W:
 
 t^ 
 
 I ^ i / "^
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 1552—1618. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES AUGUSTUS ST. JOHN. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1868. 
 
 \_liigU of i;eproduclUm and Translation is reierred.']
 
 IC'NDOS: PKINTBD BT TTILLIAM ClyOWfa AND SONS, STAMFORD -frREKT 
 AUD CHABrNQ CKOS*.
 
 
 TO 
 SPENSER ST. JOHN, ESQ., 
 
 HER majesty's CHARGE D'AFFAIRES TO THE REPUBLIC OF }IAYT1, 
 
 THIS NEW ' LIFE OF SIR WALTER liALKIGH ' 
 IS DEDICATED, 
 
 BY HIS AFFECTIONATE FATHER, 
 
 THE AUTHOK.
 
 PEEFA CE. 
 
 It may possibly be expected that I should" state mv 
 reasons for undertaking a new biography of Sir Walter 
 Ealeigh, of whom more lives have perhaps been written 
 than of any other Englishman. Besides that it seems 
 needful for nations to revieAv from time to time the 
 achievements and characters of their great men, that 
 they may be made to appear in the light in which they 
 ought to be regarded in a civilized age, many other 
 motives concur in the case of Ealeigh for entering now 
 into a critical examination of his career. It is no 
 reproach to former biographers to maintain that they 
 could by no possibility have written a complete life of 
 Ealeigh, because the materials for such a work \\ere 
 wanting. This will be evident to all who compare the 
 following indication of what is new in the present 
 volume with former biographies : — 
 
 1. I have proved by new documents that Ealeigh 
 made a voyage to the West Indies sixteen years before 
 he is supposed to have visited that part of the world.
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 2. I have accounted in an entirely new chapter for a 
 period of Ealeigh's life which has been hitherto contem- 
 plated as a blank, and shown that instead of living in 
 obscurity before his services in Ireland, he passed his 
 time in the company of the foremost men in England. 
 
 3. The date is here fixed of his departure from 
 London and arrival at Cork, which is found to have 
 been nearly half a year earlier than, according to pre- 
 vious narratives, he appears in the Irish wars. 
 
 4. The conduct of Lord Grey of Wilton, under whose 
 orders Kaleigh perpetrated the massacre of del Oro, is 
 demonstrated to have been the reverse of that which 
 history has hitherto maintained. 
 
 5. More remarkable still, and more contrary to the 
 prevalent opinion, is the part played by Elizabeth in 
 relation to that massacre. 
 
 (J. While fixing the date of Raleigh's return from 
 Ireland, I have shown that tlie old tradition, derived 
 from Naunton and others, respecting his introduction at 
 Court, is a fiction. 
 
 7. Numerous incidents of his court life, and bearing 
 on his feud with Essex, are given from authentic 
 sources. 
 
 X. Important additions have been made to the rela- 
 tion of his services against the Armada, partly from 
 English, partly from foreign manuscripts. 
 
 9. Some new facts are brought forward connected
 
 PREFACE. vu 
 
 with the expedition to Portugal, and the visit to 
 Spenser in Ireland, 
 
 10. To the story of his passion for Elizabeth Throg- 
 morton, afterwards Lady Raleigh, some curious particu- 
 lars have been added, as well as to the record of his 
 first imprisonment in the Tower, his release, and his 
 great prize, the Madre de Dios. 
 
 11. After the Guianian expedition, concerning which 
 scarcely anything new has been brought forward, we 
 come to the taking of Cadiz, towards giving a fair de- 
 scription of which I have been aided by manuscripts 
 found at Madrid. 
 
 12. Of the additions made to the account of \\hat 
 Raleigh did and suffered under Elizabeth, perhaps the 
 most curious, and certainly the most important, are 
 those which illustrate his contest with Essex. 
 
 13. From Venetian, French, and Spanish manu- 
 scripts much information has been obtained concerning 
 that part of Raleigh's career which extends from the 
 death of Elizabeth to his trial at Winchester, and his 
 third imprisonment in the Tower. 
 
 14. Fresh disclosures are made respecting his prison 
 life, his literary and scientific labours, with the suffer- 
 ings and persecutions he endured. 
 
 15. His connexion ^vith Prince Henry, with the 
 Duke of Savoy, with the French princes in arms against 
 Louis XIII. ; his so-called piratical project against
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 Genoa ; liis secret negociations witli the French court ; 
 his last voyage to Guiana; his proceedings at the 
 Canaries ; the intrigues of Philip and Gondomar 
 against him ; the vindictiveness and pusillanimity of 
 James ; the desertion and treachery of several among his 
 followers ; the secret debates in the Supreme Council of 
 Madrid on the crimes he was accused of having per- 
 petrated ; the manoeuvres for warding off hostilities 
 between Great Britain, Spain, and France, which were 
 on the verge of breaking out on his account; the 
 sanguinary eagerness with which his life was sought by 
 the Spanish king and his agents ; the oversights com- 
 mitted by Kaleigh himself, during his last imprison- 
 ment ; the real circumstances attending his death : 
 on all these points, with many others, the manuscripts 
 existing at Simancas throw a new light, and enable us 
 to comprehend several statements which were previously 
 obscure. 
 
 It will probably be admitted, therefore, that the 
 reasons above enumerated are more than sufficient to 
 justify a new life of Sir Walter Raleigh. In this belief 
 I have devoted to the subject the labour of seven years ; 
 have caused to be examined the manuscript collections 
 of this country, and, through the assistance of a dis- 
 tinguished lady and Mr. Rawdon Brown, have obtained 
 many valuable documents from Paris and Venice. Also 
 I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of acknowledging
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 my obligations to Mr. Hepworth Dixon, wlio, while 
 engaged on his ' Life of Lord Bacon,' made a collection 
 of documents, bearing on Sir Walter Ealeigh's career, 
 which he kindly placed at my disposal. I have hke- 
 wise received aid from Mr. Duffus Hardy, Mr. Bruce, 
 Mr. Hans Hamilton, and Mr. Sainsbury of the State 
 Paper Office. I must likewise express how much I owe 
 to the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Agar Hansard, who 
 for many years devoted himself to the deciphering and 
 transcribing of manuscripts at the Record Office and at 
 the British Museum. During a visit to Spain, performed 
 in company with my son, Spenser St. John, her IMajesty's 
 Charge d' Affaires to the Eepublic of Hayti, 1 examined 
 the manuscripts preserved in the various repositories of 
 Madrid, and in the old castle of the Admirals of Castile, 
 at Simancas. It w ill consequently, I trust, be allowed 
 that 1 have spared neither pains nor expense in the 
 endeavour to do justice to the memory of Ealeigh, 
 whose conduct, motives, and misfortunes I have sought 
 to describe and explain with truth and impartiality.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PABT THE FIEST. 
 
 Chapter J'age 
 
 I. Birth, Studies, and Martial Discipline .. 1 
 
 II. First Conflict on the Ocean ,. .. .. 17 
 
 III. His Gay Associates in London .. .. .. 34 
 
 IV. Perpetrates the Massacre of Del Oro .. 52 
 V. Close of his Irish Campaign .. .. .. 78 
 
 VI. Immersed in Court Intrigues .. .. .. 100 
 
 VII. Lays the Foundation of our Colonlal Empire 115 
 
 VIII. His Perilous Elevation at Court .. .. 134 
 
 IX. England Prepares for her Great Conflict 
 
 with Spain.. .. .. .. .. .. 154 
 
 X. Raleigh's Services against the Armada 173 
 
 XI. Hostility of Essex — Visits Spi':NSFn{ on the 
 
 Mulla 189 
 
 XII. Elizabeth Turogmorton .. .. .. .. 204
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 ClIAl-TER 
 
 Xlll. Madre de Digs 
 
 XI Y. Gotana 
 
 XV. Cadiz 
 
 XVI. Restoration to Favour 
 
 XVII. The Island Voyage 
 
 XVIII. Raleigh, a Peacemaker 
 
 Page 
 217 
 
 232 
 
 246 
 
 274 
 
 294 
 
 313
 
 LIFE OF Sm WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 PART THE FIRST. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 BTRTH, STUDIES, AND MARTIAL DISCIPLINE. 
 
 Sir Walter Ealeigh was born in the year 1552, the 
 year in which the Duke of Somerset was executed, 
 while Mary at St. Edmondsbury sat in doubt and gloom, 
 watching the progress of her young brother's disease, 
 which, if it terminated fatally as she probably hoped, 
 would leave her mistress of England. Elizabeth and 
 Leicester were then nineteen years of age ;* Maiy 
 Queen of Scots was eleven, while many of the men with 
 whom Ealeigh was afterwards associated were yet to be 
 born — Sir Philip Sidney two. Bacon nine years later. 
 Shakespeare twelve, James Stuart fourteen, and Essex 
 fifteen. The mention of these names suo:2:ests a world 
 of adventure, thought, speculation, and crime.] 
 
 * Camdon, 'Annals of Elizabeth,' and Collins, 'Sidney State 
 Papers,' i. 44, suggest that Elizabeth and Leicester were born on the 
 same day and hour. 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 Ealeigli rose when Europe was full of action, and 
 played his part in it, sometimes nobly, sometimes other- 
 wise, but always with fierce daring and recklessness. 
 In active bravery he had no superior, either then or at 
 any other time. He has been compared with many 
 men, but resembled none ; the mixture of his character 
 Avas sui generis; he distinguished himself for many 
 virtues, and many vices, now displaying magnanimity 
 and generosity, now pride, vindictiveness, and cruelty. 
 
 Yet such as he was, the eyes of all England were 
 turned on him while he lived, admiringly always, pity- 
 ingly sometimes, lovingly never; there having been 
 something in his temper and disposition, which, however 
 great and glorious his actions might be, rendered him 
 essentially unpopular. It might be his pride, it might 
 be the remoteness of his views and opinions from those 
 of the vulgar— for Kaleigh had the reputation of 
 espousing strange doctrines, and of being exceedingly 
 sparing in his beliefs — it might be his hostility to Essex, 
 to de Yere, to the Scotchmen who came in with James, 
 to James himself, and to all upholders and abettors 
 of the Spanish monarchy. 
 
 Ealeigh in sentiments and feelings resembled his great 
 mistress, though he differed from her totally in manners? 
 since, while he scarcely possessed a friend, she charmed 
 the hearts of all around her, and was the idol of her 
 Deople. His enemies were numerous and virulent
 
 BIRTE, STUDIES, AND MARTIAL DISCIPLINE. 3 
 
 almost beyond example; they denounced him as a 
 sophist, as a wizard, as a necromancer, as an atheist, 
 and in our own times there have not been wanting; 
 those who have ventured to repeat the calumny. 
 
 While he lay captive in the Bloody Tower, every- 
 thing vile and mean considered itself privileged to 
 trample on his great name ; a curtain was purposely 
 drawn over his prison life ; he was respited from the 
 block to writlie awhile in darkness, and then to be 
 brought forth to light, to misfortune, and the block 
 again. His persecutors meanwhile, bedizened with 
 titles and oppressed with opulence, played out their 
 parts, and fell away, some to oblivion, others to infamy. 
 Kaleigh went forth to the new world in search of gold, 
 missed it, and was executed for his failure. According 
 to some he deserved his fate, though not on the ground 
 on which it came to him. I shall examine the whole 
 tissue of circumstances leading from Hayes Farm to 
 Palace Yard, after which the reader will, I trust, be 
 placed in a position to decide whether or not we can say 
 of Raleigh as Suetonius does of Cassar, " Jure Csesus est." 
 
 Before a man vindicates his right to fame, people 
 usually take but slight notice of him, or the scenes of 
 his early life. Despite therefore of his handsome person 
 and brilliant qualities, Raleigh excited in his youtli 
 little attention from such as miglit have transmitted an 
 account of him to posterity.
 
 4 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIQH. 
 
 Of Hayes,* the farmhouse in which he was born, no 
 description of an old date has been preserved. It stands 
 at the distance of about a mile from Budleigh, on a 
 level piece of ground, overshadowed by ancient trees, 
 and surrounded by copses and young plantations. 
 While grappling with the hard realities of life in his 
 perilous ascent from those lowly groves and meadows 
 to the pinnacles of power and glory, Ealeigh never 
 bestowed a line on his birthplace, though he loved the 
 spot, and, surrounded by all tlie splendours of Elizabeth's 
 court, sought to purchase it from its then possessor, in 
 the vain hope that the head which never knew repose 
 might there at last find rest, when satiated with the 
 honours and intoxicating vanities of the world. 
 
 A wayfarer from London who, like most Londoners, 
 appreciates whatever is touching and beautiful in the 
 country, pauses awhile in his pilgrimage to the Land's 
 End to visit the spot where Ealeigh was born. His 
 description is interesting : " Turning off," he says, " by 
 a lane to the left, we reach the cliurch (of Budleigh) . 
 another mile brings you to Hayes Barton, Kaleigh's 
 birthplace. It is a solitary farmhouse, once the manor- 
 house, built in the picturesque style of four hundred 
 years ago, with gabled wings and portico, thatched roof 
 and mullioned windows, and a heavy oaken door, thickly 
 studded with iron nails, standing at the end of a garden, 
 * Prince, ' Worthies of Devon,' p. 666.
 
 ' BIRTH, STUDIES, AND MARTIAL DISCIPLINE. 5 
 
 partly concealed by a few old trees that rise from among 
 
 the herbs and flowers .... The whole scene shut in 
 
 by low swelling hills and lines of tall hedges, is 
 
 eminently rural." * 
 
 Though Ealeigh does not mention by name the place 
 
 of his birth, it may be inferred from more than one of 
 
 his poems that he often, with something like regret, 
 
 contrasted with its quiet delights the dazzling but 
 
 delusive splendours of a court-life. While writing the 
 
 following passage, his memory, Ave can scarcely doubt, 
 
 was filled with images of the swift Otter, of the many 
 
 nameless runnels that feed it, and the rich scenery 
 
 through which they flow. 
 
 Fly from our couulry jiastimes, fly, 
 Sad troop of human misery : 
 
 Come serene looks, 
 
 Clear as the crystal brooks, 
 Or the pure azured heaven that smiles to see 
 The rich attendance of our poverty. 
 
 Peace and a secure mind, 
 
 Which all men seek, we only find. 
 
 Abused mortals ! did you know 
 
 Where joy, heart's-ease, and comforts grow, 
 
 You'd scorn proud towers, 
 ; , And seek them in these bowers. 
 Where winds sometimes our woods perhaps may shake. 
 But blustering care could never tempest make ; 
 
 Nor murmurs e'er come nigh us. 
 
 Saving of fountains that glide by us. 
 
 * Walter White, ' A Londoner's Walk to the Land's End,' 
 pp. 97-001.
 
 6 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 Our curiosity, stimulated by his after-life, would 
 gladly be led back to the incidents of his childhood, but 
 his contemporaries had little taste for such topics, and 
 preserve one and all a provoking silence. My own re- 
 searches have led to the discovery of but one fact, and 
 that, after all, belongs rather to .ihe. scanty records of 
 his father's life than to his. While the little Walter, 
 then but two years old, was toddling about among the 
 flowers and beehives, under the shadow of old trees in 
 front of the Barton, the movements of a patriotic 
 rebellion were agitating the counties of Devon and 
 Cornwall. His kinsman. Sir Peter Carew, a person of 
 large following in those parts, was conspiring with Sir 
 Thomas Wvatt to orojanize resistance against the 
 Spanish Philip, who, they doubted not, would attempt 
 the introduction of despotism into England, 
 
 The views of the conspirators differed, and led to 
 
 separate courses of action, Wyatt determining to defer 
 
 his rising till Philip's arrival, while Carew counselled an 
 
 immediate appeal to arms. Eeturniug, therefore, to his 
 
 own county. Sir Peter, with Sir Gawain Carew and 
 
 others, began the insurrection ; but being disappointed 
 
 in the number of his adherents, Sir Peter soon perceived 
 
 that the game was up, and that he must fly the country. 
 
 To accomplish this design he applied to Raleigh's father, 
 
 who possessing a bark,* conveyed his brave relative to 
 
 * Sir Thomas Denys to the Council, January 28th. Sir John St. 
 Leger to the Council, January 29th, 1554. MSS. State Paper Office.
 
 BIRTH, STUDIES, AND MARTIAL DISCIFLIXE. 7 
 
 Weymouth, whence he passed over into Flanders. 
 Ultimately, however, he fell at Brussels into the hands 
 of Philip, through whose unusual lenity he was suffered 
 to return to England, where he rose to distinction under 
 Elizabeth. Ealeigh's childhood and boyhood were 
 passed in that sweet obscurity which is the best nurse of 
 original- thought. Around him on all sides lay strong 
 incentives to speculation and action ; Dartmoor in the 
 north -with its Phoenician traditions, to the south the 
 ocean, afterwards to become the field of his greatest 
 triumphs and disasters. 
 
 No one who has seen Devonshire can forget its 
 
 beauty, its green lanes, its clear sparkling streams, 
 
 gurgling between rare plants towards the sea ; its light 
 
 feathery woods, its fairy hollows and green knolls, a 
 
 combination which makes it the paradise of England. 
 
 Here it was that Ealeigh strayed, book in hand, imbibing 
 
 learning with that irrepressible eagerness which led 
 
 him tlu'oughout life to deny himself the amount of 
 
 sleep which a majority of mankind deem necessary ; 
 
 yet looking through and beyond learning to the fierce 
 
 delight of the battle-field, the thunder of the deck, 
 
 where life, and all that life holds dear, are staked 
 
 against ambition. The Raleighs, with nearly all their 
 
 belongings, were Protestants, though not Puritans, and 
 
 it is fair to conjecture that Walter only acted in the 
 
 spirit of his family, when a few years later he tinged
 
 8 LIFE OF SIR WALTEB EALEIQH. 
 
 his maiden sword with Catholic blood on the battle-fields 
 of France. 
 
 In 1566 Raleigh, then in his fourteenth year, repaired 
 to Oriel College, Oxford,* where he seems to have 
 commenced that friendship with Sir Philip Sidney to 
 which nothing could put a period but death. They 
 were both studious, both proud, both eager for fame ; 
 but Sidney with some outbreaks of fierceness,! had the 
 gentler nature and softer manners, while Ealeigh had 
 the more iron frame, fiery temperament, and unattractive 
 habits of thought. Still the traditions of the University 
 long continued to represent him as the ornament of its 
 youthful students, and spoke of his proficiency in the 
 most difficult and the most popular branches of know- 
 ledge, philosophy and eloquence.| 
 
 One anecdote only is related of his college life : when 
 short of money, he borrowed, we are told, an academic 
 gown from a fellow-student, and on leaving the university 
 forgot to return or pay for it. Our authority for this 
 story is a suspicious one, being no other than that 
 credulous and reckless gossip, John Aubrey,§ who has 
 chronicled all the scandal of half a dozen generations. 
 Yet the story may be true, for he assures us it was 
 
 * Prince, ' Worthies of Devon,' p. 667. 
 
 t See his letter to Molineux, ' Sidney State Papers,' i., 256. 
 
 X AVood, ' Athense Oxonienses,' i., 226. 
 
 § Letters from the Bodleian, ii, 517.
 
 BIRTH, STUDIES, AND MARTIAL DISCIPLINE. 9 
 
 told him by the lender of the gown, a Worcestershire 
 squire. 
 
 Much has been written against the academical studies 
 of those times, which though imperfect were yet com- 
 patible with gTeat intellectual development. Wolsey, 
 More, Burleigh, Sidney, Ealeigh, and Bacon himself,- 
 sprang from the womb of the decried system. Shakes- 
 peare, though its teaching came to him through irregular 
 channels, had his imagination fed by its dews, and his 
 understanding enlightened by its philosophy. What- 
 ever improvements, therefore, may have been made 
 in later times, it is scarcely matter of doubt, that the 
 results have not in all things equalled those which 
 crowned the old method of study. 
 
 After remaining at the University three years, Ealeigh 
 quitted it without a degree, and in the beginning of 
 1569, repaired to France. The two leading forms of 
 Christianity Avere then drenching the French soil with 
 blood,* one to repress, the other to establish liberty 
 of conscience, and the young English soldier immediately 
 took up his position under the standard of freedom. 
 Four women were then directing or misdirecting the 
 energies of Europe. Catherine de Medici,t widow of 
 
 * Lodge, ' Illustrations of Britisli History,' i. 437. 
 
 f This princess, like our Catherine of Aragon, was a great eater, 
 though she endeavoured by much walking to mitigate the effect of 
 her gourmandise. AVhat spiritualism is to the superstitious women 
 of the present day, astrology was to Catlieriue and her contempo-
 
 10 LIFE OF SIB WALTER EALEIOH. 
 
 Henri II., forty-nine years of age, was organizing and 
 stimulating that bigotry wliicli ripened three years 
 later into the most detestable crime on record. Eliza- 
 beth, in her thirty-sixth year, standing proudly at the 
 head of the Protestant world, secretly or openly devoted 
 the powers of her vigorous mind, and the resources of 
 her kingdom, to deliver mankind from the yoke of 
 Kome. In the same cause likewise laboured Jeanne 
 d'Albret, widow of Antoine de Bourbon, and mother 
 to Henri of Navarre, who laid aside the pursuits proper 
 to her sex, in order to secure to her young son an 
 independent crown, and a religion from which he after- 
 wards, through secular motives, apostatized. Jeanne 
 was now leading a man's life in the camp of the 
 Huguenots, inflaming their zeal, and bringing them 
 such succour as her woman's eloquence or policy could 
 insure. Mary Stuart,* who through her crimes and 
 follies had come to be a prisoner in England, exerted 
 nevertheless a powerful influence over the counsels 
 of Christendom, whose statesmen for years converted 
 her into a pretext for disturbing the peace of this 
 country, and directing the assassin's knife against 
 Elizabeth's breast. 
 
 raries. Eaumer, ' History of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Cen- 
 turies,' i., 265, 268. 
 
 * Camden, ' Annals of Elizabeth in Kennett,' ii., 370 ; Froude, 
 (. Reign of Elizabeth.'
 
 BIRTH, STUDIES, AND MARTIAL DISCIPLINE. 11 
 
 Ealeigli found among liis comrades in France many 
 gallant Scotchmen, who, hating with no common hatred 
 the superstition of the Vatican, flocked to the scene 
 of the civil wars, where they defended with indomitable 
 fortitude the posts confided to them by the Huguenot 
 generals. 
 
 On the other hand, the Catholic cause attracted 
 numerous volunteers from Spain, and other countries, 
 so that the struggle going on might be fairly considered 
 a conflict of principles as opposite in their nature as 
 evil and good. 
 
 On tlie thirteenth of March, 1569, Ealeigh, in the 
 costume of a Huguenot trooper, fought his first battle 
 against the enemies of his country's faith, and beheld 
 some of the worst excesses to which men are impelled 
 by wars of religion. Louis de Bourbon, Prince of 
 Conde, who led the charge of the Huguenot cavalry, 
 having had his horse killed under him, was taken 
 prisoner with his arm in a sling from a previous 
 bruise, and one of his legs broken. In that con- 
 dition it might have been expected that the hostile 
 general would have received him with a soldier's sym- 
 pathy, instead oi which he encouraged and rejoiced 
 at his assassination, and breathed forth a pious vow 
 to erect a chapel on the spot wliere his kinsman 
 was murdered. He then caused his dead body to 
 be mounted on an emaciated she ass, and paraded
 
 12 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 through the army for the entertainment of the Catholic 
 troops.* 
 
 After witnessing this display of chivalry by the Due 
 d'Anjou, one of Elizabeth's unsuccessful suitors, Ealeigh 
 retired with the defeated array, which for six months 
 was unable again to take the field. On the third of 
 the October following, near the village of Moncoutour,t 
 the Huo;uenots and Catholics once more stood face to 
 face in the field, Coligni4 commanding in chief, and 
 Prince Louis de Nassau occupying the post which was 
 held at Jarnac by Louis de Bourbon. The present 
 Emperor of the French, Vv'ho has studied and described 
 the movements of the Protestants and Catholics in that 
 war, attributes the success of the latter to the superiority 
 of their artillery. Much may be said in support of 
 his opinion ; but at Moncontour other causes contributed 
 to produce the result. The Huguenot soldiers were 
 so ill-paid that for an hour and a half on the very 
 morning of that battle there was a mutiny in their 
 camp,§ the men refusing to take the field until some 
 portion of the arrears due to them should be dis- 
 charged, and their oificers urging them by all the 
 motives which men usual hold sacred to march against 
 
 * Sisrnondi. ' Hist, des Franc,' xxiii., 19G ; De Thou, iii., 237. 
 t Napoleon III. ffiuvres, iv., 286. 
 
 X D'Andelot, brother of Culigni, was poisoned by an Italian priest, 
 'Cabala,' p. 152 ; De la None in ' Petitot,' xxxiv., 253. 
 § De la None, xxxiv., 272.
 
 ^ BIRTH, STUDIES, AND MARTIAL DISCIPLINE 13 
 
 the enemy. To an army so demoralized it is no way 
 surprising that defeat came. The rout, in fact, was 
 so complete and disastrous, that, but for the skill 
 and valour of Louis de Nassau, defeat would have 
 been converted into a general slaughter. At the head 
 of a thousand horse, the German prince broke through 
 the enemy's lines, and by a masterly retreat saved from 
 destruction full one-half of the Huguenot army.* 
 
 Two days after the catastrophe of j^Ioncontour, Sir 
 Henry Champernoun, with a hundred gentlemen volun- 
 teers, arrived from England, and received from the 
 widowed Queen of Navarre, t a distinguished welcome 
 in the Protestant camp. It has been said that of 
 those hundred gentlemen Raleigh was one, but erro- 
 neously, since he had already been engaged in two 
 battles before the arrival of his kinsman. 
 
 From the date of this battle we lose sight of Ealeigh 
 for six years, save that for a single moment he appears 
 in the passes of Languedoc, during one of those frays 
 which characterized the French civil Avars, that consisted 
 less in actual battles than in a wasting series of 
 skirmishes that decided nothing. While crossing the 
 mountains, Raleigh and his comrades came suddenly 
 upon the hiding-place of a body of Catholics, who 
 
 * Raleigh, 'History of the World,' vi., 211. Nassau was reported 
 in England to have been slain, but through Eochelle the en'or was 
 soon corrected, ' Cabala,' p. 159. 
 
 t De Thou, iii., 292.
 
 14 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIOIL 
 
 with their provisions, plate and jewels, had taken 
 refuge in a cavern, the entrance to which lay at the 
 bottom of a deep glen. The followers of Coligni and 
 Louis de Nassau were not exempt from the love of 
 fun as well as of mischief; they amused themselves, 
 therefore, by smoking the Catholics out of their retreat 
 with faggots of brushwood and bundles of straw, which 
 they kindled at the cave's mouth. As the smoke 
 thickened the prisoners became more and more restless, 
 till at length, unable to breathe any longer the fiery 
 atmosphere, they rushed out in despair, and purchased 
 the mercy of the Huguenots by surrendering to them 
 their property.* 
 
 With the culminating horrorsf of the struggle, we 
 need not in this narrative busy ourselves, since although 
 Ealeigh with his fellow-Protestants must certainly have 
 beheld, from no great distance, the massacres organized 
 by Charles IX. and his mother which reddened nearly 
 the whole face of France,^ the place of his concealment 
 is unknown ; some have conjectured that with Sir Philip 
 Sidney, yomig Lord Wharton, and others, he found a 
 
 * Ealeigh, ' History of the World,' v., 355. 
 
 t To intimate that heaven approved of the massacre, the Orthodox 
 fabricated a miracle, forcing white thorn to blossom out of season by 
 irrigating it with warm water. De Thou, iii., 673. 
 
 X Massacres like that of Paris were perpetrated at Orleans, Rouen, 
 Meaux, Macon, Lyons, Homans, Valence, Toulouse, and the other 
 principal cities of France. Achillc de Gaman in ' Petitot,' xxxiv., 
 314.
 
 BIRTH, STUDIES, AND MARTIAL DISCIPLINE. 15 
 
 refuge during the bloody twenty-fourth of August at 
 the house of Walsingham, in Paris ; but I am inclined 
 to believe he was at the time in the south, where the 
 Huguenots were generally in sufficient force to hold 
 their ground against the myrmidons of Pope and 
 King,* 
 
 Few in those days were untainted by the disease of 
 superstition. Three montlis after the massacre, astro- 
 nomers, no less than the unscientific multitude, were 
 startled by the sudden appearance of a bright star,| 
 which on the evening of November the eleventh, flashed 
 upon the eye with the swiftness of a meteor, equalling 
 Sirius in lustre, and augmenting in splendour as it 
 advanced menacingly through space, till its brilliance 
 exceeded that of Jupiter at its brightest, and was visible 
 at noonday. To interpret this phenomenon surpassed 
 the science of the age. Heaven, it was beheved, had 
 sent the celestial messenger as the indicator and pre- 
 cursor of its vengeance ; and when Charles IX. descended 
 to his grave in blood,| the meaning of the portent 
 was supposed to be understood. During sixteen months 
 the new star glared nightly in the sky ; but after 
 
 * Sir Dudley Digges, ' Complete Ambassador,' p. 294. 
 
 f Camden, ' Annals of Elizabeth,' ii., 44G. 
 
 X Beside the massacre of August 24th, no act of criulty can appear 
 startling, yet it may deserve mention that Charles, with the whole 
 royal family, went forth to witness by torchlight the hanging of two 
 noble gentlemen, Briquemont and Cavanncs.
 
 16 . LIFE OF SIB WALTER EALEIGH. ^ ^ 
 
 delivering its message, retired gradually into the fatliom- 
 less solitudes of the universe, and has never since been 
 seen.* Even now, the laws which regulate the move- 
 ments of periodical stars are far from being understood, 
 though their periodicity has been ascertained, and their 
 number discovered to be considerable. 
 
 * Sir John Herschel, ' Astronomy,' § 827.
 
 FIRST CONFLICT ON THE OCEAN. 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FIKST CONFLICT ON THE OCEAN. 
 
 The youth of seventeen had now ripened into the man 
 of twenty-three, who, having served his apprenticeship 
 to war, left the blood-stained fields of France, and re- 
 turned in company, as I conjecture, with George Gas- 
 coigne to London. For reasons no longer susceptible 
 of explanation, Ealeigh took chambers in the Middle 
 Temple, or there became the guest of some friend, since 
 he addressed from thence a complimentary poem to 
 Gascoigne, which with several similar jjieces was pre- 
 fixed to his celebrated " Steel-Glass." 
 
 Our literature as yet was uncouth, owing its existence 
 chiefly to imitation, and exhibiting itself in fantastic 
 forms, too generally coarse ones. Still several noblemen, 
 from Sackville to de Vere,* sought from time to time 
 some taste of that fame which poetry confers. Sidney, 
 Spenser, and Raleigh let loose their fancies into the 
 
 * Puttenham, ' Art of English. Poesy,' p. 49. 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 language, and by sonnets, eclogues, and impassioned 
 love ditties, paved the way for the ' Fairy Queen,' and 
 ' Eomeo and Juliet.' 
 
 The rude forms exhibited by literature were the 
 outward expression of the rude forms of society. There 
 was little real refinement in court or town, less refine- 
 ment in speculation than in conduct, still less in manners 
 than in either. Flattery, an appendage of barbarism, 
 to tlie extent of its influence, begets twisted and dis- 
 torted modes of speech, revealing the throes and pangs 
 with which the soul gives birth to a lie. Elizabeth lives 
 in all the literature of tlie time, and the entrance of her 
 image into an author's mind appears to have been the 
 signal for unnatural straining. No one was satisfied to 
 describe her as she was ; and the hyperbolical language 
 in which the charms of this free-living vestal were 
 delineated became the pattern of the style in which 
 all other women were described by their poetical 
 lovers. 
 
 Ealeigh yields less to this infatuation than most of his 
 contemporaries, and accordingly may still be read with 
 truer pleasure. Sidney is more fanciful, but considerably 
 less impassioned. Spenser, who in many phases of his 
 intellectual development resembles Shelley, is exquisite 
 in his pictures of external things, playing with poetical 
 pantheism ; that is, finding sparks of divinity every- 
 where, and inviting them freely to flash their divine
 
 FIEST CONFLICT ON THE OCEAN. 19 
 
 splendour into his verse. Yet he seldom comes near 
 that well-spring of passion which contemporaries dis- 
 covered underlying Kaleigh's verse. The fascination of 
 literature was, however, less powerful for Ealeigh than 
 the love of war. To check the progress of Don Juan of 
 Austria in the Low Countries, Sir John Norris, with a 
 small army of English and Scots, crossed the sea, and 
 on Lammas Day, 1578, inflicted so severe a defeat on 
 the Spanish general, that he is believed to have died 
 from vexation in less than two months.* Of tlie 
 victorious army Ealeigh formed one, but beyond this 
 fact nothing is known. 
 
 Events, however, were now prejDaring which were to 
 bear the young aspirant of Hayes Farm to those fields 
 of action on which he was afterwards to earn pre-eminent 
 distinction. 
 
 Two documents, bearing exactly the same date, open 
 up before us two vistas, which, after running parallel for 
 a time, approximate and blend into one upon the horizon 
 of Ealeigh's fortunes. It is not at first easy to perceive 
 how a letter written by a Jesuit at Madrid to another 
 Jesuit at Eome should connect itself with Ealeiirh's 
 story ; yet so it was, for the letter discloses the 
 existence of a project which threatened the independ- 
 
 * His death took place October 1st, 1578, Birch, 'jMemoirs of 
 Elizabeth,' 11. 15. In spite of tlieir services, the English were so ill 
 paid by the States, that several regiments mutinied, while three 
 hundred men went over in a body to the enemy. Id., p. 25.
 
 20 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 ence of England, and aimed at the extinction of her 
 faith. 
 
 The other document originated in the same spirit, but 
 as its birthplace was different, so likewise was its aim, 
 one being intended to thwart the policy of Elizabeth, 
 and put a period to her career, the other to do the 
 same office for Philip IT. 
 
 Sir Humphrey Gilbert,* Ealeigh's half-brother, 
 thu-teen years older than himself, had long turned 
 his thoughts to sea voyages, especially in the direction 
 of America. While in London, he and Ealeigh were 
 doubtless much together, and the subjects upon which 
 their conversations chiefly turned may safely be as- 
 sumed to have been the best means of breaking the 
 power of Spain, and founding for England a colonial 
 empire. Both were readers, not to kill that time which 
 dies too soon of itself, but to qualify themselves to do 
 great things, and leave their names written, whether in 
 tears or blood, in the history of the world. To' learn 
 how effectually to wound Spain, and contract the 
 circle of her dominion, the brothers assiduously studied 
 her language and geographical literature, and inflamed 
 their minds with visions of spoil and conquest, to be 
 realised in the New World. 
 
 Gilbert was no slight proficient in the art of writing, 
 
 =^ On this distinguished navigator, see Hooker, Supp. to ' Irish 
 Chronicle.' llolingshed, vi., 367.
 
 FIRST CONFLICT ON THE OCEAN. 21 
 
 and on the matters with which he dealt could write 
 vigorously ; yet he never acquired that ease, dash, and 
 voluble eloquence which distinguished Raleigh's pro- 
 ductions from youth to age. Considering the literary 
 character of the performance of which I have to speak, 
 I feel persuaded it should be attributed to the younger 
 of the half-brothers, a belief in which I am strengthened 
 by one circumstance in the document itself. The 
 signature is that of Gilbert, but apparently by the 
 same pen the name has been attempted to be oblite- 
 rated, though it is still legible. My interpretation of 
 this fact is, that Gilbert, after the ' Discourse ' had 
 served its purpose, took the first step towards restoring 
 the credit of it to its real author. 
 
 Be this as it niav, the ' Discourse ' is one of the most 
 remarkable papers in the Record Office. Of moralit}', 
 either public or private, it has not a particle. As- 
 suming that the leading object of the British Govern- 
 ment should be to destroy its enemies, whether open or 
 disguised, it boldly points out what the writer considers 
 the best means of obtaining the end in view. To 
 found colonies, and enable British poAver to strike root 
 in America, being the aim proposed, a plan is laid 
 down, feasible though complicated, by which the design 
 is to be converted from theory into practice. The fact 
 must not be lost sight of, that England was then 
 ostensibly at peace with France and Spain, though
 
 22 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 all the term implied in the vocabulary of that age, 
 was a cessation of hostilities. Elizabeth and her minis- 
 ters knew that the most Catholic and most Christian 
 kings panted for nothing so eagerly as for the con- 
 quest or overthrow of England ; to bring about which 
 there was no amount of guilt they would not cheerfully 
 incur ; so much must be borne in mind, to soften the 
 censure which the audacious ethics of the youthful 
 disciple of Machiavelli may provoke. 
 
 The 'Discourse,' in the most debonnair manner, takes 
 it for granted that our Government would entertain no 
 scruple to take a leaf out of the book of the Jesuit, pro- 
 vided it could be enabled to shield itself from material 
 ill-consequences. Raleigh, as will presently be shown, 
 was already familiar with most of Elizabeth's leading 
 courtiers, such as Lord Charles Howard of Effingham, 
 Lord Compton, Lord Windsor, Lord Henry Howard, 
 young Cecil, son of the minister, Francis Southwell, 
 with many others ; and if any of these men were made 
 privy to his scheme of plunder and conquest, they 
 would certainly have regarded it rather with approba- 
 tion than otherwise. Without much preface, the writer 
 enters upon his project, which is, for her majesty to fit 
 out a fleet, ostensibly for discovery alone. It is to 
 consist of a few ships, and those manned, armed, and 
 victualled, conformably to its object ; but, at a given 
 latitude on the ocean, this harmless squadron is to fall
 
 FIRST CONFLICT ON THE OCEAN. 23 
 
 in with a more formidable armament, equipped, and 
 sent out secretly, with a force of five or six thousand 
 men on board. After junction, the united fleet is to 
 proceed on its errand, bold and reckless, it must be 
 confessed, and one which even the loose practice of that 
 age could scarcely have considered defensible. 
 
 To supply the want created by their religion, which, 
 when red-blooded animals may not be eaten, permits 
 its votaries to kill and eat white-blooded animals, the 
 Spaniards, French, and Portuguese employed a large 
 portion of their shipping in the fisheries of Newfound- 
 land. On reacliing the banks, it was customary for 
 the crews to take to their boats, or go on shore to cure 
 their fish, leaving a few hands on board, rather as 
 sentinels than as defenders. Knowing this, Kaleigh's 
 plan was to make a sudden dash at these unprotected 
 vessels, take possession of them with their ladings, 
 return to Europe, and dispose of the whole in the ports 
 of Holland and Zealand. If found advisable, some 
 portion of the booty might be vended at out-of-the-way 
 harbours on the English coast, where her majesty's vice- 
 admirals might be instructed to connive at its intro- 
 duction into England. 
 
 With the funds thus obtained, Kaleigh suggested that 
 Gilbert and he might be empowered to fit out a larger 
 fleet, with which he persuaded himself it would be 
 practicable to conquer the Spanish possessions in
 
 24 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 America, then grouped togetlier, in popular language, 
 
 under the name of West Indies. " If your Highness 
 
 will permit me, with my associates," he says, " either 
 
 openly or covertly to perform the said enterprise ; then 
 
 with the gains thereof there may easily be such a 
 
 competent company transported to the West Indies as 
 
 may be able, not only to dispossess the Spaniards 
 
 thereof, but also to possess your Majesty and realm 
 
 therewith." We then catch a glimpse of those dreams 
 
 of El Dorado with which Ealeigh's imagination may be 
 
 said to have gilded his whole life — those mines of gold 
 
 and silver which adventurers and explorers expected to 
 
 find in America at every step. 
 
 To throw dust in the eyes of Spain, Elizabeth was to 
 affect much indio-nation at these adventurers, whom she 
 was to disclaim, and denounce as pirates, or describe as 
 servants of the Prince of Orange. The admirals who 
 countenanced or succoured them were to be imj^risoued, 
 and generally everything was to be done which might 
 screen the Government from the charge of collusion'with 
 the infringers of treaty. Raleigh foresaw that Eliza- 
 beth might oppose some objection to his policy, based 
 on conscientious motives. Of this difficulty he gets rid 
 in the following off-hand manner : — 
 
 " I hold it as lawful in Christian policy to prevent a 
 mischief betimes as to revenge it too late, especially 
 seeing that God himself is a party in tlie common
 
 FIRST CONFLICT ON THE OCEAN. 25 
 
 quarrels now afoot, and his enemies' disposition towards 
 your Highness and His Church manifestly seen, althougli, 
 by God's merciful providence, not yet thoroughly felt." 
 
 Warming with his subject, the writer throws a 
 prophetic glance into the future, and discerns in beatific 
 vision England's acquisition of the empire of the ocean. 
 What was to him prophecy is to us matter of history ; 
 he showed what by a wise policy might be forthwith 
 accomplished ; it took centuries to ripen his project, but 
 the world witnessed the ripening of it, when not a 
 hostile flag in Christendom could flout the breezes on 
 the ocean in defiance of British power. Weighing, at a 
 later period in the Bloody Tower, the chances of a great 
 general who should invade England, his decision was 
 less sanguine than in 1577, when he wrote thus : — 
 
 " This realm, being an island, shall be discharged 
 from all foreign pillage, if all tlie monarchies of the 
 world should join against us, so long as Ireland shall he 
 in safe heeding, the league with Scotland maintained, 
 and further amity concluded with the Prince of Orange 
 and the King of Denmark, by which means also your 
 Majesty shall engraft and glue to your crown in effect 
 all the northern and southern trafiic of the world, so 
 that none sliall then be able to cross the seas but subject 
 to your Highness's devotion." 
 
 Familiar with the besetting sin of the times, Ealeigh 
 concludes his ' Discourse ' with these earnest and brilliant
 
 26 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 words : " If your Majesty like to do it at all, tlien would I 
 wish your Highness to consider that delay doth oftentimes 
 prevent the performance of good things, for the wings 
 of man's life are plumed with the feathers of death." * 
 
 To uphold that high state of prosperity which Ealeigh 
 foretold for England, he laid it down as a necessary 
 condition that Ireland should be in safe keeping. But 
 how was it to be rendered safe ? The experience of 
 five hundred years has not even yet solved the problem. 
 In those days hypocrisy played a conspicuous part in 
 the great scheme of human action, and Raleigh 
 evidently prided himself on the adroitness with which 
 he recommended it to his sovereign ; but his conception 
 of the thing was poor indeed, compared with the 
 stupendous theories of deceit and delusion that issued 
 from the workshops of the Vatican and the Escorial. 
 
 While the design of the Armada was slowly taking 
 shape in the mind of Philip, he consented to soothe 
 the impatience of Rome by small supplies of human 
 victims, offered up from time to time on the altars of 
 bigotry and ambition. Simultaneously with Raleigh's 
 plan for depriving the Catholics of their fast-day 
 luxuries, Spain and Rome were contriving how to 
 open up the fountains of misery in Ireland, under 
 pretence of promoting the interests of religion. Several 
 
 * 'Discourse to the Queen,' November 6tb, 1577. State Paper 
 Office.
 
 FIBST CONFLICT ON THE OCEAN. 27 
 
 Irish gentlemen, the prototypes of our Fenians, were 
 incessantly flitting about the Continent, exerting their 
 aboriginal blarney, now at one court, now at another, 
 to obtain a charitable contingent of rascals to aid their 
 countrymen in expelling the English. I have said that 
 a letter written from Madrid, of the same date with 
 Raleigh's 'discourse,' indicated the beginning of proceed- 
 ings in which the young adventurer was to be concerned. 
 The letter likewise indicated, both to wi-iter and reci- 
 pient, death amid the Irish bogs, though for the present 
 it inspired them with no small hope. Dr. Sanders, who, 
 in his efforts to disturb Elizabeth's realm, appears to 
 have had a weary time of it, complains to his corre- 
 spondent. Dr. Allen, of the strange slowness and pro- 
 crastination of kings. " The Vicar of Christ," he says, 
 " was much swifter in his eagerness to shed blood," and 
 therefore would consent to collect and despatch into 
 Ireland two thousand men by way of earnest.* This 
 force the doctor laments to think would hardly suffice 
 to do much against England ; but in the sister island, 
 where Catholicism and barbarism were more rampant, 
 he felt cheered by the persuasion that something might 
 be accomplished. Not being gifted with the skill to 
 read the secret mind of kings, he supposed Philip to be 
 in a state of coma, observing that he was as much afraid 
 of war as a child of fire. 
 
 * Sanders to Allen, Xov. 6, 1577. State Paper OfiGce.
 
 28 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 TlioTigli the navigators on one hand, and the doctors 
 on the other, were impatient to be at work, public 
 affairs advanced with their accustomed slowness ; it was 
 long doubtful which party should win in the race of 
 procrastination, though ultimately Spain vindicated to 
 herself superiority in postponing the day of action. 
 Gilbert and his friends brought into play all the activity 
 of their characters in organizing their darling expe- 
 dition, and evidently obtained Elizabeth's approval, 
 since she permitted two of her near relatives, Henry 
 and Francis, sons of Sir Francis Knollys, to take part 
 in the enterprise. This, which seemed the harbinger 
 of success, proved the ruin of the whole scheme. 
 Gilbert naturally looked also among his kinsmen for 
 officers to take command in his fleet, and secured the 
 co-operation of three, Walter and George Ealeigh, and 
 Denny, one of his Devonshire cousins. 
 
 By the end of summer, 1578, Gilbert's fleet, con- 
 sisting of eleven sail, manned with five hundred mariners 
 and soldiers, assembled on the coast of Devonshire. 
 What such an armament might have effected may be 
 conjectured from the achievements of Hawkins and 
 Drake, but wliatever may have been the mental reach 
 of Gilbert, or the daring of Ealeigh, it may be doubted 
 whether their want of practical knowledge would not, 
 under any circumstances, have led to disaster, xlmong 
 the commanders discord prevailed, so that though ready
 
 FIJRST CONFLICT ON TEE OCEAN. 29 
 
 for sea as early as the end of September, it was nearly 
 two months later before the admiral found it practicable 
 to lioist sail. The interval was consumed by bickerings, 
 arising from the want of authority in the principal 
 leaders. As was to be expected, the seamen who took 
 part in such expeditions consisted of the most reckless 
 frequenters of the ocean, who fled to its waves from 
 the gaoler and the hangman — blasphemers, rufiians, 
 assassins — to whom piracy furnisshed the only congenial 
 occuj^ation. By way of affording Gilbert a taste of 
 their quality, they filled the whole town of Plymouth 
 with brawl and riot, insulting the night-watch, and 
 crowning their doings with murder. The Ear] of Bed- 
 ford, then Lord-lieutenant of Devonshire, on complaint 
 of the towns-people, demanded that the malefactors 
 should be delivered up to justice ; but Henry Knollys, 
 to whose ship they belonged, set the civil authorities at 
 defiance, and thus, by insuring impunity to his crew, 
 encouraged them to commit further excesses. 
 
 Tow^ards Gilbert himself Knollys behaved with no 
 less rudeness and insolence, which sometimes deepened 
 into the grossest vulgarity. He boasted that, owing to 
 his royal kinship, he was worth twenty knights ; and 
 on one occasion when Sir Humphrey invited him to 
 dinner, declined his invitation, with the offensive remark, 
 that "he had money to pay for his own dinner, and 
 that the admiral might keep his trenchers for such
 
 30 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 beggars as stood in need of his hospitality." It is 
 matter of surprise that Captain Denny, Gilbert's own 
 cousin, should have joined the party of such a man as 
 Knollys, and have pushed his contempt of subordination 
 so far as to send a formal challenge to the admiral. 
 Every day these bickerings threatened to end in blood ; 
 in fact on one occasion while Sir Humphrey was absent 
 on business, Henry Knollys, being second in command, 
 was on the point of hanging Captain Miles Morgan at 
 the yard-arm, and was only prevented by the admiral's 
 return. 
 
 With a view, if not to put a stop to these quarrels, at 
 least to set himself right with the court, Gilbert sub- 
 mitted the matter to the decision of the mayor of 
 Plymouth, who, after hearing the evidence on both 
 sides, pronounced judgment in favour of the admiral ; 
 upon which a certificate * was drawn up, signed by the 
 magistrate himself, by Walter Kaleigh, and several 
 other persons of respectability. It had now become 
 evident that the fleet must be dismembered, even 
 though the whole enterprise should thereby be ship- 
 wrecked. Henry Knollys, with his brother Francis, 
 Captain Denny, and other officers, broke away with 
 four ships from the admiral, and betook themselves to 
 the ocean, with the intention it was supposed of reaping, 
 in defiance of law, whatever harvest piracy might 
 * November, 1578. MSS., State Paper Office.
 
 FIRST CONFLICT ON THE OCEAN. 31 
 
 supply. The letters written during these troubles by 
 Sir Humphrey Gilbert to Walsingham are conceived 
 in a deprecatory spirit, in the hope of allaying any 
 anger which, througli the force of blood, it might be 
 feared, Elizabeth would feel ; but she was too just to 
 yield to any such ebullitions of temper. Gilbert she 
 knew was a brave and faithful servant, for which reason 
 she stood by him, and would suffer no motive derived 
 from mere relationship to turn her from the path of duty. 
 
 At length, on the 19th of November, * Gilbert, with 
 seven ships and three hundred and fifty men, set sail 
 from Plymouth. 
 
 No incident in the life of Ealeigh is enveloped more 
 thoroughly in mystery than the circumstances of this 
 enterprise. After quitting the shores of England, in 
 what direction did the fleet sail ? Did it proceed 
 towards the banks of NcAvfoundland ? or, taking a 
 southwesterly course, did it, with the design above 
 explained, make at once for the West Indies ? From 
 some facts, alluded to in the after-part of Raleigh's 
 story, it may I think be inferred, that, despite the 
 inadequacy of the means at his command. Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert plunged into the great undertaking, by a de- 
 scription of which Ealeigh had sought to enthrall the 
 imagination of Elizabeth. Without doubt, Raleigh, in 
 one way or another, made himself intimately acquainted 
 
 * Gilbert to Walsingham, Nov. 12th, 1578. State Paper Office.
 
 32 LIFE OF SIM WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 with the islands of the West Indies, as well as the 
 havens on the main, and except this we know of no 
 occasion on which he could have acquired personal 
 knowledge of them before the date of his first voyage 
 to Guiana. Captain Barlow, addressing to Ealeigh, in 
 1584, an account of the voyage which, in company 
 with Amadas he made to Virginia, assumes his patron 
 to be thoroughly familiar with the islands of the Mexican 
 Gulf. So afterwards, when Gondomar was labouring to 
 prevent Ealeigh's last expedition, he appeared before 
 the council with a book in his hand, describing the 
 outrages perpetrated by him in his two voyages to the 
 West Indies, by which I think he could have meant no 
 others than those of 1578 and 1595. Again, previously 
 to 1580, a book, now lost, was written, entitled, ' Sir 
 Walter Ealeigh's Voyage to the West Indies.' From 
 the contents of this volume in the handwriting of the 
 celebrated navigator. Sir James Lancaster, we discover 
 that it was not the narrative of a voyage actually per- 
 formed, but the platform of an enterprise which the 
 writer wished to be undertaken ; nevertheless, from 
 the whole tenor of these 'Heads of Chapters' it seems 
 clear that the reasoning is based in great measure on 
 the information of an eye-witness. 
 
 An incident which befel Gilbert's fleet, j)robably in 
 the seas of Tropical America, furnishes the reason why 
 impenetrable obscurity was suffered to rest on nearly all
 
 FIRST CONFLICT ON THE OCEAN. 33 
 
 the circumstances of this expedition : in the spring, 
 apparently of 1579, our countrymen came to action 
 with a Spanish fleet, when, either through inferiority in 
 strength, or scientific seamanship, tliey were defeated, 
 with the loss of one of their principal ships, as well as 
 of the gallant Captain Miles Morgan, who was slain in 
 the engagement. Towards the end of spring, or be- 
 ginning of summer, Gilbert and Kaleigh, with the wreck 
 of their fleet, returned to England, where, in spite of 
 ill-success, their courage and enterprise won for thera 
 admiration and influence in the best circles. 
 
 A few years before, Gilbert had presented to the 
 Government a treatise in which he undertook to prove 
 the existence of a northwest passage to China and India, 
 strengthening his own arguments by traditions and 
 conjectures, which he found in such writers as Gemma 
 Fricius, Pliny, and Cornelius Nepos. Ealeigh shared 
 his brother's belief respecting the northwest passage » 
 and in the seventeenth chapter of his lost book, pointed 
 out that double method of discovery, which after a 
 profuse sacrifice of life and treasure has at length 
 in our day been crowned with success. The great aim 
 being to advocate the policy of colonizing North 
 America, he mentions as an incidental advantage that, 
 "By these colonies the northwest passage to Cathay 
 and China may easily, quickly, and perfectly be searched 
 out, as well by river and overland as by sea." 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGIL 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HIS GAY ASSOCIATES IN LONDON. 
 
 A MAN wliose story soon afterwards came to be closely 
 interwoven with that of Ealeigh, who took the hazardous 
 step of introducing him to Leicester, was at this time 
 immersed in transactions which had they been kno\vn 
 would have barred all intimacy. While Raleigh and 
 Gilbert were labouring to extend the power of Ehzabeth, 
 this man, Sir Warham St. Leger, had linked himself 
 with those Avho sought her life. Like many other 
 youthful adventurers, incapable of distinguishing the 
 delusions of romance from the promptings of justice 
 and honour, he eagerly fell in with those who discovered 
 something chivabous in venturing their neclvs for a 
 captive queen. When Raleigh returned from France, 
 where every popish cabaret rang with the name of 
 Mary Stuart, he found London literally swarming with 
 such adventurers, though both experience and principle 
 kept him out of the circle of their influence. 
 
 St. Leger, of lighter mood and feebler intellect,
 
 HIS GAY ASSOCIATES IN LONDON. 35 
 
 was drawn into the great vortex of tlie times wliich 
 eddied perpetually about tlie gallows and the block. 
 The foreign ambassadors then in London, especially 
 those of France and Spain, made use of their diplomatic 
 privileges to attempt the overtlu'ow of the established 
 Government.* On the Surrey side of the Thames, 
 at the corner of a field abutting on Lambeth jMarsh, 
 lay Paris Garden,t which, like the most woody part of 
 Hyde Park, was studded so thickly with trees that 
 at noonday persons a short way off could scarcely be 
 discerned. Along the river's edge, at some distance 
 out in the water, ran a series of aits or islets densely 
 covered with rushes and tall willows, amid which the 
 noble representative of France carried on an intrigue 
 with a dissolute milkmaid. The same nobleman fre- 
 quented the neighbourhood of the aits for far worse 
 purposes : where all is now bustle, steam, smoke, and 
 mud, the broad waters then ran peacefully on a summer's 
 night, seldom disturbed by the dip of an oar, or the 
 sound of voices from the banks, save when, in obedience 
 to the law against nij^ht- walkers, the formidable watcli 
 with halberd and lantern scoured the lanes and patches 
 of greensward lying beneath the city and the marsh. 
 On the northern bank of tlie river, the spacious and 
 
 * Fleetwood to Vice-Chamberlain July 12, 1578. State Taper 
 Office. 
 t Ibid.
 
 36 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH 
 
 massive dwellings of the nobility threw their shadows 
 over the water, to which their inmates descended by 
 long dark stairs, at the foot of which light wherries and 
 stately barges generally lay ready for use. 
 
 In the warm nights of July, 1578, Paris Gardens* 
 became the focus of a mysterious conspiracy, carried 
 on by the French minister, Sir William Morgan, and 
 Sir Warham St. Leger : at a late hour each of these 
 individuals, setting out from the stairs of tavern or 
 private residence, crossed the river, and shooting in 
 behind the aits as behind a barrier reef, landed un- 
 perceived. When they reached what was aptly enough 
 called " the bower of conspiracy,"! serving men with 
 drawn rapiers were posted at the mouths of the lanes 
 opening into the garden for the defence of their masters 
 in case of extremity. 
 
 While they were engaged in deliberation, the watch, 
 headed by Brightman, one of the lord-keeper's men, 
 who as the plotters found was no Dogberry, came up 
 and ordered them to disperse. To this the two knights 
 made a civU reply : but the ambassador, blustering in 
 King Cambyses vein, said he Avas a privileged person, 
 and refused obedience ; till the watch, observing that 
 he and his men were breaking the law against night- 
 
 * lu 1570, Leslie Bishop of Ross had carried on, in the same 
 place, his treasoaable intrigues witli the Earl of Southampton. 
 Burghley, 'Notes on Elizabeth's Reign,' June 7th, 1570. 
 
 t Fleetwood, uhi supra.
 
 EIS GAY ASSOCIATES IN LONDON. 37 
 
 walkers, threatened, unless be instantly departed, to 
 seize and carry him over by force to the Eecorder's 
 house in the City. 
 
 The Morgan here grouped with St. Leger, was probably 
 brother to that Thomas Morgan who, while watching 
 over Mary Stuart's interests in Paris, was seized and 
 confined in the Bastile. 
 
 An order now came from Burleigh to the Recorder, 
 directing him to send St. Leger to the Court, then 
 at Havering. Fleetwood, however, was no match for 
 the gallant knight, for while he was thundering at the 
 gates of Chandos Place,* sculling up and down to 
 reconnoitre it from the Thames, or plunging into the 
 darkness of Paris Garden, St. Leger quietly dropped 
 down the river in a boat, and was beyond reach ; 
 having before his departure excused himself by letter 
 to the council, whom he coolly informed of his inability 
 to obey its orders, because his horses were at grass. 
 From this date Warham remains out of sight, till 
 we find liim with Ealeigh in Ireland, doing justice in 
 Elizabeth's behalf on John of Desmond at Cork. 
 
 In the portion of Raleigh's career at which we 
 are now arrived, it will be necessary to reject several 
 long-received anecdotes and suppositions which are at 
 variance with fact, and to introduce upon the scene 
 some new personages, who played a part hitherto un- 
 * Fleetwood to Burleigh, July 12, 1578. State Taper Office.
 
 38 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 suspected in the Kaleigli drama. Naunton and Lloyd, 
 with nearly all subsequent biographers, have had recourse 
 to circumstances purely apocryphal to account for 
 Ealeigh's introduction at Court. They fancy that, on 
 his return from Ireland, he was cited before the council 
 to answer certain charges preferred against him by 
 the Lord-deputy Grey in person. Naunton, one of 
 the basest of Ealeigh's traducers, affirms, as of his own 
 knowledge, that though Grey had justice on his side, 
 Ealeigh's eloquence not only prevailed with the council, 
 but likewise " Won the Queen's ear in a trice."* Lloyd, 
 an inveterate pedant, amuses his readers with a critical 
 estimate of Ealeigh's oration, which he describes after 
 the manner of the "old man eloquent." 
 
 The whole of this tissue of ingenuity is a fiction, 
 Ealeigh stood in need of no such machinery for making 
 his abilities known to Elizabeth or the chief persons 
 about her. One of the most curious incidents in the 
 life of Leicester is this : being desirous of ascertaining 
 his chances of becoming the Queen's husband, he com- 
 missioned one of her women to seize adroitly on some 
 soft and happy moment, to make the most of his 
 merits and press his suit. Elizabeth, after her usual 
 shrewd manner, affected to be angry, saying that since 
 she had refused the greatest princes in Europe, it was 
 not likely she should marry one of her own subjects. 
 
 * Fragmenta Regalia.
 
 HIS GAY ASSOCIATES IN LONDON. 39 
 
 As Leicester's fears at the moment glanced at one 
 of those great princes — the Due d'Anjou — Elizabeth's 
 indignant reply contained all the information he needed. 
 
 It is not, however, to this part of the subject that I 
 wish to direct the reader's attention, but to the fact 
 that the lady intrusted with so delicate a mission by 
 Leicester was Raleigh's aunt, the friend and confidant 
 of Elizabeth's girlhood, Mrs. Catherine Ashley, who 
 had some years before presented Ealeigh's half-brother, 
 Gilbert, to the Queen.* 
 
 Again, the comptroller of her household. Lord Huns- 
 don, was Ealeigh's near relative : so likewise was 
 Herbert,! earl of Pembroke, the husband of Mary, Sir 
 Philip Sidney's sister : in the same relationship stood 
 Lord Charles Howard of Effingham,:|: with many other 
 noblemen and gentlemen, holding places of trust about 
 the queen's person, as we shall hereafter find her 
 pointing out to Lord Grey in her own peremptory 
 manner. 
 
 It mil therefore excite no surprise to learn that 
 
 Raleigh lived on terms of intimacy with the principal 
 
 personages in England ; but among his associates at 
 
 this time there was one individual respecting whom it 
 
 is necessary to enter into some details, since he exercised 
 
 * Hooker, ' Supply to the Irisli Chronicle,' Holingshcd, vi., 367. 
 t WaLsingham to Sir Edward Stradling, ' Stradling Papers.' See 
 also Raleigh's Letters on the same subject, pp. 22, 23. 
 X Dedication to ' Discoveiy of Guiana.'
 
 40 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 almost from the outset upon Ealeigli's fortunes an in- 
 fluence scarcely less sinister than that of Essex ; this 
 Avas Edward de Vere, seventeenth earl of Oxford, a man 
 of genius and a poet, but of manners so dissolute, and 
 character so flagitious, that he may for his crimes and 
 vices be looked upon as one of the prodigies of his age.* 
 His father John, dying while he was yet a minor, the 
 wardship of his person and estates was given by Eliza- 
 beth to Burleigh. On the grasping ambition of this 
 minister nothing need be said : he was a new man, 
 who aimed steadily through life at interweaving the 
 fortunes of his family with those of the noblest and 
 most opulent houses in the land. Homer attributes to 
 the great Grecian seer a knowledge of the past, the 
 present, and the future : in the first and second, Burleigh 
 was probably his equal ; but to the future he was un- 
 fortunately as blind as the Duke of Norfolk's fool. 
 When the wardship, therefore, of the young de Vere 
 fell into his hands, his fancy w^as evidently kindled by 
 the lucky chance of matching his daughter Anne with 
 a scion of one of the most ancient houses in England, 
 whose princely lordships and manors lay profusely 
 scattered over ihe southern portions of the realm, from 
 the Land's End to the banks of the Eibble. 
 
 * ' True Declaration by Charles Arundel,' 1581, without date of 
 month. Some abatement may be made from the virulence of this 
 man's accusations ; though his opinion of de Vere differs very little 
 from that of many other contemporaries.
 
 HIS GAY ASSOCIATES IN LONDON. 41 
 
 Not long after Oxford's marriage with Lady Anne 
 Cecil, reckless intrigue brought his friend and kins- 
 man, the Duke of Norfolk, within swing of the heads- 
 man's axe. De Yere's alliance with Burleigh then 
 seemed likely to stand him in good stead. Joining his 
 own entreaties to those of his wife, he earnestly 
 sought to preserve Norfolk from the block. Nothing, 
 however, could turn aside Elizabeth's indignation; — 
 the duke suffered ; and to account for the monstrous 
 life afterwards led by Oxford, lie is said on that occasion 
 to have vowed the ruin of Ins wife and children, in 
 order, through their agonies, to wound and torture his 
 father-in-law. His first step was to thrust away Lady 
 Oxford from his bed and house, with a miserably parsi- 
 monious allowance ; after wliich, to render his desertion 
 more complete, he obtained the Queen's permission to 
 travel. His professed religion at that time must have 
 been Catholicism, otherwise he could not even pretend 
 to have received from the Duke of Alva the post of 
 lieutenant-general to the Spanish forces in the Nether- 
 lands.* 
 
 * Arunders words are :— " At his being in Flanders, the Duke 
 of Alva, as he will constantly affirm, grew so much to afi'cct him for 
 those rare parts he saw iu him as he made him his lieutenant- 
 general over all the army then in the Low Country," ' Brief 
 Declaration.' State Paper Office. The French ambassador in 
 Spain, affirms that Philip hated Alva because, by mismanagement, 
 he caused the loss of Flanders, Eaumer, i., 198.
 
 42 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIQE. 
 
 Dislodged from this position by the Queen's order, he 
 returned to England; but after a brief stay, again 
 repaired to the Continent, crossed the Alps, and in the 
 quarrels of Genoa commanded, as he affirmed, a body of 
 thirty thousand men, sent northwards by the Pope to 
 put a period to the Civil Wars. Having distinguished 
 himself by his prudence and sagacity at Genoa, this 
 ancestor of the renowned Captain Lemuel Gulliver 
 proceeded to Venice, by whose priests and com-tesans 
 he appears to have been equally fascinated. The exact 
 date of his return is of no moment : he was in London 
 when Raleigh and Gilbert came back from their un- 
 successful expedition against the West Indies, after 
 which the former, losing sight for a while of colonial 
 projects, devoted himself to the diversions and excite- 
 ments of social life. But in times of peril even these 
 are perilous. The two religions which combated each 
 other with sword and pike on the Continent and in 
 Ireland, and longed to use the same weapons in 
 England, were for the present forced to content them- 
 selves with the weapons of logic, good or bad, when- 
 ever two or three were gathered together at the social 
 board. 
 
 Elizabeth, large as was her heart, could not take into 
 favour all the noblemen of England at once; yet 
 those who were refused a share in her lavish love con- 
 verted their exclusion into a o-round of hostilitv. Ealeio-h
 
 HIS GAY ASSOCIATES IN LONDON. 43 
 
 already enjoyed the friendsliip of Leicester, and was 
 for that reason obnoxious to the earl of Oxford, whose 
 graceful person, gorgeous apparel, and proficiency in the 
 fatal art of dancing, inspired him with the ambition to 
 supplant Leicester and Hatton in the Queen's regards 
 Raleigh himself, whose bronzed countenance, martial 
 bearing, and haughty demeanour had not yet attracted 
 the Tudor' s notice, though he may have thrown " his 
 brave silken cloak "* upon a narrow splash, to enable 
 her delicate feet to traverse it without a soil, had won 
 nothing beyond a passing smile, and probably neither 
 expected nor desired to win more. He was only 
 generally interested therefore in the dangerous topics 
 discussed habitually in the circles he frequented — in 
 Fish Street, Fleet Street, at Northumberland House, 
 and at the earl of Oxford's mansion in Broad Street 
 or Westminster,! 
 
 It is well known that throughout Elizabetli's reign 
 no topic excited in nobles or people so keen an interest' 
 as the question of her marriage, with which that of the 
 succession was indissolubly bound u}\ One heir-ap- 
 parent she held with a firm grasp in durance at Tutbury 
 with a fixed determination not to let go her hold : 
 another heir-apparent, in the perfume of her budding 
 
 * Nichols, ' Progresses,' i., 469. 
 
 t Interrogatories to be demanded of Charles Arundel, 1581. State 
 Paper Office.
 
 44 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIQII. 
 
 charms* breathed, far beyond Elizabeth's reach, the 
 soft air of Granada, amid pomegranate and citron 
 groves, under the eye of a gloomy but fond father : a 
 third, now thirteen years of age, flitted about the 
 northern frontier of England, surrounded by ministers, 
 some of whom were ready to sacrifice him to Elizabeth, 
 while others saw their own advantage in keeping alive 
 and putting forward his claims in all practicable ways. 
 
 Accordingly, when the de Veres, the Percies, the 
 Arundels, and the Howards, brought together their 
 friends to eat venison, and drain bowls of sack, tof)ics 
 bordering closely upon treason were often introduced : 
 it was, for example, whispered among them that, " the 
 King of Scots began now to put on spurs to his heels, 
 and as, soon as the matter of Monsieur were assured to 
 be at an end, that then, Avithin six months, we should 
 see the queen's majesty to be the most troubled and dis- 
 contented person living."t 
 
 One chief point aimed at by de Vere was the over- 
 throw of Leicester, whose place he panted to occupy 
 in the Queen's favour. To compass this end, wild and 
 various were the plans he organized, sometimes seeking to 
 awaken Elizabeth's fears, sometimes to pique her vanity, 
 
 * The visitor to the Museo at Madrid will probably admire the 
 portrait of this princess, Isabella Clara Eugenia, by Cuelo, which 
 may be regarded as one of the ornaments of the Gallery, 
 
 t Interrogatories MSS. State Paper Office.
 
 HIS GAY ASSOCIATES IN LONDON. 45 
 
 sometimes to stimulate her iiidig-nation, by enumerating 
 Leicester's crimes. Susi^ecting that these schemes might 
 fail, Oxford had recourse to other contrivances. 
 
 At the period of which we are speakmg, he pos- 
 sessed two mysterious and dangerous books, one called 
 ' The Book of Babies,' the other, ' The Book of Pro- 
 phecies.' In the former the author had probably 
 collected all the rumours then circulated throughout 
 the realm, of Elizabeth's offspring by Leicester. The 
 general belief appears to have been that, when the 
 Queen found herself enciente, she left London and 
 went on a progress into the country, where secretly, in 
 some remote castle, she gave birth to her child, which 
 was spirited away, and brought up carefully under the 
 eyes of Leicester's friends. What credit was to be given 
 to such stories de Vere, in all likelihood, never con- 
 sidered, but in proportion to his hopes of success with 
 the Queen, or fears of failure, withheld or exhibited 
 the ' Book of Babies,' merely to have seen which was 
 looked upon as akin to treason. 
 
 The other mysterious production, ' The Book of Pro- 
 phecies,' seems to have been of subsequent manufac- 
 ture. The history of its origin is extravagantly wild : 
 by the aid of a priest, he was enabled_ to enter into 
 amiable relations with the devil, under whose directions 
 he made a series of paintings, explanatory of future 
 events. These, when finished, he bound together in a
 
 46 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 volume, and called 'The Book of Prophecies.' The 
 process of raising his sable majesty, which appears to 
 have been conducted in due form, took place in a little 
 house in the Tilt-yard at Greenwich. Of this sort of 
 " skimble scamble " stuff Oxford's conversation appears 
 to have commonly consisted. The chief aim of his 
 intercourse with Ealeigh seems to have been to detach 
 him from Leicester, towards whom, as well as towards 
 his friends and kmdred, he cherished a mortal hatred. 
 
 In September, 1579, this feeling at length exhibited 
 itself in acts of violence : going into the Tennis Court, 
 he found there Leicester's kinsman, Philip Sidney, and 
 immediately conceived the plan of insulting the uncle 
 through the nephew. Sidney, at the time, was engaged 
 in playing, while the French commissioners, then 
 waiting for an audience of her Majesty, Avere watching 
 him from a gallery which overlooked the Tennis Court. 
 This fact may have been an additional inducement to de 
 Vere to persist in the insult he meditated. Going up to 
 Sidney, he ordered him to retire, as he himself wished 
 to play. Philip, prouder of being a Dudley than a 
 Sidney, replied as became a Dudley, upon which de 
 Vere called him a puppy. Unable to curb his anger, 
 Philip, upon this, gave him the lie, and touching the hilt 
 of his sword by way of intimating his intention, walked 
 out of the Tennis Court, and not doubting that the Earl 
 would follow him, waited outside. The Earl, however,
 
 HIS GAY ASSOCIATES IN LONDON. 47 
 
 continued his play, without deigning to take any further 
 notice of his adversary. 
 
 This story is told throughout with yariations, it being 
 sometimes stated that Sidney immediately sent a 
 challenge to the Earl ; but, as we find from Charles 
 Arundel's papers, preserved in the Eecord Office, it m as 
 the Earl himself who sent the challenge. "He em- 
 ployed Ealeigh and myself with a message to this effect, 
 that the question might be honourably ended; Mr. 
 Sidney accepted gladly thereof, and desired much it 
 might not be deferred ; which, Avlien he heard, never 
 meaning anything less, as after it appeared, told us 
 plainly he was not to hazard himself, having received 
 such an injury, and therefore he had another course, 
 and that was to have him murdered in his lodofinof : the 
 manner how he would have done it, and what words I 
 gave him, and how I withstood it, let my Lord Harry who 
 dealt very honourably, and Ealeigli as honestly, report."* 
 
 Up to this time Ealeigh appears to have stood high 
 in de Vere's estimation, for he not only shared with him 
 his venison and sack, but whispered into his ear his 
 most important secrets ; one of which was that 3Ionsieur 
 laboured to allure him into France bv mairnificent 
 promises. Gradually, however, an ill-feeling crept into 
 their intercourse. Not falling readily into de Vere's 
 
 * Aubrey, probably witliout foundation, says Raleigh was Oxford's 
 second in some duel, ii. 511.
 
 48 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALE 10 H. 
 
 plans for making away secretly with a number of their 
 friends and intimates, Kaleigh incurred his resentment, 
 which ultimately deepened into deadly hatred. Reflect- 
 ing, probably, that the young soldier would carry with 
 him too many of his secrets to Ireland, Oxford took 
 measures for cutting him off while he was within reach ; 
 but whether the projected instrument was to have been 
 the dagger or the bow], the design proved abortive. 
 
 Several of the accusations brought against de Yere 
 are so monstrous that I should hesitate to extend the 
 least credit to them, were it not that he did certainly, 
 on many occasions, act and speak after a fashion which 
 justified his acquaintances in regarding him as a consum- 
 mate villain, or a madman. Hatred of Leicester ap- 
 pears to have been his ruling passion. The hero of 
 ' Father Parson's Romance ' had no doubt his foibles, or 
 whatever else we may choose to call them : men died 
 after supping with him ; if he fell in love with a 
 beautiful married woman, her husband soon after was 
 carried of by a fever, and she became his own ; Italian 
 physicians, adepts in manufacturing their country's 
 physic, found an asylum in his house, from which they 
 were believed to send forth among the Earl's antagonists 
 and enemies shafts tipped with sudden death; but if 
 behind this tissue of popular persuasions any truth 
 really lay hidden, the fact not only defied the scrutiny 
 of contemporaries, but has continued to defy the re-
 
 ins GAY ASSOCIATES IN LONDON. 49 
 
 searches of historians for tliree hundred years. To 
 those around him, from the Queen to the scullion, 
 Leicester was all suavity and polish ; extravagant in his 
 magnificence, ambitious of honours, insatiable of opu- 
 lence ; but in his intercourse with all classes, easy, 
 pleasant, measured in his language, inspiring confidence, 
 and often commanding unswerving attachment. No 
 wonder, therefore, that he appeared to be the foremost 
 man of his time, highest in the Queen's favour, most 
 potent in the government, disposing of places and offices 
 almost like a king, which he was only prevented from 
 becoming by a few false steps or untoward accidents. 
 
 To be the rival of such a man de Vere was no Avay 
 qualified ; he inwardly, moreover, felt his inferiority, 
 and was keenly stung by the consciousness. Knowing, 
 however, that steel or aquetta would, if skilfully used, 
 rid himself of this perpetual eyesore, he is said to have 
 aimed in various ways at accomplishing his purpose. 
 But Leicester had contrived to surround himself with a 
 multitude of friends and adherents, not one of whom 
 could, for the time at least, be tempted to touch his \\U\ 
 De Vere, we are assured, tried many of them— Ch eke, 
 Arthur Gorges, Raleigli— but failing in his manceuvres, 
 sought to imitate in a clumsy manner what he believed 
 to be the policy of his enemy. No credible account ever 
 represented Leicester babbling over his cups of the 
 assassinations he meditated ; if he took off men it was 
 
 VOL. I. jj
 
 50 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 in a way which appeared to make nature his instrument, 
 or at least his accomplice ; but the murders de Yere 
 intended to perpetrate he talked of openly, boasting of 
 the means at his disposal, his barges on the river, his 
 store of powder and shot, his calivers, his disciplined 
 assassins ever ready to use them. 
 
 This noisy method of going about his work enabled 
 friends to put his intended victims on their guard. John 
 Cheke and Arthur Gorges were to have been shot while 
 returning to their lodgings across Richmond Green ; 
 Sidney was to liave been stillettoed in his bed, Leicester 
 as he descended his garden stairs, Ealeigh in some way 
 not specified. Threatened men, however, according to 
 the old proverb, live long, at least in some cases. Nine 
 years later, Leicester is believed to have had ratsbane 
 put into his porridge at Cornbury ; and Sidney, two 
 years earlier, fell in the field ; but honest John Cheke, 
 the friend of Leicester's friend, Lord Grey, in little 
 more than twelve mouths from the utterance of de 
 Vere's menace, was picked off by a ball, either native 
 or foreign, in the trenches before Del Oro. Whether 
 de Vere had the satisfaction of causing his death or not, 
 Cheke is said to have formed one of the triumvirate 
 whom that noble person destined to secret extinction. 
 
 We have seen above that Sidney was among the 
 principal objects of de Vere's hatred. Why he was so 
 is obvious ; he ^was Leicester's nephew, and as such,
 
 HIS GAY ASSOCIATES IN LONDON. 51 
 
 strongly opposed to the French faction at Court, which 
 was headed by de Vere. Leicester had lost at this time 
 much of his influence over the Queen, by the discovery 
 of his marriage with Lettice Knollys ; but the old fire 
 still smouldered in her heart, so that little would be 
 required to fan it again into a flame. Philip Sidney, 
 who though young, had acquii-ed a reputation for pru- 
 dence, as well as for proficiency in the art of writing, 
 was commissioned to draw up an appeal to Elizabeth's 
 feelings, failings, judgment, and religion, in opposition 
 to the French match. He is supposed to have been 
 urged to take the step by his father and Walsingham ;* 
 bat it may be safely assumed that his chief instigator 
 was Leicester, who in all likelihood inspired, if he did 
 not draw up, the famous letter addressed by Sidney to 
 the Queen, in the interval between New Year's Day and 
 the date of Raleigh's departure for Ireland. Terrible 
 results were expected to spring from this audacious 
 missive, though, as Elizabeth doubtless knew in whose 
 interest it was written and who had prompted it, she 
 limited her resentment to mere outward show, inwardly 
 gratified all the while by so strong a proof of Leicester's 
 jealousy and love. Sidney, however, deemed it politic 
 to retire into the country, while his friend Raleigh 
 directed his footsteps elsewhere. 
 
 * Fox Bourne, ' Life of Sidney,' p. 252.
 
 52 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 PEKPETRATES THE MASSACRE OF DEL ORO. 
 
 The military preparations of Philip gave birth to alarm 
 in many jjarts of Europe, because none could foresee 
 what country was to be the object of attack. Gradually 
 the conviction gained strength that Sj)ain intended to 
 direct her armaments against Elizabeth's dominions, 
 which, in sjDite of treaties, were from time to time 
 invaded by bodies of Spanish and Italian adventurers, 
 who, according to their success or failure, might be 
 acknowledged or disowned. It was rightly judged that 
 England could be most effectually weakened through 
 Ireland ; and accordingly the policy adopted by the 
 Pope and the King of Spain was to excite rebellion 
 in that part of the realm, in order to distract the 
 attention, and waste the resources of the English 
 government. In 1578 the Irish rebels were promised 
 the aid of a considerable force ; but armies on paper 
 have always been more numerous than those on the
 
 PERPETRA TES THE MASSA ORE OF DEL ORO. 53 
 
 muster-ground. When, therefore, the Irish Jesuit Allen, 
 Dr. Sanders, whom Lord Oxford would have seated 
 on the papal chair, and the Earl of Desmond's cousin, 
 James Fitzmaurice, sailed for Ireland, their followers 
 scarcely exceeded seven hundred men.* With these, 
 however, thev doubled tlie southern headlands of the 
 island, and pushing out into the open sea, beheld 
 rising up, in rugged grandeur before them, the loftiest 
 mountains in Ireland, separated from each other by 
 lovely well-wooded valleys and holding in their craggy 
 embrace the Killaruey Lakes, with a multitude of 
 coombes and dingles. James Fitzmaurice, familiar with 
 his cousin's domains, selected Smerwick for the point of 
 disembarkation, where, close to the shore, the invaders 
 hastily threw up a fort, on which they bestowed the 
 name of Del Oro. To protect their crude work from 
 heretical bullets, the doctors consecrated them in due 
 form, though this did not prevent their falling into 
 decay, and having to be rebuilt in little more than 
 a year. 
 
 While the Catholics were busy at this out-of-the-way 
 intrenchment, erecting or repairing ramparts, quarrel- 
 ling, plotting, swearing, or saying mass, Captain Ealeigh, 
 with a company of a hundred men, his would-be assassin 
 de Vere's agent amongst the rest, dropped down the 
 
 * See Raleigh, ' History of the World,' vi., L'3, where he suggests 
 a parallel between the Spaniards and the Mamertines.
 
 64 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 Thames, January 24tb, 1580, and proceeded to the 
 Isle of Wight. After a fortnight's detention by contrary 
 winds he again put to sea, and reached Cork on the 
 22nd of February. Immediately on landing he found 
 himself in the midst of those obstructions and difficulties 
 which seem to be the natural gi'o\vth of the Irish soil. 
 His men wanting pay, he made application to the Irish 
 functionaries, who informed him that he and his 
 troopers could only be considered under their jurisdic- 
 tion from the day of their landing, and referred him 
 for all arrears to the Home Government. 
 
 He at once therefore addressed a letter to bis patron 
 Leicester, describing his position, and complaining tbat 
 he had been forced to satisfy out of his own private 
 funds the demands of the soldiers. To his request 
 that the money thus become due should be paid with 
 all convenient speed to his agent, who was to deliver 
 the letter to the Earl, I know not what answer was 
 vouchsafed ; but in all likelihood both he and they, 
 like the rest of the army, depended thenceforward 
 very much upon chance for the means of keeping soul 
 and body together. 
 
 The field of war, on which for the next two years 
 
 Ealeigh was to be employed, resembled few others 
 
 in the Christian world. Society in Ireland had scarcely 
 
 advanced beyond the stage described by Hesiod :* little 
 
 * Mr. Hans Hamiltou, ' Preface to Irish Calendar,' p. 3.
 
 PERPETRATES TEE MASSACRE OF DEL ORG. 55 
 
 agriculture existed, tliough Shane O'Neil had a few 
 years before exerted his influence for its encourage- 
 ment ; the country was governed by innumerable chiefs, 
 nearly always engaged in mutual hostilities. The 
 gallogiass mounted on his small but bony and in- 
 defatigable horse, with battleaxe, generally bloody, on 
 his shoulder ; the kern, light, fleet, remorseless, mufiied 
 in his cloak,* armed with skene or rapier, with con- 
 science at the command of his officer or priest, scoured 
 the country singly or in bauds, firing the habitations 
 of the English, killing their cattle, ripping up their 
 women, and perpetrating every other atrocity which 
 national hate could inspire. On the other hand, the 
 English soldiers revenged crime with crime ; their acts 
 fully equalling those of the kern and gallogiass in 
 recklessness and ferocity. 
 
 Still to Kaleigh there was nothing new in all this : 
 from the aece of seventeen he had been habituated 
 to the worst excesses of military license ; for in the 
 history of the world there is not a blacker page than 
 that which describes the religious struggles in France. 
 
 Until the English ministers should appoint a new 
 Lord-deputy, with full power to deal with the rebellion, 
 Sir William relham,t who owed his elevation to tlie 
 Council of Ireland, exercised supreme command. N either 
 
 * Spenser, ' View of the State of Ireland.* 
 t Hooker, p. 434.
 
 56 LIFE OF Sin WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 as a statesman, however, nor as a general, was lie 
 qualified to cope with the difficulties of his situation. 
 Nearly the whole island was in a state of insurrec- 
 tion : priests going from castle to castle, from cabin 
 to cabin, stimulated noble and peasant to take up 
 arms for the church ; mountains, bogs, woods, valleys, 
 swarmed with the fanatical acolytes of Rome ; the 
 Geraldines were at the head of large forces, while the 
 S^mniards and Italians, making incessant forays from 
 Del Oro and other fortresses, helped to enlarge the 
 circle of murder and devastation. 
 
 From February till June 1580, neither chronicle nor 
 calendar makes reference to Kaleigh ; but in that sunny 
 month he presents himself engaged in no very enviable 
 employment,* though characteristic -enough of the times. 
 James, brother to the Earl of Desmond, venturing 
 with reckless daring into the neighbourhood of Cork, 
 to enjoy the congenial pastime of ravaging the lands 
 of his personal enemy, Cormac Mac Teigh, sheriff of 
 that city, a fight ensued, during which James had 
 the ill-luck to be made prisoner by a smith, who 
 manacled and concealed him among thickets till the 
 contest was over. The sheriff then obtaining posses- 
 sion of the prisoner, conveyed intelligence of his capture 
 to the Lord Justice, who ordered him to be put on his 
 trial at Cork. 
 
 * Hooker, p. 433.
 
 PERPETPiA TES TEE MASS A CPE OF DEL OR 0. 57 
 
 At this stage of tlie proceedings, the Geraldine was 
 handed over to Sir Warham St. Leger and Captain 
 Ealeigh; by whom, after he had been indicted, con- 
 demned, and sentenced, he was hanged, drawn, and 
 quartered; and, in conformity with the barbarism of 
 the times, the fragments of his wretched body were 
 gibbeted on the city walls, to be devoured by kites 
 and ravens. 
 
 Perplexed by the affairs of Ireland — which in fact 
 have been always perplexing — Elizabeth's ministers 
 now sought by a change of men to remedy the inherent 
 defects of their system. AVherever Catholicism exists 
 in its natural state, good government is impossible: 
 sacerdotal celibacy, the confessional, and spiritual sub- 
 ordination to a foreign potentate being only compatible 
 with despotism. 
 
 To dissolve the spell of Romish influence, and bring 
 back the Irish to their allegiance, Burleigli and Wal- 
 singham could think of nothing better than to send 
 over, as Deputy, Leicester's friend, Lord Arthur Grey, 
 of Wilton, a ruthless Puritan,* the sternness of whose 
 character had been exasperated by a military education. 
 It may seem strange that a nobleman of such a temper 
 should have chosen for his secretary Edmund Spenser, 
 a poet whose genius seems to have had little bias for 
 war; but his friend lialeigh was a Leicestriau, his 
 * Birch, 'Memoirs of Elizabeth/ i., A.
 
 58 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 other friend Philip Sidney was half a Dudley, so that 
 it is not surprising that, being desirous of advancing 
 his fortunes, they should have recommended him to 
 Grey, who went over to reduce the favourite's principles 
 to practice. 
 
 With the Lord-deputy's doings generally I have no 
 concern. He reached Dublin on the 12th of August, 
 and on the 7th of September, Elizabeth's birthday, 
 Sir William Pelham relinquished into his hands the 
 sword of office. Impatient to extirpate the enemies 
 of his sovereign, Grey soon afterwards left Dublin, 
 and marched westwards at the head of eight hundred 
 men, horse and foot, under the command of Captains 
 Ealeigh, Zouch, Denny, and Macworth. At Rakele, 
 Grey was met by the Earl of Ormond, who came thither 
 to relinquish his credentials as Governor of Munster. 
 
 All Ireland within the pale was now in a state of 
 alarm, all without the pale in high exultation, for on 
 the 14th of September a fresh force of six or seven 
 hundred Spaniards and Italians had disembarked near 
 the Dingle, where they repaired and took possession of 
 the fort Del Oro. The foreign commanders having 
 opened a communication with the insurgents, concerted 
 with them the plan of a general rebellion, while 
 Desmond with his followers hung in flying columns 
 over the heights of Munster, to reconnoitre the move- 
 ments of the English general, divert his supplies, and,
 
 PERPETRA TES THE MASS A CRE OF DEL OR 0. 59 
 
 if fortune favoured, by forming a junction with the 
 foreigners, to surround and cut him off. 
 
 Grey's forces were certainly few to cope with swarms 
 of insurgents, supported by a formidable body of dis- 
 ciplined Spaniards, and the inveterate hostility of the 
 whole country, where rebellion had to be trampled out 
 at every step. Nevertheless, the fierce Puritan, know- 
 ing neither fear nor fatigue, advanced rapidly towards 
 Smerwick Bay, where, in conformity with the orders of 
 the British Government, a naval force under the com- 
 mand of Admiral Winter was to aid him in his opera- 
 tions, and furnish his army with supplies. 
 
 When Grey broke up his camp at Eakele, Ealeigh, 
 ever bent upon action, remained behind with his 
 company, which he posted in ambush about the field. 
 Scarcely had the lances and ghttering helmets of the 
 English disappeared among the rocks and hollows ere 
 a troop of kerns, who from the surrounding w oods had 
 been reconnoitring our army, rushed into the deserted 
 camp to collect such articles as should be left behind, 
 and slaughter any loiterers they might fall in with. 
 While they were busily engaged in ransacking the 
 tents, Kaleigh's men surrounded and captured them. 
 Among the gang was one fellow laden with witlio 
 halters ; " To what end did you bring these with you ?" 
 inquired Kaleigh. Intrepid as his interrogator, the 
 kern replied, " To hang up any English churl I might
 
 60 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 get hold of." — " Good," answered Kaleigb ; " but as the 
 case stands, they will serve just as well to hang up an 
 Irish kern:" and forthwith ordered the daring Celt, 
 whose courage should have saved him, to be sus- 
 pended from the next tree. The rest of the j)risoners 
 having been taken to the Lord-deputy's head- quarters, 
 were dealt with according to their supposed deserts. 
 
 It was now October. Autumn, usually mild in 
 Ireland, had prematurely given place to winter ; stormy 
 winds, accompanied by a deluge of rain, set in from 
 the Atlantic ; on bog, morass, and fen, in ravine and 
 dingle, the floods were out, every rill became a brook, 
 every brook a torrent. The English soldiers, deficient 
 in everything but arms and courage, marched through 
 mire almost to the knee, upheld by the example of their 
 genera], who, suborcHnating everything to a sense of 
 duty, pressed forward eagerly towards the enemy, and 
 at length, on the 2nd of November, pitched his camp 
 within eight miles of Del Oro.* 
 
 Urged by his impatience, Grey had outrun the move- 
 ments of Winter's fleet, as well as of the transports, on 
 the arrival of which his troops depended for provisions. 
 Though so near the foe, Avith whom he longed to 
 grapple, he could therefore do nothing but cast wistful 
 looks at the sea, in the hope of discerning the English 
 
 * Grey to Elizabeth, November 12 tb, 1580, ' Irish Papers,' State 
 Paper Office.
 
 'PEEPETBA TES TEE MASS A CDE OF DEL OR 0. 61 
 
 flag in the offing. Eeviewing hastily his own position, 
 he says, " Now, when almost in despair, news came to 
 me, first, that three bands, which I had appointed to 
 follow me, were coming at hand. I was leaping to 
 horse to meet them, when another messenger in great 
 haste brought word that Sir William Winter, with the 
 ships, was at the Ventry, and would next morning, it' 
 the wind held, be at Smerwick." Next day, the 
 admiral's flag-ship, followed by the rest of the fleet, 
 floated into the bay, and the Lord-deputy rode down to 
 the shore to hold conference with Winter. The plan of 
 attack was then agreed upon. Winter was to dis- 
 embark several great guns, which, under cover of 
 darkness, the sailors were to drag up the heights, and 
 plant in a position commanding the fort, upon which 
 they were to play as soon as the general should be in 
 readiness to assault it from the other side. 
 
 Though now, at the distance of three hundred years, 
 the events then taking place on Smerwick Bay may 
 appear insignificant, they were looked upon in a very 
 different light then. The Spanish force in Del Oro, 
 small as it was, constituted, in public estimation, the 
 vanguard of the greatest military force then existing in 
 the world, which, for aught tliat was known in England 
 or Ireland, might at any moment heave in sight on 
 the decks of an armada generally deemed invincible. 
 To judge fairly, therefore, of Grey's proceedings, we
 
 62 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 must remember that he acted with this fact constantly 
 before his mind's eye. The enemy intrenched on 
 Elizabeth's territories regarded her and the majority 
 of her subjects as persons possessing no claim to 
 Christian forbearance, to exterminate whom would be 
 an act of piety. For individuals cherishing such con- 
 victions, Grrey, whose charity rested on a basis quite as 
 narrow as theirs, experienced nothing but supreme 
 scorn mingled with detestation, so that he panted with 
 eagerness to put them to the sword. 
 
 All necessary preparations made, he accordingly 
 struck his camp, and advancing upon the fort, pitched 
 it again by the dingle. Ealeigh, it must not be for- 
 gotten, was in this camp, forming one of Lord Grey's 
 council, riding forth among the other officers who 
 formed his staff, and acquainted with the temper of tlie 
 general's mind, looking forward probably to the horrors 
 in which tlie operations of the siege culminated. 
 
 Next day, about noon, Grey, surrounded by his 
 ojEficers, rode towards the fort. " The Spaniards dis- 
 charged a great piece at a troop of horsemen attending 
 his Iionour, at which time the master of the horse very 
 narrowly escaped, and the vanguard marching after my 
 lord with a small company, drew near within danger of 
 shot." How far Grey exhibited prudence on this 
 occasion may be matter of question. The Spaniards in 
 the fort, mindful of their old chivalrous customs, and
 
 PERPETRATES THE MASSACRE OF DEL ORO. C3 
 
 desii'ous of impressing the English with a liigh idea of 
 their valour, sent forth from their gates a small body of 
 infantry to skirmish with our general's escort, while 
 their heavy ordnance discharged showers of round 
 shot, and numerous musketeers, from trenches resem- 
 blhig our rifle-pits, made active use of their small-arms. 
 By way of retaliation, Winter, who had now brought up 
 his ships ^\ithin range, opened fire upon the fort, and 
 thus the affair of Del Oro commenced. 
 
 Grey with his retinue riding up to within a hundred 
 and twenty paces of the rampart, the besieged dis- 
 charged at them six hundred shot, but without hurting 
 him or any of his followers.* Ammunition, with tools 
 for the sappers and miners, having been landed from 
 the fleet, and several great guns planted in position 
 upon the heights, Grey moved his camp from the 
 dingle and pitched within falcon-shot of Del Oro. At 
 night, a numberf of sailors supplied by Winter laboured 
 at the ti'enches ; two culverins were pushed on to 
 within three hundred paces of the fort, and by two 
 o'clock next day all the guns of the besieged were 
 dismounted. Once and again, while the works were in 
 progress, Grey summoned the foreigners to surrender ; 
 
 * 
 
 Anonyinoiis to Walsiiigham, November lltli, 1580, ' Irish 
 Papers,' State Paper Office. 
 
 t Grey to Elizabeth, November P;th ; Yice-admiral Binfjham to 
 Walsingliain, November 12th, 1580, ' Irish Paiers,' State Pape; 
 Office.
 
 64 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 but they had not yet lost heart, and fired his Puritan 
 blood by replying that they were there by command of 
 the Pope, who had taken Ireland from his heretical 
 mistress, and given it to the King of Spain, adding, 
 that what they held they would keep, and gain what 
 they could. After this nothijig remained but to keep 
 the batteries in full play, which soon brought the 
 invaders to alter the style of their language. All 
 readers of Milton will remember his apostrophe to the 
 soul of Sir John Cheke, who, besides teaching Cam- 
 bridge and King Edward Greek, had become father 
 to a brave son. This young man was one of those 
 that were to have been picked off on Richmond Green 
 by de Vere's assassins,* who we are assured followed 
 him and Paleigh to Ireland, and, either by them or 
 by the Spaniards, was now shot in the head, and fell 
 mortally wounded at the general's feet. 
 
 Without entering further into a detail of operations, 
 I will hurry on to the catastrophe, which, however 
 shocking or bloody, was not, as has been asserted, 
 without a parallel in the acts of Englishmen. Some 
 have pretended tliat the Lord-deputy acted on this 
 occasion under constraint, his owa. more merciful views, 
 which he uroed with tears, beiufr overborne bv the 
 
 * Charles Amndel, in his Brief Declaration, accuses the Earl of 
 Oxford of projecting the murder of Cheke, October, 1581. State 
 Paper Office.
 
 PEEPETEA TES THE MASS A CEE OF DEL OE 0. 65 
 
 paramount authority of the Council. From the 
 character of the man, stern and implacable, we might, 
 without positive testimony, have rejected such a ver- 
 sion of the story ; but there is no need of inference or 
 conjecture. Grey is the historian of his own deed, and, 
 instead of flinching from responsibility to man or God, 
 describes what took place in exulting terms, chal- 
 lenging the approval of his contemporaries, and of 
 posterity. If any narrative of barbarity or guilt possess 
 an undying interest this does : what took place was not 
 the fierce ebullition of some obscure soldier, it was the 
 deliberate act of a nobleman, representing Elizabeth's 
 person and policy in Ireland, and standing on the 
 highest vantage-ground of English civilization, with the 
 great historian of the world among his advisers, and the 
 author of the ' Fairy Queen ' by his side. Observe, 
 then, with what imperturbable complacency, and with 
 what undoubting conviction of approval, he relates to 
 his queen the dark event which has met with so much 
 condemnation from subsequent ages. 
 
 "I stayed," he says, "in the trench, and finding their 
 shot more loosely to beat at us, and that ours did little 
 or nothing annoy them, for we did not discern either 
 by spikehole or smoke on the rampire where they lay, 
 I endeavoured, as I might, to watch their next volley, 
 and happily did it seem to come from under a certain 
 building of timber, that at the point of the curtain was 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 G6 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIQH. 
 
 set up, propped outwardly like a hovel and inwardly 
 standing like a penthouse. I went straight to the 
 baricadoes, and willed the gunners to point their 
 pieces at that place; Sir William Winter made that 
 shot at two tiers, our gentlemen were displaced and the 
 trench at great .... and by that two other tiers were 
 given, in great haste leaps one of them to the top of 
 their vantmure with an ensign of a sheet, and craves a 
 parley. Hereof straight was word sent me by John 
 Zouch, who then had the ward, and I willed him and 
 the trench-master, one Captain Piers, a very sufficient 
 and industrious man, to know what they would. It was 
 returned to me that their colonel would send one out to 
 treat with me in case his messenger might safely go and 
 return : upon advice, it was granted. There wa.s 
 presently sent unto me one Alexandro, their camp- 
 master. He told me that certain Spaniards and 
 Italians were there arrived upon fair speeches, which 
 altogether vain and false they found, and that it was no 
 part of their interest to molest or take any government 
 from your majesty ; for proof they were ready to depart 
 as they came, and deliver into my hands their fort. 
 Mine answer was, for that I perceived that their people 
 to stand of two nations, Italian and Spanish, I would 
 give no answer unless a Spaniard were likewise by. He 
 presently went, and returned with a Spanish captain. 
 I then told their captain that I knew their nation to
 
 PERPETRA TES THE MASSA ORE OF DEL OR 0. G7 
 
 have an absolute prince ; one that was in good league 
 and amity with your majesty, which made me to marvel 
 that any of his people should be found associated witli 
 them that went about to maintain rebels against you, 
 and to disturb any your higlmess's governments, and 
 taking that it could not he his king's will, I was to 
 know by whom and for what cause they were sent. His 
 reply was, that the king had not sent them, but one Don 
 Martines de Ricaldi, governor for the king at Bilboa, 
 had willed him to levy a band, and to repair with it to 
 Santander, and there to be directed by their colonel 
 here, whom he followed as a blind man, not knowing 
 whither. The other avouched that they were all sent 
 by the Pope for the defence of the Catholic faith. My 
 answer was, that I woidd not greatly have marvelled 
 if men, commanded by natural and absolute princes, 
 did sometimes take in hand wrong actions ; but that 
 men of account, as some of them made show of being, 
 should be carried into unjust, wicked, and desperate 
 actions, by one that neither from God nor man could 
 claim any princely power or empire, but indeed a detest- 
 able shaveling of the Antichrist and general ambitious 
 tyrant over all principalities, and patron of the diabolical 
 faith, I could not but greatly wonder. Their fault, 
 therefore, appeared to be aggravated by the vileness 
 of their commander, and that at my hands no con- 
 ditions of composition they were to expect other than
 
 G8 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 that they should simply render me the fort, and yield 
 themselves to my will for life or death. 
 
 With this answer he departed; after which there 
 was one or two courses to and fro more, to have gotten 
 a certainty for some of their lives ; but finding that it 
 would not be, the colonel himself, about sun-setting, 
 came forth requesting respite with surcease of arms till 
 the next morning, and then he would give me a resolute 
 answer. Finding that to be but a gain of time for them, 
 and loss of the same for myself, I definitively answered, 
 I could not grant it, and therefore presently that he 
 either took my offer or else return, and I would fall to 
 my business. He then embraced my knees, putting 
 himself to my mercy, only he prayed for the niglit he 
 might abide in the fort, and that in the morning all 
 should be put into my hands. I asked hostages for 
 the performance : they were given. Morning came. I 
 presented my forces in battle before the fort. The 
 colonel came forth with ten or twelve of his chief 
 gentlemen, trailing tlieir ensigns, rolled up, and pre- 
 sented them to me with their lives and the fort." * 
 
 "Judex damnatur," it is said, "quum nocens absolvi- 
 tur," knowing which as well as any man, Camden yet 
 undertakes to apologize for Grey's proceedings at Del 
 Oro. First, he 'affirms that the garrison equalled the 
 English in number, while a body of fifteen hundred 
 * (irey to the Queen, November 12th, 1580. !5tate Pajjer Office.
 
 PERPETRATES THE MASSACRE OF DEL ORO. 69 
 
 Irish rebels was encamped upon tlie heights near at 
 hand ; secondly, that the conquerors being without 
 clothing or provisions, needed the spoils of the fort 
 for their own subsistence ; thirdly, he maintains, that 
 Grey discussing beforehand with his officers the perilous 
 situation of affairs, yielded with tears to the arguments 
 by which they demonstrated the necessity of massacring 
 the prisoners ; fourthly, the queen, he goes on to say, 
 when news of the horrible transaction reached Eugland, 
 wished it had not been done, detesting from her heart 
 such cruelty ; yet, he sneakingly adds, " though seem- 
 ingly necessary."* 
 
 All those allegations are false, though both the 
 assistants in the slaughter and they who had afterwards 
 calmly to pronounce judgment on it naturally enough 
 sought to palliate its atrocity. Vice-admiral Bingham, 
 writing from the camp to Walsingham while his nerves 
 were yet quivering from the effects of ^^hat he had 
 witnessed, labours to shift off from the general some 
 portion of the odium which he foresees such an act must 
 bring upon the English. So, with the rhetoric of a 
 
 * Camden, ' Annals of Elizabeth,' 1580. Instead of palliating tlie 
 crime, the historian would liave done better to prove by exanijjlos 
 that it was altogether in the spirit of the times. Sir Francis Verc 
 having taken a fort in Flanders, put the whole garrison, consisting 
 of three hundred men, to the sword. ' Sidney Papers,' i., 309. So 
 again wlien Mons fell into the hands of the Frencli, eight hundred 
 of its defenders were cut to pieces.
 
 70 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 rougli sailor anxious to speak truth, yet averse from 
 censuring bis commander, he stammers out as follows 
 his extenuating recital : " They came," he says, " to the 
 point of the rampire which we had beaten with the 
 culverins with a white banner, bare-headed, and re- 
 quested a parley, which my lord granted, in that they 
 were contented the same night to surrender the place, 
 with their lives, and all that was therein to my lord's 
 will, to have mercy or not mercy as he should think 
 good ; yet for that it was night and no time to get them 
 forth, they were, by my lord, repossessed till the 
 morrow, but the best of them taken forth for gages or 
 pledges, and we that notwithstanding followed our 
 trench which we finished the same night within three 
 score paces of the fort, and so ran the same all along 
 their front where we meant to place our battery to 
 which we brought the same night two pieces. On the 
 10th, early in the morning, my lord sent in divers 
 gentlemen to take order that such munitions of powder 
 and victual should be preserved to her Majesty's use as 
 that was. The order was taken that the colonel, and 
 captains, and chief ofiScers should come forth and deliver 
 up their ensigns, with the order and economy thereto 
 belonging, which done, the band which had the ward of 
 the day within then entered ; but in the meantime were 
 entered a number of the mariners upon the part next to 
 the sea, which with the soldiers aforesaid having pos-
 
 PERPETRATES THE MASSACRE OF DEL ORO. 71 
 
 sessed the place, fell to revelling and spoiling and withal 
 to killing, in which they never ceased while there lived 
 one." * 
 
 So far Bingham. Another of those present at the 
 massacre who recked little of the lives of Spaniards 
 or Italians, enters with evident satisfaction into details 
 respecting the variety and amount of the plunder: — 
 " The forts were yielded, and the Irishmen and women 
 hanged, and four hundred and upwards of Italians, 
 Spaniards, Biscayans and others put to the sword. The 
 colonel, captains, secretary, campmaster, and others of 
 the best sort saved, to the number of twenty prisoners, 
 and Dr. Sanders' chief man, an Engiisliman, Plunkett, a 
 friar, and others, kept in store to be executed after 
 examination to be had of them. It is confessed that 
 five hundred more were daily looked for to be sent 
 from the Pope, and the King of Spain to land here. 
 There was found in the forts good store of money and 
 a great quantity of biscuit, bacon, oil, fish, rice, beans, 
 peas, and barley, being by computation victuals for 
 their company for half a year. There was also found 
 armour, morions, calivers, muskets, pikes, swords, barrels 
 of bullets, and other kinds of furniture, to serve three 
 months, and sundry tools for men of all oc(.'upations."t 
 
 * Bingliam to Walsinp;liam, Smerwick, Xovember 12tli, 1580, 
 ' Irish Papers.' State Paper Ofiice. 
 
 f Anonj'mous to Walsingham, Smerwick, November, lltb, 1580, 
 ' Irish Papers.' State Paper Oflice.
 
 72 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 In the narrative written by the general himself, I 
 discover nothing to Avarrant Camden's statement, no 
 trace of compunction, no allusion to tears, no regret for 
 the hard necessity, which, had he been doubtful of the 
 justice of his own conduct, he might have pleaded in 
 j)alliation of the massacre. On the contrary, it is clear 
 that his heart swelled with pride at the recollection of 
 what he had done, the glory of which he was so desirous 
 of monopolizing that he jealously abstained from men- 
 tioning the names of the officers, who, by the rules of 
 the service or his express order, went in at the liead of 
 the bands charged with the slaughter of the prisoners. 
 These officers, however, as we learn from another 
 authority,* were Captains Ealeigh and Macworth, who 
 on that 10th of November perpetrated one of the most 
 appalling atrocities in the history of the Irish wars. 
 Doubtless they acted under orders, and had therefore no 
 choice ; yet it is not a pleasant tiling to remember that 
 the gallant of Elizabeth's court, the august prisoner of 
 the Bloody Tower, the historian of the world, the 
 martyr of Palace Yard, achieved willingly or unwill- 
 ingly so detestable an act of cruelty.f 
 
 Grey's account of the massacre is as follows : " I sent 
 straightway certain gentlemen to see their weapons and 
 
 * Hooker, ' Supply to the Irish Chronicle,' Holingshed vi., 439. 
 
 t In his ' History of the World,' Ilaleigh describes a parallel 
 massacre, though on a much vaster scale, which took place during 
 the Persian invasion of Greece, Works vi., 33.
 
 PEMFETBA TES THE MASS A CEE OF DEL OEO. 73 
 
 armour laid down, and to guard the munition and 
 victuals that were left, from spoil. Then put I in cer- 
 tain bands who straightway fell to execution. There 
 were six hundred slain ; munition and victual great 
 store, though much wasted through the disorder of the 
 soldiers, which in their fury could not be helped." The 
 Spaniards and Italians of rank whose lives Grey 
 spared were distributed among his favourite officers, 
 that they might be enriched by the sums to be paid for 
 their ransoms. It does not appear that Ealeigli enjoyed 
 any portion of this reward, for he seems to have already 
 incurred the dislike of the general, which subsequent 
 events deepened into rancour. To impress Elizabeth 
 with the policy of conferring sucli rewards, Grey says : 
 " Though your majesty may, and I doubt not will, have 
 good service done, yet truly for toils and misery sustained 
 in it, through length and hardness of ways, extremity of 
 weather, coldness of season, continual watching and 
 penury of victual, hardly by any soldiers will the like 
 again be performed. Your majesty at this service had 
 here but eight hundred men ; they have pulled out of a 
 fort well fortified, better victualled, excellently stored 
 with armour and munition for six hundred men, whereof 
 four hundred were as gallant and goodly personages as 
 any I ever beheld."* 
 
 * Grey to Elizabeth, Smei^wick, November 12th, 1580, 'Irish 
 Papers. State Paper Office.
 
 74 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 I now come to a still more startling feature of this 
 transaction. Camden, though, he wrote under James, 
 who was ever eager to tarnish Elizabeth's fame, yet 
 shrank from confessing to posterity that she had ap- 
 proved of the massacre of Del Oro. Such, however, is 
 the fact. Cruelty lurked close beneath the surface of 
 the Tudor blood, so that at the least provocation it 
 leaped into life and prompted to acts of ferocity. Eliza- 
 beth moreover was a woman of the sixteenth century, 
 brave and fearless in the midst of danger, but convinced, 
 nevertheless, that over those who obviously sought her 
 position, her crown, her life, the lex talionis gave her 
 absolute jurisdiction. She regarded them as men do 
 murderers on the highway whom the law of nature 
 renders it permissible to destroy in self-defence. Besides, 
 the age, I repeat, was a barbarous age, in which nothing 
 was viewed in the light in Avhich we behold it now. 
 These facts I state not to justify Elizabeth but to ex- 
 plain her conduct. Standing at the bar of posterity, 
 she thus enumerates her motives and makes her 
 defence : — 
 
 By the Queen, your loving Sovereign, 
 
 Elizabeth K. 
 Trusty and Well-beloved, — 
 
 As the most happy success you have lately had 
 against certain invaders sent by the Pope, contained in
 
 PERPETRA TES THE MASS A ORE OF DEL ORO. 75 
 
 your letters brought unto us by our servant Denny, doth 
 incomparably show the greatness of God's love and 
 favour towards us, so your care and pains in following 
 of the same, and courage in executing thereof, deserveth 
 great thanks and commendations wherein you have 
 answered by effects the good opinion we received of 
 your sufficiency at the time of our choice made of you 
 to supply the place you do now hold, not doubting there 
 will appear greater fruits of your valour in reducing the 
 diseased state of the realm to such conformity as God 
 may be better served, we obeyed, and this our realm 
 not burthened with charges as of late years it hath 
 been, wherein assure yourself you shall not lack any 
 good countenance and favour in such measure as neither 
 any .... practice shall be able to prevail against, and 
 therefore upon this assurance you may proceed with the 
 more comfort in the charge committed unto you. In 
 this late enterprise performed by you so greatly to our 
 liking, we could have wished that the principal persons 
 of the said invaders to whom you have promised grace, 
 which we will see performed, had been reserved for us 
 to have executed towards them either justice or mercy 
 as to us should have been found best, for so it seemeth 
 to us most agreeable to reason that a principal should 
 receive punishment before an accessary, which would 
 have served for a terror to such as may be hereafter 
 .... to be executioners of so wicked an enterprise.
 
 76 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 when they heard here, that as well the heads as inferiors 
 had received punishment according to their demerits. 
 
 Upon the great good report you have given unto us 
 of such captains and soldiers as in this enterprise did 
 assist you, for their great forwardness and courage in 
 performing this so acceptable a service to us, we would 
 have you let them understand in how thankful part we 
 accept the same ; and so much the rather for that we 
 have been informed what great penury they have sus- 
 tained in our service there, not only for want of necessary 
 victual, but also in regard of the badness and unseason- 
 ableness of such scarcity as they had ; wherein as we to 
 our great grief, holding notliing so as the pre- 
 servation of the health and lives of the soldiers, think 
 ourselves very ill-served by such officers to whom the 
 care thereof hath been committed, so you will let them 
 understand that we will see better order taken hereafter, 
 as well in that as in all things requisite for their better 
 comfort and encouragement, and for the advancement 
 of om- service."* 
 
 On the top of the above letter, drawn up of course by 
 her ministers, and copied by a secretary, Elizabeth, we 
 are informed by Walsingham, wrote what follows in a 
 fine lioman hand. It is worthy of note that her 
 
 * Elizabeth to Grey, December 12th, 1580, ' Irish Papers.' State 
 Paper Office.
 
 PEBPETRA TES TEE 3IASSA CPE OF PEL OPO. 77 
 
 lano-uao"e, generally vigorous and perspicuous, becomes^ 
 when she talks of sentiment or love, so involved and 
 mystical that it is scarcely practicable to follow the 
 course of her ideas. To Grey she says, " The mightiest 
 hand of the Almightiest Power hath showed manifest 
 the force of his strength in the weakness of feeblest 
 hope ; and mind this, you live to make men ashamed, 
 
 ever hereafter to disdain In which action I say 
 
 vou have been chosen the lieutenant of His glory with 
 us to give you no cause to " Abruptly broken off.
 
 78 LIFE OF SIE WALTER BALEIGE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IRISH CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Unteoubled apparently by the least remorse for the 
 terrible part he had played at Del Oro, Ealeigh returned 
 to his old quarters in Cork, while the Lord-deputy pro- 
 ceeded to Dublin, to make preparations for dealing with 
 the rebels, who in number and daring were growing 
 every day more formidable. Scarcely can a doubt be 
 entertained that, through the instrumentality of the 
 priesthood, Eome and Spain held continual communica- 
 tion with the Irish nobles, whose hopes were kindled by 
 the knowledge imparted to tliem of Philip's ultimate 
 designs. To fill up the chasm between the j)resent and 
 the future it was their policy to skirmish with events, 
 to pursue a dubious course by professing loyalty while 
 secretly stimulating rebellion, and, by multiplying the 
 scenes of action, to necessitate the dispersion and conse- 
 quently the weakness of the English forces. The task 
 of checking these movements had devolved on Ormond,
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IRISH CAMPAIGN. 79 
 
 who had been reinstated in the unenviable position of 
 general and governor in IMunster. Under his command 
 Raleigh served, thongh his military genius and political 
 sagacity, aided by experience, led him to form a low 
 estimate of the Earl's abilities. 
 
 With the germs of numerous plans in his mind, Ealeigh, 
 in the dead of winter, set out for Dublin, in the hope of 
 prevailing on the Lord-deputy to adoj)t his scheme for 
 trampling out the insurrection, while perseveriug in that 
 course of rigid economy insisted on by Elizabeth and 
 her ministers. Though he had already begun to be 
 viewed in an unfavourable light by Grey, he obtained 
 an audience, and was permitted to set forth his ideas. 
 The result showed one of two things: first, that the 
 Lord-deputy laid no great stress on his suggestions ; or, 
 secondly, that he was led through petty jealousy to deny 
 him the means of developing them on a scale which 
 would command the attention of the Home Government. 
 Accordingly he sent back the energetic young officer 
 with a large field of duty mapped out for him, but a 
 very small increase of means for filling it up. Ealeigh 
 was instructed by the Lord-deputy to watch over the 
 movements of tlic Barrys, to seize on Barry Court and 
 its demesnes, and to adopt such other measures as he 
 might deem necessary for restoring or preserving the 
 peace of the country. But to show him perhaps how 
 completely he adopted his ideas of economy. Grey met
 
 80 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 his demands for additional means by granting him a 
 body of four infantry and three horse to escort him back 
 to his quarters. On account of the difficult nature of 
 the country, an Irish 23easant was added to serve as 
 guide ; and at the head of this force Ealeigh left Dublin to 
 fight his way back through an enemy's country. The 
 Ireland of those days resembled the inland portions of 
 Australia or the backwoods of America, save that here 
 and there the ruins of some ancient church, monas- 
 tery, or feudal castle, spoke of former attempts at civili- 
 zation. 
 
 To despise a foe is never safe, as Ealeigh on this 
 homeward journey learned by experience. By acts of 
 severity or ferocity he liad caused the Catholics to 
 regard him^ with hatred ; and well aware of his move- 
 ments, they deputed Fitz-Edmunds, seneschal of Imo- 
 kelly, to be the exponent of their feelings. Ealeigh 
 had already passed Youghal, and was approacliing the 
 Blackwater, when he touched the meshes of the ambush 
 laid for him. Habitual triumph over danger had made 
 him reckless : like a knight of romance he pricked 
 across the plain, meditating probably on the grand 
 schemes he had formed for the total reduction of the 
 island, when Fitz-Edmunds, emerging from the woods 
 at the head of numerous followers, caught sight of and 
 dashed forwards to intercept him. 
 
 Ealeigh with no less speed made for the ford : it was
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IRISH CAMPAIGN. 81 
 
 a trial of horsemanship — down the slope with whoop 
 and yell came the Celts — on, on spurred the colossal 
 Saxon — the river before him, the foe behind — his horse 
 was fleet ; he gained the river's bank, plunged into the 
 stream, and soon stood on tlie other side, pistol in hand. 
 His followers, thoroughly awakened to the peril of 
 loitering, now pressed forward in all haste ; Henry 
 Moyle, a trooper, first ; then Raleigh's servant, Jenkins, 
 with two hundred pounds in his saddle-bags ; with the 
 rest of the retinue pell-mell at their heels. In the 
 middle of the stream Moyle's horse stumbled and threw 
 his rider, who, shouting for aid, brought Raleigh to 
 his relief.* In their haste, however, they managed 
 matters clumsily, for Moyle was no sooner remounted 
 than he fell again ; his horse taking fright, rushed off, 
 and was captured by the enemy. Still Fitz-Edmunds 
 and liis galloglasses, lothe to engage in a hand-to-hand 
 encounter, kept aloof till the English had passed the 
 ford. They however made a show of keeping up the 
 pursuit, though at a respectful distance, till Raleigh 
 and his men, spurring across the plain, reached a ruined 
 castle, in which they could have defended themselves 
 against much greater odds. Upon this Fitz-Edmunds 
 with his followers stopped short, and soon disappeared 
 among the woods. 
 
 Not long after reaching Cork, Raleigh wrote an 
 
 * Hooker, p. 441. 
 VOL. I. O
 
 82 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 account of the state of things to the Lord-deputy, from 
 which Shakespeare might have taken his description of 
 Falstafif's ragged regiment. " There is great need," he 
 says, " of a supply in Munster, for the bands are all 
 much decayed. The bands G. and .... were so 
 ordered in the raising that no man was the better '■> 
 for the officers had the furniture, and the soldiers ran 
 away ; the men are such froward miserable creatures as 
 the captains dare not lead them to serve : if your 
 honour had beheld them when they arrived here you 
 would think them far unfit to fight for her majesty's 
 crown. An like your honour there is no fit place to 
 land them that their captains may receive them fur- 
 nished but Cork, from whence they may most con- 
 veniently be delivered over."* 
 
 The object of Kaleigh's absence being divined by the 
 rebels. Lord Barry's castle of Barry Court was delivered 
 to the flaqies, and the lands devastated, in order that 
 the English might derive no benefit from their occupa- 
 tion. Lord Barry himself being then a prisoner in 
 Dublin Castle, his son David exercised authority in his 
 name, dismantling strongholds and raising troops. When 
 called upon by Ormond to explain his conduct, he, like 
 the Earl of Essex twenty years later, pretended to fear 
 that Raleigh would take his life, since, together with 
 
 * Raleigh to the Lord-deputy, February 23rd, 1581 ' Irish 
 Papers.' State Paper Office,
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IBTSH CAMPAIGN. 83 
 
 Sir Warham St. Leger, he had obtained from the Lord- 
 deputy authority to do with him and his estates what he 
 Hsted,* From an incident belonging to this part of 
 Ealeigh's story, we perceive that the spirit of knight- 
 errantry was not yet extinct. At a parley between 
 the Lord Governor and the rebels, Ealeigh observing 
 Fitz-Edmunds among them, taunted him for his cow- 
 ardice, since at the ford, when the Irish were to the 
 English as twenty to one, he declined coming to close 
 quarters ; to this the seneschal made no reply, but 
 one of his followers answered that though his master 
 had been on that day wanting in courage, nothing 
 of the kind would ever happen again. Ormond, over- 
 hearing what was said, proposed to the seneschal a 
 combat of two, four, or six, against as many L-ish, 
 if they desired to give proof of their valour. I will 
 come, he said, with Walter Ealeigh and four others, 
 we will cross the great river and there encounter as 
 many of you rebels, and try on which side the su- 
 periority of valour lies. The challenge, however, was 
 not accepted. 
 
 But though Raleigh and Ormond were for a while on 
 friendly terms, dissensions gradually arose between 
 them. Men in office, especially in distant provinces, 
 commonly satisfy themselves with doing as little as 
 
 * Ormond to the Lord-deputy, March 13th, ' Irish Papers/ TIjis 
 letter is signed copia vera, with the name of Kdmund Spenser .
 
 84 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIOH. 
 
 possible for tlie public service, and view with dislike 
 all who urge them to perform more. Ealeigh, whose 
 energy was indefatigable, beheld with impatience the 
 listlessness of Ormond, and complained of it to the 
 Lord-deputy, which led to the removal of the earl from 
 his command ; yet the tone of his suggestions is so 
 proud, peremptory, and masterful, that it appears to 
 have inspired Grey with jealousy. 
 
 Whatever others might do, the centurion of Cork 
 allowed himself no respite from labour and study. He 
 desired to put an end to the rebellion, and re-establish 
 Elizabeth's authority from Cape Clear to the Giant's 
 Causeway. In consequence of this irrepressible energy, 
 and the genius that guided it, he became, in the 
 opinion of the Lord-deputy's own secretary, better 
 qualified than any other man living to quench the fires 
 of insurrection, and wisely to govern Ireland. He 
 understood the causes that gave perennial life to re- 
 bellion, and made civil war the inheritance of every 
 successive Lord-deputy. 
 
 He had yet the simplicity to imagine he should earn 
 favour with his superiors by imparting to them his bold 
 and perspicuous ideas, though he speedily made the 
 discovery that to rise above them in generalship or 
 policy was only to provoke their hatred. He offended 
 Ormond by proving himself abler than he; he in- 
 curred the persevering enmity of Grey by communicat-
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IRISH CAMPAIGN. 85 
 
 ing to the Queen a plan for the government of Munster 
 at once effective and economical. 
 
 On the 1st of May, 1581, Ealeigh forwarded to the 
 already irritated Lord-deputy his opinion on the state 
 of affairs in Munster in a letter, the stvle of which 
 is that of equal writing to equal, not that of a captain 
 addressing his general : — 
 
 " Fearing that it should seem strange unto your lord- 
 ship the little service done in these parts, I presume 
 to write unto your honour in my own excuse, lest your 
 lordship should grow in ill opinion of us that are and 
 have been continually lying in the presence of the 
 enemy to be directed. The bands of Sir George 
 Bourchier, Edward Barkley, Captain Dowdall, and of 
 myself, have ever been since the second week of Lent, 
 remaining in Cork, and both the great wood of Conolagh, 
 Harlo Clenlis, and all the county of Limerick, and 
 counties between the Dingle and Kilkenny, left without 
 any companies, either to defend itself or annoy the 
 enemy ; since which time we have made two journeys, 
 the one towards Kilkenny to give convoy to my lord 
 and attend his return, and the other into Conolagh, 
 by wliich journeys, the one being in horrible weather, 
 and the other utterly bootless, being done with- 
 out draught or espial ; and besides being enforced 
 to walk such unreasonable marches, where we de- 
 spatched a churl of the traitors, we lamed, lost, or
 
 86 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIQE. 
 
 left behind a soldier unserviceable with two of our 
 men. 
 
 " The poor bands have cursed the change they made 
 in leaving to follow your honour, as they have told 
 the Lord-general many times ; and this 1st of May we 
 are going another posting convoy towards Kilkenny ; 
 but to colour the matter we shall march some two 
 days out of our way to seek we know not whom. The 
 store of Cork, except it be a small quantity of wheat 
 and butter, is all spent within the walls ; and now it 
 will be alleged we cannot serve for want of victuals, or 
 else because the bands are not supplied; although we 
 were never less than four hundred strong ; and yet Sir 
 George Bourchier's and Captain Barkley's left at Kill- 
 mallock and Askyton. We have spent these two 
 mouths of the spring in parleys with David Barry, 
 Barry Roe, the Countess of Desmond, and Finnan 
 McCarthy; and we think it will be two months more 
 ere he will be resolved whether these ought to be 
 followed or no — ^and yet there is no day passeth without 
 some traitorous villanies by the Barrys committed. The 
 Countess of Desmond is returned, and brought so many 
 followers with her hither to carry provision with her as 
 the earl for his part shall be better able to keep the 
 field all this summer, and at her going away, none of 
 her train either searched or looked over. 
 
 Barry Eoe is the Lady Barry having
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IRISH CAMPAIGN. 87 
 
 gathered her goods into Cork, and fearing that by 
 the attainder of her husband these will be found for 
 the Queen. Her young son (Barry Eoe), that five days 
 before fell on the garrison of Youghal, is brought in to 
 serve that town, to carry the goods into O'SuUivan's 
 country or elsewhere for the more safety, and besides 
 this man shall keep some store of cattle and such im- 
 potent people as cannot follow Davey Barry into the 
 field, with many other — either for the Queen or for the 
 
 1 Q \%7 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ r^ ^ ^ ■yf: ^ 
 
 Barry Court and the island which yom- honour willed 
 me to keep, hath since been many times defaced and 
 the other spoiled and preyed. From this island the 
 traitors can never want neither wine, nor salt, iron, nor 
 any other necessary provision, nor if need be, advertise- 
 ment from Spain or elsewhere, being common for any 
 man to land on. Notwithstanding it is left naked, and 
 the castle broken that stood at the entrance thereof, I 
 will at my own cost build it up again, and defend it 
 for her majesty. I would rather be an humble and 
 earnest suitor to your honour for it, in that I hear the 
 Lord-general purposeth, when I have taken the toil in 
 making it detieusible and been at the charge, to turn 
 me over for my charges to the Queen, and dispose of 
 the island to some other. J hope your honour will 
 stand my good lord therein. If it please your honour 
 to give me commission, there may be another hundred
 
 88 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIQH. 
 
 soldiers laid upon the country hereabout. I hope it 
 will be a most honourable matter for your lordship, 
 most acceptable to her majesty, and profitable to the 
 country, and the right means to banish all idle and 
 fruitless galloglasses and kerns, the ministers of all 
 mischiefs. Thus most humbly beseeching your honour 
 not to condemn any of us tliat are willing to deserve 
 your honour's favour, I humbly take my leave."* 
 
 The Lord-deputy, thoroughly tired of his office, had 
 already, in the spring of 1581, begun to press for his 
 recal. The pay of his army was so far in arrears, that 
 when in the course of the summer a considerable sum 
 was remitted to him, it barely sufficed to allow the 
 soldiers two shillings in the pound. Secretly the Home 
 Government, like the first Napoleon, meant to quarter 
 the troops upon the country, a system which — soldiers 
 being neither provident nor economical — soon ex- 
 hausted the resources of Ireland ; after which the 
 armv had frequentlv no other subsistence than the flesh 
 of dead horses, cows, sheep, and other loathsome oflfal.t 
 Mercy to the natives under such circumstances was 
 hardly to be looked for. 
 
 Having received Ealeigh's letter, Grey, on the 14th 
 
 of May, repeated to Walsingham his desire to be 
 
 relieved from what he deemed an intolerable burden. 
 
 Means had been suggested for defraying the expense of 
 
 * Cork, May 1st, 1581. f Murdin, pp. 348, 361.
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IRISH CAMPAIGN. 89 
 
 two thousand men, and the secretary might perceive, 
 he said, by Mr. Raleigh's letter, that others could 
 discover no impossibility in it. To persons so sanguine 
 he was willing to relinquish the honour of carrying out 
 their own designs, while he, in a tone of pique and 
 sarcasm, begs Elizabeth to set him at liberty. " By 
 your letters," he observes to Walsingham, " I perceive 
 the hardness and in a manner resolution of her majesty 
 to leave this country to tumble into the sway of their 
 own sensual government. Well, God send her majesty 
 the quiet good and honour of it she expects ; for mine 
 own part, if regard of God and her majesty moved me 
 not, I, as any other governor, might be glad of it, that 
 course no doubt being to lay the easiest and gainfulest 
 trade for him that shall carry the ofSce ; but confessing 
 that my conscience may not be persuaded to be an 
 instrument to such a purpose, good sir, afford the 
 uttermost of your wonted favour in getting me dis- 
 charged ; that shall be, to me, not a pain, but per- 
 formance of your faithful friendship andgood-will.* 
 
 Some of Ealeigh's services while at Cork were ex- 
 tremely unpleasant. Nearly all the Irish nobles were 
 suspected of holding communication with the rebels ; 
 thus the Earl of Kildare, and his son the Baron of 
 Ophalia, being accused of treason, though, as far as can 
 
 - * Grey to Walsingham. Dutlin, May 14th, 1581. MS. ' Irish 
 Papers.'
 
 90 LIFE OF SIR WALTER JtALEIOH. 
 
 be discovered, without the least truth, were sent over 
 to England and lodged in the Tower, where, after a 
 long captivity, the father died. In like manner the 
 Lord Roche was now assailed by evil reports, for which 
 reason Ormond commissioned Ealeigh, whom he evi- 
 dently regarded as the most daring officer under his 
 command, to proceed with his company to Bally-in- 
 Harsh, where Eoche had a castle, and there to seize 
 and bring him and his wife prisoners to Cork. 
 
 Between the issuing of the order and its execution no 
 delay was enterposed. On the same night, at the head 
 of ninety men, ten of whom were cavalry, Raleigh set 
 out, about eleven o'clock, and pushing forward in the 
 dark, through miry roads beset with enemies, presented 
 himself early in the morning before the castle gate, 
 close to which lay a town inhabited by Lord Roche's 
 retainers, who prepared to defend their chief. Seeing 
 them come forth to the number of about five hundred, 
 Raleigh ordered his men to keep the townspeople in 
 check, and accompanied by his lieutenant, Butler, with 
 some other officers, knocked loudly at the castle gate. 
 They were presently answered from within by some 
 of Lord Roche's gentlemen, who on hearing that the 
 captain desired to speak with their lord, said he might 
 enter if accompanied only by two of his followers. 
 Raleigh insisted on the admission of all those that 
 were with him, and the soldiers approaching from the
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IRISH CAMPAIGN. 91 
 
 town during the parley, contrived, a few at a time, to 
 insinuate themselves into the court, and then closing 
 the iron gates, the castle with all its inmates was at 
 their mercy. 
 
 Lord Eoche had now no choice but to receive the 
 Enghsh officers, whom he invited to dinner. Ealeigh 
 then explained the object of his visit, and showed the 
 commission by which he was ordered to take his lord- 
 ship and his lady prisoners, and conduct them into the 
 presence of the Earl of Ormond, at Cork. 
 
 To this Lord JKoche, relying probably on the number 
 of his retainers, replied that he neither could nor would 
 obey the orders of Ormond; but upon Kaleigh's ob- 
 serving that if his lordship refused to go peaceably he 
 must take him by force, he understood the impolicy 
 of resistance, and consented to depart. At Raleigh's 
 suggestion his lordship ordered the townspeople to form 
 themselves into a guard to protect his departure, and 
 saying that he was in a condition to clear himself, 
 Roche set out cheerfully with his captors. 
 
 Having received intelligence that Barry and Fitz- 
 Edmunds, with about seven or eight hundred men, lay 
 in ambush on the road to Cork, Raleigh again chose 
 the night for his march. The distance was small, not 
 exceeding twenty miles, but the ways being miry, 
 broken, beset with rocks, and full of sloughs and 
 pitfalls, it was difficult to advance in the pitchy
 
 92 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 darkness. The weather was, besides, tempestuous, and 
 the cold severe ; but nothing could dismay Ealeigh or 
 his men, who marched ready at any moment for battle, 
 and partly through skill, partly through good fortune, 
 eluded the vigilance of the rebel force, and reached 
 Cork without losing a man. The captive nobleman, 
 whether innocent or guilty, contrived to make out a 
 good case, and there is reason to believe he had been 
 calumniated, since he ever afterwards clung to the 
 English party, and lost three of his sons in its 
 
 cause.* 
 
 When in the summer of 1581 the Earl of Ormond 
 ceased to be general in Munster, the government of the 
 province was intrusted to Sir WilHam Morgan, Walter 
 Ealeigh, and Captain Piers, till Zouch, the new 
 governor, should arrive. These officers lived in camp 
 at Lismore, on the Blackwater, whence, on the 25th of 
 August, Raleigh wrote to his friend and early patron 
 Leicester, complaining of, his wretched position in 
 Ireland. " I have spent some time here under the 
 deputy," he says, "in such poor place and charge as 
 were it not for that I know him to be as if yours, I 
 would disdain it as much as to keep sheep. 1 will not 
 trouble your honour with the business of this lost land, 
 for that Sir Warham St. Leger can best, of any man, 
 deliver unto your lordship the good, the bad, the 
 
 * Hooker, p. 444.
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IRISH CAMPAIGN. 93 
 
 mischiefs, the means to amend, and all in all of this 
 common wealth, or rather common woe."* 
 
 Wliile proceeding, in September, from Lismore to 
 Cork, preparatory to quitting Ireland, Ealeigh i became 
 entangled in an adventure which nearly put a period to 
 his career. He might well speak of the country as a 
 lost land, since nothing went on there as in other parts 
 of the world. Rebellion did not signify a simultaneous 
 rising of the people, the organizing of large bodies, 
 an army, a camp, a common treasury, a general leading 
 his followers to victory or defeat — but an endless series 
 of ambushes, murders, forays, revenges, with no other 
 result than to render a settled government impossible. 
 
 Having spent the summer in scouring the woods and 
 fastnesses in Waterford, Cork, and Tipperary, Ealeigh 
 left Lismore, and at the head of eight horse and eighty 
 foot, took the road to Cork. Though warned that 
 Barry, with several hundred men, had taken post on 
 his line of march, contempt for the enemy led him to 
 attach no importance to the intelligence. 
 
 In fact when he approached this rabble of kerns 
 and galloglasses, they fled and dispersed, which, inspir- 
 ing him with still greater contempt, he rode like a 
 knight-errant across the plain, followed by six horsemen, 
 considerably in advance of his infantry. Observing a 
 number of Irish making towards a wood, he galloped 
 
 * Wright, ' Elizabetb, and her Times,' ii., 149.
 
 94 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEiaH. 
 
 forwards to intercept them, upon which they faced 
 about, and made a rush at their assailants. A hand- 
 to-hand contest ensued, the kerns with their skenes 
 and pikes killed several horses, and mortally wounded 
 Ealeigh's own steed, which plunged so violently in 
 the agonies of death that he was in danger of being 
 run through with a pike before he could disengage 
 himself from the stirrups. He owed his life to the 
 -courage and fidelity of his servant, Nicholas Wright, 
 a Yorkshireman, who, shouting to the English soldiers 
 to rescue then captain, charged the enemy ; at the 
 same moment FitzRichard and a friendly kern dis- 
 entangled Ealeigh from his dying horse. At his captain's 
 call Wright ceased from pursuing the Irish to defend 
 FitzRichard : there was a mel6e, English, kerns, gallo- 
 glasses, thrusting, cutting, without order ; but at length 
 the rebels fled, several of their number having been 
 slain or taken prisoners. 
 
 With this adventure terminated Raleigh's personal 
 services in Ireland, which in the month of December 
 he left as the bearer of despatches from his cousin 
 Colonel John Zouch, Governor of Munster to Lord 
 Burleigh. * 
 
 The handsome soldier no sooner appeared at court, 
 
 * Zoncli's Despatches are dated December 4th, 1581, and he 
 observes that the bearer will explain to his lordship " the manner o 
 his taking upon him the government of Munster." State Paper 
 Office.
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IBISE CAMPAIGN. 95 
 
 where he had mimeroiis relatives and friends, than 
 he became the favourite of Elizabeth, who doubtless 
 regretted he had been suffered to remain absent so 
 long. His manner, we are told, was always winning — 
 his speech eloquent, and the tone of his conversation 
 at once peremptory and pursuasive. At the age of 
 twenty-nine, therefore, he began to be regarded with 
 high favour and indulgence by his sovereign of forty- 
 eight. He described to her the wars of Ireland, gave 
 her frankly his opinion of Ormond and Grey, and 
 delivered to her in writing a "plot," as it was then 
 called, for the better government of Munster, for the 
 disciplining and disposal of the garrisons, for repressing 
 rebellion, and effecting a large saving for the treasury. 
 This was attacking Elizabeth on her weak side, especially 
 when the cause of economy was advocated by so 
 magnificent a pleader. When the aspiring captain 
 sailed from Cork, Grey probably hoped he had not 
 only seen the last of him, but experienced the last 
 of his influence. He was mistaken. The sceptre of 
 thought which Ealeigh wielded could throw its long 
 shadow from Nonsuch to Dublin, and startle the Lord- 
 deputy in his castle there. It appears to have been 
 with dismay that Grey heard of Ealeigh 's plan for 
 the better government of Munster, at which his fiery 
 temper boiled over in the following fierce letter to the 
 Earl of Leicester : —
 
 9(5 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 "Having lately received advertisement of a plot 
 delivered by Captain Ealeigh unto her majesty for 
 the lessening of her charges here in the province of 
 Munster, and disposing of the garrison according to the 
 same — the matter at the first, indeed, offering a very 
 plausible show of thrift and consideration, might easily 
 occasion her majesty to think that I have not so 
 carefully as behoved looked into the state of that cause 
 and the search of her majesty's profit. Wherefore 
 having with some of the best advised of the council 
 here enclosed with consideration thereof, and perceiving 
 many inconveniences with some impossibilities in the 
 account, we have (as by our general letters to her 
 majesty herewith you may perceive) laid down our 
 judgment and opinion thereof, which when it shall 
 come unto your lordship's deeper consultations, I doubt 
 not but you will soon discern a difference between 
 the judgment of those who with grounded experience 
 and approved reason look into the condition of things, 
 and those who upon no ground but seeming fancies and 
 effecting credit with benefit, frame plots upon im- 
 possibilities for others to execute ; and so, trusting that 
 your lordship with the rest will esteem of both for 
 the rest, I will refer you to those reasons which we 
 have in our said letter laid before her majesty. Further- 
 more, I have to complain unto your lordship, whose 
 only redress I look for in these matters, of the great
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IRISH CAMPAIGN. 97 
 
 slackness and default of Bland, tlie garrison of Muuster 
 utterly starved by him, &c. 
 
 P.S. It hath pleased God to give the Lord Zouch 
 the killing of the Lord of Desmond, that arch rebel and 
 traitor. I heard of it three days past, but this night 
 I received the perfect confirmation thereof, and with 
 him hath he taken another notorious knave, called 
 James FitzJohn of Strangallie. The news I trust will 
 not dislike your lordship, as well in the private behalf 
 of your poor kinsman's good hap as of the common 
 good, neither wall your lordship, I hope, spare to 
 advance the due commendations of the endeavour to 
 her majesty."* 
 
 It was not long before Lord-deputy Grey made the 
 discovery of how formidable a rival he now had in 
 the Queen's favour. Leicester indeed was his kinsman 
 — ^but Leicester's own statue often rocked on its pedestal 
 when touched by the finger of Ealeigh, to Avhom 
 not many years later he chiefly owed his reinstatement 
 in Elizabeth's favour. On the 2nd of April Walsingham 
 forwarded a despatch to Grey, in which reference was 
 made to the Queen's letter of the day before. What 
 his feelings w-ere on the receipt of it we may con- 
 jecture from the language in which he professes 
 obedience to her majesty's commands, which he affects 
 not to have received in her own words. When, how- 
 
 * ' Irish Papers.' 
 VOL. T. n
 
 98 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 ever, lie read and reflected on her language, he must 
 clearly have understood both Kaleigh's position and 
 his own. 
 
 "Eight-trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. 
 Whereas we be given to understand that Captain 
 Appesley is not long since deceased, and the band of 
 footmen which he had committed to James Fenton, 
 for that as we are informed the said Fenton hath 
 otherwise an entertainment by a certain ward under 
 his charge ; but chiefly for that our pleasure is to 
 have our servant, Walter Kaleigh, trained some longer 
 time in that our realm for his better experience in 
 martial affairs, and for the special care 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. These are to require you that the leading of 
 the said band may be committed to the said Ealeigh, 
 and for that he is for so many considerations by us 
 licensed to stay here, our pleasure is that the said band 
 shall be in the meantime, till he repair unto that our 
 realm, delivered to so many officers, as he shall (appoint) 
 to be his lieutenants, there with charge that they yield 
 to him and his lieutenants, like quiet obedience as they 
 did to Appesley, which shall be our good intention. 
 Given at our Manor of Greenwich, the — day of April, 
 1582, in the twenty-fourth year of our reign.* 
 
 * 'Irish Papers.'
 
 CLOSE OF HIS IRISH CAMPAIGN. 99 
 
 It could scarcely be expected that Grey would allow 
 such an occasion to pass without giving vent to the 
 feelings he cherished towards Ealeio-h. Allowino; himself 
 several weeks to cool, reflection and leisure could yet 
 not restrain him within the bounds of moderation, 
 though he well knew that what he wrote Elizabeth 
 would read. '•' As to Captain Ealeigh's assignment 
 to charge of Appesley's band, which in your letter 
 of the 2nd of April you write to be signified unto me 
 by a letter from her majesty, I have no letter that 
 specified any such thing to me, and for mine own 
 pait I must be plain, — I neither like his carriage nor 
 his company, and therefore other than by direction 
 and commandment, and what his right require, he is 
 not to expect from my hands."* 
 
 After this we experience no surprise that in three 
 months from the date of this communication Grey 
 had ceased to be Lord-deputy of Ireland. 
 
 * Grey to Walsingham, ' Irisli Papers.'
 
 100 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 IMMEESED IN COURT INTRIGUES. 
 
 Raleigh found tlie court in a state of extraordinary 
 excitement, caused by the arrival of the Due d'Anjou, 
 formerly Alengon, who hoped to win a crown by taking 
 to wife a lady old enough to be his mother, AVhether 
 or not Elizabeth desired to take a husband at all may 
 be matter of doubt, but whatever her wishes may have 
 been, her reason soon became convinced, that an union 
 with him, whom Sidney in his rough language calls " the 
 son of the Jezebel of the age,"* was a step too hazardous 
 to be ventured upon. 
 
 Leicester, who understood both his mistress and the 
 nation, was far too subtle a politician to be defeated by 
 a stripling as hideous in mind and manners as he was in 
 person. It seems probable that he had in reality no 
 obstacles to surmount, and that it was agreed between 
 him and the Queen that the French court should be 
 
 * Letter to the Quern. ' Sidney State Papers.'
 
 IMMERSED IN COURT INTRIGUES. 101 
 
 soothed, and public opinion on the Continent conciliated 
 by putting on the appearance of yielding only to neces- 
 sity in rejecting the last matrimonial offers that could 
 be made by one of Catherine de jMedici's sons. We 
 have seen, and shall see again, how skilfully Elizabeth 
 could play the actress, and therefore need attach little 
 importance to her dramatic flirtations with Anjou, to 
 the incident of the ring, to lier deep sighs, to her croco- 
 dile tears, or to any of those other external manifesta- 
 tions of passion which she could put on or off as easily 
 as her glove. Besides, with the magnificent Leicester, 
 the gentle Hatton, and the gallant and handsome 
 Ealeigh at her side, is it to be credited that she could 
 have cherished for one moment the project of linking 
 herself to a creature as frightful as the " Devil's dam ?" 
 After tolerating three months of amorous fooling, 
 Leicester dismissed his would-be rival ; and to soften his 
 discomfiture, consented to escort him out of the land, 
 accompanied by a brilliant retinue, among whom were 
 lialeigh and Sidney.* It was Elizabeth's intention, we 
 are told, to proceed as far as Dover, but the plague 
 breaking out in that place,! she stopped short at Can- 
 terbury. To lialeigh the Queen now deigned to show 
 especial favour, by intrusting him with a secret mission 
 
 * 'Sidney State Papers.' Mr. Lioyd, 'Life of Sir Philip Sidney, 
 p. 136. 
 
 t Lord Charles Howard to AValsingliam, February 4th, 1582. 
 State Paper Office.
 
 102 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 to the Prince of Orange, which, when the other noble- 
 men and gentlemen should return, would detain him for 
 a while in the Low Countries. 
 
 In spite of my general view of this transaction, I 
 
 confess that some circumstances connected with it seem 
 
 to be at variance with my interpretation of Elizabeth's 
 
 conduct. On Sunday, February lltli, three days after 
 
 the duke's departure, Burleigh Avrote a long letter to 
 
 Walsingham, concluding with an exceedingly curious 
 
 paragraph : — " Marchmont," he says, " is come to this 
 
 town, and desireth to speak to me, which I think must 
 
 be for money, I pray you know her majesty's mind 
 
 herein .... of late his lodgings in Cannon Eow was 
 
 robbed, and in a trunk his writing was also embezzled, 
 
 and the trunk conveyed into a garden, when the persons 
 
 that found it brought to me the very indented papers, 
 
 written betwixt de Bex and you, written in your name, 
 
 the discovery whereof made me ready to blush to see by 
 
 that accident such profligacy. ... As I can guess 
 
 wickedness in that house bred the theft, as the like did 
 
 to Combelles by that infamous strumpet. Lady Hilton."* 
 
 As Anjou appears to have been always in want of money, 
 
 he had probably extorted from Elizabeth a promise to 
 
 replenish his empty purse, and left behind Monsieur de 
 
 Bex, his ordinary gentleman of the chamber, to transact 
 
 * Burleigh to Walsingbam, February 11th, 1582. State Paper 
 Office. 
 
 f
 
 IMMERSED IN COUBT INTRIGUES. 103 
 
 the business with Walsingham. The negotiation was 
 successful, for in an exchequer account dated 24th of 
 March following, we find the same de Bex bearing an 
 order to the secretary for fifteen tliousand pounds in 
 gold to be conveyed to France, and there laid out in her 
 majesty's service : this enormous sum, equal to seventy- 
 five thousand pounds of our day, was no doubt meant for 
 the use of Elizabeth's unsuccessful suitor. 
 
 By the end of March, Ealeigh had completed his 
 business in the Netherlands, and returned, bearing letters 
 from the Prince of Orange to Elizabeth. Surrounded 
 by his kinsfolk, who formed no small portion of the 
 court, he thenceforward devoted himself to the Queen, 
 whose favour he had already won. His conversation, 
 all writers agree, was brilliant and fascinating, though 
 tradition ascribes to him an awfulness of aspect which 
 daunted ordinary listeners.* His mistress, however, was 
 charmed by it, as well as by the splendour of his person 
 and manners, and laid so much stress upon his counsel 
 that she was accused of regarding him as an oracle, t 
 From the tone of his mind, from the topics on which he 
 loved to think and write, from his proficiency in litera- 
 ture, above all in poetry — which it is well known 
 Elizabeth loved — from his experience in peace and war, 
 still more from his ^fiery temperament and ardent 
 
 * Aubrey, ' Lives of Emiuent Men,' ii., 509. 
 t Fragiucuta Kegalia.
 
 104 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 passion for adventure, his eloquence, we may be sure, 
 ranged freely over all those subjects which were most 
 adapted to kindle her imagination. When opportunity 
 offered he could likewise say soft things as well as 
 Oxford or Hatton — and to subdue a fierce and awful 
 nature into softness is a triumph in which women 
 always delight. Elizabeth, accordingly, appears to 
 have been more flattered by Raleigh's adoration than 
 by that of any other among her lovers. Scandal 
 immediately became busy witli their connection and 
 caused it to be whispered throughout Europe, espe- 
 cially at the courts favourable to l^Iary Stuart, that 
 the man whose hands had been made red with blood at 
 Del Oro had now become Elizabeth's minion,* and 
 decked with silk, gold, and jewels, flitted like an Adonis 
 about her person. 
 
 Leicester had long reached that philosophic state in 
 which, provided he preserved his political ascendancy? 
 he could easily tolerate the multiplication of partners in 
 Elizabeth's affection. He had her cousin at Kenilworth ; 
 he had young and lovely mistresses at court ; he could 
 afford, therefore, to behold his youthful protege, Raleigh, 
 dislodging Hatton from his position, and receiving some 
 drops of that love-shower of manors, castles, and estates 
 which she rained so lavishly upon her favourites. Cicero, 
 
 * JNIorgan to Mary Stuart from the Bastile, March 31st, 1586. 
 State Paper Office. 
 
 1
 
 IMMERSED IN COURT INTRIGUES. 105 
 
 describing his contemporaries, says of one of tliem, tliat 
 he rendered himself exceedingly unpopular by his in- 
 ability to tolerate the ignorance of those around him. 
 It was much the same with Raleigh, whose scoffs and 
 sarcasms were as keen as his sword. 
 
 I have already said that Elizabeth's love for Hatton 
 had now, in 1582, lost all the fervour of passion, though 
 she still retained for him an affectionate and generous 
 friendship ; but he who seems never to have cared much 
 for any one else, could not be satisfied with so altered a 
 sentiment. Cynics might pretend that he only longed 
 for the good things which her love had formerly lavished 
 on him ; but this was not the case. He grieved to see 
 that while her bounty towards him knew no stint, either 
 in opulence or honours, she evidently gave up herself to 
 his rival. This wa-ung his heart, this poisoned his extra- 
 ordinary worldly success, and this incessantly corroding 
 his sensitive nature — laid him, before he had passed the 
 noon of life, in his remote grave at Holdenby. At the 
 time of which I am speaking, however, he took what 
 steps he could to bi-ing back the Queen's capricious 
 preference. EHzabeth had passed with her new 
 favourite into the familiarity of using the Christian 
 name, which she condescended to pronounce playfully 
 without the L, saying to him, " Come here !" or, " Go 
 there. Water !" Hatton, whom the same lips had 
 formerly sported with, as " Lids," " Belwether," or
 
 106 LIFE OF SIB WALTER BALEIOH. 
 
 "Pecora Campi," well understood the import of this 
 free-and-easy way of speaking to a man : and in the 
 hope of regaining his old influence, repeated the experi- 
 ment, the danger of which Sir Edward Dyer * had long 
 ago pointed out to him. 
 
 Many critics of our day are fond of searching among 
 Elizabeth's courtiers for the prototypes of Shakespeare's 
 remarkable characters. Essex being Hamlet, South- 
 amj)ton Horatio, and so on. By the same rule Sir 
 Thomas Heneage must surely be Polonius. It was 
 through this solemn personage, upon whose gratitude for 
 numerous favours conferred Hatton rightly counted, that 
 the assault on the Queen's tenderness was to be made. 
 Desirous of symbolizing the apprehensions with which 
 the humid element inspired him, the ex-favourite chose 
 three things to intimate the nature of his fears. The 
 most obvious of course was a letter in which he could 
 explain himself without symbols, but she might refuse 
 to read it. In that case her imagination was to be 
 addressed by the present of a bucket which would 
 suggest how anxious he was to provide against the 
 dauo;er with which he Avas threatened bv "Water." 
 Last came a bodkin, a thing of more uses than one, for 
 while it might be employed to keep a woman's tresses 
 from falling into disorder, it might also, in the hands of 
 despair, give a deserted lover his quietus. 
 
 * Nicholas, ' Iniroduction to Davison's Khapsody,' i., 73.
 
 IMMERSED IN COURT INTRIGUES. 107 
 
 Some such nonsensical meaning as this was, I fancy, 
 intended to be conveyed by the missive and symbols 
 confided to the hands of Sir Thomas Heneage. Faith- 
 ful to his trust, the go-between watched for the auspicious 
 moment when Ealeigh should be out of the way ; but 
 so assiduous was his attendance upon Elizabeth, so 
 mindful of the necessity of Avarding off all sinister 
 influences that Polonius' ingenuity was sorely put to 
 the test. The way in which the business was at length 
 managed he shall be allowed to explain in his own 
 words : " I received your letters," he says, " with your 
 token to her majesty before ten of the clock this 
 morning, which I carried up immediately to her high- 
 ness, then ready to ride abroad to kill a doe in the 
 parrock of the Great Park ; and desiring to furnish her 
 majesty with the bucket, because I thought, as it hap- 
 pened. Water should be so nigh her as soon as she 
 came out of her drawing-chamber, I presented her 
 withal, together with the letter you wrote, which she 
 took in her hand, and smiling, said, ' There was never 
 such another,' and seeking to put the bodkin in her 
 head, where it could not well abide, she gave it me 
 again, and the letter withal ; Avhicli when she came into 
 the standing in the parrock, she took of me and read 
 and with blushing cheeks uttered many speeches (which 
 I refer till I see you) the most of them tending to the 
 discovery of a doubtful mind, whether she should be
 
 303 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 angry or well-pleased : in the end showing, upon con- 
 ference, her settled opinion of the fidelity and fastness 
 of your affection, and her determination ever to give 
 you good cause nothing to doubt her favour." * 
 
 Lovers usually invent for themselves a language and 
 expressive symbols, the subtle meaning of which they 
 at least hope no one else will discover. This was pre- 
 eminently the case with Elizabeth and Hatton; they 
 talked in hieroglyphics, but so little able were they to 
 conceal what lay beneatli the surface that the least 
 Machiavelian of courtiers could hardly fail to detect 
 their drift. When Hatton selected from the treasures 
 of Egyptian lore the triangle as his cypher, Elizabeth 
 could not have felt otherwise tlian flattered by the 
 adoration of the sex which it implied. Sometimes 
 words with a double meanino' familiarlv known to both 
 were employed, and according to the accident of time, 
 either suggested ideas of impassioned delight or of cold 
 and vapid reminiscence. Though Elizabeth blushed — 
 as no doubt she well might — at the circumstances which 
 Hatton brought to Jier recollection, she was not un- 
 willing that, while Ealeigh possessed the substance, 
 Hatton should still be indulged with Ixion's part. 
 
 Heneage, in spite of his anxiety to be exact, may 
 possibly have remembered Elizabeth's words imperfectly, 
 or else she was thrown into such a flutter by the 
 
 * Nicholas, ' Life of Hatton,' p. 275. 
 
 ^ 
 
 I
 
 IMMERSED IN COURT INTRIGUES. 109 
 
 presence of one lover, and the remembrance of another, 
 that her language fell disjointed from her lips. " That 
 which I was willed to write unto you is this, that she 
 liked your preamble so ill as she had little list to look 
 on the bucket or the book ; and that if princes were 
 like Gods, as they should be, they would suffer no 
 element so to abound as to breed confusion ; and that 
 Pecora Campi was so dear unto her that she liad 
 hounded her hanhs so sure as no water or floods could 
 be able ever to overthrow tbem. And for better 
 assurance unto you that you should fear no evil, she 
 hath sent you a bird, that together with the rainbow 
 brought the good tidings and the covenant that there 
 should be no more destruction by water."* 
 
 These deceitful assurances brought but little comfort 
 to the unhappy Sir Christopher, whose absence from 
 court became more and more frequent, because when he 
 went thither he witnessed little but new marks of pre- 
 ference for his ambitious rival. His dancing-days were 
 over, though Elizabeth's were not ; and he had no pro- 
 jects of conquest, glory, or gain to inflame her imagina- 
 tion or stimulate her cupidity. On the other hand, 
 Raleigh, to whom love was only a pastime, and a 
 mistress a plaything, hud a brain which absolutely 
 seethed with vast designs. He saw that England by no 
 means occupied the position which nature meant her to 
 * Nicholas, ' Life of Hatton,' p, 277.
 
 110 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 hold in the political world, and threw forth his thoughts 
 in all directions in order to discover suitable means 
 and an adequate iield on which to develop her energies. 
 
 Elizabeth's government met with constant checks and 
 impediments through the scantiness of its finances, and 
 it was beyond the competence of the statesmen of the 
 day to supply the deficiency. Ealeigh's vigorous and 
 searching mind had made the discovery that an im- 
 mense revenue could only be obtained through free 
 trade ; but as that idea was not likely to meet with 
 much favour from the Lord Treasurer, he had to devise 
 other plans for filling the national coffers. Spain, he 
 knew, imported incalculable treasures from America, 
 where gold, it was believed, sparkled in every stream, 
 and lay in exhaustless abundance in the bowels of every 
 mountain. Thitherward, therefore, should the enterprise 
 of England tend ; and at the very moment when his 
 dalliance with the Queen maddened Sir Christopher 
 Hatton, and appeared to absorb his thoughts and 
 exliaust his vigour, his imagination, in truth, was 
 wafting its way across the Atlantic, and planting in 
 the virgin soil of North America the germs of those 
 mighty colonies whose power and grandeur constitute 
 at this moment the astonishment if not the terror of 
 the world. 
 
 An interval of three years from the failure of his first 
 expedition to the West Indies had sufficed to relume 
 
 I
 
 IMMEBSED IN COURT INTRIGUES. Ill 
 
 his hopes : Sir Humphrey Gilbert, also, ^Yith the 
 buoyant spirit of a true adventurer, was recovering, 
 though slowly, from the blow dealt him by the Spaniards 
 in 1579 ; and the object of both the half-brothers being 
 the same, they laboured conjointly to interest all around 
 them in their project, the conception of which implied 
 the existence in their minds of ideas far in advance of 
 their age. Gilbert, however, had hitherto profited but 
 little by the knowledge he possessed ; for having lost 
 hold of the skirts of Fortune, he went on ever after 
 vainly plunging forward in the hope of grasping them 
 again. Three ships, all that remained of his former 
 fleet, he had lent to the Government, to be employed 
 against the Spaniards on the Irish coast; but the 
 money due to him for these services he found it 
 impossible to obtain from the Lord Treasurer. In the 
 summer of 1582 he repeated to Walsingham his applica- 
 tion for payment, and complained that although he 
 had served her majesty from boyhood to the age of 
 Avliite hairs,* the means of performing still more for 
 her and for the country were withheld from him. 
 
 But he had now at length got an advocate at court to 
 whose pleading Elizabeth could not refuse to listen. 
 Still though she smiled faintly on the plan for fitting 
 out another expedition, she appears to have contributed 
 but little money, and her example becoming contagious, 
 
 * Gilbert to Walsingham, July lltli, 1582. State Papev'Office.
 
 112 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 Gilbert's design obtained the countenance of very few, 
 though among those few Philip Sidney was one.* 
 
 At the outset Kaleigh intended to accompany his 
 half-brother ; but the Queen, being dismclined to part 
 so soon with her new favomite, overruled his design. 
 She, moreover, entertained an objection to Gilbert's 
 commanding the fleet in person, having observed, as she 
 expressed it, that " he had no good hap at sea :" in what 
 hap consists no philosopher has yet explained, though a 
 large portion of history be only a commentary on the 
 fact, that certain families and individuals, distinguished 
 for great abilities, have yet found their fortunes blossom 
 only to be blighted. In Gilbert's case we need perhaps 
 seek no other explanation than the fact tliat with 
 slender resources he attempted great undertakings, 
 and could therefore have only hoped for success 
 through the interference of that power which Ealeigh 
 denominates " the god of fools." With a nation's 
 revenues at their backs, Raleigh and Gilbert might 
 have turned the stream of human affairs into a new 
 channel, and impressed a different aspect on the history 
 of the world. As it was, the smallness of their means 
 contrasted so strikingly with the vastness of their aim 
 that nothing but respect for their genius can even now 
 protect their enterprises from ridicule. 
 
 To form part of Gilbert's fleet, Ealeigh built a ship, 
 * ' Sidney Papers,' i., 298. 
 
 I
 
 IMMERSED IN COURT INTRIGUES. 113 
 
 and bestowed on it his own name, with which aid Gilbert 
 was constrained to content himself. At length his 
 little fleet, manned, victualled, and ready for sea, was 
 collected on the Devonshire coast, where he received 
 the following letter from Kaleigh ; '' Brother, I have 
 sent you a token from her majesty — an anchor guided 
 by a lady — as you see ; and further, her highness willed 
 me to send you word, that she wished you as great 
 good hap and safety to your ship as if herself were 
 there in person, desiring you to have care of your- 
 self as of that which she tendereth, and therefore for 
 her sake you must provide for it accordingly ; further, 
 she commandeth that you leave your picture with me. 
 For the rest I leave it to our meeting or to the report 
 of this bearer, who Avould needs be the messenger of 
 this good news. So I commend you to the wall and 
 protection of God, who sends us such life or death as 
 he shall please or hath appointed." 
 
 After receiving this ominous letter, Gilbert was de- 
 taiued by contrary winds nearly three months in and 
 about Plymouth Sound ; but at length quitted Caw^sand 
 Bay in the heart of summer, and sailed forth into the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 Into the melancholy history of this voyage it would 
 be beside my purpose to enter at length. Away went 
 the gallant explorer towards the West, and for several 
 months kept moving to and fro over the 0!'(\in, his 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 little fleet now dispersed, now collected, till on the 
 9tli of September, two days after, Elizabeth's birthday, 
 which her seamen always celebrated, he was beheld 
 for the last time reclining on the deck of his vessel,* 
 either reading or consulting some chart. Night then 
 closed in, rough and boisterous, and when the morning 
 of the tenth dawned, Gilbert's ship could nowhere be 
 seen upon the waters. The brave adventurer had 
 perished ; the survivors returned to England with the 
 evil tidings, which, instead of disheartening, only the 
 more stimulated Raleigh to pursue and complete the 
 design his brother had formed. 
 
 * Captain Edward Hayes, in Hakluyt, iii., 202. 
 
 ■J 
 
 i;
 
 FOUNDATION OF OUR COLONIAL EMPIRE. 115 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 LAYS THE FOUNDATION OF OUll COLONIAL EMPIEE, 
 
 There is little difficulty in tracing- in outline the course 
 of Raleigh's public services ; but when we leave these 
 and attempt to form an idea of his position and 
 proceedings at court, the case is altered. It has 
 been already seen that his rise was as rapid as it 
 was unexpected, and that many among the nobility 
 who wished to occupy the highest places in the Govern- 
 ment and about the Queen without doing anything 
 to deserve their honours, and indeed without possessing 
 the ability to do anything, regarded the growth of 
 his influence with malignant envy. It must no doubt 
 have been painful to long-tried statesmen like Burleigh 
 to ask favours of Elizabeth through the intermediation 
 of a young man, who, as they were likely to believe, 
 owed his power to befriend them entirely to his hand- 
 some person and winning manners. This opinion, 
 however, of the new favourite, if they ever entertained
 
 116 LIFE OF SIB WALTER BALEIGH. 
 
 it, was speedily destroyed by experience. Instead of 
 displaying, like a Somerset or a Buckingliam, the 
 rudeness of an upstart, Kaleigh treated his seniors and 
 superiors in office in the most courteous and respectful 
 manner, so that they seem gradually to have lost their 
 repugnance to employ him as their mediator. 
 
 The Earl of Oxford, it has been seen, by marrying 
 into Burleigh's family, became to the old man a source 
 of perpetual vexation. Besides indulging in blasphe- 
 mous and unbecoming language, which oftentimes was 
 carried so far as to revolt the feelings even of men 
 of the world, he drank, gambled, and connected himself 
 with women to be acquainted with whom was itself 
 a disgrace. Though thoroughly irreligious, he seems 
 to have had spasmodic fits of partiality for the old 
 church, and was accordingly suspected, like Arundel and 
 Paget, of conspiring against the interests of Protestantism 
 and the State. Therefore, though his dancing may 
 have inspired Elizabeth with admiration, his general 
 conduct was so little to her liking, that she not only 
 forbade him her presence, but threw him into prison. 
 It is possible that Charles Arundel's accusations, how- 
 ever extravagant, may have been based on truth, 
 especially where they carried with them the keenest 
 sting. Ealeigh observes, that if you would thrive at 
 court, you must never venture to tell a great lady 
 however true it may be, that she is not fair ; and 
 
 \
 
 FOUNDATION OF OUR COLONIAL EMPIRE. 117 
 
 Oxford was accused of liaYiug gone much farther in 
 speaking of Elizabeth, who, he affirmed with unpardon- 
 able insolence, not only sang and danced, but did 
 everj'thing else with the worst grace that ever woman 
 did.* 
 
 How much of this could have been proved Elizabeth 
 probably never paused to inquire, but overwhelmed 
 him at once with her indignation. As father-in-law 
 of the offender, Burleigh naturally espoused his cause, 
 confining his view, however, to certain public brawls 
 and scandals, and overlooking his worst delinquencies. 
 Assuming the influence of Hatton to be still powerful, 
 he besought him to exert it, saying: "These things 
 are hardly carried, and these advantages are easily 
 gotten where some may say what they will against my 
 Lord of Oxford and have presence to utter their 
 humours, and my Lord of Oxford is neither heard nor 
 hath presence either to complain or defend himself."t 
 
 In the above passage, by some, I fancy he means 
 Ealeigh, whom Oxford had forced to become his enemy ; 
 yet when all other intercessors had failed, it was to this 
 enemy that Burleigh betook himself, entreating him 
 not only to lay his letters before the Queen, but to 
 become at the same time an advocate for his son-in-law 
 
 * Particulars, by Arundel, of Oxford's Vices, loSl, — no month- 
 State Paper Office. 
 
 t Burleigh to ilatton, Jlarch 12th, 1583. MchoLis, p. 322.
 
 118 LIFE OF Sin WALTEB BALEIQH. 
 
 To such an appeal Raleigh could not be deaf; and 
 without forgetting the relation in which Oxford had 
 long stood to him, consented to plead his cause. " The 
 evening," he says, " after the receipt of your lordship's 
 letter, I spake with her majesty, and ministering some 
 occasion touching the Earl of Oxford, I told her majesty 
 how grievously your lordship received her late dis- 
 comfortable answer. Her majesty, as your lordship 
 had written — I know not by whom lately and strangely 
 persuaded — purposed to have new repetition between 
 the Lord Howard, Arundel, and others and the Earl, 
 and said it was a matter not so lightly to be j)assed 
 over. I answered, that being assured her majesty would 
 never permit anything to be prosecuted to the Earl's 
 danger, if any such possibility were — and therefore it 
 were to small purpose, after so long absence and so 
 many disgraces, to call his honour and name again 
 in question whereby he might appear the less fit either 
 for her favour or presence. In conclusion, lier majesty 
 confessed she meant it only thereby to give the Earl 
 warning ; and that as it seemed to me being acquainted 
 with his offences, her grace might seem the more 
 in remitting the revenge or punishment of the same. 
 I delivered her your lordship's letter, and what I said 
 further, how honourable and profitable it were for her 
 majesty to have regard of your lordshij)'s health and 
 quiet, 1 refer to the witness of God and good report
 
 FOUNDATION OF OUR COLONIAL EMPIRE. 119 
 
 of her highness ; and the more to witness how desn-ous 
 I am of your lordship's favour and good opinion, I am 
 content for your sake to lay the serpent before the 
 fire as much as in me lies, that having recovered 
 
 strength, myself may be most of his poison 
 
 and sting. For answer her majesty would give me 
 no other, but that she would satisfy your lordship, 
 of whom she ever had and would ever have special 
 care and regard."* 
 
 During this period, and for a few years longer, 
 Raleigh enjoyed the advantage of conversing and 
 corresponding familiarly with Leicester and his nephew 
 Sidney, and was consequently looked upon as an out- 
 sider by the Cecil faction. By degrees, as their knowledge 
 of the man increased, the leaders of the party slackened 
 in their hostility, though there always remained a 
 gi'udge at the bottom, which, as we shall see, ripened 
 into full activity when time served. 
 
 For one great quality among many others Elizabeth 
 was remarkable — she coveted men's love, but abhorring 
 effeminacy, delighted to behold her lovers distinguish 
 themselves by their achievements. Instead, therefore, 
 of keeping Ealeigh dangling perpetually about the 
 court, she sent him down to Devonshire, that by his 
 eloquence, of which she had felt the force, he might 
 
 * Ealeigh to Burleigh, May 12th, 1583. 'Burleigh Papers.' 
 British Museum.
 
 120 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 win for himself a place in the legislature, where he 
 could at the same time earn distinction and promote 
 her interests. He accordingly presented himself to 
 the constituency, and being always popular in the 
 West, was chosen, with Sir William Courtenay, to 
 represent the county in parliament.* All who know 
 anything of Ealeigh are aware that he was a practical 
 man, equal to all sorts of business, and so indefatigable 
 in his application, that Cecil, who knew him well, 
 used to say he worked like a horse. The scanty 
 records of the House of Commons in those days do 
 not enable us to form an adequate idea of his per- 
 formances ; we know that he frequently served on 
 committees, and spoke on nearly all great questions 
 that came before the House, especially such as were 
 connected with foreign policy, religious toleration, and 
 social or commercial reform. He was already no mean 
 proficient in political economy, and occasionally opened 
 up long vistas into the dusky recesses of this science, which 
 had then made little progress since the time of Aristotle. 
 
 Still the predominant idea in Ealeigh's mind was J 
 that of founding for England a colonial empire, partly 
 by discovering and peopling unknown lands, but chiefly 
 by wresting America, North and South, from the grasp 
 of Spain. On this subject most of his business 
 dialogues with Sir Humphrey Gilbert may be supposed 
 
 * D'Ewes, p. 339.
 
 FOUNDATION OF OUR COLONIAL EMPIRE. 121 
 
 to have turned ; on the same theme he frequently con- 
 versed with Sidney, as Avell as with many otliers; 
 but his highest ambition was to inflame Elizabeth's 
 imagination by the dazzling prospect of extending her 
 sceptre over America, and drawing thence not only an 
 abundance of gold, but of all such materials of com- 
 merce as might be expected to be found in vast regions 
 altoofether new. 
 
 It has been objected to Raleigh that, like some other 
 adventurers, he looked no further than the acquisition 
 of the precious metals, though such a notion be incom- 
 patible with the slightest acquaintance with the history 
 of those times. Ealeigh left out of sight scarcely any 
 consideration that could actuate a statesman in covetins^ 
 foreign possessions. In his addresses and memorials he 
 constantly expatiates not only on the raw materials of 
 opulence, but on the outlet for redundant population, on 
 the expansion and improvement of industry, on the 
 advantages to be derived from a large carrying trade, 
 on the increase of political power, and on the satisfac- 
 tion of imparting the Christian religion and a more 
 enlightened morality to savage races. These were the 
 topics by which he prevailed upon the Queen, as well 
 as U]ion parliament, to favour his scheme of coloni- 
 zation, which on March 25th, 1584,* was shown by 
 the famous patent granted him to search out and 
 
 * See the Letters Patent in Hakluyt, iii., 297.
 
 122 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 take possession of new lands in the western hemi- 
 sphere. 
 
 No sooner had he as lord proprietor obtained 
 authority over the countries that should be explored 
 and annexed to the British crown, than he equipped 
 and sent forth two ships under the command of Philip 
 Amadas,* and Arthur Barlow the historiographer of the 
 voyage, who left the shores of England on the 27th of 
 April. 
 
 The predominant idea in the mind of that age was, 
 that Pagans possessed no right to the regions they 
 inhabited, and that it was consequently lawful, religious, 
 and moral to invade their territories, seize upon their 
 estates, reduce them personally to the condition of serfs, 
 
 * There is at Simancas an extremely curious document, being the 
 deposition of Eichard Butler before the criminal court at Madrid, 
 where he was arraigned as a spy. Having left Ireland at the age of 
 ten, he came to London, and entered as a page into the service of 
 Raleigh, who, when he had reached the age of sixteen, sent him 
 with Captain Amadas to make discoveries in America. His narrative, 
 either through his own errors or those of[the transcriber, makes sad 
 havoc with dates, but in other respects seems deserving of credit. 
 That he was, when taken, a spy in Raleigh's service, I make no doubt ; 
 and that he could, had he been inclined, have stated many more 
 startling particulars than those which his conscience led him, as he 
 . piously affirmed, to disclose to the court, with the fear of the Inquisi- 
 tion before his eyes. His companions in misfortune on this occasion 
 were three young Englishmen, who, in the habit of Franciscan friars, 
 peered about through Philip's dominions for the service of Elizabeth. 
 The rest of their story may still he hidden in tlie general archives of 
 Simancas, where possibly it may yet be found. Declaracion que dio 
 Ricardo Butiler, 2 de Mnyj, 1593. Simancas, 
 
 I
 
 FOUNDATIOX OF OUR COLONIAL EMPIRE. 123 
 
 or rather ignoring their existence altogether, to deal 
 with their possessions as so many desert tracts. This 
 theory originated at Rome, whose popes, with the con- 
 nivance of all Catholic Europe, arrogated to themselves 
 the power of annulling the laws of nature, and hallow- 
 ing the worst excesses of crime and cruelty in the 
 ajjpropriation of newly-discovered lands. 
 
 In the very word discovery, there lurked a pernicious 
 fallacy ; when a country had been peopled and cul- 
 tivated, it had obviously been discovered by man, 
 though it remained unknown to some sections of the 
 human family, holding opinions and following practices 
 differing from those followed and held by its possessors. 
 According to the eternal laws of right and wrong, the 
 Red Indians, had they arrived in a fleet of canoes on 
 the coast of Spain, France, or England, might with as 
 much justice have called themselves discoverers, and 
 seized upon the estates of Papists and Protestants 
 because they did not stick feathers in their heads, 
 tattoo their bodies, and worship some personifications of 
 the forces of nature, recognized as divinities in America. 
 But might being identified with right, the natives of 
 the whole world, and Raleigh among the rest, were 
 eager to sot up the standards of their respective 
 countries in every region where they could, by arms, 
 convert their will into law. 
 
 While Raleigh's ships were steering their memorable
 
 124 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 course across the Atlantic, which led to the estaLlish- 
 rnent of the Anglo-Saxons in Nortli America and the 
 founding of the United States, the favourite himself 
 was engaged in very different transactions at home. 
 His relatives and connexions were already widely 
 scattered over the south of England and Wales, and 
 through intermarriage were daily extending the net- 
 work of his kinship and influence. I have more than 
 once alluded to the friendship existing between Raleigh 
 and the most prominent member of the Sidney family? 
 which was now to be cemented by the union of their 
 houses. 
 
 Without climbing genealogical trees, I may observe 
 that Sir Philip Champernoun, of IModbury, in Devon- 
 shire,* had two daughters, one of whom was married 
 to Ealeigh's father, the other to a Mr. Gamage, a 
 mau of Norman descent and of lar^e possessions in 
 Glamorganshire. The offspring of this marriage, John 
 Gamage, died yoimg, leaving behind him Barbara, an 
 only daughter, the heiress of all his estates. Barbara, it 
 is said, was still more remarkable for her beauty than 
 for her riches, so that her hand was sought eagerly by 
 numerous suitors, among whom was Philij) Sidney's 
 younger brother Robert, in whose behalf Raleigh was 
 induced to interest himself with his cousin. Though a 
 young man, he set about the matter with the coolness 
 * ' Stradling Correspondence,' pp. 22, 23.
 
 FOUNDATION OF OUR COLONIAL EMPIRE. 125 
 
 of an octoo;enarian, and instead of makino^ the least 
 inquiry about the young lady's likings or dislikings, 
 wrote directly to lier guardian, Sir Edward Stradling, 
 cautioning him, as he would answer for the same to her 
 majesty, not to afford encouragement to any wooer but 
 one who should be approved of by her nearest kindred.* 
 The gay and handsome Robert Sidney was then pro- 
 posed as a suitor, whose success, Sir Edward Avas 
 informed, would give satisfaction to her majesty. 
 Stradling seems to have cherished no dislike to the 
 proposed match, and by way of giving proof of his 
 amity, presented the author of the Arcadia with a fine 
 horse. To render success in neorotiation more sure 
 Walsingham directed the guardian to send up Barbara to 
 London forthwith, that she might be under the eye of her 
 nearest relatives, the Lord Hunsdon and Mr. Raleigh. f 
 By the marriage of his cousin with Robert Sidney, a 
 family-tie was woven between Raleigh and Robert's 
 uncle, the Earl of Leicester, who, while he lived, 
 watched over the young Sidneys witli somethiug like 
 the fondness of a parent. It was this same Robert who, 
 after being created Viscount Lisle, succeeded ultimately 
 to the earldom of Leicester. As to Barbara, she 
 became a noted personage in Eliznbeth's court, partly 
 For her beauty, but chiefly for the number of pretty 
 children with which she gladdened the heart of her 
 * ' Stradling Correspondence,' p. 23. f Ibid., p. 29.
 
 126 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 lord, and supplied perpetual materials to one of the 
 most pertinacious of court gossips, who devoted a large 
 portion of his life to chronicling her confinements and 
 her christenings.* 
 
 The possession by Ealeigh of resources equal to the 
 chartering, equipping, and furnishing of two ships, pro- 
 visioned for a six or eight months' voyage, proves that 
 he had benefited largely by Elizabeth's liberality. 
 Another event which occurred at this time shows that 
 he was diligently taking steps towards anchoring his 
 interests in the soil, so that he might at the same time 
 be deriving revenue from land and deep. Sir Francis 
 Englefield, a Catholic, afterwards attainted, had, ap- 
 parently with licence, passed into Spain, leaving his 
 estates in England under the management of Lady 
 Englefield. He seems, however, to have been desirous 
 of disposing piecemeal of his lands and manors, either 
 with a view of settling in Spain, or else in order, while 
 he stayed at the court of the Escorial, to make a figure 
 among Philip's nobles. 
 
 Raleigh's law-business and financial matters were at 
 that time transacted by Eobert Maule, doubtless a 
 solicitor, who learning that one of Englefield's manors, 
 bringing in a hundred a-year, was for sale, sent a man 
 into Spain, by the command or wath the authority of his 
 employer, to negotiate for the purchase of the estate. 
 * Eowland White, 'Sidney Pajjeis,' passtj/i. 
 
 !
 
 FOUNDATION OF OUR COLONIAL EMPLRE. 127 
 
 This agent, named Jolm Frost, who had lived from boy- 
 hood in the service of the Englefields, proceeded to 
 Spain, executed his commission, and, returning to Eng- 
 land, was immediately after his arrival, in July, appre- 
 hended as a popish spy at Plymouth,* Our relations 
 with the Spanish monarchy were then assuming a very 
 peculiar character : preparations for putting the Armada 
 to sea were in full progress ; vast galleys and galleons 
 were collected in the harbours of Spain and Portugal, 
 mariners and soldiers were brought together, and though 
 the design of Philip remained unknown, the formidable 
 blow he meditated was generally expected to be struck 
 at England. When any other than merchants, therefore, 
 visited Spain, it was suspected to be for no good, and 
 Frost, supposed to be a Paj^ist, was looked upon as a 
 dangerous person. When brought before the magis- 
 trates, however, after an incarceration of some days, the 
 fact came to light that he had passed the seas on 
 business, between Walter Kaleigh and Sir Francis 
 Englefield. On being pressed, he said the business 
 respected the purchase of a manor, the name of which 
 he had been commanded to keep secret, and accordingly 
 refused to disclose. All connection between Protestants 
 and refugees, or wandering Catholics, was held to be 
 perilous, so that much importance was attached to the 
 revelation of Frost, who was sent back to gaol in Saltash, 
 * Frost to Lady Englefield, August 1st, 1584. State Paper OCBcc.
 
 128 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 where he was watched day and night by a constable, 
 while a letter was despatched to Ealeigh at court, to 
 inquire into the truth or falsehood of the man's state- 
 ment. The messenger intrusted with this missive 
 loitered so long on the way that the magistrates, Carew 
 and Edgecombe,* Ealeigh's own relatives, fearing lest 
 their loyalty should be called in question, wrote to 
 Walsingham, enclosing Frost's examination, and excus- 
 ing the delay that had taken place through the remiss- 
 ness of the messenger, adding, they doubted not Ealeigh 
 was " her majesty's most true and faithful servant." 
 Frost, who acknowledged her majesty's supremacy, and 
 to ward off persecution went to hear prayer and preach- 
 ing in the Protestant Church, finding his imprisonment 
 likely to be protracted, wrote at length to Lady Engle- 
 field, as well as to Eobert ]\Iaule, through whose inter- 
 ference he was probably set at liberty. Five years later 
 Englefleld's estates were confiscated and seized by the 
 crown, when in all likelihood Ealeigh obtained a share 
 of them by royal gift. 
 
 Synchronous with this transaction a suit was in pro- 
 gress between Lady Gilbert, the widow of Sir Humphrey* 
 and the Lord Treasurer's nephew, Sir Edward Hoby. 
 Walsingham, it appears, took part with the lady, and 
 incensed the Queen against Hoby, who in consequence 
 
 * Joint letter to Walsingham, August 3rd, 1584. State Paper 
 Office.
 
 FOUNDATION OF OUB COLONIAL EMPIRE. 129 
 
 was in disgrace for some vears. To the testimony of a 
 man so circumstanced we cannot yield implicit credence, 
 but according to his views Walsingliam, who had been 
 the stanch friend of Gilbert, during life preserved the 
 same kindly feeling for his widow, and was indeed so 
 partial that Hoby assured his uncle Burleigh he would 
 rather abide by the judgment of Ealeigh, though his 
 adversary's brother's-in-law.* It lessens our esteem for 
 Lady Gilbert to learn that, after the gi'eat navigator's 
 death, she entered into second nuptials, in spite of her 
 large family of children, and that, too, with a man who, 
 instead of watching carefully over her j^ossessions, had 
 to be restrained by law from making spoil of them alto- 
 gether. 
 
 We left Amadas and Barlow pursuing, in the spring 
 of this year, tlieir voyage of discovery.! Barlow de- 
 scribes the incidents of the voyage with ability and 
 enthusiasm. They were among the Canary Islands in 
 May, and a month later had reached the West Indies, 
 which they speedily left, with crews already attacked by 
 sickness. Proceeding northwards, along the coasts of 
 Florida and Carolina, they enjoyed, while yet beyond 
 sight of land, " Sabsean odours from the spicy shores," 
 not indeed of Araby the blest, but of a far richer and 
 
 * Sir Edward Hoby to Burleigh, Xovember 13th, 1584. State 
 Paper OfiBce. 
 
 t Hakluyt, iii., 301. 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 lovelier land, where the grape in " Bacchanal profusion 
 reels to earth," and cedars loftier than those of Lebanon 
 wave along the breezy heights. Here they first came 
 in contact with the Ked Men, among whom they found 
 numerous pretty women and fair children, with auburn 
 and chestnut locks. After a short but friendly intercourse, 
 Ealeigh's officers quitted the shores of the New World, 
 and returned in September to England, bringing along 
 with them two natives, and a magnificent pearl, which 
 they presented to the lord-proprietor. To enter into 
 minute details would be to invade a field so ably and 
 honourably cultivated by the historians of America, who 
 speak affectionately of Ealeigh as the remote father of 
 their republic, in which two cities have been erected as 
 monuments to his memory. 
 
 Ealeigh laid before Elizabeth the narrative drawn up 
 by Barlow : in the December following his patent was 
 confirmed and enlarged ; and in the enthusiasm excited 
 by the greatness of his discovery, the honour of knight- 
 hood appears to have been conferred upon him, since, 
 on the 24th of February, 1585, we find him for the first 
 time styled Sir Walter Ealeigh* 
 
 The usual method of enriching favourites was now 
 resorted to : instead of taking money from the Ex- 
 
 * In Burleigh's orders for the musters of counties, where he is 
 directed to report on the force of the Stannaries, MS. State Paper 
 Office.
 
 FOUNDATION OF OUR COLONIAL EMPIRE. 131 
 
 chequer and bestowing it as a direct gift, tlie sovereign 
 practically conceded to one of her subjects a portion of 
 her sovereignty, enabling him by patent to levy taxes 
 on particular classes of the population. To Ealeigh was 
 awarded the privilege of licensing alehouses, and per- 
 mitting the sale of wine throughout the kingdom, the 
 city of London excepted. Each vintner was to pay 
 yearly into Raleigh's treasury the sum of one pound, 
 consequently, as the vintners amounted to many thou- 
 sands, he came at once into the possession of a j)rincely 
 revenue, which enabled him to appear on gala days at 
 court, sparkling from head to foot with jewels ; and to 
 build, man, and equij) ships which, formed into fleets, 
 ploughed the ocean like those of a king. 
 
 Legislators have always been haunted by a desire to 
 regulate other people's morality, to decide when or 
 where they may drink beer or wine, look at statues or 
 pictures, and solace themselves with other enjoyments. 
 The grave and reverend seniors of Elizabeth's parlia- 
 ment were especially addicted to this sort of ethical 
 furor which betrayed them into never-endmg hostilities 
 with tippling and vagrancy. Raleigh's wine-patent, in 
 whatever light he himself might view it, was looked 
 upon as a grievance by the dispensers of good cheer. 
 Folks who drink, and folks who sell drink, are ajjt to 
 regard everything that restricts their pleasure or prolit 
 with scant approbation, as Raleigh must have learned
 
 132 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. . 
 
 from the murmurs of bystanders while passing in and 
 out of the Mermaid. The following fragment affords a 
 glimpse of public opinion on the favourites of monopoly. 
 
 "It is desired that all former licences granted within 
 this realm be revoked, and tipplers' houses be placed 
 under strict surveillance of the justices of the peace, the 
 great and unnecessary waste of grain and victual, will 
 be thus qualified, the common receptacles of thieves 
 and stolen goods will be diminished, and the ordinary 
 concourse of rogues, vagabonds, and beggars utterly 
 extinguished. The objections against the same answered : 
 — It is said that it will prove a great exaction upon the 
 inferior subjects, being for the most part of the meanest 
 sort that are licensed to keep tippling-houses ; and for 
 example therein, the exacting grant of wines to Sir 
 Walter Raleigh is alleged." * 
 
 Another illustration of our forefathers' dislike of 
 monopoly soon presented itself. The doctors, tutors, 
 and under-graduates of Cambridge, considering them- 
 selves privileged by ancient usage to regulate their own 
 tippling, fiercely resented the attempt of the royal 
 favourite to license a vintner within their borders. 
 They were probably right, because hard study needing 
 much refreshment, it was surely for them to determine 
 
 * MS. State Paper Office ; Reasons for restricting the number of 
 alehouses, 1585. Cf. Grant to Ealeigh by the Queen, August 9th, 
 1585.
 
 FOUNDATION OF OUR COLONIAL EMPIRE. 133 
 
 when and how much they would drink. Ealeigh, on 
 the other hand, thinking himself authorised to station 
 one of his army of vintners among the doctors to deal 
 forth to them sack and tent, the university took up the 
 cudgels for unlicensed drinking, and Baxter, Ealeigh's 
 delegate, was thrown into prison. On the supposition 
 that iiigenuas didicisse jideliter artes emollit mores nee 
 sinit esse feros, Raleigh addressed the learned gentlemen, 
 endeavouring to bring them by authority and logic to 
 reason. In vain — they were stiff-necked, and would not 
 even deign to reply to her majesty's gallant favourite. 
 Once and again did he repeat his summons to the 
 polished theologians ; but turning a deaf ear to his 
 arguments, they invoked the protection of the law, 
 which gave ultimately a decision in their favour.* 
 
 * See Burleigh to Dr. Norgate, July 26th, 1585, in Oldys, p. 57.
 
 134 
 
 LIFE OF SIB WALTER BALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 HIS PEKILOUS ELEVATION AT COURT. 
 
 Whatever the amount of Raleigh's wealth may now 
 have been, it fell very far short of his ambition : the 
 words by which he expressed his contempt of his 
 employment in Ireland he might have repeated still, 
 namely, that he scorned to be an opulent and 
 effeminate courtier " as much as to keep sheep." 
 
 His American grant filled him with hoj)es, the 
 vastness of which he was careful never to reveal : 
 though they again and again urged him to lavish his 
 revenues on colonising enterprises never destined to 
 bear fruit. With all the power of his intellect and 
 acute insight into the nature of things, he yet found it 
 impossible to foresee to what an extent he should 
 become, by the steps he was then taking, the bene- 
 factor of the human race ; how many millions, through 
 generation after generation, should owe to him their 
 daily food, so that next, after the inventor of corn, he 
 should most deserve the blessings of his species.
 
 HIS PERILOUS ELEVATION AT COURT. 135 
 
 To the health and pleasure of mankind he was like- 
 wise about to contribute largely by the introduction into 
 Europe of that article the mere duty upon which 
 during the year in w^hich I write contributes nearly 
 seven millions sterling to the revenues of his country, 
 while its use constitutes the solace of all classes, from 
 the prince to the hodman. If Great Britain, there- 
 fore, should ever think of repaying with a statue the 
 debt of gratitude it owes to Kaleigh, there should be 
 placed on the lofty brow a wreath composed of the 
 tobacco-leaf and the potato-flower. 
 
 Our faults being as much a part of ourselves as our 
 virtues, Ealeigh could not, while he lived, repress the 
 exhibition of those qualities which transformed vulgar 
 envy into hounding malice, and frequently made him 
 the most unpopular man in England, though the 
 greatness of liis design secured him coadjutors. On 
 the 9th of April, 1585, the first regular colony left 
 England for that part of America which, in honour of 
 Elizabeth, liad been called Virginia. The little fleet, 
 consisting of seven ships, under the command of 
 Kaleigh's cousin. Sir Richard Grenville,* took out a 
 
 * Richard Butler, to whose deposition I have ah-eady referred, gives 
 a rather long account of this voyage, observing that Grenville in his 
 seven ships had seven or eight hundred men, soldiers, and sailors. 
 After describing their proceedings in Virginia, he relates that some of 
 Grenville's consorts captured on their return a Spanish ship laden 
 with gold, silver, and pearls. Declaracion, ut supra.
 
 136 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGE. 
 
 Imndred and eiglit settlers, with droves of cattle to be 
 let loose and acclimated in the colony, the seeds and 
 seedlings of fruit-trees to be planted that they might 
 mpress an English character on the landscape, together 
 with English vegetables and plants to stock the kitchen- 
 gardens. There were other seeds, however, on board 
 not so well calculated to insure success, I mean the 
 seeds of discord between the fiery Grenville, and Ralph 
 Lane, the Governor of the colony. 
 
 All histories of England and America are full of 
 what followed. Lane and his subordinates were wholly 
 unfit to commence the peopling of a new country. 
 Having no women with them to impart to their 
 dwellings the sanctity of home, and lay the foundation 
 of families,* they at once degenerated into a horde of 
 adventurers eager for gold, and not over-scrupulous 
 respecting the means of obtaining it ; accordingly, the 
 pleasing amity which had existed between the first 
 English settlers and the Red Men quickly gave place to 
 suspicion, treachery, and hostility, so that the process 
 immediately began which will have its completion in 
 the entire extirpation of the aborigines. 
 
 Losing sight for the moment, however, of such con- 
 
 * Richard Butler, however, who is somewhat confused about 
 numbers, saj's that Grenville left in Virginia a hundred and forty- 
 men and ten English women, with provisions, artillery, small arms, 
 and ammunition for their defence, after which he departed for Eng- 
 land, and Butler with him. Declaiacion, ut supra.
 
 EIS PERILOUS ELEVATION AT COURT. 137 
 
 siderations, we may permit our fancy to be charmed by 
 the fresh beauty of that noble land which our coun- 
 trymen were afterwards to traverse with rajDture, or 
 water with their tears and blood. There is an epic 
 majesty in the ideas suggested by their rude descrip- 
 tion of the vine-clad shores, the cedar-shaded hills, 
 the level and boundless savannahs, the broad, placid 
 rivers, the flights of white cranes, the tall maize, the 
 shrubs dropping medicinal gums, the mighty forests — 
 above all, multitudes of bold free savages, who now 
 smoked peacefully under the shade of the locust-trees, 
 and now swung their red tomahawks on the field of 
 strife. 
 
 Hariot, whose story is closely linked with that of 
 Ealeigh, from the dawn of these colonial enterprises 
 to the latest colloquies in the Bloody Tower, took, in 
 Vii'ginia, to the smoking of that tobacco, the numerous 
 virtues of which he celebrates ; and on his return to 
 England infected the lord-proprietor with his newly- 
 acquired taste. Pipes, shag, and tankards of ale were 
 consequently familiar to Ealeigh's apartments in the 
 palace, and led to several comic incidents which the 
 newsmongers of the time industriously circulated. When 
 the Red Men indulged in this luxury, they inhaled the 
 intoxicating fumes through pipes made of clay, for 
 which Ealeigh substituted pipes of silver, while our 
 rustic countrymen, when the practice spread, could
 
 138 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 devise nothing better tlian a split walnut shell, into 
 which they inserted a straw.* 
 
 One day, Ealeigh intending to enjoy in his library 
 the new outlandish luxury, sent a servant for a tankard 
 of ale, and then sat down to his pipe. When the man 
 returned, observing his master enveloped^in smoke, he 
 threw the ale over him, and then, in the greatest terror, 
 ran down stairs, shouting as he went that Sir Walter 
 was on fire.f 
 
 Sometimes we find the great Tudor Queen sitting 
 familiarly beside her favourite while he smoked, chatting, 
 laughing, and laying wagers. Once she objected to 
 him that, with all his ingenuity, he could not tell 
 the weight of the smoke. " Your majesty must excuse 
 me," replied Ealeigh, '"for the thing is quite easy." 
 Elizabeth w^as incredulous, and laid a bet that he could 
 not do what he said. "Your majesty shall be the 
 judge," he answered, and sending for a small quantity 
 of tobacco, and weighing it in her presence, he put 
 it into his silver pipe, which had probably a capacious 
 bowl, and went on smoking till the whole was consumed, 
 
 * Aubrey, ' Lives of Eminent Men,' ii., 512. 
 
 t Bowles in his notes on Pope, viii., 83, relates the following 
 anecdote of an old inn at Henstridge, a village about three miles 
 from Sherbourne on the great western road. While tobacco was little 
 known in that part of the country, a strange gentleman smoking at 
 the inn excited much alarm among the rustics, who suspected him 
 of having dealings with the devil, or to be the devil himself.
 
 HIS PERILOUS ELEVATION AT COURT. 139 
 
 then, placing the ashes in the scales and weighing 
 them, he pointed out to Elizabeth that the difference 
 indicated the weight of the smoke. The Queen 
 laughingly paid the money, saying, in allusion to the 
 alchemists, that she had heard of many Avho turned 
 their gold into smoke, but till then never knew any 
 one who could turn smoke into gold. From the date 
 of that memorable wager, the use of tobacco gained 
 ground in England, so that it may now almost be said 
 to perfume the whole island from John-o'-Groats to the 
 Land's End. 
 
 Through the story of Kaleigh's subsequent attempts 
 to realize his grand scheme of colonization it is un- 
 necessary to conduct the reader : for long years he 
 persisted in the endeavour to achieve, with the fortune 
 of a subject, what demanded the revenues of an emperor ; 
 and at last, in despair, made over his rights to a joint- 
 stock company. Down to the time of Southey there 
 were those who persevered in accusing him of being 
 wanting both in liberality and humanity towards the 
 colonists whom he induced to emigrate to the New 
 World ; but unprejudiced research* has proved all those 
 accusations to be groundless, since from the beginning 
 of his undertaking to its close Ealeigh exhausted the 
 resources both of his invention and of his purse to 
 
 * See Napier, article on Ealeigb, in the 'Edinburgh Review,' 
 No. 143.
 
 140 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 promote the interests and alleviate the misfortunes 
 of those who had confided in him. To insist any longer 
 on such points would be to gild refined gold, since 
 we may be all but certain that no one will ever 
 again be found to attempt the revival of the exploded 
 calumnies. 
 
 From this time to the great act of justice atFotherin- 
 gay all Europe was agitated by intrigues and counter- 
 intrigues for and against Mary Stuart. On her side 
 ranged the whole Catholic world, which rightly identified 
 her cause with that of wafers,* tapers, and surplices, 
 to bring about the triumph of which thousands were 
 ready to undergo martyrdom ; while all friends to 
 religious liberty, all who respected the sanctity of 
 the domestic hearth, all who could reason logically, 
 or who had made any proficiency in true philosophy, 
 
 * A curious anecdote is related by the Venetian ambassador, 
 apropos of wafer-worship. Diiriag his stay in Paris, he saj^s, while a 
 priest was celebrating mass in the church of St. Francois, a man 
 started to his feet, seized the wafer (or as he expresses it, il corpo di 
 nostro Signor) from the priest's hands, and running with it about the 
 church, at length dashed it disdainfully to the ground, exclaiming 
 that none but fools would worship a bit of bread. Instantly the 
 whole church was in an uproar, the congregation shouting and rush- 
 ing upon the man, who might have fared very badly but that the 
 gensd'armes seized and hurried him to prison. Considering the 
 temper of the times, the story might have been expected to terminate 
 with an auto-da-fe ; but as the offender had powerful friends among 
 the lawyers, he seems to have escaped with a short imprisonment, 
 December 8th, 1586. Venetian Archives.
 
 HIS PERILOUS ELEVATION AT COUBT. 141 
 
 were for Elizabeth. The two women, in fact, symbolized 
 the antagonistic principles of stagnation and progress. 
 
 If the contending parties could have kept clear of 
 
 bloodshed the drama then enacting would have been 
 
 pre-eminently comic, with its disguises and subterfuges, 
 
 its overreachings, its hypocrisies, its sudden turns of 
 
 fortune, its ludicrous discoveries. Then as now, the 
 
 allurements of the Vatican proved too potent for many 
 
 among the clergy, who deserted their parochial duties 
 
 and peaceful rectories to hustle with crawling and 
 
 half-crazy friars in the purlieus of St. Peter's. When 
 
 they had imbibed a sufficient quantity of intoxicating 
 
 superstition, they took with more or less zeal and 
 
 activity to the work of conversion, which, according to 
 
 the tendencies of the workman, assumed various shapes, 
 
 sometimes developing itself in printed libels, sometimes 
 
 in the diffusion of secret calumnies and incentives to 
 
 regicide, sometimes bordering on the tricks of the 
 
 Merry-Andrew. The vicar, for example, of Tarbeck, 
 
 in Worcestershire, having become a Franciscan, returned 
 
 to edify his former flock apparalled in " a cloak of 
 
 rat's colour, lined with green baize, the cape of tufted 
 
 taffeta, red and blue, his gerkin and gascoyns of the 
 
 colour of his cloak, his doublet white, and the stockings 
 
 of his hose of a bluish or murrey colour."* In this 
 
 * Substance of examinations, &c., August 10th, 15S2. State 
 Paper Office.
 
 142 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 rare costume the transformed Lessman could hardlv 
 fail to rouse the spirit of merriment in the rustics 
 of Worcestershire. 
 
 Unfortunately the Franciscans and Jesuits often 
 concealed beneath .their mountebank costume the most \ 
 
 sanguinary purposes. Words exercise over our minds 
 a strange power; actions which, described by certain 
 syllables, would excite our abhorrence, may often, when 
 represented by other syllables, be made to appear, 
 not only justifiable, but holy. Even in the sixteenth 
 century, to kill a woman was murder, but to take off 
 a hateful, persecuting, heretical tyrant, Avas assumed to 
 be an act pleasing to God. Hence the prolific spawn 
 of would-be assassins that crossed the Channel from 
 Kome to make away with Elizabeth. It is true that 
 when they reached the scene of their pious enterprise, 
 and witnessed the enthusiastic aifection by which, as 
 by a wall, the English queen was encircled, their 
 valour generally shrivelled into babbling, which, never- 
 theless, in several instances brought them to the 
 gallows. 
 
 Whatever might be the danger that threatened her 
 from bowl or dagger, Elizabeth still continued her 
 devotion to pleasure with one favourite after another. 
 Their jealousies, however, often exercised her talent for 
 diplomacy, and gave rise to much correspondence, 
 many fragments of which still remain. We have
 
 EIS PERILOUS ELEVATION AT COURT. 143 
 
 already seen liow the rise of Ealeigh disturbed the 
 peace of Sir Christopher Hatton, and betrayed him 
 into the employment of ludicrous contrivances for 
 regaining the affection of his capricious mistress. Years 
 went on, and the captain of Irish Horse still maintained 
 his place at court, outshining the noblest of the Queen's 
 wooers, and while he throve in love, thriving still 
 more in lordships and manors. In the spring of 1585, 
 just before the departure of the Yhginian colony, we 
 catch one glimpse more of Hatton's sentimental troubles. 
 His old friend Heneage was still potent about Elizabeth, 
 providing for her amusement, and conducting her amours. 
 By his aid it was that Hatton again attempted to 
 rekindle Elizabeth's passion by a present of bracelets 
 with a true-love knot and a letter. At the sight of 
 these tokens, affecting to wake as from a trance, she 
 inquired into the cause of the sender's absence, when 
 Heneage informed her that Sir Christopher had now 
 no place at court in which to rest, his apartments 
 having been assigned by the Lord Chamberlain to Sir 
 Walter Ralei^-h. Feio-ning much indionation, thoufrh 
 no such change could have taken place without her 
 cognizance, she called Ealeigh a knave, and abused 
 the Lord Chamberlain in strong terms. In giving 
 an account of this affair to Hatton, Heneage says : 
 " The Queen used great bitterness of speech towards 
 Raleigh, saying that 'she had rather see him hanged
 
 144 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 than equal him with you, or tliai the world should thinh 
 she did so! " The writer then alhides in pretty plain 
 terms to the nature of the connexion between Elizabeth 
 and Hatton, which at times she scarcely affected to 
 disguise. " Her Highness saith you are a knave for 
 sending her such a thing, and of that price which you 
 know she will not send back again ; that is the knot 
 she most loves, and she thinks cannot be undone."* 
 
 In about a month from this time we find this same 
 Heneage writing with Raleigh a joint letter to Walsing- 
 ham on an exceedingly curious business. One of the 
 featm-es of the times M'as the liability of Europeans 
 to be taken and kept in captivity by the Barbary 
 corsairs, who spread their ravages from Sicily to the 
 Azores, and from Algeria to the shores of Wales and 
 Devonshire. 
 
 In 1581, two Welshmen, Peter Williams and Thomas 
 Powell, were captives in Barbary, and appealed to 
 the affection of their relatives at home to effect their 
 ransom. The Muslims of Northern Africa, prototypes 
 of the Neapolitan brigands, chiefly made men jmsoners 
 on speculation ; the amount of ransom demanded for 
 an ordinary captive appears to have been about eighty- 
 five pounds sterling — at least this was the sum at wliich 
 Thomas Powell was valued. Througli the intervention 
 of Symcotts, a merchant trading to the Mediterranean, 
 * Nicholas, ' Life of Hatton,' p. 415.
 
 EIS PERILOUS ELEVATION AT COURT. 145 
 
 Thomas conveved an account of his whereabout to 
 his brother Morgan, in Wales, by whom steps were 
 taken towards his dehvtirance ; the machinery was 
 somewhat intricate, and needs not to be described here ; 
 but the cu'cumstances which brought the matter before 
 the Court of Common Pleas, where the case was decided 
 by Raleigh and Heneage, the judges themselves shall 
 explain. The business was perplexing, as most law 
 business is; but after toiling through its mazes the 
 two courtiers will be allowed, I think, to have made 
 a just decision. "When the money," they say, "was 
 sent up to London, one Nicholas Jones attached the 
 same as belonging to John Symcotts, deceased, alleging 
 that because the captive was redeemed by John 
 Symcotts' appointment, though out of his brother 
 William Symcotts' goods and bonds, made unto John 
 before his departing England by the sureties aforesaid, 
 that therefore this money was due unto John deceased, 
 and John being indebted to Jones Jones, attached the 
 same, and Jones being indebted to the Lord Mayor, 
 paid it to him." William Symcotts, however, with 
 whose property the captive had been ransomed, brought 
 an action against the Lord Mayor, and gained his 
 suit with ten pounds costs.* 
 
 Philip of Spain, to whom Mary Stuart had secretly 
 
 * Joint letter of Ileneage and llaleigh to the Couucil, ]\Iay 31st, 
 1585. State Paper Office. 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 made o^er her fancied riglits to the English throne, 
 now urged forward with double vigour his naval and 
 military preparations, upon Avhich the Netherlands, 
 not doubting that a great blow was to be struck at 
 them, demanded aid of England,* with whose interests 
 they felt their own to be identified. The assistance 
 asked was promised, and Leicester appointed to the 
 command of the English forces, took at once the 
 necessary steps for assembling and organizing an army. 
 Elizabeth, however, who had hastily consented to his 
 departure, without consulting her feelings, at the prospect 
 of losing her long-tried favourite, felt her old love 
 revive, and ordered all warlike preparations to be 
 stayed. Walsingham's letter, f by which her will was 
 signified, reached Leicester in bed at one o'clock in 
 the morning, September 27th. In his reply, written 
 immediately on receipt of the Queen's commands, and 
 while yet ignorant of her motives, he complained 
 bitterly ; his English army, he said, eager to be engaged 
 with the Spaniards, were fretting and secretly chiding 
 his delay, while all Europe would censure his apparent 
 fickleness. Acquainted with the Queen's multiplied 
 attachments, Leicester might well be at a loss to 
 conjecture why she stayed him now, and to solve the 
 
 * See Mr. Bruce's excellent ' Introduction to the Leicester Papers,' 
 p. 10. 
 
 t ' Harleiaa' MSS. 285, fol. 133.
 
 mS PERILOUS ELEVATION AT COURT. 147 
 
 enigma, proceeded at once to court. There he found 
 her love-sick and clinging as of old, doubting perhaps 
 the sincerity of her new lover, and if not, scarcely 
 regarding him as an equivalent for the object of her 
 youthful affection. The letter in which these facts are 
 revealed is perhaps one of the most curious belongir.g 
 to Elizabeth's story : — 
 
 " I find her majesty," says the Earl, " very desirous to 
 stay me. She makes the cause only the doubtfulness 
 of her own self, by reason of her often disease takmg 
 her of late, and this last night worst of all. She used 
 very pitiful words to me : she shall not live and 
 Avould not have me from her. You can consider what 
 manner of persuasions these must be to me from her, 
 and therefore I would not say much for any matter, 
 but did comfort her as much as I could ; only I did 
 let her know how far I had gone in preparations. 
 I do think for all this, if slie be well to-night, she wOl 
 let me go, for she would not have me speak of it 
 to anybody. Thus much I thought good to let you 
 kno\\', and pray you to send my wife word in the 
 morning, that I cannot come before Friday to London. 
 Grod keep you. Haste this — Tuesday, seven o'clock. 
 
 " R Leicester."* 
 
 * September '29th, true date. In tlie calendar the date given 
 erroneously is September 21st, 1585.
 
 14S LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGE. 
 
 Awaking from her love-trance, Elizabeth perceived 
 the necessity of preferring public considerations to pri- 
 vate feeling, and suffered Leicester to leave her. 
 
 With his proceedings in the Low Countries I have no 
 concern, except to observe that when he needed a body 
 of sappers and miners, he requested his friend Ealeigh 
 to raise for him, in his government of Cornwall, a 
 hundred men. To the same friend he had left at his 
 departure the task of keeping him alive in the Queen's 
 remembrance, that is, of defending him from the machi- 
 nations of Burleigh and his partizans. Raleigh's con- 
 nexion with Leicester and Sidney exposed him to much 
 ill-will at court, where various schemes were organized 
 for undermining him with the Queen and the Earl. 
 Sufficient materials have not yet been discovered to 
 enable us to follow the subtle course of intrigue pursued 
 by the Cecil faction ; but when Elizabeth's anger burst 
 forth against her lieutenant in the Netherlands, both 
 Burleiii'h and Walsingham laboured to create in his 
 mind the belief that the storm had been raised against 
 him chiefly by Ealeigh.* But if surrounded by crafty 
 enemies and false friends, Leicester seemed to lend an 
 ear to this calumny, it was but for a moment ; discover- 
 ing what was in progress, Ealeigh wTote him a letter, so 
 frank, cordial, and explicit, that the suspicions which had 
 been artfully awakened in Leicester's mind were at once 
 
 * See Mr. Bruce's ' Introduction to the Leicester Papers,' passim.
 
 EIS PERILOUS ELEVATION AT COURT. 149 
 
 removed. Had the letter foiled, tlie steps taken by 
 Elizabeth would have been decisive : when appealed to 
 by Raleigh, she ordered Walsingham, one of the autliors 
 of the calumny, to inform Leicester that instead of 
 inflaming her anger as had been supposed, Raleigh had 
 exerted himself more than any other person living to 
 serve the Earl by assuaging her indignation. After 
 this Burleigh and Walsingham could do no other than 
 acknowledge themselves to have been in error. 
 
 Leicester's government of the Nethei'lands proved, it 
 is well known, of little advantage to that country, or to 
 his own reputation. Among the causes of his ill success 
 may be reckoned the presence in his camp of Catholic 
 traitors like Christopher Blount, who betrayed his 
 designs to the enemy. It may also be inferred that 
 Blount* had already corrupted the Earl's countess, 
 whose eagerness to queen it in the Netherlands may 
 have been secretly prompted by the desire to be near 
 her paramour and future husband. 
 
 Blount was a Papist, who, like most other persons of 
 the same sect, favoured Mary Stuart, and acted the 
 traitor towards Elizabeth. In Holland he was one of 
 those who, espousing secretly the cause of Spain, 
 laboured to obstruct the policy of the English com- 
 mander, and to betray into the hands of the enemy the 
 
 * Moriian to Queen of Scots, March 31st, and April, lo8(i. State 
 Paper Uffice.
 
 J.50 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 country they Lad ostensibly gone over to defend. One 
 of the Stuart agents, writing from Paris, says : — " I 
 know Blount's mind and confidence he hath in me, 
 more than in most men living, having been his friend in 
 prosperity and greatest distress. He hath some charge 
 and interest where he is, and his meaning is for the 
 service of God and the advantage of the king of Spain, 
 to further the delivery of some notable towns in Holland 
 and Zealand to the king of Spain and his ministers, 
 wherein, nevertheless, he desireth to proceed by my 
 poor advice and labours himself, being now in a notable 
 place to do great service to all Christendom, by aiding 
 the expulsion of heretics that usurp and invade the pos- 
 sessions of his majesty Catholic."* 
 
 Eeturuing, however, to Kaleigh and the court, we 
 find that Elizabeth's fickleness and frailty gave rise, in 
 the spring of 1586, to fresh scandals. Sir Charles Blount, 
 afterwards Lord Mountjoy and Earl of Devonshire, 
 coming at this time to court, was taken immediately 
 into favour, to the great annoyance of Raleigh, who 
 could not behold otherwise than with deep regret the 
 weakness of a mistress whom, if he could not love, he 
 at least desired to respect. In one sense he loved 
 Elizabeth then and always — that is, he regarded her 
 with unswerving friendship, and cherished her reputation 
 
 * Paget to Mary Stuart, 1586. ' Scottish Papers.' State Paper 
 Office.
 
 HIS PERILOUS ELEVATION AT COURT. 151 
 
 more sedulously than his own. It was consequently 
 with much grief that he witnessed the reckless levity 
 with which she laid herself open to animadversion. 
 Cherelles, the French envoy, waiting at this time to 
 Elizabeth's rival, says : — 
 
 "I believe your majesty is aware that the Queen of 
 England has for four or five years greatly favoured Sir 
 Walter Ealeigh, as in fact she still does; but within 
 the last few days there has arisen between them a dis- 
 sension which occasions much grief to them both. The 
 cause is said to be the distinguished partiality which her 
 majesty has for some months evinced for a gentleman 
 named Blount, brother to the Lord Mountjoy."* 
 
 The plots and intrigues of Spenser's Duessa, the 
 Queen of Scots and her partizans, no further concern 
 my narrative than as they touched tlie fortunes of 
 Ealeigh. Towards the close of summer, 1586, they 
 culminated in the Babington Conspiracy, the twofold 
 object of which was the murder of Elizabeth and the 
 elevation of Mary to the throne. Babington, though an 
 excellent theoretical assassin, was little qualified by 
 nature to face the consequences resulting from the 
 failure of his schemes. To the woman at whose breast 
 he had just held the dagger, he crawlingly appealed, 
 through Ealeigh, as soon as ^yaIsingham's providence 
 
 * Letter to Mary Stuart, March 23rd, 1586. ' Scottish Papers.' 
 State Paper Office.
 
 152 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 had paralysed his efforts, offering to pay a liberal price 
 for the sparing of his life. In an agitated and scarcely 
 legible hand he thus expresses his desires to a friend : — 
 
 " Good cousin, — speak unto Mr. Flower, for I wrote 
 unto him yesterday : if he received my letter, I know 
 not but for that .... told me that he spake with liim 
 yesterday, and delivered unto you a letter that I sent 
 unto my Lord-treasurer, and a note that I sent unto 
 you, and he told me that he had moved Mr. Ealeigh 
 for me, and promised a thousand pounds if he would get 
 my j)ardon hereby. I could promise to pay so much, 
 for I have friends could disburse it for me. Good 
 cousin, speak in my behalf, and move some one (of the 
 under-chamberlains, I think) in the matter, and let him 
 tell her majesty I can do her majesty more service .... 
 she would .... my fault. Good cousin, deal for me, 
 or if you wiU not, speak with the .... and he Avill 
 do anything for me, and deliver him this note ; and bid 
 him tell Mr. Flower that with respect to the serving I 
 can do for her majesty, I desire to speak to lier 
 majesty."* 
 
 At length the necessity of Mary's execution became 
 evident: while she continued to live, Elizabeth could 
 
 * The real date of this letter must be September 19th, 1586, but 
 an endorsement in a modern hand makes the date February 28th of 
 tliat year — a paljiable error. ' Scottish Papers.' State Paper Office.
 
 HIS PERIL US ELE VA TION AT COURT. Ic 3 
 
 never hope to be safe from the stiletto, or the nation to 
 feel secure from the rekindling of Smitlifield fires. One 
 Catholic Mary, not a whit more blood}^ had roasted 
 Protestants by hundreds, and every member of the new 
 religion who felt within him strong zeal for his faith was 
 profoundly conscious that exactly in proportion to that 
 zeal would be his danger in the event of Mary Stuart's 
 accession. In this widely-spread feeling and conviction 
 we discover the true key to the catastrophe of Fotherin- 
 gay. Everybody knew that the gloomy and vindictive 
 master of the Escorial, to whom the Queen of Scots had 
 made over her claims, to press which he was then 
 engaged in formidable preparations, would scarcely 
 prove a more humane successor to the Tudor than the 
 Stuart herself. Accordingly, the nation's only hope 
 appeared to lie in the preservation of Elizabeth ; and 
 this, as far as depended on human policy and foresight, 
 it was resolved to insure. That Raleigh approved of 
 the execution of the Queen of Scots there can be little 
 doubt, though we find no proof of it in the records of 
 the time. His attachment to Elizabeth left him in fact 
 no choice, for when he saw that the safety of the two 
 queens would soon become impossible, he could not be 
 expected to hesitate.
 
 154 LIFE OF SIB WALTER BALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ENGLAND PREPARES FOR HER GREAT CONFLICT WITH 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 In Raleigh's career of storm and adventure we now 
 enter upon a period possessing the deepest interest, yet 
 provokingly irritating, on account of tlie uncertain light 
 which the records of the time throw upon it. There 
 was then in preparation one of tlie most portentous 
 enterprises known to history, which aimed not only at 
 the enslavement of England, but at the stamping out of 
 that spirit of religious and political liberty of which 
 England was then the chief home. On the world's 
 stage the battle has often been fought between ex- 
 cessive opulence and rude poverty ; and sooner or later 
 Avith the same result. In old Greece, effeminate civil- 
 ization was overwhelmed by the barbarian energy of 
 IMacedon : fierce savages from the North extinguished 
 the polished but corrupt empire of Eome ; and in the 
 sixteenth century the colossal fabric of the Spanish
 
 ENGLAND'S GREAT CONFLICT WITH SPAIN. 155 
 
 monarchy, resting its basis on two liemispheres, was 
 irremediably shattered by the intrepid barbarism of 
 Elizabeth and her subjects. 
 
 Among those who contributed to bring about this 
 catastrophe none was greater than Ealeigh, who com- 
 bated against the instruments of Philip's power in 
 Frauce, in the Netherlands, in Ireland, in the North 
 xitlantic, in the West Indies, and now in the narrow 
 seas. In saying that none of Spain's enemies was 
 greater than he, I claim for him no more than will, I 
 think, be readily conceded ; yet when we look among 
 the documents of the period for precise and positive 
 information, we are rather met by a great surge of 
 public opinion, and dim and indefinite rumour, than by 
 facts and proofs. His influence was everywhere — clear 
 evidence of it nowhere. In contemporary annals it is 
 felt rather than perceived. The clients of two factions, 
 between them all-powerful at court, shrank from em- 
 blazoning the deeds or dwelling upon the genius of 
 Ealeigh, who stood outside the pale of both those 
 factions which courted his co-operation, yet dreaded 
 his near approach, and therefore kept him as far as 
 possible aloof. 
 
 To exercise predominance in this country several 
 conditions have always been needed : to be upheld by 
 family connexions — to possess sway in the House of 
 Commons — to enjoy the commanding influence of great
 
 156 LIFE OF SIB WALTER BALEIGH. 
 
 wealth — to be praised by poets and pamj)]ileteer8 
 formerly as by the press now. Familiar with these 
 truths, Ealeigh had recourse to most of the means 
 within his reach to create for himself a following in 
 the realm : his family connexions were elevated and 
 powerful, including the Dudleys, the Howards, the 
 Sidneys, the Herberts, the Thynnes, the Talbots, with 
 several branches of the Boleyn stock ; his eloquence 
 and political wisdom secured to him a high position in 
 Parliament ; his affable and courteous manners and 
 gentle patronage enlisted the sympathies of authors ; 
 but all these helps would, he knew, prove powerless 
 unless he could at the same time hold firmly in his 
 grasp that golden sceptre which exercises supreme con- 
 trol over mankind. 
 
 It was in, this conviction that originated Ealeigh's 
 indefatigable exertions in pursuit of wealth. In ac- 
 cordance with the manners of the times, and the 
 example set by Clifford, Hawkins, Drake, Frobisher, 
 and others, he declared a private Avar against Spain, 
 and fitted out at his own cost, or in conjunction with 
 others, naval armaments, small or great according to 
 circumstances, which ploughed the ocean in search 
 of prizes. Spain's immense commerce extending its 
 operations eastwards to India, China, and Japan ; 
 westwards to the whole of America, from Florida to 
 the straits of Magellan, supplied ample materials for
 
 ENGLAND'S QBE A T CONFLICT WITH SPAIN. 157 
 
 the enricliment of a resolute enemy, and Ealeigh was 
 perhaps only second to Drake in the amount of 
 opulence derived from the plunder of it. 
 
 One example of Raleigh's maritime enterprises may 
 deserve to be introduced at some length. Minute ex- 
 actness as to dates can hardly be looked for in such 
 relations ; but at some date anterior to that of the 
 Panama expedition, Butler, who spent most of his life 
 in Raleigh's service, was made commander of a 
 privateer, manned and armed for war. Cruizing 
 among the Azores, he fell in with a Spanish vessel of 
 considerable bulk, with which he kept up a running 
 fight for two days, after which, the Spaniard through 
 want of ammunition, struck his colours. The wealth 
 obtained was enormous ; for besides the ship's cargo, 
 estimated at more than three hundred thousand ducats, 
 there was on board a multitude of passengers, who 
 were conveying home to Spain large quantities of gold 
 and jewels. Taking possession of all these, they put 
 -the owners ashore at Terceira, and then sailed for 
 Plymouth, whence Butler sent word to Raleigh, in- 
 viting him to come and take charge of the ship and 
 cargo. The merchandize taken consisted of Brazil- 
 wood, cochineal, hides, and indigo. Of cochineal alone 
 there were three hundred chests, each weio;hinir about 
 
 ' DO 
 
 a hundred and twenty-five pounds. In addition to the 
 other articles there was one chest two yards in length,
 
 158 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALE I OH. 
 
 and nearly one in height, filled with bars of silver and 
 gold. On Ealeigh's arrival at Plymouth, he treated 
 his captain with much kindness, and having made him 
 many presents, caused the contents of the earrack to 
 be conveyed to London by land, being apparently loth 
 to trust them again to the chances of the sea. 
 
 In the summer of 1586, Kaleigh equipped and sent 
 forth two barks under the command of captains 
 Whiddon and Evesham,* with instructions to cruize 
 about the Azores, and make capture of all such Spanish 
 merchantmen, or royal argosies as might fall within 
 their reach. Nothing loth, these subordinate bucca- 
 neers hastened to the scene of action, and Fortune 
 favouring them, soon rendered themselves masters of 
 
 * Eichard Butler, whose relation throws much light on the details 
 of Raleigh's buccaneering expeditions, assigns to Ai-thur Barlow, 
 companion of Amadas, the honour of taking the lead in this voyage. 
 Among the islands of the Azores they captured ten Portuguese and 
 Spanish vessels, some of them laden with sugar. Brazil-wood, hides, 
 silver, gold, pearls, and silk, together with three ships-of-war, in which 
 the celebrated Spanish navigator was made captive. From having 
 been lieutenant on this occasion, Butler was now promoted by 
 Raleigh to the rank of captain, and sent out with a ship under his 
 own command, with which he made prize of three Spanish vessels 
 with cargoes valued at a hundred thousand ducats. The rule for 
 division of the spoil was that Raleigh should take two parts out of 
 three, while the third was divided among the officers and crew. 
 Butler from his own share made presents to several friends, among 
 others to Lord Burleigh's secretary, to whom he gave three boxes of 
 sugar, with pearls, and other valuable and curious articles. MS. 
 Simancas.
 
 ENGLAND'S GREAT CONFLICT WITH SPAIN. 159 
 
 more prizes than the small means at their disposal 
 enabled them to convoy to England. In two of the 
 ships they took upon this occasion, were the Governor 
 of San Miguel, anfl Don Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, 
 whom Philip ha 1 sent out to establish a new colony 
 on the straits of Magellan. Whiddon and Evesham 
 returned to England in October, and Sarmiento, while 
 waiting to be ransomed, resided with Kaleiffh. Be- 
 tween captor and captive there existed no feeling of 
 rancour or hostility ; both looked upon what had taken 
 place as a matter of course, and laughed and chatted 
 together like old friends. 
 
 As might have been expected, Ealeigh sought to 
 profit by the lucky chance to add to the store of 
 knowledge he already possessed respecting the Spanish 
 conquests in the new Avorld, and Sarmiento appears to 
 have experienced no repugnance to gratify his curiosity, 
 probably because he perceived the inutility of all 
 attempts at concealment. While looking one day 
 together over a map of South America, the captive 
 was betrayed into the relation of a curious anecdote. 
 " When I asked him," says Ealeigh, " some question 
 about an island in the straits of Magellan, which 
 methought might have done either benefit or dis- 
 pleasure to his enterprise, he told me merrily that it 
 was to be called the ' Painter's Wife's Island,' saying 
 that whilst the fellow drew that map, his wife, sittin<>-
 
 160 LIFE OF SUi WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 by, desired liiin to put in one coimtry for her, that she 
 in imao-ination mig^ht have an ishiud of her own."* 
 After remaining four months in England, Sarmiento 
 obtained his liberty, and passed over into France, 
 
 Having remained three days in Paris, he resumed his 
 journey ; but while traversing Guiana, was made 
 prisoner by the troops of Navarre. News of his capture 
 having been sent to the Spanish embassy in Paris, Don 
 Bernardino de Mendoza, who for his guilty practices 
 had been expelled from England, made strenuous 
 representations to Henri III., in favour of Sarmiento. 
 The king expressed his inability to procure the cap- 
 tive's liberation, and it was not until Elizabeth de- 
 spatched a special envoy to Henri of Navarre that the 
 Spanish admiral was set at liberty. On his return to 
 Spain, he was again honoured with high command in 
 the navy ; but while proceeding with a fleet to the 
 southern hemisphere in 1592, he dropped out of sight 
 and appears no more in history. 
 
 It is customary to charge Elizabeth with a niggard 
 parsimony, which pandysed the efforts of enterprising 
 men, checked improvement, interfered mischievously 
 with the operations of war, and generally obstructed 
 the progress of civilization. Capricious and imprudent 
 she certainly was, sometimes, withholding money when 
 it was needed, and determining unwisely respecting 
 * ' History of the World,' Works, iv., 684.
 
 ENGLAND'S GREA T CONFLICT WITH SPAIN. IGl 
 
 the occasion of disbursing it ; but towards her favourites 
 at least she was never penurious. Ealeigh, beginning 
 life with no property, gradually through her bounty 
 became master of a princely revenue — of manors, 
 castles, lordships, monopolies, palaces, which enabled 
 liim to vie ill magnificence and splendour with the 
 first nobles in Europe. 
 
 Burleigh, in an extremely obscure passage of his 
 work on Elizabeth's reign, alludes to a peculiar source 
 of revenue possessed by Ealeigh: — "From the 25th 
 of March, 1584, to tliis day, 25th March, 1585, tJir 
 Walter Ealeigh was answered for his lease of over- 
 lengths for one year in London only, 3,95 OZ. 5s. od., 
 and his rent for all England is but 7007." The trade 
 then carried on in undyed broad-cloth was considerable, 
 in spite of the duties exacted from exporters. The 
 length of the piece had been variously fixed by law 
 at different epochs at twenty-eight, twenty-six, and 
 twenty-four yards; all beyond this was called over- 
 lengths, and the customs payable upon it became by 
 patent the property of some favourite."* 
 
 Ealeigh's honours now seemed likely to keep pace with 
 his opulence ; he was made Captain of the Guard, 
 Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, Lord AVarden of 
 the Stannaries, and Lord-lieutenant of Cornwall, These 
 
 * Eeasous why Custom ought not to be Paid, &-c., January IGth, 
 1591, State Taper Office. 
 
 VOL, T. M
 
 162 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 promotions promised well, yet in obedience to motives, 
 the force of which we can no longer appreciate, Elizabeth 
 withheld from him those higher places and dignities 
 which to her and to all the world it was evident he 
 fiercely coveted. In this treatment of so great a 
 favourite we discover the existence of an influence 
 that she did not consider it prudent to despise : was 
 it that of Walsiugham and the Cecils ? Or must we 
 suppose that the jealousy even of Leicester himself 
 was at length awakened ? 
 
 Whatever may have been the agencies secretly at 
 work, Elizabeth, while she bestowed tlie garter and 
 chancellorship on Hatton, and loaded other inferior 
 persons with places and titles, steadily refused to 
 Raleigh the humblest ofSce in the government, together 
 with any further elevation in rank ; and when pressed 
 upon the point, disingenuously replied, that no titles 
 or honours could equal his deserving; yet this was 
 the strongest reason why all the honours at her disposal 
 should have been conferred on him, after which she 
 might have gracefully said, that his merit still exceeded 
 his reward. 
 
 In palliation of her conduct may be adduced that 
 peculiarity in Raleigh's character which old writers 
 have sometimes noticed, — there was, they say, an awful- 
 nees in his manner which daunted those who conversed 
 with him. This may be merely a quaint way of ex-
 
 ENGLAND'S GREAT CONFLICT WITH SPAIN. 163 
 
 pressing the fact, that througli consciousiiess of in- 
 tellectual superiority, he Avas in the habit of setting 
 aside with too little ceremony the judgments of men 
 older than himself and higher in office ; it may there- 
 fore have been feared that if admitted with loftier 
 titles into the administration, he might either have 
 paralyzed the energies of the ancient ministers, or 
 impelled the whole machine of government in the 
 direction which, however beset by dangers, might 
 promise to square best with his personal ambition. 
 This implies that he inspired in all around him more 
 fear than confidence, and in the existence of that 
 fear we may discover the secret of his misfortunes. 
 
 The truth embodied in the adage, that " a favom-ite 
 has no friends," meets us in every turn of Ealeigh's 
 career ; all hated him who desired his place, and were 
 not scrupulous respecting the means they made use 
 of to obtain it. One of the most obvious was to 
 pique Elizabeth's pride by suggesting the idea that 
 the favourite's influence overtopped her own. In further- 
 ance of this scheme, Tarleton, the comic actor who 
 then occupied the place allotted to the fool in our 
 older courts, was instigated one day to assail Ealeigh 
 while playing at cards with his mistress: alluding to 
 some point in the game, the saucy jester exclaimed, 
 " See how the knave commands the Queen ;" upon 
 which Elizabeth raised her head and frowned. En-
 
 164: LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIQH. 
 
 countering no worse rebuke, Tarleton was emboldened 
 to fly at still higher game, and in language at once 
 imjDertinent and scurrilous, railed at the Earl of 
 Leicester. His prompter, probably de Vere, now found 
 that his interest was too weak to protect his tool, for 
 Tarleton was expelled the court, and forbidden to 
 appear again in Elizabeth's presence. 
 
 Events were then beainnino: to loom above the 
 
 horizon which threatened to divert Ealeigh's attention 
 
 from court intrigues and gaieties to more serious 
 
 business. Spain was slowly taking measures for striking 
 
 a blow at some rival power, and the prevalent belief 
 
 was that it w^ould be aimed at England. In this 
 
 persuasion Elizabeth ordered the muster of the shires, 
 
 that she might discover with what amount of force 
 
 her kingdom could withstand the threatened invasion. 
 
 Her [people, though comparatively few in number, were 
 
 brave as of yore, when they had swept like a hundcane 
 
 over France, and carried their bills, bows, and lances, 
 
 along the heights of Andalusia and Castile ; so that 
 
 she felt little misgiving at the prospect before her. 
 
 Numerous dark prophecies were in' circulation among 
 
 her enemies, and there were those nearer home, and 
 
 of English blood, who took a very cheerless view of 
 
 her position. An Englishman of rank, perverted by 
 
 superstition, and vegetating under its banner abroad, 
 
 thus wrote to a friend in England : —
 
 ENGLAND'S GREA T CONFLICT WITH SPAIN. 165 
 
 *' If it be war, I do not think the Catholics in such 
 danger as you write : for a massacre used towards them 
 will be the cause of more cruelty towards the heretics ; 
 whereas, by the well treating of them it may procure 
 the heretics more favour. When the day of invasion 
 happeneth, assure yourself there is not the proudest 
 coimsellor or minister but will be as glad of the favour 
 of a Catholic gentleman as now the Catholic desireth 
 surety and liberty of his conscience."* 
 
 As such convictions were shared by the majority of 
 Catholics at home, who were sometimes unwise enough 
 to give utterance to their opinions, hatred of them 
 and their religion became a predominant sentiment. 
 It was known that they sympathized with Spain, 
 accused their sovereign of heresy, looked upon their 
 Protestant countrymen as imps of perdition, and in 
 the event of success, would not in many cases be 
 averse from consigning tliem to the faggot or the rack. 
 No wonder then at the severity with which the laws 
 against recusants were put in force. They were traitors 
 within the Protestant camp, the objects of their 
 allegiance were in Home and Madrid ; Cardinal Allen 
 and Father Parsons, though absent, directed their 
 consciences, over which all the darkness of the Middle 
 Ages brooded heavily, so that, swayed by the combined 
 
 * Charles Paget (under the si<2;n,iture of Harris) to Borden, 
 January 31st, 1588. State Paper Office.
 
 166 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 influence of ignorance and the desire of revenge, 
 tbey were not merely ready, but eager to murder 
 their Queen and make a holocaust of as many of her 
 subjects as their vengeance might be able to reach. 
 
 On the other hand, Elizabeth's Protestant subjects 
 were on fire with zeal and loyalty. No doubt their 
 enthusiasm was strengthened by remembrance of Smith- 
 field, and the echoes of Philip's doings in the Nether- 
 lands, where eighteen thousand six hundred Protestants 
 were massacred in six years * Ministers were oppressed 
 by plans, schemes, and suggestions for the defence 
 of the realm — all minds were absorbed by warlike 
 ideas — new engines of destruction were invented, arms 
 were collected and piled up in all convenient places, 
 and a store of those gTeat guns, whose reputation 
 caused them to be coveted throughout Christendom, 
 was cast and planted on commanding points along the 
 shore, f 
 
 I have said that in the midst of all this excitement 
 Kaleigh was among the foremost in activity, though 
 the record of his services only presents itself at wide 
 
 * Ealeigh, ' Preface to History of the World,' Works ii., 28. 
 
 t Up to a late period England had imported gunpowder from Ger- 
 many; but iu 1561, its manufacture was naturalized in England, 
 when ordnance, both of brass and iron, began likewise to be cast. 
 Camden, ii. 388. Shortly after new engines of destruction were 
 nvented by Englebert. Address to the Council, 1589. State Paper 
 Office.
 
 ENGLAND'S GBEAT CONFLICT WITH SPAIN. 167 
 
 intervals, and in distant parts of the realm. Now we 
 find him superintending the fortifications of Portsmouth,* 
 now in command of the guard — at one moment he 
 is busy in the Council Chamber, devising with the 
 Lord-treasurer and others general plans of defence,! — 
 then his presence is signalized at Exeter, or in Cornwall, 
 drawing together, arming, and disciplining the forces 
 of the duchy ; the chief proof of his sagacity, however, 
 is the bold scheme, the execution of which, in conjunc- 
 tion with Drake, he strongly advocated, and had his 
 counsel been followed in all its fulness, Philip, from 
 the heights of Lisbon, or Corunna, might have beheld 
 the flames of his own armada and the annihilation 
 of his long-cherished hopes. The plan of Drake and 
 lialeigh was to concentrate the naval power of England 
 in one fleet, which, under experienced leaders, should 
 proceed to Spain, and burn all her armaments in 
 harbour, together with her docks, arsenals, and stores.! 
 AATiile Elizabeth and her ministers were balancing 
 the merits of conflicting courses of policy, neighbouring 
 princes, enlightened by the Society of Jesus, were 
 organizing plans of assassination to facilitate the opera- 
 tions of war. l\iblicly, France was at peace with Eng- 
 
 * September 29th, 1587, two thousand pounds Avere placed at his 
 dis^wsal to repair the Portsmouth fortifications. State Paper Office. 
 
 t March 31st, 1588. State Paper Office. 
 
 t Cf. Birch ii., 45. Drake to Council, March 30th, 1588. State 
 Paper Office.
 
 
 I(i8 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 land, yet this did not hinder her mariners from cutting 
 ships out of English harbours, or her king from attempt- 
 ing the murder of the English Queen. Ealeigh was 
 robbed by Frenchmen at Dartmouth, Elizabeth was to 
 have been poisoned, or blown up with gunpowder in 
 London; but Henri Trois, while eager to reduce to 
 practice in England the Papal doctrine of regicide, knew 
 not that among his sacerdotal coadjutors there was one 
 who, even then, was leisurely whetting his avenging 
 knife to furnish a commentary on the same doctrine in 
 France. 
 
 Undismayed by poisons, stilettoes, or gunpowder, 
 
 Elizabeth continued her preparations for grappling 
 
 with Spain : it is true that her forces both by sea and 
 
 land were small, and brought together but slowly, less 
 
 however through want of spirit and will than through 
 
 deficiency of means ; the mass of the people were poor, 
 
 the nobles who possessed ample resources wasted them 
 
 in profitless magnificence, so that to eke out their 
 
 revenues they constantly found themselves under the 
 
 necessity of engaging in trade* or seeking plunder on 
 
 the ocean ; yet now that the day of trial seemed at hand, 
 
 • they betook themselves to their several counties to rouse 
 
 and direct the martial spirit of the population — Herbert 
 
 Earl of Pembroke to the maritime counties of Wales, 
 
 Warwick, Grey, and Mildmay to Essex, Cobham to 
 
 * Leicester was engaged ia the trade of the Levant.
 
 ENGLAND'S GREAT CONFLICT WITH SPAIN. 169 
 
 Kent, the Marquis of Winchester and the Earl of 
 Sussex to Hampshire, while Sir Walter Ealeigh repaired 
 westward to discipline and lead to battle the forces of 
 Devonshire and Cornwall. 
 
 From what this diligent servant of Elizabeth and the 
 country experienced in the West we may conjecture the 
 financial, mental, and moral condition of the other divi- 
 sions of England : great reluctance was felt by the 
 inhabitants to trench upon their pecuniary hoards, 
 which they desired to have spared by advances from the 
 Treasury ; wliile the enthusiasm of the Papists, inflamed 
 by the hoj)e of victory for their religion, could scarcely 
 be restrained from breaking forth into open mutiny. 
 Writing to the Lords of the Council, Ealeigh frankly 
 describes the state of the shire, and backs with much 
 caution the appeal for financial aid. " I have attended," 
 he says, "the Earl of Bath, and conferred with the 
 deputies of Devon, and the city of Exon for the drawing 
 together of two thousand footmen and two hundred 
 horse, and I find great differences in opinion among 
 them; some are of opinion that this burden will be 
 grievous unto the country, standing at this time void of 
 all traffic, the subsidy not being yet gathered, and the 
 past musters having been very chargeable — Sir John 
 Gilbert, Sir Eichard Grenville, and the Earl himself, 
 being more zealous both in religion and her majesty's 
 service, who have always found a ready disposition in
 
 170 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 their divisions to bear whatever shall be thought meet 
 for her majesty's service by her people — are of opinion 
 that the matter will be very feasible. It is most true 
 that the careful usuage of their action by the deputies 
 in their several divisions will easily induce the inferior 
 sort to whatever shall be thought necessary for her 
 majesty's safety and their own defence ; but some other 
 of the commission of Devon, in my conscience, before 
 the Lord, being both infected in religion and vehemently 
 malcontent, who, by how much the more they are tem- 
 perate, by so much the more are dangerous, are secretly 
 of great hindrance of all actions tending to the good of 
 her majesty, or safety of the present state : these men 
 make doubt that your honour's instructions alone are 
 not sufficient and safe warrant for their discharge : that 
 if any refuse to contribute, they see not by what they 
 should be inforced, with a thousand dilatory cavillations. 
 For my own opinion, under your lordship's correction, 
 if it might notwithstanding stand with her majesty's 
 liking to bear thereon half of the charge, being great, it 
 would be very consonant to all good policy; and the 
 country, I judge, would willingly defray the rest, which, 
 unless they were ministers of other disposition, will not 
 be so safely and easily brought to effect. I have sent 
 your lordship an estimate of the whole, with which I 
 humbly pray your lordship to acquaint her majesty, and 
 not otherwise to impart my letter, because I am bold to
 
 ENGLAND'SGREAT CONFLICT WITH SPAIN. 171 
 
 write my simple opinion unto your lordship, the same 
 being, as the Lord doth judge, without respect or par- 
 tiality, having vowed my travel and life to her majesty's 
 service only, and for ever. 
 
 "I have written to the deputies of Cornwall I am 
 ready to repair thither with all diligence, to perform the 
 rest of her majesty's commands, given me in charge by 
 your lordships. 
 
 "From Exon, this 21st December, your lordships, to 
 
 do you all honour and service, 
 
 " W. Ealeigh."* 
 
 " The citizens of Exon as yet refuse to bear such part 
 as was thought meet by the lieutenants of Devon and 
 the rest." 
 
 This letter was accompanied by an inclosure, con- 
 nected with which there is a curious bit of history. 
 When Conway took to his own house from the public 
 records a number of documents, in order, probably, to 
 study them at leisure, he bundled up Kaleigh's enclosure 
 among the rest, and it remained separated from the 
 letter to which it belonged till 1857, when the Conway 
 papers were restored to the Eecord Office by Wilson 
 Croker.t 
 
 When we consider the present population of Devon- 
 shire and Cornwall, Ealeigh's estimate must strike us 
 
 * MS. State Paper OflSce. 
 
 t See note to the 'Calendar' by Mr. Lemon.
 
 172 
 
 LIFE OF SIB WALTER BALEIGH. 
 
 with surprise. The body of the shire (Devon) could 
 furnish, with the Stannaries, twelve hundred footmen, 
 and one hundred and thirty-four horsemen, of which 
 number the Stannaries tAvo hundred footmen. The 
 body of the shire, Cornwall, with the Stannaries, to 
 furnish sis hundred footmen, and sixty-six horsemen, of 
 which the Stannaries two hundred footmen. The county 
 and city of Exeter to furnish two hundred footmen. All 
 the superior officers, from the general to the treasurer, 
 were to serve without pay ; the inferior officers and the 
 men received a liberal allowance : — 
 
 The Sergeant Major 
 
 The Provost Marshal 
 
 Clerk of the Checks 
 
 Captaiu 
 
 Lieutenant 
 
 Ensign 
 
 Clerk . 
 
 Drum . 
 
 Men . 
 
 s. d. 
 
 6 a day. 
 
 5 
 
 2 6 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 1 6 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 8 per person. 
 
 The pay of the cavalry, both officers and men, was 
 greater, the captains receiving five shillings a-day, and 
 the men one. According to usage, this levy was to be 
 called out for sixteen days only, during which the men 
 were allowed each ten pounds of powder at a shilling a 
 pound, half a pound of matches per day at six pence 
 per pound, and a pound of lead at one penny the pound.* 
 
 * Inclosure of Raleigh's letter to Burleigh.
 
 BALEIOE'S SEE VICES AGAINST THE ABM AD A. 173 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Raleigh's seevices against the armada. 
 
 At length the first day of the Great Year dawned 
 upon the fleets of England eruizmg to and fro along 
 the coast — Howard and Palmer eastw^ard, Drake in 
 the West. 
 
 A difference of views existed between the ministers 
 and the men of action ; the former inclining to place 
 reliance on diplomacy, the latter putting their trust 
 exclusively in arms.* Aware of these political diver- 
 gencies, Phihp sought to widen them by opening up 
 a delusive prospect of peace,t which might cheer the 
 imaginations of the timid, and relax the energies even 
 of the bold. The contest of propositions and protocols 
 carried on in the Netherlands was protracted by the 
 Spanish government, to insure leisure for completing 
 
 * Discourse on tlie Policy to be pursued by England, Decem- 
 ber 31st, 1587. State Paper Office. 
 
 t Council to Drake, April 9th, 1587. State Paper Office.
 
 174: LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 its own preparations, and create in England the belief 
 that a storm which had been so long in brewing 
 might in the end prove nothing but a light squall. 
 
 Eor a while this policy promised to be successful ; 
 the English government slackened in its exertions, 
 paid off a number of mariners, and began to con- 
 gratulate itself upon the wisdom of its policy. Effing- 
 ham, however, Paj)ist though he was, never shared in 
 this delusion. Hostility to Burleigh may have imparted 
 additional force to his convictions, for writing to Wal- 
 singham he says: — "Pray God we may not have to 
 curse for this an old greybeard with a white head,"* 
 but whatever may have been his motives, certain it 
 is that he looked upon the Low Country negociations 
 as a juggle, and anticipated no safety for England but 
 from her courage and her great guns. 
 
 The part to be taken by Scotland was regarded 
 with much doubt and uneasiness : scarcely a year had 
 elapsed since her queen had been executed in England, 
 and her king, the son of that queen, might consequently 
 with some reason be suspected of a leaning towards 
 England's enemies-f A league, it was believed, existed 
 between France, Spain, and Scotland, of whose kings 
 Howard said he had made a trinity, in which he never 
 
 * Howard to Walsingham, Jaiuiary 27tli, 1588, State Pai^er Office, 
 t James, however, guided iu tins iiistanc3 by true patriotism, 
 offered to aid Elizabetli against the Si^auiards. Birch, i., 55.
 
 MALEIGffS SEE VICES A GAINS T THE ABM AD A. 175 
 
 meant to put his trust.* True, lie afterwards married 
 James's cousin, and was reckoned among the most base 
 and servile of his flatterers ; but for the present these 
 facts lay hidden in the womb of futurity. Philip's 
 design was to throw into Scotland a military force, 
 which, being joined by the troops of that countr}', 
 might effect an invasion of England from the north ; 
 while Parma, already on the eve of pushing down his 
 formidable columns towards the coast, should be supplied 
 with ample means of transport to traverse the narrow 
 seas, and march directly upon London. 
 
 To accomplish so great an enterprise, Spain had 
 for years been engaged in constructing and equipping 
 an immense fleet, and in organizing a no less formidable 
 army. In the harbours of Cadiz, Lisbon, and Corunna, 
 the several portions of that mighty armament, then 
 swung at anclior,t slowly taking in provisions and 
 naval stores, while the multitudes of soldiers intended 
 for the expedition encamped along the coast, with 
 tents, baggage, and arms, ready for embarkation. In 
 Pliilip's mind the attack upon England was not a mere 
 political undertaking, it was a crusade, a holy war, to 
 be conducted on God's behalf against his most abhorred 
 and sanguinary enemies. In tliis belief shared all the 
 
 * Howard, iihi supra. 
 
 t Vice-Adaiiral Fenaei* to Walsingham, JIarch 3rd, 1588. State 
 Paper Offici.
 
 176 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 senoras and senoretas of Sj^ain, who amidst tlieir boleros 
 and fandangos, fluttered tlieir fans, and dreamed with 
 charming complacency of the extirpation of a nation 
 of heretics. Eome's sacerdotal battalions, regular and 
 secular, " white, black, and grey," were likewise in 
 a fever of anticipation, not doubting that the fleets 
 and legions of the most Catholic King would be able 
 to purge the earth of heretics and heresy, and re- 
 establish everywhere the orthodox creed. 
 
 A consummation so devoutly to be wished set" their 
 fancies on fire, and nerved their arms, more especially 
 in Spanish Flanders, where, to victual the thirty-seven 
 ships of war then lying in the harbour of Dunkirk, and 
 told off for Scotland, the regulars in all their monasteries 
 laboured night and day grinding corn, baking biscuits, 
 and preparing such other necessaries as the rough 
 instruments of Catholicism, destined for the slaughter 
 of heretics, might require. No doubt seems to have 
 been entertained of the Church's triumph, to witness 
 wliich, worthy John Leslie, Bishop of Eoss, formerly 
 Mary Stuart's most active agent, came down to Dunkirk, 
 where in his holy zeal he probably superintended the 
 ovens. There is a vivacity in the enthusiasm of 
 Catholics which, when converts are to be made or 
 heretics to be extirpated, assumes a miraculous character. 
 Cardinal Allen, the austere censor of Elizabeth's morals, 
 likewise drifted coastwards to share in Brother of Ross's
 
 EALEIOWS SERVICES AGAINST THE ARMADA. 177 
 
 gratification ; while Father Parsons, secretary to the 
 Society of Jesus, hovered in frantic glee about the 
 purlieus of Parma's camp.* 
 
 In England popular excitement was kept up at blood 
 heat by irregular instalments of news respecting the 
 Armada, which Philip and his subjects denominated 
 the Invincible. Upon its movements, it was believed 
 by many, hinged the fate of England. Spies, made 
 reckless by gold, volunteered to penetrate into the 
 enemy's country, survey the havens of Corunna, Lisbon, 
 Cadiz, and gather correct information about the strength 
 and general condition of the hostile forces. Kumour 
 estimated as follows the troops and mariners to be 
 employed against England : — 
 
 Italian troops 
 From the Indies . 
 rrom Spain 
 From Portugal . 
 From Flanders . 
 Fresh levies in Italy- 
 Light horse 
 Horses garnished 
 Artillery service , 
 Mariners and sailors 
 
 8,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 17,000 
 
 12,000 
 
 25,000 
 
 12,000 
 
 1,200 
 
 1,400 
 
 1,200 
 
 8,921 
 
 89,721 
 
 * Advertisements of preparations at Dunkirk, July 3rd, 1588. 
 State Paper Office. Father Parsons was an apostate from Protest- 
 antism, as was also his father, who, having while in the Tower been 
 subjected to torture by having needles thrust under his finger-nails, 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 To supply the wants of this multitude provisions 
 had been brought together from sundry quarters : — 
 
 
 Quintels.— Biscuits. 
 
 From Andalusia .... 
 
 . 27,557 
 
 From Malap;a 
 
 . .12,000 
 
 which, with supplies of biscuits from 
 
 
 other places, amounted to 
 
 . 185,557 
 
 Bacon and pork from several places . 
 
 . 23,000 
 
 Wine from four places 
 
 . 26,000 butts 
 
 Fish from three places 
 
 . 19,000 hogsheads 
 
 Beef from three places v~~^-a_ 
 
 . 11,000 firkins. 
 
 Jars of oil from ten places . 
 
 . 23,000 jars 
 
 These provisions were intended to be conveyed to 
 England in swift fly-boats, which were to accompany 
 the Armada. 
 
 Ealeigh, it will have been seen, had an important 
 part assigned to him in organizing England's power to 
 resist invasion ; yet it is only by the aid of recently- 
 discovered documents that we are enabled to form an 
 idea, and that a very imperfect one, of the influence 
 he exerted over the policy of the Government. No 
 man of those times seems to have applied himself more 
 diligently to the study of war, whether by sea or land, 
 to the science and practice of fortification, to the 
 manufacture and use of artillery, or to the military 
 topography of Europe. Xi the numerous consultations 
 
 was hung, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn in 1581. Nichols, ' Pro- 
 gresses,' ii., 434.
 
 RALEIGH'S SERVICES AGAINST THE ARMADA. 179 
 
 held bv the members of the Government on the eve 
 of the great invasion, he appears therefore to have 
 been always present, and to have exercised much sway 
 over their decisions. In a curious paper, bearing date 
 March 31st, 1588, and said to be drawn up by the 
 Lord-treasurer, the Treasurer of the Household, Lord 
 Grey, Sir John Xorris, Sir Thomas Leighton, Sir 
 Eichard Bingham, Sir Walter Ealeigh, and others, 
 the impress of his mind appears on every paragraph. 
 In the preceding December he had reported to 
 Burleigh on the condition of Devonshire and Cornvv-all, 
 and recommended that the Queen should bear half 
 the expense of arming the population. We here find 
 that his counsel had been adopted, and that in con- 
 sequence the leading gentlemen in the two coimties 
 had volunteered to bring into the field nearly thrice 
 the number of men demanded of them three months 
 before. The paper takes a rapid survey of all the 
 vulnerable points on the coast, from Plymouth to the 
 eastern extremity of Norfolk ; shows where the Armada 
 was most likely to put in, where Parma's veterans 
 would probably disembark, and while doing so sketches 
 a sagacious plan of defence. First, everything practic- 
 able was to be done to obstruct the landing of the 
 enemy ; next, if he should succeed in disembarking 
 either at Plymouth, Portland, or on the Kentish coast, 
 a pitched battle was by all means to be avoided
 
 180 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIOH. 
 
 the country was to be " driven," as the writers express 
 it, so that uo provisions should be obtainable by the 
 enemy ; he was to be kept on the watch by perpetual 
 alarms, assailed by fleet skirmishers, and bewildered 
 by Parthian strategy, till the Lords-lieutenants of 
 counties should be able to brin": together a sufficient 
 force to risk a battle.* In the midst of the danger 
 from without, another from within is glanced at, to 
 which Kaleigh, in his letter from Devonshire, had 
 directed the attention of the Lord-treasurer. The dis- 
 affected Papists, it was expected, would rise, fire the 
 villages and homesteads of their neighbours, and make 
 whatever efforts they could to facilitate the movements 
 of the invaders. In this case they were at once to 
 be dealt with as traitors, seized, executed, or treated- 
 otherwise with such severity as circumstances might 
 seem to demand. 
 
 With respect to the defence of the coast, more stress 
 is laid on the presence of a military force well j)rovided 
 with pikes, bills, and artillery, than upon the earth- 
 works and ditches recommended by Ealph Lane,t 
 
 * Raleigh, long after the event, carefully considered the value of 
 a country's natural defences, which he thought would never sufBce 
 to resist a resolute enemy. ' Hist, of the World,' v., 307. Else- 
 where he proves the paramount importance of a fleet which enables 
 its comtiiander to choose his point of descent, to outrun the swiftest 
 armies, and all but to secure victory. lb. vi., 98 — 105. 
 
 t See Plan of Lane, April 30th, 1587. State Paper Office.
 
 RALEIGWS SERVICES AGAINST THE ABM AD A. 181 
 
 Ealeigh's unsuccessful Virginian governor. Through- 
 out all the counties bordering on the southern coast, 
 scout-masters were appointed with men under them, to 
 collect intelligence, and watch over the guarding and 
 firing of the beacons.* In Kaleigh's government, 
 especially, against which the storm was first expected 
 to break, all possible precautions were taken to forward 
 tidings to London. With his local deputies he was in 
 constant communication, sometimes in person, some- 
 times by letter: in the beginning of the month, 
 rendered memorable by the great conflict, he received 
 from his kinsmen and deputies, Grenville, Godolphin, 
 and Carew, a sketch of the preparations in progress : — 
 
 " Our duties remembered — 
 
 « July 8th, 1588. 
 
 "It may please your Lordship to understand that, 
 according to several letters received from your Lord- 
 ship and their Honom-s, we have thus proceeded to the 
 performance of the services commanded us. First, 
 concerning the increase of armour for horse and foot- 
 men, we have dealt with the best gentlemen, whom we 
 find very willing to increase the proportion of the 
 returns to the uttermost of their power — the rather 
 because they hope it shall not remain to charge them 
 
 * Note of things to be executed, June 28th, 1585. On training 
 forces and watching beacons, September 1st, 1586. Appointment of 
 Scout-masters and guarders of beacons, October 25th, 1587.
 
 182 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 hereafter, save only for the present service ; but they 
 can hardly be able to furnish themselves with such 
 speed as is requisite, because there is not armour to be 
 bought here for money. Also we must continue our 
 old suit in excuse of the insufficiency of our horses, 
 the increasement whereof we have made us is, besides 
 the former rate, light horses, 100 ; armed pikes, 200 ; 
 muskets, 50 ; calivers, 50. 
 
 " We have also taken order for the providing 2000 
 men in readiness to make their repair as is expressed in 
 the letters ; we have given like exertions for the per- 
 formance of all former instructions. 
 
 " Your loving kinsmen, 
 
 " E. Grenville. 
 
 " Era. Godolphin. 
 
 " R. Carew." 
 
 A thrill passed like an electric shock through the 
 whole south of England when intelligence arrived that 
 the mighty armament was at sea, steering northwards 
 along the shores of Portugal. A small Scottish bark 
 from Lisbon beheld the Armada rounding the point of 
 Galicia, and making by Corunna towards the Bay of 
 Biscay. An impulse of enlightened patriotism hurried 
 the brave Scot towards England. Crowding sail, he 
 was soon in the harbour of Dartmouth, whence the 
 mayor forwarded his tidings with all possible speed to
 
 RALEIGH'S 8ER VICES A GAINST THE ARMADA. 183 
 
 London. The leading men of tlie realm now deter- 
 mined upon the course they were to pursue. To 
 remain on land \Tas to hazard the chance of encoun- 
 tering nothing but the dregs of the tempest, while the 
 first taste of its fury was to be quaffed by those who 
 went forth to meet it on the ocean. Leaving therefore 
 the bands of Cornwall and Devonshire to be headed in 
 fight by his kinsmen, Raleigh, with the approbation 
 doubtless of Elizabeth and her ministers, betook himself 
 to his favourite element, and, with a squadron of his 
 own, posted himself on the coast of Dorsetshire, that 
 he might fly at the flanks of the Armada as it passed 
 up the Sleeve ;* while in one of his ships, ' The Koe- 
 buck,' Burleigh and his son Robert despatched powder 
 and other ammunition to the royal fleet, f 
 
 Encountering obstacle after obstacle, the Armada 
 swung slowly along the ocean, Avhicli its galeons and 
 galeases covered thickly for many a league. After the 
 detention of a whole month at Corunna, Medina Sidonia, 
 on the 22nd of Juh^, recommenced his voyage, and, in 
 the midst of storms terrible as those of winter, bore 
 northwards. At length the weather cleared up, and on 
 a bright July morning the Armada was descried on the 
 Atlantic, making before a favourable breeze towards the 
 Channel. 
 
 * Lodge, ii., 385. 
 
 t Cecil to Burleigh, July 30tb, 1588. State Paper Office.
 
 I 
 
 184 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIOE. 
 
 A tliousand beacon-fires immediately flung from tor 
 and cliff intelligence that the enemy was at hand — all 
 England was at once in motion — from the borders of 
 Scotland to the Devonshire coast, pike and halberd 
 flashed in the July sun, the tramp of cavalry sounded 
 along the highways — tumbril, cart, and waggon, passed 
 hither and thither with ammunition and arms, and the 
 face of the whole island bristled with preparation. 
 The men of Kaleigh's Cornish government were they 
 who enjoyed the first glimpse of the Spanish sea-towers, 
 as they came driving before the wind towards their 
 coast. A more stirring sight was never witnessed. 
 Disposed in the form of a crescent upwards of seven 
 miles in length,* the line of battle swept forwards, its 
 vast sails filled by the west wind, and the muzzles of its 
 great guns peering ibrth menacingly from the port- 
 holes. 
 
 Of what followed no details need here be given 
 — the straggling fight along a hundred miles of coast — 
 the destruction caused by fire-ships in Calais roads — 
 the unexampled hurricane, which, co-operating with 
 the English, reduced the Armada to the condition of a 
 wreck, and sent it floating in fragments far up into 
 the North Sea — the massacres on the coast of Ireland — 
 the melancholy return of Medina Sidonia to Spain — 
 and the sudden and terrible collapse of Philip's power, 
 * Camden, 'Annals of Elizabeth,' 1588, ii.
 
 BALEIGH'S SER VICES AGAINST THE ARMADA. 185 
 
 which after that defeat never revived, but went on 
 dwindling gradually till it ended in the utter humilia- 
 tion and abasement of the Spanish monarchy. 
 
 In the great conflict of 1588, with which this process 
 commenced, Raleigh performed an active though not a 
 very prominent part. It may be assumed that, with 
 other distinguished volunteers, he, at the head of a 
 small squadron of his own, joined the fleet about the 
 30th of July, and during the next eventful eight or ten 
 days co-operated in accomplishing the destruction of 
 the Armada ; for as a recognition, rather than as a 
 reward of his services, Elizabeth, on the 9th of August, 
 conferred on him a new and prolific source of revenue 
 in a moiety of the benefit of all penalties and forfeitures 
 for offences committed against the statute of 7th 
 Edward VI., for the sale and retailing of wines, with 
 power to compound with offenders. 
 
 The Armada, after its defeat, was blown bv a sue- 
 cession of storms into the North Sea, and it was con- 
 jectured that all that remained of it Avould seek refuge 
 in the ports of Denmark* to refit, and take in pro- 
 visions. Two pinnaces had been despatched by Effing- 
 ham to follow the enemy and observe his course ; but 
 in the great storm off the Orkneys they lost sight of 
 him. Ealeigh, witli his squadron, seems likewise to 
 
 * Palaviciuo to Walsingham, August 12tli, 1588. State Paper 
 Office.
 
 I 
 
 186 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 have hovered on the skirts of the flying foe, and to 
 have shared the opinion of those who considered it 
 practicable to overtake and destroy the remnant of his 
 forces in the havens of our Danish ally. To this end 
 it was proposed to despatch a fleet in pursuit, eight of 
 which should be Queen's ships, twelve the property of 
 jjrivate individuals, with twenty well manned and 
 armed from Holland ; but, contrary to expectation, 
 Medina Sidonia, when he had reached a very high 
 latitude, turned his prows in a different direction, and 
 sailed for Spain.* A large fragment of the Armada, 
 consisting of eighteen ships, with five thousand men, 
 steered for Ireland, where, on their arrival, it was 
 believed the Catholics would rise, and indeed the report 
 went that the Spanish force had disembarked, and 
 efiected a junction with the insurgents. 
 
 On the intelligence of the descent upon Ireland, 
 Ealeigh, who now commanded a division of the fleet, 
 received orders to hold himself in readiness to pass over 
 with a strong force to the scene of his old exploits, and |j 
 
 co-operate with the Lord-deputy in crushing the united 
 efforts of invaders and rebels.f According to the per- 
 em^Dtory injunction of Elizabeth, Wales was to furnish 
 
 * Lord Henry Seymour to Walsingham, August 31st, 1588. Sir 
 John Gilbert to Walsingham, November 7th, 1588. State Paper 
 Office. 
 
 t Of. Note of ships to go with Sir Walter Raleigh, August 28th. 
 Queen to Grenville, September 14th, 1588. State Paper Office.
 
 RALEIGWS SEE VICES A GAINST TEE ABM AD A. 187 
 
 for tlie service, one thousand six hundred men, while 
 Cornwall, Devonshire, Somerset, and otlier western 
 counties were to send forth their yeomanry and gentle- 
 men in like proportion. To transport these hasty levies 
 to the seat of war, numerous trading-vessels were stayed 
 along the coast; and Ealeigh's cousin, Sir Eichard 
 Grenville,* was commanded to make speedy prepara- 
 tions for the Irish campaign. But if there was vigour 
 in our gallant forefathers, there was not always corre- 
 sponding swiftness. Letters and messengers flew about 
 with rapidity, hut the process of conscription went on 
 slowly ; so that ere the Welsh contingent, under Caj)tain 
 Jenkins, could be embarked at Milford, or the English 
 contingent, imder Grenville at Plymouth, the axe of 
 the galloglas t and the skene of the kern had reddened 
 the coast of Ireland with Spanish blood, and delivered 
 the Lord-deputy from the necessity of calling for aid 
 from England. 
 
 While troops were being slowly raised in the western 
 counties, Raleigh, with his squadron, was out at sea, 
 though the nature of his operations, as well as against 
 whom carried on, remains unknown. That the Govern- 
 ment, however, attached the greatest importance to his 
 services, is evident from the fact, that when Elizabeth 
 
 * Queen to Grenville, September 14tb, 1588. State Paper Office, 
 t Examinations of Spanish prisoners, September 12th, 1588. State 
 Paper Office.
 
 188 LIFE OF SIB WALTER BALEIGE. 
 
 distributed the Spanish prisoners of rank among her 
 admirals, that they might be enriched by the large sums 
 paid for their ransom, Kaleigh received an equal number 
 with Sir Francis Drake.* Throughout the months of 
 September and October the Irish expedition hung in 
 suspense ; but in the beginning of the following month,t 
 intelligence was received from the Lord-deputy which 
 quieted the apprehensions of the Government, and made 
 it needless for Ealeigh to repair to the bloody scene of 
 his achievements under Grey. 
 
 * Distribution of Spanish prisoners, September 5th, 1588. State 
 Paper Office. 
 
 t Council to Earl of Bath and Sir Walter Raleigh, November 2nd, 
 1588. State Paper Office.
 
 HOSTILITY OF ESSEX. 189 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 HOSTILITY OF ESSEX — VISITS SPENSER ON THE MULLA. 
 
 It -would be difficult to imagine the flutter of female 
 hearts in Elizabeth's court at Greenwich when Ealeigh 
 and the other commanders against the Armada came 
 back from the wars. In spite of his professions to the 
 Queen, it seems more than probable that he had already 
 commenced that wooing of Bessy Throgmorton which 
 three years later exposed her to shame, and sent him to 
 the Tower. Unhappily there then existed no minute 
 court chronicler to give permanence to scandal and 
 enlighten us respecting the achievements of the gallant 
 gentlemen and noble ladies who made love licit or illicit 
 under the patronage of Elizabeth. We are, therefore, 
 left to conjecture the nature of the cause or causes which 
 involved Ealeigh in his first quarrel with Essex, who 
 had just been appointed Master of the Horse. 
 
 This young nobleman, whose father-in-law, Leicester 
 had died on the 4th of the previous September, was now
 
 190 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 twenty-one years of age, and Ealeigh tliirty-six. There 
 existed nevertheless some rivalry between them, either 
 for love or power. It has been asserted that Leicester 
 brought his son-in-law to court that he might supplant 
 Ealeigh in Elizabeth's regards, and thus turn aside the 
 current of munificence by which she had elevated her 
 long-cherished favourite to extraordinary opulence and 
 power. There seems however to be no ground for the 
 suspicion ; Essex, as one of the first nobles of the land, 
 closely akin to the Queen, naturally vindicated to himself 
 a distinguished place at court, where his handsome per- 
 son and winning manners soon made him popular. In 
 what light he had first viewed Ealeigh is not known ; 
 but his envious disposition speedily led him to take 
 umbrage either at the preference shown him by the 
 Queen or at the place he held in the hearts of the easy 
 dames who clustered about her. To whatever source it 
 may be traced, hatred of Ealeigh appears to have 
 sprung up at once in the heart of Eobert Devereux, and 
 to have actuated his conduct through life. 
 
 At the period we have now reached he was still a 
 stripling, while Ealeigh was in the very zenith of man- 
 hood, gifted, besides, with extraordinary mental power, 
 which had been strengthened by every variety of 
 experience. In the absence of any clue, it would be 
 rash to indulge in conjecture, so I give in the language 
 of an eye-witness all that is known of Essex's first act of
 
 HOSTILITY OF ESSEX. ' 191 
 
 hostility towards Ealeigli : — " Her majesty hath taken 
 order to depart for Richmond, on Saturday next, mean- 
 ing to rest by the way at . The disorder hap- 
 pened by my Lord of Essex troubles her majesty in 
 such sort as I remember nothing that hath troubled her 
 so much these seven years. There hath been a chal- 
 lenge sent by my Lord of Essex to Sir W. Ealeigh, 
 which is sought by the Council here to be repressed, 
 and to be buried in silence that it may not be known to 
 her majesty lest it might injure the earl."* 
 
 Eight years before, Philip of Spain had asserted in 
 arms his claim to the throne of Portugal, defeated Don 
 Antonio its rightful king in the field,! and driven him 
 into exile. Then as now distressed princes commonly 
 sought an asylum in England, where the fugitive Don 
 Antonio arrived in the summer of 15814 and on the 
 evening of the 30th of June had an audience of Eliza- 
 beth. From that day forward the plausible Portuguese 
 strove to interest the English government in his behalf, 
 and to organise by their aid a naval and military expedi- 
 tion against the oppressors of his country. For a while 
 no progress was made in this negociation ; but after the 
 attempted invasion of England in 1588, Elizabeth lent 
 a more favourable ear to Antonio's project, promised to 
 
 * Wolley to Walsingham, December lOth, 1588. State Paper Office, 
 t Green to Atcy, Septeinlier 2;3rd, 1580. State Paper Office. 
 X "Walsiugliam to Burleigh, June 25ib, 1581. Stale Paper Office.
 
 192 LIFE OF SIB WALTER EALEIGH. 
 
 furnisli six sliips * from the royal navy, make an 
 advance of fifteen thousand pounds in money, and 
 permit as many of her subjects as chose to engage their 
 persons and fortunes in the enterprise. On the return 
 of Medina Sidonia to Spain with fifty battered ships 
 and a bankrupt reputation, Philip, to dissemble as far as 
 possible the exhaustion of his kingdom and his own 
 humiliation, openly menaced England with another and 
 greater Armada. 
 
 Considering his hostility rather than his power, Eliza- 
 beth resolved that her subjects should visit Spain, and 
 inflict upon its coasts and harbours the damage and 
 distress with which England had long been vainly 
 threatened. The justifiable ambition of Don Antonio 
 opportunely supplied her with a fair pretext. Ships 
 were accordingly got in readiness, mariners pressed into 
 the navy, soldiers brought over from the Low Countries, 
 Drake and Norris appointed to lead the forces by sea 
 and land, with Tenner and Williams as their successors 
 in case of accident,! while a host of gentleman volun- 
 teers, among whom was Ealeigh, thronged the fleet, 
 
 * This small contingent, with the vessels furnished by private 
 persons, some Spanish authors have multiplied to 220 ships of war, 
 with 30,000 soldiers, English and Flemish, on board. Eelacion de la 
 venida de Don Antonio de Portugal ; Prior de Ocrato con la Armada 
 de la Eeyna de Inglatiera en el auo de 1589. MS. Bib. Nac. Madrid. 
 
 t Instructions to Norris and Drake, February 23rd, 1589." State 
 Paper Office.
 
 HOSTILITY OF ESSEX. 193 
 
 eager to retaliate tbe insult of invasion upon our in- 
 veterate enemy,* In the archives of Spain ',ve find an 
 extraordinary colour given to this transaction. Among 
 the invaders of England seven thousand women t were 
 expected to be included, who by the arts of licentious- 
 ness were to draw over our sturdy countrymen to the 
 worship of saints and images. This refined policy was 
 not lost, we are told, upon the Lutheran heretics, who, 
 in order to allure Portui>al from her allesriance to 
 orthodoxy, despatched v/itli Don Antonio a formidable 
 contingent of heretical females in men's clothes, who by 
 subtle contrivances of wantonness were to pervert the 
 whole Portuguese nation from the truth.:;: 
 
 I have observed that, in this expedition, Ealeigh was 
 a volunteer ; but during its continuance he appears to 
 have found no ojDportunity of distinguishing himself. In 
 something like the spirit of knight-erranty, Essex, also 
 leaving the court clandestinely,§ became a volunteer, 
 
 * The fleet sailed April 18tli, 1589. 
 
 t Examination of John Wilson, August 19th, 1588. State Paper 
 Office. 
 
 % The object, according to an English Catholic, being to introduce 
 the Lutheran heresy into Portugal, excellent preachers were sent 
 with the fleet, and a ntunber of women in men's clothes, after the 
 manner of the heretics ; para este mismo efecto para introducir la 
 heregia por via de la sensualidad haj-an mugeres en habito de 
 hombres. MS. p. 235. Bib. Xac. Sladrid. 
 
 § Norris and Drake to the Council, April 7th, 1589. State Paper 
 Office. 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 194: LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 and, by his Quixotism, threw his mistress of fifty-six 
 into hidicrous paroxyms of rage, which threatened at 
 one time to neutralize the policy of the expedition.* 
 From beginning to end no orderly or intelligible plan 
 was pursued : the first active blunder was made at 
 Corunna, where, after taking and plundering the lower 
 town, the army was constrained to re-embark without 
 effecting anything against the fortifications. At 
 Peniche t the English landed without difficulty, Essex 
 being the first to reach the shore, wading up to his 
 shoulders through the waves. At Lisbon all they did 
 resulted in the discovery that their enterprise was ill- 
 planned and worse managed, and that the Portuguese 
 were no way disposed to accept Don Antonio for their 
 king. The English encountered, however, during their 
 long marches, so little opposition that several able 
 soldiers persuaded themselves it would have been prac- 
 ticable with ten or twelve thousand men to force their 
 way through the whole Peninsula.^ 
 
 In one sense the undertaking proved no failure — that 
 
 * Elizabeth unconsciously suggested tlie real character of her pro- 
 ceedings when writing to Norris and Drake, she said, — " If Essex 
 had found the fleet they were forthwith to cause him to be sent 
 home ; if they did not they should look to answer for the same at 
 their smart, /or these" she added, " he no childish actions,'" May 4th, 
 1589. State Paper Office. 
 
 I See ' History of the World,' vi., 99. 
 
 X Sir Eoger Williams to Walsingham, June 1st, 1589. State 
 Paper Office. 
 
 I
 
 EOSTILITT OF ESSEX. ]95 
 
 is in the taking of booty — the plunder was immense, and 
 the loss sustained by the natives probably ten times as 
 great as the acquisitions made by the invaders ; for 
 armies spoil and destroy whatever they are unable to 
 remove. On their way home, likewise, they fell in with 
 a number of Easterlings richly laden, sixty of which they 
 captured. No act of chastisement was ever more just. 
 The Hanse towns were not only at peace with England, 
 but in consequence of large privileges granted them by 
 our kings, M^ere pledged not to supply our enemies with 
 munitions of war. Yet the Armada of the previous year 
 would hardly have been able to put to sea ^vithout aid 
 from these our false friends, who were now overtaken 
 conveying contraband of war to the Spaniards. On this 
 occasion Ealeigh comes forth for a moment into light ; 
 the fleet of Easterlings consisted of two hundred hulks, 
 all of which the English would have seized had they 
 possessed the means of bringing them home. Ealeigh 
 appears to have made prize of several, but his men not 
 being sufficiently numerous, he obtained a few hands 
 from Sir Roger Williams, who says : — 
 
 " The vessel had never been carried into England * 
 without my means. It is well known we had above two 
 Inuidred sails of all sorts, of which we could not carry 
 witli us above three score for want of men : I protest on 
 
 * The fleet returned July 2nil, 1579. Sir Aulhony Wiugfield in 
 Hakluyt, ii., 642.
 
 196 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 the faith of a Christian this journey cost me above a 
 thousand pounds. I Iviiow not what to do unless your 
 lordships will help me to recover some part of it. The 
 Earl of Bath discharged my men from the vessel at 
 Dartmouth. I presume myself the Earl of Essex, with 
 all the rest that were in this action, will testify I deserve 
 a chain as well as my fellows, but for her majesty's 
 displeasure which doth me wrong in this sort. Where 
 Sir Walter Ealeigh speaks of my truth, I cannot stop 
 his mouth to belie me, for he belied the ark of Noah,* 
 which was the best ship that ever was." 
 
 Williams then stood in so much danger for having 
 assisted Essex in joining the expedition, that he dared 
 not show himself, or discover where he lay ; for, in the 
 blindness of passion, Elizabeth had ordered him to be 
 jjut to death ; which the commanders excused them- 
 selves for disobeying, by alleging the high estimation in 
 which he was held by the army.f Ealeigh, with other 
 distinguished commanders, had been honoured with a 
 chain of gold by the Queen, who likewise addressed a 
 letter to Drake and Norris % expressing her high appro- 
 bation of their conduct, and commanding them to 
 convey her sentiments to all the officers, soldiers, and 
 
 * Sir Eoger Williams to three members of Council, July 22nd, 
 l."89. ' Harlcian MSS.' British Museum. 
 
 t Walsingham to "Windehank, Jlay 2u(l, 1589. State Paper 
 Office. 
 
 % Queen to Drake and Norris, July 7th, 1589. State Paper Office.
 
 HOSTILITY OF ESSEX. 197 
 
 mariners who had served in the expedition. It Mas 
 consciousness of merit, not vanity, that urged Sir Eoger 
 Williams to assert his claim to a chain, though in the 
 matter of the hulk's cargo, his attempt to defraud 
 Raleigh was justly withstood by the Earl of Bath. 
 
 The fleet returned to England towards the end of 
 June ;* and Ealeigh, having received his gold chain, and 
 the value of that portion of the prizes which had fallen 
 to his share, set sail for Ireland. In this, as in many 
 other portions of his story, we encounter no little 
 obscurity : at the time it was believed that, intoxicated 
 by passion for her new favourite, Elizabeth had suffered 
 Essex's influence to become paramount, and that he had 
 employed it to drive Ealeigh into exile.f 
 
 The suspicion is not without probability, though some 
 months afterwards, when reason had once more gained 
 the upper hand in Elizabeth's mind, her partiality for 
 the Captain of the Guard revived. ]\Ieanwliile Ealeigh 
 w^s engaged in one of the most pleasing episodes of his 
 life. Nine years previous, during the stormy period of 
 the Desmond rebellion, he had contracted a friendship 
 with the poet Spenser, and now proceeded to visit him 
 at his castle of Kilcolman on the Mulla. Here poetry 
 may be supposed to have formed the chief theme of 
 their discussions, though that they were likewise occu- 
 
 * Or in the begijimng of July, according to Wingfield, ubi supra. 
 t Birch, i., 56.
 
 198 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 pied by politics may be inferred from the fact that when 
 Spenser afterwards calmly reviewed the state of Ireland, 
 he arrived at the conviction that no man was so well 
 qualified to establish peace and order in that country as 
 his old poetical friend, the " Shepherd of the Ocean."* 
 
 Haleigh appears to have taken with him to Ireland 
 several manuscript poems, which he read to Spenser, 
 who entertained a highly favourable judgment of his 
 imaginative and artistic powers, though of the produc- 
 tions which charmed so accurate a judge, few, if any, 
 have probably come down to us. Spenser's own reading 
 doubtless consisted of portions of the ' Fairy Queen,' 
 three books of which he brought with him when he 
 accompanied his friend to England, and was presented 
 by him to Elizabeth. Afterwards, when the work 
 appeared, the poet, in a strain of affectionate gratitude, 
 inscribed it to Sir Walter Ealeigh. Other authors, both 
 in poetry and prose, likewise selected Kaleigh for their 
 patron, as Hakluyt, Hooker (Irish Chronicle), Church- 
 yard,! and worthy Theodore de Bry, who, when he 
 published at Franckfort, April, 1590, his copperplate 
 illustrations of Hariot's ' Virginia,' dedicated his work 
 in very bad English to Ealeigh. 
 
 If, as tradition maintains, Raleigh possessed a house 
 
 * ' View of the State of Ireland.' 
 
 t Churchyard in his dedication, 1588, observes that Ealeigh had 
 spoken of him to the Queen six years before. '' Progresses,' ii., 584.
 
 HOSTILITY OF ESSEX. 199 
 
 at Youghal, he no doubt visited it now. The behef in 
 Ireland is that it was a favourite residence, to which he 
 often retired from the tumults and annoyances of 
 court life. One who saw it lately, observes, " The 
 interior is in its original state, wainscotted throughout 
 with iine old Irish oak in excellent preservation; the 
 panels in some of the rooms are richly carved, especially 
 in the drawing-room, the chimneypiece of which ex- 
 hibits an exquisite specimen of the elaborate work of 
 the day, being enriched witli various grotesque figures 
 and emblems ; the roof, being also of Irish oak, remains 
 untouched, having apparently suffered nothing from the 
 hand of time." In the garden are found many beauti- 
 ful myrtles, some of them twenty feet high, which have 
 given the place the name of " Myrtle Grove."* Here, 
 at the foot of numerous exotics, Ealeigh caused to 
 be planted the first potatoes in Ireland, from roots 
 brouglit by his friend Hariot from Virginia. As he was 
 not present when the plants arrived at maturity, the 
 gardener collected the apples, which were what he sup- 
 posed to be intended for food, but not liking the taste, 
 thought no more of the potato. Afterwards, when tlie 
 ground came to be dug up for other purposes, the roots, 
 together with their use, were discovered, and from them 
 Ireland was supplied with the great staple of its 
 nourishment. 
 
 * Hardy, 'Tourists' Guide through Ireland.'
 
 200 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGE. 
 
 In his ' History of the World ' Ealeigh, while 
 speaking of the long lives of the patriarchs, alludes to 
 an incident belonging to this part of his story ; observ- 
 ing that in 1589 he became acquainted with the old 
 Countess of Desmond,* who had been married in the 
 reign of Edward IV. 
 
 While Ealeigh was thus yielding to the seductions of 
 art and the delights of friendship, his enemies were 
 secretly opening up a pit into which they rightly 
 judged he must sooner or later fall. Elizabeth's single 
 and childless state inspired all who busied themselves 
 respecting the future with the desire to conciliate her 
 presumptive successor. Essex especially, with a craft 
 and forethought not often found in a gay nobleman of 
 twenty-two, entered into a correspondence with James 
 of Scotland, which, assuming various colours as it pro- 
 ceeded, and involving many new agents and shifting 
 aims in its progress, terminated in treason and death. 
 Though his tenure of the post of favourite had been 
 brief, he already professed to have grown tired of it, 
 and his sisters, who both longed to become Queens of 
 Sheba to the new Solomon, actively co-operated in his 
 northern intrigue ; one of them, who had boundless 
 faith in the beauty which had led Sidney astray, boldly 
 sending her portrait to the man whom she was eager to 
 make master of the original. To these sanguine in- 
 * • History of the World,' ii., 151.
 
 HOSTILITY OF ESSEX. 201 
 
 triguers Elizabeth's healtli seemed to break up far too 
 slowly, though their wishes betrayed them into the 
 belief that she could not last long. 
 
 In the jargon of these plotters the Queen was called 
 Venus ; James of Scotland, Victor ; Lady Rich, Eyalta ; 
 and Essex, The Weary Knight. All who had incurred 
 the dislike of the correspondents were dressed up like 
 the victims of the Inquisition, in hideous and grotesque 
 drapery, to excite the vindictiveness or contempt of 
 Solomon and his courtiers.* 
 
 Over all men's lives circumstances and approxima- 
 tions, with the originating of which they have nothing 
 to do, exert important influences. While listening to 
 the calumnies of Kaleigh's worst enemies, James un- 
 wittingly brought home from the Baltic one of the 
 stanchest and truest friends Ealeigh ever possessed; 
 one who stood by him in his days of greatest peril, 
 soothed him in his long captivity, and spent many of 
 the days of her unhappy life in the endeavour to save 
 his. This was Anno of Denmark, f who, beneath the 
 breath of persecution, scandal, and neglect, withered 
 away in Scotland first, and afterwards in England, com- 
 manding no respect, and exciting little sympathy. 
 
 At Court Raleigh's enemies, open or disguised, were 
 
 * Fowler to Biirleiijli, Murdin, p. G40. 
 
 t Sister to Christian IV., who became king in 1588, and died in 
 1648, after a reign of sixty years. Piaumer, i., 81.
 
 202 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 multiplying, and rising to greater power, with Burleigh 
 at their head, to whom may be attributed the failure of 
 all his attempts to obtain a higlier title or a place in 
 the Government. Some advantage he may have 
 promised himself from the marriage of Robert Cecil 
 with the daughter of Lord Cobham, for whose eldest 
 son Henry he entertained a friendship, destined to 
 prove fatal to them both. 
 
 Ealeigh has obtained in history credit for almost 
 unrivalled craft and subtlety. I fail to discover them 
 in his conduct. He provoked the enmity of the 
 powerful, and connected himself with unfortunate men, 
 assisted the poor, pleaded for the persecuted — a course 
 which has seldom in any age led to success. Leicester, 
 who had been the friend of his friends, and the enemy 
 of his enemies, was now no more ; his brother, the 
 Earl of Warwick, soon afterwards died tlirough the 
 effect of a wound from a poisoned bullet. In Wal- 
 singham * he lost an enemy as well as in Hatton, 
 while some of those who were working their way into 
 office and power he had reason to look upon as well- 
 wishers. Among these was the younger Cecil, the 
 husband of Elizabeth Brooke, who, for reasons not then 
 
 * Lloj'd, in his ' State Worthies,' i., 398 — 402, draws up a cha- 
 racter of Walsingham, shrewd and pointed, but without dates or cir- 
 cumstances. He regards him as one of the greatest of Statesmen, 
 justly, though it be now the fashion to underrate him. 
 
 I 
 
 I
 
 HOSTILITY OF ESSEX. 203 
 
 apparent, coitrted Raleigh's friendship, on which he 
 affected to set a high value. How much this sentiment 
 in him was worth we shall see hereafter, when the 
 sheltering favour of Elizabeth being withdrawn, the 
 old Captain of the Guard stood exposed to the chilling 
 airs of a hostile Court.
 
 204 LIFL OF SIR WALTER RALEIOE. 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 ELIZABETH THROGMORTON. 
 
 I HAVE already spoken of Kaleigli's friendly beliaviour 
 towards literary men, with whom he loved to associate, 
 and who, from the nature of his favourite pursuits, 
 rightly regarded him as one of themselves. It was not 
 in such intercourse that Raleigh's pride displayed itseK. 
 With poets and historians he found himself among his 
 equals, who loved him for his frank and genial humour, 
 and the earnestness with which he sought to promote 
 their interests. 
 
 Even theological writers, whose works were little in 
 harmony with his tastes, often, when in distress or peril, 
 appealed to him as to their natural protector. Leices- 
 ter, during his life, had been a patron of the Puritans, 
 and Ealeigh, his successor in the Queen's favour, was 
 expected to act the same noble part. Udal, a learned 
 divine of unblemished life, though gifted ^nth more 
 zeal than discretion, had provoked the hostility of the 
 bishops, by urging the necessity of a new reformation 
 in the church. During seven years tliis worthy man
 
 ELIZABETH THROOMORTON. 205 
 
 had been minister of Kingston-npon-Tliames, whence 
 he had been removed to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where 
 he wrote and published a book, entitled, " The Demon- 
 stration of Discipline." 
 
 The government of England was then slowly and 
 reluctantly laying aside, one after another, the charac- 
 teristics of despotism, to the great disgust of church 
 dignitaries, as well as of many judges, and ministers, 
 who, to punish any one that differed from them in 
 opinion, or offended the Queen, were seldom reluctant 
 to take upon themselves the guilt of innocent blood. 
 Elizabeth was a supporter of bishops : Udal assailed the 
 authority of those bishoj^s ; by assailing their authority, 
 he assailed hers, which, the judges maintained, was 
 treason. From being a critic on ecclesiastical regula- 
 tions, Udal found himself elevated to the highest rank 
 of state criminals ; and, through a juggle practised by 
 Puckering on the jury at his trial, was condemned to 
 death. 
 
 A friend now advised him to interest Ealeigh* in 
 his behalf, doubtless because the Captain of the Guard 
 was known to be friendly to toleration. Other iuiluential 
 persons, as Dean Nowell, and the Earl of Essex,t 
 
 * Oldys, p. 137, refers to Udal's pamphlet for what regards 
 Raleigh's interference. 
 
 t Neal, 'History of the Turitans,' i., 414. Strype, 'Life of 
 Wbitgift,' assures us that the persecuting archbishop himself in- 
 terfered to save Udal's life.
 
 206 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 interceded for the prisoner, but without avail ; for 
 though he escaped a public execution, his constitution 
 sank under the severity of his confinement, and he 
 died in prison. 
 
 Another unfortunate individual, apparently about the 
 same period, besought Ealeigh's interference for him 
 with the Government. Captain Spring, an old officer, 
 who had received many wounds in the public service, 
 found age creeping upon him at the same time with 
 poverty, while a sum equal to one thousand five hundred 
 pounds of our money was due to him from the Treasury. 
 Having long applied in vain for payment, he at last 
 appealed to Ealeigh, who seems to have been looked 
 upon as the intercessor-general of all who were in 
 difficulties. 
 
 As Elizabeth had fits of niggardliness, he occasionally 
 provoked her by his demands of this kind, so that 
 one day, in a pettish mood, she exclaimed, " Ealeigh, 
 when will you cease to be a beggar ?" — " When your 
 majesty," he replied in his com-tliest tone, "ceases to 
 be a benefactor." 
 
 In the spring of 1591, an expedition was fitted out 
 under Lord Thomas Howard as admiral, and Ealeigh's 
 cousin, Sir Eichard Grenville, as vice-admiral, to inter- 
 cept the Spanish treasure fleet about the Azores. 
 In this Grenville, one of the bravest of the brave, 
 lost his life. No sea-fight on record is more remark-
 
 ELIZABETH TIIBOGMORTON. 207 
 
 able, for Grenville, in the ' Eevenge,' plunged into the 
 heart of the hostile Armada, and sustained its whole 
 tire, till his ship began to sink under him, when he 
 ordered it to be blown up. As he lay mortally wounded 
 upon the deck, his orders were disobeyed, so that he 
 was taken j)risoner by the enemy, who, admiring his 
 valour, treated him Avith the utmost courtesy. Impatient 
 of captivity, however, even for a few hours, he hastened 
 his own death, by crushing with his teeth and swallow- 
 iiio; the fragments of a class in which wine was 
 presented to him. 
 
 Of tliis battle we have a history by Raleigh, 
 in his most brilliant style, lull of proud sentiments, 
 and breathing throughout tlie fiercest hostility to 
 Spain. 
 
 The date of Haleigh's acquisition of Sherbourne 
 Castle, which can only be determined by conjecture, 
 seems generally for that reason to have been wrongly 
 given. Oldys, and all succeeding biogTaphers, suppose 
 the gift to have been made by Elizabeth in loO-l; 
 but the facts of the case concur in proving it to have 
 taken place two years earlier. Dr. John I*iers was 
 translated from the See of Salisbury to the Archbishopric 
 of York about the beginning of 1589, and Dr. Coldwell, 
 the next bishop, was not elected to succeed him till 
 December, 1591, though he became a ])etitioner to 
 Burleiirli for the See in 1590. In the interval between
 
 208 LIFE OF SIH. WALTER BALEIGH. 
 
 these two dates he probably consented to make over to 
 the Crown the castle and manor of Sherbourne. Once 
 in possession of Elizabeth, it was sure to pass into 
 the hands of some favourite, and Kaleigh, we are 
 told, personally begged it of the Queen. From the 
 month of March, 1592, till his return from Cadiz, 
 1596, Raleigh was never admitted into Elizabeth's 
 presence ; and was in so much disgrace, that instead 
 of bestowing on him castles and manors, she suspended 
 him from his office of Captain of the Guard. It must 
 therefore have been during the winter of 1591-92, that 
 he becauDe master of Sherbourne, which was thence- 
 forward rendered celebrated by its connexion with his 
 name. What Bacon did for Gorhambury Raleigh did 
 in a still more remarkable degree for Sherbourne ; 
 repairing the castle, erecting a magnificent mansion 
 close at hand, and laying out the grounds with the 
 greatest refinement of taste. 
 
 In the midst of beautiful gardens and orchards, a 
 river, artificially introduced, broke over rocks in rapids 
 and cascades, and then diffused itself in brooks and 
 runnels, among luxuriant plantations of native and 
 exotic shrubs. 
 
 But all these rural allurements failed to detain him 
 long from court, to which a magnet of the most 
 fascinating power now drew him. This was the lovely 
 Elizabeth Throgmorton, im orphan of the rarest attrac-
 
 ELIZABETH THROOMORTON. 209 
 
 tions, whose virtue, devotion, and misfortunes slied 
 a lustre over the close of the sixteenth and the early 
 years of the seventeen century. Her first appearance, 
 however, in Ealeigh's biography boded anything but 
 an enviable fame. Then- intercourse, clandestine and 
 illicit, soon became visible to tlie keen eyes of envy, 
 upon which scandal made itself busy with the lady's 
 reputation. For a while, dread of Elizabeth's tem- 
 pestuous anger, coupled with unwillingness to provoke 
 Ealeigh's resentment, restrained the courtiers froDi with- 
 drawing the veil from this perilous amour, because 
 they knew that Ealeigh's Panama expedition, upon 
 which he must soon put out to sea, would afford them 
 amjjle opportunities of effecting his ruin. 
 
 The Throgmorton, probably in her twenty-third year, 
 was a tall woman, with light hair, large blue eyes, 
 and fine oval features. Her portrait, seemingly the 
 only one taken of her, has never come under my 
 observation, neither does any engraving appear to have 
 been made of it. I shall therefore borrow Oldvs's 
 description, which conveys a clear idea of her appearance 
 and costume : — " She has on," he says, " a dark-coloured, 
 hanging-sleeve robe, tufted on the arms, and under it 
 a close-bodied gown, of white satin flowered with black, 
 with close sleeves down to the wrist ; has a rich ruby 
 in her ear, bedropt with large pearls ; a laced whisk 
 rising above the shoulders ; her bosom uncovered, and 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 LIFE OF SIR WVLTER RALEIGH. 
 
 a jewel hanging thereon, witli a large chain of pearl 
 
 round her neck down to her waist.* 
 
 How, or by whom the discovery of Raleigh's love 
 
 for her was made no one has told us ; but a letter of 
 
 the period has been found, written from some one in 
 
 the palace, to a friend without, which evidently alludes 
 
 to it. " S. W. R.," the writer says, " hath been too 
 
 inward with one of her majesty's maids : I fear to say 
 
 who; but if you should guess at E. T., you may not 
 
 be far wrong. The matter hath only now been apparent 
 
 to all eyes, and the lady hath been sent away ; but 
 
 nobody believes it can end there. S. W. R. hath escaped 
 
 from London for a time ; he will be speedily sent for 
 
 and brought back, where what awaiteth him nobody 
 
 knoweth save by conjecture."! 
 
 There is a Providence that shapes our ends, 
 Eough-hew them how we may. 
 
 So it was with Raleigh : this wrong act, through the 
 
 influence of a benignant Nemesis, proved a far greater 
 
 blessing to him than all the right acts he ever performed ; 
 
 his successes in war or ambition, the Queen's favour, 
 
 his opulence, his fame, were mere dross compared with 
 
 Throgmorton's undying love, which clung to him in 
 
 the Tower, in absence and death, and survived till she 
 
 took her place beside him in the grave. 
 
 " ' Life of Ealeigh,' p. 353. 
 
 t Mr. Payne Collier, who communicated this letter to the 
 ' Archa3ologia,' xxxiv., 161, omits to say where he found it.
 
 ELIZABETH TEROGMORTON. 211 
 
 Yet, at the outset, Ealeigli's conduct was not such as 
 to entitle him to so true a love ; leaving her to face 
 alone the scoffs of malice and the derision of the base, 
 he proceeded on his expedition, and wi'ote to Sir Robert 
 Cecil from Chatham : — 
 
 "I mean not to come away, as they say I will, for 
 fear of a marriao-e and I know not what. If anv 
 such thing were, I would have imparted it to yourself 
 before any man living ; and therefore I pray you 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."* 
 
 Here he distinctly denies that any private marriage 
 had taken place, and affirms, with still greater vehe- 
 mence, that there existed no woman whom he desired 
 to marry. His connexion, therefore, with Elizabeth 
 Throgmorton was a seduction and a desertion. When 
 the nature of the affair was revealed to the Queen, 
 it is no way surprising that she should have been 
 thrown into a paroxysm of rage. The favourite had 
 always professed the most passionate adoration for 
 herself, and now it appeared he had all the while 
 been cherishing a secret preference for another. To 
 enjoy his company she had, up to the moment of his 
 departure, been manoeuvering to withdraw him from 
 
 * IMarcli lOtli, 1592.
 
 212 
 
 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 the expedition, and get the chief command transferred 
 to Burgh and Frobisher. He should now be recalled 
 from very different motives, and for a different purpose. 
 To the Tower with him and his minion, and let both 
 be for ever banished her presence. 
 
 This was Elizabeth's fiat, which, as we shall see, 
 resulted ultimately in the overthrow of the offender ; 
 for during his four years of exclusion all the enemies 
 he had made — and they were not a few — enjoyed full 
 leisure and opportunity to obstruct the growth of his 
 fortunes, to fill up the places to which he might have 
 attained, and to fix firmly in power and authority the 
 persons most inimical to his advancement. 
 
 The expedition to the Azores of the previous year, 
 in which Grenville fell, had been so prolific of prize- 
 money, that it tempted Ealeigh, the Lord-admiral, and 
 others, to organise another enterprise, in the hope of 
 capturing the whole treasure-fleet of Spain. The con- 
 tributions amounted to thirty-six thousand pounds. 
 Kaleigh, in the boundlessness of his confidence, embarked 
 his whole fortune ; and many other persons became 
 lavish in their quotas through their reliance on his 
 courage and skill as a commander. He left England, 
 however, with the vulture of Prometheus at his heart ; 
 for he well knew that when the Queen should discover 
 his heinous transgression, he would be flung in a 
 moment from his high estate, perhaps to grovel for
 
 ELIZABETH THROGMOBTON. 21 J 
 
 ever iu disgrace and poverty, even if some device were 
 not hit upon to justify, or at least colour, his execution. 
 
 Stimulated by such feelings, he exhausted all the 
 resources of his seamanship to put as many leagues 
 of ocean as possible between him and his enraged 
 mistress. His efforts were vain. On the second day 
 of his voyage, Sir Martin Frobisher, in the Lord- 
 admiral's pinnace, 'Disdain,' overtook him with the 
 Queen's peremptory order for his return. To gain 
 time would be something ; so interpreting Elizabeth's 
 language as best suited his own views, he persisted 
 in his design. Some days later he spoke a French 
 ship with an Englishman on board, who had been for 
 several years a captive in Spain ; this man's report was 
 that Philip, having heard of Ealeigh's preparations, 
 had sent orders to America that no treasure-ship should 
 cross the Atlantic that year. This was discom-aging ; 
 but still the truant lover went on, hoping doubtless 
 that fortune, which seldom favoured him, would now 
 at his utmost need throw prizes iu his way, with which 
 he might mitigate the hostility of the court. His evil 
 genius, however, pursued him. Off Cape Finisterre 
 he encountered a hurricane, which scattered his fleet, 
 sank many of his boats and pinnaces, and sobered his 
 mind into the proper mood fir obedience. 
 
 Before quitting the fleet he drew up instructions 
 for the guidance of Frobisher and Burgh ; which done.
 
 214 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGE. 
 
 he descended from the deck of the ' Garland/ into 
 Effingham's pinnace, and, with the worst possible fore- 
 bodings, returned to England. 
 
 Over these transactions, and several that follow, 
 much obscurity still hangs. Kaleigh reached England 
 about the middle of July, and on the 21st was sent 
 a prisoner to the Tower, together, as is commonly 
 believed, with Elizabeth Throgmorton. This belief 
 appears to rest on the credit of Sir Edward Stafford, 
 who, in a very silly letter to Anthony Bacon, says, 
 jestingly, that if he had any love to make to Mistress 
 Throgmorton, he might meet her next day at the Tower.* 
 
 At first Ealeigh was committed to the custody of his 
 relative, Sir George, afterwards Lord Carew, who, as 
 Master of the Ordnance, had apartments in the Tower, 
 whence the prisoner wrote numerous ^letters to Cecil, 
 intended for the Queen's eye, and sure to meet it. 
 The flatteries and bemoanings of himself they contain 
 have been deservedly censured, though Elizabeth's 
 placability, and appetite for adulation, obviously inspired 
 them. It is far from pleasant to dwell upon the failings 
 and vices of distinguished men, though to keep them 
 out of sight would be to convert biography into pane- 
 gyric ; it must be owned, therefore, that Raleigh, in 
 the hope of soothing the angry Queen, indulged in 
 the most grotesque flattery, by comparing a lady of 
 
 * Stafford to Anthony Bacon, July 28th, 1592. Lambeth MSS.
 
 ELIZABETH THROGMORTON. 215 
 
 sixty to Venus, affirming that she rode like Alexander, 
 and that his soul panted to behold once more her 
 ofoldeu rinoiets wavinsr in the wind about her ivory 
 neck. He not only wrote flattery, however, lie enacted 
 it ; for when Elizabeth paid a visit to her Master of 
 the Ordnance, Raleigh got up a sort of sham-fight 
 with the gallant soldier, for the privilege of beholding 
 the royal nymph in her barge. 
 
 Growing weary of amorous effusions and extrava- 
 gancies, Ealeigh turned to business, and applied to 
 the Lord-treasurer and the Secretary in behalf of his 
 tenants in Ireland. The Lord-deputy, it appears, 
 counted among his enemies, and eagerly took advantage 
 of his imprisonment to spoil his estate, as well as to 
 obstruct the Queen's service. Feigning Raleigh to be 
 indebted to the crown in the sura of four hundred 
 pounds, he seized the cattle of the liusbandmen, and 
 sold them to make up that sum. For these, and other 
 reasons, Raleigh foresaw the probability of a rising in 
 Munster, and through his friend Killigrew disclosed 
 his suspicions to Elizabeth. When his predictions were 
 shown to her, she laughed at them ; but in less than 
 ten days the prophecy became a reality, for upwards 
 of three thousand rebels were in arms, to the utter 
 bewilderment of the Lord-deputy. 
 
 When Raleigh learned that the Queen was about 
 to go in progress, as was her wont every summer, he
 
 216 
 
 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 had recourse to every device and means in liis power 
 to obtain leave to accompany her as Captain of the 
 Guard, — to no purpose. She quitted London without 
 liim, though her resolution might possibly have been 
 changed had she known of the plot succinctly described 
 in the following document: — "Some tall soldier, an 
 Irishman, was to execute the enterprise as a godly 
 act, illustrated by the history of Judith and Holofernes. 
 They appointed him in what sort he shall execute the 
 same, to buy a gelding of twenty pounds, and lie in 
 wait for her Majesty, as she should ride abroad in 
 progress, and to strike her with a sword, or to watch 
 her at a door Avith a supplication, and strike her 
 with a dagger, or strong knife."* 
 
 For some time after this Ealeigh remained shrouded 
 from the outer world. Whether or not he possessed 
 means of communicating with Elizabeth Throgmorton, 
 or whether he desired to make use of them if he did, 
 is unknown ; be this as it may, the cause of his imprison- 
 ment places him altogether beyond our sympathy. He 
 deserved what he was suffering, and would have deserved 
 far more had he not, in that forced leisure for reflec- 
 tion, resolved on the manly coui'se of repairing the 
 wrong he had done. 
 
 * The practice of Sir William Stanley and Sir Hugh Owen for the 
 destroying of Her Majesty by the hands of Hugh Colsill. State 
 Paper Office.
 
 MADRE DE BIOS. 217 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MADEE DE DIGS. 
 
 The Panama expedition having, by Pialeigli's reeal,* 
 been diverted from its chief purpose, his Vice-admirals 
 made use of the force under their command in the 
 way they deemed best calculated to preserve its 
 originators from detriment. Dexterously eluding an 
 attack from the Spanish fleet, with wliich Sir Martin 
 Frobisher was left to deal, Burgh sailed away for 
 the Azores, w^hich he reached in the midst of summer, 
 and cruizing leisurely about, now running so close 
 alone: shore that he could reckon the vessels in harbour, 
 now putting far out into the sunny sea, he kept intently 
 on the look-out for the gorgeous carracks of Sj)ain. 
 Before the fleet separated, the ' Santa Clara,' a ship 
 of six hundred tons burden, had been taken, but its 
 cargo consisting chiefly of hardware, though worth 
 eighteen or twenty thousand pounds to the Spaniards, 
 
 * Uakluyt, iii., 9.
 
 218 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 was scarcely estimated at a third of that value to its 
 captors. Still, after subjecting her to a thorough 
 rummaging, they despatched her to England. 
 
 Day after day small prizes dropped into the hands 
 of the English Admiral, which were regarded as earnests 
 of better fortune to come. On the 21st of June, Burgh 
 put into Santa Cruz in the island of Flores, where 
 he learned that though no fleet was this^ year expected 
 from America, numerous immense carracks were on 
 their way from the East Indies to Lisbon, one of 
 which had, in fact, sailed past only three days before. 
 
 After such intelligence there could be no dallying 
 on shore; putting out, therefore, in all haste, they 
 presently discovered one of the carracks lying becalmed 
 on the ocean, while some leagues to the east two or 
 three ships belonging to the Earl of Cumberland hove 
 in sight. Determined to be first, Burgh lowered a 
 boat, and stepping into it, pulled three miles to take 
 a clear view of the expected prize, the boarding of 
 which was deferred till the morning. But during the 
 night a storm came on, and the carrack running into 
 harbour, its commander set it on fire, and landing his 
 men with a number of guns, stationed them on the 
 beach, to hinder the English from extinguishing the 
 flames. By the skill and bravery of our countrymen, 
 however, the Portuguese were driven off, and all the 
 plunder that could be saved from the fire was taken.
 
 MADRE BE BIOS. 219 
 
 Cumberland's ships, togetlier witli others belonging 
 to Kaleigh and the Queen, now coming in, it Avas re- 
 solved to act in concert, so spreading themselves out into 
 a long line athwart the ocean, commanding a view of 
 two whole degrees of latitude, they awaited the advent 
 of the other carracks. 
 
 Drawn up thus they lay patiently from the 29th of 
 June till the 3rd of August, when the mighty bulk of 
 the ' Madre de Dios ' was beheld approaching from the 
 south. There was now a race between the 'Dainty,' 
 belonging to Sir John Hawkins, commanded by Captain 
 Thomson, and Ealeigh's ship the ' Eoebuck,' commanded 
 by Burgh himself. The ' Dainty ' being a swift sailer 
 got the start of the whole fleet, and began the conflict, 
 not a little to her cost ; but the ' Eoebuck ' coming up, 
 discharged her great guns into the carrack, and con- 
 tinued the fight till Sir Eobert Cross in the ' Foresight,' 
 the Queen's own ship, and several others, joined in the 
 melee. 
 
 Consulting on the course to be taken, it was deter- 
 miined to board at once, lest the ' Madre de Dios,' follow- 
 ing the example of the ' Santa Cruz,' should make for 
 the shore, and fire herself. The combat was long and 
 sanguinary ; the ' Eoebuck ' and the ' Foresight ' fastened 
 themselves with grappling-irons to the carrack, while the 
 guns on both sides were worked witliout intermission. 
 At length the ' Eoebuck ' received u shot under water.
 
 220 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 and being in clanger of sinking, detached herself from 
 the enemy, while the ' Foresight ' was required to do 
 the like. Upon this the carrack turned its prow towards 
 the shore, and would certainly have escaped had not Sir 
 Robert Cross thrown his ship athwart her bows, and 
 maintained the fight singly during three hours, till the 
 others coming up, she was boarded and taken. 
 
 To us in these days a ship of sixteen hundred tons is 
 no marvel, but to Raleigh's contemporaries it was a sight 
 altogether extraordinary. Its cargo, likewise, from its 
 riches and variety, excited admiration, though the jewels, 
 which, on its departure from the Malabar coast, were 
 supposed to have been numerous, and of immense value, 
 had been stolen and concealed. The other articles on 
 board consisted of spices, drugs, perfumes, silks, calicoes, 
 quilts, carpets, and dyes. The spices were pepper, 
 cloves, mace, nutmegs, cinnamon, green ginger ; the 
 principal drugs were benzoin, frankincense, aloes, and 
 camphor. Besides various sorts of linens and muslins, 
 there were canopies and quilts of sarcenet ; carpets like 
 those of Turkey, with pearls, musk, civet, and ambergris. 
 To these may be added, elephants' teeth, porcelain 
 vessels of China, bedsteads of ebony Avood, cloth of the 
 bark of trees, the whole estimated to have amounted 
 originally to half a million sterling in value, though by 
 the time the goods reached London it fell short of half 
 that sum. 
 
 I
 
 MADRE I)E DIGS. 221 
 
 To show tlie extent to which robbery had taken place 
 on board, it is stated that the ' Madre de Dios,' when 
 brought into Dartmouth, had risen five feet higlier out 
 of the water than when she left the harbour of Cochin. 
 But this suggests an erroneous conclusion. Without the 
 agency of theft, she had been made lighter in various 
 ways, by the consumption of wine and provisions during 
 a voyage of some months, by the removal of nearly 
 seven hundred pei"Sons, crew and passengers included, a 
 few men only being left to work the carrack. Burgh 
 did all he could towards preventing robbery, by seizing 
 on the ship and cargo in the Queen's name ; but the 
 charm was too weak to restrain the cupidity of reckless 
 mariners, who, accustomed all their lives to consider 
 everything Spanish as lawful plunder, helped themselves 
 boldly to whatever fhey fancied on tlieir way home. 
 
 In the course: of three weeks, news of this immense 
 capture reached Ealeigh in the Tower, probably through 
 Sir John Hawkins, liis principal partner in the enter- 
 prise ; and on the 27th of August they addressed a joint 
 letter to the Lord-admiral, requesting that the three 
 ships-of-war, which then constituted our Channel Fleet, 
 might be sent out to meet and convoy the prize to 
 England. Their fear was, lest the Sj)anish men-of-war, 
 then known to be cruizing on the coast of Bretagne, 
 should retake the carrack, and so deprive Ler J^Iajesty 
 and them of the captured property.
 
 222 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 To show likewise the insecurity of our ports in the 
 sixteenth century, it may be observed that both Ealeigh 
 and Hawkins were apprehensive, that if not protected 
 by the Queen's ships-of-war, the carrack might be cut 
 out or burnt in harbour, our maritime defences being 
 too weak of themselves to prevent such a catastrophe. 
 
 At length, on Elizabeth's birthday, the huge ' Madre 
 de Dios' floated into the harbour of Dartmouth, where 
 her arrival excited unparalleled admiration.* All 
 Devonshire was in an uproar ; thousands flocked to the 
 shore : letters to friends in London brought down -other 
 thousands, not, however, for the purpose of gratifying 
 mere curiosity, but by illicit dealings with the seamen 
 to fill their purses. Ealeigh's biograjDhers lose no 
 opportunity of censuring the behaviour of Elizabeth, 
 and on this occasion are very angry at what they term 
 her hard usage of the disgraced favourite. But in order 
 to enable him to watch over his interest in the carrack, 
 she consented to his release from the Tower,t apparently 
 about the 15th of September, and permitted him, though 
 under the surveillance of a keeper, to repair to what was 
 literally a scene of pillage and confusion. Urgently as 
 
 * This was universally admitted to have been the largest, prize 
 ever brought into England. Morgan Colman to Anthony Bacon, 
 September 27th, 1592. Lambeth MSS. 
 
 f Morgan Colman, writing to Anthony Bacon on the 23rd Sep- 
 tember, speaks of Pialeigh's release, but mentions no day. Lambeth 
 MSS.
 
 MADRE DE BIOS. 223 
 
 his presence was demanded at Dartmouth, he yet 
 remained two days in London, for the purpose, as I 
 conjecture, of mailing Bessy Throgmorton his wife, after 
 which he posted westwards on his business errand. 
 
 On the 16th, Elizabeth issued instructions to Sir 
 Robert Cecil, and Thomas Middleton, appointing them 
 to be treasurers " for the order of all manner of prizes 
 that are come from the seas this present month."* 
 . . . . "The cargo," it is said, "of the carrack 
 (' Madre de Dios '), by the Queen's order, is to be con- 
 veyed by sea and land, and be brought to the Thames 
 afore our house of Greenwich, where order shall be 
 given that the same may be valued, and safely bestowed, 
 and hereafter put to sale there, as shall be ordered. 
 The sheriff of Devon is to issue a strait commandment 
 in our name, that no people of London, nor of any 
 other town, shall resort thither, and if any shall come, 
 and will not depart, the same to be committed to 
 prison." 
 
 Other commissioners had been previously despatched, 
 but Cecil being the principal, and knowing that the 
 chief responsibility rested on him, hastened with the 
 utmost speed to his post. Arrived at Exeter, while 
 Raleigh with his keeper Blount followed close at his 
 heels, Cecil wrote on the 19th the following characteristic 
 and amusing letter to his father : — 
 
   MS. State Paper OiEce.
 
 224 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 " I do send tliis bearer only to your lordship, that yon 
 may know that I am passed by Exeter, where I did take 
 this course ; whomsoever I met by the way within seven 
 miles, with anything, either in cloke or malle, which did 
 but smell of the prizes, either at Dartmouth or Plymouth, 
 for I assure your lordship I could well smell them, such 
 hath been the spoils of amber and musk, I did though 
 he had little about him, return him with me to the 
 town of Exeter, where I stayed any that could carry 
 news to Dartmouth and Plymouth. 1 compelled them 
 also to tell me where any malles or trunks were, aiid I 
 by this inquisition finding the people stubborn, till I 
 committed two of them to prison, w^hich example would 
 have won tlie Queen twenty thousand pound a week 
 past. 
 
 "I have lighted upon a Londoner's shop, in whose 
 possession we have found a bag of seed pearls, divers 
 pieces of damask, . . . and calicoes, with a very great 
 pot of musk ; certain strings of pearls, with divers other 
 things, which are by inventory described. 
 
 " I do mean, my lord, forthwith to be at Dartmouth, 
 and to have a privy search there, and in Plymouth. I 
 have stayed here this night and morning, because I 
 understand of divers things, and by my rough dealing 
 with them, I have left an impression with the mayor and 
 the rest. I have taken order to search every bag and 
 mail coming from the west, ar.d tliouih, I fear, that
 
 MADBE DE BIOS. 225 
 
 the bird be flown for jewels, pearls, and amber, yet will 
 I not doubt to save her IMajesty in recovering the 
 pillage, whicli is almost all desperate that which shall 
 be worth my journey. My lord, there was never such 
 spoil. I have intercepted letters, wherein I find who 
 hath written to London to their friends to come down, 
 and wherein they have promised what they will do for 
 them. I do keep the letter to charge the parties at 
 Dartmouth, and this party who had all these things is 
 gone to-day back again for new booty. I will take him 
 by the way, and make as much benefit of him and his 
 knowledge as I can. And thus in haste I humbly take 
 mv leave from Exeter, readv to ride to Dartmouth this 
 night, at ten of the clock. I will suppress the confluence 
 of these buyers, of which there are above two thousand, 
 and except they be removed there will be no good. 
 The name of commissioners is common in this country, 
 and in these causes ; but my coming down hath made 
 many stagger. Fouler weather, desperater ways, nor 
 more obstinate people did I never meet with : I will 
 tarry four or five days at Dartmouth and Plymoutli, 
 but no longer. I beseech your lordship, whatsoever 
 any man shall write from hence to your lordshiji of the 
 necessity of the presence of any bearing the title I un- 
 worthily carry, for I will begin them such a pattern 
 that if they follow, much pillage will be recovered. 
 All the goods, whereof I send you a note, were 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 bought since the Proclamation. I found, besides, in his 
 unlooked-for charge an armlet of gold, a fork and spoon 
 of crystal, with rubies, which I reserve for the Queen. 
 
 Her Majesty's captive (Raleigh) comes after me, but I 
 have outrid him, and will be at Dartmouth before him."* 
 
 The inventory above referred to is as follows : — 
 
 A great pot of musk ; twenty -six pieces of Calicut 
 lawn ; eight pieces of calico ; eight bundles of twisted 
 silk ; two pieces of white silk ; fifty-nine pieces of white 
 Cyprus ; carnation taffeta, a remnant ; a white quilted 
 kirtle ; three spoons of mother-of-|)earl ; a bag of pearl, 
 wherein is two or three pieces of goldsmiths' work, with 
 rubies, and a crystal ; a bag of good pearl ; a quilt for 
 a bed, and a canopy. 
 
 Still keeping ahead of Raleigh, Cecil pushed on to 
 Dartmouth, Avhich he reached on the twenty-first, less 
 than one hour before his pursuer. What happened 
 there his pen shall relate with all the spirit and colour 
 of the time. " As soon as I came on board the carrack, 
 on Wednesday, at one of the clock, with the rest of her 
 Majesty's commissioners, within one liour. Sir Walter 
 Raleigh arrived with his keeper, Mr. Blount. I assure 
 you, sir, his poor servants, to the number of a hundred 
 and forty, goodly men, and all the mariners, came to 
 him with such shouts and joy as I never saw a man 
 more troubled to quiet them in my life. But his heart 
 * Exeter, September 19tb, 1592. State Paper Office.
 
 MADRE BE BIOS. 227 
 
 is broken, for he is extremely pensive longer than he 
 is busied, in wliich he can toil terribly, but if you did 
 hear him rage at the spoils, finding all the short wares 
 utterly devoured, you would laugh as I do, which .1 
 cannot choose. The meeting between him and Sir 
 John Gilbert was with tears on Sir John's part ; and he 
 belike finding that it is known he had a keeper, when- 
 soever he is saluted with congratulation for liberty, he 
 doth answer, ' No, I am still tlie Queen of England's 
 poor captive.' I wished him to conceal it, because, 
 here it diminishes his credit, Vvhich I do vow to you 
 before God is gi-eater amongst the mariners than I 
 thought for. I do gi-ace him as much as I may, for I 
 find him marvellously greedy to do anything to re- 
 cover the conceit of his brutish offence. I have ex- 
 amined Sir John Gilbert by others, and all his, who I 
 find clear. I protest to you, in most men's opinions, 
 his heart was so great till his brother was at liberty, 
 that he never came but once to the town, and never 
 was aboard her ; but now he is sworn, lie doth set all 
 wholly aboard to hunt out others, and inform us daily 
 by his spies, wherein he could not be so bold, if he 
 could have been now touched, which I assure vou on 
 my faith I do think him wronged in this, howsoever in 
 others he may have done like a Devonsliire man."* 
 
 * Sir Robert Cecil to the Eight Hou, Sir Tliomas Hencage. MS. 
 State Paper Office.
 
 228 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 During the next montli Ealeigh's brother, Carew, 
 Avho, like himself, undertook enterprises at sea in con- 
 junction with the Queen, captured and took into 
 Milford Haven a large Biscayan shij), laden with fish, 
 respecting which Burleigh bestirred himself as actively 
 as about the great carrack.* 
 
 For a considerable period after this date Ealeigh 
 occupied an anomalous position. Out of favour, and 
 affecting to be out of health and spirits, he steadily 
 kept his attention fixed on public affairs, watched the 
 machinations of Spain, in France, in the Low Countries, 
 in Scotland, and in Ireland, The intrigues carried on 
 against him at court were numerous, chiefly through 
 the influence of Essex and his friends ; yet, as he never 
 for a moment lost sight of the gratitude he owed 
 Elizabeth, his exertions in parliament were unremitting 
 in favour of the Grovernment, which was especially the 
 case in the parliament of 1593, which sat from 
 February till April. The principal subject of debate 
 was the application of the Government for subsidies for 
 carrying on the war against Spain, when Bacon, basing 
 his opposition on the poverty of the people, argued 
 against Ealeigh, Cecil, and the court speakers, generally 
 wdth partial success.! Into the minutiae of these de- 
 
 * Burleigh to Revell and Owen, October 24:th. Letter of Carew 
 Ealeigh, October 28th, 1592. State Paper Office. 
 t Mr. Hepworth Dixon, ' Stor^- of Lord Bacon,' p. G5. 
 
 If
 
 MADRE DE DIGS. 229 
 
 bates it is unnecessary to enter, since they belong less 
 to Ealeigli's biography than to the history of the 
 country. It may be remarked, however, that the 
 sagacity of his views of public affairs was almost 
 unerring, as after neglecting his counsel, and wan- 
 dering away in different directions, the statesmen of the 
 time generally found themselves constrained to retrace 
 their steps, and adopt the policy he had recommended 
 to them from the first. 
 
 In the same parliament Ealeigh combated, though 
 with caution and reserve, the intolerance of the age : 
 persecution, though less sweeping tlian under Mary, 
 still sootlied the orthodox with numerous victims.* 
 Elizabeth, as a Tudor and as a bigot, cared little for 
 human life when the sacrifice of it was demanded by 
 the supposed interests of the church, or of her own 
 authority, as was made evident on numerous occasions, 
 though never more strikingly than in her treatment of 
 the Puritans. Towards the close of the session of 1593, 
 a bill was brought into tlie Commons for the suppres- 
 sion of the Brownists,t but expressed in terms so 
 general that hardly any person could consider himself 
 
 * 111 1575, some Dutcli Anabaptists being found in England, were 
 savagely persecuted, and two of them (women) burnt in Smithfield- 
 Bohun, p. 48. 
 
 t The Brownists were first sought to be suppressed by the burn- 
 ing of their books, but when that failed, two of them were hanged at 
 St. Edmund's Bury. Bohun, pp. 48, 49.
 
 230 LIFE OF SIB WALTER BALEIGH. 
 
 safe from its operation. TNlio and what the Brownists 
 were may be explained in a few words : they agreed 
 with the church in doctrine, but differed from it in 
 matters of discipline, being opposed to prelacy, to sub- 
 scription, and to the predominance of one congregation 
 over another, for which last reason they afterwards 
 obtained the name of Independents. Meaning to 
 screen them from deatli, yet not forgetting who were 
 their enemies, Ealeigh admitted they were fit persons 
 to be rooted out of a commonwealth ; but nonplussed 
 their persecutors by inquiring if all the men of the sect 
 were put to death, or banished, who should maintain 
 their wives and children. By way of giving full force 
 to this consideration, he reminded the House that the 
 sect amounted at least to twenty thousand persons, and 
 were scattered all over England.* 
 
 The fineness of his coup d'ceil, and the correctness 
 of his political inferences, are nowhere more manifest 
 than in his opinions and predictions concerning Ireland : 
 after condemning the waste of our resources in France, 
 while we neglected our interests in the defences next 
 the heart, he goes on to say, " Her majesty hath good 
 cause to remember that a million hath been spent in 
 Ireland not many years since. A better kingdom might 
 have been purcliased at a less price, and that same 
 
 * D'Ewes, ' Journal of Parliament,' p. 517. Neal, ' History of the 
 Puritans,' i., 428.
 
 MADRE DE BIOS. 231 
 
 defended witli as many pence, if good order had been 
 taken. But the question may be, whether for so great 
 expense the estate be not less assured than ever. If 
 her Majesty consider it aright, she shall find it no small 
 dishonour to be vexed with so beggarly a nation, that 
 have neither arms nor fortifications ; but that accursed 
 kingdom hath always been but as a traffic, for which 
 her Majesty hath paid both freight and custom, and 
 others received the merchandize : and other than such 
 it shall never be."* 
 
 * Raleigh to Cecil, May 10th, 1593. Murdin, p. 664.
 
 232 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 GUIANA. 
 
 At the close of the session, Kaleigh'quitted London, 
 and returned to Sherbourne Castle, which he called his 
 " Fortune's Fold," and there made what efforts he could 
 to enjoy the pleasures of the country and the society 
 of his wife. 
 
 It would be highly erroneous to represent him to 
 ourselves as a calm philosopher, meditating, in the 
 shades of Sherbourne, on the laws of nature, or the 
 vanity of earthly things. On the contrary, he chafed 
 at his forced inaction, and could not be soothed even 
 by gentle words from Bessy's lips, "though fresh as 
 rose in June." Men of action are rarely content. 
 Enigmas to themselves, they must be scto'the rest 
 of the world, to whom nothing is less intelligible than 
 the craving for toil and the fierce delight afforded by 
 conflict and danger. 
 
 Raleigli was now in his forty-first year, and it would
 
 GUIANA. 233 
 
 indeed have been strange could he then have relinquished 
 voluntarily the career of ambition upon which, in his 
 own opinion, he had scarcely entered, so trifling was 
 what he had achieved compared with what he had 
 projected. The maelstrom of his thoughts whirled 
 incessantly about one point — the means of recovering 
 the Queen's favour. He had seen others offend and 
 obtain foro-iveness with little or no delav, and could 
 discover no reason why his case should differ from 
 theirs. Yet, while in theory he recognized the truth 
 that " hatreds are the cinders of affection," he persisted 
 in the endeavour to fan those cinders into a flame. 
 
 Through Cecil he suggested to Elizabeth his views 
 of the policy to be j^ursued in Scotland and in Ireland, 
 and, at the same time, adroitly brought in complaints of 
 the unjust usage to which the Queen's resentment 
 exposed him. All was of no avail ; tlie cycle of his labours, 
 sufferings, adventures, disappointments, victories, was 
 to be far more vast and protracted before his vindictive 
 mistress would re-admit him to her j)resence, though 
 never again to smile on him as of yore. He had 
 helped her to a discovery which she would have been 
 happy not to have made, and, when the period of 
 his probation should have been fulfilled, all reserved 
 for him was that reasonable friendsliip whicli, in strong 
 natures, sometimes makes itself a place amoug the 
 ashes of love.
 
 234 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 Finding indirect supplications useless, he resolved 
 upon laying open his thoughts to Elizabeth herself. 
 This he at first attempted in a paper on the designs of 
 the Spanish faction in Scotland, which he contrived to 
 get laid before her, but without obtaining any ad- 
 vantage, or even so much as an acknowledgment. He 
 then bethought him of touching on the topic nearest 
 her heart — that of the succession — which he could 
 handle, he assured her, either by writing or speaking, 
 so as completely to silence her adversaries. 
 
 If Elizabeth was imperious, wayward, terrible in her 
 resentments, she was likewise generous, and by no 
 means inclined to sympathize with those who would 
 trample on the fallen. To this fine quality of her 
 nature Ealeigh, therefore, as a last resource appealed. 
 " Your Majesty having left me," he says, " I am left 
 all alone in the world, and am sorry that ever I was 
 at all. What I have done is out of zeal and love, 
 and not by any encouragement, for I am only forgotten 
 in all rights and in all aifairs, and mine enemies have 
 their wills and desires over me." 
 
 No result being produced by these endeavours, 
 Raleigh fell back upon his own mental resources, and 
 out of them began to shape a new course of action for 
 himself. He had already led the way to the planting 
 of the English race in North America, where, leaving 
 it to grow up and acquire strength, as he had full
 
 GUIANA. 235 
 
 faith it would, he du-ected his speculations towards 
 the southern hemisphere, and projected an expedition 
 to Gruiana. 
 
 To obtain more precise information than he could 
 gather from books, though he was a diligent and quick- 
 sighted student, he despatched a bark under the 
 command of Captain Whiddon to make a preliminary 
 survey of the southern islands in the Gulf of Mexico, 
 as well as of the coast of Guiana, and shortly after- 
 wards repaired to London, where, with his wife and 
 infant son, Walter, he lived in gTeat magnificence. 
 Besides his natural taste for splendour, he had politic 
 reasons for acting after that fashion ; since exactlv 
 in proportion to men's belief in his opulence would 
 he find coadjutors in his new project. But his aifec- 
 tionate Bessy, who cared more for the man than for 
 the adventurer, looked with a feeling of dismay, strongly 
 resembling prescience, on her lord's design. Cecil had 
 been her friend, apparently from girlhood ; he was also 
 at this time — no reasons for the contrary as yet appear- 
 ing — the friend of her husband, who relied almost 
 exclusively on his good offices for reinstatement in his 
 place at court. 
 
 To him the anxious wife now addressed herself, and, 
 in a letter full of affection, though strangely mystical, 
 craved his aid to divert her husband from his under- 
 taking ; for to her the East seemed to open up a better
 
 236 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 field for enterprise, and she accordingly expressed her 
 earnest desire that her husband should be persuaded 
 to turn his footsteps in that direction. Then, reverting 
 to personal concerns, she says, " Every month hath its 
 flower, and every season its contentment ; and you 
 great councillors are so full of new counsels 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 fortunes we hold, fearing alterations 
 will but multiply misery, of which we have already felt 
 sufficient."* 
 
 Instead of dissuading Raleigh from the Guiana 
 expedition, Cecil gave bim all the aid in his power, as 
 did likewise Effingham, the Lord-admiral. The object 
 of the voyage was not to discover Guiana, which had 
 already been discovered, but to explore and subdue 
 it for the sake of the immense riches it was supposed 
 to contain. It was, in fact, the Eealm of Gold imagined 
 by Spanish fancy, in the attempt to reach and obtain 
 possession of which multitudes had perished. In the 
 opinion of some, it detracts from our estimate of 
 Ealeigh's good sense to admit that he believed in 
 the fable of El Dorado, with the city and lake of 
 Manoa. Whether we respect or despise him for his 
 credulity, there is no doubt he was credulous, and 
 
 * Lady Ealeigli to Cecil, February, 1594. ' Burleigh Papers. 
 British Museum.
 
 GUIANA. 22,1 
 
 expected to be wafted by the Orinoco into a region 
 so profusely abounding in gold that whoever should 
 possess it would be master or mistress of the world. 
 For this reason he sought to insure the conquest to 
 Elizabeth, and was ready to undergo any amount of 
 toil, and encounter any danger, in order to make his 
 peace with her, and to engage her in what he believed 
 would prove the crowning enterprise of her reign. 
 
 The riches derived by Spain from Mexico and Peru 
 were sufficient to justify the expectation of finding equal 
 riches in Guiana, though the current reports concerning 
 that country put on a fabulous aspect. The whole 
 error probably originated in interpreting literally the 
 poetical exaggeration of the natives, whose conceptions 
 of number and quantity were those of children ; they 
 spoke of a few thousand men as more numerous than 
 the leaves of the forest, and of an indefinite number 
 of chains and crescents, as enough of the precious metal 
 to convert a plain into a mountain. But Raleigh, it 
 may be said, should not have yielded credence to stories 
 which afterwards proved to be unfounded ; this, how- 
 ever, is demanding of him a prescience beyond human 
 nature, for though actual exploration demonstrated the 
 non-existence of the great lake and city of Manoa, 
 there was nothing in the nature of tilings to prove 
 a priori the impossibility of their existence. 
 
 Whatever may be the judgment which his faith 4n
 
 238 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 this fiction compels us to form of him, such was his 
 belief, and such continued to be his belief to his 
 life's end. 
 
 In this persuasion, with a fleet of five ships, and 
 the requisite number of pinnaces, barges, and small 
 boats, with a gallant company of gentlemen, and 
 adequate crews, he set sail from Plymouth on the 
 6th of February, 1595, and in little more than a 
 month reached the island of Trinidad, Avhere he took 
 and destroyed the new city of San Jose, put a number 
 of Spaniards to the sword, and took prisoner the governor, 
 Don Antonio de Bereo, who had for many years been 
 devoured, like himself, by the desire to subdue Guiana. 
 
 The extent of Bereo's knowledge, and the real nature 
 of his belief can by no means be ascertained from the 
 information he gave Ealeigh. Affecting ingenuousness, 
 he told just as much of the truth as suited his own 
 views and hopes; and his concealments were guided 
 by the same principle. But his revelations, whether 
 true or false, were not such as to quench in the English- 
 man the spirit of adventure ; on the contrary, the 
 wild enterprises, the^dangers, the disasters, the alternate 
 triumphs and reverses of the Spaniards, of which he 
 spoke, only stimulated Raleigh's ardour ; so that, leaving 
 his ships riding at anchor on the shores of Trinidad, he 
 proceeded with barges, boats, pinnaces, and launches to 
 explore the sunderbunds of the Orinoco.
 
 GUIANA, 239 
 
 His narrative of what he did and suffered disappoints 
 us, because nothing begets enthusiasm but success, and 
 because his enterprise dwindles to nothing compared 
 with that of many scores of Spaniards. Kot that his 
 daring was less than theirs, but that he was actuated 
 by very different motives : they, in most cases, cared 
 little or nothing about returning to Spain, but were ani- 
 mated by the hope of fouudiug kingdoms in the new 
 world, over which they might rule either independently 
 or with a show of allegiance to the Spanish crown. 
 AVhen their ambition took a lower flight, it was satisfied 
 with heaps of gold, splendid estates and mansions, and 
 an abundance of women, whom they might preserve or 
 kill at their pleasure, Ealeigh's mind was dominated 
 by no such ideas. Whatever he might accomplish in 
 Guiana, his real aim was to reconquer the confidence 
 of Elizabeth, to rise at court, to outshine his home 
 rivals, but, above all, to establish the power of England 
 in the southern continent of America. 
 
 As he toiled up the network of rivers descending 
 into or flowing out of the Orinoco, througli tempests 
 of rain, accompanied by such lightning and thunder 
 as none but travellers within the tropics can form a 
 true conception of, the mirage of Manoa retreated 
 before him. He saw, during short intervals of fine 
 weather, many portions of a lovely country ; green plains 
 of apparently interminable extent, M'ith here and there
 
 240 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 copses and groves, with immense herds of deer grazing 
 between them — mountains, the advanced posts of the 
 Andes, occasionally presented themselves, sometimes 
 clothed to their summits with wood, sometimes rocky 
 and precipitous, with vast cataracts dashing down their 
 sides. In the far background the snowy sierras of the 
 Cordillera pierced the blue firmament in a thousand 
 pinnacles, far too lofty to be reached by anything but 
 the wings of the condor. He beheld the great river 
 rolling and swelling like a sea between masses of vege- 
 tation luxuriant to rankness, and producing profusely all 
 such flowers and fruits as delight the eye or tempt the 
 palate in the near neighbourhood of the sun ; but he 
 saw no gold, he discovered no mines, he came in con- 
 tact with no men or women powdered from head to 
 foot with auriferous dust. Fables without end crowded 
 upon him — 
 
 Antres vast and deserts idle, 
 
 Rough quarries, rocks, and hills, whose heads touch heaven, . . 
 And of the cannibals that each other eat — 
 
 The anthropophagi — and men. whose heads do grow beneath their 
 shoulders. -""'^ 
 
 Nay more, the lied Men, with infantine inventiveness, 
 or the Avhite men, through ignorance of their language, 
 heard snatches of the old fable, which two thousand 
 years before had peopled the banks of the Therm odon 
 and Tanais with a race of warlike women, without love
 
 GUIANA. 241 
 
 or pity, who submitted through sheer necessity to bear 
 children, but otherwise lived apart, delig-hting in savage 
 pursuits, and abhorring the society of men. 
 
 From this mythe, which had been transplanted by the 
 Spaniards from Asia to South America, the great river 
 Orellana obtained the name of the Amazons.* In Plel- 
 leuic poetry and art, the fable of the Amazons created a 
 beautiful offspring, fragments of which still lie scattered 
 over the civilized world ; whereas Raleigh's Amazons 
 served no other purpose than to expose him to obloquy. 
 The setting in of the rainy season put a period to his 
 explorations ; and leaving behind him a man f and a 
 boy to learn the language, that they might serve as in- 
 terpreters at his proposed return in the following year, 
 he set sail for England, taking with him a young Cacique 
 as a specimen of those whom he sought to render subject 
 to Elizabeth. 
 
 In the course of Raleigh's narrative frequent mention 
 is made of a map or chart of the country, from the em- 
 bouchures of the Orinoco northwards, including the 
 affluence and feeders of the great river. This curious 
 map, drawn by Raleigh's own hand, long supposed to 
 be lost, I found in the archives of Simancas in perfect 
 preservation, and signed with his name ; at the right- 
 
 * See an account by Davies of the countries on this river in 
 Purchas, ii., 1-87. 
 
 t This man, Francis Sparrer, wrote an account of Trinidad and 
 Guiana, to be found in Purchas, ii., 1247. 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 hand corner, that is, in the north-west, are marked the 
 baits that drew him to destruction — the lake and city 
 of Manoa. It is to be regretted that this was not en- 
 graved at the time, and published with the account of 
 his explorations, which, though afterwards neglected, 
 was then so popular that it went through two editions 
 in one year, and was translated into almost every lan- 
 guage in Europe. 
 
 Shakespeare, alive to everything " going on around 
 him in the world, makes allusion to Raleigh's Guiana 
 voyage in three of his plays : Falstaff, in the ' Merry 
 Wives of Windsor,' when sending his boy to Mrs. Ford 
 and Mrs. Page, says — 
 
 Sail like my pinnace to those golden shores. 
 
 Again, in the ' Two Gentlemen of Verona,' Panthino 
 observes to Antonio that people wondered he did not 
 send forth his son to gain experience in the world — I 
 
 While other men, of slender reputation, 
 Put forth their sons to seek preferment out : 
 Some, to the wars, to try their fortune there, 
 Some ta diseover islands far away.*. 
 
 The reference made in ' Othello ' to the marvels of 
 Kaleiijh's narrative, which Avere doubtless much talked 
 
 o* 
 
 * Malone, immediately after quoting these lines, falls into a strange 
 error, observing that Sir Humphrey Gilbert had gone on a voyage 
 of discover}'' the year before Iialeigh's expedition to Guiana, whereas 
 he died on the 9th of September, 1583. 'Prolegomena,' ii., 266. 
 
 i
 
 GUIANA. 243 
 
 of at the time, every reader will remember, especially 
 the remarkable lines already quoted. 
 
 Raleigh, being out of favour at court, all his 
 actions appeared awry to those who desired to make 
 his exclusion perpetual. It signified little that his South 
 American enterprise, instead of augmenting his opulence, 
 had tended rather to diminish it ; because, if he suftered 
 in purse, his fame was daily acquiring greater propor- 
 tions, so that it tlu*ew most of his rivals into the shade. 
 People of all classes had his name in their mouths ; 
 the stage, as has been seen, resounded with his achieve- 
 ments ; all London became astir as he walked through 
 the streets, and it was therefore feared that Elizabeth, 
 who above all things admired men of original views and 
 daring conduct, might take him once more into favour, 
 and thus cloud the prospects of those who had hitherto 
 succeeded in exasperating her against him. 
 
 To inflict a wound on his reputation, a fiction, origi- 
 nating in petty malice, was circulated immediately on 
 his return from the tropics : it was whispered that he 
 had never in truth left England at all, but having 
 concealed himself in the wilds of Cornwall, had there, 
 with materials previously existing, fabricated the nar- 
 rative which he called the 'Discovery of Guiana.' 
 Whether any one believed this story we are not in- 
 formed ; his work w^as severely criticised, and in some 
 respects deservedly, because he had not been sufficiently
 
 244 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 careful to sift the stories which were palmed upon his 
 credulity. Yet no intelligent reader will fail to dis- 
 tinguish between the easiness of the author's faith and 
 the disposition attributed to him by some to impose 
 iictions upon others. He described what he had seen — 
 he too faithfully repeated what he had heard ; but it 
 may be remarked that it took more than two centuries 
 to dispel the fables wliich had led his imagination astray. 
 Time and experience have only tended to exalt his 
 character as an observer : his pictures of scenery are in 
 fact so correct that Schomburgk,* who, as a commis- 
 sioner, was employed by the British Government to 
 survey the boundaries of Guiana, assures us he was 
 constantly reminded while studying Ealeigh's work of 
 scenes and places with which he had years before been 
 familiar. 
 
 Kaleigh appears to have reached England towards the 
 end of July, 1.'595, when he became to the court an 
 object of mixed admiration and jealousy. While his 
 work was preparing for the press he lived about London 
 in the style of a Spanish grandee from the Indies, ex- 
 citing additional wonder by having as his companion a 
 Guianian prince. 
 
 Elizabeth still remained in her imperial sulks, though 
 secretly, perhaps, relenting. She, nevertheless, still 
 
 * Preface to his edition of 'The Discovery of Guiana,' for the 
 Hackluyt Society.
 
 GUIANA. 245 
 
 refused to the explorer of new realms reception at court, 
 but was in all likelihood as anxious as any of her sub- 
 jects to learn how he had fared, what he had seen, and 
 what new projects for the advancement of her glory and 
 power now filled his seething brain. She would wait, 
 however, yet a little longer before her lover of thirteen 
 years ago should again kiss her hand, and bestride his 
 courser before her at the head of her guard. Yet the 
 effort possibly cost Elizabeth quite as much grief to 
 make as Raleigh to endure; but the Nemesis of her 
 beauty was to be appeased, and like the ladies of chival- 
 rous times, she determined to impose upon her erring 
 knight far harder tasks than he had yet accomplished 
 ere she would restore him to her favour.
 
 246 LIFE OF SIR WALTER BALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CADIZ. 
 
 Kaleigh's exclusion from political employment by no 
 means prevented his opinions from exercising con- 
 siderable influence over the measures of the govern- 
 ment, especially when the forces of the realm, whether 
 by land or sea, were to be put in motion. This we 
 learn from a communication of Sir Thomas Lake, who, 
 writing on the 22nd of August, 1595, from Nonsuch 
 to Lord Eobert Sidney, then governor of Flushing, 
 alludes to the meditated attack on Cadiz, but obscurely, 
 because he says, " the post (ofiice) was often visited," 
 so that Elizabeth's ministers had already commenced 
 that system, afterwards carried to so much perfection 
 by Louis Quatorze. The project, however, was opposed, 
 on the ground that it would occupy a long time, while 
 the fleet might be wanted for home defence. The 
 active sort, by whom Raleigh and his friends seem to 
 be meant, wished to attack the ports of Spain ; but 
 
 .\ 
 
 1
 
 CADIZ. 247 
 
 their designs, he adds, " were cliecked from above," or 
 crossed under hand, -with great irritation on both sides.* 
 The inference intended to be suggested is, that it was 
 Elizabeth who thus checked the enthusiasm of her 
 commanders, though probably she only bore the censure 
 due to Burleigh's timidity. 
 
 In the household of Lord Robert Sidney there was 
 always a bu'th or a christening, and as much policy 
 as would have arranged the affairs of a principality was 
 exhausted in getting together suitable gossips : now 
 it was Lady Sussex, or Lady Bedford, with the Earl 
 of Southampton, who was solicited to accompany the 
 baby to the font, and now, immorality being no objec- 
 tion, it was Lady Rich, with her lover Lord Mountjoy. 
 Sometimes the court was startled by a lady of high 
 rank appearing in man's attire among the maids of 
 honour, to present a petition to Elizabeth ; and now 
 everything was thrown into disorder by the illness of 
 Burleigh, to visit whom the Queen lowered her lofty 
 head-dress, saying, she would stoop for her friend, but 
 not for the King of Spain. While these gallant doings 
 were going on at court, men were pilloried, and had 
 their ears cut off in Cheapside ; rustics hopped in saclcs 
 from Charing Cross to St. Paul's ; mountebanks ascended 
 on horseback to the top of the same cathedral ; nobles 
 and squires drew tlicir rapiers upon each other, and 
 * ' Sidney Papers,' i., 344.
 
 248 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIOH. 
 
 fought in the streets, while priests were hanged, and 
 recusants hunted down in troops by zealous Protestants, 
 Avho thus hoped to become their heirs. 
 
 Meanwhile Philip's immense power made itself the 
 terror of all Europe. It was nearly eight years since 
 the destruction of his great Armada, and finding himself 
 in possession of abundant resources, he reverted to his 
 former policy. Elizabeth, though surrounded by able 
 men, had, properly speaking, no foreign minister; 
 Essex often acted in that capacity, but his attention 
 was not directed exclusively to external affairs, and in 
 any case he was too inexperienced to cope with the 
 policy of Spain. 
 
 No one, therefore, knew what to expect, or how the 
 Spanish forces were to be employed. Cardinal Albert, 
 Archduke of Austria, having in the spring of 1596 
 been appointed governor of the Netherlands, marched 
 into Picardy, predominance in which Spain then dis- 
 puted with France. His ostensible object was to raise 
 the siege of La Fere, then invested by the troops 
 of Henri IV. ; but suddenly changing his line of 
 march, he approached Calais, which he assaulted 
 with unusual fury. The news reached London on 
 Sunday morning, while the clergy were engaged in 
 addressing their congregations ; the services were inter- 
 rupted, and the intelligence of approaching danger 
 communicated to the people from the pulpit. Orders 
 
 I
 
 CADIZ. 249 
 
 were instantly issued for the arming and equipment of 
 a large force, to proceed under the command of Essex 
 to the deliverance of Calais, while the roar of the 
 Spanish artillery, which came booming, it is said, 
 across the sea, and over the whole of Kent, as far as 
 Greenwich, quickened the pulses of the English recruits. 
 But the velocity of Albert's movements outstripped the 
 speed of Elizabeth ; before the slightest aid could be 
 afforded to the French garrison, Calais fell, and the 
 Spanish arms were firmly planted within twenty miles 
 of the English coast. 
 
 Ministers now perceived that, unless some great blow 
 could be struck in its defence, the English monarchy 
 might be suddenly toppled from its foundations, and 
 remembered the counsel given in the autumn of 1587, 
 by Drake and Ealeigh : which was, that instead of 
 remaining inert, to be assailed in their own homes, 
 the English should attack and destroy the enemy's 
 forces in harbour. Now then an English fleet, with 
 the aid of a Dutch contingent, was fitted out, consisting 
 of a hundred and fifty-six ships of war, transports and 
 tenders; but instead of carrying an army of nearly 
 forty thousand men, as Philip's Armada had done, 
 Elizabetli's land forces on board the fleet scarcely 
 amounted to eight thousand. The difference, however, 
 was in the men ; for pompous grandees, priests, monks, 
 and confessors were substituted such men as Lord
 
 250 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 Howaixl of Effingliam, Sir Walter Ealeigh, Lord 
 Thomas Howard, Sir Francis Vere, and the Earl of 
 Essex. 
 
 One of the features of those days was the deficiency 
 of intelligence — no steamers running against wind and 
 tide, no electric wires palpitating along the surface of 
 the earth, carried almost with the swiftness of thought 
 tidings of approaching danger. The Spanish govern- 
 ment heard that in the southern and western parts of 
 England great guns were cast, mariners pressed, war 
 ships collected ; but through overweening confidence 
 in its own power, rested satisfied with the persuasion 
 that the heretics were merely mustering for their own 
 defence. 
 
 Though the fleet was to assemble at Plymouth, the 
 necessary ships and men were slow in arriving, some 
 being elsewhere with Effingham, others with Raleigh. 
 Essex himself repaired early to Plymouth, where he 
 chafed and fretted at the absence of his admiral and 
 rear-admiral. On the 16tli of April, six days after the 
 fall of Calais, Effingham wrote to Cecil, urging him to 
 hasten llaleigh's departure, in a tone which seemed to 
 imply that he shared the persuasion then commonly 
 entertained that the Eear-admiral had some politic 
 end to serve by delay. "I was aboard my ship," he 
 says, " in the road two miles off, when we heard of 
 the loss of Calais. I referred all to the Earl, who I
 
 CADIZ. 251 
 
 knew would certify her Majesty. This morning, being 
 come ashore to visit the Due (de Bouillon) we had 
 an alarm that the Spanish fleet was in sight, which 
 brought every man with all diligence aboard, so as I 
 had not seen the like, and ships so soon under sail ; 
 but the fleet proved but ships that came from Bordeaux 
 
 and Eochelle I pray you hasten away Sir 
 
 W. Ealeigh. I hope my Lord Thomas Howard will 
 be [liere] this night, and my son Southwell, if they 
 be not come away, hasten them."* 
 
 This was a period of great excitement throughout the 
 country, for a second Armada was expected before our 
 own fleet, intended to intercept it, could put to sea. The 
 belief still gained ground that the enterprise was delayed 
 through Ealeigh's slackness ; both at Plymouth and at 
 court discord prevailed. Sir Anthony Shirley, having 
 reviewed the forces at Plymouth, foretold that the 
 expedition would end in smoke, his mind having been 
 embittered by Lord Effingham, who took five ships and 
 five hundred men from the force he himself had col- 
 lected against the island of San Tome. This enterprise, 
 however, proved as unsuccessful as his prediction.! 
 
 No influential man ever left the court without losing 
 ground ; for his back was no sooner turned than his 
 adversaries began to demonstrate the correctness of the 
 
 * Lord Admiral to Cecil, April 16th, 1596. Add. MSS., 6177. 
 t Birch, i., 490, 491.
 
 252 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 maxim, Les dbsens ont toujours tort. Essex expe- 
 rienced the truth of the observation ; for his enemies — 
 and they were not a few — at once exerted their utmost 
 ingenuity to prejudice Elizabeth against him. Among 
 these was Henry Brooke, soon to be Lord Cobham, 
 with whom Raleigh's fortunes Avere unhappily bound up. 
 The Earl himself adopted a tone of swagger in speaking 
 of the Cadiz expedition, saying, he would carry it through 
 or become a monk at an hour's notice. His language, 
 if not his opinion, was influenced by the Papists who 
 flocked about him, and it would have been fortunate 
 both for himself and for many others had circumstances 
 constrained him to cover his wdld head with a cowl. 
 Meanwhile his place of foreign secretary passed into the 
 hands of Henry Brooke, to whom the due de Bouillon 
 was directed to address any communications he might 
 have to make to the English government. 
 
 Raleigh's absence from the fleet still continuing, and 
 no one being able to account for it, rumours of all kinds 
 got abroad ; Essex's friends displayed the greatest 
 diligence in circulating unfavourable interpretations ; 
 writing to his brother Francis in May, Anthony Bacon 
 says, " I doubt not you have heard of Mr. Fulk Greville's 
 employment to carry to the two generals the royal bene- 
 diction ; and yet Sir Walter Raleigh's slackness and 
 stay, by the way, is not thought to be upon sloth or 
 negligence, but upon pregnant design, which will be
 
 CADIZ. 253 
 
 brought forth very shortly, and found to be according 
 to the French proverb, ' Fils ou file.' "* 
 
 Another of Essex's adherents, the popish spy, Standen, 
 writing to Anthony Bacon from Exeter, May 18th, says 
 that Essex was put to insupportable expense by the 
 fleet being detained at Plymouth, through the fault, as 
 he suggested, of Sir Walter Ealeigh. The object of 
 these complaints evidently was to keep up in Elizabeth's 
 mind the ill-feeling she was still believed to cherish 
 against Bessy Throgmorton's lover. 
 
 And what in realitv was Ealeigh doins; all this while ? 
 Writing from Northfleet to Cecil on the 4th of May, he 
 states satisfactory reasons for the " slackness " objected 
 to him. "The ships that remain above are six; the 
 great fly-boat of London called the ' George,' another 
 called the ' Jacob of Agarflout,' a third, the ' Joshua of 
 Horn,' a fourth, and some others. Pope, the marshal 
 of the Admiralty, can inform Mr. Burrows, for Pope 
 pressed all the ships; he can also inform you how little 
 her majesty's authority is respected, for as fast as we 
 press men one day, they run away another, and say 
 they will not serve. I beseech you, sir, to Touchsafe 
 to send for Pope of St. Katherine's, who hath taken 
 great pains already, and to tell him that I have remem- 
 bered his service, and ho will do more than any. There 
 are at Gravesend, and between that and sea, some 
 
 * Birch, i., -^80.
 
 254 LIFE OF SIB WALTER BALEIGH. 
 
 twenty-two sail, those above, that are of great draught 
 of water, cannot tide it down, for they must take the 
 high water, and dare not move after an hour's ebb, until 
 they be past Barkuag Shelf, and now the wind is so 
 strong as it is impossible to turn down, or to warp down, 
 or to tow. I cannot write to our general this time, for 
 the pursuivant found me in a country village, a mile 
 from Gravesend, hunting after runaway mariners, and 
 dragging in the mire from ale-house to ale-house, and 
 could get no paper, but that the pursuivant had this 
 piece, 
 
 " Sir, by the living God, there is no king, nor queen, 
 nor general, nor any else, can take more care than I do 
 to be gone ; but I humbly pray you but to speak with 
 Mr. Burrows, and let liim be sent for afterward before 
 my Lord Chamberlain, that they may hear him speak, 
 whether any man can get down with this wind or no, 
 which will satisfy them of me. 
 
 " If this strong wind last, I will ride to Blackwall, to 
 speak with you and kiss your hand."* 
 
 Ealeigh arrived at Plymouth on the 21st of May, 
 bringing with him Charles Chester, Sir Edward Cooke, 
 one of Bacon's cousins, and his brother Anthony Cooke, 
 who likewise belonged to the expedition. With Ealeigh, 
 or before him, came his wife's brother, Arthur Throg- 
 mortou, whom Essex's satelhtes called a hot-headed 
 * Add. MSS., 6177. B. M.
 
 CADIZ. 255 
 
 youth, because, on occasion of a dispute at table between 
 the Eear-admiral and ihe Lord-marshal, Arthur took, as 
 was natural, the side of his brother-in-law ; but Essex's 
 Catholic spy, who never lost an opportunity of censuring 
 Ealeigh or his friends, relates that, ".Tester night, at 
 table in drink, in the presence of my Lords Generals, 
 and the Flemings of the Low Country fleet, there passed 
 some words, the matter being taken against the Marshal 
 by Arthur Throgmorton, a hot-headed youth, who dis- 
 borded in such words as my Lords commanded him from 
 the table ; so that for all this voyage, I see already the 
 fire kindled that must consume us inwardlv." However, 
 though Throgmorton appeared most forward in the 
 quarrel, Ealeigh was the cause ; yet, in their resentment, 
 the generals dismissed the young man from the service, 
 but fearing, probably, the steps which Ealeigh might be 
 inclined to take, they restored him to his rank, and for 
 the gallantry he displayed at Cadiz he was knighted by 
 the hands of Essex himself. 
 
 The fears occasioned bv the disa2;reement between 
 Ealeigh and Vere proved gi-oundless, for though the 
 latter might have been easily provoked to risk the 
 interests of the semce, the former was far too anxious 
 to regain the favour of Elizabeth to sacrifice the slightest 
 chance. His behaviour, indeed, was regulated by so 
 much prudence, that the Earl's adherents, who would 
 have been only too glad to witness the contrary, set
 
 256 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 it down to craft. " Sir Walter Ealeigh's carriage to my 
 Lord of Essex," observes Standen, "is with the cun- 
 ningest respect and deepest humility that ever I saw 
 or have trowed."* 
 
 This writer, a pupil of the Jesuits, doubtless under- 
 stood Ealeigh's policy, and the circumstances which 
 compelled him to adopt it. Subordinated to inferior 
 men by the Queen's caprice, and barely permitted to 
 hold a command in the navy at all, he was under the 
 necessity of conciliating his enemies by feigned defer- 
 ence. Had Elizabeth been the fine judge of men which 
 many suppose her to have been, instead of writing 
 prayers for the fleet, and amorous letters to Essex, she 
 would have placed the naval strength of her kingdom 
 under the direction of the greatest seaman then afloat, 
 which would have enabled her at once to humble 
 Philip, and turn the golden tide of commerce from the 
 harbours of Cadiz, Lisbon, and Corunna, into those of 
 London and Plymouth. 
 
 The arrangements for the government of the fleet, 
 however, were ill calculated to insure that cheerful co- 
 operation between its commanders, without which signal 
 success conld hardly be reckoned upon: the chief 
 authority, divided between Essex and Lord Charles 
 Howard, was too equally balanced to give either of 
 those leaders undoubted supremacy : it was said, indeed, 
 
 * Birch, ii., 15.
 
 CADIZ. 257 
 
 that to Essex belonged the principal authority by land, 
 and to Effingham the chief command at sea ; but unless 
 in fights on the ocean, this clearly conferred on Essex 
 the lead, since upon entering harbours, and disembark- 
 ing troops, Effingham's authority terminated. Between 
 the Eear-admiral Ealeigli, and the Lord-marshal Vere, 
 there existed the same ground of dispute respecting 
 superiority. 
 
 All thincrs beino; in readiness, the fleet on the 1st of 
 June sailed from Plymouth with sealed orders. Desirous 
 of taking the enemy by surprise, they captured as they 
 went along such small vessels as might have conveyed 
 intelligence of their approach, but when in the latitude 
 of Lisbon a fly-boat, whicli was sought to be taken by 
 the ' Swan,' effected its escape, and made towards the 
 mouth of the Tagus. It Avas therefore not doubted that 
 the designs of the English would be made generally 
 known, and the enemy put upon their guard ; but fortu- 
 nately the ' John and Frances,' a ship of London, fell 
 in with the fly-boat, and made prize of her almost 
 close to the shore.* 
 
 The narrators of such transactions, influenced by 
 different motives, by love, by hatred, by national pre- 
 judice, by ignorance, necessarily differ widely from 
 each other ; but perhaps no affair of this kind was ever 
 so diversely described as the Cadiz expedition. Accord- 
 * Mouson, 'Naval Tracts' in Churchill, iii., 28. 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 ing to some the English Armada flashed upon the 
 devoted city suddenly, before the slightest preparations 
 had been made for resistance ; while others maintain 
 it had been seen oft' Cape St. Yincent, engaged in 
 action with a Spanish ship. A friar who was in Cadiz 
 at the time, and having been well used by our country- 
 men, speaks of them with the warmth of gratitude, 
 observes that the fleet was first beheld by the sentinels 
 on duty, about two o'clock on Sunday morning, and 
 that as the day broke it neared the shore in full 
 sail, all the ships dressed with colours and streamers. 
 
 On Saturday* the 20t]i, Ealeigh, in the ' Warspite,' 
 had been ordered to advance before the fleetj to intercept 
 such Spanish vessels as might attempt to pass out 
 from San Lucar or Cadiz. In his absence it was resolved 
 by Essex and Effingham that the city should be first 
 taken, in order that the guns of its forts and batteries 
 might be silenced before the fight with the ships 
 should be commenced. In pursuance of this plan 
 lialeigh, at his return on Sunday afternoon, found 
 the operation of disembarking the troops actually in 
 progress, though the billows ran so high before the 
 south wind that the boats were every moment in 
 danger of being swamj)ed. 
 
 Proceeding first to Essex's ship, the ' Eepulse,' Ealeigh, 
 
 * Birch, ii., 46; Monson, iii., 28. 
 t Ealeigh, Works, viii., 668.
 
 CADIZ. 259 
 
 in presence of all the colonels and naval captains, 
 strongly protested against the disembarkation, pointing 
 out that a large number of the soldiers must inevitablv 
 be lost, as many had already been. To this Essex replied 
 that the plan was that of the Lord-admiral, who refused 
 to hazard an engagement with the Spanish fleet unless 
 the city should be first captured. With Essex's consent 
 Ealeigh repaired to the ' Ark Eoyal,' where he argued 
 the point with Effingham so successfully that it was 
 agreed to postpone the attack until the morning, and 
 to begin with the ships. Upon this Kaleigh again got 
 into his boat, and rowed towards the ' Repulse,' where 
 he saw Essex leaning over the bulwarks, and shouted 
 out to him from below the success of his mission, at 
 which Essex for joy threw his cap into the sea. Several 
 officers, however, desirous of creating a high idea of 
 their valour, blamed tlie delay obtained by Ealeigh's 
 representations, and would have had the action com- 
 mence at once ; yet Essex and the Lord-admiral, 
 perceiving the absurdity of such a com-se, adhered to 
 the policy of the great seaman. 
 
 By the time the soldiers and mariners had regained 
 their ships, the sun had set, and the business of delibera- 
 tion commenced. Both by land and sea the English 
 are fond, on im])ortant occasions, of taking counsel 
 in the night. With the forts on Cadiz Island, the 
 galleys, the argosies, almost within range of gun, the
 
 260 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 Euglisli decided upon their plan of operations. Never 
 did braver men meet to deliberate on conflict with the 
 foe — Essex, Effingham, Howard, Carew, Southwell, the 
 two Cliffords, all eagerly coveted the honour of leading 
 the vanguard on the morrow, which, however, by uni- 
 versal consent, at his pressing entreaty, was assigned 
 to Ealeigh * His most strenuous rival for the post of 
 honour was Lord Thomas Howard, but after much 
 contention and argument the Vice-admiral gave way, 
 and the explorer of Guiana was left master of the 
 
 position.f 
 
 While the English passed the night in these martial 
 discussions, what was going on in Cadiz ? 
 
 From Xeres, from San Lucar, from Arcos, from 
 Chillana,i considerable bodies of troops, horse and foot, 
 had, at ?^the requisition of the Corregidor, hastened, 
 some with arms, others without, to what they regarded 
 rather as a banquet than a battle. The mariners of 
 the fleet had likewise left their ships to sleep on 
 shore, where they devoted the hours to merriment and 
 licentiousness. Nearly the whole population was in 
 
 * Esses, ' Eelation of Cadiz Action,' in Birch. 
 
 t EfEngham's ' Relation,' in Birch, ii., 53. 
 
 X Birch, ii., 56. "Xeres alone furnished two thousand men, but 
 so ill supplied that it was necessary to provide them with powder, 
 lead, and matches." ' Relation,' p. 237. The arquebuses and other 
 arms used against our countrymen at Cadiz may still be seen in the 
 Armeria at jMadrid.
 
 CADIZ. 261 
 
 the streets, which, h'ghted up by lamps, by tapers, by 
 torches, by blazing tar-barrels, looked as brilliant as 
 by day,* Avhile music, singing, and dancing went on 
 as upon the eve of some religious festival. The friars 
 from the monasteries, in cowl and cassock, passed to 
 and fro among the crowds, inwardly grieved at the 
 little heed paid by the populace to the coming storm. 
 
 Next morning, as they stood upon the ramparts, 
 they beheld the English fleet weigh anchor, marshal 
 its strength, and then in magnificent order, with bellying 
 sails and colours flying, prepare to swoop into the 
 harbour.t At the head of tliis terrible array came Sir 
 Walter Ealeigh in the ' Warspite,' Lord Thomas Howard 
 in the 'Nonpareil,' Sir Francis Vere in the 'Eainbow,' 
 Sir George Carew in the 'Mary Eose,' Sir Conyers 
 and Sir xilexander Clifford in the ' Dreadnought,' while 
 Effingham and Essex, in the ' Ark Eoyal ' and the 
 ' Eepulse,' pressed upon the rear of the column, eager 
 to bring their vast bulk as near as possible to the 
 impending fray. 
 
 Let the reader figure to himself an immense haven,J 
 
 * ' Relacion dc lo sucedido en Cadiz.' M.S. Bib. Kac. Madrid. 
 
 t For a knowledge of what took place in Cadiz, 1 am indebted to 
 a curious little narrative Avritten by a nameless friar, entitled ' Relacion 
 de lo sucedido en Cadiz, afio de 1596,' p. 173. Bib. Nac. Madrid. 
 
 X By the courtesy of the gentlemen of the Ministerio de Marina 
 at Madrid, I was enabled to consult numerous ancient charts of Cadiz 
 Bay, though none so old as 1596. There is,' however, in our own
 
 262 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 entering from the Atlantic into the land, and extending 
 eight or ten miles from north-west to south-east, having 
 the main on the left hand, and the large flat island 
 on which Cadiz is situated on the right. From this 
 expanse of water two rivers open up between salt 
 marshes an entrance into the interior, while at the 
 southern extremity of the island a narrow though deep 
 channel communicates with the ocean. Over the 
 entrance to this channel a series of arches, called the 
 Puente del Suaco, was then thrown. Beneath the 
 surface of the calm water lui'ked numerous shoals, 
 divided from each other by narrow channels, to thread 
 which demanded the skill of the most experienced 
 pilots ; for the slightest deviation to the right or to 
 the left brought ships sailing inward agi-ound. 
 
 That St. Barnabas day, so often the brightest in the 
 year, was likewise the brightest of Raleigh's life ; 
 surging forwards with crowded sail, in the van of some 
 of the bravest men ever sent forth to conflict by 
 England. As the ' Warspite ' swung into the bay, 
 the forts and some of the galleons opened fire upon it ; 
 but Raleigh disdained to answer them otherwise than 
 by a blare of trumpets. When, however, he had reached 
 a position which he judged most convenient, he laid 
 
 State Paper Office, a beautiful little chart made at the time, which 
 all interested in the topography of that remarkable harbour may 
 cousuit with advantage.
 
 CADIZ. 263 
 
 aside his reserve, and poured broadside after broadside 
 into the galleys and galleons within range. Forming 
 the principal object of the enemy's fire* for three 
 hours, the ' Warspite ' remained almost perpetually 
 involved in smoke, while its great guns belched forth 
 thunder, peal for peal with those of the foe, till Cadiz 
 with all its waters was shaken as if by an earthquake. 
 
 It had been agreed in the night that the ' San Felipe,' 
 the greatest galleon of Spain, which Ealeigh had singled 
 out for his victim, should, after having been crippled 
 by the guns, be taken by boarding, and Effingham had 
 promised his Kear-admiral to send him two fly-boats 
 for the purpose. But the fly-boats not making their 
 appearance, and the critical moment rapidly approach- 
 ing in which Ealeigh foresaw the mariners would desert 
 and fire the ' San Felipe,' he sprang into his barge, 
 and rowing to the ' Ark Royal,' demanded permission 
 to board with the 'Warspite.' This request being 
 granted, he hastened back, to find that during his fifteen 
 minutes' absence Vere and Howard had shot ahead of 
 the ' Warspite,' which, from being the first ship of the 
 vanguard, had thus become the third. 
 
 To regain his post, Ealeigh slipped anchor, and 
 thrusting the ' Warspite ' between the ' Lion ' and the 
 
 * Yet Slonson, who commanded under Essex iu the ' liepulse,' 
 seeks to dispcarage Ealeigh and put forward himsjelf. ' Naval Tracts,' 
 iii., 29.
 
 264 LIFE OF SIB WALTER BALEIGH. 
 
 'Eainbow,' got before both, and then threw his sliip 
 right across the channel, so that no one could again 
 outstrip him for that day. %. 
 
 The science of manceuvring, which has reached to 
 so great perfection in our days, was then little under- 
 stood — valour and fiery intrepidity supplied its place, 
 and snatched victory from the slippery pinnacle of 
 danger. This was the Balaklava charge of the ocean. 
 From seventeen Spanish ships of war, drawn up in half 
 moon before the city's ramparts, with here and there 
 open intervals through which fort and curtain poured 
 their round shot, showers of flaming metal descended 
 upon the English shijis, where all was enthusiasm and 
 eager rivalry. Instead of remaining aloof, guiding by 
 his intelligence the energies of his officers, Effingham 
 deserted the ' Ark Koyal,' which proved too bulky to 
 pass the channel, and threw himself into the 'Nonpa- I 
 reil,' with the Lord Thomas Howard. "My Lord- 
 general Essex," says Raleigh, "thinking his ship's 
 sides stronger than the rest, thrust the ' Dreadnought ' 
 aside, and came next the ' Warspite ' on the left hand, 
 ahead all that rank, but my Lord Thomas. The 
 marshal, while we had no leisure to look behind us, 
 secretly fastened a rope on my ship's side towards   
 him, to draw himself up equally with me ; but some 1 
 of my company advertising me thereof, I caused it to 
 be cut off, and so he fell back into his place." 
 
 I
 
 CADIZ. 265 
 
 Ealeigh, Essex, and Howard now prepared to board 
 the 'San Felipe,' which being perceived by those on 
 board, led to the catastrophe he had apprehended. 
 Dreading above all things the fate of falling into the 
 hands of the English, the crews of the ' San Felipe ' and 
 the ' San Tome ' set their ships on fire, and endeavoured 
 to escape to the shore. " The spectacle," says Raleigh, 
 " was very lamentable on their side, for many drowned 
 themselves, many half burnt leapt into the water, very 
 many hanging by the ropes' ends by the ships' sides 
 under the water even to the lips, many swimming with 
 grievous wounds stricken under water and put out of 
 their pain, and wdthal so huge a fire, and such tearing of 
 the ordnance in the ' San Felipe ' and the rest when the 
 fire came to them, as if any man had a desire to see 
 hell itself it was there most lively figured." 
 
 What followed was perfectly in keeping with this 
 picture ; the English, as is tlieu* wont, spared, and en- 
 deavoured to save, the vanquished ; but the Flemings, 
 though by no means distinguished during the battle,* 
 now rushed forward to enjoy the delight of slaughter, 
 l>y despatching all such of the enemy as were swimming 
 for their lives, till they were beaten off by Ealeigh and 
 Effingham. The fragments of tlie Spanish fleet, seeing 
 tliat all hope was lost, sought to provide for their own 
 
 * Monson indeed affirms that tlicy had received orders not to fire, 
 which is incredible. ' Naval Tracts,' iii., 29.
 
 2G6 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIOH. 
 
 safety, some by runninrr up the Guadalete, some by 
 taking to the river of Puerta Real, while others making 
 for the southern channel, ran their prows against the 
 bridge, broke down its middle arches, and effected in 
 that manner their escape into the ocean. 
 
 Writers often forget that to disparage the enemy is 
 to take from your own merit, because if they in reality 
 be cowardly and base, there can be little glory in over- 
 coming them. At Cadiz, the Spaniards displayed, by 
 sea at least, great courage and no inconsiderable skill, 
 resisting their assailants during seven whole hours, and 
 manoeuvring their ships with as much science as their 
 unwieldy bulk would permit. 
 
 When the fleet had been defeated and scattered, 
 Essex, upon whom as General the chief command now 
 devolved, prepared to land and assault the city.* The 
 force actually disembarked consisted of three thousand 
 soldiers and eight hundred mariners ;t but a large por- 
 tion of the former having been detached to perform a 
 most impolitic service — that of brealcing down the bridge 
 del Suaco — which, though they knew it not, had been 
 already destroyed by the galleys, there remained about 
 
 * On this occasion upwards of a hundred friars ranged themselves 
 among the defenders of Cadiz, and according to the testimony of 
 one of tlieir own order, whose veracity I take to be indisputable 
 displayed far more courage than any of the others. ' Eelacion,' &c., 
 p. 174. M.S. Bib. Nac. Madrid. 
 
 t The Spanish ' Eelacion ' makes the number of tbe assailants 
 amount to five thousacd, j). 237.
 
 CADIZ. 267 
 
 two tliousand three hundred men with whom to storm 
 the city. 
 
 When those within the walls beheld the EDglish 
 descend from their ships, the authorities sent forth a 
 considerable body of horse and foot to prevent their 
 advance. A fight took place, in which the Spaniards 
 were speedily worsted, though not without many slain 
 on both sides; the routed Spaniards fled towards the 
 city, across a sandy plain * some three miles in length, 
 and on their approach found the gates shut in their faces, 
 lest the enemy should enter with them. Cadiz was then 
 proved to be wretchedly fortified, for the cavalry, dis- 
 mounting, made their way with the infantry over an old 
 wall into the suburbs.t The English pursuing the 
 flying foe in part followed their example, Essex among 
 the foremost, and Sir Francis Vere having broken open 
 one of the gates, the whole of our force entered. 
 
 During four hours Cadiz presented the usual features 
 of a sacked city : the soldiers breaking into houses, con- 
 vents, monasteries, churches, and half frantic with wine, 
 putting on the copes, chasubles, surplices, cassocks, 
 cowls, and other vestments of the priests and friars, and 
 dancing about in the streets in them, amid the shouts 
 and laughter of their comrades. 
 
 From time to time some of them, especially the 
 Flemings, shouted out, " Hang the Pope ! Hang the 
 
 * Monsciu, iii., 30. t ' Relacion,' ut supra.
 
 268 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIOE. 
 
 Pope !"* which was thought to mean hang the clergy, 
 and this belief spread terror through the whole city, 
 especially when they beheld the havoc and devastation 
 perpetrated in the churches, where pictures, crucifixes, 
 images of saints, vases, candlesticks, and ornaments of 
 all kinds were torn from the walls, or snatched from the 
 altars, and dashed to pieces against the floor. 
 
 All the nuns, secular ladies, and friars took refuge in 
 one vast church, where they remained during the sack 
 and pillage throughout the following night, and nearly 
 the whole of the next day, without meat or drink, a 
 prey to agonizing terror, since it was impossible to fore- 
 see what was to be their fate. A friar who was present 
 describes the scene in very forcible and plain language, 
 dwelling particularly on the offensive odours produced 
 by the crowding together of so great a multitude in one 
 building, during the hottest season of the year, while it 
 was impossible to preserve either decency or decorum. 
 
 Elsewhere spectacles still more horrible presented 
 
 themselves; numbers, we are told, took refuge with 
 
 their plate, money, and jewels, in the cathedral ; but 
 
 the soldiers, maddened with thirst of plunder, broke in 
 
 after them, and put so many to the sword that a large 
 
 portion of the wealth of Cadiz remained till we left the 
 
 city buried beneath heaps of corpses.f 
 
 * ' Relacion de lo sucedido en Cadiz,' p. 352. 
 t Letter from an English spy employed by Esses in Sj'ain. 
 Birch, ii., 125. 
 
 II
 
 CADIZ. 269 
 
 Much surprise was excited among Elizabeth's subjects 
 by the courtesy with which the nuns and other ladies 
 were treated by the conquerors. Their wonder would 
 have been less had they reflected that the principal 
 English officers were either Catholics or under the 
 influence of Catholics. This Avas the case with Effing- 
 ham and Howard, and, if Essex had not been actually 
 reconciled to the liomish church, he suffered himself 
 then, as afterwards, on a far worse occasion, to be guided 
 by the infamous person who, by portentous efforts of vice, 
 if not by murder, had become his father-in-law ; besides, 
 there was a strong spirit of chivalry in the high-bred 
 nobles of England, most of all in the Queen's former 
 favourite, Ealeigh, who had always piqued liimself on 
 being the very flower of courtesy. Under the ?egis of 
 this sentiment the nuns, ladies, children, friars, with 
 their jewels and money, were marched down in a body 
 to the sea, under the personal command of Effingham^ 
 who, standing on the beach, watched tlien embarkation 
 in boats and launches ; when they were ready to put off, 
 he roared out his commands to the sailors, adding, with 
 an oath, that he would hang at the yardarm any one who 
 should lay a finger in violence on lady or nun.* They 
 were then rowed over to Puentar Santa Maria, where they 
 remained unmolested. 
 
 * The friar informs us tiiat the nuns were embarked in a separate 
 launch with the Dean who took charge of them. 'Eelacion,' w< 
 supra, p. 354.
 
 270 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIQE. 
 
 Ealeigh, we are told by Effingham, assisted actively 
 in disembarking the troops ; after which, having received 
 during the action so severe a wound that he was unable 
 to walk, the flesh of his leg being almost torn from the 
 bone by a splinter, he could not join the assailants in 
 the storm. Yet the love of plunder or of excitement 
 being irresistible, he got some of his mariners to carry 
 him on their shoulders into the melee. What he 
 witnessed soon convinced him that he had taken a false 
 step. Drunken soldiers and sailors, freed in an enemy's 
 city from the restraints of discipline, were not likely to 
 sliow much respect to a wounded officer, so that crowded, 
 hustled, and pushed to and fro by plunder-seekers, he 
 was soon glad to return to his ship. Essex, Effingham, 
 Howard, Vere, with all the others who were sound in 
 limb, actuated by the same feelings as the soldiers, flew 
 about Cadiz, appropriating to themselves the largest 
 and ]-ichest palaces, from which the inferior plunderers 
 were effectually warned ofl". 
 
 While its commanders were thus engaged the English 
 fleet lay almost deserted, and the chance of making 
 booty of far greater value than all the city contained 
 slipped from their hands. Forty carracks and other 
 vessels, laden with merchandise worth more than twelve 
 millions sterling, might, if proper precautions had been 
 taken, have been then captured; two millions sterling 
 were, on the evening of the sack, offered for their
 
 CADIZ. 271 
 
 ransom, but neither General nor Admiral being to be 
 found, and Ealeigb possessing no authority to treat 
 without them, the golden opportunity was lost, for the 
 Duke of Medina Sidonia set fire to the carracks, so that 
 they were utterly consumed with all the riches they 
 contained. 
 
 Irritated by disappointment as well as by his wound, 
 Ealeigh, without the least power to interfere, beheld 
 the accomplishment of this destruction from the deck of 
 the ' ^Yarspite,' chafing more and more as one column 
 of flame after another revealed to him the fate of the 
 carracks, which, could they have been secured, would 
 have rendered Elizabeth the richest sovereign in Europe. 
 Meanwhile, in Cadiz, the principal inhabitants took 
 refuge in the citadel till the following morning, when 
 they hung out a white flag and offered to capitulate on 
 reasonable terms.* The terms imposed upon them were 
 not hard ; being only such a ransom as they could 
 easily pay. With the money thus obtained, and the 
 plate, gold, jewels, silks, spices, works of art, and other 
 costly merchandise found in the palaces of the nobles 
 and the spacious mansions and warehouses of the 
 opulent citizens, the officers of both fleet and army 
 were so profusely enriched that no further service could 
 be expected from them. It was different with Essex, 
 whose appetite for treasure and glory having been violently 
 * MS. Ilelation of the winning of Cak-s. State Paper Oflice.
 
 272 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 stimulated by tlie good fortune which had befallen hira, 
 and his mind being haunted, moreover, by foreknow- 
 ledge of the angry reproaches he knew he should hear, 
 as well from the nation as from Elizabeth, for neglecting 
 to save the carracks from conflagration, he proposed 
 that the fleet should repair to the Azores, in the hope 
 of intercepting the plate fleet from the West Indies. 
 
 To discuss the merits of his proposition lie called 
 a council of war, in which his scheme was peremptorily 
 set aside. Under ordinary circumstances the projected 
 enterprise might have been feasible, but in the actual 
 state of the fleet, gorged with wealth and demoralised 
 by success, it was utterly impracticable. Some urged 
 as arguments against it the deficiency of provisions, 
 and those premonitory symjDtoms of disease which were 
 discoverable in many ships; but the true objections 
 lay in the obvious disinclination of officers and men to 
 engage in any new undertaking till they should have 
 enjoyed at home the fruits of their past victory. How 
 to make the most of their gains occupied all minds. 
 Elizabeth, they knew, would send down commissioners 
 to all the principal ports of England to seize upon and 
 store up for equitable distribution all the plunder* which 
 should be brought away, and to elude this process both 
 naval and military commanders chartered small barks, 
 
 * On the variety of the phmderobtiiined, see Report of Goods, &c., 
 August 10th and 11th, 1596. State Paper Office.
 
 CADIZ. 273 
 
 which they directed to put in by night upon un- 
 frequented parts of the coast, whence they might 
 convey their booty to places of concealment.* With 
 men in such a frame of mind it would have been 
 madness to attempt any new enterprise, unless it were 
 at once easy and productive of gain. On their way 
 home, therefore, they voluntarily landed at different 
 points on the coast of Portugal, where they augmented 
 their stores without danger. At Fero, which they found 
 deserted by its inhabitants, they took from the episcopal 
 palace the library of the famous Bishop Osorius,t which 
 was presented either by Essex or Ealeigh to Sir Thomas 
 Bodley, and formed the nucleus of the Bodleian. 
 
 * Birch, ii., 97. f Monson, ' Naval Tracts,' iii., o2. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 274 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER XYL 
 
 EESTORATION TO FAVOUR. 
 
 Some have imagined that in uniting with Effingham 
 in opposing Essex's plan for extending the operations 
 of the fleet to the Azores, Ealeigh was actuated by 
 unworthy motives. Such was the view taken at the 
 time by Anthony Bacon, who, after quoting from the 
 Vulgate a saying of Christ, observes that " Sir Walter 
 Raleigh hath enough of these woes laid upon him for 
 having persuaded my Lord-admiral from joining with 
 my Lord of Essex, and persuaded an untimely, un- 
 luclvy, and most dishonourable return."* The invectif es 
 against Raleigh were based obviously on the belief 
 that he was a sort of dictator in the fleet, swaying the 
 opinions of admirals and commanders at his pleasure, 
 and that he was wholly reckless of incurring the 
 rancorous hatred of Essex. Policy at least would 
 have restrained him from such a course. He re- 
 
 * Letter to Dr. Hawkins, September 1st, 1596. Birch, ii., 122. 
 
 I. 
 
 1
 
 BESTOEATION TO FAVOUR. Tib 
 
 membered only too well that lie was still in disgrace 
 with Elizabeth, and that if he failed to subdue the 
 hostility of the favourite, his exclusion from court 
 might be perpetual. Sir Anthony Standen, one of 
 Essex's popish adherents, pointed out sarcastically, on 
 the eve of the expedition, the extreme deference 
 shown by Ealeigli to the Earl ; the same policy regulated 
 his conduct when he prevented a premature disem- 
 barkation. He obtained from the Earl, as well as from 
 the Lord-admiral, probably in consequence of his 
 courteous bearing, the much-coveted honour of leading 
 the vanguard in the attack ; if, therefore, liis conscien- 
 tious convictions led him to coincide with EfiSngham 
 in dissuading farther operations, it is attributing too 
 paltry a feeling to Essex to assume that he regarded 
 Raleigh with a vindictive eye for expressing his opinion 
 honestly ; and that, in ftict, he was above this meanness 
 will presently appear. In the fleet, both among officers 
 and men, no one was more popular than Raleigh. 
 We have seen with what enthusiasm he was greeted 
 by the mariners when, after emerging from the Tower, 
 he trod the deck of the ' Madre de Dios ' at Dartmouth ; 
 and this marked preference from tliose with Avhom 
 he had fought and bled in part at least enabled him 
 to dispense with the smiles of more powerful individuals 
 on shore. Even the basest of Essex's creatures bore 
 testimony, however reluctantly, to the equitable bearing
 
 276 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 of Ealeigh towards liim. " These lords," says Standen, 
 " have created sixty-four knights, and Sir Walter 
 Ealeigh observes my Lord-general out of all .... 
 owns, I say, you can lay no honour upon him that 
 he hath not deserved, for without him, I know what, 
 and with him, I know what also."* 
 
 From this obscure jargon we may discover the fact 
 that Essex was at the moment content with Ealeigh, 
 for the underling only wrote what he knew to be the 
 opinion of his superior. Others gave their testimony 
 to Ealeigh's conduct from different motives. An officer 
 in the fleet, who liad probably fought by his side, 
 writing from the scene of action, animadverts upon the 
 partiality shown by Essex, Yere, and others to the 
 soldiers, so that not even a house was awarded to any 
 naval officer "under the degree of Sir Walter Ealeigh," 
 who, however, the writer says, " had not much, although 
 he deserved very much in this, that he fought so bravely 
 with the Spanish fleet while they w^ere overthrown. 
 If our sovereign mistress had seen it, it would, I think, 
 have been held a sufficient expiation for all his faults 
 whatsoever. I have always held him to be wdse, and 
 now I am tedigo de vista that he is a very valiant 
 seaman, "t 
 
 * Letter to Anthouy Bacon from Cadiz, July 5th, 1596. 
 Bircli ii., 49. 
 t Letter to Sir John Stanhope from Cadiz. Birch, ii., 96, 97. 
 
 f 
 
 i
 
 RESTORATION TO FAVOUR. 277 
 
 At court, Essex, in spite of bis popular manners, 
 liad left behind bim numerous enemies, wbo strove to 
 damage bim in tbe opinion of Elizabeth, and in part 
 succeeded. These, from the double motive of hatred 
 to him and friendliness to Ealeigh, indulged in eloquent 
 eulogiuras on the services of the fleet, which their 
 hero shared Avith EfEngham, Lord Thomas Howard, 
 Southwell, the two Cliffords, and others. Essex's 
 supporters could not mistake the tendency of these 
 manoeuvres. Anthony Bacon undertook to sound Essex's 
 praises in Scotland, La Fontaine in France, and Bodley 
 in the Low Countries, while Cecil, with the authority 
 of his place and genius, counteracted their intrigues 
 in France by sending to Henri Quatre a history of the 
 Cadiz expedition, in which Essex, as his friends thought, 
 had little justice done him. To set matters right, 
 therefore, in that quarter, Reynolds, one of the Earl's 
 private secretaries, fabricated a different account, which, 
 through the contrivance of La Fontaine, who kept back 
 Cecil's despatch, reached the French king before, or 
 at least by the same courier, with the secretary's 
 relation. 
 
 Through such a web of rivalry and intrigue it is difiicult 
 to discern the motives or movements of queen or 
 ministers. Elizabeth, now paling before the shadows 
 of the grave, began reluctantly to discover the coldness 
 — almost approaching to aversion — with which she was
 
 278 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 regarded by many who professed the utmost warmth 
 of affection. Among these Essex was chief. It was 
 natural that he should not love a lady who, for age, 
 might have been his grandmother; but interest and 
 ambition prompting him to affect love, he secretly 
 despised himself for his own hypocrisy, and hated her 
 as the cause of it. Part of this truth, though not the 
 whole, already dawned upon Elizabeth, who became 
 weak, and lost her freedom of action in the presence 
 of her idol, but recovered self-command when he was 
 removed. It will be remembered how seven years 
 before she was maddened by his desertion ; his absence 
 had now come to be almost a relief, because it di- 
 minished the infatuation that degraded her. 
 
 Without the discernment, the abilities, or the mental 
 grasp of Leicester, which had enabled him to sway 
 Elizabeth's mind wlien it was strongest, Essex sought, 
 but often failed, to sway that miiti when it had been 
 weakened by age. The cause of his failure was insolent 
 vanity. He might nearly always have won Elizabeth 
 to compliance by the use of persuasion, whereas, think- 
 ing to prevail by bravado and bluster, he met with 
 checks and refusals, which wounded his self-love, and 
 rendered him vindictive. Before his departure for Cadiz 
 he made an effort to snatch the sceptre of jirerogative 
 from the Queen's hands, and to determine in her stead 
 who should be Secretary of State ; she resisted his
 
 RESTORATION TO FAVOUR. 279 
 
 interference, but postponed, till lie should be absent, 
 taking any decisive step ; she then, however, set aside 
 his nominee, Sir Thomas Bodley, and gave the place 
 to tlie man of her o^Yn choice. Sir Robert Cecil. 
 Acquainted with all the circumstances of this affair, 
 and stimulated by a thousand other motives, Cecil 
 hated Essex, and the sentiment was only rendered 
 the more deadly by the frequent necessity of conceal- 
 ing it. Beneath the mask of playfulness, and jovial 
 unconcern, the little secretary studied the Aveak places 
 in Essex's character, and professing sometimes friend- 
 ship, sometimes indifference, always held himself in 
 readiness to plunge his weapon on the first occasion that 
 presented itself into his overbearing enemy's vitals. 
 
 The Cadiz expedition, though successful, had yet, 
 throughout its continuance, been disfigiu'ed by so many 
 blunders, that it offered numerous coio'ns of vantao-e 
 to criticism. Essex knew this, as well as that the 
 blame of nearly every misadventure would, if the truth 
 were revealed, fasten upon himself; he therefore cooked 
 up a partial relation in the hope of gathering the first- 
 fruits of public opinion, and sent it by his secretary 
 Cuffe, to England, that Reynolds, Bacon, or some other 
 of his obsequious friends might put it forth to the 
 world, and so transfer Raleigh's laurels to his own 
 brow. For this purpose every variety of intrigue was 
 put in play to get the false account published, so
 
 280 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 as to prejudice the ear of the nation before the true 
 account could appear. The judgment of the council 
 was first attempted to be warped, then an assault was 
 made on the integrity of its several members, more 
 especially of the Archbishop of Canterbury ; but Eliza- 
 beth, having issued lier prohibition, under pain of 1 
 death, to publish the relation written by Essex under 
 the name of Cuffe, the plotters were checkmated. 
 As justice and decency enjoined, the government 
 resolved to wait till it should be in possession of a 
 thorough knowledge of tlie affiiir before putting forward 
 any statement to tlie public. Accurate information 
 gradually came in from several quarters; Sir Anthony 
 Ashley, despatched by the commanders to lay before 
 Elizabeth and her council a true account of the expedi- 
 tion, performed his duty with honest frankness, award- 
 ing, as posterity still awards, the credit for highest 
 valour and prudence to Sir Walter Ealeigh. This, 
 Essex's partizans stigmatized as treachery, because 
 Ashley, for his deserts, had been knighted at Cadiz; 
 others, however, had come in before him with the 
 same version of the story, so that the whole court, 
 council, and country became rapidly impregnated with 
 admiration for Raleigh. 
 
 This, as might have been foreseen, produced its 
 full effect upon Elizabeth, in whose breast the old 
 feeling for her Captain of the Guard revived, though
 
 RESTOEATION TO FAVOUR. 281 
 
 in public she shrouded her partiality under the disguise 
 of general terms. Her anger against Essex arose, 
 perhaps, in part, from the reckless lavishness with 
 which he had squandered among his friends and de- 
 pendents the wealth which should have found its way 
 into the public treasury ; while the men most dis- 
 tinguished for valour, and naval and military skill, 
 had to content themselves, like her, with a miserable 
 pittance of tlie plunder. Essex's friends had, therefore, 
 but cold comfort to meet him with on his return. His 
 secretary, the day before his landing at Plymouth, wrote, 
 saying : " Her Majesty was wholly possessed with dis- 
 contented humours, which the Earl's backward friends 
 nourished by all means possible, suggesting that she 
 had been abused in the giving away of so rich a spoil, 
 and extenuating the worthiness of the action to his 
 Lordship's great disadvantage, and yet attributing the 
 uttermost to the sea-faction,'"* a term by which Ealeigli, 
 Effingham, his son-in-law Southwell, and Lord Thomas 
 Howard were designated. 
 
 In spite of the elements of discord, and mutual 
 aversion existing beneath the surface, revealed by the 
 facts above enumerated, the appearance of good-will 
 between Ealeigh and Essex was still maintained. While 
 the Earl posted to court, and the Lord-admiral moved 
 forward with the fleet, Raleigh, the loadstone of whose 
 
 * Birch, ii., 9G.
 
 282 LIFE OF Slli WALTER llALEIQE. 
 
 * 
 
 affections lay in Dorsetshire, put in at Weymouth on 
 the 12th of August. How he journeyed to Sher- 
 bourne Castle to meet his beautiful wife and -son is 
 not known; but whatever may have been the joy of 
 that meeting, he had the mortification to find as some 
 counterbalance that his worldly prospects had in his 
 absence been in some degree blighted. 
 
 During a long period Meeres, a solicitor, had been 
 his land agent, or steward/* and having mismanaged 
 his trust, an action had been brought against him by 
 Raleigh, which was pending when the expedition sailed 
 for Cadiz. His counsel. Sergeant Heale — who after- 
 wards deserted his interests and became the bitterest 
 of his assailants at Winchester — on this occasion moved 
 to have the trial staid till his return : his application 
 was denied, and judgment given in favour of Meeres. 
 Immediately on learning this, Raleigh wrote a hasty 
 and intemperate letter to his friend Henry Brooke, 
 whom through courtesy he called " my lord." Brooke 
 had not then, however, legally attained the title, for 
 his father, who succeeded Hunsdon as Lord Chamber- 
 lain, did not die tdl the following March.j There is 
 much that is enigmatical in Raleigh's letter. It speaks 
 of castles, Spaniards, fortifications, and so on, but 
 
 * The instrument by which Meeres was constituted Ealeigh's agent 
 is dated August 28th, 1592. State Paper Office. 
 
 t His death took place at midnight, March 5th, 1597. ' Sidney 
 Papers,' ii., 25.
 
 BESTORATION TO FAVOUR. 283 
 
 without designating any place, and then presses Brooke 
 to meet the writer at Bath, where it says he expects 
 Percy, Earl of jSTorthumberland. In the postscript 
 Raleigh thus attacks his Dorsetshire enemies : — 
 
 "My Lord Viscount hath so exalted Meeres's suit 
 against me in my absence, as neither Mr. Sergeant 
 Heale, nor any else, could be heard for me to stay 
 trial while I was out of the land in her Majesty's 
 service, a right and courtesy afforded to every beggar. 
 I never busied myself with the Viscount, neither of his 
 extortion, nor the poisoning of his wife, as it is here 
 avowed. I have forborne him in respect of my Lord 
 Thomas, and chiefly because of Mr. Secretary, who, in 
 his love, my Lord Thomas hath wished me to it ; but 
 I will not endure wrong at so peevish a fool's hands 
 any longer, I will rather lose my life. I think that 
 my Lord Puritan Periam doth think that the Queen 
 shall have more use of rogues and villains than of 
 me, or else he would not, at Byndon's instance, have 
 yielded to try actions against me, being out of the 
 land."* 
 
 Whether or not the visit to Bath took place does not 
 appear; but in the course of the winter Baleigh re- 
 paired to London, where he lived in a style of great 
 magnificence at Durham House, which stood facing 
 
 * Raleigh to Cobham, Weymouth, August 12th, 1506. State 
 Paper Office.
 
 284 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 the river, on the site of tlie present Adelphi. Burleigh 
 and Essex had hkewise houses iu the Strand, and 
 between them a constant though superficial intercourse 
 was carried on. Hostility to Spain was still the feeling 
 uppermost in the public mind, and Essex, to gratify the 
 country and soothe Elizabeth for the loss of the treasure 
 which had been squandered among the officers at Cadiz, 
 projected a new enterprise, denominated at the time 
 the " Island Voyage," While this scheme was dragging 
 its slow length along, a hundred court intrigues were 
 in simultaneous action, all aiming at place or pelf, 
 and conducted in many cases with shameless effrontery. 
 Viewed from without, office and power make a dazzling 
 show, and create in vulgar minds the belief that all 
 within is dignity and happiness ; though, if the curtain 
 were raised, the eye would turn away with scorn and 
 disgust from the sycophancy, the crawling, the base- 
 ness, the slander, and falsehood by which eminence 
 is too frequently attained. 
 
 Ealeigh's chief object now, as it had been for years, 
 was to appease Elizabeth, to accomplish which there 
 were few things he would not have done. The principal 
 bar to his success in this matter was the influence of 
 Essex, which he had long vainly striven to neutralise. 
 The task was one of Herculean difficulty. Every one 
 knew that Secretary Cecil and Henry Brooke, now 
 Lord Cobham, both in high favour with Elizabeth,
 
 BESTOBATION TO FAVOUR. 285 
 
 reckoned among Ealeigh's friends, and Essex's enemies ; 
 how, therefore, conld the vindictive and wayward 
 favourite be brought to regard with complacency the 
 individual whom such men favoured? There were, 
 besides, perpetual conflicts going on for place and emo- 
 lument ; every man grasping at some office ; while 
 Essex aimed at commanding the whole fountain of 
 preferment, that he might scatter honours and salaries 
 without stint among his dependents. Before the elder 
 Cobham died there was a legion of suitors for his places 
 of Lord Chamberlain and Warden of the Cinque Ports, 
 among whom were his son Henry, Raleigh's nephew, 
 Eobert Sidney, Sir Edward Wotton, the Lords Huusdon, 
 Buckhm-st, AVilloughby, and even Essex himself. In 
 favour of one or other of these, multitudes of friends and 
 relations, male and female, besieged Elizabeth with 
 solicitations, but she had for once made up her mind, 
 and to the chagrin and disappointment of many, be- 
 stowed the much-coveted place on Cecil's brother-in-law, 
 the young Lord Cobham. 
 
 The office of Vice Chamberlain being vacant, Ealeigh 
 joined in the scramble for appointments, and became a 
 solicitor for that post. Too many obstacles, however, 
 stood between him and success. In spite of liis splendid 
 services at Cadiz, Elizabeth still refused to see him, 
 though it was suspected that the show of resentment 
 would not be kept up much longer ; yet no truer saying
 
 286 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIOH. 
 
 was ever uttered than that of Kowland White, who 
 observes that,. " to be a nobleman born, is more respected 
 than to be virtuous and worthy."* This every one found 
 who sought to rise at Elizabeth's court, where merit was 
 invariably postponed to rank, save in the case of Cecil, 
 whom she herself had elevated. Seeing no other course 
 left, Ealeigh resolved upon what was generally believed 
 to be a hopeless enterprise — reconciling Essex with the 
 Secretary ; for till this should be done, he saw clearly the 
 hopelessness of all advancement for himself, since what 
 one recommended to the Queen, the other would cer- 
 tainly thwart. By what magic he wrought is not 
 known, but in the early spring of 1597 the virulence of 
 the feud between favourite and secretary began to abate, 
 and the courtiers soon beheld with wonder the formation 
 of a triumvirate, apparently welded in firm friendship : 
 Ealeigh, Essex, and Cecil dined, supped, and chatted 
 continually together, and wise persons, astonished at 
 the occurrence, began to inquire what new portent they 
 should next witness. 
 
 It was soon noised abroad that another expedition 
 was organizing against Spain, of which Essex was to 
 be Admiral, Lord Thomas Howard Vice-admiral, and 
 Ealeigh Eear-admiral. With them, the Earl of Cumber- 
 land was sought to be joined in equal command; but 
 from the conviction that birth ought always to take 
 * ' Sidney Papers,' ii., 26.
 
 EESTORATION TO FAVOUR. 287 
 
 rank before intellect and virtue, he refused, even at the 
 desire of the Queen, to take service in the enterprise. 
 Whatever might be the prospect opening out before 
 him, Essex could never for any length of time keep in 
 check his evil passions. Eegardless whether he gave 
 umbrage to Elizabeth or not, he visited Lady Russell's 
 daughter Anne, one of his old mistresses ; then he 
 feigned illness, and kept his chamber, though the wags 
 of his establishment remarked that he ate and slept 
 well. One day he meditated running away from the 
 court to seclude himself at his seat in Wales, and went so 
 far as to have his servants mounted, and his own horse 
 brought forth before the gates of Essex House, upon 
 Avhich, to pacify her presumptuous minion, the Queen 
 made him Master of the Ordnance, with which addition 
 to his income he was content.* 
 
 Raleigh's affairs meanwhile progressed but slowly, 
 because, though Essex's jealousy might be lulled for a 
 moment, he could not fail, when reflection awakened 
 in him, to apprehend evil consequences from the 
 restoration of his old enemy to favour. In doubt and 
 uncertainty the spring wore away, and summer was fast 
 approaching, during which, if any great enterprise were 
 to be attempted, the fleet must put to sea. Cecil, Avith 
 views of his o\vn which it may not be impossible to 
 divine, made use of his brief intimacv with the Earl to 
 * ' Sidney Papers,' ii., 27.
 
 288 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 streugtlien one party and weaken another at court — for 
 all probable eventualities lie believed he could depend 
 on Ealeigh, and therefore so strenuously urged his 
 claims, that Elizabeth, perliaps without much reluct- 
 ance, consented to see him again. Essex, who could 
 not be prevailed upon to witness the interview, rode 
 away to Chatham. Full of the advantages to be 
 derived from the step he was taking, Cecil, on the 
 morning of the 1st of June, accompanied Raleigh to 
 court, and conducted him into the presence of the 
 Queen. 
 
 If there was pleasure, there must also have been 
 much pain in this meeting. Fifteen years before he 
 had stood highest of all men in her favour, had been 
 spoken of universally and publicly as her " minion," had 
 intiueneed her will, du-ected the dispensing of her 
 graces, and been, in brief, during ten years, nearly all- 
 powerful. Her capricious affections, and his own prefer- 
 ence of a youthful beauty, had severed the hnk between 
 them, and therefore, when they met on this 1st of June, 
 1597, it was not as oracle and hierophant, not as Queen 
 and favourite, but as sovereign and great statesman and 
 commander. At his approach, and the sound of his 
 voice, Elizabeth's resentment melted away — he was 
 restored to office as the Captam of her Guard,* rode out 
 with her on that same evening, and was thenceforward 
 * Chamberlain to Carleton, June 20tli, 1597. State Paper Office.
 
 RESTORATION TO FAVOUR. 289 
 
 admitted as iu former years to the most intimate inter- 
 course.* 
 
 From the moment of Ealeigh's restoration to his oflfice, 
 Essex's star, in spite of some fitful and uncertain flashes 
 of splendour, began to pale. He seemed to be under 
 the influence of something like fate, which, however, 
 was only the combination of his own incapacity, with 
 the bigotry, envy, and vindictiveness of his adherents. 
 Both to him and to Ealeigh the expedition now in pro- 
 gress was big with momentous consequences. The fatal 
 spirit of rivahy could not be quenched either in one or 
 the other ; Essex despised Ealeigh as a man of inferior 
 birth and position ; while Ealeigh flung back his con- 
 tempt, knowing him to be his inferior in everything 
 else. 
 
 With such feelings in their breasts, there could 
 obviously be no cordial intimacy, though Ealeigh 
 laboured to stand well with the Earl, partly to pleasure 
 Elizabeth, partly out of respect for the interest of the 
 service in Avhich he was engaged. The fortunes of Eng- 
 land were in fact at stake ; for as Philip, with the 
 pertinacity of dotage, still clung to his policy of invasion, 
 and had organized formidable armaments by sea and 
 land for its reahzation, it was impossible to overrate the 
 im^iortance of destroying or taking possession of the 
 means by which alone he could accomplish his purpose.f 
 * ' Sidney Papers,' ii., 55. f Birch, ii., 344. 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 Ealeigli accordingly determined to pursue the course 
 which had enabled him to pass through the ordeal of 
 the Cadiz expedition without scath. Yet his enemies 
 were now stronger and more exasperated,* for among 
 the higher officers he had few or no friends. Still his 
 courage never flinched ; he trusted much also to that 
 unfailing courtesy which had often blunted the point of 
 rancour and converted foes into friends. He saw that 
 Elizabeth's passion for Essex, which in 1589 had rendered 
 her regardless of shame and modesty, was now rapidly 
 on the wane, and therefore hoped that forbearance 
 towards her favourite would not need to be of long 
 duration. 
 
 Before quitting London, Essex, desirous of leaving a 
 favourable impression on Cecil's mind, gave him an 
 entertainment, to which of course their mutual friends 
 were invited : it was customary on such occasions to 
 introduce, among other recreations, the performance of 
 a play ; and the piece chosen by Essex at his farewell 
 banquet was ' Richard II.' It is not at all certain, how- 
 ever, that it was Shakespeare's, because there existed an 
 older play on the same subject, which may have 
 answered the Earl's purpose just as well ; yet as Shake- 
 speare's tragedy was produced this year, and entered on 
 the stationers' books twelve days after the departure of 
 
 * His reconciliation with Vere at Weymouth, he knew to be 
 merely in appearance. Birch, ii., 352,
 
 RESTORATION TO FAVOUR. 291 
 
 the fleet, it may possibly have been the piece in ques- 
 tion. The object, in that case, must have been discern- 
 ible to all thinking spectators. It will be remembered, 
 that nearly nine years before, Essex had challenged 
 Raleigh to single combat, when he had probably made 
 use of threats and accusations which oozed out, and 
 became part of public opinion on the subject of him 
 and his rival. At first the council sought to assuage 
 the fury of the young Earl, and preserve him from the 
 avenging sword of Raleigh ; but it is probable that 
 before the furious antagonists consented to lay aside the 
 design of engaging in mortal strife, Elizabeth herself 
 was constrained to interfere. To these facts Shake- 
 speare may have ventured to allude in his play, where 
 Essex must be Bolingbroke, Raleigh Xorfolk, and 
 Elizabeth Richard II. 
 
 What was then done at Essex House, Elizabeth, 
 though not present, beheld with vicarious eyes, and 
 could not have failed to understand the menace. What 
 happened four years later was in contemplation then, 
 and it is not unfair to infer, that as the general purpose 
 was shaping itself in the Earl's mind, so the subordinate 
 incidents of the tragedy, bearing more or less directly 
 upon Raleigh's fate, were also taldng their place delibe- 
 rately in his scheme. I'he shedding of an enemy's 
 blood was held to be a light matter; Essex and his 
 friends could by falsehood and perjury, Mhich they
 
 292 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIOH. 
 
 regarded as venial offences, rid themselves of the 
 Norfolk of their drama ; after which they believed it 
 would be easier to deal with Kichard. Ealeigh, we 
 may be sure, understood the drift of the Earl's policy, 
 though he affected to regard it from a sportive point of 
 view : writing to Cecil from the fleet, in which he was 
 for months to be cooped up with his enemy, he says, 
 " I acquainted the Lord-general with your letter to me, 
 and your kind acceptance of your entertainment ; he 
 was also wonderful merry at the conceit of Richard II. 
 I hope it shall never alter, and whereof I shall be 
 most glad as the true way to all our good, quiet, and 
 advancement, and most of all for her sake whose 
 affairs shall thereby find better progression." Then, 
 turning away from this Utopian dream, and glancing 
 at terrible probabilities which both he and Cecil con- 
 templated, he adds, — " Sir, I will ever be yours ; it is 
 all I can say, and I will perform it with my life and 
 with my fortune."* 
 
 When losing sight for a moment of their own intrigues 
 the admirals came to examine the great instrument 
 with which they were expected to humble the enemy's 
 pride, they made a discovery which they thus described 
 to the council : — " We are at our wits' ends to find her 
 Majesty's fleet weakly and wretchedly manned as it is. 
 We did from Weymouth advertise your Lordships, my 
 * From Plymouth, July 6th, 1597. State Paper Office.
 
 RESTOBATION TO FAVOUR. 293 
 
 Lord Admiral, and Mr. Secretary, of the monstrous 
 abuse in the press-masters that sent the men which 
 brought us hither. We were furnished with men of 
 all occupations, that neither knew any rope, many of 
 them, nor were once at sea ; and as many of our men 
 tell us, all the good men, for twenty shillings apiece, 
 let go. When we looked for a supply in the west, 
 those of Dorsetshire appeared not a man ; but either 
 were underhand discharged by the press-masters, or 
 made a jest of the press. Now at Plymouth Sir Charles 
 Harris showeth a letter of your Lordships and my Lord- 
 admiral to discharge them all. How this doth perplex 
 and confound us your Lordship may judge."* 
 
 To deepen the effect of his banquet and drama in 
 the mind of Cecil, the Earl forwarded with the joint 
 letter a short note, in which he says, " Let this only 
 renew the affection to yourself. ' Egos ' in your letter 
 cannot warm his bill but in mine, and ' arregos ' would 
 answer him in a full measure. Be constant, therefore, 
 in loving your faithfully professed friend." 
 
 * From PlymoutL, July 8tb, 1597. State Paper Office.
 
 294 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 CHAPTEK XVII. 
 
 ISLAND VOYAGE. 
 
 On the evening of Sunday, July 10th,* the fleet set 
 sail from Plymouth with a fair wind, which after two 
 days changed to the south, and blew a hurricane. In 
 a few hours the ships were sej^arated, blown violently 
 in various directions ; and at length, after struggling 
 vainly with the storm for several days, driven back, 
 some into the ports of Cornwall, others to Plymouth. 
 In letters to Cecil and the lords of the council, Ealeigh 
 gave a vivid description of this disaster, seasoning his 
 language with an abundant allowance of hypocrisy and 
 adulation. With Elizabeth, for whom these ingredients 
 were introduced, this policy may have answered, unless 
 Cecil, who understood its drift, thought proper to un- 
 deceive her. Essex first put into Falmouth, but coming 
 round afterwards to Plymouth, he took up his quarters 
 
 * Sir William Brown to Sir Robert Sidney, July 24th, 1597. 
 ' Sidney Papers,' ii., 517.
 
 ISLAND VOYAGE. 295 
 
 with Ealeigli in tlie ' Warspite,'* while his flag-ship, 
 the ' Merehonneur,' was sent to Chatham for repair. 
 Writing to Cecil on the 26th of July, Ealeigh says, 
 " My Lord-general is my guest in the ' Warspite,' the 
 Earl of Kutland, Sir Thomas Germyn, Alexander 
 Katcliffe, and Sir K. Mansfield. I should have taken 
 it unkindly if my Lord had taken up any other lodging 
 till the 'Lion' came; and now her Majesty may be 
 sure his Lordship shall sleep somewhat the sounder, 
 though he fare the worse by lying with me, for I am an 
 excellent watchman by sea." 
 
 Knowing what sentiments lurked under these fine 
 phi'ases, we cannot fail to regret the circumstances 
 which forced Ealeigh to use them. Cecil, to whom such 
 Machiavellism was more natural, seems to have revelled 
 in holding out glittering baits to his enemy ; for in a 
 letter identical in date with Ealeigh's, he affects to 
 reveal, as if inadvertently, the zeal for Essex's interest 
 by which he is actuated. His sportive epistle formed 
 the envelope to one from Elizabeth herself, written in 
 that mystical jargon in which she so often delighted. 
 " Eyes of youth have sharp sights, but commonly not 
 so deep as those of elder age, which makes me marvel 
 less at rash attempts and headstrong counsels, which 
 give not leisure to judgment's warning, or heed advice ; 
 but make a laughter at the one, and despise with scorn 
 
 * Ealeigh to Cecil, July 26tb, 1597. State Paper Office.
 
 29f) LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGB. 
 
 the last. This have I not heard, but seen, and thereof 
 can witness bear ; yet I cannot be so lend of nature to v^ 
 suppose that the scope was not good, how so the race 
 was run. 
 
 " Trust not to the grace of your crazed vessel, that to 
 the ocean, may fortune be to humble. Foresee and 
 prevent it now in time, afore too late. You vex me % 
 much with small regard of what I skeap or bid. Admit 
 that by miracle it would do well, yet venture not such 
 wonders, where such approaehful mischief might betide 
 you. There remains that you, after your perilous first 
 attempt, do not aggravate that danger with another 
 in a farther climate, which must cost of blows good 
 store. Let characters serve your turn, and be contented 
 when you are well, which hath not ever been your 
 property. Of this no more, but for all my moods, I 
 forget not my tenses, in which I see no leisure, for 
 aught but petitions to fortify with best forwardness the 
 wants of this army, and in the same includes your safe 
 return, and grant you wisdom to distinguish between 
 veri-similie and potest fieri. Forget not to salute with 
 my great favour good Thomas and faithful Mountjoy. 
 I am like the common fashion that forget to give thanks 
 for what I received ; but I was so loth to take, that I 
 had well nigh forgot to thank, but receive them now 
 with millions, and let the nearest keep the dearest."* 
 * July, 1596. MS. State Paper Office.
 
 ISLAND VOYAGE. 297 
 
 As it had now become evident to tlie commanders of 
 the fleet that some change in the object of the expe- 
 dition wonld be necessary, Essex and Ealeigh, on the 
 1st of Auo;ust, set out from Plvmouth to consult the 
 oracles at court.* Not enjoying the advantage of 
 travelling by an express-train, they were somewhat long 
 on their journey ; since they had not arrived on the 6th, 
 for on that day Cecil, who knew nothing of their move- 
 ments, forwarded to the Earl the Queen's orders to draw 
 up a proclamation, or, as it was then called, a challenge, 
 to be translated into several languages, and dispersed 
 over the Continent, stating the reasons which justified 
 the expedition. 
 
 Through shortness of provisions and the lateness of 
 the season, it was thought prudent to relinquish the 
 design originally entertained of attacking Corimna and 
 Eerrol, so that a large land-force would not be needed. 
 Five thousand soldiers were accordingly dismissed,! the 
 thousand veterans from the Low Coimtries being deemed 
 sufficient for such enterprises as were contemplated on 
 shore. With this modification of their plans, the admi- 
 rals a second time sailed from Plymouth, and passing 
 along the shores of France, and the green hills of Biscay, 
 were before Corunna by sunset on the 24th. 
 
 The August of that year was prolific of tempests. A 
 
 * Birch, ii., 353. ' Sidney Papers,' ii., 59. 
 t Camden, ' Annals of Elizabeth,' ii., 597.
 
 298 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIQE. 
 
 violent south-wester setting in with the night, Ealeigh 
 snapj)ed his main-yard, and as he fell back along the 
 shore, Sir William Brooke in the 'Dreadnought,' and 
 upwards of twenty other vessels followed his lights.* 
 Essex in the ' Rej^ulse ' met with no less a disaster, for his 
 ship sprang a leak, and for some hours could with diffi- 
 culty be kept afloat. However, the damage being re- 
 paired, he held on his course, touching first at one point 
 of rendezvous, then at another, in quest of the missing 
 ships ; but not meeting them, put out to sea, and bore 
 towards Flores, which he reached on the 11th of Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 It has been already sho^^n that the fleet was filled 
 with Raleigh's enemies, who now finding that he had 
 not arrived, congratulated themselves on the good chance 
 of reopening the breach between him and Essex, and 
 wounding his reputation at home. It would be puerile 
 to pretend that the Lord-general needed much provo- 
 cation to strike a blow at his rival ; falling in readily 
 with the suggestions of Meyrick, Shirley, and above all, 
 of his bloody father-in-law, Blount, he hastily drew up 
 a despatch, filled with accusations against Ealeigh, and 
 detaching a fly-boat from the fleet, sent it under the 
 command of Robert Knollys to England. 
 
 Meanwhile Raleigh having repaired his main-yard, 
 
 * Relation by Essex and other Commissioners, in Purchas, 
 ii., 1935. Bircli, ii., 360.
 
 ISLAND VOYAGE. 299 
 
 was following at no great distance in the wake of Essex. 
 Touching at the North Cape and the Eock of Lisbon, 
 he there found numerous ships waiting for the General, 
 all of which he ordered to follow him. On the 8th of 
 September, he found himself among the islands of the 
 Wild Hawk group, and pushing his course slowly amid 
 sultry calms, limar-rainbows, and moonlight prospects 
 of strange beauty, made Flores on the 14th,* Finding 
 that the main body of the fleet had forestalled him, he 
 immediately repaired on board the ' Eepulse,' Avhere 
 Essex, with no little shame, confessed to him the affair 
 of the calumnious despatch, and with many expressions 
 of regret, promised to forward another in which he 
 would contradict his former statements. This being 
 settled, a council of war was held in Essex's cabin, at 
 which it was determined, that while awaiting the arrival 
 of the treasure-ships, they should take possession of the 
 main islands of the group ; the capture of Fayal con- 
 taining the best port in the islands, was assigned to 
 Essex and Raleigh ; that of Graciosa to Howard and 
 Vere ; San Miguel fell to the share of Moimtjoy and 
 Blount ; while Pico, the island in which best wine was 
 found, was given to the Flemings as the place most 
 congenial to their tastes. 
 
 Matters being thus arranged, Essex, A\ho had sup- 
 plied himself with water and provisions, set sail, leaving 
 * Gorges, in Piirclias, ii., 1949.
 
 300 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIQU. 
 
 Ealeigli and his squadron to furnisli themselves with 
 the supplies they needed. Having issued orders for the 
 taking in of water with all convenient speed, Raleigh, 
 with Sir William Brooke, Sir Arthur Gorges, and other 
 officers, went on shore to enjoy the pleasure of a stroll 
 int he country, and meeting Lord Grey, and Sir Gilly 
 Meyrick, they walked out to a small town a mile or 
 two inland, where they dined.* When, after their re- 
 turn, they were all snug in their berths, Captain Arthur 
 Champernoun came to them about midnight, with 
 orders from the General to suspend the process of water- 
 ing, and repair to him immediately at Fayal, where 
 they would find all they needed. Firing off several 
 shots to give notice to Brooke and the other com- 
 manders, Raleigh obeyed at once, and sailed for Fayal. 
 When he beheld the island rising out of the ocean,' in 
 clustering eminences, tufted with trees, or pinnacled 
 with aspiring rocks, he little dreamed what mischances 
 awaited him amid those secluded scenes. All was calm 
 and joeaceful as he warped into the harbour ;t Essex 
 had not arrived, neither, it was evident, did the inhabit- 
 ants expect a visit from any enemy ; but upon behold- 
 
 * Purchas, ii., 1951, 
 
 t A writer of the last century, describing the Azores, observes that 
 the harbour of Faj-al, the best in the group, will contain ninety sail 
 in perfect safety. The island then exported about 10,000 pipes of 
 wine annually, and lying in the way of homeward-bound ships, 
 was much frequented. ' History of the Azores,' p. 288.
 
 ISLAND VOYAGE. 301 
 
 ing the ' Warspite,' the ' Dreadnought,' and their con- 
 sorts, they understood their danger, and began to make 
 preparations, some for flight, others for defence. Men, 
 women, children, nims, friars, hurried pell-mell out 
 of the town, bearing with them whatever effects they 
 could in carriages, in carts, and on horses. While the 
 stream of fugitives made towards the mountains, the 
 soldiers in considerable bodies took up their positions 
 at the various landing-places, where they threw up 
 earthworks, and planted artillery. 
 
 Had Essex according to agreement been there, the 
 proper course would doubtless have been to commence 
 the attack at once, while the defences were unfinished, 
 and ere all articles of value should have been removed. 
 But precautions had been too surely taken by the ill- 
 fated commander to prevent all chance of success. 
 This was indeed to be from beginning to end an enter- 
 prise upon which mismanagement, failure, and disgrace 
 were to stamp their marks. Knowing the Lord-general's 
 jealous and vindictive humour, of which he had had 
 some foretaste at Flores, Ealeigh forbore the prize 
 which lay so temptingly before him, listening to the 
 murmurs of his crews, and the ill-repressed reproaches 
 of his oflicers, who with good reason marvelled at the 
 slackness of so impetuous a commander. They pointed 
 to the town, rising terrace after terrace from the very 
 wash of the sea, to the summit of a lovely eminence,
 
 I 
 
 302 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 where a strong fort witk curtains, ramparts, and battle- 
 ments, waved over by the flag of Spain, looked defiance 
 at the strangers. They stood in need of provisions; 
 they thirsted for sweet water, which they beheld falling 
 in sparkling rivulets into the sea. Why should they f 
 not cool their lips with it ? The contents of their casks 
 on board had long been converted into a puddle, fetid 
 and noisome, their provisions were loathsome — before 
 them lay everything they needed in abundance — why 
 would not he, who in England had long been known as 
 the fiery Kaleigh, place himself at their head and lead 
 them, as he had been wont, to victory. 
 
 In consequence of these discontents, a council, after 
 two days' delay, met on board the 'Warspite.' Ealeigh, 
 Brooke, Gorges, and Harvey argued in favour of an 
 immediate assault, but Meyrick, Shirley, and Parker, 
 adherents of Essex, at once servile and petulant, made 
 strenuous oppositions. A farther delay of two days 
 was therefore agreed upon, at the expiration of which, 
 whether the General arrived or not, Faval was to be 
 captured. 
 
 Four days having been wasted in vain expectations, 
 Ealeigh threw himself into his barge, and beneath a 
 heavy fire, pulled towards the landing-j^lace. His 
 patience was exhausted, his blood was up, he rejected 
 the aid of the Flemish captains, Avho frankly offered it, 
 and at the head of his English followers, made good
 
 ISLAND VOYAGE, 303 
 
 his landing, cliarged tlie batteries,* drove tlie Spaniards 
 in utter rout before him, and making his way up the 
 hill, followed by four hundred and fifty Englishmen, 
 dashed into Fayal, and was master of it, almost with 
 the rapidity of magic. 
 
 Most cities when entered belie the promise of their 
 exterior ; with Fayal it was otherwise, for our coimtry- 
 men found it to be a pleasant place, — " full of fine gar- 
 dens, orchards, and wells of delicate waters, with fair 
 streets, and one very fair church; also a nimnery and a 
 friary.t Ealeigh immediately took orders for quartering 
 his trooj)s, and having thrown up barricades, and set 
 guards at the principal entrances to the town to prevent 
 surprise, the rest of the soldiers were permitted to dis- 
 perse in search of j)lunder. Having refreshed themselves 
 with the wine and provisions which fell into their hands, 
 they, as the night came on, betook themselves to rest, 
 leaving the high fort to be dealt with on the morrow. 
 As the day however began to break over the ocean, 
 Essex's whole fleet was beheld making before the wind 
 to^\ards Fayal, a moving city of canvas upon the waves. 
 As soon as the ' Eepulse ' cast anchor, the bitterest of 
 Ealeigh's enemies, Sir Gilly Meyrick was on board, 
 relating to Essex the proceedings of the last four days, 
 in the most distorted and irritatino- lan2;uai»:e. All 
 mean natures are crawling to the powerful. Highest 
 
 * ' History of the World,' vi., 104. f PurcLas, ii., 1957.
 
 304 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 in the Queen's favour, closely allied to her by blood, 
 Essex, besides his office of Commander-in-chief, pos- 
 sessed every requisite for rallying the servile and malig- 
 nant around him, to exasperate his worst passions, and 
 unite with him in depressing or destroying those whom 
 he thought proper to look upon as his enemies. When 
 Kaleigh, who had pulled from the beach in his barge, 
 climbed the ladder, and stood upon the deck of the 
 ' Repulse,' he walked towards the General's cabin, be- 
 tween rows of scowling and menacing faces, and Essex, 
 after giving him a faint welcome, burst forth into re- 
 proaches and accusations.* The course to be pursued 
 towards him had been already determined on; referring 
 to the instructions to the fleet, Essex pointed out that 
 article which made it death for an officer to land troops 
 or attack any place without the General's presence or com- 
 mand. All they who were eager to take Raleigh's life 
 crowded round, and began to congratulate themselves 
 that the long-wished-for moment had at length arrived. 
 With imperturbable coolness Raleigh replied to Essex, 
 who had charged him with breach of order, that he 
 knew not of any such breach, and as to the article on 
 which his Lordship laid so much stress, he desired the 
 General to give him leave to defend himself by those 
 laws which he as well as others had devised, and his 
 Lordship, with the council of war had authorized, and 
 
 » See Birch, ii., 360.
 
 ISLAND VOYAGE. 305 
 
 that then his Lordship should find that he had not com- 
 mitted any error at alh " For," said he, " there is an 
 article that, no captain of any ship, nor captain of any 
 company, if he be severed from the fleet, shall land 
 anywhere without directions from the General, or some 
 other principal commander, upon pain of death ; but I 
 take myself to be a principal commander under your 
 Lordship, and therefore not subject to that article, nor 
 under the power of the law-martial, because a successive 
 commander of the whole fleet in Her Majesty's Letters 
 Patent, your Lordship and my Lord Thomas Howard 
 failing.* 
 
 After a full half-hour spent in these bickerings, Essex 
 put on for the moment a show of satisfaction, and going 
 ashore with Raleigh, remained a short time at his 
 quarters ; matters, however, were not to be suffered to 
 end so. Several influential officers in the fleet, hating 
 the Rear-admiral, were fully bent on enacting a tragedy 
 at Faval, which could not be brought to its denouement 
 without keeping open the breach between the Admirals. 
 When Raleigh therefore invited Essex to sup with him, 
 saying he would claim no privilege on that account, but 
 would answer for his conduct in the morning. Sir Chris- 
 topher Blount, dreading everything that seemed to 
 promise a pacification, rej)lied that Essex would not 
 sup at all that night ; to which Raleigh answered, that 
 * Gorges in Purclias, ii., 1958. 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 I 
 
 306 LIFE OF SIB WALTER RALEIQE. 
 
 " When lie invited him, he might disable his own appe- 
 tite, but if my Lord pleased to stay, he would be very 
 glad of his presence." j| 
 
 With these words the meeting broke up * Essex 
 and his partizans to mature their scheme for the Eear- 
 admiral's destruction, and he to resolve in his own mind 
 the means of counteracting their machinations. The 
 plan pressed upon the General was to bring Kaleigh to 
 trial by a Court-martial, and if they found him guilty, 
 as they resolved they would, to put him forthwith to 
 death ; by which the Earl would be at once delivered 
 from the chief impediment to his absolute sway at 
 court, and from his most formidable rival on the ocean. 
 The course of argument they followed has been con- 
 signed to oblivion ; Blount, Shirley, IMeyrick, Parker, 
 were notoriously inimical to the Eear-admiral ; Mount- 
 joy, Eutland, and Southampton may be supposed to 
 have waded through the same slough of guilt, but unless 
 through his own testimony! we should scarcely have 
 believed that' the great soldier Sir Francis Vere could 
 have descended to act so ignoble a part. He tells us, 
 however, that he displayed on this occasion less spleen 
 than the others against Kaleigh, which is admitting 
 
 * Sir William Monson, in his ' Naval Tracts in Churchill,' iii., 173, 
 £;ives a brief but honest account of this transaction, observing that if 
 Essex, had not feared how the matter might be taken, it would have 
 gone hard with Kaleigh. 
 
 ■j- Vere, ' Commentaries,' p. 51.
 
 ISLAND VOYAGE. 307 
 
 that he countenanced, though with less vehemence, their 
 sanguinary purpose. By those Avho sought to enhance 
 his generosity, Essex is reported to have said, that if 
 Ealeigh had been his friend, he would have proceeded 
 against him, as his adherents advised ; but this only 
 places his character in a worse light, for conceding to 
 him the possession of common sense, Ave must assume 
 him to have known Ealeigh to have been in the right, 
 and that he had therefore no ground for proceeding 
 against him, whether friend or foe. 
 
 Meanwhile, perceiving the deadly drift of his enemies, 
 and convinced that they would shrink from no act of 
 injustice or treachery to compass his death, Raleigh 
 formed a determination which in any other circum- 
 stances w^ould have been pronounced desperate. This 
 was to sever his squadron from the rest of the fleet, to 
 throw himself on the fidelity and attachment of his 
 mariners, to clear his decks for action, and dare Essex 
 to employ the ultima ratio of violence. He had come 
 to this resolution, w'hen Lord Thomas Howard, conjec- 
 turing by the movements of his squadron wdiat was in 
 contemplation, came on board the 'Warspite.' As Vice- 
 admiral he possessed great authority, and as a man of 
 moderate counsels, still more. He could not reirard 
 without keen anxiety the consequences of an appeal to 
 force, and therefore made use of every means in his 
 power to prevent it. Knowing Raleigh to be in the
 
 308 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 right, and believing that Essex who must share the same 
 conviction would be glad to be delivered from the di- 
 lemma in which his own weakness and the wickedness 
 of his partizans had placed him, he sought to prevail 
 on Raleigh to trust himself once more on board the 
 ' Repulse.' Believing that he would thus be placing 
 himself in the hands of his inveterate foes, Raleigh felt 
 reluctant to follow the advice of Howard, till he pledged 
 his own honour and life for his safety, and volunteered, 
 moreover, should anything notwithstanding be at- 
 tempted against him, to draw off from Essex with his 
 ships, and, if things came to the worst, to join Raleigh's 
 squadron in battle. 
 
 With this understanding between himself and the 
 Vice-admiral, Raleigh in his barge was once more rowed 
 to the 'Repulse,' where, for the interest of England, 
 and to avoid the dishonour of her flag,, he consented to 
 apologize for having performed his duty ; upon which 
 the wayward and presumptuous favourite reluctantly 
 laid aside the weapons of falsehood and malice. We 
 shall discover however as we proceed that this scene of 
 humiliation on the part of Raleigh, and of puerile 
 triumph on that of Essex, was not buried in the vaults 
 of forgetfulness, but kept perpetually before the memory, 
 the more galling, because it had to be concealed 
 beneath the veil of amity. While Raleigh's fate was in 
 the balance, that of all the land and sea captains
 
 ISLAND VOYAGE. 309 
 
 who had acted with him was so likewise ; but upon the 
 apparent reconciliation of the angry commanders, all 
 those gentlemen were set at liberty. 
 
 Affairs having been thus settled, Essex who had post- 
 poned all care of public business to the gratification of 
 his private resentment, began to remember that he had 
 certain duties to perform, among which one was to 
 storm the fort A\hicli commanded the town, and to 
 make prisoners of its garrison. A force was accordingly 
 sent on this service, which summoning the Spaniards to 
 surrender, and obtaining no answer, imagined some 
 stratagem to be intended, and hesitated to proceed. By 
 degrees the fact became evident, that the enemy with 
 bag and baggage had evacuated the place in the night, 
 leaving behind them nothing but the bodies of two cap, 
 tive officers, one an Englishman, the other a Fleming, 
 whose throats they had cut to grace their departure. 
 
 The remainder of this expedition was nothing but 
 one series of errors and mischances, exhibitions of dis- 
 obedience on the part of inferiors, and of strange wilful- 
 ness on that of the General. Sailing back to St. 
 Michael's, instead of taking the chief town, Essex left 
 Ealeigh with the fleet lying before it, and proceeded 
 with the troops to Villa Franca, a few miles off, where 
 he continued feasting and rioting six whole days. Sir 
 Arthur Gorges suggests that they ultimately spared 
 the place in consideration of large bribes, which is not
 
 310 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGE. 
 
 at all improbable, especially as great care was taken to 
 leave Raleigh at a distance, that he might not be a 
 witness of their proceedings. Gorges, indeed, affects to 
 exculpate the General from suspicion, observing that 
 he cared not for wealth ; but even if this view of him 
 were correct, there were other passions besides avarice 
 for the gratification of which Essex may have consented 
 to spare Villa Franca.* 
 
 While lying off St. Michael's, Ealeigh captured a 
 valuable prize, and but for the interference of a Low 
 Country captain, would have taken another far more 
 valuable. This was a ship of sixteen hundred tons 
 burden, laden chiefly with spices, which, supposing the 
 fleet to be Spanish, sailed into the midst of it before her 
 officers had discovered their mistake. She then how- 
 ever ran herself aground, and disembarking the men 
 with all the merchandize that time would allow, set 
 herself on fire, and when Raleigh came up in his barge, 
 was one blaze of thunder and lightning, the ordnance 
 discharging, and the flames mounting into the air, 
 while the burning spices diffused their perfume for 
 miles round. 
 
 The autumnal equinox now coming on, the sea 
 became exceedingly rough, upon which it was resolved 
 to abandon all farther attempts against the Spaniards 
 and return homewards. On the way they were over- 
 
 * Turclms, ii., 1964.
 
 ISLAND VOYAGE. 311 
 
 taken by a violent storm, during which a number of 
 birds — an owl, a tarsel, a falcon, and afterwards a dove 
 — alighted on the shrouds of the ' Warspite,' and were 
 supposed by the sailors to foretel the pleasant calm 
 that followed. During this part of the voyage, Essex 
 seems to have been as much misled by his seafaring 
 guides as he had previously been by his political friends, 
 for he was only prevented by Sir Arthur Gorges from 
 being wrecked and lost on the sands of the Welsh 
 coast. To give him warning of his danger, this gallant 
 officer ordered a gun to be fired,* which the master 
 gunner obeyed sorely against his will ; for both he and 
 old Broadbent, the sailing-master of the 'Warspite,' 
 would have allowed them to perish in revenge for the 
 losses they had suffered by them, and as a pimishment 
 of their presumptuous ignorance. 
 
 Contrary to expectation, the Spanish Armada, when 
 Essex's fleet was far out in the Atlantic, had put forth 
 fi-om the harbours of Sjiain and Portugal, and made 
 for England, where there was neither fleet nor army to 
 resist it. The moment was one of imminent peril. 
 Some of its officers went on shore in the Scilly Islands, 
 its sails were beheld from the headlands of Cornwall, 
 where fly-boats and caravels, the harbingers of its 
 approach, put in at various points, and threw the whole 
 country into confusion. But the elements again inter- 
 
 * Purchas, ii., 1968.
 
 312 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 posed — a hurricane from tlie north-west catching the 
 advancing enemy in the open sea, scattered their ships 
 and hurled them back, rent and shattered, to their 
 own coast, whence they never afterwards ventured to 
 prosecute their enterprises against Elizabeth.
 
 RALEIOE, A PEACEMAKER. 313 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 EALEIGH, A PEACEMAKER. 
 
 While Essex, Lord Thomas Howard, Sir Francis Vere, 
 Lord Moiintjoy, and the other gallants of the fleet 
 hastened to court, where they expected to reap in 
 various ways a harvest of fame and pleasure, Ealeigh 
 remained at the head of the land and sea forces in the 
 West, where he was Lord-lieutenant. What prompted 
 the Earl's haste was the desire to forestall with his own 
 story any relations which Ealeigh might be disposed to 
 give the Queen of the expedition to the Azores. But 
 his speed, however great, had been outstript by 
 fame ; Elizabeth was already in possession of the whole 
 truth ; and therefore, when he appeared, gave him so 
 cool a recejition that, in extreme disgust, he retired 
 from court, and shut himself up in his house at 
 Wanstead. 
 
 No one could be more fully aware than himself that 
 the expedition had been a failure ; that his own con- 
 duct throughout its continuance had been impolitic
 
 f'- 
 
 314 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 and disgraceful, and tliat instead therefore of meriting 
 any reward, he ought to be removed from his high posi- 
 tion, which should in fairness be given to Raleigh. 
 Knowing, however, the Queen's weakness for him, he 
 felt no fear that any such justice would be done to his 
 rival. The arrow that now stuck and rankled in his 
 vanity had been sped from another quarter ; during 
 his absence Elizabeth, regaining her freedom of action, 
 had made Cecil Master of the Wards, and promoted 
 Lord Charles Howard to the earldom of Nottingham, 
 which gave him precedence of Essex at court. For this 
 proceeding he held Lord Burleigh and his son* to be 
 quite as responsible as the Queen ; and it was expected 
 by the hangers on about the court who worshipped 
 grandeur and great people from a distance, that a new 
 rupture must follow between the moody Earl and those 
 whom his friend Henry Howard called "the Leviathan 
 and his cub." The day for that rupture however had not 
 yet arrived. Essex now directed all the fury of his anger 
 against Nottingham, whose patent he insisted should 
 be cancelled ; otherwise he would extend no forgiveness 
 to the fond old Queen, and would challenge the new- 
 made Earl or any of his sons or kindred to meet him in 
 the field. 
 
 * Rowland White, speaking of this affair, says, " the Queen lays 
 the blame of the wrong done to Essex, upon Burleigh and Cecil, 
 though they do, with infinite protestations, execrations, and vows, 
 deny it." ' Sidney Papers,' ii., 77.
 
 BALEIGE, A FEACEMAEER. 3J5 
 
 By the pranks of this presumptuous favourite, Eliza- 
 beth, whose mind was too evidently losing its masculine 
 firmness, alloT^ed herself to be thro^vn into a state truly 
 deserving of commiseration. The question of cancelling 
 Nottingham's patent was debated ; other contrivances 
 for pacifying Essex were taken into consideration ; but 
 kind offers and messages were spurned, and the mal- 
 content had at least the satisfaction of perceiving that 
 he could, whenever he thought projDer, arrest the whole 
 current of public business. In the hope of disguising 
 her overweening partiality, Elizabeth ordered first one 
 minister, then another, to address Essex, to expostulate 
 with him, as if of themselves, to urge the necessity of 
 his taking his place in parliament, and returning to 
 court. Lord Hunsdon first took up this burden, and 
 informed him that " Her Majesty much wondered and 
 made many constructions of your absence, holding it 
 with imputations of farther desert in your late service 
 by the enemy than you have any ways deserved. I 
 pleaded your want of health — the shooting iu your 
 temples upon cold or any long spcecli — and yet your 
 readiness to attend her Majesty, if she should be pleased 
 to command your service. She accounted your duty 
 and place sufficient to command you, and that a prince 
 was not to be contested withal by a subject. Then, 
 hearing that you intended to go to Grafton, I told her 
 Majesty that after you should find some amendment in
 
 316 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 the state of your body, I suppose you would for a sliort 
 time retire yourself to a private regard of your own 
 estate, which it behoved you, as shaken, to settle ; but | 
 she rather imagined you should look into the public 
 state of the nation as a councillor, then to respect your 
 private state when you might take a more quiet time 
 hereafter to look into it. Many discourses passed, in 
 which I found nothing but kindness and consort towards 
 you, if you will but turn about and take it." * 
 
 From the time of this communication, Essex — sur- 
 rounded by his evil counsellors — the Blounts, the Cuffes, 
 the Meyricks, the Danvers, the Lees, who foresaw not 
 towards what they were precipitating both their victim 
 and themselves — understood his present advantage, and 
 felt that he had only to persevere a little longer in 
 order to extort from the humiliated Queen whatever he 
 might think proper to demand. Hunsdon's missive not 
 producing the desired effect, Burleigh, now verging 
 upon fourscore years and ten, was commissioned to 
 woo back the sullen favourite whom in his heart he 
 scorned. 
 
 " I know not how," he says, " to write to your Lord- 
 ship for my satisfaction and your contentation. Sorry I 
 am for your abstinence from here, whereby her Majesty 
 hath want of her services, and yourself subject to diver- 
 
 * November, but without day of month, 1597. State Paper 
 Office.
 
 liALEIGH, A PEACEMAKER. 317 
 
 sity of censures. I find her Majesty incline to such as 
 advise to that which ^^as meet for her to do and for 
 you to receive. 
 
 "Good my Lord, even come here with yielding, 
 without disparagement of your honour, and plead your 
 own cause with your presence, whereto I will be as 
 serviceable as any friend you have, to my power, which 
 is not to run for good feet, nor to fight for lack of sound 
 hands, but able and ready with my heart to command 
 my tongue to do you due honour. 
 
 " W. Burleigh.* 
 
 "I wish to receive news when you come to the 
 court." 
 
 It was probably at this stage of the proceedings that 
 Raleigh's inveterate enemy. Sir Francis Vere, came 
 in the character of peacemaker to court. Elizabeth 
 felt much respect for this brave old soldier, whoso 
 welcome on this occasion w^as not the less warm because 
 he appeared as Essex's friend. The interview with the 
 stately old lady took place in the gardens of Whitehall, 
 where, like an irritated lioness, she was pacing to and 
 fro, probably turning over in her mind various methods 
 for bringing her favourite again to her feet. Approach- 
 ing the Queen obsequiously, Vere entered into a defence 
 
 * The minister was now in Ids eiglity-t-ighth year, liaving been 
 born September 13th, 1510. MS. State Paper OflSce, 1597.
 
 318 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 of Essex's conduct at the Azores, laying the blame of 
 failure, he says, on those who deserved it, among whom 
 he looked upon Kaleigh as the chief. By this unlucky 
 assertion he overthrew the whole scheme of his inter- 
 vention, for Elizabeth's reliance on the wisdom of her 
 former oracle had revived, so that she thought meanly 
 of all who fell short of that estimate of his abilities 
 which she had determined in her own mind to be the 
 right one. 
 
 While Essex and his sanguinary buffoons were feast- 
 ing and fiddling at Wanstead, and laughing at the 
 perturbation into which they had thrown the Queen 
 and her ministers, Raleigh himself appeared once more 
 upon the stage. What Hunsdon and Burleigh had 
 attempted in vain Elizabeth believed he could accom- 
 plish, and he was accordingly commissioned to restore 
 harmony to the court. Ordinary logic, however keen 
 and subtle, M'ould have been lost upon Essex, on the 
 altar of whose vanity no incense was pleasing save that 
 which ascended from the humiliation of others. The 
 laurels of Nottingham would suffer him to taste no 
 repose — he must therefore be pushed from his rank, or 
 the favourite be placed before him, otherwise the Queen 
 should be for ever denied the happiness of patting him 
 on the cheek, and basking in his smiles. Ealeigh saw 
 at once how this great achievement was to be accom- 
 plished. The office of Lord-marshal had been in
 
 RALEIGH, A PEACEMAKER. 319 
 
 abeyance since the death of George Earl of Shrews- 
 bury in 1590 — revive it and bestow it on Essex, w^hich 
 would restore to him what he coveted — the immense 
 gratification of strutting in court-pageants before the 
 conqueror of the Armada. 
 
 Kaleigh now experienced the truth of the old Latin 
 proverb, Incidit in Scyllam qui vult evitare Charybdim ; 
 for what was sweet to Essex proved gall and wormwood 
 to Nottingham.* Though victorious over Medina 
 Sidonia in the narrow seas, he felt that he had now 
 been defeated on a much more perilous battle-field 
 — for the court of Elizabeth was nothing else, though, 
 instead of calivers and great guns, the arms employed 
 were intrigue, slander, calumny, and falsehood. What 
 was to be done ? He must consider, and to command 
 leisure for consideration he must be ill. He was im- 
 mediately seized, therefore, by fever, or the colic, and 
 retired, melancholy and crestfallen, to his house at 
 Chelsea. This was the usual stratagem to which mal- 
 content courtiers had recourse, and Elizabeth, who 
 perfectly understood their maladies, employed various 
 medicines for their cure, sometimes sending them 
 possets, sometimes promises of preferment. Nottingham 
 
 * Sir Henry Neville, writing privately to Cecil, relates a conver- 
 sation he had held with Henri IV., who had learned from his am- 
 bassador the particulars of the discords between the Lord-admiral 
 and Essex. Winwood, i., 27.
 
 320 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 was old, but not at all the wiser on that account. No 
 stripling fresh from the lawns of Penshurst, or the 
 morasses of Lincolnshire, could have outdone the giddy- 
 frivolity with which this great seaman threw away his 
 white wand of office as Lord-steward of the Household to 
 chafe and fret in the suburbs at Ealeigh's interference. 
 It seems more than probable that he never at heart 
 forgave this device of the Lord-marshalship ; for though 
 long afterwards when, upon the overthrow of Essex, 
 Ealeigh stood once more in the full blaze of Elizabeth's 
 favour, the crafty Lord-admiral was seen to stoop, and, 
 with the skirts of his gorgeous cloak, wipe the dust 
 from Ealeigh's shoes, he only waited for the oppor- 
 tunity which soon presented itself to discharge the 
 pent-up venom of his heart. 
 
 In wretched squabbles such as the above terminated 
 the thirty-ninth year of Elizabeth's reign. In the 
 course of their lives, all men have much to forget and 
 forgive ; and in proportion to the nobility of their souls 
 is the completeness of their forgiveness. Ealeigh was 
 the least vindictive man of his age ; he could be fiercely 
 angry, and when duty appeared to require it, could 
 likewise be unrelenting and remorseless ; but in mere 
 matters of feeling or personal irritation, he may be 
 said to have been always ready to throw the veil of 
 oblivion over the wrongs he had suffered. Still, in 
 regard to Essex, what now appeared to be friendship was
 
 EALEIGH, A PEACEMAKEE. 321 
 
 mere sliam. Both he and Cecil were fully cognizant 
 of the Earl's dealings with Scotland, and knew what 
 they boded to them ; they were likewise perfectly aware 
 that Wanstead was chokeful of perjured villains and 
 assassins, the use to be made of whom it was not as yet 
 possible to discern, though the employment which such 
 men coveted could not be innocent. Still it was deemed 
 advisable by all the parties concerned to preserve a 
 short lull in their animosities that they might be the 
 better prepared to profit by the recurrence of favourable 
 contingencies. 
 
 To persons outside this pause in the breathless chase 
 of ambition appeared to be friendship, and keen was 
 the envy with which what was thought to be the good 
 fortune of Ealeigh and Cecil inspired their competitors. 
 "It is exceedingly wondered at by the world," says 
 White, " to see the too great familiarity that is grown 
 between the Earl of Essex, Sir Kobert Cecil, Sir Walter 
 Ealeigh, and Lord Cobham : none but they enjoy him ; 
 they carry him away as they list." * 
 
 What the ultimate designs of the confederates aimed 
 at will appear hereafter. Cecil was meditating a short 
 absence, having been appointed, in conjunction with 
 Herbert and Wilkes, to proceed on an embassy to 
 France for the purpose of dissuading Henri Quatre 
 from concluding a peace with Spain. Ealeigh, who 
 * ' Sidney State Papers,' ii., 79. 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 322 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIQE. 
 
 saw honours, titles, and places showered profusely on 
 his competitors, likewise endeavoured to make a move 
 in advance : the Vice-chamberlainship was vacant, 
 and seeing no chance of anything better, he sought to 
 secure that post to himself. Finding, however, that 
 the husband of his niece Barbara was also making 
 interest for the same appointment, he desisted from the 
 attempt.* 
 
 His ambition next took a higher flight; and observing 
 Cecil to be filled on the eve of his departure with a 
 prudent fervour of generosity, that he might multiply 
 defenders during his absence, he caused it to be under- 
 stood that a seat in the Upper House would not be dis- 
 pleasing to him. 
 
 In the interval between Cecil's appointment and his 
 departure, a thousand pressing affairs crowded upon 
 him. Essex, up to the ears in debt, was clamorous to 
 have some means devised for paying them : Raleigh, 
 it is said, offered him a third part of the proceeds of 
 his prizes if he would use his favour with the Queen to 
 obtain for him the honours he had deserved by his 
 long services; but as the Earl either would not or 
 could not fall in with the scheme, Cecil had to worry 
 Elizabeth out of a sum nearly equal to forty thousand 
 pounds of our money, to deliver his prodigal rival from 
 his creditors. He well knew, however, that no amount 
 * Rowland White, January 14th, 1598.
 
 EALEIOH, A PEACEMAKER. 323 
 
 of money would long keep Essex out of difficulties. 
 The tan of his complexion* by the sun of Spain, which 
 in 1596 had ruined him in tlie estimation of the 
 aristocratic courtezans who thronged the palace, had 
 now probably disappeared before the influence of an 
 English winter, for his mistresses multiplied rapidly : 
 he persevered in his visits to the house of Lady Russell ; 
 he flirted with Lady Mary Howard and Mrs, Southwell ; 
 he renewed his intimacy with the fair Brydges,! and 
 through these circumstances, the secretary always pos' 
 sessed the means of bringing about a new rupture 
 between the favourite and the Queen. 
 
 Meantime the hours passed merrily by ; from New 
 Year's Day to the beginning of February, all externally 
 was frolic and joyousness with men several of whom 
 used pleasure only as the bait of ambition. Dinners, 
 music, the drama, the glow of poetry, and the fascina- 
 tions of women were enlisted in the service of political 
 intrigue, but wholly failed to throw the crafty secretary 
 for one moment off his guard. 
 
 An able statesman of the ancient world observes that 
 women are then in their happiest and most natural con- 
 dition when little is said of them by men, either for good 
 or ill. Through prudence or the benignity of fortune, 
 Lady Raleigh appears to have squared her conduct 
 upon this theory ; yet we catch some glimpses of her 
 * Birch, i., 141. t BobuD^ p, 340.
 
 324 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 magnificent figure amid the feasting, the music, the 
 dramas, which at Durham House, at Lord Compton's, 
 at Lord Southampton's, at Lord Cobham's, preceded 
 Cecil's departure for the Continent. Her female com- 
 panions were such as chance, not choice, must have 
 thrown around her — the Countess of Derby, Lady 
 AValsingham, Mrs. Anne Russell, and others. 
 
 Mindful of how his father and he had stolen a, march 
 upon Essex in 1596 and the following year, Cecil now 
 feared lest the tables should be turned upon him. His 
 reluctance to set out, therefore, became so powerful 
 that it j)enetrated through all disguises, and to quiet his 
 apprehensions, Essex, out of gratitude for the large 
 sums of money Cecil had procured for him, entered 
 into a positive engagement to promote no persons 
 during his absence with whom he might afterwards find 
 it disagreeable to act. 
 
 Cecil set out on his diplomatic mission, the object of 
 which was completely defeated by the conclusion of a 
 treaty between France and Spain, known in history as 
 the Peace of Vervins. Towards tlie close of winter no 
 inconsiderable alarm was occasioned by the intelligence 
 that a Spanish fleet had been discovered at sea, making 
 towards the English Channel. The whole extent of 
 coast, from the Thames to the Land's End, was ordered 
 to be put in readiness to resist invasion, Essex being 
 appointed to command in Keat, Ealeigh in Cornwall,
 
 RALEIGH, A PEACEMAKER. 325 
 
 with instructions to muster the strength of the counties ; 
 but the news arriving shortly after that the enemy's 
 fleet had put into Calais, the panic subsided. 
 
 Events were now in progress, which, without Kaleigh's 
 agency, hastened the ruin of his most inveterate enemies, 
 though by way of counterbalance they imparted fresh 
 strength to others. Two great questions pressed upon 
 the attention of the Government : peace with S2^^^ii5 
 and the choice of a new Lord-deputy for Ireland. 
 During the discussions in Council on the former, the 
 opposition of Burleigh and Essex led to angry words, 
 for the old statesman, accusing the favourite of delight- 
 ing in nothing but slaughter, handed him the Prayer 
 Book, pointing with his finger to these words : " Men 
 of blood shall not live out half their days." * 
 
 From this subject a transition was made to that of 
 selecting a Lord-deputy for Ireland. Public opinion 
 included Ivaleio;h amoncj those who were deemed to be 
 qualified to assume the office; but Essex, who knew 
 his repugnance to be insurmountable, favoured the 
 appointment of Sir George Carew, not through friend- 
 ship, but in order to remove him out of the way. Eliza- 
 beth preferred the claims of Essex's own uncle. Sir 
 William Knoll ys, and treated his arguments with dis- 
 dain. The incentives to men's actions are often obscure 
 even to themselves ; at the Queen's elbow were two of 
 * Camden, ' Annals of Elizabeth,' ii., 608.
 
 326 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 the Earl's most inveterate enemies, the Earl of Notting- 
 ham and Sir Robert Cecil, before whom, in a paroxysm 
 of presumption, he turned contemptuously upon his heel 
 and stood with his back towards the Queen. Scarcely 
 any act could have exceeded such an insult in grossness. 
 Elizabeth sprang from her seat, and indignation stifling 
 all sense of decorum, gave the pampered minion a 
 sound box on the ear. In the blindness of rage, 
 Essex put his hand on his sword, which he would have 
 drawn on the Queen had not the Lord-admiral stepped 
 between them. The remark in which he then indulged 
 was as unbecoming as his conduct ; swearing a great 
 oath, he said he neither could nor would put up with 
 such an affront, which he would not have borne from 
 Henry VIII. himself. The Queen no less disdainfully 
 bade him *' Go and be hanged ;" * upon which he left 
 the presence, retired indignantly from court, and shut 
 himself up as usual at Wanstead. 
 
 From this moment Essex's fate was sealed. To 
 deepen the wound which his insolence and ingratitude 
 had made in Elizabeth's breast, he is reported to have 
 said in his anger that " Her disposition was as crooked 
 as her carcase. t Women forgive injuries, but neither 
 forgive nor forget insults. Elizabeth's conduct through- 
 
 * Camden, iibi supra. 
 
 t Clarendon, ' Parallel between Essex and Buckingham, Eeliqua) 
 WottoaianEe,' p. 192.
 
 RALEIGH, A PEACEMAKER. 327 
 
 out had been such as to reveal but too clearly the nature 
 of the relations which up to that time had subsisted 
 between them ; but with some involuntary gushes of 
 fondness and secret touches of remorse, she thence- 
 forward began to invoke the intervention of Nemesis. 
 If not before, she now resolved to take order that 
 none but approved artists* — that is, that none but such 
 as understood their responsibility — should take her 
 portrait, and tliat any which might have been made by 
 others should be destroyed. Mirrors — which know no 
 tlattery — were carefully kept out of her way ;t and the 
 young beauties surrounding her, who could not if 
 they would conceal their bloom and loveliness, called 
 forth more than ever the asperity of her censure, and 
 awakened in her more poignant jealousy. 
 
 About this time a miscreant, recently arrived from 
 Scotland, having been arrested, imprisoned, tried and 
 condemned for various heinous offences, suddenly made 
 a confession which excited general consternation : he 
 said lie had been tampered with by James of Scotland, 
 w^ho, with many lures and promises, urged him to per- 
 petrate a fearful crime. Over this transaction, ob- 
 scurity and doubt were suffered to gather, some pre- 
 tending that the accusation was merely a stratagem 
 invented by the wretch to save or prolong his o\va. 
 
 * Raleigh, ' History of the "World,' Preface, ii., 19. 
 t Bohuu, ' Character of Elizabeth,' pp. 302, 303.
 
 328 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 existence, while others gave full credit to his statement, 
 especially those who were cognisant of Essex's secret 
 correspondence with the Scottish king, as well as with 
 the character and unscrupulous policy of that personage. 
 How much or how little Elizabeth herself believed 
 must remain matter of conjecture, though there appears 
 to be good grounds for thinking that she was not alto- 
 gether incredulous. The crime meditated, however, was 
 her murder ; and the chief reason she assigned for her 
 affected scepticism was unwillingness to be convinced 
 that any sovereign prince could be guilty of such wick- 
 edness. After the experience of forty years, during 
 which her life had been frequently attempted at the 
 instigation of sovereign princes, both male and female, 
 this declaration assumed very much the appearance of 
 satire.* James interpreted it in that sense, and by a 
 letter thoroughly in harmony with the character of the 
 writer, laboured to remove the suspicions which he 
 could not but perceive she entertained. In this strange 
 production, he addresses the Queen of England as 
 
 * See Act to seclude from the throne all who had conspired against 
 Elizabeth's life, Winwood, i., 3. In the same volume there is an 
 account of one Ogleby, a Scotchman, who went from Rome to Madrid 
 professing to be intrusted with a secret mission by James, who de- 
 sired to confederate with Spain for the purpose of avenging his 
 mother's death, and was ready to become a Catholic to insure the aid 
 he sought, p. 2. Ogleby's business was believed at the time to 
 deserve serious attention, id. p. 52 ; Cf. ' Secret Correspondence of 
 James with Cecil,' p. 5.
 
 RALEIGH, A PEACEMAEEB. 329 
 
 "Madam and dearest sister," but the lang:uao:e he 
 employs is unsatisfactory : — 
 
 " That I have been so long answering your last letter 
 I most heartily pray you not to impute it to any fault 
 of courtesy in me, whereunto I thank God my nature 
 is in no ways inclined; but in truth I bear so little 
 regard to so vile and treacherous lies, proceeding from 
 so base a fountain, as I, through my own innocence 
 should have force enough to bear me through the foggy 
 mist of such groundless calumnies, and therefore had 
 remitted the answer to your letter to have been carried 
 by a messenger of my own, whom I am shortly to send 
 unto you. My only suit is, that while you bear further 
 from me, which shall be with all diligence, you would 
 favour me so far as to delay the fellow's execution, if 
 he be yet alive, to the effect that by some honourable 
 means, wherein I am to deal with you, my undeserved 
 slander may be removed from the minds of all men, 
 which assuring myself of your princely honour and 
 love towards me, you will gladly do. I commit you. 
 Madam, and dearest sister, to the tuition of the Almighty. 
 From my palace of Falkland, the 30th July, 1598. 
 " Your most loving and affectionate 
 " Brother and Cousin, 
 
 "James II."
 
 330 LIFE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 While Essex was involving himself in the meshes of 
 that net which drew him ultimately to the block, 
 Raleigh was leading a life irksome from its peaceful- 
 ness ; sometimes he received a number of distinguished 
 guests at his castle in Dorsetshire, sometimes at Durham 
 House, while his duties or interests occasionally made 
 him an inmate of the Palace. Though naturally 
 haughty beyond most men, he threw off among seamen 
 and soldiers the stately guise of a courtier, and like 
 Bluff Hal, affected the familiarity in which they delight- 
 Returning to the Palace late one night, and knocking 
 impatiently at the guard-room door, he was answered 
 by a soldier from within. " Who is there ?" inquired 
 Raleigh. " One of Her Majesty's knaves," replieil the 
 soldier. " Open the dqor then, knave," said the captain. 
 Hurt at being taken at his word, the soldier, when 
 Raleigh entered, observed, " Nay, no knave, but one of 
 her Majesty's honest servants." — " Right, friend," quoth 
 Raleiirh, " it was he was the knave who first said so." 
 
 Elizabeth habitually went to bed and rose early ; but 
 her courtiers, especially the sleepless Raleigh, kept bad 
 hours, drinking, smoking, or gambling, according to 
 the bent of their inclinations. 
 
 One night in the Presence-chamber, Raleigh, South- 
 ampton, and Parker playing at Primero, laughed and 
 talked loud, upon which Ambrose Willoughby, Squire 
 for the Body, requested them to desist lest they should 
 
 I
 
 RALEIGH, A PEACEMAKER. 331 
 
 disturb the Queen. His gentle appeal producing no 
 efifect, he desired them angrily to be gone, or he would 
 call in the guard to pull down the table, upon which 
 Ealeigh put up his money and departed; but the 
 intemperate Southampton took offence, and, before he 
 left, told Willoughby he would make him remember 
 that evem'ng. The handsome hero of Shakespeare's 
 Sonnets possessed more beauty than dignity ; meeting 
 afterwards the Squire for the Body between the Tennis 
 Court wall and the garden, Southampton struck him, 
 and in the unseemly scuffle that ensued Willoughby 
 pulled off a portion of Southampton's beard. Instead 
 of laughing at the ludicrous rencontre, Elizabeth, when 
 she heard of it, grew angry, and said, the Squire should 
 have put the contumacious earl in confinement, and 
 added, glancing at Essex, " she should like to see who 
 would have dared to fetch him out." 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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