\7- 
 
 Tr^WT^J 
 
X 
 
 Library of 
 The University of North Carolina 
 
 COLLECTION OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINIANA 
 
 ... •» * 
 
 ENDOWED BY 
 
 JOHN SPRUNT HILL 
 
 of the Class of 1889 
 
 (D(i^<^\\o^<^ 
 
This book must not 
 be token from the 
 Library building. 
 
 THIS TITLE hAS BEEN MICROH 
 
 iUvlEi 
 
 
 Form No. 471 
 
 _- 
 
 PC 
 
Edited by ANDREW LANG 
 
 B A L E I Gl H 
 
 BY 
 
 EDMUND GOSSE, M.A. 
 
 CLARK LECTURER IN ENGLISH LITERATURK AT TBINITV COLLEaR 
 CA^IBRICGE 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 1, 8, AND 5 BOND STREET. 
 1886. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The existing Lives of Raleigh are very numerous. 
 To this day the most interesting of these, as a literary 
 production, is that published in 1736 by William Oldys, 
 afterwards Norroy King at Arms. This book was a 
 marvel of research, as well as of biographical skill, at 
 the time of its appearance, but can no longer compete 
 with later lives as an authority. By a curious chance, 
 two writers who were each ignorant of the other simul- 
 taneously collected information regarding Raleigh, and 
 produced two laborious and copious Lives of him, at 
 the same moment, in 1868. Each of these collections, 
 respectively by Mr. Edward Edwards, whose death is 
 announced as these words are leaving the printers, and 
 by the late Mr. James Augustus St. John, added very 
 largely to our knowledge of Raleigh; but, of course, 
 each of these writers was precluded from using the dis- 
 coveries of the other. The present Life is the first in 
 which the fresh matter brought forward by Mr. Edwards 
 and by Mr. St. John has been collated ; Mr. Edwards, 
 moreover, deserved well of all Raleigh students by 
 editing for the first time, in 1868, the correspondence 
 2^ of Raleigh. I hope that I do not seem to disparage 
 
 5q 
 
iv Preface 
 
 Mr. Edwards's book wlieii I say tliat in his arrangement 
 and conjectural dating of undated documents I am very 
 frequently in disaccord with him. The present Life 
 contains various small data which are now for the first 
 time published, and more than one fact of considerable 
 importance which I owe to the courtesy of Mr. John 
 Cordy Jeaffreson. I have, moreover, taken advantage 
 up to date of the Reports of the Historical MSS. Com- 
 mission, and of the two volumes of Lismore Papers this 
 year published. In his prospectus to the latter Dr. 
 Grosart promises us still more about Ealeigh in later 
 issues. My dates are new style. 
 
 The present sketch of Raleigh's life is the first 
 attempt which has been made to portray his personal 
 career disengaged from the general history of his time. 
 To keep so full a life within bounds it has been necessary 
 to pass rapidly over events of signal importance in which 
 he took but a secondary part. I may point as an ex- 
 ample to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, a chapter 
 in English history which has usually occupied a large 
 space in the chronicle of Raleigh and his times. Mrs. 
 Creighton's excellent little volume on the latter and 
 wider theme may be recommended to those who wish 
 to see Raleigh painted not in a full-length portrait, but 
 in an historical composition of the reigns of Elizabeth 
 and James I. I have to thank Dr. Brushfield for the 
 use of his valuable Raleigh bibliography, now in the 
 press, and for other kind help. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTKH ^^«" 
 
 I. TOTJTH ....••••• ^ 
 
 II. AT COTJKT ^^ 
 
 III. IN DISGRACE ,....•••*<* 
 
 IV. GUIANA ^^ 
 
 T. CADIZ . . . . » ^ 
 
 TI, LAST DATS OF ELIZABETH . * . • . . lU 
 
 Til. THE TRIAL AT WINCHESTER . ...» 132 
 
 Till. IN THE TOWER ^^ 
 
 IX. THE SECOND VOYAGE TO GUIANA .... 183 
 
 X. THE END ^°* 
 
 INDEX o . • ^^^ 
 
MAP S. 
 
 SOUTH OP ENGLAND AND IRELAND . • • . To face p. \Q 
 
 GUIANA •••••» 70 
 
EALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 YOUTH. 
 
 Walter Raleigh was born, so Camden and an anony- 
 mous astrologer combine to assure us, in 1552. The 
 place was Hayes Barton, a farmstead in the parish of 
 East Budleigh, in Devonshire, then belonging to his 
 father; it passed out of the family, and in 1584 Sir 
 Walter attempted to buy it back. 'For the natural 
 disposition I have to the place, being born in that house, 
 I had rather seat myself there than anywhere else,' he 
 wrote to a Mr. Richard Duke, the then possessor, who 
 refused to sell it. Genealogists, from himself down- 
 wards, have found a rich treasure in Raleigh's family 
 tree, which winds its branches into those of some of 
 the best Devonshire houses, the Gilberts, the Carews, 
 the Champernownes. His father, the elder Walter 
 Raleigh, in his third marriage became the second 
 husband of Katherine Gilbert, daughter of Sir Philip 
 Champernoun of Modbury. By Otto Gilbert, her first 
 husband, she had been the mother of two boys destined 
 to be bold navigators and colonists, Humphrey and 
 
2 Raleigh 
 
 Adrian Gilbert. It is certainly tlie influence of his half- 
 brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert, of Compton, which is 
 most strongly marked upon the character of young 
 Raleigh; while Adrian was one of his own earliest 
 converts to Virginian enterprise. 
 
 The earliest notice of Sir Walter Raleigh known to 
 exist was found and communicated to the Transactions 
 of the Devonshire Association by Dr. Brushfield in 
 1883. It is in a deed preserved in Sidmouth Church, 
 by which tithes of fish are leased by the manor of 
 Sidmouth to * Walter Rawlegh the elder, Carow Ralegh, 
 and Walter Ralegh the younger,' on September 10, 1560. 
 In 1578 the same persons passed over their interest in 
 the fish' titles in another deed, which contains their 
 signatures. It is amusing to find that the family had 
 not decided how to spell its name. The father writes 
 * Ralegh,' his elder son Carew writes 'Caro Rawlyh,* 
 while the subject of this memoir, in this his earliest 
 known signature, calls himself ^ Rauleygh.' 
 
 His father was a Protestant when young Walter was 
 born, but his mother seems to have remained a Catholic. 
 In the persecution under Mary, she, as we learn from 
 Foxe, went into Exeter to visit the heretics in gaol, and 
 in particular to see Agnes Prest before her burning. Mrs. 
 Raleigh began to exhort her to repentance, but the 
 martyr turned the tables on her visitor, and urged the 
 gentlewoman to seek the blessed body of Christ in 
 heaven, not on earth, and this with so much sweet per- 
 suasiveness that when Mrs. Raleigh ' came home to her 
 husband she 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 
 
Youth 3 
 
 with her slie could not speak such things — " I was not 
 able to answer her, I, who can read, and she cannot." ' 
 It is easy to perceive that this anecdote would not have 
 been preserved if the incident had not heralded the 
 final secession of Raleigh's parents from the creed of 
 Philip II., and thus Agnes Prest w^as not without her 
 share in forging Raleigh's hatred of bigotry and of the 
 Spaniard. Very little else is known about Walter and 
 Katherine Raleigh. They lived at their manorial farm 
 of Hayes Barton, and they were buried side by side, as 
 their son tells us, ' in Exeter church.' 
 
 The university career of Raleigh is vague to us 
 in the highest degree. The only certain fact is that 
 he left Oxford in 1569. Anthony a Wood says that 
 he w^as three years there, and that he entered Oriel 
 College as a commoner in or about the year 156^7 
 Fuller speaks of him as resident at Christ Church also. 
 Perhaps he went to Christ Church first as a boy of four- 
 teen, in 1566, and removed to Oriel at sixteen. Sir 
 Philip Sidney, Hakluyt, and Camden were all of them 
 at Oxford during those years, and we may conjecture 
 that Raleigh's acquaintance with them began there. 
 Wood tells us that Raleigh, being ' strongly advanced 
 by academical learning at Oxford, under the care of an 
 excellent tutor, became the ornament of the juniors, 
 and a proficient in oratory and philosophy.' Bacon and 
 Aubrey preserved each an anecdote of Raleigh's univer- 
 sity career, neither of them worth repeating here. 
 
 The exact date at which he left Oxford is uncertain. 
 Camden, who was Raleigh's age, and at the university 
 at the same time, says authoritatively in his Annales, 
 that he was one of a hundred gentlemen volunteers 
 
4 Raleigh 
 
 taken to the help of the Protestant princes by Henry 
 Champernowne, who was Raleigh's first-cousin, the son 
 of his mother's elder brother. We learn from De Thou 
 that Champernowne's contingent arrived at the Huguenot 
 camp on October 5, 1569. This seems circumstantial 
 enough, but there exist statements of Raleigh's own 
 which tend to show that, if he was one of his cousin's 
 volunteers, he yet preceded him into France. In the 
 History of the World he speaks of personally remem- 
 bering the conduct of the Protestants, immediately after 
 the death of Conde, at the battle of Jarnac (March 13, 
 1569). Still more positively Raleigh says, 'myself 
 was an eye-witness ' of the retreat at Moncontour, on 
 October 3, two days before the arrival of Champernoun. 
 A provoking obscurity conceals Walter Raleigh from 
 us for the next six or seven years. When Hakluyt 
 printed his Voyages in 1589 he mentioned that he 
 himself was five years in France. In a previous dedica- 
 tion he had reminded Raleigh that the latter had made 
 a longer stay in that country than himself. Raleigh 
 has therefore been conjectured to have fought in France 
 for six years, that is to say, until 1575. 
 
 During this long and important period we are almost 
 without a glimpse of him, nor is it anything but fancy 
 which has depicted him as shut up by Walsingham 
 at the English embassy in Paris on the fatal evening 
 of St. Bartholomew's. Another cousin of his, Gawen 
 Champernoun, became the son-in-law and follower of 
 the Huguenot chief, Montgomery, whose murder on 
 June 26, 1574, may very possibly have put a term 
 to Raleigh's adventures as a Protestant soldier in 
 France. The allusions to his early experiences are 
 
Youth 5 
 
 rare and slight in the History of the Woi'ld^ but one 
 curious passage has often been quoted. In illustration 
 of the way in which Alexander the Great harassed 
 Bessus, Raleigh mentions that, * in the third civil war 
 of France,' he saw certain Catholics, who had retired 
 to mountain-caves in Languedoc, smoked out of their 
 retreat by the burning of bundles of straw at the cave's 
 mouth. There has lately been shown to be no proba- 
 bility in the conjecture, made by several of his biogra- 
 phers, that he was one of the English volunteers in the 
 Low Countries who fought in their shirts and drawers 
 at the battle of Rimenant in August 1578. 
 
 On April 15, 1576, the poet Gascoigne, who was 
 a protege of Raleigh's half-brother, issued his satire 
 in blank verse, entitled The Steel Glass^ a little volume 
 which holds an important place in the development 
 of our poetical literature. To this satire a copy of 
 eighteen congratulatory verses was prefixed by ' Walter 
 Rawely of the middle Temple.' These lines are per- 
 functory and are noticeable only for their heading ' of 
 the middle Temple.' Raleigh positively tells us that he 
 never studied law until he found himself a prisoner in 
 the Tower, and he was probably only a passing lodger 
 in some portion of the Middle Temple in 1576. On 
 October 7, 1577, Gascoigne died prematurely and de- 
 prived us of a picturesque pen which might have gossiped 
 of Raleigh's early career. 
 
 I am happy, through the courtesy of Mr. J. Cordy 
 Jeaffreson, in being able for the first time to prove that 
 Walter Raleigh was admitted to the Court as early as 
 1577. So much has been suspected, from his language 
 to Leicester in a later letter from Ireland, but there has 
 
6 Raleigh 
 
 kitherto been no evidence of the fact. In examining 
 the Middlesex records, Mr. JeafFreson has discovered 
 that on the night of December 16, 1577, a party of 
 merry roisterers broke the peace at Hornsey. Their 
 ringleaders were a certain Richard Paunsford and his 
 brother, who are described in the recognisances taken 
 next day before the magistrate Jasper Fisher as the 
 servants of ' Walter Rawley, of Islington, Esq.,' and two 
 days later as yeoman in the service of Walter Rawley, 
 Esq., ' of the Court (de curia)' 
 
 It is very important to find him thus early officially 
 described as of the Court. As Raleigh afterwards said, 
 the education of his youth was a training in the arts of 
 a gentleman and a soldier. But it extended further than 
 this — it embraced an extraordinary knowledge of the sea, 
 and in particular of naval warfare. It is tantalising that 
 we have but the slenderest evidence of the mode in which 
 this particular schooling was obtained. The western ocean 
 was, all through the youth of Raleigh, the most fasci- 
 nating and mysterious of the new fields which were 
 being thrown open to English enterprise. He was a 
 babe when Tonson came back with the first wonderful 
 legend of the hidden treasure-house of the Spaniard in 
 the West Indies. He was at Oxford when England 
 tlirilled with the news of Hawkins' tragical third voyage. 
 He came back from France just in time to share the 
 general satisfaction at Drake's revenge for San Juan de 
 Ulloa. All through his early days the splendour and 
 perilous romance of the Spanish Indies hung before him, 
 inflaming his fancy, rousing his ambition. In his own 
 family. Sir Humphrey Gilbert represented a milder and 
 more generous class of adventurers than Drake and 
 
Youth 7 
 
 Hawkins, a race more set on discov^ery and colonisation 
 than on mere brutal rapine, the race of which Kaleigh 
 was ultimately to become the most illustrious example. 
 If we possessed minute accounts of the various expedi- 
 tions in which Gilbert took part, we should probably find 
 that his young half-brother was often his companion. 
 As early as 1584 Barlow addresses Raleigh as one 
 personally conversant with the islands of the Gulf of 
 Mexico, and there was a volume, never printed and 
 now lost, written about the same time, entitled Sir 
 Walter RaleigJis Voyage to tlie West Indies. This expe- 
 dition, no other allusion to which has survived, must 
 have taken place before he went to Ireland in 1580, and 
 may be conjecturally dated 1577. 
 
 The incidents of the next two years may be rapidly 
 noted ; they are all of them involved in obscurity. It 
 is known that Raleigh crossed the Atlantic for a second 
 time on board one of the ships of Gilbert's ill-starred 
 expedition to the St. Lawrence in the winter of 1578. 
 In February of the next year^ he was again in London, 
 and was committed to the Fleet Prison for a ' fray ' with 
 another courtier. In September 1579, he was involved 
 in Sir Philip Sidney's tennis-court quarrel with Lord 
 Oxford. In May of this same year he w^as stopped at 
 Plymouth when in the act of starting on a piratical 
 expedition against Spanish America. He had work to 
 do in opposing Spain nearer home, and he first comes 
 clearly before us in connection with the Catholic invasion 
 of Ireland in the close of 1579. It was on July 17, 
 
 • Mr. Edwards corrects the date to 1680 N.S., but this is mani- 
 festly wrong ; on the 7th of February 1580 N.S. Raleigh was on the 
 Atlantic making for Cork Harbour. 
 
 2 
 
8 Raleigh 
 
 1579, that the Catholic expedition from Ferrol landed 
 at Dingle. Fearing to stay there, it passed four miles 
 westward to Smerwick Bay, and there built a fortress 
 called Fort del Ore, on a sandy isthmus, thinking in 
 case of need easily to slip away to the ocean. The 
 murder of an English officer, who was stabbed in his 
 bed while the guest of the brother of the Earl of Des- 
 mond, was recommended by Sandars the legate as a 
 sweet sacrifice in the sight of God, and ruthlessly com- 
 mitted. The result was what Sandars had foreseen ; the 
 Geraldines, hopelessly compromised, threw up the fiction 
 of loyalty to Elizabeth. Sir Nicholas Malby defeated 
 the rebels in the Limerick woods in September, but 
 in return the Geraldines burned Youghal and drove the 
 Deputy within the walls of Cork, where he died of 
 chagrin. • The temporary command fell on an old friend 
 of Raleigh's, Sir Warham Sentleger, who wrote in 
 December 1579 a letter of earnest appeal which broke 
 up the apathy of the English Government. Among 
 other steps hurriedly taken to uphold the Queen's power 
 in Ireland, young Walter Raleigh was sent where his 
 half-brother, Humphrey Gilbert, had so much distin- 
 guished himself ten years before. 
 
 The biographer breathes more freely when he holds 
 at last the earliest letter which remains in the hand- 
 writing of his hero. All else may be erroneous or con- 
 jectural, but here at least, for a moment, he presses his 
 fingers upon the very pulse of the machine. On 
 February 22, 1580, Raleigh wrote from Cork to 
 Burghley, giving him an account of his voyage. It 
 appears that he wrote on the day of his arrival, and if 
 that be the case, he left London, and passed down the 
 
Youth 9 
 
 Thames, in command of a troop of one hundred foot 
 soldiers, on January 15, 1580. By the same computation, 
 they reached the Isle of Wight on the 21st, and stayed 
 there to be transferred into ships of Her Majesty's fleet, 
 not starting again until February 5. On his reaching 
 Cork, Raleigh found that his men and he were only to be 
 paid from the day of their arrival in Ireland, and he 
 wrote off at once to Burghley to secure, if possible, the 
 arrears. His arrival was a welcome reinforcement to 
 Sentleger, who was holding Cork in the greatest peril, 
 with only forty Englishmen. It must be recollected that 
 this force under Raleigh was but a fragment of what 
 English squadrons were busily bringing through this 
 month of January into every port of Ireland. Elizabeth 
 had, at last, awakened in earnest to her danger. 
 
 Raleigh, in all probability, took no part in the 
 marchings and skirmishings of the English armies until 
 the summer. His ' reckoning,' or duty-pay, as a captain 
 in the field, begins on July 13, 1580, and perhaps, 
 until that date, his services consisted in defending Cork 
 under Sentleger. In August he was joined with the 
 latter, who was now Provost-marshal of Munster, in a 
 commission to try Sir James, the younger brother of 
 the Earl of Desmond, who had been captured by the 
 Sheriff of Cork. No mercy could be expected by so 
 prominent a Geraldine ; he was hanged, drawn and 
 quartered, and the fragments of his body were hung 
 in chains over the gates of Cork. Meanwhile, on 
 August 12, Lord Grey de Wilton arrived in Dublin 
 to relieve Pelham of sovereigii command in Ireland. 
 Grey, though he learned to dislike Raleigh, was pro- 
 bably more cognisant of his powers than Pelham, who 
 
10 Raleigh 
 
 may never have heard of him. Grey had been the 
 patron of the poet Gascoigne, and one of the most pro- 
 minent men in the group with whom we have already 
 seen that Raleigh was identified in his early youth. 
 
 From the moment of Grey's arrival in Ireland, the 
 name of Raleigh ceased to be obscure. Sir William 
 Pelham retired on September 7, and Lord Grey, who had 
 brought the newly famous poet, Edmund Spenser, with 
 him as his secretary, marched into Munster. With his 
 exploits we have nothing to do, save to notice that it 
 must have been in the camp at Rakele, if not on the 
 battle-field of Glenmalure, that Raleigh began his 
 momentous friendship with Spenser, whose Shepherd's 
 Calender had inaugurated a new epoch in English 
 poetry just a month before Raleigh's departure for 
 Ireland. It is scarcely too fanciful to believe that this 
 tiny anonymous volume of delicious song may have 
 lightened the weariness of that winter voyage of 1580, 
 which was to prove so momentous in the career of 
 ^ the Shepherd of the Ocean.' Lodovick Bryskett, Fulke 
 Greville, Barnabee Googe, and Geoffrey Fenton were 
 minor songsters of the copious Elizabethan age who 
 were now in Munster as agents or soldiers, and we may 
 suppose that the tedious guerilla warfare in the woods 
 had its hours of literary recreation for Raleigh. 
 
 The fortress on the peninsula of Dingle was now 
 occupied by a fresh body of Catholic invaders, mainly 
 Italians, and Smerwick Bay again attracted general 
 interest. Grey, as Deputy, and Ormond, as governor of 
 Munster, united their forces and marched towards this 
 extremity of Kerry ; Raleigh, with his infantry, joined 
 them at Rakele ; and we may take September 30, 1580, 
 
Youth ii 
 
 which is the date when his first ^ reckoning ' closes, as 
 that on which he took some fresh kind of service under 
 Lord Grey. Hooker, who was an eye-witness, supplies 
 us with some very interesting glimpses of Raleigh in 
 his Siq^ph/ of the Irish Chronicles^ a supplement to 
 Holinshed. We learn from him that when Lord Grey 
 broke into the camp at Rakele, Raleigh stayed behind, 
 having observed that the kerns had the habit of swooping 
 down upon any deserted encampment to rob and murder 
 the camp followers. This expectation was fulfilled ; the 
 hungry Irish poured into Rakele as soon as the Deputy's 
 back was turned. Raleigh had the satisfaction of captur- 
 ing a large body of these poor creatures. One of them 
 carried a gi'eat bundle of withies, and Raleigh asked him 
 what they were for. ' To have hung up the English 
 churls with,' was the bold reply. ' Well,' said Raleigh, 
 * but now they shall serve for an Irish kern,' and com- 
 manded him ' to be immediately tucked up in one of his 
 own neck-bands.' The rest were served in a similar way, 
 and then the young Englishman rode on after the army. 
 Towards the end of October they came in sight of 
 Smerwick Bay, and of the fort on the sandy isthmus in 
 which the Italians and Spaniards were lying in the 
 hope of slipping back to Spain. The Legate had no 
 sanguine aspirations left ; every roof that could harbour 
 the Geraldines had been destroyed in the English 
 forays ; Desmond was hiding, like a wild beast, in the 
 Wood. By all the principles of modern warfare, the time 
 had come for mercy and conciliation, and one man in 
 Ireland, Ormond, thought as much. But Lord Grey 
 was a soldier of the old disposition, an implacable enemy 
 to Popery, what we now call a * Puritan ' of the most 
 
12 Raleigh 
 
 fierce and frigid type. There is no evidence to show 
 that the gentle Englishmen who accompanied hira, some 
 of the best and loveliest spirits of the age, shrank from 
 sharing his fanaticism. There was massacre to be gone 
 through, but neither Edmund Spenser, nor Fulke Gre- 
 ville, nor Walter Ealeigh dreamed of withdrawing his 
 sanction. The story has been told and retold. For 
 simple horror it is surpassed, in the Irish history of 
 the time, only by the earlier exploit which depopulated 
 the island of Rathlin. In the perfectly legitimate open- 
 ing of the siege of Fort del Ore, Raleigh held a very 
 prominent commission, and we see that his talents 
 were rapidly being recognised, from the fact that for the 
 first three days he was entrusted with the principal com- 
 mand. It would appear that on the fourth day, when the 
 Italians waved their white flag and screamed 'Miseri- 
 cordia ! misericordia ! ' it was not Raleigh, but Zouch, 
 who was commanding in the trenches. The parley the 
 Catholics demanded was refused, and they were told 
 they need not hope for mercy. Next day, which was 
 November 9, 1580, the fort yielded helplessly. Raleigh 
 and Mackworth received Grey's orders to enter and 
 ^ fall straight to execution.' 
 
 It was thought proper to give Catholic Europe a warn- 
 ing not to meddle with Catholic Ireland. In the words of 
 the official report immediately sent home to Walsingham, 
 as soon as the fort was yielded, ^ all the Irish men and 
 women were hanged, and 600 and upwards of Italians, 
 Spaniards, Biscayans and others put to the sword. The 
 Colonel, Captain, Secretary, Campmaster, and others of 
 the best sort, saved to the number of 20 persons.' Of 
 these last, two had their arms and legs broken before 
 
Youth i 3 
 
 being hanged on a gallows on the wall of the fort. The 
 bodies of the six hundred were stripped and laid out on 
 the sands — * as gallant goodly personages,' Lord Grey re- 
 ported, ^ as ever were beheld.' The Deputy took all the 
 responsibility and expected no blame ; he received none. 
 In reply to his report, Elizabeth assured him a month 
 later that ' this late enterprise had been performed by 
 him greatly to her liking.' It is useless to expatiate on 
 a code of morals that seems to us positively Japanese. 
 To Lord Grey and the rest the rebellious kerns and their 
 Southern allies were enemies of God and the Queen, 
 beyond the scope of mercy in this world or the next, and 
 no more to be spared or paltered with than malignant 
 vermin. In his inexperience, Raleigh, to be soon 
 ripened by knowledge of life and man, agreed with this 
 view, but, happily for Ireland and England too, there 
 were others who declined to sink, as ^Ir. Froude says, 
 ' to the level of the Catholic continental tyrannies.' At 
 Ormond's instigation the Queen sent over in April 1581 
 a general pardon. 
 
 Severe as Lord Grey was, he seemed too lenient 
 to Raleigh. In January 1581, the young captain left 
 Cork and made the perilous journey to Dublin to ex- 
 postulate with the Deputy, and to urge him to treat 
 with greater stringency various Munster chieftains who 
 were blowing the embers of the rebellion into fresh 
 flame. Among these malcontents the worst was a cer- 
 tain David Barry, son of Lord Barry, himself a prisoner 
 in Dublin Castle. David Barry had placed the family 
 stronghold, Barry Court, at the disposal of the Geral- 
 dines. Raleigh obtained permission to seize and hold 
 this property, and returned from Dublin to carry out his 
 
14 Raleigh 
 
 duty. On his way back, as lie was approaching Barry's 
 country, with his men straggling behind him, the 
 Seneschal of Imokelly, the strongest and craftiest of 
 the remaining Geraldines, laid an ambush to seize him 
 at the ford of Corabby. Raleigh not only escaped 
 himself, but returned in the face of a force which was 
 to his as twenty to one, in order to rescue a comrade 
 whose horse had thrown him in the river. With a 
 quarter-staff in one hand and a pistol in the other, 
 he held the Seneschal and his kerns at bay, and brought 
 his little body of troops through the ambush without the 
 loss of one man. In the dreary monotony of the war, 
 this brilliant act of courage, of which Raleigh himself in 
 a letter gives a very modest account, touched the popular 
 heart, and did as much as anything to make him famous. 
 The existing documents which illustrate Raleigh's 
 life in Ireland during 1581, and they are somewhat 
 numerous, give the student a much higher notion of 
 his brilliant aptitude for business and of his active 
 courage than of his amiability. His vivacity and in- 
 genuity were sources of irritation to him, as the vigour 
 of an active man may vex him in wading across loose 
 sands. There was no stability and apparently no hope 
 or aim in the policy of the English leaders, and Raleigh 
 showed no mock-modesty in his criticism of that policy. 
 Ormond had been on friendly terms with him, but as 
 early as February 25 a quarrel was ready to break out. 
 Ormond wished to hold Barry Court, which was the 
 key to the important road between Cork and Youghal, as 
 his own ; while Raleigh was no less clamorous in claim- 
 ing it. In the summer, not satisfied with complaining 
 of Ormond to Grey, he denounced Grey to Leicester. 
 
Youth i 5 
 
 In tlie meantime lie had succeeded in ousting Ormond, 
 who was recalled to England, and in getting himself 
 made, if not nominally, practically Governor of Munster. 
 He proceeded to Lismore, then the English capital 
 of the province, and made that town the centre of 
 those incessant sallies and forays which Hooker de- 
 scribes. One of these skirmishes, closing in the defeat 
 of Lord Barry at Cleve, showed consummate military 
 ability, and deserves almost to rank as a battle. 
 
 In August, Raleigh's temporary governorship of 
 Munster ended. He was too young and too little 
 known a man permanently to hold such a post. Zouch 
 took his place at Lismore, and Raleigh, returning to 
 Cork, was made Governor of that city. It was at this 
 time, or possibly a little earlier in the year, that Raleigh 
 made his romantic attack upon Castle Bally-in-Harsh, 
 the seat of Lord Roche. On the very same evening 
 that Raleigh received a hint from head-quarters that 
 the capture of this strongly fortified place was desirable, 
 he set out with ninety men on the adventure. His 
 troop arrived at Harsh very early in the morning, but 
 not so early but that the townspeople, to the number 
 of five hundred, had collected to oppose his little force. 
 He soon put them to flight, and then, by a nimble 
 trick, contrived to enter the castle itself, to seize Lord 
 and Lady Roche at their breakfast-table, to slip out 
 with them and through the town unmolested, and to 
 regain Cork next day with the loss of only a single 
 man. The whole affair was a piece of military sleight 
 of hand, brilliantly designed, incomparably well carried 
 out. The summer and autumn were passed in scouring 
 the woods and ravines of Munster from Tipperary to 
 
1 6 Raleigh 
 
 Kilkenny. Miserable work he found it, and glad lie 
 must have been when a summons from London put an 
 end to his military service in Ireland. In two years he 
 had won a great reputation. Elizabeth, it may well be, 
 desired to see him, and talk with him on what he called 
 *■ the business of this lost land.' In December 1581 he 
 returned to England. 
 
 One point more may be mentioned. In a letter 
 dated May 1, 1581, Raleigh offers to rebuild the ruined 
 fortress of Barry Court at his own expense. This shows 
 that he must by this time have come into a certain 
 amount of property, for his Irish pay as a captain was, 
 he says, so poor that but for honour he ' would disdain 
 it as much as to keep sheep.' This fact disposes of the 
 notion that Raleigh arrived at the Court of Elizabeth 
 in the guise of a handsome penniless adventurer. Per- 
 haps he had by this time inherited his share of the 
 paternal estates.^ 
 
 * Dr. Brushfield has found no mention of the elder Walter 
 Kaleigh later than April 11, 1578. As he was born in 1497, he must 
 then have been over eighty years of age. 
 
SOUTH OF ENGLAND AND lEELAND. 
 
CHAPTER n. 
 
 AT COURT. 
 
 Raleigh had not completed his thirtieth year when he 
 became a recognised courtier. We have seen that he 
 had passed, four years before, within the precincts of the 
 Court, but we do not know whether the Queen had 
 noticed him or not. In the summer of 1581 he had 
 written thus to Leicester from Lismore : — 
 
 I may not forget continually to put your Honour in 
 mind of my affection unto your Lordship, having to the 
 world both professed and protested the same. Your 
 Honour, having no use of such poor followers, hath utterly 
 forgotten me. Notwithstanding, if your Lordship shall 
 please to think me yours, as I am, I will be found as ready, 
 and dare do as much in your service, as any man you may 
 command ; and do neither so much despair of myself but 
 that I may be some way able to perform so much. 
 
 To Leicester, then, we may be sure, he went, — to find 
 him, and the whole Court with him, in the throes of 
 the Queen's latest and final matrimonial embroilment. 
 Raleigh had a few weeks in which to admire the empty 
 and hideous suitor whom France had sent over to claim 
 Elizabeth's hand, and during this critical time it is 
 possible that he enjoyed his personal introduction to the 
 3 
 
1 8 Raleigh 
 
 Queen. Walter Raleigh in the prime of his strength 
 and beauty formed a curious contrast to poor Alenpon, 
 and the difference was one which Elizabeth would not 
 fail to recognise. On February 1, 1582, he was paid 
 the sum of 200L for his Irish services, and a week later 
 he set out under Leicester, in company with Sir Philip 
 Sidney, among the throng that conducted the French 
 prince to the Netherlands. 
 
 When Elizabeth's ' poor frog,' as she called Alenpon, 
 had been duly led through the gorgeous pageant pre- 
 pared in his honour at Antwerp, on February 17, the 
 English lords and their train, glad to be free of their 
 burden, passed to Flushing, and hastened home with 
 as little ceremony as might be. Ealeigh alone remained 
 behind, to carry some special message of compliment 
 from the Queen to the Prince of Orange. It is Raleigh 
 himself, in his Invention of SMjyping, who gives us this 
 interesting information, and he goes on to say that when 
 the Prince of Orange * delivered me his letters to her 
 Majesty, he prayed me to say to the Queen from him, 
 Sub urribra alarum tuarum jprotegimur : for certainly, 
 said he, they had withered in the bud, and sunk in the 
 beginning of their navigation, had not her Majesty 
 assisted them.' It would have been natural to entrust 
 to Leicester such confidential utterances as these were 
 a reply to. But Elizabeth was passing through a 
 paroxysm of rage with Leicester at the moment. She 
 ventured to call him ' traitor ' and to accuse him of 
 conspiring with the Prince of Orange. Notwithstanding 
 this, his influence was still paramount with her, and it 
 was characteristic of her shrewd petulance to confide in 
 Leicester's p'otege, although not in Leicester himself. 
 
At Court 19 
 
 Towards the end of March, Raleigh settled at the 
 English Court. 
 
 On April 1, 1582, Elizabeth issued from Greenwich a 
 strange and self-contradictory warrant with regard to 
 service in Ireland, and the band of infantry hitherto com- 
 manded in that country by a certain Captain Annesley, 
 now deceased. The words must be quoted verbatim : — 
 
 For that our pleasure is to have our servant Walter 
 Rawley [this was the way in which the name was pro- 
 nounced during Raleigh's life-time] trained some time longer 
 in that our realm [Ireland] for his better experience in 
 martial affairs, and for the especial care which We have to 
 do him good, in respect of his kindred that have served Us, 
 some of them (as you know) near about Our person [pro- 
 bably Mrs. Catherine Ashley, who was Raleigh's aunt] ; 
 these are to require you that the leading of the said band 
 may be committed to the said Rawley ; and for that he is, 
 for some considerations, by Us excused to stay here. Our 
 pleasure is that the said band be, in the meantime, till he 
 repair into that Our realm, delivered to some such as he 
 shall depute to be his lieutenant there. 
 
 He is to be captain in Ireland, but not just yet, not 
 till a too tender Queen can spare him. We find that 
 he was paid his ^ reckoning ' for six months after the 
 issue of this warrant, but there is no evidence that he 
 was spared at any time during 1582 to relieve his Irish 
 deputy. He was now, in fact, installed as first favourite 
 in the still susceptible heart of the Virgin Star of the 
 North. 
 
 This, then, is a favourable opportunity for pausing 
 to consider what manner of man it was who had so sud- 
 denly passed into the intimate favour of the Queen. 
 
20 Raleigh 
 
 Naunton has described Ealeigh with the precision of one 
 who is superior to the weakness of depreciating the 
 exterior qualities of his enemy : ' having a good presence, 
 in a handsome and well-compacted person ; a strong 
 natural wit, and a better judgment; with a bold and 
 plausible tongue, whereby he could set out his parts to 
 the best advantage/ His face had neither the ethereal 
 beauty of Sidney's nor the intellectual delicacy of 
 Spenser's ; it was cast in a rougher mould than theirs. 
 The forehead, it is acknowledged, was too high for the 
 proportion of the features, and for this reason, perhaps, 
 is usually hidden in the portraits by a hat. We must 
 think of Raleigh at this time as a tall, somewhat bony 
 man, about six feet high, with dark hair and a high 
 colour, a facial expression of great brightness and alert- 
 ness, personable from the virile force of his figure, and 
 illustrating these attractions by a splendid taste in 
 dress. His clothes were at all times noticeably gor- 
 geous ; and to the end of his life he was commonly 
 bedizened with precious stones to his very shoes. When 
 he was arrested in 1603 he was carrying 4,000L in 
 jewels on his bosom, and when he was finally captured 
 on August 10, 1618, his pockets were found full of the 
 diamonds and jacinths which he had hastily removed 
 from various parts of his person. His letters display 
 his solicitous love of jewels, velvets, and embroidered 
 damasks. Mr. JeafFreson has lately found among the 
 Middlesex MSS. that as early as April 26, 1584, a 
 gentleman named Hugh Pew stole at Westminster and 
 carried off Walter Raleigh's pearl hat-band and another 
 jewelled article of attire, valued together in money 
 of that time at Wol. The owner, with character- 
 
At Court 21 
 
 tt 
 istic promptitude, shut the thief up in Newgate, and 
 
 made him disgorge. To complete our picture of the 
 vigorous and brilliant soldier-poet, we must add that 
 he spoke to the end of his life with that strong Devon- 
 shire accent which was never displeasing to the ears of 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 The Muse of Ilistory is surely now-a-days too dis- 
 dainful of all information that does not reach her signed 
 and countersigned. In biography, at least, it must be 
 a mistake ta accept none but documentary evidence, 
 since tradition, if it does not give us truth of fact, gives 
 us what is often at least as valuable, truth of impression. 
 The later biographers of Raleigh have scorned even to 
 repeat those anecdotes that are the best known to the 
 public of all which cluster around his personality. It 
 is true that they rest on no earlier testimony than that 
 of Fuller, who, writing in the lifetime of men who 
 knew Raleigh, gives the following account of his intro- 
 duction to Elizabeth : ' Her Majesty, meeting with a 
 plashy place, made some scruple to go on ; when 
 Raleigh (dressed in the gay and genteel habit of those 
 times) presently cast 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 foot cloth.' The 
 only point about this story which is incredible is that 
 this act was Raleigh's introduction to the Queen. 
 Regarded as a fantastic incident of their later attach- 
 ment, the anecdote is in the highest degree character- 
 istic of the readiness of the one and the romantic 
 sentiment of the other. 
 
 Not less entertaining is Fuller's other story, that at 
 
22 Raleigh 
 
 the full tide of Raleigh's fortunes with the Queen, he 
 wrote on a pane of glass with his diamond ring : — 
 
 Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall, 
 
 whereupon Elizabeth replied, 
 
 If thy heart fail thee, then climb not at all. 
 
 Of these tales we can only assert that they reflect the 
 popular and doubtless faithful impression of Raleigh's 
 mother-wit and audacious alacrity. 
 
 If he did not go back to fight in Ireland, his experi- 
 ence of Irish affairs was made use of by the Government. 
 He showed a considerable pliancy in giving his counsel. 
 In May 1581 he had denounced Ormond and even Grey 
 for not being severe enough, but in June 1582 he had 
 veered round to Burghley's opinion that it was time to 
 moderate English tyranny in Ireland. A paper written 
 partly by Burghley and partly by Raleigh, but entitled 
 The Opinion of Mr. Rawley^ still exists among the Irish 
 Correspondence, and is dated October 25, 1582. This 
 document is in the highest degree conciliatory towards 
 the Irish chieftains, whom it recommends the Queen to 
 win over peacefully to her side, this policy ' ofiering a 
 very plausible show of thrift and commodity.' It is 
 interesting to find Raleigh so supple, and so familiar 
 already with the Queen's foibles. It was probably 
 earlier in the year, and about this same Irish business, 
 that Raleigh spoke to Elizabeth, on the occasion which 
 Naunton describes. 'Raleigh,' he says, 'had gotten 
 the Queen's ear at a trice ; and she began to be taken 
 with his elocution, and loved to hear his reasons to her 
 demands; and the truth is, she took him for a kind 
 
At Court 23 
 
 of oracle, which nettled them all/ Lord Grey, who 
 was no diplomatist, had the want of caution to show 
 that he was annoyed at advice being asked from a young 
 man who was so lately his inferior. In answer to a 
 special recommendation of Raleigh from the Queen, Lord 
 Grey ventured to reply : ^ For my own part I must be 
 plain — I neither like his carriage nor his company, and 
 therefore other than by direction and commandment, 
 and what his right requires, he is not to expect from 
 my hands.' Lord Grey did not understand the man he 
 was dealing with. The result was that in August 
 1582 he was abruptly deposed from his dignity as Lord 
 Deputy in Ireland. But we see that Raleigh could be 
 exceedingly antipathetic to any man who crossed his 
 path. That it was wilful arrogance, and not inability to 
 please, is proved by the fact that he seems to have con- 
 trived to reconcile not Leicester only but even Hatton, 
 Elizabeth's dear 'Pecora Campi,' to his intrusion at 
 Court. 
 
 As far as we can perceive, Raleigh's success as a 
 courtier was unclouded from 1582 to 1586, and these 
 years are the most peaceful and uneventful in the 
 record of his career. He took a confidential place 
 by the Queen's side, but so unobtrusively that in these- 
 earliest years, at least, his presence leaves no percep- 
 tible mark on the political history of the country. 
 Great in so many fields, eminent as a soldier, as a 
 navigator, as a poet, as a courtier, there was a limit 
 even to Raleigh's versatility, and he was not a states- 
 man. It was political ambition which was the vul- 
 nerable spot in this Achilles, and until he meddled 
 with statecraft, his position was practically unassailed. 
 
24 Raleigh 
 
 It must not be overlooked, in this connection, that in 
 spite of Raleigh's influence with the Queen, he never 
 was admitted as a Privy Councillor, his advice being 
 asked in private, by Elizabeth or by her ministers, 
 and not across the table, where his arrogant manner 
 might have introduced discussions fruitless to the State. 
 In 1598, when he was at the zenith of his power, he 
 actually succeeded, as we shall see, in being proposed 
 for Privy Council, but the Queen did not permit him 
 to be sworn. Nothing would be more remarkable than 
 Elizabeth's infatuation for her favourites, if we were 
 not still more surprised at her skill in gauging their 
 capacities, and her firmness in defining their ambi- 
 tions. 
 
 Already, in 1583, Walter Raleigh began to be the 
 recipient of the Queen's gifts. On April 10 of that 
 year he came into possession of two estates, Stolney 
 and Newland, which had passed to the Queen from All 
 Souls College, Oxford. A few days later, May 4, 
 he became enriched by obtaining letters patent for 
 the *■ FaiTQ of Wines,' thenceforward to be one of the 
 main sources of his wealth. According to this grant, 
 which extended to all places within the kingdom, 
 each vintner was obliged to pay twenty shillings a 
 year to Raleigh as a license duty on the sale of wines. 
 This was, in fact, a great relief to the wine trade, for 
 until this time the mayors of corporations had levied 
 this duty at their own judgment, and some of them 
 had made a licensing charge not less than six times 
 as heavy as the new duty. The grant, moreover, gave 
 Raleigh a part of all fines accruing to the Crown 
 under the provisions of the wines statute of Edward VI. 
 
At Court 25 
 
 From his * Farm of Wines ' Raleigh seems at one time 
 to have obtained something like 2,000Z. a year. The 
 emoluments dwindled at last, just before llaleigh was 
 forced to resign his patent to James I., to 1,000Z. a 
 year ; but even this was an income equivalent to 6,000Z. 
 of our money. The grant w^as to expire in 1G19, and 
 would therefore, if he had died a natural death, have 
 outlived Raleigh himself. We must not forget that 
 the cost of collecting moneys, and the salaries to deputy 
 licensers, consumed a large part of these receipts. 
 
 While Raleigh was shaking down a fortune from 
 the green ivy-bushes that hung at the vintners' doors, 
 the western continent, at which he had already cast 
 wistful glances, remained the treasure-house of Spain. 
 His unfortunate but indomitable half-brother, Sir 
 Humphrey Gilbert, recalled it to his memory. The 
 name of Gilbert deserves to be better remembered than 
 it is ; and America, at least, will one day be constrained 
 to honour the memory of the man who was the first to 
 dream of colonising her shores. Until his time, the 
 ambition of Englishmen in the west had been confined 
 to an angry claim to contest the wealth and beauty of 
 the New World with the Spaniard. The fabulous mines 
 of Cusco, the plate-ships of Lima and Guayaquil, the 
 pearl-fisheries of Panama, these had been hitherto the 
 loadstar of English enterprise. The hope was that such 
 feats as those of Drake would bring about a time when, 
 as George Wither put it, 
 
 the spacious West, 
 Being still more with English blood possessed, 
 The proud Iberians shall not rule those seas, 
 To check our ships from saiHng where they please. 
 
26 Raleigh 
 
 Even Frobisher had not entertained the notion of 
 leaving Spain alone, and of planting in the northern 
 hemisphere colonies of English race. It was Sir Hum- 
 phrey Gilbert who first thought of a settlement in 
 North America, and the honour of priority is due to 
 him, although he failed. 
 
 His royal charter was dated June 1578, and covered 
 a space of six years with its privilege. "We have 
 already seen that various enterprises undertaken by 
 Gilbert in consequence of it had failed in one way or 
 another. After the disaster of 1579 he desisted, and 
 lent three of his remaining vessels to the Government, 
 to serve on the coast of Ireland. As late as July 1582 
 the rent due to him on these vessels was unpaid, and 
 he wrote a dignified appeal to Walsingham for the 
 money in arrears. He was only forty-three, but his 
 troubles had made an old man of him, and he pleads his 
 white hairs, blanched in long service of her Majesty, as 
 a reason why the means of continuing to serve her 
 should not be withheld from him. Raleigh had warmly 
 recommended his brother before he was himself in 
 power, and he now used all his influence in his favour. 
 It is plain that Gilbert's application was promptly 
 attended to, for we find him presently in a position to 
 pursue the colonising enterprises which lay so near to 
 his heart. The Queen, however, could not be induced 
 to encourage him ; she shrewdly remarked that Gilbert 
 ' had no good luck at sea,' which was pathetically true. 
 However, Gilbert's six years' charter was about to 
 expire, and his hopes were all bound up in making one 
 more efibrt. He pleaded, and Raleigh supported him, 
 until Elizabeth finally gave way, merely refusing to allow 
 
At Court 27 
 
 Raleigh himself to take part iu any such ' dangerous 
 sea-fights ' as the crossing of the Atlantic might entail. 
 
 On June 11, 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed 
 from Plymouth with a little fleet of five vessels, bound 
 for North America. According to all authorities, 
 Raleigh had expended a considerable sum in the outfit ; 
 according to one writer, Hayes (in Hakluyt), he was 
 owner of the entire expedition. He spent, we know, 
 2,000?. in building and fitting out one vessel, which he 
 named after himself, the ' Ark Raleigh.' 
 
 Sir Humphrey Gilbert was not born under a for- 
 tunate star. Two days after starting, a contagious fever 
 broke out on board the ' Ark Raleigh,' and in a tumult 
 of panic, without explaining her desertion to the admi- 
 ral, .she hastened back in great distress to Plymouth. 
 The rest of the fleet crossed the Atlantic successfully, 
 and Newfoundland was taken in the Queen's name. 
 One ship out of the remaining four had meanwhile been 
 sent back to England with a sick crew. Late in 
 September 1583 a second sailed into J^ly mouth with the 
 news that the other two had sunk in an Atlantic storm 
 on the 8th or 9th of that month. The last thing 
 known of the gallant admiral before his ship went down 
 was that ' sitting abaft with a book in his hand,' he had 
 called out ^ Be of good heart, my friends ! We are as 
 near to heaven by sea as by land.' 
 
 At the death of Gilbert, his schemes as a colonising 
 navigator passed, as by inheritance, to Raleigh. That 
 he had no intention of letting them drop is shown by 
 the fact that he was careful not to allow Gilbert's original 
 charter to expire. In June 1584 other hands might 
 have seized his brother's relinquished enterprise, and 
 
28 Raleigh 
 
 therefore it was, on March 25, that Raleigh moved the 
 Queen to renew the charter in his own name. In 
 company with a younger half-brother, Adrian Gilbert, 
 and with the experienced though unlucky navigator 
 John Davis as a third partner, Raleigh was now incorpo- 
 rated as representing * The College of the Fellowship for 
 the Discovery of the North West Passage/ In this he 
 was following the precedent of Gilbert, who had made 
 use of the Queen's favourite dream of a northern route to 
 China to cover his less attractive schemes of colonisation. 
 Raleigh, however, took care to secure himself a charter 
 which gave him the fullest possible power to * inhabit 
 or retain, build or fortify, at the discretion of the said 
 W. Raleigh,' in any remote lands that he might find 
 hitherto unoccupied by any Christian power. Armed 
 with this extensive grant, Raleigh began to make his 
 preparations. 
 
 It is needful here to pass rapidly over the chronicle 
 of the expeditions to America, since they form no part 
 of the personal history of Raleigh. On April 27 he 
 sent out his first fleet under Amidas and Barlow. They 
 sailed blindly for the western continent, but were 
 guided at last by ^ a delicate sweet smell ' far out in 
 ocean to the coast of Florida. They then sailed north, 
 and finally landed on the islands of Wokoken and 
 Roanoke, which, with the adjoining mainland, they 
 annexed in the name of her Majesty. In September 
 this first expedition returned, bringing Raleigh, as a 
 token of the wealth of the new lands, * a string of pearls 
 as large as great peas.' In honour of 'the eternal 
 Maiden Queen,' the new country received the name of 
 Virginia, and Raleigh ordered his own arms to be cut 
 
At Court 29 
 
 anew, with tliis legend, Propria insignia Walteri Ralegh, 
 militisj Domini et Cruhematoris Virginice. No attempt 
 had been made on this occasion to colonise. It was 
 early in the following year that Raleigh sent out his 
 second Virginian expedition, under the brave Sir 
 llichard Grenville, to settle in the country. The ex- 
 periment was not completely successful at first, but 
 from August 17, 1585, which is the birthday of the 
 American people, to June 18, 1586, one hundred and 
 eight persons under the command of Ralph Lane, and 
 in the service of Raleigh, made Roanoke their habita- 
 tion. It is true that the colonists lost courage and 
 abandoned Virginia at the latter date, but an essay at 
 least had been made to justify the sanguine hopes of 
 Raleigh. 
 
 These expeditions to North America were very 
 costly, and by their very nature unremunerative for the 
 present. Raleigh, however, was by this time quite 
 wealthy enough to support the expense, and on the 
 second occasion accident befriended him. Sir Richard 
 Grenville, in the ' Tiger,' fell in with a Spanish plate- 
 ship on his return-voyage, and towed into Plymouth 
 Harbour a prize which was estimated at the value of 
 50,000Z. But Raleigh was, indeed, at this time a 
 veritable Danae. As though enough gold had not yet 
 been showered upon him, the Queen presented to him, 
 on March 25, 1584, a grant of license to export woollen 
 broad-cloths, a privilege the 'excessive profits of which 
 soon attracted the critical notice of Burghley. Raleigh's 
 grant, however, was long left unassailed, and was re- 
 newed year by year at least until May 1589. It would 
 seem that his income from the trade in undyed broad- 
 4 
 
30 Raleigh 
 
 cloth was of a two-fold nature, a fixed duty on export- 
 ation in general, and a charge on ' over-lengths,' that is 
 to say, on pieces which exceeded the maximum length 
 of twenty-four yards. When Burghley assailed this 
 whole system of taxation in 1591, he stated that Raleigh 
 had, in the first year only of his grant, received 3,950L 
 from a pri\dlege for which he paid to the State a rent of 
 only 700Z. If this was correct, and no one could be in 
 a better position than Burghley to check the figures, 
 Raleigh's income from broad-cloth alone was something 
 like 18,000L of Victorian money. 
 
 Such were the sources of an opulence which we must do 
 Raleigh the credit to say was expended not on debauchery 
 or display, but in the most enlightened efforts to extend 
 the field of English commercial enterprise beyond the 
 Atlantic. We need not suppose him to have been unselfish 
 beyond the fashion of his age. In his action there was, 
 no doubt, an element of personal ambition ; he dreamed 
 of raising a State in the West before which his great 
 enemy, Spain, should sink into the shade, and he 
 fancied himself the gorgeous viceroy of such a kingdom. 
 His imagination, which had led him on so bravely, gulled 
 him sometimes when it came to details. His sailors 
 had seen the light of sunset on the cliffs of Roanoke, 
 and Raleigh took the yellow gleam for gold. He set 
 his faith too lightly on the fabulous ores of Chaunis 
 Temotam. But he was not the slave of these fancies, as 
 were the more vulgar adventurers of his age. More 
 than the promise of pearls and silver, it was the homely 
 products of the new country that attracted him, and 
 his captains were bidden to bring news to him of the 
 fish and fruit of Virginia, its salts and dyes and 
 
At Court 31 
 
 textile grasses. Nor was it a goldsmith that he sent 
 out to the new colony as his scientific agent, but a 
 young mathematician of promise, the practical and 
 obseiTant Thomas Hariot. 
 
 Some personal details of Raleigh's private life during 
 these two years may now be touched upon. He was in 
 close attendance upon the Queen at Greenwich and at 
 "Windsor, when he was not in his own house in the still 
 rural village of Islington. In the summer of 1584, 
 probably in consequence of the new wealth his broad- 
 cloth patent had secured him, he enlarged his borders in 
 several ways. He leased of the Queen, Durham House, 
 close to the river, covering the site of the present 
 Adelphi Terrace. This was the vast fourteenth-century 
 palace of the Bishops of Durham, which had come into 
 possession of the Crown late in the reign of Henry VIII. 
 Elizabeth herself had occupied it during the lifetime of 
 her brother, and she had recovered it again after the 
 death of Mary. Retaining certain rooms, she now relin- 
 quished it to her favourite, and in this stately mansion as 
 his town house Raleigh lived from 1584 to 1603. In 
 spite of his uncertain tenure, he spent very large sums 
 in repairing * this rotten house,' as Lady Raleigh after- 
 wards called it. 
 
 Some time between December 14, 1584, and 
 February 24, 1585, Raleigh was knighted. On the 
 latter date we find him first styled Sir Walter, in an 
 order from Burghley to report on the force of the 
 Devonshire Stannaries. His activities were now con- 
 centrated from several points upon the West of England, 
 and he became once more identified with the only race 
 that ever really loved him, the men of his native Devon- 
 
32 Raleigh 
 
 sHre. In July lie succeeded the Earl of Bedford as 
 Lord Warden of the Stannaries ; in September he was 
 appointed Lieutenant of the County of Cornwall ; in 
 November, Vice- Admiral of the two counties. He 
 appointed Lord Beauchamp his deputy in Cornwall, and 
 his own eldest half-brother, Sir John Gilbert of Green- 
 way, his deputy in Devonshire. In the same year, 
 1585, he entered Parliament as one of the two county 
 members for Devonshire. As Warden of the Stannaries 
 he introduced reforms which greatly mitigated the 
 hardships of the miners. 
 
 It is pleasanter to think of Raleigh administering 
 rough justice from the granite judgment-seat on some 
 windy tor of Dartmoor, than to picture him squabbling 
 for rooms at Court with 'Pecora Campi,' or ogling a 
 captious royal beauty of some fifty summers. Raleigh's 
 work in the West has made little noise in history ; but 
 it was as wholesome and capable as the most famous of 
 his exploits. 
 
 In March, 1586, Leicester found himself in disgrace 
 with Elizabeth, and so openly attributed it to Raleigh 
 that the Queen ordered Walsingham to deny that the 
 latter had ceased to plead for his former patron. Raleigh 
 himself sent Leicester a band of Devonshire miners to 
 serve in the Netherlands, and comforted him at the 
 same time by adding, ' The Queen is in very good terms 
 with you, and, thanks be to God, well pacified. You are 
 again her " Sweet Robin.'" It seems that the strange 
 accusation had been made against Raleigh that he 
 desired to favour Spain. This was calculated to vex 
 him to the quick, and we find him protesting (March 
 29, 1586) : ^ I have consumed the best part of my fortune, 
 
At Court 33 
 
 hating the tyrannous prosperity of that State, and it 
 were now strange and monstrous that I should become 
 an enemy to my country and conscience.' Two months 
 later he was threatened with the loss of his post as 
 Vice-Admiral if he did not withdraw a fleet he had fitted 
 out to harass the Spaniards in the Newfoundland waters. 
 About the same time he strengthened his connection 
 with the Leicester faction by marrying his cousin, 
 Barbara Gamage, to Sir Philip Sidney's younger brother 
 Robert. This lady became the grandmotlier of Waller's 
 Sacharissa. The collapse of the Virginian colony was 
 an annoyance in the summer of this year, but it was 
 tempered to Raleigh by the success of another of his 
 enterprises, his fleet in the Azores. One of the prizes 
 brought home by this purely piratical expedition was a 
 Spanish colonial governor of much fame and dignity, 
 Don Pedro Sarmiento. Raleigh demanded a ransom 
 for this personage, and while it was being collected 
 he entertained his prisoner sumptuously in Durham 
 House. 
 
 On October 7, 1586, Raleigh's old friend Sir Philip 
 Sidney closed his chivalrous career on the battle-field at 
 Zutphen. Raleigh's solemn elegy on him is one of the 
 finest of the many poems which that sad event called 
 forth. It blends the passion of personal regret with the 
 dignity of public grief, as all great elegiacal poems 
 should. One stanza might be inscribed on a monument 
 to Sidney : 
 
 England cloth hold thy limbs, that bred the same ; 
 
 Flanders thy valour, where it last was tried ; 
 
 The camp thy sorrow, where thy body died ; 
 Thy friends thy want ; the world thy virtues' fame. 
 
34 Raleigh 
 
 This elegy appeared with the rest in Astrophel in 
 1595 ; but it had already been printed, in 1593, in the 
 Phoenix Nest, and as early as 1591 Sir John Harington 
 quotes it as Ealeigh's. 
 
 It was not till the following spring that Raleigh 
 took possession of certain vast estates in Ireland. The 
 Queen had named him among the * gentlemen-under- 
 takers,' between whom the escheated lands of the Earl 
 of Desmond were to be divided. He received about 
 forty-two thousand acres in the counties of Cork, Water- 
 ford, and Tipperary, and he set about repeopling this 
 desolate region with his usual vigour of action. He 
 brought settlers over from the West of England, but 
 these men were not supported or even encouraged at 
 Dublin Castle. * The doting Deputy,' as Raleigh calls 
 him, treated his Devonshire farmers with less conside- 
 ration than the Irish kerns, and although it is certain 
 that of all the ^ undertakers ' Raleigh was the one who, 
 after his lights, tried to do the best for his land, his ex- 
 perience as an Irish colonist was on the whole dispiriting. 
 By far the richest part of his property was the ' haven 
 royal' of Youghal, with the thickly-wooded lands on 
 either side of the river Blackwater. He is scarcely to 
 be forgiven for what appears to have been the wanton 
 destruction of the Geraldine Friary of Youghal, built in 
 1268, which his men pulled down and bumed while he 
 was mayor of the town in 1587. Raleigh's Irish resi- 
 dences at this time were his manor-house in Youofhal, 
 which still remains, and Lismore Castle, which he 
 rented, from 1587 onwards, of the official Archbishop 
 of Cashel, Meiler Magrath. 
 
 We have now reached the zenith of Raleigh's per- 
 
At Court 35 
 
 sonal success. His fame was to proceed far beyond 
 anything that he had yet gained or deserved, but his 
 mere worldly success was to reach no further, and even 
 from this moment sensibly to decline. Elizabeth had 
 showered wealth and influence upon him, although she 
 had refrained, at her most doting moments, from lifting 
 him up to the lowest step in the ladder of aristocratic 
 preferment. But although her favour towards Raleigh 
 had this singular limit, and although she kept him 
 rigidly outside the pale of politics, in other respects her 
 affection had been lavish in the extreme. Without 
 ceasing to hold Hatton and Leicester captive, she had 
 now for five years given Raleigh the chief place in her 
 heart. But, in May 1587, we suddenly find him in 
 danger of being dethroned in favour of a boy of twenty, 
 and it is the new Earl of Essex, with his petulant 
 beauty, who ^ is, at cards, or one game or another, with 
 her, till the birds sing in the morning.' The remark- 
 able scene in which Essex dared to demand the sacrifice 
 of Raleigh as the price of his own devotion is best 
 described by the new favourite in his own words. 
 Raleigh had now been made Captain of the Guard, and 
 we have to imagine him standing at the door in his 
 uniform of orange-tawny, while the pert and pouting 
 boy is half declaiming, half whispering, in the ear of the 
 Queen, whose beating heart forgets to remind her that 
 she might be the mother of one of her lovers and the 
 grandmother of the other. Essex writes : 
 
 I told her that what she did was only to please that 
 knave Raleigh, for whose sake I saw she would both grieve 
 me and my love, and disgrace me in the eye of the world. 
 From thence she came to speak of Raleigh ; and it seemed 
 
$6 Raleigh 
 
 she could not well endure anything to be spoken against 
 him ; and taking hold of my word ' disdain,' she said there 
 was ' no such cause why I should disdain him.' This speech 
 did trouble me so much that, as near as I could, I did de- 
 scribe unto her what he had been, and what he was ... I 
 then did let her know, whether I had cause to disdain his 
 competition of love, or whether I could have comfort to give 
 myself over to the service of a mistress which was in awe 
 of such a man. I spake, with grief and choler, as much 
 against him as I could ; and I think he, standing at the 
 door, might very well hear the worst that I spoke of him- 
 self. In that end, I saw she was resolved to defend him, 
 and to cross me. 
 
 It was probably about this time, and owing to the 
 instigation of Essex, that Tarleton, the comedian, laid 
 himself open to banishment from Court for calling out, 
 while Raleigh was playing cards with Elizabeth, ' See 
 how the Knave commands the Queen ! ' Elizabeth sup- 
 ported her old favourite, but there is no doubt that 
 these attacks made their impression on her irritable 
 temperament. Meanwhile Raleigh, engaged in a dozen 
 different enterprises, and eager to post hither and 
 thither over land and sea, was probably not ill dis- 
 posed to see his royal mistress diverted from a too- 
 absorbing attention to himself. 
 
 On May 8, 1587, Raleigh sent forth from Plymouth 
 his fourth Virginian expedition, under Captain John 
 White. It was found that the second colony, the 
 handful of men left behind by Sir Richard Grenville, 
 had perished. With 150 men, White landed at Hato- 
 rask, and proposed to found a town of Raleigh in the 
 new country. Every species of disaster attended this 
 third colony, and in the midst of the excitement caused 
 the following year by the Spanish Armada, a fifth 
 
At Court 37 
 
 expedition, fitted out under Sir Richard Grenville, was 
 stopped by the Government at Bideford. Raleigh was 
 not easily daunted, however, and in the midst of the 
 preparations for the great struggle he contrived to 
 send out two pinnaces from Bideford, on April 22, 
 1588, for the succour of his unfortunate Virginians ; 
 but these little vessels were ignominiously stripped 
 off Madeira by privateers from La Rochelle, and sent 
 helpless back to England. Raleigh had now spent 
 more than forty thousand pounds upon the barren 
 colony of Virginia, and, finding that no one at Court 
 supported his hopes in that direction, he began to 
 withdraw a little from a contest in which he was so 
 heavily handicapped. In the next chapter we shall 
 touch upon the modification of his American policy. 
 He had failed hitherto, and yet, in failing, he had 
 already secured for his own name the highest place 
 in the early history cf Colonial America. 
 
 We now reach that famous incident in English 
 history over which every biographer of Raleigh is 
 tempted to linger, the ruin of Philip's Felicissima 
 Armada. Within the limits of the present life of Sir 
 Walter it is impossible to tell over again a story which 
 is among the most thrilling in the chronicles of the 
 world, but in which Raleigh's part was not a foremost 
 one. We possess no letter of 1588 in which he refers 
 to the fight. 
 
 On March 31, he had been one of the nine com- 
 missioners who met to consider the best means of 
 resisting invasion. In the same body of men sat two 
 of Raleigh's captains, Grenville and Ralph Lane, as 
 well as his old opponent, Lord Grey. Three months 
 before this, Raleigh had reported to the Queen on 
 
38 Raleigh 
 
 tHe state of tlie counties under his charge, and liis 
 counsel on the subject had been taken. That he was 
 profoundly excited at the crisis in English affairs is 
 proved by the many allusions he makes to the Armada 
 in the History of the Wo7id. It is on the whole 
 surprising that he was not called to take a more 
 prominent part in the event.* 
 
 It is believed that he was in Ireland when the 
 storm actually broke, that he hastened into the West 
 of England, to raise levies of Cornish and Devonian 
 miners, and that he then proceeded to Portland, of 
 which, among his many offices, he was now governor, 
 in order that he might revise and complete the de- 
 fences of that fortress. Either by land or sea, accord- 
 ing to conflicting accounts, he then hurried back to 
 Plymouth, and joined the main body of the fleet on 
 July 23. There is a very early tradition that his 
 advice was asked by the Admiral, Howard of Effingham, 
 on the question whether it would be wise to try to 
 board the Spanish galleons. The Admiral thought 
 not, but was almost over-persuaded by younger men, 
 eager for distinction, when Raleigh came to his aid 
 
 * Mr. J. Cordy Jeaffreson has communicated to me the following 
 interesting discovery, which he has made in examining the 
 Assembly Books of the borough of King's Lynn, in Norfolk. It 
 appears that the Mayor was paid ten pounds • in respecte he did 
 in the yere of his maioraltie [between Michaelmas 1587 and 
 Michaelmas 1588] entertayn Sir Walter Rawlye knight and his 
 companye in resortinge hether about the Queanes aflfayrs ; ' the 
 occasion being, it would seem, the furnishing and setting forth of a 
 ship of war and a pinnace as the contingent from Lynn towards 
 defence against the Armada. This is an important fact, for it is 
 the only definite record that has hitherto reached us of Ealeigh's 
 activity in guarding the coast against invasion. 
 
At Court 
 
 39 
 
 with counsel that tallied with the Admiral's judgment. 
 In the Historij of the World Kaleigh remarks : 
 
 To clap ships together without any consideration belongs 
 rather to a madman than to a man of war. By such an 
 ignorant bravery was Peter Strozzi lost at the Azores, when 
 he fought against the Marquis of Santa Cruz. In like sort 
 had Lord Charles Howard, Admiral of England, been lost 
 in the year 1588, if he had not been better advised than a 
 great many malignant fools were that found fault with his 
 demeanour. The Spaniards had an army aboard them, and 
 he had none. They had more ships than he had, and of 
 higher building and charging ; so that, had he entangled 
 himself with those great and powerful vessels, he had 
 greatly endangered this kingdom of England. 
 
 Raleigh's impression of the whole comedy of the 
 Armada is summed up in an admirable sentence in 
 his Eejjort of the Fight in the Azores^ to which the 
 reader must here merely be referred. His ship was 
 one of those which pursued the lumbering Spanish 
 galleons furthest in their wild flight towards the Danish 
 waters. He was back in England, however, in time to 
 receive orders on August 28 to prepare a fleet for 
 Ireland. Whether that fleet ever started or no is 
 doubtful, and the latest incident of Raleigh's connection 
 with the Armada is that on September 5, 1588, he 
 and Sir Francis Drake received an equal number of 
 wealthy Spanish prisoners, whose ransoms were to be 
 the reward of Drake's and of Raleigh's achievements. 
 More important to the latter was the fact that his skill 
 in naval tactics, and his genius for rapid action, had 
 very favourably impressed the Lord Admiral, who hence- 
 forward publicly treated him as a recognised authority 
 in these matters. 
 
40 Raleigh 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 IN DISGRACE. 
 
 For one year after tlie defeat of tlie Spanish Armada, 
 Raleigh resisted with success, or overlooked with equani- 
 mity, the determined attacks which Essex made upon 
 his position at Court. He was busy with great schemes 
 in all quarters of the kingdom, engaged in Devonshire, 
 in Ireland, in Virginia, in the north-western seas, and 
 to his virile activity the jealousy of Essex must have 
 seemed like the buzzing of a persistent gnat. The insect 
 could sting, however, and in the early part of December 
 1588, Raleigh's attention was forcibly concentrated on 
 his rival by the fact that ^ my Lord of Essex ' had sent 
 him a challenge. No duel was fought, and the Coun- 
 cil did its best to bury the incident * in silence, that 
 it might not be known to her Majesty, lest it might in- 
 jure the Earl,' from which it will appear that Raleigh's 
 hold upon her favour was still assured. 
 
 A week later than this we get a glance for a moment 
 at one or two of the leash of privateering enterprises, 
 all of them a little under the rose, in which Sir Walter 
 Raleigh was in these years engaged. An English ship, 
 the ' Angel Gabriel,' complained of being captured and 
 sacked of her wines by Raleigh's men on the high seas, 
 
In Disgrace 41 
 
 and he retorts by insinuating that she, * as it is probable, 
 has served the King of Spain in his Armada/ and is 
 therefore fair game. So, too, with the four butts of sack 
 of one Artson, and the sugar and mace said to be taken 
 out of a Hamburg vessel, their capture by Raleigh's 
 factors is comfortably excused on the ground that these 
 acts were only reprisals against the villainous Spaniard. 
 It was well that these more or less commercial under- 
 takings should be successful, for it became more and 
 more plain to Raleigh that the most grandiose of all his 
 enterprises, his determined effort to colonise Virginia, 
 could but be a drain upon his fortune. After Captain 
 White's final disastrous voyage, Raleigh suspended his 
 efforts in this direction for a while. He leased his 
 patent in Virginia to a company of merchants, on 
 March 7, 1589, merely reserving to himself a nominal 
 privilege, namely the possession of one fifth of such 
 gold and silver ore as should be raised in the colony. 
 This was the end of the first act of Raleigh's American 
 adventures. It may not be needless to contradict here 
 a statement repeated in most rapid sketches of his life. 
 It is not true that at any time Raleigh himself set foot 
 in Virginia. 
 
 In the Portugal expedition of 1589 Raleigh does 
 not seem to have taken at all a prominent part. He 
 was absent, however, with Drake's fleet from April 18 
 to July 2, and he marched with the rest up to the walls 
 of Lisbon. This enterprise was an attempt on the part 
 of Elizabeth to place Antonio again on the throne of 
 Portugal, from which he had been ousted by Philip of 
 Spain in 1580. The aim of the expedition was not 
 reached, but a great deal of booty fell into the hands of 
 5 
 
42 Raleigh 
 
 the English, and Raleigh in particular received 4,000Z. 
 His contingent, however, had been a little too zealous, 
 and he received a rather sharp reprimand for capturing 
 two barks from Cherbourg belonging to the friendly 
 power of France. It must be understood that Raleigh 
 at this time maintained at his own expense a small 
 personal fleet for commercial and privateering ends, 
 and that he lent or leased these vessels, with his own 
 services, to the government when additional naval con- 
 tributions were required. In the Domestic Correspon- 
 dence we meet with the names of the chief of these 
 vessels, ' The Revenge,' soon afterwards so famous, * The 
 Crane,' and ' The Garland.' These ships were merchant- 
 men or men-of-war at will, and their exploits were 
 winked at or frowned upon at Court as circumstances 
 dictated. Sometimes the hawk's eye of Elizabeth would 
 sound the holds of these pirates with incredible acumen, 
 as on that occasion when it is recorded that * a waistcoat 
 of carnation colour, curiously embroidered,' which was 
 being brought home to adorn the person of the adven- 
 turer, was seized by order of the Queen to form a 
 stomacher for his royal mistress. It would be difficult 
 to say which of the illustrious pair was the more 
 solicitous of fine raiment. At other times the whole 
 prize had to be disgorged ; as in the case of that 
 bark of Olonne, laden with barley, which Raleigh had to 
 restore to the Treasury on July 21, 1589, after he had 
 concluded a very lucrative sale of the same. 
 
 In August 1589 Sir Francis Allen wrote to Anthony 
 Bacon : ' My Lord of Essex hath chased Mr. Raleigh 
 from the Court, and hath confined him to Ireland.' It 
 is true that Raleigh himself, five months later, being 
 
In Disgrace 43 
 
 once more restored to favour, speaks of * that nearness to 
 her Majesty which I still enjoy/ and directly contradicts 
 the rumour of his disgrace. This, however, is not in 
 accordance with the statement made by Spenser in his 
 poem of Colin Clout's come home again, in which he says 
 that all Raleigh's speech at this time was 
 
 Of great unkindness and of usage hard 
 Of Cynthia, the Lady of the Sea, 
 Which from her presence faultless him debarred, 
 
 and this may probably be considered as final evidence. 
 At all events, this exile from Court, whether it was 
 enforced or voluntary, brought about perhaps the most 
 pleasing and stimulating episode in the whole of 
 Raleigh's career, his association with the great poet 
 whose lines have just been quoted. 
 
 We have already seen that, eight years before this, 
 Spenser and Raleigh had met under Lord Grey in the 
 expedition that found its crisis at Smerwick. We have 
 no evidence of the point of intimacy which they reached 
 in 1582, nor of their further acquaintance before 1589. 
 It has been thought that Raleigh's picturesque and vivid 
 personality immediately and directly influenced Spenser's 
 imagination. Dean Church has noticed that to read 
 Hooker's account of ' Raleigh's adventures with the 
 Irish chieftains, his challenges and single combats, his 
 escapes at fords and woods, is like reading bits of the 
 Faery Queen in prose.' The two men, in many respects 
 the most remarkable Englishmen of imagination then 
 before the notice of their country, did not, however, 
 really come into mutual relation until the time we have 
 now reached. 
 
44 Raleigh 
 
 In 1586 Edmund Spenser had been rewarded for 
 his arduous services as Clerk of the Council of Munster 
 by the gift of a manor and ruined castle of the Desmonds, 
 Kilcolman, near the Galtee hills. This little peel-tower, 
 with its tiny rooms, overlooked a county that is desolate 
 enough now, but which then was finely wooded, and 
 watered by the river Awbeg, to which the poet gave the 
 softer name of Mulla. Here, in the midst of terrors 
 by night and day, at the edge of the dreadful Wood, 
 where * outlaws fell affray the forest ranger,' Spenser 
 had been settled for three years, describing the adven- 
 tures of knights and ladies in a wild world of faery 
 that was but too like Munster, when the Shepherd of 
 the Ocean came over to Ireland to be his neighbour. 
 Raleigh settled himself in his own house at Youghal, 
 and found society in visiting his cousin. Sir George 
 Carew, at Lismore, and Spenser at Kilcolman. Of the 
 latter association we possess a most interesting record. 
 In 1591, reviewing the life of two years before, Spenser 
 
 One day I sat, (as was my trade), 
 
 Under the foot of Mole, that mountain hoar, 
 
 Keeping my sheep among the cooly shade 
 Of the green alders, by the Mulla's shore ; 
 
 There a strange shepherd chanced to find me out ; 
 Whether allured with my pipe's delight, 
 
 Whose pleasing sound yshrilled far about, 
 
 (the secret of the authorship of the SliepherdJs Calender 
 having by this time oozed out in the praises of Webbe 
 in 1586 and of Puttenham in 1589,) 
 
 Or thither led by chance, I know not right, — 
 
In Disgrace 45 
 
 Whom, when I ask^d from what place he came 
 And how he hight, himself he did ycleepe 
 
 The Shepherd of the Ocean by name, 
 
 And said he came far from the main-sea deep ; 
 
 He, sitting me beside in that same shade, 
 Provoked me to play some pleasant fit, 
 
 (that is to say, to read the MS. of the 'Faerij Queeriy 
 now approaching completion,) 
 
 And, when he heard the music which I made, 
 He found himself full greatly pleased at it-; 
 
 Yet semuling my pipe, he took in hond 
 
 My pipe, — before that, semuled of many, — 
 
 And played thereon (for well that skill he conned). 
 Himself as skilful in that art as any. 
 
 Among the other poems thus read by Ealeigh to 
 Spenser at Kilcolman was the ' lamentable lay ' to which 
 reference had just been made — the piece in praise of 
 Elizabeth which bore the name of Cynthia. In 
 Spenser's pastoral, the speaker is persuaded by Thestylis 
 (Lodovick Bryskett) to explain what ditty that was 
 that the Shepherd of the Ocean sanff, and he explains 
 very distinctly, but in terms which are scarcely critical, 
 that Ealeigh's poem was written in love and praise, 
 but also in pathetic complaint, of Elizabeth, that 
 
 great Shepherdess, that Cynthia hight, 
 His Liege, his Lady, and his life's Regent. 
 
 This is most valuable evidence of the existence in 
 1589 of a poem or series of poems by Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, set by Spenser on a level with the best work 
 of the age in verse. This poem was, until quite lately, 
 
46 Raleigh 
 
 supposed to have vanished entirely and beyond all hope 
 of recovery. Until now, no one seems to have been 
 aware that we hold in our hands a fragment of Raleigh's 
 magnum opus of 1589 quite considerable enough to give 
 us an idea of the extent and character of the rest.^ 
 
 In 1870 Archdeacon Hannah printed what he de- 
 scribed as a * continuation of the lost poem, Cynthia^ 
 from fragments in Sir Walter's own hand among the 
 Hatfield MSS. Dr. Hannah, however, misled by the 
 character of the handwriting, by some vague allusions, 
 in one of the fragments, to a prison captivity, and most 
 of all, probably, by a difficulty in dates which we can 
 now for the first time explain, attributed these pieces to 
 1603-1618, that is to say to Raleigh's imprisonment 
 in the Tower. The second fragment, beginning ' My 
 body in the walls captived,' belongs, no doubt, to the 
 later date. It is in a totally distinct metre from the 
 rest and has nothing to do with Cynthia. The first 
 fragment bears the stamp of much earlier date, but 
 this also can be no part of Raleigh's epic. The long 
 passage then following, on the contrary, is, I think, 
 beyond question, a canto, almost complete, of the lost 
 epic of 1589. It is written in the four-line heroic 
 stanza adopted ten years later by Sir John Davies for 
 his Nosce teipsum^ and most familiar to us all in Gray's 
 Churcliyard Elegy, Moreover, it is headed ' the Twenty- 
 first and Last Book of The Ocean to Cynthia.^ Another 
 note, in Raleigh's handwriting, styles the poem The 
 Oceans Love to Cynthia, and this was probably the full 
 name of it. Spenser's name for Raleigh, the Shepherd, or 
 
 * In the first two numbers of the Atherueum for 1886, I gave in 
 full detail the facts and arguments which are here given in summary. 
 
In Disgrace 47 
 
 pastoral hero, of the Ocean, is therefore for the first 
 time explained. This twenty-first book suffers from 
 the fact that stanzas, but apparently not very many, 
 have dropped out, in four places. With these losses, 
 the canto still contains 130 stanzas, or 526 lines. 
 Supposing the average length of the twenty preceding 
 books to have been the same, Tlie Ocean's Love to 
 Cynthia must have contained at least ten thousand 
 lines. Spenser, therefore, was not exaggerating, or 
 using the language of flattery towards a few elegies or 
 a group of sonnets, when he spoke of Cynthia as a 
 poem of great importance. As a matter of fact, no 
 poem of the like ambition had been written in England 
 for a century past, and if it had been published, it 
 would perhaps have taken a place only second to its 
 immediate contemporary. The Faery Queen, 
 
 At this very time, and in the midst of his poetical 
 holiday, Kaleigh was actively engaged in defending the 
 rights of the merchants of Waterford and Wexford to 
 carry on their trade in pipe-staves for casks. Raleigh 
 himself encouraged and took part in this exportation, 
 having two ships regularly engaged between Waterford 
 and the Canaries. Traces of his peaceful work in 
 Munster still remain. Sir John Pope Hennessy says : 
 
 The richly perfumed yellow wallflowers that he brought 
 to Ireland from the Azores, and the Affane cherry, are still 
 found where he first planted them by the Blackwater. 
 Some cedars he brought to Cork are to this day growing, 
 according to the local historian, Mr. J. G. MacCarthy, at 
 a place called Tivoli. The four venerable yew-trees, whose 
 branches have grown and intermingled into a sort of 
 summer-house thatch, are pointed out as having sheltered 
 
48 Raleigh 
 
 Raleigh when he first smoked tobacco in his Youghal garden. 
 
 In that garden he also planted tobacco A few steps 
 
 further on, where the town- wall of the thirteenth century 
 bounds the garden of the Warden's house, is the famous spot 
 where the first Irish potato was planted by him. In that 
 garden he gave the tubers to the ancestor of the present 
 Lord Southwell, by whom they were spread throughout the 
 province of Munster. 
 
 These were boons to mankind which the zeal of 
 Raleigh's agents had brought back from across the 
 western seas, gifts of more account in the end than could 
 be contained in all the palaces of Manoa, and all the 
 emerald mines of Trinidad, if only this great man could 
 have followed his better instinct and believed it. 
 
 Raleigh's habitual difficulty in serving under other 
 men showed itself this autumn in his dispute with the 
 Irish Deputy, Sir William Fitzwilliam, and led, perhaps, 
 to his return early in the winter. We do not know 
 what circumstances led to his being taken back into 
 Elizabeth's favour again, but it was probably in Novem- 
 ber that he returned to England, and took Spenser with 
 him. Of this interesting passage in his life we find 
 again an account in Colin Cloufs come home again. 
 Spencer says : 
 
 When thus our pipes we both had wearied well, 
 
 and each an end of singing made, 
 
 He [Raleigh] gan to cast great liking to my lore, 
 And great disliking to my luckless lot ; 
 
 and advised him to come to Court and be presented to 
 < Cynthia,' 
 
 Whose grace was great and boimty most rewardfuL 
 
In Disgrace 49 
 
 He then devotes no less than ninety-five lines to a 
 description of the voyage, which was a very rough one, 
 and at last he is brought by Raleigh into the Queen's 
 
 presence : 
 
 The shepherd of the ocean. . . . 
 Unto that goddess' grace me first enhanced, 
 
 And to my oaten pipe inclined her ear, 
 That she thenceforth therein gan take delight, 
 And it desired at timely hours to hear, 
 
 finally commanding the publication of it. On December 
 1, 1589, the Faery Queen was registered, and a pen- 
 sion of 50L secured for the poet. The supplementary 
 letter and sonnets to Raleigh express Spenser's generous 
 recognition of the services his friend had performed for 
 him, and appeal to Raleigh, as ' the Summer's Night- 
 ingale, thy sovereign goddess's most dear delight,' not 
 to delay in publishing his own great poem, the Cynthia. 
 The first of the eulogistic pieces prefixed by friends to 
 the Faery Queen was that noble and justly celebrated 
 sonnet signed W. R. which alone would justify Raleigh 
 in taking a place among the English poets. 
 
 Raleigh's position was once more secure in the sun- 
 light. He could hold Sir William Fitzwilliam informed, 
 on December 29, that ' I take myself far his better by 
 the honourable office I hold, as well as by that nearness 
 to her Majesty which still I enjoy, and never more.* 
 The next two years were a sort of breathing space in 
 Raleigh's career ; he had reached the table-land of his 
 fortunes, and neither rose nor fell in favour. The 
 violent crisis of the Spanish Armada had marked 
 the close of an epoch at Court. In September 
 1588 Leicester died, in April 1590 Walsingham, in 
 
50 Raleigh 
 
 September 1591 Sir Christoplier Hatton, three men in 
 whose presence, however apt Raleigh might be to 
 vaunt his influence, he could never have felt absolutely 
 master. New men were coming on, but for the moment 
 the most violent and aggressive of his rivals, Essex, 
 was disposed to wave a flag of truce. Both Raleigh 
 and Essex saw one thing more clearly than the Queen 
 herself, namely, that the loyalty of the Puritans, whom 
 Elizabeth disliked,, was the great safeguard of the 
 nation against Catholic encroachment, and they united 
 their forces in trying to protect the interests of men 
 like John Udall against the Queen's turbulent pre- 
 judices. In March 1591 we find it absolutely recorded 
 that the Earl of Essex and Raleigh have joined ' as 
 instruments from the Puritans to the Queen upon any 
 particular occasion of relieving them.* With Essex, 
 some sort of genuine Protestant fervour seems to have 
 acted ; Raleigh, according to all evidence, was a man 
 without religious interests, but far before his age in 
 tolerance for the opinions of others, and he was swayed, 
 no doubt, in this as in other cases, by his dislike of 
 persecution on the one hand, and his implacable enmity 
 to Spain on the other. 
 
 In May 1591, Raleigh was hurriedly sent down the 
 Channel in a pinnace to warn Lord Thomas Howard 
 that Spanish ships had been seen near the Scilly Islands. 
 There was a project for sending a fleet of twenty ships 
 to Spain, and Raleigh was to be second in command, 
 but the scheme was altered. In November 1591 he 
 first came before the public as an author with a tract 
 in which he celebrated the prowess of one of his best 
 friends and truest servants, Sir Richard Grenville, in a 
 
In Disgrace 51 
 
 contest witli the Spaniard which is one of the most 
 famous in Engh'sh history. Raleigh's little volume 
 is entitled : A Rei^ort of the Truth of the Fight about 
 the lies of the Azores this last Sommer betwixt the 
 * ReuG7ige ' and an Armada of the King of Spaine. The 
 fight had taken place on the preceding 10th of Sep- 
 tember ; the odds against the ' Revenge ' were so 
 excessive that Grenville was freely blamed for needless 
 foolhardiness, in facing 15,000 Spaniards with only 100 
 men. Raleigh wrote his Report to justify the memory 
 of his friend, and doubtless hastened its publication 
 that it might be received as evidence before Sir R. 
 Beville's commission, which was to meet a month later 
 to inquire into the circumstances of Grenville's death. 
 Posterity has taken Raleigh's view, and all Englishmen, 
 from Lord Bacon to Lord Tennyson, have united in 
 praising this fight as one 'memorable even beyond 
 credit, and to the height of some heroical fable.' 
 
 The Report of 1591 was anonymous, and it was 
 Hakluyt first who, in reprinting it in 1599, was per- 
 mitted to state that it was ' penned by the honourable 
 Sir Walter Ralegh, knight.' Long entirely neglected, 
 it has of late become the best known of all its author's 
 productions. It is written in a sane and manly style, 
 and marks the highest level reached by English nar- 
 rative prose as it existed before the waters were 
 troubled by the fashion of Euphues. Not issued with 
 Raleigh's name, it was yet no doubt at once recognised 
 as his work, and it cannot have been without influence 
 in determining the policy of the country with Spain. 
 The author's enmity to the Spaniard is inveterate, and 
 he is careful in an eloquent introduction to prove that 
 
52 Raleigh 
 
 lie is not actuated by resentment on account of this one 
 act of cruel cowardice, but by a divine anger, justified 
 by the events of years, ^ against the ambitious and 
 bloody pretences of the Spaniard, who, seeking to 
 devour all nations, shall be themselves devoured.' The 
 tract closes with a passionate appeal to the loyalty of the 
 English Catholics, who are warned by the sufierings of 
 Portugal that ' the obedience even of the Turk is easy 
 and a liberty, in respect of the slavery and tyranny of 
 Spain,' and who will never be so safe as when they are 
 trusting in the clemency of her Majesty. All this is in 
 the highest degree characteristic of Raleigh, whose 
 central idea in life was not prejudice against the 
 Catholic religion, for he was singularly broad in this 
 respect, but, in his own words, ' hatred of the tyrannous 
 prosperity of Spain.' This ran like a red strand 
 through his whole career from Smerwick to the block, 
 and this was at once the measure of his greatness and 
 the secret of his fall. 
 
 It was formerly supposed that Raleigh came into 
 possession of Sherborne, his favourite country residence, 
 in 1594, that is to say after the Throckmorton incident. 
 It is, however, in the highest degree improbable that 
 such an estate would be given to him after his fatal 
 offence, and in fact it is now certain that the lease was 
 extended to him much earlier, probably in October 1591. 
 There is a pleasant legend that Raleigh and one of his 
 half-brothers were riding up to town from Plymouth, 
 when Raleigh's horse stumbled and threw him within 
 the precincts of a beautiful Dorsetshire estate, then in 
 possession of the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury, and 
 that Raleigh, choosing to consider that he had thus 
 
In Disgrace 53 
 
 taken seisin of the soil, asked the Queen for Sherborne 
 Castle when he arrived at Court. It may have been on 
 this occasion that Elizabeth asked him when he would 
 cease to be a beggar, and received the reply, ' When your 
 Majesty ceases to be a benefactor ! ' His first lease 
 included a payment of 260Z. a year to the Bishop of 
 Salisbury, who asserted a claim to the property. In 
 January 1592, after the payment of a quarter's rent, 
 Kaleigh was confirmed in possession, and began to im- 
 prove and enjoy the property. It consisted of the 
 manor of Sherborne, with a large park, a castle which 
 had to be repaired, and several farms and hamlets, 
 together with a street in the borough of Sherborne 
 itself. It is a curious fact that Ealeigh had to present 
 the Queen with a jewel worth 250?. to induce her ' to 
 make the Bishop,' that is to say, to appoint to the see of 
 Salisbury, now vacant, a man who would consent to the 
 alienation of such rich Church lands as the manors of 
 Sherborne and Yetminster. John Meeres, afterwards so 
 determined and exasperating an enemy of Ealeigh's, was 
 now ^ appointed his bailiff, and Adrian Gilbert a sort of 
 general overseer of the works. 
 
 Raleigh had been but two months settled in posses- 
 sion of Sherborne, with his ninety-nine years' lease 
 'clearly made out, when he passed suddenly out of the 
 sunlight into the deepest shadow of approaching dis- 
 favour. The year opened with promise of greater ac- 
 tivity and higher public honours than Raleigh had yet 
 displayed and enjoyed. An expedition was to be sent 
 
 ^ Kaleigh says that he appointed this man, ' taking him out of 
 prison, because he had all the ancient records of Sherborne, his 
 father having been the Bishop's officer.' — De la Warr MSS. 
 
 6 
 
54 Raleigh 
 
 to capture the ricli fleet of plate-sliips, known as the 
 Indian Carracks, and then to push on to storm the pearl 
 treasuries of Panama. For the first time, Elizabeth 
 had shown herself willing to trust her favourite in 
 person on the perilous western seas. Raleigh was to 
 command the fleet of fifteen sliips, and under him was 
 to serve the morose hero of Cathay, the dreadful Sir 
 Martin Frobisher. Raleigh was not only to be admiral 
 of the expedition, but its chief adventurer also, and in 
 order to bear this expense he had collected his available 
 fortune from various quarters, stripping himself of all 
 immediate resources. To help him, the Queen had 
 bought The Ark Raleigh, his largest ship, for 5,000Z. ; 
 and in February 1592 he was ready to sail. When 
 the moment for parting came, however, the Queen found 
 it impossible to spare him, and Sir John Burrough was 
 appointed admiral. 
 
 It is exceedingly difficult to move with confidence 
 in this obscure part of our narrative. On March 10, 
 1592, we find Raleigh at Chatham, busy about the wages 
 of the sailors, and trying to persuade them to serve 
 under Frobisher, whose reputation for severity made him 
 very unpopular. He writes on that day to Sir Robert 
 Cecil, and uses these ambiguous expressions with regard 
 to a rumour of which we now hear for the first time ; 
 
 I mean not to come away, as they say I will, for fear of 
 a marriage, and I know not what. If any such thing were, 
 I would have imparted it to yourself, before any man living ; 
 and therefore, I pray, believe it not, and I beseech you to 
 suppress, what you can, any such malicious report. For I 
 protest before God, there is none, on the face of the earth, 
 that I would be fastened unto. 
 
In Disgrace 55 
 
 Raleigh was now in a desperate embarrassment. 
 There was that concealed in his private life which could 
 only be condoned by absence ; he had seen before him 
 an unexpected chance of escape from England, and now 
 the Queen's tedious fondness had closed it again. The 
 desperate fault which he had committed was that he had 
 loved too well and not at all wisely a beautiful orphan, 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, a 
 maid of honour to the Queen. It is supposed that she 
 was two or three and twenty at the time. Whether 
 he seduced her, and married her after his imprisonment 
 in the Tower, or whether in the early months of 1592 
 there was a private marriage, has been doubted. The 
 biographers of Raleigh have preferred to believe the 
 latter, but it is to be feared that his fair fame in this 
 matter cannot be maintained unsullied. Among Sir 
 Walter Raleigh's children one daughter appears to have 
 been illegitimate, ' my poor daughter, to whom I have 
 given nothing, for his sake who will be cruel to himself 
 to preserve thee,' as he says to Lady Raleigh in 1603, 
 and it may be that it was the birth of this child which 
 brought down the vengeance .of Queen Elizabeth upon 
 their heads. 
 
 His clandestine relations with Elizabeth Throck- 
 morton were not in themselves without excuse. To be 
 the favourite of Elizabeth, who had now herself attained 
 the sixtieth summer of her immortal charms, was 
 tantamount to a condemnation to celibacy. The vanity 
 of Belphoebe would admit no rival among high or low, 
 and the least divergence from the devotion justly due to 
 her own imperial loveliness was a mortal sin. What is 
 less easy to forgive in Raleigh than that at the age of 
 
56 Raleigh 
 
 forty he should have rebelled at last against this tyranny, 
 is that he seems, in the crisis of his embarrassment, to 
 have abandoned the woman to whom he could "svrite 
 long afterwards, ' I chose you and I loved you in my 
 happiest times.' After this brief dereliction, however, 
 he returned to his duty, and for the rest of his life was 
 eminently faithful to the wife whom he had taken under 
 such painful circumstances. 
 
 There is a lacuna in the evidence as to what 
 actually happened early in 1592 ; the late Mr. J. P. 
 Collier filled up this gap with a convenient letter, which 
 has found its way into the histories of Raleigh, but 
 the original of which has never been seen by other eyes 
 than the transcriber's. What is certain is that Raleigh 
 contrived to conceal the state of things from the Queen, 
 and to steal away to sea on the pretext that he was 
 merely accompanying Sir Martin Frobisher to the 
 mouth of the Channel. He says himself that on May 
 13, 1592, he was ^ about forty leagues off the Cape 
 Finisterre.' It was reported that the Queen sent a ship 
 after him to insist on his return, but such a messenger 
 would have had little chance of finding him when once 
 he had reached the latitude of Portugal, and it is more 
 reasonable to suppose that after straying away as far as 
 he dared, he came back again of his own accord. On 
 June 8 he was still living unmolested in Durham 
 House, and dealing, as a person in authority, with 
 certain questions of international navigation. Three 
 weeks later the Queen seems to have discovered, what 
 everyone about her knew already, the nature of 
 Raleigh's relations with Elizabeth Throckmorton. On 
 July 28 Sir Edward Stafford wrote to Anthony Bacon ; 
 
In Disgrace 57 
 
 * If you have anything to do with Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 or any love to make to Mrs. Throckmorton, at the Tower 
 to-morrow you may speak with them.' It was four 
 years before Raleigh was admitted again to the presence 
 of his enraged Belphoebe. 
 
 Needless prominence has been given to this im- 
 prisonment of Raleigh's, which lasted something less than 
 two months. He was exceedingly restive under con- 
 straint, however, and filled the air with the picturesque 
 clamour of his distress. His first idea was to soften 
 the Queen's heart by outrageous protestations of anxious 
 devotion to her person. The following passage from a 
 letter to Sir Robert Cecil is remarkable in many ways, 
 curious as an example of afiected passion in a soldier of 
 forty for a maiden of sixty, curious as a piece of carefully 
 modulated Euphuistic prose in the fashion of the hour, 
 most curious as the language of a man from whom the 
 one woman that he really loved was divided by the damp 
 wall of a prison : 
 
 My heart was never broken till this day, that I hear the 
 Queen goes away so far off, whom I have followed so many 
 years with so great love and desire, in so many journeys, 
 and am now left behind her, in a dark prison all alone. 
 While she was yet nigher at hand, that I might hear of her 
 once in two or three days, my sorrows were the less ; but 
 even now my heart is cast into the depth of all misery. I 
 that was wont to behold her riding like Alexander, hunting 
 like Diana, walking like Yenus, the gentle wind blowing 
 her fair hair about her pure cheeks, like a nymph ; some- 
 time sitting in the shade like a goddess ; sometime singing 
 like an angel ; sometime playing like Orpheus. Behold the 
 sorrow of this world ! Once amiss, hath bereaved me of all. 
 O Glory, that only shineth in misfortune, what is become of 
 
^8 Raleigh 
 
 thy assurance ? All wounds have scars, but that of fantasy ; 
 all affections their relenting, but that of womankind. 
 Who is the judge of friendship, but adversity ? or when is 
 grace Witnessed, but in offences % There were no divinity, 
 but by reason of compassion for revenges are brutish and 
 mortal. All those times past, the loves, the sights, the 
 sorrows, the desires, can they not weigh down one frail mis- 
 fortune % Cannot one drop of salt be hidden in so great 
 heaps of sweetness % I may then conclude, Spes etfortuna, 
 valete ! She is gone in whom I trusted, and of me hath not 
 one thought of mercy, nor any respect of that that was. Do 
 with me now, therefore, what you list. I am more weary 
 of life than they are desirous I should perish. 
 
 He kept up this comedy of passion with wonderful 
 energy. One day, when the royal barge, passing down 
 to Gravesend, crossed below his window, he raved and 
 stormed, swearing that his enemies had brought the 
 Queen thither * to break his gall in sunder with 
 Tantalus' torment.' Another time he protested that he 
 must disguise himself as a boatman, and just catch a 
 sight of the Queen, or else his heart would break. He 
 drew his dagger on his keeper, Sir George Carew, and 
 broke the knuckles of Sir Arthur Gorges, because he 
 said they were restraining him from the sight of his 
 Mistress. He proposed to Lord Howard of Effingham 
 at the close of a business letter, that he should be thrown 
 to feed the lions, ^ to save labour,' as the Queen was 
 still so cruel. Sir Arthur Gorges was in despair ; he 
 thought that Raleigh was going mad. ' He will shortly 
 grow,' he said, ' to be Orlando Furioso, if the bright 
 Angelica persevere against him a little longer.' 
 
 It was all a farce, of course, but underneath the 
 fantastic affectation there was a very real sentiment, that 
 
In Disgrace 59 
 
 of the intolerable tedium of captivity. Raleigh had 
 been living a life of exaggerated activity, never a month 
 at rest, now at sea, now in Devonshire, now at Court, 
 hurrying hither and thither, his horse and he one 
 veritable centaur. Among the Euphuistic Hears of 
 fancy ' which he sent from the Tower, there occurs this 
 little sentence, breathing the most complete sincerity : 
 
 * I live to trouble you at this time, being become like a 
 fish cast on dry land, gasping for breath, with lame legs 
 and lamer lungs.' There was no man then in England 
 whom it was more cruel to shut up in a cage. This 
 reference to his lungs is the first announcement of the 
 failure of his health. Raleigh's constitution was tough, 
 but he had a variety of ailments, and a tendency to 
 rheumatism and to consumption was among them. In 
 later years we shall find that the damp cells of the 
 Tower filled his joints with pain, and reduced him with 
 a weakening cough. But long before his main im- 
 prisonment his joints and his lungs were troublesome to 
 him. 
 
 Meanwhile the great privateering expedition in 
 which Raleigh had launched his fortune was proceeding 
 to its destination in the Azores. No such enterprise 
 had been as yet undertaken by English adventurers. 
 It was a strictly private effort, but the Queen in her 
 personal capacity had contributed two ships and 1,800Z., 
 and the citizens of London 6,000Z., but Raleigh retained 
 by far the largest share. Raleigh had been a week in 
 the Tower, when Admiral Sir John Burrough, who had 
 divided the fleet and had left Frobisher on the coast of 
 Spain, joined to his contingent two London ships, the 
 
 * Golden Dragon ' and the ' Prudence/ and lay in wait 
 
6o Raleigh 
 
 under Flores for the great line of approaching carracks. 
 The largest of these, the ^ Madre de Dios,' was the most 
 famous plate-ship of the day, carrying what in those days 
 seemed almost incredible, no less than 1,800 tons. 
 Her cargo, brought through Indian seas from the coast 
 of Malabar, was valued when she started at 500,000Z. 
 She was lined with glowing woven carpets, sarcenet 
 quilts, and lengths of white silk and Cyprus ; she carried 
 in chests of sandalwood and ebony such store of rubies 
 and pearls, such porcelain and ivory and rock crystal, 
 such great pots of musk and planks of cinnamon, as had 
 never been seen on all the stalls of London. Her hold 
 smelt like a garden of spices for all the benjamin and 
 cloves, the nutmegs and the civet, the ambergris and 
 frankincense. There was a fight before Raleigh's ship 
 the 'Roebuck' could seize this enormous prize, yet 
 somewhat a passive one on the part of the lumbering 
 carrack, such a fight as may ensue between a great 
 rabbit and the little stoat that sucks its life out. When 
 she was entered, it was found that pilferings had gone 
 on already at every port at which she had called ; and 
 the English sailors had done their share before Burrough 
 could arrive on board ; the jewels and the lighter spices 
 were badly tampered with, but in the general rejoicing 
 over so vast a prize this was not much regarded. 
 Through seas so tempestuous that it seemed at one time 
 likely that she would sink in the Atlantic, the ' Madre 
 de Dios ' was at last safely brought into Dartmouth, on 
 September 8. 
 
 The arrival of the ' Madre de Dios ' on the Queen's 
 birthday had something like the importance of a 
 national event. No prize of such value had ever been 
 
In Disgrace 6i 
 
 captured before. When all deduction had been made 
 for treasure lost or pilfered or squandered, there yet 
 remained a total value of 141,000Z. in the money of 
 that day. The fact that all this wealth was lying in 
 Dartmouth harbour was more than the tradesmen of 
 London could bear. Before the Queen's commissioners 
 could assemble, half the usurers and shopkeepers in the 
 City had hurried down into Devonshire to try and gather 
 up a few of the golden crumbs. Raleigh, meanwhile, 
 was ready to burst his heart with fretting in the Tower, 
 until it suddenly appeared that this very concourse and 
 rabble at Dartmouth would render his release impera- 
 tive. No one but he could cope with Devonshire in its 
 excitement, and Lord Burghley determined on sending 
 him to Dartmouth. Robert Cecil, writing from Exeter 
 to his father on September 19, reported that for seven 
 miles everybody he met on the London road smelt of 
 amber or of musk, and that you could not open a bag 
 without finding seed-pearls in it. * My Lord ! ' he says, 
 * there never was such spoil.' Raleigh's presence was 
 absolutely necessaiy, for Cecil could do nothing with 
 the desperate and obstinate merchants and sailors. 
 
 On September 21, Raleigh arrived at Dartmouth 
 with his keeper, Blount. Cecil was amazed to find the 
 disgraced favourite so popular in Devonshire. ^I assure 
 you,' he says, ^ his poor servants to the number of one 
 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 extremely pensive longer than 
 he is busied, in which he can toil terribly, but if you 
 did hear him rage at the spoils, finding all the short 
 
62 Raleigh 
 
 wares utterly devoured, you would laugli as I do, whicli 
 I cannot choose. The meeting between him and Sir 
 John Gilbert was with tears on Sir John's part ; and 
 he belike finding it known he had a keeper, wherever 
 he is saluted with congratulation for liberty, he doth 
 answer, " No, I am still the Queen of England's poor 
 captive." I wished him to conceal it, because here it 
 doth diminish his credit, which I do vow to you before 
 God is greater among the mariners than I thought for. 
 I do grace him as much as I may, for I find him 
 marvellously greedy to do anything to recover the 
 conceit of his brutish ofience.' 
 
 Raleigh broke into rage at finding so many of his 
 treasures lost, and he gave out that if he met with any 
 London jewellers or goldsmiths in Devonshire, were it 
 on the wildest heath in all the county, he would strip 
 them as naked as when they were born. He raved 
 against the commissioners and the captains, against 
 Cecil and against Cross. As was his wont, he showed 
 no tact or consideration towards those who were engaged 
 with or just above him ; but about the end of September 
 business cooled his wrath, and he settled down to a 
 division of the prize. On September 27, the Com- 
 missioners of Inquiry sent in to Burghley and Howard 
 a report of their proceedings with respect to the ' Madre 
 de Dios ' ; this report is signed by Cecil, Raleigh, Sir 
 Francis Drake, and three other persons. They had car- 
 ried on their search for stolen treasure so rigorously 
 that even the Admiral's chests were examined against 
 his will. They confess their disappointment at finding 
 in them nothing more tempting than some tafietas em- 
 broidered with Chinese gold, and a bunch of seed-pearl. 
 
In Disgrace 63 
 
 Sir Walter Ealeigh now married or acknowledged 
 Elizabetli Throckmorton, and in February 1593 Sir 
 Robert Cecil procured some sort of surly recognition 
 of the marriage from the Queen. For this Lady Raleigh 
 thanks him in a strange flowery letter ^ of the 8th of 
 that month, in which she excuses her husband for his 
 denial of her — ' if faith were broken with me, I was\ 
 yet far away ' — and shows an affectionate solicitude for \ 
 his future. It seems that Raleigh's first idea on finding 
 himself free was to depart on an expedition to America, 
 and this Lady Raleigh strongly objects to. In her 
 alembicated style she says to Cecil, ' I hope for my sake 
 you will rather draw for Walter towards the east than 
 help him forward toward the sunset, if any respect to 
 me or love to him be not forgotten. But every month 
 hath his flower and every season his contentment, and 
 you great councillors are so full of new councils, as you 
 are steady in nothing, but we poor souls that have 
 bought sorrow at a high price, desire, and can be pleased 
 with, the same misfortune we hold, fearing alterations 
 will but multiply misery, of which we have already felt 
 sufficient.' The poor woman had her way for the 
 present, and for two full years her husband contented 
 himself with a quiet and obscure life among the woods 
 of Sherborne. 
 
 For the next year we get scanty traces of Raleigh's 
 movements from his own letters. In May 1593 his 
 health, shaken by his imprisonment, gave him some 
 uneasiness, and he went to Bath to drink the waters, 
 but without advantage. In August of that year we 
 
 * Mr. Edwards has evidently dated this important letter a year 
 too late (vol. ii. 397-8). 
 
64 Raleigh 
 
 find him busy in Gillingliam Forest, and he gives Sir 
 Kobert Cecil a roan gelding in exchange for a rare 
 Indian falcon. In the autumn he is engaged on the 
 south coast in arranging quarrels between English and 
 French fishermen. In April 1594 he captures a live 
 Jesuit, * a notable stout villain,' with all ' his copes and 
 bulls,' in Lady Stourton's house, which was a very warren 
 of dangerous recusants. But he soon gets tired of these 
 small activities. The sea at Weymouth and at Ply- 
 mouth put out its arms to him and wooed him. To 
 hunt ' notable Jesuit knaves ' and to sit on the granite 
 judgment-seat of the Stannaries were well, but life 
 offered more than this to Raleigh. In June 1594 he 
 tells Cecil that he will serve the Queen as a poor private 
 mariner or soldier if he may only be allowed to be 
 stirring abroad, and the following month there is a stiU 
 more urgent appeal for permission to go with the Lord 
 Admiral to Brittany. He has a quarrel meanwhile with 
 the Dean and Chapter of Sarum, who have let his 
 Sherborne farms over his head to one Fitzjames, and 
 ' who could not deal with me worse withal if I were 
 a Turk.' But a month later release has come. The 
 plague has broken up his home, his wife and son are 
 sent in opposite directions, and he himself has leave to 
 be free at last ; with God's favour and the Queen's he 
 wiU sail into ' the sunset ' that Lady Raleigh had feared 
 so much, and will conquer for England the fabulous 
 golden cities of Guiana. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GUIANA. 
 
 The vast tract in the north-east of the southern conti- 
 nent of America which is now divided between Vene- 
 zuela and three European powers, was known in the 
 sixteenth century by the name of Guiana. Of this 
 district the three territories now styled English, Dutch, 
 and French Guiana respectively form but an insigni- 
 ficant coast-line, actually lying outside the vague east- 
 em limit of the traditional empire of Guiana. As early 
 as 1539 a brother of the great Pizarro had returned 
 to Peru with a legend of a prince of Guiana whose body 
 was smeared with turpentine and then blown upon with 
 gold dust, so that he strode naked among his people 
 like a majestic golden statue. This prince was El Dorado, 
 the Gilded One. But as time went on this title was 
 transferred from the monarch to his kingdom, or rather 
 to a central lake hemmed in by golden mountains in 
 the heart of Guiana. Spanish and German adventurers 
 made effort after effort to reach this laguna, starting 
 now from Peru, now from Quito, now from Trinidad, 
 but they never found it: little advance was made in 
 knowledge or authority, nor did Spain raise any defi- 
 nite pretensions to Guiana, although her provinces 
 hemmed it in upon three sides. 
 
 r 
 
66 Raleigh 
 
 There is no doubt that Ealeigh, who followed with 
 the closest attention the nascent geographical literature 
 of his time, read the successive accounts which the 
 Spaniards and Germans gave of their explorations in 
 South America. But it was not until 1594 that he 
 seems to have been specially attracted to Guiana. At 
 every part of his career it was ^ hatred of the tyrannous 
 prosperity ' of Spain which excited him to action. 
 Early in 1594 Captain George Popham, sailing appa- 
 rently in one of Ealeigh's vessels, captured at sea and 
 brought to the latter certain letters sent home to the 
 King of Spain announcing that on April 23, 1593, at 
 a place called Warismero, on the Orinoco, Antonio de 
 Berreo, the Governor of Trinidad, had annexed Guiana 
 to the dominions of his Catholic Majesty, under the 
 name of El Nuevo Dorado. In these same letters 
 various reports of the country and its inhabitants were 
 repeated, that the chiefs danced with their naked bodies 
 gleaming with gold dust, and with golden eagles dangling 
 from their breasts and great pearls from their ears, that 
 there were rich mines of diamonds and of gold, that the 
 innocent people were longing to exchange their jewels 
 for jews-harps. Ealeigh was aroused at once, less by 
 the splendours of the description than by the fact 
 that this unknown country, with its mysterious possi- 
 bilities, had been impudently added to the plunder of 
 Spain. He immediately fitted out a ship, and sent 
 Captain Jacob Whiddon, an old servant of his, to act as 
 a pioneer, and get what knowledge he could of Guiana. 
 Whiddon went to Trinidad, saw Berreo, was put off by 
 him with various treacherous excuses, and returned to 
 England in the winter of 1594 with but a scanty stock 
 
Guiana 6^ 
 
 of fresh information. It was enough, however, to en- 
 courage Raleigh to start for Guiana without delay. 
 
 On December 26 he writes : ' This wind breaks my 
 heart. That which should carry me hence now stays 
 me here, and holds seven ships in the river of Thames. 
 As soon as God sends them hither I will not lose one 
 hour of time.' On January 2, 1595, he is still at Sher- 
 borne,* only gazing for a wind to carry me to my destiny.' 
 At last, on February 6 he sailed away from Plymouth, 
 not with seven, but with five ships, together with small 
 craft for ascending rivers. What the number of his 
 crew was, he nowhere states. The section of them 
 which he took up to the Orinoco he describes as 'a 
 handful of men, being in all about a hundred gentlemen ; 
 soldiers, rowers, boat-keepers, boys, and all sorts.* 
 Sir Robert Cecil was to have adventured his own ship, 
 the * Lion's Whelp,' and for her Raleigh waited seven 
 or eight days among the Canaries, but she did not arrive. 
 On the 17th they captured at Fuerteventura two ships, 
 Spanish and Flemish, and stocked their own vessels with 
 wine from the latter. 
 
 They then sailed on into the west, and on March 22 
 arrived on the south side of Trinidad, casting anchor on 
 the north shore of the Serpent's Mouth. Raleigh person- 
 ally explored the southern and western coasts of the 
 island in a small boat, while the ships kept to the channel. 
 He was amazed to find oysters in the brackish creeks 
 hanging to the branches of the mangrove trees at low 
 water, and he examined also the now famous liquid pitch 
 of Trinidad. Twenty years afterwards, in writing The 
 History of the World, we find his memory still dwelling 
 on these natural wonders. At the first settlement the 
 
68 Raleigh 
 
 EnglisK fleet came to. Port of Spain, they traded with the 
 Spanish colonists, and Raleigh endeavoured to find out 
 what he could, which was but little, about Guiana. He 
 pretended that he was asking merely out of curiosity, 
 and was on his way to his own colony of Virginia. 
 
 While Raleigh was anchored off Port of Spain, he 
 found that Berreo, the Governor, had privately sent 
 for reinforcements to Marguerita and Cumana, meaning 
 to attack him suddenly. At the same time the Indians 
 came secretly aboard the English ships with terrible 
 complaints of Spanish cruelty. Berreo was keeping 
 the ancient chiefs of the island in prison, and had 
 the singular foible of amusing himself at intervals by 
 basting their bare limbs with broiling bacon. These 
 considerations determined Raleigh to take the initiative. 
 That same evening he marched his men up the country 
 to the new capital of the island, St. Joseph, which 
 they easily stormed, and in it they captured Berreo. 
 Raleigh found five poor roasted chieftains hanging in 
 irons at the point of death, and at their instance he set 
 St. Joseph on fire. That very day two more English 
 ships, the ^ Lion's Whelp' and the ' Galleys,' arrived at 
 Port of Spain, and Raleigh was easily master of the 
 situation. 
 
 Berreo seems to have submitted with considerable 
 tact. He insinuated himself into Raleigh's confidence, 
 and, like the familiar poet in Shakespeare's sonnet, 
 ^nightly gulled him with intelligence.' His original 
 idea probably was that by inflaming Raleigh's imagi- 
 nation with the wonders of Guiana, he would be the 
 more likely to plunge to his own destruction into the 
 fatal swamps of the Orinoco. It is curious to find 
 
Guiana 69 
 
 even Raleigh, who was eminently humane in his own 
 dealings with the Indians, speaking in these terms 
 of such a cruel scoundrel as Berreo, ^a gentleman 
 well descended, very valiant and liberal, and a gentle- 
 man 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 showed him a copy he held of a journal kept by 
 a certain Juan Martinez, who professed to have pene- 
 trated as far as Manoa, the capital of Guiana. This 
 narrative was very shortly afterwards exposed as 'an 
 invention of the fat friars of Puerto Rico,' but Raleigh 
 believed it, and it greatly encouraged him. When 
 Berreo realised that he certainly meant to attempt the 
 expedition, his tone altered, and he ' was stricken into a 
 great melancholy and sadness, using all the arguments 
 he could to dissuade me, and also assuring the gentle- 
 men of my company that it would be labour lost,' but 
 all in vain. 
 
 The first thing to be done was to cross the Serpent's 
 Mouth, and to ascend one of the streams of the great 
 delta. Raleigh sent Captain Whiddon to explore the 
 southern coast, and determined from his report to take 
 the Capuri, or, as it is now called, the Macareo branch, 
 which lies directly under the western extremity of 
 Trinidad.' After an unsuccessful effort here, he started 
 farther west, on the Cano Manamo, which he calls the 
 River of the Red Cross. He found it exceedingly dif- 
 ficult to enter, owing to the sudden rise and fall of the 
 flood in the river, and the violence of the current. At 
 last they started, passing up the river on the tide, and 
 anchoring in the ebb, and in this way went slowly 
 
70 Raleigh 
 
 onward. The vessels wliich carried them were little 
 fitted for such a task. Raleigh had had an old galley 
 furnished with benches to row upon, and so far cut 
 down that she drew but five feet of water; he had 
 also a barge, two wherries, and a ship's boat, and in 
 this miserable fleet, leaving his large vessels behind 
 him in the Gulf of Paria, he accomplished his perilous 
 and painful voyage to the Orinoco and back, with one 
 hundred persons and their provisions. Of the misery of 
 these four hundred miles he gives a graphic account : 
 
 We were all driven to lie in the rain and weather, in the 
 open air, in the burning sun, and upon the hard boards, and 
 to dress our meat, and to carry all manner of furniture, 
 wherewith [the boats] were so pestered and unsavoury, that 
 what with victuals being most fish, with the wet clothes of 
 so many men thrust together, and the heat of the sun, I 
 will undertake there was never any prison in England that 
 could be found more unsavoury and loathsome, especially 
 to myself, who had for many years before been dieted and 
 cared for in a sort far different. 
 
 On the third day, as they were ascending the river, 
 the galley stuck so fast that they thought their expe- 
 dition would have ended there ; but after casting out all 
 her ballast, and after much tugging and hauling to and 
 fro, they got off in twelve hours. When they had 
 ascended beyond the limit of the tide, the violence of 
 the current became a very serious difficulty, and at the 
 end of the seventh day the crews began to despair, the 
 temperature being extremely hot, and the thick foliage 
 of the Ita-palms on either side of the river excluding 
 every breath of air. Day by day the Indian pilots 
 assured them that the next night should be the last. 
 
Guiana 71 
 
 Raleigli had to harangue his men to prevent mutiny, 
 for now their provisions also were exhausted. He told 
 them that if they returned through that deadly swamp 
 they must die of starvation, and that the world would 
 laugh their memory to scorn. 
 
 Presently things grew a little better. They found 
 wholesome fruits on the banks, and now that the streams 
 were purer they caught fish. Not knowing what they 
 saw, they marvelled at the 'birds of all colours, some 
 carnation, orange tawny,' which was Raleigh's own 
 colour, 'purple, green, watchet and of all other sorts 
 both simple and mixed, as it was unto us a great good 
 passing of the time to behold them, besides the relief 
 we found by killing some store of them with our fowl- 
 ing pieces.' These savannahs are full of birds, and the 
 brilliant macaws which excited Raleigh's admiration 
 make an excellent stew, with the flavour, according to 
 Sir Robert Schomburgk, of hare soup. Their pilot now 
 persuaded them to anchor the galley in the main river, 
 and come with him up a creek, on the right hand, which 
 would bring them to a town. On this wild-goose chase 
 they ascended the side-stream for forty miles ; it was 
 probably the Cucuina, which was simply winding back 
 with them towards the Gulf of Paria. They felt that 
 the Indian was tricking them, but about midnight, 
 while they were talking of hanging him, they saw a 
 light and heard the baying of dogs. They had found 
 an Indian village, and here they rested well, and had 
 plenty of food and drink. Upon this new river they 
 were charmed to see the deer come feeding down to 
 the water's brink, and Raleigh describes the scene as 
 though it reminded him of his own park at Sherborne. 
 
72 Raleigh 
 
 They were alarmed at the crowds of alligators, and 
 one handsome young negro, who leaped into the river 
 from the galley, was instantly devoured in Raleigh's 
 sight. 
 
 Next day they regained the great river, and their 
 anxious comrades in the ' Lion's Whelp.' They passed 
 on together, and were fortunate enough to meet with 
 four Indian canoes laden with excellent bread. The 
 Indians ran away and left their possessions, and 
 Raleigh's dreams of mineral wealth were excited by the 
 discovery of what he took to be a ^ refiner's basket, for 
 I found in it his quicksilver, saltpetre, and divers things 
 for the trial of metals, and also the dust of such ore as 
 he had refined.' He was minded to stay here and dig 
 for gold, but was prevented by a phenomenon which he 
 mentions incidentally, but which has done much to 
 prove the reality of his narrative. He says that all the 
 little creeks which ran towards the Orinoco ^ were raised 
 with such speed, as if we waded them over the shoes 
 in the morning outward, we were covered to the 
 shoulders homeward the very same day.' Sir R. Schom- 
 burgk found exactly the same to be the case when he 
 explored Guiana in 1843. 
 
 They pushed on therefore along the dreary river, and 
 on the fifteenth day had the joy of seeing straight 
 before them far away the peaks of Peluca and Paisapa, 
 the summits of the Imataca mountains which divide 
 the Orinoco from the Essequibo. The same evening, 
 favoured by a strong northerly wind, they came in sight 
 of the great Orinoco itself, and anchored in it a little to 
 the east of the present settlement of San Rafael de 
 Barrancas. Their spirits were high again. They feasted 
 
Guiana 73 
 
 on the eggs of the freshwater turtles which they found 
 in thousands on the sandy islands, and they gazed with 
 rapture on the mountains to the south of them which 
 rose out of the very heart of Guiana. A friendly chieftain 
 carried them off to his village, where, to preserve the 
 delightful spelling of the age, ^ some of our captaines 
 garoused of his wine till they were reasonable pleasant,' 
 this wine being probably the cassivi or fermented juice 
 of the sweet potato. It redounds to Raleigh's especial 
 credit that in an age when great license was customary 
 in dealing with savages, he strictly prohibited his men, 
 under threat of punishment by death, from insulting 
 the Indian women. His just admiration of the fair 
 Caribs, however, was quite enthusiastic ; 
 
 The casique that was a stranger had his wife staying at 
 the port where we anchored, and in all my life I have seldom 
 seen a better-favoured woman. She was of good stature, 
 with black eyes, fat of body, of an excellent countenance, 
 and taking great pride therein. I have seen a lady in 
 England so Hke her, as but for the difference of colour I 
 would have sworn might have been the same. 
 
 They started to ascend the Orinoco, having so little 
 just understanding of the geography of South 
 America that they thought if they could only sail far 
 enough up the river they would come out on the other 
 side of the continent at Quito. It has been noticed that 
 Raleigh passed close to the Spanish settlement of 
 Guayana Vieja, which Berreo had founded four years 
 before. Perhaps it was by this time deserted, and 
 Raleigh may really have gone by it without seeing it. 
 More probably, however, its existence interfered with 
 
74 Raleigh 
 
 his theory that all this territory was untouched by 
 Europeans, and therefore open to be annexed in the 
 name of her English Majesty. Passing up the Orinoco, 
 he came at last to what he calls ^ the port of Morequito/ 
 where he made some stay, and enjoyed the luxury of 
 pine-apples, which he styles '- the princess of fruits.' 
 He was also introduced to that pleasing beast the arma- 
 dillo, whose powers and functions he a little misunder- 
 stood, for he says of it, ' it seemeth to be all barred over 
 with small plates like to a rhinoceros, with a white horn 
 growing in his hinder parts, like unto a hunting horn, 
 which they use to wind instead of a trumpet/ What 
 Raleigh mistook for a hunting-horn was the stiff tail of 
 the armadillo. Raleigh warned the peaceful and friendly 
 inhabitants of Morequito against the villanies of Spain, 
 and recommended England to them as a safe protector. 
 He then pursued his westerly course to an island which 
 he calls Caiama, and which is now named Fajardo, 
 which was the farthest point he reached upon the 
 Orinoco. ' This island lies at the mouth of the Caroni, 
 the great southern artery of the watershed, and Raleigh's 
 final expedition was made up this stream. He reached 
 the foot of the great cataract, now named Salto Caroni, 
 and his description of this noble natural wonder may be 
 quoted as a favourable instance of his style, and as the 
 crown of his geographical enterprise : 
 
 When we ran to the tops of the first hills of the plains 
 adjoining to the river, we behold that wonderful breach of 
 waters, which ran down Caroli [Caroni] ; and might from 
 that mountain see the river how it ran in three parts, above 
 twenty miles off, and there appeared some ten or twelve 
 overfalls in sight, every one as high over the other as a 
 
Guiana 75 
 
 church tower, which fell with that fury that the rebound 
 of waters made it seem as if it had been all covered over 
 with a great shower of rain ; and in some places we took it 
 at the first for a smoke that had risen over some great town. 
 Eor mine own part, I was well persuaded from thence to 
 have returned, being a very ill footman, but the rest were all 
 so desirous to go near the said strange thunder of waters, 
 that they drew me on by little and little, till we came into 
 the next valley, where we might better discern the same. 
 I never saw a more beautiful country, nor more lively 
 prospects, hills so raised here and there over the valleys, the 
 river winding into divers branches, the plains adjoining 
 without bush or stubble, all fair green grass, the ground of 
 hard sand easy to march on either for horse or foot, the 
 deer crossing in every path, the birds towards the evening 
 singing on every tree with a thousand several tunes, cranes 
 and herons of white, crimson, and carnation perching on the 
 river's side, the air fresh with a gentle easterly wind, and 
 every stone that we stooped to take up promised either gold 
 or silver by his complexion. 
 
 The last touch spoils an exquisite picture. It is at 
 once dispiriting to find so intrepid a geographer and so 
 acute a merchant befooled by the madness of gold, and 
 pathetic to know that his hopes in this direction were 
 absolutely unfounded. The white quartz of Guiana, 
 the 'hard white spar' which Raleigh describes, con- 
 fessedly contains gold, although, as far as is at present 
 known, in quantities so small as not to reward working. 
 Humboldt says that his examination of Guiana gold 
 led him to believe that, ' like tin, it is sometimes dis- 
 seminated in an almost imperceptible manner in the 
 mass of granite rocks itself, without our being able to 
 admit that there is a ramification and an interlacing of 
 8 
 
^6 Raleigh 
 
 small veins.' It is plain tliat Raleigh got hold of un- 
 usually rich specimens of the sparse auriferous quartz. 
 He was accused on his return of having brought his 
 specimens from Africa, but no one suggested that they 
 did not contain gold. No doubt much of the sparkling 
 dust he saw in the rocks was simply iron pyrites, or 
 some other of the minerals which to this day are known 
 to the wise in California as ' fool's gold.' His expe- 
 dition had come to America unprovided with tools of 
 any kind, and Raleigh confesses that such specimens of 
 ore as they did not buy from the Indians, they had to 
 tear out with their daggers or with their fingers. 
 
 It has been customary of late, in reaction against the 
 defamation of Raleigh in the eighteenth century, to 
 protest that gold was not his chief aim in the Guiana 
 enterprise, but that his main wish, under cover of 
 the search for gold, was to form a South American 
 colony for England, and to open out the west to 
 general commerce. With every wish to hold this 
 view, I am unable to do so in the face of the existing 
 evidence. More humane, more intelligent than any of 
 the adventurers who had preceded him, it yet does not 
 seem that Raleigh was less insanely bitten with the 
 gold fever than any of them. He saw the fleets of 
 Spain return to Europe year after year laden with 
 precious metals from Mexico, and he exaggerated, as all 
 men of his age did, the power of this tide of gold. He 
 conceived that no one would stem the dangerous in- 
 fluence of Spain until the stream of wealth was diverted 
 or divided. He says in the most direct language that 
 it is not the trade of Spain, her exports of wines 
 and Seville oranges and other legitimate produce, that 
 
Guiana 77 
 
 threatens shipwreck to us all ; 4t is his Indian gold that 
 endangereth and disturbeth all the nations of Europe ; 
 it purchased intelligence, creepeth into councils, and 
 setteth bound loyalty at liberty in the greatest mon- 
 archies of Europe.' In Raleigh's exploration of Guiana, 
 his steadfast hope, the hope which led him patiently 
 through so many hardships, was that he might secure 
 for Elizabeth a vast auriferous colony, the proceeds of 
 which might rival the revenues of Mexico and Peru. 
 But we must not make the mistake of supposing him 
 to have been so wise before his time as to perceive that 
 the real wealth which might paralyse a selfish power 
 like that of Spain would consist in the cereals and other 
 products which such a colony might learn to export. 
 
 Resting among the friendly Indians in the heart of 
 the strange country to which he had penetrated, Raleigh 
 became in many ways the victim of his ignorance and 
 his pardonable credulity. Not only was he gulled with 
 diamonds and sapphires that were really rock-crystals, 
 but he was made to believe that there existed west of 
 the Orinoco a tribe of Indians whose eyes were in 
 their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their 
 breasts. He does not pretend that he saw such folks, 
 however, or that he enjoyed the advantage of conversing 
 with any of the Ewaipanoma, or men without heads, or 
 of that other tribe, ' who have eminent heads like dogs, 
 and live all the day-time in the sea, and speak the 
 Carib language.' Of all these he speaks from modest 
 hearsay, and less confidently than Othello did to Desde- 
 mona. It is true that he relates marvellous and 
 fabulous things, but it is no less than just to distinguish 
 very carefully between what he repeats and what he 
 
78 Raleigh 
 
 reports. For the former we have to take the evidence 
 of his interpreters, who but dimly understood what the 
 Indians told them, and Raleigh cannot be held person- 
 ally responsible ; for the latter, the testimony of all later 
 explorers, especially Humboldt and Schomburgk, is that 
 Raleigh's narrative, where he does not fall into obvious 
 and easily intelligible error, is remarkably clear and 
 simple, and full of internal evidence of its genuineness. 
 They had now been absent from their ships for 
 nearly a month, and Raleigh began to give up all hope 
 of being able on this occasion to reach the city of Manoa. 
 The fury of the Orinoco began to alarm them ; they did 
 not know what might happen in a country subject to 
 such sudden and phenomenal floods. Tropical rains fell 
 with terrific violence, and the men would get wetted to 
 the skin ten times a day. It was cold, it was windy, 
 and to push on farther seemed perfectly hopeless. 
 Raleigh therefore determined to return, and they glided 
 down the vast river at a rapid pace, without need of sail 
 or oar. At Morequito, Raleigh sent for the old Indian 
 chief, Topiawari, who had been so friendly to him before, 
 and had a solemn interview with him. He took him 
 into his tent, and shutting out all other persons but 
 the interpreter, he told him that Spain was the enemy 
 of Guiana, and urged him to become the ally of England. 
 He promised to aid him against the Epuremi, a native 
 race which had oppressed him, if Topiawari would in 
 his turn act in Guiana for the Queen of England. To 
 this the old man and his followers warmly assented, 
 urging Raleigh to push on, if not for Manoa, at least for 
 Macureguarai, a rich city full of statues of gold, that was 
 but four days' journey farther on. This, Raleigh, in con- 
 
Guiana 79 
 
 sideration of tlie sufferings- of his followers, declined to 
 do, but he consented to an odd exchange of hostages, and 
 promised the following year to make a better equipped 
 expedition to Manoa. He carried off with him the son 
 of Topiawari, and he left behind at Morequito a boy 
 called Hugh Goodwin. To keep this boy company, a 
 young man named Francis Sparrey volunteered to stay 
 also ; he was a person of some education, who had served 
 with Captain Gifford. Goodwin had a fancy for learning 
 the Indian language, and when Raleigh found him at 
 Caliana twenty-two years later, he had almost forgotten 
 his English. He was at last devoured by a jaguar. 
 Sparrey, who ^ could describe a country with his pen,' 
 was captured by the Spaniards, taken to Spain, and 
 after long sufferings escaped to England, where he 
 published an account of Guiana in 1602. Sparrey is 
 chiefly remembered by his own account of how he pur- 
 chased eight young women, the eldest but eighteen 
 years of age, for a red-hafted knife, which in England 
 had cost him but a halfpenny. This was not the sort 
 of trade which Raleigh left him behind to encourage. 
 
 As they passed down the Orinoco, they visited a 
 lake where Raleigh saw that extraordinary creature the 
 manatee, half cow, half whale ; and a little lower they 
 saw the column of white spray, rising like the tower of 
 a church, over the huge cascades of the crystal mountains 
 of Roraima. At the village of a chieftain within ear- 
 shot of these thundering waters, they witnessed one of 
 the wild drinking feasts of the Indians, who were * all 
 as drunk as beggars, the pots walking from one to 
 another without rest.' Next day, the contingent led 
 by Captain Keymis found them, and to celebrate the 
 
8o Raleigh 
 
 meeting of friends, they passed over to the island of 
 Assapana, now called Yayo, in the middle of the Orinoco, 
 and the J enj oyed a feast of the flesh of armadillos. On the 
 following day, increased cold and violent thunderstorms 
 reminded them that the autumn was far spent, and they 
 determined to return as quickly as possible to the sea. 
 Their pilots told them, however, that it was out of the 
 question to try to descend the River of the Red Cross, 
 which they had ascended, as the current would baffle 
 them ; and therefore they attempted what is now called 
 the Macareo channel, farther east. Raleigh names this 
 stream the Capuri. 
 
 They had no further adventures until they reached 
 the sea ; but as they emerged into the Serpent's Mouth, 
 a great storm attacked them. They ran before night 
 close under shore with their small boats, and brought 
 the galley as near as they could. The latter, however, 
 very nearly sank, and Raleigh was puzzled what to do. 
 A bar of sand ran across the mouth of the river, covered 
 by only six feet of water, and the galley drew five. The 
 longer he hesitated, the worse the weather grew, and 
 therefore he finally took Captain Gifibrd into his own 
 barge, and thrust out to sea, leaving the galley anchored 
 by the shore. ' So being all very sober and melancholy, 
 one faintly cheering another to show courage, it pleased 
 God that the next day, about nine of the clock, we 
 descried the island of Trinidad, and steering for the 
 nearest part of it, we kept the shore till we came to 
 Curiapan, where we found our ships at anchor, than 
 which there was never to us a more joyful sight.' 
 
 In spite of the hardships of the journey, the constant 
 wettings, the bad water and insufficient food, the lodging 
 
Guiana 8i 
 
 in the open air every night, he had only lost a single 
 man, the young negro who was snapped up by the 
 alligator at the mouth of the Cucuina. At" the coast 
 there are dangerous miasmata which often prove fatal 
 to Europeans, but the interior of this part of South 
 America is reported by later travellers to be no less 
 wholesome than Raleigh found it. 
 
 During Raleigh's absence his fleet had not lain idle 
 at Trinidad. Captain Amyas Preston, whom he had left 
 in charge, determined to take the initiative against the 
 Spanish forces which Berreo had summoned to his help. 
 With four ships Preston began to harry the coast of 
 Venezuela. On May 21 he appeared before the impor- 
 tant town of Cumana, but was persuaded to spare it 
 from sack upon payment of a large sum by the inha- 
 bitants. Captain Preston landed part of his crew here, 
 and they crossed the country westward to Caracas, 
 which they plundered and burned. The fleet proceeded 
 to Coro, in New Granada, which they treated in the 
 same way. When they returned is uncertain, but 
 Raleigh found them at Curiapan when he came back to 
 Trinidad, and with them he coasted once more the 
 northern shore of South America. He burned Cumana, 
 but was disappointed in his hopes of plunder, for he 
 says, ' In the port towns of the province of Vensuello 
 [Venezuela] we found not the value of one real of plate/ 
 The fact was that the repeated voyages of the English 
 captains — and Drake was immediately to follow in 
 Raleigh's steps — had made the inhabitants of these 
 northern cities exceedingly wary. The precious products 
 were either stored in the hills, or shipped off to Spain 
 without loss of time. 
 
82 Raleigh 
 
 Raleigh's return to England was performed without 
 any publicity. He stole home so quietly that some 
 people declared that he had been all the time snug 
 in some Cornish haven. His biographers, including 
 Mr. Edwards, have dated his return in August, being 
 led away by a statement of Davis's, manifestly inaccu- 
 rately dated, that Raleigh and Preston were sailing off 
 the coast of Cuba in July. This is incompatible with 
 Raleigh's fear of the rapid approach of winter while he 
 was still in Guiana. It would also be difficult to account 
 for the entire absence of reference to him in England 
 before the winter. It is more likely that he found his 
 way back into Falmouth or Dartmouth towards the end 
 of October 1595. On November 10, he wrote to Cecil, 
 plainly smarting under the neglect which he had re- 
 ceived. He thought that coming from the west, with an 
 empire in his hand as a gift for Elizabeth, the Queen 
 would take him into favour again, but he was mistaken. 
 He writes to Cecil nominally to offer his services against 
 a rumoured fleet of Spain, but really to feel the ground 
 about Guiana, and the interest which the Government 
 might take in it. ^ What becomes of Guiana I much 
 desire to hear, whether it pass for a history or a fable. 
 I hear Mr. Dudley [Sir Robert Dudley] and others are 
 sending thither ; if it be so, farewell all good from 
 thence. For although myself, lik^ a cockscomb, did 
 rather prefer the future in respect of others, and rather 
 sought to win the kings to her Majesty's service than to 
 sack them, I know what others will do when those kings 
 shall come singly into their hands.' 
 
 Meanwhile he had been writing an account of his 
 travels, and on November 13, 1595, he sent a copy of 
 
Guiana Zi 
 
 this in manuscript to Cecil, no doubt in hope that it 
 might be shown to Elizabeth. In the interesting letter 
 which accompanied this manuscript he inclosed a map of 
 Guiana, long supposed to have been lost, which was found 
 by Mr. St. John in the archives of Simancas, signed with 
 Ealeigh's name, and in perfect condition. It is evident 
 that Ealeigh could hardly endure the disappointment of 
 repulse. He says, ^I know the like fortune was never 
 offered to any Christian prince,' and losing his balance 
 altogether in his extravagant pertinacity, he declares to 
 Cecil that the city of Manoa contains stores of golden 
 statues, not one of which can be worth less than 
 100,000L If the English Government will not prose- 
 cute the enterprise that he has sketched out, Spain and 
 France will shortly do so, and Raleigh, in the face of 
 such apathy, ' concludes that we are cursed of God.' 
 Amid all this excitement, it is pleasant to find him 
 remembering to be humane, and begging Cecil to 
 impress the Queen with the need of * not soiling this 
 enterprise' with cruelty; nor permitting any to proceed 
 to Guiana whose object shall only be to plunder the 
 Indians. He sends Cecil an amethyst * with a strange 
 blush of carnation,' and another stone, which ' if it be 
 no diamond, yet exceeds -any diamond in beauty.' 
 
 Raleigh now determined to appeal to the public at 
 large, and towards Christmas 1595 he published his 
 famous volume, which bears the date 1596, and is 
 entitled, after the leisurely fashion of the age. The JDis- 
 covery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empii'e of Guiana, 
 with a Relation of the Gi'eat and Golden City of Manoa, 
 ivMch the Spaniards call JEl Dorado, and the Provinces 
 of Emeria, Arromaia, Amajpaia, and other Countries, with 
 
84 Raleigh 
 
 iheir Rivers, adjoining. Of this volume two editions 
 appeared in 1596, it was presently translated into Latin 
 and published in Germany, and in short gained a repu- 
 tation throughout Europe. There can be no doubt that 
 Raleigh's outspoken hatred of Spain, expressed in this 
 printed form, from which there could be no escape on the 
 ground of mere hearsay, was the final word of his chal- 
 lenge to that Power. From this time forth Raleigh was 
 an enemy which Spain could not even pretend to ignore. 
 
 The Discovery of Guiana was dedicated to the 
 Lord Admiral Howard and to Sir Robert Cecil, with 
 a reference to the support which the author had 
 found in their love ' in the darkest shadow of adversity.' 
 There was probably some courtly exaggeration, mingled 
 with self-interest, in the gratitude expressed to Cecil. 
 Already the relation of this cold-blooded statesman to 
 the impulsive Raleigh becomes a crux to the biographers 
 of the latter. Cecil's letters to his father from Devon- 
 shire on the matter of the Indian carracks in 1592 are 
 incompatible with Raleigh's outspoken thanks to Cecil 
 for the trial of his love when Raleigh was bereft of all 
 but malice and revenge, unless we suppose that these 
 letters represented what Burghley would like to hear 
 rather than what Robert Cecil actually felt. In 1596 
 Burghley, in extreme old age, was a factor no longer to 
 be taken into much consideration. Moreover, Lady 
 Raleigh had some hold of relationship or old friendship 
 on Cecil, the exact nature of which it is not easy to 
 understand. At all events, as long as Raleigh could 
 hold the favour of Cecil, the ear of her Majesty was not 
 absolutely closed to him. 
 
 The Discovery possesses a value which is neither 
 
Guiana 85 
 
 biographical nor geographical. It holds a very promi- 
 nent place in the prose literature of the age. During 
 the five years which had elapsed since Raleigh's last 
 publication, English literature had been undergoing a 
 marvellous development, and he who read everything 
 and sympathised with every intellectual movement 
 could not but be influenced by what had been written. 
 During those five years, Marlowe's wonderful career had 
 been wound up like a melodrama. Shakespeare had 
 come forward as a poet. A new epoch in sound English 
 prose had been inaugurated by Hooker's Ecclesiastical 
 Polity. Bacon was circulating the earliest of his Essays. 
 What these giants of our language were doing for 
 their own departments of prose and verse, Raleigh did 
 for the literature of travel. Among the volumes of 
 navigations, voyages, and discoveries, which were poured 
 out so freely in this part of the reign of Elizabeth, most 
 of them now only remembered because they were 
 reprinted in the collections of Hakluyt and Purchas, 
 this book of Raleigh's takes easily the foremost position. 
 In comparison with the blufi* and dull narratives of the 
 other discoverers, whose chief charm is their naivete, 
 the Discovery of Guiana has all the grace and fullness 
 of deliberate composition, of fine literary art, and as 
 it was the first excellent piece of sustained travellers' 
 prose, so it remained long without a second in our 
 literature. The brief examples which it has alone been 
 possible to give in this biography, may be enough to 
 attract readers to its harmonious and glowing pages. 
 
 Among the many allusions found to this book in 
 contemporary records, perhaps the most curious is an 
 epic poem on Guiana, published almost immediately by 
 
S6 Raleigh 
 
 George Chapman, who gave his enthusiastic approval to 
 Raleigh's scheme. It is the misfortune of Chapman's 
 style that in his grotesque arrogance he disdained to be 
 lucid, and this poem is full of tantalising hints, which 
 the biographer of Raleigh longs to use, but dares not, 
 from their obscurity. These stately verses are plain 
 enough, but show that Chapman was not familiar with 
 the counsels of Elizabeth : 
 
 Then in the Thespiads' bright prophetic font, 
 Methinks I see our Liege rise from her throne, 
 Her ears and thoughts in steep amaze erect, 
 At the most rare endeavour of her power ; 
 And now she blesses with her wonted graces 
 The industrious knight, the soul of this exploit, 
 Dismissing him to convoy of his stars : 
 
 Chapman was quite misinformed; and to what event 
 he now proceeds to refer, it would be hard to say : 
 
 And now for love and honour of his wrath. 
 
 Our twice-born nobles bring him, bridegroom like, 
 
 That is espoused for virtue to his love. 
 
 With feasts and music ravishing the air, 
 
 To his Argolian fleet ; where round about 
 
 His bating colours English valour swarms 
 
 In haste, as if Guianian Orenoque 
 
 With his full waters fell upon our shore. 
 
 Early in 1596, Raleigh sent Captain Lawrence 
 Keymis, who had been with him the year before, on a 
 second voyage to Guiana. He did not come home rich, 
 but he did the special thing he was enjoined to do — that 
 is to say, he explored the coast of South America from 
 the mouth of the Orinoco to that of the Amazon. 
 
Guiana Zy 
 
 About the same time Raleigh drew np the very remark- 
 able paper, not printed until 1843, entitled Of the Voyage 
 for Guiana. In this essay he first makes use of those 
 copious quotations from Scripture which later on became 
 so characteristic of his writing. His hopes of interest- 
 ing the English Government in Guiana were finally 
 frustrated by the excitement of the Cadiz expedition, 
 and by the melancholy fate of Sir Francis Drake. It 
 is said that during this winter he lived in great magni- 
 ficence at Durham House, but this statement seems 
 improbable. All the letters of Raleigh's now in exist- 
 ence, belonging to this period, are dated from Sherborne, 
 
88 Raleigh 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CADIZ. 
 
 The defeat of tlie Spanisli Armada Lad inflicted a 
 wound upon the prestige of Spain which was terrible 
 but by no means beyond remedy. In the eight years 
 which had elapsed since 1588, Spain had been gradually 
 recovering her forces, and endangering the political 
 existence of Protestant Europe more and more. Again 
 and again the irresolution of Elizabeth had been called 
 upon to complete the work of repression, to crush the 
 snake that had been scotched, to strike a blow in Spanish 
 waters from which Spain never would recover. In 1587, 
 and in 1589, schemes for a naval expedition of this kind 
 had been brought before Council, and rejected. In 
 1596, Charles Lord Howard of Effingham, with the 
 support of Cecil, forced the Government to consent to 
 fit out an armament for the attack of Cadiz. The 
 Queen, however, was scarcely to be persuaded that the 
 expenditure required for this purpose could be spared 
 from the Treasury. On April 9, levies of men were 
 ordered from all parts of England, and on the 10th 
 these levies were countermanded, so that the messengers 
 sent on Friday from the Lords to Raleigh's deputies in 
 the West, were pursued on Saturday by other mes- 
 sengers with contrary orders. 
 
Cadiz 89 
 
 The change of purpose, however, was itself promptly- 
 altered, and the original policy reverted to. The Earl 
 of Essex was joined in commission with the Lord 
 Admiral Howard, and as a council of war to act with 
 these personages were named Sir Walter Ealeigh and 
 Lord Thomas Howard. The Dutch were to contribute 
 a fleet to act with England. It is an interesting fact 
 that now for the first time the experience and naval 
 skill of Raleigh received their full recognition. From 
 the very first he was treated with the highest conside- 
 ration. Howard wrote to Cecil on April 16 — and Essex 
 on the 28th used exactly the same words — ' I pray you, 
 hasten away Sir Walter Raleigh.' They fretted to be 
 gone, and Raleigh was not to be found; malignant 
 spirits were not wanting to accuse him of design in his 
 absence, of a wish to prove himself indispensable. But 
 fortunately we possess his letters, and we see that he 
 was well and appropriately occupied. In the previous 
 November he had sent in to the Lords of the Council a 
 very interesting report on the defences of Cornwall and 
 Devon, which he had reason to suppose that Spain 
 meant to attack. He considered that three hundred 
 soldiers successfully landed at Plymouth would be 
 'sufficient to endanger and destroy the whole shire,' 
 and he discussed the possibility of levying troops from 
 the two counties to be a mutual protection. It was 
 doubtless his vigour and ability in performing this sort 
 of work which led to his being selected as the chief pur- 
 veyor of levies for the Cadiz expedition, and this was 
 what he was doing in the spring of 1596, when the 
 creatures of Essex whispered to one another that he 
 was malingering. 
 
90 Raleigh 
 
 On May 3, lie wrote to Cecil : * I am not able to 
 live, to row up and down every tide from Gravesend to 
 London, and he that lies here at EatclifF can easily 
 judge when the rest, and how the rest, of the ships may 
 sail down/ And again, from a lower point of the 
 Thames, at Blackwall, he is still waiting for men and 
 ships that will not come, and is ' more grieved than ever 
 I was, at anything in this world, for this cross weather.* 
 
 Through the month of May, we may trace Kaleigh 
 hard at work, recruiting for the Cadiz expedition round 
 the southern coast of England. On the 4th he is at 
 Northfleet, disgusted to find how little her Majesty's 
 authority is respected, for ' as fast as we. press men one 
 day, they come away another, and say they will not 
 serve. I cannot write to our generals at this time, for 
 the Pursuevant found me at a country village, a mile 
 from Gravesend, hunting after runaway mariners, and 
 dragging in the mire from alehouse to alehouse, and 
 could get no. paper.' On the 6th he was at Queen- 
 borough, on the 13th at Dover, whence he reports 
 disaster by a storm on Goodwin Sands, and finally on 
 the 21st he arrived at Plymouth. His last letters are 
 full of recommendations of personal friends to appoint- 
 ments in the gift or at the command of Sir Robert 
 Cecil. He brought with him to Plymouth two of 
 Bacon's cousins, the Cookes, and his own wife's brother, 
 Arthur Throckmorton. Unfortunately, just as the fleet 
 was starting, the last-mentioned, ' a hot-headed youth,' 
 in presence not only of the four generals, but of the 
 commanders of the Dutch contingent also, took Raleigh's 
 side in some dispute at table so intemperately and loudly 
 that he was dismissed from the service. This must 
 
Cjdiz 91 
 
 have been singularly annoying to Raleigh, who never- 
 theless persuaded his colleagues, no doubt on receipt of 
 due apology, to restore the young man to his rank, and 
 allow him to proceed. At Cadiz, Throckmorton fought 
 so well that Essex himself knighted him. 
 
 The generals had other troubles at Plymouth. The 
 men that Ealeigh had pressed along the coast hated 
 their duty, and some of them had to be tried for deser- 
 tion and mutiny. Before the fleet got under way, 
 two men were publicly hanged, to encourage the others, 
 * on a very fair and pleasant green, called the Hoe.' 
 At last, on June 1, the squadrons put to sea. Contrary 
 winds kept them within Plymouth Sound until the 3rd. 
 On the 20th they anchored in the bay of St. Sebastian, 
 half a league to the westward of Cadiz. The four English 
 divisions of the fleet contained in all ninety-three vessels, 
 and the Dutch squadron consisted of twenty-four more. 
 There were about 15,500 men, that is to say 2,600 
 Dutchmen, and the rest equally divided between English 
 soldiers and sailors. 
 
 The events of the next few days were not merely a 
 crucial and final test of the relative strength of Spain 
 and England, closing in a brilliant triumph for the 
 latter, but to Raleigh in particular they were the climax 
 of his life, the summit of his personal prosperity and 
 glory. The records of the battle of Cadiz are ex- 
 ceedingly numerous, and were drawn up not by 
 English witnesses only, but by Dutch and Spanisli 
 historians also. Mr. Edwards has patiently collected 
 them all, and he gives a very minute and lucid account 
 of their various divergencies. Of them all the most full 
 and direct is that given by Raleigh himself, in his 
 
92 Raleigh 
 
 Relation of the Action in Cadiz Harbour, first published 
 in 1699. In a biography of Raleigh it seems but 
 reasonable to view such an event as this from Raleigh's 
 own standpoint, and the description which now follows 
 is mainly taken from the Relation. The joint fleet 
 paused where the Atlantic beats upon the walls of Cadiz, 
 and the Spanish President wrote to Philip II. that they 
 seemed afraid to enter. He added that it formed la 
 mas liermosa armada que se ha visto, the most beautiful 
 fleet that ever was seen ; and that it was French as well 
 as English and Dutch, which was a mistake. 
 
 Raleigh's squadron was not part of the fleet that 
 excited the admiration of Gutierrez Flores. On the 19th 
 he had been detached, in the words of his instructions, 
 * with the ships under his charge, and the Dutch 
 squadron, to anchor near the entrance of the harbour, 
 to take care that the ships riding near Cadiz do not 
 escape,' and he took up a position that commanded 
 St. Lucar as well as Cadiz. He was *not to fight, 
 except in self-defence,' without express instructions. 
 At the mouth of St. Lucar he found some great ships, 
 but they lay so near shore that he could not approach 
 them, and finally they escaped in a mist, Raleigh very 
 nearly running his own vessel aground. Meanwhile 
 Essex and Charles Howard, a little in front of him, 
 came to the conclusion in his absence that it would be 
 best to land the soldiers and assault the town, without 
 attempting the Spanish fleet. 
 
 Two hours after this determination had been arrived 
 at, much to the dismay of many distinguished persons in 
 the fleet whose position did not permit them to expostu- 
 late, Raleigh arrived to find Essex in the very act of dis- 
 
Cadiz 93 
 
 embarking his soldiers. There was a great sea on from the 
 south, and some of the boats actually sank in the waves, 
 but Essex nevertheless persisted, and was about to effect 
 a landing west of the city. Raleigh came on board the 
 * Repulse,' ' and in the presence of all the colonels pro- 
 tested against the resolution,' showing Essex from his 
 own superior knowledge and experience that by acting 
 in this way he was running a risk of overthrowing ' the 
 whole armies, their own lives, and her Majesty's future 
 safety.' Essex excused himself, and laid the responsi- 
 bility on the Lord Admiral. 
 
 Raleigh having once dared to oppose the generals, 
 he received instant moral support. All the other com- 
 manders and gentlemen present clustered round him 
 and entreated him to persist. Essex now declared 
 himself convinced, and begged Raleigh to repeat his 
 arguments to the Lord Admiral. Raleigh passed on to 
 Howard's ship, ' The Ark Royal,' and by the evening 
 the Admiral also was persuaded. Returning in his 
 boat, as he passed the ' Repulse ' Raleigh shouted up to 
 Essex ' Intramus,' and the impetuous Earl, now as eager 
 for a fight by sea as he had been a few hours before for 
 a fight by land, flung his hat into the sea for joy, and 
 prepared at that late hour to weigh anchor at once. 
 
 It took a good deal of time to get the soldiers out of 
 the boats, and back into their respective ships. Essex, 
 whom Raleigh seems to hint at under the cautious 
 word 'many,' ' seeming desperately valiant, thought it a 
 fault of mine to put off [the attack] till the morning ; 
 albeit we had neither agreed in what manner to fight, 
 nor appointed who should lead and who should second, 
 whether by boarding or otherwise.' Raleigh, in his 
 
94 Raleigh ** 
 
 element when rapid action was requisite, passed to and 
 fro between the generals, and at last from his own ship 
 wrote a hasty letter to the Lord Admiral, giving his 
 opinion as to the best way to arrange the order of battle, 
 and requesting him to supply a couple of great fly-boats 
 to attack each of the Spanish galleons, so that the 
 latter might be captured before they were set on fire. 
 
 Essex and Howard were completely carried away by 
 Raleigh's vehement counsels. The Lord Admiral had 
 always shown deference to Raleigh's nautical science, and 
 the Earl was captivated by the qualities he could best 
 admire, courage and spirit and rapidity. Raleigh's old 
 faults of stubbornness and want of tact abandoned him 
 at this happy moment. His graceful courtesy to Essex, 
 his delicacy in crossing dangerous ground, won praise 
 even from his worst enemies, the satellites of Essex. It 
 was Raleigh's blossoming hour, and all the splendid 
 gifts and vigorous charms of his brain and character 
 expanded in the sunrise of victory. Late in the busy 
 evening of the 20th, the four leaders held a final council 
 of war, amiably wrangling among themselves for the 
 post of danger. At last the others gave way to what 
 Raleigh calls his ' humble suit,' and it was decided that 
 he should lead the van. Essex, Lord Howard of 
 Effingham, and the Vice- Admiral, Lord Thomas Howard, 
 were to lead the body of the fleet ; but it appeared next 
 morning that the Vice-Admiral had but seemed to give 
 way, and that his ambition was still to be ahead of Raleigh 
 himself. As Raleigh returned to sleep on board the 
 'War Sprite,' the town of Cadiz was all ablaze with 
 lamps, tapers, and tar barrels, while there came faintly 
 out to the ears of the English sailors a murmur of wild 
 festal music. 
 
Cadiz 95 
 
 Next day was the 21st of June. As Mr. St. Jolin 
 pleasantly says, ' that St. Barnabas' Day, so often the 
 brightest in the year, was likewise the brightest of 
 Raleigh's life.' At break of day, the amazed inhabitants 
 of Cadiz, and the sailors who had caroused all night on 
 shore and now hurried on board the galleons, watched 
 the magnificent squadron sweep into the harbour of 
 their city. First came the ^ War Sprite ' itself; next 
 the ' Mary Rose,' commanded by Sir George Carew ; 
 then Sir Francis Yere in the ' Rainbow,' carrying a 
 sullen heart of envy with him ; then Sir Robert Southwell 
 in the * Lion,' Sir Conyers Clifford in the ' Dreadnought,' 
 and lastly, as Raleigh supposed, Robert Dudley (after- 
 wards Duke of Northumberland, and a distinguished 
 author on naval tactics) in the ^, Nonparilla.' As a 
 matter of fact, the Yice- Admiral, hoping to contrive to 
 push in front, had persuaded Dudley to change ships 
 with him. These six vessels were well in advance of 
 all the rest of the fleet. In front of them, ranged under 
 the wall of Cadiz, were seventeen galleys lying with 
 their prows to flank the English entrance, as Raleigh 
 ploughed on towards the galleons. The fortress of St. 
 Philip and other forts along the wall began to scour 
 the channel, and with the galleys concentrated their 
 fire upon the ' War Sprite.' But Raleigh disdained to 
 do more than salute the one and then the other with 
 a contemptuous blare of trumpets. 'The " St. Philip," 
 he says, * the great and famous Admiral of Spain, was 
 the mark I shot at, esteeming those galleys but as wasps 
 in respect of the powerfulness of the others.' 
 
 The ' St. Philip ' had a special attraction for him. 
 It was six years since his dear friend and cousin, Sir 
 
96 Raleigh 
 
 Eichard Grenville, under the lee of the Azores, with one 
 little ship, the ^ Revenge,' had been hemmed in and 
 crushed by the vast fleet of Spain, and it was the ' St. 
 Philip ' and the ' St. Andrew ' that had been foremost 
 in that act of murder. Now before Raleigh there rose 
 the same lumbering monsters of the deep, that very 
 * St. Philip ' and '• St. Andrew ' which had looked down 
 and watched Sir Richard Grenville die, * as a true soldier 
 ought to do, fighting for his country, queen, religion, 
 and honour.' It seems almost fabulous that the hour 
 of pure poetical justice should strike so soon, and that 
 Raleigh of all living Englishmen should thus come face 
 to face with those of all the Spanish tyrants of the deep. 
 As he swung forward into the harbour and saw them 
 there before him, the death of his kinsman in the 
 Azores was solemnly present to his memory, ' and being 
 resolved to be revenged for the " Revenge," or to second 
 her with his own life,' as he says, he came to anchor 
 close to the galleons, and for three hours the battle with 
 them proceeded. 
 
 It began by the ' War Sprite ' being in the centre 
 and a little to the front ; on the one side, the ' Non- 
 parilla,' in which Raleigh now perceived Lord Thomas 
 Howard, and the ' Lion ; ' on the other the ' Mary Rose ' 
 and the ' Dreadnought ; ' these, with the * Rainbow ' a 
 little farther off, kept up the fight alone until ten o'clock 
 in the morning ; waiting for the fly-boats, which were 
 to board the galleons, and which, for some reason or 
 other, did not arrive. Meanwhile, Essex, excited 
 beyond all restraint by the volleys of culverin and 
 cannon, slipped anchor, and passing from the body of 
 the fleet, lay close up to the * War Sprite,' pushing 
 
Cadiz 97 
 
 the * Dreadnouglit ' on one side. Raleigh, seeing him 
 coming, went to meet him in his skiff, and begged him 
 to see that the fly-boats were sent, as the battery was 
 beginning to be more than his ships could bear. The 
 Lord Admiral was following Essex, and Raleigh passed 
 on to him with the same entreaty. This parley between 
 the three commanders occupied about a quarter of an hour. 
 
 Meanwhile, the men second in command had taken 
 an unfair advantage of Raleigh's absence. He hurried 
 back to find that the Vice-Admiral had pushed the 
 * Nonparilla ' ahead, and that Sir Francis Vere, too, in 
 the ^ Rainbow,' had passed the ' War Sprite.' Finding 
 himself, ' from being the first to be but the third,' Raleigh 
 skilfully thrust in between these two ships, and threw 
 himself in front of them broadside to the channel, so 
 that, as he says, ' I was sure no one should outstart me 
 again, for that day.' Finally, Essex and Lord Thomas 
 Howard took the next places. Sir Francis Yere, the 
 marshal, who seems to have been mad for precedence, 
 'while we had no leisure to look behind us, secretly 
 fastened a rope on my ship's side toward him, to draw 
 himself up equally with me ; but some of my company 
 advertising me thereof, I caused it to be cut ofi*, and so 
 he fell back into his place, whom I guarded, all but his 
 very prow, from the sight of the enemy.' In his 
 Commentaries Yere has his revenge, and carefully dis- 
 parages Raleigh on every occasion. 
 
 For some reason or other, the fly-boats continued to 
 delay, and Raleigh began to despair of them. What 
 he now determined to do, and what revenge he took for 
 Sir Richard Grenville, may best be told in his own 
 vigorous language : 
 
98 Raleigh 
 
 Having no hope of my fly-boats to board, and the Earl 
 and my Lord Thomas having both promised to second me, 
 I laid out a warp by the side of the ' Philip ' to shake hands 
 with her — for with the wind we could not get aboard ; 
 which when she and the rest perceived, finding also that the 
 ' Repulse,' seeing mine, began to do the like, and the rear- 
 admiral my Lord Thomas, they all let slip, and ran aground, 
 tumbling into the sea heaps of soldiers, as thick as if coals 
 had been poured out of a sack in many ports at once, some 
 drowned and some sticking in the mud. The ' Philip ' and 
 the ' St. Thomas ' burned themselves ; the * St. Matthew * 
 and the ' St. Andrew ' were recovered by our boats ere they 
 could get out to fire them. The spectacle was very lament- 
 able on their side, for many drowned themselves, many, 
 half-burned, leaped into the water ; very many hanging by 
 the ropes' end, by the ships' side, under the water even to 
 the lips ; many swimming with grievous wounds, stricken 
 under water, and put out of their pain ; and withal so huge 
 a fire, and such tearing of the ordnance in the great ' Philip ' 
 and the rest, when the fire came to them, as, if a man had a 
 desire to see Hell itself, it was there most lively figured. 
 Ourselves spared the lives of all, after the victory, but the 
 Flemings, who did little or nothing in the fight, used 
 merciless slaughter, till they were by myself, and after- 
 wards by my Lord Admiral, beaten off. 
 
 The official report of the Duke of Medina Sidonia to 
 Philip II. does not greatly differ from this, except that 
 he says that the English set fire to the ' St. Philip.* 
 Before the fight was over Raleigh received a very serious 
 flesh wound in the leg, ' interlaced and deformed with 
 splinters,' which made it impossible for him to get on 
 horseback. He was, therefore, to his great disappoint- 
 ment, unable to take part in Essex's land-attack on the 
 
Cadiz 99 
 
 town. He could not, however, bear to be left behind, 
 and in a litter he was carried into Cadiz. He could 
 only stay an hour on shore, however, for the agony in 
 his leg was intolerable, and in the tumultuous disorder 
 of the soldiers, who were sacking the town, there was 
 danger of his being rudely pushed and shouldered. He 
 went back to the * War Sprite ' to have his wound 
 dressed and to sleep, and found that in the general 
 rush on shore his presence in the fleet was highly 
 desirable. 
 
 Early next morning, feeling eased by a night's rest, 
 he sent on shore to ask leave to follow the fleet of forty 
 carracks bound for the Indies, which had escaped down 
 the Puerto Real river ; this navy was said to be worth 
 twelve millions. In the confusion, however, there came 
 back no answer from Essex or Howard. A ransom of 
 two millions had meanwhile been offered for them, but 
 this also, in the absence of his chiefs, Raleigh had no 
 power to accept. While he was thus uncertain, the 
 Duke of Medina Sidonia solved the difficulty on June 
 23, by setting the whole flock of helpless and treasure- 
 laden carracks on fire. From the deck of the ' War 
 Sprite' Raleigh had the mortification of seeing the 
 smoke of this priceless argosy go up to heaven. The 
 waste had been great, for of all the galleons, carracks, 
 and frigates of which the great Spanish navy had con- 
 sisted, only the * St. Matthew ' and the ' St. Andrew ' 
 had come intact into the hands of the English. The 
 Dutch sailors, who held back until the fight was decided, 
 sprang upon the blazing * St. Philip,' and saved a great 
 part of her famous store of ordnance ; while, as Raleigh 
 pleasantly puts it, Hhe two Apostles aforesaid' were 
 10 
 
loo Raleigh 
 
 richly furnislied, and made an agreeable prize to bring 
 back to England. 
 
 The English generals, engaged in sacking the 
 palaces and razing the fortifications of Cadiz, were 
 strangely indifferent to the anxieties of their friends at 
 home. In England the wildest rumours passed from 
 mouth to mouth, but it was a fortnight before anyone 
 on the spot thought it necessary to communicate with 
 the Home Government. It is said that Raleigh's letter 
 to Cecil, written ten leagues to the west of Cadiz, on 
 July 7, and carried to England by Sir Anthony Ashley, 
 contained the first intimation of the victory. In this 
 letter Raleigh is careful to do himself justice with the 
 Queen, and to claim a complete pardon on the score of 
 services so signal, for it was already patent to him that 
 on a field where every man that would be helped must 
 help himself, his wounded leg had shut him out of all 
 hope of plunder. The cause of his standing so far as ten 
 leagues away from shore was that an epidemic had 
 broken out on board his ship. It proved impossible to 
 cope with this disease, and so it was determined that 
 on August 1 the ^ War Sprite ' should return to England, 
 in company with the ^ Roebuck ' and the ^ John and 
 Francis.' On the sixth day they arrived in Plymouth, 
 and Raleigh found that, although seven weeks had 
 elapsed since the victory, no authentic account of it had 
 hitherto reached the Council. He was not well, and in- 
 stead of posting up to London, where he easily perceived 
 he would not be welcome, he asked pardon for staying 
 with his ship. On August 12 he landed at Weymouth, 
 and passed home to Sherborne. The rest of the fleet 
 came back later in the autumn, and Essex, as he passed 
 
Cadiz ioi 
 
 the coast of Portugal, swooped down upon tlie famous 
 library of the Bishop of Algarve, which he presented on 
 his return to Sir Thomas Bodley. The Bodleian Library 
 at Oxford is now the chief existing memorial of that 
 glorious expedition to Cadiz which shattered the naval 
 strength of Spain. 
 
 As to prize-money, there proved to be very little of 
 it for the captors. It was understood that the Lord 
 Admiral was to have 5,000Z., Essex as much, and 
 Raleigh 3,000Z. ; but Essex, in his proud way, waived 
 his claim in favour of the Queen, just in time to escape 
 spoliation, for Elizabeth claimed everything. Her 
 scandalous avarice had grown upon her year by year, 
 and now in her old age her finer and more generous 
 qualities were sapped by her greed for money. Even 
 her political acumen had failed her ; she was unable to 
 see, in her vexation at the loss of the Indian carracks, 
 that the blow to Spain had been one which relieved 
 her of a constant and immense anxiety. She deter- 
 mined that no one should be the richer or the nobler 
 for a victory which had resulted in the destruction of 
 so much treasure which might have flowed into her 
 coffers. Deeply disappointed at the Queen's surly in- 
 gratitude, Raleigh, whom she still refused to see, retired 
 for the next nine months into absolute seclusion at 
 Sherborne. 
 
 In his retirement Raleigh continued to remember 
 that his function was, as Oldys put it, ^ by his extra- 
 ordinary undertakings to raise a gi'ove of laurels, in a 
 manner out of the seas, that should overspread our 
 island with glory.' In October 1596 he was pre- 
 paring for his third expedition to Guiana, which he 
 
102 Raleigh 
 
 placed under tlie command of Captain Leonard Berrie. 
 This navigator was absent until the summer of the 
 following year, when he returned, not having penetrated 
 to Manoa, but confirming with an almost obsequious 
 report Ealeigh's most golden dreams. It is at this 
 time, after his return from Cadiz, that we find Sir 
 Walter Raleigh's name mentioned most lavishly by the 
 literary classes in their dedications and eulogistic ad- 
 dresses. Whether his popularity was at the same time 
 high with the general public is more easily asserted 
 than proved, but there is no doubt that the victory at 
 Cadiz was highly appreciated by the mass of English- 
 men, and it is not possible but that Raleigh's prominent 
 share in it should be generally recognised. 
 
 On January 24, 1597, Raleigh wrote from Sherborne 
 a letter of sympathy to Sir Robert Cecil, on the death 
 of his wife. It is interesting as displaying Raleigh's 
 intimacy with the members of a family which was 
 henceforth to hold a prominent place in the chronicle 
 of his life, since it was Henry Brooke, Lady Cecil's 
 brother, who became, two months later, at the death of 
 his father. Lord Cobham. It was he and his brother 
 George Brooke who in 1603 became notorious as the 
 conspirators for Arabella Stuart, and who dragged 
 Raleigh down with them. We do not know when 
 Raleigh began to be intimate with the Brookes, and it 
 is just at this time, when his fortunes had reached their 
 climacteric, and when it would be of the highest impor- 
 tance to us to follow them closely, that his personal 
 history suddenly becomes vague. If Cecil's letters to 
 him had been preserved we should know more. As it 
 is we can but record certain isolated facts, and make as 
 
Cadiz 103 
 
 much use of them as we can venture to do. In May- 
 ISO 7, nearly five years after his expulsion, we find him 
 received again at Court. Rowland White says, * Sir 
 "Walter Raleigh is daily in Court, and a hope is had 
 that he shall be admitted to the execution of his ofiice 
 as Captain of the Guard, before he goes to sea.' 
 
 Cecil and Howard of Efiingham had obtained this 
 return to favour for their friend, and Essex, although his 
 momentary liking for Raleigh had long subsided, did 
 not oppose it. He could not, however, be present when 
 Timias was taken back into the arms of his pardoning 
 Belphoebe. On June 1, the Earl of Essex rode down jto 
 Chatham, and during his absence Sir Walter Raleigh 
 was conducted by Cecil into the presence of the Queen. 
 She received him very graciously, and immediately au- 
 thorised him to resume his office of Captain of the Guard. 
 Without loss of time, Raleigh filled up the vacancies in 
 the Guard that very day, and spent the evening riding 
 with her Majesty. Next morning he made his appear- 
 ance in the Privy Chamber as he had been wont to do, 
 and his return to favour was complete. Essex showed, 
 and apparently felt, no very acute chagrin. He was 
 busy in planning another expedition against Spain, and 
 he needed Raleigh's help in arranging for the victualling 
 of the land forces. In July all jealousies seemed laid 
 aside, and the gossips of the Court reported, ^ None but 
 Cecil and Raleigh enjoy the Earl of Essex, they carry 
 him away as they list.' 
 
 It lies far beyond the scope of the present biography to 
 discuss the obscure question of ^ the conceit oi Richard the 
 Second ' with which these three amused themselves just 
 before the Islands Voyage began. The bare facts are these. 
 
I04 Raleigh 
 
 On July 6,1597, Raleigli wrote to Cecil from Weymoutli 
 about the preparations for the expedition, and added : ^ I 
 acquainted the Lord General [Essex] with your letter to 
 me, and your kind acceptance of your entertainment ; 
 he was also wonderful merry at your conceit of Richard 
 the Second. I hope it shall never alter, and whereof 
 I shall be most glad of, as the true way to all our good, 
 quiet, and advancement, and most of all for His sake 
 whose affairs shall thereby find better progression/ 
 From this it would seem as though Cecil had ofiered a 
 dramatic entertainment to Essex and Raleigh on their 
 leaving town. This entertainment evidently consisted 
 of Shakespeare's new tragedy, then being performed at 
 the Globe Theatre and to be entered for publication 
 just a month later. When this play was printed it did 
 not contain what is called the ' Deposition Scene,' but 
 it would appear that this was given on the boards at the 
 time when Raleigh refers to it. It will be remembered 
 that in 1601 the lawyers accused Essex of having 
 feasted his eyes beforehand with a show of the dethrone- 
 ment of his liege ; but Raleigh's words do not suggest 
 any direct disloyalty. 
 
 Raleigh was in a state of considerable excitement at 
 the prospect of the new expedition. Cecil wrote, ^ Good 
 Mr. Raleigh wonders at his own diligence, as if dili- 
 gence and he were not familiars ;' and the fact that 
 Raleigh would sometimes write twice and thrice to him 
 in one day, and on a single occasion at least, four times, 
 proves that Cecil had a right to use this mild sarcasm. 
 Several months before, Raleigh had attempted by his 
 manifesto entitled The Spanish Alarum to stir up the 
 Government to be in full readiness to guard against a 
 
Cadiz 105 
 
 revengeful invasion of England by her old enemy. He 
 had thought out the whole situation, he had planned the 
 defences of England by land and sea, and his new 
 favour at Court had enabled him to put pressure on the 
 royal parsimony, and to insist that things should be done 
 as he saw fit. He was perfectly right in thinking that 
 Philip II. would rather suffer complete ruin than not 
 try once more to recover his position in Europe, but he 
 saw that the late losses at Cadiz would force the 
 Catholic king to delay his incursion, and he counselled a 
 rapid and direct second attack on Spain. As soon as ever 
 he was restored to power, he began to victual a fleet of 
 ten men-of-war with biscuit, beef, bacon, and salt fish, 
 and to call for volunteers. As the scheme seized the 
 popular mind, however, it gathered in extent, and it 
 was finally decided to fit up three large squadrons, with 
 a Dutch contingent of twelve ships. These vessels met 
 in Plymouth Sound. 
 
 On the night of Sunday, July 10, the fleet left 
 Plymouth, and kept together for twenty-four hours. 
 On the morning of the 12th, after a night of terrific 
 storm, Raleigh found his squadron of four ships parted 
 from the rest, and in the course of the next day only 
 one vessel beside his own was in sight. This tempest 
 was immortalised in his earliest known poem by John 
 Donne, who was in the expedition, and was described by 
 Raleigh as follows : 
 
 The storm on Wednesday grew more forcible, and the 
 seas grew very exceeding lofty, so that myself and the 
 Bonaventure had labour enough to beat it up. But the 
 night following, the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the 
 storm so increased, the ships were weighty, the ordnance 
 
io6 Raleigh 
 
 great, and the billows so raised and enraged, that we could 
 carry out no sail which to our judgment would not have 
 been rent off the yards by the wind ; and yet our ships 
 rolled so vehemently, and so disjointed themselves, that we 
 were driven either to force it again with our courses, or to 
 sink. In my ship it hath shaken all her beams, knees, and 
 stanchions well nigh asunder, in so much on Saturday night 
 last we made account to have yielded ourselves up to God. 
 For we had no way to work, either by trying, hauling, or 
 driving, that promised better hope, our men being worsted 
 with labour and watchings, and our ship so open every- 
 where, all her bulkheads rent, and her very cook-room of 
 brick shaken down into powder. 
 
 Such were the miseries of navigation in the palmy 
 days of English adventure by sea. The end of it was 
 that about thirty vessels crept back to Falmouth and 
 Tor Bay, some were lost altogether, and Raleigh, with 
 the remainder, found harbour on July 18 at Plymouth. 
 For a month they lay there, recovering their forces, and 
 Essex, whose own ship was at Falmouth, came over to 
 Plymouth and was Raleigh's guest on the '■ War Sprite.' 
 Raleigh writes to Cecil : ^I should have taken it unkindly 
 if my Lord had taken up any other lodging till the "Lion '* 
 come : and now her Majesty may be sure his Lordship 
 shall sleep somewhat the sounder, though he fare the 
 worse, by being with me, for I am an excellent watch- 
 man at sea.' In -this same letter, dated July 26, 1597, 
 the fatal name of Cobham first appears in the corre- 
 spondence of Raleigh : ' I pray vouchsafe,' he says, ' to 
 remember me in all affection to my Lord Cobham.' 
 
 On August 18, in the face of a westerly wind, the 
 fleet put out once more from Plymouth. In the Bay of 
 
Cadiz 107 
 
 Biscay tlie ' St. Andrew' and tlie ' St. Matthew * were 
 disabled, and had to be left behind at La Kochelle. Off 
 the coast of Portugal, Kaleigh himself had a serious 
 accident, for his mainyard snapped across, and he had 
 to put in for help by the Kock of Lisbon, in company 
 with the ' Dreadnought.' Essex left a letter saying 
 that Raleigh must follow him as fast as he could to the 
 Azores, and on September 8 the ^ War Sprite ' came in 
 view of Ter^eira. On the 15th Ealeigh's squadron joined 
 the main fleet under Essex at Flores. 
 
 The distress of the voyage and its separations had 
 told upon the temper of Essex, while he was surrounded 
 by those who were eager to poison his mind with suspicion 
 of Raleigh. When the latter dined with Essex in the 
 ' Repulse' on the 15th, the Earl with his usual impul- 
 siveness made a clean breast of his ' conjectures and 
 surmises,' letting Raleigh know the very names of those 
 scandalous and cankered persons who had ventured to 
 accuse him, and assuring him that he rejected their 
 counsel. On this day or the next a pinnace from India 
 brought the news that the yearly fleet was changing its 
 usual course, and would arrive farther south in the 
 Azores. A council of war was held in the ' Repulse,' 
 and it was resolved to divide the archipelago among the 
 commanders. Fayal was to be taken by Essex and 
 Raleigh, Graciosa by Howard and Yere, San Miguel by 
 Mountjoy and Blount, while Pico, with its famous wines, 
 was left for the Dutchmen. Essex sailed first, and left 
 Raleigh taking in provisions at Flores, where he dined 
 in a small inland town with his old acquaintance Lord 
 Grey, and others, including Sir Arthur Gorges, the 
 minute historian of the expedition. About midnight, 
 
io8 Raleigh 
 
 when they were safe in their ships again, Captain 
 Arthur Champemowne, Ealeigh's kinsman, arrived with 
 a letter from Essex desiring Raleigh to come over to 
 Fajal at once, and complete his supplies there. "With 
 his usual promptitude, he started instantly, and soon 
 outstripped Essex. 
 
 When Raleigh arrived in the great harbour of Fayal, 
 the peaceful look of everything assured him in a moment 
 that Essex had not yet been heard of. But no sooner 
 did the inhabitants perceive the ^ War Sprite ' and the 
 * Dreadnought,' than they began to throw up defences 
 and remove their valuables into the interior. It was in 
 the highest degree irksome to Raleigh to wait thus 
 inactive, while this handsome Spanish colony was 
 slipping from his clutch, but he had been forbidden to 
 move without orders. After three days' waiting for 
 Essex, a council of war was held on board the ' War 
 Sprite.' On the fourth Raleigh leaped into his barge 
 at the head of a landing company, refusing the help of 
 the Flemings who were with him, and stormed the cliffs. 
 It was comparatively easy to get his troops on shore, 
 but the Spaniards contested the road to the town inch 
 by inch. At last Raleigh and his four hundred and 
 fifty men routed their opponents and entered Fayal, a 
 town ' full of fine gardens, orchards, and wells of delicate 
 waters, with fair streets, and one very fair church ; ' and 
 allowed his men to plunder it. The English soldiers 
 slept that night in Fayal, and when they woke next 
 morning they saw the tardy squadron of Essex come 
 warping into the harbour at last. Sir Gilly Meyrick, 
 the bitterest of the parasites of Essex, slipped into a 
 boat and was on board the ' Repulse ' as soon as she 
 anchored, reporting Raleigh's conduct to the Earl. 
 
Cadiz 109 
 
 Ealelgli must liave known that Essex was not the 
 man to be pleased at a feat whicli took all the credit of 
 the Islands Voyage out of his hands ; but he feigned 
 unconsciousness. In his barge he came out from Fayal 
 to greet the Earl, and entered the General's cabin. 
 After a faint welcome, Essex began to reproach him 
 with ' a breach of Orders and Articles,' and to point out 
 to him that in capturing Fayal without authority he 
 had made himself liable to the punishment of death. 
 Ealeigh replied that he was exempt from such orders, 
 being, in succession to Essex and Lord Howard, him- 
 self commander of the whole fleet by the Queen's letters 
 patent. After a dispute of half an hour, Essex seemed 
 satisfied, and accepted an invitation to sup with Ealeigh 
 on shore. But another malcontent. Sir Christopher 
 Blount, obtained his ear, and set his resentment blazing 
 once more. Essex told Ealeigh he should not sup at 
 all that night. Ealeigh left the ^Eepulse,' and pre- 
 pared to separate his squadron from the fleet, lest an 
 attempt should be made to force him to undergo the 
 indignity of a court-martial. Howard finally made 
 peace between the two commanders, and Ealeigh was 
 induced to give some sort of apology for his action. 
 
 The fleet proceeded to St. Miguel, when Ealeigh was 
 left to watch the roadstead, while Essex pushed inland. 
 While Ealeigh lay here, a great Indian carrack of 
 sixteen hundi^ed tons, laden with spices, knowing 
 nothing of the English invasion, blundered into the 
 middle of what she took to be a friendly Spanish fleet. 
 She perceived her mistake just in time to run herself 
 ashore, and disembark her crew. Ealeigh at the head 
 of a party of boats attempted to seize her, but her 
 
no Raleigh 
 
 commander set heron fire, and when the Englishmen came 
 close to her she was one dangerous splendour of flaming 
 perfumes and roaring cannon. Raleigh was more fortu- 
 nate in securing another carrack laden with cochineal from 
 Cuba. The rest of the Islands Voyage was uneventful 
 and ill-managed. For some time nothing was heard of 
 the fleet in England, and Lady Raleigh ^ skrebbled,' as 
 she spelt it, hasty notes to Cecil begging for news of 
 her husband. Early in October he came back to 
 England, seriously enfeebled in health. The only one 
 of the commanders who gained any advantage from the 
 Islands Voyage was the one who had undertaken least, 
 Lord Howard of Effingham, who wa3 raised to the 
 earldom of Nottingham. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LAST DAYS OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 A SLIGHT anecdote, whicli is connected with the month 
 of January 1598, must not be omitted here. It gives 
 us an impression of the personal habits of Raleigh at 
 this stage of his career. It was the custom of the 
 Queen to go to bed early, and one winter's evening the 
 Earl of Southampton, Raleigh, and a man named Parker 
 were playing the game of primero in the Presence 
 Chamber, after her Majesty had retired. They laughed 
 and talked rather loudly, upon which Ambrose Wil- 
 loughby, the Esquire of the Body, came out and desired 
 them not to make so much noise. Raleigh pocketed 
 his money, and went off, but Southampton resented the 
 interference, and in the scuffle that ensued Willoughby 
 pulled out a handful of those marjoram-coloured curls 
 that Shakespeare praised. 
 
 It is not easy to see why it was, that in the obscure 
 year 1598, while the star of Essex was setting, that of 
 his natural rival did not burn more brightly. But 
 although now, and for the brief remainder of Elizabeth's 
 life, Raleigh was nominally in favour, the saturnine old 
 woman had no longer any tenderness for her Captain of 
 the Guard. Her old love, her old friendship, had quite 
 passed away. There was no longer any excuse for 
 11 
 
112 Raleigh 
 
 excluding from her presence so valuable a soldier and so 
 wise a courtier, but her pulses had ceased to thrill at 
 his coming. If Essex had been half so courteous, half 
 BO assiduous as Raleigh, she would have opened her 
 arms to him, but she had offended Essex past for- 
 giveness, and his tongue held no parley with her. It 
 must have been in Raleigh's presence — for he it is who 
 has recorded it in the grave pages of his Prerogative of 
 Parliament — that Essex told the Queen ^ that her con- 
 ditions were as crooked as her carcass,' a temble speech 
 which, as Raleigh says, ' cost him his head.' This was 
 perhaps a little later, in 1600. In 1598 these cruel 
 squabbles were already making life at Court a misery. 
 The Queen kept Raleigh by her, but would give him 
 nothing. In January he applied for the post of Vice- 
 chamberlain, but without success. The new earl, Lord 
 Nottingham, could theatrically wipe the dust from 
 Raleigh's shoes with his cloak, but when Raleigh him- 
 self desired to be made- a peer, in the spring of 1598, he 
 was met with a direct refusal. He would fain have 
 been Lord Deputy in Ireland, but the Queen declined 
 to spare him. On the last day of August he was in 
 the very act of being eworn on the Privy Council, but 
 at the final moment Cecil frustrated this by saying 
 that if he were made a councillor, he must resign his 
 Captainship of the Guard to Sir George Carew. This 
 was, as Cecil was aware, too great a sacrifice to be 
 thought of, and the hero of Cadiz and Fayal, foiled on 
 every hand, had to submit to remain plain Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, Knight. 
 
 As the breach grew between Essex and the Queen, 
 the temper of the former grew more surly. He droppe(5 
 
Last Days of Elizabeth - 113 
 
 the semblance of civility to Raleigh. In his ApotJiegms, 
 Lord Bacon has preserved an amusing anecdote of 
 November 17, 1598. On this day, which was the 
 Queen's sixty-fifth birthday, the leading courtiers, as 
 usual, tilted in the ring in honour of their Liege ; the 
 custom of this piece of mock chivalry demanded that 
 each knight should be disguised. It was, however, 
 known that Sir Walter Raleigh would ride in his own 
 uniform of orange tawny medley, trimmed with black 
 budge of lamb's wool. Essex, to vex him, came to the 
 lists with a body-guard of two thousand retainers all 
 dressed in orange tawny, so that Raleigh and his men 
 should seem a fragment of the great Essex following. 
 The story goes on to show that Essex digged a pit and 
 fell into it himself; but enough has been said to prove 
 his malignant intention. We have little else but anec- 
 dotes with which to fill up the gap in Raleigh's career 
 between December 1597 and March 1600. This was an 
 exceedingly quiet period in his life, during which we 
 have to fancy him growing more and more at enmity 
 with Essex, and more and more intimate with Cobham. 
 In September 1598, an unexpected ally, the Duke 
 of Finland, urged Raleigh to undertake once more his 
 attempt to colonise Guiana, and offered twelve ships as 
 his own contingent. Two months later we find that 
 the hint has been taken, and that Sir John Gilbert is 
 ' preparing with all speed to make a voyage to Guiana.' 
 It is said, moreover, that * he intendeth to inhabit it 
 with English people.' He never started, however, and 
 Raleigh, referring long afterwards to the events of these 
 years, said that though Cecil seemed to encourage him 
 in his West Indian projects, yet that when it came to 
 
1 14 Raleigh 
 
 the point lie always, as Raleigh quaintly put it, retired 
 into his back-shop. Meanwhile, the interest felt in 
 Ealeigh's narrative was increasing, and in 1599 the 
 well-known geographer Levinus Hulsius brought out 
 in Nuremburg a Latin translation of the Discovery, with 
 five curious plates, including one of the city of Manoa, 
 and another of the Ewaipanoma, or men without heads. 
 The German version of the book and its English reprint 
 in Hakluyt's Navigations belong to the same year. Also 
 in 1599, the Discovery was reproduced in Latin, German, 
 and Trench by De Bry in the eighth part of his celebrated 
 Collectiones Peregrinationum. This year, then, in which 
 we hardly hear otherwise of Raleigh, marked the height 
 of his success as a geographical writer. So absolutely 
 is the veil drawn over his personal history at this time 
 that the only facts we possess are, that on November 4 
 Raleigh was lying sick of an ague, and that on December 
 13 he was still ill. 
 
 In the middle of March 1600 Sir Walter and Lady 
 Raleigh left Durham House for Sherborne, taking with 
 them, as a playmate for their son Walter, Sir Robert 
 Cecil's eldest son, William, afterwards the second Earl 
 of Salisbury. On the way down to Dorsetshire, they 
 stopped at Sion House as the guests of the ' Wizard * 
 Earl of Northumberland, a life-long friend of Raleigh's, 
 and presently to be his most intelligent fellow-prisoner 
 in the Tower. From Sherborne, Raleigh wrote on the 
 6th of April saying frankly that if her Majesty persisted 
 in excluding him from every sort of preferment, ' I must 
 begin to keep sheep betime.' He hinted in the same 
 letter that he would accept the Governorship of Jersey, 
 which was expected to fall vacant. The friendship with 
 
Last Days of Elizabeth 115 
 
 Lord Cobham lias now become quite ardent, and Lady 
 Raleigb vies with her husband in urging him to pay 
 Sherborne a visit. Later on in April the Raleighs went 
 to Bath apparently for no other reason than to meet 
 Cobham there. Here is a curious note from Raleigh to 
 the most dangerous of his associates, written from Bath 
 on April 29, 1600: 
 
 Here we attend you and have done this sevennight, and 
 we still mourn your absence, the rather because we fear that 
 your mind is changed. I pray let us hear from you at 
 least, for if you come not we will go hereby home, and make 
 but short tarrying here. My wife will despair ever to see 
 you in these parts, if your Lordship come not now. We can 
 but long for you and wish you as our own Uves whatsoever. 
 Your Lordship's everest faithful, to honour you most, 
 
 W. Ralegh. 
 
 Raleigh's absence from Court was so lengthy, that it 
 was whispered in the early summer that he was in 
 disgrace, that the Queen had called him * something 
 worse than cat or dog,' namely, ^ fox.' The absurdity of 
 this was proved early in July by his being hurriedly 
 called to town to accompany Cobham and Northumber- 
 land on their brief and fruitless visit to Ostend. The 
 friends started from Sandwich on July 11, and were 
 received in the Low Countries by Lord Grey; they 
 were entertained at Ostend with extraordinary respect, 
 but they gained nothing of political or diplomatic value. 
 Affairs in Ireland, connected with the Spanish invasion, 
 occupied Raleigh's mind and pen during this autumn, 
 but he paid no visit to his Munster estates. There 
 were plots and counterplots developing in various parts of 
 these islands in the autumn of 1600, but with none of 
 
ii6 Raleigh 
 
 these subterranean activities is Raleigh for the present 
 to be identified. 
 
 "When Sir Anthony Paulet died, on August 26, 
 1600, Raleigh had the satisfaction of succeeding him 
 in the Governorship of Jersey. He had asked for the 
 reversion of this post, and none could be found more 
 appropriate to his powers or circumstances. It gave 
 him once more the opportunity to cultivate his restless 
 energy, to fly hither and thither by sea and land, and 
 to harry the English Channel for Spaniards as a terrier 
 watches a haystack for rats. Weymouth, which was 
 the English postal port for Jersey, was also the natural 
 harbour of Sherborne, and Raleigh had been accustomed, 
 as it was, to keep more than one vessel there. The 
 appointment in Jersey was combined with a gift of the 
 manor of St. Germain in that island, but the Queen 
 thought it right, in consideration of this present, to 
 strike off three hundred pounds from the Governor's 
 salary. Cecil was Raleigh's guest at Sherborne when 
 the appointment was made, and Raleigh waited until 
 he left before starting for his new charge ; all this time 
 young William Cecil continued at Sherborne for his 
 health. At last, late in September, Sir Walter and 
 Lady Raleigh went down to Weymouth, and took with 
 them their little son Walter, now about six years old. The 
 day was very fine, and the mother and son saw the new 
 Governor on board his ship. He was kept at sea forty- 
 eight hours by contrary winds, but reached Jersey at 
 last on an October morning. 
 
 Raleigh wrote home to his wife that he never saw a 
 pleasanter island than Jersey, but protested that it was 
 not in value the very third part of what had been reported. 
 
Last Days of Elizabeth 117 
 
 One of his first visits was to the castle of Mont Orgueil, 
 which had been rebuilt seven years before. His inten- 
 tion had been to destroy it, but he was so much struck 
 with its stately architecture and commanding position 
 that he determined to spare it, and in fact he told off 
 a detachment of his men then and there to guard it. 
 Kaleigh's work in Jersey was considerable. While he 
 remained governor, he established a trade between the 
 island and Newfoundland, undertook to register real 
 property according to a definite system, abolished the 
 unpopular compulsory service of the Corps de Garde, and 
 lightened in many directions the fiscal burdens which 
 previous governors had laid on the population. Raleigh's 
 beneficent rule in Jersey lasted just three years. 
 
 While he was absent on this his first visit to the 
 island. Lady Raleigh at Sherborne received news from 
 Cecil of the partial destruction of Durham House by a 
 fire, which had broken out in the old stables. None of 
 the Raleigh valuables were injured, but Lady Raleigh 
 suggests that it is high time something were definitely 
 settled about property in this ' rotten house,' which Sir 
 Walter was constantly repairing and improving without 
 possessing any proper lease of it. As a matter of fact, 
 when the crash came, Durham House was the first of 
 his losses. Early in November 1600, Raleigh was in 
 Cornwall, improving the condition of the tin-workers, 
 and going through his duties in the Stannaries Court of 
 Lostwithiel. We find him protecting private enterprise 
 on Roborough Down against the borough of Plymouth, 
 which desired to stop the tin-works, and the year closes 
 with his activities on behalf of the 'establishment of 
 good laws among tinners.' 
 
ii8 Raleigh 
 
 The first two months of 1601 were occupied with 
 the picturesque tragedy of Essex's trial and execution. 
 It seems that Raleigh was at last provoked into open 
 enmity by the taunts and threats of the Lord Marshal. 
 Among the strange acts of Essex, none had been more 
 strange than his extraordinary way of complaining, like 
 a child, of anyone who might displease him. In his 
 letter to the Queen on June 25, 1599, he openly named 
 Raleigh and Cobham as his enemies and the enemies of 
 England ; not reflecting that both of these personages 
 were in the Queen's confidence, and that he was out 
 of it. We may presume that it was more than Raleigh 
 could bear to be shown a letter addressed to the Queen 
 in which Essex deliberately accused him of ' wishing 
 the ill success of your Majesty's most important action, 
 the decay of your greatest strength, and the destruction 
 of your faithfullest servants.' There were some things 
 Raleigh could not forgive, and the accusation that he 
 favoured Spain was one of these. Shut up among his 
 creatures in his house in the Strand, and refused all 
 communication with Elizabeth, Essex thought no 
 accusation too libellous to spread against the trio who 
 held the royal ear, against Raleigh, Cecil, and Cobham, 
 whose daggers, he said, were thirsting for his blood. 
 
 It was probably in the summer of 1600 that Raleigh 
 wrote the curious letter of advice to Cecil which forms 
 the only evidence we possess that he had definitely come 
 to the decision that Essex must die. His language 
 admits of no doubt of his intention. He says : 
 
 If you take it for a good counsel to relent towards this 
 tyrant, you will repent it when it shall be too late. His 
 malice is fixed, and will not evaporate by any of your mild 
 
Last Days, of Elizabeth 119 
 
 courses. For he will ascribe the alteration to her Majesty's 
 pusillanimity and not to your good nature, knowing that 
 you work but upon her humour, and not out of any love 
 towards him. The less you make him, the less he shall be 
 able to harm you and yours ; and if her Majesty's favour fail 
 him, he will again decline to a common person. For after- 
 revenges, fear them not, for your own father was esteemed 
 to be the contriver of Norfolk's ruin, yet his son followeth 
 your father's son and loveth him. 
 
 This advice has been stigmatised as worse than un- 
 generous. It was, at all events, extremely to the point, 
 and it may be suggested that for Raleigh and Cecil the 
 time for showing generosity to Essex was past. They 
 took no overt steps, however, but it is plain that they 
 kept themselves informed of the mad meetings that went 
 on in Essex House. On the morning before the insur- 
 rection was to break out, February 18, 1601, Raleigh sent 
 a note to his kinsman. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who was 
 one of Essex's men, to come down to Durham House to 
 speak with him. Gorges, startled at the message, 
 consulted Essex, who advised him to say that he would 
 meet Raleigh, not at Durham House, but half-way, on 
 the river. Raleigh assented to this, and came alone, 
 while Gorges, with two other gentlemen, met him. 
 Raleigh told his cousin that a warrant was out to seize 
 him, and advised him to leave London at once for 
 Plymouth. Gorges said it was too late, and a long con- 
 versation ensued, in the course of which a boat was seen 
 to glide away from Essex stairs and to approach them. 
 Upon this Gorges pushed Raleigh's boat away, and bid 
 him hasten home. As he rowed off towards Durham 
 House, four shots from the second boat missed him ; it 
 
1 20 Raleigh 
 
 had been manned by Sir Christoplier Blount, who, with 
 three or four servants of Essex, had come out to capture 
 or else kill Kaleigh. 
 
 For this treason Blount asked and obtained Raleigh's 
 •pardon a few days later, on the scaffold. At the last 
 moment of his life, Essex also had desired to speak with. 
 Raleigh, having already solemnly retracted the accusa- 
 tions he had made against him ; but it is said that this 
 message of peace was not conveyed to Raleigh until it 
 was too late. According to Raleigh's own account, he 
 had been standing near the scaffold, on purpose to see 
 whether Essex would address him, and had retired because 
 he was not spoken to. His words in 1618 were these : 
 
 It is said I was a persecutor of my Lord of Essex ; that 
 I puffed out tobacco in disdain when he was on the scaffold. 
 But I take God to witness I shed tears for him when he 
 died. I confess I was of a contrary faction, but I knew he 
 was a noble gentleman. Those that set me up against him, 
 did afterwards set themselves against me. 
 
 Raleigh was accused of barbarity by the adherents 
 of Essex, but there is nothing to rebut the testimony 
 of one of his own greatest enemies, Blount, who con- 
 fessed, a few minutes before he died, that he did not 
 believe Sir Walter Raleigh intended to assassinate the 
 Earl, nor that Essex himself feared it, ^ only it was a 
 word cast out to colour other matters.' We are told 
 that Raleigh suffered from a profound melancholy as he 
 was rowed back from the Tower to Durham House after 
 the execution of Essex, and that it was afterwards 
 believed that he was visited at that time by a presenti- 
 ment of his own dreadful end. 
 
 During the summer of 1601, Raleigh became in- 
 
Last Days of Euzabeth 121 
 
 volved in a vexatious quarrel between certain of his own 
 Dorsetshire servants. The man Meeres, whom he had 
 appointed as bailiff of the Sherborne estates nine years 
 before, after doing trusty service to his master, had 
 gradually become aggressive and mutinous. He disliked 
 the presence of Adrian Gilbert, Raleigh's brother, who 
 had been made Constable of Sherborne Castle, and who 
 overlooked Meeres on all occasions. There began to be 
 constant petty quarrels between the bailiff of the manor 
 and the constable of the castle, and when Raleigh at 
 last dismissed the former bailiff and appointed another, 
 Meeres put himself under the protection of an old enemy 
 of Raleigh's, Lord Thomas Howard, now Lord Howard 
 of Bindon, and refused to quit. In the month of 
 August, Meeres audaciously arrested the rival bailiff, 
 whereupon Raleigh had Meeres himself put in the stocks 
 in the market-place of Sherborne. The town took 
 Raleigh's side, and when Meeres was released, the 
 people riotously accompanied him to his house, with 
 derisive cries. When Raleigh was afterward attainted, 
 Meeres took all the revenge he could, and succeeded in 
 making himself not a little offensive to Lady Raleigh. 
 Sir Walter Raleigh's letters testify to the great annoyance 
 this man gave him. It appears that Meeres' wife, ' a 
 broken piece, but too good for such a knave,' was a kins- 
 woman of Lady Essex, and the most curious point is 
 that Raleigh thought that Meeres was trained to forge 
 his handwriting. He tells Cecil : 
 
 The Earl did not make show to like Meeres, nor admit 
 him to his presence, but it was thought that secretly he 
 meant to have used him for some mischief against me ; and, 
 if Essex had prevailed, he had been used as the counterfeiter, 
 
122 Raleigh 
 
 for he writes my hand so perfectly that I cannot any way 
 discern the difference.^ 
 
 Meeres was ready in the law, and during the month 
 of September sent twenty-six subpoenas down to 
 Sherborne. But on October 3 he was subdued for the 
 time being, and wrote to Cecil from his prison in the 
 Gatehouse that he was very sorry for what he had said 
 so * furiously and foolishly ' about Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 and begged for a merciful consideration of it. He was 
 pardoned, but he proved a troublesome scoundrel then 
 and afterwards. 
 
 Early in September 1601, Raleigh came up on 
 business from Bath to London, meaning to return at 
 once, but found himself unexpectedly called upon to 
 stay and fulfil a graceful duty. Henry IV. of France, 
 being at Calais, had sent the Due de Biron, with a 
 retinue of three hundred persons, to pay a visit of 
 compliment to Elizabeth. It was important that the 
 French favourite should be well received in England, 
 but no one expected him in London, and the Queen 
 was travelling. Sir Arthur Savage and Sir Arthur 
 Gorges were the Duke's very insufficient escort, until 
 Raleigh fortunately made his appearance and did the 
 honours of London in better style. He took the French 
 envoys to Westminster Abbey, and, to their greater 
 satisfaction, to the Bear Garden. The Queen was now 
 staying, as the guest of the Marquis of Winchester, at 
 Basing, and so, on September 9, Raleigh took the 
 Duke and his suite down to the Vine, a house in 
 
 * In a letter Raleigh goes still further, and says that he found 
 Meeres, ♦ coming suddenly upon him, counterfeiting my hand above 
 a hundred times upon an oiled paper.' 
 
Last Days of Elizabeth 123 
 
 Hampshire, where he was royally entertained. The 
 Queen visited them here, and on the 12th they all came 
 over to stay with her at Basing Park. By the Queen's 
 desire, Ealeigh wrote to Cobham, who had stayed at 
 Bath, to come over to Basing and help to entertain 
 the Frenchmen ; he added, that in three or four days 
 the visit would be over, and he and Cobham could go 
 back to Bath together. The letters of Raleigh display 
 an intimate friendship between Lord Cobham and him- 
 self which is not to be overlooked in the light of coming 
 events. The French were all dressed in black, a colour 
 Raleigh did not possess in his copious wardrobe, so that 
 he had to order the making of a black taffeta suit in a 
 hurry, to fetch which from London he started back late 
 on Saturday night after bringing the Duke safe down 
 to Basing. It was on the next day, if the French 
 ambassador said true, that he had the astounding con- 
 versation with Elizabeth about Essex, at the end of 
 which, after railing against her dead favourite, she 
 opened a casket and produced the very skull of Essex. 
 The subject of the fall of favourites was one in which 
 Biron should have taken the keenest interest. Ten 
 months later he himself, abandoned by his king, came 
 to that frantic death in front of the Bastille which 
 Chapman presented to English readers in the most 
 majestic of his tragedies. The visit to Elizabeth 
 occupies the third act of Byro7is Consjnracy, which, 
 published in 1608, contains of course no reference to 
 Raleigh's part on that occasion. 
 
 It may be that in the autumn of 1601, James of 
 Scotland first became actively cognisant of Raleigh's 
 existence. Spain was once more giving Elizabeth 
 12 
 
1 24 Raleigh 
 
 anxiety, and threatening an invasion wliicli actually 
 took place on September 21, at Kinsale. By means 
 of the spies which he kept in the Channel, Raleigh saw 
 the Spanish fleet advancing, and warned the Govern- 
 ment, though his warnings were a little too positive in 
 pointing out Cork and Limerick as the points of attack. 
 Meanwhile, he wrote out for the Queen's perusal a State 
 paper on The Bangers of a Spanish Faction in Scotland. 
 This paper has not been preserved, but the rumour of its 
 contents is supposed to have frightened James in his 
 correspondence with Rome, and to have made him judge 
 it prudent to offer Elizabeth three thousand Scotch 
 troops against the invader. Raleigh's casual remarks 
 with regard to Irish affairs at this critical time, as we 
 find them in his letters to Cecil, are not sympathetic or 
 even humane, and there is at least one passage which 
 looks very much like a licensing of assassination ; yet 
 it is certain that Raleigh, surveying from his remote 
 Sherborne that Munster which he knew so well, took in 
 the salient features of the position with extraordinary 
 success. In almost every particular he showed himself 
 a true prophet with regard to the Irish rising of 1601. 
 
 In November the Duke of Lennox came somewhat 
 hastily to London from Paris, entrusted with a very 
 delicate diplomatic commission from James of Scotland 
 to Elizabeth. It is certain that he saw Raleigh and 
 Cobham, and that he discussed with them the thorny 
 question of the succession to the English throne. It 
 moreover appears that he found their intentions 
 ^ traitorous to the King,' that is to say unfavourable to 
 the candidature of James. The whole incident is ex- 
 ceedingly dark, and the particulars of it rest mainly on a 
 
Last Days of Elizabeth 125 
 
 tainted authority, tliat of Lord Henry Howard. It may 
 be conjectured that what really happened was that the 
 Duke of Lennox, learning that Raleigh was in town, 
 desired Sir Arthur Savage to introduce him ; that he 
 then suggested a private conference, which was first 
 refused, then granted, in Cobham's presence, at Durham 
 House ; that Raleigh refused King James's offers, and 
 went and told Cecil that he had done so. Cecil, how- 
 ever, chose to believe that Raleigh was keeping some- 
 thing back from him, and his attitude from this moment 
 grows sensibly colder to Raleigh, and he speaks of 
 Raleigh's ' ingratitude,' though it is not plain what he 
 should have been grateful for to Cecil. 
 
 It was now thirteen years since Raleigh had aban- 
 doned the hope of colonising Virginia, though his 
 thoughts had often reverted to that savage country, of 
 which he was the nominal liege lord. In 1602 he made 
 a final effort to assert his authority there. He sent out 
 a certain Samuel Mace, of whose expedition we know 
 little ; and about the same time his nephew, Bartholomew 
 Gilbert, with an experienced mariner. Captain Gosnoll, 
 went to look for the lost colony and city of Raleigh. 
 These latter started in a small barque on March 26, but 
 though they enjoyed an interesting voyage, they never 
 touched Virginia at all. They discovered and named 
 Martha's Vineyard, and some other of the islands in the 
 same group ; then, after a pleasant sojourn, they came 
 back to England, and landed at Exmouth on July 23. 
 It was left for another than Raleigh, while he was im- 
 poverished and a prisoner in the Tower, to carry out 
 the dream of Virginian settlement. Perhaps the most 
 fortunate thing that could have happened to Raleigh 
 
126 Raleigh 
 
 would have been for him to have personally conducted 
 to the West this expedition of 1602. To have been out 
 of England when the Queen died might have saved him 
 from the calumny of treason. 
 
 It has been supposed that Kaleigh was a complete 
 loser by these vain expeditions. But a passage in a 
 letter of August 21, 1602, shows us that this was not 
 the fact. He says : ^ Neither of them spake with the 
 people,' that is, with the lost Virginian colonists, ' but I 
 do send both the barques away again, having saved the 
 charge in sassafras wood.' From the same letter we 
 find that Gilbert and GosnoU went off without Raleigh's 
 leave, though in his ship and at his expense, and the 
 latter therefore prays that his nephew may be stripped 
 of his rich store of sassafras and cedar wood, partly in 
 chastisement, but more for fear of overstocking the 
 London market. He throws Gilbei-t over, and speaks 
 angrily of him not as a kinsman, but as ' my Lord 
 Cobham's man ; ' then relents in a postscript — * oR is 
 confiscate, but he shall have his part again.' 
 
 Raleigh was feeble in health and irritable in temper 
 all this time. Lady Raleigh, with a woman's instinct, 
 tried to curb his ambition, and tie him down to Sher- 
 borne. * My wife says that every day this place amends, 
 and London, to her, grows worse and worse.' Mean- 
 while there is really not an atom of evidence to show 
 that Raleigh was engaged in any political intrigue. He 
 spent the summer and autumn of 1602, when he was 
 not at Sherborne, in going through the round of his 
 duties. All the month of July he spent in Jersey, 
 ' walking in the wilderness,' as he says, hearing from no 
 one, and troubled in mind by vague rumours, blown 
 
Last Days of Elizabeth 127 
 
 over to liim from Normandy, of the disgrace of the Due 
 de Biron. He is also ' much pestered with the coming 
 of many Norman gentlemen, but cannot prevent it.' 
 On August 9, he left Jersey, in his ship the '■ Antelope,* 
 fearing if he stayed any longer to exhaust her English 
 stores, and get no more ' in this poor island.' On land- 
 ing at Weymouth on the 12th, he wrote inviting Cecil 
 and Northumberland to meet him at Bath. He was 
 justly exasperated to find that during his absence 
 Lord Howard of Bindon had once more taken up the 
 wicked steward, Meeres, and persuaded Sir William 
 Peryam, the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, to try the 
 suit again. Raleigh complains to Cecil : 
 
 I never busied myself with the Lord Viscount's [Lord 
 Bindon's] wealth, nor of his extortions, nor poisoning of his 
 wife, as is here avowed, have I spoken. I have foreborne 
 . . . but I will not endure wrong at so peevish a fool's 
 hands any longer. I will rather lose my life, and I think 
 that my Lord Puritan Peryam doth think that the Queen 
 sliaU have more use of rogues and villains than of men, or 
 else he would not, at Bindon's instances, have yielded to 
 try actions against me being out of the land. 
 
 The vexation was a real one, but this is the language 
 of a petulant invalid, of a man to whom the grasshopper 
 has become a burden. We are therefore not surprised 
 to find him at Bath on September 15, so ill that he 
 can barely write a note to Cecil warning him of the 
 approach of a Spanish fleet, the news of which has just 
 reached him from Jersey. He grew little better at 
 Bath, and in October we find him again at Sherborne, 
 in very low spirits, sending by Cobham to the Queen 
 a stone which Bartholomew Gilbert had brought from 
 
128 Raleigh 
 
 America, and which Kaleigh took to be a diamond. 
 Immediately after this, he set out on what he calls his 
 ^miserable journey into Cornwall,' no other than his 
 customary autumn circuit through the Stannary Courts. 
 Once he had enjoyed these bracing rides over the moors, 
 but his animal spirits were subdued, and the cold 
 mosses, the streams to be forded, the dripping October 
 woods, and the chilly granite judgment-seat itself, had 
 lost their attraction for his aching joints. In November, 
 however, he is back at Sherborne, restored to health, 
 and intending to linger in Dorsetshire as long as he can, 
 ' except there be cause to hasten me up.' 
 
 Meanwhile he had paid a brief visit to London, and 
 had spoken with the Queen, as it would appear, for 
 the last time. Cecil, who was also present, has recorded 
 in a letter of November 4 this interview, which took 
 place the previous day. On this last occasion Elizabeth 
 sought Raleigh's advice on her Irish policy. The Presi- 
 dent of Munster had reported that he had seen fit to 
 ^ kill and hang divers poor men, women, and children 
 appertaining' to Cormac MacDermod McCarthy, Lord 
 of Muskerry, and to burn all his castles and villages 
 from Carrigrohan to Inchigeelagh. Cecil was inclined to 
 think that severity had been pushed too far, and that the 
 wretched Cormac might be left in peace. But Elizabeth 
 had long been accustomed to turn to Raleigh for advice 
 on her Irish policy. He gave, as usual, his unflinching 
 constant counsel for drastic severity. He ' very earnestly 
 moved her Majesty of all others to reject Cormac Mac- 
 Dermod, first, because his country was worth her keep- 
 ing, secondly, because he lived so under the eye of the 
 State that, whensoever she would, it was in her power to 
 
Last Days of Elizabeth 129 
 
 suppress him.' This last, one would tliink, might have 
 been an argument for mercy. The Queen instructed 
 Cecil to tell Sir George Carew, that whatever pardon 
 was extended to others, none might be shown to Cormac. 
 
 It was in the same spirit of rigour that llaleigh had 
 for two years past advised the retention of the gentle 
 and learned Florence MacCarthy in the Tower, as ^a man 
 reconciled to the Pope, dangerous to the present State, 
 beloved of such as seek the ruin of the realm;' and 
 this at the very time when MacCarthy, trusting in his 
 twenty years' acquaintance with Raleigh, was praying 
 Cecil to let him be his judge. Raleigh little thought 
 that the doors which detained Florence MacCarthy would 
 soon open for a moment to inclose himself, and that in 
 two neighbouring cells through long years of captivity 
 the TLisiorxj of the World would grow beside the growing 
 History of the Early Ages of Ireland. 
 
 In this year, 1602, Raleigh parted with his vast 
 Irish estates to Richard Boyle, afterwards Earl of Cork, 
 and placed the purchase-money in privateering enter- 
 prises. It is known that Cecil had an interest in this 
 fleet of merchantmen, and as late as January 1603 he 
 writes about a cruiser in which Raleigh and he were 
 partners, begging Raleigh, from prudential reasons, to 
 conceal the fact that Cecil was in the adventure. There 
 was no abatement whatever in the friendliness of Cecil's 
 tone to Raleigh, although in his own crafty mind he had 
 decided that the death of the Queen should set the term 
 to Raleigh's prosperity. On March 30, 1603, Elizabeth 
 died, and with her last breath the fortune and even the 
 personal safety of Raleigh expired. 
 
 We may pause here a moment to consider what was 
 
1 30 Raleigh 
 
 Raleigh's condition and fame at this critical point in his 
 life. He was over fifty years of age, but in health and 
 spirits much older than his time of life suggested ; his 
 energy had shown signs of abatement, and for five years 
 he had done nothing that had drawn public attention 
 strongly to his gifts. If he had died in 1603, unattainted, 
 in peace at Sherborne, it is a question whether he would 
 have, attracted the notice of posterity in any very general 
 degree. To close students of the reign of Elizabeth he 
 would still be, as Mr. Gardiner says, ' the man who had 
 more genius than all the Privy Council put together.* 
 But he would not be to us all the embodiment of the 
 spirit of England in the great age of Elizabeth, the fore- 
 most man of his time, the figure which takes the same 
 place in the field of action which Shakespeare takes in 
 that of imagination and Bacon in that of thought. For 
 this something more was needed, the long torture of 
 imprisonment, the final crown of judicial martyrdom. 
 The slow tragedy closing on Tower Hill is the necessary 
 complement to his greatness. 
 
 All this it is easy to see, but it is more difficult to 
 understand what circumstances brought about a condition 
 of things in which such a tragedy became possible. We 
 must realise that Raleigh was a man of severe speech 
 and reserved manner, not easily moved to be gracious, 
 constantly reproving the sluggish by his rapidity, and 
 galling the dull by his wit. All through his career we 
 find him hard to get on with, proud to his inferiors, 
 still more crabbed to those above him. If policy required 
 that he should use the arts of a diplomatist, he over- 
 played his part, and stung his rivals to the quick by an 
 obsequiousness in speech to which his eyes and shoulders 
 
Last Days of Elizabeth 131 
 
 gave the lie. With all his wealth and influence, he 
 missed the crowning points of his ambition ; he never 
 sat in the House of Peers, he never pushed his way to 
 the council board, he never held quite the highest rank 
 in any naval expedition, he never ruled with only the 
 Queen above him even in Ireland. He who of all men 
 hated most and deserved least to be an underling, was 
 forced to play the subordinate all through the most 
 brilliant part of his variegated life of adventure. It was 
 only for a moment, at Cadiz or Fayal, that by a doubtful 
 breach of prerogative he struggled to the surface, to sink 
 again directly the achievement was accomplished. This 
 soured and would probably have paralysed him, but for 
 the noble stimulant of misfortune ; and to the temper 
 which this continued disappointment produced, we must 
 look for the cause of his unpopularity. 
 
 It is difficult, as we have said, to understand how it 
 was that he had the opportunity to become unpopular. 
 From one of his latest letters in Elizabeth's reign we 
 gather that the tavern-keepers throughout the country 
 considered Raleigh at fault for a tax which was really 
 insisted on by the Queen's rapacity. He prays Cecil to 
 induce Elizabeth to remit it, for, he says, ' I cannot live, 
 nor show my face out of my doors, without it, nor dare 
 ride through the towns where these taverners dwell.' 
 This is the only passage which I can find in his published 
 correspondence which accounts in any degree for the 
 fact that we presently find Raleigh beyond question the 
 best-hated man in England.* 
 
 * Among Sir A. Malet's MSS., for instance, we find Raleigh 
 spoken of, so early as April 1 600, as ' the hellish Atheist and Traitor,' 
 and we look in vain for the cause of such violence. 
 
132 Raleigh 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE TEIAL AT WINCHESTER. 
 
 Raleigh was in the west when the Queen died, and he 
 had no opportunity of making the rush for the north 
 which emptied London of its nobility in the beginning 
 of April. King James had reached Burghley before 
 Raleigh, in company with his old comrade Sir Robert 
 Crosse, met him on his southward journey. It was 
 necessary that he should ask the new monarch for a 
 continuation of his appointments in Devon and Cornwall ; 
 his posts at Court he had probably made up his mind 
 to lose. One of the blank forms which the King had 
 sent up to be signed by Cecil, nominally excusing the 
 recipient from coming to meet James, had been sent to 
 Raleigh, and this was of evil omen. The King received 
 him ungraciously, and Raleigh did not make the situa- 
 tion better by explaining the cause of his disobedience. 
 James, it is said, admitted in a blunt pun that he had 
 been prejudiced against the late Queen's favourite ; ' on 
 my soul, man,' he said, * I have heard but rawly of thee.' 
 Raleigh was promised letters of continuance for the 
 Stannaries, but was warned to take no measures with 
 regard to the woods and parks of the Duchy of Cornwall 
 until further orders. After the first rough greeting, 
 
The Trial at Winchester 133 
 
 James was fairly civil, but on April 25 privately desired 
 Sir Thomas Lake to settle Raleigh's business speedily, 
 and send him off. 
 
 In the first week of May, Sir Walter Raleigh was 
 informed by the Council that the King had chosen Sir 
 Thomas Erskine to be Captain of the Guard. It was 
 the most natural thing in the world that James should 
 select an old friend and a Scotchman for this confidential 
 post, and Raleigh, as the Council Book records, * in a very 
 humble manner did submit himself.' To show that no 
 injury to his fortunes was intended, the King was pleased 
 to remit the tax of 300Z. a year which Elizabeth had 
 charged on Raleigh's salary as Governor of Jersey. 
 There does not seem to be any evidence that Raleigh 
 was led into any imprudent action by all these changes. 
 Mr. Gardiner appears to put some faith in a despatch of 
 Beaumont's to Villeroi, on May 2, according to which 
 Raleigh was in such a rage at the loss of one of his 
 offices, that he rushed into the King's presence, and 
 poured out accusations of treason against Cecil. I can- 
 not but disbelieve this story ; the evidence all goes to 
 prove that he still regarded Cecil, among the crowd of 
 his enemies, as at least half his friend. On May 13, 
 Cecil was raised to the peerage, as a sign of royal favour. 
 
 Lady Raleigh had always regretted the carelessness 
 with which her husband expended money upon Durham 
 House, his town mansion, without ever securing a proper 
 lease of it. Her prognostications of evil were soon ful- 
 filled. James I. was hardly safe on his throne before 
 the Bishop of Durham demanded the restitution of 
 the ancient town palace of his see. On May 31, 1603, a 
 royal warrant announced that Durham House was to 
 
134 Raleigh 
 
 be restored to tlie Bisliop — ' the said dwellers in it 
 having no right to the same ' — and Sir Walter Raleigh 
 was warned to give quiet possession of the house to 
 such as the Bishop might appoint. Raleigh, much in- 
 commoded at so sudden notice to quit, begged to be 
 allowed to stay until Michaelmas. The Bishop con- 
 sidered this very unreasonable, and would grant him no 
 later date than June 23. In this dilemma Raleigh 
 appealed to the Lords Commissioners, saying that he 
 had spent 2,000Z. on the house, and that ' the poorest 
 artificer in London hath a quarter's warning given him 
 by his landlord.' It is interesting to us, as giving us a 
 notion of Raleigh's customary retinue, that he says he 
 has already laid in provision for his London household 
 of forty persons and nearly twenty horses. ' Now to 
 cast out my hay and oats into the streets at an hour's 
 warning,' for the Bishop wanted to occupy the stables 
 at once, ' and to remove my family and stuff in fourteen 
 days after, is such a severe expulsion as hath not been 
 offered to any man before this day.' What became of 
 his chattels, and what lodging he found for his family, 
 is uncertain ; he gained no civility by his appeal. That 
 he was disturbed by the Bishop, and busily engaged in 
 changing houses all through June, is not unimportant 
 in connection with the accusation, at the trial, that he 
 had spent so much of this month plotting with Cobham 
 and Aremberg at Durham House. 
 
 It was plain that he was not judicious in his 
 behaviour to James. At all times he had been an advo- 
 cate of war rather than peace, even when peace was 
 obviously needful. Spain, too, was written upon his 
 heart, as Calais had been on Mary's, and even at this 
 
The Trial at Winchester 135 
 
 untoward juncture he must needs thrust his enmity 
 on unwilling ears. It is hardly conceivable that he 
 should not know that James was deeply involved with 
 promises to the Catholics; and though the King had 
 said, in the face of his welcome to England, that he 
 should not need them now, he had no intention of ex- 
 asperating them. As to Spain, the King was simply 
 waiting for overtures from Madrid. Kaleigh, who was 
 never a politician, saw nothing of all this, and merely 
 used every opportunity he had of gaining the King's 
 ear to urge his distasteful projects of a war. On the 
 last occasion when, so far as we know, Kaleigh had an 
 interview with James, they were both the guests of 
 Raleigh's uncle. Sir Nicholas Carew, at Bedingfield 
 Park. It would seem that he had already placed in 
 the royal hands the manuscript of his Discourse touching 
 War with Spain, and of the Protecting of the Nether- 
 lands, and he offered to raise two thousand men at 
 his own expense, and to lead them in person against 
 Spain. James I. must have found this persistence, espe- 
 cially from a man against whom he had formed a 
 prejudice, exceedingly galling. No doubt, too, long 
 familiarity with Queen Elizabeth in the decline of her 
 powers, had given Raleigh a manner in approaching 
 royalty which was not to James's liking. 
 
 In July the King's Catholic troubles reached a head. 
 Watson's plot, involving Copley and the young Lord 
 Grey de Wilton, occupied the Privy Council during that 
 month, and it was discovered that George Brooke, a 
 younger brother of Lord Cobham's, was concerned in it. 
 The Brookes, it will be remembered, were the brothers- 
 in-law of Cecil himself, but by this time completely 
 13 
 
136 Raleigh 
 
 estranged from him. It is more interesting to us to 
 note that Cobham himself was the only intimate friend 
 left to Kaleigh. With extraordinary rapidity Raleigh 
 himself was drawn into the net of Watson's misdoings. 
 Copley was arrested on the 6th, and first examined on 
 July 12. He incriminated George Brooke, who was 
 arrested on the 14th. Cobham, who was busy on his 
 duties as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, was brought 
 up for examination on the 15th or 16th ; and on the 
 17th,^ Sir Walter Ealeigh, who, it is said, had given 
 information regarding Cobham, was himself arrested at 
 Windsor. 
 
 Raleigh was walking to and fro on the great terrace 
 at Windsor on the morning of July 17, 1603, waiting 
 to ride with the King, when Cecil came to him 
 and requested his presence in the Council Chamber. 
 What happened there is unknown, but it is plain amid 
 the chaos of conflicting testimony that Cecil argued that 
 what George Brooke knew Cobham must know, and 
 that Raleigh was privy to all Cobham's designs. What 
 form the accusation finally took, we shall presently see. 
 When it was over Raleigh wrote a letter to the Council, 
 in which he made certain random statements with 
 regard to offers made to Cobham about June 9 by a 
 certain attendant of Count Aremberg, the ambassador 
 of the Archduke Albert. From the windows of Durham 
 House he had seen, he said, Cobham's boat cross over to 
 the Austrian's lodgings in St. Saviour's. He probably 
 felt himself forced to state this from finding that the 
 Council already knew something of Cobham's relations 
 
 ' This date, till lately uncertain, is proved from the journal of 
 Cecil's secretary. 
 
The Trial at Winchester 137 
 
 with Ai-emberg. Still, in the light of later events, the 
 "writing of this letter may seem to us a grave mistake. 
 It was instantly shown, on the very next day, to Cobham, 
 and doctored in such a way as to make the latter sup- 
 pose that Ealeigh had gratuitously betrayed him. 
 
 On the day that Raleigh was arrested, July 17, 
 George Brooke said in examination that ' the conspirators 
 among themselves thought Sir Walter Raleigh a fit man 
 to be of the action/ This did not amount to much, but 
 Brooke soon became more copious and protested a fuller 
 tale day by day. Nothing, however, that could touch 
 Raleigh was obtained from any witness until, on the 
 40th, Lord Cobham, who had been thoroughly frightened 
 by daily cross-examination, was shown the l^ter, or part 
 of the letter, from Raleigh to Cecil to which reference 
 has just been made. He then broke out with, ' O 
 traitor ! villain ! now will I tell you all the truth ! ' 
 and proceeded at once to say that ^ he had never entered 
 into those courses but by Raleigh's instigation, and that 
 he would never let him alone ! ' This accusation he 
 entirely retracted nine days later, in consequence of 
 some expostulation from Raleigh which had found its 
 way from one prisoner to the other, for Raleigh was by 
 this time safe in the Tower of London. 
 
 It is most probable that he was taken thither on 
 July 18, immediately after his arrest. On the 20th, 
 after Cobham's formal accusation, he was evidently 
 more strictly confined, and it must have been imme- 
 diately after receiving news of this charge that he 
 attempted to commit suicide. He would be told of 
 Cobham's words, in all likelihood, on the morning of 
 the 21st; he would write the letter to his wife after 
 
138 Raleigh 
 
 meditating on the results of his position, and then 
 would follow the scene that Cecil describes in a letter 
 dated fifteen days later : 
 
 Although lodged and attended as well as in his own house, 
 yet one afternoon, while divers of us were in the Tower, 
 examining these prisoners, Sir Walter Kaleigh attempted to 
 have murdered himself. Whereof when we were advertised, 
 we came to him, and found him in some agony, seeming to 
 be unable to endure his misfortunes, and protesting 
 innocency, with carelessness of life. In that way, he had 
 wounded himself under the right pap, but no way mortally. 
 
 There is no reason whatever for supposing that this 
 was not a genuine attempt at suicide. We can have 
 no difficulty in entering into the mood of Raleigh's 
 mind. Roused to fresh energy by misfortune, his brain 
 and will had of late once more become active, and he 
 was planning adventures by land and sea. If James 
 did oust him from his posts about the Court in favour 
 of leal Scotchmen, Raleigh would brace himself by some 
 fresh expedition against Cadiz, some new settlement of 
 Virginia or Guiana. In the midst of such schemes, the 
 blow of his unexpected arrest would come upon him out 
 of the blue. He could bear poverty, neglect, hardships, 
 even death itself; but imprisonment, with a disgraceful 
 execution as the only end of it, that he was not at first 
 prepared to endure. He had tasted captivity in the 
 Tower once before; he knew the intolerable tedium 
 and fret of it ; and the very prospect maddened him. 
 Nor would his thoughts be only or mainly of himself. 
 He would reflect that if he were once condemned, 
 nothing but financial ruin and social obloquy would 
 
The Trial at Winchester 139 
 
 attend hia wife and children; and tliis it was whicli 
 inspired the passionate and pathetic letter which he 
 addressed to Lady Raleigh just before he stabbed him- 
 self. This letter seems to close the real life of Raleigh. 
 He was to breathe, indeed, for fifteen years more, but 
 only in a sort of living death. He begins thus 
 distractedly : 
 
 Receive from thy unfortunate husband these his last 
 lines : these the last words that ever thou shalt receive from 
 him. That I can live never to see thee and my child more ! 
 I cannot ! I have desired God and disputed with my reason, 
 but nature and compassion hath the victory. That I can 
 live to think how you are both left a spoil to my enemies, 
 and that my name shall be a dishonour to my child ! I 
 cannot ! I cannot endure the memory thereof. TJnf ortunata 
 woman, unfortunate child, comfort yourselves, trust God, 
 and be contented with your poor estate. I would have 
 bettered it, if I had enjoyed a few years. 
 
 He goes on to tell his wife that she is still young, 
 and should marry again ; and then falls into a tumult of 
 distress over his own accusation. Presently he grows 
 calmer, after a wild denunciation of Cobham, and bids 
 his wife forgive, as he does : 
 
 Live humble, for thou hast but a time also. God forgive 
 my Lord Harry [Howard], for he was my heavy enemy. 
 And for my Lord Cecil, I thought he would never forsake 
 me in extremity. I would not have done it him, God 
 knows. But do not thou know it, for he must be master of 
 thy child, and may have compassion of him. Be not dis- 
 mayed, that I died in despair of God's mercies. Strive not 
 to dispute, but assure thyself that God has not left me, 
 nor Satan tempted me. Hope and despair live not together. 
 
140 Raleigh 
 
 I know it is forljiclden to destroy ourselves, but I trust it is 
 forbidden in this sort — that we destroy not ourselves de- 
 spairing of God's mercy. 
 
 After an impassioned prayer, he speaks of his estate. 
 His debts, he confesses, are many, and as the latest of 
 them he mentions what he owes to an expedition to 
 Virginia then on the return voyage, the expedition in 
 which Cecil had a share. Then his shame and anger 
 break out again : 
 
 What will my poor servants tliink, at their return, when 
 they hear I am accused to be Spanish who sent them, at 
 my great charge, to plant and discover upon his territory ! 
 
 intolerable infamy ! O God ! I cannot resist these 
 thoughts. I cannot live to think how I am divided, to think 
 of the expectation of my enemies, the scorns I shall receive, 
 the cruel words of lawyers, the infamous taunts and despites, 
 to be made a wonder and a spectacle ! . . . I commend 
 unto you my poor brother Adrian Gilbert. The lease of 
 Sandridge is his, and none of mine. Let him have it, for 
 God's cause. He knows what is due to me upon it. And 
 be good to Keymis, for he is a perfect honest man, and hath 
 much wrong for my sake. For the rest I commend me to 
 thee, and thee to God, and the Lord knows my sorrow to 
 part from thee and my poor child. But part I must. . . . 
 
 1 bless my poor child ; and let him know his father was 
 no traitor. Be bold of my innocence, for God — to whom I 
 offer life and soul — knows it. . . . And the Lord for ever 
 keep thee, and give thee comfort in both worlds. 
 
 There are few documents of the period more affecting 
 than this, but lie suffered no return of this mood. The 
 pain of his wound and the weakness it produced quieted 
 him at first, and then hope began to take the place of 
 this agony of despair. Meanwhile his treason was 
 
The Trial at Winchester 141 
 
 taken for granted, and he was stripped of his appoint- 
 ments. He had been forced to resign the Wardenship 
 of the Stannaries to Sir Francis Godolphin, and the 
 wine patent was given to the Earl of Nottingham, who 
 behaved with scant courtesy to his old friend and 
 comrade. Sir John Peyton, after guarding Raleigh 
 for ten days at the Tower, was released from the post 
 of Lieutenant, and was given the Governorship of Jersey, 
 of which Raleigh was deprived. On the next day, 
 August 1, Sir George Harvey took Peyton's place as 
 Lieutenant of the Tower, the last report from the 
 outgoing officer being that ^ Sir Walter Raleigh's hurt 
 is doing very well.' It was evidently not at all severe, 
 for on the 4th he was pronounced cured, * both in body 
 and mind.' On the 3rd, De Beaumont, the French 
 ambassador, had written confidentially to Henry IV. 
 that Raleigh gave out that this attempt at suicide ' was 
 formed in order that his fate might not serve as a 
 triumph to his enemies, whose power to put him to 
 death, despite his innocence, he well knows.' 
 
 On August 10 there had still been made no definite 
 accusation linking Raleigh or even Cobham with 
 Watson's plot. All that could be said was that Raleigh 
 and Cobham were intimate with the plotters, and that 
 they had mutually accused each other, vaguely, of 
 entering into certain possibly treasonable negotiations 
 with Austria. On that day De Beaumont was inclined 
 to think that both would be acquitted. It does not 
 seem that James was anxious to push matters to an 
 extremity; but the Government, instigated by Suffolk, 
 insisted on severity. On August 13, Raleigh was again 
 examined in the Tower, and this time more rigorously. 
 
142 Raleigh 
 
 A distinct statement was now gained from him, to the 
 effect that Cobham had offered him 10,000 crowns to 
 further a peace between Spain and England ; Ealeigh 
 had answered, * " When I see the money I will make you 
 an answer," for I thought it one of his ordinary idle 
 conceits/ He insisted, however, that this conversation 
 had nothing to do with Aremberg. All through the 
 month of September the plague was raging in London. 
 In spite of all precautions, it found its way into the 
 outlying posts of the Tower. Sir George Harvey sent 
 away his family, and Wood, who was in special charge of 
 the State prisoners, abandoned them to the Lieutenant. 
 On September 7 we find Harvey sending Raleigh's 
 private letters by a man of . the name of Mellersh, who 
 had been Cobham's steward and was now his secretary. 
 Baleigh and Cobham had become convinced that, what- 
 ever was theii' innocence or guilt, it was absolutely 
 necessary that each should have some idea what the 
 other was confessing. 
 
 On September 21, Raleigh, Cobham, and George 
 Brooke were indicted at Staines. The indictment 
 shows us for the first time what the Government had 
 determined to accuse Raleigh of plotting. It is plainly 
 put that he is charged with ' exciting rebellion against 
 the King, and raising one Arabella Stuart to the Crown 
 of England.' Without going into vexed questions of 
 the claim of this unhappy woman, we may remind our- 
 selves that Arabella Stuart was James I.'s first cousin, 
 the daughter of Charles Stuart, fifth Earl of Lennox, 
 Darnley's elder brother. Her father had died in 1576, 
 soon after her birth. About 1588 she had come up to 
 London to be presented to Elizabeth, and on that occasion 
 
The Trial at Winchester 143 
 
 had amused Raleigh with her gay accomplishments. 
 The legal quibble on which her claim was founded was 
 the fact that she was born in England, whereas James 
 as a Scotchman was supposed to be excluded. Arabella 
 was no pretender ; her descent from Margaret, the sister 
 of Henry VIII.j was complete, and if James had died 
 childless and she had survived him, it is difficult to see 
 how her claim could have been avoided in favour of the 
 Suffolk line. ^Meantime she had no real claim, and no 
 party in the country. But Elizabeth, in one of her 
 fantastic moods, had presented Arabella to the wife of a 
 French ambassador, as ' she that will sometime be Lady 
 Mistress here, even as I am.' Before the Queen's death 
 Arabella's very name had become hateful to her, but this 
 was the slender ground upon which Cobham's, but 
 scarcely Raleigh's, hopes were based. 
 
 The jury was well packed with adverse names. 
 The precept is signed by Raleigh's old and bitter 
 enemy, Lord Howard of Bindon, now Earl of Suffolk. 
 The trial, probably on account of the terror caused by 
 the ravages of the plague, was adjourned for nearly two 
 months, which Raleigh spent in the Tower. Almost 
 the only remnant of all his great wealth which was not 
 by this time forfeited, was his cluster of estates at Sher- 
 borne. He attempted to tie these up to his son, and his 
 brother, Adrian Gilbert, and Cecil appears to have been 
 a friend to Lady Raleigh in this matter. It was so 
 generally taken for granted that Raleigh would be con- 
 demned, that no mock modesty prevented the King's 
 Scotch favourites from asking for his estates. In October 
 Cecil informed Sir James Elphinstone that he w^as at 
 least the twelfth person who had already applied for the 
 
144 Raleigh 
 
 gift of Sherborne. Fortunately Ealeigb, as late as tlie 
 summer of 1602, had desired the judge, Sir John Dod- 
 dridge, to draw up a conveyance of Sherborne to his son, 
 and then to his brother, with a rent-charge of 200Z. a 
 year for life to Lady Ealeigh. For the present Cecil 
 firmly refused to allow anyone to tamper with this 
 conveyance, and Sherborne was the raft upon which the 
 Raleighs sailed through the worst tempest of the trial. 
 Cecil undoubtedly retained a certain tenderness towards 
 his old friend Lady Ealeigh, and for her sake, rather than 
 her husband's, he extended a sort of protection to them 
 in their misfortune. She appealed to him in touching 
 language to ^ pity the name of your ancient friend on his 
 poor little creature, which may live to honoui* you, that 
 we may all lift up our hands and hearts in prayer for 
 you and yours. If you truly knew, you would pity your 
 poor unfortunate friend, which relieth wholly on your 
 honourable and wonted favour.' Cecil listened, and 
 almost relented. 
 
 At first Cobham was not confined in the Tower, and 
 before he came there Ealeigh was advised by some of 
 his friends to try to communicate with him. According 
 to Ealeigh's account, he wrote first of all, 'You or I 
 must go to trial. If I first, then your accusation is the 
 only evidence against me.' Cobham's reply was not 
 satisfactory, and Ealeigh wrote again, and Cobham 
 then sent what Ealeigh thought ' a very good letter.* 
 The person who undertook to carry on this secret cor- 
 respondence was no other than young Sir John Peyton, 
 whom James had just knighted, the son of the late 
 Lieutenant of the Tower. Sir George Harvey seems 
 to have suspected, without wishing to be disagreeable, 
 
The Trial at Winchester 145 
 
 for Raleigh had to liint to Cobham that the Lieutenant 
 might be blamed if it were discovered that letters were 
 passing. Cobham sliifted from hour to hour, and 
 changed colour like a moral chameleon; Raleigh could 
 not depend on him, nor even influence him. Mean- 
 while Cobham was transferred to the Tower, and now 
 communication between the prisoners seemed almost 
 impossible. However, the servant who was waiting 
 upon Raleigh, a man named Cotterell, undertook to 
 speak to Cobham, and desired him to leave his window 
 in the Wardrobe Tower ajar on a certain night. 
 Raleigh had prepared a letter, entreating Cobham to 
 clear him at all costs. This letter Cotterell tied round 
 an apple, and at eight o'clock at night threw it dexter- 
 ously into Cobham's room ; half an hour afterwards a 
 second letter, of still more complete retractation, was 
 pushed by Cobham under his door. This Raleigh hid 
 in his pocket and showed to no one. 
 
 Thus October passed, and during these ten weeks 
 the popular fury against the accused had arisen to a 
 tumultuous pitch. On November 5, Sir W. Waad was 
 instructed to bring Raleigh out of the Tower, and 
 prepare him for his trial. As has been said, the plague 
 was in London, and the prisoner was therefore taken 
 down to Winchester, to be tried in Wolvesey Castle. 
 So terrible was the popular hatred of Raleigh, that the 
 conveyance of him was attended with difficulty, and 
 had to be constantly delayed. ^It was hob or nob 
 whether he should have been brought alive through such 
 multitudes of unruly people as did exclaim against him ; ' 
 and to escape Lynch law a whole week had to be given 
 to the transit. 'The fury and tumult of the people 
 
14^ Raleigh 
 
 was so great ' that "Waad liacl to set watclies, and hasten 
 his prisoner by a stage at a time, when the mob was 
 not expecting him. The wretched people seemed to 
 forget all about the plague for the moment, so eager 
 were they to tear Raleigh to pieces. When he had 
 reached Winchester, it was thought well to wait five 
 days more, to give the popular fury time to quiet down 
 a little. A Court of King's Bench was fitted up in the 
 castle, an old Episcopal palace, not well suited for that 
 purpose. 
 
 On Thursday, November 17, 1603, Raleigh's trial 
 began. In the centre of the upper part of the court, 
 under a canopy of brocade, sat the Lord Chief Justice 
 of England, Popham, and on either side of him, as 
 special commissioners, Cecil, Waad, the Earls of Suffolk 
 and Devonshire, with the judges, Anderson, Gawdy, and 
 Warburton, and other persons of distinction. Opposite 
 Popham sat the Attorney-General, Sir Edward Coke, 
 who conducted the trial. It was actually opened, how- 
 ever, by Hale, the Serjeant, who attempted, as soon as 
 Raleigh had pleaded ^ not guilty ' to the indictment, to 
 raise an unseemly laugh by saying that Lady Arabella 
 * hath no more title to the Crown than I have, which, 
 before God, I utterly renounce.' Raleigh was noticed 
 to smile at this, and we can imagine that his irony 
 would be roused by such buffoonery on an occasion so 
 serious. There was no more jesting of this kind, but 
 the whole trial has remained a type of what was uncouth 
 and undesirable in the conduct of criminal trials through 
 the beginning of the seventeenth century. The nation so 
 rapidly increased in sensitiveness and in a perception 
 of legal decency, that one of the very judges who con- 
 
The Trial at Winchester 147 
 
 ducted Raleigh's trial, Gawdy, lived to look back upon 
 it with horror, and to say, when he himself lay upon 
 his death-bed, that such a mode of procedure ' injured 
 and degraded the justice of England.' 
 
 When Hale had ceased his fooling. Coke began in 
 earnest. He was a man a little older than Raleigh, and 
 of a conceited and violent nature, owing not a little of 
 his exaggerated reputation to the dread that he inspired. 
 He was never more rude and brutal than in his treat- 
 ment of Sir Walter Raleigh upon this famous occasion, 
 and even in a court packed with enemies, in which the 
 proud poet and navigator might glance round without 
 meeting one look more friendly than that in the cold 
 eyes of Cecil, the needless insolence of Coke went too 
 far, and caused a revulsion in Raleigh's favour. Coke 
 began by praising the clemency of the King, who had 
 forbidden the use of torture, and proceeded to charge 
 Sir Walter Raleigh with what he called ' treason of the 
 Main,' to distinguish it from that of George Brooke and 
 his fellows, which was ' of the Bye.' He described this 
 latter, and tried to point out that the former was closely 
 cognate to it. In order to mask the difficulty, nay, the 
 impossibility, of doing this successfully on the evidence 
 which he possessed, he wandered off into a long and 
 wordy disquisition on treasonable plots in general, 
 ending abruptly with that of Edmund de la Pole. Then, 
 for the first time, Coke faced the chief difficulty 
 of the Government, namely, that there was but one 
 witness against Raleigh. He did not allow, as indeed 
 he could not be expected to do, that Cobham had 
 shifted like a Reuben, and was now adhering, for the 
 moment, to an eighth several confession of what he and 
 14 
 
148 Raleigh 
 
 Ealeigli liad actually done or meant to do. It was 
 enough for Coke to insist that Cobham's evidence, that 
 is to say, whichever of the eight conflicting statements 
 suited the prosecution best, was as valuable, in a case 
 of this kind, as ' the inquest of twelve men.' 
 
 Having thus, as he thought, shut Ealeigh's mouth 
 with regard to this one great difficulty, he continued to 
 declaim against ^ those traitors,' obstinately persisting 
 in mixing up Raleigh's ' Main ' with the * Bye,' in spite 
 of the distinction which he himself had drawn. Raleigh 
 appealed against this once or twice, and at last showed 
 signs of impatience. Coke then suddenly turned upon 
 him, and cried out, ' To whom, Sir Walter, did you 
 bear malice ? To the royal children ? ' In the alterca- 
 tion that followed, Coke lost his temper in earnest, and 
 allowed himself to call Raleigh ' a monster with an 
 English face, but a Spanish heart.' He then proceeded 
 to state what the accusation of Sir Walter really 
 amounted to, and in the midst of the inexplicable chaos 
 of this whole affair it may be well to stand for a moment 
 on this scrap of solid ground. Coke's words were : 
 
 You would have stirred England and Scotland both. 
 You incited the Lord Cobham, as soon as Count Aremberg 
 came into England, to go to him. The night he went, you sup- 
 ped with the Lord Cobham, and he brought you after supper 
 to Durham House ; and then the same night by a back-way 
 went with La Renzi to Count Aremberg, and got from him 
 a promise for the money. After this it was arranged that 
 the Lord Cobham should go to Spain and return by Jersey, 
 where you were to meet him about the distribution of the 
 money ; because Cobham had not so much policy or wicked- 
 ness as you. Your intent was to set up the Lady Arabella as 
 
The Trial at Winchester i49 
 
 a titular Queen, and to depose our present rightful King, 
 the lineal descendant of Edward IV. You pretend that 
 this money was to forward the Peace with Spain. Your 
 jargon was * peace,' which meant Spanish invasion and 
 Scottish subversion. 
 
 This was plain language, at least ; this was the case 
 for the prosecution, stripped of all pedantic juggling ; 
 and Raleigh now drew himself together to confute these 
 charges as best he might. ' Let me answer,' he said ; 
 * it concerns my life ; ' and from this point onwards, as 
 Mr. Edwards remarks, the trial becomes a long and im- 
 passioned dialogue. Coke refused to let Raleigh speak, 
 and in this was supported by Popham, a very old man, 
 who owed, his position in that court more to his age 
 than his talents, and who was solicitous to be on friendly 
 terms with the Attorney. Coke then proceeded to 
 argue that Raleigh's relations witli Cobham had been 
 notoriously so intimate that there was nothing surpris- 
 ing or improbable in the accusation that he shared his 
 guilt. He then nimbly went on to expatiate with 
 regard to the circumstances of Cobham's treason, and 
 was deft enougli to bring these forward in such a way 
 as to leave on the mind of his hearers the impression 
 that these were things proved against Raleigh. To 
 this practice, which deserved the very phrases which 
 Coke used against the prisoner's dealings, ' devilish and 
 machiavelian policy,' Raleigli protested again and again 
 that lie ought not to be subjected, until Coke lost his 
 temper once more, and cried, ' I tliou thee, thou traitor, 
 and I will prove thee the rankest traitor in all England.' 
 A sort of hubbub now ensued, and the Lord Chief Justice 
 
I50 Raleigh 
 
 again interfered to silence Raleigli, witli a poor show of 
 impartiality. 
 
 Coke, however, had well nigh exhausted the slender 
 stock of evidence with which he had started. For a 
 few minutes longer he tried by sheer bluster to conceal 
 the poverty of the case, and last of all he handed one of 
 Cobham's confessions to the Clerk of the Crown to be 
 read in court. It entered into no particulars, which 
 Cobham said their lordships must not expect from him, 
 for he was so confounded that he had lost his memory, 
 but it vaguely asserted that he would never have entered 
 into * these courses ' but for Raleigh's instigation. The 
 reading being over. Coke at last sat down. Raleigh 
 began to address the jury, very quietly at first. He 
 pointed out that this solitary accusation, by the most 
 wavering of mortals, uttered in a moment of anger, was 
 absolutely all the evidence that could be brought against 
 him. He admitted that he suspected Cobham of secret 
 communications with Count Aremberg, but he declared 
 that he knew no details, and that whatever he discovered, 
 Cecil also was privy to. He had hitherto spoken softly ; 
 he now suddenly raised his voice, and electrified the 
 court by turning upon Sir Edward Coke, and pouring 
 forth the eloquent and indignant protest which must 
 now be given in his own words. 
 
 Master Attorney, whether to favour or to disable my 
 Lord Cobham you speak as you will of him, yet he is not 
 such a babe as you make him. He hath dispositions of such 
 violence, which his best friends could never temper. But it 
 is very strange that I, at this time, should be thought to 
 plot with the Lord Cobham, knowing him a man that hath 
 neither love nor following ; and, myself, at this time having 
 
The Trial at Winchester 151 
 
 resi<Tned a place of my best command in an office I had in 
 Cornwall. I was not so bare of sense but I saw that, if 
 ever this State was strong, it was now that we have the 
 Kingdom of Scotland united, whence we were wont to fear 
 all our troubles— Ireland quieted, where our forces were 
 wont to be divided — Denmark assured, whom before we 
 were always wont to have in jealousy — the Low Countries 
 our nearest neighbour. And, instead of a Lady whom time 
 had surprised, we had now an active King, who would be 
 present at his own businesses. For me, at this time, to 
 make myself a Robin Hood, a Wat Tyler [in the inad- 
 vertence of the moment he seems to have said 'a Tom 
 Tailor,' by mistake], a Kett, or a Jack Cade ! I was not so 
 mad ! I knew the state of Spain well, his weakness, hia 
 poorness, his humbleness at this time. I knew that six 
 times we had repulsed his forces — thrice in Ireland, thrice 
 at sea, once upon our coast and twice upon his own. 
 Thrice had I served against him myself at sea — wherein, 
 for my country's sake, I had expended of my own property 
 forty thousand marks. I knew that where beforetime he 
 was wont to have forty great sails, at the least, in his ports, 
 now he hath not past six or seven. And for sending to his 
 Indies, he was driven to have strange vessels, a thing 
 contrary to the institutions of his ancestors, who straitly 
 forbade that, even in case of necessity, they should make 
 their necessity known to strangers. I knew that of twenty- 
 five millions which he had from the Indies, he had scarce 
 any left. Nay, I knew his poorness to be such at this time 
 that the Jesuits, his imps, begged at his church doors ; his 
 pride so abated that, notwithstanding his former high terms, 
 he was become glad to congratulate his Majesty, and to 
 send creeping unto him for peace. 
 
 In these fiery words the audience was reminded of 
 the consistent hatred which Raleigh had always shown 
 
152 Raleigh 
 
 to Spain, and of the services which he himself, now a 
 prisoner at the bar, had performed for the liberties of 
 England. The sympathies of the spectators began to 
 be moved ; those who had execrated Raleigh most felt 
 that they had been deceived, and that so noble an 
 Englishman, however indiscreet he might have been, 
 could not by any possibility have intrigued with the 
 worst enemies of England. 
 
 Buttheprisoner had more to do than to rouse the irre- 
 sponsible part of his audience by his patriotic eloquence. 
 The countenances of his judges remained as cold to him 
 as ever, and he turned to the serious business of his 
 defence. His quick intelligence saw that the telling 
 point in Coke's diatribe had been the emphasis he had 
 laid on Raleigh's intimate friendship with Cobham. 
 He began to try and explain away this intimacy, stating 
 what we now know was not exactly true, namely that his 
 
 * privateness ' with Cobham only concerned business, in 
 which the latter sought to make use of his experience. 
 He dwelt on Cobham's wealth, and argued that so rich 
 a man would not venture to conspire. All this part of 
 the defence seems to me injudicious. Raleigh was on 
 safer ground in making another sudden appeal to the 
 sentiment of the court : ' As for my knowing that he had 
 conspired all these things against Spain, for Arabella, 
 and against the King, I protest before Almighty God I 
 am as clear as whosoever here is freest.' 
 
 After a futile discussion as to the value of Cobham's 
 evidence, the foreman of the jury asked a plain question : 
 
 * I desire to understand the time of Sir Walter Raleigh's 
 first letter, and of the Lord Cobham's accusation.' 
 Upon this Cecil spoke for the first time, spinning out a 
 
The Trial at Winchester 153 
 
 long and completely unintelligible sentence whicli was 
 to serve the foreman as an answer. Before the jury 
 could recover from their bewilderment, this extraordinary 
 trial, which proceeded like an Adventure in Wonder- 
 land, was begun once more by Coke, who started afresh 
 with voluble denunciation of the defendant, for whom, 
 he said, it would have been better ' to have stayed in 
 Guiana than to be so well acquainted with the state of 
 Spain.' Coke was still pouring out a torrent of mere 
 abuse, when Raleigh suddenly interrupted him, and 
 addressing the judges, claimed that Cobham should then 
 and there be brought face to face with him. Since he 
 had been in the Tower he had been studying the law, 
 and he brought forward statutes of Edwards III. and IV. 
 to support his contention that he could not be convicted 
 on Cobham's bare accusation. The long speech he 
 made at this point was a masterpiece of persuasive 
 eloquence, and it is worth noting that Dudley Carleton, 
 who was in court, wrote to a friend that though when 
 the trial began he would have gone a hundred miles 
 to see Raleigh hanged, when it had reached this stage 
 he would have gone a thousand to save his life. 
 
 The judges, however, and Popham in particular, 
 were not so moved, and Raleigh's objection to the evi- 
 dence of Cobham was overruled. Coke was so far in- 
 fluenced by it that he now attempted to show that there 
 was other proof against the prisoner, and tried, very 
 awkwardly, to make the confessions of Watson and 
 George Brooke in the ' Bye ' tell against Raleigh in the 
 ^ Main.' Raleigh's unlucky statement, made at Windsor, 
 to the effect that Cobham had offered him 10,000 crowns, 
 and an examination in which Raleigh's friend Captain 
 
1 54 Raleigh 
 
 Key mis admitted a private interview between Cobham 
 and Raleigli during Count Aremberg's stay in London, 
 were then read. In the discussion on these documents 
 the court and the prisoner fell to actual wrangling ; in 
 the buzz of voices it was hard to tell what was said, until 
 a certain impression was at last made by Coke, who 
 screamed out that Raleigh ' had a Spanish heart and 
 was a spider of hell.' This produced a lull, and there- 
 upon followed an iiTelevant dispute as to whether or no 
 Raleigh had once had in his possession a book contain- 
 ing treasonable allusions to the claims of the King of 
 Scotland. Raleigh admitted the possession of this volume, 
 and said that Cecil gave him leave to take it out of Lord 
 Burghley's library. He added that no book was pub- 
 lished towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign that 
 did not pass through his hands. It would be interest- 
 ing to know whether he meant that he exercised a 
 private censorship of the press, or that he bought every- 
 thing that appeared. At all events, the point was 
 allowed to drop. 
 
 Raleigh now gave his attention to the evidence 
 which Keymis had given under threat of the rack. 
 That this torture had been threatened, in express 
 disobedience to the King's order, staggered some of the 
 commissioners, and covered Sir William Waad with 
 confusion. The eliciting of this fact seems to have 
 brought over to Raleigh's side the most valuable and 
 unexpected help, for, in the discussion that ensued, Cecil 
 suddenly pleaded that Raleigh should be allowed fair 
 play. The Attorney then brought forward the case of 
 Arabella Stuart, and a fresh sensation was presented 
 to the audience, who, after listeijing to Cecil, were sud- 
 
The Trial at Winchester 155 
 
 denly thrilled to hear a voice at the back of the court 
 shout, ^ The Lady doth here protest, upon her salvation, 
 that she never dealt in any of these things.' It was the 
 voice of the Earl of Nottingham, who had entered un- 
 perceived, and who was standing there with Arabella 
 Stuart on his arm. Their apparition was no surprise to 
 the judges ; it had been carefully prearranged. 
 
 The trial dragged on with irrelevant production of 
 evidence by Coke, occasional bullying by the Lord 
 Chief Justice, and repeated appeals for fairness from 
 Cecil, who cautiously said that * but for his fault,' he 
 was still Ealeigh's friend. Posterity has laughed at 
 one piece of the Attorney's evidence : 
 
 There is one Dyer, a pilot, that being in Lisbon met 
 with a Portugal gentleman, which asked him if the King 
 of England was crowned yet. To whom he answered, * I 
 think not yet, but he shall be shortly.' * Nay,' said the 
 Portugal, * that shall he never be, for his throat will be 
 cut by Don Raleigh and Don Cobham before he be 
 crowned.' 
 
 A prosecution that calls for evidence such as this has 
 simply broken down. The whole report of the trial is so 
 puerile, that it can only be understood by bearing in 
 mind that, as Mr. Gardiner says, the Government were 
 in possession of a good deal of evidence which they 
 could not produce in court. The King wished to spare 
 Arabella, and to accept Aremberg's protestations with 
 the courtesy due to an ambassador. It was therefore 
 impossible to bring forward a letter which Cecil pos- 
 sessed from Cobham to Arabella, and two from Aremberg 
 to Cobham, The difficulty was not to prove Cobham's 
 guilt, however, but to connect Raleigh closely enough 
 
156 Raleigh 
 
 with Cobliam, and this Coke went on labouring to do. 
 At last he laid a trap for Ealeigh. He induced him to 
 argue on the subject, and then Coke triumphantly drew 
 from his pocket a long letter Cobham had written to 
 the commissioners the day before, a letter in which 
 Cobham disclosed all the secret correspondence Raleigh 
 had had with him since his imprisonment, and even the 
 picturesque story of the letter that was bound round the 
 apple and thrown into Cobham 's window in the Tower. 
 At the production of this document, Sir Walter 
 Raleigh fairly lost his self-possession. He had no idea 
 that any of these facts were in the hands of the Govern- 
 ment. His bewilderment and dejection soon, however, 
 left him sufficiently for him to recollect the other letter 
 of Cobham's which he possessed. He drew it from his 
 pocket, and, Cobham's writing being very bad, he could 
 not, from his agitation, read it ; Coke desired that it 
 should not be produced, but Cecil interposed once 
 more, and volunteered to read it aloud. This letter 
 was Raleigh's last effort. He said, when Cecil had 
 finished, ' Now, my masters, you have heard both. That 
 showed against me is but a voluntary confession. This 
 is under oath, and the deepest protestations a Christian 
 man can make. Therefore believe which of these hath 
 more force.' The jury then retired ; and in a quarter 
 of an hour returned with the verdict ' Guilty.' Raleigh 
 had, in fact, confessed that Cobham had mentioned the 
 plot to him, though nothing would induce him to admit 
 that he had asked Cobham for a sum of money, or con- 
 sented to take any active part. Still this was enough ; 
 and in the face of his unfortunate prevarication about 
 the interview with Renzi, the jury could hardly act 
 
The Trial at Winchester 157 
 
 otherwise. For a summing up of both sides of the 
 vexed question what shadow of truth there was in the 
 general accusation, the reader may be recommended to 
 Mr. Gardiner's brilliant pages. 
 
 Raleigh had defended himself with great courage 
 and intelligence, and the crowd in court were by no 
 means in sympathy with the brutal and violent address 
 in which Popham gave judgment. On the very day on 
 which Raleigh was condemned, there began that re- 
 action in his favour which has been proceeding ever 
 since. When the Lord Chief Justice called the noble 
 prisoner a traitor and an atheist, the bystanders, who 
 after all were Englishmen, though they had met pre- 
 pared to tear Raleigh limb from limb, could bear it no 
 longer, and they hissed the judge, as a little before they 
 had hooted Coke. To complete the strangeness of this 
 strange trial, when sentence had been passed, Raleigh 
 advanced quickly up the court, unprevented, and spoke 
 to Cecil and one or two other commissioners, asking, as 
 a favour, that the King would permit Cobham to die 
 first. Before he was secured by the officers, he had 
 found time for this last protest : ' Cobham is a false 
 and cowardly accuser. He can face neither me nor 
 death without acknowledging his falsehood.' He was 
 then led away to gaol. 
 
 For a month Raleigh was retained at Winchester. 
 He found a friend, almost the only one who dared to 
 speak for him, in Lady Pembroke, the saintly sister of 
 Sir Philip Sidney, who showed veteris vestigia flammce, 
 the embers of the old love Raleigh had met with from 
 her brother's family, and sent her son, Lord Pembroke, 
 to the King. She did little good, and Raleigh did 
 
158 Raleigh 
 
 still less by a letter lie now wrote to James, the first 
 personal appeal lie had made to his Majesty. It was a 
 humble entreaty for life, begging the King to listen to 
 the charitable advice which the English law, * knowing 
 her own cruelty, doth give to her superior,' to be 
 pitiful more than just. This letter has been thought 
 obsequious and unmanly ; but it abates no jot of the 
 author's asseverations that he was innocent of all offence, 
 and, surely, in the very face of death a man may be ex- 
 cused for writing humbly to a despot. Lady Kaleigh, 
 meanwhile, was clinging about the knees of Cecil, whose 
 demeanour during the trial had given her fresh hopes. 
 But neither the King nor Cecil gave any sign, and in the 
 gathering reaction in favour of Raleigh remained appa- 
 rently firm for punishment. The whole body of the 
 accused were by this time convicted, Watson and all 
 his companions on the 16th, Raleigh on the 17th, 
 Cobham and Gray on the 18th. On the 29th Watson 
 and Clarke, the other priest, were executed. Next 
 day, the Spanish ambassador pleaded for Raleigh's life, 
 but was repulsed. The King desired the clergy who 
 attended the surviving prisoners to prepare them rigor- 
 ously for death, and the Bishop of Winchester gave 
 Raleigh no hope. On December 6, George Brooke was 
 executed. And now James seems to have thought that 
 enough blood had been spilt. He would find out the 
 truth by collecting dying confessions from culprits who, 
 after all, should not die. 
 
 The next week was occupied with the performance 
 of the curious burlesque which James had invented. 
 The day after George Brooke was beheaded, the King 
 drew up a warrant to the Sheriff of Hampshire for stay 
 
The Trial at Winchester I59 
 
 of all the other executions. With this document in his 
 bosom, he signed death-warrants for Markham, Gray, 
 and Cobham to be beheaded on the 10th, and Raleigh 
 on the 13th. The King told nobody of his intention, 
 except a Scotch boy, John Gibb, who was his page 
 at the moment. On December 10, at ten o'clock in 
 the morning. Sir Walter Raleigh was desired to come 
 to the window of his cell in Wolvesey Castle. The 
 night before, he had written an affecting letter of fare- 
 well to his wife, and— such, at least, is my personal 
 conviction from the internal evidence— the most extra- 
 ordinary and most brilliant of his poems, The Pilgrimage, 
 By this time he was sorry that he had bemeaned 
 himself in his first paroxysm of despair, and he 
 entreated Lady Raleigh to try to get back the letters 
 in which he sued for his life, ' for,' he said, ' I disdain 
 myself for begging it/ He went on : 
 
 Know it, dear wife, that your son is the child of a true 
 man, and who, in his own respect, despiseth Death, and all 
 his misshapen and ugly forms. I cannot write much, God 
 knows how hardly I stole this time, when all sleep ; and it 
 is time to separate my thoughts from the world. Beg my 
 dead body, which living was denied you ; and either lay it 
 at Sherborne, if the land continue [yours], or in Exeter 
 Church, by my father and mother. I can write no more. 
 Time and Death call me away. 
 
 From his window overlooking the Castle Green, 
 Raleigh saw Markham, a very monument of melancholy, 
 led through the steady rain to the scaffold. He saw the 
 Sheriff presently called away, but could not see the 
 Scotch lad who called him, who was Gibb riding in 
 with the reprieve. He could see Markham standing 
 15 
 
i6o Raleigh 
 
 before the block, he could see the Sheriff return, speak 
 in a low voice to Markham, and lead him away into 
 Arthur's Hall and lock him up there. He could then 
 see Grey led out, he could see his face light up with f* 
 gleam of hope, as he stealthily stirred the wet straAV 
 with his foot and perceived there was no blood there. 
 He could see, though he could not hear, Gray's lips 
 move in the prayer in which he made his protestation of 
 innocence, and as he stood ready at the block, he could 
 see the Sheriff speak to him also, and lead him away, 
 and lock him up with Markham in Arthur's Hall. Then 
 Raleigh, wondering more and more, so violently curious 
 that the crowd below noticed his eager expression, could 
 see Cobham brought out, weeping and muttering, in a 
 lamentable disorder; he could see him praying, and 
 when the prayer was over, he could see the Sheriff 
 leave him to stand alone, trembling, on the scaffold, 
 while he went to fetch Grey and Markham from their 
 prison. Then he could see the trio, Avith an odd expres- 
 sion of hope in their faces, stand side by side a moment, 
 to be harangued by the Sheriff, and then suddenly on 
 his bewildered ears rang out the plaudits of the assem- 
 bled crowd, all Winchester clapping its hands because 
 the King had mercifully saved the lives of the prisoners. 
 And still the steady rain kept falling as the Castle Green 
 grew empty, and Raleigh at his window was left alone with 
 his bewilderment. He was very soon told that he also 
 was spared, and on December 16, 1603, he was taken 
 back to the Tower of London. Such was James's curious 
 but not altogether inhuman sketch for a burlesque. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 IN THE TOWER. 
 
 It is no longer possible for us to follow tlie personal 
 life of Raleigh as we have hitherto been doing, step by 
 step. In the deep monotony of confinement, twelve 
 years passed over him without leaving any marks of 
 months or days upon his chronicle of patience. A 
 hopeless prisoner ceases to take any interest in the 
 passage of time, and Raleigh's few letters from the 
 Tower are almost all of them undated. His comfort 
 had its vicissitudes ; he was now tormented, now in- 
 dulged. A whisper from the outer world would now 
 give him back a gleam of hope, now a harsh answer 
 would complete again the darkness of his hopelessness. 
 He was vexed with ill-health, and yet from the age of 
 fifty-one to that of sixty-three the inherent vigour of his 
 constitution, and his invincible, desire to live, were 
 unabated. From all his pains and sorrows he took 
 refuge, as so many have done before him, in the one 
 unfailing Nepenthe, the consolatory self-forgetfulness of 
 literature. It was in the Tower that the main bulk of 
 his voluminous writings were produced. 
 
 He was confined in the upper story of what was 
 called the Garden Tower, now the Bloody Tower, and 
 not, as is so often said, in the White Tower, so that the 
 
1 62 Raleigh 
 
 little cell with a dim arched light, the Chapel Crypt off 
 Queen Elizabeth's Armoury, which used to be pointed 
 out to visitors as the dungeon in which Ealeigh wrote 
 The History of the World, never, in all probability, 
 heard the sound of his footsteps. It is a myth that he 
 was confined at all in such a dungeon as this. Accord- 
 ing to Mr. Loftie, his apartments were those immediately 
 above the principal gate to the Inner Ward, and had, 
 besides a window looking westward out of the Tower, 
 an entrance to themselves at a higher level, the level 
 of the Lieutenant's and Constable's lodgings. They 
 probably opened directly into a garden which has since 
 been partly built over. 
 
 Raleigh was comfortably lodged ; it was Sir William 
 Waad's complaint that the rooms were too spacious. 
 Lady Raleigh and her son shared them with him for 
 a considerable time, and Sir Walter was never with- 
 out three personal servants. He was poor, in comparison 
 with his former opulent estate, but he was never in 
 want. Sherborne just sufficed for six years to supply 
 such needs as presented themselves to a prisoner. His 
 personal expenses in the Tower slightly exceeded 200Z., 
 or 1,000^ of our money ; there was left a narrow 
 margin for Lady Raleigh. The months of January 
 and February 1604 were spent in trying to make the 
 best terms possible for his wife and son. In a letter to 
 the Lords of the Council, Raleigh mentions that he has 
 lost 3,0001. (or 15,000Z. in Victorian money) a year by 
 being deprived of his five main sources of income, namely 
 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 
 
In the Tower 163 
 
 Castle. He besought that he might not be reduced to 
 utter beggary, and he did his best to retain the Duchy 
 of Cornwall and his estates at Sherborne. The former, as 
 he might have supposed, could not be left in the charge 
 of a prisoner. It was given to a friend, to the Earl of 
 Pembroke, and Raleigh showed a dangerous obstinacy 
 in refusing to give up the Seal of the Duchy direct to the 
 Earl ; he was presently induced to resign it into Cecil's 
 hands, and then nothing but Sherborne remained. His 
 debts were 3,000Z. His rich collections of plate and 
 tapestry had been confiscated or stolen. If the King 
 permitted Sherborne also to be taken, it would be impos- 
 sible to meet the exorbitant charges of the Lieutenant, 
 and under these circumstances it is only too probable 
 that Raleigh might have been obliged to crouch in the 
 traditional dungeon ten feet by eight feet. The retention 
 of Sherborne, then, meant comfort and the status of a 
 gentleman. Jt is therefore of the highest interest to us 
 to see what had become of Sherborne. 
 
 We have seen that up to the date of the trial Cecil 
 held at bay the Scottish jackals who went prowling 
 round the rich Dorsetshire manor ; and when the trial 
 was over, Cecil, as Lady Raleigh said, * hath been our 
 only comfort in our lamentable misfortune.' As soon 
 as Raleigh was condemned, commissioners hastened 
 down to Sherborne and began to prepare the division 
 of the prize. They sold the cattle, and began to root up 
 the copses. They made • considerable progress in dis- 
 mantling the house itself. Raleigh appealed to the 
 Lords of the Council, and Cecil sent down two rustees, 
 who, in February 1604, put a sudden stop to all this 
 havoCj and sent the commissioners about their business. 
 
1 64 Raleigh 
 
 Of the latter, one was the infamous Meeres, Kaleigh's 
 former bailiff, and this fact was particmlarly galling to 
 Haleigh. On July 30 in the same year, Sherborne 
 Castle and the surrounding manors were conveyed to 
 Sir Alexander Brett and others in trust for Lady 
 Raleigh and her son Walter, Sir Walter nominally 
 forfeiting the life interest in the estates which he had 
 reserved to himself in the conveyance of 1602. On the 
 moneys collected by these trustees Lady Raleigh sup- 
 ported herself and her husband also. She was not turned 
 out of the castle at first. Twice at least in 1605 we find 
 her there, on the second occasion causing all the armour 
 to be scoured. Some persons afterwards considered that 
 this act was connected with Gunpowder Plot, others 
 maintained that it was merely due to the fact that the 
 armour was rusty. The great point is that she was 
 still mistress of Sherborne. Lord Justice Popham, how- 
 ever, as early as 1604, pronounced Raleigh's act of 
 conveyance invalid, and in 1608 negotiations began for 
 a '■ purchase,' or rather a confiscation of Sherborne to 
 the King. To this we shall presently return. In the 
 meanwhile Captain Keymis acted as warden of Sher- 
 borne Castle. 
 
 As soon as the warm weather closed in, in the 
 Bummer of 1604, the malaria in the Tower began to 
 affect Raleigh's health. As he tells Cecil, now Lord 
 Cranborne, in a most dolorous letter, he was withering 
 in body and mind. The plague had c6me close to him, 
 his son having lain a fortnight with only a paper wall 
 between him and a woman whose child was dying of that 
 terrible complaint. Lady Raleigh, at last, had been 
 able to bear the terror of infection no longer, and had 
 
In the Tower 165 
 
 departed with little Walter. Kaleigli thereupon, in a 
 fit of extreme dejection, * presumed to tell their Lord- 
 ships of his miserable estate, daily in danger of death by 
 the palsy, nightly of suffocation by wasted and obstructed 
 lungs.' He entreated to be removed to more wholesome 
 lodgings. His prayer was not answered. Earlier in the 
 year he had indeed enjoyed a short excursion from the 
 Tower. At Easter the King had come to attend a bull- 
 baiting on Tower Hill, and Raleigh was hastily removed 
 to the Fleet prison beforehand, lest the etiquette of such 
 occasions should oblige James, against his inclination, to 
 give obnoxious prisoners their liberty. Raleigh was one 
 of five persons so hurried to the Fleet on March 25 : on 
 the next day the King came, and ' caused all the prisons 
 of the Tower to be opened, and all the persons then within 
 them to be released.' After the bull-baiting was over, 
 the excepted prisoners were quietly brought back again. 
 This little change was all the variety that Raleigh 
 enjoyed until he left for Guiana in 1617. 
 
 When it transpired in 1605 that through, as it 
 appears, the negligence of the copying clerk, the con- 
 veyance by which Raleigh thought that he had secured 
 Sherborne to his son was null and void, he had to suffer 
 from a vindictive attack from his wife herself. She, 
 poor woman, had now for nearly two years bustled 
 hither and thither, intriguing in not always the most 
 judicious manner for her family, but never resting, 
 never leaving a stone unturned which might lead 
 to their restitution. The sudden discovery that the 
 lawyers had found a flaw in the conveyance was more 
 than her overstrung nerves could endure, and in a fit of 
 temper she attacked her husband, and rushed about the 
 
1 66 Raleigh 
 
 town denouncing liim. Raleigh, in deepest depression 
 of mind and body, wrote to Cecil, who had now taken 
 another upward step in the hierarchy of James's protean 
 House of Lords, and who was. Earl of Salisbury hence- 
 forwai'd : 
 
 Of the true cause of my importunities, one is, that I am 
 every second or third night in danger either of sudden 
 death, or of the loss of my Hmbs or sense, being sometimes 
 two hours without feeling or motion of my hand and whole 
 arm. I complain not of it. I know it vain, for there is 
 none that hath compassion thereof. The other, that I shall 
 be made more than weary of my life by her crying and be- 
 wailing, who will return in post when she hears of your 
 Lordship's departure, and nothing done. She hath already 
 brought her eldest son in one hand, and her sucking child 
 [Carew Raleigh, born in the winter of 1604] in another, 
 crying out of her and their destruction ; charging me with 
 unnatural negligence, and that having provided for my own 
 life, I am without sense and compassion of theirs. These 
 torments, added to my desolate life — receiving nothing but 
 torments, and where I should look for some comfort, 
 together with the consideration of my cruel destiny, my 
 days and times worn out in trouble and imprisonment — is 
 sufficient either utterly to distract me, or to make me curse 
 the time that ever I was bom into the world, and had a 
 being. 
 
 Things were not commonly in so bad a way as this, 
 we may be sure. Raleigh, who did nothing by halves, 
 was not accustomed to underrate his own misfortunes. 
 His health was uncertain, indeed, and it was still worse 
 in 1606 ; but his condition otherwise was not so de- 
 plorable as this letter would tend to prove. Poor Lady 
 Raleigh soon recovered her equanimity, and the Lieu- 
 
In the Tower 167 
 
 tenant of the Tower, Sir George Harvey, indulged 
 Raleigh in a variety of ways. He frequently invited 
 him to his table; and finding that the prisoner was 
 engaged in various chemical experiments, he lent him 
 his private garden to set up his still in. In one of 
 Raleigh's few letters of this period, we get a delight- 
 ful little vignette. Raleigh is busy working in the 
 garden, and, the pale being down, the charming young 
 Lady Effingham, his old friend Nottingham's daughter, 
 strolls by along the terrace on the arm of the Countess 
 of Beaumont. The ladies lean over the paling, and 
 watch the picturesque old magician poring over his 
 crucibles, his face lighted up with the flames from his 
 furnace. They fall a chatting with him, and Lady 
 Effingham coaxes him to spare her a little of that famous 
 balsam which he brought back from G-uiana. He tells 
 her that he has none prepared, but that he will send her 
 some by their common friend Captain Whitlock, and 
 presently he does so. A captivity which admitted such 
 communications with the outer world as this, could not 
 but have had its alleviations. 
 
 The letter quoted on the last page evidently belongs 
 to the summer of 1605, when, for a few months, Raleigh 
 was undoubtedly in great discomfort. On August 15, Sir 
 George Harvey was succeeded by Sir William Waad, 
 who had shown Raleigh great severity before his trial. 
 He, however, although not well disposed, shrank from 
 actually ill-treating his noble prisoner. He hinted to 
 Lord Salisbury that he wanted the garden for his own 
 use, and that he thought the paling an insufficient 
 barrier between Raleigh and the world. Meanwhile 
 Salisbury did not take the hint, and the brick wall 
 
1 68 . Raleigh 
 
 Waad wished built up was not begun. Waad evidently 
 looked upon the chemical experiments with suspicion. 
 ^ Sir Walter Raleigh,' he wrote, ^ hath converted a little 
 hen-house in the garden into a still, where he doth 
 spend his time all the day in his distillations.' Some 
 of the remedies which the prisoner invented became 
 exceedingly popular. His ^ lesser cordial ' of strawberry 
 water was extensively used by ladies, and his * great 
 cordial,' which was understand to contain ^ whatever is 
 most choice and sovereign in the animal, vegetable, and 
 mineral world,' continued to be a favourite panacea 
 until the close of the century. 
 
 When, in November, Gunpowder Plot was discovered, 
 Sir Walter Raleigh was for a moment suspected. No 
 evidence was found inculpating him in the slightest 
 degree ; but his life was, for the moment at least, made 
 distinctly harder. W^hen he returned from examination, 
 the wall which Waad had desired to put between the 
 prisoner and the public was in course of construction. 
 When finished it was not very formidable, for Waad 
 complains that Raleigh was in the habit of standing 
 upon it, in the sight of passers-by. The increased con- 
 finement in the spring of 1606 brought his ill-health to 
 a climax. He thought he was about to suffer an apo- 
 plectic seizure, and he was allowed to take medical 
 advice. The doctor's certificate, dated March 26, 1606, 
 is still in existence ; it describes his paralytic symptoms, 
 and recommends that Sir Walter Raleigh should be 
 removed from the cold lodging which he was occupying 
 to the ^ little room he hath built in the garden, and 
 joining his still-house,' which would be warmer. This 
 seems to have been done, and Raleigh's health improved. 
 
In the Tower 169 
 
 During the year 1606 various attempts were made 
 to persuade the King to release Raleigh, but in vain. 
 The Queen had made his acquaintance, and had become 
 his friend, and there was a general hope that when her 
 father, the King of Denmark, came over to see James 
 in the summer, he would plead for Raleigh. There is 
 reason to believe that if he had done so with success, 
 he would have invited Raleigh to return with him, and 
 to become Admiral of the Danish fleet. But matters 
 never got so far as this. James I. had an inkling of what 
 was coming, and he took an early opportunity of saying 
 to Christian IV., ' Promise me that you will be no man's 
 solicitor.' In spite of this, before he left England, 
 Christian did ask for Raleigh's pardon, and was refused. 
 When he had left England, and all hope was over, in 
 September, Lady Raleigh made her way to Hampton 
 Court, and, pushing her way into the King's presence, 
 fell on her knees at his feet. James went by, and 
 neither spoke nor looked at her. It must have been about 
 this time, or a little later, that Queen Anne brought 
 her unfortunate eldest son Henry to visit Raleigh at 
 the Tower. Prince Henry, born in 1594, was now only 
 twelve years of age. His intimacy with Sir Walter 
 Raleigh belongs rather to the years 1610 to 1612. 
 
 In February 1607, Raleigh was exposed to some 
 annoyance from Edward Cotterell, the servant who in 
 1603 had carried his injudicious correspondence with 
 Lord Cobham to and fro. This man had remained in 
 Lady Raleigh's service, and attended on her in her little 
 house, opposite her husband's rooms, on Tower Hill. 
 He professed to be able to give evidence against his 
 master, but in examination before the Lord Chief 
 
170 Raleigh 
 
 Justice nothing intelligible could be extracted from him. 
 About the same time we find Raleigh, encouraged, it 
 would appear, by the Queen, proposing to Lord Salisbury 
 that he should be allowed to go to Guiana on an expe- 
 dition for gold. It is pathetic to read the earnest 
 phrases in which he tries to wheedle out of the cold 
 Minister permission to set out westward once more 
 across the ocean that he loved so much. He offers, lest 
 he should be looked upon as a runagate, to leave his 
 wife and children behind him as hostages; and the 
 Queen and Lord Salisbury may have the treasure he 
 brings back, if only he may go. He pleads how rich 
 the land is, and how no one knows the way to it as he 
 does. We seem to hear the very accents of another 
 weary King of the Sea : 
 
 ' Tis not too late to seek a newer world ; 
 Push off, and sitting well in order smite 
 The sounding furrows ; for my purpose holds 
 To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 
 Of all the western stars until I die. 
 
 Such was Raleigh's purpose ; but it was not that of 
 James and of Salisbury. On the contrary, he was kept a 
 faster prisoner. In July 1607, fresh regulations came 
 into force in the Tower, by which at 5 p.m. Raleigh and 
 his servants had to retire to their own apartments, and 
 Lady Raleigh go back to her house, nor were guests 
 any longer to be admitted in the evening. Lady 
 Raleigh had particularly offended Sir William Waad by 
 driving into the Tower in her coach. She was informed 
 that she must do so no more. It was probably these 
 long quiet evenings which specially predisposed Raleigh 
 
In the Tower 171 
 
 to literary composition. He borrowed books, mainly 
 of an historical character, in all directions. A letter 
 to Sir Robert Cotton is extant in which he desires the 
 loan of no less than thirteen obscure and bulky histo- 
 rians, and we may imagine his silent evenings spent in 
 poring over the precious manuscripts of the Annals of 
 Teiukeshury and the Chronicle of Evesham. In this year 
 young Walter Raleigh, now fourteen years of age, pro- 
 ceeded to Oxford, and matriculated at Corpus on October 
 30, 1607. Kis tutors were a certain Hooker, and the 
 brilliant young theologian. Dr. Daniel Featley, afterwards 
 to be famous as a controversial divine. Throughout 
 the year 1608, Raleigh, buried in his History, makes 
 no sign to us. 
 
 Early in 1609, the uncertain tenure of Sherborne, 
 which had vexed Raleigh so much that he declared 
 himself ready to part with the estate in exchange for 
 the pleasure of never hearing of it again, once more 
 came definitely before the notice of the Government. A 
 proposition had been made to Raleigh to sell his right 
 in it to the King, but he had refused ; he said that it 
 belonged to his wife and child, and that ' those that 
 never had a fee-simple could not grant a fee-simple.' 
 About Christmas 1608 Lady Raleigh brought the 
 matter up again, and leading her sons by the hand she 
 appeared in the Presence Chamber, and besought James 
 to give them a new conveyance, with no flaw in it. 
 But the King had determined to seize Sherborne, and 
 he told her, ' I maun hae the lond, I maun hae it for 
 Carr.' It is said that, losing all patience, Elizabeth 
 Raleigh started to her feet, and implored God to punish 
 this robbery of her household. Sir Walter was more 
 16 
 
172 Raleigh 
 
 politic, and on January 2, 1609, lie wrote a letter to tiie 
 favourite, imploring him not to covet Sherborne. It 
 is to be regretted that Ealeigh, whose opinion of James's 
 minions was not on private occasions concealed, should 
 write to Carr of all people in England as ^ one whom I 
 know not, but by an honourable fame ; ' and that the 
 eloquence of his appeal should be thrown away on such 
 a recipient. ' For yourself. Sir,' he says, ' seeing your 
 day is but now in the dawn, and mine come to the 
 evening, your own virtues and the King's grace assuring 
 you of many good fortunes and much honour, I be- 
 seech you not to begin your first building upon the 
 ruins of the innocent ; and that their griefs and sorrows 
 do not attend your first plantation.' Carr, of course, 
 took no notice whatever, and on the 10th of the same 
 month the estates at Sherborne were bestowed on him. 
 At Prince Henry's request the King presently purchased 
 them back again, and gave them to his son, who soon 
 after died. Mr. Edwards has discovered that Sherborne 
 passed through eight successive changes of ownership 
 before 1617. To Lady Raleigh and her children the 
 King gave 8,000Z. as purchase-money of the life secu- 
 rity in Sherborne. The interest on this sum was 
 very irregularly paid, and the Guiana voyage in 1617 
 swallowed up most of the principal. Thus the vast and 
 princely fortune of Raleigh melted away like a drift of 
 snow. 
 
 In the summer of 1611, Raleigh came into collision 
 with Lord Salisbury and Lord Northampton on some 
 matter at present obscure. Northampton writes : ' We 
 had afterwards a bout with Sir Walter Raleigh, in 
 whom we find no change, but the same blindness, pride, 
 
In the Tower i73 
 
 and passion that heretofore hatli wrought more violently, 
 but never expressed itself in a stranger fashion.' In con- 
 sequence of their interview with Raleigh and other pri- 
 soners, the Lords recommended that 'the lawless liberty' 
 of the Tower should no longer be allowed to cocker and 
 foster exorbitant hopes in the braver sort of captives. 
 Raleigh was immediately placed under closer restraint, 
 not even being allowed to take his customary walk with 
 his keeper up the hill within the Tower. His private 
 garden and gallery were taken from him, and his wife 
 was almost entirely excluded from his company. The 
 final months of Salisbury's life were unfavourable to 
 Raleigh, and there was no quickening of the old friend- 
 ship Tt the last. When Lord Salisbury died on May 24, 
 1612, Raleigh wrote this epigram: 
 
 Here lies Hobinall our pastor whilere, 
 That once in a quarter our fleeces did sheer ; 
 To please us, his cur he kept under clog, 
 And was ever after both shepherd and dog ; 
 For oblation to Pan, his custom was thus. 
 He first gave a trifle, then offered up us ; 
 And through his false worship such power he did gain, 
 As kept him on the mountain, and us on the plain. 
 When these lines were shown to James I. he said he 
 hoped that the man who wrote them would die before 
 
 he did. 
 
 The death of Salisbury encouraged Raleigh once 
 more. His intimacy with the generous and promising 
 Prince of Wales had quickened his hopes. During the 
 last months of his life, Henry continually appealed to 
 Raleigh for advice. The Prince was exceedingly in- 
 terested in all matters of navigation and shipbuilding. 
 
174 Raleigh 
 
 and there exists a letter to him from Raleigh giving 
 him elaborate counsel on the building of a man-of-war, 
 from which we may learn that in the opinion of that 
 practised hand six things were chiefly required in a 
 well-conditioned ship of the period: '1, that she be 
 strong built ; 2, swift in sail ; 3, stout-sided ; 4, that 
 her ports be so laid, as she may carry out her guns all 
 weathers ; 5, that she hull and try well ; 6, that she 
 stay well, when boarding or turning on a wind is re- 
 quired.' Secure in the interest of the Prince of Wales, 
 and hoping to persuade the Queen to be an adventurer, 
 Raleigh seized the opportunity of the death of Salisbury 
 to communicate his plans for an expedition to Guiana 
 to the Lords of the Council. He thought he had in- 
 duced them to promise that Captain Keymis should go, 
 and that if so much as half a ton of gold was brought 
 back, that should buy Raleigh his liberty. But the 
 negotiations fell through, and Keymis stayed at home. 
 
 In September 1612, Raleigh was writing the second 
 of his Marriage Discourses^ that dealing with the pro- 
 spects of his best and youngest friend. A month later 
 that friend fell a victim to his extreme rashness in the 
 neglect of his health. The illness of the Prince of 
 Wales filled the whole of England with dismay, and 
 when, on November 6, he sank under the attack of 
 typhoid fever, it was felt to be a national misfortune. 
 On the very morning of his death the Queen sent 
 to Raleigh for his famous cordial, and it was for- 
 warded, with the message that if it was not poison that 
 the Prince was dying of, it must save him. The Queen 
 herself believed that Raleigh's cordial had once saved 
 her life \ on the other hand, in the preceding August 
 
In the Tower 175 
 
 his medicines were vulgarly supposed to have hastened 
 the death of Sir Philip Sidney's daughter, the Countess 
 of Rutland. The cordial soothed the Prince's last 
 agony, and that was all. Henry had with great diffi- 
 culty obtained from his father the promise that, as a 
 personal favour to himself, Raleigh should be set at 
 liberty at Christmas 1612. He died six weeks too soon, 
 and the King contrived to forget his promise. The 
 feeling of the Prince of Wales towards Raleigh was ex- 
 pressed in a phrase that was often repeated, ' No man 
 but my father would keep such a bird in a cage.' 
 
 We learn from Izaak Walton that Ben Jonson was 
 recommended to Raleigh while he was in the Tower, 
 by Camden. That he helped him in obtaining and 
 arranging material for the History of the World is 
 certain. In 1613 young Walter Raleigh, having re- 
 turned to London, and having, in the month of April, 
 killed his man in a duel, went abroad under the charge 
 of Jonson. They took letters for Prince Maurice of 
 Nassau, and they proceeded to Paris, but we know 
 no more. It was probably before they started that 
 young Walter wheeled the corpulent poet of the AU 
 chemist into his father's presence in a barrow, Ben 
 Jonson being utterly overwhelmed with a flagon of 
 that famed canary that he loved too well. Jonson, on 
 his return from abroad, seems to have superintended 
 the publication of the History of the World in 1614. A 
 fine copy of verses, printed opposite the frontispiece of 
 that volume, was reprinted among the pieces called 
 Underwoods in the 1641 folio of Ben Jonson's Works, 
 These lines have, therefore, ever since been attributed 
 to that poet, but, as it appears to me, rashly. In the 
 
iy6 Raleigh 
 
 first place, tliis "volume was posthumous ; in tte second, 
 for no less than twenty-three years Ben Jonson allowed 
 the verses to appear as Ealeigh's without protest; in 
 the third, where they differ from the earlier version it 
 is always to their poetical disadvantage. They were 
 found, as the editor of 1641 says, amongst Jonson's 
 papers, and I would suggest, as a new hypothesis, that 
 the less polished draft in the Underwoods is entirely 
 Ealeigh's, having been copied by Jonson verbatim when 
 he was preparing the History of the World for the press, 
 and that the improved expressions in the latter were 
 adopted by Ealeigh on suggestion from the superior 
 judgment of Jonson. The character of the verse is 
 pecuHarly that of Ealeigh. 
 
 It was in 1607, as I have conjectured, that Ealeigh 
 first began seriously to collect and arrange materials for 
 the History of the World; in 1614 he presented the first 
 and only volume of this gigantic enterprise to the public. 
 It was a folio of 1,354 pages, printed very closely, and 
 if reprinted now would fill about thirty-five such volumes 
 as are devised for an ordinary modem novel. Yet it 
 brought the history of the world no lower down than 
 the conquest of Macedon by Eome, and it is hard to 
 conceive how soon, at this rate of production, Ealeigh 
 would have reached his own generation. He is said to 
 have anticipated that his book would need to consist of 
 not less than four such folios. In the opening lines he 
 expresses some consciousness of the fact that it was late 
 in life for him, a prisoner of State condemned to death 
 at the King's pleasure, to undertake so vast a literary 
 adventure. ' Had it been begotten,' he confesses, * with 
 my first dawn of day, when the light of common know- 
 
In the Tower 177 
 
 ledge began to open itself to my younger years, and 
 before any wound received either from fortune or time, 
 I might yet well have doubted that the darkness of age 
 and death would have covered over both it and me, long 
 before the performance.' It is greatly to be desired that 
 Raleigh could have been as well advised as his contem- 
 porary and possible friend, the Huguenot poet-soldier, 
 Agrippa d'Aubigne, who at the close of a chequered 
 career also prepared a Histoire JJniverselle^ in which he 
 simply told the story of his own political party in France 
 through those stormy years in which he himself had 
 been an actor. We would gladly exchange all these 
 chronicles of Semiramis and Jehoshaphat for a plain 
 statement of what Raleigh witnessed in the England of 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 The student of Raleigh does not, therefore, rise from 
 an examination of his author's chief contribution to litera- 
 ture without a severe sense of disappointment. The 
 book is brilliant almost without a rival in its best pas- 
 sages, but these are comparatively few, and they are 
 divided from one another by tracts of pathless desert. 
 The narrative sometimes descends into a mere slough 
 of barbarous names, a marish of fabulous genealogy, 
 in which the lightest attention must take wings to be 
 supported at all. For instance, the geographical and 
 historical account of the Ten Tribes occupies a space 
 equivalent to a modern octavo volume of at least four 
 hundred pages, through which, if the conscientioua 
 reader would pass ' treading the crude consistence ' of 
 the matter, ' behoves him now both sail and oar.' It is 
 not fair to dwell upon the eminent beauties of the 
 History of the World without at the same time acknow- 
 
1/8 Raleigh 
 
 ledging that the book almost wilfully deprives itself of 
 legitimate value and true human interest by the remote- 
 ness of the period which it describes, and by the tire- 
 some pedantry of its method. It is leisurely to the last 
 excess. The first chapter, of seven long sections, takes 
 us but to the close of the Creation. We cannot proceed 
 without knowing what it is that Tostatus affirms of the 
 empyrean heavens, and whether, with Strabo, we may 
 dare assume that they are filled with angels. To hasten 
 onwards would be impossible, so long as one of the errors 
 of Steuchius Eugubinus remains unconfuted ; and even 
 then it is well to pause until we know the opinions of 
 Orpheus and Zoroaster on the matter in hand. One 
 whole chapter of four sections is dedicated to the Tree 
 of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the arguments of 
 Goropius Becanus are minutely tested and found wanting. 
 Goropius Becanus, whom Raleigh is never tired of 
 shaking between his critical teeth, was a learned Jesuit 
 of Antwerp, who proved that Adam and Eve spoke 
 Dutch in Paradise. It is not until he reaches the 
 Patriarchs that it begins to occur to the historian that 
 at his present rate of progress it will need forty folio 
 volumes, and not four, to complete his labours. From 
 this point he hastens a little, as the compilers of ency- 
 clopaedias do when they have passed the letter B. 
 
 With all this, the History of the World is a charming 
 and delightful miscellany, if we do not accept it too 
 seriously. Often for a score of pages there will be 
 something brilliant, something memorable on every leaf, 
 and there is not a chapter, however arid, without its 
 fine things somewhere. It is impossible to tell where 
 Raleigh's pen will take fire. He is most exquisite and 
 
In the Tower 179 
 
 fanciful where his subject is most unhopeful, and, on the 
 other hand, he is likely to disappoint us where we take 
 for granted that he will be fine. For example, the series 
 of sections on the Terrestrial Paradise are singularly- 
 crabbed and dusty in their display of Rabbinical 
 pedantry, and the little touch in praise of Guiana is 
 almost the only one that redeems the general dryness. 
 It is not mirth, or beauty, or luxury that fires the 
 historian, but death. Of mortality he has always some 
 rich sententious thing to say, praising ' the workman- 
 ship of death, that finishes the sorrowful business of a 
 wretched life.' So the most celebrated passages of the 
 whole book, and perhaps the finest, are the address to 
 God which opens the Historif, and the prose hymn in 
 praise of death which closes it. The entire absence of 
 humour is characteristic, and adds to the difficulty of 
 reading the book straight on. 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. 
 
 By far the most interesting and readable part of the 
 History of the World is its preface. This is a book in 
 itself, and one in which the author condescends to a 
 lively human interest. We cheerfully pass from Elihu 
 the Buzite, and the conjectures of Adricomius respecting 
 the family of Ram, to the actualities of English and 
 Continental history in the generation immediately pre- 
 ceding that in which Raleigh was writing. When we 
 consider the position in which the author stood towards 
 James I. and turn to the pages of his Preface, we refuse 
 to believe that it was without design that he expressed 
 himself in language so extraordinary. It would have 
 
i8o Raleigh 
 
 been mere levity for a friendless prisoner, ready for the 
 block, to publish this terrible arraignment of the crimes 
 of tyrant kings, unless he had some reason for believing 
 that he could shelter himself successfully under a power- 
 ful sympathy. This sympathy, in the case of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, could be none other than that of Prince Henry; 
 and it may well have been in the summer of 1612, when, 
 as we know, he was particularly intimate with the Prince 
 and busied in his affairs, that he wrote the Preface. 
 AVith long isolation from the world, he had lost touch 
 of public affairs, as Tlie 'Prerogative of Parliament would 
 alone be sufficient to show. It is probable that he ex- 
 aggerated the influence of the young Prince, and esti- 
 mated too highly the promise of liberty which he had 
 wrung from his father. 
 
 It took James some time to discover that this grave 
 Rabbinical miscellany, inspired by Siracides and Goro- 
 pius Becanus, was not wholesome reading for his 
 subjects. On January 5, 1615, after the book had been 
 selling slowly, the King gave an order commanding the 
 suppression of the remainder of the edition, giving as 
 his reason that ' it is too saucy in censuring the acts of 
 kings.' It is said that some favoured person at Court 
 pushed inquiry further, and extracted from James the 
 explanation that the censure of Henry YIII. was the 
 real cause of the suppression. Contemporary anec- 
 dote, however, has reported that the defamation of the 
 Tudors in the Preface to the History of the World might 
 have passed without reproof, if the King had not dis- 
 covered in the very body of the book several passages so 
 ambiguously worded that he could not but suspect the 
 writer of intentional satire. According to this story, ho 
 
In the Tower i8i 
 
 was startled at Raleigh's account of Naboth's Vineyard, 
 and scandalised at the description of the impeachment 
 of the Admiral of France ; but what finally drew him up, 
 and made him decide that the book must perish, was 
 the character of King Ninias, son of Queen Semiramis. 
 This passage, then, may serve us as an example of the 
 History of the World : 
 
 Ninus being the first whom the madness of boundless 
 dominion transported, invaded his neighbour princes, and 
 became victorious over them ; a man violent, insolent, and 
 cruel. Semiramis taking the opportunity, and being more 
 proud, adventurous, and ambitious than her paramour, 
 enlarged the Babylonian empire, and beautified many places 
 therein with buildings unexampled. But her son having 
 changed nature and condition with his mother, proved no 
 less feminine than she was masculine. And as wounds and 
 wrongs, by their continual smart, put the patient in mind 
 how to cure the one and revenge the other, so those kings 
 adjoining (whose subjection and calamities incident were 
 but new, and therefore the more grievous) could not sleep, 
 when the advantage was offered by such a successor. For 
 in regno Bahylonico hie parum resplenduit : * This king 
 shined little,' saith ISTauclerus of Ninias, ' in the Babylonian 
 kingdom.' And Hkely it is, that the necks of mortal men 
 having been never before galled with the yoke of foreign 
 dominion, nor having ever had experience of that most 
 miserable and detested condition of living in slavery ; no 
 long descent having as yet invested the Assyrian with a 
 right, nor any other title being for him pretended than a 
 strong hand ; the foolish and effeminate son of a tyrannous 
 and hated mother could very ill hold so many great princes 
 and nations his vassals, with a power less mastering, and a 
 mind less industrious, than his father and mother had used 
 before him. 
 
1 82 Raleigh 
 
 It is in passages like this, where we read the satire 
 between the lines, and in those occasional fragments of 
 autobiography to which we have already referred in the 
 course of this narrative, that the secondary charm of the 
 History of the World resides. It is to these that we 
 turn when we have exhausted our first surprise and de- 
 light at the great bursts of poetic eloquence, the long 
 sonorous sentences which break like waves on the shore, 
 when the spirit of the historian is roused by some occa- 
 sional tempest of reflection. In either case, the book is 
 essentially one to glean from, not to read with consecu- 
 tive patience. Real historical philosophy is absolutely 
 wanting. The author strives to seem impartial by in- 
 troducing, in the midst of an account of the slaughter of 
 the Amalekites, a chapter on ' The Instauration of Civility 
 in Europe, and of Prometheus and Atlas ; ' but his general 
 notions of history are found to be as rude as his compara- 
 tive mythology. He scarcely attempts to sift evidence, 
 and next to Inspiration he knows no guide more trust- 
 worthy than PintUs or Haytonus, a Talmudic rabbi or 
 a Jesuit father. In the midst of his disquisitions, the 
 reward of the continuous reader is to come suddenly 
 upon an unexpected ^ as I myself have seen in America,' 
 or ' as once befell me also in Ireland.' 
 
 Another historical work, the Breviary of the History 
 of England, has been claimed for Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 This book was first published in 1692, from a manuscript 
 in the possession of Archbishop Sancroft, and, as it 
 would appear, in Raleigh's handwriting. Before its 
 publication, however, the Archbishop had noted that 
 * Samuel Daniel hath inserted into his History of England 
 [1618], almost word for word, both the Introduction and 
 
In the Tower 183 
 
 tlie Life ; whence it is that you have sometimes in the 
 margin of my copy a various reading with '"' D " after 
 it/ Daniel, a gentle and subservient creature, was the 
 friend of Camden, and a paid servant of Queen Anne, 
 during Raleigh's imprisonment. He died a few months 
 after Raleigh's execution. It is very likely that he was 
 useful to Raleigh in collecting notes and other material. 
 It may even have been his work for the interesting 
 prisoner in the Tower that caused Jonson's jealous dis- 
 like of Daniel. The younger poet's own account, as 
 Mr. Edwards pointed out, by no means precludes 
 the supposition that he used material put together by 
 another hand. At the same time Sancroft's authority 
 cannot be considered final as regards Raleigh's author- 
 ship of the Breviary J for the manuscript did not come 
 into his hands until nineteen years after Raleigh's 
 death. 
 
 No such doubt attaches to the very curious and 
 interesting volume published nominally at Middelburg 
 in 1628, and entitled The Prerogative of Farliament. 
 This takes the form of a dialogue between a Counsellor 
 of State and a Justice of the Peace. The dramatic 
 propriety is but poorly sustained, and presently the 
 Justice becomes Raleigh, speaking in his own person. 
 The book was written in the summer of 1615, a few 
 months after the suppression of the History of the Woi'ld, 
 and by a curious misconstruction of motive was in- 
 tended to remove from the King's mind the unpleasant 
 impression caused by those parables of Ahab and of 
 Ninias. It had, however, as we shall see, the very 
 opposite result. The preface to the King expresses an 
 almost servile desire to please : ^ it would be more dog- 
 
 ir 
 
1 84 Raleigh 
 
 like than man-like to bite the stone that struck me, to 
 wit the borrowed authority of my sovereign misinformed.' 
 But Raleigh was curiously misinformed himself regard- 
 ing the ways, and wishes of James. His dialogue takes 
 for its starting-point the trial of Oliver St. John, who 
 had been Raleigh's fellow-prisoner in the Tower since 
 April for having with unreasonable brutality protested 
 against the enforced payment of what was called the 
 Benevolence, a supposed free-will offering to the purse 
 of the King. So ignorant was Raleigh of what was 
 going on in England, that he fancied James to be 
 unaware of the tricks of his ministers ; and the argument 
 of Tlie Prerogative of Parliament is to encourage the 
 King to cast aside his evil counsellors, and come face 
 to face with his loyal people. The student of Mr. 
 Gardiner's account of the Benevolence will smile to 
 think of the rage with which the King must have 
 received Raleigh's proffered good advice, and of Raleigh's 
 stupefaction at learning that his well-meant volume was 
 forbidden to be printed. His manuscript, prepared for 
 the press, still remains among the State Papers, and it 
 was not until ten years after his death that it was first 
 timidly issued under the imprints of Middelburg and 
 of Hamburg. 
 
 Not the least of Raleigh's chagrins in the Tower 
 must have been the composition of works which he was 
 unable to publish. It is probable that several of these 
 are still unknown to the world ; many were certainly 
 destroyed, some may still be in existence. During the 
 thirty years which succeeded his execution, there was a 
 considerable demand for scraps of Raleigh's writing on 
 the part of men who were leaning to the Liberal side. 
 
In the Tower 185 
 
 Jolm Hampden was a collector of Raleigh's manuscripts, 
 and he is possibly the friend who bequeathed to Milton 
 the manuscript of The Cahmet Council, an important 
 political work of Raleigh's which the great Puritan 
 poet gave to the world in 1658. At that time Milton 
 had had the treatise ' many years in my hands, and 
 finding it lately by chance among other books and 
 papers, upon reading thereof I thought it a kind of 
 injury to withhold longer the work of so eminent an 
 author from the public/ The Cabinet Council is a study 
 in the manner of Macchiavelli. It treats of the arts 
 of empire and mysteries of State-craft, mainly with 
 regard to the duties of monarchy. It is remarkable for 
 the extraordinary richness of allusive extracts from the 
 Roman classics, almost every maxim being immediately 
 followed by an apt Latin example. At the end of the 
 twenty-fourth chapter the author wakes up to the 
 tedious character of this manner of instruction, and the 
 rest of the book is illustrated by historical instances in 
 the English tongue. The book closes with an exhorta- 
 tion to the reader, who could be no other than Prince 
 Henry, to emulate the conduct of Amurath, King of 
 Turbay, who abandoned worldly glory to embrace a 
 retired life of contemplation. The Cabinet Council must 
 be regarded as a text-book of State-craft, intended in 
 usiim Delphini. 
 
 Probably earlier in date, and certainly more elegant 
 in literary form, is the treatise entitled A Discourse 
 of War. This may be recommended to the modern 
 reader as the most generally pleasing of Raleigh's prose 
 compositions, and the one in which, owing to its modest 
 limits, the peculiarities of his style may be most 
 
1 86 Raleigh 
 
 conveniently studied. The last passage of the little book 
 forms one of the most charming pages of the literature 
 of that time, and closes with a pathetic and dignified 
 statement of Raleigh's own attitude towards war. * It 
 would be an unspeakable advantage, both to the public 
 and private, if men would consider that great truth, 
 that no man is wise or safe but he that is honest. All 
 I have designed is peace to my country; and may 
 England enjoy that blessing when I shall have no more 
 proportion in it than what my ashes make.* There is 
 no reason to doubt thB sincerity of these words ; yet we 
 must not forget that this pacific light was not that in 
 which Raleigh's character had presented itself to Robert 
 Cecil or to Elizabeth. 
 
 None of Raleigh's biographers have suggested any 
 employment for his leisure during the year which 
 followed his release from the Tower. Yet the expres- 
 sions he used in the preface to his Observations on Trade 
 and Commerce show that it must have been prepared dur- 
 ing the year 1616 or 1617: ^ about fourteen or fifteen 
 years past,' that is to say in 1602, *I presented you,' he 
 says to the King, ' a book of extraordinary importance.' 
 He complains that this earlier book was suppressed, 
 and hopes for better luck; but the same misfortune, 
 as usual with Raleigh, attended the Observations. That 
 treatise was an impassioned plea, based upon a 
 survey of the commercial condition of the world, in 
 favour of free trade. Raleigh looked with grave 
 suspicion on the various duties which were levied, in 
 increasing amount, on foreign goods entering this 
 country, and he entreated James I. to allow him to 
 nominate commissioners to examine into the causes of 
 
In the Tower 187 
 
 tlie depression of trade, and to revise the tariffs on a 
 liberal basis. It must have seemed to the King that 
 Ealeigh wilfully opposed every royal scheme which he 
 examined. James had been a protectionist all through 
 his reign, and at this very moment was busy in attempt- 
 ing to force the native industries to flourish in spite of 
 foreign competition. Kaleigh's treatise must have been 
 put into the King's hands much about the time at 
 which his violent protectionism was threatening to 
 draw England into war with Holland. Raleigh's advice 
 seems to us wise and pointed, but to James it can only 
 have appeared wilfully wrong-headed. The Observations 
 upon Trade disappeared as so many of Raleigh's manu- 
 scripts had disappeared before it, and was only first 
 published in the Remains ^ of 1651. 
 
 Of the last three years of Raleigh's imprisonment in 
 the Tower we know scarcely anything. On September 
 27, 1615, a fellow-prisoner in whom Raleigh could not 
 fail to take an interest, Lady Arabella Stuart, died in the 
 Tower. In December, Raleigh was deprived, by an order 
 in Council, of Arabella's rich collection of pearls, but 
 how they had come into his possession we cannot guess. 
 Nor can we date the stroke of apoplexy from which 
 Raleigh suffered about this time. But relief was now 
 briefly coming. Two of Raleigh's worst enemies, North- 
 ampton and Somerset, were removed, and in their suc- 
 cessors, Winwood and Villiers, Raleigh found listeners 
 more favourable to his projects. It has been said that 
 he owed his release to bribery, but Mr. Gardiner thinks 
 it needless to suppose this. Winwood was as cordial a 
 
 » This was really the first edition of the Remains, although that 
 title does not appear until the third edition of 1657. 
 
1 88 Raleigh 
 
 hater of Spain as Raleigli himself; and Villiers, in his 
 political animus against the Somerset faction, would need 
 no bribery. Sir William St. John was active in bring- 
 ing Kaleigh's claims before the Court, and the Queen, as 
 ever, used what slender influence she possessed. Urged 
 on so many sides, James gave way, and on January 30, 
 1616, signed a warrant for Raleigh's release from the 
 Tower. He was to live in his own house, but with a 
 keeper; he was not to presume to visit the Court, or 
 the Queen's apartments, nor go to any public assem- 
 blies whatever, and his whole attention was to be given 
 to making due preparations for the intended voyage to 
 Guiana. This warrant, although Ealeigh used it to leave 
 his confinement, was only provisional ; and was con- 
 firmed by a minute of the Privy Council on March 19. 
 Raleigh took a house in Broad Street, where he spent 
 fourteen months in discreet retirement, and then sailed 
 on his last voyage. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE SECOND VOYAGE TO GUIANA. 
 
 Raleigh had been released from tlie Tower expressly 
 on the understanding that he should make direct pre- 
 parations for a voyage to Guiana. The object of this 
 voyage was to enrich King James with the produce of a 
 mine close to the banks of the Orinoco. In the reign of 
 Elizabeth, Raleigh had stoutly contended that the natives 
 of Guiana had ceded all sovereignty in that country to 
 England in 1595, and that English colonists therefore 
 had no one's leave to ask there. But times had changed, 
 and he now no longer pretended that he had a right to 
 the Orinoco ; he was careful to insist that his expedi- 
 tion would infringe no privileges of Spain. He was 
 anxious by every diplomatic subtlety to avoid failure, 
 and for the first few months he kept extremely quiet. 
 ' He had called in the SfiOOl. which had been lying at 
 interest ever since he had received it as part of the com- 
 pensation for the Sherborne estates. Lady Raleigh had 
 raised 2,500L by the sale of some lands at Mitcham.* 
 5000Z. more were brought together by various expedients, 
 some being borrowed in Amsterdam through the famous 
 
 » More exactly, a house at the corner of Wykford Lane, with a 
 small estate at the back of it, an appendage to Lady Raleigh's 
 brother's seat at Beddington. 
 
190 Raleigh 
 
 merchant, Pieter Yanlore,' and 15,000Z. were contributed 
 by Kaleigli's friends, who looked upon his enterprise 
 much as men at the present day would regard a pro- 
 mising but rather hazardous investment. 
 
 His first business was to build one large ship of 440 
 tons in the Thames. This he named the ' Destiny,' and 
 he received no check in fitting her up to his desire ; 
 the King paid 700 crowns, as the usual statutable 
 bounty on shipbuilding, without objection. At the 
 same time Ealeigh built or collected six other smaller 
 vessels, and furnished them all with ordnance. The 
 preparation of such a fleet in the Thames could not pass 
 unobserved by the representatives of the foreign courts, 
 and during the last six months of 1616 Raleigh's name 
 became the centre of a tangle of diplomatic intrigue, 
 and one which frequently occurs in the correspondence 
 of Sarmiento, better known afterwards as Gondomar, the 
 Spanish ambassador, and in that of Des Marets, the 
 French ambassador. Mr. Edwards has remarked, with 
 complete justice, that the last two years of Raleigh's life 
 were simply * a protracted death-struggle between him 
 and Gondomar.' The latter had been in England since 
 1613, and had acquired a singular art in dealing with 
 the purposes of James I. At the English Court during 
 1616 we find Spain watching France, and Venice watch- 
 ing Savoy, all of them intent on Raleigh's movements 
 in the river. For the unravelment of these intrigues 
 in detail, the reader must be referred to Mr. Gardiner's 
 masterly pages. 
 
 On August 26, a royal commission was issued, by 
 which Raleigh was made the commander of an expedi- 
 tion to Guiana, under express orders, more stringently 
 
The Second Voyage to Guiana 191 
 
 expressed tlian usual, not to visit tlie domiaions of any 
 Christian prince. This was to allay the alarm of the 
 Spanish ambassador, who from the first rumour of 
 Raleigh's voyage had not ceased to declare that its 
 real object was piracy, and probably the capture of the 
 Mexican plate fleet. At the same time James I. allowed 
 Gondomar to obtain possession of copies of certain 
 documents which Raleigh had drawn out at the royal 
 command describing his intended route, and these were 
 at once forwarded to Madrid, together with such infor- 
 mation as Gondomar had been able to glean in con- 
 versation with Raleigh. Spain instantly replied by 
 ofiering him an escort to his gold mine and back, but 
 of course Raleigh' declined the proposition. He con- 
 tinued to assert that he had no piratical intention, and 
 that any man might peacefully enter Guiana without 
 asking leave of Spain. 
 
 It is doubtful whether the anecdote is true which 
 records that Raleigh at this time applied to Bacon to 
 know whether the terms of his commission were tanta- 
 mount to a free pardon, and was told that they were. 
 But it rests on much better testimony that Bacon asked 
 him what he would do if the Guiana mine proved a 
 deception. Raleigh admitted that he would then look 
 out for the Mexican plate fleet. ' But then you will 
 be pirates,' said Bacon ; and Raleigh answered, * Ah, 
 who ever heard of men being pirates for millions?' 
 There was no exaggeration in this ; the Mexican fleet 
 of that year was valued at two millions and a half. The 
 astute Gondomar was at least half certain that this was 
 Raleigh's real intention, and by October 12 he had per- 
 suaded James to give him still more full security that 
 
192 Raleigh 
 
 no injury should be done, at the peril of Raleigh's life, 
 to any subject or property of the King of Spain. 
 
 The building of the ' Destiny ' meanwhile proceeded, 
 and Raleigh received many important visitors on board 
 her. He was protected by the cordial favour of the 
 Secretary, Sir Ralph Winwood ; and if the King disliked 
 him as much as ever, no animosity was shown. In the 
 first days of 1617, Raleigh ventured upon a daring act 
 of intrigue. He determined to work upon the growing 
 sympathy of the English Court with Savoy and its tension 
 with Spain, to strike a blow against the rich enemy 
 of the one and ally of the other, Genoa. He proposed 
 to Scarnafissi, the Savoyard envoy in London, that 
 James I. should be induced to allow the Guiana expedi- 
 tion to steal into the Mediterranean, and seize Genoa 
 for Savoy. Scarnafissi laid the proposal before James, 
 and on January 12 it was discussed in the presence of 
 Winwood. There was talk of increasing Raleigh's fleet 
 for this purpose by the addition of a squadron of sixteen 
 ships from the royal navy. For a fortnight the idea 
 was discussed in secret ; but on the 26th, Scarnafissi was 
 told that the King had determined not to adopt it. 
 Four days later Raleigh was released from the personal 
 attendance of a keeper, and though still not pardoned, 
 was pronounced free. On February 10, the Venetian 
 envoy, who had been taken into Scarnafissi's counsel, 
 announced to his Government that the King had finally 
 determined to keep Raleigh to his original intention. 
 
 Raleigh was next assailed by secret propositions 
 from France. Through the month of February various 
 Frenchmen visited him on the '- Destiny,' besides the 
 ambassador, Des Marets. He was nearly persuaded, in 
 
The Second Voyage to Guiana 193 
 
 defiance of James, to support the projected Huguenot 
 rebellion by capturing St. Valery. To find out the 
 truth regarding his intention, Des Marets paid at least 
 one visit to the * Destiny,' and on March 7 gave his 
 Government an account of a conversation with Raleigh, 
 in which the latter had spoken bitterly of James, and 
 had asserted his affection for France, and desire to serve 
 her. It is in the correspondence of Des Marets that 
 the names of Raleigh and Richelieu become for a moment 
 connected; it was in February 1617 that the future 
 Cardinal described his English contemporary as ' Ouastre 
 Raly, grand marinier et mauvais capitaine.' In March 
 the English Government, to allay fresh apprehensions 
 on the part of Spain, forwarded by Gondomar most 
 implicit assertions that Raleigh's expedition should be 
 in no way injurious to Spain. And so it finally started 
 after all, not bound for Mexico, or Genoa, or St. Valery, 
 but for the Orinoco. Up to the last, Gondomar pro- 
 tested, and his protestations were only put aside after a 
 special council of March 28. Next day Raleigh rode 
 down to Dover to go on board the ' Destiny,' which had 
 left the Thames on the 26th. 
 
 His fleet of seven vessels was not well manned. 
 His own account of the crews is thus worded in the 
 Apology : * A company of volunteers who for the most 
 part had neither seen the sea nor the wars ; who, some 
 forty gentlemen excepted, were the very scum of the 
 world, drunkards, blasphemers, and such others as their 
 fathers, brothers, and friends thought it an exceeding 
 good gain to be discharged of, with the hazard of some 
 thirty, forty, or fifty pound.' He was himself Admiral, 
 with his son Walter as captain of the ^ Destiny ; ' Sir 
 
194 Raleigh 
 
 William Sentleger was on the 'Thunder;' a certain 
 John Bailey commanded the ' Husband/ The remain- 
 ing vessels were the ' Jason/ the ' Encounter/ the 
 ' Flying Joan/ and the ' Page/ The master of the 
 'Destiny' was John Burwick, 'a hypocritical thief.' 
 "Various tiresome delays occurred. They waited for the 
 ' Thunder ' at the Isle of Wight ; and when the res£ 
 went on to Plymouth, the ' Jason ' stayed behind igno- 
 miniously in Portsmouth because her captain had no 
 ready money to pay a distraining baker. The ' Husband ' 
 was in the same plight for twelve days more. The 
 squadron was, however, increased by seven additional 
 vessels, one of them commanded by Keymis, through 
 the enforced waiting at Plymouth, where, on May 3, 
 Raleigh issued his famous Orders to the Fleet. On June 
 12 the fleet sailed at last out of Plymouth Sound. 
 
 West of Scilly they fell in with a terrific storm, 
 which scattered the ships in various directions. Some 
 put back into Falmouth, but the ' Flying Joan ' sank 
 altogether, and the fly-boat was driven up the Bristol 
 Channel. After nearly a fortnight of anxiety and dis- 
 tress, the fleet collected again in Cork Harbour, where 
 they lay repairing and waiting for a favourable wind for 
 more than six weeks. From the Lismore Papers, just 
 published (Jan. 1886), we learn that Raleigh occupied 
 this enforced leisure in getting rid of his remaining 
 Irish leases, and in collecting as much money as he 
 could. Sir Richard Boyle records that on July 1 Raleigh 
 came to his house, and borrowed 1001. On August 19 
 the last Journal begins, and on the 20th the fleet 
 left Cork, Raleigh having taken a share in a mine at 
 Balligara on the morning of the same day. Nothing 
 
The Second Voyage to Guiana 195 
 
 happened until the Slst, when, being off Cape St. Vincent, 
 the English fleet feU in with four French vessels laden 
 with fish and train oil for Seville. In order that they 
 might not give notice that Raleigh was in those waters, 
 where he certainly had no business to be, he took these 
 vessels with him a thousand leagues to the southward, 
 and then dismissed them with payment. His conduct 
 towards these French boats was suspicious, and he after- 
 wards tried to prove that they were pirates who had 
 harried the Grand Canary. It was also Raleigh's con- 
 tention, that the enmity presently shown him by Captain 
 Bailey, of the ' Husband,' arose from Raleigh's refusal to 
 let him make one of these French ships his prize. 
 
 On Sunday morning, September 7, the English fleet 
 anchored oS" the shore of Lanzarote. the most easterly of 
 the Canaries, having hitherto crept down the coast of 
 Africa. These Atlantic islands were particularly open 
 to the attacks of Algerine corsairs, and a fleet of * Turks ' 
 had just ravaged the towns of the Madeiras. The people 
 of Lanzarote, waking up one morning to find their road- 
 stead full of strange vessels, took for granted that these 
 were pirates from Algiers. One English merchant vessel 
 was lying there at anchor, and by means of this inter- 
 preter Raleigh endeavoured to explain his peaceful 
 intention, but without success. He had a meeting on 
 shore with the governor of the island, * our troops stay- 
 ing at equal distance with us,' and was asked the per- 
 tinent question, * what I sought for from that miserable 
 and barren island, peopled in effect all with Moriscos.' 
 Raleigh asserted that all he wanted was fresh meat and 
 wine for his crews, and these he offered to pay for. 
 
 On the 11th, finding that no provisions came, and 
 18 
 
196 Raleigh 
 
 that the inhabitants were carrying their goods up into 
 the hills, the captains begged Ealeigh to march inland 
 and take the town ; ' but/ he says, ' besides that I knew 
 it would offend his Majesty, I am sure the poor English 
 merchant should have been ruined, whose goods he had 
 in his hands, and the way being mountainous and most 
 extreme stony, I knew that I must have lost twenty 
 good men in taking a town not worth two groats.' The 
 Governor of Lanzarote continued to be in a craven state 
 of anxiety, and would not hear of trading. We cannot 
 blame him, especially when we find that less than eight 
 months later his island was invaded by genuine Alge- 
 rine bandits, his town utterly sacked, and 900 Christians 
 taken off into Moslem slavery. After three Englishmen 
 had been killed by the islanders, yet without taking any 
 reprisals, Raleigh sailed away from these sandy and in- 
 hospitable shores. But in the night before he left, one 
 of his ships, the ' Husband,' had disappeared. Captain 
 Bailey, who is believed to have been in the pay of Gon- 
 domar, had hurried back to England to give report of 
 Raleigh's piratical attack on an island belonging to the 
 dominion of Spain. As the great Englishman went sail- 
 ing westward through the lustrous waters of the Canary 
 archipelago, his doom was sealed, and he would have 
 felt his execution to be a certainty, had he but known 
 what was happening in England. 
 
 He called at Grand Canary, to complain of the 
 Lanzarote people to the governor-general of the islands, 
 but, for some reason which he does not state, did not 
 land at the town of Palmas, but at a desert part, far from 
 any village, probably west of the northern extremity of 
 the island. The governor-general gave him no answer ; 
 
The Second Voyage to Guiana 197 
 
 but the men found a little water, and they sailed away, 
 leaving Teneriffe to the north. On September 18 they 
 put into the excellent port of the island of Gomera, 
 ^ the best/ he says, ' in all the Canaries, the town and 
 castle standing on the very breach of the sea, but the 
 billows do so tumble and overfall that it is impossible to 
 land upon any part of the strand but by swimming, 
 saving in a cove under steep rocks, where they can pass 
 towards the town but one after the other.' Here, as at 
 Lanzarote, they were taken for Algerines, and the guns 
 on the rocks began to fire at them. Raleigh, however, 
 immediately sent a messenger on shore to explain that 
 they were not come to sack their town and burn their 
 churches, as the Dutch had done in 1599, but that they 
 were in great need of water. They presently came to 
 an agreement that the islanders should quit their 
 trenches round the landing-place, and that Raleigh 
 should promise on the faith of a Christian not to land 
 more than thirty unarmed sailors, to fill their casks at 
 springs within pistol-shot of the wash of the sea, none 
 of these sailors being permitted to enter any house or 
 garden. Raleigh, therefore, sent six of his seamen, 
 and turned his ships broadside to the town, ready to 
 batter it with culverin if he saw one sign of treachery. 
 
 It turned out that when the Governor of Gomera 
 knew who his visitors were, he was as pleased as possible 
 to see them. His wife's mother had been a Stafford, 
 and when Raleigh knew that, he sent his countrywoman 
 a present of six embroidered handkerchiefs and six pairs 
 of gloves, with a very handsome message. To this the 
 lady rejoined that she regretted that her ban-en island 
 contained nothing worth Raleigh's acceptance, yet sent 
 
1 98 Raleigh 
 
 him * four very great loaves of sugar/ with baskets of 
 lemonSj oranges, pomegranates, figs, and most delicate 
 grapes. During the three days that they rode off 
 Gomera, the Governor and his English lady wrote daily 
 to Sir Walter. In return for the fruit, deeming him- 
 self much in her debt, he sent on shore a very courteous 
 letter, and with it two ounces of ambergriece, an ounce 
 of the essence of amber, a great glass of fine rose-water, 
 an excellent picture of Mary Magdalen, and a cut-work 
 ruff. Here he expected courtesies to stay, but the lady 
 must positively have the last word, and as the English 
 ships were starting her servants came on board with 
 yet a letter, accompanying a basket of delicate white 
 manchett bread, more clusters of fruits, and twenty- 
 four fat hens. Meanwhile, in the friendliest way, the 
 sailors had been going to and fro, and had drawn 240 
 pipes of water. So cordial, indeed, was their reception, 
 that, as a last favour, Raleigh asked the Governor for a 
 letter to Sarmiento [Gondomar], which he got, setting 
 forth * how nobly we had behaved ourselves, and how 
 justly we had dealt with the inhabitants of the islands.' 
 Before leaving Gomera, Raleigh discharged a native 
 barque which one of his pinnaces had captured, and 
 paid at the valuation of the master for any prejudice 
 that had been done him. On September 21 they sailed 
 away from the Canaries, having much sickness on board; 
 and that very day their first important loss occurred, in 
 the death of the Provost Marshal of the fleet, a man 
 called Stead. 
 
 On the 26th they reached St. Antonio, the outer- 
 most of the Cape Verde Islands, but did not land there. 
 For eight wretched days they wandered aimlessly about 
 
The Second Voyage to Guiana 199 
 
 in tliis unfriendly archipelago, trying to make up 
 their minds to land now on Brava, now on St. Jago. 
 Some of the ships grated on the rocks, all lost anchors 
 and cables ; one pinnace, her crew being asleep and no 
 one on the watch, drove under the bowsprit of the 
 ^ Destiny,' struck her and sank. When they did effect 
 a landing on Brava, they were soaked by the tropical 
 autumnal rains of early October. Men were dying 
 fast in all the ships. In deep dejection Ealeigh gave 
 the order to steer away for Guiana. Meanwhile Bailey 
 had arrived in England, had seen Gondomar, and had 
 openly given out that he left Raleigh because the 
 admiral had been guilty of piratical acts against Spain. 
 It does not seem that Winwood or the King took any 
 notice of these declarations until the end of the year. 
 
 The ocean voyage was marked by an extraordinary 
 number of deaths, among others that of Mr. Fowler, 
 the principal refiner, whose presence at the gold mine 
 would have been of the greatest importance. On 
 October 13, John Talbot, who had been for eleven years 
 Raleigh's secretary in the Tower, passed away. The 
 log preserved in the Second Voyage is of great interest, 
 but we dare not allow its observations to detain us. On 
 the last of October, Raleigh was struck down by fever 
 himself, and for twenty days lay unable to eat anything 
 more solid than a stewed prune. He was in bed, on 
 November 11, when they sighted Cape Orange, now 
 the most northerly point belonging to the Empire of 
 Brazil. On the 14th they anchored at the mouth of 
 the Cayenne river, and Raleigh was carried from his 
 noisome cabin into his barge ; the ' Destiny ' got across 
 the bar, which was lower then than it now is, on the 
 
200 Raleigh 
 
 17tli. At Cayenne, after a day or two, Raleigli's old 
 servant Harry turned up ; he liad almost forgotten his 
 English in twenty-two years. Ealeigh began to pick 
 up strength a little on pine-apples and plantains, and 
 presently he began to venture even upon roast peccary. 
 He proceeded to spend the next fortnight on the Cayenne 
 river, refreshing his weary crews, and repairing his 
 vessels. An interesting letter to his wife that he sent 
 home from this place, which he called ' Caliana,' con- 
 firms the Second Voyage^ and adds some details. He 
 says to Lady Raleigh : ' To tell you 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. 
 Commend me to poor Carew my son.' His eldest son, 
 Walter, it will be remembered, was with him. 
 
 In December the fleet coasted along South America 
 westward, till on the 15th they stood under Trinidad. 
 Meanwhile Raleigh had sent forward, by way of Suri- 
 nam and Essequibo, the expedition which was to search 
 for the gold mine on the Orinoco. His own health pre- 
 vented his attempting this journey, but he sent Captain 
 Keymis as commander in his stead, and with him was 
 George Raleigh, the Admiral's nephew ; young Walter 
 also accompanied the party. On New Year's Eve 
 Raleigh landed at a village in Trinidad, close to Port of 
 Spain, and there he waited, on the borders of the land 
 of pitch, all through January 1618. On the last of that 
 month he returned to Punto Gallo on the mainland, 
 being very anxious for news from the Orinoco. The 
 log of the Second Voyage closes on February 13, and it 
 is supposed that it was on the evening of that day that 
 
The Second Voyage to Guiana 201 
 
 Captain Keymis' disastrous letter, written on January 
 8, reached Raleigli and iu formed him of the death of 
 his son "Walter. ^ To a broken mind, a sick body, and 
 weak eyes, it is a torment to write letters,' and we 
 know he felt, as he also said, that now '• all the respects 
 of this world had taken end in him/ Keymis had 
 acted in keeping with what he must have supposed to 
 be Raleigh's private wish; he had attacked the new 
 Spanish settlement of San Thome. In the fight young 
 Walter Raleigh had been struck down as he was shout- 
 ing * Come on, my men ! This is the only mine you 
 will ever find.' Keymis had to announce this fact to 
 the father, and a few days afterwards, with only a 
 remnant of his troop, he himself fled in panic to the sea, 
 believing that a Spanish army was upon him. The 
 whole adventure was a miserable and ignominious 
 failure. 
 
 The meeting between Raleigh and Keymis could 
 not fail to be an embarrassing one. Raleigh could not 
 but feel that all his own mistakes and faults might 
 have been condoned if Keymis had brought one basket 
 of ore from the fabulous mine, and he could not refrain 
 from reproaching him. He told him he ^ should be forced 
 to leave him to his arguments, with the which if he 
 could satisfy his Majesty and the State, I should be 
 glad of it, though for my part he must excuse me to 
 justify it.' After this first interview Keymis left him 
 in great dejection, and a day or two later appeared in 
 the Admiral's cabin with a letter which he had written 
 to the Earl of Arundel, excusing himself. He begged 
 Raleigh to forgive him and to read this letter. What 
 followed, Sir Walter must tell in his own grave words : 
 
202 Raleigh 
 
 I told him he had undone me by his obstinacy, and 
 that I would not favour or colour in any sort his former 
 folly. He then asked me, whether that were my resolution % 
 I answered, that it was. He then replied in these words, 
 * I know then, sir, what course to take,' and went out of my 
 cabin into his own, in which he was no sooner entered than 
 I heard a pistol go off. I sent up, not suspecting any such 
 thing as the killing of himself, to know who shot a pistol. 
 Keymis himself made answer, lying on his bed, that he had 
 shot it off, because it had long been charged ; with wliich 
 I was satisfied. Some half -hour after this, his boy, going 
 into the cabin, found him dead, having a long knife thrust 
 under his left pap into his heart, and his pistol lying by 
 him, with which it appeared he had shot himself ; but the 
 bullet lighting upon a rib, had but broken the rib, and went 
 no further. 
 
 Such was the wretched manner in which Raleigh 
 and his old faithful servant parted. In his despair, the 
 Admiral's first notion was to plunge himself into the 
 mazes of the Orinoco, and to find the gold mine, or die 
 in the search for it. But his men were mutinous ; they 
 openly declared that in their belief no such mine existed, 
 and that the Spaniards were bearing down on them by 
 land and sea. They would not go ; and Raleigh, strange- 
 ly weakened and humbled, asked them if they wished 
 him to lead them against the Mexican plate fleet. He 
 told them that he had a commission from France, and 
 that they would be pardoned in England if they came 
 home laden with treasure. 
 
 What exactly happened no one knows. The mutiny 
 grew worse and worse, and on March 21, when Raleigh 
 wrote a long letter to prepare the mind of Winwood, he 
 was lying off St. Christopher's on his homeward voyage; 
 
The Second Voyage to Guiana 203 
 
 not knowing of course that his best English friend had 
 ah^eady been dead five months. Next day, he made up 
 his mind that he dared not return to England to face his 
 enemies, and he wrote to tell his wife that he was off to 
 Newfoundland, ' where I mean to make clean my ships, 
 and revictual ; for I have tobacco enough to pay for it/ 
 But he was powerless, as he confesses, to govern his 
 crew, and no one knows how the heartbroken old man 
 spent the next two dreadful months. His ships slunk 
 back piecemeal to English havens, and on May 23, 
 Captain North, who had commanded the ' Chudleigh,' 
 had audience of the King, and told him the whole 
 miserable story. On May 26,^ Raleigh made his appear- 
 ance, with the ' Destiny,' in the harbour of Kinsale, 
 and on June 21 he arrived in Plymouth, penniless and 
 dejected, for the first time in his life utterly unnerved 
 and irresolute. On June 16 he had written an apolo- 
 getic letter to the King. By some curious slip Mr. 
 Edwards dated this letter three months too late, and 
 its significance has therefore been overlooked. It is 
 important as showing that Raleigh was eager to conci- 
 liate James. 
 
 » I gather this date, hitherto entirely nnknown, from the fact 
 that in the recently published Lismore Papers Sir Richard Boyle 
 notes on May 27 that he receives letters from Haleigh announcing 
 his arrival at Kinsale. 
 
204 Raleigh 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 GoXDOMAR had not been idle during Raleigli's absence, 
 but so long as Winwood was alive he had not been able 
 to attack the absent Admiral with much success. As 
 soon as Bailey brought him the news of the supposed 
 attack on Lanzarote, he communicated with his Govern- 
 ment, and urged that an embargo should be laid on the 
 goods of the English merchant colony at Seville. This 
 angry despatch, the result of a vain attempt to reach 
 James, is dated October 22 ; and on October 27 the 
 sudden death of Winwood removed Gondomar's principal 
 obstacle to the ruin of Raleigh. At first, however, Bailey's 
 story received no credence, and if, as Howel somewhat 
 apocryphally relates, Gondomar had been forbidden to say 
 two words about Raleigh in the King's presence, and 
 therefore entered with uplifted hands shouting 'Pirates!' 
 till James was weary, he did not seem to gain much 
 ground. Moreover, while Bailey's story was being dis- 
 cussed, the little English merchant vessel which had been 
 lying in Lanzarote during Raleigh's visit returned to 
 London, and gave evidence which brought Bailey to 
 gaol in the Gate House. 
 
 On January 11, 1618, before any news had been 
 received from Guiana, a large gathering was held in 
 
The End 205 
 
 the Council Chamber at Westminster, to try Bailey 
 for false accusation. The Council contained many men 
 favourable to Raleigh, but the Spanish ambassador 
 brought influence to bear on the King ; and late in 
 February, Bailey was released with a reprimand, although 
 he had accused Raleigh not of piracy only, but of high 
 treason. The news of the ill-starred attack on San 
 Thome reached Madrid on May 3, and London on the 
 8th. This must have given exquisite pleasure to the 
 baffled Gondomar, and he lost no time in pressing 
 James for revenge. He gave the King the alternative 
 of punishing Raleigh in England or sending him as a 
 prisoner to Spain. The King wavered for a month. 
 Meanwhile vessel after vessel brought more conclusive 
 news of the piratical expedition in which Keymis had 
 failed, and Gondomar became daily more importunate. 
 It began to be thought that Raleigh had taken flight 
 for Paris. 
 
 At last, on June 11, James I. issued a proclama- 
 tion inviting all who had a claim against Raleigh to 
 present it to the Council. Lord Nottingham at the 
 same time outlawed the ' Destiny ' in whatever English 
 port she might appear. It does not seem that the 
 King was unduly hasty in condemning Raleigh. He 
 had given Spain every solemn pledge that Raleigh 
 should not injure Spain, and yet the Admiral's only act 
 had been to fall on an unsuspecting Spanish settlement ; 
 notwithstanding this, James argued as long as he could 
 that San Thome lay outside the agreement. The arrival 
 of the ^ Destiny,' however, seems to have clinched Gon- 
 domar's arguments. Three days after Raleigh arrived 
 in Plymouth, the King assured Spain that 'not all 
 
2o6 Raleigh 
 
 those who have given security for Raleigh can save him 
 from the gallows/ For the particulars of the curious 
 intrigues of these summer months the reader must be re- 
 ferred, once more, to Mr. Gardiner's dispassionate pages. 
 
 On June 21, Raleigh moored the ^Destiny' in 
 Plymouth harbour, and sent her sails ashore. Lady 
 Raleigh hastened down to meet him, and they stayed 
 in Plymouth a fortnight. His wife and he, with Samuel 
 King, one of his captains, then set out for London, but 
 were met just outside Ashburton by Sir Lewis Stukely, 
 a cousin of Raleigh's, now Vice- Admiral of Devonshire. 
 This man announced that he had the King's orders to 
 arrest Sir Walter Raleigh ; but these were only verbal 
 orders, and he took his prisoner back to Plymouth to 
 await the Council warrant. Raleigh was lodged for 
 nine or ten days in the house of Sir Christopher Harris, 
 Stukely being mainly occupied in securing the 'Destiny* 
 and her contents. Raleigh pretended to be ill, or was 
 really indisposed with anxiety and weariness. While 
 Stukely was thinking of other things, Raleigh com- 
 missioned Captain King to hire a barque to slip over to 
 La Rochelle, and one night Raleigh and King made 
 their escape towards this vessel in a little boat. But 
 Raleigh probably reflected that without money or in- 
 fluence he would be no safer in France than in England, 
 and before the boat reached the vessel, he turned back 
 and went home. He ordered the barque to be in readi- 
 ness the next night, but although no one watched him, 
 he made no second efibrt to escape. 
 
 On July 23 the Privy Council ordered Stukely, 
 * all delays set apart,' to bring the body of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh speedily to London. Two days later, Stukely 
 
The End 207 
 
 and his prisoner started from Plymouth. A French 
 quack, called Mannourie, in whose chemical pretensions 
 Ealeigh had shown some interest, was encouraged by 
 Stukely to attend him, and to worm himself into his 
 confidence. As Walter and Elizabeth Raleigh passed 
 the beautiful Sherborne which had once been theirs, the 
 former could not refrain from saying, ' All this was mine, 
 and it was taken from me unjustly.' They travelled 
 quickly, sleeping at Sherborne on the 26th, and next 
 night at Salisbury. Raleigh lost all confidence as he 
 found himself so hastily being taken up to London. As 
 they went from Wilton into Salisbury, Raleigh asked 
 Mannourie to give him a vomit ; ^ 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 ofi" my head.' 
 
 That same evening, while being conducted to his 
 rooms, Raleigh struck his head against a post. It was 
 supposed to show that he was dizzy ; and next morn- 
 ing he sent Lady Raleigh and her retinue on to London, 
 saying that he himself was not well enough to move. 
 At the same time King went on to prepare a ship to be 
 ready in the Thames in case of another emergency. 
 When they had started, Raleigh was discovered in his 
 bedroom, on all fours, in his shirt, gnawing the rushes 
 on the floor. Stukely was completely taken in; the 
 French quack had given Raleigh, not an emetic only, 
 but some ointment which caused his skin to break 
 out in dark purple pustules. Stukely rushed off to 
 the Bishop of Ely, who happened to be in Salisbury, 
 and acted on his advice to wait for Raleigh's recovery. 
 19 
 
2o8 Raleigh 
 
 Unless Stukely also was mountebanking, the spy Man- 
 nourie for the present kept Ealeigh's counsel. Raleigh 
 was treated as an invalid, and during the four days' re- 
 tirement contrived to wiite his Apologij for the Voyage 
 to Guiana. On August 1, James I. and all his Court 
 entered Salisbury, and on the morning of the same day 
 Stukely hurried his prisoner away lest he should meet 
 the King. Some pity, however, was shown to Raleigh's 
 supposed dying state, and permission was granted him 
 to go straight to his own London house. His hopes re- 
 vived, and he very rashly bribed both Mannourie and 
 Stukely to let him escape. So confident was he, that 
 he refused the offers of a French envoy, who met him at 
 Brentford with proposals of a secret passage over to 
 France, and a welcome in Paris. He was broken alto- 
 gether ; he had no dignity, no judgment left. 
 
 Raleigh arrived at his house in Broad Street on 
 August 7. On the 9th the French repeated their invi- 
 tation. Again it was refused, for King had seen Raleigh 
 and had told him that a vessel was lying at Tilbury ready 
 to carry him over to France. Her captain. Hart, was an 
 old boatswain of King's; before Raleigh received the 
 information, this man had already reported the whole 
 scheme to the Government. The poor adventurer was 
 surrounded by spies, from Stukely downwards, and the 
 toils were gathering round him on every side. On the 
 evening of the same August 9, Raleigh, accompanied by 
 Captain King, Stukely, Hart, and a page, embarked from 
 the river-side in two wherries, and was rowed down to- 
 wards Tilbury. Raleigh presently noticed that a larger 
 boat was following them ; at Greenwich, Stukely threw 
 off the mask of friendship and arrested King, who was 
 
The End 209 
 
 thrown then and there into the Tower. What became of 
 Kaleigh that night does not appear ; he was put into the 
 Tower next day. When he was arrested his pockets were 
 found full of jewels and golden ornaments, the diamond 
 ring Queen Elizabeth had given him, a loadstone in a 
 scarlet purse, an ounce of ambergriece, and fifty pounds 
 in gold ; these fell into the hands of the traitor ' Sir 
 Judas' Stukely. 
 
 Outside the Tower the process of Raleigh's legal con- 
 demnation now pursued its course. A commission was 
 appointed to consider the charges brought against 
 the prisoner, and evidence was collected on all sides. 
 Raleigh was obliged to sit with folded hands. He could 
 only hope that the eloquence and patriotism of his Ajpo- 
 logy might possibly appeal to the sympathy of James. 
 As so often before, he merely showed that he was igno- 
 rant of the King's character, for James read the Apology 
 without any other feeling than one of triumph that it 
 amounted to a confession of guilt. The only friend 
 that Raleigh could now appeal to was Anne of Denmark, 
 and to her be forwarded, about August 15, a long peti- 
 tion in verse : 
 
 Cold walls, to you I speak, but you are senseless ! 
 Celestial Powers, you hear, but have determined. 
 And shall determine, to my greatest happiness. 
 
 Then unto whom shall I unfold my wrong, 
 Cast down my tears, or hold up folded hands ?— 
 To Her to whom remorse doth most belons: ; 
 
 To Her, who is the first, and may alone 
 Be justly called, the Empress of the Britons. 
 Who should have mercy if a Queen have none 1 
 
210 Raleigh 
 
 Queen Anne responded as slie had always done to 
 Ealeigh's appeals. If his life had lain in her hands, 
 it would have been a long and a happy one. She 
 immediately wrote to Buckingham, knowing that his 
 influence was far gi-eater than her own with the King, 
 and her letter exists for the wonder of posterity. She 
 writes to her husband's favourite : ^ My kind Dog/ for 
 so the poor lady stoops to address him, * if I have any 
 power or credit with you, I pray you let me have a 
 trial of it, at this time, in dealing sincerely and earnestly 
 with the King that Sir "Walter Raleigh's life may not 
 be called in question.' Buckingham, however, was 
 already pledged to aid the Spanish alliance, and the 
 Queen's letter was unavailing. 
 
 On August 17 and on two subsequent occasions 
 Raleigh was examined before the Commissioners, the 
 charge being formally drawn up by Yelverton, the 
 Attorney-General. He was accused of having abused 
 the King's confidence by setting out to find gold in a 
 mine which never existed, with instituting a piratical 
 attack on a peaceful Spanish settlement, with attempt- 
 ing to capture the Mexican plate fleet, although he had 
 been specially warned that he would take his life in 
 his hands if he committed any one of these three faults. 
 It is hard to understand how Mr. Edwards persuaded 
 himself to brand each of these charges as ' a distinct 
 falsehood.' The sympathy we must feel for Raleigh's 
 misfortunes, and the enthusiasm with which we read 
 the Apology, should not, surely, blind us to the fact that 
 in neither of these three matters was his action true or 
 honest. "We have no particular account of his exami- 
 nations, but it is almost certain that they wrung from 
 
The End 211 
 
 him admissions of a most damaging character. He 
 had tried to make James a catspaw in revenging him- 
 self on Spain, and he had to take the consequences. 
 
 It was of great importance to the Government to 
 understand why France had meddled in the matter. 
 The Council, therefore, summoned La Chesnee, the 
 envoy who had made propositions to Raleigh at Brent- 
 ford and at Broad Street; but he denied the whole 
 story, and said he never suggested flight to Raleigh. 
 So little information had been gained by the middle 
 of September, that it was determined to employ a 
 professional spy. The person selected for this engaging 
 office was Sir Thomas Wilson, one of the band of 
 English pensioners in the pay of Spain. The most 
 favourable thing that has ever been said of Stukely is 
 that he was not quite such a scoundrel as Wilson. On 
 September 9 this person, who had known Raleigh from 
 Elizabeth's days, and was now Keeper of the State 
 Papers, was supplied with ' convenient lodging within or 
 near unto the chambers of Sir Walter Raleigh.' At the 
 same time Sir Allen Apsley, the Lieutenant, who had 
 guarded the prisoner hitherto, was relieved. 
 
 Wilson's first act was not one of conciliation. He 
 demanded that Raleigh should be turned out of his com- 
 fortable quarters in the Wardrobe Tower to make ro.pm 
 for Wilson, who desired that the prisoner should have 
 the smaller rooms above. To this, and other demands, 
 Apsley would not accede. Wilson then began to do 
 his best to insinuate himself into Raleigh's confidence, 
 and after about a fortnight seems to have succeeded. 
 We have a very full report of his conversations with 
 Raleigh, but they add little to our knowledge, even if 
 
2 1 2 Raleigh 
 
 Wilson's evidence could be taken as gospel. Raleigh 
 admitted La Chesnee's offer of a French passage, and 
 his own proposal to seize the Mexican fleet ; but both 
 these points were already known to the Council. 
 
 Towards the end of September two events occurred 
 which brought matters more to a crisis. On the 24th 
 Ealeigh wrote a confession to the King, in which he 
 said that the French Government had given him a com- 
 mission, that La Chesnee had three times offered him 
 escape, and that he himself was in possession of 
 important State secrets, of which he would make a clean 
 breast if the King would pardon him. This important 
 document was found at Simancas, and first published 
 in 1868 by Mr. St. John. On the same day Philip III. 
 sent a despatch to James I. desiring him in peremptory 
 terms to save him the trouble of hanging Raleigh at 
 Madrid by executing him promptly in London. As 
 soon as this ultimatum arrived, James applied to the 
 Commissioners to know how it would be best to deal 
 with the prisoner judicially. Several lawyers assured 
 him that Raleigh was under sentence of death, and that 
 therefore no trial was necessary ; but James shrank 
 from the scandal of apparent murder. The Commis- 
 sioners were so fully satisfied of Raleigh's guilt that 
 they advised the King to give him a public trial, under 
 Somewhat unusual forms. He was to be tried before 
 the Council and the judges, a few persons of rank being 
 admitted as spectators ; the conduct of the trial to be 
 the same as though it were proceeding in Westminster 
 Hall. On receipt of the despatch from Madrid, that is 
 to say on October 3, Lady Raleigh, whose presence was 
 no longer required, was released from the Tower. 
 
The End 213 
 
 The trial before the Commissioners began on October 
 22. Mr. Gardiner has printed in the Camden Miscellany 
 such notes of cross-examination as were preserved by 
 Sir Julius Caesar, but they are very slight. Raleigh 
 seems to have denied any intention to stir up war 
 between England and Spain, and declared that he had 
 confidently believed in the existence of the mine. But 
 he made no attempt to deny that in case the mine failed 
 he had proposed the taking of the Mexican fleet. At 
 the close of the examination. Bacon, ^ in the name of the 
 Commissioners, told Baleigh that he was guilty of 
 abusing the confidence of King James and of injuring 
 the subjects of Spain, and that he must prepare to die, 
 being ^ already civilly dead.' Raleigh was then taken 
 back to the Tower, where he was left in suspense for 
 ten days. Meanwhile the Justices of the King's Bench 
 were desired to award execution upon the old Win- 
 chester sentence of 1603. It is thought that James 
 hoped to keep Raleigh from appearing again in public, 
 but the judges said that he must be brought face to 
 face with them. On October 28, therefore, Raleigh was 
 roused from his bed, where he was sufiering from a severe 
 attack of the ague, and was brought out of the Tower, 
 which he never entered again. He was taken so hastily 
 that he had no time for his toilet, and his barber called 
 out that his master had not combed his head. * Let 
 them kem that are to have it,' was Raleigh's answer ; 
 and he continued, * Dost thou know, Peter, any plaister 
 that will set a man's head on again, when it is ofif ? ' 
 
 * Among the Bute MSS. is a letter from Raleigh to Bacon 
 beseeching him *to spend some few words to the putting of false 
 fdjne to flight ; ' but Bacon's enmity was unalterable. 
 
214 Raleigh 
 
 When he came before Yelverton, he attempted to 
 argue that the Guiana commission had wiped out all 
 the past, including the sentence of 1603. He began to 
 discuss anew his late voyage; but the Chief Justice, in- 
 terrupting him, told him that he was to be executed for 
 the old treason, not for this new one. Raleigh then threw 
 himself on the King's mercy, being every way trapped 
 and fettered ; without referring to this appeal, the Chief 
 Justice proceeded to award execution, Raleigh was to 
 be beheaded early next morning in Old Palace Yard. 
 He entreated for a few days' respite, that he might finish 
 some writings, but the King had purposely left town 
 that no petitions for delay might reach him. Bacon 
 produced the warrant, which he had drawn up, and 
 which bore the King's signature and the Great Seal. 
 
 Raleigh was taken from Westminster Hall to the 
 Gate House. He was in high spirits, and meeting his old 
 friend Sir Hugh Beeston, he urged him to secure a 
 good place at the show next morning. He himself, he 
 said, was sure of one. He was so gay and chatty, that 
 his cousin Francis Thynne begged him to be more grave 
 lest his enemies should report his levity. Raleigh 
 answered, * It is my ]ast miith in this world; do not 
 grudge it to me.' Dr. Tounson, Dean of Westminster, 
 to whom Raleigh was a stranger, then attended him ; 
 and was somewhat scandalised at this flow of mercurial 
 spirits. ' When I began,' says the Dean, * to encourage 
 him against the fear of death, he seemed to make so 
 light of it that I wondered at him. When I told him 
 that the dear servants of God, in better causes than his, 
 had shrunk back and trembled a little, he denied it not. 
 But yet he gave God thanks that he had never feared 
 
The End 215 
 
 death.' The good Dean was pazzled ; but his final re- 
 flection was all to Raleigh's honour. After the execu- 
 tion he reported that * he was the most fearless of death 
 that ever was known, and the most resolute and con- 
 fident ; yet with reverence and conscience.' 
 
 It was late on Thursday evening, the 28th, that 
 Lady Raleigh learned the position of affairs. She had 
 not dreamed that the case was so hopeless. She 
 hastened to the Gate House, and until midnight husband 
 and wife were closeted together in conversation, she being 
 consoled and strengthened by his calm. Her last word 
 was that she had obtained permission to dispose of his 
 body. ' It is well, Bess,' he said, ^ that thou mayst 
 dispose of that dead, which thou hadst nob always the 
 disposing of when alive.' And so, with a smile, they 
 parted. When his wife had left him, Raleigh sat down 
 to write his last verses : 
 
 Even such is time, that takes in trust 
 Our youth, our joys, our all we have, 
 
 And pays us but with earth and dust ; 
 Who in the dark and silent grave, 
 
 When we have wandered all our ways, 
 
 Shuts up the story of our days ; 
 
 But from this earth, this grave, this dust, 
 
 My God shall raise me up, I trust. 
 
 At the same hour Lady Raleigh was preparing for the 
 horrors of the morrow. She sent off this note to her 
 brother. Sir Nicholas Carew : 
 
 I desire, good brother, that you will be pleased to let 
 me bury the worthy body of my noble husband, Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, in your church at Beddington, where I desire to 
 be buried. The Lords have given me his dead body, though 
 
2i6 Raleigh 
 
 they denied me his life. This night he shall be brought 
 you with two or three of my men. Let me hear presently. 
 God hold me in my wits. 
 
 There was probably some difficulty in the way, for 
 Raleigh's body was not brought that night to Beddington. 
 
 In the morning the Dean of Westminster entered 
 the Gate House again. Ealeigh, who had perhaps not 
 gone to bed all night, had just finished a testamentary 
 paper of defence. Dr. Tounson found him still very 
 cheerful and merry, and administered the Communion 
 to him. After the Eucharist, Raleigh talked very freely 
 to the Dean, defending himself, and going back in his 
 reminiscences to the reign of Elizabeth. He declared 
 that the world would yet be persuaded of his innocence, 
 and he once more scandalised the Dean by his truculent 
 cheerfulness. He ate a hearty breakfast, and smoked 
 a pipe of tobacco. It was now time to leave the Gate 
 House ; but before he did so, a cup of sack was brought 
 to him. The servant asked if the wine was to his likingf, 
 and Raleigh replied, ^I will answer you as did the 
 fellow who drank of St. Giles' bowl as he went to 
 Tyburn, " It is good drink, if a man might stay by it." ' 
 
 This excitement lasted without reaction until he 
 reached the scaffold, whither he was led by the sheriffs, 
 still attended by Dr. Tounson. As they passed through 
 the vast throng of persons who had come to see the 
 spectacle, Raleigh observed a very old man bareheaded 
 in the crowd, and snatching off the rich night-cap of cut 
 lace which he himself was wearing, he threw it to him, 
 saying, ' Friend, you need this more than I do.' Raleigh 
 was dressed in a black embroidered velvet night-gown 
 over a hare-coloured satin doublet and a black embroi- 
 
The End 217 
 
 dered waistcoat. He wore a ruff-band, a pair of black 
 cut taffetas breeches, and ash-coloured silk stockings, 
 thus combining his taste for magnificence with a decent 
 regard for the occasion. The multitude so pressed upon 
 him, and he had walked with such an animated step, 
 that when he ascended the scaffold, erect and smiling, 
 he was observed to be quite out of breath. 
 
 There are many contemporary reports of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh's deportment at this final moment of his life. 
 In the place of these hackneyed narratives, we may 
 perhaps quote the less-known words of another by- 
 stander, the republican Sir John Elyot, who was at that 
 time a young man of twenty-eight. In his Monarchy 
 of Man, which remained in manuscript until 1879, 
 Elyot says : 
 
 Take an example in that else unmatched fortitude of 
 our Raleigh, the magnanimity of his sufierings, that large 
 chronicle of fortitude. All the preparations that are 
 terrible presented to his eye, guards and officers about him, 
 fetters and chains upon him, the scaffold and executioner 
 before him, and then the axe, and more cruel expectation 
 of his enemies, and what did all that work on the resolution 
 of that worthy ? Made it an impression of weak fear, or a 
 distraction of his reason ? Nothing so little did that great 
 soul suffer, but gathered more streng-th and advantage upon 
 either. His mind became the clearer, as if already it had 
 been freed from the cloud and oppression of the body, and 
 that trial gave an illustration to his courage, so that it 
 changed the affection of his enemies, and turned their joy 
 into sorrow, and all men else it filled with admiration, 
 leaving no doubt but this, whether death was more accept- 
 able to him, or he more welcome unto death. 
 
 At the windows of Sir Randolph Carew, which were 
 
2i8 Raleigh 
 
 opposite to the scaffold, Raleigh obsei-ved a cluster of 
 gentlemen and noblemen, and in particular several of 
 those who had been adventurers with him for the mine 
 on the Orinoco. He perceived, amongst others, the Earls 
 of Arundel, Oxford, and Northampton. That these old 
 friends should hear distinctly what he had to say was 
 his main object, and he therefore addressed them with 
 an apology for the weakness of his voice, and asked 
 them to come down to him. Arundel at once assented, 
 and all the company at Carew's left the balcony, and 
 came on to the scaffold, where those who had been inti- 
 mate with Raleigh solemnly embraced him. He then 
 began his celebrated speech, of which he had left a brief 
 draft signed in the Gate House. There are extant 
 several versions of this address, besides the one he 
 signed. In the excitement of the scene, he seems to 
 have said more, and to have put it more ingeniously, 
 than in the solitude of the previous night. His old 
 love of publicity, of the open air, appeared in the first 
 sentence : 
 
 I thank God that He has sent me to die in the light, and 
 not in darkness. I likewise' thank God that He has suffered 
 me to die before such an assembly of honourable witnesses, 
 and not obscurely in the Tower, where for the space of 
 thirteen years together I have been oppressed with many 
 miseries. And I return Him thanks, that my fever [the 
 ague] hath not taken me at this time, as I prayed to Him 
 that it might not, that I might clear myself of such accusa- 
 tions unjustly laid to my charge, and leave behind me the 
 testimony of a true heart both to my king and country. 
 
 He was justly elated. He knew that his resources 
 were exhausted, his energies abated, and that pardon 
 
The End 219 
 
 would now merely mean a relegation to oblivion. He 
 took his public execution with delight, as if it were a 
 martyrdom, and had the greatness of soul to perceive 
 that nothing could possibly commend his career and 
 character to posterity so much as to leave this mortal 
 stage with a telling saliloquy. His powers were 
 drawn together to their height; his intellect, which 
 had lately seemed to be growing dim, had never flashed 
 more brilliantly, and the biographer can recall but one 
 occasion in Raleigh's life, and that the morning of St. 
 Barnaby at Cadiz, when his bearing was of quite so 
 gallant a magnificence. As he stood on the scaffold in 
 the cold morning air, he foiled James and Philip at one 
 thrust, and conquered the esteem of all posterity. It is 
 only now, after two centuries and a half, that history is 
 beginning to hint that there was not a little special 
 pleading and some excusable equivocation in this great 
 apology which rang through monarchical England like 
 the blast of a clarion, and which echoed in secret places 
 till the oppressed rose up and claimed their liberty. 
 
 He spoke for about five-and-twenty minutes. His 
 speech was excessively ingenious, as well as eloquent, 
 and directed to move the sympathy of his hearers as 
 much as possible, without any deviation from literal 
 truth. He said that it was true that he had tried to 
 escape to France, but that his motive was not treason- 
 able ; he knew the King to be justly incensed, and 
 thought that from La Rochelle he might negotiate his 
 pardon. What he said about the commission from 
 France is so ingeniously worded, as to leave us abso- 
 lutely without evidence from this quarter. After speak- 
 ing about La Chesnee's visits, he proceeded to denounce 
 20 
 
220 Raleigh 
 
 the base Mannourie and his miserable master Sir Lewis 
 Stukely, yet without a word of unseemly invective. He 
 then defended his actions in the Guiana voyage, and 
 turning brusquely to the Earl of Arundel, appealed to 
 him for evidence that the last words spoken between 
 them as the ^ Destiny ' left the Thames were of Raleigh's 
 return to England. This was to rebut the accusation 
 that Raleigh had been overpowered by his mutinous 
 crew, and brought to Kinsale against his will. Arundel 
 answered, ' And so you did ! ' The Sheriff presently 
 showing some impatience, Raleigh asked pardon, and 
 begged to say but a few words more. He had been 
 vexed to find that the Dean of Westminster believed a 
 story which was in general circulation to the effect 
 that Raleigh behaved insolently at the execution of 
 Essex, * puffing out tobacco in disdain of him ; ' this he 
 solemnly denied. He then closed as follows : 
 
 And now I entreat that you will all join me in prayer to 
 the Great God of Heaven, whom I have grievously offended, 
 being a man full of all vanity, who has lived a sinful life in 
 such callings as have been most inducing to it ; for I have 
 been a soldier, a sailor, and a courtier, which are courses 
 of wickedness and vice ; that His almighty goodness will 
 forgive me ; that He will cast away my sins from me ; and 
 that He will receive me into everlasting life. — So I take 
 my leave of you all, making my peace with God. 
 
 Proclamation was then made that all visitors should 
 quit the scaffold. In parting with his friends, Raleigh 
 besought them, and Arundel in particular, to beg the King 
 to guard his memory against scurrilous pamphleteers. 
 The noblemen lingered so long, that it was Raleigh 
 himself who gently dismissed them. *I have a long 
 
The End 221 
 
 journey to go/ he said, and smiled, ^ therefore I must 
 take my leave of you.' When the friends had retired he 
 addressed himself to prayer, having first announced that 
 he died in the faith of the Church of England. When 
 his prayer was done, he took off his night-gown and 
 doublet, and called to the headsman to show him the 
 axe. The man hesitated, and Raleigh cried, * I prithee, 
 let me see it. Dost thou think that I am afraid of it ? ' 
 Having passed his finger along the edge, he gave it 
 back, and turning to the Sheriff, smiled, and said, ' 'Tis 
 a sharp medicine, but one that will cure me of all my 
 diseases.' The executioner, overcome with emotion, 
 kneeled before him for pardon. Raleigh put his two 
 hands upon his shoulders, and said he forgave him with 
 all his heart. He added, ' When I stretch forth my 
 hands, despatch me.' He then rose erect, and bowed 
 ceremoniously to the spectators to the right and then to 
 the left, and said aloud, ^ Give me heartily your prayers.' 
 The Sheriflf then asked him which way he would lay 
 himself on the block. Raleigh answered, ' So the heart 
 be right, it matters not which way the head lies,' but he 
 chose to lie fexing the east. The headsman hastened 
 to place his own cloak beneath him, so displaying the 
 axe. Raleigh then lay down, and the company was 
 hushed while he remained awhile in silent prayer. He 
 was then seen to stretch out his hands, but the heads- 
 man was absolutely unnerved and could not stir. Raleigh 
 repeated the action, but again without result. The 
 rich Devonshire voice was then heard again, and for 
 the last time. 'What dost thou fear? vStrike, man, 
 strike ! ' His body neither twitched nor trembled ; 
 only his lips were seen still moving in prayer. At last 
 
222 Raleigh 
 
 the headsman summoned his resolution, and though he 
 struck twice, the first blow was fatal. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh was probably well advanced in 
 his sixty-seventh year, but giief and travel had made 
 him look much older. He was still vigorous, however, 
 and the effusion from his body was so extraordinary, 
 that many of the spectators shared the wonder of Lady 
 Macbeth, that the old man had so much blood in him. 
 The head was shown to the spectators, on both sides of 
 the scaffold, and was then dropped into a red bag. The 
 body was wrapt in the velvet night-gown, and both 
 were carried to Lady Raleigh. By this time, perhaps, 
 she had heard from her brother that he could not 
 receive the body at Beddington, for she presently had 
 it interred in the chancel of St. Margaret's, West- 
 minster. The head she caused to be embalmed, and 
 kept it with her all her life, permitting favoured friends, 
 like Bishop Goodman, to see and even to kiss it. After 
 her death, Carew Raleigh preserved it with a like piety. 
 It is supposed now to rest in West Horsley church 
 in Surrey. Lady Raleigh lived on until 1647, thus 
 witnessing the ruin of the dynasty which had destroyed 
 her own happiness. 
 
 No success befell the wretches who had enriched 
 themselves by Raleigh's ruin. Sir Judas Stukely, for 
 so he was now commonly styled, was shunned by all 
 classes of society. It was discovered very soon after the 
 execution, that Stukely had for years past been a clipper 
 of coin of the realm. He did not get his blood-money 
 until Christmas 1618, and in January 1619 he was caught 
 with his guilty fingers at work on some of the very 
 gold pieces for which he had sold his master. The 
 
The End 223 
 
 meaner rascal, Mannourie, fell with him. The populace 
 clamoured for Stukely's death on the gallows, but the 
 King allowed him to escape. Wherever he met human 
 beings, however, they taunted him with the memory of 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, and at last he fled to the desolate 
 island of Lundy, where his brain gave way under the 
 weight of remorse and solitude. He died there, a 
 maniac, in 1620. Another of Raleigh's enemies, though 
 a less malignant one, scarcely survived him. Lord 
 Cobham, who had been released from the Tower while 
 Raleigh was in the Canaries, died of lingering para- 
 lysis on January 24, 1619. Of other persons who were 
 closely associated with Raleigh, Queen Anne died in 
 the same year, 1619; Camden in 1623; James I. in 
 1625 ; Nottingham, at the age of eighty-nine, in 1624 ; 
 Bacon in 1629 ; Ben Jonson in 1637 5 while the Earl 
 of Arundel lived on until 164G. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Note. — Read Raleigh for R 
 
 Adricomius, 179 
 
 Albert, Aremberg, the Envoy 
 of Archduke, 136 
 
 Alen<;on's contrast to R. at 
 Court, 18 ; pageant at Ant- 
 werp for, 18 
 
 Algarve, Bishop of, library cap- 
 tured by Essex and nucleus 
 of Bodleian, 101 
 
 Algerine corsairs, 193 ; sack 
 Lanzarote, 194 
 
 Allen, Sir Francis, 42 
 
 America, its debt to Sir H. 
 Gilbert, 25 ; Gilbert's last 
 expedition to, 27 ; R. renews 
 Gilbert's charter, 28 ; R.'s 
 costly expeditions to, 29, 37 
 
 Amidas, a captain in R.'s 
 American fleet, 28 ; discovers 
 Virginia, 29 
 
 Amurath, King of Turbay, 1 85 
 
 Anderson, one of R.'s Winches- 
 ter judges, 146 
 
 •Angel Gabriel,' capture of 
 ship, 40 
 
 Annale.t by Camden, 3 
 
 Anne of Denmark. See Queen 
 
 Annesley, R. takes up his com- 
 mand, 19 
 
 Antonio of Portugal, 41 
 
 Apology for the Voyage to 
 Guiana by R., 193, 208-10 
 
 Apothegms, Bacon's, 113 
 
 Apsley, Sir Allen, Lieutenant 
 
 of Tower, 211 ; relieved of 
 R.'s custody, 211 
 
 Aremberg, Count, plotter in 
 Durham House, 134 ; ambas- 
 sador of Archduke Albert, 
 136 ; relations with Cobham, 
 137, 155 ; communications 
 with R., 148 ; James accepts 
 his protestations, 155 
 
 ♦ Ark Raleigh ' fitted for Gil- 
 bert's expedition by R., 27 ; 
 purchased by Elizabeth, 54 
 
 *Ark Royal,' Lord Howard's 
 ship, 93 
 
 Armada, account of, 37-39 ; 
 Lynn contributes to resist- 
 ance of, 38 ; R.'s advice for 
 boarding ships, 39; R. and 
 Drake receive prisoners from, 
 39 
 
 Armadillo in Guiana, 74, 80 
 
 Artson, R. captures sack from 
 one, 41 
 
 Arundel, Earl of, Keymis writes 
 to, 201 ; at R.'s execution as 
 a friend, 218 ; R. appeals to 
 him in justification, 220; 
 death of, 223 
 
 Ashley, Mrs. Catherine, R.'s 
 aunt, 19 
 
 Ashley, Sir Anthony, notifies 
 Cadiz victory, 100 
 
 Assapana Islands, 80 
 
 Astrophel, Elegy by R. in, 34 
 
226 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 d'Aubign^, Hhtoire Universelle 
 by. 177 
 
 Aubrey at Oxford with R., 3 
 
 Awbeg, river in Munster, sung 
 by Spenser, 44 
 
 Azores, piratical expedition to, 
 33 ; Peter Strozzi lost at, 39 ; 
 R.'s liejwrt of the FU/ht 
 in tJie, ib. ; ' Revenge ' and 
 Armada fight off, 51 ; ' Mad re 
 de Dio ' captured off, 60 ; 
 second plate-thip expedition 
 off, 107 ; capture of its towns 
 arranged, ?■&.; R. takes Fayal, 
 108 ; Essex attacks San Mi- 
 guel, 109 
 
 r.AcON, Anthony, 42, 56 
 Bacon, Lord Francis, with 
 R. at Oxford, 3; praise of 
 Grenville's light, 51 ; issues 
 his Essay a, 85 ; his Ajw- 
 therjms, 113; his cousins the 
 Cookes, 90; asked if R.'s 
 Guiana commission is equi- 
 valent to pardon, 191 ; if 
 R. fails in Guiana asks what 
 is his alternative ? ih. ; R. 
 reveals his desire for Mexican 
 plate fleet to, ih. ; tells R. he 
 must prepare to die, 213 ; 
 asked by R. to protect his 
 fame, 213; death of, 223 
 Bailey, John, commands ' Hus- 
 band ' in Guiana fleet, 194 ; 
 prevented from seizing 
 French ship, 195 ; deserts 
 R.'s expedition, 196 ; returns 
 and charges R. with piracy, 
 196, 201 ; in pay of Gondo- 
 mar, 196; imprisoned and 
 story discredited, 204; re- 
 leased with reprimand, 205 
 Balligara, R.'s share in, 194 
 Barlow, a captain in R.'s 
 American fleet, 28 ; discovers 
 Virginia, ib. 
 
 Barlow's reference to R., 7 
 
 Barry Court, Geraldine strong- 
 hold, 13 ; source of quarrel 
 between R. and Ormond, 14 ; 
 R. offers to rebuild, 16 
 
 Barrv, David, Irish malcontent, 
 13 
 
 Barry, Lord, defeat at Cleve 
 by R., 15 
 
 Basing House, Marquis of 
 Winchester's, 122 ; Queen 
 Elizabeth and French envovs 
 at, 123 . ' 
 
 Bath, R. visits, 63, 115, 122, 
 127 
 
 Bear Gardens, R. takes French 
 envoys to, 122 
 
 Beauchamp, Lord, R.'s deputy 
 in Cornwall, 32 
 
 Beaumont's story of R. and 
 King James. 133 
 
 Beaumont, Countess of, 167 
 
 Becanus, Goropius, 178 
 
 Beddingfield Park, seat of Sir 
 F. Carew, 135 ; King James 
 and R. entertained at, ih. 
 
 Beddington, Lady R. sells land 
 at, 189; burial asked for R. 
 at, 215 
 
 Bedford, Earl of, R. succeeds 
 him in Stannaries, 32 
 
 Beeston, Sir Hugh, and R.'s 
 execution, 214 
 
 Benevolence tax, 184 
 
 Berreo, Antonio de, Spanish 
 Governor of Trinidad, de- 
 scribes Guiana, 66 ; bis 
 cruelty, 68 ; captured by 
 R. at St. Joseph, ib. ; at- 
 tempts to lure R., ib. ; sub- 
 mission to R., 68-69; founded 
 Guayana Vieja, 73 
 
 Berrie, Captain Leonard, makes 
 voyage to Guiana for R., 102 
 
 Beviile, Sir R., inquires into 
 Sir R. Grenville's death, 51 
 
 Eideford, Grenville's Virginian 
 expedition stopped at, 37 ; 
 
Index 
 
 227 
 
 R. sends ships to Virginia 
 from, ib. 
 Bindon, Lord. See Howard 
 Biron, Due de, special French 
 Ambassador, 122-123; dis- 
 grace, 127 
 Blount, Sir Christopher. K.'s 
 keeper at Dartmouth, 61 ; to 
 make joint attack on San 
 Miguel, 107 ; excites Esf^ex 
 against R., 109 ; tries to kill 
 R., 120 ; pardoned by R. be- 
 fore execution, ib. 
 Bodleian Library, Bishop of 
 Algarve's books captured by 
 Earl of Essex contained in, 
 101 
 * Bona venture,' ship, 105 
 Boyle, Richard, aft erwards Earl 
 of Cork, buys R.'s Irish 
 estates, 129 ; lends R. lOOZ., 
 194 ; R. announces his arri- 
 val at Kin sale to, 203 
 Brett, Sir Alex., trustee of 
 
 Sherborne, 16i 
 Breviary of the Hutory of 
 
 Muiland by R., 182-3 
 Broad-cloths, R.'s licence to 
 
 export woollen, 29, 30 
 Broad Street, R. resides in, 188, 
 
 208 
 Brooke, George, conspires for 
 Arabella Stuart, 102, 142; 
 concerned in Watson's plot, 
 135 ; relationship to Cobham 
 and Cecil, ih. ; arrest, 136 ; 
 execution, 158 
 Brooke, Henrv, brother to 
 Lady Cecil. See Cobham, 102 
 Brushtield, Dr., R.'s biblio- 
 graphy, vi. ; researches, 2, 16 
 Bryskett, Lodovick,in Munster, 
 10 ; ' Thestylis ' of Spenser, 45 
 Burghley, R. corresponds with, 
 8,9 ; his moderate Irish policy, 
 22 ; joint author of The 
 Opinion of Mr. Barvley^ 22 ; 
 assails R.'s broad-cloth pa- 
 
 tent, 30; references to, 31, 
 84 ; sends R. to Dartmouth 
 to save prizes, 61 
 
 BuiTOw, Sir John, commands 
 Indian Carrack venture, 54 ; 
 successful attack of plate- 
 ships, 59-60 
 
 Burwick, John, master of ' Des- 
 tiny,' 194 
 
 Byron's Conspiracy by Chap- 
 man, 123 
 
 Carixet Council by R., 185; 
 
 published by Milton, ib. 
 Cadiz expedition, 87, 88-102 ; 
 
 forced on by Lord Howard, 
 
 88 ; Queen Elizabeth reluc- 
 tantly permits, ib. ; Essex, 
 Howard, and R. to consider, 
 
 89 ; Dutch to co-operate, i&. ; 
 R. to raise levies for, ib. ; 
 recruiting for, 90; strength 
 of English and Dutch fleets, 
 91 ; R.'s Be!ati<>n of the Ac- 
 tion, 92 ; details of destruc- 
 tion of Spanish fleet, 92-98 ; 
 the town sacked, 99-100; 
 R. wounded in the leg, 98 ; 
 fleet of carracks escape but 
 burnt by Spaniards, 99 ; 
 Queen Elizabeth claims the 
 prize mone}', 101 ; the victory 
 popular in England, 102 
 
 Caesar, Sir Julius, notes of 
 R.'s second trial, 213 
 
 Caiama Island, 74 
 
 Camden with R. at Oxford. 3 ; 
 his Annales, 3 ; recommends 
 Jonson to R., 175; friend of 
 Samuel Daniel, 183 ; his 
 death, 223 
 
 Camden Miacellany, account of 
 R.'s second trial in, 213 
 
 Canary Islands, R.'s Guiana fleet 
 oil, 195 ; exposed to Algerine 
 corsairs, 195 ; Lanzarote 
 
228 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 sacked, 196 ; E. visits Go- 
 mera, 197 
 
 Cape Verde Islands, R.'s Guiana 
 fleet off, 198; E. lands at 
 Brava, 199 
 
 Capuri river, 80 
 
 Caracas plundered and bumt,81 
 
 Carews, connections of E., 1 
 
 Carew, Sir Francis, E.'s uncle, 
 135 ; entertains King James 
 and E., ib, 
 
 Carew, Sir George, at Lismore, 
 44 ; keeper of E. at Tower, 
 58 ; at Cadiz in ' Mary Eose,' 
 95 : and Cormac MacDermod, 
 129 
 
 Carew, Sir Nicholas, and E.'s 
 burial, 215 
 
 Carew, Sir Eandolph, and 
 friends witness E.'s execu- 
 tion, 218 
 
 Carleton, Dudley, at E.'s trial, 
 153 
 
 Caroni, river, 74 
 
 Carr, Earl of Somerset, and 
 Sherborne, 171, 172, 187 
 
 Cashel, Magraih Archbishop 
 of, 34 
 
 Castle Bally-in-Harsh, its cap- 
 ture, 15 
 
 Cayenne, E. off river, 199, 200 
 
 Cecil, Sir Eobert, and E.'s mar- 
 riage, 54, 63 ; E.'s letter of 
 devotion for Queen sent to, 
 57 ; fails to control Devon 
 sailors, 61 inquires into 
 pillage of 'Madre de Dies,' 
 62 ; barters with E., 64 ; 
 promises ship for Guiana 
 expedition, 67 ; E, asks how 
 result of Guiana voyage is 
 viewed, 82; E. sends MS. 
 account and presents from 
 Guiana, 83 ; Discocei'y of 
 Gniana dedicated to, 84 ; 
 supports proposed attack on 
 Cadiz, 88 ; informed by E. 
 of victory at Cadiz, 100 ; 
 
 death of his wife and E.'s 
 sympathy, 102 ; E.'s inti- 
 macy with his family, ih.; 
 obtains E.'s return to Court, 
 103 ; told of E.'s goodwill to 
 Essex, 106; thwarts E. in 
 being sworn of P. Council, 
 112; doubtful support of 
 Guiana voyage, 113-4; son 
 and young Walter E. play- 
 mates, 114 ; at Sherborne, 
 116; accused by Essex, 118 ; 
 advised by E. to show Essex 
 no mercy, 118-9 ; decline 
 of friendship with E., 125 ; 
 invited to Bath by E., 
 127; E. complains of Lord 
 Bindon to, ih. ; craftiness 
 towards E., 129 ; created a 
 peer by King James, 133 ; 
 estranged from the Brookes, 
 135 ; describes E.'s attempted 
 suicide, 138 ; aids E. with 
 Sherborne estate, 144 ; sits on 
 E 's trial, 146, 157 ; influence 
 sought to save E., 158 
 created Lord Cranborne,164 
 and Earl of Salisbury, 166 
 E. writes of his condition 
 to, ih. ; references to, 167, 
 170, 173, 186 ; his death and 
 epigram on, 173 
 
 Cecil, William. See Salisbury 
 
 Champernowne, Captain Ar- 
 thur, in Azores, 108 
 
 Champernowne, Gavan, his 
 career, 4 
 
 Champernowne, Henry, E.'s 
 cousin, 4; his Huguenot 
 contingent, 4 
 
 Champernowne, Sir Philip, 1 
 
 Champernownes, connections 
 of E., 1 
 
 Chapman, George, his epic 
 poem on Guiana, 86; his 
 Byron's Conspiracy, 123 
 
 Chatham, E. raising sailors at, 
 54 
 
Index 
 
 229 
 
 Chaunis Temotam, its fabulous 
 ores, 30 
 
 Cherbourg, R. takes barks from, 
 42 
 
 Christian IV. of Denmark and 
 R., 169 
 
 Church, Dean, compares R.'s ex- 
 ploits with passages in Faery 
 Queen^ 43 
 
 Clarke executed for Watson's 
 plot, 158 
 
 Cleve, Lord Barry defeated by 
 R. at, 15 
 
 Clifford,SirConyers,atCadiz,95 
 
 Cobham, Lord, Henry Brooke 
 succeeds as, 102 ; first men- 
 tion by R. of, 106 ; R.'s in- 
 creased intimacy, 113; in- 
 vited to Sherborne and Bath, 
 115 ; goes to Ostend with R. 
 ib. ; called an enemy of Eng- 
 land by Essex, 118; attends 
 at Basing to entertain French, 
 123; plotting at Durham 
 House, 134 ; R. only inti- 
 mate friend, 136 ; Lord War- 
 den of Cinque Ports, ih. ; and 
 Watson's plot, ib. ; shown 
 R.'s explanation, 137 ; ac- 
 cuses R., but retracts, ib. ; 
 communicates with R. by 
 Mellersh, 142; tried at 
 Staines for Arabella Stuart 
 plot, 142 ; communications 
 with R., 144 ; vacillation, 
 145 ; retracts to R, ib. ; R. 
 asks that Cobham should die 
 first, 157 ; convicted of 
 treason, 158 ; led out for exe- 
 cution, but reprieved, 160; 
 death by paralysis, 22.3 
 Coke, Sir Edward, Attorney- 
 General at R.'s Winchester 
 trial, 146-7 
 
 Colin Clout, Spenser refers to 
 R. in, 43, 48 ; Queen Eliza- 
 beth commands its publica- 
 tion, 49 
 
 Collect io7ie.i Peregrinationum, 
 
 by De Bry, 114 
 Collier, J. P., 56 
 Commentai^es, by Sir F, Vere, 97 
 Commerce, R.'s Observatiom on 
 Trade and, 186 
 
 Conde, Prince of, his death, 4 
 
 Cookes, the, R. takes to Cadiz, 
 90 
 
 Copley and Watson's plot, 135; 
 his arrest, 136 
 
 Corabby, R.'s courage at ford 
 of, 14 
 
 Cordials made by R., 168 
 
 Cork, R. reinforces Sentleger 
 at, 9 ; Geraldine executed at, 
 ib. ; R. governor of, 15 ; land 
 granted to R. in, 34 ; cedars 
 planted by R. still at, 47; 
 R.'s second Guiana fleet takes 
 retuge at, 194 
 
 Cornwall, R. Lieutenant and 
 Vice-Admiral of, 32 ; R.'s 
 deputy in, 32 ; R. collects 
 miners to resist Armada, 38 ; 
 its defences considered, 89 ; 
 R.'s efforts for tin- workers 
 in, 117 ; R. tries to retain 
 office, but superseded by 
 Earl of Pembroke, 163 
 
 Coro, burned, 81 
 
 Cotterell, messenger between 
 R. and Cobham, 145, 169; 
 examined against R., 170 
 
 Cotton, Sir Robert, lends books 
 to R., 171 
 
 Court, early record of R.'s ad- 
 mission to, 5, 6 ; R. not a 
 penniless adventurer at, 16 ; 
 recognised courtier, 17, 19 ; 
 R. inferior to Leicester, Wal- 
 singham, and Hatton at, 50 ; 
 reference to R. at, 103, 115 ; 
 R. excluded by James I., 1 88 
 
 Cranborne, Lord. See Cecil 
 
 • Crane,' the, R.'s ship, 42 
 
 Creighton's, Mrs., Period of 
 R., vi. 
 
230 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 Cross, Captain, and plate ship 
 prize, 62 
 
 Crosse, Sir Eobert, with R. 
 meets King James, 132 
 
 Cucuina, river, R. ascends, 71 
 
 Cumana, Venezuela, spared by- 
 ransom and subsequently 
 burnt by R.'s ships, 81 
 
 Cynthia, R.'s supposed lost 
 poem, 45-46: fragments 
 printed from Hatfield MS., 
 46 ; style and importance, 
 46-47 ; called The Ocean to, 
 46 ; and The Ocean's Love to, 
 ib. ; treated of in Athenaeum, 
 1886, ih. ; publication urged 
 by Spenser, 49 
 
 Dangers of a Spanish Faction 
 in Scotland, by R., 124 
 
 Daniel, Samuel, and R , 182-3 
 
 Dartmouth, ♦ Madre de Dios ' 
 towed to, 60; R. stops spo- 
 liation of, 61 
 
 Da vies, Sir John, Nosce teijjsum 
 and R.'s Cynthia, 46 
 
 Davis, John, R.'s partner for 
 discovery of N.-W. passage, 
 28 ; refers to whereabouts 
 of R., July 1595, 82 
 
 De Beaumont, French ambas- 
 sador, refers to R., 133, 141 
 
 De Bry prints R.'s Discavery 
 in his Collection's, 114 
 
 * Destiny,' ship built by R. for 
 Guiana expedition, 190; Des 
 Marets visits the, 193 ; com- 
 manded by young Walter R., 
 ib. ; John Burwick the mas- 
 ter, 1 94 ; outlawed, 205 ; 
 arrive? at Plymouth, 205, 206 
 
 Des Marets, French ambassa- 
 dor, 190 ; suspicious of R.'s 
 Guiana voyage, ib. ; visits 
 R.'s • Destiny,' 193 ; his cor- 
 respondence, ih. 
 
 Desmond, Earl of, murder of 
 his brother's guest, 8 ; R. 
 
 shares escheated lands of, 
 34 
 
 Devonshire Association, Trans- 
 actions of, and R., 2 ; accent 
 strong in R., 21 ; R.'s popu- 
 larity in, 31 ; Stannaries, R 's 
 report on,i^>.; R.Vice- Admiral 
 of, 32 ; Sir John Gilbert, R.'s 
 deputy in, ib. ; R. member of 
 Parlii^ment for, ib. ; miners 
 serve in Netherlands, ib. ; 
 farmers settle in south of 
 Ireland, 34 ; miners raised 
 by R. to repel Armada, 38 ; 
 R. considers its defences, 89 
 
 Devonshire, Earl of, on R.'s 
 trial at Winchester, 146 
 
 Dingle, expedition from Ferrol 
 lands at, 8 
 
 Discovery of Guiana, published 
 by R., 83-84 ; literary value, 
 85; translations in Latin, 
 German, and French, 114; 
 reprinted by Hakluyt, ib. 
 
 Doddridge, Sir John, 144 
 
 Domestic Correspondence refers 
 to R.'s ships, 42 
 
 Donne, John, earliest known 
 poem, 105 
 
 Dover, R. at, 90, 193 
 
 Drake, Sir Francis, receives 
 prisoners from Armada, 39 ; 
 expedition to Portugal, 41- 
 42 ; and spoil of * Madre de 
 Dios,' 62 ; his fate, 6, 87 
 
 • Dreadnought,' Sir C. Clifford's 
 Cadiz ship, 95 
 
 Dudley, Robert, D. of Nor- 
 thunjberland, at Cadiz, ib. 
 
 Duke, Richard, contemporary 
 owner of R.'s birthplace, 1 
 
 Durham, Bishop of, demands 
 Durham House, 133 
 
 Durham House leased by R., 
 31 ; its site and history, ib. ; 
 Queen Elizabeth there in 
 1592, 56; references to, 87, 
 114, 120; fire at, 117; Lady 
 
Index 
 
 231 
 
 R. advises a proper lease for, 
 ib. ; Bishop of Durham de- 
 mands and King James di- 
 rects R. to surrender, 133-4 ; 
 R. forced to remove from 
 134 ; alleged plotting at, ib. 
 
 Dutch to assist in attack on 
 Cadiz, 89, 99 ; take parb in 
 capture of Azores, 107 
 
 Dyer's evidence at R.'s trial, 
 155 
 
 Edwards, Edward, life and 
 letters of R., iii. ; collected 
 evidence of battle of Cadiz, 
 91; references to, 82, 190, 210 
 
 Effingham, Lady, converse with 
 R., 167 
 
 Effingham. See Howard 
 
 El Dorado, legendary prince of 
 Guiana, 60 ; supposed lake 
 in heart of Guiana, ih. ; 
 efforts of Spaniards and Ger- 
 mans to reach, ib. 
 
 Elizabeth. Queen, Due d'Alen- 
 <jon her suitor, 17-18; con- 
 fers an Irish captaincy on 
 R., 19 ; R. first favourite with, 
 19-25 ; gifts to R., 24, 25 ; 
 grants charter to R. for dis- 
 covery of N.-W. passage, 
 28; Virginia named in ho- 
 nour of, ib. ; leases Durham 
 House to R., 31 ; feelings to- 
 wards Leicester, 32 ; keeps 
 R. from politics, 35 ; R. sup- 
 planted by Essex, 35 ; appro- 
 priates pirated fine raiment, 
 42 ; R restored to favour by, 
 43, 49 ; praised in Cynthia, 
 45; Spenser introduced to, 
 48 ; commands publication 
 of Colin Clout, 49 ; happy 
 retort of R. to, 53 ; instals a 
 pliable Bishop of Salisbury 
 and receives fine from R., 
 63; supports R. in Spanish 
 
 21 
 
 plate- ship venture, 54, 59 ; 
 buys the 'Ark Raleigh,' 54; 
 vanity and resentment, 55 ; 
 recalls R. from Frobisher's 
 fleet, 56 ; discovers R.'s 
 Throckmorton intrigue, ib. i 
 confines R. in Tower, 57 ; 
 R.'s letter of devotion to, ib. ; 
 acknowledges R.'s marriage, 
 63; works of travel published 
 in her reign, 85 ; irresolution 
 to attack Spain after Ar- 
 mada, 88 ; R. seeks recon- 
 ciliation with, 100 ; claims 
 Cadiz prize-money, 101 ; R.'s 
 position with, 101, 103, 111, 
 115; reconfers captaincy of 
 the Guard on R., 103 ; her 
 custom to retire early to 
 rest. 111; festivities on her 
 sixty-fifth birthday, 113 ; 
 sends R. to Ostend, 115 ; 
 confers Governorship of Jer- 
 sey and Manor of St. Ger- 
 main on R., 116 ; Essex ac- 
 cuses R., Cecil, and Cobham 
 to, 118; refuses communica- 
 tion with Essex, ih. ; said to 
 have shown skull of Essex, 
 ib. ; R. sends her a supposed 
 diamond, 128; interviews R. 
 on Irish policy, ib. ; R. ad- 
 vises as to MacDermod, ib. ; 
 her death, 129 ; reference to, 
 186 
 
 Elizabethan poets engaged in 
 Ireland, 10 
 
 El Nuevo Dorado, or Guiana, QQ 
 
 Elphinstone, Sir James, eager 
 for R.'s estate, 143 
 
 Elyot, Sir John, his Monarchy 
 of Man, 217 ; describes R.'s 
 end, ib. 
 
 England, Breviary of the His- 
 tory of, 182 ; Archbishop 
 Bancroft and MS. of, ib. ; 
 Samuel Daniel's share in, 
 183 ; attributed to R., ih 
 
^32 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 Epuremi tribe in Guiana, 78 
 
 Erskine, Sir Thomas, supplants 
 R. in the Guard, 133 ; his 
 position with King James, 
 133 
 
 Easays, Bacon issues his, 85 
 
 Essex. Earl of, competes with 
 R. for royal favour, 35 ; de- 
 mands R.'s sacrifice, 35, 36 ; 
 
 -—Court attacks on R., 40 ; 
 challenges R., ih. ; drives 
 R. from Court, 42; more 
 friendly with R., 50; per- 
 ceives value of the Puri- 
 tans, ih. ; his Protestantism, 
 ih. ; to consider attack on 
 Cadiz, 89 ; his share in Cadiz 
 expedition, 92-100; captures 
 library of Bishop of Algarve, 
 101 ; presents it to Sir T. 
 Bodley, ih. ; and Cadiz prize 
 money, ih. ; at Chatham, 
 103 ; planning fresh attack 
 on Spain, ih. ; charged with 
 disloyalty, 104 ; R.'s guest 
 at Plymouth, 106 ; expedi- 
 tion to Azores and result, 
 107-109 ; Royal influence on 
 the wane. 111 ; offended past 
 forgiveness by Queen, 112 ; 
 uncompromising speech to 
 Elizabeth, ih. ; surliness of 
 temper, ih. ; adopts for his 
 men tilting colours of R., 
 113 ; increasing enmity with 
 R , iJ. ; complaints to Queen, 
 118 ; Queen refuses com- 
 munication with, ih. ; con- 
 spiracy, 119-120 ; R. and the 
 execution of, 120 ; Elizabeth 
 shows his skull to Due de 
 Biron, 123 
 
 Eugubinus, Steuchius, 178 
 
 Euphuistic prose, example in 
 R.'s letter to Cecil, 57 
 
 Mvesham, Chronicle of, 171 
 
 Ewaipanoma tribe, 77 
 
 Execution of R., 217, 218-219; 
 
 his speech, 218 ; his gallant 
 bearing, 29 
 Exeter, R.'s parents buiied at, 3 
 
 Faery Queen, R.'s adventures 
 compared with those in, 43 ; 
 its progress, 45 ; registered, 
 Spenser obtains pension by, 
 49 ; R.'s sonnet appended to, 
 ih. 
 
 Fajardo Isle, 74 
 
 Falmouth, expedition to Spain 
 puts back into, 106 
 
 * Farm of Wines ' granted by 
 Q. Elizabeth to R., 24; 
 granted by King James to 
 E. of Nottingham, 141 
 
 Fayal, Essex and R. arrange to 
 capture, 107; R. to meet 
 Essex at, 108 ; R. arrives be- 
 fore Essex, its attack and 
 capture, ih. ; arrival of Essex, 
 ih. ; dispute relative to cap- 
 ture, 109 
 
 Featley, Dr. Daniel, tutor to 
 young Walter R., 171 
 
 Fenton, Geoffrey ,in Munster, 10 
 
 Ferrol, Spanish expedition to 
 Ireland from, 8 
 
 Finland, Duke of, offers assist- 
 ance to R. in Guiana, 113 
 
 Fish tithes, in Sidmouth, leased 
 to R.'s family, 2 
 
 Fisher, Jasper, 6 
 
 Fitzjames rents R.'s Sherborne 
 farms, 64 
 
 Fitzwilliam, Sir William, Irish 
 Deputy, dispute with R., 48 ; 
 reference to, 49 
 
 Fleet Prison, R. committed to, 
 7 ; R. removed from Tower 
 to, 165 
 
 Flemish ships captured off 
 Fuerteventura, 67 
 
 Flores in Azores, R. joins fleet 
 of Essex off, 107 
 
 Flores, Gutierrez, Spanish 
 
Index 
 
 233 
 
 President, opinion of the 
 enemies' fleet off Cadiz, 
 92 
 
 Fort del Ore, Ireland, built by- 
 invaders, 6; siege, capture 
 and massacre at, 12 
 
 Fowler, K.'s gold reSner, death 
 of, 199 
 
 France, R. aids Huguenot 
 princes, 4 ; Hakluyt in, ib. ; 
 R.'s return from, 6 ; Henry 
 IV.'s compliment to Queen 
 Elizabeth, 122; invited to 
 support Huguenots, 193 ; 
 Ambassador visits R., 190, 
 192 ; R. offered escape by, 208 
 
 Free trade, R. an advocate of, 
 186-7 
 
 French Ambassadors : Due de 
 Biron, 122 ; De Beaumont, 
 133, 141 ; Des Marets, 180, 
 192 
 
 French envoy, La Chesnee, 
 offers R. means of escape, 
 208, 211, 212 
 
 French vessels detained by 
 R., 195 
 
 Frobisher, Sir Martin, 26 ; 
 fleet for capturing Indian 
 carracks, 64 ; reputed se- 
 verity, ib.\ R. with his fleet, 
 56 ; off Spanish coast seek- 
 ing plate ships, 59 
 Fuerte Ventura, R. captures ships 
 
 off, 67 
 Fuller records R. at Oxford, 3 ; 
 story of R. making his cloak 
 a mat for Queen, 21 ; anec- 
 dotes, 22 
 
 Gamage, Barbara, marries 
 Robert Sidney, 33; grand- 
 mother of Waller's iSacha- 
 rissa, %b. 
 
 Gardiner, S. R., estimate of R.'s 
 genius, 130; credits Beau- 
 mont's story of, 133; account 
 
 of R.'s trial, 157, 213 ; ac- 
 count of the Benevolence, 
 184; details of intrigues in 
 K. James's Court, 190, 206 
 • Garland,' the, R.'s ship, 42 
 Gascoigne, protege of R.'s half- 
 brother, 5 ; his Steel Glass, 
 ih. ; death of, 5 ; Lord Grey 
 patron of, 10 
 Gate House, R. confined in, 214 
 Gawdy, one of R.'s Winchester 
 
 judges, 146 
 Genoa, its seizure proposed, 
 192 ; discussed before K. 
 James and rejected, ih. 
 Geraldine Friary, Youghal, 
 
 destroyed, 34 
 Geraldine, Sir James, trial and 
 
 execution, 9 
 Geraldines rebel, 8 
 Gibb, John, page to James I., 
 
 159 
 Gifford, Captain, reference to, 
 
 79,80 
 Gilbert, Adrian, R.'s half- 
 brother, 1 ; partner in N.W. 
 expeditions, 28 ; holds office 
 at Sherborne, 53 ; obnoxious 
 to R.'s bailiff Meeres, 121; 
 commended to Lady R., 140 ; 
 and R.'s Sherborne estates, 
 143 
 Gilbert, Bartholomew, his 
 voyage to America, 125; 
 sails from Virginia with rich 
 woods, 126 ; carries supposed 
 diamond from R. to Queen, 
 127-8 
 Gilbert, Katherine. See Ra- 
 leigh, Mrs. 
 Gilbert,Sir Humphrey, R.'s half- 
 brother, 1 ; R. companion of 
 his voyages, 6, 7 ; gained re- 
 nown in Ireland, 8 ; granted 
 Charter to make settlements 
 in America, 26 ; lends ships 
 to serve on Irish coast, 26 ; 
 misfortunes and vicissitudes 
 
234 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 of expedition, 26-27; his 
 death at sea, 27 
 
 Gilbert, Sir John, half-brother 
 to R., 62 ; preparing to sail 
 for Guiana, 113 
 
 Gilbert, Otto, 1 
 
 Gillingham Forest, R in, 64 
 
 Glenmalure, R. meets Spenser 
 at battle of, 10 
 
 Globe Theatre, Shakespeare's 
 Richard the Second at, 104 
 
 Godolphin, Sir Francis, warden 
 of Stannaries, 141 
 
 Gomera Islands, R. lands at, 
 197; courtesy of governor and 
 his lady to R,, 197-198 
 
 Gondomar (Sarmiento),Spanish 
 ambassador, 190 ; suspicious 
 of R., 190, 191 ; pledged R.'s 
 life against Spanish attack, 
 192 ; protests against Guiana 
 expedition, 193; Captain 
 Bailey in his pay, 196 ; Bailey 
 traduces R. to, 199; activity 
 for R.'s ruin, 204 ; urges em- 
 bargo on English at Seville, 
 204 ; claims punishment of 
 R., 205 
 
 Goodwin, Hugh, hostage with 
 Topiawari, 79 ; learns Indian 
 language, ih. ; serves under 
 Gifford, ih. ; meets R. after 
 twenty-two years, 200 
 
 Googe, Barnabee, in Munster, 10 
 
 Gorges, Sir A., assaulted by 
 R., 58; believes R. mad, ih. ; 
 historian of Azores expedi- 
 tion, 107 ; and Due de Biron, 
 122 
 
 Gorges, Sir F., and Essex con- 
 spiracy, 119 
 
 Gosnoll, Captain, American dis- 
 coveries, 1 25 ; sails from Vir- 
 ginia without R.'s leave, 126 
 
 Gray's Elegy and R.'s Cynthia,^Q 
 
 Grenville, Sir Richard, and 
 R.'s Virginian expeditions, 
 29, 37 ; captures Spanish 
 
 prize of 50,000?., 29; and 
 Armada, 37 ; R.'s account 
 of the fight in the 'Revenge* 
 and his heroic death, 51, 96 ; 
 Sir R. Beville inquires into 
 his death, 51 ; praised by 
 Tennyson and Bacon, 51 ; 
 R.'s cousin, 95 ; R. revenges 
 his death, 96, 93 
 
 Greville, Fulke, in Munster, 10 
 
 Grey, Lord de Wilton, in Dub 
 lin, 9 ; dislikes R., 9 ; patron 
 of Gascoigne, 10; hatred 
 of Popery, 11 ; treatment of 
 Irish rebels, 13 ; denounced 
 by R. to Leicester, 14 ; 
 leniency in Ireland, 22 ; and 
 Armada, 37; dines with R. 
 at Flores, 107 ; in Low Coun- 
 tries, 115 
 
 Grey, young Lord de Wilton, 
 and Watson's plot, 135, 168, 
 160 
 
 Grosart's Lismore Papers, vi. 
 
 Guard, R. Captain of the, 35, 
 1 03 ; Sir T. Erskine supplants 
 R., 133 
 
 Guayana Vieja founded by 
 Berreo, 73 
 
 Guiana, R.'s desire to conquer, 
 64 ; its description, 65, 66 ; 
 capture of Spanish letters 
 relative to, 66 ; annexed by 
 Berreo, governor of Trinidad, 
 ih. ; Captain Whiddon visits 
 for R,, 66 ; R. explores part 
 of, 67 ; supposed mineral 
 wealth, 72, 75 ; Humboldt on 
 its gold yield, 75 ; leaves two 
 sailors at Morequito, 79; 
 health of R.'s expedition, 81 ; 
 R. asks effect of expedition 
 on Court, 83 ; R.'s Discovery 
 of Guiana published, 83-84 ; 
 Chapman's poem on, 85-86 ; 
 Captain Keymis's voyage, 
 86 ; R.'s Of the Voyage for 
 Gvianay 87 ; Government in- 
 
Index 
 
 235 
 
 terest not excited by E., ih. ; 
 Captain L. Berrie's voyage, 
 102; D. of Finland urges 
 R. to colonise, 113; Sir J. 
 Gilbert preparing for, 113 ; 
 increased fame of Discoverxjy 
 114 ; R. asks leave to revisit, 
 170; R.'s funds for voyage, 
 172, 189-190; R. released 
 from Tower to go to, 189 ; 
 advantages promised King 
 James, ib. ; preparations for, 
 excite Spaniards, 190; R.'s 
 Royal commission, 190-191 ; 
 composition of R.'s fleet, 1 93- 
 194; its delays, 194; fleet 
 detains French traders, 195 ; 
 fleet off Canaries, ib. ; Cap- 
 tain Bailey deserts, 196; 
 courtesies with Governor of 
 Gomera, 198 ; R.'s log of 
 Second Voyage, 199 ; R. ill 
 of fever in, 199-200; R. 
 meets Hugh Goodwin after 
 twenty-two years, 200 ; fleet 
 at Trinidad, 200; Keymis 
 explores for gold, attacks 
 San Thome, 200-1 ; R.'s 
 son Walter killed, 201 ; Key- 
 mis's failure and embarrassed 
 meeting with R., 201 ; Key- 
 mis commits suicide in, 202 ; 
 R.'s failure to find gold mines 
 in, 202 ; mutiny of fleet, 
 202 ; R. sails to Newfound- 
 land from, 203; R.'s igno- 
 minious return from, %b. ; 
 Apology for the Voyage to^ 
 208 
 Gunpowder Plot and R., 168 
 
 Hakluyt, R.'s contemporary 
 at Oxford, 3 ; his Voyages 
 and sojourn in France, 4 ; re- 
 prints R.'s report of Gren- 
 ville's fight, 51 ; J}ucovcry 
 of Ouiana, 114 
 
 Hale, the sergeant at R.'s Win- 
 chester trial, 146-7 
 Hamburg ship, R. takes sugar, 
 
 &c., from a, 41 
 Hampden, John, collector of 
 
 R.'s MSS., 185 
 Hannah, Archdeacon, printed 
 
 R.'s Cynthia, 46 
 Harington, Sir John, 34 
 Hariot, Thomas, R.'s scientific 
 
 agent in Virginia, 31 
 Harris, Sir C, R. lodged in his 
 
 house, 206 
 Hart, Captain, betrays R., 208 
 Harvey, Sir G., Lieutenant of 
 Tower, 141, 142 ; suspects 
 R.'s communications, 144 ; 
 indulges R., succeeded by Sir 
 W. Waad, 167 
 Hatfield MSS. and R.'s Cynthia, 
 
 46 
 Hatton, Su- C, R. reconciles 
 him to Queen Elizabeth, 23 ; 
 references to, and death, 32, 
 35, 50 « 
 
 Hawkins, his third voyage, 6 ; 
 
 character of his voyages, 7 
 Hayes relates R.'s expense in 
 
 Gilbert's expedition, 27 
 Hayes Barton, R.'s birthplace, 
 
 in Devon, 1, 3 
 Hennessy, Sir J. Pope, account 
 
 of R. in Ireland, 47 
 Henri IV. of France, 122 
 Henry VIII. censured in R.'s 
 
 History, 180 
 Henry, Prince, visits R. in 
 Tower, 169 ; seeks advice of 
 R., 173, 174; death agonies 
 eased by R.'s cordial, 175 ; 
 efforts and sympathy for R., 
 175, 180; opinion of his 
 father's conduct, 175; and 
 R.'s Cabinet Council, 185 
 nistoire Universelle, by d'Au- 
 
 bigne, 177 
 Historical MSS. Commission 
 Reports, vi. 
 
2^6 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 History of the World, by R.'s 
 personal reference, 4, 5, 162, 
 171 ; references to Armada, 
 38 ; on boarding galleons, 
 39; refers to Trinidad, 67; 
 R. aided by Ben Jonson, 175 ; 
 size and contents, 176 ; criti- 
 cally examined, 176-182 ; its 
 preface, when written, 180 ; 
 suppressed by King James, 
 and cause, 180-181 
 
 Hooker's Supply of the Irish 
 Chronicles and references 
 to R., 11» 43 ; Ecclesiastical 
 Polity, 85 ; Oxford tutor of 
 Walter R., jun., 171 
 
 Hornsey, R.'s servants disturb 
 the peace at, 6 
 
 Howard of Bindon, Thomas 
 Lord, R. to warn him if any 
 Spaniards in Channel, 50; 
 and Cadiz expedition, 89, 96, 
 97, 98 ; takes R.'s servant 
 under his protection, 121 ; 
 persuades Sir W. Peryam to 
 re-try Meere'ssuit, 127; juror 
 on R.'s trial, 143, 146 
 
 Howard, Lord Henry, and R., 
 interview with Lennox, 124- 
 125 ; R. prays forgiveness 
 for, 139 
 
 Howard of Effingham, Lord 
 Charles, R.'s advice on board- 
 ing Armada, 38, 39; high 
 opinion of R., 39 ; Discovery 
 of Guiana dedicated to, 84 ; 
 forces expedition to Cadiz, 88; 
 on committee for attack on 
 Cadiz, 89; details of his action 
 at Cadiz, 92-100 ; ship ' Ark 
 Royal,' 93 ; obtains R.'s return 
 to Court, 103; to attempt 
 capture of Graciosa, 107; 
 created E. of Nottingham, 
 110, 112 ; granted R.'s wine 
 patent, 141 ; conducts Ara- 
 bella Stewart to R.'s trial, 
 195 ; outlaws R.'s ship 
 
 ♦ Destiny,' 205 ; death of, 
 223 
 
 Huguenots, R. offers to aid, 4 ; 
 Henry Champernowne's force 
 aids, ih. ; mode of smoking 
 out Catholics, 5 
 
 Hulsius, Levinus, Latin trans- 
 lation of the Discovery of 
 Guiana, 114 
 
 Humboldt's examination of 
 Guiana gold, 75 ; testified 
 to the genuineness of R.'s 
 account of Guiana, 78 
 
 « Husband ' ship, 194, 196 
 
 IMATACA mountains seen by 
 R., 72 
 
 Imokelly, R. escapes ambush 
 by Seneschal of, 14 
 
 Lacomeof R., references to, 16, 
 24, 25, 30, 34, 133, 162, 172 
 
 Lidian carracks (plate-ships) 
 scheme for R. to seize, 53- 
 54 ; Sir J. Burrows to attack 
 them, 54 ; their capture, 59- 
 60 ; fleet of in Cadiz harbour, 
 99 ; burnt by Spaniards to 
 avoid capture, ih. ; two de- 
 stroyed by R. in Azores, 109 
 
 Ireland, Histm^ of the Early 
 Ages in, MacCarthy's, 129 
 
 Ireland, R. in, 7 ; Catholic in- 
 vasion of, 7; R.'s voyage to 
 Cork, 8; Lord Grey suc- 
 ceeds Pelham in, 9 ; execu- 
 tion of Sir J. Geraldine, 10 ; 
 poets on service in, ih. ; mas- 
 sacre at Fort del Ore, 12 ; R.'s 
 severity towards rebels, 13; 
 rebels pardoned through 
 Ormond, ] 3 ; R.'s seizure of 
 Barry Court, 14 ; Castle Bal- 
 ly-in-Harsh taken . by R.'s 
 strategy, 15 ; R.'s return 
 from, 16 ; R. paid for service 
 in, 18 ; R. assigned a Cap- 
 taincy in, 19 ; The Opinion 
 
Index 
 
 237 
 
 of Mr. Rawley on, 22 ; Lord 
 Grey deprived of Deputy- 
 ship, 23; K.'s residences in, 
 34 ; estates in Cork, Water- 
 ford, and Tipperary settled 
 by R., 34 ; R.'s experience as 
 a colonist in, 34 ; R. leaves 
 to fight Armada, 38 ; Essex 
 forces R.'s return to, 42 ; R.'s 
 efforts i!n developing his 
 estates in, 47 ; potato and 
 tobacco introduced by R., 
 48 ; Sir William Fitzwilliam, 
 Deputy in, ih. ; R. refused 
 Lord Deputyship, 112; oc- 
 cupied with affairs of, 115 ; 
 invaded by Spain, 124 ; R. 
 on situation in, ih. ; MacCar- 
 thy's History of the Early 
 Ages in, 129 ; Boyle, Earl of 
 Cork, buys R.'s estates in, 
 129; R. sells remainder of 
 his leases, 194 
 Irish Chro7iicles, Hooker's Siip- 
 
 ply oftTie, 11 
 Islands voyage. See Azores 
 Islington, R.'s residence in, 6 
 
 James I. first cognisant of 
 R., 123 ; offers Scotch troops 
 to repel Spanish invasion, 
 124 ; sends Lennox on mis- 
 sion to Elizabeth, ib. ; R. and 
 Cobham reported unfavour- 
 able to, 124 ; met by London 
 nobility at death of Eliza- 
 beth, 132; R. and Sir R. 
 Crosse meet him at Burgh- 
 ley, ib. ; unfavourably re- 
 ceived R., 132 ; promises R. 
 continuance of Stannaries, 
 ib. ; displaces R. from the 
 Guard, 133 ; increases R.'s 
 salary as Governor of Jersey, 
 ib. ; deprives R. of Durham 
 House on petition of Bishop 
 of Durham, 133, 134; in- 
 
 volved in promises to Catho- 
 lics, 135 ; waiting Spanish 
 overtures, ib. ; guest of Sir 
 F. Carew, ib. ; given R.'s 
 Discourse an Spanish War, 
 4'c.,ib.; R.'s projects distaste- 
 ful to, ib. ; commits R. to 
 Tower, 137 ; R. begs his life 
 of and refused hope by, 168 ; 
 prepares warrant for stay 
 of R.'s execution, 158 ; signs 
 death-warrants for conspira- 
 tors, 159; intention to re- 
 prieve, ib. ; at bull-baiting on 
 Tower Hill, 165 ; and Chris- 
 tian IV. of Denmark, 169; 
 suppresses R.'s Histoi'y of 
 the World, 180 ; R. hopes to 
 propitiate him, 183 ; forbids 
 printing of R.'s Prerogative 
 of Parliament, 184; and the 
 Benevolence, 184 ; a Protec- 
 tionist, 187 ; releases R., 188 ; 
 to be enriched by R.'s second 
 voyage to Guiana, 189 ; sub- 
 mits R.'s proposed route to 
 Madrid, 191 ; ignores state- 
 ments of Bailey, 199 ; Cap- 
 tain North relates R.'s failure 
 to, 203 ; R.'s apologetic letter 
 to, ib. ; Spain clamours for 
 R.'s death, 205 ; invites 
 claims against R., ib.; his 
 arguments for R., ib.', R. 
 doomed by, 205, 206 ; Apo- 
 logy for Guiana voyage of no 
 effect on, 209 ; R.'s attempted 
 catspaw against Spain, 211; 
 R.'s confession to, 212 ; ad- 
 vised to give R. public trial, 
 212 ; R. throws himself on 
 his mercy, 214 ; quits London 
 and signs R.'s death-warrant, 
 ib. ; foiled by R.'s bearing at 
 execution, 219 ; R. begs his 
 memory to be saved from 
 scurrilous writers, 220; death 
 of. 223 
 
23S 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 Jarcac, battle of, 4 
 
 JeafFreson, J. Cordy, contribu- 
 tion by, vi. ; researches in 
 Middlesex Kecords, 6, 20; 
 researches in Assembly Books 
 of K. Lynn, 38 
 
 Jersey, R. seeks Governorship 
 of, 114; R. succeeds Sir A. 
 Paulet as Governor, 116 ; ac- 
 count of and effect of R.'s 
 rule in, 116-117 ; Norman 
 gentry in, 127 ; King James 
 increased R.'s salary for, 
 133 ; R. displaced for Sir J. 
 Peyton, 141; references to 
 R. in, 126, 127 
 
 Jesuit captured by R., 64 
 
 Jewels, R.'s love of, 20 ; value 
 on his person when arrested, 
 20, 209 
 
 Jonson, Ben, referred by Cam- 
 den to R., 175 ; assists R. 
 in History of tlie World, 175, 
 176 ; goes with young Walter 
 R. to Paris, 175 ; his Worfts, 
 175 ; jealous of Samuel 
 Daniel, 183 ; death of, 223 
 
 Keymis, Captain, with R. in 
 Guiana, 80 ; his second voy- 
 age to Guiana, 86 ; com- 
 mended to Lady R., 140 ; 
 gives evidence on R.'s trial 
 under fear of torture, 154 ; 
 warden of Sherborne, ] 64 ; 
 and Guiana, 174 ; joins R.'s 
 fleet at Plymouth, 194 ; com- 
 mands Orinoco gold expedi- 
 tion without success, 200, 
 201 ; attacks San Thom6, 
 201 ; announces to R. death 
 of his son Walter R., %b.\ 
 dejection at R.'s reproach, 
 asks forgiveness, xh. ; writes 
 to Earl of Arundel, xh. ; com- 
 mits suicide, 202 
 
 Kilcolman, Spenser's Irish seat, 
 44 
 
 King, Captain Samuel, at- 
 tempts R.'s escape, 206-7-8 ; 
 his arrest, 208 
 King's Lynn entertains R,, 38 
 Kinsale, Spanish landing at, 
 124 ; R. returns from Guiana 
 to, 203 
 
 La Chesnee, French envoy, 
 offers escape to R., 208, 211, 
 212 
 
 Lake, Sir Thomas, to send 
 R. from Court, 133 
 
 Lane, Ralph, leader of R.'s 
 Virginian colony, 29 ; con- 
 siders defence against Ar- 
 mada, 37 
 
 Languedoc, Catholics smoked 
 out at, 6 
 
 La Rienzi, reference to at R.'s 
 trial, 148 
 
 Leicester, Earl of, R. writes 
 from Lismore to, 17 ; R. his 
 protege at Court, ib. ; goes to 
 Netherlands with R. and Sir 
 P. Sidney, 18 ; Queen Eliza- 
 beth quarrels with, %b. ; re- 
 conciled to R.'s Royal favour, 
 23 ; in Netherlands and in 
 disgrace, R.'s sympathy, 32 ; 
 reference to, 35 ; death of, 50 
 
 Lennox, Duke of, diplomatic 
 visit to Elizabeth, 124 ; be- 
 lieves R. and Cobham op- 
 posed King James, ih. 
 
 Limerick, victory of Sir N. 
 Malby in woods of, 8 
 
 * Lion,' Sir R, Southwell's ship 
 at Cadiz, 95 
 
 ' Lion Whelp,* Cecil's ship, 67 ; 
 R, reinforced at Port of 
 Spain by, 68 
 
 Lisbon, Drake and R. with ex- 
 pedition at, 41-42 
 
 Lismore, Elizabethan capital 
 of Munster, 15 
 
 Lismore Castle, R. rents from 
 Archbishop of Cashel, 34 
 
Index 
 
 239 
 
 Zismore Papers and R.'s refer- 
 ences, vi., 194, 203 
 
 Loftie, Rev. W. J., account of 
 R.'s lodgings in Tower, 162 
 
 London citizens aid privateer- 
 ing against Spain, 59 ; eager- 
 ness to share spoil, 61 ; 
 jewellers or goldsnilths and 
 Spanish prize, 62 ; plague in, 
 142 
 
 Lostwithiel, Stannaries Court 
 of, 117 
 
 Macareo, R. tried to enter 
 river, 69 ; channel, 80 
 
 MacCarthy, Florence, R. ad- 
 vises his retention in Tower, 
 129 ; asks CeciRo permit R. 
 to judge him, il. ; his His- 
 tory <rf the Early Ages in 
 Ireland, 129 
 
 Mace, Samuel, commands a 
 Virginian fleet for R., 125 
 
 MacDermod, Cormac, Lord of 
 Muskerry, R.'s severity to, 128 
 
 Macureguarai, rich city of 
 Guiana, 78 
 
 Madeira, R.'s Virginian ships 
 stripped at, 37 
 
 •Madre de Dios,' plate-ship, 
 value of its capture, 60; 
 inquiry as to disposal of 
 treasure, 62 
 
 Magrath, Meiler, Archbishop 
 of Cashel, 34 
 
 Malby, Sir Nicholas, defeats 
 Irish rebels, 8 
 
 Malet, Sir A., MSS., R.'s un- 
 popularity referred to in, 131 
 
 Manamo, R. enters the Orinoco 
 by river, 69 
 
 Manatee seen by R. in Guiana, 
 79 
 
 Mannourie, French quack at- 
 tendant and spy on R., 207 ; 
 gives R. a detrimental dose, 
 ib. ; bribed by R., 208 ; de- 
 
 nounced by R., 220 ; his dis- 
 grace, 223 
 
 Manoa, capital of Guiana, 69 
 
 Markham led out for execution 
 but reprieved, 159, 160 
 
 Marlowe's career, 80 
 
 Marriage of R. to Elizabeth 
 Throckmorton, 63 
 
 Martinez, Juan, journal of visit 
 to Manoa, 69 
 
 •Maiy Rose,' Sir G. Carew's 
 Cadiz ship, 95 
 
 Maurice of Nassau, letters 
 taken to Prince, 175 
 
 Medina Sidonia, Duke of, his 
 report to Philip II. of Eng- 
 lish attack on Cadiz, 98; 
 burns fleet of carracks to 
 avoid capture by English, 99 
 
 Meere, John, R.'s bailiff at 
 Sherborne, 53 ; his dismissal 
 and revenge, 121 ; arrests 
 R.'s new bailiff, 121 ; brings 
 civil action against R., 122, 
 127; commissioner for de- 
 spoiling Sherborne, 164 
 
 Mellersh, Cobham's secretary, 
 142 
 
 Mexican plate fleet, R.'s designs 
 on, 191, 202, 210, 213 
 
 Mexico, Gulf of, R.'s early 
 knowledge of, 7 
 
 Mexico, its revenue to Spain, 77 
 
 Meyrick, Sir Gilly, his conduct 
 towards R., 108 
 
 Middle Temple, R. in, 5 
 
 Milton inherits and publishes 
 R.'s The Cabinet Council, 185 
 
 Mitcham, Lady R. sells an 
 
 estate at, 189 
 Monarchy of Man, by Sir J. 
 Elyot, describes R.'s last 
 moments, 217 
 Montcontour in France, R. at 
 
 retreat of, 4 
 Montgomery, death of Hugue- 
 not chief, 4 
 Mont Orgueil, Jersey, 117 
 
240 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 Morequito, port on Eiver Ori- 
 noco, 74 ; its chief Topia- 
 wari, 78 
 
 Mulla. See Awbeg, 44 
 
 Munster, R. temporary gover- 
 nor of, succeeded by Zouch, 
 15 ; Sentleger provost-mar- 
 shal in, 9 ; Spenser clerk of 
 the council of, 44 ; life in, 
 ih. ; R.'s efforts to improve, 
 47 ; severity of President 
 against Cormac MacDermod, 
 128 
 
 Muskerry, Lord of, severity 
 against, 128 
 
 Naunton's description of R, 
 20,22 
 
 Navigation, R. considering in- 
 ternational, 56 
 
 Netherlands, Earl of Leicester 
 in, 28, 32 ; Devon miners 
 serve in, 32 ; R.'s Discourse 
 . . . the Protecting of, 135 
 
 Newfoundland, R. in, 33, 203 ; 
 R. establishes trade with 
 Jersey, 117 
 
 Ninias, R.'s account of King, 
 181 
 
 *Nonparilla,' R., Dudley's ship 
 at Cadiz, 95 
 
 North, Captain, tells the King 
 of R.'s Guiana failure, 203 
 
 North-West Passage, R.'s ef- 
 forts, its discovery, 28 ; and 
 northern route to China, 
 28 
 
 Northampton, Lord, interviews 
 R. in Tower, 172 ; R.'s enemy 
 removed, 187 ; at R.'s execu- 
 tion, 218 
 
 Northumberland, Earl of, R, 
 visits at Sion House, 114 ; 
 goes to Ostend with R., 115; 
 invited to Bath, 127 
 
 Nottingham, Earl of. See 
 Howard 
 
 Old Palace Yard, R. exe- 
 cuted at, 214 
 
 Oldys, William, Life of R., iii. ; 
 reference to, 101 
 
 Olonne, R, captures and forfeits 
 to Treasury a bark of, 42 
 
 Orange, Prince of, Elizabeth 
 sends R. to, 18 ; Leicester ac- 
 cused of conspiracy with, ih. 
 
 Orinoco, R.'s expedition to 
 river, 67, 69-81 ; second ex- 
 pedition up, 200 ; failure to 
 find gold, 201 
 
 Ormond, governor of Munster, 
 10; desire to treat with 
 Irish, 11 ; obtains pardon for 
 the rebels, 13 ; quarrels with 
 R., 15 ; denounced for leni- 
 ency, 22 
 
 Ostend, R. and Northumber- 
 land visit, 115 
 
 Oxford, R, educated at, 3, 6 
 
 Oxford's, Lord, quarrel with 
 Sir P. Sidney, 7 ; at execu- 
 tion of R., 218 
 
 Panama pearl fisheries, 25 ; 
 
 R.'s scheme to seize, 54 
 Parlmments, Prerogative of^ 
 
 112, 180 
 Paulet, Sir Anthony, governor 
 
 of Jersey, death, 116 
 Paunsf ord, Richard, servant of 
 
 R., 6 
 Pecora Campi. See Hatton 
 Pelham, Sir William, Irish com- 
 mand, 9, 10 
 Pembroke, Earl of, succeeds 
 
 R. in Duchy of Cornwall, 163 
 Pembroke, Lady, R.'s friend 
 
 in hour of trial, 157 ; her son 
 
 intercedes for R., ih. 
 Peryam, Sir William, Chief 
 
 Baron of Exchequer, 127 
 Pew, Hugh, steals R.'s pearl 
 
 hatband, &c., 20 
 Peyton, Sir John, succeeds 
 
 R. in Jersey, 141 j Sir John 
 
Index 
 
 241 
 
 the younger messenger be- 
 tween Cobham and R., 144 
 
 Philip of Spain's Armada, re- 
 sistance to, 37 ; expels An- 
 tonio from Portugal, 41 ; do- 
 sire to recover prestige, 105 ■ 
 
 Philip III, demands R.'s exe- 
 cution, 212 ; foiled by R.'s 
 conduct at execution, 219 
 
 Phoenix Nest, 34 
 
 Pllyrimage, R. writes The, 159 
 
 Piratical expedition by R. 
 stopped, 7 
 
 Plymouth, 7, 27, 29, 36, 38, 67, 
 89, 90, 91, 100, 105, 106, 117, 
 194, 203 
 
 Popham, Lord Chief Justice, 
 tries R. at Winchester, 146 ; 
 hissed at conclusion of R.'s 
 trial, 157 ; declares R.'s Sher- 
 borne conveyance invalid, 
 164 
 
 Popham, Captain George, cap- 
 tures Spanish letters, 66 
 
 Portland, R. as governor com- 
 pletes defences of, 38 
 
 Portugal, expedition to restore 
 Antonio, 41 ; R. serves under 
 Drake at Lisbon, ih. 
 
 Potato introduced into Ireland 
 by R., 48 ; distributed by 
 ancestor of Lord Southwell, 
 ih. 
 
 Prerogative of Parliaments, by 
 R., 112, 180; its publication 
 and intention, 183 ; King 
 James forbids its printing, 
 184 ; issued posthumously, 
 ih. ; MS. in Record Office, ih. 
 
 Preston,Captain Amyas, harries 
 Venezuela, 81 
 
 Prest, Agnes, her martyrdom, 
 2 ; indirect effect on R.'s re- 
 ligion, 3 
 
 • Prudence,' a London ship, 59 
 
 Puerto Rico friars, 69 
 
 Purchas, his collection of 
 travels, 85 
 
 Puritans, Essex and R. their 
 
 friends, 50 
 Puttenham's praise of Shep' 
 
 Jierd's Caleiider, 44 
 
 Queen of James I., R.'s friend, 
 169, 188 ; her father, Chris- 
 tian IV., 169 ; Samuel Daniel 
 a servant of, 183 : R.'s rhym- 
 ing petition to, 209 ; exer- 
 tions to save R., 210; death 
 of. 223 
 
 • Rainbow,' Sir F. Vere's ship 
 at Cadiz, 95 
 
 Rakele, R. meets Spenser at, 
 10; R.'s treatment of Irish 
 kerns at, 11 
 
 Raleigh, Carew, son of Sir 
 Walter, 166 ; reference to, 
 200, 222 
 
 Raleigh, George, Sir Walter's 
 nephew, 200 
 
 Raleigh nee Gilbert, Mrs., Sir 
 Walter's mother, 1 ; her re- 
 ligion, 2 
 
 Raleigh town, Vu^ginia, 36 
 
 Raleigh, Walter, the elder, his 
 third marriage, 1 ; diversity 
 of spelling his name, 2 ; 
 family lease of fish tithes, 2 ; 
 latest mention of, his age, 16 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, Lives of, v. ; 
 correspondence of, v. ; biblio- 
 graphy by Dr. Brushfield, vi.; 
 love of birthplace, 1 ; con- 
 nections and parentage, 1 ; 
 earliest record of, 2 ; educa- 
 tion and career at Oxford, 3 ; 
 convicted of assault, 7 ; goes 
 to Ireland, 9 ; with Spenser, 
 10, 43, 48, 49 ; character 
 whilst in Ireland, 14 ; pecu- 
 niary position, 16, 30, 34, 42, 
 116, 126, 129, 133, 141, 162, 
 189, 190, 194 ; his person in 
 
242 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 1582, 20; mother wit and 
 audacious alacrity, 22 ; suc- 
 cess as a courtier, 23 ; Koyal 
 gifts to, 24, 25 ; continues 
 iSir H. Gilbert's efforts, 28 ; 
 and Virginia, 29, 37, 41, 125; 
 granted licence to export 
 woollen broadcloths, their 
 nature and value, 29, 30 ; 
 resides at Durham House, 
 31 ; receives knighthood, 
 31 ; successful expedition 
 to Azores, 33 ; elegy on 
 Sir Philip Sidney, ih. ; ex- 
 perience as an Irish colon- 
 ist, 34 ; zenith of personal 
 success, 35 ; part in fighting 
 Armada, 37 ; privateering 
 expeditions, their excuse, 40, 
 41 ; forced return to Ireland, 
 42 ; his poem of Cynthia, 45 ; 
 developes his Irish estates, 
 47 ; introduces the potato, 
 48 ; and Puritans, his tolera- 
 tion, 50; Report on Gren- 
 vine's fight in the * Us- 
 venge,' 51 ; obtains Sherborne 
 Castle, 52-53 ; clandestine 
 relations with Elizabeth 
 TiiTockmorton, 55 ; embroil- 
 ment between Queen and 
 Mrs. Throckmorton, 55-57; 
 confined in the Tower, 57 ; 
 failure in health, 59, 63, 110, 
 114, 168, 187, 199, 200 ; re- 
 leased to quell disturbance 
 in Devon, 61 ; his popularity 
 in Devon, 61 ; marriage with 
 E. Throckmorton, 63 ; eager- 
 ness for service, 64; attracted 
 to Guiana, 66; and Guiana 
 gold, 75-77; publishes Dis- 
 covery of Giiiarm, 84 ; merit 
 as a writer of travel, 85 ; his 
 Of the Voyage for Guiana, 
 87 ; naval skill first fully re- 
 cognised, 89 ; taking of 
 Cadiz, brilliant triumph for, 
 
 91 ; his Relation of tTie Ac- 
 tion in Cadiz Harhour, 92; 
 details of his Cadiz com- 
 mand, 92-99; wounded in 
 the leg, 98 ; preparation for 
 third Guiana expedition, 
 101 ; lauded by literary 
 classes on return from Cadiz, 
 102 ; intimacy with Cecil and 
 Brooke family, 102 ; exer- 
 tions to provoke second 
 attack on Spain, 105 ; sails 
 with fleet to attack Azores ; 
 success at Fayal, which pro- 
 vokes Essex, 105-109 ; only 
 nominally in Queen's favour, 
 111 ; his Prerogative of Par- 
 liament, 112, 183-184; seeks 
 various dignities without 
 success, ih. ; increasing en- 
 mity with Essex, and friend^ 
 ship with Cobham, 113; 
 height of fame as a geo- 
 grapher, 114 ; his share in 
 the execution of Essex, 118- 
 121 ; comes under notice of 
 James of Scotland, 123 ; his 
 Dangers of the Spanish Fac- 
 tion in Scotland, 124 ; his 
 view of Irish affairs in 1601, 
 lb. ; not a complete loser by 
 his expeditions, 126 ; severe 
 action towards Cormac 
 McDermod, 128; advises 
 detention of F. MacCarthy 
 in Tower, 129; good fortune 
 ceases with Elizabeth's death, 
 ib. ; character, condition, and 
 fame in 1603, 130-131 ; un- 
 graciously received by King 
 James, 132; sent from Court 
 of James, 133; not judicious 
 towards James, 134 ; Spanish 
 schemes distasteful to King, 
 135 ; arrested for complicity 
 in Watson's plot, 136; com- 
 promised by Cobham, 136, 
 137 ; committed to the Tower, 
 
Index 
 
 243 
 
 137; attempts Buicide, 137, 
 138, 141; supposed farewell 
 letter to his lady, 137-140; 
 stripped of his appointments, 
 141 ; communications with 
 Cobham, 141, 144,145; enmity 
 of populace to, 145 ; trial at 
 Winchester, 146-157; letter 
 to K. James suing for life, 
 158, 159; poem The Pilgrim' 
 age, 159; reprieved at hour 
 for execution, 160 ; confine- 
 ment in Tower, 160, 164, 
 167, 168 ; efforts for his re- 
 lease, 169 ; friendship with 
 Queen and Prince Henry, 
 169 ; asks permission to go 
 to Guiana, 170, 174; literary 
 pursuits, 171 ; consulted by 
 P/ Henry in shipbuilding, 
 173-4 ; writing Marriage 
 Discourses, 174; History of 
 World and Ben Jonson, 175, 
 176-182; demands for his 
 MS., 184 ; his Cabinet Coun- 
 cil ; Discourse of War ; and 
 Observations on Trade and 
 Commerce, 185, 186 ; his re- 
 lease and conditions, 188, 
 189; prepares second voyage 
 to Guiana, 189-191 ; in- 
 trigues for seizure of Genoa, 
 192 ; leaves for Guiana — fleet 
 vicissitudes, 193-194 ; de- 
 tails of outward voyage, 
 195-200 ; meets an old ser- 
 vant in Guiana, 200; his 
 son slain at San Thome, 201 ; 
 fails to discover gold, 201 ; 
 his faithful Keymis commits 
 suicide, 202 : mutiny of his 
 fleet ib. ; ignominious re- 
 turn to England, 203, 205 ; 
 arrest and attempted escape, 
 206, 208 ; vnrites Apology for 
 the Voyage to Guiana, 208 ; 
 valuables found on his per- 
 son, 209 ; James uninflu- 
 
 22 
 
 enced by Apology, ib. ; rhym- 
 ing petition to Queen ; her 
 exertions, 209, 210 ; exam- 
 ined before Commissioners, 
 210, 212 ; written confession 
 to the King, 212; if par- 
 doned declares ability to 
 reveal State secrets, ib. ; 
 trial, defence, condemna- 
 tion, 212, 213, 214; bearing 
 night before execution. 214- 
 6 ; last interview with his 
 Lady, 215 ; last versus, ib. ; 
 proposed burial at Bedding 
 ton, 215 ; last moments, 
 conduct on scaffold, 216- 
 220 ; reason for attempted 
 escape to France, 219 ; exe- 
 cution, 221; body in St. 
 Margaret's, Westminster, 
 222; his head embalmed 
 and preserved, ib. ; death 
 roll of his friends, 223 
 
 Ealeigh, Walter, the younger, 
 114, 116; and Sherborne 
 estates, 143 ; at Oxford ; his 
 tutors, 171 ; wins a fatal 
 duel, 175 ; and Ben Jonson, 
 ib. ; Captain of the ♦ Destiny,' 
 193; with Keymis in Orin- 
 oco gold expedition, 200 ; 
 killed at San Thom6, last 
 words, 201 
 
 Ealeigh, Lady, and see Throck- 
 morton; influence over Cecil, 
 84 ; appeals to Cecil, 110, 
 144, 158; and Durham 
 House, 117, 133 ; her hus- 
 band's supposed farewell 
 letter, 137-140 ; shares 
 rooms in Tower, 162 ; and 
 Sherborne Estates, 144, 164, 
 165, 171, 172; pleads with 
 James for R.'s. pardon, 169; 
 sells an estate at Mitcham, 
 189; letter from R. in 
 Guiana, 200 ; meets R. at 
 Plymouth, 206 ; precedes R. 
 
244 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 to London, 207 ; released 
 from Tower, 212 ; final inter- 
 view with R., 215 ; and 
 burial of her husband, 215, 
 222 ; her death, 222 
 
 Rebellion in Ireland, R.'s share 
 in suppression, 9-16 
 
 Remains oi R.'s writings, 187 
 
 ' Repulse,' Essex's ship off 
 Cadiz, 93 ; off Azores, 107 
 
 Revenge,' R.'s ship, 42 
 
 * Revenge,^ A Jt-eport of the 
 
 Truth oftlie Fight, etc., 51 ; 
 its style and anonymous 
 issue, ib. 
 Richard the Second, Cecil 
 entertains Essex and R, with 
 Shakespeare, 103-104 
 Richelieu refers to R., 193 
 Rimenant, R. at battle of, 5 
 Roanoke, discovery of, 28 ; 
 
 settled by Ralph Lane, 29 
 Roche, Lord and Lady, cap- 
 tured by R., 15 
 Rochelle privateers strip R.'s 
 ships, 37 
 
 • Roebuck,' R.'s ship captures 
 
 'Madre de Dios,' 60 
 Roraima, 79 ■ 
 Rutland, Countess of. Sir P. 
 
 Sidney's sister, 175 
 
 Sachaeissa, grand- daughter of 
 
 R.'s cousin, 33 
 Saint Germain, R. receives 
 
 manor of, 116 
 Salisbury, R. ill at, 207, 208 ; 
 
 K. James and Court at, 208 
 Salisbury, See of, and R.'s 
 
 Sherborne estate, 52, 53, 64 
 Salisbury, Cecil created Earl 
 
 of, 166 
 Salisbury, William, Second Earl 
 
 of, playmate to young Walter 
 
 R., 114 ; at Sherborne, 116 
 Salto Caroni, cataract of, 74 
 San Juan de Ulloa, 6 
 
 San Miguel, its capture arrang- 
 ed, 107, 109 
 
 San Rafael de Barrancas settle- 
 ment, 72 
 
 San Theme, R.'s captain at- 
 tacks, 201 ; R.'s eldest son 
 killed at, ih. ; news of attack 
 reaches Spain and England, 
 205 
 
 Bancroft, Archbishop, attri- 
 butes History of England to 
 R., 182 
 
 Sandars, a legate, and Irish 
 rebellion, 8 
 
 Sarmiento, Don Pedro, cap- 
 tured by R., 33 
 
 Sarmiento. See Gondomar 
 
 Savage, Sir Arthur, and Due de 
 Biron, 122 ; reference to, 125 
 
 Savoy watched by Venice, 190 
 
 Scarnafissi, Savoyard Envoy, 
 192; R. suggests to him 
 seizure of Genoa, ih. ; lays 
 R.'s scheme before King 
 James ; its rejection, ih. 
 
 Schomburgk, Sir Robert, cor- 
 roborates R. in Guiana, 71, 72 
 
 Sentleger, Sir Warham, Irish 
 command, 8 ; Provost Mar- 
 shal of Munster, 9 
 
 Sentleger, Sir William, com- 
 mand in Guiana fleet, 194 
 
 Shakespeare's advent, 85 ; per- 
 formance of his Richard the 
 Second, 104 
 
 Shepherd of the Ocean, R. so 
 named by Spenser, 44, 46-7 
 
 Shepherd^s Calender by Spen- 
 ser, 10, 44 ; references to R. 
 in, 45 
 
 Sherborne, R.'s favourite 
 country abode, 52 ; R.'s ac- 
 quirement of, 62, 53 ; R. 
 at, 63, 67, 71, 87, 100, 114, 
 126, 127, 207; Dean of Sarum 
 lets farms over R.'s head, 
 64 ; remnant of R.'s fortune ; 
 tries to tie it to his son and 
 
Index 
 
 245 
 
 Adrian Gilbert, 143; Sir J. 
 Elphinstone applies for, tJ.; 
 E. conveys it to his son with 
 rent charge to Lady E., 
 144; supports E. six years 
 in Tower, 162 ; King's Com- 
 missioners spoiling, 163; 
 Cecil stays commissioners, 
 ib. ; held on trust for Lady 
 R. by Sir A. Brett, 164; 
 R.'s conveyance declared 
 invalid, 164, 165 ; Keymis 
 warder of, 1 64 ; Lady E. 
 pleads for secure tenure of, 
 171 ; James covets it for 
 and bestows it on Carr, 171, 
 172; repurchased for Prince 
 Henry, 172 ; Lady E, receives 
 8,000'Z in lieu of, ih. ; E.'s last 
 sojourn at, 207 
 
 Shipping, E.'s Invention of, 18 
 
 Sidmouth Church, earliest E. 
 deed preserved at, 2 
 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, E.'s contem- 
 porary at Oxford, 3 ; tennis 
 court quarrel, 7 ; handsome 
 features, 20; E.'s elegy on, 
 33 
 
 Sidney, Eobert, marries E.'s 
 cousin, 33 
 
 Simancas, E.'s map of Guiana 
 found at, 83 ; E.'s confession 
 of French intrigues found 
 at, 212 
 
 Sion House, E. visits Earl of 
 Northumberland at, 114 
 
 Smerwick Bay, Spanish inva- 
 sion at, 8 
 
 Southwell, Sir Eobert, with 
 Cadiz expedition, 95 
 
 Southwell, Lord, his ancestor 
 distributes E.'s potatoes, 48 
 
 Southampton, Earl of, his 
 amusement, 111 
 
 Spain and E., 25, 30, 32, 50, 
 61, 52, 84 ; attack and cap- 
 ture of its plate ships, 59- 
 60; E. tries to stem flow 
 
 of gold to, 76-77 ; effect of 
 Cadiz expedition on, 101 ; E. 
 counsels a second attack on, 
 105 ; expedition to, and its 
 accidents, 105, 106; alters 
 destiny for Azores, 107 ; in- 
 vades Ireland at Kinsale, 124; 
 King James waiting over- 
 tures from, 135; R.'s Dis- 
 course touching War withy 
 ih. ; E.'s offer to raise and 
 lead troops against, ih. ; 
 watching France, 190 ; 
 Guiana route submitted to, 
 191 ; offers E. escort to 
 Guiana gold mines, ih. ; pro- 
 mised security at peril of 
 E.'s life, 192, 205; asks 
 punishment of E. for San 
 Thome attack, ih.] Buck- 
 ingham favourable to, 210 ; 
 James, the attempted cats- 
 paw of E. against, 211 ; Eng- 
 lish pensioners in pay of, ih. 
 
 Spanish Alarum, The, hj E., 104 
 
 Spanish Ambassador pleads for 
 E.'s life, 158 
 
 Spanish Armada, 38-39, 88 
 
 Spanish Faction in Scotland, 
 the Bangers of a, 124 
 
 Spanish invasion of England, 
 E.'s advice against, 37-38 
 
 Sparrey, Francis, volunteers to 
 stay in Guiana, 79 ; captured 
 by Spaniards; his account 
 of Guiana, ih. 
 
 Spenser, Edmund, secretary to 
 Lord Grey in Ireland, 10; 
 \as Shepherd's Calender; first 
 meets E., ih., 20 ; Colin Clout, 
 evidence of E.'s position with 
 Queen, 43: effect of E.'s 
 friendship on, ih. ; his Faery 
 Queen and E.'s adventures 
 compared, ih. ; Clerk of 
 Council of Munster, 44 ; Irish 
 estate, ih. ; returns to Eng- 
 land ; at Court with E., 48 ; 
 
246 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 secures a pension for Faery 
 Qiceen, 49 
 
 • St. Andrew,' rich Spanish 
 
 prize taken at Cadi/, 99 
 St. Bartholomew's, K. and mas- 
 sacre on, 4 
 St. John, J. A., Life of H., iii. ; 
 discovery of R.'s map of 
 Guiana, 83 ; prints R.'s con- 
 fession, 212 
 St. John, Oliver, trial of, 1 84 
 St. John, Sir William, efforts 
 
 for R.'s release, 188 
 St. Margaret's, Westminster, 
 R.'s body buried in, 222 
 
 • St. Matthew,' valuable prize 
 
 taken at Cadiz, 98, 99 
 
 • St. Philip,' R.'s contest at Ca- 
 
 diz with, 96, 98 ; saved from 
 total destruction bj'^Dutch, 99 
 
 Stafford, Sir Edward, tells 
 Bacon of R. in Tower, 57 ; 
 his kinswoman wife of Go- 
 vernor of Gomera, 1 97 
 
 Stannaries, R. Lord Warden of 
 the, 32, 64, 128, 141 
 
 Stead, death of, 198 
 
 Steel Glass, Gascoigne's, 5 ; 
 verses prefixed by R. to, ib. 
 
 Stourton, Lady, R. arrests a 
 Jesuit in house of, 24 
 
 Strozzi, Peter, lost at Azores, 39 
 
 Stuart, Arabella, conspirators 
 for, 102 ; her descent and 
 relationship to James I., 
 142, 143 ; protests her igno- 
 rance of plot at R.'s trial, 
 155 ; James wishes to spare, 
 ib. ; her death, R. deprived of 
 her pearls, 187 
 
 Stukely, Sir Lewis, R.'s cousin, 
 arrests R., 206 ; hires French 
 quack to inveigle R., 207 ; 
 bribed by and betrays R., 
 208 ; valuables on R.'s person 
 fall to, 209 ; denounced by 
 R., 220; condemned for 
 clipping coin, 222 ; fled to 
 
 Lundy and died a maniac, 
 
 223 
 Suffolk urges severity against 
 
 R., 141 
 ' Summer's Nightingale,' R. 
 
 styled the, 49 
 
 Talbot, John, R.'s secretary in 
 Tower, death of, 199 
 
 Tarleton, comedian, his remark 
 against R. at Court, 36 
 
 Tax on tavern-keepers ascribed 
 to R. but due to Queen, 131 
 
 Temple, Middle, R, in, 5 — 
 
 Tennyson, Lord, praise of Sir 
 R. Grenville, 51 
 
 Teivliesbury, Annals of. Ill 
 
 Throckmorton, Arthur, dispute 
 and dismissal from fleet, 90 ; 
 restored by R.'s influence, 
 91 ; gains distinction at 
 Cadiz, 91 
 
 Throckmorton, Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Sir Nicholas, 
 55 ; her love of R., 55 ; pri- 
 vate marriage with R., ib., 
 63 ; confined in Tower, 57 ; 
 see R., Lady 
 
 Thynne, Francis, R.'scousin,214 
 
 ' Tiger,' Sir R. Grenville's ship, 
 29 
 
 Tipperary, R. granted estates 
 in, 34 
 
 Tonson, navigator, 6 
 
 Topiawari, friendly Guiana 
 chief, 78, 79 
 
 Tounson, Dean of Westminster, 
 R.'s spiritual adviser, 214 ; 
 describes R. in face of death, 
 214-215 ; attends R.'s execu- 
 tion, 216 
 
 Tower, R. confined in, 57, 137, 
 138, 142, 145, 160, 161-188, 
 209 ; R. attempts suicide in, 
 137 ; plague in outlying 
 posts of, 142 ; R.'s apart- 
 ments in Garden or Bloody 
 
Index 
 
 247 
 
 Tower, 162 ; malaria in, 164 ; 
 Lady R. and son leaves, 165 ; 
 R.'s experiments in garden 
 of, 168 ; death of Arabella 
 Stuart in, 187 ; release of 
 R., 188 
 
 Tower, Lieutenants of, in 
 charge of R., Sir G. Harvey 
 and 8ir J. Peyton, 141 ; Sir 
 William Waad, 167 ; Sir A. 
 Apsley and Sir T.Wilson, 211 
 
 Trade and Cammerce, R. on, 
 186 ; a plea for free trade, 
 186-187 ; when published, 
 187 
 
 Trinidad, A. de Berreo Gover- 
 nor of, 66 ; visited by R.'s 
 expedition, 67, 200 ; its 
 liquid pitch and oysters, 
 67 ; R. returns from Guiana 
 to, 80 
 
 Udall, John, protected by 
 R. and Essex, 50 
 
 Underwoods, verses by R. attri- 
 buted to Ben Jonson, 517 
 
 Vanlore, Pieter, R. borrows 
 of, 190 
 
 Venezuela coast plundered by 
 R.'s expedition, 81 ; precau- 
 tions against English, ih. 
 
 Venice watching Savoy, 190 
 
 Vere, Sir Francis, with Cadiz 
 expedition, 95, 97 ; to attempt 
 with Howard capture of Gra- 
 ciosa, 107 
 
 Villiers, favourable to R., 187 ; 
 animus against Somerset, 
 188; urged to intervene for 
 R., 210 ; pledged to Spanish 
 alliance, ih. 
 
 Virginia, discovery of, 28 ; 
 failure of a second expedi- 
 tion to, 29; its products 
 attract R., 30; collapse of 
 
 R.'s colony, 33 ; a fourth 
 expedition fails, 36 ; expendi- 
 ture on abortive fifth expedi- 
 tion, 37 ; R.'s relief vessels 
 stripped by privateers, ih. ; 
 drain on R.'s fortune ; leases 
 patent, 41 ; never visited by 
 R., ih.', R.'s final effort to 
 colonise, 125 ; R. not a com- 
 plete loser by expeditions to, 
 126 ; expected return of an 
 expedition by R., 40 
 
 Waad, Sir W., takes R. to Win- 
 chester for trial, 145 ; special 
 commissioner at R.'s trial, 
 146 ; thinks R. too comfort- 
 able in Tower, 162 ; succeeds 
 as Lieutenant of Tower, 167 ; 
 suspicion of R.'s experi- 
 ments, 168 ; reference to, 170 
 
 Walsingham and R. in Paris on 
 St. Bartholomew's eve, 4 ; 
 massacre of Fort del Ore re- 
 ported to, 12 ; reference to, 
 32 ; death of, 50 
 
 Walton, Izaak, accounts of Ben 
 Jonson and R., 175 
 
 War, R.'s A Discourse of, 185- 
 6 ; most pleasing of R.'s 
 prose writings, 185 
 
 Warburton, judge at R.'s Win- 
 chester trial, 146 
 
 ♦ War Sprite,' R.'s ship in Cadiz 
 expedition, 94 
 
 Waterford, R. granted estates 
 in, 34 ; trade in pipe-staves 
 encouraged by R., 47 
 
 Watson's plot, 135; his convic- 
 tion and execution, 158 
 
 Webbe's praise of SliepJierd's 
 Calender, 44 
 
 West Indies, Sir W. R.'s voy- 
 age to the, 7 ; R.'s early visits 
 to, ih. 
 
 West Horsley Church, R.'s head 
 rests in. 222 
 
 rv<^ 
 
248 
 
 Raleigh 
 
 Wexford, its trade in pipe- 
 staves encouraged by K., 47 
 
 Weymouth, R. at, 100, 104, 116, 
 127 
 
 Whiddon, Captain Jacob, visits 
 Guiana for R., 66 ; examines 
 mouths of Orinoco, 69 
 
 White, Captain John, fourth 
 Virginian expedition, 36 ; 
 lands at Hatorask. His fail- 
 ure, ib. 
 
 White, Roland, records R. at 
 Court, 103 
 
 Whitlock, Captain, 167 
 
 Willoughby, Ambrose, Esquire 
 of the body, 111 
 
 Wilson, Sir Thomas, spy on 
 R., 211 ; his acquaintance 
 with Raleigia in Tower, ih. 
 
 Winchester, Marquis of, enter- 
 tains Queen and French en- 
 voys at Basing House, 123 
 
 Winchester, R. tried at Wol- 
 vesey Castle, 145 ; R. con- 
 fined in, 157, 159; R. re- 
 moved from, 160 
 
 Winchester, Bishop of, atten- 
 dant on, 158 
 
 W^ines, farm of, R. granted, 24, 
 25; King James transfers 
 it to E. of Nottingham, 
 141 
 
 Win wood, Sir Ralph, favourable 
 to R., 187, 204; hater of 
 Spain, 188; visits R.'s ship 
 'Destiny,' 192; ignores Bail- 
 ey's charge against R., 199 ; 
 R. writes of his Gruiana failure 
 to, 202 ; his death, 203, 204 
 
 Wither, George, prophecy of 
 English supremacy in 
 America, 25 
 
 Wokoken, discovery of, 28 
 
 Wood, Anthony ^, records R. 
 at Oxford, 3 
 
 Worlis by Ben Jonson, and R.'s 
 verses, 175 
 
 Yelverton, Attorney- General, 
 prosecutes R., 210, 214 
 
 Yetminster Manor given to 
 R., 53 
 
 Youghal burned by Geral- 
 dines, 8 ; destruction of 
 Geraldine Friary, 34; R.'s 
 residence at, 34, 44 ; yew tree 
 contemporary with R. still 
 at, 48 ; potato first planted 
 at, 48 
 
 ZOUCH, in trenches at Fort del 
 Ore, 12 ; at Lismore, 15 
 
NGLISH fflORTHIES 
 
 MILITARY, NAVAL, LITERARY, SCIENTIFIC, LEGAL, 
 ECCLESIASTICAL, SOCIAL, Etc. 
 
 Kdited by ANDI\^EW LANG, M. A. 
 
 Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. are the American publishers of a new 
 series of small volumes entitled "English Worthies," consisting of short 
 lives of Englishmen of influence and distinction, past and present, mili- 
 tary, naval, literary, scientific, legal, ecclesiastical, social, etc. Each 
 biography will be intrusted to a writer specially acquainted with the 
 historical period in which his hero lived, and in special sympathy, as it 
 were, with his subject. 
 
 Volumes now in course of publication: 
 
 DARWIN ^V Grant Allen. 
 
 MARLBOROUGH By George Saintsbury. 
 
 STEELE By Austin Dobson. 
 
 SIR T. MORE By J. Cotter Morison. 
 
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 ANECDOTAL HISTORY OF THE BRITISH PARLIA- 
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