to their +own possessions, and for a time they succeeded in their aims. + +It is in connection with this expedition that Ralegh's name first +appears in the Council Book. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ARRIVAL + + In Ireland--The state of the country--Cruelty of the wars--At + Rakele--Illustrative anecdotes--Smerwick--Ralegh's initiative-- + Lord Grey de Wilton--Exploit at Bally--In touch with the home + authorities. + + +The scene changes to Ireland, where the continual fighting served as a +training-ground--with France and the Netherlands--for the energies of +the young gentleman of the period. Ireland seemed at this time to popish +powers a suitable starting-place from which to overset the rule of the +woman Elizabeth, who dared to establish again a Church independent of +Rome, and to put her woman's self at the head of it. But the popish +powers were mistaken in their choice. It is true that the Irish were +devoutly Catholic; they were better pleased however to fight out their +own feuds than to join together in any way for any cause. They were +lawless and savage; and not even their hatred of the invading English +could serve to concentrate them. They were far too impatient for serious +warfare. They liked to come upon a foe--a Butler on a Geraldine--like a +whirlwind, fight a terrific battle, and make off to their homes to +listen to the songs by their bards, chanted in praise of their undying +prowess, "as those Bardes and rythmers doe for a little reward or a +share of a stolen cow," until the man of prowess praised "waxed most +insolent and halfe madde with the love of himself and his own lewd +deeds. Of a most notorious thiefe ... one of their Bardes will say, That +he was none of the milkesops that was brought up by the fireside, but +that most of his dayes he spent in armes and valiant enterprises, that +he did never eat his meat until it was won by the sword, that he lay not +all night slugging under his mantle but used commonly to keep others +waking to defend their lives, and did light his candle at the flames of +their houses to bade him in the darknesse ... and finally that he died +not bewayled of many, but made many waile when he died, that dearly +bought his death." + +Such men were not ripe for the burden of a great cause. But one Sanders, +an English Jesuit already past middle age, meeting with Fitzmaurice in +Spain, formed a capital project of passing over to Ireland, subduing it, +and passing from Ireland to England and driving out Elizabeth and her +nation of Protestants. + +In May, 1579, they landed at Dingle, after having on their voyage taken +a small Bristol vessel, the sailors and captain of which they pitched +into the sea. The landing at Dingle was impressive as the ceremony, +which inaugurated the coming of the true religion, must needs be. "Two +friars stepped first on shore; a bishop followed, mitre on head and +crosier in hand, then Sanders, with the consecrated banner, and after +him Fitzmaurice." + +But the expedition did not rise to the level of its inauguration. It +served only to stir up a savage rebellion in Munster, and to bring +devastation upon the country. + +It was to help quell the insurrection that Ralegh came to Ireland as +captain of a company of one hundred foot-soldiers at the end of 1579, or +the beginning of 1580. + +The war--if war it can be called--was carried on with savage cruelty on +both sides. Less could not be expected. The times were not gentle, when +little girls in London might see men hung and quartered, and limbs +stared down from the chief gates of most cities. Nor would mercy be +expected from generals who came to Ireland as Pelham came, and as Lord +Grey de Wilton came, regarding Ireland as the grave of reputation. To +Ralegh, too, the service was itself distasteful. He writes with +characteristic vigour of phrase to the Earl of Leicester, "I would +disdayn it as mich to keap sheepe. I will not trouble your honor with +the busyness of this loste land; for that Sir Warram Sentleger can best +of any man deliver unto your lordshipe the good, the bad, the mischief, +the means to amende, and all in all of this common welthe or rather +common woe." + +The English soldiery regarded the Irish as savages who would not live at +peace, and must be exterminated, with the exception of the actual +tillers of the ground or churls as they were called. And this point of +view was encouraged by those in authority, who had neither men nor money +to spare for guarding and feeding prisoners. "Death," as Froude says, +"was the only gaoler their finances could support." Nothing can +extenuate cruelty; but it is well to face the fact that cruelty, and +cruelty not greatly less atrocious than this, was an absolute attribute +of the Elizabethan age. The one quality, which runs through all the +pages of every history of every man and every movement, is +vitality--intense, burning vitality; and this vitality illumined the +literature, chaotic as much of it is, and beat pulsing through the veins +of the nation, explaining its magnificent advance, and enthusiasm and +greatness, even as it explains its brutality. England was like a boy who +is suddenly conscious of being strong and of being free, with all the +capacity of some young Hercules and all his reckless faults. + +When Ralegh joined the Irish service, Lord Justice Pelham was in the +position of Lord Deputy. Soon after his arrival, however, Pelham was +recalled, greatly to his pleasure, and Lord Grey de Wilton, Gascoigne's +patron and general in the Netherlands, undertook the command of the +forces, and the Earl of Ormond, an Irishman, was made Lieutenant of +Munster. These were Ralegh's chiefs; and his criticism of their methods +of management first brought him, as will be seen later, under the direct +notice of the great Burghley. + +As an active soldier, however, his exploits are exciting and +adventurous, and they are not hidden in the obscurity which hid his +exploits in France. The same Hooker who has been already quoted, records +them with pride in his continuation of Holinshed's Chronicles. + +Ralegh was once stationed with a troop of cavalry at Rakele under Lord +Grey. He was always a well-eyed man and observed that the Irish were in +the habit of hurrying down upon an encampment immediately it had been +abandoned. Accordingly, he made a plan to surprise them, and the plan +was successful. He captured a considerable number of prisoners. One of +the Irish carried a bundle of withies, and Ralegh went up to him and +asked him why he carried the withies. "To hang English churls with," was +the blunt answer. "Is that so?" said Ralegh. "They shall now serve for +an Irish kerne." And without more ado he bade his men hang him to the +nearest tree. The repartee was prompt and savage. It is typical of the +time that it should have happened; and intensely typical that a careful +record should have been made in contemporary history. + +Another time we read that Ralegh, on a small expedition to a certain +Lord Barry, of Barry Court, in a fight against great odds, twice at his +own personal peril rescued one Henry Moyle, who twice was caught in the +soft bog. "He was unhorsed, and stood with his pistol and quarter-staff, +one man against twenty." History does not relate what he said to Henry +Moyle on his return to camp. The two stories stand well side by side. At +the tragic sacking of Smerwick Ralegh was one of the captains ordered to +carry out the last desperate instructions: the siege is illustrative not +only of that bad Irish campaign, but also shows what a personal part +high officers used to take in battles. + +A second band of Papal soldiers, comprised of Italians, Spaniards and +Frenchmen, came to Ireland in 1580, and made Smerwick their +headquarters, a fort on the shore fully exposed to the Atlantic winds. +Here Lord Grey came upon them, but was obliged to wait eight days with +his men until Sir William Winter arrived in Ventry harbour with cannon +and ammunition, and at length joined Admiral Bingham in Smerwick Bay. +Lord Grey galloped down over the sands to welcome Winter. Speedily the +cannon were landed and placed in position before the fort, and the +bombardment began. The English crept nearer after the first day, until +the cannon were within a cable's length of the wall, and Sir William +Winter himself taking careful aim, brought down the enemy's chief piece, +and a man appeared on the ramparts waving a white hand-kerchief. The +firing ceased. Then Signor Jeffrey, an Italian, came to entreat grace +from the Lord Deputy, but grace was refused him. "Afterward their +Coronnel Don Sebastian came forth to intreate that they might part with +their armes like souldiers, at the least with their lives according to +the custome of war ... it was strongly denied him and told him by the +Lord Deputie himselfe that they could not justly pleade either custome +of warre or lawe of nations--for that they were not any lawfull +enemies...." The Pope sent them? asked Lord Grey de Wilton, and declared +himself surprised, the bitter old enthusiast, that gentlemen should +undertake a commission from "a detestable shaveling the right antichrist +and patron of the doctrine of devils." He would only agree to wait till +morning. So on the morning of the next November day, the garrison, seven +hundred men, piled their arms, and with a few women and children stood +waiting, while the great Atlantic waves beat coldly, sullenly on the +shore. "Then put I in certain bands who fell straight to execution," +writes Grey, with grim brevity. Six hundred men in all were slain that +November morning, and Grey had the bodies stripped and laid in neat +lines upon the shore, and Grey looked at them without emotion, and +thought them "as gallant and goodly personages as ever I saw." So he +wrote to the Queen, informing her of the victory, and the Queen wrote +back thanking him, adding a postscript in her own hand (a special mark +of honour) warmly approving of his action: and Camden courteously lies +when he says that Grey shed tears and Elizabeth wished the cruelty had +been unnecessary. Captain of one of these "certain bands" was Walter +Ralegh. Edmund Spenser was at this time secretary to Lord Grey de +Wilton, and he writes in that scholarly graphic treatise in dialogue +form, which has been already quoted, namely the "View of the State of +Ireland"--"Whereupon the said Coronell did absolutely yeeld himselfe and +the fort, with all therein, and craved only mercy, which it being not +thought good to shew them, for danger of them, if, being saved they +should afterwards join with the Irish; and also for terrour to the Irish +who are much imboldened by those forraigne succours, and also put in +hope of more ere long: there was no other way, but to make that short +end of them as was made." Thus writes Edmund Spenser, the author of the +"Faerie Queen," a man not famous for his ferity. + +Praise and blame are easy to dispense: but they are dangerous +commodities. They raise too freely the thick white dust of prejudice +which even dims eyes which are anxious to observe a neighbour, and +effectually blinds eyes that wish to peer into the recesses of a bygone +age. Let us be glad if we are more human and more humane, and avoid +hugging ourselves too closely on imagined superiority. Violent death +stalked down every alley of life; and violent death is not more dreadful +than the haggard existence in which millions are nursed to-day. Our +cruelty is a little less apparent, and more respectable. That is at any +rate something. Let us be thankful for that, and let us by all means +subscribe to the Home for Lost Cats. + +But Ralegh was not content with the perils and excitement of active +service. He possessed initiative. He saw the masses of money that were +being spent, and saw that full value was not being obtained. The war in +his opinion was being mismanaged. He did not hesitate to write to the +authorities at home, stating in round terms what his opinion was. It is +not surprising that Lord Grey de Wilton was annoyed by the young man's +audacity. "I neither like his carriage," he writes to Walsingham, "nor +his company: and therefore other than by direction and commandment, and +what his right can require he is not to expect at my hands." Apart from +the administration of the war there was little in common between the two +men. Lord Grey was a staunch Protestant, unwavering in his religious +zeal, and blind in his hatred of Popery. He would have passed through +Ireland, had he had his will, with the sword gripped in one hand and the +Bible and the English Prayer-book clasped tightly in the other. + +Ralegh was not that order of man. There was nothing grim and nothing +austere about him. He was a man of address. Lord Grey was stiff and +blunt, a Puritan a little before his proper time. Very characteristic is +the sentence in his letter to the Queen, telling of the death of young +Cheke. "So wrought in him God's spirit, plainly declaring him a child of +his; elected to be no less comfort of his good and godly friends than +great instruction and manifest motion of every other hearer that stood +by, of whom there was a good troop." He was inclined to regard most +things from the standpoint of religious experience. He was not addicted +to humanity. + +The Irish were not only rebels against his country; they were what was +far worse--rebels against his own faith, and he sullenly objected to any +measures which might serve to bring them into line with English +interests. He wished to force his own salvation upon them rather than to +make them useful subjects of the Queen. + +That must have been where Ralegh chiefly differed from him. And there is +an interesting example of this difference and of one of Ralegh's chief +powers, to wit his influence over men. For Ralegh was wise and politic. +He saw the state of affairs in Ireland and formed in his mind a definite +plan of action--to use Irish factions to English purpose, and not to +allow them to try and join under the cause of another religion. The most +dangerous enemies were the crafty instigators in the background; and one +of the most influential of these was an Anglo-Irish chieftain, named +Lord Roche, who lived at Bally, some twenty miles from Cork where Ralegh +was stationed. Ralegh convinced Lord Grey of the importance of bringing +this feeder of revolt as prisoner to Cork, and undertook to do so +himself with his small band of followers. And this he did by sheer +dexterity and daring in the teeth of overwhelming difficulty. For the +Seneschal of Imokelly, one Fitz-Edmonds, had wind of Ralegh's intention, +and lay in ambush for him with eight hundred men. But Ralegh outwitted +him by his speed and dashed with his small party through the ambuscade. +That was not all. Arrived at Bally, he was met by five hundred townsmen +and tenantry of Lord Roche. These men he held at bay with the larger +part of his band, and himself, with six chosen men, rode on to Lord +Roche's castle. At the gate he called out that he desired to speak with +Lord Roche, and was answered that he would not be permitted to enter +with more than two followers. But while he and the seneschal were +parleying, the six of them slipped into the gate, and gained admission +for another party which Ralegh had bidden follow him at a short +interval, the attention of the warders being engaged by Ralegh, so that +before the Irish knew what had happened, they found the castle courtyard +full of musketeers, armed and standing to attention. Ralegh meanwhile +was in the presence of Lord Roche, who was forced to treat the intruder +as a guest, and sturdily maintaining his loyalty to the Queen, ordered +his servants to bring in a banquet. Ralegh listened with all courtesy; +and said that it was the will of the Lord Deputy of Ireland to hear with +his own ears this noble confession of loyalty, and that he must beg +leave to escort Lord Roche and his family to Cork. Lord Roche demurred. +Ralegh insisted. It is difficult to decide whether the situation +appealed more strongly to his sense of humour or to his sense of power. +The Irish chieftain at his own table in the banqueting-hall of his own +castle, surrounded by his men and the young captain with his two +soldiers inside, some dozen in the courtyard and a few more dozen in the +town, twenty miles from any assistance! "Desperation begetteth courage +but not greater nor so lively as doth assured confidence," he wrote some +thirty years later. Now his courage was certainly backed by both. + +Gradually Lord Roche came to realize the inflexible determination of the +young man; and agreed to what by Ralegh's inevitable personal strength +of will became his only possible course. He consented to go to Cork, and +went. The story does not end here. Not only did he go to Cork, but from +being the Queen's dangerous foe, he became, through Ralegh's influence, +the Queen's loyal supporter and staunch friend, and three of his sons +actually were slain fighting for the Queen's cause in Ireland. That was +one of Ralegh's triumphs. It shows the mettle of the man and his power +over others, and more than that it bears out strikingly a distinct line +of policy, which he formed then and expressed later, in dealing with the +disaffected. Minding these Irish experiences, it is interesting to read +what he says of Amilcar's treatment of the mercenaries in revolt. +"Against these inconveniences, Mercy and Severity, used with due +respect, are the best remedies. In neither of which Amilcar failed. For +as long as these his own soldiours were in any way likely to be +reclaimed by gentle courses, his humanitie was ready to invite them. But +when they were transported with beastly outrage beyond all regard of +honesty and shame, he rewarded their villainie with answerable +vengeance, casting them unto wilde beasts to be devoured." + +Moreover, it is certain that Lord Burghley respected Ralegh's judgment, +for there is a remarkable paper extant written in the handwriting of +both, which shows that Burghley conferred privately with Ralegh about +the Irish rebellion. The document is dated October 25, 1582, and is +inscribed with the words, "The opinion of Mr. Rawley upon motions made +to hym for the meanes of subduyng the Rebellion in Monster." And in it +the point upon which Ralegh chiefly insists is the pressing need to win +over the Irish chieftains to the Queen's cause; as he had himself +already done conspicuously in the case of Lord Roche. + +There is a story that Ralegh owed his first introduction to the Queen's +favour by his address in a conference before her, in which he proved his +opinion, man to man, against Lord Grey de Wilton, his superior; but +whether this story with all its dramatic possibilities is valid or not, +it is certain that his conduct in Ireland brought him into great notice: +and he was not the man easily to slip from any advantage he had gained. +We hear of him joining the Earl of Leicester in a state mission to the +Netherlands, and then he bursts into final brilliant prominence as +courtier and his Queen's favourite. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +QUEEN'S FAVOURITE + + Court life--The Queen's position--Her character--She takes + notice of Ralegh--Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester--Sir Philip + Sidney--Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, and Walsingham-- + Robert Cecil--The dress of the courtier--The language of the + courtier--The other side, and the other Queen--Mary, Queen of + Scots--The great intrigue--Its discovery--Death of Queen Mary. + + +The Court was the brilliant feature of the time. The Court was not +confined to ceremonial functions and presentations--it was not a bath in +which a man or a woman must be dipped before he or she could lay any +real claim to distinguished respectability. The Court had a vivid +existence of its own. "It was the centre, not of government alone, but +of the fine arts: the exemplar of culture and civilization." The Court +held a lien on the gaiety and life of the time. Courtiers and merchants +(the two chief classes) were as distinct as a little later were town and +gown at the Universities. To be a proper courtier became a cult. + +Three great books, extraordinarily typical of the Renaissance, were +written in almost identical years, books which pointed to new scope for +the State, for the Prince, and for the private man. In 1513 Machiavel +completed _The Prince_, in 1516 Sir Thomas More's _Utopia_ was +published, and in the same year Count Baldassare Castiglione finished +his _Book of the Courtier_. + +The dream of the Utopia may never be realized; but in some seventy-five +years a close example of the Prince and of the Courtier were found in +Queen Elizabeth, and in many of the men who surrounded her. _The Book of +the Courtier_ was translated into all the languages of Europe, and +became the text-book of the cult. Its English translator was Thomas +Hoby, and his work, as has been seen, was commended by the judicious +Ascham. Castiglione was chaffed for moulding his own conduct precisely +on the model of the perfect courtier he portrays in his book; and he +could not but confess that the man of his imagination was the man he +would choose to be. And, indeed, it would be what every courtier would +aspire to be, as Wordsworth's Happy Warrior, + + "This is the happy Warrior, this is he + That every man in arms should wish to be." + +The Courtier must be gallant in the use of arms, proficient in all +exercises of the body, skilled in all exercises of the mind; he must be +ready and witty of tongue; he must be well-born and distinguished. But +his realm is beyond the mere enterprise of accomplishments and birth. +For the book ends with Bembo's great praise of Beauty--that Beauty +"which is the origin of all other beawtye, whiche never encreaseth nor +diminisheth always bewtifull and of itself ... most simple. This is the +beawtye unseperable from the high bountye, whiche with her voyce calleth +and draweth to her all thynges...," and an understanding of this +Heavenly Beauty must be the final trait of the Perfect Courtier. + +And it is well to bear this in mind. For this feeling for beauty existed +in the Elizabethan courtier, just as it gave the finishing touch to +Castiglione's hero; and existed as really as the more conspicuous +qualities of gallantry and strength and intellect. Vitality, as has +been said again and again, was the keynote of the age; and it is +apparent in this aspiration towards beauty, just as it is apparent in +reckless cruelty. The compass of the age was immense. And every +instinct, every tendency of brute or god, raged with intense life, and +was expressed Nothing lay dormant. The centre of all this life, of all +this genius for living was the Court; and the illustrious head of the +Court was Queen Elizabeth. + +Guy de Maupassant has written a story of a small band of French soldiers +who are at the last gasp with hunger and weariness and cold. They cannot +march any further. They are content to lie down in the snow and die. But +two fugitives come running to them, an old man and his grand-daughter, a +young girl. "Allons les camarades," cries the Sergeant Pratique, "faut +porter cette demoiselle-la ou bien nous n' sommes pu Francais, nom d'un +chien." So the worn-out men forget their weariness and carry her; they +dare the cold and strip off their overcoats to keep her warm; they find +new courage and drive back a party of the enemy, and they reach the +French lines in safety. "What's that you're carrying?" asks a soldier. +"Aussitot une petite figure blonde apparut, depeignee et souriante qui +repondit, 'C'est moi, monsieur.' Un rire s'eleva parmi les hommes et une +joie courut dans leurs coeurs. Alors Pratique agita son kepi en +vociferant, 'Vive la France.'" + +There in little is the exact nature of Elizabeth's influence, and her +influence was conscious and acted, not upon the immediate Court alone, +but upon England. De Maupassant does not give any details of the girl, +nothing of her character, not even her name. They are not relevant to +his purpose. She may have as many faults in her small way as Elizabeth +had in her great way. He does not mention them. + +[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH] + +Such a mass of detail, however, is known about Elizabeth, and her +faults have been so relentlessly exposed in the interest of Truth--her +meanness, her avarice, her treachery, her wantonness, and what not--that +the whole picture of the woman who was learned enough to speak in public +impromptu in Latin and could converse in many languages, of the woman +who was great enough to cause her own worship to be the fashion, and the +sincere fashion, of the woman who was sufficiently beautiful and +sufficiently distinguished to shine like a diamond on the forehead of +that resplendent age,--is almost lost to view, so clouded with the dust +of detraction has that picture become. + +She was the very epitome of the time. All the brutality and energy and +brilliance of that brutal, vital age found their counterpart in her. And +she was a woman, a fitting contemporary of Catherine de Medicis. But she +was too much a politician to be a good woman; and too much a woman to be +a good politician. + +To all the power which a beautiful woman, and a woman strong in body and +intellect and passion, always has possessed and always will possess, she +added the prestige of being Queen of England. Whereas the passions of +her father threw Europe into confusion, the love affairs of Elizabeth, +less impetuously managed, often held the balance between nations and +brought every royal prince to England as suitor for her hand, and the +great English courtiers scowled or laughed at them, but were kept in +allegiance by their sovereign. + +Wit, birth, and bearing found favour in her sight. There was no room at +her Court for a fool. She loved wit as she loved splendour. + +The Queen had heard of Humfrey Gilbert's nephew from Humfrey Gilbert's +aunt, one of her intimate attendant women; and when Ralegh first came +into notice by his exploits in Ireland, she was inclined to favour him. +She was interested in his career, as a letter bears witness in which she +writes, "... for that our pleasure is to have our Servaunt Walter Rawley +treyned some longer tyme in that our realme for his better experience in +Martiall affaires, and for the special care we have to doe him good in +respect of his kyndred that have served us some of them (as you knowe) +neer aboute our Parson: theise are to require youe that the leading of +the said bande may be committed to the said Rawley." + +Many stories are extant about his first meeting with Elizabeth. Truth +hides in all of them. Some say that the Queen was present when Lord Grey +de Wilton and young Ralegh were put face to face in a council chamber +before Lord Burghley, and that she was struck by the power and skill +with which he made good his case, proving the lack of judgment Lord Grey +had shown in conducting the affairs of the war. Old Thomas Fuller, that +worthiest of his own worthies (he had an eye for romantic effect, +steadfast as he was for truth in matters of importance), relates that +"Her Majesty, meeting with a plashy place, made some scruple to go on; +when Ralegh (dressed in the gay and genteel habit of those times) +presently cast off and spread his new plush cloak on the ground, whereon +the Queen trod gently over, rewarding him afterwards with many suits for +his so free and seasonable tender of so fair a footcloth. Thus an +advantageous admission into the notice of a prince is more than half a +degree to preferment." Industrious Fuller does not leave it at that; he +proceeds to tell how Ralegh wrote on a window in the Queen's presence, + + "Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall," + +and how the Queen added with more grace than rhythm, + + "If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all." + +Ralegh's heart did not fail him. He became the Queen's lover; and his +influence over the Queen was so recognized that Tarleton, the famous +comedian, dared, during a performance, to add point to the words, "See, +the knave commands the queen," by stretching out his hand towards +Ralegh, who stood by the Queen. And Elizabeth, it is recorded, frowned. +Swift was his ascent to fortune, came the first step how it may. + +Elizabeth was too clever to try to lay aside her sex, though she was a +skilful markswoman, an able horse-woman. Even her staid Archbishop +Whitgift she used to tease, saying (as Isaac Walton gravely records as a +fair testimony of her piety) that "she would never eat flesh in Lent +without obtaining a License from her little black husband: and that she +pitied him because she trusted him." + +She was so born a Queen that she was able to do and say the most +dangerous things without losing her distinction, or lessening her +dignity. + +And it is small wonder in those days when in England the whole force of +the Renaissance turned as it were to a rapture of patriotism that such a +Queen should be the visible emblem of the country, and be herself +worshipped. Men might rave at her whims, they were driven frantic by +them, but in their hearts they cherished her as Queen of themselves and +Queen of their country. Fortunately for herself, and fortunately for +England, her intellect mastered her passions, though that does not +prove that she was passionless: far from it. There is nothing to justify +that last scandal of a moral age which would damn her as a feelingless +flirt. Lord Bacon, the wise Baron of Verulam, summed the matter up +pithily, attaching its right value to the question, which, after all, is +a paltry one, when, in writing on the Fortunate Memory, he says: "She +suffered herself to be honoured and carressed and celebrated and +extolled with the name of Love; and wished it, and continued it beyond +the suitability of her age. If you take these things more softly, they +may not even be without some admiration, because such things are +commonly found in our fabulous narratives of a Queen in the Islands of +Bliss, with her hall and her institutes, who receives the +administrations of Love, but prohibits its licentiousness. If you judge +them more severely, still they have this admirable circumstance, that +gratifications of this sort did not much hurt her reputation, and not at +all her majesty; nor ever relaxed her government, nor were any notable +impediment to her State affairs." And it must be remembered that the +times were neither fastidious nor gentle, and that when Bacon says +licentiousness (_lasciviam_ is the Latin word he uses) he meant +licentiousness. Elizabeth was too sane, and too clever, and too busy to +have time to be licentious: just as she could not have retained her +control over men and control over herself, seen in the adroit way in +which she managed the foreign princes, if she had remained what is +called pure. + +Masterly was her knowledge and treatment of men. Roughly speaking, they +were divided into two classes; those whom she liked, and those whom she +valued: but she kept them all imperiously to her will. The great +Burghley was her man of business; he and his son Robert Cecil were her +chief statesmen, and well she knew their value: capricious and exacting +as she might be, she respected their advice and gave way to it. +"Burghley," wrote Leicester, at the height of his arrogant power, "could +do more with her in an hour than others in seven years." And he wrote +concerning some political business. Never, when Leicester had most +influence with the Queen, did she ever allow him to control her +political actions, or in any way to supplant Cecil. + +Robert Dudley, born about the year 1532, made Earl of Leicester in 1564, +enjoyed the Queen's good-will more continuously and more to his +advantage than any other of her lovers. He was regarded as the chief man +in England by the ambassadors of foreign princes: he was for a long time +the most magnificent. But Elizabeth kept always to her maxim, that +England should be a country with one mistress and no master; much to +Leicester's displeasure. His desire was to be master. He suggests a +comparison with Milton's Satan, "better to reign in Hell than to serve +in Heav'n," when he tried, and tried with conspicuous ill-success, to +become King of the Netherlands. By the old nobility, staunch Sussex and +proud Norfolk, he was hated. With the Duke of Norfolk, he on one +occasion came to blows, when, during a game of tennis, of which the +Queen was a spectator, he snatched her pocket-hand-kerchief to wipe the +sweat from his forehead. They thought him saucy and overweening. To the +Queen his insolence was not unpleasant. Cecil disliked him (he does not +appear a man to hate any one) and judiciously draws up papers +contrasting Leicester and other suitors, especially the Archduke +Charles, much to Leicester's disadvantage. But for all his glitter and +influence, he was hated by the English people. His name had an ill sound +ever since the untoward death of his wife, Amy Robsart. Though the +pamphlet _Leicester's Commonwealth_ is wholly unreliable, which among +other slanders, states that the Lady Amy was actually murdered at his +command, it is most probable that she committed suicide through misery +at her neglect. Well enough men knew what was meant when the husband in +the _Yorkshire Tragedy_ says, after he has thrown his wife down and +slain her: + + "The surest way to charm a woman's tongue + Is--break her neck: a politician did it." + +They thought of the stone staircase at Cumnor and shuddered. The people +did not like his way of cheapening their Queen's good name: they did not +like the man who caused scandals to arise round her. In 1560 Anne Dowe +of Brentford was imprisoned for asserting that Elizabeth was with child +by Robert Dudley; and she was the first of a long line of offenders who +were punished for the same assertion. + +And just as men hated Dudley for his arrogance, and for his daring to +think even of setting himself beside their Queen, so they loved his +nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, for the grace which his hand brought to +everything which he touched. He fulfilled the ideal of Castiglione's +Courtier. He was the antithesis of the rough, unmannered Dudley. In +Dudley all the cruelty and ostentation and savage power of the time seem +to find expression; whereas in Philip Sidney, all its grace and skill +and poetry were manifest. Men vied with one another in his praises, men +fought for the right to call him friend, and a woman became immortal by +being "Sidney's sister." "Sidney, the Siren of this latter age," writes +Barnefield; "divine Sir Philip," Michael Drayton calls him; and Ben +Jonson, as though in defiance of the charge of exaggeration utters (you +can hear him say it), "the godlike Sidney." Even the ribald Nash lowers +his mad voice to the note of reverence, "Apollo hath resigned his Ivory +Harpe unto Astrophel and he, like Mercury, must lull you a sleep with +his musicke. Sleepe Argus, sleep Ignorance, sleep Impudence, for Mercury +hath Io and onely Io Paean belongeth to Astrophel. Deare Astrophel, that +in the ashes of thy Love livest againe like the Phoenix; o might thy +bodie (as thy name) live againe likewise here amongst us; but the +earthe, the mother of mortality hath snacht thee too soone into her +chilled cold armes, and will not let thee by any meanes be drawne from +her deadly imbrace; and thy divine Soule, carried on an Angels wings to +heaven, is installed in Hermes place sole prolocutor to the Gods." His +life was a poem, which all the men who lived with him, and all the men +who knew his name, were great enough to read and to appreciate; his +death is an example for all time. Fame with its common story cannot +sully the brightness of the superb sacrifice of that superb self. + +Dudley expressed the presumptuous vitality of the Court, and Sidney its +vital poetry. A little aloof from the Court, which he was apt to regard +with kindly disdain at its frivolity, moved the staid figure of +Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer of England, Elizabeth's great man of +business, perhaps the finest political intelligence that has ever +thought out a way for a country through the most complicated +difficulties, at a time when disaster crouched ever ready to spring and +involve that country in ruin. + +William Cecil had an absolute mastery over every detail; he possessed a +genius for arrangement. Nothing escaped his notice. He was a kind of +machine which attracted all the wild impulses of the time; they passed +into the machine's mouth disordered, unarranged; and they passed out +shaped, controlled by his slow inevitable will. As a statesman he +appears hardly human in his freedom from all personality; he seems a +mask hiding the brain of England, and regulating it to the only end +where success could be. Men rose to fame fiercely struggling, and did +brilliant acts or mad acts, and sank again or settled as the case might +be; but always at the supreme head, always alert, always careful, +impassive as some Eastern Buddha, sat the Lord Burghley, managing the +affairs of the state, managing even the state's impulsive, whimsical +mistress. His impassivity afflicted her at times, so that she played +pranks on him, vainly endeavouring to upset his restraint and his +dignity; but her pranks were hardly heeded. He was English to the solid +backbone, and resisted unequivocally the rage of fashion that went out +towards all that was foreign; and yet his foreign policy was unswerving +and level-headed; he looked upon war as the last terrible resource of +state-craft, in an age in which fighting was regarded as the highroad to +glory, and was loved for its own wild sake. Elizabeth showed her +knowledge of the right word when she called him her "spirit" and her +"oracle"; and the courtiers their discernment of the obvious, when they +called him "old fox." Together the two names describe him with some +accuracy. + +At his right hand worked Sir Francis Walsingham, who was more astute, +but lacked Burghley's greatness of mind. Walsingham was an admirable +servant: he would never have been successful under the full weight of +responsibility. It was he who developed the system of espionage through +every country in Europe, and brought it to an uncanny perfection. That +system of secret messages was typical of the day; it was so easy to +keep facts hidden, and to pervert them advantageously when news +travelled so slowly, that it was a necessity to have reliable men on +every spot to check statements and to watch events and tendencies. When +Walsingham died in 1590, Burghley showed his indomitable energy by +mastering the intricate cyphers and details connected with the business; +he was then at the good age of seventy. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY] + +As his health failed, his son, Robert Cecil, took more and more of his +great father's responsibilities upon himself; and "The Little +Secretary," as the queen called him, became gradually the most important +man in the realm. He was craftier than his father, and more adaptable, +but he never rose to the greatness of Lord Burghley. His figure is not +so imposing; there was something under-hand about his conduct, which +does not appear in the slow, diplomatic wisdom of the older man. + +There comes a strange interest in knowing that this great intelligence +of Burghley arranged not only the affairs of the State, but the details +of his household with the same impassive power. His steward writes to +him about a new gown which is wanted for his mother: "The gown that you +would make it must be for every day and yet because it comes from you +(except you write to her to the contrary) she will make it her holiday +gown, whereof she hath great store already, both of silk and cloth. But +I think, sir, if you make her one of cloth with some velvet on it, with +your letter to desire her for your sake to wear it daily, she would +accustom herself to it: so as she would forget to go any longer in such +base apparel as she hath used to have a delight in which is too mean for +one of a lower estate than she is." + +And of Burghley's earlier days, Roger Ascham gives an attractive glimpse +in his introduction to _The Schoolmaster_, where he shows the man's +methodical life and wide interests; for the renewal of learning did not +at all pass Burghley by; he was an enthusiast about the proper +pronunciation of the Greek tongue, and in 1541 was hotly engaged in the +disputes. But to old Ascham: he writes about the important dinner, in +1563, at which the subject of his book was suggested to him: "M. +Secretary hath this accustomed manner though his head be never so full +of most weightie matters of the Realme, yet, at diner time he doth seeme +to lay them alwaies aside; and findeth ever fit occasion to taulke +pleasantly of other matters, but most gladly of some matter of learning: +wherein he will curteslie heare the minde of the meanest at his table." + +It is refreshing to see how in his private life he was a simple-minded +man, who suffered from the gout and was plagued with quack remedies, all +of which he carefully docketed, having no doubt tried their efficacy +before he set them on one side. + +Such were the chief figures when Ralegh came to the Court. + +Nothing illustrates his rapid rise in favour so well as a letter which +Ralegh writes to Lord Burghley from the Court at Greenwich. The letter +shows that Burghley had asked for his help on behalf of his son-in-law, +the Earl of Oxford, who was bitterly hostile to Ralegh and had, as may +be gathered from the letter, gone out of his way to do him an injury. "I +delivered Her Your Lordship's letter. What I said further, how honorable +and profittabell it weare for Her Majestie to have regard to Your +Lordship's healthe and quiett, I leve to the witnesse of God and good +reporte of Her Highnesse. And the more to witnesse how desirous I am of +Your Lordship's favor and good opinion, I am contente, for your sake, to +laye the sarpente before the fire, as miche as in me lieth, that, +having recovered strengthe, myself may be moste in danger of his poyson +and stinge. For answere, Her Majestie would give me none other, but that +she woulde satisfye Your Lordship, of whom she ever had, and would ever +have, special regard.... I humblie take my lave. From Grenewiche this +present Friday, May 12, 1583." + +Here is Lord Burghley using the help of the young man whose valour and +address in Ireland he had observed and whom he had helped to make. +Ralegh is now prominent among the courtiers; he takes a leading part in +the life of the Court, and the life of the Court is brilliant and +occupied. The town was too small and the streets of the town too narrow +for the courtiers to hold themselves aloof, as money allows the +fashionable to do now; no special quarter of the town was assigned to +them. They kept themselves distinct from the townspeople without the +help of locality or space. The laws helped them, however, in the matter +of dress. Curious sumptuary laws were still in force, which forbade any +one under the degree of baron to have more than three linings to his +breeches; which forbade any one whose income was less than L100 a year +to wear satin, damask, silk, camlet, or taffeta, and any one who was not +worth more than L200 to wear velvet or embroidery. "The English," writes +Van Meteron, a Dutch historian and contemporary, "dress in elegant light +and costly garments but they are very inconstant and desirous of +novelties, changing their fashions every year, both men and women. When +they go abroad riding or travelling, they don their best clothes, +contrary to the practice of other nations." And to this craze for +constant novelty in dress a contemporary poem bears amusing witness-- + + "Hees Hatted Spanyard-like, and bearded to, + Ruft Itallyon-like, pac'd like them also; + His hose and doublet Frenche: his boots and shoes + Are fashond Pole in heeles, but French in toes. + Oh! hees complete: what shall I descant on? + A compleate Foole? noe, compleate Englishe mon." + +This fashion of dress lent wide scope to bad taste, and such books as +Dekker's delightful _Guls Hornbook_ show how hard gulls tried to be +gallants and how ridiculously they often failed. And it gave the genuine +courtier full scope for magnificence. Ralegh could wear white satin and +pearls. + +Not only in dress was the courtier distinct, but also in language. +Fashions in speech were constantly in vogue. None was more pronounced +than the fashion set by John Lyly, who wrote elegant court plays and the +novel _Euphues_. Of Euphues with his instructive letters and sound moral +tone Sir Charles Grandison is the direct descendant: Richardson owed as +much to Lyly, as Defoe to Thomas Nash or Fielding to Defoe. But that is +a literary by-path which leads to the history of fiction. His immediate +influence was on the speech of the courtiers and the language of the +Court. "That beautie in Court which could not parley Euphuisme was as +shee which now there speaks not French." John Lyly came to Court about +1577 and was helped by Lord Burghley; perhaps the rage of affectation +which he started, gave the stern Lord Treasurer a distaste for poets and +was one of the reasons which made him disinclined to favour Spenser +afterwards. Probably Lyly seemed innocuous enough at first, with his +modest desire to lie shut in a lady's casket rather than open in a +scholar's library. No one could have foreseen the frenzied fashion which +he inaugurated and which with its stilted periphrases must have been +sorely irritating to the great matter-of-fact man of business. No wonder +he looked askance at poets. Euphuism, as the jargon is called, has been +described many times; it was the first effort in English towards +ornament in speech. In itself it was wholly good; in its excess it was +wholly bad. + +As a fashion of speech it must have been not a little wearisome. And +indeed that proved to be the case; for its place was taken about as soon +as dull people were beginning to obtain the knack of it by another +fashion, no less elaborate, but of a different manner of elaborateness +taken from Sir Philip Sidney's _Arcadia_. Here a jingle on one word was +the effect to be obtained, as for example, "Each senselesse thing had +sense of pity; only they that had sense were senselesse." This fashion +set by a writer upon the speech of the fashionable finds a modern +counterpart in the influence of Oscar Wilde, with this difference that +his pointed epigram becomes feeble nonsense and his genius for using the +right word degenerates into amiable talk about passionate neckties and +purple sin; whereas with Lyly's and Sidney's manner no imitation could +be feebler or more exaggerated than the original often is--not always. +Lyly has real wit and fancy, especially in his charming court plays, as +when he writes, "They give us pap with a spoon before we can speak, and +when we speake for that we love, pap with a hatchet"; there he is +inimitable. + +The common task of dress and language was sufficiently elaborate to keep +a courtier of average intelligence busy. And when he was equipped in +mind and body there were countless ceremonies and functions at which his +presence was expected. The Queen was in continual progress, and every +progress was a pageant, whether by land or river, whether she were +journeying from one palace to another, or visiting a university to +encourage learning, a town or a noble subject to show her gracious +favour and to give her subjects the opportunity of proving by their +hospitality their loyalty. She kept in constant touch with her people. +And on her progresses she was accompanied by her principal courtiers, +who were themselves followed by a suite of gentlemen retainers. In this +excellent display of the superficial side of life--the very panoply of +existence--Ralegh by his wit and by his bearing was conspicuous. He was +as famous for his power of turning a neat phrase as he was famous for +his power of wearing with grace a fortune in one suit. Many men were +obliged to give all their attention to the brilliant outside of things +to keep pace at all with the changes of phrase and habit; and would +never be at ease in either. Ralegh owed his envied distinction in both +chiefly to the reason that he always held them at their proper value. +His nature was magnificent, and instinct led him naturally to a height +which others could not climb to with the greatest conscious effort. In +that he was like his mistress, Queen Elizabeth. + +It is fitting that such life should be gorgeously caparisoned; there was +no homespun in its disposition. + +But there is another side to the picture of this Court, a second party +in the Court and the country. For some fifteen years another woman had +been living under restraint in England--a woman who was the mother of a +king; who had been queen of two kingdoms and aspired to be queen of a +third; she was of great personal power though not so powerful as +Elizabeth. She was a devout Catholic and was called Mary, Queen of +Scots. A large number of gentlemen had remained faithful to their +religion. These Catholics were divided roughly into two classes, those +who were faithful to their religion and to their country, and those who +were primarily faithful to their religion and would stop at nothing to +establish Catholicism again in England They looked on Mary, Queen of +Scots, as their rightful head. The moderate Catholics wanted to make +sure that she would succeed Elizabeth; the fanatical Catholics wanted to +kill the usurper at once and let Mary reign in her stead. + +As years passed by and Elizabeth remained unmarried and averse to the +mention even of a successor, the question became acute, not in England +only but throughout Europe. Spain and France were anxious to have a +Catholic sovereign in England; but neither wanted the other to have the +added strength of England as a dependency. Elizabeth kept playing them +off one against the other with her various matrimonial schemes; and Mary +was in correspondence with them, trying to exact promises of assistance. +Intrigue grew more and more involved. At last matters came to a head. It +became recognized, after the dismissal of the Duc d'Anjou as a suitor, +that Time itself would no longer permit a marriage for Elizabeth. The +Catholics in larger numbers resolved that her death was imperative and +the death of her strong supporters. Elizabeth with the fearlessness of +true strength had allowed Mary great freedom of correspondence in her +confinement. Now she cut her off from the outside world, until a +diplomatic necessity arose to know exactly how far foreign powers were +prepared to support Mary, how far they were speaking their true +intentions in their dealings with Elizabeth. Walsingham had spies in +every influential Catholic household in England, at all the Courts and +even the Jesuitical centres in Spain and France. But the information was +not yet sufficient. Nothing illustrates more effectively the +extraordinary difficulty of obtaining accurate news in those days of +slow travelling and messengers, than the elaborate method which +Walsingham and Elizabeth were obliged to arrange at this juncture. It is +a mistake to suppose it illustrates the treachery and deceitfulness of +the times. The times have changed not in moral tone but in quickness of +transit. Men are very much the same; but steam and electricity, the +telegraph, the telephone, and a postal system have altered the aspect of +affairs and the methods of conducting business or intrigue. + +The plan they contrived was both ingenious and successful. With the help +of one Gilbert Gifford, trained in unscrupulous cunning by the Jesuits, +they encouraged Mary to open a correspondence with her confederates +abroad, and they tapped this correspondence at the fountain-head. Mary +was removed to Chartley, near the home of Gifford, whose family was +staunchly Catholic. A brewer at Burton supplied Chartley with beer. Into +the cask of specially good beer for Mary and her attendants and +secretaries was fitted a water-tight box, and in this box were placed +the letters. With the brewer was staying Walsingham's secretary +Phillipps, a thin red-haired man skilled in cypher, and he transcribed +all the letters at Burton before they were sent through an underground +post, which had been carefully arranged by the young and +innocent-looking Gilbert Gifford, to the Jesuit agency in London. Only +six people knew of the whole scheme. Elizabeth, Walsingham, Gifford, +Phillipps, Paulet, Mary's Puritan keeper, and the brewer of Burton. The +brewer was evidently a man whose business instinct was fully developed. +Not only did he receive large and complicated bribes from Elizabeth and +from Mary, but he demanded also a higher price for his beer. This demand +shocked the good Paulet unspeakably, and throws an interesting sidelight +upon the moral sense of the day, and proves that it worked as subtly +then as it works now. + +From this correspondence Elizabeth learned, what her strange foresight +taught her to expect, that France and Spain were too frightened of each +other to take any resolute step against her in favour of Mary. But it +happened also that she learnt something quite unexpected and of extreme +importance, and that was the plot which is known as the Babington +conspiracy. She was able to thwart a national calamity and to preserve +her own life. + +Among the most fanatical of the Catholic disaffected was a Jesuit, named +John Ballard. He had obtained a private bull from Gregory XIII., +sanctioning the murder of Elizabeth, and was unremitting in his efforts +to find a man daring enough to undertake the task. He travelled through +England, disguised in blue velvet, as Captain Fortescue, rousing all the +Catholic gentlemen to concerted action, and convincing them that +Elizabeth's death was a papal necessity. Lord Arundel vouched that he +could answer for the Tower, though he was a prisoner within its walls; +his uncle, Lord Henry, would raise the eastern counties; Sir William +Courtenay promised to seize Plymouth; Lord Montague, Lord Vaux, Lord +Stourton, Lord Windsor, and many others, whose names on earth are dark, +swore a great oath to stand by the cause and by themselves. Everything +was in readiness for a general rising so soon as the blow should fall +which should rid England of Elizabeth. The letters of Mendoza, the +Spanish ambassador, show how confident he is of a complete revolution. +Certainly Elizabeth had need of staunch friends whom she was wise to +bind to herself by every tie her personality could fashion, and staunch +friends she possessed and held in her possession. + +And now the men were found at last by Ballard who were ready to strike +the blow. They were men who waited upon the Queen's person. The chief +amongst them was Anthony Babington, of Dethick, in Derbyshire. He had +been a page at Sheffield when the Queen of Scots was first in charge of +Lord Shrewsbury, and, like many other men, young and old, who came under +the fascination of her influence, he was passionately devoted to her, +with all the strength of devotion that a beautiful woman in +distress--still more, a beautiful queen--must inevitably arouse. The +spirit of chivalry which the great rival Queens infuse into these plots +takes away the sordidness and pettiness which breathes from mere +political intrigue, and lends a poignant majesty to the terrible +dramatic end of it all. This Anthony Babington obtained the help of +Charles Tilney, one of Elizabeth's gentleman pensioners, of Edward +Abington, the son of her under-treasurer, of Jones, of Dunn, of Robert +Barnwell, who was an Irishman on a visit to the Court, and of other +young men. Walsingham and Elizabeth knew of them all, and watched them +continually. Elizabeth's bravery was magnificent Any moment she might +have met death at the hand of an assassin; but she remained undaunted. +Her fearlessness no doubt affected the conspirators, though quite +unconsciously. They did not know that their every action was watched. +Like many other young enthusiasts, they were reckless and self-confident +to the verge of lunacy, and as soon as they came to realize that their +plot was found out, they lost their heads completely. Abject fear took +the place of their courage. They saw the resistless power that was +ranged against them, waiting. They fled; but it was too late. The plot +was revealed to the public. Ignominy and shameful death awaited the men +who hoped to be welcomed as the saviours of their religion, the daring +knights of their queen-lady. Their names were proclaimed and the nature +of their intentions. Babington had fled to St. John's Wood, which was +then a "forest interspersed with farms," and from there he managed to +make his way to Harrow, where he with four others lay hid on haystacks +and in the straw of barns. But they did not remain long undiscovered. +Amid the ringing of bells and the wildest rejoicings they were taken +back to London. And very soon they were hung, drawn and quartered +publicly. + +How many knew of the Queen's imminent danger is not certain. Probably +she kept it from her most intimate friends. Her strength was equal even +to that. Nor is it known how much Ralegh knew of his mistress's danger; +it is not likely that he was entirely ignorant of it, for to him was +given the whole of Babington's estates, which were large and +remunerative. It is certainly a last proof of Queen Elizabeth's amazing +vitality, that in the midst of this dangerous turmoil of plot and +counterplot which surrounded her, she was able to find occasion for the +display of love and affection. For it was during these last desperate +endeavours of the Catholic party that she first drew Ralegh to herself. +She had seen to his advancement, and taken care that he was provided +with the wealth that he needed for his position at Court and that his +personal taste for magnificence desired. She had given him the Farm of +Wines, which, even allowing for the money that one Richard Browne +tricked him out of, brought him in a good income; and, in 1585, he +succeeded Francis, Earl of Bedford, as Lord Warden of the Stannaries, +and shortly afterwards became Lieutenant of the county of Cornwall, and +Vice-Admiral of the counties of Cornwall and Devon. The Queen had need +of staunch friends around her. And it is not due only to a woman's +whim, at which many have mocked, that she kept these men, her +favourites, at Court even sometimes against their will, as when she +prevented Sidney, in 1585, from heading the Virginian colonists, and, a +year or two later, sent Sir Robert Carey to fetch back the Earl of +Essex. Their presence became a necessity to her, because their presence +helped to vouch for her personal safety. It gave her an assurance of +security to see such men by her side, though doubtless their presence +flattered her vanity as well. Moreover, there seems to be something +exhilarating in a woman who could go in perpetual danger and known +danger of murder, and yet keep to the end her woman's desire for +admiration, which is the producer of many graces, and not at all in +itself a proof of pettiness. It depends upon what she considers to be +admirable. + +The Babington conspiracy by which Ralegh was ultimately enriched brought +about a crisis between the loyal and disaffected. The result of the +ingenuity of Walsingham and Elizabeth in contriving the plan by which +Mary, Queen of Scots betrayed herself, placed her intentions beyond all +question. It was clear that she intended to stop at nothing; that she +was anxious for Elizabeth's murder. It was certainly the easiest +solution to her difficulties, and she was the protectress of the true +religion, the head of which had sanctioned the murder. She was that most +dangerous of enemies, a sincerely religious woman of great cleverness +and no principles. Without discussing the ethics of murder and +execution, it is easy to understand Mary's position; and it is not easy +to understand Elizabeth's conduct. Mary was found guilty of high +treason, and the law of the land assessed the penalty for high treason +at death. But Elizabeth could not bring herself to sign the death +warrant. It is difficult to understand why. She was supported by the +authority of the kingdom, but she tried to avoid this last +responsibility. Her conduct illustrates the peculiar blend of craft and +sensitiveness which circumstances had developed in her character, and +which, be it noted, were conspicuous traits of many other great +characters of the time--conspicuously, for example, of Bacon and of +Ralegh. She tried to make Walsingham incur the responsibility and the +odium of the deed. She abused him when he demurred at her proposal. And +finally, when she had given her signature, she swore that it had been by +a mistake, and Walsingham, for ever impoverished by her displeasure, +retired indignant to his house at Barnelms. He became hateful to her, +and nothing could reinstate him in her favour. It was as though he were +a tool which she had cut herself in using, which she flung from her in +anger and without compunction. + +But at length the day of Mary's death came. That was pre-eminently the +time of pageant and display--the display of gorgeous life in the great +Court functions; the display of dreadful death in the public executions. +Both were combined in dramatic intensity at this last scene of Mary's +life. Hers was a Queen's death. + +In November of the year 1586 her sentence was passed. For three months +Europe was agitated by uncertainty whether the sentence would be carried +out, and what would be the result of her death, if it were. For three +months she held her ground as the martyr of her religion, an +unassailable position. For three months she decked her tragedy with the +robes of majesty and of pathetic grace. When Paulet tore down the regal +hangings from her room, saying that they no longer became a traitress, +she hung the crucifix in their place and pointed to it in silence when +he came to her again. + +The day of her execution was the second Wednesday in February, 1587. +Three hundred knights were assembled in the hall of Fotheringay Castle. +When the Provost-Marshal and the Sheriff came to fetch her from her +room, they found her no longer dressed in the customary grey cloth, but +clothed in a robe of black satin. Her hand on the arm of one of the +guard, she passed tall and erect down the broad oak staircase to the +hall. At the end of the hall loomed the scaffold swathed in black; the +dancing flames of a great crackling wood fire moved light shadows across +its blackness, and flickered on the bright steel of the axe which was +leaning against the block. By the block stood the executioners, masked +and in black. She who was cousin to the Queen of England, who was a +married Queen of France and anointed Queen of Scotland, passed up the +hall, followed by her six friends. Her waiting women tried and tried +vainly to keep back their sobs--Elizabeth Kennedy and Barbara Mowbray. +She ascended the black scaffold and sat down--smiling. Beale read aloud +the sentence. + +"Madam," said Lord Shrewsbury, "you hear what we are commanded to do." +"You will do your duty," was her reply. Then the Dean of Peterborough +endeavoured to play his accorded part, but three times he broke down in +addressing her. When he at length began to pray, Mary too prayed in +Latin, and at length her voice alone sounded through the hall. No longer +she prayed in Latin as she had prayed at first, she prayed in English +without a falter in her voice. With sublime audacity she prayed that God +might forgive and bless her son, James VI. of Scotland, and her cousin, +Elizabeth of England, and that He might avert His wrath from Elizabeth's +country. She finished; the black mutes stepped forward. The scaffold +creaked under their movement. They asked her forgiveness for what they +were going to do, according to the custom; and forgiveness was granted +them. "I forgive you," she said, "because now I hope that you will end +all my troubles." Her ladies, Elizabeth Kennedy and Barbara Mowbray, +mounted the steps of the black scaffold in order that they might help +her to make ready. They lifted the lawn veil carefully, not to +disarrange her hair. Swiftly they removed the black robe; swiftly they +took her arms from out the black jacket, slashed with velvet, and set +the jacket on one side. Dazzling in crimson satin she stood on the black +scaffold, revealed in red satin between the black mutes, as she drew +over her white arms crimson sleeves, which her ladies, now trembling, +handed to her. But she drew them on as a lady her gloves, without haste. +"Ne criez-vous, j'ai promis pour vous," she turned to them and said. She +knelt and laid her head on the block: it was hard to her soft neck, so +she put her hand underneath, murmuring the Psalm "In Te, Domine, +confido." But the headsman moved her hand away, fearing its softness +might hinder his business. Then he struck, but the blow fell lightly, +and fell on the knot of the hand-kerchief with which her eyes were +bound. He struck again, and had only to move the axe across the block to +cut the last shred of skin. "So perish all the enemies of the Queen," +called out the Dean of Peterborough, as the executioner held out the +head at his arm's length. Only the strength of her vitality and her +cleverness had kept beauty in her face. The head that was thus held up +at arm's length was the head of an old and wrinkled woman. Death +grinned. + +[Illustration: MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS] + +As they set about stripping the body, a lap-dog, hidden in her clothes, +howled and lay down crying out by the neck from which the blood was +flowing. It was carried away. + +Then all her things--dress, beads, Paternoster, hand-kerchief--were +taken to the great wood fire which still burned merrily, and burned +before all the people. No relics must be left. + +Henry Talbot, son of Lord Shrewsbury, was given the account of the +proceedings, and rode off with them post-haste from Fotheringay along +the bad roads to London. + +So died Mary, Queen of Scots, and her death was one of the surest, most +definite steps that was ever taken towards cutting England off from +papal authority. Henceforward, England stood alone. Henceforward, the +force of patriotism and of religion were to be combined. + +Such things happened in the time of Walter Ralegh. He may have been +present. If he were, the memory of it must have come to his mind some +thirty years later, when he touched the edge of another axe with his +thumb and approved of its sharpness. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE GREAT ENTERPRISE + + Scheme of colonization--Preparation--The sailing--Queen's + interest--Death of Sir Humfrey Gilbert--Another charter + obtained--King Wingina--Hospitality--Sir Richard + Grenville--Difficulties of first colonists--Personal + outfit--Misfortune. + + +Court life, for all its brilliance and excitement, did not monopolize +Ralegh's attention. He had gained wealth and position: he was near the +Queen. That did not suffice him. He was a man of imagination, who could +never rest content with the attainment which, as man of action, he had +achieved. Rarely have the two qualities been so often combined as they +were in the Elizabethan times, and rarely, even then, were they combined +with such force and in so high a degree as they were in great Ralegh. He +bent his energies on the scheme for colonization. The old idea was that +Paradise lay somewhere on the surface of the world; all through the +Middle Ages the dream existed. Columbus thought that the earth was +probably shaped like a pear, not spherical but elongated, and "on the +summit of the protuberance was situated the earthly Paradise, 'whither +no one can go but by God's permission.'" + +That dream continued. It came to Marlowe and obsessed him. But Marlowe +dreamed of no mediaeval Paradise. + + "Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed + In one self-place; for where we are is hell + And where hell is there must we ever be." + +And his god was power; his demi-god, the man who, like Scythian +Tamburlaine, lived-- + + "Threatening the world with high astounding terms + And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword." + +There was no limit set to the enterprise of man's energy; his power was +measureless and divine. Only in the realm of beauty his step might +falter; beyond all achievement, and all the beauty of achievement, there +would always hover-- + + "One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least + Which into words no virtue can digest." + +Marlowe wrote intoxicated with this elixir of infinite possibility. The +sea-dogs, men of action, seemed almost to be realizing his dreams, +fighting the next ship that met them, like Drake always sailing a little +further on, coming home with spoils and tales of wonder, and starting +out in search of fresh adventures; or there were men like Frobisher, who +combined the buccaneer with the spirit of the scientist, and who were +anxious to learn new geographical facts; or men like Gilbert, who were +serious-minded enough to be whole-hearted in the cause of science; or +men like Ralegh, in whom all these elements seem to have been +struggling. This paradise of unknown lands worked in all ways upon his +mind. Not Columbus before him, not Balzac after him, realized more +keenly the power of money. He saw, with Gilbert and the industrious +Hakluyt, the value of geographical knowledge, but what fired his +imagination was the vision of another Empire across the seas, and that +vision he was impatient to realize. He inspired the painstaking Hakluyt, +and he quietly made it his life's purpose to further the project. It was +Ralegh who grasped the true meaning of the vague aspirations and whose +personality was big enough to set the first slow forces at work. His +immediate schemes failed, but without those initial failures Captain +John Smith would never have succeeded, as he did succeed some fifteen +years later, in founding the colony of Virginia, from which has at +length grown, in the space of four hundred years, the present American +nation. So are our dreams of Paradise materialized into fact. + +The attempt which Gilbert and Ralegh had made at colonization in 1578 +had failed. + +But Ralegh, in his influential position, saw a means of turning his +scheme to advantage. As has been seen, the unrest of the Catholic party +was becoming more and more acute, until it reached its climax in the +Babington conspiracy and the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Ralegh +saw his opportunity. He knew as well as Walsingham that there were a +large number of Catholic gentlemen who were desirous of remaining loyal +to their country and loyal to their religion. The wish was as sane as it +was difficult to realize. Naturally (and rightly from their point of +view) the Jesuits and other Catholics, whose enthusiasm made them +fanatical, hated these moderate gentlemen, and called them Schismatics. +Ralegh saw how they might be employed to the advantage of his scheme, +just as a few years previously, when the overcrowding of London was +troubling Burghley, that overcrowding suggested the immediate material +of his scheme. He suggested to Walsingham a solution of the difficulty, +that these gentlemen should form a separate kingdom, should found the +colony in Virginia. In June, 1582, Sir George Gerrard and Sir Thomas +Peckham were empowered to do this. The new plan was set in motion in +spite of Papal warnings and even Papal veto. Two ships were sent to spy +out the land that summer, and in the spring of the following year all +was at length in readiness for actual sailing. Ralegh himself intended +to be vice-admiral,[A] but the Queen forbade him to join the expedition. +He had, however, constructed, on plans of his own devising, an immense +sailing-vessel of 200 tons, which was called the _Bark-Ralegh_ (not to +be confused with the flagship of the fleet which repulsed the Armada +five years later, called the _Ark-Ralegh_). The other vessels were the +_Delight_ alias the _George_, of 120 tons, "which was the Admirall;" the +_Golden Hinde_ of 40 tons, "which was the Reare Admirall;" the +_Swallow_, of 40 tons, and the _Squirrill_, of 10 tons. "We were in +number," writes Mr. Edward Hayes, gentleman, who sailed on the _Golden +Hinde_, "in all about 260 men: among whom we had of every faculty good +choice, as Shipwrights, Masons, Carpenters, Smithes and such like, +requisite to such an action: also Minerall men and Refiners. Besides for +solace of our people and allurement of the Savages, we were provided of +Musike in good variety: not omitting the least toyes, as Morris dancers, +Hobby horsse, and Maylike conceits to delight the savage people whom we +intended to winne by all faire meanes possible. And to that end we were +indifferently furnished of all petty haberdasherie wares to barter with +those simple people." + + [A] Professor Raleigh writes: "Ralegh, who never took kindly to + a subordinate command, deserted the expedition for some + reason unknown." But it is not at all probable that he + ever started.--"The English Voyages," p. 58. + +On June 11 the expedition sailed from Causon Bay. The day was Tuesday. +Misfortune came very soon upon them. On Thursday evening the news was +signalled from the _Bark-Ralegh_ that the captain and very many of the +men were fallen sick; and at midnight, "notwithstanding we had the wind +East, faire and good," the vice-admiral forsook them. The reason Mr. +Hayes could never understand, he says in his account, and adds, "Sure I +am, no cost was spared by their owner Master Ralegh in setting them +forth: Therefore I leave it unto God." Sir Humfrey Gilbert was not so +philosophic about the desertion; he wrote to his brother-admiral, Sir +George Peckham, in wrath: "The _Bark-Ralegh_ ran from me in fair and +clear weather, having a large wind. I pray you solicit my brother Ralegh +to make them an example to all knaves." + +After this defection the _Golden Hinde_ took the place of the +Vice-Admiral, and hoisted her flag from the mizzen to the foretop. As +they sailed northward they were "incumbered with much fogge and mists in +maner palpable," so that great difficulty was experienced by the ships +in keeping in touch one with the other. The danger of separation always +threatened sailing vessels, and elaborate devices and instructions were +always prepared to lessen its likelihood and to face the emergency. But +on July 20 the _Swallow_ and the _Squirrill_ became separated from the +company, and were not discovered again until the Newfoundland coast was +reached on August 3. Soon after another misfortune occurred owing to the +unruliness of the men on the _Squirrill_, who could not be restrained +from plundering a fishing-boat. This bad act was sufficient to wreck the +success of the expedition, and caused much dissatisfaction among the +sailors, who were always superstitious. Moreover, the men's unruliness +was a serious danger on such an expedition, apart from the question of +God's wrath, which Mr. Hayes feared, and which fell upon the _Squirrill_ +and requited the ill-doers with death. + +On August 5 Sir Humfrey Gilbert took possession of the harbour of St. +John, and invested the Queen's Majesty with the title and dignity +thereof. The arms of England, engraved in lead, were fixed upon a pillar +of wood and erected. Men were sent to explore the land, and to make maps +of it, while the ships were being overhauled and repaired. The report +only survives; the maps were lost when the general died. + +On August 27 they set sail again, and on the next day a great wind +arose, bringing with it rain and thick mist, and drove the vessels upon +the sands and flats. The _Admirall_ struck; her stern and hinder parts +were broken in pieces by the waves; the men leapt into the sea. "This +was a heavy and grievous event to lose at one blow our chiefe shippe +fraighted with great provision, gathered together with much travell, +care, long time, and difficultie. But more was the losse of our men +which perished to the number almost of a hundreth soules." Among the +drowned was Budaeus, a learned man who was minded to record in the Latin +tongue the gests and things worthy of remembrance; Daniel, a refiner of +metals; and Captain Maurice Brawn, a virtuous, honest, and discreet +gentleman. A few men, however, managed to keep afloat in a small boat +for six days, and though two of them died of starvation, the others were +rescued. This disaster brought dismay to the company and they lost +courage. Winter, too, was drawing on, provisions were becoming scant, +their clothes were worn out. Accordingly, Sir Humfrey Gilbert determined +to make for home. "Be content," he said to the men, "we have seen +enough: and take no care of expence past: I will set you forth royally +the next Spring if God send us safe home. Therefore I pray you let us no +longer strive here, where we fight against the elements." But calamity +did not forsake them. Sir Humfrey Gilbert did not reach home. Before the +expedition sailed in June, Elizabeth for her own reasons had persisted +in denying Sir Humfrey the right to accompany his expedition; but his +step-brother, Sir Walter Ralegh, had continued to use his influence to +obtain permission, and the requisite permission had at last been +granted. + + "BROTHER, + + "I have sent you a token from her Majesty, an ancor guided by + a lady, as you see; and further, her Highness willed me to sende + you worde that she wished you as great good-hap and safty to + your ship, as if her sealf were ther in parson; desiring you to + have care of your sealf as of that which she tendereth; and + therefore for her sake, you must provide for hit accordingly. + + "Farther, she commandeth that you leve your picture with me. + For the rest I leve till our meeting, or to the report of this + bearer, who would needs be the messengre of this good newse. So + I committ you to the will and protection of God, who send us + such life or death as He shall please or hath appointed. + + "Richmonde this Friday morning. + "Your treu brother + "W. RALEGH" + +The letter shows the Queen's interest and concern--her attitude towards +the gentlemen who adventured their lives for the glory of her kingdom. +But good-hap and safety were not vouchsafed to Gilbert's ship. The will +and protection of God did not send life; death had been appointed. + +They reached the Azores without mishap, except that the general caused +himself great pain and inconvenience by treading upon a nail. The last +conference took place on the _Golden Hinde_, on September 3, when he +made merry with the company on board; his hopes of success ran high for +the enterprise, he vowed to undertake once more the next spring. They +were now coming near to England and the end of their distresses. But +they met with foul weather, and terrible seas, breaking short and high, +pyramid-wise. "Men which all their lifetime had occupied the Sea, never +saw more outragious Seas." Upon the main-yard of the _Golden Hinde_ +appeared an apparition of a little fire by night. The little fire is an +evil omen, and is called Castor and Pollux. "Munday the ninth of +September, in the afternoon, the Frigat was neere cast away, oppressed +by waves, yet at that time recovered: and giving forth signes of joy, +the Generall sitting abaft with a book in his hand, cried out unto us in +the Hinde (so oft as we did approach within hearing), 'We are as neare +to Heaven by sea as by land.' Reiterating the same speech, +well-beseeming a souldier, resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testifie +he was." + +Sir Humfrey Gilbert was seen no more. Sitting abaft with a book in his +hand--that was the last sight of him, and those were his last words, +the great saying of a great sailor. For at midnight the lights of his +vessel suddenly disappeared. The frigate was devoured and swallowed of +the sea. So died Sir Humfrey Gilbert in the prime of his manhood at the +age of forty-four. + +The _Golden Hinde_ managed to reach the coast of England, and brought +the bad news of disaster to Sir Walter Ralegh, his step-brother, and to +Adrian Gilbert, his younger brother. + +They wasted no time in grief or mourning. They paid proper respect to +the memory of the brave dead, and immediately made renewed efforts to +further the enterprise to which their brother had devoted his life. + +[Illustration: A SAILING-SHIP IN THE TIME OF RALEGH] + +Within six months Ralegh obtained another charter from the Queen with +larger powers. He and Adrian Gilbert and John Davies were incorporated +under the new charter as "The College of the Fellowship for the +Discovery of the North-west passage." That was the dream of the dead +navigator. Ralegh always had a greater purpose in view, and the charter +was later extended by clauses giving him powers to colonize. Directly +these first steps were taken, a month after the charter's final signing, +Ralegh despatched two captains, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow. + +Captain John Smith gives an account of their voyage in his "History of +Virginia." (John Smith it was who, profiting by initial failures, +succeeded some years later in the fulfilment of the great scheme.) "The +27 of Aprill," he writes, "they set sail from the Thames, the tenth of +May passed the Canaries, and the tenth of June the West Indies: which +unneedful Southerly course (but then no better was knowne) occasioned +them in that season much sicknesse." His interpolation--then no better +was known--is significant. It throws a clear light on the difficulties +with which these early colonizers were called upon to cope; they had not +yet learned the best way even of reaching their destination. + +However, on the 2nd of July the two captains arrived at Florida, "where +they felt a most delicate sweete smell, though they saw no land, which +ere long they espied, _thinking it the Continent: an hundred and twenty +miles they sailed not finding any harbour_." That again is significant, +taking into consideration the limited room on a sailing vessel for food +and other necessaries. When they came to land, they had not yet the +means of knowing anything about that land whatsoever. At length they +discovered that they were upon an island, the island of Wokokon. It was +fertile past all belief. Grapes grew in profusion right down to the +water's edge, that the very surge of the sea sometimes over-flowed them. +In the valleys tall cedars grew, and from the black cedars great cranes +flew in white flocks, when the men discharged their muskets, "with such +a cry as if an army of men had shouted together." The island was thickly +wooded with other trees of excellent smell and quality; and in the woods +there were conies and deere and fowle in incredible abundance. For three +days none of the people were seen. On the third day, in a little boat, +three of them appeared and showed no sign of fear. One of them stopped +and conferred with the sailors, who gave him a shirt and a hat, meat and +wine, which he liked. Then he went away; but soon returned with his boat +quite full of fish, which he gave to the sailors. He had come from the +mainland. + +Next day the king's brother visited the ships, with forty or fifty men, +"proper people and in their behaviour very civill." The king's brother's +name was Granganamen. Soon after the king himself, Wingina, came. A mat +was spread for him on the sea shore, and he sat down upon it. When the +sailors came to him, he stroked his head and breast, and he stroked +their heads and breasts, to express his love. He made a long speech, and +divers toys, "which he kindly accepted," were presented to him. +Especially a pewter pleased the king's fancy. He drilled a hole in it +and hung it round his neck. It made him a capital breastplate, for which +he was ready to give, and gave, twenty skin of deer, worth twenty +crowns. He was so pleased with his bargain and treatment that a few days +later he brought his wife and children on board. During all their stay +in his kingdom, which was called Wingandacoa, King Wingina sent them +almost every day a brace of bucks, conies, hares, fish and vegetables. +The soil was fertile, as the woods were plentifully stocked with +game--for the sailors put some peas in the ground, and in ten days they +had grown to the height of fourteen inches. + +They had, indeed, found the Land of Promise; and the people who +inhabited the land were as friendly as their king. A party went on a +little expedition to the island of Roanoak, which was distant some seven +leagues. There the wife of the chief man, who was absent, welcomed them +with much courtesy. She had their clothes taken off and washed; she had +their feet bathed in warm water, while she herself attended to the +preparation of food. While they were eating, warriors entered the room +armed with bows and arrows. The sailors, fearful of treachery, grasped +their muskets. There was no need for alarm, however. The woman saw their +fear, and ordered the warriors immediately to snap their bows and arrows +across their knees. + +Hospitality could go no farther. The whole account of the land +"luxuriant to the water's edge, and of their joyous reception by the +Indians, makes the dreams of the pastoral poets seem true," as Professor +Raleigh puts it. Indeed, the people were such as live after the manner +of the Golden Age. Such, too, the Burmese were found to be some three +hundred years later; they had the same childlike simplicity, the same +earnest kindliness; they, too, were unspoiled and happy. The Indians +were regarded as savages; they were not closely observed or +sympathetically described by these stout-hearted adventurers, as the +Burmese have been by Fielding Hall in his notable books. Their +subsequent history bears out the resemblance. The Indians, simpler, more +childish people--savages in fact--came into contact with a sterner +younger civilization. Their history is known. The history of the subject +Burmese is still in the making. + +Captain Amadas and Captain Barlow returned in September. They brought +with them two of the natives, many skins, and pearls as big as peas, +which they duly delivered to Sir Walter Ralegh. He was overjoyed with +the success of their voyage, and he obtained permission from the Queen +to call his new land of Wingandacoa, Virginia, in her honour. He ordered +a new seal of his arms to be cut, engraved with the legend, "Propria +insignia Walteri Ralegh, militis, Domini et Gubernatoris Virginiae." + +In the spring of the following year his colonizing fleet was ready. The +command of the expedition was given to Sir Richard Grenville, the +valiant, as John Smith calls him. The colony was to be under the +management of Captain Ralph Lane. Sir Richard Grenville was not the man +for the business, and the expedition would have had a very different +result had Sir Philip Sidney undertaken its command, as it was intended +that he should. Sir Richard was supreme as a fighter: his tactics were +to hit first, and to hit hardest, and never to give way. He was +indomitable, but more than sheer bravery was necessary for the +undertaking, and more than sheer bravery Sir Richard Grenville did not +possess. + +The fleet of seven ships departed from Plymouth in April, and, without +any serious mishap, they arrived on May 12 at the Bay of Moskito in the +island of St. John's, where they cast anchor, and where in seven days +they were joined amidst great rejoicing by Master Candish, captain of +one of the ships which had been separated in a storm. The island of St. +John was in possession of the Spaniards. It is probable that Sir +Richard Grenville hated the Spaniards more than he loved the project of +colonization; for in St. John he stayed till the end of May. He built a +fort, and succeeded in capturing two Spanish frigates, one of which was +well freighted with treasure, and having ransomed the Spaniards of +account for good round sums, he went on his way to Isabella, on the +north side of Hispaniola. Here again they delayed, hoping, as it would +seem, for an opportunity to attack the Spaniards in possession; but the +Spaniards, overawed, as the writer thinks, by their numbers, exhibited +only the greatest courtesy. So they sailed on June 7, and eventually +arrived a fortnight later at Wokokon, after having narrowly escaped +complete shipwreck "on a breach called the Cape of Fear." + +The colony was now on the verge of plantation. But the men did not see +the immense need of living at amity with the natives, that they might +win their support and trust, without which their task would be +insuperable in difficulty. They had hardly lived among them for two days +before strife broke out, in which, of course, the Englishmen were easily +victorious. For it appears that a silver cup was missed, and theft was +suspected. For this trivial reason the town of Aquascogok, which was +supposed to shelter the culprit, was burned, and all the neighbouring +cornfields were laid waste. Enmity was thus kindled, and the fire of +enmity cannot easily be extinguished. + +After that Sir Richard Grenville sailed away with his convoy, and +passing on his way home a richly laden Spanish ship of three hundred +tons, he boarded her (note the prodigious daring of the fellow!) with a +boat made with boards of a chest, "which fell asunder and sunk at the +ship's side as soon as ever he and his men were out of it." That was on +the last day of August: on September 18 he sailed into Plymouth harbour, +well-contented with his prize, "and was courteously received by divers +of his worshipful friends." + +But Ralph Lane was left behind in Virginia with his colonists, to the +number of some hundred house-holders, and the hostile natives. From the +New Fort he writes an enthusiastic letter, on September 3, to Master +Richard Hakluyt. His report of the fertility of the country is more +glowing even than the account of Amadas and Barlow, or than Ralegh +himself could have dared imagine in his brightest dreams. "It is the +goodliest and most pleasing territory of the world; for the continent is +of a huge and unknown greatness, and very well peopled and towned, +though savagely: and the climate is wholesome, that we had not one sick +since we touched the land here." Horses and kine and sufficient +Englishmen are alone needed, and no realm in Christendom would be +comparable with Virginia. The men set to work to build themselves a +settlement, making use of the equipment with which each man was +provided. + +Captain John Smith, who succeeded, some thirty years later, in erecting +the colony on the ruins of these previous failures, gives an exact +outfit, with the cost of each article, which a colonist would require. +He could learn from the experience of others, and was wise enough to +tabulate his own experience in minute lists that others might learn from +him. Lane's colonists could not have been so well provided. They must +have lacked many little necessaries which the wisest forethought could +not have provided, they must have encumbered themselves with much that +was comparatively useless. Here are some articles of personal outfit +which John Smith--and John Smith knew--deemed indispensable. They read +quaintly with their prices:-- + + A Monmouth Cap 1_s._ 10_d._ + Three Shirts 7_s._ 6_d._ + One Waste Coat 2_s._ 2_d._ + One Suit of Canvase 7_s._ 6_d._ + " " Frize 10_s._ 0_d._ + " " Cloth 15_s._ 0_d._ + Three pair of Irish Stockings 4_s._ 0_d._ + Four pair of shoes 8_s._ 8_d._ + One pair of garters 0_s._ 10_d._ + One dozen of points 8_s._ 0_d._ + One pair of Canvase sheets 8_s._ 0_d._ + Seven ells of Canvase to make a bed a + bolster to be filled in Virginia, + serving for two men + Five ells of coarse canvase to make a bed 5_s._ 0_d._ + One Coarse rug to be used at sea for + two men + +Lane's colonists remained exactly one year in Virginia. Their life was +varied and exciting. At first the Indians, in spite of the silver cup +and the summary vengeance for its theft, were still inclined towards +friendliness. Their kings visited New Fort. Menatonou, King of +Chawanook, was especially well-disposed. He was a "man impotent in his +limbs, but otherwise, for a savage, a very grave and wise man, and of a +very singular good discourse in matters concerning the state, not only +of his own country and the disposition of his own men, but also of his +neighbours round about him as well far as near, and of the commodities +that each country yieldeth." Among other things, he told Lane where +pearls in large quantities could be found, and Lane devised a plan for +making an expedition to that river of Moratoc. + +And from this plan, which Lane records in full in a subsequent letter to +Ralegh, peers out the mistake in judgment which brought disaster upon +this first enterprise. These colonists had too much the spirit of Sir +Richard Grenville. They were too adventurous, and esteemed the natives +of too little account. Instead of quietly settling and making their base +secure, while the Indians became gradually used to their presence, they +must needs be hurrying further inland in pursuit of immediate and +enormous wealth. Theirs was too much the spirit of the lion-hearted +freebooter and not enough the spirit of the determined settler. + +Misfortune awaited them. For there lived an old king in this land of +fabulous wealth by the swift river of Moratoc or Moratico. Ensenore was +his name, and he was friendly to the English. Not so his son Pemisapan. +And at this crucial time Ensenore died and Pemisapan took his place at +the head of the province, and immediately began his endeavours to +undermine the little influence which the English had already gained +among the neighbouring peoples. The position of the colonists became one +of extreme danger in consequence. They found that they must not only +struggle against the elements to secure food and shelter, but also fight +for their lives against the inhabitants. They had expected support from +England in the spring, with reinforcements of every kind. None, however, +came, and probably the fear of isolation, brought about by events of +which they had heard nothing, was added to their other fears. Small +wonder then that, when Sir Francis Drake came to them with twenty tall +ships, they should clamour to leave the perilous spot and return to +England. They returned in June, Drake's fleet laden with the spoils he +had garnered from the sack of the Spanish cities, St. Iago, St. Domingo, +Carthagena, St. Anthony, and St. Helens. With them, too, they are said +to have brought, for the first time, specimens of the plant Nicotiana, +of which Ralegh discovered the sovereign virtues, and which, in despite +of King James from Scotland and his counterblast, has soothed many +millions of honest Englishmen. + +A fortnight after the colonists departed, fearing that they were +forsaken, the ship of a hundred tons which Ralegh had stored with +provisions and other necessaries arrived, and a month after Sir Richard +Grenville came with three ships, and found neither colonists nor the +ship which Ralegh had sent out for their relief. Accordingly, after he +had searched long in vain and made certain explorations on his own +initiative, he landed fifteen brave men to retain possession of the +country for England and sailed home. Nothing more was heard of the +fifteen brave men. + +So ended the first series of attempts to found an English colony in +Virginia, doubtless, efforts which themselves just failed of success, +but without which the final colonization of Virginia would have been +impossible. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BUSINESS MAN + + The Stannaries--His grasp of detail--"Do it with thy + might"--Estimate of squadron--Scheme of coast defence-- + The clash-mills of Mr. Crymes--Irish plans. + + +The Virginian enterprise did not engage all Ralegh's energy in affairs. +Undoubtedly it was his greatest scheme. Its eventual results were of no +less than world-wide importance, for they include the American nation, +they include tobacco; and without either commodity modern civilization +would surely be desolate. Ralegh had a capacity for business which +approached genius; and would have attained to genius had his imagination +not run a little in advance of his power over detail. + +In his hands the posts which he obtained were no sinecures. Proper +arrangement of things in being fascinated him almost as deeply as the +possible development of the embryonic. + +The various expeditions to Virginia involved a vast amount of work. But +during that time he was actively engaged in the management of lesser +matters. + +As Lord Warden of the Stannaries his duties were to look after the +interests of the tin-miners in Devonshire and Cornwall. He was head of +the Stannary Courts in which justice was legally administered to the +tinners; and he would be obliged to see that his substitutes performed +their functions properly. For a privilege was granted to the tin-workers +to have their disputes settled upon the spot in their own court, in +order that they might not be drawn from their business during the long +time that a visit to another court would involve. All through the time +when he was engaged in great things at Court, or in great dreams of an +Eldorado in South America, he always paid proper attention to the +exacting little business of these tinners in Cornwall. In 1600 he writes +a minute account to the Lord Treasurer, Buckhurst, and Secretary, Sir +Robert Cecil, about the abatement of some tax on tin. He kept the +interests of the tinners always in mind. In the same year he enters into +the case of a gentleman, Mr. Crymes, who had erected certain clash-mills +upon Roxburgh Down "to worke the tynn which upon that place is gott with +extreame labour and charge out of the ground." But the townsmen of +Plymouth objected to the mills, because they said that the mills +diverted the course of their water. Ralegh went to view the clash-mills +on Roxburgh Down in person, though it was the autumn of the year, and +decided against the townsmen of Plymouth. If they had their way, as +according to the letter of the law only they should, countless tinners +would be thrown out of work. In reality no harm was done to the course +of the river. + +Accordingly Ralegh asks Secretary Sir Robert Cecil to take the matter +from the Star Chamber, where the townsmen of Plymouth had sent it, and +to let it be tried, as it was fitting that such a matter should be +tried, in the Stannary Courts. "If this be suffered to proceed in the +Starre Chamber it will not be avaylable to speake of her Majesties late +imposicion or encrease of Custom, or to establish good laws among +Tynners; when others who can by a great purse or procuring +extraordinary meanes, diminish to their power her Majesties duties and +the common benefytt of the people." + +_Do it with thy might_ was as sincerely his motto in little things as in +big; and this it is well to remember in protest against those who are +inclined to regard Ralegh merely as an unsuccessful dreamer of great +dreams. + +He was Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall. Among other duties which the post +entailed, was the important duty of keeping the county ready to ward off +an invasion, which was a very real danger all through his period of +office. His letters to Lord Burghley give ample evidence of his care and +wisdom. In 1587, one year before the Armada, he sent the Lord Treasurer +a letter in which he gave it as his opinion that a company of two +thousand foot and a troop of two hundred should be levied from the +counties of Cornwall and Devon, and should be trained to be ready for +defence at a moment's notice against surprise. The difficulties of his +plan he saw clearly. There was, in the first place, a feeling of rivalry +between the two Duchies which increased the difficulty of combination. +The Lord Lieutenant of Devonshire, the Earl of Bath, was not easily +brought to see the wisdom of the plan, though Sir John Gilbert and Sir +Richard Grenville, staunch Devon men, were its supporters. The merchants +of Exeter were not disposed to bear willingly any additional outlay in +the matter of defence, because they were obliged to pay heavily to +defend their merchandise against Barbary and other pirates. Ralegh +incloses a tabulated list in his letter, showing exactly how these +levies could be raised, and the exact cost of the raising. The payment +of the troop of horse is of much interest. The men were to receive +1_s._ a day (the pay of an infantry man was 8d.). The horsemen were to +be divided into four cornets: that would imply four captains at 5s., +four lieutenants at 3_s._, four guidons at 2_s._ 6_d._, four clerks at +1_s._ 6_d._, four trumpetts at 1_s._ 6_d._ per day. He adds the charge +of ammunition. "There is allowed for each soldier for this service of +sixteen daies, tenn pounde of Powder at 12_d._ the pounde and is L500. +Ther is allowed of matche for each soldier at halfe a pounde the daye, +at 6_d._ the pounde and is L200. Of leade for each mann one pounde at +11/2_d._ the pounde, and is L6 8_s._ + +The whole estimated cost of training and raising came to L2163 5_s._ and +unlike the majority of estimates, the one drawn up by Ralegh is as clear +as it is concise. + +But his best contribution to the problem of defence is a letter, written +in the year 1595 to the Lords of the Council. It had been decided that +"mutual succour be gyven from the Counties of Devon and Cornwall to each +other," and the point of the letter is to show that Devonshire should be +supplied with reinforcements from Somerset rather than from Cornwall. +His reasons are well put and convincing. "If there shall any discent be +made by the enymye in either county by the waie of surprise, and that +the enymye doe but burne or sacke, and departe, then can nether be +releeved as aforesaid, bycause there wilbe no tyme given to unite the +forces of the same shere, where such attempt shalbe offered, much lesse +for the drawing in of any numbers from affarr; and for any such +enterpryze, where there is no purpose to hold and possesse the places +gotten, each shire with 4000 men shalbe able either to repel or to +resiste the same. But if the enymy dispose himself to fortyfye any part +in Cornewall or to strengthen any neck of land of advantage, and thereby +begyne to dryve us to a defensive warr, then there is noe country +adjoyneth to Cornwall but Devon from whence any spedy supplie maie be +had to impeach the begining of such a purpose. And if ought be attempted +in Devon--of which Plymouth is most to be feared, having, in one +indraught, two goodly harboroughes, as Cattwater and Aishewater--then it +is also very likely that the enymye will either assure Cornewall, or +seeke utterly to waste yt, because yt is next his supplies, both from +Spayne and Brittaine (Brittany); and hath divers ports and good rodes to +receive a fleete." + +He proceeds to point out the length and narrowness of Cornwall, and the +extreme difficulty of sending succour to Plymouth. The river can only be +forded in two places, and that by small ferries at Stonehouse and Aishe, +which would be of little use for horses or ammunition. Moreover, the +enemy would bring "gallies" with them, which would enable them to +command the river Tamar. If four thousand men were taken from Cornwall, +the enemy would certainly become cognizant of the fact, and nothing +would be easier for them, in that event, than to lay waste the whole +shire, either by sending round a ship from Plymouth or across from +Brittany. Three hundred soldiers would be sufficient. + +He points out that no county in England is so dangerously situated as +Cornwall, with the sea on both sides of it, and with sparse inhabitants. +It is so narrow that if the enemy were to possess any of two or three +straits, the men of the West would be quite cut off from the men of the +East, for between Mount's Bay and the sea entering within St. Tees, it +is but three miles and a half from sea to sea; between Truro and St. +Pirom but five miles. He concludes the letter by making manifest the +advantages of the position of Somerset, its breadth, its richness, and +lack of separating rivers. + +And he set his mind to these details of his defence at the time when his +mind was eager to bring down to the realm of reality those high dreams +by which Guiana caused him to be obsessed. A few days afterwards he +writes to Sir Robert Cecil: "I beseich you lett us know whether wee +shalbe travelers or tinkers; conquerors or novices. For if the winter +pass without making provision there can be no vitling in the summer; and +if it be now fore-slowed, farewell Guiana for ever.... Honor and gold +and all good, for ever hopeless." + +A great man, this Elizabethan, whose imperial dreams did not prevent him +from mastering the little businesses under his hand! Visions of Eldorado +did not blurr his view of Minnett or lessen his interest in the +clash-mills of Mr. Crymes. + +Not only was Ralegh Lord Warden of the Stannaries and Lord Lieutenant of +Cornwall, but he was also what Edwards calls Captain of Industry in +Ireland. The work connected with these duties was what may be looked +upon as the _business_ of his life. Each entailed work and +responsibility which would suffice the energy of an ordinary man of +business, a little above the modern average of capacity. It was typical +of Ralegh's immense vitality that he dealt with them with as much +thoroughness and ease as he managed his own household, and always he +inspired them with new ideas and new life, even as his garden was the +first in which orange-trees were cultivated. His imagination made him an +originator. He was never content with the old way of doing things--he +found a better. He was always seeing old facts for the first time, as +though he had never seen them before, as all men of vigorous intellect +do. Consequently he trusted his own opinion, and he had good cause to +trust it. + +Ralegh had first become prominent by his actions in Ireland, and very +soon after he had attained to eminence he was employed by the Crown in +their endeavour to bring some kind of prosperity to the country ravaged +to desolation by war. Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. Six hundred +thousand acres of land had been confiscated from the Earl of Desmond, +and probably at his own suggestion Ralegh undertook to plant an English +colony there. Others joined in the enterprise. Ralegh's share consisted +of some twelve thousand acres in the counties of Cork, Waterford, and +Tipperary, and he rented, in addition, Lismore Castle at the annual +charge of L13 6_s_. 8_d_., from Meyler Magrath, Bishop of the See of +Lismore and Archbishop of Cashel. His tenants he had taken from men of +Devon (the stamp of man he knew and approved), and his land was soon +recognized as the most prosperous among all the estates which these +"gentlemen under-takers," as they were called, were opening out. +Fertility did not satisfy him. His acres were well forested, and an idea +occurred to him by which he could turn the timber to good account. His +scheme was to construct pipe-staves and hogsheads and barrel boards, and +to transport them to the wine growers of Spain and France. It was a good +scheme and practical. But he found the utmost difficulty in obtaining a +licence from the Privy Council for their export. He was not in favour +with Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord-Deputy of Ireland, nor the deputy's +cousin, one Richard Wingfield. By the time that sanction was obtained, +Ireland was again in too unsettled a state for prosperity in quiet +commerce, and Ralegh sold his estate to Richard Boyle, who afterwards +became Earl of Cork. He had planted many products, which his men had +brought from Virginia, on the land of his Irish estate, and among these +was the potato. He also tried to cultivate tobacco, but with less +success. + +Had Ralegh been supported during the last ten years of the Queen's +reign, he would have benefited Ireland considerably by his activity, +even though he was, at the same time, engaged in many other affairs, +naval, political, and commercial. But he was badly hampered in his +projects by loss of favour. His enemies were many, and they found +pleasure in vexing him in small matters. This enmity, while Elizabeth +lived, did not seriously injure his power or his reputation, but it set +obstacles in the way of his projects which were just sufficient to +thwart them. + +Such were Ralegh's chief business activities, which were the groundwork +of his life, these and the duties of Captain of the Guard, which were +chiefly decorative. It is not easy to realize, in a time of great +splendour, the day to day existence of the men who made that time +splendid. The mind is apt to leap from dramatic moment to dramatic +moment, when mighty exploits mark out a time's history like +stepping-stones. When events are sufficiently great to stand prominently +forth, not only in the history of the reign, but in the history of all +time, the prosaic intervals of dull hard work are apt to be forgotten; +but they are the essential training, without which those events would +not have happened. + +The life of the man is the life of the nation in little. Just as Ralegh +thought nothing beneath his notice, thought nothing to which he put his +hand too insignificant not to be done with his might, so England, under +her great Queen, was working and working to collect her strength, so +that, when the moment at last came to strike, she might strike with +effect. + +Sir Walter Ralegh, Captain of the Guard, superb in pearls and silver, +whom magnificence became, did not disdain on occasion to ride for many +miles through the muddy roads of Devonshire to inspect the river at +Roxburgh Down, and found time to write at length to Secretary Sir Robert +Cecil, his opinion that the clash-mills of Mr. Crymes, the tinner, did +not harm the townsmen of Plymouth. That incident is as significant of +the time's energy as the defeat of the Spanish Armament. + +[Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH + +From an oil-painting made, probably by Federigo Zuccaro, in 1586 + +Copyright, Emery Walker, London, E. C.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AGAINST SPAIN + + Spain's enmity--The Armada--Ralegh's opinion of tactics--With + Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys--The privateers. + + +Indeed Ralegh's immense energy is typical of the time. _Do it with thy +might_ could fitly have been the motto of the nation. Their capacity for +hard work was unequalled. The Armada was England's day of triumph. Men +applaud a prima-donna on the night of her success, and are apt to forget +the long years of training and privation and self-control that have +preceded the glory of the moment. It is even so with a nation. The +little hour of triumph is as nothing compared with the long years of +life which made that triumph possible; and only the greatest artist and +the greatest nation can bear the added burthen of success. England +lapsed after the impulse of that great action had died away. The nation +as a whole was too young and too boisterous with youth to support a +victory so overpowering in its magnificence. + +The triumph itself was like few in the history of nations, and events +conspired to lend a vivid dramatic colour to its greatness. + +The time had come when Philip the Second at last decided that the +insolence of England must be punished. The exploits of men like Hawkins +and Drake and Ralegh and Frobisher were becoming intolerable, and +though Elizabeth had at first given no sanction to their enterprises, +treating them much as she had treated the English supporters of the +Protestant cause in France, yet the knighthood of Drake on the deck of +his own ship at length declared the bent of her sympathy. The time had +come for action: and the time seemed specially favourable to Philip. +Sextus the Fifth was Pope, and he had created the league for the +subversion of heresy, and the arch-heretic of Europe must be put away. +The Prince of Parma was in the Netherlands ready to invade England. The +Catholics in England would be united by the execution of Mary, Queen of +Scots, and the Protestants themselves would be averse to the surrender +of the throne to her son and his Scotch followers. So Philip thought, +and slowly set the immense machinery of preparation to work. + +Elizabeth possessed remarkable foresight and a remarkable dislike for +definite action. Her foresight was as uncanny as an instinct, or her +power of dissimulation, which is the art of diplomacy. Accordingly, it +is probable that her efforts for peace, and the treaty which she patched +up with the Prince of Parma, did not arise from any fear of war, but +were a clever design to increase the proud confidence of the enemy by +making him think that England was in reality in a state of panic, quite +unprepared for war. She knew well of the preparations, and of their huge +scale. Drake had sent news to Lord Burghley: "Assuredly," he wrote, +"there never was heard of or known so great preparations as the King of +Spain hath and daily maketh ready for the invasion of England." With +daring he sailed into the very harbour of Cadiz and damaged more than a +hundred tall ships. He was forbidden to do further damage. Spain's +enterprise was not destined to be strangled at home. Elizabeth's fear, +if her fear existed, allowed Philip to spend untold sums of money on his +fleet, and to adorn it with the flower of his nobility, and allowed +England to overcome her enemy in the full ostentation of his display. +Certainly Lord Howard of Effingham, Admiral of the Fleet, knew nothing +of Elizabeth's intentions, nor did Sir John Hawkins, the paymaster. They +wrote angry letters to Walsingham when the movements of their ships were +confined, and some of their men disbanded. "Never," wrote Lord Howard, +"never since England was England was there such a stratagem and mask +made to deceive us as this treaty." And Sir John Hawkins was even more +vehement: "We are wasting money, wasting strength, dishonouring and +discrediting ourselves by our uncertain dallying." Naturally they +desired to repeat Drake's exploit, to run every risk, like brave +Englishmen, and to crush the Spanish fleet in the Spanish harbours. But +they must wait. Elizabeth's fears or Elizabeth's diplomacy (conscious or +unconscious in its working a strange instinct for the good of England +was here) determined another course of action. "The Queen took upon +herself the detailed management of everything. Lord Howard's letters +prove that she and she only was responsible," as Froude, who accepts the +view of her perverseness and levity, declared. + +Meanwhile the King of Spain's preparations were at length completed. The +galleons, "built high like castles," had been baptized each with the +name of a saint, St. Matthew, St. Philip, St. John, ceremonially, as it +was fitting that vessels about to fight for the Catholic cause should be +baptised. The one hundred and twenty-nine vessels of the Armada, +galleons and galleasses, set sail. They were strong only in pride and in +the sense of their cause's sacredness. + +Their vessels were unwieldy and old-fashioned, their ammunition was +insufficient, and their admiral was high-born but incapable. For the +veteran Don Alvarez de Bacan, Marquis of Santa Cruz, had died suddenly, +and his place had been taken by the Duke of Medina Sidonia. On July 19 +the Armada was reported off Plymouth. Beacons lit from hilltop to +hilltop flamed the news to London. + +The English fleet was ready. "Their ships had warped out into the Sound +on the evening of the 19th: on the 20th they had plied out, to windward, +against a fresh south-westerly breeze; and the Armada running to the +eastward all night had, by daybreak on the 21st, given the English the +weather-gage for which they had been working." + +On the afternoon of the 21st the battle began. The _Ark-Ralegh_, built +on Sir Walter's own design, in which was the Lord High Admiral, Howard +of Effingham, and three other ships sailed along the rear of the Spanish +line, sending quick volleys into the great vessels, and sailed back. The +Spaniards vainly tried to grapple with them: the English ships were too +swift and easily manoeuvred. And then, on the very opening of the long +battle, the Spaniards recognized their weakness, that their great +vessels were cumbrous, and so crank that their cannon sent their balls +on the weather side high into space, and on the lee side very nearly +plump into the water. For a week (there was little sleep for the men +during that week) the fleets fought down the Channel till the Spanish +fleet lay at last at Calais, but not for long. The English sent +fire-ships among them and drove them out. "This great preparation," +writes Bacon, "passed away like a dream. The Invincible Navy neither +took any one barque of ours neither yet once offered to land; but after +they had been well beaten and chased, made a perambulation about the +Northern seas, ennobling many coasts with wrecks of mighty ships; and so +returned home with greater derision than they set forth with +expectation." + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF LONDON] + +Two things are specially worthy of notice about this great battle. The +first is the continued ignorance of the commanders of various English +ships as to the actual damage which had been inflicted upon the enemy. +They had, of course, only their unaided eyes to trust to, and great +difficulty in announcing news from ship to ship. Lord Howard writes as +late as August 8: "Although we have put the Spanish Fleet past the +Firth, and I think past the Isles, yet God knoweth whether they go to +the Nase of Norway or into Denmark or to the Isles of Orkney to refresh +themselves and so to return." And Drake, too, wrote on the evening of +the battle: "God hath given us so good a day in forcing the enemy so far +to leeward, as I hope in God the Prince of Parma and the Duke of Sidonia +shall not shake hands this few days." + +And the second point is that though the English loss was small during +the actual days of the battle, yet the strain and the food and the +sanitation were such that directly they came to port, a frightful +epidemic broke out among the men, who died, we are told, by hundreds in +consequence. + +In the actual fighting Ralegh probably took no part. When the first news +came of the Armada's approach, he was in Ireland, attending to his +duties as Mayor of Youghal. With the utmost speed at that time possible +he sailed from Ireland and rode to the English coast. Certain it is, +however, that he arrived too late for any official post to be assigned +him, for the battle had been in progress for two days before his +arrival. But many private gentlemen joined the fleet in craft hastily +equipped for warfare, and it would be a thing to wonder at if Ralegh was +behindhand when such doings were happening. No positive information is, +however, forthcoming. Only it is known that the Lord High Admiral's ship +was built from designs which Ralegh had matured, and that he agreed +completely with the plan of the Lord High Admiral's attack. Many an +evening Drake and Effingham and Ralegh would have spent in discussing +the tactics of sea-battles, proud, as they well might be, of the +swiftness and ease with which an English ship could be manoeuvred in +comparison with the large unwieldiness of the carracks of Spain, who +still considered herself (God help her) mistress of the sea. + +In his "History of the World" occurs a passage about the tactics +employed by the English against the Armada. There is a strong element of +pathos in the idea of the man shut up in the little room in the Tower of +London (he could watch the ships making their way down the Thames) +writing of this great action, which he had seen, and writing with +ardour, which nothing could extinguish. He had been recounting a fight +between Roman vessels, heavy and slow, and the swift African galleys. +Then he bursts out into this great paragraph of reminiscence, as though +once again he were convincing some obstinate fellow of the patent +rightness of the plan of attack. + +"Certainly, hee that will happily perform a fight at sea must be skilful +in making choice of vessels to fight in: he must beleeve that there is +more belonging to a good man of war upon the waters, than great during; +and must know that there is a great deale of difference betweene +fighting loose or at large, and grapling. The guns of a slow ship pierce +as well, and make as great holes, as those in a swift. To clap ships +together without consideration, belongs rather to a madman than to a man +of warre: for by such an ignorant braverie was Peter Strozzi lost at the +Azores when he fought against the Marquesse of Santa Cruz. In like sort +had the Lord Charles Howard, Admirall of England beene lost in the year +1588, if he had not been better advised than a great many malignant +fooles were, that found fault with his demeanour. The Spaniards had an +armie aboord them; and he had none; they had more ships than he had and +of higher building and charging; so that had he intangled himself with +those great and powerfull Vessels, he had greatly endangered this +Kingdom of England.... But our Admirall knew his advantage, and held it: +which had he not done, he had not beene worthy to have held his head. +Heere to speake in generall of sea-fight (for particulars are fitter for +private hands than for the Presse) I say, That a fleete of twentie ships +all good sailers and goode ships have the advantage on the open Sea, of +an hundred as good ships, and of slower sayling. For if the fleete of an +hundred saile keep themselves neere together in a grosse squadron: the +twentie ships charging them upon any angle, shall force them to give +ground and to fall back upon their owne next fellowes: of which so many +as intangle, are made unserviceable or lost. Force them they may easily, +because the twentie ships, which give themselves scope, after they have +given one broad side of Artillerie, by clapping into the winde, and +staying, they may give them the other: and so the twentie ships batter +them in pieces with a perpetuall vollie; whereas those, that fight in a +troop, have no roome to turn and can alwaies use but one and the same +beaten side." + +And this is precisely what had taken place in the Armada. It is +interesting to know that there was divergency of opinion about the +proper tactics to follow, and it would be still more interesting to know +who the "malignant fools" were, to whom Ralegh refers. Men who confuse +the strategy of war with their own idea of manliness, are common to all +times, and must indeed be the most desperate fellows for a proper +soldier to convince. You can hear them saying, with that dreadful +assumption of finality with which the pompous imbecile seems gifted, +those runaway tactics may be very well for buccaneers, but are they +seemly for the ships of the navy of England? Small wonder the memory of +them once more exasperated Ralegh in his prison-room to renewed anger. + +Before the Armada there had been many privateering expeditions against +Spain on different waters; after the Armada these expeditions naturally +became even more numerous, when they possessed the prestige of the +Crown's authority. + +Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys were sent with a small fleet to +reinstate Don Antonio on the throne of Portugal which had lapsed into +the possession of Philip of Spain. Ralegh went on that expedition, which +failed to attain its object but captured sixty Hanseatic vessels, laden +with victual and ammunition, which report said, were intended to +provision a new Armada. + +Reprisals against Spain became the vogue, into which Ralegh threw +himself with spirit. Every man whom money and opportunity favoured, +fitted out his ship to spoil the Egyptian. The Queen's person, forsooth, +was not to be harmed: she was to be conveyed to his Holiness the Pope at +Rome? Such things, men knew, were said with happy confidence before the +Armada, and such things, remembered and repeated, spurred Englishmen on +to activity in which the hope of personal gain was small in comparison +with the fury of personal resentment that their Queen should be so +lightly valued and thought to be so sorrily championed. Nor did they +always discriminate nicely between the nationality of ships which they +waylaid. Ralegh, as Vice-Admiral of Devon, often received instructions +to see to the restitution of ships to subjects of the French King; and a +ship of his own had taken "two barks of Cherbourg from two of the French +King's subjects." There is a wild recklessness in the exploits of these +years; these gentlemen of England, whose names sound through history, +exulted: and there is much in their exultation that resembles the +behaviour of schoolboys rejoicing in an unexpected half-holiday in +spring. The grave way in which their doings are recorded heightens by +contrast the similarity. Ralegh and his men are bidden be careful "to +minister no cause of grief unto any of the (French) King's subjects, in +respect of the good amity and correspondence between Her Majesty and the +French King, their realm and subjects." Austerely the records run; +austerely, too, is related her Majesty's desire that a certain perfect +waist-coat, the fame of which had reached her ears, should be put on one +side for her Majesty's personal use. + +They had the godlike capacity of remaining young, these Elizabethans; +they did not outgrow their taste for splendid waistcoats. And the world +found them irresistible. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +RALEGH AND SPENSER + + Rise of Essex--Ralegh retires to Ireland--At Kilcolman--At + Youghal--Friendship with Spenser--Brings Spenser to Court-- + Their dreams. + + +In 1588 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, died. His influence with the +Queen had for some years been decreasing, and there is a report, which +bears the likelihood of truth, that he had summoned to Court his +step-son Robert, the young Earl of Essex, in order that he might +counteract the growing influence of Ralegh. Be that report true or +false, young Essex came to Court about the year 1587, and his youth and +spirit took the Queen's fancy mightily. Essex was as arrogant as his +stepfather. Elizabeth was now an old woman in years and in appearance. +She felt that her power as a woman was leaving her, and that drove her +to make a last effort to regain it, defying age then as she defied death +later. She cared for decorum less than she cared for life. That is the +pathetic side of her immense vitality, if the word pathetic can ever be +used of such a woman. She felt that she could take something of the +youth which had left her, from the boy: he was little more than a boy. +To his natural arrogance was added the arrogance of youth. He, too, was +capricious and wilful, even as the old Queen was capricious; but he +gained charm, and the Queen lost dignity thereby. + +There was rivalry between Essex and Ralegh, who could not endure this +spoiled boy. His impertinence to the Queen was distasteful to one who, +like Ralegh, knew the meaning of reverence, and was able to understand +greatness. This abasement of his sovereign lady hurt him, and he had no +faith in Essex, neither in his character nor in his ability. + +Small wonder, then, that Ralegh fell into disgrace, and in 1589 he went +to Ireland to attend to his Irish estates. Gossip said, My Lord of Essex +had chased him from the Court. The boy took his position with +intolerable seriousness: he had even challenged Ralegh to mortal combat, +and it was necessary to hush the matter up that the Queen might not hear +of it. Ralegh went. Destiny led him to Kilcolman Castle, where Edmund +Spenser was living. + +But first he probably went to the Warden's house of the College of +Youghal: the house was dear to him because it resembled the manor-house +at Budleigh-Salterton, where he was born. The house was long and low; +and the rooms were lined with small panels of Irish oak.[B] A large +dining-room is on the ground floor, from which runs a subterranean +passage connecting the house with the old tower of St. Mary's Church. In +one of the kitchens the ancient wide arched fireplace remains. Sir +Walter Ralegh's study had fine dark wainscot, deep, projecting windows, +and a richly carved oak mantelpiece, which rose to the full height of +the ceiling. The cornice rested upon three figures--of Faith, Hope, and +Charity, and the rest of the structure was covered with dexterous +carving, circular-headed panels, and strangely wrought emblematical +devices. His bedroom adjoined the study: in it, too, was a carved +mantelpiece of oak, and in the fireplace Dutch tiles, four inches +square. Behind the wainscoting of this room was a recess, in which a +part of the old monkish library was hidden at the time of the +Reformation. Here Ralegh worked, taking notes, perhaps, for the great +history which he was to write later: here he read Peter Comestor's +"Historia Scolastica;" and a black-letter book, printed at Mantua in +1479, which tells of the events of the world from the Creation to the +days of the Twelve Apostles. It is pleasant to brood upon the change +from the turbulent Court life to the quiet of this monastic retreat at +Youghal--the little town in Ireland of which the illustrious courtier +was mayor. Not only in black-letter quartos was he interested, but also +in the garden. He planted great yellow wallflowers and cedars and +tobacco and Affane cherry trees: potatoes he introduced, and they were +cultivated all through Munster. You can read, too, in a _Gentleman's +Magazine_ of some ninety years ago: "Potatoes were first planted here +(that is, in Lancashire), having been brought from Ireland to England by +the immortal Ralegh." The writer must have had a tooth for potatoes, he +is spurred to such enthusiasm over the matter. _Il faut cultiver le +jardin._ + + [B] From the description by Rev. Samuel Hayman, historiographer + of Youghal, 1852. + +And at Kilcolman Castle Edmund Spenser was living, conscious of the +loneliness of the country. + + "One day (quoth he) I sat (as was my trade) + Under the foote of Mole, that mountain hore + Keeping my sheepe amongst the cooly shade + Of the greene alders by the Mullaes shore: + There a strange shepheard chaunst to find me out, + Whether allured with my pipes delight, + Whose pleasing sound yshrilled far about + Or thither led by chaunce, I know not right: + Whom when I asked from what place he came, + And how he hight, himself he did ycleepe + The Shepheard of the Ocean by name, + And said he came far from the main-sea deepe. + + He sitting me beside in that same shade, + Provoked me to plaie some pleasant fit; + And when he heard the musicke which I made, + He found himselfe full greatly pleased at it: + Yet, oemuling my pipe, he took in hond + My pipe, before that oemuled of many, + And played thereon; (for well that skill he cond;) + Himself as skilfull in that art as any. + He piped, I sung; and, when he sung, I piped. + By chaunge of turnes, each making other mery; + Neither envying other, nor envied, + So piped we, untill we both were weary." + +That is Spenser's account--a very pretty account--of the time which he +spent with Ralegh. It is written in "Colin Clouts Come Home Againe." +They had, of course, met before, as young men and soldiers by Smerwick, +when Spenser was secretary to Lord Grey of Wilton. But now many years +had passed by: they met again, and knew that they were friends. The +movement of a leaf is enough to show the direction of a large wind: and +a phrase may point the attitude of a friendship between two men. A +sentence thus pregnant occurs in Spenser's dedication to his pastoral +account of his visit to London. With a whimsical humour, which is +characteristic of him, he writes to the right worthy and noble knight, +Sir Walter Ralegh, Captain of her Majesties Guard, Lord Warden of the +Stannaries, and Lieutenant of the County of Cornwall. + + + "SIR, + + "That you may see that I am not alwaies ydle as yee thinke, + though not greatly well occupied, nor altogither undutifull, + though not precisely officious, I make you present of this + simple Pastorall...." + +You can see Spenser smile, as he writes, to think of this "strange +shepheard's" terrific energy: how Ralegh came upon him when he was +oppressed with melancholy and high dreams, which this melancholy did not +allow him to express: how intercourse with Ralegh inspired him with new +life. He would brood, too, of many things, which the memory of those +days stirred up within him. For Ralegh, like Sidney, the friend of +Spenser's earliest youth, was a poet as well as a man of action; and +though Spenser was a bigger poet than either he was not a bigger man. +The poet in Ralegh would draw him in reverence near to Spenser; and then +he would break out into denunciation of the inertia which was inclined +to creep over Spenser, and hold him in its long tentacles. The dreamer +had a certain dependance on others. Yet almost against his will it would +be that he submitted to the journey to Court, catching Ralegh's glow of +admiration for his work--those three books of the "Faerie Queene," which +Gabriel Harvey had told him were rubbish, but which he loved himself. He +was ready to believe in their worth, too, though the dreamer could not +help smiling at his friend's so restless energy, which could not allow +him to sit and dream his life away, but which drove him always on to be +up and doing. Ralegh was the Shepherd of the Ocean, and the Ocean (God +wot) is-- + + "A world of waters heaped up on hie + Rolling like mountaines in wide wildernesse, + Horrible, hideous, roaring with hoarse crie. + And is the sea (quoth Coridon) so fearfull? + Fearfull much more (quoth he) than hart can fear: + Thousand wyld beastes with deep mouthes gaping direfull + Therin stil wait poore passengers to teare." + +And yet it was good for the dreamer to know that the world wanted to +listen to his dreams. The plaintive whimsical humour of his fancy, which +fascinated Ralegh, has fascinated poets down the generations (even old +Ben Jonson, though his honesty forced him to square those shoulders of +his and pronounce--Spenser, in copying the ancients, writ no language), +for any one who has heard the echo even of the music of the spheres, +hears it again as he reads the strange cadence of Spenser's verse. No +one can realize the homeliness of his insight and his boundless +imagination, without coming under the mysterious spell of the +combination: that homeliness indeed gives a magic strength to the wings +of his magic fancy. + +The life of a dreamer is apt to be sad; if the world touches him, he +finds the touch heavy and hurtful. And Spenser could not free himself +from state duties which forced him to live for ever witness of the +misery and savageness of the peasants, and of the country's weird beauty +which made a terrible contrast to their misery. In Ireland he felt +solitary and neglected: but he had time and scope for his dreams. In +England he quickly felt the pettiness of the busy Court life, to which +he could not accustom himself. He never found the life which was most in +harmony with his spirit. He was not the man to grapple effectually with +circumstances: they hurt him. Those must have been halcyon days for him +when he was able to enjoy intercourse with a mind like Ralegh's, in the +peace and beauty of the country. Small wonder that he was encouraged to +proceed with his fairy fashioning of the perfect gentleman, which +Sidney's friendship had encouraged him to begin. + +He went with Ralegh to the Court, and both were well received. Spenser +was given a small pension by Elizabeth. But the ways of the Court did +not please him. He had sat too long dreaming by the green alders of +Mulla's stream to take kindly to the bustle and ceremony and coarseness +of that life. He must have returned with gladness to Kilcolman, and to +the work which he now knew the world deemed excellent. But he ever bore +in mind one side of Court life which he describes with vividness, +remembering probably what Ralegh had told him in their first long talks +together. + + "Cause have I none (quoth he) of cancred will + To quite them ill, that me demeaned so well: + But selfe-regard of private good or ill + Moves me of each, so as I found, to tell + And else to warne young shepheards wandring wit, + Which, through report of that lives painted blisse, + Abandon quiet home, to seeke for it, + And leave their lambes to losse misled amisse. + For sooth to say it is no sort of life + For shepheard fit to lead in that same place, + Where each one seeks with malice, and with strife, + To thrust down other into foule disgrace, + Himself to raise: and he doth soonest rise + That best can handle his deceitful wit + In subtil shifts, and finest sleights devise." + +Ralegh knew this dark side of the Court life as well as Spenser knew it: +he knew how some men were ready to slander a well-deemed name by lies +and by forgery: how some men were pleased to creep into a man's secrecy +and betray him: he knew the frequency of + + "A filed toung furnisht with tearmes of art, + No art of schoole, but courtiers schoolery." + +For there were many impostors at the Court; men eager to touch a great +man's cloak-hem, and still more eager to raise the cry of _Treason_ +which should send that great man to his ruin. Ralegh, when he was well, +was roused by these dangers to grapple with them: it stirred his +fighting instinct and his pride. It proved his knowledge of men and +tested his power of dealing with men. He liked to pass on his way with +his head erect, scorning the clamour of the little men, that he might +stoop the lower in reverence to his great Queen. But Spenser looked +upon this darker side of Court life, and turned away from it in disgust. +He had neither the power nor the instinct to overcome such +circumstances: they merely tired and offended him. He was king of the +land of dreams: a leader of men he could never be. And he did not +complain against his kingdom, though his waking hours were troubled by +care and sorrow. + +It is uncommonly pleasant to linger over these quiet months of Ralegh's +life: it is pleasant to think of Ralegh, one of the greatest men that +have ever lived, finding that Edmund Spenser whom he remembered well +enough, was his friend: hearing him read those three books of the +"Faerie Queene," and finding that his new and gentle friend was a very +great poet. Each man had his dream of a kingdom: Spenser, the realm of +Faerie, where he would fashion the allegory of a perfect chivalry: +Ralegh, the kingdom of Guiana, which was to make his Queen mighty and +his country the greatest in the world. Neither dream was wrought out to +its end. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +EVIL TIMES + + Ralegh and the Puritans--John Udall--Blount--Ralegh's + marriage--Queen's anger--In the Tower--His sincerity--The + Episode in the "Faerie Queene"--_Madre de Dios_--Robert + Cecil--Sherborne. + + +Ralegh returned to Court in 1591, bringing the greatest poet who had yet +come to English literature with him. He was able after his respite to +manage circumstances once more, even that most trying circumstance of +all, young Essex, and joined with him in helping the Puritans who were +at that time being treated more hardly even than they deserved. + +It is unlikely that their views influenced Ralegh in any way. He was +beyond the constraint of any fixed creed. But he saw sincere men and +honest men receiving injuries; and he exerted himself on their behalf. +He was called an atheist, naturally enough; that has always been the cry +against men who dared to think beyond the scope of sects' understanding. +Not even Shelley was less of an atheist, however. + +One, John Udall, who was an eminent Hebrew scholar, had come under +ecclesiastical disgrace (dissenters are apt to be malignant to other +forms of dissent--witness the hues and cries raised lately against a new +Theology) by writing a book in which he pointed out the need of reform +in the reformed church. The book had the portentous name of "The +Demonstration of Discipline which Christ hath prescribed in His Word for +the government of the Church, in all times and places, until the World's +end." The English Church was in too shocking a state to allow such a +book to go quietly on its way. They laid hands on John Udall, put him in +a prison at Southwark, and sentenced him to death. Something about the +man's straightforwardness and sincerity seems to have appealed to +Ralegh. He advised Udall to draw up a schedule of his opinions, which he +promised to show to the Queen. These opinions had been twisted and +exaggerated into treasonable utterances by enemies, who had thus turned +the Queen against Udall; but Ralegh was convinced that he would be able +to change the Queen's mind by his own influence. Essex, too, was in +favour of Udall's release. Their efforts were so far successful that the +sentence was mitigated to one of banishment, but while the exact nature +of the sentence was under discussion, John Udall died in the prison at +Southwark. The bishops could not be hurried in their deliberations. +Rigorous repression begun thus early, strengthened the cause of the +Puritans beyond all reasonable necessity. There is nothing to show that +Ralegh was in any sympathy with their cause or with their hatred of +playhouses and dancing and games. He probably did not take them more +seriously than Spenser when he wrote of the Crab on which jolly June was +riding. + + "And backward yode, as bargemen wont to fare + Bending their force contrary to their face + Like that ungracious crew which faines demurest grace." + +But John Udall was a scholar and an honest man; and Ralegh reverenced +scholarship and honesty, knowing the value of letters and the courage +that honesty required. Moreover he always favoured tolerance in dealing +with those whose consciences gave them peculiar views, as is seen by his +speech in Parliament a few years later, when he opposed the banishment +of the sect called Brownists. + +Meanwhile Essex had not grown in any way less arrogant. About this time +a younger brother of Lord Mountjoy attracted the Queen's notice; his +name was Charles Blount, and Naunton described him as "brown-haired, of +a sweet face, and of a most neat composure tall in his person." The +Queen seeing him at dinner at Whitehall gave him her hand to kiss, and +afterwards a chessman as favour. Blount wore the piece on his sleeve, +and Essex remarking it and being told whose favour it was, said, "Ah! I +see every fool must have a favour now-aday." Blount challenged Essex. +They fought in what is now called Regent's Park, and Essex was wounded +in the thigh. "God's death," cried out Elizabeth when she heard of it, +"it was time that some one or other should take him down and teach him +better manners; otherwise there would be no rule with him." + +And now an event of some importance occurred in the life of Sir Walter +Ralegh--his marriage. His behaviour has called down much censure upon +him. Macaulay invented a phrase which has had potent results, "the +disease of biographers." Every man seems fearful lest he should be +branded with the ignominy of the complaint; yet he must be a strange +fellow who can live again with a man like Ralegh in times like Ralegh's +times and not catch the fire of enthusiasm. But enough. At this point in +his career, writers are wont to show their breadth of judgment: "There +could have been no true nobility in the man ..." writes one of his +letter to the Queen. Fortunately ideas differ as to the nature of true +nobility. Now this is the basis of the censures levelled against him. Of +the facts of his courtship very little is known, and what is known is +strangely mingled with the business of reprisals against Spain, in which +Ralegh was actively engaged. This is the letter which he wrote to Sir +Robert Cecil:-- + + "SIR, + + "I received your letters this present day at Chattame + concerninge the wages of the mariners and others. For myne own + part, I am very willing to enter bonde, as you persuaded me, so + as the Privey Seale be first sente for my injoyinge the third: + but I pray consider that I have layd all that I am worth, and + must do, ere I depart on this voyage. If it fall not out well, + I can but loose all, and if nothinge be remayning, wherewith + shall I pay the wages.... And farther I have promised Her + Majestie that, if I can perswade the Cumpanies to follow Sir + Martin Furbresher, I will without fail returne.... But, Sir, + for mee then to be bounde for so great a sume, uppon the hope + of another man's fortune, I will be loth: and besides, if I + weare able, I see no privy seale for my thirds. I mean not to + cume away, as they say I will, for feare of a marriage and I + know not what. If any such thinge were, I would have imparted + it unto yoursealf before any man livinge: and therefore I pray + believe it not, and I beseich you to suppress, what you can, + any such mallicious report. For I protest before God, ther is + none on the face of the yearth that I would be fastned unto. + And so in haste I take my leave of your Honor. From Chattame, + the 10th of Marche. + + "Your's ever to be commanded, + "W. RALEGH" + +Ralegh was anxious to stop this gossip about the relations between +himself and Elizabeth Throgmorton. What they were, was entirely his own +affair. At any rate he wanted Secretary Cecil to be quite clear that +they would in no way affect his willingness to work as he had always +worked for his country. And so little was he "fastned" to any on the +face of the earth that he relaxed no effort to forward his enterprise of +Guiana, and in three years' time he set sail for Guiana, though his +marriage was then an established fact. + +It was for many reasons advisable to crush, if possible, the spread of +gossip, and especially because the Queen Elizabeth hated her favourites +to marry. As she grew old and began to lose her power as a woman, this +feeling increased in violence. Whether that feeling be good or bad, is +of no importance. It existed, and Ralegh knew well that it existed. Many +consider that his devotion (and that of most of her courtiers) was +merely based upon the advantages which he could get from the old woman: +that he really flattered and despised her; that his conduct was base and +unscrupulous. This view would seem to be at fundamental variance with +the facts of his nature, of the Queen's extraordinary power, and of the +whole tendency of the time. Not for nothing were love-sonnets the +fashion: though there are men who think that fashion sufficient to prove +once for all the coldheartedness and insincerity of the time. + +When Ralegh returned, he was sent to the Tower, avowedly because he had +disobeyed orders in setting sail at all, really because the Queen looked +upon his marriage as a kind of personal treason. She detested marriage, +thinking it did not improve the efficiency of a man. And Ralegh, without +any treachery to his wife, whom he continued to love until the end of +his life, was thrown into misery by the Queen's anger. There are men +whose nature will not admit of more than one call upon their affection, +and that of a limited kind. You will find that they are apt to preen +themselves upon their loyalty, wisely enough. Ralegh was not made on +those lines. His feeling for the Queen was a real and vital feeling, +and was not swayed by every circumstance of his life. She was a woman +whom he had loved, and a great woman for all her caprices: she was his +Queen and an illustrious Queen: she was Queen of England, which under +her rule had crushed Spain's power. It would have been strange if her +fierce resentment of his action had not affected him. As it was he wrote +from the Tower--men, English men, were not then ashamed of their +feelings: they liked to try and express them-- + + "My heart was never broken till this day, that I hear the Queen + goes away so far off--whom I have followed so many years with + so great love and desire, in so many journeys and am now left + behind her, in a dark prison all alone. While she was yet nire + at hand, that I might hear of her once in two or three dayes, + my sorrows were the less: but even now my heart is cast into + the depth of all misery. I that was wont to behold her riding + like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus, the + gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks, like a + nymph: sometime siting in the shade like a Goddess; sometime + singing like an angell; sometime playing like Orpheus. Behold + the sorrow of this world! Once amiss, hath bereaved me of all. + O Glory that only shineth in misfortune, what is becum of thy + assurance? Al wounds have skares, but that of fantasie, all + affections their relenting, but that of womankind. Who is the + judge of friendship but adversity? or when is grace witnessed + but in offences? There were no divinety, but by reason of + compassion; for revenges are brutish and mortall. All those + times past,--the loves, the sythes, the sorrows, the desires, + can they not way down one frail misfortune? Cannot one dropp of + gall be hidden in so great heapes of sweetness? I may then + conclude _Spes et fortuna valete_. She is gone in whom I + trusted, and of me hath not one thought of mercy, nor any + respect of that that was. Do with me now, therefore, what you + list. I am more weary of life than they are desirous I should + perish; which if it had been for her, as it is by her, I had + been too happily born. + + "Your's not worthy any name or like, + "W. R." + +There are some who see in this letter merely an artifice to play upon +the senile affections of a doting woman. They write nimbly of true +nobility: they describe the deterioration of an old woman's body; they +ask, could a man care for such a person? and assert that all Ralegh +desired was money and appointments. Their point of view is wearisome and +false: it leaves the bad taste that the report of divorce-court +proceedings leaves--with that pettiness and familiarity, which is +disgusting. + +Meanwhile Ralegh remained in prison: and his enemies triumphed at his +downfall. + +It is refreshing to read Spenser's account of the story, written a +little after the event, as an episode of the "Faerie Queene." It clears +the air with its gentleness and that sweet mingling of humour and +sadness. + +Belphoebe has left the squire with Amoret, and comes back. + + "There she him found by that new lovely Mate + Who lay the whiles in swoune, full sadly set, + From her faire eyes wiping the deawy wet + Which softly stild and kissing them atweene, + And handling soft the hurts which she did get:... + + "Which when she saw with sodaine glauncing eye, + Her noble heart, with sight thereof was fild + With deep disdaine and great indignity, + That in her wrath she thought them both have thrild + With that selfe arrow which the Carle had kild: + Yet held her wrathfull hand from vengeance sore: + But drawing nigh, ere he her well beheld, + 'Is this the paith?' she said--and said no more + But turned her face and fled away for evermore." + +He smiles a little at the intensity of the squire's grief, but makes no +hint at his insincerity, and he could have done so quite easily without +injuring his friend, Ralegh. All through the character of Timias the +Squire, he dwells on the impetuosity of his feeling with kindly humour. +For Spenser must have often teased Ralegh on that terrible restless +energy which drove him from experience to experience, and from the +height of enthusiasm to the depth of despair. "Do it with thy Might" was +a singularly characteristic device. + + "And his faire lockes, that wont with ointment sweet + To be embalm'd, and sweat out dainty dew, + He let to grow and griesly to concrew, + Uncomb'd, uncurl'd, and carelesly unshed." + +His wife was a lady named Elizabeth Throgmorton, daughter of Sir +Nicholas Throgmorton. Much is not known of her: enough, however, is +known to prove that she was a woman of character and attainments. The +marriage, in spite of its inaugural storm, was a success. + +Ralegh's imprisonment occurred when he was busily engaged in fitting out +expeditions against the Spaniards to command the trade-route through the +Azores. In 1591 a rough squadron had been despatched under Lord Howard; +but the enemy had got wind of it, and had sent a powerful fleet to +protect their vessels. Of this Lord Howard heard in time to avoid +disaster; he weighed anchor from Flores where he was anchoring, and +escaped. Sir Richard Grenville, however, refused to fly: with his small +ship the _Revenge_ he awaited the attack, and the full fury of the +Spanish Fleet fell upon him. His resistance was as gallant as his +disobedience had been audacious. Ralegh wrote a superb account of his +friend's undaunted valour, and his friend's death spurred him on to +renewed enterprise against the Spaniards. + +In the following year, 1592, he took the chief part in an expedition +which, under his management, was far more successful. "Sir Walter +Ralegh," writes Hakluyt, "upon commission received from her Majesty for +an expedition to be made to the West Indies, slacked not his uttermost +diligence to make full provision of all things necessary, as both in his +choice of good ships, and sufficient men to performe the action +evidently appeared. For his shippes, which were in number 14 or 15, +those two of her Majesties, the _Garland_ and the _Foresight_ were the +chiefest; the rest either his owne or his good friends or adventurers in +London." Sir John Burrough was in command, and under him was the stern +Sir Martin Frobisher, whose rigour even the hardiest sailors disliked. +Contrary winds prevented the fleet from sailing for some weeks from the +western ports where they were anchored; and the Queen, disliking the +delay, recalled Ralegh. But Ralegh, being deeply involved in the +enterprise, did not obey her first summons. The wind at length became +favourable; and he set sail. But when they were, on May 11th, off Cape +Finisterre, "a tempest of strange and uncouth violence" arose, and Sir +Walter himself in the _Garland_ was in danger of being swallowed up by +the sea. The storm did much damage to the vessels. Moreover, they had +learned from two ships homeward bound for London, that no Spanish vessel +would move that year, and that the hope of plunder in the West Indies +was small. Accordingly, Ralegh determined to divide his fleet into two +squadrons, one under the command of Sir John Burrough, and one under the +command of Sir Martin Frobisher, and to lie in wait, the first at the +Azores, the second by the Spanish coast "to amuse the home fleet." He +himself then returned home, and forthwith on his arrival was imprisoned +in the Tower of London. + +On August 3rd, an immense Spanish galleon, the _Madre de Dios_, was +sighted by Captain Thomson, in _The Dainty_. He immediately attacked, +and was beaten off with some loss, until Sir John Burrough came up with +the _Roebuck_, and the attack was resumed at close range. Still, +however, the galleon held her own: Sir R. Cross then sailed up in the +_Foresight_, and Sir John Burrough conferred with him as to the best +course to pursue. At all costs they must prevent the Portuguese from +taking her to shore and firing her, as they had fired the _Santa Cruz_, +a few months earlier. They decided to board the _Madre de Dios_. Their +first attack was repulsed: the galleon slowly kept on her way to the +island. Then Sir R. Cross encouraged his men to make a final attempt. +For three hours they fought on alone, when two ships of the Earl of +Cumberland arrived, and the galleon was at length taken. + +Naturally there was considerable anger among the men of Ralegh's fleet, +when the Earl of Cumberland's captains demanded their share of the +spoils. Feeling ran high between both parties, and many valuables were +stolen, for the galleon was beyond all belief, rich in treasure. And +when, on the eighth of September, they arrived with the capture at +Dartmouth, and learned that Ralegh was in the Tower, the disorder grew +perilously near to mutiny. Ralegh's presence became a necessity, and he +was released. He went to the West as a State prisoner. Sir Robert Cecil +preceded him. + +News of the treasure on the captured ship had spread far and wide: and a +proclamation was issued throughout the towns in Devon and Cornwall "that +all passengers should be stopped, and that all trunks, carriers, packs, +hampers, cloak-bags, portmanteaus, and fardells, that are likely to have +in them any part of the goods lately arrived in the ports of Dartmouth +or Plymouth in a Spanish carrock ... should be stayed and searched." For +the galleon, besides jewels and bullion, contained spices, drugs, silks, +calicoes, carpets and quilts, to the value of about L150,000. + +So, Cecil writes in a letter to his father, that "Whomsoever I met by +the way within seven miles, that either had anything in cloak-bag, or in +mail, which did but smell of the prizes (for I assure your Lordship I +could smell them almost, such hath been the spoils of amber and musk +amongst them) I did, though he had little about him, return him with me +to the town of Exeter.... I have taken order to search every bag or mail +coming from the West.... My Lord, there never was such spoil! I will +suppress the confluence of these buyers, of which there are above two +thousand. And except they be removed there will be no good.... Fouler +ways, desperater ways, nor more obstinate people did I never meet +with.... Her Majesty's captive comes after, but I have outrid him." + +And in a second letter, written a few days later, he describes Ralegh's +arrival, and the enthusiastic welcome which his men of Devon gave him: +"I assure you, Sir, poor servants to the number of a hundred and forty +goodly men, and all the mariners came to him with such shouts and joy, +as I never saw a man more troubled to quiet them in my life. But his +heart is broken, for he is very extreme pensive longer than he is +busied, in which he can toil terribly." + +[Illustration: ROBERT CECIL] + +Ralegh himself came very badly out of the division (probably through +the cleverness of Robert Cecil), and he did not scruple to write very +frankly to Lord Burghley his opinion of the business. "The Erle of +Cumberland is allowed L36,000, and his accompt came but to L19,000: so +as he hath L17,000 profytt, who adventured for himselfe; and we that +served the Queen and assisted her service, have not our own again. +Besides I gave my ship's sayles and cables to furnish the Caraque and +bring her home, or else she had perished: my ship first bourded her, and +onely staid with her; and brought her into harborough or else she had +perished uppon Silley. I was not present, and therefore had no +extraordinary profytt: I was the cause that all this came to the +Queene.... I that adventured all my estate, lose of my principall and +they have double...." + +Robert Cecil was one of the few Elizabethan men with any pretence to +greatness who was before all else designing and crafty. He had a genius +for cold scheming. About this time he began to realize that Ralegh was +too impetuous, and too great to be a convenient friend. And so he +quietly set about to sap Ralegh's influence, though on the surface he +remained as friendly as he had ever been, and let his son stay with the +Raleghs at Sherborne. Robert Cecil was a politician and nothing else. + +And now Ralegh made Sherborne, in the county of Dorset, his centre, from +which he transacted all the manifold business of his life. Here, as in +Youghal, he planted trees and flowers. He thought with Lord Bacon that +"God Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed, it is the purest of +human pleasures: it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of a man; +without which buildings and handiworks are but gross handiworks:" even +as he would think with Bacon, "It is a poor centre of a man's actions, +himself. It is right earth; for that only stands fast upon his own +centre, whereas all things that have affinity with the heavens, move +upon the centre of another, which they benefit." For he was working +towards the realization of his great dream, which would bring prosperity +and wealth once for all to England and England's greatest Queen, +Elizabeth. He now had all the things which are wont to make for comfort +and contentment: but he was not a man for whom ease had any attraction. +He strained every effort, even amidst the peace and beauty of the +country which he loved, to the arduous enterprise which he had set +himself--to explore the little-known country of Guiana--an enterprise in +which many brave men were known to have lost their lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE KINGDOM IN GUIANA + + Ralegh leaves England--Arrives at Trinidad--Taking of S. + Joseph--Interviews with Berreo--Dealings with natives-- + Starts up the river in boats--Dangers overcome--Adventures-- + They reach River Amana--Indian village--Within sight of + Guiana--Toparimaca--Beauty of the land--Falls of the + Caroli--The return--Voyage home--Arrival in England. + + +Although travel was slow and involved great physical endurance, there +was never a time when men less loved their homes and firesides. The +scene again changes. Many things called Ralegh; the spirit of unrest was +always strong in him; he was always longing to get right away. The +little things of life pressed upon him, and drove him to seek respite +and quiet in the Unknown. And the Unknown held for him immense +possibilities; the kingdom he desired to establish haunted his +imagination more imperiously even than the actual release from the life +and surroundings which quickly to his spirit became dull and +commonplace. His nature was too high bred to endure with patience, until +it was confronted by the inevitable; and there was very little that to +his nature was inevitable. The barriers that would have stopped a +smaller nature were pushed on one side by him, and even when Fate held +him fast, he ultimately triumphed by turning his bondage to magnificent +account. The spirit of life was with him always stronger than his fear +of being called a coward, stronger even than his pride. And always when +he at length realized a thing to be inevitable, he faced it at his full +stature. + +He had lived the life of the courtier, he had fought against Spain, he +had attended to the numberless duties in Devonshire, in Cornwall, in +Ireland; everything was becoming wearisome to him, and while he was +unconsciously losing interest in his life, he was also losing his power +over others. He was in disfavour. He was prouder than the proud men +amongst whom he lived, and in consequence he had many enemies, who +longed to humble his pride. He grew tired of the life; his imagination +moved ever in advance of the present, and kept him ever unsatisfied and +alert. In himself rather than in the influence of others lay the primary +reason for his loss of favour. It is almost invariably so with a great +personality even when he is himself unconscious of the cause. + +He put all his energy into making preparations for carrying out his +project of founding a new kingdom in Guiana. If he were successful, +fortune would be remade, and favour would be regained. The prospect was +exciting, but more alluring than the excitement was the knowledge that +the sea and the unknown would bring to his soul immediate peace; that +new sights, new dangers, and new interests would soothe his mind, +fretted by the immanent pettiness of passing days. Change is the law of +life, and Ralegh was immensely alive. Such a nature as his must always +find expression for itself, must find scope and occupation for its +greatness, or the spirit preys upon itself and pines into uneasiness. +Whatever the force be from which vitality comes, brain or blood or soul, +that force is irresistible. Death alone can free a man from its +tyranny. + +So Ralegh turned towards that kingdom in Guiana, towards "that great and +golden city which the Spaniards call El Dorado," and on Thursday, +February 6, 1595, he left England. The previous year he had sent his +servant, Jacob Whiddon, to get "knowledge of the passages," and he had +"some light from Captain Parker," but yet his journey's end was vaguely +known. Jacob Whiddon and Captain Parker only conjectured that the place +existed somewhere southward of the great bay Charuas, or Guanipa; and +their conjecture was incorrect by some six hundred miles. Information of +the kind was apt then to be inaccurate. Spaniards, indeed, knew +something of this vast empire of Guiana, but naturally they kept such +knowledge to their own use. That this destination was six hundred miles +farther inland than he had been led to believe, Ralegh did not discover +until he arrived at Trinidad, which he reached with no mishap other than +the usual one of separation. + +One of the pieces of gossip which old Aubrey recounts, and which is +pleasant to believe, is that Ralegh was in the habit of taking many +books with him on a voyage, and of reading them assiduously in his +cabin. He knew Spanish well, and was conversant with the travel-lore of +Spain. Among his books would surely be the "large discourses" of Pedro +de Cieza and Francisco Lopez, recounting the marvels of the land to +which he was making and the adventures which the Spaniards endured in +conquering it. + +All the terrible hardships of these first explorers had often fired his +imagination, but never as now, when every movement of the ship brought +him nearer to the actual scene of his endeavour. He would succeed where +they had failed. And his heart must have warmed to these brave +adventurers in spite of the fact that they were his enemies. He +remembered their hardships, and his own, when he wrote in his "History +of the World," "I cannot forbeare to commend the patient virtue of the +Spaniards. We seldome or never finde that any Nation hath endured so +many misadventures and miseries as the Spaniards have done in their +Indian discoveries.... Tempests and shipwrecks, famine, overthrowes, +mutinies, heat and cold, pestilence, and all manner of diseases, both +old and new, together with extreme povertie, and want of all things +needefull, have beene the enemies wherewith every one of their most +noble Discoverers, at one time or other hath encountered. Many yeeres +have passed over some of their heads in the search of not so many +leagues; yea, more than one or two have spent their labour, their wealth +and their lives in search of a golden Kingdom without getting further +notice of it than what they had at their first setting forth. All which, +notwithstanding the third, fourth, and fifth under-takers, have not been +disheartened. Surely they are worthily rewarded with those Treasuries +and Paradises which they enjoy; and well they deserve to hold them +quietly, if they hinder not the like virtue in others, which (perhaps) +will not be found." Men who lived through the same elemental perils have +something in common, and a man like Ralegh is able to realize and to +express the fact; he is able to rise above the claims of nationality at +a time when his nation struggled for its very life, and he with it, +against the rival nation of Spain. + +He arrived at the island of Trinidad, and punished, after the manner of +the time, the treachery of the Spaniards against Jacob Whiddon; for the +year before Berreo, Governor of Trinidad, had broken his word of truce +to Whiddon, and having set an ambuscade for his men when they landed, +slew some eight of them. "So as both to be revenged of this wrong, as +also considering that to enter Guiana by small boats, to depart four or +five hundred miles from my ships and to have a garrison in my back +interested in the same enterprise, who also daily expected supplies out +of Spain, I should have savoured very much of the ass; and therefore, +taking a time of most advantage, I set upon the corp du gard in the +evening, and having put them to the sword, sent Captain Galfield onward +with sixty soldiers, and myself followed with forty more, and so took +their new city, which they called S. Joseph, by break of day; they abode +not any fight after a few shot, and all being dismissed but only Berreo +and his companion. I brought them with me aboard, and at the instance of +the Indians I set their new city of S. Joseph on fire." + +And now Ralegh shows once more his extraordinary power over other men, +and shows it even more vividly than in the case of the Irish chieftain +whom he changed from a leader of rebels to a staunch servant of the +Queen. He wanted all the information he could obtain, and from Berreo he +obtained it, though he was bitterly opposed, as might be expected, to +the English and to Ralegh. A Boswellian record of their conversations +would be of value to all business men. + +"Having Berreo my prisoner, I gathered from him as much of Guiana as he +knew. This Berreo is a gentleman well descended and had long served the +Spanish King in Milan, Naples, the Low Countries, and elsewhere, very +valiant and liberal, and a gentleman of great assuredness, and of a +great heart. I used him according to his estate and worth in all things +I could, according to the small means I had." Berreo well knew the +importance of such knowledge to Ralegh; for he had spread reports far +and wide among the Indians that the English meant them the deadliest +mischief, and he had announced that any native found to have had any +intercourse with the English would be forthwith hanged. But Berreo, an +old man, was constrained to give a full account of his journey; and +Ralegh's narrative of his own expedition is punctuated by what Berreo +saw and heard, and conjectured, and by repeated corroboration of +Berreo's statements. Ralegh must have smiled to himself when the old man +so far relented towards him as even to beg him not to venture his life +and the lives of the company in attempting a task which had proved too +much for his own capability. There must have been a singular mingling of +affection and cunning in the petition. "Berreo," writes Ralegh, "Berreo +was stricken into a great melancholy and sadness, and used all the +arguments he could to dissuade me, and also assured the gentlemen of my +company that it would be labour lost, and that they should suffer many +miseries if they proceeded." And he went on to explain the nature of the +difficulties, how the mouths of the rivers were sandy and full of flats, +which could only be entered in the smallest boats; how the current ran +swift and strong; how the natives were hostile, and how the kings of the +natives had decreed that none should trade with the English for gold, +"because the same would be their own overthrow, and that for the love of +gold the Christians meant to conquer and dispossess them of all +together." To which Ralegh adds drily, "Many and the most of these I +found to be true." + +Naturally he did not let experience alone prove the truth of his valiant +prisoner's statements. He called all the captains of the island together +that were enemies to the Spaniards and conversed with them by means of +an + +Indian interpreter whom he had brought out of England. "I made them +understand that I was the servant of a queen who was the great Cassiqui +of the north, and a virgin, and had more Cassiqui under her than there +were trees in their island; that she was an enemy to the Castellans in +respect 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. I showed them Her Majesty's picture, which they +so admired and honoured as it had been easy to have brought them +idolatrous thereof.... They now call her Ezrabeta Cassipuna Aquerewana." + +That was his policy always with the natives. The Spaniards desired +immediate wealth, which they wrung from the Indians by all means in +their power; Ralegh desired a new English kingdom, and knew that for his +purpose the aid of the Indians was invaluable. And accordingly wherever +he went he was always at the utmost pains to conciliate them with +presents and carefully sought expressions of regard and good will. The +Indian chieftains fell under the spell of his personality in the same +way as the Irish rebel and his Spanish prisoner, or, indeed, any one +over whom he sought from the first moment of acquaintance to exercise +influence. + +To estimate at its proper value the gigantic proportions of the task +which Ralegh had sailed some thousand miles to achieve, it is necessary +to remember something of the geography of the country which is now +called Venezuela, and the innumerable rivers which there flow into the +sea, forming a complicated network. + +Having at length discovered from Berreo and the natives as much as he +could about the lie of the land--that is to say, about a quarter of that +which an intelligent Council School teacher could have told him in ten +minutes at the present day--Ralegh started up the river to Guiana, +"resolving," as he puts it, "to make trial of all, whatsoever happened." +He sent ships to reconnoitre and take soundings. Captain Calfield in his +bark and the vice-admiral George Gifford in the _Lion's Whelp_ eastward +to the mouth of the river called Capuri; King, master of the _Lion's +Whelp_ in his ship's boat to try another branch of the river in the +bottom of the bay of Guanipa, and to see if there was water enough to +admit the passage of a small ship. This branch was called the Amana; but +it, like the other, presented the same difficulties. The rush of water +was dangerous for a small boat, and the shallowness prevented the use of +a ship. King could only make hurried investigations, because his Indian +guide assured him that the natives of Guanipa, who were cannibals, might +any moment attack them, and that the attack would be terrible, for they +paddled swiftly in canoes and shot poisoned arrows with deadly effect. + +Nothing could deter Ralegh from his enterprise. He gave instructions to +his carpenters to cut down a gallego-boat, to draw five feet of water, +and to fit her with banks to row on. John Douglas was sent in his barge +to look after King, who had not returned, and to take careful soundings +in the bottom of the bay. For old John Hampton of Plymouth, and others +who had come from Trinidad, had told him dreadful stories of its danger. +"It hath been held for infallible that whatsoever ship or boat shall +fall therein can never disembogue again by reason of the violent current +which setteth into the said bay, as also for that the breeze and +easterly wind bloweth directly into the same." + +John Douglas took with him an old cassique of Trinidad for a pilot, and +was successful. Four goodly entrances were found, whereof the least was +as big as the Thames at Woolwich, but only six feet deep. Ralegh +accordingly gave up hope of finding passage for his ship, and decided to +go on with the boats, and the gallego which he had prepared, and which +held sixty men. In the boat of _Lion's Whelp_ and in its wherry there +was room for twenty men, in Captain Calfield's wherry for ten, and in +Ralegh's barge for ten more. They carried victuals for a month. Among +the gentlemen were Ralegh's cousins Butshead Gorges and John Grenville, +his nephew John Gilbert, Captain Keymis and Captain Clarke. "We had as +much sea to cross over in our wherries as between Dover and Calais, and +in a great billow, the wind and current being both very strong, so as we +were driven to go in those small boats directly before the wind into the +bottom of the bay of Guanipa." Their pilot was an Arwacan, an Indian of +Barema, which is a river to the south of the Orinoco. Ralegh had caught +and pressed him into his service as he was paddling in his canoe to sell +bread at Marquerita; but now the Arwacan confessed himself quite +ignorant of the river up which they were rowing; he told them he had not +been on it for twelve years, "at which time he was very young and of no +judgment." The position of the adventurers was one of extreme danger; +they might have rowed in that labyrinth of rivers for a year without +finding a way either out or in, for they only discovered the Arwacan's +ignorance after four days. Ralegh realized their plight to the full, and +the extraordinary good fortune which drew them out of it. A small canoe +was espied in which three Indians were paddling. Ralegh, in his +eight-oared barge, immediately gave chase, and succeeded in overtaking +the canoe before it crossed the river ("which because it had no name we +called the river of the Red Cross, ourselves being the first Christians +that ever came therein"). Natives on the thickly wooded bank watched the +chase with eagerness, and the captain with anxiety, fearing what might +happen to their fellows. But when they saw that Ralegh treated the three +with deference, the people on the shore made friendly signs and showed +no fear as the eight-oared barge drew in, but offered to traffic in such +commodities as they possessed. + +As the adventurers stopped there for a while at the mouth of a little +creek which came from the Indian village into the river, Ferdinando the +pilot, who came with them originally, and his brother, must needs go to +the village to drink the wine of the place, and upon him the chief men +of the village fell, threatening to punish them with death for having +thus brought white strangers into their midst. But Ferdinando, "being +quick and of a disposed body," escaped to the woods, and his brother +raced back to the barge, where he cried out panting that the Indians had +slain Ferdinando. Ralegh immediately laid hands on a very old man, who +was with him to serve as hostage, and if Ferdinando were indeed dead, to +take his place as pilot. Meanwhile the Indians were pursuing Ferdinando +with deer-dogs, and the woods sounded with their shouts; nor could the +old man stay them, though he called out as loudly as he could the sad +consequences in which they would involve him. At last Ferdinando reached +a part of the shore and climbed a tall tree which hung over the river, +and the barge happening to pass by, he plunged into the water and swam +to it, half dead with fear. "But our good hap was that we kept the other +old Indian, which we hand-fasted to redeem our pilot withal, for being +natural of those rivers we assured ourselves he knew the way better +than any stranger could; and, indeed, but for this chance, I think we +had never found the way either to Guiana or back to our ships; for +Ferdinando, after a few days, knew nothing at all nor which way to turn, +yea and many times the old man himself was in great doubt which river to +take." + +They rowed on through the maze of rivers and islands, which were +inhabited by the Ciawani and the Waraweete, goodly people, carpenters +for the most part of canoes, who dwell in little houses in the summer, +and, when the river rises (and it rises thirty feet, amazingly, as +Ralegh discovered), in the tops of trees. He relates their customs; how +some beat the bones of their chiefs into powder and the wives and +friends drink it all, that the bones may have a kindly resting-place; +how others take up the buried corpse of a dead chieftain, when the flesh +has departed from the bones, and hang the skeleton in his own house, +decking the skull with feathers and fitting his gold plates about the +bones of his arms and thighs and legs. + +On the third day the gallego "came on ground and stuck so fast as we +thought that even there our discovery had ended and that we must have +left sixty of our men to have inhabited like rooks upon trees with those +nations; but the next morning, after we had cast out all her ballast, +with tugging and hauling to and fro we got her afloat." + +Four days more they rowed on until they came into the river Amana, which +ran more directly, without windings and twistings, than the other, and +then a fresh difficulty met them. For the flood of the sea no longer +gave any help and "we were enforced either by main strength to row +against a violent current or to return as wise as we went out." The men +complained that the work was too much for them; but they consented to +pull on when Ralegh and the other captains and gentlemen offered to take +each his turn at the oar. Each spell of rowing lasted one hour. Thus +they proceeded slowly and with tremendous effort for three more days, +when the men began to despair; the current became each day stronger and +the river appeared interminable in length. "But we evermore commanded +our pilots to promise an end by next day, and used it so long as we were +driven to assure them from four reaches of the river to three, and so to +two, and so to the next reach." The men, too, were hungry; food was +giving out; the sun was scorching, and there was nothing to drink but +the thick and troubled water of the river. Sometimes they found fruits +on the trees that were good to eat; sometimes they shot birds. Birds +there were of every brilliant colour, "carnation, crimson, orange-tawny, +purple, green watchet, and of all sorts, both simple and mixt, as it was +unto us a great good passing of the time to behold them." But the men +were hungry and tired. Then a pilot, the very old man, whom they had +hand-fasted, said that he would bring them soon to a town of the +Arwacas, where they would find a store of bread, hens, fish, and the +wine of the country, if they would turn with their barge and wherries +down a branch of the river on the right hand. The men were cheered at +the prospect. Ralegh and Gifford and Calfield determined to make their +way to the town for food; so, leaving the majority of their men at the +river's entrance, they set out. They rowed three hours without seeing a +sign of human life, and they began to suspect that the pilot was playing +them false. It grew towards night, but still he kept assuring them that +the village lay only four reaches farther on. "When we had rowed four +and four we saw no sign, and our poor watermen even, heartbroken and +tired, were ready to give up the ghost; for we had now come from the +galleye near forty miles." + +Then they determined to hang the very old man, their pilot. But the +river began to narrow. It became so narrow that the trees with which +either bank was thickly covered touched branches across the water, and +they were obliged to draw their swords and cut a passage through. "We +were very desirous to find this town, hoping of a feast, because we made +but a short breakfast aboard the galley in the morning, and it was now +eight o'clock at night and our stomachs began to gnaw apace." At last +they saw a light, heard the dogs of the village bark, and one hour after +midnight they arrived. The old pilot had not deceived them in any way. +They found good store of hens, bread, fish, and Indian drink. + +Meanwhile the company which was left behind in the galley, fearing that +some mishap must have come to the wherries, sent out a party after them +in the ship's boat of the _Lion's Whelp_, under Captain Whiddon. But +Ralegh was so pleased with the prospect which the morning light +disclosed to his view, that he had rowed some forty miles farther on. +For no longer was the country beshrubbed with thorns and thickets and +closely growing trees. Great plains, twenty miles in length, covered +with fair green grass spread out before him, "and in divers parts groves +of trees by themselves (he writes with his keen eye for effects of +landscape), as if they had been by all the art and labour in the world +so made of purpose, and still as we rowed the deer came down, feeding by +the water's side, as if they had been used to a keeper's call." But all +was not beautiful and quiet. In the river swam fishes of a monstrous +size, and thousands of ugly serpents, called lagartos. A negro, a very +proper young fellow, leapt from Ralegh's barge to swim to the shore, and +in the sight of all the men, one of these lagartos ate him. Those +monstrous serpents are now called alligators. + +They came back to the great river and resumed their course, pulling ever +with difficulty against the current. And again they were reduced to +hunger, and again they were on the brink of despair, when Captain +Gifford, who was a little in advance of the others seeking a place to +land and make a fire, saw four canoes, and with no small joy he urged +his men to try the uttermost of their strength to come up with them. At +last they overtook them, as they paddled up a creek off the main stream, +and found bread in two canoes, which they captured, and learned that +three Spaniards were in the other canoes, one a cavallero, one a +soldier, and one a refiner of metals. The bread roused the courage of +the hungry men, and "Let us go on!" they cried; "we care not how far!" +as they lit fires for the night's encampment. Immediately Ralegh sent +Captain Thyn and Captain Gifford in one direction, Captain Calfield in +another, to follow the men who had fled away. As he himself was creeping +through the bushes he saw an Indian basket which was insecurely hidden. +In the basket was a refiner's outfit, quicksilver, saltpetre, and other +things to test the quality of minerals, and the dust of ore which had +been refined. They could not, however, catch the Spaniards, but they +discovered some Arwacas concealed in the woods who had acted as pilots +to the Spaniards. Them they questioned, and one they took with them for +their own pilot. + +Ralegh had no mining tools with him, nor had he come for small and +immediate gain. His purpose was no other than to open out the resources +of the whole country for England, not to snatch a cargo load of gold. +Moreover, a month had passed since they had seen the ships. Time was +precious; there was much to be done; "and to stay," he says pithily, "to +dig out gold with our nails had been _opus laboris_ but not _ingenii_." +He stayed only to survey the neighbourhood. During his short stay the +natives came in numbers to him, and with his usual policy he treated +them with elaborate kindness in contrast to the cruelty of the +Spaniards. He paid for everything which he used, and took every means to +prevent violence to their women, and theft. If the offender was +discovered he was punished before the Indians; and, more than that, if +an Indian complained of a theft which could not be laid to any man's +account, he was paid to the full amount of his loss. + +Here Ralegh sent back Ferdinando and the very old man in a canoe with +presents for themselves and a message to deliver to the ships, and the +company rowed on their way, taking with them as pilot, Martin, the +native who was captured from the three Spaniards. But the next day the +galley ran aground, and "we were like to cast her away with all our +victual and provision and so lay on the sand one whole night, and were +far more in despair at this time to free her than before, because we had +no tide of flood to help us; and therefore feared that all our hopes +would have ended in mishaps. But we fastened an anchor upon the land, +and with main strength drew her off." + +Then at last, to their great joy, the mountains of Guiana rose before +them, and in the evening of the same day a fresh northerly wind sprang +up, and before it they passed on till they were brought in sight of the +great river of Orinoco, "out of which the river descended wherein we +were." As their boats entered the Orinoco they espied three canoes +manned by natives, who, when they saw the English, paddled fast away +westward towards Guiana, thinking they were Spaniards. The boats, giving +chase, came up with one of the canoes, and explained by their +interpreter that they were not Spaniards but friends. Thereupon the +natives were cordial, gladly gave them fish and tortoise eggs, and +promised to bring their chief man to the boats in the morning. In the +morning the chief man, whose name was Toparimaca, came with some forty +followers, bringing presents of bread and fruit and wine. With him +Ralegh conferred about the nearest way to Guiana, and he escorted Ralegh +to his own port, and from his port escorted Ralegh and some of his +captains to the town, where the captains caroused until they were +"reasonable pleasant." The name of the town was Arowocai, and in it was +staying a stranger cassique with his wife and retainers. Of this wife +Ralegh gives a characteristic description: "In all my life I have seldom +seen a better favoured woman. She was of good stature, with black eyes, +fat of body, of an excellent countenance, her hair almost as long as +herself, tied up again in pretty knots, and it seemed that she stood not +in that awe of her husband as the rest, for she spake and discoursed and +drank among the gentlemen and captains and was very pleasant, knowing +her own comeliness, and taking great pride therein. I have seen a lady +in England so like her as, but for the difference of colour, I would +have sworn might have been the same." Toparimaca gave them a pilot, an +old man of great experience and travel, who knew his way by day or night +on the river, and they rowed on. Without him, mishap would have befallen +them, because the river is exceedingly broad, at places extending to +twenty miles, and its course is full of wonderful eddies, islands, +shoals, currents, and dangerous rocks. + +They passed up the great river, sailing, for a wind rose up behind them, +along the shore of the island of Assapana, past the river Europa, which +poured its waters into the great river; they sailed on ever westward, +wide green plains spread out on the right hand, and the banks of the +river were a very perfect red. Now they must make all speed possible, +for the time was drawing near when the rain would fall, and the river +rising, would, by the violence of its current, hinder all further +progress. On they sailed, past the high mountains of Aroami and Aio, +past the great island Manoripano, until, on the sixth day, they reached +the land of that Morequito whom Berreo had slain. They anchored in the +port, and Ralegh despatched one of his pilots to the uncle of Morequito, +King of Aromaia. In the morning, before noon, the old king came with his +followers, walking the fourteen miles to the shore; he was one hundred +and ten years old. A little tent had been set up on the shore, and in it +the old king rested. When he was rested, Ralegh conversed with him by +means of an interpreter. He explained how he had been sent out by his +Queen specially to free the land from the tyranny of the Spaniards; he +dilated at large on "Her Majesty's greatness, her justice, her charity +to oppressed nations, with as many of the rest of her beauties and +virtues as either I could express or they conceive, all which being with +great admiration attentively heard and marvellously admired. I began to +sound the old man as touching Guiana." They talked for a long space of +time, the old king relating memories of his youth, how "there came down +into that large valley of Guiana a nation from so far off as the sun +slept (Ralegh liked that phrase and mentions it as the old king's own +expression), with so great a multitude as they could not be numbered nor +resisted; and that they wore large coats and hats of crimson; ... that +they had slain and rooted out so many of the ancient people as there +were leaves in the wood upon all the trees." When the Christians came, +however, they joined forces together and lived at peace, each one +holding the Spaniard as a common enemy. And as the old king talked, +Ralegh marvelled to find a man of such gravity and judgment and of so +good discourse that had no help of learning nor breed. + +Then the old king "desired leave to depart, saying that he had far to +go; that he was old and weak and was every day called for by death." +Ralegh begged him to remain during the night, but he could not prevail +upon him to do so; and, though the weather was hot, the old king walked +back fourteen miles to his town, having promised to wait upon Ralegh on +his return. And that he did not fail to do. It was not for nothing that +he was held to be the proudest and the wisest of all the Oroonokoponi. + +Still they sailed westward, eager to see the famous river Caroli, which +led to the frontiers of the people who were most hostile to Tuga, the +Emperor of Guiana, and anchored by the island Caiama. The next day they +came, after ten miles, to the mouth of the Caroli; when they were yet +far distant they heard the great roar and fall of the river. So violent +was the rush of the current that they were unable to make any headway up +the stream--not a stone's cast in an hour. Accordingly, a halt was made, +and messengers were sent inland to invite the native king to a parley. +The king came, and Ralegh discoursed with him about the purpose of his +coming and his Queen's goodness and beauty; and learned from him about +his people and country. By this time, all the rivers having risen five +feet and more, further progress became impossible; and Ralegh, dividing +his company into bands, sent them inland in every direction to explore. +He himself went to the top of the first hills of the plain adjoining the +river, and in the distance the celebrated falls of the Caroli were +visible. "There appeared some ten or twelve overfalls in sight, every +one as high over the other as a church tower, which fell with that fury +that the rebound of waters made it seem as if it had all been covered +over with a great shower of rain; and in some places we took it at the +first for a smoke that had arisen over some great town. For my own part +I was well persuaded from thence to have returned, being a very ill +footman, but the rest were all so desirous to go near the strange +thunder of waters, as they drew me on by little and little till we came +into the next valley where we might better discern the same." The men of +each band returned and brought with them stones and minerals, lustre, +marquesite crystal, and stones that resembled sapphire. + +Ralegh, as he looked at the stones and heard the reports of the +wonderful fertility and resources of the land which lay in splendid +expanse around him, must have felt within him that his dream of El +Dorado was at last realized. Indeed, it seemed that he had only to come +out and take possession. + +But now "the fury of Oroonoco began daily to threaten us with +dangers ... for no half day passed but the river began to rage and +overflow very fearfully and the rains came down in terrible showers, and +gusts in great abundance, and withal our men began to cry out for want +of shift, for no man had place to bestow any other apparel than that +which he wore upon his back, and that was thoroughly washed on his body +for the most part ten times in one day; and we had now been well near a +month, every day passing to the westward farther and farther from our +ships. We therefore turned towards the east and spent the rest of the +time in discovering the river towards the sea which we had not yet +viewed and which was most material." + +The first day of their return they sped down the stream of the great +river against the wind one hundred miles, and anchored at the port of +Morequito; and immediately a messenger was sent to bid the old king +come. Once more Ralegh had a long conference with him concerning the +kingdom of Guiana, and once more he was impressed by the wisdom of the +old man's replies to his questions. Francis Sparrow and a boy, Harry +Gordon, were left to learn the language till Ralegh came next year, +equipped to conquer the land; and a young native was to go with them to +England. + +On their journey back to the sea they stayed several times to confer +with native kings and find out how they were disposed towards the +Spaniards and towards Tuga, the Emperor of Guiana. At the very end of +their expedition they found the greatest peril awaiting them. "When we +were arrived at the seaside, then grew our greatest doubt and the +bitterest of all our journey fore-passed, for I protest before God we +were in a most desperate estate.... There arose a mighty storm, and the +river's mouth was at least a league broad, so as we ran before night +close under the land with our small boats and brought the galley as near +as we could, but she had as much ado to live as could be, and there +wanted little of her sinking and all those in her.... The longer we +tarried the worse it was, and therefore I took Captain Gifford, Captain +Calfield, and my cousin Grenville into my barge, and after it cleared +up about midnight we put ourselves to God's keeping and thrust out into +the sea, leaving the galley at anchor, who durst not adventure out but +by daylight. And so being all very sober and melancholy, one faintly +cheering another to shew courage, it pleased God that the next day, +about nine of the clock, we descried the island of Trinidado, and +steering for the nearest part of it, we kept the shore until we came to +Curiapan, where we found our ships an anchor, than which there was never +to us a more joyful sight. + +"Now it have pleased God to send us safe to our ships it is time to +leave Guiana to the sun whom they worship, and steer away to the north." + +So Ralegh and his brave men set their sails for England. Many hours in +his cabin he must have enjoyed the luxury of rest, working out in his +mind the time and proper equipment for the great expedition which he +would lead back to the land which he had prospected. His imagination +would picture to him the careful opponents who would be ready to put +forward drawbacks and dangers; and he would answer them with such +conviction that the most careful would gradually catch a part of his +ardour. Guiana would be the topic of all Englishmen, and England's +ultimate glory. He would view again the beauty of the land and its +fertility, the broad plains and the thick woods, where birds of every +brilliant colour flew, he would see the deer coming to drink at the +water's edge, the refiner's basket, and the gold waiting to be worked +out of the ground, and the precious stones waiting to be cut; the +crystal, the sapphire, the lustre. He had his map, he had friends among +the natives, he had made all ready for the great occupation. "The common +soldier shall here fight for gold, and pay himself, instead of pence, +with plates of half-a-foot broad, whereas he breaketh his bones in other +wars for provant and penury. Those commanders and chieftains that shoot +at honour and abundance, shall find there more rich and beautiful +cities, more temples adorned with golden images, more sepulchres filled +with treasure than either Cortez found in Mexico, or Pizzaro in Peru, +and the shining glory of this conquest will eclipse all those so far +extended beams of the Spanish nation." + +He arrived in England in August, 1595, having been absent not quite +seven months. On all sides he met with opposition and disbelief. Some, +the graver sort, considered it better to husband their forces, to repel +the threatened invasion of Philip, who had sworn "to avenge the +destruction of the Armada on Elizabeth, if he were reduced to pawn the +last candlestick on his domestic altar." Others were angry that Ralegh +had brought back no cargoes of gold and precious stones; others, again, +laughed at him, saying that he had never been to Guiana at all, but had +been lurking in Cornwall: that the whole thing was a cock and bull story +to regain favour at Court. He, sneered they, was too easeful and sensual +to endure the discomfort of so long a journey. Where were the riches +which he would have taken, as Drake took, had he really been to Guiana? +To which Ralegh answered proudly, "It became not the former fortune in +which I once lived to go journies of picory: and it had sorted ill with +the offices of honour, which, by her Majestie's grace I hold this day in +England, to run from cape to cape, and from place to place, for the +pillage of ordinary prizes." + +His reception exasperated him; but he did not give way. In five months +he fitted out another expedition under Captain Keymis; and wrote a full +account of the voyage he had himself taken. But this second expedition +was too small to do anything else than keep in touch with the native +friends, and to find fresh information. + +Ralegh's efforts were unavailing. To found the empire in Guiana became +his life's purpose, and he strove to attain it with all the resources of +his energy. But the course of events was too strong for him, and he +could not make men see far enough ahead of immediate gain. Many years +later his scorn at their apathy broke out again, when, in writing his +"History of the World," he is describing Roman energy in the founding of +colonies: "Such an offer, were it made in England, concerning either +Virginia or Guiana, it selfe would not overjoy the multitude. But the +Commonalty of Rome tooke this in so good part, notwithstanding all +danger, joined with the benefit, that Flaminius had ever after their +good will." There is something indescribably pathetic in this personal +touch--of the prisoner recording the fame of a man who had been honoured +for offering less to his people than the prisoner himself had offered, +and at less personal risk--Flaminius supported, Ralegh hindered--each by +the nation which he most desired to serve. + +Edmund Spenser felt for him a friend's sympathy when he wrote in the +_Faerie Queene_-- + + And shame on you, O Men, which boast your strong + And valiant hearts, in thoughts lesse hard and bold, + Yet quaile in conquest of that Land of Gold! + But this to you, O Britons, most pertaines, + To whom the right hereof itselfe hath sold, + The whiche, for sparing little cost or paines, + Loose so immortall glory, and so endless gaines. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +CADIZ AND FAYAL + + Division of command--Ralegh's delay--Unwillingness of men to + serve--Disputes--Ralegh's wise plan of action--The attack-- + The sack--Ralegh wounded--His small share of spoil--Return + home--Sends ship to Guiana--Death of Lady Cecil--Robert Cecil's + policy--expedition to Azores--Fayal--Quarrel with Essex. + + +Ralegh did not long remain inactive. He found that a great adventure was +in course of preparation in which he must needs take his part. A year +before the Armada Sir John Hawkins had planned an attack on Spain's +chief harbour, Cadiz, and in this year of 1596 Lord Howard of Effingham, +High Admiral of England, determined to carry the plan into effect. The +Earl of Essex was put in command of the land forces, Effingham of the +fleet. Elizabeth invariably favoured the dangerous policy of divided +command, which Ralegh in his "History of the World" cannot censure too +strongly. The reason why such a clever woman continued to make this +mistake is not known. Probably she feared that one man by a conspicuous +victory would become too powerful for a subject. If this were the +reason, and it seems likely that it was, her fears would naturally +increase with her age. The same feeling, no doubt, prompted her strange +choice of the inexperienced Essex. He, at any rate, she would think, +would remain her loyal subject, and would not aspire to rebel against +his royal mistress. + +The preparations were on an extensive scale. The fleet was divided into +four squadrons, which were led by Essex, by the Lord Admiral, by Ralegh, +and by Lord Thomas Howard. The total muster numbered seventeen Queen's +ships and seventy-six hired ships, which were chiefly used for +transport, besides pinnaces and small craft. They were assisted by a +Dutch squadron of twenty-four vessels. The men were nearly sixteen +thousand in all, land-soldiers and mariners. + +Essex was waiting with the fleet at Plymouth for Ralegh, who had been +commissioned to find men for the expedition. Ralegh's delay was the +cause of much anxiety, and naturally there were not wanting men ready to +construe that delay into treachery. Gossip Bacon suggests that he was +endeavouring to undermine the position of Essex and get himself +nominated general of the land forces in his stead. The true reason of +his delay is, however, available. On May 4 he writes from Northfleet on +the Thames to Sir Robert Cecil, telling him of the difficulty he +experienced in obtaining ships and men for the service. "Mr. Pope presst +all the ships. Hee can also informe you how little her Majestie's +autoretie is respected. For as fast as wee press men one day they come +away another and say they will not serve." He recommends Mr. Pope to Sir +Robert Cecil for his keenness, and proceeds, "Here are at Gravesend ... +sume 22 saile. Thos above that ar of great draught of water cannot tide +it down, for they must take the high water and dare not make after an +houre ebb untill they be past Barking Shelf. And now the wind is so +strong as it is impossible to turne down, or to warpe down or to tooe +downe. I cannot writ to our generalls all this tyme; for the pursevant +found me in a countre villag, a mile from Gravend honting after runaway +marriners and dragging in the mire from ale-house to ale-house, and +could gett no paper, butt that the pursevant had this peece." + +The unwillingness to serve on a foreign expedition was common in England +then: men began to weary of the hardships of fighting: they knew too +intimately the horrors of a sea-battle. Essex, too, found the men at +Plymouth ready to mutiny and desert. He immediately took stringent +measures: soldiers were tried by martial law, and two were executed +forthwith "on a very fair pleasant green called the Ho." + +On June 1 the fleet at length put out to sea, and came to anchor on June +20 in the bay of St. Sebastians, which is half a league distant from +Cadiz. The voyage had been taken without any mishap, except that the +unwisdom of a divided command soon became apparent. From Dover Lord +Howard of Effingham wrote to Robert Cecil: "My commission in being +joined to the Earl is an idle thing; I am used but as a drag." But the +weather was favourable, and several prizes were taken. From St. +Sebastians Ralegh had instructions to sail with the ships under his +charge and the Dutch squadron to the Main, and to lie just outside the +harbour; he was bidden to take special care that the ships riding near +Cadiz did not escape, but not to fight, except in self-defence, without +further direction. "When I was arrived back again (which was two hours +after the rest) I found the Earl of Essex disembarking his soldiers; and +he had put many companies into boats, purposing to make his descent on +the west side of Cales; but such was the greatness of the billow, by +reason of a forcible southerly wind, as the boats were ready to sink at +the stern of the Earl; and indeed divers did so, and in them some of the +armed men; but because it was formerly resolved (and that to cast +doubts would have been esteemed an effect of fear) the Earl purposed to +go on until such time as I came aboard him, and in the presence of all +the collonels protested against the resolution; giving him reasons and +making apparent demonstrations that he thereby ran the way of our +general ruin, to the utter overthrow of the whole armies, their own +lives, and her Majesty's future safety. The Earl excused himself, and +laid it before the Lord Admiral, who (he said) 'would not consent to +enter with the fleet till the town were first possessed.' All the +commanders and gentlemen present besought me to dissuade the attempt, +for they all perceived the danger, and were resolved that the most part +could not but perish in the sea, ere they came to set foot on ground, +and if any arrived on shoar, yet were they sure to have their boats cast +on their heads; and that twenty men in so desperate a descent would have +defeated them all. The Earl hereupon prayed me to perswade my Lord +Admiral, who, finding a certain destruction by the former resolution, +was content to enter the port. + +"When I brought news of this agreement to the Earl, calling out of my +boat Entramus, he cast his hat into the sea for joy and prepared to +weigh anchor." + +In these words Ralegh tells how he saved England from a great disaster. +It is not known to whom he wrote this account, but it was found and +printed by his grandson, Philip Ralegh, just one hundred and three years +later. Probably Lord Howard took a negative attitude; he found, no +doubt, a grim satisfaction in seeing the impetuous young fool, Essex, +send the land force which he commanded to its inevitable destruction. He +would think that he could easily set matters right again with his fleet, +and Essex would be once for all humiliated, if not slain. Ralegh saved +the situation. He had the moral courage to disdain the charge of +cowardice, and the ability to prove in words the complete wrongness of +the plan of attack. That was not all. The situation was still perilous +to a degree. The day was drawing to a close; boats were filled in +disorder with men from different ships. They were an attacking force +with whom time was of the utmost value, and they were without a plan of +attack. Ralegh was indefatigable. All his powers were called into +play--his influence over men, his capacity of managing affairs, his +knowledge of tactics in sea-fighting and land-fighting--and he mastered +the crisis. + +The men were disposed to their ships, and the ships were anchored at the +very mouth of the harbour, and probably Ralegh was at the pains to prove +to them that this retirement was no disgrace. Order was not restored +until ten o'clock at night, and then Ralegh drew up a full account of +the manner in which the attack should be conducted, full in every detail +of the arrangement of the ships and the precedence of the commanders. +His plan was accepted, and at his own request he was allowed the post of +honour, much coveted, as leader of the van. Lord Thomas Howard +especially coveted the foremost position; "he pressed the Generals to +have the service committed unto him, and left the _Meer Honour_ to Mr. +Dudley, putting himself in the _Nonpareill_. For mine own part, as I was +willing to give honour to my Lord Thomas, having both precedency in the +army, and being a nobleman whom I much honoured, so yet I was resolved +to give and not take example for this service; holding mine own +reputation dearest, and remembering my great duty to her Majesty. With +the first peep of day, therefore, I weighed anchor, and bare with the +Spanish fleet, taking the start of all ours a good distance." + +Within the harbour the enemy were waiting in readiness and in force. +Great galleons and galleys, manned with oarsmen, were drawn up in front +of the forts, which opened fire upon Ralegh's ships; the men in the +galleys gripped their oars in readiness to row out and board any ship +which the cannon from the forts or the galleons might disable. Ralegh +sailed right into the harbour, disdaining to answer the fire from the +forts and the curtain with anything but a contemptuous blare from a +trumpet, and leaving the ships that followed him to scatter with their +fire the galleys. Ralegh sailed right into the harbour; "the _St. +Philip_, the great and famous Admiral of Spain, was the mark I shot at, +esteeming these galleys but as wasps in respect of the powerfulness of +the other; and being resolved to be revenged for the _Revenge_, or to +second her with mine own life." For on the _Revenge_ had perished his +gallant friend and kinsman, Sir Richard Grenville; and many times +through that day Grenville's dying words must have thrilled his mind, +those words that are the most illustrious requiem of a dying soldier, +spoken in the Spanish of his conquerrors, "Here die I, Richard +Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind, having ended my life like a +true soldier that has fought for his country, his Queen, his religion, +and his honour." For three hours Ralegh, at anchor, kept up an incessant +cannonade against the galleons and the forts; the volleys of cannon and +culverin came as thick as if it had been a skirmish of musketeers. On +one side lay Lord Thomas Howard's ship, the _Lyon_; on the other lay the +_Mary Rose_ and the _Dreadnaught_. When Essex heard the tremendous roar +of the cannon he could no longer stop outside the harbour, but sailed in +the _Swiftsure_ as far to the van as he was able, regardless of battle +order. But "always I must without glory say for myself that I held +single in the head of all." At last the cannonade became too heavy. +Ralegh had been told not to board until fly-boats came from the fleet; +and no fly-boats came. Accordingly, in a little skiff, he was rowed to +the _Swiftsure_ and besought Essex to let him board with his own +ship--"for it was the same loss to burn or sink, for I must endure the +one." He convinced Essex, who promised upon his honour to second him in +whatsoever he did. Ralegh had been away from his ship for a quarter of +an hour; but during that quarter of an hour Sir Francis Vere, the +Marshal, and Lord Thomas Howard had pushed their ships quietly in front +of the _Warspite_. This Ralegh could not brook. "At my return, finding +myself from being the first to be but the third, I presently let slip +anchor, and thrust in between my Lord Thomas and the Marshal, and went +up further ahead than all them before and thrust myself athwart the +channel, so as I was sure none should outstart me again, for that day." +But though the battle continued to rage furiously and at close quarters, +Sir Francis Vere and Lord Thomas Howard could not rest content with +second places. Sir Francis Vere secretly caused a rope to be fastened to +the _Warspite_ that he might draw his ship ahead of her. But sailors +told Ralegh of this, and he ordered the rope to be severed. + +Then Ralegh started to board. He laid out a warp by the side of the +_Philip_ "to shake hands with her," and the other English ships followed +suit. Fear seized the Spaniards. "They all let slip, and ran aground, +tumbling into the sea heaps of souldiers, so thick as if coals had been +powred out of a sack in many ports at once: some drowned and some +sticking in the mud.... The spectacle was very lamentable on their side; +for many drowned themselves; many, half-burnt, leapt into the water; +very many hanging by the ropes' ends by the ship's side under the water +even to the lips; many swimming with grievous wounds, strucken under +water and put out of their pain: and so huge a fire, and such tearing of +the ordnance in the great _Philip_ and the rest, when the fire came to +them, as, if any man had a desire to see Hell itself, it was there most +lively figured." + +Then followed the capture and sack of Cadiz. In the assault Ralegh +received "a grievous blow in the leg interlaced and deformed with +splinters." But he was carried on shore on men's shoulders until a horse +was forthcoming, when he mounted. For an hour he remained in the town, +but then the pain of the wound became intolerable; the streets were +filled with jostling tumultuous soldiers, and they pressed against his +leg in their disorder, do what he would to prevent them. So he returned +to his ship to rest, while the sack raged in the town. + +The plunder taken was immense in quantity and value: and as was +invariably the case, there was much ill-feeling as to its distribution. +The Queen quarrelled with the generals, thinking that they had much held +back, and the generals with each other, thinking that the share of each +was disproportionate. Ralegh especially fared ill. "For my own part I +have gotten a lame leg and a deformed. For the rest either I spake too +late, or it was otherwise resolved. I have not wanted good words, and +exceeding kind and regardful usance. But I have possession of naught but +poverty and pain." Ralegh was better able to win a first place in the +fighting-line, than in the prize list. This he resented with absolute +candour: but to deduce from his resentment that he cared only for gain +is totally to misunderstand the nature of the man. + +The results of the victory, for which Ralegh was chiefly responsible, +were far-reaching and decisive. It crippled Spain's power more +effectually even than the Armada. Cadiz was razed to the ground; as the +Council of State decided that to raze the town was safer than to +garrison it for English purposes. + +Ralegh gained the respect of his fellow soldiers for his genius and his +bravery; even men who, like Sir Anthony Standen, were hostile to him, +wrote in enthusiastic praise of his conduct. "Sir Walter Ralegh did (in +my judgment) no man better: and his artillery most effect. I never knew +the gentleman till this time, and I am sorry for it, for there are in +him excellent things, beside his valour. And the observation he hath in +this voyage used with my Lord of Essex hath made me love him." But at +the Court little had changed. Essex remained arrogant and hostile, and +for the time his influence appears to have been dominant. + +Immediately on his return Ralegh busied himself in the preparation and +despatch of another ship to Guiana, to keep in touch with the natives +whose alliance he had on his own visit obtained. Mr. Thomas Masham +sailed in a pinnace called the _Wat_ on the 14th of October from +Limehouse upon the Thames. Ralegh never ceased from ardour in this great +enterprise of his; nothing drove it from his mind; he was convinced of +its ultimate success, believing in it as he believed in himself. But he +could not go in person, the time was not yet ripe. So he with his +wounded leg was glad to retire to Sherborne for a season to the quiet of +his Dorsetshire garden. In Sherborne was brought him the news of the +death of Lady Cecil, to whom Sir Robert was much devoted, and Ralegh's +letter of sympathy is beautiful in thought and expression, though, such +is the interesting divergency of human opinion, there are those who +think the letter crude, sententious and laboured. + + "SIR, + + "Because I know not how you dispose of your sealf, I forbeare + to visitt you, preferringe your plesinge before myne owne + desire. I had rather be with you now then att any other tyme, + if I could thereby ether take off frome you the burden of your + sorrows, or lay the greater part thereof on myne owne hart.... + There is no man sorry for death it sealf, butt only for the + tyme of death; every one knowing that it is a bonnd never + forfeted to God.... If then we know the same to be certayne and + inevitable, wee ought withall to take the tyme of his arrivall + in as good part as the knowledge; and not to lament att the + instant of every seeminge adversity, which we ar asured have + byn on ther way towards us from the begininge.... I beleve it + that sorrows are dangerus companions, converting badd into + yevill and yevill into worse, and do no other service then + multeply harms. They ar the treasures of weak harts and of the + foolishe. The minde that entertayneth them is as the yearth and + dust whereon sorrows and adversetes of the world do as the + beasts of the field, tread trample and defile. The minde of man + is that part of God which is in us, which, by how mich it is + subject to passion, by so mich it is farther from Hyme that + gave it us. Sorrows draw not the dead to life, butt the livinge + to deathe...." + +So Ralegh wrote; he was acquainted with grief, and familiar with death +in every horrid guise. Twenty years later he was to prove with his own +example the truth of what he wrote: "It apartayneth to every man of a +wize and worthy spiritt to draw together into sufferance the unknown +future to the known present; lookinge no less with the eyes of the +minde then thos of the body--the one beholdinge afar off and the other +att hand--that thos things of this worlde in which we live be not +strange unto us when they approach...." + +But Sir Robert Cecil was playing a deep and subtle game which was to +make him the chief man in England during the few years that remained to +the Queen of life and after her death. Essex and Ralegh he feared. He +encouraged Essex to pass on his proud way to disaster, using Essex to +thwart the rise of Ralegh. And Essex needed small encouragement. He +coveted the popularity, which was to end in his utter undoing. Meanwhile +his star was in the ascendant. His pride had not yet outgrown his +strength. + +Outwardly Cecil was friendly to Ralegh and hostile to Essex. He hated +Essex; the two men's _natures_ were in fierce opposition. + +Ralegh was still suspended from his post of Captain of the Guard; but in +June he was brought by Cecil to the Queen's presence. The Queen received +him graciously, and reinstated him. Moreover, Ralegh and Essex were no +longer in open enmity. Mr. Rowland Whyte records that "Sir Walter Ralegh +hath been very often very private with the Earl of Essex and is the +mediator of a peace between him and Sir Robert Cecil." And again in a +letter dated April 9: "This day being Monday Sir Robert Cecil went in +coach with the Earl of Essex to his house where Sir Walter Ralegh came, +and they dined there together. After dinner they were very private all +three for two hours, where the treaty of peace was confirmed." Between +Ralegh and Essex there was something in common at certain moments; there +was a gallantry about both men, which, in spite of everything, each +could not fail to recognize in the other. This Sir A. Gorges noticed; +he wrote with much acumen: "Though the Earl had many doubts and +jealousies buzzed into his ears against Sir Walter Ralegh, yet I have +often observed that both in his greatest actions of service, and in the +times of his chiefest recreations, he would ever accept of his counsel +and company before many others who thought themselves more in his +favour." + +Ralegh's rest was brief. Almost immediately after despatching the _Wat_ +to Guiana, he was engaged in raising levies and supplies with Essex for +a new expedition against Spain. For the Spanish king was resolved to +revenge his bad defeat at Cadiz by another invasion of England. Ralegh +always believed that the surest manner of defence against such an +invasion was an immediate attack. And that was the step which the Lords +of the Council determined to take. About the time that Ralegh's ship, +the _Wat_, returned from Guiana with the news which its captain, Mr. +Thomas Masham, brought, the expedition was ready to put out to sea. The +fleet was divided into three squadrons; the first was commanded by the +Earl of Essex, who was Admiral and General-in-Chief; the second by Lord +Thomas Howard; the third by Sir Walter Ralegh, whose position was that +of Rear-Admiral, and in whose squadron sailed the great galleons, the +_St. Andrew_ and the _St. Matthew_, which he had captured at Cadiz. On +Sunday the 10th of July the fleet set sail. Their destination was +Ferroll in the Azores, where the Spanish fleet was reported to be +harbouring. Their instructions were firstly to attack the fleet, and if +it had gone away, to follow in pursuit; secondly, to intercept and +capture the homeward-bound fleets from the East and West Indies. The +expedition has passed into history under the name of the Islands +Voyage. + +The very day after the fleet weighed anchor a storm beat upon the ships +with such violence that they were eventually forced to return to +whatsoever harbour each could make. Many came very near to sinking, so +high was the wind, so strong the waves, and there were sailors who died +of exhaustion on their return to shore. The damage done to the heavy +ships was very great, and time was necessary to refit them for the sea; +the delay involved the necessity of revictualling the ships. On the 26th +of July Ralegh reported from Plymouth, "Wee only attend the winde, +having repayred as much as we can our bruses. Butt we shall not bee in +any great corage for winter weather and longe nights, in thes ships." + +The weather was unpropitious on their second venture, though they were +obliged to wait until the second week in August. Ralegh's squadron was +separated from the fleet, and was forced by the wind into the Bay of +Biscay, out of which he found the greatest difficulty in making his way. +Later in the voyage Sydney's flyboat foundered; but he and all his +soldiers were rescued. "I have notwithstanding," writes Ralegh, +"followed my Lord's order to cum to the Ilands, and I am now this 8 of +September, in sight of Tercera, having chosen rather to perishe than to +relinquishe the enterprize; and, the Lord douth know, in a torne shipp. +Butt her Majestye shall find that I valew not my life; although I hope +that her Majestye would not that I perishe in vayne. I hope after too +dayes to fynde my Lorde Generall and the fleet with whom, I thinke, all +the rest of her Majesties shipps ar, butt the _Mathew_ with poore Georg +Carew. It is a carfull and perelus tyme of the yeare for thes wayghty +shipps. The Lorde of Heaven send us all well to returne, and send us the +good hope to do her Majestie acceptable service; to performe which wee +have already suffered miche. For my particular, I have never dared to +rest since my wreacks, and God doth judge that I never for thes 10 dayes +came so mich as in to bedd or cabbin." + +Ralegh's squadron did not join the fleet until Essex had been ten days +at Flores. Then it was determined to make a joint attack upon Fayal, as +they had heard that it was unlikely the Spanish ships from the Indies +would sail at all that year, and if they did sail, that they would avoid +Flores. Essex sailed first for Fayal, because Ralegh's squadron was +obliged to delay for repairs and revictualling. But Ralegh's squadron +arrived first at Fayal, and, having waited three days for Essex, Ralegh +at length, on the fourth day, attacked and captured Fayal by himself. He +writes in the "History of the World:" "There were indeede some which +were in that voyage who advised me not to undertake it: and I harkened +unto them, somewhat longer than was requisite, especially whilest they +desired me to reserve the title of such an exploit (though it were not +great) for a greater person. But when they began to tell me of +difficulty: I gave them to understand, the same which I now maintaine, +that it was more difficult to defend a coast then to invade it. The +truth is, that I could have landed my men with more ease than I did; yea +without finding any resistance if I would have rowed to another place, +yea even there where I landed if I would have taken more company to +helpe me. But, without fearing any imputation of rashnesse, I may say +that I had more regard of reputation in that businesse, than of safetie. +For I thought it to belong unto the honour of our Prince and Nation, +that a few Ilanders should not thinke any advantage great enough, +against a fleet set forth by Q. Elizabeth: and further I was unwilling +that some Low Countrie Captaines and others, not of mine own squadron, +whose assistance I had refused, should please themselves with a sweet +conceit ... that for want of their helpe I was driven to turne taile." + +The passage is one of interest, larger than the mere description of an +engagement. It shows Ralegh's immense and correct confidence in his +judgment; and how his outlook always embraced much more than the actual +event in hand, though its outline was never blurred for that reason. The +theory he pronounced on the deck of his ship, and proved next day in the +engagement, he reiterates in his History in one of the most notable of +his digressions, that an island's only safe defence is her fleet. He +ends his remarks with the very typical sentence, "I hope that this +question shall never come to triall; his Majesties many moveable Forts +will forbid the experience. And thoughe the Englishe will no lesse +disdaine, than any Nation under heaven can doe, to be beaten upon their +owne ground or elsewhere by a forraigne enemy; yet to entertaine those +that shall assaile us with their own beefe in their bellies, and before +they eate of oure Kentish capons, I take it to be the wisest way. To doe +whiche, his Majesty, after God, will imploy his good ships on the Sea +and not trust to any intrenchment upon the shore." + +But to the actual action. The men who foretold trouble from the greater +man spoke as truly as Ralegh proved his courage and foresight in the +event. The fort on the shore was quickly taken; but behind rose a high +hill, topped by another strong fort, and the men at the sight wavered to +withdraw. None were willing to reconnoitre. Ralegh was furious, and +swore that he would do scout's work himself. Sir Arthur Gorges and some +dozen personal followers would not suffer him to go alone. So they made +their way together up the hill under continual fire from the enemy. +Ralegh's clothes were torn by bullets. Gorges was shot in the leg. The +ascent impressed the enemy. When the final attack was made, the fort was +found to be deserted. + +When Essex arrived, Ralegh was master of the island. Ralegh's enemies (a +great man seldom lacks such enemies) had long been trying to enflame the +antagonism between him and Essex, and now they insisted to Essex that +Ralegh's success was flat disobedience, and warranted a heavy penalty. A +court martial should be called, and should punish him with death. So +when Ralegh visited the Earl's vessel to give an official account of the +victory, he was surprised to meet with angry looks and the charge of a +breach of the orders. But he convinced Essex that he was within his +rights. "None should land any of the troops without the General's +presence or his order," said Essex. "There is an Article," replied +Ralegh, "that no captain of any ship or company, if he be severed from +the fleet shall land anywhere without directions from the General or +some principal commander upon pain of death. But I take upon myself to +be a principal commander under your Lordship, and therefore not subject +to that Article." And he proceeded to explain how the delay of Essex +made him think that he was adventuring upon some other enterprise, and +how his own company began to murmur and hint at fear. Essex was not +easily convinced. Weakness dreads to be slighted, where strength relies +upon its own authority. Monson observes in his narrative of the Island +Voyage, "The act was urged with that vehemency by those that hated Sir +Walter that if my Lord, who by nature was timorous and flexible had not +feared how it would be taken in England, I think Sir Walter had smarted +for it." + +The incident illustrates Ralegh's address, a quality which was essential +at that time for any success in life; that was the time when man dealt +immediately with man. The mind must always be alive and on the alert. +Here was Ralegh, coming to report a successful and daring exploit, +suddenly obliged to defend himself against a trumped-up charge. If he +failed to take in the whole situation in a moment, and to stand his own +ground, death would result from the failure. Nor could he simply rely +upon justice; he must know the man with whom he was dealing, and the men +who were poisoning the General's mind. Ralegh's self-control is as +amazing as his address. He had need of both. + +The General was an arrogant, spoiled youth, angry at the knowledge that +his subordinate was a better man, angry at his renewed success. A rash +word on Ralegh's part would have been his last. And Ralegh had much +cause to hate the young man. They were rivals for the love of a +magnificent woman whom they served; their rivalry would accentuate the +elder man's dislike of the younger's youth. But there is a dignity about +Ralegh's conduct and defence which shows no cringing before the reigning +favourite, but a superiority to all pettiness, a kind of freedom from +what may quickly become the fetters of personality. + +Such was Ralegh's last great enterprise against Spanish power. Hereafter +the policy of England was to undergo a change, and in the new scheme of +things a man like Ralegh could find no place. He was too great to be +used by a small mind; pettiness is always full of fear and distrust and +envy of powers which are not within its little scope of understanding. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE UNDERMINING + + Robert Cecil in power--Downfall of Essex--Ralegh's opinion of + Essex--Governor of Jersey--Peril imminent. + + +With the fall of Fayal the naval war with Spain came to an end, for +Philip II. died in the early autumn of the following year, 1598, which +was the year of the great Lord Treasurer Burghley's death. His son, Sir +Robert Cecil, became the chief man in England. + +Time and experience did not soften the arrogance of Essex. On his return +he set himself more than ever to the task of becoming supreme in the +kingdom. Always there has been a certain rivalry between the statesman +who manages affairs at home, and the successful soldier. Each is +inclined to underrate the value of the other's service. Essex naturally +thought the highest place in the government should be occupied by a +dashing soldier like himself. He had whatever prestige popularity gives, +and he had influence with the Queen, but not so much as he thought. +Robert Cecil knew his man, and quietly determined his downfall. Through +his mediation Lord Howard of Effingham was raised to the earldom of +Nottingham, which, combined with his position of Lord High Admiral, gave +him precedence of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. This Essex, in his +arrogance, could not tolerate. He absented himself from Court, and all +Howard's efforts to pacify his anger were futile. But the Queen began +to weary at his absence. She asked Ralegh to try and make Howard waive +his right of precedence, but this Howard refused to do. Accordingly, +again at Ralegh's suggestion, who valued the Queen's happiness more +highly than his personal likes and dislikes, Essex was created Earl +Marshal of England, and Howard retired in his turn from Court. + +On the return of Essex, Cecil began to play a game at which he was an +adept. He wanted Essex to feel that his importance was properly +recognized without admitting him into any State matters. So he arranged +long conferences with Essex, and with Ralegh, about projects which he +never had the least intention of bringing to any issue; and these +conferences about nothing were carefully attended by all the pomp of +formality. Essex would thereby be flattered, would grow in pride to his +own undoing, and would be likely to reveal the trend of his own scheme. +Essex, in spite of his almost childish arrogance, was a man to be +reckoned with. He had many friends of importance, the most distinguished +of whom was Francis Bacon. By means of his own spies he kept in touch +with foreign affairs that he might criticize the Queen's advisers; he +became friendly with King James of Scotland; he could rely on the help +of every one who was disappointed of office or reward by Burghley or his +son. + +But he was no match for the astute Sir Robert Cecil. And the very year +of Burghley's death, at one of the heated Council meetings, Essex had +weakened by his uncontrolled conduct his influence with the Queen. The +Queen had interfered on Burghley's behalf against Essex; and Essex in a +rage "turned his back on the Queen with a gesture of contempt, muttering +an unpardonable insult," as Mr. Sidney Lee has it. + +He was not a safe person to leave idle. The office of Lord Deputy of +Ireland was vacant; it was offered him, and after some dissent on his +part was accepted. His ruin was now imminent. He felt his power grow +less; and on Ralegh in particular he looked with hatred as upon the +chief cause of his downfall. And small wonder if Ralegh hated the man +who had offered gross insult to the old Queen in public. "Why do I talk +of victory or success?" writes Essex from Ireland to the Queen. "Is it +not known that from England I receive nothing but discomforts and soul's +wounds.... Is it not lamented both there and here that a Cobham and +Ralegh ... should have such credit and favour with your Majesty...." But +without Ralegh, who, as his subordinate, had won him fame at Cadiz and +at Fayal, and warded off disaster, the enterprise of Essex in Ireland +was a failure. He wasted time and money, and achieved nothing. Then +Essex resolved upon an impetuous step characteristic of him. He +determined to return home, and to drive away by force the men who were +keeping him from his proper place of supremacy; he even enlisted the +support of James of Scotland, who was favourable to his scheme, but +temporized, saying that he would send messengers to the Queen to beg her +to restore Essex to her favour. What Essex needed for his mad project, +however, was an army, not messages. Essex returned from Ireland, but +Cecil was perfectly ready for him, and the people of London did not rise +at his protest against the Queen's ministers; they gaped and wondered, +as they would gape and wonder at a madman. Essex was arrested, was +impeached for high treason, and beheaded. + +The impetuousness of Essex approached very near to madness, and a +dangerous form of madness. If any one has ever deserved death for +treason, Essex deserved it. Ralegh wrote his opinion quite frankly to +Sir Robert about him. The letter has raised much feeling against Ralegh. +But he had good reason to know the peril a nature like that of Essex +could bring to a nation or to anything with which he was connected, and +he was perfectly just and honest in the opinion he gave that Essex's +wings should be clipped. The letter runs as follows:-- + + + "SIR, + + "I am not wize enough to geve yow advise; but if you take it + for a good councell to relent towards this tirant, yow will + repent it when it shalbe too late. His mallice is fixt, and + will not evaporate by any your mild courses. For he will + ascribe the alteration to her Majesties pusillanimitye and not + to your good nature; knowing that yow worke but uppon her humor + and not out of any love towards hyme. The less yow make hyme, + the less he shalbe able to harme yow and your's. And if her + Majesties favor faile hyme, hee will agayne decline to a common + parson. For after-revenges, feare them not; for your own father + that was estemed to be the contriver of Norfolk's ruin, yet his + son followeth your father's son and loveth him. Humours of men + succeed not; butt grow by occasions and accidents of tyme and + poure.... I could name you a thowsand of thos; and therefore + after fears are but profesies--or rather conjectures--from + causes remote. Looke to the present, and yow do wisely. His + sonne shalbe the youngest Earle of Ingland butt on, and, if his + father be now keipt down Will Cecill shalbe abell to keip as + many men att his heeles as hee, and more too. Hee may also + mache in a better howse then his; and so that feare is not + worth the fearinge. Butt if the father continew, he wilbe able + to break the branches and pull up the tree; root and all. Lose + not your advantage; if you do, I rede your destiney. + + "Let the Q. hold Bothwell while she hath hyme. Hee will ever be + the canker of her estate and sauftye. Princes are lost by + securetye; and preserved by prevention. I have seen the last of + her good dayes, and all ours, after his libertye." + +It is strange and it is memorable how the sentiment of the last sentence +but one, "Princes are lost by securetye," ran through the minds of men +at this time: again and again it occurs. The witches in Macbeth chant-- + + "Security + Is mortals' chiefest enemy." + +Spenser writes-- + + "Little wist he his fatall future woe + But was secure: the liker he to fall." + +It is more than the turn of phrase (though great expressions were common +enough then--as for example, "millions of mischief" which Ralegh uses in +a letter and which arrests you in Julius Caesar-- + + "Men that smile have in their hearts I fear + Millions of mischiefs.") + +It is the trend of thought. It illustrates a feature of Elizabethan life +that was common to every rank, but most common in the highest. Men were +tremendously vital, but life was not valued for its own sake: life was +not looked upon as sacred; rather life was regarded as a possession to +hold which it was worth while fighting to the death. + +During the rebellion--the word can hardly be applied to such a +ridiculous outburst--Ralegh sent for Sir Ferdinando Gorges at Durham +House. He wanted to warn Gorges, who had served under him, that his +arrest had been ordered. Gorges feared treachery, that their +conversation might be overheard or that he might be suddenly seized, and +consulting Essex, with whom he was staying, at length decided to meet +Ralegh in the one safe place--namely, on the river. They rowed out into +mid-stream, met, and conferred. In mid-stream their words were safe; +their bodies were not. Sir Christopher Blount, who was a partisan of +Essex, heard of the prospective meeting, and urged Gorges to kill Ralegh +and thus to rid the Earl of his chief enemy at a blow. Gorges was a man +of honour and refused. But Blount was strongly in favour of Ralegh's +death. As Ralegh was pulled to the place of conference, Blount fired +with a musket at him four times. Essex, Gorges, Blount, and other brave +men were beheaded, and Ralegh, as Captain of the Guard, was present at +their executions. On the scaffold Blount asked, "Is Sir Walter Ralegh +here?" Ralegh came forward. "Sir Walter Ralegh," said Blount, "I thank +God that you are present. I had an infinite desire to speak with you, to +ask your forgiveness ere I died. Both for the wrong done you and for my +particular ill-intent towards you, I beseech you forgive me." + +"I most willingly," Ralegh replied, "and I beseech God to forgive you, +and to give you His divine comfort." He turned to those standing round: +"I protest before God that whatever Sir Christopher Blount meant towards +me, I, for my part, never bore him any ill-intent." + +After the death of Essex, the boy who had recklessly thrown himself +against the astute Cecil to gain political power, men watched the +demeanour of Ralegh closely; he too was the favourite of his Queen; they +watched him and saw that sadness brooded on his face. There were many +things to create sadness. + +The great Queen was growing old, and in her age had been forced to sign +the death-warrant of the young man who was dear to her and who had +presumed on her affection. The old Lord Treasurer was dead; Burghley, +whom the Queen tended with her own hand in his last illness, knowing the +worth of the man who had served his country well for forty years; his +son, the astute Cecil, had taken his place; but Robert Cecil played his +own game: he was too astute. He desired advantage for his country, but +that advantage must come through himself. + +The great days were passing. Ralegh had seen the Queen ruling the nation +as only a woman and a woman of genius and of beauty could rule it; he +saw her when the power of her womanhood was declining and its weakness +was in evidence. Who could take her place? What man or what woman? And +must not the place itself be changed and its absolute authority be +modified? Time was converting the Queen into her country's encumbrance. +And who would succeed his Queen Elizabeth? Where were the men to carry +on the great traditions of Elizabeth? Robert Cecil was too astute.... + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile Ralegh continued the duties of his own life, at Sherborne and +at Durham House. Lord Cobham's name is often found at this time in +association with Ralegh. Cobham was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and +often on his way to the coast he managed to make a short visit to the +Raleghs at Sherborne. He was a weak man, as the event proved. And Ralegh +liked him; a strong man is often led into liking a weak man, whom he is +able to render pliant to his will. + +About this time, too, Ralegh was made Governor of Jersey, and +immediately he set about his new duties, which were many and various, +with his own energy. There is an interesting letter from Lady Ralegh to +Cecil; it tells not only of her husband's first journey to Jersey but +also of a fire at Durham House, and in the telling shows something of +Lady Ralegh's character. + + + "SUR, + + "Hit tis trew that your packet brought me the newes of the + mischans of feeiar at Durram Houes, wher, I thanke God hit went + noo fardar. Other wies, hit had rid ous of all our poour + substans of plat and other thinges. Unly now the loos is of + your cumpani and my Lord Cobham's wich I thinke by this menes + wee cannot injoy this winter.... + + "I ded heer from Sur Walter within too dayes after he landed at + Jarsi: wher he was safly landed and rioly intertained with + joye. But he was too dayes and too nites on the sea, with + contrari windes, not withstanding hee went from Wamouthe in so + fayer a wind and weether, as littell Wat and myselfe brought + him abord the shipt. Hee writeth to me hee never saw a + plesanttar iland; but protesteth unfannedly hit tis not, in + valew, the veri third part that was reported, or inded hee + beliffed. My cossin Will is heer, very will and louketh will + and fat with his batheinge. This, wishing you all honnar and + the full contentements of your hart, I ever rest + + "Your asured poour frind + "E. RALEGH + + "I am glad this mischans of feeiar cam not by ani neckelegans + of ani sarvant of mine, but by me cossin Darci's sarvant,--a + woman that delleth just under our logging, and anoyeth ous + infenitly. I hope hee will now remoueve heer. I humbelly besuch + you let this lettar heer inclosed be sent." + +The little Will Cecil, who was well, and looked well and fat from his +bathing, grew up into the second Earl of Salisbury. We can only hope +that Darcy's servant, who was evidently a constant thorn in the flesh of +the orderly Lady Ralegh, was removed; no positive facts are known. + +The letter discovers a side of Ralegh's life about which little has been +written, but which is none the less interesting and valuable. Little Wat +and little Will were bathing and getting fat by the sea-side, while +Essex was under sentence of death, while the great Queen was growing +old, and while huge disorders were pending in the kingdom on the event +of the Queen's death. Little things and big are jostled strangely +together in the course of a man's life. + +Meanwhile Ralegh's new duties as Governor of Jersey were occupying his +attention. Always he entered a position untrammelled by what had been +done there before his coming, and determined to do the best possible. It +was so in his Governorship of Jersey. His changes were entirely for the +good. He found a compulsory system of defence which pressed heavily on +the inhabitants in what was called the Corps-de-Garde. He did away with +the Corps-de-Garde. While he pondered on the great issues which were +pending in England, he settled the small disputes of the islanders under +his rule; for he was supreme judge in civil and Crown causes. He was at +the pains to see to the proper fortification of the island, and to all +the many businesses that his office entailed. + +During these years he travelled often backwards and forwards between +Durham House and Sherborne and the island of Jersey. He found on one +occasion that by some curious oversight the Duc de Biron, who had come +on an embassy from Henry of France, was at Crosby Hall, with not one +nobleman or gentleman to accompany or guide him. "I never saw so great +a person neglected," he writes to Sir Robert Cecil. "Wee have caried +them to Westminster to see the monuments; and this Monnday we +entertayned them at the Bear Garden, which they had great pleasure to +see.... I sent to and fro and have labored like a moyle to fashion +things so as on Wensday night they wilbe att Bagshoot and Thursday at +the Vine." The Queen was at this time staying with the Marquis of +Winchester at Basing, and to her the Duc de Biron rode, escorted by +Ralegh. From Basing Ralegh wrote to Lord Cobham telling him of the +Queen's wish for his attendance. He says that the French were only +stopping three days, and were all wearing black. "So as I have only made +mee a black taffeta sute to be in; and leave all my other sutes:" and he +adds to the letter a postscript, which shows how punctilious he was in +matters of dress: "I am yeven now going att night to London to provide +me a playne taffeta sute and a playne black saddell, and wil be here +agayne by Twesday night." He wrote late on Saturday night. + +Little resulted from the Due de Biron's embassy. But he had the audacity +to question Elizabeth about the fate of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, +and to express sympathy for him. Sully, the famous memoirist, reports +their conversation, and points out the singular resemblance between the +characters of Essex and of the Duc de Biron, and between the end each +met. The Duc de Biron was beheaded ten months later for treason. This is +the irony of things. Sully credits Elizabeth with the insight of knowing +how like Biron was to Robert Devereux, that she almost augured his +downfall, and warned him against his rash courses. The parallel between +the two men is remarkable. + +So Ralegh went about his various business as Governor of Jersey, as +Captain of the Guard, transacted, too, the affairs of his own estates in +Munster, Sherborne, and Durham House, while he and every man of +influence in England kept pondering on the great question, vital to the +welfare of the country, vital to the welfare of each man, who should +succeed to the Queen Elizabeth? And Elizabeth was growing old. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +SUCCESSION PLOTS + + Possible successors to Elizabeth--Lord Henry Howard--Spies-- + Ralegh's position--The net is drawn round him--Letter of + Cecil--Last illness and death of Elizabeth--Carey's ride to + the North. + + +The position was one of acute interest. For Elizabeth had maintained her +father's tradition that the sovereign reigned by divine right, and by +her genius made the tradition credible. The responsibility of vesting +any man or any woman with such power was immense. The choice might bring +disaster to the nation, and it might bring disaster upon the men who +opposed the final choice, even upon the men who supported it. And +Elizabeth would not tolerate a mention even of her death, still less +would she help to appoint a successor. Peter Wentworth had proposed to +the House of Lords that a joint petition should be addressed to her, +requesting her humbly to consider the question. Peter Wentworth was +forthwith sent to the Tower, where he died after three years' +imprisonment. All the hints of her higher ministers she treated with +disdain. That she, Elizabeth, must die, it was impossible! But death was +slowly approaching. + +Sir Robert Cecil watched the approach of death, and made his secret +preparations; for the greatest disaster of all would be that death +should find the country unprepared. Mystery, carefully planned against +the unravelling of chance or surprise, shrouds all the correspondence +of the time. No one can properly tell what letters are authentic, what +are written purposely to be discovered and to deceive. It was dangerous +for any man to trust any man with his solution to the great problem. But +Cecil was the political leader; in the Council he was informed of the +undercurrents of opinion at home and abroad. He kept his hold upon that +most important item--news, so difficult to acquire, so hard to test, +that that alone made his position strong; and he determined that King +James VI. of Scotland must succeed to the Crown. The accession of James +would ensure his own prosperity, and James, being manageable, would +ensure the prosperity of the country, for Cecil himself would continue +to govern. He secretly corresponded with James; he explained his +authority, and asserted his zeal on James's behalf. + +Arabella Stuart and William Seymour, both of royal blood, were married +in 1603, and their claim to the throne was strong and supported by those +who desired the reintroduction of the Catholic religion. At one time +Philip of Spain was anxious that the Infanta should become Queen of +England. He thought that the Catholic party in England would welcome +her. But he had neither the money nor the power to enforce such a claim, +and the project was abandoned in favour of Arabella Stuart and William +Seymour, as James VI. of Scotland, though his mother was a Catholic and +he kept hinting that he was himself open to conversion, could not be +trusted. Cecil, however, succeeded in proving to James that only through +his own agency could he hope to wear the crown of England. Cecil's chief +helper in this was Lord Henry Howard. They corresponded at length with +James. Lord Henry Howard was an absolutely unscrupulous man, and he +hated Ralegh. Whether or not he influenced Cecil against Ralegh is not +known. Probably Cecil did not need much influence to see that Ralegh was +too powerful a man to be kept in a properly subordinate place, and to +work his undoing. + +Lord Henry Howard stopped at nothing to poison James's mind against +Ralegh. He always referred to him as the arch-enemy, the most dangerous +man in England. James was ready to believe all that he was told. The +Earl of Essex he had at one time regarded as his chief supporter in +England; after his death James used to refer to him as "my martyr." +Therefore the rival of Essex, whom many men said had brought Essex to +the scaffold, was not one likely to be looked upon with favour by James. + +Cecil saw that Essex and Ralegh were the only men considerable enough to +thwart his own project of supremacy. He had disposed of Essex; he had +urged him on to his ruin by appearing to favour his ambitions. Ralegh +remained. And Ralegh's overthrow was deliberately schemed, and quietly +carried into execution. + +In Cecil's scheme the most unpleasant aspect of the time is apparent. +The acquisition of home and foreign knowledge was necessarily +accompanied by an intricate system of espionage. It was incumbent upon a +man in Cecil's position to use spies and agents at home and abroad, to +check and recheck all information that came to him. He must keep himself +in touch with the under-current of feeling, in order that he might be +prepared for emergency; and to a large extent upon this knowledge, which +he was bound to acquire, was based his own power, and on his power he +was perfectly justified in thinking that the safety of the country +rested. It is for the moralist to decide between what is under-hand and +what is politic. It would seem that the two were inextricably mingled, +not because of the depravity of the men living at that time, but simply +because of the extreme difficulty of acquiring exact information. +Morality has perhaps changed less than appears on the surface. Morality, +however, has been modified by the application of the powers of steam and +of electricity more perceptibly than by the spread of religion. The +character of life has changed rather than the character of men. Deceit +is a confession of weakness, either in the deceiver or in the deceived; +and the range of man's power was then limited by barriers which no +longer exist. + +There was a demand for spies, and therefore, according to an unwritten +law, there was an ample supply. An undesirable class of man was +developed because the weakness of man in grappling with the problems of +time and space made that class a necessity. Continual contact with such +men infected the character of Cecil, as it influenced in a less degree +the character of all the greatest men of the time. Lord Henry Howard, +Cecil's right hand in his secret dealings with James, was the most +complete example of the species. Lord Henry Howard is the type of man on +whom it is pleasant to heap abuse. Abuse is a luxury. It relieves the +feelings. There is no term of abuse which is not applicable to him and +to his methods. But it is well to remember that, without Cecil, this +tool (however sharp) would have been powerless to do mischief. +Mischief--was what these two men accomplished mischievous to the +country? They were scheming primarily to bring in James VI. of Scotland +to the throne of England, and to do so without involving the country in +civil war. And they succeeded. James came to the throne, and civil war +did not break out until some years after their death. It is interesting +to know that the men who, as some think, freed England from tyranny were +deeply influenced by Ralegh's writings, and it is almost certain that +Ralegh was so far ahead of the thought of the time that he foresaw the +disaster that must come to the country if it were hampered by a +sovereign possessed with the prestige of divine right. His idea of +government was far more modern in conception. Rumour, which is apt to be +an exaggeration of the truth, relates that he was in favour of a +republic. Probably he wanted a form of government far nearer to that +which exists at the present day. He wanted a sovereign who was legally +bound to be guided by his Council of State and by the wishes of the +people. The days of Elizabeth's greatness showed the best features of +tyranny, the days of her decline its worst features. And the worst +feature is that undue power was placed in the hands of incompetent +favourites. + +After Elizabeth's death would have been the time to work the change +without bloodshed. But that would have meant for Cecil that he must have +shared his power with others. That was sufficient for Cecil. Always with +Cecil his own prestige came first and blinded him to the ultimate +benefit, which he sincerely wished might come to his country as it came +to him. + +But the warnings of Elizabeth's decline were not taken, and the prestige +of her greatness was sufficient to carry on its tide the weight of her +declining years and the reigns of two incompetent kings. Then matters +came to such a point that only a bloody war could set them right, and +the Puritan element, grown strong by abuses, triumphed, and its triumph +swept away much that was valuable, and much that could ill be spared. + +Sir Robert Cecil, however, and his tool, the Lord Henry Howard, +determined to carry on the old tradition, and to make James VI. of +Scotland King of England; and their scheme, as has been said, entailed +the overthrow of Ralegh. They considered his overthrow necessary to the +safety of their own position, and the safety of their own position was +necessary to the welfare of the country. As a man who sees a little +farther than the majority in matters of religion is apt to be called an +atheist--Ralegh was called an atheist--so a man who sees a little +farther in politics than the majority is apt to be called a +traitor--Ralegh was called a traitor. + +In November, 1601, the Duke of Lennox came into contact with Ralegh and +Cobham. He had been sent by James to Henry IV. of France to win his +support for James's claim to the English throne. Howard was furious that +the Duke should be on terms of friendship with Ralegh; he wrote to the +Earl of Mar suspicions of the Duke's fidelity, and to James that Ralegh +and Cobham were his inveterate enemies. "Hell did never vomit up such a +couple." That was not all. Howard knew that Cobham was weak and +vacillating, he knew that many of Cobham's family were disposed to +favour the Catholic cause. It would be easy to magnify any move of +Cobham's in the Catholic direction into an absolute espousal of the +Catholic claim. And what would be more likely than that the weak Cobham +should be moved by the influence of his strong friend, Ralegh? In that +way Ralegh could easily be caught in the toils of a conspiracy. The +scheme was very subtle. To work its gradual fulfilment the Queen's mind +must be turned against them. So Howard wrote to Cecil: "Hir Majesty must +knowe the rage of their discontent for want of being called to that +height which they affect; and be made to taste the perill that grows out +of discontented minds.... So that roundly Hir Majestie must daily and by +divers meanes be let to know the world's apprehendinge hir deepe wisdome +in discerning the secret flawes of their affections. She must see some +advertisements from forrain parts of the grief which the Queene's +enemies doo take at their (_i.e._ Ralegh and Cobham) sittinge out, +hoping that their placinge in authority would so far alienate the +people's reverent affection as some mischief would succeed of it.... +Rawlie that in pride exceedeth all men alive finds no vent for paradoxis +out of a Council board ... and inspireth Cobham with his own passions. +His wife as furious as Proserpina with failing of that restitution at +Court which flatterie had moved her to expect." Cecil was instructed to +inform the Queen of these things "that she may be more apt to receive +impressions of more important reasons when time serves with +opportunity." And then the crucial point of the deep plot to entrap +Ralegh is clearly stated: "You must embark this gallant Cobham by your +witt and interest, in some course the Spanish way as either may reveale +his weaknesse or snare his ambition.... For my own part I account it +impossible for him to escape the snares which wit may sett and weaknesse +is apt to fall into."[C] + + [C] Major Martin Hume gives an account of the scheme itself + with admirable clearness; his quotations from the letters + of the period I use. + +It is evident that Ralegh had some suspicion of what was being wrought +against him; in sending a paper to the Queen against the proposals to +declare a successor--the paper has unfortunately been lost--he writes a +letter containing the following sentence: + +"Your Majestye may, perchance, speake herof to thos seeminge my great +frinds, but I finde poore effects of that or any other supposed ametye. +For, your Majesty havinge left mee I am left all alone in the worlde, +and am sorry that ever I was att all. What I have donn is oat of zeale +and love, and not by any incorngement: for I am only forgotten in all +rights and in all affaires; and myne enemis have their wills and desires +over mee. Ther ar many other things concerninge your Majesty's present +service, which, meethinks are not, as they ought, remembered, and the +tymes pass away, unmesured, of which more profitt might be taken." + +He may have known that Lord Henry Howard was mischievously inclined +towards him; Howard had always been his enemy. But it is unlikely that +he could have suspected Cecil, for Cecil was at the pains to show all +the appearance of friendship both to him and to Lady Ralegh. + +Yet Cecil was, from the beginning of his own correspondence, working +against his friend. "Your Majestie," he writes to King James, "will +fynde it, in your case that a choyce election of a feaw in the present +wilbe of more use than any general acclamation of many." And in his +third letter he praises Howard for his fidelity, and refers bitterly to +Ralegh. + +"I do profess in the presence of Hym that knoweth and searcheth all +men's harts, that if I dyd not sometyme cast a stone into the mouth of +these gaping crabbs (i.e. Ralegh and Cobham) when they are in their +prodigall humour of discourses, they wold not stick to confess dayly how +contrary it is to their nature to resolve to be under your soverainty; +though they confess--Ralegh especially--that (_rebus sic stantibus_) +naturall pollicy forceth them to keep on foot such a trade against the +great day of mart. In all which light and soddain humours of his, though +I do no way chock him, because he shall not think I reject his freedome +or his affection, but alwaies ... use contestation with him that I +neyther had nor ever wold _in individus_ contemplate future idea, nor +ever hoped for more than justice in time of change; yet under pretext of +extraordinary care of his well-doing, I have seemed to disswade him from +ingaging himself to farr, even for himself; much more therefore to +forbeare to assume for me or my present intentions. Let me, therefore, +presume thus farr upon your Majesties favour that whatsoever he (_i.e._ +Ralegh) shall take uppon him to say for me, uppon any new humor of +kyndnes,--wherof sometime he wilbe replete, uppon the recept of privat +benefite,--you will no more believe it, if it come in other shape, be it +never so much in my commendation--then that his own conscience thoght it +needfull for him to undertake to keep me from any humor of inanity; +when, I, thank God, my greatest adversaries and my owne sowle have ever +acquited me from that, of all other vices. Wold God I were as free from +ofense towards God in seeking for private affection to support a person +whom most religious men do hold _anathema_." + +This is probably one of the most crafty letters that even the astute +Cecil ever wrote. He wants James to think badly of Ralegh, and he has no +reason which he can urge for this. He is afraid that James may suspect +his motives. He is afraid that James may hear from others of the +friendship between him and Ralegh, that Ralegh may speak well of him. So +he warns James against this: he hints that Ralegh will speak well of him +only to gain some private benefit, fearing Cecil's inanity or animosity. +Then, lest James should suspect him of such a defect, he hastens to +explain that animosity is quite foreign to his nature. Only men like +Ralegh would suspect him of it. Indeed, his heart is so kind that he +must needs have affection for Ralegh in spite of all, in spite even (and +this is a touch which would go far with the religious James) of the fact +that many godly men consider Ralegh anathema, indeed, little better than +an atheist. + +On the surface nothing was changed. Ralegh continued to make efforts to +rouse fresh interest in his colonization schemes, both in Virginia and +in Guiana, but without success. He joined with Cecil in organizing +privateering enterprises. He wrote to Cecil about the threatened +invasion of Ireland by Spain, and warned him on no account to put trust +in the friendly protestations of Florence McCarthy, whom he well knew to +be a rebel. He continued to devote much energy to the duties which his +Governorship of Jersey entailed. And all the while Howard and Cecil were +watching him and planning his destruction. They were waiting for him to +fall into one of the snares which were set for him; it mattered not +whether the decoy was Arabella Stuart or the Infanta and her husband, +the Count Arembergh. Cobham about this time was in communication with +the Count, who was Archduke of the Netherlands, and who desired to make +a peace between England and Spain. James and Cecil too desired peace +with Spain, but did not wish it to come through any other channel but +their own. So they watched Cobham that they might surprise him in an +indiscretion, as they had watched him in his dealings with Arabella +Stuart. And once they held him they could easily lay hands on the friend +who had influenced the poor impressionable fellow to take a traitorous +step. It would be incredible to all that such a man as Cobham was known +to be could have taken such a step on his own initiative. + +Failure is the cause of many crimes. While a great financier is +successful, everything is forgotten in the rush to make his acquaintance +and to make money. No one is indiscreet enough to inquire into his +methods. If he should fail to be successful, it fares ill with him. The +rush to leave him is as swift as the previous rush to be near him. His +methods are exposed relentlessly, and men blush with shame to think that +such a scoundrel could have been in their midst. The blush is the token +of innocence (easily paid) to morality. That was recognized to be the +position in all the various projects about the Succession. Whoever +failed became a traitor. Exactly what Ralegh did or did not do, is not +known. It is enough that he eventually got into the power of Cecil. He +failed, that is to say, he was not sufficiently alert to suspect the +intrigues of his friends against him. + +The last years of the Queen's reign are as tragic as the last years of +the woman's life. The strength of the country was in a strange way bound +up with the strength of Elizabeth, and as her strength declined so did +the greatness of the country. Never has a woman used her power with such +magnificent results. England was the husband, for whom her life was +lived, and all the greatest men in England lived fiercely to win glory +and her smile of approval; and they strove the harder because within +them was the knowledge (such knowledge was an inspiration) that their +great Queen could also be a beautiful woman to the man who found favour +in her eyes. She lived greatly, and created almost an age of great men +with such puissance did she employ one side of a woman's creative power. +A child is not the only new life which a woman may produce, if she has +once outgrown the little limits of what is miscalled purity. Coarse, as +in many ways the Elizabethan age undoubtedly was, men did not fall into +the fantastic error of confusing celibacy with chastity. The body had +full scope, and in consequence the spirit throve untrammelled. + +But Elizabeth was growing old. To the end she kept her grip on life; but +effort was necessary. In that effort alone weakness became apparent. +Strength was used not to plunder life as she had plundered it hitherto, +but to withstand its encroachments. She would not yield. There is +something great and yet something infinitely pathetic, childish even, in +her indomitable will to resist the slow inevitable power of Time. + +At last illness, which she had always dreaded with superstitious horror, +and against which she had always defended herself with every charm which +superstition could devise, laid hold on her. + +Sir Robert Carey, who was Lord Warden of the Border, came to the Court, +which was then at Richmond, in March, 1603, to see his friends and to +renew his acquaintance. He found the Queen ill-disposed. "I found her in +one of her withdrawing rooms sitting low upon her cushions. She called +me to her. I kissed her hand, and told her, It was my chiefest happiness +to see her in safety and health, which I wished might long continue. + +"She took me by the hand, and wrung it hard, and said, 'No, Robin, I am +not well!' and then discoursed with me of her indisposition, and that +her heart had been sad and heavy for ten or twelve days: and in her +discourse, she fetched not so few as forty or fifty great sighs. + +"I was grieved at the first to see her in this plight: for in all my +lifetime before, I never knew her fetch a sigh, but when the Queen of +Scots was beheaded.... I used the best words I could to persuade her +from this melancholy humour; but I found by her, it was too deep rooted +in her heart, and hardly to be removed. This was upon a Saturday night: +and she gave command that the Great Closet should be prepared for her to +go to Chapel the next morning." + +But they waited in vain for her coming, she was not well enough to +attend the service. From that day her body grew weaker and weaker. She +felt that death was approaching, and grimly she welcomed the approach of +death. With a kind of fierce disdain she refused all food, and she +refused to leave the chair in which she sat waiting. Night and day in +silence she sat staring in front of her, face to face with death. Music +was played to her in the hope that it might dispel the black gloom which +had settled upon her. She did not hear the music. She sat motionless in +her chair staring in front of her, greater than Cleopatra, but without +the solace of the asp's quick kiss. Her eyes had no expression in them +now. Her waiting-women were terrified. Cecil came to her and told her +"to content the people she _must_ go to bed." Then she spoke, saying +that "_must_ was not a word fit to be used to princes;" she dismissed +Cecil from her presence, and as he went away she spoke again. "Little +man, little man," she said, "if your father had lived ye durst not have +said so much, but ye know I must die, and that makes ye so +presumptuous." Lord Admiral Howard, Earl of Nottingham, remained with +her. At last she spoke to him. "My lord, I am tied with a chain of iron +about my neck." He bade her have courage, but she answered in a low +voice, "I am tied, I am tied, and the case is altered with me." + +Her waiting women were terrified. The powers of darkness seemed at play +in the Palace at Richmond. Lady Southwell affirms that the queen of +hearts was nailed under the Queen's chair, the nail through the +forehead; "they durst not pull it out remembering that the like thing +was used to the old Countess of Sussex and afterwards proved a +witchcraft for which certain persons were hanged as instruments of the +same." Lady Guildford left the Queen, as she thought, sleeping, but saw +her walking from one room to another; she hurried back, and there she +found the Queen still, as she thought, sleeping. Lady Guildford swore +that it must have been the Queen's ghost which she had seen, while the +Queen was yet living. + +At length, after this long vigil of four days and four nights staring in +the face of death, she was constrained to lie down in her bed. But the +tired old woman might not die in peace; while she breathed she was Queen +of England. + +"By signs she called for her Council: and by putting her hand to her +head," writes Sir Robert Carey, "when the King of Scots was named to +succeed her, they all knew he was the man she desired should reign after +her." It is easy to see how the astute Cecil would construe the dying +Queen's movements into the right meaning for his own schemes. There is +something fantastic in this solemn farce played round the great Queen's +death-bed, made more fantastic and more terrible by the fact that it +sprang from her own strange detestation of naming a successor. "Being +given over by all and at the last gasp keeping still her sense in +everything and giving apt answers, though she spake but seldom, having +then a sore throat, the council required admittance, and she wished to +wash her throat that she might answer freely to what they demanded which +was to know whom she would have for king. Her throat troubling her much +they desired her to hold up her finger when they named who she liked; +whereupon they named the King of France (this was to try her intellect), +she never stirred; the King of Scotland, she made no sign; then they +named Lord Beauchamp--this was the heir of Seymour ... and words came to +the dying lips, 'I will have--no rascal's son--in my seat--but +one--worthy--to be a king,'" The effort of speech convulsed her: she put +her hands to her head: her head was in pain: and Cecil pointed out how +evident it was that she meant, a crowned king should rule in her stead. +That is the irony of things: the State left: the Church entered. + +"About six at night she made signs for the Archbishop, and her Chaplains +to come to her, at which time I went in with them; and sat upon my knees +full of tears to see that heavy sight. + +"Her Majesty lay upon her back; with one hand in the bed, and the other +without. + +"The Archbishop kneeled down by her, and examined her first of her +faith: and she so punctually answered all his several questions by +lifting up her eyes and holding up her hand, as it was a comfort to all +beholders. + +"Then the good man told her plainly, What she was; and what she was come +to: and though she had been long a great Queen here upon earth, yet +shortly she was to yield an account of her stewardship to the King of +Kings. + +"After this he began to pray: and all that were by did answer him. After +he had continued long in prayer, till the old man's knees were weary, he +blessed her, and meant to rise and leave her. + +"The Queen made a sign with her hand. + +"My sister Scroope, knowing her meaning, told the Bishop, the Queen +desired he would pray still. + +"He did so for a long half-hour after, and then thought to have left +her. The second time she made sign to have him continue in prayer. He +did so for half an hour more, with earnest cries to God for her soul's +health, which he uttered with that fervency of spirit as the Queen, to +all our sight, much rejoiced thereat: and gave testimony to us all of +her Christian and comfortable end. By this time it grew late; and every +one departed: all but her women that attended her." + +That evening Queen Elizabeth died. + +Every precaution had been taken that the news of her death might not +precede the Council's power of action. Every gate was locked; every +approach was guarded. But Sir Robert Carey, the dead Queen's kinsman, +realized, like many another, that all his means of life were now at the +disposal of the new king, whoever he might be, and so he determined to +be the bearer of the tidings to James of Scotland. He had quietly made +his preparations for the emergency, and his sister, Philadelphia Lady +Scroope, had in her possession a ring which would prove to James that +the news of the Queen's death was authentic. It was necessary to take +every precaution against treachery in such a crisis. How far Cecil knew +of Carey's complicity with James is not certain. Probably James had kept +it secret: he was not apt to trust any man wholly. + +Carey found some difficulty in getting away, but he gave money to the +right men and succeeded. Lady Scroope had been unable to give him the +sapphire ring, "but waiting at the window till she saw him at the +outside of the gate she threw it out to him; and he well knew to what +purpose he received it." Efforts were made to detain him, but he managed +to evade them, and next night at ten o'clock he started his great ride +to the north, to bear the tidings to James at Edinburgh. That Thursday +night he rode to Doncaster, which is one hundred and sixty-two miles +from London. + +"The Friday night I came to my own house at Widdrington (298 miles), and +presently took order with my Deputies to see the Borders kept in quiet; +which they had much to do; and gave order, the next morning, the King of +Scotland should be proclaimed King of England and at Morpeth and at +Alnwick. Very early on Saturday I took horse for Edinburgh and came to +Norham (331 miles) about twelve at noon. So that I might well have been +with the King at supper time: but I got a great fall by the way, and my +horse, with one of his heels, gave me a great blow on the head that made +me shed much blood. It made me so weak, that I was forced to ride a soft +pace after: so that the King was newly gone to bed by the time I knocked +at the gate." + +The King received him immediately and at once asked him, on hearing of +the Queen's death, what message he brought from the Council. Sir Robert +Carey bore no message, but he gave the King the blue ring; and the King +said, "It is enough. I know by this that you are a true messenger." + +Every attention was paid to the messenger, worn out by his great ride +and his fall. In four days he recovered and he was sworn one of the +gentlemen of the bedchamber; "and presently I helped to take off his +clothes and stayed till he was in bed. + +"After this, there came, daily, Gentlemen and Noblemen from our Court; +and the King set down a fixed day for his departure towards London." + +The day fixed was April 5th, 1603. + +[Illustration: KING JAMES I.] + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE TRIAL + + Arrival of James VI. of Scotland--Ralegh in immediate + disfavour--Gondomar comments on James--Ralegh accused of + treason--Cobham and Brooke--Ralegh attempts suicide-- + Cobham's retractions--November 17--And the trial's infamy. + + +Slowly King James moved on his royal progress to London to the +acclamation of the people of all the towns through which he passed. "The +Council of State and the Nobility, no doubt assisted with the Spirit of +Truth, considering the infallible right of our Sovereign Lord, King +James, took such order that the news of the Queen's death should no +sooner be spread to deject the hearts of the people, but, at the +instant, they should be comforted with the Proclaiming of the King." The +people were intoxicated with the prospect of the new king coming +peaceably to reign over the kingdom, for the fear of a civil war had +been imminent and universal. The country burst into a salvo of welcome; +a new era of peace and prosperity was to be inaugurated. Scotland now +joined to England lessened the fear of invasion. "They now began duly to +think upon his unmatched virtues, which never the most malicious enemy +could impeach ... they now considered his affability mercy justice and +magnanimity." The hopes of every party ran high. The Catholics knew that +he was inclined towards friendliness; the Churchmen felt sure that they +who had been chief instigators in bringing him to the throne of +England, could rely upon his support. The Puritans had heard of his +godliness and his tolerance to their views. Each vied with the other in +sounding the praises of the new King. "But our King coming through the +North," writes Mr. Arthur Wilson, "(Banquetting and Feasting by the way) +the applause of the people in so obsequious and submissive a manner +(still admiring change) was checkt by an honest plain Scotsman ... with +a propheticall expression. _This people will spoil a gud King._ The King +as unused, so tired with multitudes, especially in his Huntinge (which +he did as he went) caused an inhibition to be published, to restrain his +people from hunting him. Happily being fearful of so great a concourse, +as this novelty produced, the old hatred betwixt the Borderers not yet +forgotten, might make him apprehend it to be of a greater extent: though +it was generally imputed to a desire of enjoying his recreations without +interruption." + +Few kings have received such a welcome; few kings have proved themselves +so unworthy as the event proved James. But the prestige of his welcome +and his rescue from the Gunpowder Plot hid his true character for many +years from the people under the obscuring cloud of sentiment. + + "Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits + Sets all to hazard." + +Every one connected with the Court and Court appointments hastened to +meet him and win his good will: and James was lavish in his treatment. +He created innumerable knights, and raised so many to the peerage that +"some unhappy fancy pasted up a Pasquil in Pauls, wherein he pretended +an art to help weak memories to a competent knowledge of the names of +the Nobility." Sir Robert Cecil was created Baron of Essingdon and soon +after Viscount Cranborn and Earl of Salisbury. Lord Henry Howard was +made Earl of Northampton. + +During the Queen's last illness Ralegh was in Devonshire. Directly he +heard of the news of her death he hastened with Sir Robert Cross to pay +his respects to the new sovereign. Cecil advised him to spare himself +the trouble; but he did not listen to Cecil's advice. He came to the +King at Burghley House, trusting in his power to impress himself +favourably upon the King. But James had been too carefully primed +against him. Old Aubrey's gossip bears the stamp of truth; it is so +characteristic of James, that he should have met the great Ralegh with a +pun upon his name--"I have heard but rawly of thee." Ralegh spoke with +James about business connected with the Duchy of Cornwall; he wanted a +royal letter authorizing the continuance of legal process, and a warrant +to stop "the waste of woods and parks" which he said was due to Lord +Treasurer Buckhurst's heedlessness. James listened, and gave +instructions to his secretary, Sir Thomas Lake, to write the necessary +letters as quickly as possible, that he might be rid of the man whom he +feared and disliked. "Let them be delivered speedily that Ralegh may be +gone again." + +James was not slow in compassing Ralegh's downfall. Two weeks passed by +and Ralegh was summoned to the Council Chamber, where the Lord President +informed him that James no longer desired his services as Captain of the +Guard; that the honour had been conferred upon the King's countryman, +Sir Thomas Erskine, to whom Ralegh was bidden to hand all appurtenances +of the office. + +Ralegh had increased James's dislike of him by suggesting that articles +should be framed which should prevent the King's countrymen from +devouring the kingdom like locusts. The advisability of such a measure +became manifest to all later, when it was too late. Naturally the first +man to suffer was Ralegh himself. But the indignity was glossed +over--not for Ralegh's sake so much as to hinder unpleasant gossip about +the new appointment--by increasing Ralegh's salary as Governor of Jersey +by three hundred pounds per annum. Ralegh's loss was directly due to +Cecil, to whom James had given the disposal of the office, and who +gained new favour with James by electing a Scotchman. For seven weeks +Ralegh enjoyed the added emolument. + +His last interview with James took place at Beddington Park, in Surrey, +which was the seat of his uncle, Sir Nicolas Carew. There Ralegh, +anxious to prove his loyalty to the King, gave him his "Discourse +touching a War with Spain, and of the protecting of the Netherlands," +and offered to carry on his enterprises against Spain (he always had his +great Guiana scheme in the front of his mind) by offering "to carry two +thousand men to invade him without the King's charge." He could not have +made a more inauspicious suggestion to the timorous James; but Ralegh +did not realize how the King was influenced against him to such an +extent that he would be quick to think that the man who could raise so +many men to fight the Spaniard, could at less expense raise them to +fight his own Majesty. Moreover, James, from no high motives, but merely +from terror at the sight even of a drawn sword, hated war and fighting +of any kind, and distrusted, as is shown by his choice of favourites, +the quality of bravery in others. All Ralegh's grip of a situation, his +clearness of exposition, his courage would be against him in a +conference with James. The standard by which a man was judged had +changed, now that the great Queen was in her grave. The clever Gondomar +summed James up to a nicety when he wrote, without any need (for once) +of diplomacy, "James has a vanity so enormous that, in order to make him +play his adversary's game, you have simply to let James believe that it +is from himself that the adversary has learnt to know how to play." His +favourites were men who were more adroit in the use of poison than in +the use of the sword. It is easy to imagine what were the feelings of +James as Ralegh propounded his masterly exposition of the Spanish +situation, and offered his own services. There would be something +burlesque in this interview between the brave man and the coward, if +absolute power of life and death were not in the hands of the coward, +and if the coward had not already determined to use his power to the +detriment of the brave man. + +The carefully planned toils were closing round Ralegh. Copley was +arrested in Sussex, and in consequence of his first examination, which +was dated July 12, George Brooke was arrested two days afterwards, and +orders were given for the arrest of Lord Grey and Sir Griffin Markham. +On the 14th or 15th, Cobham, George Brooke's brother, was examined by +the Council. They were accused of complicity with the "Treason of the +Priests." Now, treason at that time was formidable, and it was necessary +to treat it in a summary fashion. In every nation there must be a large +number of discontented people who would combine if there was a man of +sufficient influence to lead them in any way; very little was known in +spite of spies; man dealt with man; there was no proper way of gauging +public opinion; a spark might set all the disaffected into a dangerous +fire. Now discontent is aired in the newspapers; every one can read +what happens in Parliament. Treason is no longer a thing to dread. But +then it was a constant danger, and the least suspicion of treasonable +practices was sufficient to condemn a man to a death of horrible +ignominy. Justice was swift but not unerring. A man had not only to keep +clear of treason, but must have the wit to avoid even the suspicion. It +is easy to see how the power thus put into the hands of the Government, +though such power was essential to its safety and the welfare of the +citizens, could be abused. And there is probably no instance in history +where its abuse is more conspicuous than in the treatment of Ralegh. +Cecil feared Ralegh; James feared Ralegh. There is nothing so +unscrupulous, nothing so dangerous and so cruel as fear. The world lay +obscured by the dark cloud of Time and of Space; and terrible scope was +given to fear by the insuperable darkness. + +The suspected man was shut up alone, and a Bishop or a Judge or a +Councillor was told off to examine him; and the man knew quite well that +his answers might be made more satisfactory by the help of the rack, and +that his examiner would earn reward and distinction by discovering +treason and his associates in treason. The promise, too, of a pardon was +often dangled before his eyes to loosen his tongue. Such promises were +not often kept. Brooke implicated Cobham, and Cobham implicated Ralegh. + +George Brooke, Cobham's brother, was a light-hearted fellow, who was +drawn into listening to the priest's conspiracy, because he had been +disappointed of some small office upon which he had set his heart. To +Bishop Bancroft was assigned the task of examining him. Large rewards +were offered the Bishop if he were successful in finding out the +details of the conspiracy. "The only way to procure favour is to open +all that possibly you can" were the words with which the good Bishop +began his inquiry. And gradually he played upon the fears and hopes of +the prisoner to such an extent that the wretched man burst into a kind +of rapture of confession, stating all he knew and all he imagined to be +fact, about the treason against King James. Day after day the +examination was continued relentlessly; statements made by other +prisoners, or said to have been made, were told him; lists of written +questions were given him. It would have taken a man of extraordinary +strength and control to have kept his balance under such circumstances. +George Brooke was a very ordinary man. On July 17 he said: "The +conspirators among themselves thought Sir Walter Ralegh a fit man to be +of the action." The good Bishop did not leave such an important +statement undeveloped; under his careful management the statement by the +end of August had grown; Brooke was ready to swear that Ralegh and +Cobham had resolved to kill the King and his cubs. + +Cobham, too, was examined in the same relentless manner. He was a little +stronger than his brother, George Brooke, but no match for the +examiners. He began by steadfastly denying everything; his nerves, +however, could not bear the terrible suspense. He had been suddenly +removed to solitary confinement; the horror of a dreadful death loomed +over him. He did not know who might be arrested, who might desire his +death. At length some of the confessions of his brother were disclosed +to him; but the examiners named Ralegh, not Brooke, as the authority; +and Cobham, knowing that Ralegh must have invented or guessed at such +things, broke into an outcry of disgust (who can blame him!), "Oh +traitor, oh villain! I will now tell you all the truth." And he said +that he had never entered into these courses but by Ralegh's +instigation, and that Ralegh would never let him alone. It was very +cleverly done by the examiner. Cobham was led into confessing, helped by +questions from George Brooke's statements, that "he had conferred with +Arenberg about procuring 500,000 or 600,000 crowns from the King of +Spain; and that nothing should be done with the money until he had +spoken with Sir Walter Ralegh, for distribution of the money to them +which were discontented in England." Then part of a letter from Ralegh +to Cecil--for Cecil knew much of the intercourse between Arenberg and +England in his official capacity--was shown to Cobham, in which it was +written, "If da Renzy were not secured, the matter would not be +discovered, for da Renzy would fly; yet if he were then apprehended, it +would give matter of suspicion to Lord Cobham." Naturally Cobham, +reading such words at the moment when they were shown him, constructed +them into his death sentence, and broke out into fury of denunciation +sufficient for the bad purpose of the examiners--to close the net round +Ralegh. Lord Henry Howard justly remarks in his "Adversaria," "It is an +old observation of jugglers to make others give fire to the piece after +they themselves have charged it, and thereby put them into the peril of +recoil or breaking, if any mischief follow." Lord Henry Howard may be +taken as an authority on this subject. + +Immediately after Cobham's outbreak, Ralegh was arrested and sent to the +Tower, to await the slow, strange process of justice. His arrest took +place at the beginning of August. Almost immediately the Government of +Jersey was transferred to Sir John Peyton, Governor of the Tower. James +in his grant stated that the post was forfeited by Sir Walter Ralegh +through the grievous treason against the Crown. With the King thus +quickly convinced of his guilt, Ralegh knew that he had small chance of +proving his innocence. Dismay came upon him and despair. His hopes fell +from a great height and were broken. Suddenly shut closely in by four +stone walls, he was obliged to wait the slow approach of an ignominious +death--a death which would involve the ruin of his family, and the +immediate disgrace of his name. He was a man of action; he could not sit +and do nothing but think. Despair brought madness to him; he tried to +kill himself in a fit of impotent despair. This is the way in which +Cecil, once Ralegh's friend, writes of it. "Although lodged and attended +as well as in his own house, yet one afternoon, while divers of us were +in the Tower examining these prisoners, Sir Walter Ralegh attempted to +have murdered himself. Whereof, when we were advertised, we came to him +and found him in some agony, seeming to be unable to bear his +misfortune, and protesting innocency, with carelessness of life. In that +humour he had wounded himself under the right pap, but no way mortally; +being in truth rather a cut than a stab." + +On August 13, Ralegh was examined about Cobham's negotiations with +Arenberg. His statement was: "Lord Cobham offered me 10,000 crowns of +the money, for the furthering of the Peace between England and Spain; +and he said that I should have it within three days. I told him, 'When I +see the money I will make you an answer.' For I thought it one of his +ordinary idle conceits, and therefore made no account thereof. But this +was as I think before Count Arenberg's coming over." And in a letter +written to the Lords of the Council a few days after this examination, +in which he proclaims his innocence of any treasonable practice, he +breaks out, after enumerating his exploits against Spain, in bitterness +at the irony of the charge. "Alas, to what end should we live in the +world if all the endeavours of so many testimonies shall be blown off +with one blast of breath, or be prevented by one man's charge." + +Lord Cobham had made several retractions of his outburst against Ralegh, +both at Ralegh's instigation and on his own initiative. Sir George +Harvey, the Governor of the Tower, was discreet enough to keep back the +latter retraction until one month after the trial, when he showed Cecil +a letter in which Cobham wrote of his accusation, "God is my wittness, +it doth troble my contiens." Terror had unhinged Cobham's mind, he +accused Ralegh and retracted his accusations in such a way that one +retraction more or less mattered little; Sir George Harvey's sense of +duty, however, is significant. + +The indictment was drawn up at Staines on the 21st of September. Three +months were allowed to elapse before the trial took place. Meanwhile, +Sir Francis Godolphin, High Sheriff of Cornwall, was authorized to take +the muster of the county, "the Commission of Lieutenancy granted to Sir +Walter Ralegh being become void and determined." In October Arenberg +left England for Flanders, overwhelmed with evidence of the King's +favour. The plague was raging in London, and accordingly the trial was +to be held at Winchester. Sir William Waad was ordered to bring Sir +Walter Ralegh to Wolvesey Castle--the episcopal palace of Winchester. +Waad wrote to Cecil, "It was hob or nob whether Ralegh should have been +brought alive through such multitudes of unruly people as did exclaim +against him. We took the best order we could in setting watches through +the streets, both in London and the suburbs. If one hare-brain fellow +amongst so great multitudes had begun to set upon him--as they were very +near to do it--no entreaty or means could have prevailed; the fury and +tumult of the people was so great." Ralegh was driven in his own +carriage; he faced the mob with disdain. + +On the 17th of November the trial began; and the after comment of one of +"these my judges" was true: "That trial injured and degraded the justice +of England." The Commissioners were eleven in number: Thomas Howard, +Earl of Suffolk, who had fought with Ralegh at Cadiz; Charles Blount, +Earl of Devonshire; Lord Henry Howard; Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury; +Edward, Lord Wotton of Morley; Sir William Waad; Sir John Stanhope, +Vice-Chamberlain; the Lord Chief Justice of England, Popham; the Lord +Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Anderson; Mr. Justice Gawdie and Mr. +Justice Warburton. Coke, as Attorney-General, conducted the prosecution, +and was assisted by Serjeant Hale. The Clerk of the Crown Office, having +read the commission of Oyer and Terminer, the prisoner was bidden to +hold up his hand, and then the indictment was read, the gist of which is +as follows:-- + +That he did conspire and go about to deprive the King of his government, +to raise up sedition within the realm, to alter religion, to bring in +the Roman superstition, and to procure foreign enemies to invade the +kingdom. That the Lord Cobham, the 9th of June last, did meet with the +said Sir Walter Ralegh, in Durham House, and then and there had +conference with him how to advance Arabella Stuart to the crown and +royal throne of this kingdom. And that then and there it was agreed +that Cobham should treat with Arenberg, ambassador from the Archduke of +Austria, to obtain of him 600,000 crowns to bring to pass their intended +treason. It was agreed that Cobham should go to the Archduke Albert to +procure him to advance the pretended title of Arabella. From thence, +knowing that Albert had not sufficient means to maintain his own army in +the Low Countries, Cobham should go to Spain, to procure the king to +assist and further her pretended title. It was agreed, the better to +effect all this conspiracy, that Arabella should write three letters, +one to the Archduke, another to the King of Spain, and a third to the +Duke of Savoy, and promise three things-- + + First.--To establish a firm peace between England and Spain. + + Secondly.--To tolerate the popish and Roman superstition. + + Thirdly.--To be ruled by them in contracting of her marriage. + +And further, that Cobham and his brother Brooke met on the 9th of June +last, and Cobham told Brooke all these treasons; to the which treasons +Brooke gave his assent and did join himself to all these. And after, on +the Thursday following, Cobham and Brooke did speak these words, _that +there would never be a good world in England till the King_ (meaning our +sovereign lord) _and his cubs_ (meaning the royal issue) _were taken +away_. + +And the more to disable and deprive the King of his crown, and to +confirm the said Cobham in his intents Ralegh did publish a book falsely +written against the most just and royal title of the King, which book +Cobham after that received of him, and did deliver unto Brooke. And +further by the traitorous instigation of Ralegh, Cobham did incite +Brooke to move Arabella to write to the three forenamed princes to +procure them to advance her title. Further, Cobham, by the instigation +of Ralegh did write letters to the Count Arenberg for the obtaining of +the 600,000 crowns, which money by other letters Count Arenberg did +promise to perform the payment of. And then did Cobham promise to Ralegh +that when he had received the said money he would deliver 8000 crowns to +him. + +[Illustration: COUNT ARENBERGH] + +To the indictment Sir Walter Ralegh pleaded NOT GUILTY. Sir Walter +Ralegh was then asked whether he would take exception to any of the +jury; and he made answer, "I know none of them; they are all Christians +and honest gentlemen. I except against none." He did not know that the +original jurymen had been changed; he did not know that the names of +three near servants to the Queen Elizabeth had been erased from the +panel overnight, being thought unsuitable for their purpose. + +_Earl Suffolk._--You, gentlemen of the King's learned counsel follow the +same course as you did the other day. + +_Ralegh._--My lord, I pray you I may answer the points particularly as +they are delivered, by reason of the weakness of my memory and sickness. + +_Lord Chief Justice Popham._--After the King's learned counsel have +delivered all the evidence, Sir Walter, you may answer particularly to +what you will. + +Then spake the King's Serjeant at Law, by name Hele; of this man Edwards +points out that "he was more notable as a brawler and a buffoon--and +also as a moneylender, in which capacity he hoped to win a very large +stake by the ruin of Lord Cobham--than as a lawyer." The tone of his +short speech may be gathered from this typical sentence at the +conclusion. "It appears that Cobham took Ralegh to be either a god or +an idol. Cobham endeavours to set up a new king, or governor: God forbid +mine eyes should ever see so unhappy a change! As for the Lady Arabella, +she, upon my conscience hath no more title to the crown than I have, +which before God I utterly renounce. Cobham, a man bred in England, hath +no experience abroad; but Ralegh, a man of great wit, military and a +swordman. Now whether these things were bred in a hollow tree, I leave +to them to speak of, who can speak far better than myself." + +Sir Edward Coke, the King's Attorney, then rose to his feet. It is well +to remember that it was Coke's business, as the King's Attorney, to +prove Ralegh guilty of treason, and that as he had almost no evidence in +his support, his business was one of extreme difficulty. Cobham's +accusation was his only evidence, and that must be used with caution, +owing to Cobham's retractations. The trial was of the utmost importance; +his professional reputation was at stake; the very difficulty put him on +his mettle. He rose magnificently to the occasion. With such evidence at +his disposal he could not quietly prove Ralegh's guilt. His chief +weapons were the appeal to the jury's loyalty and abuse of the +prisoner--especially abuse, by which he hoped to brow-beat him. His +speech was long and learned. He began by dividing the mischief of +treason into three divisions--imitation, supportation, and defence, and +by enlarging upon the main conspiracy of the priests Watson and Copley, +with which, as Ralegh pointed out, he was in no way connected, even in +the indictment. Undeterred, Coke continued his oration. He gave +instances of treason, he defined treason at length, and then he suddenly +began to praise the character of King James, and, turning angrily to +Ralegh, exclaimed: "To whom Sir Walter did you bear malice? To the royal +children?" To which Ralegh answered: "Master Attorney, I pray you to +whom or to what end speak you all this? I protest I do not understand +what a word of this means, except it be to tell me news. What is the +treason of Markham and the priests to me?" + +_Coke._ "I will then come close to you. I will prove you to be the most +notorious traitor that ever came to the bar." + +_Ralegh._ "Your words cannot condemn me; my innocency is my defence. +_Prove_ against me any one thing of the many that you have broken, and I +will confess all the Indictment, and that I am the most horrible traitor +that ever lived." + +_Coke._ "Nay I will prove all. Thou art a monster; thou hast an English +face, but a Spanish heart." + +Then Coke proceeded to give a minute account of Cobham's plots in such a +way that, as Edwards notes, only the most unprejudiced and attentive +listener would fail to be trapped into thinking that he was relating the +plots of Ralegh. The device was clever, but it was unscrupulous. Ralegh, +in spite of his recent imprisonment and his imminent danger, remained +master of himself and of the situation. He withstood Coke's implications +as resolutely as he withstood Coke's abuse. "What is that to me?" he +asked the Court, after Coke had ended his clever recital of Cobham's +practices. "What is that to me? I do not hear yet that you have spoken +one word against _me_. Here is no treason of mine done. If my Lord +Cobham be a traitor, what is that to me?" + +At this the King's Attorney broke into savage abuse. "All that he did +was by thy instigation, thou viper; for I _thou_ thee, thou traitor! I +will prove thee the rankest traitor in all England." + +But Ralegh was not to be inveigled into losing his presence of mind by +Coke's insults, as Coke, of course, knowing Ralegh's temperament, +intended him to do. Never did Ralegh show greater proof of his power +than at this his trial, when circumstances were pressing most hardly +upon him; he answered--there is the suavity of strength in his +answer--"No, no, Master Attorney, I am no traitor. Whether I live or die +I shall stand as true a subject as ever the King hath. _You_ may call me +a traitor, at your pleasure; yet it becomes not a man of quality or +virtue to do so. But I take comfort in it. It is all that you can do, +for I do not yet hear that you charge me with any treason." + +The Lord Chief Justice Popham was here obliged to come to the help of +the King's Attorney, who was finding the case more difficult than he +expected. It was important that the people present, by whom the news of +the trial would be spread through England, should not be impressed in +the prisoner's favour. He said, realizing that Coke's last _coup_ had +been a failure: "Sir Walter Ralegh, Master Attorney speaks out of the +zeal of his duty for the service of the King, and you for your life; be +patient, on both sides." + +Then Coke proceeded: "I charge Sir Walter Ralegh with contriving and +conspiring all this that I have recited. And now I will read my proofs +for it." He did so. That is to say, he read the most incriminating of +the confessions which the distraught Lord Cobham had made. While Coke +read this Declaration, there was silence in the hall--certainly a +haunting silence. Then Ralegh spoke. "This is absolutely all the +evidence that can be brought against me. But now I beseech you, hear +me. I was examined at Windsor touching the Surprising Treason; next of +plotting for Arabella; thirdly of practices with the Lord Cobham. From +all which God knows I was free, for I never was privy to any of them. It +is true that I suspected that the Lord Cobham kept intelligence with +D'Arenberg. For I knew that long since--in the late Queen's time--he +held that course with him in the Low Countries, as was well known to my +Lord Treasurer, and to my Lord Cecil. La Renzi being a man also well +known to me, I, seeing him and the Lord Cobham together, thought that +was the time they both had been to Count D'Arenberg. I gave intimation +thereof. But I was willed by my Lord Cecil not to speak of this; because +the King, at the first coming of D'Arenbergh, would not give him +occasion of suspicion. Wherefore I wrote to the Lord Cecil that if La +Renzi were not taken, the matter would not be discovered. Yet if he were +then apprehended, it would give matter of suspicion to the Lord Cobham. +This letter of mine being presently showed to the Lord Cobham, he +presently entered into a rage against me and spake bitterly and +railingly of me; yet ere he came to the stairs'-foot, he repented him, +and, as I heard, acknowledged that he had done me wrong." + +Ralegh paused: up till now he had been speaking to the Court and to the +jury, quietly replying to the charges that had been brought against him. +Now he turned to Sir Edward Coke, the King's Attorney, and made this +speech, magnificent in its effect even in the version of the reporter, +even after more than three hundred years, now when no one feels anything +but great friendliness towards Spain; you can see the man draw himself +up to his full height, the man who had risked his life for his +country--Spain's most dreadful enemy, as he faced the attorney whose +business it was to brow-beat him to ruin. + +"Master Attorney, whether to favour or to disable my Lord Cobham you +speak as you will of him; yet he is not such a babe as you make him. He +hath dispositions of such violence, which his best friends could never +temper. But it is very strange that I, at this time, should be thought +to plot with the Lord Cobham knowing him a man that hath neither love +nor following; and myself, at this time having resigned a place of my +best command, in an office I had in Cornwall. I was not so bare of sense +but I saw that, if even this State was strong, it was now that we have +the kingdom of Scotland united whence we were wont to fear all our +troubles; Ireland quieted where our forces were wont to be divided; +Denmark assured whom before we were always wont to have in jealousy; the +Low Countries our nearest neighbours. And, instead of a Lady whom Time +had surprised, we had now an active King who would be present at his own +businesses. For me at this time to make myself a Robin Hood, a Watt +Tyler, a Kett, or a Jack Cade! I was not so mad! I knew the state of +Spain well--his weakness, his poorness, his humbleness at this time. I +knew that six times we had repulsed his forces: thrice in Ireland, +thrice at sea--once upon our coast, twice upon his own. Thrice had I +served against him myself at sea, wherein for my Country's sake, I had +expended of my own property forty thousand marks. I knew that where +beforetime he was wont to have forty great sails, at the least, in his +ports, now he hath not past six or seven. But for sending to his Indies, +he was driven to have strange vessels--a thing contrary to the +institutions of his ancestors who straitly forbade that, even in case +of necessity, they should make their necessity known to strangers. I +knew that of twenty-five millions which he had from his Indies, he had +scarce any left. Nay, I knew his poorness to be such at this time, as +that the Jesuits, his imps, begged at his church-doors; his pride so +abated that, notwithstanding his former high terms, he was become glad +to congratulate His Majesty and send unto him. Whoso knew what great +assurances he stood upon with other States, for smaller sums, would not +think he would so freely disburse to my Lord Cobham six hundred thousand +crowns! And, if I had minded to set my Lord Cobham awork in such a case, +I would have given him some instructions how to persuade the King. For I +knew Cobham no such minion that could persuade a King that was in want +to disburse so great a sum, without great reason and some assurance for +his money. I knew the Queen of England lent not her money to the States, +but she had Flushing, Brill, and other towns, in assurance for it. She +lent not money to the King of France without she had Newhaven for it. +Nay, her own subjects, the merchants of London, did not lend her money, +without they had their lands to pawn for it. And to show I am not +Spanish--as you term me--at this time I had writ a treatise to the +King's Majesty of the present state of Spain, and reasons against the +Peace." + +So spake Sir Walter Ralegh, summing up the whole question of policy +which was occupying the minds of all men, and drawing attention to the +great part which he had played in gaining naval supremacy for England. + +He then went on to explain that the business which had brought him of +late years so much in Cobham's company was of a private nature, +concerning the improvement of Cobham's estate, and the purchase of a +fee-farm from the Duke of Lennox. He showed that Cobham was a wealthy +and prosperous man, not one who could easily be moulded to treason from +despair at his poverty. + +Then another examination of Cobham was read, in which a second time he +had exclaimed, "O wretch, O traitor." The trickery is absurdly patent. +It resembles a game of chess in which one player as often as his black +queen is taken, hastily substitutes another black queen in its place. At +this juncture the foreman of the jury, Sir Thomas Fowler, was +ill-advised enough to ask a simple question. "I desire to understand of +the Court the time of Sir Walter Ralegh's first letter, and of the Lord +Cobham's accusation." The Court looked at him in amazement, and Lord +Cecil rose to his feet and immediately began a long and cunning speech. +"I am divided in myself and at great dispute what to say of this +gentleman at the bar. For it is impossible, be the obligations never so +great, but the affections of nature and love will show themselves. A +former dearness betwixt me and this gentleman tied upon the knot of his +virtues, though slacked since by his actions, I cannot but acknowledge; +and the most of you know it." The speech was cunning and involved. He +made no mention of time; he harped upon his personal sorrow in being +obliged to speak against a man whom he once loved; his personal loyalty, +which was stronger than his affection had ever been, alone compelled +him. Two dates were all that were wanted; they could not be given. So +Cecil gave vent to his sorrow. Hypocrisy could go no further. + +Directly that Lord Cecil had finished, Sir Edward Coke, the King's +Attorney, continued his accusation, trying to turn Ralegh's great +outburst about the state of Spain to Ralegh's disadvantage, trying to +prove it only another instance of his treachery. "Methinks it would have +been better for you to have stayed in Guiana than to be so well +acquainted with the state of Spain. As to the six overthrows of the King +of Spain, I answer 'he hath the more malice' because repulses breed +desire of revenge. As for you writing against the Peace with Spain, you +sought but to cloak a Spanish traitor's heart," and more to the same +effect. + +When he had finished Ralegh rose to make his last claim on justice. "My +lords," he said, "I claim to have my accuser brought here to speak face +to face. Though I know not how to make my best defence by law, yet, +since I was a prisoner, I have learned that by the Law and Statutes of +this realm in case of treason a man ought to be convicted by the +testimony of two witnesses. I will not take upon me to defend the matter +upon the Statute of the twenty-fifth of Edward the Third, though that +requires an overt act. But remember I beseech your Lordships, the +Statute of the first of Edward the Sixth which saith: 'No man shall be +condemned of treason, unless he be accused by two lawful accusers.' And +by the Statute of the fifth and sixth of Edward the Sixth, those +accusers must be brought in person before the party accused, at his +arraignment if living!" He continued to instance other laws; he pointed +out that Cobham was not only living but in the same town, in the same +palace. He called to mind the case of Fortescue, who had condemned a +woman to death on the witness of one man for the murder of her husband, +and who could never forgive himself for the injustice when the servant +of the man confessed at length to the murder. He drew instances from the +Bible, and the Canon of God, and concluded with this appeal for +justice: "If then by the Statute Law, by the Civil Law and by God's +Word, it be required that there be two witnesses, at the least, bear +with me if I desire one. Prove me guilty of these things by one witness +only, and I will confess the Indictment, I stand not upon the niceties +of the law. If I have done these things I deserve not to live; whether +they be treasons by the law or no. I beseech you then, my Lords, let +Cobham be sent for. Let him be charged upon his soul, upon his +allegiance to the King; and if he will then maintain his accusation to +my face, I will confess myself guilty." The Court were at first taken +aback by this unexpected knowledge of the law, but not for long. The +Lord Chief Justice Popham, who played the strange triple part of +assistant in the examination, of witness for the prosecution, and of +presiding judge, explained that such a course was quite out of the +question. "The statutes you speak of in cases of treason were found to +be inconvenient and were taken away by another law. Those of Edward the +Sixth are general, but were repealed by the first and second of Philip +and Mary, which you have mentioned, which Statute goes only to the +treasons therein comprised, and also appoints the trial of treasons to +be as before it was at the Common Law. Now the twenty-fifth of Edward +the Third makes declaration what the Common Law was. All is now +therefore put to the Common Law. And by the Common Law one witness is +sufficient and the accusation of confederates or the confession of +others is full proof." And Mr. Justice Warburton went one further in +making this point strong for the prosecution; he added the personal +touch of insult, which is characteristic of the trial. "I marvel, Sir +Walter," he said, "that you, being of such experience and wit, should +stand on this point. For many horse-stealers should escape, if they may +not be condemned without witnesses. By law a man may be condemned upon +presumption and circumstances without any witness to the main fact. As, +if the King, whom God defend, should be slain in his chamber and one be +shown to have come forth of the chamber with his sword drawn and bloody. +Were not this evidence both in law and opinion, without further +inquisition?" + +The point was discussed at some length, and then it became time again to +bring forward accusations of Cobham, which were accordingly read; this +time also depositions of Copley, Watson, and George Brooke were also +read to the effect that somebody had heard from somebody else how Cobham +and Ralegh stood for the Spanish faction. Again Ralegh pointed out that +this had nothing to do with his charge, and again asked, "Good, my +Lords, let my accuser come face to face and be deposed." But that was +not permitted. + +_Coke._ "Now let us come to the words of destroying of the 'King and his +cubs.'" + +_Ralegh._ "O barbarous! if they like unnatural vilains spoke such words, +shall I be charged with them? I will not hear it! I was never false to +the Crown of England. I have spent L40,000 of mine own against the +Spanish faction for the good of my country. Do you bring the words of +those hellish spiders Clarke, Watson, and others against me?" + +_Coke._ "Thou hast a Spanish heart and thyself art a spider of hell. For +thou confessest the King to be a most sweet and gracious prince, and yet +thou hast conspired against him." + +The reading of Cobham's examination was continued, wherein Cobham said +he had a book "written against the title of the king which he had of +Ralegh, and that he gave it to his brother Brooke, and Ralegh said it +was foolishly written. + +_Coke._ "After the king came within twelve miles of London, Cobham never +came to see him; and intended to travel without seeing the queen and the +prince. Now in this discontentment you gave him the book, and he gave it +his brother." + +_Ralegh._ "I never gave it him, he took it off my table. For I well +remember a little before that time I received a challenge from Sir Amias +Preston, and for that I did intend to answer it, I resolved to leave my +estate settled, therefore laid out all my loose papers, among which was +this book." + +_Ld. Howard._ "Where had you this book?" + +_Ralegh._ "In the old Lord-Treasurer's study, after his death." + +_Cecil._ "Did you ever show or make known the book to me?" + +_Ralegh._ "No, my lord." + +_Cecil._ "Was it one of the books which was left to me or my brother?" + +_Ralegh._ "I took it out of the study in my Lord-Treasurer's house in +the Strand." + +Then Cecil explained that after his father's death Ralegh was allowed to +search in the library for cosmo-graphical descriptions of the Indies. +Again he referred to his great love for Ralegh, and said he thought it a +little unkindly done on Sir Walter's part to remove the book without his +knowledge. It was a book in manuscript on which the Lord-Treasurer had +written, "_This is the book of Robert Snagg_." Brooke burned it; the +most was made of this incident. + +Popham asked, "Wherefore should this book be burnt?" + +_Ralegh._ "I burned it not." + +_Serjeant Philips._ "You presented your friend with it when he was +discontented. If it had been before the queen's death it had been a less +matter, but you gave it him presently when he came from the king, which +was the time of his discontentment." + +_Ralegh._ "Here is a book supposed to be treasonable; I never read it, +commended it, or delivered it, nor urged it." + +_Coke._ "Why, this is cunning." + +_Ralegh._ "Everything that doth make for me is cunning, and everything +that maketh against me is probable." + +_The point was then raised_ about Captain Keymis, who had been +rigorously examined. He was well known to be friendly to Ralegh. He +proved, however, a faithful friend. Cobham said that Keymis came to him +with a letter torn. But of this nothing came; Keymis had been too +staunch to add anything to the truth, and the matter was dropped. More +testimony of Cobham was then read concerning letters to Arabella, and +again Ralegh insisted on Cobham's presence. "Let me speak for my life," +cried Ralegh; "it can be no hurt for him to be brought; he dares not +accuse me. If you grant me not this favour, I am strangely used. Campian +was not denied to have his accusers face to face." + +_Popham._ "Since he must needs have justice, the acquitting of his old +friend may move him to speak otherwise than the truth." + +_Ralegh._ "If I had been the infuser of all these treasons into him--you +Gentlemen of the Jury, mark this, he said I have been the cause of all +his miseries, and the destruction of his house, and that all evil hath +happened unto him by my wicked counsel--if this be true, whom hath he +cause to accuse and to be revenged on, but on me? And I know him to be +as revengeful as any man on earth." + +_Coke._ "He is a party, and may not come; the law is against it." + +_Ralegh._ "It is a toy to tell me of law; I defy such law, I stand on +the fact." + +_Cecil._ "I am afraid my often speaking (who am inferior to my lords +here present) will make the world think I delight to hear myself talk. +My affection to you, Sir Walter Ralegh, was not extinguished but slaked +in regard of your deserts. You know the law of the realm (to which your +mind doth not contest) that my Lord Cobham cannot be brought." The +King's Attorney, Sir Edward Coke, took up the thread of his +much-interrupted discourse, and this time he brought forward a witness, +one Dyer, a pilot. Dyer was accordingly sworn, and delivered this +evidence: "I came to a merchant's house in Lisbon to see a boy that I +had there, there came a gentleman into the house, and enquiring what +countryman I was, I said, an Englishman. Whereupon he asked me if the +King was crowned. And I answered, no, but that I hoped he should be so +shortly. Nay, saith he, he shall never be crowned; for Don Ralegh and +Don Cobham will cut his throat ere that day come." + +Ralegh naturally asked, "What infer you from this?" And the King's +Attorney answered him, "That your treason hath wings." Ralegh had a +convincing reply, "Why did they name the Duke of Buckingham with Jack +Straw's treason, and the Duke of York with Jack Cade, but that it was to +countenance his treason?" + +The King's Attorney was worsted in this point; and accordingly Serjeant +Philips came to his assistance by repeating, as usual, the gist of +Cobham's accusations. To which Ralegh answered, "If truth be constant +and constancy be in truth, why hath he forsworn that that he hath said? +You have not proved any one thing against me by direct proofs, but all +by circumstances." + +Coke was becoming more and more impatient. "Have you done?" he cried. +"The King must have the last." + +_Ralegh._ "Nay, Master Attorney, he which speaketh for his life must +speak last. False repetitions and mistakings must not mar my cause." + +_Coke._ "The King's safety and your clearing cannot agree. I protest +before God, I never knew a clearer treason." + +The Attorney's impatience grew so much that, in the words of one report, +he sat down in a chafe and would speak no more, until the commissioners +urged and entreated him. After much ado he went on, and made a long +repetition of all the evidence; and at the repeating of some things Sir +Walter Ralegh interrupted him, and said he did him wrong. + +_Coke._ "Thou art the most vile and execrable traitor that ever lived." + +_Ralegh._ "You speak indiscreetly, barbarously and uncivilly." + +_Coke._ "I want words sufficient to express thy viperous treasons." + +_Ralegh._ "I think you want words indeed, for you have spoken one thing +half a dozen times." + +_Coke._ "Thou art an odious fellow; thy name is hateful to all the realm +of England for thy pride." + +_Ralegh._ "It will go near to prove a measuring cast between you and me, +Master Attorney." + +_Coke._ "Well, I will now make it appear to the world that there never +lived a viler viper upon the face of the world than thou." And he +proceeded to work up his speech to his last chief point of all--that was +the production of a letter from Cobham, which he read. He interspersed +his reading with exclamations of triumph. "I have thought fit to set +down this to My Lords, wherein I protest on my soul to write nothing but +the truth. I am now come near the period of my time, therefore I confess +the whole truth before God and his angels. Ralegh, four days before I +came from the Tower, caused an apple (Eve's apple, cried out the King's +Attorney) to be thrown in at my chamber window; the effect of it was to +entreat me to right the wrong I had done him, in saying, that I should +have come home by Jersey, which under my hand to him I have +retracted.... At Aremberg's coming Ralegh was to have procured a pension +of L1500 a year, for which he promised, that no action should be against +Spain, the Low Countries, or the Indies, but he would give knowledge +beforehand. (Ah! is not this a Spanish heart in an English body?) He +hath also been the cause of my discontentment; he advised me not to be +overtaken with preachers, as Essex was; and that the king would better +allow of a constant denial, than to accuse any." + +"Oh! damnable atheist!" cried Coke. "He counsels him not to be +counselled by preachers as Essex was; he died the child of God. God +honoured him at his death." + +_Ralegh._ "You have heard a strange tale of a strange man. Now he thinks +he hath matter enough to destroy me; but the king and all of you shall +witness, by our deaths, which of us was the ruin of the other. I bid a +poor fellow throw in the letter at his window, written to this purpose: +You know you have undone me, now write three lines to justify me. In +this will I die that he hath done me wrong." + +Then Ralegh pulled a letter out of his pocket, which the Lord Cobham had +written to him, and desired my Lord Cecil to read it because he only +knew his hand. Cecil read the letter. "Seeing myself so near my end, for +the discharge of my own conscience, and freeing myself from your blood, +which also will cry vengeance against me, I protest upon my salvation I +never practised with Spain upon your procurement: God so comfort me in +this my affliction, as you are a true subject, for anything that I know. +I will say as Daniel, _Purus sum a sanguine hujus_. So God have mercy +upon my soul, as I know no treason by you!" + +"Now I wonder," said Ralegh, "how many souls this man hath; he damns one +in this letter: another in that." + +Such were Ralegh's last recorded words before the verdict was given. He +had said all that was to be said. He had stood his ground undismayed for +many hours, though the chief men in England and the cleverest lawyers in +England were set against him. He must gradually have realized that all +were resolute to condemn him: he must gradually have realized that all +his efforts were futile against such malignant opposition. + +The King's Attorney alleged that the last letter was politicly and +cunningly urged from the Lord Cobham, and the first was simply the +truth. The Earl of Devonshire assured the Lord Chief Justice that Cobham +had written the first letter of his own free will, uninfluenced by any +hope or promise of pardon. A marshal was sworn to keep the jury private. +The jury retired. In less than a quarter of an hour the jury returned +and gave their verdict. The verdict was _GUILTY_. "Sir Walter Ralegh," +said the Clerk of the Crown, "thou hast been indicted, arraigned, and +pleaded _not guilty_, for all these several treasons and for trial +thereof hast put thyself upon thy country, which country are these who +have found thee guilty. What canst thou say for thyself why judgment and +execution of death should not pass against thee?" + +And Ralegh, now doomed, made answer, "My Lords, the jury have found me +guilty, they must do as they are directed. I can say nothing why +judgment should not proceed. You see whereof Cobham hath accused me: you +remember his protestations that I was never guilty...." And later he +said, "I submit myself to the king's mercy. I know his mercy is greater +than my offence. I recommend my wife, and son of tender years, +unbrought-up, to his compassion." + +And then the Lord Chief Justice Popham rose to deliver judgment, which +he prefaced by a pompous and insulting speech. "I thought I should never +have seen this day, to have stood in this place to give sentence of +death against you; because I thought it impossible that one of so great +parts should have fallen so grievously. God hath bestowed on you many +benefits. You had been a man fit and able to have served the king in +good place--you have brought yourself into a good state of living.... It +is best for man not to seek to climb too high, lest he fall; nor yet to +creep too low lest he be trodden on.... + +"You have been taxed by the world with the defence of the most +heathenish and blasphemous opinions; which I list not to repeat because +Christian ears cannot endure to hear them, nor the authors and +maintainers of them be suffered to live in any Christian +commonwealth.... You shall do well before you go out of the world, to +give satisfaction therein, and not to die with these imputations on you. +Let not any devil persuade you to think there is no eternity in heaven. +For if you think thus you shall find eternity in hell-fire. In the first +accusation of my Lord Cobham I observed his manner of speaking: I +protest before the living God I am persuaded he spoke nothing but the +truth! You wrote that he should not in any case confess anything to a +preacher, telling him an example of my Lord Essex, that noble Earl that +is gone. Who if he had not been carried away with others had lived in +honour to this day among us. He confessed his offences, and obtained +mercy of the Lord; for I am verily persuaded in my heart he died a +worthy servant of God. Your conceit of not confessing anything is very +inhuman and wicked. In this world is the time of confessing that we may +be absolved at the day of judgment. You have shewed a fearful sign of +denying God in advising a man not to confess the truth. It now comes in +my mind why you may not have your accuser come face to face; for such an +one is easily brought to retract, when he seeth there is no hope of his +own life. It is dangerous that any traitors should have access to or +conference with, one another. When they see themselves must die, they +will think it best to have their fellow live that he may commit the like +treason again, and so in some sort seek revenge. + +"Now it resteth to pronounce the judgment which I wish you had not been +this day to have received of me. + +"For if the fear of God in you had been answerable to your other great +parts you might have lived to have been a singular good subject. I never +saw the like trial, and hope I shall never see the like again. + +"But since you have been found guilty of these horrible treasons, the +judgment of this court is, that you shall be had from hence to the place +whence you came, there to remain until the day of execution; and from +thence you shall be drawn upon an hurdle through the open streets to the +place of execution, there to be hanged and cut down alive; and your body +shall be opened, your heart and bowels plucked out, and your privy +members cut off, and thrown into the fire before your eyes; then your +head to be stricken off from your body, and your body shall be divided +into four quarters, to be disposed of at the King's pleasure; and God +have mercy upon your soul!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE KING'S FARCE + + Comments on Ralegh's fall--In the prison at Winchester--Ralegh + begs mercy--His attitude explained--The King's own farce-- + Ralegh removed to London. + + +So ended the worst and greatest day of Ralegh's life. The Lord Cecil was +victorious. Ralegh was overthrown. But from despair so poignant that +reason yielded to its sway and he was driven to attempt madly to make +away with himself, he had risen to make a defence so admirable against +his accusers that men who heard and saw him at the trial, heard him with +wonder and watched him with astonishment. And well they might. The man +whose judgment had saved the situation at Cadiz from the reckless +inexperience of Essex, whose patience and courage had taken an +expedition far up the dangerous unknown rivers to Guiana, whose insight +had discovered the poet Spenser and made him known to the world, showed +the same insight and courage and patience and judgment at this trial +when he was standing for his life against the combined assault of the +cleverest brains in England, combined by the hope of future favours from +a new King to work his overthrow. When one tired or stumbled, another +was prompt to take his place; but always Ralegh remained alert and ready +and steadfast--alone. + +Sir Dudley Carleton was present at the trial and wrote an account of it +to his friend, Mr. John Chamberlain. Carleton was at that time Secretary +to the Earl of Northumberland. This is how he describes Ralegh's +demeanour. "He answered with that temper, wit, learning, courage and +judgment that save it went with the hazard of his life, it was the +happiest day that ever he spent. And so well he shifted all advantages +that were taken against him, that were not _fama malum gravius quam +res_, and an ill-name half hanged, in the opinion of all men, he had +been acquitted." + +Carleton proceeds to tell his friend of two others who were present and +who were the first to bring the news of the trial to the King at Wilton. +One was Roger Ashton. He said that never any one spoke so well in times +past nor would do in the world to come. The other was a Scotchman. He +said that whereas when he saw Ralegh first, he was so led with the +common hatred that he would have gone a hundred miles to have seen him +hanged, he would ere he parted, have gone a thousand to have saved his +life. And Carleton comments on this aptly enough: "In one word never was +a man so hated and so popular in so short a time." + +Dudley Carleton was quite right in saying an "ill name is half hanged." +The trial was the merest farce. The judges were determined that Ralegh +must be condemned, as soon as Ralegh was arrested. They knew that such +was the King's will: and Ralegh's condemnation had become the King's +will owing to the astute management of Cecil. There were many reasons +for Cecil's line of action. Both James and he knew that there must be a +large number of people in England disaffected to the new sovereign. It +was advisable to open the reign by an illustrious example. Ralegh was a +powerful man, whose powers Cecil knew and feared. Moreover, Ralegh had +original ideas about government which fitted ill with Cecil's conception +of himself as the chief man in England under an absolute King. So Cecil +for a long time had been playing upon the King's fears, knowing well the +King's timorous nature. And then, when the time came, he showed his zeal +for the King by delivering Ralegh into his power. His known intimacy +with Ralegh, upon which he took every opportunity of harping at the +trial and elsewhere, would lend bright colour to his loyalty to the +King. + +The judges are as little to blame as the system of which they were a +part is much to blame. Here was Ralegh, whom Cecil, his friend and the +first man in England, thought guilty of treason, just at a crucial +moment in the history of the nation, when a new King was coming to the +throne from another country. Naturally they would do their utmost to +show their loyalty. The very vagueness and mystery of the charge +increased their anxiety to condemn him. Fear, too, played a prominent +part. Which of them could tell, if he showed any clemency to the +prisoner, whether it would not be his turn to be charged next for +complicity with the traitor? So they vied with one another in eagerness +to crush Ralegh. Cecil was well aware of this; he had made his +arrangements with infinite precaution. He was the first man in England, +partly because he was his father's son, but chiefly because of his +astuteness. His astuteness touched genius. + +Ralegh was undoubtedly innocent of conspiring against King James. But +that he received money from foreign powers is probable, and so laid +himself open to the charge of treason. It is easy to exclaim against him +for this. But to do so is an error of judgment. It was a common practice +of the time. All the chief men in England were in the pay of some +foreign prince. It was part of an ambassador's duty to spend money in +this way; the custom resembles the custom, prevalent in commerce, of +giving presents to customers at Christmas. Lord Cecil is known to have +received money from Spain during all the years that he held office. The +custom has fallen into abeyance, not so much from the development of +morality, as from the improvements that have come about in the means of +travelling and communication. By knowledge man advances. + +Ralegh was marked down by Cecil, and Ralegh fell. He knew that his +career was at an end, as he passed from the palace at Winchester to the +castle. His last request had been that his death might not be an +ignominious one. His life was filled with great schemes of absorbing +interest; he was at the height of his great powers. He had felt them in +full play as he withstood the charges. Nothing availed him any more. As +he sat in the prison-room of the castle awaiting the news and manner of +his death, a sudden furious passion to continue the life, over which he +had such mastery, seized and took possession of him. He must live. At +any cost he must live. There was so much that he had not yet done. The +immense vitality of the man rose within him and tortured him by its +resistless strength. He must make one last effort for life; and his wife +and child--they would be poor and shamed. He was famous throughout +England for his pride. Pride and vitality fought within him. For now his +only hope of reprieve lay in the King's mercy, and James liked the +consciousness of power that comes from a great man's supplication. +Vitality conquered. He supplicated the King for his life. He, who had +dared death in all death's guises, could not wait for death to come +slowly while still there remained one chance of life. The spirit of +life was too strong in him for that. + +His letters to the King do not, as many have said, point to meanness of +spirit; they bear witness to the indomitable vitality, which was his +characteristic, and which would not allow him to rest. Be sure he knew, +with that amazing intellect, well enough the stress of his future life; +he knew well enough that it was no great boon for which he pleaded. His +youth was gone; his possessions had been taken away; his name was +sullied. He knew that the four walls of a prison would be his probable +horizon, he who desired to explore new countries. But the spirit of +life, which made him a great man, mastered him and forced him now to +plead for his life like a little man, which he could never be. "No +poltroon could have begged for life more abjectly than he did." So they +write of him. But his letters sound the deep note of tragedy. They do +not make Ralegh's name odious, but they stigmatize the name of the King +for whose benefit they could be composed and upon whom they could take +effect. Ralegh at last knew the man with whom he was dealing for his +life, and he brought all his power of intellect to bear upon making use +of the knowledge in this his ultimate emergency. + +"I do therefore most humblie beseich my soverayne Lord not to beleve any +of thos, in my particuler, who under pretence of offences to kings, doe +easily work their particuler revenges. I trust that no man (under the +culler of making examples) shall perswade your Majesty to leve the word +'mercifull' out of your stile; for it will noe less profite your +Majesty; and becume your gretnes, than the word 'invincibell'.... I do +therefore, on the knees of my hart, beseich your Majesty to take +councell from your own sweet and mercifull disposition and to remember +that I have loved your Majesty now twenty yeares for which your Majestie +hath yett geven me no reward. And it is fitter that I should be indebted +to my soverayne Lord, then the King to his poore vassall. Save me, +therefore, most mercifull Prince, that I may owe your Majesty my life +itt sealf; then which ther cannot be a greter dett. Lend it me att lest, +my soverayne Lord that I may pay it agayne for your service when your +Majesty shall pleas." + +Slowly time passed, and little by little all hope of reprieve died in +him. The spirit of life was, as it were, appeased at this his +effort--this supplication--and allowed him rest. He wrote farewell to +his wife. + + "You shall receave, dear wief, my last words in these my last + lynes. My love I send you, that you may keepe it when I am + dead; and my councell, that you may remember it when I am noe + more. I would not with my last will present you with sorrowes, + deare Bess. Lett them goe to the grave with and be buried in + the dust. And seeing it is not the will of God that ever I + shall see you in this lief, beare my destruccion gentlie, and + with a hart like yourself. + + "First I send you all the thanks my hart cann conceive, or my + penn expresse, for your many troubles and cares taken for me, + which--though they may have not taken effect as you wished--yet + my debt is to you never the lesse; and paye it I never shall in + this world. + + "Secondlie, I beseich you, for the love you beare me living, + that you doe not hide yourself many dayes, but by your travell + seeke to help your miserable fortunes and the right of your + poore childe. Your mourning cannot avayle me that am but + dust.... + + "To what frind to direct thee I knowe not, for all mine have + left mee in the true tyme of triall: and I plainly perceive + that my death was determyned from the first day.... But God + hath prevented all my determinations; the great God that + worketh all in all. If you can live free from want, care for no + more; for the rest is but vanity. Love God and beginne betymes + to repose yourself on Him; therein shall you find true and + lastinge ritches, and endles comfort. For the rest when you + have travelled and wearied your thoughts on all sorts of + worldly cogitacions, you shall sit downe by Sorrow in the + end.... + + "When I am gonne no doubt you shalbe sought unto by many, for + the world thinks that I was very ritch; but take heed of the + pretences of men and of their affections; for they last but in + honest and worthy men.... I speak it (God knowes) not to + disswad you from marriage,--for that wilbe best for you--both + in respect of God and the world. As for me I am no more your's + nor you myne. Death hath cutt us asunder; and God hath devided + me from the world, and you from me.... And know itt (deare + wief) that your sonne is the childe of a true man, and who, in + his own respect, despiseth Death, and all his misshapen and + ouglie forms. + + "I cannot wright much, God knowes howe hardlie I stole this + tyme when all sleep; and it is tyme to separate my thoughts + from the world.... I can wright noe more. Tyme and Death call + me awaye.... My true wief, farewell. Blesse my poore boye, pray + for me. My true God hold you both in His armes. + + "Written with the dyeing hand of sometime thy husband, but now + (alasse!) overthrowne. + + "Your's that was; but nowe not my owne + "W. RALEGH" + +It is sad to remember how the thought of some passages in this letter +resembles those in the letter which he had written not quite seven years +before to Lord Cecil on the death of his wife. "I believe it," he wrote +then, "that sorrows are dangerous companions, converting badd unto +yevill and yevill in worse, and do no other service then multeply +harms." + +The first week of December slowly approached. No hope came to the +prisoner. But underneath the windows carpenters began to set up a +scaffold: he was able to watch them at their work. Then he saw the two +priests, Watson and Clarke, led to execution. They were very bloodily +handled, writes an eye-witness; the same Carleton, who had written of +the trial, for they were both cut down alive. He may have heard Clarke's +wild-shouted words after he had been cut down. He saw Brooke beheaded. +When it would be his own turn, he was still ignorant. + +At last the Bishop of Winchester came to him, at the King's express +order. The Bishop found Ralegh well settled for his conscience and +resolved to die a Christian: but resolute in the assurance of his +innocence. He would not yield to Cobham's accusations. The Bishop left +him. Through the rain that was quietly falling Ralegh saw from his +window on Friday morning Markham brought to the scaffold. He watched him +take leave of his friends, watched him at his last devotions. While he +was making ready for the executioner, the Sheriff was drawn aside: a man +was whispering--one John Gib, a Scotchman. The execution was stayed. +Markham was led away from the scaffold, and locked into the great hall +of the castle. Ralegh must have wondered. Then he watched Lord Grey +mount the scaffold, escorted by a troop of young courtiers. He had such +gaiety and cheer in his countenance that he seemed a dapper young +bridegroom. He, too, said farewell to his friends, made confession to +his God, and prepared himself for the executioner. The Sheriff again +came forward. He said it was the King's will for Cobham to die first. +Lord Grey was led away to the great hall of the castle. Cobham was +brought on to the scaffold. "The Lord Cobham, who was now to play his +part (writes the same eye-witness), and by his former actions promised +nothing but _matiere pour rire_, did much cozen the world; for he came +to the scaffold with good assurance and contempt of death." Again, just +as he was about to lay his head on the block, the Sheriff came forward +and stopped the execution. Grey and Markham were brought from the great +hall of the castle back once more to the scaffold. Ralegh, at his +window, must have wondered more than ever. + +On the scaffold the Sheriff harangued the three men on the heinousness +of their crimes, while the rain continued to fall: and he at last +brought his harangue to an end with the words, "Now see the mercy of +your prince, who, of himself hath sent hither a countermand and given +you your lives." + +The shouts of applause that greeted the unexpected finish, must have +revealed the meaning of the strange scene to Ralegh. The shouting was +taken up all through the town. Men loudly rejoiced in the clemency of +the new King. + +So weak men in authority love to display their power. James had +carefully arranged this trivial cat's-play. Nearly it failed of its +effect. He forgot to sign the pardon. In Winchester too the messenger, +John Gib, the Scotchman, could not get near enough to speak with the +Sheriff, but was thrust out among the boys and was forced to call out to +Sir James Hayes or else Markham might have lost his neck. Ralegh was to +have been executed on Monday. News of his reprieve was brought him after +he had witnessed the singular farce on the scaffold, in which the King's +feline cruelty was shown. + +At Wilton too, where the Court was being held (the plague still raged +in London) the new King enacted another farce. He signed the +death-warrants of Cobham, Grey, and Markham: Ralegh's sentence he +withheld in case more light was thrown upon his case by confessions on +the scaffold. He gave special instructions that no hope of pardon should +be given to any of the prisoners. He kept his intentions from his most +intimate ministers. Then he assembled the council, the day after the +execution was to have taken place. He began a complicated speech, which +puzzled his hearers, who were expecting a messenger every moment to +bring news of the execution. "He contrasted the ardent and resolute +spirit of Grey with the base and cowardly nature of Cobham; and then +asked if it were at all consistent with kingly justice to execute the +high-spirited Grey and to spare that pitiful creature, Cobham." He went +on to point out the insolence of Grey who disdained to entreat for his +life; the penitence of Cobham, who begged his life with humility. And so +he continued until the minds of all the men who heard him were +sufficiently muddled, and ended with what Edwards well calls, the +triumphant tag, "So I have saved the lives of them all." + +Again loud applause broke out in recognition of his clemency. But such +applause, though it deafens the ears, does not last on in the hearts of +men. His showily arranged mercy captivated the unthinking multitude. +Wise men were not pleased that a King could stoop to such pettiness. It +boded ill for the country that supreme power should be vested in a man +who could behave in this manner. To them the action bore proof that the +King was a little cruel man. But the people shouted for joy. The action +made him popular: and when the Gunpowder Plot was dramatically +discovered the following year, and the King's life was saved by a +presentiment, his popularity increased a thousand-fold. Who could doubt +that in very truth King James was the Lord's anointed? Only as the years +went by, dark events happened. Why did the Prince die suddenly in the +prime of his vigorous youth? Who was Car that he should enjoy such +favour? Why was Gondomar the Spanish ambassador held in such esteem? +There was the scandal of Overbury's death. Men began to wonder and fear. +Men heard the bitterness spoken in Troilus and Cressida or in Timon, and +the bitterness began to find an answer in their hearts. + +A week after the royal farce at Winchester Ralegh was removed to London: +first to the Tower, then to the Fleet, and finally to the Tower, where +he remained. + +Thus Ralegh was overthrown, who, if the time had been ripe, might have +proved a Mirabeau to England, and saved the country from Civil War and +the destructive power of the Puritans, which eventually became necessary +to purge England from the mischief of weak rulers with absolute power, +kings who could not carry on the tradition of the great Elizabeth. In +very truth, with Elizabeth, as de Thou said of Catherine, not a woman +but royalty died. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE LONG IMPRISONMENT + + Ralegh's efforts to avert complete ruin--True greatness--Keeps + in touch with life--First two years--The history--The first + sentence--Reasons for incompleteness--James's dislike of the + work--Its greatness. + + +Such things happened in actual life at the beginning of the seventeenth +century. There was the same fantastic blending in life of melodrama and +farce and poetry as was shown upon the stage. Beaumont and Fletcher, +wild and exaggerated as they often appear, gave as faithful a picture of +the life around them as Bernard Shaw gives of modern life; and in some +ways they gave a more faithful picture, for they had no principle which +they desired to inculcate, and a principle, though it is a fine +stimulant, is apt to be a sad distortioner. There exactly lies the +salient point of contrast between that century and modern times. Life +then was confined and intense--with limitless possibilities. The pageant +passed compact, and yet in gorgeous disarray. Art was informed by its +positive spirit; glowed with animation at its touch. Life has become +vast and voluminous; its horizon seems limited, as though for a time it +had outgrown its strength, and was sprawling. The pageant crawls by in +its interminable length, and yet in dully determined order. Art lives by +battling against its dreadful hold--the hold that slowly fastens and +stifles with its long, persistent tentacles. The apathy of convention +gradually settled, like an obscuring mist, but new knowledge is +scattering the mist like a wind, and knowledge brings new +responsibilities and fresh life and fresh light. The sun peers through +the clouds, and the sun will lend warmth and colour to the pageant. + +But such things happened at the beginning of the seventeenth century in +actual life. That farce at the scaffold was the first manifestation that +King James gave in England of his royal power. + +Ralegh was taken from Winchester to the Tower on December 16. His future +life was now dreadfully apparent to him. His lot was confinement. But +not yet was his indomitable spirit of life dead. Crushed he felt and +pinioned, but still he was obliged to strain every nerve to force all +that could be forced from the life that henceforward awaited him. He +could not submit in proud, becoming silence, as a fabled hero would +undoubtedly have done, and as the code of present honour would have him +submit--a code which, it is well to remember, is considerably assisted +in its conduct by the press. + +The only possibility of living with any pretence of decency lay in the +favour of other men, who must on no account be permitted to forget him. +It is unwise to praise the work which he accomplished in captivity, and +to censure him for employing the only possible means in his power to get +that work accomplished. + +Again he put all his strength into the only task left him, and he +succeeded in saving something from the ruin of his estates and the +complete curtailment of his liberty, by renewed supplication. Being a +man of vivid imagination, he entered so completely into the part which +was forced upon him--the part of supplicator--that his letters are the +letters of the broken man that he wished to appear, and that his future +work proved conclusively he was not. How little his spirit was broken is +seen from the tremendous work which he undertook, and from the personal +influence which he continued to exercise, and which his imprisonment did +not seem to lessen. The scope of his activity was limited, but his +activity did not abate. + +His letters of supplication throw a light upon the nature of a great +man. They show something of that strange quality which men call +greatness. Ralegh was not a little man magnified by position or +circumstances. He was a great man. Not in success is greatness apparent, +not in attainment, but in effort, in vitality, in power of feeling and +in control--but essentially in power of feeling. That power broke even +the barrier of Ralegh's immense self-control--for a time only. + +A great man does not walk exalted, like some demi-god to whom all things +are easy; he knows dismay, he knows weakness, and all the legion of +infirmities, but in spite of all, he wrests from life what life must +yield him. + +Ralegh had lost the Governorship of Jersey, the Patent of the Wine +Office, the Wardenship of the Stannaries, the Rangership of Gillingham +Forest, and the Lieutenancy of Portland Castle, from which together he +drew an income of L3000 a year; men to whom he owed money fastened upon +his estate at Sherborne. It was to save Sherborne from them that he did +his utmost. Lord Cecil came to his assistance: "A secound effect of your +Lordship's great favor was the preservation of my moveabells, which the +ravenus Sherifs were in hand to have seised, and att my gates to have +rifled, if your Lordship's letters had not then cum to have +countermanded it; which it also pleased yow, soon after, to procure me." + +But Ralegh's possession of Sherborne was temporary and uncertain. He +tried to save it entirely from the ruin of his fortune, that his wife +and children might have a place in which to live. On this subject he +writes continually to Cecil and Lord Cranborne. Sorrow sat by him as he +wrote, and for long and long he could not resign himself to the prospect +of captivity. "If I had a pardon, I may notwithstanding be restraynd or +confined. If I may not be here about London (which God caste my sowle +into hell if I desire, but to do your Lordship some kind of service) I +shalbe most contented to be confined within the Hundred of Sherburn; or +if I cannot be allowed so much I shalbe contented to live in Holland, +wher, I shall perchance gett some imployment uppon the Indies, or else, +if I be apoyncted to any bishope or other gentelman or nobelman, or that +your Lordship would lett me keep but a park of yours--which I will buy +from some one that hath it--your Lordship shalbe sure that I will never +break the order which you shall pleas to undertake for me. And, if I bee +any wher nire yow, yow shall find that in sume kind or other I shall do +your Lordship service. For God douth know that if I cannot go to the +Bathe this fall I am undun, for my health; and shalbe dead, or disabled +for ever." + +He wrote to Viscount Cranborne, imploring his aid to preserve this +remnant of his fortune. "That life which cann be of no use to others and +is now also weery of mee, at parting putts mee in mind of thos whom +Nature and Charetie commands me not to neglect--a wife and a childe, and +a wife with childe, whom, God knowes, have nothing else to inherite then +my shame and ther own misery. How to healp it or to whom to complain, I +know not, whose fortune is over darck for the reason of the world to +peirce.... And while I know that the best of men are but the spoyles of +Tyme and certayne images wherwith childish Fortune useth to play--kisse +them to-day and break them to-morrow--and therefore can lament in my +sealf but a common destiney, yet the pitifull estate of thos who are +altogether healpless and who dayly wound my sowle with the memory of +their miseries, force mee in despite of all resolvednesse, bothe to +bewayle them and labor for them.... For my own tyme, good my Lord +consider that it cannot be calde a life, but only misery drawne out and +spoone into a long thride without all hope of other end then Death shall +provide for mee; who without the healp of kings or frinds, will deliver +me out of prison." + +The humiliation of his position was forced upon his notice, for little +men began to cheat him in little ways, and he could find no redress. The +law knew him but as dead. He writes to Levinus Muncke, secretary to Lord +Cranborne.... "I solde of late two peeces of ordenance to one Mr. +Aloblaster, a marchant, whome you knowe. Hee that made the bargayne +between us was one Thomas Scott, a broker,--one that I have done much +for in my tyme, and one that, since I came back from Winchester, offred +to sell his howse for me, if I wanted, with protestations too shamless +to be dissembled. But having gotten my mony into his hands which Mr. +Aloblaster sent mee and five pound waight of tobacco, hath sold the +tobacco and reteyneth my money; finding mee now fitt for all men to +tread on." + +The man jackal is more impatient than his animal brother. For nearly two +years Ralegh beat against the prison walls, bruising himself, unable to +give up hope that some measure of freedom might be his. His health +failed. The plague broke out in the Tower. A woman with the plague on +her slept in the next room to his eldest son, with only a partition of +paper between them. Every trouble and annoyance fell upon him. +Indifference could not come to him with its peace of apathy. He +continued to live and to resent and to suffer. A weaker man would have +broken down, would have given up this horrible struggle for existence +against such overwhelming odds. Ralegh did not. And slowly he emerged +from the struggle the conqueror even of these circumstances. He found +work and worked. At first he obtained permission to turn a little +disused hen-house that leant against a wall in the Tower into a +laboratory. He made lotions and a medicine, which remained in constant +use for very many years after his death. In modern times that alone +would have been sufficient to give him the prestige of millions, and +probably with a little discreet management, a peerage. + +Few men have turned necessity to gain (that is the quality of the +warrior in life) so greatly as Ralegh, such constricting necessity to +such glorious gain. By sheer will power he kept in touch with the life, +from which he was excluded. He wrote pamphlets on questions that were +paramount in interest. His treatise on _The Prerogative of Parliaments_ +shows him in the vanguard of the fighters for liberty of thought, before +that movement developed into a baser servitude. He wrote arguments +against an alliance by marriage with Spain. He wrote at Prince Henry's +request a treatise on the building and management of ships. In every +sphere his presence was felt. Ladies were eager to use his lotions for +the preservation of beauty. His medicine was famous. The Queen sent an +urgent messenger to the Tower when the Prince was dying, thinking to +save her son's life by its means. But it was too late. The medicine only +served to alleviate the agony of his last moments. + +So Ralegh gradually came to arrange his life according to its new +limitations. And it came about that those years in the Tower were far +from being the unhappiest in his life. Ralegh, like his friend Spenser +who had died tragically a few years before his imprisonment, knew well +the value of Court life; and though he was not cut off from intelligent +society as completely in the Tower as Spenser was in Ireland; yet he was +cut off from much that had no attraction to Spenser. But in spite of his +disgrace, and in spite of the work he desired to do, he must surely have +found something of the same peace that comforted Spenser among the +savage Irish, before their outbreak took from him his wife and home and +all that was dear to him on earth. There is a strange analogy in what +life offered to the two men. Lady Ralegh was allowed to visit and stay +with her husband, until she offended Waad, who had become governor, by +driving into the courtyard of the Tower in her carriage. Then the +privilege was curtailed. Ralegh had many visitors. Men who had returned +from travels came to tell him their experiences; men who were starting +on some voyage, came to ask his advice and listen to his counsel. Ben +Jonson visited him, and other scholars and poets. Certainly gossiping +cheery Coryat, who amused himself by walking through all countries of +the world, would come and recount his experiences. The Odcombian leg +stretcher, as he liked to call himself, was hail-fellow-well-met with +every man in London and in the principal cities of Europe. A sort of +standing amiable joke was Tom of Odcombe. "There is no man but to enjoy +his company would neglect anything but business." + +For two years he turned in prison as in a cage. Then he began to live. +His mind expanded beyond the limits of body and his discomfort and of +himself. Some sort of expression must be found for his mind's activity, +and his means of expression were limited. As health came to him while he +worked in his laboratory the proper expression for his mind's activity +evolved itself. During the months of his retreat in Ireland, in his +cabin as he made his way across the silent sea, he had read deeply and +thought deeply about the past; in his active life at the Court and +elsewhere he had known men who made history, and he had taken part in +events which were history. He had seen and conversed with men whom +civilization had not touched, he had known men of every country whom +civilization had shaped to its culminating point; and now as he lived in +the Tower from which he could see the ships sailing down the Thames to +the unknown lands, from which he could look down upon the busy men of +London, slowly there formed itself in his great mind a project. The +project was to write the history of the whole great world, from which he +was now cut off, from its very beginnings down to the days in which he +was living, aloof from the life around. He determined to write the +History of the World. That was the proper expression for his great +mind's activity. He felt unconsciously that in so doing he could express +himself. He set to work. He felt he had the grip of everything from the +creation of the world to his own birth and tempestuous life of more than +fifty years. We have burrowed more deeply into the mystery of things +than the great Elizabethan, as sublimely unaware of his ignorance, as +we are of ours; he had complete confidence in his knowledge. We +hesitate, we feel always on the brink of some great discovery, to which +acquired knowledge is leading us. He explored continents, feeling +limitless possibilities of the earth; and doubted not about the +spiritual world. We know the limits of the earth; and explore these +spiritual worlds, the mystery of existence. Therein lies the difference +between two ages; therein without a boast, lies the progress, even, +which has happened in the last three hundred years of man's existence. +The adventurous whom the Unknown attracts are not drawn to explore the +earth's surface; they turn towards the mystery of their own souls from +which comes much profitless self-searching and a little eternal gain; +they turn towards the mysteries of life and death and birth; they try to +unravel the skein which men were then living tempestuously to entangle. + +So Ralegh began his great work, greatly conceived and greatly executed, +in the very spirit of the age to which he belonged--the age of +Elizabeth, and to which King James's little favourites, Car and the +rest, could never belong. Shut away from the bustle of the court and its +splendour, now sinking to ignoble display; shut away from the voice of +the nation, singing after the nation's deeds, as it had never sung +before and has not sung since, he dreamed his great dream and found +peace as he forced it to take shape and reality to his vision. From the +creation of the world to the death of his own great Queen +Elizabeth--everything that was--that was his subject; nothing less could +satisfy him. He set the huge machinery of his idea slowly to work. His +authorities were vast in number. He searched them all, and began to +write. As he wrote the first sentences, he felt the world lay before +his ken, outstretched with all its strange happenings, the rise and the +fall of dynasties, the rise and fall of kingdoms and nations. All were +within his knowledge and grip. And above he saw the God, who had called +the world into existence, and man into being. About that God he writes +his first paragraph, untroubled by any simian suspicions. The immense +power of the man overawes you as you begin his tremendous task. That is +the first impression, and the impression thrills, as every supreme +evidence of man's power must. Then you realize that his whole vision of +the world is wrong--is a myth, and you see the futility of man's +power--that is the second impression. The two are singularly vivid; they +clash splendidly--and the issue? You see limitless possibilities of life +for the brave man and the strong man, as they only can be seen, when two +ideas--two sincerities--have clashed splendidly. + + "And on through brave wars waged." + +One is feign to cry out, when the dream of things has passed. + +The first sentence of the History should be read aloud with a great +voice in a cathedral. + +"God, whom the wisest men acknowledge to be a Power uneffable and vertue +infinite, a Light by abundant charitie invisible; an Understanding which +itself can only comprehend, an essence eternal and spiritual, of +absolute purenesse and simplicitie; was and is pleased to make himself +knowne by the work of the World: in the wonderful magnitude whereof (all +which Hee imbraceth, filleth, and sustayneth) we behold the Image of +that glorie which cannot be measured, and withall that one and yet +universal Nature, which cannot be defined. In the glorious Lights of +Heaven, we perceive a shadow of his divine Countenance; in his +mercifull provision for all that live, his manifold goodness, and lastly +in creating and making existent the World universall, by the absolute +Arte of his owne Word, his Power and Almightinesse; which Power Light +Vertue Wisdome and Goodnesse, being all but attributes of one simple +Essence and one God, we in all admire, and in part discern, per speculam +creaturaram, that is in the disposition, order, and varietie of +Celestiall and Terrestriall bodies: Terrestriall, in their strange and +manifold diversities: Celestiall in their beautie and magnitude; which +in their continuall and contrary motions are neither repugnant, +intermixt nor confounded. By these potent effects we approch to the +knowledge of the Omnipotent cause, and by these motions, their Almightie +mover." + +The History is based upon a fallacy; but the History is written in great +prose--the prose of Ralegh. Even when the subject comes from remote +authorities on antedeluvian epochs, it is shaped and filled with +perpetual life by contact with the great living personality of Ralegh. +Error in life or art matters little. It is vitality that matters. + +Mr. Edmund Gosse remarks that "the entire absence of humour is +characteristic.... The story of Periander's burning the clothes of the +women closes with a jest; there is, perhaps, no other occasion on which +the solemn historian is detected with a smile upon his lips." The remark +is almost as astounding as that of Mr. Edwards, who, after a careful +summary of the History, is obliged to say, "The three or four thousand +pages of the _History of the World_ contain, I believe, no line or word +within which there lies the tiniest spark of prurient suggestion." Mr. +Edwards is, of course, pleased at this; but there is no reason for Mr. +Gosse's lament. Ralegh did not write with the continual bubble of +humour which makes the Church History of Great Britain (of all +impossible subjects) endeavoured by that inimitable old Thomas Fuller, +one of the wittiest and most readable books in the language. Humour +constantly occurs. Two instances in one paragraph are quite +unforgetable. It is the fourth paragraph of the twenty-third chapter of +the second book of the first part of the History (what portentous +dimensions the book has!). + +"Touching all that was said before of Phul Belosus, for the proving that +Phul and Belosus were not sundry Kings, Joseph Scaliger pities their +ignorance that have spent their labour to little purpose. Honest and +painefull men he confesseth that they were, who by their diligence might +have won the good liking of their Readers had they not by mentioning +Annius his Authors given such offence that men refused thereupon to +reade their Bookes and Chronologies. A short answere. + +"For mine owne part, howsoever, I believe nothing that Annius his +Berosus, Metasthenes, and others of that stampe affirme, in respect of +their bare authority; yet am I not so squeamish, but that I can well +enough digest a good Booke, though I finde the wordes of one or two of +these good fellows alleaged in it: I have (somewhat peradventure too +often) already spoken my mind of Annius, his Authors.... Neither indeed +are those honest and painfull men (as Scaliger tearmes them, meaning if +I mistake him not; good silly fellowes) who set down the Assyrian Kings +from Pul forwards as Lords also of Babylon, taking Pul for Belosus and +Salmanassar for Nabonassar, such writers as a man should be ashamed or +unwilling to reade." + +In such a passage even a student of Ralegh can see not only his lips +smile, but his eyes twinkle with humour, which is a characteristic of +their solemn historian. And he ends the paragraph by recounting a +singularly pertinent and amusing jest. + +"Therefore the fictions (or let them be called conjectures) painted in +Maps doe serve only to mislead such discoverers as rashly beleeve them; +drawing upon the publishers eyther some angry curses or well deserved +scorne.... To which purpose I remember a pretie jest of Don Pedro de +Sarmiento, a worthy Spanish Gentleman who had been employed by his King +in planting a Colonie upon the Streights of Magellan; for when I asked +him being then my Prisoner, some question about an Island in those +Streights which me thought, might have done eyther benefit or +displeasure to his enterprise, he told me merrily that it was to be +called the Painters Wives Island; saying That whilest the fellow drew +that Map, his Wife sitting by, desired to put in one Countrey for her; +that she, in imagination might have an island of her owne. But in +filling up the blankes of old Histories, wee need not be so scrupulous. +For it is not to be feared that time should runne backward, and by +restoring the things themselves to knowledge, make our conjectures +appeare ridiculous...." + +But the great work was never brought to an end. The first immense half +of it, however, was finished, and that half is equal in bulk to about +thirty modern novels. Many traditions survive as to the reason which +caused Ralegh to discontinue his task. One is that Burr, the publisher, +complained of the loss which the production of the first folio involved, +and that Ralegh instantly laid hands on the heap of manuscript which lay +on the table before him and, laying it on the fire, pushed it deep into +the red embers with his foot, saying that no man should be the loser +through his work. Another is (and this commends itself to the +imagination of M. Anatole France) that Ralegh saw from his window two +men fighting in the courtyard below; that he asked the cause of the +quarrel and that, when two eye-witnesses gave him two essentially +different accounts, he was so overcome with the mystery that must ever +surround all truth, that he thereupon destroyed the remaining manuscript +of his History. These stories are interesting but not authentic enough +to carry any weight against the reason which Ralegh himself gives for +leaving his work unfinished, though they may possibly be reckoned among +the discouragements which he mentions. For these are his words: + +"Lastly whereas this book by the title it hath, calls itselfe, The first +part of Generall Historie of the World, implying a Second and Third +Volume; which I also intended and have hewne out; besides many other +discouragements perswading my silence; it hath pleased God to take that +glorious Prince out of the world, to whom they were directed, whose +unspeakable and never enough lamented losse hath taught mee to say with +Job _Versa est in luctum Cithara mea, et Organum meum in vocem +flentium_." + +James did not like the History. He did not consider that Ralegh bated +his breath sufficiently when writing of kings, who obtained their power, +in his opinion, directly from a divine source. And he went farther in +his dislike. For into what Ralegh had written of kings and men, long +dead, he read criticisms against himself and his favourites; and these +he could ill brook. James, like most cruel men, was sensitive, but he +was "sensitive within alone, Inly only thrilling shrewd;" where others +were concerned, he was, as is seen in his treatment of Ralegh, hard, +"scaly as in clefts of pine." + +James had no real cause to do this. Certain it is that Ralegh never +consciously committed the offence. But certain it also is that he, like +any other writer of his calibre, would write with greater feeling the +account of some happening or some character, with which the +circumstances of his own life brought into sympathy. And exactly because +his life and his knowledge of men was profound and varied, his history +gains in vitality. For always he keeps his relation in contact with +life--that is of course to say, his own experience of life--by which +each man is limited--and never does his work degenerate into a mere +recital of facts. Only when he is weighing authority against authority +is he lifeless, and almost necessarily lifeless, but even then--witness +the passage quoted a little earlier in this chapter--he is not often +dull. + +All through the length of the history, passage after passage of deep +wisdom and insight occur, so that his work is still a comment upon that +greatest and most enthralling of all mysteries--life. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE LAST JOURNEY + + Ralegh's influence with Queen and Prince Henry--Death + of Robert Cecil--Rise of Villiers--Liberty--The undying + endeavour--Anecdote--Preparations for expedition--Delays + and uncertainty--The King's treachery--The expedition + starts--Further delays--Storms--Captain Bailey--Ralegh's + illness--At Terra de Bri--His son's death--Return of + Keymis--Suicide of Keymis--Mutiny--The return. + + +Ralegh in the Tower managed to gain influence of a remarkable nature +over the Queen and over Prince Henry, who was the idol of the nation. It +availed him not, however. James was jealous of the immense popularity of +his son, and feared his high spirit. Gradually the tall white-haired man +in the Tower became the most talked of man in London. Round him centred +the tradition of Elizabeth, which was looked back upon with vain regret. +Men did not like the deference that was paid to Gondomar, the Spanish +ambassador; they did not like the rise and supremacy of Car. They looked +askance at Cecil. But Cecil and Car did not for many years lose their +hold on the King, whom they treated adroitly. Nor were James's fear and +hatred of Ralegh allowed by them to abate. Whenever the Queen or the +Prince sued for favour towards Ralegh, they would not fail to point out +the power and influence which caused such appeals to be made, and to +play on the King's timidity. Moreover, in spite of Lady Ralegh's +supplications and Prince Henry's frequent entreaties, the Sherborne +estates were handed over to Car at a price. + +The position, however, suddenly changed. Cecil died. Car was sent to the +Tower for complicity in the poisoning of Overbury. Henry Howard, Earl of +Northampton died, the bitterest of Ralegh's enemies. Sir Ralph Winwood, +who was kindly disposed towards Ralegh and an honest man, became +Secretary of State. A new favourite of the same stamp as Car, one George +Villiers rose to power, and he, for his own reasons, hated the Howards. +Ralegh approached him in the usual way. He gave L750 each to his +brothers, and obtained in consequence the regard of George Villiers. + +Through all the years of his imprisonment Ralegh had continued quietly +to urge--through the Prince, through the Queen, through Cecil--how +foolish it was to keep imprisoned a man like himself, who could fill the +treasury of England with gold from a mine in Guiana, of which he alone +knew the site. He persisted always upon the wealth of Guiana, so that +little by little it grew to be common talk. To Ralegh, as to Cecil +Rhodes, gold meant power; but, more than gold, he desired the sensation +of freedom on the wide sea, and the long journey to the unknown land. +More than gold, he desired the attainment of the great dream which had +become inextricably part of his life. That was his life's object, and +nothing could keep him from any possible means of its fulfilment. The +quiet labour in the Tower at his history and in the little laboratory +only served to lull the pain of captivity, and gave scope to but a part +of his great nature, though many men, and many by no means inferior men, +have spent their lives in doing work less excellent and less valuable +than Ralegh packed into the years of his imprisonment. + +[Illustration: HENRY PRINCE OF WALES] + +For twelve years Ralegh had been in prison. He was sixty-three years +old when he regained his liberty. Most men would have been content to +continue the quiet habit of work formed during his long imprisonment. +Ralegh's spirit was, however, undaunted; not even habit could deaden his +unconquerable vitality. His release had been gained that he might +arrange and lead an expedition to Guiana. Indeed, he was still under the +charge of a keeper, and his sole permitted business was to arrange the +detail for the fitting out of the expedition--ships, men, supplies and +so forth. + +It would throw a light on all life if we could know what were Ralegh's +feelings as he left the Tower; if we could know how long the first +exhilaration of freedom held him, and when that exhilaration yielded to +intense unutterable consciousness of the stress and the pain of life; +for he must surely have felt as if he were beginning the whole business +of life again, and many moments must have come even to Ralegh when he +asked himself, "_Is_ it _good_ enough?" and looked back to the quiet of +his room in the Tower with active regret--the room where he had dreamed +and worked, had had the satisfaction of a persistent desire, and from +which he had watched great ships making their way down the Thames to the +sea. The same detail of his old life awaited him, in transacting the +manifold business which he knew so well--countless interviews with +innumerable men, endowed with the same amount of ignorance, or +astuteness, or malice, or knowledge, or good-will. In some ways the +world must have appeared to him to have remained very dully the same; +but its aspect must have changed amazingly. Different fashions were in +vogue; different favourites caught the public eye; new faces showed +everywhere. The streets had been widened; many were better paved. They +were more crowded with carriages than they were twelve years before. New +buildings had arisen, among which the New Exchange, close to Durham +House, and the Banqueting House at Whitehall were the most notable. The +first thing Ralegh did was to walk round London. In the twentieth +century, an active man might, by clever arrangement of train and tube +and electric tram, traverse the extent of London in a day without seeing +any of the sights, and but few of the streets. Ralegh could see +everything in London, poor walker as he was, in three or four hours, +less than three hundred years ago. For London clung to the banks of the +river which was the main way, and by which watermen thronged at +countless landing-stages with innumerable boats and barges. It must have +been a strange experience for Ralegh to notice the new fashions of the +Court, to pass among men unknown, himself almost unheeded, who had been +the great Queen's lover, and to see faces of new favourites, acclaimed +at their passing through the streets. For he had become to the people +little more than a name and a tradition; he would be recognizable at his +window in the Tower, but in the ordinary surroundings of life he would +be regarded with surprise rather than recognition. And men who +recognized would hesitate to notice his presence, not knowing whether +suspicion might not cling to them of treasonable intentions if they +appeared too glad at his release. + +To this time belongs probably a story which Aubrey tells, and which, +like other stories of that inimitable gossip, bears the stamp of truth. +Its telling lightens the gloom that these first months of freedom, with +their terrible realization of time gone, inevitably raise. Aubrey had it +from his old friend, James Harrington, who was well acquainted with Sir +Benjamin Ruddyer, a friend of Ralegh's. In Aubrey's own delightful words +the story runs as follows: "Sir Walter Ralegh, being invited to dinner +to some great person where his son was to go with him, he sayd to his +son 'Thou art expected to-day at dinner to goe along with me, but thou +art such a quarrelsome affronting ... (Aubrey has forgotten the exact +word) that I am ashamed to have such a beare in my company.' Mr. Walter +humbled himself to his father and promised he would behave himself +mighty mannerly. So away they went, and Sir Benjamin I think with them. +He sate next to his father and was very demure at least halfe dinner +time. Then sayd he 'I this morning not having the feare of God before my +eyes but by the instigation of the devil went....' Sir Walter being +strangely surprised and put out of countenance at so great a table gives +his son a damned blow over the face. His son, as rude as he was, would +not strike his father, but strikes over the face the gentleman that sate +next him, and sayd 'Box about; it will come to my father anon.' Tis now +a common proverb." + +The story is far too good to be false. Gossip needs no verification. It +stands or falls unsupported by the props which the stern matter of +history demands, like an authentic relic which has survived to please. + +Meanwhile the business of the expedition went on apace. Ralegh had from +King James a commission which empowered him to voyage "to places in +South America, or elsewhere, inhabited by heathen and savage people, +etc." The commission was very similarly worded to others which he had +had from Queen Elizabeth, and Ralegh set no greater store by the clause +which forbade him to attack the subjects of any European king, +especially of the King of Spain, than he had done before. Ralegh did not +realize how much things had changed since his Queen ruled. He knew as +well as every one else that the Spaniards in Guiana would not allow him +to land and proceed quietly to the mine without a determined effort to +stop his progress. But he did not know what a hold Sarmiento, the +Spanish ambassador, had acquired over James, and how well-disposed James +had become towards Spain. He did not understand that he was the last man +in England who upheld the Elizabethan tradition, and that therefore he +was the man whom Spain best hated. + +One month after Ralegh's release Sarmiento wrote to the King of Spain +warning him that another company was being prepared "for Guiana and the +river Orinoco, which is near Trinidad, the prime promoter and originator +of which is Sir Walter Ralegh, a great seaman.... I am informed that he +will sail in the month of October with six or eight ships of 200 to 500 +tons, some belonging to himself, some to his companions, all well +provided. He will also take with him launches in which to ascend the +Orinoco, and he is trying to get two ships of very light draught to take +them as high up the river as possible. He has already been in the +country and assures people here that he knows of a mine that will swell +all England with gold." He urges the King of Spain to increase the navy +and not to allow any merchant to sail without a proper convoy; and +assures him that he in England will do all in his power to prevent the +expedition. Sarmiento's power was very great. + +Sir Ralph Winwood, the Secretary of State, was the only man in authority +who was not in favour of a Spanish alliance. The King, as Major Martin +Hume points out, "was besotted with Gondomar and the Spanish power; +Digby and Cottington were humbly negotiating in Madrid for the marriage +of the Prince of Wales with the Infanta, and greedy Buckingham was +bribed by the Spaniards to his heart's content." + +King James played with Ralegh. The King wanted money, and wanted the +friendship of Spain. There was a remote chance that Ralegh might obtain +the money. In that case the money would be useful and Ralegh could be +disposed of at his convenience, as an atonement to Spain. On the other +hand, if the expedition failed, Ralegh could even more easily be +disposed of, and his sacrifice would strengthen the tie between Spain +and England. In either case James saw carefully to it that he should +lose nothing and Ralegh everything. + +The King's treatment of Ralegh is absolutely typical of him, and +illustrates his treacherous weak nature with decision. + +Men did not believe that Guiana was the object of Ralegh's journey. The +whole scheme seemed incredible as affairs then stood. The general +opinion was that the mine was the merest blind; for how could a sane man +give, or a sane man accept, the conditions under which the search was to +be carried out? Some thought that Ralegh was taking any opportunity that +might lead to his freedom; that once he found the wide sea round him he +would not again return to England where he had been so badly handled. +Some thought that the expedition was intended not for Guiana but for a +sudden raid on Genoa; others thought that Ralegh was going to succour +the Huguenots at the King's wish. All the foreign ambassadors were +uneasy as to the real intent of the voyage, and had long conferences +with Ralegh and wrote long letters to their powers at home. Ralegh +alone, loyal to his traditions of Elizabeth, remained steadfast in his +purpose. + +James demanded from Ralegh the details of the expedition, the number of +ships and men and arms, promising on his honour as a king (what more +fragile pledge could he find?) not to divulge the secrets to any man. +But Sarmiento, the Spanish ambassador, had the exact measure of James. +He laughed at the story of the mine, and laughed at James for his +childishness in thinking that a man who was no fool would be gulled by +such a child's tale. The real motive of the expedition, Sarmiento +assured James with laughing suavity, he and all the world knew very well +was nothing else than to rob Spain at the distant source of her wealth +while keeping her off her guard by the show of friendliness at home. +James could not bear his ridicule and his assurance. He swore to +Sarmiento that if a hair on the head of one Spanish subject were +touched, Ralegh should be sent to Madrid in chains to be hanged in +Madrid's chief square. That was not all. To prove that Ralegh's end was +the mine, he handed over to Sarmiento all the secret papers of the +expedition. So Sarmiento gained his purpose; he had the papers carefully +copied and a special messenger was soon on his way to Spain bearing the +copy to the Spanish king, as has been seen. + +James was friendly with Sarmiento. A weak man likes to deceive himself. +James wanted to be friendly with Spain, from fear of Spain's power. But +if Ralegh could break Spain's power at the risk only of his life, James +was quite content to accept the first place in Europe and then dispose +of Ralegh. It was not his nature, however, to face anything and strike +boldly. He kept up the illusion in his own mind that the mine was all he +wanted, and all that Ralegh intended to make for and, like the weak +creature he was, he allowed his personal dislike of Ralegh to hinder his +plan, and his fear of ridicule to render the whole scheme ridiculous. + +[Illustration: PHILIP III. OF SPAIN] + +Meanwhile Ralegh's arrangements were proceeding, and gradually the new +ship, the _Destiny_, which he had built, became a fashionable resort, +even as his destination was the common talk not only of the Court in +London, but also of many foreign Courts. Did England intend to support +Spain and the Catholics, or the Protestant cause? The diplomacy of James +was even more intricate and twisted than diplomacy is wont to be. + +At length, at the beginning of April, Ralegh's small fleet of seven +vessels weighed anchor, and sailed down the Thames. Even at the very +moment of his sailing his purpose was not credited. Lionello, a Venetian +resident, wrote to the Senate of Venice, "I know very well that Sir +Walter Ralegh's only object in embarking in this enterprise was to free +himself from his imprisonment. He would gladly change this scheme for +any other. Many people know the fact as well as I." + +But Ralegh was firm in his purpose. He was now an old man, if age be +counted in years; he was still vigorous and alert, if age be counted by +the measure of a man's vitality. Now, at the age when most men take to +the fireside and friendly counsel, Ralegh was glad to undertake a +desperate venture to win freedom and wealth for himself and for his +family, prosperity and greatness for his country. + +The seven ships in the Thames weighed anchor. They were: the _Destiny_, +of 440 tons, carrying 36 pieces of ordnance; the _Jason_, of 240 tons, +carrying 25 pieces of ordnance, of which the commander was John +Pennington, "of whom to do him right," as Ralegh wrote, "I dare say he +is one of the sufficientest gentlemen for the sea that England hath"; +the _Encounter_, of 160 tons, commanded at first by Edward Hastings and +afterwards by Whitney, carrying 17 pieces; the _Thunder_, of 180 tons, +commanded by Sir Warham St. Leger, carrying 20 pieces; the _Flying +Joan_, the _Husband_, alias the _Southampton_, and the _Page_, all +smaller vessels of 120, 80, and 25 tons respectively. The fleet was +joined before it left the coast of England by Keymis in the Convertine, +Wollaston in the _Confidence_, and Sir John Ferne in the _Flying Hart_. +The _Destiny_ was the flagship. It had been built at Sir Walter's own +charge, and his son Walter was placed in the position of captain. Of the +two hundred men on board, eighty were gentlemen volunteers, who were for +the most part friends or relations of Sir Walter. + +But months of valuable summer weather elapsed before the fleet left the +coast of England. From the outset evil chance brooded over the +expedition. Captain Pennington put in to the Isle of Wight with the +_Jason_ to obtain provisions, and had not the needful money. He +accordingly was obliged to ride post haste to Lady Ralegh in London and +wait while she went through the business of a bond, on which the money +was raised. At Plymouth Captain Whitney had the same experience, and +Ralegh was obliged to sell his plate to the silversmith; Sir John Ferne +was also insufficiently supplied with money, and Ralegh borrowed L200 +from two friends. The men began to feel that the expedition found no +favour, and that their commanders were not trusted. In consequence, they +grew uneasy and discontented. The delay lasted nearly three months, +their enthusiasm began to abate, their resolution to weaken. The proper +time of the year was passing. + +While the fleet lay in Plymouth harbour Ralegh issued orders for the +conduct of his men to be observed by the Commanders of the Fleet and +Land Companies. He ordained that divine service should be read in every +ship twice every day: in the morning before dinner and at night before +supper; or at least, if there be interruption by foul weather, once the +day, praising God every night with singing of a psalm at the setting of +the watch. He ordained special care to be taken that God be not +blasphemed in the ships. The offender is to be admonished and then fined +out of his adventures, and then if no amendment be found the matter is +to be reported to Ralegh himself. For if it be threatened in the +Scriptures that the curse shall not depart from the house of the +swearer, much less shall it depart from the ship of the swearer. Two +captains of the watch must be chosen, and they shall pick two soldiers +every night to search between the decks that no fire nor candle-light be +carried about the ship, nor that any candles be burning in any cabin +without a lanthorn. "For there is no danger so inevitable as the ship's +firing which may as well happen by taking of tobacco between the decks, +and therefore forbidden to all men but aloft the upper deck." + +The landsmen must be taught the names and places of the ropes in order +that they may assist the sailors in their labours upon the decks, though +they cannot go up to the tops and yards. And the sailors must learn the +art of land-fighting, otherwise the troops will be very weak when they +come to land without the assistance of the sea-faring men. No vessel +should be pursued or disfurnished in any way, except under compulsion of +absolute necessity, and then bonds shall be entered into for the repayal +of what was taken. "You shall every night fall astern the general's +ship, and follow his light, receiving instructions in the morning what +course to hold, and if you shall at any time be separated by foul +weather, you shall receive certain billets sealed up, the first to be +opened on this side of North Cape, if there be cause; the second to be +opened at the South Cape; the third after you shall pass twenty-three +degrees; and the fourth from the height of Cape de Verd." Minute +instructions were given for signalling in case of distress or attack, or +the sighting of a foreign vessel. In foul weather every man shall fit +his sails to keep company with the rest of the fleet and not run so far +ahead by day but that he may fall astern the admiral before night. He +gave full instructions to the captains how to fight their ships. They +are of exceptional interest. "In case we should be set upon by sea the +captain will appoint a sufficient company to assist the gunners, after +which if the fight require it, the cabins between the decks shall be +taken down, and all beds and sacks employed for bulwarks. The gunners +shall not shoot any great ordnance at other distance than point blank. +An officer or two shall be appointed to take care that no loose powder +be carried between the decks, or near any linstock or match in hand. You +shall saw divers hogheads in two parts and filled with water set them +aloft the decks. You shall divide your carpenters, some in the hold, if +any shot come between wind and water, and the rest between the decks, +with plates of lead, plugs, and all things necessary laid by them. The +master and boatswain shall appoint a certain number of sailors to every +sail, and to every such company a master's mate, boatswain, mate, or +quarter-master, so as when every man knows his charge and place, things +may be done without noise or confusion, and no man to speak but the +officers.... You shall take a special care for the keeping of the ship +clean between the decks, to have your ordnance in order, and not cloyed +with trunks and chests." + +Then follow further instructions as to conduct, which forbid any man to +play at cards or dice, either for his apparel or arms, upon pain of +being disarmed and made a swabber. And whosoever shall show himself a +coward upon any landing or otherwise, he shall be disarmed and made a +labourer and carrier of victuals for the rest. + +And finally a few essential points are mentioned for all fully to +realize when God shall suffer them to land in the Indies, namely, the +danger of sleeping on the ground, of eating unknown fruits, or any flesh +until it be salted, of bathing in rivers. Especial stress is laid upon +the necessity of treating the Indians with courtesy in order to win +their help and friendship. "For other orders on the land we will +establish them (when God shall send us thither) by general consent. In +the mean time I will value every man's honour according to their degree +and valour, and taking care for the service of God and prosperity of our +enterprise." + +On the 12th of June the fleet at last set sail. But as in the Islands +voyage, just twenty years before, a great storm broke upon the ships and +drove some back to Falmouth harbour. The bad weather raged for weeks and +ended in a tempest that scattered the fleet and wrought fearful havoc +among all. + +Ralegh was forced to take refuge with his fleet in Cork harbour, where +another long delay ensued. Delay was disastrous. It meant lack of +confidence among the men. And well Ralegh knew that his authority had +been lessened by the reports which had been industriously spread among +his company that his commission being granted to a man _non ens_ in law, +took from him both arms and actions: "it gave boldness to every petty +companion to spread rumours to my defamation and the wounding of my +reputation in all places where I could not be present to make them +knaves and liars." + +Delay meant expenditure of money which was desperately wanted; and what +was most serious of all, delay meant loss of time, for only at the most +favourable season of the year could these heavily equipped vessels hope +to make their voyage with any likelihood of success, and only at the +most favourable season could they hope to carry out the great task which +awaited them at the end of their long voyage. + +Ralegh was once again in Ireland, where he had started his career. +Thirty-six years before he had written to Robert Dudley, Earl of +Leicester, now long dead, "I have spent some time here under the Deputy +in such poore place and charge, as were it not that I knew him to be one +of yours, I would disdayne it as much as to keepe sheepe." Here, too, he +had spent those quiet months with Edmund Spenser, his friend, by Mulla's +shore; nearly twenty years had passed since rebels burned Spenser's +house to the ground and Spenser himself died of very grief. And here was +Ralegh still living, still in quest of the dream's fulfilment, of which +he had talked with the poet who was at rest, and still fretting at this +last delay which was quietly ravelling away the fabric of all his hopes. +Spenser had given the world his vision of the fairy realm into which his +spirit had now passed; Ralegh had written the first half of his great +History of the World, over which he desired to extend his country's +dominion. + +Richard Boyle was still at Cork. Boyle had bought Ralegh's estates in +Ireland and they were flourishing under his direction. Here as +elsewhere Ralegh broke the ground from which others reaped a rich +harvest. One Henry Pine of Mogelie was vexing Boyle as grievously as he +had in years gone by vexed Ralegh with whom he was connected in +industrial enterprises. So Boyle took advantage of Ralegh's visit to +Cork to question him concerning the terms of a lease, and Ralegh spoke +vigorously against the claims of Henry Pine, remembering well Pine's +former bad treatment of him. He spoke so vigorously that in the +following year, when he was reviewing all the many events of his great +life, his words came back to him. He was then on the threshold of +departure, and not wishing to think that any man had been harmed by him +unjustly, he expressed a strong desire that the terms of this lease +might be examined closely again. The action witnesses Ralegh's attention +to justice and to detail. + +But at last a favourable wind sprang up, and on the 19th of August, +though late in the year for its enterprise, the fleet set sail from Cork +harbour. Nothing could deter Ralegh from his last venture. The wide sea +opened out before him once again, and far away the rich land of his +dreams, where wealth was waiting for him and greatness for his country. +Behind him he left his adventurous past life, and his soul was inclined +towards this new adventure. + +From Cork they set sail for Cape St. Vincent, and presently four ships +hove in sight, to which Ralegh at once gave chase. The long delay made +it dangerous to allow ships to pass unheeded, for by this time Ralegh +must have known to some extent how much the Spaniards knew. Neither he +nor any man could have suspected the scope of King James's treachery. +The pursuit was long and stirring. Eventually the strange vessels were +overhauled. Their leader said that they were French vessels bound for +Seville. His tale bore small signs of truth. His vessels were so heavily +armed, their cut so questionable, that Ralegh's men affirmed that they +were merely pirates, and should be treated as pirates. But Ralegh was +not in a position to run any risk, which might bring down upon him the +King's anger afresh. Accordingly he took the four ships with him for a +length of time, sufficient to ensure the harmlessness of any +intelligence which they might carry, and treated them with courtesy. The +men grumbled. Why should they be expected to believe in a trumped-up +story, when the vessels were full of Spanish apparel and Spanish +merchandise and unmistakable pirates, and why should they be deprived of +their proper spoil? To them Ralegh answered that it was lawful for the +French to make prize of the Spaniards to south of the Canaries and to +west of the Azores. "And if it were not so, it is no business of mine to +examine the subjects of the French King." He bought commodities from +them--oil, a pinnace, a fishing-net--to the value of sixty crowns, and +let them go on their way. His scruples were well considered, but they +did not tend to mollify the feeling of discontent which the untoward +delays at the outset of the voyage had brought into existence among the +men. The ill-feeling was increased when a little afterwards a Spanish +vessel was encountered which had been pillaged by them. + +On September 7 the fleet reaching the Canary Islands anchored off +Lanzarote, and at Lanzarote an event of importance occurred which +exposed the full treachery that was lying hid in the expedition, as well +as in its false launching. There is small doubt that the Spaniards on +the island had received news of the fleet, and had been advised as to +its proper treatment by Gondomar, the ambassador in London. +Circumstances lent a specious cover to their conduct. For a band of +Moorish pirates was known to be in the proximity of the Canaries, and +their presence justified the hostile reception which awaited Ralegh's +fleet. Nor would they easily believe that the vessels were English. They +demanded that two officers should land unarmed, except with rapiers, and +unaccompanied. Ralegh and an officer named Bradshaw landed and conferred +with them in a plain, sufficiently open to prevent any secret treachery. +Ralegh's demands were simple. All he desired was fresh water and food +for his company. The governor of the island consented to supply him, and +agreed to sell him the provisions by means of an English merchant, whose +ship was at anchor in the harbour. "I sent the English factor according +to our agreement, but the governor put it off from one morning to +another, and in the end sent me word that except I would embark my men +who lay on the seaside, the islanders were so jealous as they durst not +sever themselves to make our provisions. I did so: but when the one half +were gotten aboard two of our sentinels were forced, one slain, and the +English factor sent to tell me that he had nothing for us, whom he still +believed to be a fleet of the Turks who had lately taken and destroyed +Puerto Sancto. Hereupon all the companies would have marched toward the +town and have sacked it, but I knew it would not only dislike his +Majesty, but that our merchants having a continual trade with these +islands that their goods would have been stayed, and among the rest the +poor Englishman riding in the road having all that he brought thither +ashore, would have been utterly undone." + +But sufficient had happened for the spy, Captain Bailey. He needed +little evidence for his pretty tale, and having asked and obtained from +Ralegh some ordnance and some ironbound casks, he weighed anchor in the +night, and set all sail for England, where his employers would listen +eagerly to his pretty tale, and pay him for it. It is sad to read all +that Ralegh could write of him afterwards in his apology, "what should +move Bailey to leave me as he did at the Canaries, from whence he might +have departed with my love and leave, and at his return to do me all the +wrong he could devise, I cannot conceive.... I never gave him +ill-language, nor offered him the least unkindness to my knowledge." + +When the spy, Captain Bailey, arrived in England he despatched his +account of the proceedings at Lanzarote to Buckingham, and Buckingham +lost no time in acquainting King James. On October 22 Gondomar wrote +fully to the King of Spain about the expedition, and Philip was more +urgent than ever in pressing Sir John Digby and Lord Cottington and Lord +Roos, who had been sent to Madrid by James to arrange the terms of the +marriage between the Infanta and Prince Charles, that Ralegh might be +immediately recalled and punished. King James was abject in his apology, +and became more and more inclined to the sacrifice of Ralegh. But the +spy Captain Bailey's account was too carelessly prepared; Cottington +discovered divergences; Lord Carew, Master of the Ordnance, declared +"those who malice Sir Walter boldly affirm him to be a pirate, which for +my part I will never believe." Moreover "the poor Englishman riding in +the road," whose name was Reeks, arrived on the scene and told a +different story of the event. It was most unfortunate for the spy, +Captain Bailey, who was sent to the Gatehouse at Westminster. + +[Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEGH] + +His pretty story was proved to be an invention, but that mattered +little subsequently; the invention served its purpose. + +Meanwhile Ralegh's fleet had arrived at Gomera, "one of the strongest +and best defenced places of all the islands, and the best port; the town +being seated upon the very wash of the sea." Guns were fired at the +ships at their first approach, and the ships answered. But as soon as +Ralegh came up in the _Destiny_ he gave orders that the firing should +immediately cease, and sent a Spaniard, whom he had taken on a bark +which came from Cape Blanc, to assure the governor of the town that he +intended no harm of any kind to the subjects of the Spanish King. The +governor replied that he had mistaken the fleet for the Turks who had +sacked Puerto Sancto, "but being resolved by the messenger that we were +Christians and English, and sought nothing but water, he would willingly +afford us as much as we were pleased to take, if he might be assured +that we would not attempt his town houses nor destroy his gardens and +fruits." Ralegh gave full assurance, vowing to hang up in the +market-place any man of his who should lay marauding hands on so much as +one orange or a grape. Their courtesies did not end here. The governor's +wife happened to be an English gentlewoman, and she sent Ralegh gifts of +fruits, of sugar, of rusks, and saw to it that his stay at the island +was agreeable. Sir Walter sent her presents of gloves and scent, and a +picture of Mary Magdalen which hung in his cabin. These days which he +spent at Gomera could have been the only time in this last great +adventure of which he could have a pleasant memory. + +The governor too was kindly disposed towards Ralegh, and not realizing +how deeply his guest was disliked and feared by the authorities at +home, he sent a letter to Gondomar, the ambassador in London, in which +he stated how exemplary had been the conduct of Ralegh's men. + +The respite from the stress of the voyage was short. On September 24, +three days after they left the Canary Islands, the sickness which had +been prevalent among the men during their fortnight's stay, broke out +with fury. On the evening of the 24th fifty men lay helpless on the +_Destiny_. The other ships were not exempt. Two captains and a +provost-marshal died on them. The chief surgeon and several officers +followed on the 31st. As the plague-stricken ships made for the Brava +roads a hurricane burst over them; the hurricane sank one ship and +inflicted terrible damage upon the others. The storm abated, but the +sickness continued. Four more officers died, and most of Ralegh's +personal servants, so that, though he was himself suffering from a +severe calenture, he was attended only by pages. The death of John +Talbot grieved him sorely. John Talbot was one of those completely +trustworthy old servants that a man of Ralegh's calibre is wont to have. +"He was my honest friend," wrote Ralegh, "an excellent general scholar +and as faithful and true a man as lived. I lost him to my inestimable +grief." John Talbot had shared Ralegh's imprisonment of his own free +will. He was as devoted to Ralegh as Keymis even himself. Pigott, the +Lieutenant-General of the land service, died on October 13. + +It is finely typical of Ralegh that in spite of the calamities which +fell thickly upon him, the plague, the tempest, his own illness--he made +and recorded observations which, as Edwards points out, furthered +nautical science considerably. + +On November 11 the fleet arrived at Cape Orange, which was then called +Cape Wiapoco, and on the 14th they sailed into the harbour, made by the +River Cayenne, which Ralegh calls Caliana. On this voyage every possible +disaster had fallen upon the fleet, and yet the full business of the +expedition had only now begun. Ralegh lay on a sick-bed, an old man, but +he did not falter, though all the weight of arrangement was upon him. As +soon as he arrived he wrote to Lady Ralegh. The bearer of the letter was +one Captain Alley, who was suffering from an infirmity in his head, and +obliged on that account to return home with all speed--"an honest, +valiant man," according to Ralegh's description. + +"Sweetheart, I can write unto you but with a weak hand, for I have +suffered the most violent calenture for fifteen days that ever man did +and lived. But God, that gave me a strong heart in all my adversities, +hath also now strengthened it in the hell-fire of heat.... We are yet +two hundred men, and the rest of our fleet are reasonable strong. Strong +enough, I hope, to perform what we have undertaken, if the diligent care +at London to make our strength known to the Spanish King by his +ambassador have not taught the Spanish King to fortify all the entrances +against us." He tells her that their son is in excellent health, "having +had no distemper in all the heat under the line," and after recording +the names of those who had died, and the disasters which had fallen upon +the survivors, he ends the letter with this characteristic sentence: "To +tell you that I might be here King of the Indians were a vanity. But my +name hath still lived among them here. They feed me with fresh meat and +all that the country yields; all offer to obey me." He would always +rather be King even of the Indians than king only of his griefs. + +The ship remained at anchor in the harbour of the river Cayenne until +December 4. The sick men were landed, the ships were washed, fresh water +was taken in; the barges and shallops which were brought out of England +in quarters were put together, ready for the inland voyage to the mine. +Ralegh reaped the full benefit of his courtesy to the Indians on his +previous visit. Well they remembered him, as he wrote to his wife, and +without their kindness it would have fared ill with the plague-stricken, +tempest-tossed company. As it was, the Indians tended the sick with +every attention possible, and helped the expedition by every means in +their power. Ralegh was still too ill to walk. He was carried about in a +chair, and in a condition in which most men would need all their +strength to fight disease and death, he superintended the arrangements +for the five ships which were to make their way up the great river to +the mine under Captain Keymis. + +In the five ships were five companies, each of fifty men. The +Lieutenant-General of the land force, John Piggot, had died of fever on +the way out; Sir Warham St. Leger lay sick without hope of life; and +accordingly the command of the whole expedition was entrusted to +Ralegh's nephew, George Ralegh, "who had served long with infinite +commendation," but who was somewhat too young to have over the men the +absolute authority which his position required. The five companies were +separately commanded by Captain Parker and Captain North, "brethren to +the Lord Mounteagle and the Lord North, valiant gentlemen, and of +infinite patience for the labour, hunger and heat which they have +endured;" by Ralegh's son, Walter; by Captain Thornhurst of Kent, and by +Captain Chudleigh's lieutenant. + +Ralegh himself stayed with the five larger ships at Puncto Gallo by +Trinidad. He was constrained to do so, partly because his health would +not allow him to undergo the hardships of the inland voyage, but +principally because, a Spanish fleet being expected, no one would +venture to pass up the river unless one whom they could trust remained +at the base in charge of the big ships. Ralegh vowed that they should +find him at Puncto Gallo on their return, dead or alive: "and if you +find not my ships there yet you shall find their ashes. For I will fire +with the galleons if it come to extremity, but run away will I never." + +At last, on December 10, the five ships set sail, and Ralegh moved away +with the main fleet. They made Point Barimy on December 15; on the 17th +Point Hicacos, which is at the extreme south-west of the island of +Trinidad; and on the last day of the year 1617 they anchored at Terra de +Bri. + +At Terra de Bri Ralegh began his slow period of suspense. The success of +the whole scheme was hanging in the balance, the scheme which had been +his life's chief business to fulfil, and he was doomed to inaction--to +wait while others sought the final prize. Bitter must have been this +waiting for Ralegh, bitter all the reasons that combined to keep him +back, each in themselves paltry, and united, irresistible. For the first +time a bodily ailment hindered him; old age was creeping on. For the +first time the great commander found a lack of loyalty in his men; and +that lack of loyalty had been generated and nourished by the treachery +of his King. How could any man gain the confidence of his men, and have +power over them, when he was still under sentence of death for treason? +The men who served him were the scum of the earth, bent only on +plunder, such, verily, as an unpardoned man would attract to his +service. But Keymis, Keymis and his own son--and the few valiant +gentlemen--his heart lightened as he thought of them; they were brave +and greathearted; they were loyal and steadfast. And George Ralegh, he +was young, but nothing would turn him back. Still Ralegh waited. There +was no sign of the Spanish fleet, which was expected, and for which he +kept ever on the alert. Ah! why had His Majesty been pleased to hold +them at so little value as to command him upon his allegiance to set +down under his hand the country of his destination and the very river of +entry; to set down the number of his men, the burthen of his ships, and +the ordnance each ship was bearing! Why had it pleased His Majesty to +hand over the document to the Spanish ambassador and break his royal +oath? + +Still Ralegh waited. No news came from the land force. He tried to break +the monotony of suspense by searching out botanical specimens, and +examining the chemical properties of the plants; he busied himself with +the preparing of balsams, he who pined to be exploring the wealth of the +land of his dreams. How could he trust any man's judgment but his own in +such an enterprise, at such a time, when success meant prosperity for +his country, wealth and freedom for himself and his family; when failure +meant ruin, disgrace, and death? Yet Keymis, Keymis was faithful, and +young Wat had his father's blood in him. + +Still Ralegh waited. At length one day a little boat came in sight, and +as it drew nearer it was seen to contain an Indian pilot and a sailor, +who had been with the land force. His name was Peter Andrews. A letter +was handed to Ralegh, a letter from Keymis. He broke the seal and +read-- + + "All things that appertain to human condition, in that proper nature + and sense that of fate and necessity belongeth unto them, being now + over with your son, maketh me chuse rather with grief to let you + know from the certain truth, than uncertainties from others. Which + is, viz. that had not his extraordinary valour and forwardness + (which with constant vigour of mind, being in the hands of death, + his last breath expressed in these words, _Lord have mercy upon me + and prosper your enterprise_) led them all on, when some began to + pause and recoil shamefully, this action had neither been attempted + as it was, nor performed as it is, with this surviving honour.... + We have the governor's servant prisoner that waited on him in his + bedchamber and knows all things that concerned his master. We find + there are four refiners' houses in the town; the best houses in the + town. I have not seen one piece of coin or bullion, neither gold or + silver; a small deal of plate only excepted. + + "Captain Whitney and Wollaston are but now come to us and now I + purpose (God willing) without delay to visit the mine, which is not + eight miles from the town. Sooner I could not go by reason of the + murmurings, the discords and vexations, wherewith the sergeant major + is perpetually tormented and tired, having no man to assist him but + myself only. Things are now in some reasonable order, and so soon as + I have made trial of the mine I will seek to come to Your Lordship + by way of the river Macario.... I have sent Your Lordship a parcel + of scattered papers (I reserve a cart-load), one roll of tobacco, + one tortoise, and some oranges and lemons. Praying God to give you + strength and health of body and a mind armed against all + extremities, I rest ever to be commanded this 8th day of January + 1617-1618. + + "Your Lordship's + "KEYMIS" + +His son was dead. His men were unruly and murmuring ... but yet the four +refiners' houses, and they were the best houses. Keymis had the +governor's servant in his hands, Keymis was within eight miles of the +mine: gallant was the death his son had died.... (Would God he were +there in person within eight miles of the mine!) He turned to Peter +Andrews and the Indian pilot and began to question them eagerly. From +them he learned the details of the expedition, since their start on the +10th of December. They came in sight of Point Araya on New Year's Day, +and soldiers were landed before sunset. Ralegh frowned to hear that the +Spaniards at the newly raised village--San Thome they called it,--were +in readiness, and that an ambuscade had been prepared. Palomeque de +Acuna had been forewarned by despatch from Madrid--Ah! the accursed +delay and the still more accursed disloyalty of his King--Ralegh learned +of the treachery and the disaster--slowly, for his heart and mind were +heavy at the bad news of his son's death, and Peter Andrews was often +interrupted in his confused story by the impatience of his admiral. But +this is the gist of what had happened. + +The Englishmen had encamped by the river bank. As soon as night fell on +the land, Geronimo de Grados led his men from their ambuscade in front +of the village down upon the English, who were taken completely at +unawares. The common sort were panic-stricken, and had not the captains +and some valiant gentlemen, among whom was one John Hampden (a staunch +admirer of Ralegh and famous in history), set a valiant example, the +whole company would have been cut to pieces. As it was, the Spaniards +were at last driven back. They were driven right back to the village of +St. Thomas, the position of which was not known. There the retreating +men of Geronimo de Grados were joined by a fresh force under Diego +Palomeque, the governor, and then the English were checked in their +pursuit. They began to waver. But young Walter Ralegh cried out +cheerily to the pikemen, who were ahead of the musketeers, to advance +after him, and waving his sword he led them to the fight afresh. +Straight for Palomeque, the governor, he dashed and slew him. A hand to +hand jabbing fight ensued, and muskets were fired at very close +quarters. Young Ralegh was wounded. He paid no heed to his wound; with +blood streaming from his wound he advanced against a Spaniard named +Erinetta. But his quickness had lessened, as his strength ebbed from +him. Erinetta swung his musket and the stock crashed on young Ralegh's +skull: but Erinetta could not recover himself and he was immediately +beaten to the ground. The Spaniards began to give way again. They fled. +They fled for refuge to a monastery of St. Francis; the soldiers under +George Ralegh and Keymis stormed the monastery and drove the Spaniards +into the woods, and finally for refuge into their last stronghold where +the women and children had been taken from St. Thomas. The battle was at +an end. But the new governor, Garcia de Aguilar, was a man of resource. +He gave orders that the survivors should form themselves into small +bands, should harass the English whenever an opportunity offered, and +fall upon all stragglers. While the funeral ceremony was being conducted +over the body of young Walter, Captains Whitney and Wollaston arrived, +and Peter Andrews and the Indian pilot were sent back, bearing their +tidings to the main body at Terra de Bri. + +That was all Ralegh could learn. That his son was dead; that the +Spaniards were forewarned and keenly hostile; that his men were shaken. + +The suspense became well-nigh intolerable for him as he settled to +endure the second long period of inaction--of waiting whilst with +others lay the excitement of finishing for good or ill the scheme of his +life's imagining. His son was dead. He could not bring himself to write +the bitter news to his wife. He himself, an old man, still lived--and +waited on the threshold of discovery. Keymis, however, was a trusted +man, and nothing would hinder George Ralegh from his purpose. Keymis +wrote that he was within some few hours of the mine. Perhaps even now +Keymis was on his way back again, his ships laden with gold--and if gold +were once found, there would be little difficulty in founding the colony +which would become England's great empire across the seas. No old man +could live to see that, but his son might ... if his son were not +already dead. He would wait to tell the bad news to his wife until he +had some good news--the news of prosperity--that she might know his +other son, Carew, though not of young Walter's mettle, would be able to +continue his father's tradition. + +Still he waited--day after day, week after week, month after month, but +no fresh news came from Keymis, and no signs were anywhere apparent of a +Spanish fleet. He went on with his botanical studies as much as his +enfeebled strength would allow him. He studied the little plants that +renew their life each year. + + Bow down and worship; more than we + Is the least flower whose life returns + Least weed renascent in the sea. + +For Ralegh was a poet and so lost his personal sense of loss in the +great mystery of things, which his personal griefs made more vivid to +his mind. He was a poet and saw much that he could not express. The idea +of Death fascinated him always. Death had slain the young Prince, the +hope of the nation; his friend, who would have helped him in his +project; had left untouched the father, King James, who had betrayed +him. And now Death had taken his son, who had only lived twenty-three +years, and left him an old man--once again waiting, as he waited those +long years in the Tower, waiting whilst others made or marred the +fulfilment of his dream. Why was he thus often doomed to inactivity? + +Still he waited.... At twenty-three, the age at which his son met death +in a Spanish ambuscade on the eve of a great discovery, with a shining +future before him, he himself was fighting in Ireland, an obscure +soldier of fortune. The days of his past life appeared before him, his +Queen's favour, his Queen's displeasure, the high mark which he had +touched, the low place to which he had sunk, his captivity, his renewal +of hope through the gallant Prince who was dead, his freedom, and this +last tremendous effort to bring greatness to his country, prosperity to +his family; and he was still waiting, while Keymis and George Ralegh +took the last great step. He would tell his wife of their son's death +when he could console her with the knowledge of what he had himself +achieved. But no news came from Keymis. He could trust Keymis. He knew +the man well and cared for him. All through his captivity who had served +him as faithfully as Keymis? Who had believed in him so staunchly as +Keymis? Who had helped him even so well? Perhaps Keymis and all his men +were slain, or lost, or drowned. + +Just before the middle of March Keymis returned. There was gladness on +his face to see his master alive, but the gladness did not continue. He +brought bad news. The faces of his men showed anger and discontent. +Keymis brought the worst news that any man could have brought to Ralegh +after his long days of waiting. The scheme had failed, failed beyond all +hope of recovery, and there was nothing to show for all the lives that +had been thrown away, all the dangers and difficulties that had been +surmounted. + +For this is what had happened. + +After the reinforcement of Captains Whitney and Wollaston, Captain +Keymis took two boats further up the Orinoco in search of the mine, +leaving the remainder of the company near St. Thomas. Their destination +was Seiba, a village on the banks of the river within a two hours' march +of the mine. The party made their way without mishap to the creek by the +landing-place. But there, too, the Spaniards were in readiness. As the +first boat neared the shore, a volley was fired, and nearly all the men +in the boat were hit. His force thus enfeebled, Captain Keymis decided +to return to St. Thomas for fresh soldiers. He found the company at St. +Thomas harassed by sickness and continual attacks of the Spaniards; but +they still had spirit enough to make one further effort. This time +George Ralegh with three boats made his way right up the Orinoco to +inspect the country from the point of view of colonization. He, too, was +struck by its richness and beauty. He returned and found the company +still more weakened by sickness and assault. The Spaniards made an +attempt to burn the English camp. This so infuriated the men that they +set upon St. Thomas and razed it to the ground. Captain Keymis +discovered from the Indians that in the neighbourhood of St. Thomas also +there were rich mines, which lack of labour alone prevented the +Spaniards from working; but no other attempt was made to locate them or +to test their richness. Then the whole expedition returned. The one +actual sign of their toils which they brought, were papers taken from +the governor at the sack of St. Thomas, and these papers were documents +from Madrid, proving how falsely King James had dealt with Ralegh. + +Such was the report which Keymis gave to Ralegh. Ralegh was silent as he +listened to the account of the overthrow of all his hopes. When the sad +tale was finished, he asked Keymis why he had not obeyed his +instructions, why he had not opened the mine and brought back some +visible sign of its existence. Keymis gave his reasons at full length. +There were not enough men to hold the mine; young Ralegh was dead; his +master was ill, dying, nay, for all Keymis knew, he was dead. Why should +the mine be opened that others might reap the benefit? But still Ralegh +insisted, unwavering in dreadful firmness, on his question, Why had not +instructions been obeyed? There were many interviews; there were long +discussions that day and the next. Still Ralegh answered, "You should +have obeyed instructions." "When I was resolved to write unto your +Honour (wrote Ralegh to Sir Ralph Winwood, not knowing that his friend, +the Secretary of State, had been dead for five months) he prayed me to +joyne with him in excusing his not going to the mine. I answered him, I +would not doe it; that if himself could satisfy the King and the State +that he had reason not to open it, I should be glad of it; but for my +part, I must avow it that he knew it and that he might with little losse +have done it; other excuse I would not frame." + +The position was a terrible one. Ralegh had been waiting for months, +trusting to the loyalty of Keymis to execute his great enterprise; and +it was Keymis's very loyalty to Ralegh which was the real cause of his +failure; for he would not open the mine unless he was quite sure that +his master alone should benefit. Keymis was wrong. But he could not bear +Ralegh to think that his conduct had been remiss; he could not bear to +think that he had injured the master for whom he would gladly have given +his life. Nor could he make Ralegh understand even the reason of his +action. "I know then, sir, what course to take," said Keymis, when he +found he could not move Ralegh from his attitude of censure, and he went +away "out of my cabin into his own, in which he was no sooner entered, +but I heard a pistol go off. I sent up to know who had shot a pistol. +Keymis himself made answer, lying on his bed, that he had shot it off +because it had long been charged, with which I was satisfied. Some +half-hour after this, the boy going into his cabin found him dead, +having a long knife thrust under his left pap through his heart, and his +pistol lying by him, with which it appeared that he had shot himself, +but the bullet lighting upon a rib, had but broken the rib, and went no +farther." + +Such was the end of Ralegh's long period of waiting. The tragedy is +great and real. He had trusted to Captain Keymis implicitly; and Keymis, +through excess of loyalty, had failed him. The only fault in either is +that each was a little too true to his own character. Keymis's death +shook Ralegh to the depths of his nature. Now more than ever he had need +of men staunch as the dead Keymis. + +For mutiny broke out among the men. Captains Whitney and Wollaston +deserted. The men declared that they had joined the expedition merely to +loot the Spaniards and plunder they would have. The mine had failed. +Well, they would turn pirates and attack the Spanish fleet on its way +home. They threatened to throw Ralegh into the sea if he persisted in +his resolution to return. He quieted them as much as lay in his power; +but at last his great power was shaken and enfeebled, by imprisonment, +by long sickness, by age, by the King's treachery, by disaster on +disaster. He had still sufficient power to keep to his resolution and to +force his men to some semblance of obedience, but in the old days no +mutiny would have happened. Sulkily the men set sail for home, and +Ralegh knew from the letters which Keymis had brought him from St. +Thomas, that he was returning to disgrace and death. + +From St. Christopher's, on this sad journey back, he forced himself to +tell his wife the bad news of their son's death. He had no comfort for +her. He was inured to grief. "God knows I never knewe what sorrow meant +till now," he writes. "My braines are broken, and it is a torment for me +to write, and especially of misery." And in a postscript, "I protest +before the Majesty of God that as Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins +died hart broken when they failed of their enterprize, I could willingly +doe the like did I not contend against sorrow for your sake in hope to +provide somewhat for you, and to comfort and relieve you." + +The remainder of the voyage back was as disastrous as had been the +outward voyage. Storms broke upon the ships and separated them. Some put +in at Ireland; Captain Pennington, who had ridden back at the last +moment to obtain money for supplies from Lady Ralegh, put in at Kinsale, +and his ship was immediately seized. The _Destiny_ arrived at Plymouth +on June 21 alone; and at Plymouth Ralegh met his wife, and there he +stayed until the second week of July. + +In his last great enterprize he had failed, and he returned to give an +account of his failure, and to face the ignominy which his failure +entailed. He was resolved, however, to make one last effort to clear his +name, and to reinstate his family in some semblance of prosperity. He +was an old man now, and one who had been buffeted by misfortune, but the +spirit of life was still strong in him. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +DEATH + + His reception--Arrest--Journey from Plymouth--Stukeley and + Manourie--The final scene. + + +Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, had been active during Ralegh's +absence to work his complete overthrow, but Ralegh remained some weeks +at Plymouth before he knew the exact nature of the reception which +awaited him. + +Masterly was the way in which Gondomar handled James. He was about to +start for Madrid on leave, when the news arrived from the townspeople of +St. Thomas of the English attack. "Exaggerate as much as you can +Ralegh's guilt and try to get the King to make a great demonstration," +wrote Philip from Madrid. "Do not," he went on, "threaten him; but make +him understand that I am offended, and that if a proper remedy be not +forthcoming at once, we shall make reprisals and seize English property +in Spain." Gondomar set about his task forthwith. He rushed into the +royal presence crying with uplifted hands, "Pirates! pirates! pirates!" +and urged James to remember his promise, that Ralegh should be sent in +chains to Spain to be hanged in the Plaza of Madrid. This was no time +for delay, for judicial examination: Ralegh should be despatched +immediately on his landing, with all his pirate followers. But James +could not, though he would, act thus uncompromisingly. Ralegh was too +considerable a man, and feeling towards him had changed very much since +the time of his first trial when he was hooted through the streets of +London as a traitor. There was a large party in the country who were +averse to James's wish of an alliance by marriage with Spain. For forty +years Spain had tried to humble England, and for forty years England had +more than held her own. And now was the King to be bullied into +sacrificing one of his greatest subjects, unheard, unjudged, at the +bidding of Spain's ambassador? Moreover, James felt that he was losing +the popularity which he had won at the beginning of his reign. His +favourites were disliked. The personal influence of Gondomar over him +was disliked. So James temporised--in his habitual way he temporized--so +that he might, like the weak man he was, enjoy the sense of power which +he felt as he slowly tightened the rope round Ralegh. "James wants peace +and must be frightened," wrote Gondomar. "The English have changed their +tone since I came and I have shown them that I will stand no nonsense." +And his boast was amply justified. + +Sir Lewis Stukeley was sent to Plymouth to arrest Ralegh and take +possession of his ship and cargo. Ralegh had already started from +Plymouth with his wife and Captain King when he met Stukeley, near the +old stannary town of Ashburton on the edge of Dartmoor, twenty miles on +his way to London. Stukeley made him return with him to Plymouth: for +Stukeley was anxious to make as much as possible for himself out of +Ralegh's cargo on board the _Destiny_, for he was vice-admiral of Devon. + +Sir Lewis Stukeley was a Devon man and kinsman of Ralegh, for he was +nephew to the valiant Sir Richard Grenville. He did not maintain the +traditions of his family or of his county. Ralegh stayed in Plymouth +some ten days at the house of Sir Christopher Harris. He was not yet +aware of the fate that awaited him, for Stukeley had only an order from +the King and no warrant from the Lords of the Council. And Stukeley too +was full of friendliness and soft words, partly to put Ralegh off his +guard and partly because it was easier for him to be agreeable to a man +like Ralegh, whom he could not bully. Lady Ralegh and Captain King were +full of grave fears for Sir Walter. They begged him, valuing his life as +they did, before everything else, to escape to France. They made all +necessary preparations: a barque was in readiness just outside the +harbour. Ralegh, still uncertain as to the best way of conducting the +little business of life that remained to him, listened to their +entreaties and actually went out in a small boat almost to the barque. +But he turned back at the last moment, determined to face every danger +that awaited him in order that he might clear his name in the eyes of +posterity from the slur of false charges that he knew would be made +against him. Exactly how that was to be compassed he did not yet know. +Now, as before, in the troubled periods of his life, a kind of apathy, +of weariness of life, closed in upon him; the apathy that comes from +uncertainty, and which in his case preceded a great and definite action. +His powers were slowly collecting for the last great moment of his life. + +Towards the end of July a messenger arrived from the Privy Council, +bearing an urgent summons to Stukeley to bring Ralegh to their presence +without a moment's delay. "We command you," the message ran, "upon your +allegiance, that you do safely and speedily bring hither the person of +Sir Walter Ralegh, to answer before us such matters as shall be objected +against him in His Majesty's behalf." + +The message was sent on July 21, and arrived four days later. On the +same day, July 25, Ralegh began his journey from Plymouth to London, as +Stukeley's prisoner. + +Slowly in Ralegh's mind a plan of action matured. He knew that in London +he had with the King's enmity little hope of life. It remained for him +to clear his name of slander; his own life was now of small consequence +to him: he was considering how best to leave a fair name and some means +of decent living for his family. He saw that time was an essential to +him. He must take care not to be hurried to London, hurried before the +Council, and hurried to the scaffold before men were properly aware of +his presence, and aware of the importance of the event. He must contrive +to die greatly, as acquittal was beyond man's power. He knew that he was +innocent, he knew that James desired his death, and that innocence was +of small account when pitted against a King's wish. He lived long enough +not only to see but to experience the bad consequences which he had +foreseen of absolute monarchy under a weak King. Civil war fell on +England, and the rule of the Puritans before the policy which he had +thought out when Elizabeth was an old woman, became established. He +brooded long over many things on that sad journey from Plymouth--over +the roads which he knew so well. All the country-side was dear to him. +He had done with it all now. + +He passed Sherborne, where he had lived and been happy; he spent the +night quite close to Sherborne at the house of his acquaintance Parham. +It was a melancholy home-coming. What now remained of his great hopes +and his great doings? In the eyes of the world he had failed. But he +must open the world's eyes to see his failure in its proper light. + +At Salisbury, where they arrived the following day, his plan matured. It +would not do to come nearer London and his judges unprepared and +dreaming of his past life. Something still remained to be done. He must +gain time. He must be expected too, that all might be ready to hear what +he had to say. His device was brave and was pathetic. He determined to +feign illness. + +Now, at Plymouth he had met a man named Manourie, a Frenchman who was +interested in chemistry. In Manourie Ralegh had the faith which a man is +inclined to have in a fellow-craftsman on other matters than his craft. +His confidence was unwise. Thinking over great matters, he was not +sufficiently alert and not sufficiently distrustful. Nor is it certain +that Manourie was false from the beginning. It is probable that he came +to realize how dangerous a business he had undertaken, and, becoming +alarmed, fell an easy prey to Stukeley's promises and suggestions. + +Within sight of Salisbury Ralegh asked Manourie for a vomit. "It will be +good," he said, "to evacuate bad humours. And by its means I shall gain +time to work my friends and order my affairs; perhaps even to pacify His +Majesty. Otherwise, as soon as ever I come to London, they will have me +to the Tower, and cut off my head. I cannot escape it without +counterfeiting sickness." + +They arrived in Salisbury a few days before King James and the Court +were expected. Ralegh strung himself to his pathetic part, and played it +so bravely that Stukeley and the whole retinue were convinced that a +deadly sickness was approaching. On entering the house where he was to +be lodged in Salisbury he staggered, as a man staggers who is overcome +by sudden sickness, and fell against a pillar in the doorway, bruising +his head. A delay was ordered. Lady Ralegh, with her retinue of servants +and Captain King, was sent on towards London. Hardly had they started +when a servant came to Stukeley's room, and said he, "My master is out +of his wits. I have just found him in his shirt, upon all fours, gnawing +at the rushes on the floor." Stukeley was amazed and perplexed. King +James and the Court were daily expected at Salisbury, and his special +instructions to hurry on the prisoner could only mean that the King was +anxious not to be in Salisbury at the same time as Ralegh. And yet the +prisoner must not be allowed to die. Moreover, pustules broke out all +over Ralegh's body, and Stukeley could not have then known that they +were produced by a cunning ointment which Manourie had given to Ralegh. +Stukeley went to Bishop Andrewes, the bishop sent physicians to Ralegh, +and they signed a certificate to say that he was not in a fit state of +health to travel further. Ralegh's point was gained. He set to work and +wrote his "Apology for the Voyage to Guiana," in which he stated his +good case to the world. + +It has been remarked, almost with astonishment, by some that Ralegh was +not in the least ashamed of his action. But there was no reason why he +should be ashamed. He decided in his own mind that to gain time was a +necessity to him, and having done so he set about the business in the +only way that he could, and he succeeded. Afterwards he was reproached +for the lack of dignity he showed, and answered, "I hope it was no sin. +The prophet David did make himself a fool, and suffered spittle to fall +upon his beard, that he might escape the hands of his enemies; and to +him it was not imputed as a sin." Men like Ralegh have different values +from the values of ordinary men; in that, perhaps, chiefly lies their +greatness. Dignity is a thing which can very well be left to look after +itself; the dignity which needs any careful bolstering is not in itself +of great value. + +Meanwhile King James and his Court arrived at Salisbury, and orders were +immediately issued that Ralegh should continue his journey to London. It +was probably about this time that Manourie learned the full importance +of the fellow-chemist whom he was assisting, and became afraid. +Hereafter Stukeley was informed of all the things which Ralegh said and +did, and of many things doubtless which he had never said and never +done. + +So Ralegh continued his journey with his two false friends. As they +neared London, the French resident in London, by name Le Clerc, and +David de Novion, Sieur de la Chesnaye, met the party. De Novion was +awaiting Ralegh's arrival at Brentford. He was empowered by the French +minister to offer Ralegh means of escape to France. Men in authority at +the French Court considered that such an enemy of Spain, whose head the +Spanish ambassador desired to fall as a tribute to Spain's power over +James, would be a useful man to save. But Ralegh appears to have +listened with no great eagerness to their proposals. He was no longer +anxious to continue his life in a strange country under a strange king, +to whom he was indebted. He needed all his strength for the last +achievement on which his heart was set--to clear his name from slanders, +and he was not sure that escape was the best means to his end; though +he listened later to the entreaties of his wife and Captain King, to +whom his very life was dear. But Ralegh must have listened with some +pleasure: the anxiety shown on his account, for whatever reason, must +have made it clear to him that now, at any rate, he could not be huddled +away to the Tower and to his death, unheard, as he had feared. He +desired publicity, that he might die, as he had lived--greatly. + +On August 7 Ralegh reached London, and, instead of going to the Tower, +was allowed to go to his own house, which was in Broad Street. Captain +King was waiting for him. He had arrived some days previously, and had +wasted no time. A barque was in readiness at Tilbury to take his master +to France. Had Ralegh's whole mind been centred on escape, there is no +doubt that he could have escaped, in spite of Stukeley's treachery. But +his mind was divided. His own desire was to stay in England, and meet +whatever his fate might be; but his desire was, no doubt, obscured by +his wife's entreaties that he should seize any opportunity of life under +any conditions. He allowed himself to be rowed down the Thames. Stukeley +was actually with him, vowing that he wished his escape. A boat, +however, was seen to be in pursuit. The men at the oars grew suspicious; +they slackened their rowing, and at length turned back. At Greenwich +Stukeley declared himself, and arrested Captain King and his master. +Ralegh turned to Stukeley and said quietly, "Sir Lewis, these actions +will not turn out to your credit," and to Captain King, from whom he +took leave at the Tower gates, "You need be in fear of no danger. It is +I only that am the mark shot at." + +[Illustration: TRAITOR'S GATE] + +Once again Ralegh was in the Tower--the day he entered it was August +10. Manourie received L20 for his part of the treachery, Sir Lewis +Stukeley L965 _6s._ _3d._; the money was made up, for the most part, of +the price of jewels which were taken from Sir Walter's person on this +day of his last entry to the Tower. Among these jewels was the ring he +had always worn since it was put on his finger by Queen Elizabeth. + +The attempt to escape had been encouraged by enemies who wished to +strengthen the case against Ralegh. That was clear enough to him, even +before he was brought face to face with the Lords of the Council at his +trial. They strove again, as they had striven before, to win the King's +favour by maligning him. They affirmed that the whole enterprise to +Guiana was a fraud, which Ralegh had invented to gain his freedom. For +two months they considered the most plausible means of bringing him to +execution. During that time Ralegh wrote letters to those in authority, +and especially a noteworthy letter to the King, thinking that there +might remain some spark of just feeling in him. + + "If it were lawfull," he wrote, "if it were lawfull for the + Spanish to murther 26 Englishmen, tyenge them back to backe and + then to cutt theire throtes, when they had traded with them a + whole moneth, and came to them on the land without so much as + one sword amongst them all; and that it may not be lawfull for + your Majesties subjects, being forced by them, to repel force + by force, we may justly say, 'O miserable English!' + + "If Parker and Mutton took Campeach and other places in the + Honduraes seated in the hart of the Spanish Indies; burnt + townes, killed the Spaniards; and had nothing sayed to them at + their returne--and that my selfe forbore to looke into the + Indies, because I would not offend, I may as justly say, 'O + miserable Sir Walter Ralegh!' + + "If I had spent my poore estate, lost my sonne, suffred by + sicknes and otherwise, a world of miseries; if I had resisted + with the manifest hazard of my life the rebells and spoiles + which my companyes would have made; if when I was poore I could + have made my selfe rich; if when I had gotten my libertye which + all men and Nature it selfe doth so much prise, I voluntarily + lost it; if when I was master of my life, I rendred it again; + if [though] I might elsewhere have sould my shipp and goods and + put five or six thousand pounds in my purse, I have brought her + into England; I beseech your Majestie to beleeve that all this + I have done because it should not be sayed to your Majestie + that your Majestie had given libertie and trust to a man whose + ende was but the recovery of his libertie, and whoe had + betrayed your Majesties trust." + +It was to no purpose. Ralegh well knew by this time of what base fabric +was the King's mind. The Lords in Council only delayed sentence because +they could not determine on what grounds to execute their prisoner. At +last, on October 24, Ralegh was told that sentence of death had been +passed upon him. On October 28 he was summoned to Westminster, from his +room in the Tower. A sharp attack of ague lessened the strength that +still remained to him. He was old now and white haired as he stood +before his judges. The Attorney-General read the writ against him and +said: "My Lords, Sir Walter Ralegh, the prisoner at the bar, was fifteen +years since convicted of high treason, by him committed against the +person of His Majesty and the state of this kingdom, and then received +the judgment of death, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. His Majesty +of his abundant grace hath been pleased to shew mercy upon him till now, +that justice calls upon him for execution. Sir Walter Ralegh hath been +a statesman, and a man who in regard of his parts and quality is to be +pitied. He hath been as a star at which the world hath gazed; but stars +may fall, nay, they must fall when they trouble the sphere wherein they +abide. It is, therefore, His Majesty's pleasure now to call for +execution of the former judgment, and I now require order for the same." + +Ralegh listened to this pompous mockery and said, when asked what he +could say for himself why execution should not be awarded against him, +"My Lords, my voice is grown weak by reason of my late sickness, and an +ague which I now have; for I was now brought hither out of it." And the +Lord Chief Justice answered: "Sir Walter, your voice is audible enough." + +Indeed, there was little to be said by Ralegh, or any man, against a +charge thus raked up from the past. The affair of this trial was a mere +form, and Ralegh reserved his strength for his last great avowal at the +supreme moment of his life. + +He was taken away to the Gatehouse prison. Immediately the carpenters +set to work to erect the scaffold. His execution was fixed for an early +hour on the following morning. For on that day men's attention would be +turned from the happenings at Westminster; and towards the City where +the Lord Mayor's show would take place. Men's attention was not desired +for the morrow's deed at Westminster. + + * * * * * + +Ralegh was a poet. A man cannot be a poet in his spare time. There is a +realm which Beauty rules--that Beauty which Castiglione celebrated, and +the understanding of which he made the last and chief attribute of his +Courtier, with that realm Ralegh was in communion. From it he drew +strength for his life. Such communion does unfit a man for the business +of life, but gives him power to cope with its difficulties by enabling +him to look a little beyond them. It raises him above the pettiness of +things, and makes him see more clearly because he sees things at their +proper value and in their right proportion. This perception--this +sensitiveness--made him suffer more acutely, but endowed him with the +power of detachment, the power to rise above his personal griefs. + +Ralegh was a poet. He expressed himself in his life in a way strangely +akin to that in which he expressed himself in his actual poetry. He +resembles some knight in a Morris romance in his adoration for his +Queen, and in his love for his wife. + + But true love is a durable fire, + In the mind ever burning, + Never sick, never old, never dead, + From itself never turning. + +That spirit informed his life, and is linked with his every achievement. +"Schoenheit geniessen heiss die Welt verstehn." And one of the most +memorable facts of the Russo-Japanese war was that the invincible +Admiral Togo wrote home asking for plum trees in flower to be sent to +him; he needed the strength which he drew from looking at their beauty. +Castiglione was right. This perception of beauty is the last quality of +the perfect courtier; from that alone can strength be gathered and +stored for this strange struggle of life. + +And now Ralegh had reached the last day of his life. Early next morning +he was destined to solve the mighty problem with which poets and +philosophers have always wrestled in vain--the problem which is the +mightiest in life, which lends life colour and poignancy--the problem +of death. The excitement of knowing that in a few hours he would be +taken into that great mystery must have been overpowering. He no longer +needed consolation: fear was lost in eagerness to know. And a sense of +relief came to him that he would be driven no longer to fight on in the +long battle of life with the fierce energy that mastered him. He had +sufficient experience to be a little weary of life; he had sufficient +vitality to welcome death. He knew that he saw the sun set for the last +time; that for the last time he saw the approach of night, the familiar +faces of men, and all the surroundings of man's life. His consciousness +was coming to an end. "Do not carry it with too much bravery," said his +kinsman, Francis Thynne. "It is my last mirth in this world," answered +Ralegh. "Do not grudge it to me." + +For the last time? Yet who can tell? What is man's knowledge when +confronted by the portentous fact of death? + +Once more Ralegh was about to journey into the unknown, and his spirit +thrilled with excitement at this his last and most adventurous journey. +Dr. Tounson, the worthy Dean of Westminster, came to visit him in the +little room which was allotted to him in the Gatehouse prison. "When I +began to encourage him against the fear of death he seemed to make so +light of it that I wondered at him." + +His body was weak; his spirit was strong. Sorrow he was leaving behind +him. And until the clock struck the hour of midnight he who was to meet +death in the morning of that very day sympathized and strengthened his +wife, who had many days more through which she must live. + +At midnight Lady Ralegh left him, and for the last time he began to set +his affairs in order. He knew now how he could clear his name before the +world. His spirit was so alive that he never doubted his power to die as +he had lived--splendidly. He determined what he would say in the +morning--quietly, resolutely--and having done so, still there was some +time at his disposal. He opened the Bible that lay on the table and upon +the first blank page he wrote-- + + Even such is time! who takes in trust + Our youth, our joys, and all we have, + And pays us but with earth and dust; + Who in the dark and silent grave, + When we have wandered all our ways, + Shuts up the story of our days. + But from that earth, that grave and dust + The Lord shall raise me up, I trust. + +And now the time had come for him to face the high ordeal of public +death, which was to be the last triumph of his great spirit. A goblet of +sack was brought him and he made his way to the scaffold. A crowd was +already assembled--waiting. + +Ralegh walked to the scaffold with head erect, complete master of the +terrible situation. He noticed an old man standing in the front of the +crowd with uncovered head, and taking off the covering he wore under his +hat, he gave it to the old man, saying, "You need this, my friend, more +than I do." The crowd pressed upon Ralegh and the struggle to reach the +scaffold made his body, still weak from the ague, breathless. It is in +accordance with the irony of things that even this last path was not +clear for him. At last he stood upon the scaffold, erect and smiling. +The crowd listened for his death speech. The chief men in England were +there to hear his last words and to witness his death. Ralegh began to +speak. He said-- + +"I have had fits of ague for these two days. If therefore you perceive +any weakness in me, ascribe it to my sickness rather than to myself. I +am infinitely bound to God that He hath vouchsafed me to die in the +sight of so noble an assembly, and not in darkness, in that Tower where +I have suffered so much adversity and a long sickness. I thank God that +my fever hath not taken me at this time, as I prayed to God it might +not." + +His voice grew weak. He feared that the nobles who were in the balconies +would not hear him. So he asked them to come upon the scaffold. They +consented and came. Each shook Ralegh's hand, as he thanked them for +this last courtesy. + +He continued his speech amidst the silence of the crowd. He defended +himself against the charges of complicity with France, of disloyalty to +the King, and then he said-- + +"For my going to Guiana many thought I never intended it, but intended +only to gain my liberty,--which I would I had been so wise as to have +kept. But as I shall answer it before the same God before whom I am +shortly to appear, I endeavoured, and I hoped to have enriched the King, +myself, and my partners. But I was undone by Keymis, a wilful fellow, +who seeing my son slain and myself unpardoned, would not open the mine, +and killed himself. + +"It was also told the King that I was brought by force into England, and +that I did not intend to come back again. I protest that when the voyage +succeeded not, and that I resolved to come home, my company mutinied +against me. They fortified the gun-room against me, and kept me within +my own cabin; and would not be satisfied except I would take a corporal +oath not to bring them into England until I had gotten the pardons of +four of them,--there being four men unpardoned. So I took that oath. And +we came into Ireland, where they would have landed in the north parts. +But I would not, because there the inhabitants were all Redshanks. So we +came to the south, hoping from thence to write to his Majesty for their +pardons. In the meantime I offered to places in Devon and Cornwall, to +lie safe till they had been pardoned." + +Ralegh now turned towards Lord Arundel, who was standing on the +scaffold. "I am glad that my Lord of Arundel is here. For when I went +down to my ship, his Lordship and divers others were with me. At the +parting salutation, his Lordship took me aside and desired me freely and +faithfully to resolve him in one request, which was, 'Whether I made a +good voyage or a bad, yet I should return again into England.' I made +you a promise and gave you my faith that I would." + +Lord Arundel said in a loud voice, "And so you did. It is true that they +were the last words I spake unto you." + +And Ralegh went on: "Other reports are raised of me, touching that +voyage which I value not.... I will yet borrow a little time of Master +Sheriff to speak of one thing more. It doth make my heart bleed to hear +such an imputation laid upon me. It was said that I was a persecutor of +my Lord of Essex, and that I stood in a window over against him when he +suffered, and puffed out tobacco in disdain of him. I take God to +witness that my eyes shed tears for him when he died. And as I hope to +look in the face of God hereafter, my Lord of Essex did not see my face +when he suffered. I was afar off, in the Armoury, where I saw him but he +saw not me. And my soul hath been many times grieved that I was not near +unto him when he died, because I understood that he asked for me, at his +death, to be reconciled to me. I confess I was of a contrary faction. +But I knew that my Lord of Essex was a noble gentleman, and that it +would be worse with me when he was gone. For those that set me up +against him did afterwards set themselves against me." + +Ralegh knelt in prayer, asking the assembled crowd to pray with him. He +rose and the executioner knelt before him to ask his forgiveness. Ralegh +put his hand on the masked figure's two shoulders and said that he +forgave him with all his heart. "Show me the axe," he cried, "show me +the axe." Then he felt the edge with his thumb and approved of its +sharpness. "This gives me no fear. It is a sharp and fair medicine to +cure me of all my diseases." And presently, "When I stretch forth my +hands despatch me." He turned to all the people and said in a loud +voice, "Give me heartily your prayers." + +His velvet cloak was taken off. He knelt in prayer. He laid his neck +upon the block and stretched out his hands. But the masked figure in +black, the executioner, was unmanned by the scene. He could not raise +the axe. Again Ralegh stretched out his hands. The man remained +motionless. Then Ralegh cried out, "What dost thou fear? Strike, man, +strike!" It was necessary for him to give the man courage to kill him. +At last the axe was lifted, and with two swift blows his neck was +severed. + +So lived Sir Walter Ralegh, and so he died. + +"O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast +persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world +hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised: thou +hast drawne together all the farre stretched greatnesse, all the pride, +crueltie, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two +narrow words--_Hic jacet_." + + + + +INDEX + + +A + + Abington, Edward, 64 + + Agouhanna, 4 + + Albert, Archduke of Austria, 206 + + Alley, Captain, 273 + + Aloblaster, Mr., 242 + + Amadas, Philip, 79, 82, 84 + + Anderson, Lord Chief Justice, 205 + + Andrewes, Bishop, 292 + + Andrews, Peter, 276, 278, 279 + + Anjou, Duc d', 61 + + Arenbergh, Count, 187, 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 211, 222 + + Armada, 97, 99, 100, 102, 104, 148 + + Arundel, Lord, 63, 302 + + Ascham, Roger, 11, 13, 55, 56 + + Ashton, Roger, 228 + + Aubrey, 25, 26, 29, 129, 197, 256, 257 + + Azores, 77, 161, 268 + + +B + + Babington, Antony, 63, 64, 65, 66, 73 + + Bacon, Francis, Baron of Verulam, 14, 50, 67, 100, 125, 168 + + Bailey, Captain, 270 + + Ballard, John, 63, 64 + + Balzac, H. de, 72 + + Bancroft, Bishop, 200 + + Barlow, Arthur, 79, 82, 84 + + Barnefield, 52 + + Barnwell, Robert, 64 + + Barry, Lord, 36 + + Bath, Earl of, 90 + + Beale, Bishop, 68, 69 + + Beauchamp, Lord, 192 + + Beaumont, Francis, 238 + + Bedford, Francis Earl of, 65 + + Berreo, 130, 131, 132, 133, 143 + + Bingham, Admiral, 37 + + Biron, Duc de, 175, 176 + + Blount, Charles, 116 + + Blount, Sir Christopher, 172 + + Boyle, Richard, Earl of Cork, 94 + + Bradshaw, Captain, 269 + + Bristol, 4 + + Brooke, George, 199, 200, 201, 202, 206, 207, 217, 218, 234 + + Brown, Richard, 65 + + Brownists, 116 + + Buckhurst, Lord Treasurer, 89, 197 + + Budaeus, 76 + + Budleigh Salterton, 2, 6, 107 + + Burghley. _See_ CECIL, WILLIAM + + Burr, 250 + + Burrough, Sir John, 122, 123 + + Burton, 62 + + +C + + Cadiz, 150, 152, 157, 158, 161, 169, 205, 227 + + Calfield, Captain, 131, 134, 135, 138, 140, 146 + + Camden, 19, 38 + + Campian, 219 + + Carew, George, 162 + + Carew, Sir Nicholas, 198 + + Carew, Peter, 7 + + Carey, Sir Robert, 66, 189, 191, 193, 194 + + Carleton, Sir Dudley, 227, 228, 234 + + Caroli, Falls of, 144, 145 + + Carr, Robert, 237, 246, 253 + + Carthier, Jacques, 3 + + Castiglione, 13, 44, 52, 297, 298 + + Cecil, Lady, 158 + + Cecil, Sir Robert, Earl of Salisbury, 50, 55, 89, 93, 96, 117, 123, + 124, 125, 151, 152, 158, 160, 167, 168, 169, 170, 172, 173, 174, + 176, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 190, + 191, 192, 193, 197, 198, 200, 202, 203, 204, 205, 211, 214, 218, + 220, 223, 227, 228, 229, 230, 233, 240, 241 + + Cecil, William (son of Sir Robert), 170, 174, 175 + + Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, 27, 29, 36, 42, 47, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, + 58, 73, 90, 98, 125, 167, 168, 173 + + Chamberlain, John, 228 + + Champernoun, C., 11 + + Champernoun, Gawen, 19 + + Champernoun, Henry, 16, 19 + + Champernoun, John, 16 + + Charles, Archduke, 51 + + Charles, Prince, 270 + + Chartley, 62 + + Chester, Charles, 26 + + Chudleigh, Captain, 274 + + Cieza, Pedro de, 129 + + Clark, Captain, 135 + + Clarke, 217, 234 + + Clyst, St. Mary, 6 + + Cobham, Lord, 169, 173, 174, 176, 183, 184, 185, 187, 188, 199, 200, + 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, + 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 234, + 235, 236 + + Coke, Attorney-General, 205, 208, 209, 210, 211, 214, 217, 218, 219, + 220, 221, 222, 223 + + Columbus, Christopher, 71, 72 + + Comestor, Peter, 108 + + Copley, 199, 208, 217 + + Cortez, 148 + + Coryat, Thomas, 244, 245 + + Cottington, Lord, 259, 270 + + Courtenay, Sir William, 63 + + Cranbourne, Lord, 241, 242 + + Crosby Hall, 175 + + Cross, Sir Robert, 123, 197 + + Crymes, Mr., 89, 96 + + Cumberland, Earl of, 123, 125 + + +D + + Davis, John, 79 + + Defoe, Daniel, 58 + + Dekker, Thomas, 58 + + Desmond, Earl of, 94 + + De Thou, 237 + + Devereux, Robert, Earl of Essex, 66, 106, 107, 114, 115, 116, 150, + 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 158, 160, 161, 163, 165, 167, 168, 170, + 172, 175, 176, 180, 225, 227, 302, 303 + + Devonshire, Earl of, 223 + + Digby, Sir John, 259, 270 + + Dingle, 34 + + Douglas, John, 134, 135 + + Dowe, Ann, 52 + + Drake, Sir Francis, 72, 86, 97, 98, 101, 102, 104, 148, 285 + + Drayton, Michael, 52 + + Dudley, Mr., 154 + + Dudley, Robert, Earl of Leicester, 25, 43, 51, 52, 53, 106, 266 + + Dunn, 64 + + Durham House, 171, 173, 174, 175, 177, 205, 256 + + Dyer, 220 + + +E + + Edward VI., 3 + + Edwards, Edward, 19, 22, 31, 93, 207, 209, 236, 248, 272 + + Elizabeth of Austria, 253 + + Elizabeth, Queen of England, 8, 16, 19, 28, 38, 46-7, 52, 54, 60, + etc., 68, 77, 98-9, 107, 111, 115-6, 118-9, 126, 150, 157, 163, + 168-9, 173, 175, etc., 182, 184, 188-9, 191, etc., 207, 237, 246, + 257, 281, 295 + + Elizabethan Life, 1, 9, 17, 27, 44, 99, 245 + + Erinetta, 279 + + Erskine, Sir Thomas, 197 + + Essex, Earl of. _See_ DEVEREUX, ROBERT + + Euphuism, 58, 59 + + Exeter, 5, 6 + + +F + + Fayal, 163, 167, 169 + + Ferdinando, the pilot, 136, 137, 141 + + Ferne, Sir John, 262 + + Fielding, Henry, 58 + + Fitzmaurice, 33 + + Fitzwilliam, Sir W., 94 + + Fletcher, John, 238 + + Flores, 163 + + Florida, 79 + + Fortescue, Justice, 215 + + Fortescue, Captain, 63 + + Fotheringay Castle, 68 + + Fowler, Sir Thomas, 214 + + Foxe, John, 7 + + France, Anatole, 251 + + Frobisher, Martin, 22, 72, 97, 117, 122 + + Froude, J. A., 35, 99 + + Fuller, Thomas, 48, 249 + + +G + + Garcia de Aguilar, 279 + + Gascoyne, George, 21, etc. + + Gascoyne, Sir John, 24 + + Gatehouse, The, 270, 297, 299 + + Gawdy, Justice, 205 + + Gell, John, 26 + + Gerrard, Sir George, 73 + + Gib, John, 234-5 + + Gifford, George, 134, 138, 140, 146 + + Gifford, Gilbert, 62 + + Gilbert, Adrian, 78-9 + + Gilbert, Sir Humfrey, 22-3, 29-30, 72-3, 75, etc. + + Gilbert, Sir John, 90, 135 + + Gilbert, Otho, 7 + + Godolphin, Sir Francis, 204 + + Gomera, 271 + + Gondomar, Count of, Sarmiento de Agunar, 199, 237, 253, 258, 260, + 269-70, 272, 287-8 + + Gordon, Harry, 146 + + Gorges, Sir A., 161, 164-5 + + Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 171-2 + + Gosse, Edmond, 248 + + Granganamen, 80 + + Gaunt, John, 27 + + Gregory XIII., 63 + + Grenville, John, 135, 147 + + Grenville, Sir Richard, 82-3, 86-7, 90, 121, 155, 289 + + Grey, Lord, 199, 234, etc. + + Grey de Wilton, Lord, 6, 25, 35, etc., 48, 109 + + Guiana, 113, 118, 126, 128-9, 131, 133-4, 137, 141, etc., 146, etc., + 158, 161, 187, 198, 215, 227, 254-5, 258-9, 295, 301 + + Guanipa, Bay of, 129, 134-5 + + Guildford, Lady, 191 + + Guise, Duke of, 18, 20 + + +H + + Hakluyt, 4, 72, 84, 122 + + Hale, Serjeant, 205, 207 + + Hall, Fielding, 81 + + Hampden, John, 278 + + Harrington, James, 256 + + Harris, Sir Christopher, 289 + + Harvey, Gabriel, 15-6, 25, 110 + + Harvey, Sir George, 204 + + Harvey, John, 15 + + Harvey, Richard, 15 + + Hastings, Captain Edward, 262 + + Hawkins, Sir John, 97, 99, 150, 285 + + Hayes, 2, 6 + + Hayes, Edward, 74-5 + + Hayes, Sir James, 235 + + Hayman, Samuel, 107 + + Henry IV. of France, 183, 192 + + Henry, Prince, 243, 251, 253-4, 281 + + History of the World, 20, 42, 102, 130, 149-50, 163, 245, 247, 249, + 251 + + Hochelaga, 3 + + Holinshed, 5, 36 + + Hooker, John, 5, 14, 36 + + Howard, Lord Charles, of Effingham, 99, etc., 121, 150, 152, 153, + 167-8, 190 + + Howard, Lord Henry, 179, etc., 183, 185, 187, 197, 202, 205, 218, + 254 + + Howard, Lord Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, 151, 154, etc., 161, 205, 207 + + Howes, 27 + + Huguenots, 16, 18, 259 + + Hume, Major Martin, 184, 258 + + +I + + Infanta, 179, 259, 270 + + Ireland, 33 + + Irish, 33 + + Islands Voyage, 161, 165 + + +J + + James I., King of England, 7, 68, 168-9, 179, etc., 183, etc., 191, + etc., 203, 209, 228, etc., 235-7, 239, 246, 251-2, 259, 261, 267, + 270, 283, 287-8, 290-3, 295-7, 301-2 + + Jersey, 173-4, 177, 187, 198, 203, 240 + + Jones, 64 + + Jonson, Ben, 52, 111, 244 + + +K + + Kennedy, Elizabeth, 68-9 + + Keymis, Captain, 135, 149, 219, 262, 272, 274, 276, 278, 280-2, 284, + 301 + + Kilcolman Castle, 107-8, 111 + + King, Captain, 134, 288-9, 292, 294 + + Knollys, Sir Francis, 31 + + +L + + Lake, Thomas, 197 + + Lane, Captain Ralph, 82, 84-5 + + Languedoc, Caves of, 20 + + La Renzi, 202, 211 + + Le Clerc, 293 + + Lee, Sydney, 168 + + Leicester, Earl of. _See_ DUDLEY, ROBERT + + Lennox, Duke of, 183, 214 + + Lever, Thomas, 14 + + Lionello, 261 + + London, description of, 26-7, 256 + + Lopez, Francisco, 129 + + Lyly, John, 58-9 + + +M + + Macaulay, Lord, 116 + + Manourie, Dr., 291, 295 + + Mar, Earl of, 183 + + Markham, Sir Griffin, 199, 209, 234-6 + + Marlowe, Christopher, 71-2 + + Mary, Queen of Scots, 60-4, 66-8, 70 + + Masham, Thomas, 158, 161 + + Maupassant, Guy de, 46 + + McCarthy, Florence, 187 + + Medicis, Catherine de, 47 + + Medina Sidonia, Duke of, 100-1 + + Menatonon, King, 85 + + Mendoza, 63 + + Meteren, Van, 57 + + Milton, John, 51 + + Mirabeau, 237 + + Modbury, 16 + + Moncke, Levinus, 242 + + Monson, 165 + + Montagu, Lord, 63 + + Morris, William, 298 + + Mountjoy, Lord, 116 + + Mowbray, Barbara, 68-9 + + Moyle, Henry, 37 + + Munster, 34, 36, 177 + + +N + + Nash, Thomas, 15, 53, 58 + + Naunton, Sir T., 116 + + Nicotiana, 87 + + Norris, or Norreys, Sir John, 21, 104 + + North, Captain, 274 + + Novion, David de, 293 + + +O + + Oldys, William, 21-2 + + Orinoco, 141-2, 145, 258, 282 + + Ormond, Earl of, 36 + + Overbury, 237 + + Oxford, 11, 16 + + Oxford, Earl of, 56 + + +P + + Palomeque d'Acuna, 278-9 + + Parker, Captain, 129, 274 + + Parma, Prince of, 98, 101 + + Paulet, 62, 67 + + Peckham, Sir Thomas, 73 + + Pelham, Lord Justice, 35-6 + + Pennington, John, 261, 285 + + Peyton, Sir John, 203 + + Philip II. of Spain, 8, 97-9, 104, 131, 148, 167, 179 + + Phillips, 62 + + Phillips, Serjeant, 219, 220 + + Pigott, Captain John, 272, 274 + + Pine, Henry, 267 + + Pizzaro, 148 + + Plymouth, 63, 151-2, 162, 262, 285, 289, 290-1 + + Pole, Sir William, 5 + + Pope, Mr., 151 + + Popham, Lord Chief Justice, 205, 207, 210, 216, 218-9, 224 + + Prest, Agnes, 7 + + Preston, Sir Amias, 218 + + +R + + Rakele, 36 + + Ralegh, Carew, 280 + + Ralegh, Lady, 174, 185, 253, 273, 285, 289, 292, 299 + + Ralegh, George, 274, 276, 279, 280-2 + + Ralegh, Sir Walter, _passim_. + + Ralegh, Walter (son of Sir Walter), 174-5, 256-7, 276-7, 279-80 + + Raleigh, Professor, 74, 81 + + Ramea, 4 + + Reeks, 270 + + Rhodes, Cecil, 254 + + Richardson, Samuel, 58 + + Roanoak, 81 + + Robsart, Amy, 51-2 + + Roche, Lord, 40-3 + + Roos, Lord, 270 + + Ruddyer, Sir Benjamin, 257 + + +S + + Saguenay, 3 + + St. Bartholomew's Eve, 20 + + St. Leger, Sir Warham, 262, 274 + + St. Thomas, 283, 285 + + Sanders, 34 + + Santa Cruz, Marquis of, 100, 103 + + Sarmiento. _See_ GONDOMAR + + Savoy, Duke of, 206 + + Scott, Thomas, 242 + + Scroope, Lady, 193 + + Sextus V., 98 + + Seymour, William, 179 + + Shaw, Bernard, 238 + + Shelley, P. B., 114 + + Sherborne, 125, 158, 173, 175, 177, 240-1, 290 + + Shrewsbury, Lord, 64, 68 + + Sidney, Sir Philip, 13, 20, 24, 52-3, 59, 66, 82, 110, 111 + + Smerwick, or Smerthwick, 37, 109 + + Smith, Captain John, 73, 79, 84-5 + + Sparrow, Francis, 146 + + Spenser, Edmund, 24-5, 58, 107, etc., 115, 120-1, 149, 171, 227, 244, + 266 + + Standen, Sir Anthony, 158 + + Stanhope, Sir John, 205 + + Stannaries, 88, 93, 109, 240 + + Steele Glas, the, 21, 24 + + Stourton, Lord, 63 + + Stowe, 11, 16 + + Strozzi, Peter, 103 + + Stuart, Arabella, 179, 187, 205-8, 211, 219, 292, 294 + + Stukeley, Sir Lewis, 288, etc., 294 + + Sully, 176 + + Sussex, Duke of, 51 + + +T + + Talbot, Lord, 70 + + Talbot, John, 272 + + Terra de Bri, 275, 279 + + Thames, 3, 28, 245 + + Thomson, Captain, 123 + + Thornhurst, Captain, 274 + + Throgmorton, Elizabeth, 117, 121 + + Throgmorton, Sir Nicholas, 121 + + Thyn, Captain, 140 + + Thynne, Francis, 299 + + Tilney, Charles, 64 + + Togo, Admiral, 298 + + Toparimaca, 142 + + Tounson, Dr., 299 + + Trinidad, 129-30, 134-5, 147, 258, 275 + + Trinity College, Cambridge, 15 + + Tuga, Emperor of Guiana, 144, 146 + + +U + + Udall, John, 114, 115 + + +V + + Vaux, Lord, 63 + + Vere, Sir Francis, 156 + + Villiers, George, Duke of Buckingham, 254, 259, 270 + + Virginia, 73, 80, 82, 87, 149, 187 + + +W + + Waad, Sir William, 204, 205, 244 + + Walsingham, Sir Francis, 20, 39, 54-5, 61-2, 64, 66-7, 73, 99 + + Walton, Isaac, 49 + + Warburton, Justice, 205, 216 + + Watson, 208, 217, 234 + + Wentworth, Peter, 178 + + Whidden, Jacob, 129-30, 139 + + Whitgift, Archbishop, 49 + + Whitney, Captain, 262, 277, 279, 282, 284 + + Whyte, Rowland, 160 + + Wilde, Oscar, 59 + + Wilson, Arthur, 196 + + Winchester, 204, 230, 235, 237, 239, 242 + + Winchester, Marquis of, 176 + + Windsor, Lord, 63 + + Wingandacoa. _See_ VIRGINIA + + Wingina, 80, 81 + + Wingfield, Richard, 94 + + Winter, Sir William, 37 + + Winwood, Sir Ralph, 254, 258 + + Wokokon, 80, 83 + + Wollaston, Captain, 262, 277, 279, 282, 284 + + Wood, Anthony, 13 + + Woodson, Alexander, 4 + + Wotton, Lord, 205 + + +Y + + Yorkshire Tragedy, the, 52 + + Youghal, 101, 108, 125 + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Great Ralegh, by Hugh De Selincourt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT RALEGH *** + +***** This file should be named 37080.txt or 37080.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/0/8/37080/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Katie Hernandez and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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