LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY 0F 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO

 
 THE CLUB : SHAKSPEKE, BEN JON SON, UALEGH, &c.
 
 THE 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 OF 
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH: 
 
 WITH COPIOUS EXTRACTS FROM IHS 
 
 u of i\)t SKdb." 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES WHITER E AD 
 
 LONDON: 
 N. COOKE, MILFORD HOUSE, STRAND, 
 
 [OFFICK OF THE " NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED LIBKAEY,"] 
 AND ALL HOOKSELLERS. 
 
 1854.

 
 VIEW OF HAYES FAEM, THE BIRTH-PLACE OF RALEGH. 
 
 I HAVE thought that a selection from Sir Walter Ralegh's 
 great work, " The History of the World," would not prove un- 
 acceptable at the present day, and that there is room for another 
 Life of that illustrious man. Of the many biographers of Sir 
 Walter, a few have been, perhaps, indiscreetly panegyrical, 
 whilst some, (Hume and Southey for instance), have attacked 
 his fame with a virulence, for which an envy of his extraor- 
 dinary abilities can alone account. I must not disguise it 
 from myself, that my admiration of Ralegh may have led me 
 to take a favourable view of his character upon some points 
 on which others have put an ungenerous, or at least, an un- 
 warranted construction ; but I do not hesitate to say, that my 
 high estimate of Sir Walter is founded upon a more intimate
 
 VI PKEFACE. 
 
 knowledge of his life and actions than can be pleaded in 
 justification of their malice by those, or the friends of those, 
 who have traduced him. 
 
 I have endeavoured to render a faithful picture of the 
 man as he lives in history, and I have striven with some dili- 
 gence, to show him to the best advantage in his writings. 
 Those who are familiar with the " History of the World," will 
 readily believe me when I confess, that I have not altogether 
 pleased myself with the selections from it that I have made. 
 They will remind themselves of many passages, full of learn- 
 ing and genius, which they will not discover in this publica- 
 tion. But the operation here, has not been of compression, 
 but of extract; and I trust that they, and the rest of my, or 
 rather of his, readers, will find enough to assure them, that 
 of the three great men of Elizabeth and James's time, Walter 
 Ralegh was one, and that the companion of Shakspeare and 
 the friend of Bacon, can neither be depressed by malignity, 
 nor exalted by praise. 
 
 C. W. 
 
 LONDON, APRIL, 1854.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 The Genealogy of Sir Walter Ralegh His Estimate of the Claims 
 
 of Nobility His Birth His Education at Oxford Anecdote 
 of him at that University His Military Service in France 
 His Experience as a Soldier in that Country His Sojourn 
 in the Middle Temple He serves against the Spaniards in 
 the Netherlands Sir Humphrey Gilbert Ralegh joins him 
 in an Expedition to explore the Northern Parts of America 
 He serves in Ireland under^Lord Grey of Wilton His exploits 
 there The Miseries of War Ralegh, David Lord Barry, Fitz- 
 Edmonds, and Sir John Desmond A Chapter on the Valour 
 of the English Nation Ralegh is made Governor of Munster 
 His Acquaintance with Edmund Spenser the poet His Return 
 to England 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Letter of Ralegh to the Earl of Leicester A Question whether 
 that Earl, or Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex, was his Patron His Rule 
 of Conduct for Prospering in the World His Introduction to 
 Queen Elizabeth Two Anecdotes in relation to that Event 
 Ralegh and the Yeoman, and his Son He attends Simier, and 
 afterwards the Duke of Anjou to France Leicester's villanous 
 Design Ralegh and Lord Grey of Wilton at the Council 
 Table The Progress of Ralegh in the Favour of Elizabeth- 
 Sir Philip Sidney and the Earl of Essex Ralegh again joins 
 his Half-brother in an Expedition to America His Letter to 
 Sir Humphrey Gilbert The Fate of that gallant Admiral 
 Ralegh Designs and Carries into Effect the Virginia Voyage
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOE 
 He is chosen a Member of Parliament Sir Adrian Gilbert and 
 
 the North- West Passage The Second Virginia Voyage Sir 
 Richard Grenville Thomas Hariot, the Mathematician 
 Ralegh's Munster Plantation The Third Virginia Voyage 
 The Introduction of Tobacco into England Two Anecdotes in 
 relation to that Herb Its Popularity Advancement of Ralegh 
 Introduction to the Queen of the Earl of Essex His Character 
 Tarleton the Jester The Fourth Virginia Voyage Anxiety 
 of Ralegh respecting the Colonists The Impending Spanish 
 Armada Reflections of Ralegh on a Possible Invasion of 
 Ehgland The Destruction of the Armada Honours bestowed 
 on Ralegh His Opinion as to the Affluence of Gold in Ame- 
 rica and other Parts of the World His Service in Portugal with 
 Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Earl of Essex in favour with the Queen Ralegh " chased " 
 from the Court His Intimacy with Edmund Spenser in Ireland 
 He introduces the Poet to Elizabeth His Expedition against 
 the Spanish Plate Fleet The Gallant Naval Action of Sir 
 Richard Grenville The Capture of the Madre de Dios Rapa- 
 city of the Queen Sir Martin Frobisher and Sir John Haw- 
 kins Amour of Ralegh with Elizabeth Throgmorton He is 
 Committed to the Tower His mad Pranks there His Marriage 
 He Retires to Sherbome Calumnies against him His Two 
 Country Poems His Policy to Retain the Favour of the Queen 
 He fits out a Fleet and sets sail for Guiana His Account of 
 that Country on his Return Its Reception by the Public The 
 Amazons El Dorado The Second Expedition to Guiana 
 Captain Laurence Keymis 69 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Ralegh, a Rear-admiral in an Expedition against Spain The Siege 
 of Cadiz The Conduct of Ralegh on that Occasion Excep- 
 tions of the Earl of Essex Sir Walter restored to Favour 
 His Residences hi and near London The Island Voyage 
 Fayal taken by Ralegh The rage and envy of Essex Recep- 
 tion of the Two Commanders on their Return Sir John Norris 
 Remarks of Ralegh on the Evil Destiny of Military Com-
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 manders The sudden Friendship struck up between Ralegh 
 
 and Cecil and the Earl of Essex Alarm of a fresh Invasion 
 by Spain The " Feather Triumph of Essex" The Return of 
 that Nobleman from his Command in Ireland, and his Insur- 
 rection Ralegh a Free-Trader He is Challenged by Sir Annas 
 Preston His celebrated Essay on Duelling He Institutes the 
 Literary Club at the Mermaid The Earliest Members of that 
 Society The Death of Queen Elizabeth 97 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Accession of James I. The Prejudice of that Monarch against 
 Ralegh How caused Accused of being Engaged n a Plot 
 against the King A brief Account of the Alleged Plot Lord 
 Cobham Trial of Ralegh at Winchester The Conduct of Sir 
 Edward Coke on the Trial Ralegh found guilty The Sen- 
 tence of Sir John Popham, the Chief Justice Some Notice of 
 that Judge Demeanour of Ralegh on and after his Trial His 
 Letter to Lady Ralegh His Advice to his Son and to Posterity 
 His Two Poems, the " Pilgrimage " and the " Farewell " 
 The King-craft of James I. The Scaffold Scene at Winches- 
 ter The Countess of Pembroke Ralegh Imprisoned in the 
 Tower Death of Lord Cobham 136 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Property of Sir Walter put in Trust for his Family and 
 Creditors Ralegh in Prison Two short Poems His Chemical 
 Pursuits His Sherborne Estate taken from Him Appeal of 
 Lady Ralegh to James I. Her Curse The " Grand Cordial " 
 of Ralegh Prince Henry and Sir Walter The Death of the 
 Prince Friendship of the Queen for Ralegh His Political 
 Discourses The "History of the World" Mr. Isaac Disraeli's 
 "Discovery" hi relation to it The Preface and Conclusion. 
 Selections from the " History of the World." The " Mind of 
 the Front," by Ben Jonson The Judgments of the Almighty 
 How Ahaziah perished with the House of Ahab Of the 
 unwarlike Army levied by Darius against Alexander 
 Of Alexander's Person and Qualities Characters of Epami- 
 nondas and Agesilaus A Chapter on Hannibal and the
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Romans The great Similitude of worldly Events Of our 
 base and frail Bodies, and that the care thereof should yield 
 to our Immortal Souls The unalterable Law of God The 
 Chastisements of the Almighty Observations out of the Story 
 of Moses Human Ambition The Temptation of Satan The 
 Seven Ages of Man The Inviolability of an Oath Detached 
 Observations, Maxims and Reflections 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Death of Cecil, Earl of Salisbury Carr, Earl of Somerset, 
 committed to the Tower Young Walter Ralegh, Anecdote of 
 him and Ben Jonson The " History of the World " published 
 Ralegh procures his Liberty, and proposes another Voyage 
 to Guiana The Commission granted him by James I. 
 Opinion of Lord Bacon as to the Expediency of procuring a 
 Pardon Ralegh sails for Guiana His Fleet His Letter to his 
 Wife The Conflict at St. Thomas with the Spaniards Death 
 of young Ralegh Suicide of Captain Keymis Second Letter 
 of Sir Walter to Lady Ralegh Count Gondomar King James 
 and his Declaration Return of Ralegh to England His 
 Arrest by Sir Lewis Stukely Attempt of Ralegh to Escape 
 Treachery of Manourie and Stukely Second Attempt of Ralegh 
 to Escape Letter of the Queen to Buckingham Ralegh 
 is brought up for Judgment Address of the Chief Justice 
 The Morning of Ralegh's Execution His Appearance on the 
 Scaffold His Speech His Farewell His Death Verses found 
 in his Bible Description of him by Aubrey The End of Sir 
 Lewis Stukely Two Anecdotes concerning him Character 
 of Sir Walter Ralegh Conclusion 277
 
 PAGE 
 THE CLUB AT THE MERMAID .... To face the Title. 
 
 VIEW OF HAYES FARM, THE BIRTHPLACE OF RALEGH . . . v 
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH, FROM THE PORTRAIT AT GREENWICH . . 1 
 
 RALEGH'S SEAL AND AUTOGRAPH 5 
 
 PORTRAIT OF SIR PHILIP SYDNEY 10 
 
 PORTRAIT OF EDMUND SPENSER 25 
 
 PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH 27 
 
 PORTRAIT OF THOMAS RADCLIFFE, EARL OF SUSSEX ... 29 
 
 RALEGH SPREADING HIS CLOAK BEFORE THE QUEEN ... 32 
 
 PORTRAIT OF DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTER 37 
 
 PORTRAIT OF SIR RICHARD GRENVILLE 44 
 
 RALEGH SMOKING BEFORE QUEEN ELIZABETH 47 
 
 PORTRAIT OF ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF ESSEX. ... 50 
 
 PORTRAIT OF CHARLES HOWARD, EARL OF NOTTINGHAM . . 62 
 
 PORTRAIT OF LORD BURGHLEY 67 
 
 PORTRAIT OF SIR MARTIN FROBISHER 73 
 
 PORTRAIT OF SIR JOHN HAWKINS 75 
 
 VIEW OF SHERBORNE CASTLE, DORSETSHIRE 79 
 
 PORTRAIT OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE 97 
 
 THE " OLD PIED BULL," AT ISLINGTON ; A RESDDENCE OF SIR 
 
 WALTER RALEGH 106 
 
 PORTRAIT OF SIR FRANCIS VERB 107 
 
 PORTRAIT OF ROBERT CECIL, EARL OF SALISBURY .... 117 
 
 PORTRAIT OF JAMES 1 136 
 
 PORTRAIT OF SIR EDWARD COKE 142 
 
 TRIAL OF SIR WALTER RALEGH 114 
 
 PORTRAIT OF THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE 171
 
 Xli LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PORTRAIT OF HENRY, PRINCE OP WALES 180 
 
 ENGRAVED TITLE TO SIR WALTER RALEGH'S " HISTORY OF THE 
 
 WORLD." 191 
 
 PORTRAIT OF BEN JONSON 191 
 
 PORTRAIT OF PHILIP II. OF SPAIN . . . . . . . 208 
 
 RALEGH IN PRISON 224 
 
 PORTRAIT OF SIR WALTER RALEGH, FROM THE ENGRAVING IN THE 
 
 " HISTORY OF THE WORLD." 266 
 
 PORTRAIT OF LORD BACON 279 
 
 PORTRAIT OF COUNT GONDOMAR 289 
 
 PORTRAIT OF AJSTJE OF DENMARK, QUEEN OF JAMES I. . . . 296 
 
 EXECUTION OF SIR WALTER RALEGH 304 
 
 TAIL-PIECE . . 309
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH, FROM THE PORTRAIT AT GREENWICH. 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIR WALTER RALEGH, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WE are told by Lord Bacon in his book of Apophthegms, " that 
 when Queen Elizabeth had advanced Ralegh, she was one day 
 playing on the virginals, and my Lord of Oxford and another 
 nobleman stood by, when it happened that the ledge before the 
 jacks was taken away, so that they were seen; whereupon that 
 lord and the other nobleman smiled, and whispered a little. The 
 Queen marked it, and would needs know what was the matter?
 
 2 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 His lordship answered, " They laughed to see that when jacks went 
 up, heads went down." Sir Robert Naunton, who was Secretary 
 of State at the time of Ralegh's death, relates the same story, in 
 his "Fragmenta Regalia," observing upon Lord Oxford's jest, 
 " we all know it savours more of emulation and his humour, than 
 of truth ; it being a certain note of the times, that the Queen, in 
 her choice, never took into her favour a mere new man, or a 
 mechanic." 
 
 The ignorance of Ralegh's origin, and consequent scorn of his 
 person, indicated in the "witty jest" of my Lord of Oxford 
 (now only remembered as the kinsman and contemporary of Sir 
 Francis and Sir Horace Vere), was probably shared by a majority 
 of the court. But Elizabeth, doubtless, had taken pains to ascer- 
 tain the antecedents of the remarkable man she was about to 
 exalt ; she had already knighted his three uterine brothers, and 
 she had satisfied herself that the blood flowing in Ralegh's veins 
 might be traced to as remote and as noble a source as that of some 
 of the titled wits who traduced him. That "fair pedigree," which 
 the Queen had been solicitous to unfold, our readers will probably 
 desire to see. 
 
 Whilst Sir Walter was yet not smarting under, but smiling 
 disdainfully at the envy and detraction that surrounded him, John 
 Hooker,* an eminent antiquary, and related to Ralegh, in a 
 dedication to the knight of his translation and continuation of the 
 " Chronicles of Ireland," tells him that the family of Ralegh soms- 
 times written Rale and Ralega in ancient deeds were settled in 
 Devonshire, and in possession of the seat of Smalridge, before the 
 Norman Conquest, and that one of the family built a chapel there, 
 in gratitude for his deliverance on St. Leonard's day from the 
 Gauls, by whom he had been taken prisoner ; and that he hung- 
 up therein, as a monument, his target. (The records of this foun- 
 dation are said to have been given by a priest of Axminster to 
 Sir Walter, as their most rightful owner.) So much for the 
 antiquity of the family ; but Hooker avouches that his kinsman 
 and friend was allied to the Courtenays, Earls of Devon, and other 
 illustrious houses, nay, that he can trace the stream of consan- 
 
 * He was uncle of the illustrious Richard Hooker, author of the " Eccle- 
 siastical Polity," who is commonly styled by divines and others learned in 
 divinity, " the judicious Hooker."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 3 
 
 guinity up to the Kings of England ; for he says, " that one of his 
 ancestors in the directest line, Sir 'John de Ralegh, of Fardel 
 (another seat of their ancient inheritance, in the parish of Corn- 
 wood, eight miles east of Plymouth), espoused the daughter of Sir 
 Richard d'Amerei, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Gilbert 
 Earl of Gloucester, by Joan d' Acres, daughter of King Edward I., 
 which Gilbert was descended of Robert Earl of Gloucester, son of 
 King Henry I. So he goes up to the Conqueror, adding further, 
 " that in like manner he may be derived by his mother out of the 
 same house." 
 
 However pleasing it may have been to that excellent antiquary 
 and worthy man, John Hooker, to set before the eyes of the 
 youngest son of a poor esquire the antiquity and noble and royal 
 alliances of his family, we are persuaded that the object of this 
 blazonry prized it no higher (that being not much) than as it 
 silenced and tended to put to shame his traducers on the score of 
 birth. He has himself told us in his " History of the World," 
 how, and to what extent, such claims to distinction are to be 
 valued. 
 
 "If nobility," he says, "be virtus et antiques divitice, 'virtue 
 and ancient riches,' then to exceed in all these things which are 
 extra hominem, as riches, power, glory, and the like, do no other- 
 wise define nobility than the word animal alone doth define a 
 reasonable man. Or, if honour, according to L. Vives, be a 
 witness of virtue and well-doing, and nobility, after Plutarch, the 
 continuance of virtue in a race or lineage ; then are those in 
 whom virtue is extinguished but like unto painted and printed 
 papers, which ignorant men worship instead of Christ, our lady, and 
 other saints : men in whom there remain but the dregs and vices of 
 ancient virtue; flowers and herbs which by change of soil and 
 want of manuring are turned to weeds. For, what is found praise- 
 worthy in those waters which had their beginning out of pure 
 
 fountains, if in all the rest of their course they run foul, filthy, 
 
 and defiled? For as all things consist of matter and form, so doth 
 Charron, in his chapter of nobility, call the race and lineage but 
 the matter of nobility ; the form (which gives life and perfect 
 being) he maketh to be virtue and quality, profitable to the com- 
 monweal. For he is truly, and entirely noble, who maketh a 
 singular profession of public virtue, serving his prince and country, 
 
 B 2
 
 4: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and being descended of parents and ancestors that have done the 
 like. And although that nobility, which the same author calleth 
 personal (the same which ourselves acquire by our virtue and well- 
 deservings), cannot be balanced by that which is both natural by 
 descent and also personal ; yet, if virtue be wanting to the natural, 
 then is the personal and acquired nobility by many degrees to be 
 preferred. For, saith Charron, this honour, to wit, by descent, 
 may light upon such a one as is in his own nature a true villain. 
 There is also a third nobility, which he calleth nobility in parch- 
 ment, bought with silver or favour; and these be, indeed, but 
 honours of affection which kings, with the change of their fancies, 
 wish they knew well how to wipe off again. But, surely, if we 
 had as much sense of our degenerating in worthiness as we have 
 of vanity in deriving ourselves of such and such parents, we should 
 rather know such nobility (without virtue) to be shame and dis- 
 honour than nobleness and glory, to vaunt thereof. 
 
 And howsoever the customs of the world have made it good that 
 honours be cast by birth upon unworthy issues, yet Solomon (as 
 wise as any king) reprehendeth the same in his fellow princes. 
 ' There is an evil,' saith he, ' that I have seen under the sun, as an 
 error that proceedeth from the face of him that ruleth : folly is 
 set in great excellency.' " 
 
 Sir Walter Ralegh was born in the year 1552 (that being the 
 sixth year of the reign of Edward VI.*), at Hayes, a farm belonging 
 to his father in the parish of Budely, in that part of Devonshire 
 which borders eastward upon the sea, and near where the Otter 
 disembogues itself into the British Channel. He was the fourth 
 son of Walter Ralegh, Esq., of Fardel, by his third wife Catharine, 
 daughter of Sir Philip Champernon, of Modbury, and relict of 
 
 * Portents and prodigies, or reports of them, were rife in the reigns of 
 Elizabeth and her successor. In the supplement to G. Le Neve's collection 
 of Nativities, we are told that 1552 was " a year remarkable in our 
 chronicles; first, for that strange shoal of the largest sea-fishes, which, 
 quitting their native waters for fresh and untasted streams, wandered up the 
 Thames so high till the river no longer retained any brackishness ; and, 
 secondly, for that it is thought to have been somewhat stained in our annaLs 
 with the blood of the noble Seymour, Duke of Somerset ; events surprisingly 
 analogous, both to the life of that adventurous voyager, Sir Walter Ralegh, 
 whose delight was in the hazardous discovery of unfrequented coasts, and 
 also to his unfortunate death." This is ingenuity grown desperate.
 
 SIR AVALTER RALEGH. 
 
 Otho Gilbert, of Compton, in Devon, Esq.* Where he received 
 the rudiments of his education has not been handed down to us ; 
 but it is stated that in 1568, or thereabouts, he became a commoner 
 of Oriel College, Oxford, and so Fuller avers of Christchurch 
 likewise. But this can hardly be, unless 
 he had been entered of both colleges at 
 the same time ; neither can I believe but 
 that he was transplanted to the University 
 before 1568 ; for all his biographers give 
 him three years at Oxford, and in 1569 
 he was in France. 
 
 At Oriel he is said to have distin- 
 guished himself. He "proved the orna- 
 ment of the junior fry," and was worthily 
 esteemed a proficient in oratory and phi- 
 losophy. " It has been represented to 
 me," says Oldys, " as a matter of no 
 small honour to Sir Walter Ralegh, that 
 a casual expression of his, in his imma- 
 ture and greenest years, should prefer 
 itself to the commemoration of that 
 great philosopher (Bacon) in his sagest and most advanced age. 
 But as he had observed on the nature of things, that great objects 
 may be discerned through a little crevice, so he knew with respect 
 to the nature of man, that a great discovery of genius may be made 
 through a small and sudden repartee; and hence might he be 
 moved to remember, " that while Ralegh was a scholar at Oxford, 
 there was a cowardly fellow who happened to be a very good 
 archer ; but having been grossly abused by another, he bemoaned 
 himself to Ralegh, and asked his advice what he should do to 
 repair the wrong that had been offered him ? Ralegh answered, 
 "Why, challenge him at a match of shooting, "f 
 
 * This lady had three sons by her first marriage, all eminent in the days 
 of Elizabeth, Sir John, Sir Humphrey, and Sir Adrian Gilbert. Of the 
 second I shall presently have occasion more particularly to speak. From Sir 
 Humphrey I have good reason to believe the late most gallant general, Sir 
 Walter Ralegh Gilbert, was descended. 
 
 t Mrs. Thomson, whose life of Ralegh is written with much earnestness 
 and ability, says that " though Sir Walter left Oxford without a degree, yet 
 
 RALEGH 8 SEAL AND 
 AUTOGRAPH.
 
 6 THE LIFE AND TIMKS OF 
 
 It is stated by Anthony Wood,* that on leaving the University 
 Ralegh became a member of the Middle Temple, where he studied 
 municipal law. But that he was not there at this time we shall 
 presently show, and that he never was a student of law after he 
 became a member of that society, we have Sir Walter's own 
 words for denying. At his arraignment in 1603, in reply to the 
 Attorney-General, he lays a heavy imprecation upon himself, " if 
 ever he read a word of law or statutes before he was a prisoner in 
 the Tower." f We are distinctly told by Hooker, "that after 
 Ralegh h;id laid a good ground to build his actions on at the 
 University, he travelled into France," and the correctness of this 
 assertion cannot be questioned. 
 
 France being embroiled in civil wars, Queen Elizabeth sympa- 
 thised with the persecuted Protestants of that country, and per- 
 mitted Henry Champernon, a near kinsman of Ralegh, to embark 
 with a select troop of a hundred gentlemen volunteers, well 
 mounted and accoutred, for France, who bore in their standard 
 this motto : Finem det mihi virtus "Let valour decide the cause." 
 Amongst these were several who afterwards became of note, the 
 most celebrated being Ralegh, then a lad of seventeen. This was 
 in 1569, one year only after he is said to have been entered of 
 Oriel. 
 
 On their arrival, this chosen troop were very honourably re- 
 ceived by the Queen of Navarre and the princes : but what especial 
 services they performed, although Ralegh remained in France 
 more than six years, no writer, English or French, has left us any 
 account. But the spectacle of war on a grand scale could not 
 have passed before eyes so observant and sagacious as Ralegh's, 
 without making a deep impression upon his vigorous and acquisi- 
 tive mind. Himself an actor in the scene, it was here that he 
 acquired that experience in the art of war which is displayed with 
 
 he acquired a higher honour in obtaining the good opinion of Bacon, who 
 there foretold his future eminence," quoting Oldys as her authority. Mrs. 
 Thomson has fallen into this error by mistaking the sense in which Oldyw 
 uses the word "remember," which, as he employs it, means " mention.' 7 
 Bacon was but seven years of age when Ralegh left Oxford ; and Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, would not willingly resign the honour of having sent 
 forth the illustrious philosopher. 
 
 * Athense Oxoniensis. f State Trials.
 
 SIR WALTER KALEGH. 7 
 
 such energy in the " History of the World," in which great work are 
 to be found several allusions to this passage in his life, which contain 
 observations upon the military conduct and character of some of the 
 generals employed in the war, too remarkable to be omitted. 
 Treating of the danger of joining two or more generals in com- 
 mission, he observes : " It hath in all ages been used as the safest 
 course, to send forth, in great expeditions, two generals of one 
 army. This was the common practice of those two mighty cities, 
 Athens and Rome, which other states and princes have often 
 imitated, persuading themselves that great armies are not so well 
 conducted by one as by two, who, out of emulation to excel each 
 other, will use the greater diligence. They have also joined two 
 chief commanders in equal commission, upon this further con- 
 sideration, the better to restrain the ambition of any one that 
 should be trusted with so great a strength. For hereof all 
 commonweals have been jealous, having been taught by their 
 examples that have made themselves tyrants over those cities and 
 states that have employed them. In this point the Venetians have 
 been so circumspect, as they have, for the most part, trusted 
 strangers, and not their own, in all the wars which they have made. 
 It is true that the equal authority of two commanding in chief 
 serveth well to bridle the ambition of one or both from turning 
 upon the prince or state that hath given them trust ; but in 
 managing the war itself, it is commonly the cause of ill success. 
 In wars made near unto Rome itself, when two good friends were 
 consuls, or such two at least as concurred in one desire of triumph, 
 which honour (the greatest of any that Rome could give) was to 
 be obtained by that one year's service, it is no marvel, though each 
 of the consuls did his best, and referred all his thoughts unto none 
 other end than victory. Yet in all dangerous cases, when the 
 consuls proceeded otherwise than was desired, one dictator was 
 appointed, whose power was neither hindered by any partner, nor 
 by any great limitation. Neither was it indeed the manner, to 
 send forth both the consuls to one war ; but each went whither his 
 lot called him, to his own province ; unless one business seemed to 
 require them both* and they also seemed tit to be joined in the 
 administration. Now, although it was so, that the Romans did 
 many times prevail with their joint generals, yet was this never or 
 seldom without as much concord as any other virtue of the
 
 8 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 commanders. For their modesty hath often been such, that the 
 less able captain, though of equal authority, hath willingly sub- 
 mitted himself to the other, and obeyed his directions. This not- 
 withstanding, they have many times, by ordaining two commanders 
 of one army, received great and most dangerous overthrows; 
 whereof in the second Punic war we shall find examples. On the 
 contrary side, in their wars most remote, that were always managed 
 by one, they seldom failed to win exceeding honour. Now of those 
 ten generals, which served the Athenians at the battle of Marathon, 
 it may truly be said, that had not their temper been better than the 
 judgment of the people that sent them forth, and had not they 
 submitted themselves to the conduction of Miltiades, their affairs 
 had found the same success which they found at other times, when 
 they coupled Nicias and Alcibiades together in Sicily : the one being 
 so over-wary, and the other so hasty, as all came to nought that 
 they undertook, whereas Cimon alone, as also Aristides, and others, 
 having sole charge of all, did their country and commonweal 
 most remarkable service. For it is hard to find two great captains 
 of equal discretion and valour ; but that the one hath more of fury 
 than of judgment, and so the contrary, by which the best occasions 
 are as often over-slipt, as at other times many actions are un- 
 seasonably undertaken. I remember it well, that when the Prince 
 of Conde was slain after the battle of Jarnac (which Prince, 
 together with the Admiral Chastillon, had the conduct of the 
 Protestant army), the Protestants did greatly bewail the loss of 
 the said prince, in respect of his religion, person, and birth; yet 
 comforting themselves, they thought it rather an advancement than 
 an hindrance to their affairs. For so much did the valour of 
 the one outreach the advisedness of the other, as whatsoever 
 the admiral intended to win by attending the advantage, the 
 prince adventured to lose, by being over-confident in his own 
 courage." 
 
 Again, in the following extract, which shows that he served 
 with his troop in Languedoc, and was engaged in the battle 
 of Moncontour, he remarks, commenting upon a retreat be- 
 fore the Romans, decided upon at a council of the Gauls: 
 " This, indeed, had been a good resolution, if they had taken it 
 before the enemy had been in sight. But, as well in the wars of 
 these later ages as in former times, it hath ever been found
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 9 
 
 extremely dangerous to make a retreat in the head of an enemy's 
 army. For, although they that retire do often turn head, yet in 
 always going on from the pursuing enemy, they find, within a few 
 miles, either street, hedge, ditch, or place of disadvantage, which 
 they are enforced to pass in disorder. In such cases, the soldier 
 knows it, as well as the captain, that he which forsakes the field 
 perceives and fears some advantage of the enemies. Fear, which 
 is the betrayer of those succours that reason offereth, when it hath 
 once possessed the heart of man, it casteth thence both courage 
 and understanding. They that make the retreat are always hi 
 fear to be abandoned ; they that lead the way, fear to be engaged ; 
 and so the hindmost treads on his heels that is foremost, and, con- 
 sequently, all disband, run, and perish, if those that favour the 
 retreat be not held to it by men of great courage. The miserable 
 overthrow that the French received in Naples, in the year 1503, 
 upon a retreat made by the Marquis of Sal, doth testify no less. 
 For although a great troop of French horse sustained the pursuing 
 enemy a long time, and gave the foot leisure to trot away, yet, 
 being retarded by often turnings, the Spanish foot overtook and 
 defeated them utterly. During the wars between the Imperials 
 and the French, Boisi and Mont were lost at Brignolles, who in a 
 bravery would needs see the enemy before they left the field. So 
 was Strossi overthrown by the Marquis of Marignan, because he 
 could not be persuaded to dislodge the night before the mar- 
 quis's arrival. Therefore did the French king, Francis the First, 
 wisely when, without respect of point of honour, he dislodged 
 from before Landersey by night ; as many other, the most advised 
 captains (not finding themselves in case to give battle,) have done. 
 Je ne trouve point (saith the Marshal Monluc) au fait des armes 
 chose si difficile qu'une retraite, ( I find nothing in the art of war 
 so difficult as to make a safe retreat.' A sure rule it is, that there 
 is less dishonour to dislodge in the dark than to be beaten in the 
 light. And hereof M. de la Node gives this judgment of a day's 
 retreat made in France, presently before the battle at Moncontour. 
 For (saith he) staying upon our reputation, in show, not to dislodge 
 by night, we lost our reputation, indeed, by dislodging by day ; 
 whereby we were forced to fight upon our disadvantage, and to our 
 ruin. And yet did that worthy gentleman Count Lodowick, of 
 Nassau, brother to the late famous Prince of Orange, make the
 
 10 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 retreat at Moncontour with so great resolution, as lie saved one- 
 half of the Protestant army, then broken and disbanded, of which 
 myself was an eye witness, and was one of them that had cause to 
 thank him for it." 
 
 By what good fortune Ralegh escaped that horribly compre- 
 hensive and preconcerted destruction, commonly called the massacre 
 of St. Bartholomew, which was perpetrated in 1572, we have now 
 no means of ascertaining. It has, however, been conjectured that 
 he took refuge with young Sidney (afterwards Sir Philip) in the 
 
 SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 
 
 house of Sir Francis Walsingham, who was then English Ambassador 
 at Paris. 
 
 In 1575 Ralegh returned to England, and resided for some time 
 in the Middle Temple ; but, probably, as the guest of a friend, the 
 temporary occupant of his chambers, or renting chambers of his 
 own, for his name does not appear on the books of that society. 
 It is true his commendatory verses to George Gascoigne's " Steele 
 Glass" are stated to be by " Walter Rawley, of the Middle
 
 SIE WALTER RALEGH. 11 
 
 Temple," but a man might then, as now, occupy chambers in 
 the Temple, without being of it, as lawyers understand the 
 word.* 
 
 Here, however, he made no protracted stay ; for we soon after 
 1576 find him serving under the Prince of Orange against the 
 Spaniards, in the Netherlands ; and it is more than probable that 
 he had a share in the battle of Rimenant, on the 1st August, 1578, 
 in which Don John of Austria, natural son of the Emperor Charles 
 V., " whose haughty conceit of himself," says Ralegh, " overcame 
 the greatest difficulties, though his judgment was over weak to 
 manage the least," met with so rough a reception, especially from 
 the English forces under the command of the famous Sir John 
 Norris, that he was compelled to make a disgraceful and disastrous 
 retreat his report of which (if he sent one to his half-brother 
 Philip II. of Spain, for whom he was Governor of the Low 
 Countries,) must have caused that cruel and bigoted tyrant to 
 bemoan himself, and have made the grim and superseded Duke of 
 Alva smile. Don John did not survive this disgrace more than 
 two months. 
 
 Soon after his return to his own country, his mind, which never 
 could remain inactive, became absorbed in adventures of a very 
 different description, which, perhaps, had been long ago propounded 
 to him by his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert. This brave, 
 learned, and adventurous gentleman, allied hardly less by merit than 
 by consanguinity to Ralegh, and associated with him in more than 
 one undertaking, deserves a notice more enlarged than we can 
 afford to bestow upon him. He was, as we have said, the second 
 son of Sir Walter's mother by her first husband, and was born in 
 the year 1539. Although a younger brother, he derived a con- 
 siderable estate from his father, and received his education at Eton 
 and Oxford. Introduced by his aunt, Mrs. Ashley, one of her 
 gentlewomen, to the Queen, he speedily rose in her favour; but 
 the trammels and, perhaps, the society of the court were not to his 
 taste, although he afterwards married a maid of honour. He 
 
 * Some historians of those times note, says Oldys, " that those who dwelt 
 among the lawyers, and did not follow their profession, grew so numerous 
 and inconvenient, that there was an order or proclamation for their removal 
 out of the inns of court about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth, or the 
 beginning of her successor's reign."
 
 12 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 distinguished himself greatly in the Irish wars, and soon after his 
 return to England sailed with a squadron of nine ships to Flan- 
 ders, with a reinforcement for Colonel Morgan, who was then 
 meditating a recovery of the port of Flushing. Returning to 
 England, having by this time established an enviable reputation, 
 both as a man of extensive learning and a soldier of undaunted 
 courage, he renewed his studies, and soon exhibited his mathe- 
 matical knowledge and his patriotic spirit in a discourse to prove 
 that there is a north-west passage to the East Indies. This work, 
 which is accompanied by a "Treatise on Navigation," was first 
 printed in 1576. The design of this discourse was to awaken a 
 spirit of discovery in his countrymen, and to facilitate a design 
 he had conceived of planting unknown countries^ as well as for 
 the discovery of a north-west passage.* 
 
 Tliis gallant but unfortunate knight had the true spirit of 
 chivalry in him, with other qualifications less romantic, but which 
 are more profitable to mankind. He had early adopted, as his 
 device, two figures of Mars and Mercury joined by a cross, sug- 
 gested by "Tarn Marti, quant Mercurio," with the motto, Quid 
 non? "What not?' r intimating that almost anything may be 
 achieved, if to strength and art there be added patience. This 
 device was afterwards assumed by Ralegh, or given to him by his 
 friends, and it is equally characteristic of both. But for Sir Hum- 
 phrey's earlier favour at court, his younger brother might not have 
 been so well received there; nay, it is possible that, but for 
 Humphrey Gilbert, the world had not seen the entire Walter 
 Ralegh. 
 
 On the occasion to which we have referred, Sir Humphrey 
 restricted his design to colonising, and he procured from the Queen 
 an ample patent, dated June 11, 1578, in which full powers were 
 bestowed upon him to undertake the discovery of the northern 
 parts of America, and to inhabit and possess any lands which at 
 that time had not been settled by Christian princes or their subjects. 
 At first he was very successful in getting associates in so great an 
 undertaking, his reputation for knowledge being of the first, and 
 his credit as a commander thoroughly established ; but before the 
 
 This he did not live to prosecute. His brother, Sir Adrian, however, 
 obtained a patent for this purpose ; and it was under his auspices that John 
 Davis sailed, who discovered the Straits which bear his name.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 13 
 
 project could be actually executed, many drew back from their 
 engagements, and others at a later stage separated themselves 
 from him. But Gilbert was not a man to be overborne or awed by 
 disappointments. Seconded and encouraged by Sir Walter, who 
 accompanied him, and a few other friends of tried resolution, he 
 sailed for Newfoundland ; but after a variety of misfortunes at sea, 
 he was compelled to return, having lost one of his ships in a sharp 
 engagement with the Spaniards, iu which Ralegh's life was in 
 imminent danger. 
 
 In 1580, certain Spanish and Italian forces, under the Pope's 
 banner, having made a descent upon Ireland, to assist the Desmonds 
 in their rebellion in Munster, Ralegh had a captain's commission 
 under Lord Grey of Wilton, then Lord Deputy or, as we should 
 now call him, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland a man of great zeal 
 and courage, but of a stern, if not of a cruel nature, the instiga- 
 tions of which prompted him to a most barbarous treatment of the 
 insurrectionists. But Captain Ralegh's principal exploits in this 
 wretched work (and it seems they were terribly effective) were per- 
 formed under the Earl of Ormond, a nobleman in high estimation 
 with the Queen for his energy and talent, and, above all, for his 
 loyalty. Ralegh surprised the Irish kerns at Rahele, and took 
 every rebel, who was not slain defending himself upon the spot. 
 He assisted also at the siege of the fort Del Ore, which was carried 
 on by Lord Grey on land, while Sir William Winter attacked the 
 fort by sea. Ralegh commanded in the trenches, and greatly con- 
 tributed to the reduction of the place, which at length surrendered 
 at discretion, the greatest part of the garrison, by order of the Lord 
 Deputy, being put to the sword. It is painful to be compelled to re- 
 cord that by Captains Ralegh and Mackworth, who had the ward of 
 that day, and first entered the castle, this piece of butchery was com- 
 mitted. It is true that the victims were Spanish adventurers in the 
 pay of rebels, who had from the first been denied all hopes of 
 mercy.* 
 
 Ralegh, however, has been accused by his enemies many of 
 whom have shown little mercy to his memory of having exercised 
 excessive and needless cruelty in Ireland. It is not true : this great 
 
 * Edmund Spenser, then secretary to the Lord Deputy, attests this, 
 describing an interview between " Seignior Jeffrey, an Italian," the secretary 
 of the Spanish chief, and Lord Grey.
 
 14 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 man had not an atom of cruelty or vindictiveness in his composition : 
 nor lias any author, treating of military affairs, more earnestly and 
 more eloquently, or more often, denounced the cruelty of con- 
 querors, deplored the miseries of war, and advocated the rights and 
 duties of mercy. He has himself said, speaking on a very different 
 subject, " Whosoever is the workman, it is reasonable he should give 
 an account of his work to the workmaster ; " and since to subordinates 
 seldom falls any portion of the honour they have been instrumental 
 in procuring for their commander, nay, since it is dangerous to lay 
 claim to it (we have Shakspeare's warrant for it * ), let the shame of 
 any action if shame there be light upon the workmaster to whom 
 the workman renders his account. 
 
 It is worth while to give an extract from the " History of the 
 World," which, although it does not directly apply to the wars in 
 Ireland, shows the spirit in which the author regarded similar 
 scenes, and which would be to use a favourite word of the present 
 day " suggestive," if the good understanding which at last sub- 
 sisted between the Saxons and the Danes had not by this time been 
 well-nigh perfected between England and her sister. 
 
 " Certainly, the miseries of war are never so bitter and many, 
 as when a whole nation, or great part of it, forsaking their own 
 seats, labour to root out the established possessors of another land, 
 making room for themselves, their wives and children. They that 
 fight for the mastery are pacified with tribute, or with some other 
 services and acknowledgments, which, had they been yielded at the 
 first, all had been quiet, and no sword bloodied. But in these 
 migrations, the assailants bring so little with them, that they need 
 all which the defendants have, their lands and cattle, their houses 
 and their goods, even to the cradles of the sucking infants. The 
 merciless terms of this controversy arm both sides with desperate 
 resolution seeing, the one part must either win or perish by 
 famine ; the other, defend their goods or lose their lives without 
 redemption. Most of the countries in Europe have felt examples 
 thereof, and the mighty empire of Rome was overthrown by such 
 invasions. But our isle of Britain can best witness the diversity of 
 conquests, having, by the happy victory of the Romans, gotten the 
 knowledge of all civil arts in exchange of liberty, that was but 
 slenderly instructed therein before; whereas the issue of theSaxpn 
 
 * Antony and Cleopatra, Act III., Scene I.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 15 
 
 and Danish wars was, as were the causes, quite contrary. For 
 these did not seek after the dominion only, but the entire posses- 
 sion of the country, which the Saxons obtained, but with horrible 
 cruelty, eradicating all of the British race, and defacing all memo- 
 rial of the ancient inhabitants through the greater part of the land. 
 But the Danes (who are, also, of the Cimmerian blood) found such 
 end of their enterprise, as it may seem that the Cimmerians in 
 Lydia, and Scythians in the higher Asia, did arrive unto. So that 
 by considering the process of the one, we shall the better conceive 
 the fortune of the other. Many battles the Danes won, yet none 
 of such importance as sufficed to make them absolute conquerors : 
 many the Saxons won upon the Danes, yet not so great as could 
 drive them quite away, and back from hence, after they had gotten 
 firm footing. But in course of time, the long- continuance even of 
 utter enmity had bred such acquaintance between them, as, bowing 
 the natures of both these people, made the one more pliant unto 
 the other. So their disagreeable qualities, both ill and good, being 
 reduced into one mild temper, no small number of the Danes be- 
 came peaceful cohabitants with the Saxons in England, where great 
 slaughter had made large room ; others, returning home, found 
 their own country wide enough to receive them, as having dis- 
 burthened itself of many thousands who were sent to seek their 
 graves abroad." 
 
 But we have not yet done with Ralegh, in Ireland. During the 
 winter of 1580 he was quartered at Cork, where he soon had occa- 
 sion to observe the seditious proceedings of David Lord Barry, and 
 other ringleaders of the rebellion in those parts ; and having a com- 
 mission from the Lord Deputy to seize the castle of Barry Court, 
 he was about to execute it, when Barry anticipated him by burning 
 his castle to the ground. On his return from this expedition, he 
 was set upon by Fitz-Edmonds, seneschal of Imokelly, an adherent 
 of Barry, with a party of horse and some kerns, at Corabby, a ford 
 between Youghal and Cork. Ralegh, who had but six men, and 
 those far behind, broke through them, and got clear over the river. 
 But Henry Moyle, a gentleman of his company, following him, was 
 thrown off his horse into the middle of the stream, when Ralegh 
 hastened back to rescue him. But Moyle, in his eagerness to 
 remount, overleaped his horse, and fell into a deep mire, out ef 
 which his leader extricated him, bringing him safe to land. And
 
 16 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 now Ralegh waited on the opposite side, his staff in one hand and 
 a pistol in the other, for the rest of his company, among whom was 
 his servant Jenkins, who had two hundred pounds of his master's in 
 charge. Fitz-Edmonds, by this time recruited with twelve men, 
 finding that Ralegh stood his ground, exchanged a few rough 
 words, and retired. 
 
 It was not long after this that, at a parley hetween the Earl of 
 Ormond and the rebels, Fitz-Edmonds was boasting his achieve- 
 ments, when Ralegh taxed him with cowardice, reminding him that 
 lately, having had twenty to one on his side, he durst not encounter 
 him. One of the seneschal's friends, seeking to excuse this 
 unusual conduct of Fitz-Edmonds, declared that he would never 
 again show a like diffidence ; upon which Ormond challenged the 
 seneschal and Sir John Desmond, and any four they should name, 
 to meet himself, Captain Ralegh, and four others, when two to 
 two, four to four, or six to six, should determine the point in 
 dispute between them. No answer being at the time returned, 
 Fitz-Gibbon, called the White Knight, was sent with a second 
 challenge, which was declined. 
 
 We should hardly have related these circumstances, but that 
 they form part of the personal history of Ralegh, who looked upon 
 courage as a very common quality, and rather regarded cowardice 
 as infamous than personal bravery as honourable. And yet he 
 entertained the highest opinion of English valour, which he has 
 celebrated so memorably in his "History of the World" that 
 we cannot refrain from inserting it in this place. He calls his 
 chapter 
 
 ''A DISCUSSION of that problem of Livy, whether the Romans 
 could have resisted the great Alexander. That neither the 
 Macedonian nor the Roman soldier was of equal valour to the 
 English. 
 
 " That question handled by Livy, whether the great Alexander 
 could have prevailed against the Romans, if after his Eastern 
 conquest he had bent all his forces against them, hath been and 
 is the subject of much dispute; which (as it seems to me) the 
 arguments on both sides do not so well explain, as doth the 
 experience that Pyrrhus hath given of the Roman power in his 
 days. For if he, a commander (in Hannibal's judgment) inferior
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 17 
 
 to Alexander, though to none else, could with small strength of 
 men, and little store of money, or of other needful helps in war, 
 vanquish them in two battles, and endanger their estate, when it 
 was well settled, and hold the best part of Italy under a confirmed 
 obedience, what would Alexander have done, that was abundantly 
 provided of all which is needful to a conqueror, wanting only 
 matter of employment, coming upon them before their dominion 
 was half so well settled ? It is easy to say that Alexander had no 
 more than thirty thousand foot, and four thousand horse (as indeed, 
 at his first passage into Asia, he carried over not many more), and 
 that the rest of his followers were no better than base effeminate 
 Asiatics. But he that considers the armies of Perdiccas, Antipater, 
 Craterus, Eumenes, Ptolemy, Antigonus, and Lysimachus, with the 
 actions by them performed, every one of which (to omit others) 
 commanded only some fragment of this dead emperor's power, 
 shall easily find that such a reckoning is far short of the truth. 
 
 " It were needless to speak of treasure, horses, elephants, 
 engines of battery, and the like, of all which the Macedonian had 
 abundance, the Roman having nought save men and arms. As 
 for sea-forces, he that shall consider after what sort the Romans, 
 in their first Punic war, were trained in the rudiments of naviga- 
 tion, sitting upon the shore and beating the sand with poles, to 
 practice the stroke of the oar, as not daring to launch their 
 ill-built vessels into the sea, will easily conceive how far too weak 
 they would have proved in such services. 
 
 " Now for helpers in war : I do not see why all Greece and 
 Macedon, being absolutely commanded by Alexander, might not 
 well deserve to be laid in balance against those parts of Italy which 
 the Romans held in ill-assured subjection. To omit, therefore, all 
 benefit that the Eastern world, more wealthy, indeed, than valiant, 
 could have afforded unto the Macedonian, let us only conjec- 
 ture, how the states of Sicily and Carthage, nearest neighbours to 
 such a quarrel (had it happened) would have stood affected. The 
 Sicilians were for the most part Grecians ; neither is it to be 
 doubted, that they would readily have submitted themselves unto 
 him that ruled all Greece besides them. In what terms they 
 commonly stood, and how ill they were able to defend themselves, 
 it shall appear anon. Sure it is that Alexander's coming into those 
 parts, would have brought excessive joy to them that were fain to 
 
 c
 
 18 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 get the help of Pyrrhus, by offering to become his subjects. As 
 for the Carthaginians, if Agathocles, the tyrant of Syracuse, hated 
 of his people, and ill able to defend his own besieged city, could, 
 by adventuring to sail into Africa, put their dominion, yea, and 
 Carthage itself, in extreme hazard, shall we think that they would 
 have been able to withstand Alexander ? But why do I question 
 their ability, seeing that they sent ambassadors, with their sub- 
 mission, as far as Babylon, ere the war drew near them? Wherefore 
 it is manifest, that the Romans must, without other succour than 
 perhaps of some few Italian friends (of which yet there were none 
 that forsook them not, at some time, both before and after this), 
 have opposed their valour and good military discipline, against the 
 power of all countries to them known, if they would have made 
 resistance. How they could have sped well, in undertaking such 
 a match, it is uneasy to find in discourse of human reason. It is 
 true that virtue and fortune work wonders, but it is against 
 cowardly fools and the unfortunate ; for whosoever contends with 
 one too mighty for him, either must excel in these, as much as his 
 enemy goes beyond him in power, or else must look both to be 
 overcome, and to be cast down so much the lower, by how much 
 the opinion of his fortune and virtue renders him suspected, as 
 likely to make head another time against the vanquisher. Whether 
 the Roman or the Macedonian were in those days the better 
 soldier, I will not take upon me to determine ; though I might, 
 without partiality, deliver mine own opinion, and prefer that army 
 which followed not only Philip and Alexander, but also Alexander's 
 princes after him, in the greatest dangers of all sorts of war, 
 before any that Rome either had, or in long time after did send 
 forth. Concerning fortune, who can give a rule that shall always 
 hold ? Alexander was victorious in every battle that he fought, 
 and the Romans in the issue of every war. But forasmuch as 
 Livy hath judged this a matter worthy of consideration, I think it 
 a great part of Rome's good fortune that Alexander came not 
 into Italy, where in three years after his death, the two Roman 
 consuls, together with all the power of that state, were surprised 
 by the Samnites, and enforced to yield up their arms. We may, 
 therefore, permit Livy to admire his own Romans, and to compare 
 with Alexander those captains of theirs which were honoured 
 sufficiently in being thought equal to his followers : that the same
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 19 
 
 conceit should blind our judgment, we cannot permit without much 
 vanity. 
 
 " Now, in deciding such a controversy, methinks it were not 
 amiss for an Englishman to give such a sentence between the 
 Macedonians and Romans, as the Romans once did (being chosen 
 arbitrators) between the Ardeates and Aricini, that strove about a 
 piece of land, saying that it belonged unto neither of them, but 
 unto the Romans themselves. 
 
 " If, therefore, it be demanded, whether the Macedonian or the 
 Roman were the best warrior, I will answer, the Englishman. 
 For it will soon appear to any that shall examine the noble acts of 
 our nation in war, that they were performed by no advantage of 
 weapon, against no savage or unmanly people, the enemy being 
 far superior unto us in number and all needful provisions, yea, 
 as well trained as we, or commonly better, in the exercise of 
 war. 
 
 " In what sort Philip won his dominion in Greece, what manner 
 of men the Persians and Indians were whom Alexander vanquished, 
 as likewise of what force the Macedonian phalanx was, and how 
 well appointed, against such arms as it commonly encountered, 
 any man that hath taken pains to read the story of them doth 
 sufficiently understand. Yet was this phalanx never, or very 
 seldom, able to stand against the Roman armies, which were 
 embattled in so excellent a form, as I know not whether any nation 
 besides them have used either before or since. The Roman 
 weapons, likewise, both offensive and defensive, were of greater 
 use than those with which any other nation hath served, before the 
 fiery instruments of gunpowder were known. As for the enemies 
 with which Rome had to do, we find that they which did overmatcli 
 her in numbers were as far overmatched by her in weapons, and 
 that they, of whom she had little advantage in arms, had as little 
 advantage of her in multitude. This also (as Plutarch well 
 observeth) was a part of her happiness that she was never over- 
 laid with two great wars at once. 
 
 "Hereby it came to pass that, having at first increased her 
 strength by accession of the Sabines, having won the state of Alba, 
 against which she adventured her own self, as it were in wager, 
 upon the heads of three champions, and having thereby made her- 
 self Princess of Latium, she did afterwards, by long wars, in many 
 
 C 2
 
 20 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ages, extend her dominion over all Italy. The Carthaginians had 
 well near oppressed her, but her soldiers were mercenary, so that for 
 want of proper strength they were easily beaten at their own doors. 
 The .JStolians, and with them all or the most of Greece, assisted her 
 against Philip the Macedonian ; he being beaten, did lend her his 
 help to beat the same vEtolians. The wars against Antiochus and 
 other Asiatics were such as gave to Rome small cause of boast, 
 though much of joy, for those opposites were as base of courage as 
 the lands which they held were abundant of riches. Sicily, Spain, 
 and all Greece fell into her hands by using her aid to protect them 
 against the Carthaginians and Macedonians. 
 
 " I shall not need to speak of her other conquests : it was easy 
 to get more when she had gotten all this. It is not my purpose to 
 disgrace the Roman valour (which was very noble), or to blemish 
 the reputation of so many famous victories : I am not so idle. This 
 I say, that, among all their wars, I find not any wherein their valour 
 hath appeared comparable to the English. If my judgment seem 
 over-partial, our wars in France may help to make it good. 
 
 "First, therefore, it is well known that Rome (or, perhaps, all 
 the world besides) had never any so brave a commander in war as 
 Julius Caesar, and that no Roman army was comparable unto that 
 which served under the same Caesar. Likewise, it is apparent that 
 this gallant army, which had given fair proof .of the Roman courage 
 in good performance of the Helvetian war, when it first entered 
 into Gaul, was nevertheless utterly disheartened when Caesar led it 
 against the Germans ; so that we may justly impute all that was 
 extraordinary in the valour of Caesar's men to their long exercise, 
 under so good a leader, in so great a war. Now, let us in general 
 compare with the deeds done by these best of Roman soldiers, in 
 their principal service, the things performed in the same country 
 by our common English soldiers, levied in haste from following the 
 cart or sitting on the shop-stall, so shall we see the difference. 
 
 " Herein will we deal fairly, and believe Caesar in relating the 
 acts of the Romans, but we will call the French historians to witness 
 what actions were performed by the English. In Caesar's time 
 France was inhabited by the Gauls, a stout people, but inferior to 
 the French, by whom they were subdued, even when the Romans 
 gave them assistance. The country of Gaul was rent asunder (as 
 Caesar wituesseth) into many lordships, some of which were
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 21 
 
 governed by petty kings, others by the multitude, none ordered in 
 such sort as might make it appliable to the nearest neighbour. 
 The factions were many and violent, not only in general through 
 the whole country, but between the petty states, yea, in every city, 
 and almost in every house. What greater advantage could a 
 conqueror desire ? Yet there was a greater. Ariovistus, with his 
 Germans, had overrun the country, and held much part of it in 
 subjection, little different from mere slavery ; yea, so often had the 
 Germans prevailed in war upon the Gauls, that the Gauls (who had 
 sometimes been the better soldiers) did hold themselves no way 
 equal to those daily invaders. Had France been so prepared unto 
 our English kings, Rome itself by this time, and long ere this time, 
 would have been ours. But when King Edward III. began his 
 war upon France, he found the whole country settled in obedience 
 to one mighty king, a king whose reputation abroad was no less 
 than his puissance at home, under whose ensign the King of 
 Bohemia did serve in person ; at whose call the Genoese and other 
 neighbour states were ready to take arms; finally, a king, unto whom 
 one prince gave away his dominion for love, and another sold away 
 a goodly city and territory for money. The country, lying so open 
 to the Roman, and being so well fenced against the English, it is 
 noteworthy not who prevailed most therein (for it were mere vanity 
 to match the English purchases with the Roman conquest), but 
 whether of the two gave the greater proof of military virtue. 
 Caesar himself doth witness that the Gauls complained of their own 
 ignorance in the art of war, and that their own hardiness was 
 overmastered by the skill of their enemies. Poor men, they 
 admired the Roman towers and engines of battery raised and 
 planted against their walls, as more than human works. What 
 greater wonder is it that such a people was beaten by the Roman, 
 than that the Caribbees, a naked people, but valiant as any under 
 the sky, are commonly put to the worse by small numbers of 
 Spaniards ? Besides all this, we are to have regard of the great 
 difficulty that was found in drawing all the Gauls, or any great 
 part of them, to one head, that with joint forces they might oppose 
 their assailants, as also the much more difficulty of holding them 
 long together. For hereby it came to pass that they were never 
 able to make use of opportunity, but sometimes compelled to stay 
 for their fellows, and sometimes driven to give or take battle upon
 
 22 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 extreme disadvantages, for fear lest their companies should fall 
 asunder ; as, indeed, upon any little disaster, they were ready to 
 break, and return every one to the defence of his own. All this, 
 and (which was little less than all this) great odds in weapon, gave 
 to the Romans the honour of many gallant victories. What such 
 help, or what other worldly help, than the golden metal of their 
 soldiers, had our English kings against the French ? Were not the 
 French as well experienced in feats of war ? Yea, did they not 
 think themselves therein our superiors ? Were they not in arms, 
 in horse, and in all provision, exceedingly beyond us ? Let us hear 
 what a French writer saith of the inequality that was between the 
 French and English when their king, John, was ready to give the 
 onset upon the Black Prince, at the battle of Poictiers. John had 
 all advantages over Edward, both of number, force, show, country, 
 and conceit (the which is commonly a consideration of no small 
 importance in worldly affairs), and, withal, the choice of all his 
 horsemen (esteemed then the best in Europe), with the greatest 
 and wisest captains of his whole realm. And what could he more ? 
 " I think it would trouble a Roman antiquary to find the like 
 example in their histories the example, I say, of a king brought 
 prisoner to Rome by an army of eight thousand, which he had 
 surrounded with forty thousand better appointed and no less expert 
 warriors. This I am sure of, that neither Syphax the Numidian, 
 followed by a rabble of half scullions, as Livy rightly terms them, 
 nor those cowardly kings, Perseus and Gentius, are worthy patterns. 
 All that have read of Cressy and Agincourt will bear me witness 
 that I do not allege the battle of Poictiers, for lack of other, as 
 good examples of the English virtue, the proof whereof hath left 
 many a hundred better marks in all quarters of France than ever 
 did the valour of the Romans. If any man impute these victories 
 of ours to the longbow, as carrying further, piercing more strongly, 
 and quicker of discharge than the French crossbow, my answer is 
 ready that in all these respects it is also (being drawn with a 
 strong arm) superior to the musket, yet is the musket a weapon of 
 more use. The gun and the crossbow are of like force when 
 discharged by a boy or woman as when by a strong man. Weak- 
 ness or sickness, or a sore finger makes the longbow unserviceable. 
 More particularly, I say, that it was the custom of our ancestors to 
 shoot, for the most part, point blank, and so shall he perceive
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 23 
 
 that will note the circumstances of almost any one battle. This 
 tiikes away all objection ; for when two armies are within the 
 distance of a butt's length, one flight of arrows, or two at the 
 most, can be delivered before they close. Neither is it, in 
 general, true that the longbow reacheth further, or that it 
 pierceth more strongly than the crossbow. But this is the rare 
 eftect of an extraordinary arm, whereupon can be grounded no 
 common rule. If any man shall ask, How, then, came it to pass 
 that the English won so many great battles, having no advantage 
 to help him ? I may, with best commendation of modesty, refer 
 him to the French* historian, who, relating the victory of our 
 men at Crevant, where they passed a bridge in face of the enemy, 
 useth these words : ' The English comes with a conquering bravery, 
 as he that was accustomed to gain everywhere, without any stay : 
 he forceth our guard, placed upon the bridge to keep the passage/ 
 Or I may cite another place of the same author, where he tells 
 how the Bretons, being invaded by Charles the VIII., King of 
 France, thought it good policy to apparel a thousand and five 
 hundred of their own men in English cassocks, hoping that the 
 very sight of the English red cross would be enough to terrify the 
 French. But I will not stand to borrow of the French historians 
 (all which, excepting De Serres, and Paulus JEmilius, report 
 wonders of our nation) the proposition which first I undertook 
 to maintain ; that the military virtue of the English, prevailing 
 a gainst all manner of difficulties, ought to be preferred before that 
 of the Romans, which was assisted with all advantages that could 
 be desired. If it be demanded, why, then, did not our kings finish 
 the conquest, as Caesar had done ? my answer may be (I hope 
 without offence) that our kings were like to the race of the 
 ./Eacidse, of whom the old poet Ennius gave this note : Bdlipotentes 
 sunt mage quam sapienti potentes They were more warlike than 
 politic. Whoso notes their proceedings may find that none of 
 them went to work like a conqueror, save only King Henry V., 
 the course of whose victories it pleased God to interrupt by his 
 death. But this question is the more easily answered if another 
 be first made. Why did not the Romans attempt the conquest of 
 Gaul before the time of Csesar? why not after the Macedonian 
 war ? why not after the third Punic, or after the Numantian ? 
 * John de Serres.
 
 24 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF . 
 
 At all these times they had good leisure, and then especially had 
 they both leisure and fit opportunity, when under the conduct of 
 Marius, they had newly vanquished the Cimbri and Teutones, by 
 whom the country of Gaul had been piteously wasted. Surely 
 the words of Tully were true, that with other nations the Romans 
 fought for dominion, with the Gauls for preservation of their own 
 safety. 
 
 " Therefore they attempted not the conquest of Gaul, until 
 they were lords of all other countries to them known. We, on the 
 other side, held only the one-half of our own island, the other 
 half being inhabited by a nation (unless perhaps in wealth and 
 numbers of men somewhat inferior) every way equal to ourselves, 
 a nation anciently and strongly allied to our enemies the French, 
 and in that regard enemy to us. So that our danger lay both 
 before and behind us, and the greater danger at our backs, 
 where commonly we felt, always we feared, a stronger invasion by 
 land than we could make upon France, transporting our forces 
 over sea. 
 
 " It is usual with men that have pleased themselves in admiring 
 the matters which they find in ancient histories, to hold it a great 
 injury done to their judgment, if any take upon him, by way of 
 comparison, to extol the things of later ages. But I am well 
 persuaded that, as the divided virtue of this our island hath given 
 more noble proof of itself than, under so worthy a leader, that 
 Roman army could do, which afterwards could win Rome and all 
 her empire, making Caesar a monarch ; so hereafter, by God's 
 blessing, who hath converted our greatest hindrance into our 
 greatest help, the enemy that shall dare to try our forces will find 
 cause to wish that, avoiding us, he had rather encountered as great 
 a puissance as was that of the Roman empire." 
 
 On the departure of the Earl of Ormond for England, in 1581, 
 Ralegh, in commission with Sir William Morgan and Captain 
 Piers, was entrusted with the governorship of Munster. He 
 resided chiefly at Lismore, and during the summer was constantly 
 engaged with the rebels. His valour was conspicuously shown in 
 an action against Lord Barry, and his skill and address were 
 remarkably exhibited in his seizure of Lord Roche in his own castle. 
 
 In August of the same year, Captain Zouch having been 
 appointed governor of Munster, Ralegh accompanied him in
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 25 
 
 several journeys to settle and compose that province. The chief 
 place of their residence was Cork, of which city, after Zouch had 
 succeeded in cutting off Sir John Desmond, brother of the Earl of 
 Desmond, Ralegh was made governor. On the reduction of that 
 earl, the slaughter of his brothers, and the submission of Barry, 
 Sir Walter's company was disbanded, and lie returned to England. 
 How his services in these wars were requited, will afterwards 
 appear. 
 
 EDMUND SPENSER. 
 
 We must not omit to mention that it was during his stay in 
 Ireland that he cultivated the friendship of Spenser, whose 
 acquaintance he had probably made before their landing in that 
 country, the one as secretary to the Lord Deputy, the other as a 
 captain under his command. Spenser had already enjoyed the 
 patronage of Sir Philip Sidney, an early friend of Sir Walter, and 
 it may be that his knowledge of this circumstance particularly 
 recommended the poet to the notice of the soldier, himself a poet, 
 and, if the warm-hearted Edmund is to be believed, of a more
 
 26 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 etherial genius than his own. But the amiable author of the 
 " Faerie Queene " is not to be believed in this case. The substance 
 of his admiration and his praise (and he was by no means chary of 
 either) proceeding from any other man, would be pronounced gross 
 flattery ; but his adulation was the utterance of a most tender, 
 sensitive, and grateful nature, and was illuminated by the colours 
 of an exuberant fancy. Yet Ralegh's sonnet, which he calls " A 
 Vision upon the Faerie Queene," is one of the finest in the English 
 language, and would almost justify any hyperbole that a conjecture 
 of future poetical greatness might raise upon it.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WHILE Ralegh was performing his services in Ireland, he was 
 careful that the Earl of Leicester (to whom he had been introduced, 
 but by whom and upon what occasion we have not been told) should 
 retain him in his memory. In a letter to that nobleman, he 
 says : " I may not forget to put your honour continually in mind 
 of my affection unto your lordship, having to the world both 
 professed and protested the same. Your honour having no use of 
 such your followers, hath utterly forgotten me. Notwithstanding, 
 if your lordship shall please to think me yours, as I am, I will be 
 found as ready, and dare do as much in your service, as any man 
 you may command ; and do neither so much despair of myself, but 
 that I may be some way able to perform as much. I have spent
 
 28 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 some time here under the deputy, in such poor place and charge, 
 as, were it not that for that I knew him to be as of yours, I would 
 disdain it as much as to keep sheep. I will not trouble your 
 honour with the business of this lost land, for that Sir Warham 
 St. Leger" (who was the bearer of this letter) "can best of any 
 man deliver unto your lordship the good, the bad, the mischief, the 
 means to amend, and all in all of this commonweal, or rather, 
 common-woe." 
 
 By this we perceive that Ralegh was not a man of so high and 
 independent a spirit as to disdain the patronage of a favourite 
 still powerful, although more than suspected of atrocious crimes 
 committed by the basest and most treacherous means, and that 
 between himself and Lord Grey something had passed which after- 
 wards "drew them both over to the council table," as we shall 
 presently see. 
 
 Whether Ralegh was introduced to the Queen by Leicester, 
 or by Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex,* has been a matter of 
 dispute. The Earl was in equal favour with the Queen, but 
 after a different manner, and for very opposite qualities, and 
 Leicester by this time probably felt that his tenure of his mis- 
 tress's grace and liking was precarious. He had never performed 
 any action of credit for his queen and country ; his abilities lay not 
 in that direction ; and, indeed, his personal courage has been 
 questioned. Moreover, the elegant and energetic nobleman of 
 former days was now grown a somewhat corpulent and rubicund 
 person, and he might well feel that he should soon cease to please 
 Elizabeth's eye, which alone had attracted him to her, or she 
 would hardly have seized, immediately after his death, part of his 
 goods and chattels in satisfaction of a debt. Sussex was blunt, 
 straightforward, and honest ; he had done good service to her 
 
 * Mrs. Thomson has inadvertently called this nobleman Hunsdon, Earl 
 of Sussex. Gary, Baron Hunsdon, was a very different person. He was 
 nearly allied to the Queen, and was her Lord Chamberlain, as Radcliffe, 
 Earl of Sussex, had previously been. His influence at the court was great, 
 and was exercised in the advancement of his family. His four sons were duly 
 cared for, and his three daughters were well disposed of in marriage. One 
 was the wife of the Lord Admiral, Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, 
 another of Lord Scrope, and the third of Sir Thomas Hoby, a brave soldier, 
 who signalised himself at the siege of Cadiz.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 29 
 
 majesty ; but his labours were ended. He hated Leicester, " the 
 gipsy," as he called him, and on his death-bed bade his friends 
 beware of him ; and this may have incited him to introduce a check, 
 or rather a foil, to his rival in the person of Ralegh. The balance 
 of evidence would incline to Leicester as his first patron ; of 
 abstract probability, to Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex. 
 
 THOMAS RADCLIFF8, EARL OF SUSSEX. 
 
 But before we introduce him into the presence of Elizabeth, we 
 will make a short extract from his " History of the World," written 
 in his mature years, when, as we believe, experience had confirmed 
 him as to the worldly wisdom which dictated his course of pro- 
 ceeding when he was about to launch into court life and the imme- 
 diate service of majesty. The reader needs not that we should 
 direct his attention to the philosophical calmness with which the 
 best means of attaining to success in the world is set forth.
 
 30 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 " It may be objected, that if fortune and chance were not some- 
 times the causes of good and evil in men, but an idle voice whereby 
 we express success ; how comes it, then, that so many worthy and 
 wise men depended upon so many unworthy and empty-headed 
 fools; that riches and honour are given to external men and 
 without kernel; and so many learned, virtuous, and valiant men 
 wear out their lives in poor and dejected estates ? In a word, there 
 is no other inferior or apparent cause, beside the partiality of 
 man's affection, but the fashioning and not fashioning of ourselves 
 according to the nature of the time wherein we live ; for who- 
 soever is most able and best sufficient to discern, and hath withal 
 an honest and open heart and loving truth ; if princes, or those 
 that govern, endure no other discourse than their own flatteries, 
 then I say such an one, whose virtue and courage forbiddeth him 
 to be base and a dissembler, shall evermore hang under the wheel ; 
 which kind of deserving well and receiving ill, we always falsely 
 charge fortune withal. For whosoever shall tell any great man 
 or magistrate, that he is not just, the general of an army that he 
 is not valiant, and great ladies that they are not fair, shall never 
 be made a counsellor, a captain, or a courtier. Neither is it suffi- 
 cient to be wise with a wise prince, valiant with a valiant, and just 
 with him that is just, for such a one hath no estate in his prosperity ; 
 but he must also change with the successor, if he be of contrary 
 qualities ; sail with the tide of the time, and alter form and condi- 
 tion, as the estate or estate's master changeth : otherwise how were 
 it possible that the most base men, and separate from all imitable 
 qualities, could so often attain to honour and riches, but by such an 
 observant, slavish course ? These men having nothing else to value 
 themselves by but a counterfeit kind of wondering at other men, 
 and by making them believe that all their vices are virtues, and alt 
 their dusty actions crystalline, have yet in all ages prospered equally 
 with the most virtuous, if not exceeded them. For according to 
 Menander, Omnis insipiens arrogantia etplausibm capitur 'Every 
 fool is won with his own pride, and others' flattering applause :' so 
 as whosoever will live altogether out of himself, and study other 
 men's humours, and observe them, shall never be unfortunate ; and 
 on the contrary, that man which prizeth truth and virtue (except 
 the season wherein he liveth be of all these and of all sorts of 
 goodness fruitful) shall never prosper by the possession or pro-
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 31 
 
 fession thereof. It is also a token of a worldly wise man, not to 
 war or contend in vain against the nature of times wherein he 
 liveth ; for such a one is often the author of his own misery ; but 
 best it were to follow the advice which the Pope gave the Bishops 
 of that age, out of Ovid, while the Arian heresy raged : 
 
 Dum furor in cursu eat, ciirrenti cede furoi-i, 
 
 ' While fury gallops on the way, 
 Let no man fury's gallop stay.' 
 
 " And if Cicero (than whom that world begat not a man of 
 more reputed judgment) had followed the counsel of his brother 
 Quintus, Potuisset (saith Petrarch) in lectulo suo mori, potuisset 
 integro cadavere sepeliri He might then have died the death of 
 nature, and been with an untorn and undissevered body buried ; 
 for as Petrarch in the same place noteth : Quid stultius quam 
 desperantem (proesertim de effeetu) litibus perpetuis implicari f 
 ' What more foolish than for him that despairs (especially of the 
 effect) to be entangled with endless contentions ? ' Whosoever 
 therefore will set before him Machiavel's two marks to shoot at (to 
 wit), riches and glory, must set on and take off a back of iron to :i 
 weak wooden bow, that it may fit both the strong and the feeble : 
 for as he that first devised to add sails to rowing vessels did either 
 so proportion them as, being fastened aloft and towards the head 
 of his mast, he might abide all winds and storms, or else he some- 
 time or other perished by his own invention ; so that man which 
 prizeth virtue for itself, and cannot endure to hoist and strike his 
 sails, as the divers natures of calms and storms require, must cut 
 his sails and his cloth of mean length and breadth, and content 
 himself with a slow and sure navigation, (to wit) a mean and free 
 estate. But of this dispute of fortune and the rest, or of what- 
 soever Lords or Gods, imaginary powers or causes, the wit (or 
 rather foolishness) of man hath found out ; let us resolve with St. 
 Paul, who hath taught us, that there is but one God, the Father, 
 of whom are all things, and we in him : and one Lord Jesus Christ, 
 by whom are all things, and we by him ; there are diversities of 
 operations, but God is the same, which worketh all in all." 
 
 Ralegh's first introduction to the Queen was a very fortunate 
 accident. The story itself is characteristic, and is not one likely 
 to have been invented. Accordingly, it has been told by all his
 
 32 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 biographers. * We give Fuller's version of it. Coming to the 
 Court "in good habit," says he, "(his clothes being then a consider- 
 able part of his estate,) he found the Queen walking, till meeting 
 with a plashy place she seemed to scruple going thereon. Presently, 
 Ralegh cast and spread his new plush coat on the ground, whereon 
 the Queen trod gently, rewarding him afterwards with many suits, 
 for his so free and seasonable tender of so fair a footcloth. Thus, 
 an advantageous admission into the first notices of a prince is 
 more than half a degree to preferment." There is a second story 
 told by the same author. Ralegh, finding some gleams of royal 
 favour reflecting upon him, wrote in a glass window obvious to her 
 eye 
 
 " Fain would I climb, and yet fear I to fall ; " 
 
 upon which the Queen, either espying it, or, more probably, her 
 attention being drawn to it by a maid of honour, underwrote 
 
 " If thy heart fail thee, do not climb at alL" 
 
 A favourable report of Ralegh's achievements in Ireland had, no 
 doubt, prepossessed the Queen in his favour ; but the man who was 
 now becoming familiar to her eyes was a person most of all likely 
 to interest and attract her. He was distinguished for the elegance 
 of his appearance, the splendour of his attire, and the politeness of 
 his address, " having a good presence, in a handsome and well- 
 compacted person ; a strong natural wit, and a better judgment ; 
 with a bold and plausible tongue, whereby he could set out his parts 
 to the best advantage."! Under thirty years of age, he had gained 
 
 * Excepting Birch, who seems to have had no toleration of trifles, or who 
 did not remember what important consequences have sometimes resulted from 
 them. "Birch," said Dr. Johnson, "is as brisk as a bee in conversation, 
 but as heavy as lead immediately he takes a pen in his hand." 
 
 f Queen Elizabeth was ever greatly taken with handsomeness in the other 
 sex, and would not have endured even an ill-favoured servant to wait upon 
 her. " Queen Elizabeth," says Aubrey, " loved to have all the servants of 
 her court proper men, and (as before said) Sir Walter Ralegh's graceful pre- 
 sence was no mean recommendation to him. I think his first preferment at 
 court was captain of her majesty's guard. There came a country gentleman 
 (a sufficient yeoman) up to town, who had several sons, but one, an extra- 
 ordinary proper, handsome fellow, whom he did hope to have preferred to be 
 a yeoman of the guard. The father (a goodly man himself) comes to Sir 
 W. R., a stranger to him, and told him that he had brought up a boy that
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 35 
 
 considerable experience, and had acquired no ordinary amount of 
 learning ; and he was never backward, when there was fitting occa- 
 sion, of showing the one or of referring to the other. The Queen 
 must have seen from the first something in this young adventurer 
 that caused her to put confidence in him, and that assured her 
 belief that he, above most of the men that ever came under her 
 observation, was able to do her service in any way in which she 
 might choose to employ him. Leicester or Sussex may have 
 given him their good word ; but old Fuller is right when he 
 says, " However, he at last climbed up by the stairs of his own 
 desert." 
 
 Admitted to the court, one of the first services the Queen re- 
 quired of him was to attend Simier, the insinuating emissary of the 
 Duke of Anjou, on his return to France. He afterwards escorted 
 the duke himself to Antwerp, after the breaking off of his proposed 
 alliance to Elizabeth. In " Leicester's Commonwealth," a work 
 written to hold up that nobleman's character to public execration, 
 but to the statements of which the learned Gamden gave a large 
 credence, it is stated that, inflamed with rage at Simier's discovery 
 to the Queen of his secret marriage with the widow of Walter 
 Devereux, Earl of Essex (the father of the future favourite), he did 
 not scruple to hire pirates to sink the ambassador at sea. " Though 
 they missed of this practice (as not daring to set upon him for fear 
 of some of her majesty's ships, who, to break off this designment, 
 attended by special commandment to waft him over in safety), yet 
 the aforesaid English gentlemen were holden four hours in chase 
 at their coming back, as Mr. Ralegh well knoweth, being then 
 present ; and two of the chasers, named Clark and Harris, confessed 
 afterwards the whole designment." 
 
 he would desire (having many children) should be one of her majesty's guard. 
 Quoth Sir W. R., ' Had you spoke for yourself, I should readily have 
 granted your desire, for your person deserves it; but I put hi no boys.' 
 Said the father, ' Boy, come in.' The son enters about eighteen or nine- 
 teen ; but such a goodly, proper young fellow, as he Sir W. R. had not seen 
 the like ; he was the tallest of all the guard. Sir W. R. swears him im- 
 mediately, and ordered him to carry up the first dish at dinner, when the 
 Queen beheld him with admiration, as if a beautiful young giant, like Saul, 
 taller by the head and shoulders than other men, had stalked in with the 
 service." 
 
 D 2
 
 36 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 The Queen attended the Duke of Anjou as far as Dover, 
 accompanied by a brilliant retinue of noblemen and gentlemen. 
 These, among whom was Ralegh, attended him to Antwerp, Sir 
 Walter tarrying there some time after Lord Charles Howard, 
 Leicester, Sir Philip Sidney, and the rest of the retinue. Here 
 he became acquainted with the Prince of Orange, who entrusted 
 him with some special communications to the Queen. In an essay 
 written long subsequently,* he ascribes the then prosperous state 
 of the Dutch to the assistance given to them by her majesty, 
 "which," he says, "the late worthy and famous Prince of Orange 
 did always acknowledge ; and in the year 1582, when I took my 
 leave of him at Antwerp, after the return of the Earl of Leicester 
 into England, and Monsieur's arrival there, when he delivered me 
 his letter to her majesty, he prayed me to say to the Queen for 
 him, 'sub umbra alarum tuarum protegimurj for certainly they 
 had withered in the bud, and sunk in the beginning of their navi- 
 gation, had not her majesty assisted them." 
 
 Lord Grey of Wilton having advanced certain charges against 
 Ralegh, both were brought before the council table, and each was 
 required to plead his cause in person. " What advantage he had 
 in the case in controversy," says Naunton, " I know not ; but he 
 had much the better in the manner of telling his tale, insomuch as 
 the Queen and the lords took no small mark of the man and his 
 parts, for from thence he came to be known, and to have access to 
 
 the lords Whether or no my Lord of Leicester had then 
 
 cast in a good word for him, I do not determine ; but true it is, he 
 had gotten the Queen's ear in a trice, and she began to be taken 
 with his elocution, and loved to hear his reasons to her demands. 
 And the truth is, she took him for a kind of oracle, which nettled 
 them all ; yea, those that he relied on began to take his sudden 
 favour for an alarm, and to be sensible of their own supplantation, 
 and to project his ; which made him shortly after sing, 
 
 " 'Fortune, my foe, why dost thou frown?' " 
 
 Presently after this, it would seem, the Earl of Leicester took 
 fright at the sudden advancement of Ralegh in the Queen's good 
 graces, to which, probably, he had been the means of preferring 
 
 * A Discourse of the Invention of Ships, Anchor, Compass, &c.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 37 
 
 him, that he might share a portion of the envy incident to a long- 
 continued favour with majesty. "But the Earl," says Sir Henry 
 Wotton, " soon found him such an apprentice as knew well enough 
 how to set up for himself." Now, the Queen might be permitted 
 to take pride in Sir Philip Sidney her Philip,* as she called him ; 
 her admiration of that mirror of knighthood reflected itself upon 
 the Earl, who was his uncle. But Sidney was absent from the 
 
 DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTER. 
 
 court at this period, having just married the daughter of Sir Francis 
 Walsingham ; so Leicester bided his time, and at the earliest 
 fitting season he presented to Elizabeth's notice Robert Devereux, 
 the young Earl of Essex, his step-son, who immediately took the 
 unexhausted fancy of that royal lady of sixty, and learned too 
 
 * When Philip II., of Spain, made overtures of marriage to the Queen, 
 which she rejected, she said, pointing to young Sidney, "He is my Philip." 
 Sidney was a god-son of the Spanish king.
 
 38 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 early, or ratter too late, a few years afterwards, on a scaffold in 
 the tower, how precarious and how perilous is that favour which 
 is gained by small deserts, and by an arrogant and perverse pre- 
 sumption upon them. 
 
 Ralegh was not desirous of watching the rise of this new lumi- 
 nary : he must do something to advance himself in the Queen's 
 esteem, and this something he had already projected, having built, 
 at his own expense, a strong ship, of two hundred tons, which was 
 named " Bark Ralegh." The spirit of maritime adventure had 
 been born in him, or it had been communicated to him by his half- 
 brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, four of the six years of whose 
 patent had now elapsed, and who was resolved to attempt those 
 discoveries in America in which he had before failed. Having 
 fitted out four ships, Ralegh manned his, which was the largest 
 among them, and prepared to set sail with him. 
 
 That the Queen took a strong interest in the success of the 
 expedition, is shown in the following letter to Sir Humphrey from 
 Ralegh : 
 
 " 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 ships as if herself were there in person, desiring 
 you to have care of yourself as of that which she tendereth ; and 
 therefore, for her sake, you must provide for it accordingly. 
 Farther, 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 would needs be the messenger of this good news ; so 
 I commit you to the will and protection of God, who sends us such 
 life or death as he shall please, or hath appointed ! Richmond, this 
 
 Friday morning. Your true Brother, 
 
 " W. RATEGH." 
 
 Attended by Ralegh, as his vice-admiral, Sir Humphrey put to 
 sea on the llth June, 1583. His little fleet was equipped with 
 260 men, including shipwrights, masons, carpenters, smiths, refiners, 
 and musicians. Captain Edward Hayes, who commanded one of 
 
 * It was a golden anchor, with a large pearl at the peak. Sir Humphrey 
 wore it at his breast on the day of Ms death.
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 39 
 
 the vessels, and who wrote a particular account of this voyage, 
 which is included in Hakluyt's collection, says " For solace of 
 our people, and allurement of the savages, we were provided of 
 music in good variety, not omitting the least toys, as morris- 
 dancers, hobby-horse, and other like conceits, to delight the 
 savage people, whom we intended to win by all fair means 
 possible. And to that end we were indifferently furnished of all 
 haberdashery wares to barter with those simple people." 
 
 On the 13th, Bark Ralegh, fortunately for its owner, as it 
 afterwards proved, was obliged to part company with the fleet, on 
 account of a contagious disease among the crew, and she returned 
 to Plymouth in great distress. The rest held on their way, " not 
 a little grieved with the loss of the most puissant ship in their 
 fleet." 
 
 After encountering many difficulties, Sir Humphrey arrived in 
 Newfoundland, and took possession of the country in right of the 
 crown of England, by digging up a turf and receiving it with a 
 hazel wand, which was delivered to him, according to our laws 
 and customs. He also assigned lands to every man in his 
 company. 
 
 Finding it very difficult and dangerous to proceed on his 
 voyage, he yielded to the wishes of the crew of his vessel that 
 they should return, having " compassion upon his poor men, in 
 whom he saw no lack of good-will, but of means fit to perform 
 the action they came for." Accordingly, he represented to Hayes, 
 the captain of the Golden Hind, the expediency of returning, 
 saying, ' Be content : we have seen enough. And take no care 
 of expenses past : I will set you forth royally the next spring, 
 if God send us safe home. Let us no longer strive here, where we 
 fight against the elements.'"* 
 
 * Captain Hayes tells a very extraordinary circumstance in relation to 
 this resolution of the Admiral, which of course was believed at the time, 
 and which may obtain credit even in these days. We know not what to say 
 to it. Hayes was a stout seaman, reputed a man of veracity, and highly 
 respected : 
 
 " So upon Saturday, in the afternoon the 31st August, we changed 
 our course, and returned back for England, at which very instant, even in 
 winding about, there passed between us, and towards the land which we now 
 forsook, a very lion to our seeming, in shape, hair, and colour, not swimming
 
 40 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 When the fleet was got three hundred leagues on its way home, 
 the admiral was entreated to remain in the Hind, instead of his 
 own vessel, which was a frigate ; but he said, " I will not forsake 
 my little company, going homeward, with whom I have passed so 
 many storms and perils." Contending against the dangers of " foul 
 weather and terrible seas, breaking short and high, pyramid- wise ; 
 men which all their life had occupied the sea, never saw it more 
 outrageous," the captain and crew of the Golden Hind saw 
 the admiral with a book in his hand (probably the Bible), sitting 
 aloft. He cried out to them encouragingly, " We are as near to 
 heaven by sea as by land !" In the middle of that same night, the 
 lights of the frigate were suddenly not to be seen, and it ran from 
 mouth to mouth that the admiral and his crew were cast away, 
 " which," says Hayes, " was too true ; the frigate at that moment 
 having been swallowed up." The Golden Hind was the only 
 vessel which returned. After infinite hazard, hardship, and loss, 
 she arrived at Falmouth. 
 
 However afflicted at the fatal misadventure of his brother, 
 Ralegh was nothing daunted. The discoveries of Columbus, the 
 conquests of Cortez and Pizarro, had formed a congenial portion 
 of his early reading, and in his conversation as a youth these had 
 been his prominent subjects. Moreover, he was, says Southey, 
 " one of those who are so thoroughly possessed by the spirit of 
 adventure, that they neither learn to be wise by others' harms nor 
 by their own." In other words (and this meaning may be wrung 
 
 after the manner of a beast by moving of his feet, but rather sliding upon the 
 water with his whole body (excepting the legs) in sight, neither yet diving 
 under and again rising above the water, as the manner is of whales, dolphins, 
 tunnies, porpoises, and all other fish, but confidently showing himself above 
 water, without hiding ; notwithstanding we presented ourselves in open view 
 and gesture to amaze him, as all creatures will be, commonly, at a sudden 
 gaze and sight of men. Thus he passed along, turning his head to and fro, 
 yawning and gaping wide, with ugly demonstrations of long teeth and glaring 
 eyes ; and to bid us a farewell, coming right against the " Hind," he sent 
 forth a horrible voice, roaring or bellowing as doth a lion, which spectacle we 
 all beheld, so far as we were able to discern the same, as men prone to wonder 
 at every strange thing, as this doubtless was, to see a lion in the ocean sea, 
 or fish in shape of a lion. What opinion others had thereof, and chiefly the 
 general himself, I forbear to deliver. But he took it for bonum omen, rejoicing 
 that he was to war against such an enemy, if it were the devil."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 41 
 
 out of the ungenerous, narrow-minded, and false allegation of 
 the recluse of Keswick), he was not a man to sit in a study, 
 and complacently pass judgment upon more active spirits, who are 
 content to encounter formidable difficulties, undreamed of by the 
 fire-side, when they can be of practical service to their country.* 
 Inflamed, then, with the prospect of making discoveries in 
 the north of America, he drew up an account of the advantages 
 of such a design, and the means of prosecuting it, which he laid 
 before the Queen and her council, upon whom this document so 
 impressed itself, that on the 25th of March, 1584, letters patent 
 were granted to him, "containing free liberty to discover such 
 remote heathen and barbarous lands as are not actually possessed 
 by any Christian, nor inhabited by Christian people." On obtain- 
 ing this grant, Ralegh made choice of two efficient and experienced 
 seamen, Captains Philip Amadas and Philip Barlow, for whom, at 
 his own expense,f he fitted out two vessels, and so expeditiously, 
 that in the following April they set sail. Early in July, they were 
 regaled with a fragrant odour from the land they sought ; but they 
 
 * Dr. Southey should not have attempted a life o Sir Walter Ralegh, 
 at any rate not in the space to which he confined himself, or to which he was 
 restricted; for, regarding his illustrious subject with no friendly eye, he 
 sometimes makes hostile and unsupported assertions, which demand proof; 
 and proof, even when it is not difficult, sometimes requires a lengthened 
 presentation of itself. Ralegh was not a man to Southey's mind. Had the 
 knight been a soldier-captain singly, or a sea-captain, or a courtier, or a 
 statesman, or a chemist, or a philosopher, or an historian, Southey would have 
 presented us with a fair, as he has not failed of giving us an eloquent, Life of 
 Sir Walter ; but being " the universal Ralegh," his biographer could not 
 conceal his sympathy with the evil and heart-vexing passion which possesses 
 myriads of inferior natures. From a man of various learning and literary 
 accomplishments like Southey, we might have looked for no niggard admi- 
 ration of that marvel of labour, learning, and genius, " The History of the 
 World ;" but he has devoted four lines to it, and, in the forty-one words of 
 which they are composed, has qualified the praise due to the author by calling 
 his great work a "compilation," and by asserting, on the rotten authority of 
 the elder Disraeli, that some of the best wits in England assisted Ralegh with 
 their researches. 
 
 t So says Oldys. But others assert that Ralegh's cousin, Sir Richard 
 Grenville (of whom more shortly), Mr. William Sanderson, and other gen- 
 tlemen, were co-partners with him in this undertaking. Upon this, Dr. 
 Southey remarks, " Ralegh was not scrupulous in holding out fallacious
 
 42 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 sailed along the coast before they discovered an entrance by any 
 river issuing into the sea. At length they found one, and manned 
 out their boats to view the land, where they saw " vines laden with 
 grapes in vast abundance, climbing the tall cedars, and spreading 
 so luxuriantly along the sandy shore, that the sea often overflowed 
 them." They had at first thought this land the continent, and had 
 taken possession of it in the Queen's name ; but it was the island 
 of Wocoken, twenty miles long, and plentifully stocked with every- 
 thing profitable and pleasing in animated and inanimate nature. 
 Here they established an intercourse with the natives, with whom 
 they exchanged toys and useful utensils for fish. The king of the 
 country's brother, Granganimes, came to visit them, accompanied 
 by his wife, who, say the captains in their report to Ralegh, " was 
 very well favoured, of mean stature, and very bashful. She had 
 on her back a long cloak of leather, with the fur-side next to her 
 body, and before her a piece of the same ; about her forehead she 
 had a band of white coral, and so had her husband many times ; 
 in her ears she had bracelets of pearls, hanging down to her middle 
 (whereof we delivered your worship a little bracelet), and these 
 were of the bigness of good peas. 1 ' 
 
 But, during their stay, they settled at Roanoak, an island about 
 sixteen miles in length, and one above a hundred "of divers 
 bignesses" which were " replenished with deer, conies, hares, and 
 divers beasts, and about them the goodliest and best fish in the 
 world, and in greatest abundance." 
 
 Having learnt as much of the situation, state, and products of 
 the country as was necessary, and promising to visit the friendly 
 Indians again, two of whom they were permitted to take with them 
 to England, they departed, arriving in the west of England in 
 September. 
 
 Elizabeth was well pleased with the favourable reports of the 
 beauty and fertility of this new country which were laid before 
 her by Ralegh, who did not fail to acknowledge how much this 
 hopeful progress towards the possession of it was to be ascribed to 
 
 hopes to other adventurers, and he was as ready to hazard his own means as 
 lightly as he had acquired them." Men do not hold out fallacious hopes 
 (knowing them to be so) to others, when they are ready to hazard their 
 own means in an adventure.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 43 
 
 the auspices of a virgin queen ; whereupon she gave to it the name 
 of Virginia. To encourage him to complete the discovery, she 
 granted him a patent for licensing the vendors of wine throughout 
 the kingdom. 
 
 About this time, a new parliament being called, Ralegh was 
 elected one of the members for the county of Devon, and was 
 chosen of the committees on several bills ; but of his speeches we 
 know nothing ; for, says Oldys, " there was a clerk of the parlia- 
 ment so very indolent,* or otherwise indisposed, that the transac- 
 tions of the House of Commons at this time were very imperfectly 
 recorded ;" and, we need hardly add, reporters were not at that 
 period. Before the end of the year his patent for the discovery 
 of foreign countries had passed the House, and between that time 
 and the February of the following year, he received the honour of 
 knighthood.f 
 
 In June 1585, Ralegh was an associate in the enterprise of his 
 half-brother, Sir Adrian Gilbert, for the discovery of a north- 
 west passage, of which (as we have before said) the celebrated 
 Davis was the captain. But, two months previously, Sir Walter 
 had despatched his own fleet of seven sail to Virginia, under the 
 command of his cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, general of the 
 expedition, appointing Mr. Richard Lane, afterwards knighted, 
 
 * His name was an appropriate one Onalom. He was, we believe, no 
 ancestor of Mr. Speaker Onslow of the last century, who brought an action 
 for a defamatory libel against Home Tooke. 
 
 f It has been often said that Queen Elizabeth was very chary of confer- 
 ring honours even on the most deserving of her servants ; and indeed she 
 made few peers during her long reign of forty-four years. Nevertheless, 
 they who walk for the first time in the by-paths of the history of that time, 
 will be not a little surprised at the number of knights he will meet ; and he 
 may conclude that her majesty held the order of knighthood in sh'ght regard. 
 But this was far from being the case. When the gallant Sir Francis Vere 
 desired to be made a peer, she observed that in her estimation he was above 
 that already. She had knighted him (as likewise Ralegh) with her own 
 hand. But the Lords Deputy of Ireland, and Commanders-in-Chief, had 
 the power of conferring knighthood, which some but more especially the 
 Earl of Essex exercised most unsparingly. A short tune before the siege 
 of Cadiz, this young nobleman had built some almshouses. On his return 
 from that expedition, the Queen, deeply offended that he should have added 
 more than sixty to the order of knighthood, remarked, " It is well he built 
 his almshouaes before he made his knights "
 
 44 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 to be governor of the colony, which they now transported. 
 Amongst other gentlemen who accompanied Grenville in this 
 voyage, was one Stukeley, his cousin, and the cousin likewise of 
 Ralegh, the father of a wretch of whom we shall hear farther 
 towards the tragical end of this story, and who sought to palliate 
 his treachery by telling an incredible tale of a wrong done to his 
 father on the return of this expedition. 
 
 SIR RICHAKD GEENVU.LE. 
 
 On the 26th of June, Sir Richard Grenville anchored at 
 Wocoken, where he sent word of his arrival at Roanoak. He then 
 made a progress to the main-land, and visited many Indian towns ; 
 and shortly after entertained many of the Indian chiefs on board 
 his vessel. Leaving behind him in Virginia a hundred and seven 
 persons to settle a colony at Roanoak, amongst whom was Thomas 
 Hariot, the celebrated mathematician,* the general set sail for 
 
 * Hariot was born in 1560, and was educated at Oxford. " Coming to 
 the knowledge of that heroic knight, Sir Walter Ralegh," says "Wood (Athense
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 45 
 
 England, capturing on his way thither a rich Spanish prize, worth 
 fifty thousand pounds. On the 18th of October he arrived at 
 Plymouth, where he was, as he says in his report of the voyage, 
 " courteously received by his worshipful friend." 
 
 This was not the only piece of good fortune which attended 
 Ralegh this year. The Munster rebellion being now crushed, 
 Elizabeth formed a scheme to re-people that province with an 
 English colony, to be effected by a partition of the forfeited estates 
 of the late Earl of Desmond, which exceeded five hundred and 
 seventy-four thousand acres, which were granted to such as had 
 been instrumental in suppressing the rebellion. Twelve thousand 
 acres in Cork and Waterford, which he planted at his own cost, 
 fell to the share of Ralegh ; these, towards the end of the Queen's 
 reign, he sold to Richard Boyle, afterwards Earl of Cork, who 
 acknowledged the purchase to have been a great step towards the 
 large fortune he afterwards amassed. 
 
 This grant so encouraged Ralegh, that he fitted out a third 
 fleet for Virginia. The colony, under the governorship of Lane, 
 having suffered great distress, had, in June 1586, procured a 
 passage to England from Sir Francis Drake, who had visited it 
 on his return from the conquest of St. Domingo, Carthagena, and 
 St. Augustine. In the spring of the above year, Sir Walter had 
 sent thither a ship well supplied with everything necessary for the 
 success of the colony, but the people had already left it ; and, 
 fifteen days after, Sir Richard Grenville arrived with three ships 
 more, well stored, for those he had left there in the previous year ; 
 but finding neither the planters nor Ralegh's ship, as he had 
 
 Oxon.), " for his admirable skill in the mathematics, he entertained him in 
 his family, allowed him a yearly pension, and was instructed by him at 
 leisure in that art." Sir Walter introduced him to Henry Earl of Northum- 
 berland, commonly called, from his devotion to experimental philosophy, the 
 " wizard," who allowed him the munificent yearly portion of 120 (equal in 
 value to about 600 in these days). When the Earl was committed prisoner 
 to the Tower, in 1606, for a suspected complicity in the gunpowder plot, 
 Hariot and two other philosophers, Warner and Hughes, were his constant 
 companions, and were called his magi. Ralegh, then a prisoner in the 
 Tower, was their frequent associate. Descartes is said to have taken credit 
 for some of Hariot's philosophical discoveries; and it is alleged that Warner 
 communicated the theory of the circulation of the blood to the immortal 
 Harvey.
 
 46 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 expected, Sir Richard, loth to lose possession of the country, landed 
 fifteen men at Roanoak, and left them on that island with a two 
 years' stock of provisions. Returning to England, Grenville took 
 some prizes at the Azores, an addition to Ralegh's good fortune 
 at the same place. He had despatched, in June, 1586, two ships, 
 the Serpent and Mary Spark, under the command of Captains 
 Jacob Whiddon and John Evesham, who took more Spanish 
 prizes than they could bring home. On board of one (and brought 
 to England a prisoner) was Don Pedro de Sarmiento, governor 
 of the island of St. Michael's and of the Straits of Magellan, the 
 most experienced and eminent navigator of whom Spain could 
 boast.* In the same year Ralegh adventured a fine pinnace, the 
 Dorothy, in an expedition intended for the South Sea by Clifford, 
 Earl of Cumberland ; but it was prosecuted no further than the 
 latitude of forty-four degrees south of the equinox. During 
 this voyage, some small prizes were taken. 
 
 It is to be noted, that by Ralegh's colony, brought over in Drake's 
 ships, the famous American plant, tobacco-, was first introduced 
 into England, under, it is confidently stated, express instructions 
 from, Sir Walter, who well knew its qualities, " the weed" having 
 been carried into Spain as early as 1560. Ralegh was the first 
 person of eminence who smoked in this country. There are two 
 stories of Ralegh, in relation to tobacco, which must not be 
 omitted the former a tradition, the latter undoubtedly authentic. 
 It is told that Sir Walter, who at first smoked tobacco privately 
 in his study, was surprised one day by his servant, who brought 
 him his tankard of ale and nutmeg, whilst he was intent upon his 
 book and enj oying his pipe. The fellow, " seeing the smoke reeking 
 out of his mouth, threw all the ale in his face then, running down 
 
 * Ralegh introduces this personage in his "History of the World." Speak- 
 ing of the small reliance to be placed on modern maps, he says " I remember 
 a pretty jest of Don Pedro de Sarmiento, a worthy Spanish gentleman, who 
 had been employed by his king in planting a colony upon the Straits of 
 Magellan ; for when I asked him, being then my prisoner, some question 
 about an island in those straits, which might, methought, have done either 
 benefit or displeasure 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, sitting by, desired him to put in one country for her, that she 
 in imagination might have one island of her own."

 
 
 UALEGH SMOKING BEFORE QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 47 
 
 stairs, alarmed the family with repeated exclamations that ' his 
 master was on fire, and, before they could get up, would be burned 
 to ashes.' " 
 
 We know not whether Queen Elizabeth smoked (as Catherine 
 de Medicis seems to have done, tobacco in France having been 
 called, in honour of her, " the Queen's herb") ; but she was very 
 curious to know its virtues and properties, and one day, conversing 
 with Ralegh upon the subject, he " assured her majesty he had 
 so well experienced the nature of it, that he could tell her even 
 what weight the smoke would be, in any quantity proposed to be 
 consumed. Her majesty, fixing her thoughts upon the most 
 impracticable part of the experiment, that of bounding the smoke 
 in a balance, suspected that he put the traveller upon her, and 
 would needs lay him a wager he could not solve the doubt ; so he 
 procured a quantity agreed upon to be thoroughly smoked ; then 
 went to weighing, but it was of the ashes ; and in the conclusion, 
 what was wanting in the prime weight of the tobacco, her majesty 
 did not deny to have been evaporated in smoke, and farther said, 
 that ' many labourers in the fire she had heard of who turned their 
 gold into smoke, but Ralegh was the first who had turned smoke 
 into gold.'"* 
 
 If Elizabeth did not herself smoke, the use of the herb soon be- 
 came general in the court, insomuch that many ladies of rank, 
 as well as noblemen, did not scruple to take a pipe sometimes ; 
 but it was such an abomination to the Queen's successor, James I., 
 that he not only wrote a book against it, which he called "A 
 Counterblast to Tobacco," but sought to restrain effectually the 
 
 * Oldys tells us: "Being at Leeds, in Yorkshire, soon after Mr. Ralph 
 Thoresby, the antiquary, died, anno 1725, 1 saw his museum ; and in it, amongst 
 his other rarities, what himself has publicly called (in the catalogue thereof, 
 annexed to the antiquities of that town) Sir Walter Ralegh's tobacco-box. 
 From the best of my memory, I can resemble its outward appearance to 
 nothing more nearly than one of our modern muff-cases" (muffs were then 
 small, as they have since become)" about the same height and width, covered 
 with red leather, and opened at top (but with a hinge, I think) like one of 
 those. In the inside there was a cavity for a receiver of glass or metal, which 
 might hold half a pound or a pound of tobacco, and from the edge of the 
 box, a circular stay or collar, with holes in it, to plant the tobacco about, 
 with six or eight pipes to smoke it in."
 
 48 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 practice of taking it by levying an almost prohibitory duty on this 
 article, which was one of the chief sources of his revenue.* 
 
 By this time Ralegh had become a very considerable person. 
 The mass of the people, during the greater part of his career, loved 
 him, to use a phrase of the time, " from the teeth outwards," that 
 is to say, they looked upon him with distrust and aversion, and it is 
 perhaps to be lamented that he never sought their liking and 
 esteem. But he was appreciated by those who knew how to 
 value his exertions for the advancement of art and science, as the 
 encourager of new discoveries, as the patron of learned and 
 ingenious men, who acknowledged their obligations in the dedica- 
 tion of their works to him. Martin Bassaniere, of Paris, having 
 printed in that city a very valuable history of the first dis- 
 covery of Florida, made some twenty years previously, by Rene 
 Laudonniere and three other French captains, which had been 
 procured and was sent over to him by Richard Hakluyt, published 
 it, and dedicated it to Sir Walter; to whom, likewise, the English 
 translation of the work was inscribed by Hakluyt. To this emi- 
 nent and learned naval historian Ralegh gave great encourage- 
 ment, to enable him to publish his noble collection of English 
 
 * The use of tobacco at once became general in England. It was sold 
 for its weight in silver. The country people smoked it out of a walnut shell, 
 with a strong straw or reed inserted into it ; but in a few years the more 
 convenient pipe became general. In Ben Jonson's inimitable comedy, " The 
 Alchymist," written in 1610, we find that there were tobacconists' shops in 
 London, better appointed than the majority of such places five-and- twenty 
 years ago in the metropolis. Face, the confederate of Subtle, introduces 
 Abel Drugger to the latter 
 
 " This is my friend, Abel, an honest fellow. 
 He lets me have good tobacco, and he does not 
 Sophisticate it with sack-lees, or oil ; 
 Nor washes it in muscadel and grains, 
 Nor buries it in gravel, underground, 
 Wrapp'd up in greasy leather ; 
 But keeps it in fine lily pots, that, open'd. 
 Smell like conserve of roses, or French beans. 
 He has his maple block, his silver tongs, 
 Winchester pipes, and fire of juniper." 
 
 The worshipful Company of Tobacco-pipe Makers was incorporated in 1663, 
 the fifteenth of Charles II.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 49 
 
 voyages ; and he supported James Morgues, a French painter of 
 some celebrity, who had been sent over by Chastillon, Admiral of 
 France, with the before-mentioned discoveries of Florida, in the 
 great expense of publishing the draughts and descriptions of that 
 country. We may add, that about this period a book in praise of 
 music was dedicated to him, Ralegh, among his other accomplish- 
 ments, being a great proficient both in vocal and instrumental 
 music. 
 
 If, as Naunton has told us, Sir Walter " got the Queen's ear in 
 a trice," it was not for some years, and after he had undertaken 
 several enterprises, that he obtained her full confidence, which, 
 although temporarily diverted from him, on his once incurring her 
 displeasure, was never withdrawn. She now made him seneschal 
 of the duchies of Cornwall and Exeter, and Lord Warden of the 
 Stannaries in Devonshire and Cornwall. 
 
 It was perhaps to assuage the jealousy of Leicester, then 
 governor of the Netherlands, that Ralegh addressed the following 
 letter to him : 
 
 "My VEKT GOOD LORD : You wrote unto me in your last letters 
 for pioneers to be sent over ; whereupon I moved her majesty, and 
 found her very willing, insomuch as order was given for a com- 
 mission ; but since, the matter is stayed, I know not for what cause. 
 Also, according to your lordship's desire, I spoke for one Jukes 
 for the office of the Back-house, and the matter [was] well liked. 
 In aught else your lordship shall find me most assured to my power 
 to perform all offices of love, honour, and service toward you. 
 But I have been of late very pestilent reported in this place to be 
 rather a drawer-back than a furtherer of the action where you 
 govern. Your lordship doth well understand my affection toward 
 Spain, and how I have consumed the best part of my fortune, 
 hurting the tyrannous prosperity of that estate, and it were now 
 strange and monstrous that I should become an enemy to my 
 country and conscience. But all that I have desired at your 
 lordship's hands is, that you will evermore deal directly with me 
 in all matter of suspect doubleness, and so ever esteem me as you 
 shall find my deserving, good or bad. In the meantime, I humbly 
 beseech you, let no poetical scribe work your lordship by any device 
 to doubt that I am a hollow or cold servant to the action, or a 
 
 B
 
 50 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 mean (moderate or lukewarm) well-wisher and follower of your 
 own. And now I humbly take my leave, wishing you all honour 
 and prosperity. From the court, the 29th of March 1586. Your 
 Lordship's, to do you service, " W. RALEGH. 
 
 " The Queen is on very good terms with you, and, thanks be 
 to God, well pacified, and you are again her sweet Robin. 
 " To the Right Honourable my singular good 
 lord, the Earl of Leicester, Governor 
 of the Low Countries for her Majesty." 
 
 This letter, it would seem, wrought not with any mollifying effect 
 upon Leicester, although on his return he found himself as great 
 a favourite as ever, the Queen being easily persuaded by him to 
 overlook his gross incapacity as a commander, and his wretched 
 
 ROBERT DEVERE0X, EARL OF ESSEX. 
 
 misconduct in the management of affairs in the Low Countries. It 
 was now that he introduced his step-son, Essex, a lad of twenty 
 (but who had been Leicester's general of the horse), to Elizabeth. 
 This young nobleman had, when a boy, conceived a strong aver- 
 sion against the Earl, which that wily person had so effectually 
 succeeded in removing, that his protege had imbibed from him
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 51 
 
 certain rules for his conduct as a courtier which, being of a high 
 spirit, and of a frank, although by no means of a noble nature, he 
 knew not well how to apply. Too proud to stoop for favour, he 
 had not the abilities to rise by desert. Courteous and liberal to 
 his friends, by whom he was beloved, he was the darling of the 
 people, whom he courted ;* but he must needs play the antics of a 
 froward, spoiled child before a Tudor, to whom Henry the Eighth 
 had transmitted some of the tiger, and he suffered at length for his 
 ingratitude and presumption. 
 
 Ralegh's influence with the Queen does not appear to have de- 
 clined immediately upon the presentation of Essex ; for it was 
 some time after this that Tarleton, the jester, as we are told, 
 " when a pleasant play he had made was acting before her majesty, 
 pointed at Sir Walter Ralegh, and said, ' See ! the knave com- 
 mands the Queen,' for which she corrected him with a frown : yet 
 he had the confidence to add, that he was of too much and too in- 
 tolerable a power ; and, going on with the same liberty, he reflected 
 on the over-great power and riches of the Earl of Leicester, which 
 was so universally applauded by all who were present, that she 
 thought fit at that time to bear these reflections with a seeming 
 unconcernedness ; but yet was so offended, that she forbade 
 Tarleton and all her jesters from coming near her table, being in- 
 wardly displeased with this impudent and unseasonable liberty ."f 
 
 * The Lord Treasurer, Burghley, had noticed this love of popularity in 
 Essex, and the disdain of it in Sir Walter: "Seek not to be Essex; shun to 
 be Ralegh," he says, in his precepts to his son, Sir Robert Cecil. 
 
 f Fuller tells us of Thomas Tarleton, that he was born at Condover, in 
 Shropshire. " Here he was in the field, keeping his father's swine, when a 
 servant of Robert, Earl of Leicester, was so highly pleased with his 
 happy unhappy answers, that he brought him to court, where he became the 
 
 most famous jester to Queen Elizabeth Our Tarleton was master of 
 
 his faculty. When Queen Elizabeth was serious (I do not say sullen, and 
 out of good humour), he could un-dumpish her at his pleasure. Her highest 
 favourites would, in some cases, go to Tarleton before they would go to the 
 Queen, and he was their usher to prepare their advantageous access to her. 
 In a word, he told the Queen more of her faults than most of her chaplains, 
 
 and cured her melancholy better than all of her physicians Much of 
 
 his merriment lay in his very looks and actions, according to the epitaph 
 written upon him 
 
 " ' Hie situs est cujns poterat vox, actio, vultus, 
 Ex Heraclito reddere Democritum.' " 
 
 B 2
 
 52 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Although we find Ralegh in parliament towards the end of the 
 year 1586, when the fate of Mary Queen of Scots was decided, he 
 does not appear to have spoken on that matter. But he was on a 
 committee to confer upon the amendment of some things, to 
 which the clergy were required to be sworn, and that some good 
 course might be taken to have a learned ministry the Queen, in 
 her speech at the close of the former session, having told the bishops 
 of some faults and negligences " which, if you, my lords of the 
 clergy," she said, " do not amend, I mean to depose you." 
 
 At the commencement of the year 1587, Ralegh got together 
 a new colony of one hundred and fifty men for Virginia, com- 
 manded by Air. John Whiddon, whom he constituted governor, 
 and with him twelve assistants, to whom he gave a charter, incor- 
 porating them by the name of " the Governor and Assistants of 
 the City of Ralegh, in Virginia." Their fleet of three sail left 
 Portsmouth in April, and in July arrived at Hatterass. A strong 
 party was at once sent to Roanoak by the governor, in the expec- 
 tation of finding the fifteen men left there in the previous year 
 by Sir Richard Grenville. But they sought their friends in vain. 
 Some had been treacherously murdered by a party of savages, 
 and the rest had fled to some remote part of the country. Re- 
 establishing friendly relations with the natives, but fearful that 
 they should soon want fresh supplies of provisions and other neces- 
 saries, they at length prevailed on the governor to go back to 
 England for the purpose of procuring them. Accordingly, Whiddon 
 returned in the latter end of the year. 
 
 Anxious for the prosperity of the colony, Ralegh, immediately 
 on Whiddon's arrival, ordered a pinnace to be sent to them with 
 all necessary provisions, promising a good supply of shipping, and 
 even to be with them the following summer. True to his word, 
 he fitted out a fleet at Bideford, to be commanded by Sir Richard 
 Grenville ; but apprehensions of the impending invasion of Spain 
 prevented their sailing, so that Governor Whiddon could only 
 obtain two small pinnaces, with fifteen planters, and all necessary 
 provisions for those who wintered in the country. But one of these 
 two vessels was encountered on their passage by two strong men- 
 of-war at Rochelle, where, after an obstinate contest, the English 
 were boarded and rifled. Within a month this ship returned to 
 England, crippled and helpless ; and, about three weeks after,
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 53 
 
 was followed by the other, " having, perhaps, tasted of the same 
 fare at least without performing the intended voyage, to the 
 distress of the planters abroad, and displeasure of their patron 
 at home." * 
 
 The alarm of the Spanish preparations against England being 
 now at its height, Sir Walter, in November, 1587, was one of the 
 council of war appointed to consider what was best to be done in 
 this emergency, upon which occasion he drew up a scheme of 
 operations, which is cited as a proof of his exquisite judgment and 
 rare abilities. This document is still in existence, and fully bears 
 out the eulogium it has called forth ; but in his " History of the 
 World " he has enlarged upon his favourite doctrine, and insisted 
 upon what he always maintained, namely, that a country is ever 
 better defended by sea than on land, so eloquently and con- 
 vincingly, that we only wonder some of the disputants two years 
 ago had not reprinted it, when we were all to be terrified into a 
 belief of an invasion by France : 
 
 "An old example we have of that great advantage of transport - 
 
 * " Dr. Southey states," says Mr. Napier, " ' that no further attempt was 
 made to relieve the colonists, nor to ascertain their fate, and of these per- 
 sons nothing mag ever afterwards known.' He recurs to the subject to add, 
 ' that the abandonment of these poor colonists must ever be a reproach to 
 Ralegh.' 1 There are here two gross mis-statements, the last a highly cul- 
 pable one, as directly criminating the man whose actions he records. Of the 
 unfortunate persons of whom he so confidently says that ' nothing was 
 ever afterwards known,' we are shocked to learn that Powhatten, a Virginian 
 Sovereign, whose name is well known in the history of that country, ' con- 
 fessed to Capt Smith that he had been at the murder of the colony, and 
 showed him certain articles which had been theirs.' Will Dr. Southey, 
 after reading this dreadful confession, say that ' nothing was ever known 
 of these ill-fated colonists ? ' And what will he say of his far more re- 
 prehensible mis-statement, that ' no further attempt was made to relieve 
 them, or even to ascertain their fate,' if we shall place before his eyes his- 
 torical proof that five different attempts to succour them were made by the 
 man whose utter neglect of them he represents as a lasting reproach to his 
 memory? The proof is contained in a remarkable notice preserved by 
 Purchas, of the date of 1602, bearing, that ' Samuel Mace, of Weymouth, a 
 very sufficient mariner, who had been at Virginia twice bej'ore, was (in this 
 year) employed thither by Sir Walter Ralegh to find these people, which 
 were left there in 1587, to whose succour he hath sent Jive several times, at 
 his own charges.'' "
 
 54 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ing armies by water, between Canute and Edmund Ironside. 
 For Canute, when he had entered the Thames with his navy and 
 army, and could not prevail against London, suddenly embarked, 
 and, sailing to the west, landed in Dorsetshire, so drawing 
 Edmund and his army thither. There, finding ill entertainment, 
 he again shipped his men, and entered the Severn, making 
 Edmund to march after him to the succour of Worcestershire, 
 by him greatly spoiled. But when he had Edmund there, he 
 sailed back again to London, by means whereof he both wearied 
 the king, and spoiled where he pleased, ere succour could arrive. 
 And this was not the least help which the Netherlands have had 
 against the Spaniards in the defence of their liberty, that, being 
 masters of the sea, they could pass their army from place to 
 place, unwearied and entire, with all the munition and artillery 
 belonging unto it, in the tenth part of the time wherein their 
 enemies have been able to do it. Of this an instance or two. 
 The Count Maurice of Nassau, now living, one of the greatest 
 captains, and of the worthiest princes, that either the present or 
 preceding ages have brought forth, in the year 1590 carried his 
 army by sea, with forty cannons, to Breda, making countenance 
 either to besiege Boisleduc, or Gertreviden Berg ; which the 
 enemy (in prevention) filled with soldiers and victuals. But as 
 soon as the wind served, he suddenly set sail, arriving in the 
 mouth of the Meuse, turned up the Rhine, and thence to Yssel, 
 and sat down before Zutphen. So, before the Spaniards could 
 march over-land round about Holland, above fourscore miles, and 
 over many great rivers, with their cannon and carriage, Zutphen 
 was taken. Again, when the Spanish army had overcome this 
 wearisome march, and were now far from home, the prince 
 Maurice, making countenance to sail up the Rhine, changed his 
 course in the night ; and, sailing down the stream, he was set 
 down before Hulst, in Brabant, ere the Spaniards had knowledge 
 what was become of him. So this town he also took before the 
 Spanish army could return. Lastly, the Spanish army was no 
 sooner arrived in Brabant, than the Prince Maurice, well attended 
 by his good fleet, having fortified Hulst, set sail again, and pre- 
 sented himself before Nymeguen, in Gelders, a city of notable 
 importance, and mastered it. 
 
 "And, to say the truth, it is impossible for any maritime
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 55 
 
 country, not having the coasts admirably fortified, to defend 
 itself against a powerful enemy, that is master of the sea. 
 Hereof I had rather that Spain than England should be an 
 example. Let it therefore be supposed that King Philip the 
 Second had fully resolved to hinder Sir John Norris, in the 
 year 1589, from presenting Don Antonio, king of Portugal, 
 before the gates of Lisbon, and that he would have kept off 
 the English by power of his land forces as being too weak at 
 sea, through the great overthrow of his mighty Armada by the 
 fleet of Queen Elizabeth in the year foregoing surely it had 
 not been hard for him to prepare an army that should be able 
 to resist our eleven thousand. But where should this, his army, 
 have been bestowed ? If about Lisbon, then would it have 
 been easy unto the English to take, ransack, and burn the town 
 of Groine, and to waste the country round about it; for the 
 great and threatening preparations of the Earl of Altemira, the 
 Marquis of Seralba, and others, did not hinder them from 
 performing all this. Neither did the hasty levy of eight thou- 
 sand, under the Earl of Andrada, serve to more effect than the 
 increase of honour to Sir John Norris and his associates, con- 
 sidering that the English charged these at Puente de Burgos, 
 and, passing the great bridge behind which they lay, that was 
 flanked with shot and barricaded at the further end, routed 
 them, took their camp, took their general's standard, with the 
 king's arms, and pursued them over all the country, which they 
 fired. If a royal army, and not (as this was) a company of 
 private adventurers, had thus begun the war in Gallicia, I think 
 it would have made the Spaniards to quit the guard of Portugal, 
 and make haste to the defence of their St. Jago, whose temple 
 was not far from the danger. But had they held their first 
 resolution as knowing that Sir John Norris's main intent was 
 to bring Don Antonio, with an army, into his kingdom, whither, 
 coming strong, he expected to be readily and joyfully welcomed 
 could they have hindered his landing in Portugal ? Did not 
 he land at Penicha, and march over the country to Lisbon six 
 days' journey ? Did not he, when all Don Antonio's promises 
 failed, pass along by the river of Lisbon to Cascaliz, and there, 
 having won the fort, quietly embark his men and depart ? But 
 these, though no more than an handful, yet were they English-
 
 56 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 men. Let us consider of the matter itself, what another nation 
 might do, even against England, in landing an army by advan- 
 tage of a fleet, if we had none. This question, whether an 
 invading army may be resisted at their landing upon the coast 
 of England, were there no fleet of ours at the sea to impeach 
 it, is already handled by a learned gentleman of our nation, 
 in his observations upon ' Caesar's Commentaries,' that maintains 
 the affirmative. This he holds only upon supposition in absence 
 of our shipping ; and comparatively as that it is a more safe 
 and easy course to defend all the coast of England, than to suffer 
 any enemy to land and afterwards to fight with him. Surely I 
 hold with him, that it is the best way to keep our enemy from 
 treading upon our ground ; wherein, if we fail, then must we 
 seek to make him wish that he had staid at his own home. In 
 such a case, if it should happen, our judgments are to weigh 
 many particular circumstances that belong not unto this discourse. 
 But, making the question general and positive, whether England, 
 without help of her fleet, be able to debar an enemy from landing, I 
 hold that it is unable so to do ; and, therefore, I think it most dan- 
 gerous to make the adventure ; for the encouragement of a first 
 victory to an enemy, and the discouragement of being beaten to 
 the invaded, may draw after it a most perilous consequence. 
 
 " It is true that the Marshal Monluc,' in his ' Commentaries,' 
 doth greatly complain that, by his wanting forces wherewith to 
 have kept the frontier of Guyenne, they of the Protestant 
 religion, after the battle of Moncontour, entered that country 
 and gathered great strength and relief thence. ' For if the King, 
 saith he, ' would have given me but reasonable means, -feusse 
 bien garde a Monsieur V Admiral de faire boire ses chevaux en 
 la Garonne, 1 I would have kept the Admiral from watering his 
 horses in the river of Garonne. Monsieur de Langey, on the 
 contrary side, prefers the not fighting upon a frontier with an 
 invading enemy, and commends the delay which course the 
 Constable of France held against the Emperor Charles when 
 he invaded Provence. Great difference I know there is, and a 
 diverse consideration to be had, between such a country as 
 France is, strengthened with many fortified places, and this of 
 ours, where our ramparts are but of the bodies of men. And it 
 was of invasions upon firm land that these great captains spake,
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 57 
 
 whose entrances cannot be uncertain. But our question is of 
 an army to be transported over sea, and to be landed again in 
 an enemy's country, and the place left to the choice of the 
 invader. Hereunto I say that such an army cannot be resisted 
 on the coast of England without a fleet to impeach it ; no, nor 
 on the coast of France, or any other country except every 
 creek, port, and sandy bay had a powerful army in each of them 
 to make opposition ; for let his whole supposition be granted 
 that Kent is able to furnish twelve thousand foot, and that those 
 twelve thousand be laid in the three best landing-places within 
 that country to wit, three thousand at Margate, three thousand 
 at the Ness, and six thousand at Folkestone, that is somewhat 
 equally distant from them both ; as also that two of these troops 
 (unless some other order be thought more fit) be directed to 
 strengthen the third when they shall see the enemy's fleet to bend 
 towards it ; I say that, notwithstanding this provision, if the 
 enemy, setting sail from the Isle of Wight in the first watch 
 of the night, and, towing their long-boats at their sterns, shall 
 arrive by dawn of day at the Ness, and thrust their army on 
 shore there, it will be hard for those three thousand that are 
 at Margate, twenty and four long miles from thence, to come 
 time enough to reinforce their fellows at the Ness. Nay, how 
 shall they at Folkestone be able to do it, who are nearer by more 
 than half the way, seeing that the enemy, at his first arrival, 
 will either make his entrance by force, with three or four hun- 
 dred shot of great artillery, and quickly put the first three 
 thousand that were intrenched at the Ness to run, or else give 
 them so much to do that they shall be glad to send for help to 
 Folkestone, and perhaps to Margate whereby those places will 
 be left bare ? Now, let us suppose that all the twelve thousand 
 Kentish soldiers arrive at the Ness ere the enemy can be ready 
 to disembark his army, so that he shall find it unsafe to land in 
 the face of so many prepared to withstand him, yet must we 
 believe that he will play the best of his own game, and, having 
 liberty to go which way he list, under covert of the night set 
 sail towards the east, where what shall hinder him to take 
 ground either at Margate, the Downs, or elsewhere, before they 
 at the Ness can be well aware of his departure ? Certainly 
 there is nothing more easy than to do it. Yea, the like may be
 
 58 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 said of Weymouth, Purbeck, Poole, and of all landing-places 
 on the south coast ; for there is no man ignorant that ships, 
 without putting themselves out of breath, will easily out-run the 
 soldiers that coast them. 'Les armees ne volent point en poste' 
 Armies neither fly nor run post, saith a Marshal of France. 
 And I know it to be true, that a fleet of ships may be seen at 
 sunset, and after it, at the Lizard, yet, by the next morning, 
 they may recover* Portland, whereas an army of foot should not 
 be able to march it in six days. Again, when those troops 
 lodged on the sea-shores shall be forced to run from place to 
 place in vain after a fleet of ships, they will at length sit 
 down in the midway and leave all at adventure. But say it 
 were otherwise that the invading enemy will offer to land in 
 some such place, where there shall be an army of ours ready 
 to receive him yet it cannot be doubted but that, when the 
 choice of all our trained bands, and the choice of our com- 
 manders and captains, shall be drawn together as they were 
 at Tilbury in the year 1588 to attend the person of the prince, 
 and for the defence of the city of London, they that remain 
 to guard the coast can be of no such force as to encounter an 
 army like unto that wherewith it was intended that the Prince 
 of Parma should have landed in England. 
 
 " The isle of Terceira hath taught us by experience what to 
 think in such a case. There are not many islands in the world 
 better fenced by nature and strengthened by art, it being every- 
 where hard of access, having no good harbour wherein to shelter 
 a navy of friends, and upon every cove or watering-place a fort 
 erected, to forbid the approach of an enemy's boat. Yet when 
 Emanuel de Sylva and Monsieur de Chattes, that held it to the 
 use of Don Antonio, with five or six thousand men, thought to 
 have kept the Marquis of Santa Cruz from setting foot on 
 ground therein, the Marquis having shown himself in the road 
 of Angra, did set sail ere any was aware of it, and arrived at 
 the Port des Moles, far distant from thence, where he won a 
 fort, and landed ere Monsieur de Chattes, running thither in 
 
 * Ralegh uses the word " recover" in the sense of " reach," or " arrive at." 
 So Shakspeare, in the " Two Gentlemen of Verona :" 
 
 " The forest is but three leagues off, 
 
 When we recover that we are sure enough."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 59 
 
 vain, could come to hinder him. The example of Philip Strossie, 
 slain the year before, without all regard of his worth, and of 
 three hundred French prisoners murdered in cold blood, had 
 instructed de Chattes and his followers what they might expect 
 at that Marquis's hand ; therefore, it is not like that they 
 were slow in carrying relief to Port des Moles. Whether our 
 English would be persuaded to make such diligent haste from 
 Margate to the Ness and back again, it may be doubted ; sure 
 I am, that it were a greater march than all the length of Terceira, 
 whereof the Frenchmen had not measured the one -half when they 
 found themselves prevented by the more rymble ships of Spain. 
 
 " This may suffice to prove, that a strong army in a good fleet, 
 which neither foot nor horse is able to follow, cannot be denied 
 to land where it list in England, France, or elsewhere, unless 
 it be hindered, encountered, and shuffled together by a fleet of 
 equal, or answerable, strength. 
 
 " The difficult landing of our English at Fayal, in the year 1597, 
 is alleged against this, which example moves me no way to think 
 that a large coast may be defended against a strong fleet. I landed 
 those English in Fayal myself, and therefore ought to take notice 
 of this instance. For, whereas I find an action of mine cited with 
 omission of my name, I may, by a civil interpretation, think that 
 there was no purpose to defraud me of any honour, but rather an 
 opinion, that the enterprise was such, or so ill managed, as that no 
 honour could be due unto it. There were indeed some which 
 were in that voyage who advised me not to undertake it ; and I 
 hearkened unto them somewhat longer than was requisite, espe- 
 cially whilst they desired me to reserve the title of such an ex- 
 ploit (though it were not great) for a greater person.* But when 
 they began to tell me of difficulty, I gave them to understand, the 
 same which I now maintain, that it was more difficult to defend a 
 coast than to invade it. The truth is, that I could have landed 
 my men with more ease than I did ; yea, without finding any 
 resistance, if I would have rowed to another place, yea, even there 
 where I landed, if I would have taken more company to help me. 
 But, without fearing any imputation of rashness, I may say, that 
 I had more regard of reputation in that business, than of safety. 
 For I thought it to belong to the honour of our prince and 
 * The Earl of Essex.
 
 60 TEE LIFE AXD TIMES OF 
 
 nation, that a few islanders should not think any advantage 
 great enough against a fleet set forth by Queen Elizabeth ; and 
 further, I was unwilling that some Low Country captains, and 
 others, not of mine own squadron, whose assistance I had refused, 
 should please themselves with a sweet conceit (though it would 
 have been short, when I had landed in some other place) that for 
 want of their help I was driven to turn tail. Therefore, I took 
 with me none but men, assured commanders of mine own squadron , 
 with some of their followers, and a few other gentlemen volunteers, 
 whom I could not refuse as Sir William Brook, Sir William 
 Harvey, Sir Arthur Gorges, Sir John Scot, Sir Thomas Ridgeway, 
 Sir Henry Tinnes, Sir Charles Morgan, Sir Walter Chute, 
 Marcellus Throgmorton, Captain Laurence Keymis, Captain 
 William Morgan, and others, such as well understood themselves 
 and the enemy by whose help, by God's favour, I made good the 
 enterprise I undertook. As for the working of the sea, the steep- 
 ness of the cliffs, and other troubles that were not new to us we 
 overcame them well enough. And these (notwithstanding) made 
 five or six companies of the enemies, that sought to impeach our 
 landing, abandon the wall, whereon their musketiers lay on the 
 rest for us, and won the place of them without any great loss. 
 This I could have done with less danger, so that it should not have 
 served for example of a rule, that failed even in this example : 
 but the reasons before alleged (together with other reasons well 
 known to some of the gentlemen above named, though more 
 private than to be here laid down) made me rather follow the way 
 of bravery, and take the shorter course ; having it still in mine 
 own power to fall off when I should think it meet. It is easily 
 said, that the enemy was more than a coward, (which yet was more 
 than we knew); neither will I magnify such a small piece of service 
 by seeking to prove him better whom, had I thought equal to 
 mine own followers, I would otherwise have dealt with . But for 
 so much as concerns the proposition in hand, he that beheld this 
 may well remember, that the same enemy troubled us more in our 
 march towards Fayal, than in our taking the shore ; that he sought 
 how to stop us in place of his advantage ; that many of our men 
 were slain or hurt by him, among whom Sir Arthur Gorges was 
 shot in that march ; and that such as (thinking all danger to be 
 past, when we had won good footing) would needs follow us to
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 61 
 
 the town, were driven by him to forsake the pace of a man-of-war, 
 and betake themselves to an hasty trot. 
 
 " For end of this digression, I hope that this question shall never 
 come to trial : his majesty's many moveable forts will forbid the 
 experience. And although the English will no less disdain, than 
 any nation under heaven can do, to be beaten upon their own 
 ground, or elsewhere, by a foreign enemy, yet, to entertain those 
 that shall assail us with their own beef in their bellies, and before 
 they eat of our Kentish capons, I take it to be the wisest way. 
 To do which, his majesty, after God, will employ his good ships 
 on the sea, and not trust to any intrenchment upon the shore." 
 
 In May, 1588, the king of France sent to Elizabeth, advising 
 her that the tempest which, for three years past, had been gather- 
 ing in Spain, would very speedily burst upon England, and ex- 
 horting her to make every preparation for her kingdom. Nor 
 did Philip II. of Spain any longer make a secret of his intention. 
 What exertions the Queen and the country made at this crisis is a 
 matter of history. Ralegh, on his part, raised and disciplined 
 the militia of Cornwall, and then joined the fleet in July with a 
 squadron of noblemen and gentlemen volunteers. He bore a very 
 considerable part in the several engagements, and the final entire 
 defeat of the " Invincible " Armada, of which he has left us an 
 account in a pamphlet concerning Sir Richard Grenville. This 
 extraordinary victory, which, although some part of the praise 
 may be given to fortune, was gained mainly by the judgment and 
 skill of Lord Charles Howard, afterwards Earl of Nottingham,* was 
 
 * Ralegh cites the example of Howard on this occasion in some remarks on 
 naval warfare in the " History of the World," which we quote for the perusal 
 and judgment of modern sea-captains : " He that will happily perform a 
 fight at sea, must be skilful in making choice of vessels to fight in : he must 
 believe that there is more belonging to a good man-of-war, upon the waters, 
 than great daring ; and must know that there is a great deal of difference be- 
 tween fighting loose or at large, and grappling; the guns of a slow-ship 
 pierce as well, and make as great holes, as those in a swift. To clap ships to- 
 gether without consideration, belongs rather to a madman than to a man of 
 war ; for by such an ignorant bravery was Peter Strossie lost at the Azores, 
 when he fought against the Marquis of Santa Cruz. In like sort had the 
 Lord Charles Howard, Admiral of England, been lost in the year 1588, if 1m 
 had not been better advised than a great many malignant fools were, that 
 found fault with his demeanour. The Spaniards had an army aboard them,
 
 62 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 a blow which that treacherous, ungrateful, and now contemptible 
 nation, never altogether recovered. Of their one hundred and forty 
 sail, encountered by thirty of the Queen's ships of war and a few 
 
 CHARLES HOWARD, EARL OF NOTTINGHAH. 
 
 and he had none : they had more ships than he had, and of higher building 
 and charging, so that, had he entangled himself with those great and power- 
 ful vessels, he had greatly endangered this kingdom of England ; for twenty 
 men upon the defences are equal to a hundred that board and enter; whereas 
 then, contrariwise, the Spaniards had a hundred for twenty of ours to defend 
 themselves withal. But our Admiral knew his advantage, and held it, 
 which, had he not done, he had not been worthy to have held his head. 
 Here, to speak in general of sea fights, (for particulars are fitter for private 
 hands than for the press,) I say, that a fleet of twenty ships, all good sailors 
 and good ships, have the advantage, on the open sea, of an hundred as good 
 ships, and of slower sailing; for if the fleet of an hundred sail keep themselves 
 near together in a gross squadron, the twenty ships, charging them upon 
 any angle, shall force them to give ground, and to fall back upon their own 
 next fellows, of which so many as entangle are made unserviceable, or lost.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. C3 
 
 merchantmen, only fifty-three returned ; and whilst the English lost 
 only a hundred men and one captain,* ten thousand one hundred 
 
 Force them they may easily; because the twenty ships, which give themselves 
 scope after they have given one broadside of artillery, by clapping into the 
 wind, and staying, they may give them the other ; and so the twenty ships 
 batter them in pieces with a perpetual volley, whereas those that fight in a 
 troop, have no room to turn, and can always use but one and the same 
 beaten side. If the fleet of an hundred sail give themselves any distance, then 
 shall the lesser fleet prevail, either against those that are arrear and hind- 
 most, or against those that, by advantage of over-sailing their fellows, keep 
 the wind ; and if upon a lee-shore the ships next the wind be constrained to 
 fall back into their own squadron, then it is all to nothing the whole fleet 
 must suffer shipwreck, or render itself. That such advantage may be taken 
 upon a fleet of unequal speed, it hath been well enough conceived in old time, 
 as by that oration of Hermocrates, in Thucydides, which he made to the 
 Syracusans, when the Athenians invaded them, it may easily be observed. 
 
 " Of the art of war by sea, I had written a treatise for the Lord Henry, 
 Prince of Wales, a subject, to my knowledge, never handled by any man, 
 ancient or modern ; but God hath spared me the labour of finishing it by his 
 loss by the loss of that brave prince of which, like an eclipse of the gun, 
 rve shall foul the effects hereafter. [How prophetic was this !] Impossible 
 it is to equal words and sorrows ; I will therefore leave him in the hands of 
 God that hath him. Cures leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent." 
 
 * Captain Cocke, who served as a volunteer in his own ship. Camden, and 
 after him Fuller, have celebrated this gallant seaman. " Pity 'tis," says 
 the latter, "his memory should ever be "forgotten." And says Camden, 
 " Solus Cochus, in sud inter medios hastes navicula, cum laurleperiit." He 
 was a Devonshire man, and figures in Prince's " Worthies " of that county. 
 
 I cannot omit in this place taking notice of a piece of unwonted petulance 
 of Lord Campbell, who, in his " Lives of the Chief Justices," successfully claims 
 for Sir William Gascoigne the honour of having committed the Prince of 
 Wales (afterwards Henry V.) for insulting him while sitting in the execution 
 of his office. His lordship says, " The Devonians, who think that nothing 
 great or good can have been done in England, unless by a 'worthy of 
 Devon,' taking advantage of the language of chroniclers who, trusting to the 
 notoriety of the story, mentioned the judge only under the designation of the 
 ' Chief Justice,' claim the commitment of the Prince of Wales for two of 
 their countrymen, Chief Justice Uankford, and Chief Justice Hody. When 
 I hear of high Devonian pretensions, I confess I am reminded of the 
 celebrated saying of Serjeant Davy, ' That the oftener he went into the 
 West, he better understood that the wise men came from the East.' " The 
 Devonians surely entertain no such foolish thoughts ; Prince at least makes 
 no pretensions of the kind ; and when Lord Campbell is next reminded of 
 Serjeant Davy's jest, let him bethink himself that that county need not be
 
 64 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and eighty-five Spaniards were destroyed and taken. "There 
 was not a famous or worthy family in all Spain which in this expe- 
 dition lost not a son, a brother, or a kinsman." 
 
 The services of Ralegh on this memorable occasion raised him 
 still higher in the Queen's estimation. In the previous year she 
 had appointed him Captain of the Guard and Lieutenant-General 
 of Cornwall ; she now made him Gentleman of her Privy Chamber, 
 and he received a considerable augmentation of his wine patent. 
 
 Early in 1589, Sir Walter, having expended forty thousand 
 pounds upon his scheme for colonising Virginia, assigned his 
 right, title, and interest in it to certain gentlemen and merchants 
 of London, reserving to himself the fifth part of all the gold and 
 silver ore that might be found there.* 
 
 ashamed which, before Prince wrote, had given a Bracton and a Fortescue 
 to the law ; a Jewel and a Hooker to the church ; and a Ralegh, a Drake, a 
 Hawkins, a Gilbert, and a Grenville, to the navy. And the wise men of the 
 East, if they came hither for further knowledge, might find it in the books 
 presented to the University of Oxford by Sir Thomas Bodley. It is with 
 great reluctance that I remind Lord Campbell that Sir William Follett was 
 a Devonshire man, 
 
 * That gold and silver, in large quantities, were to be come at in parts of 
 America not possessed by the Spaniards, was a persuasion that fire could not 
 burn out of Ralegh. To lay hold upon it, for the enriching of his country 
 and of himself, was one of his earliest, as it was his latest dream. Towards the 
 end of the following curious passage, it will be seen that Ralegh had a strong 
 belief that, not only in America, but in many other parts of the world, gold 
 was to be found abundantly. Let those who survive of the several that, 
 during the last thirty years, have deplored his credulity or insinuated his 
 want of good faith, ponder upon the Californian and Australian " diggings," 
 and then conclude within themselves that there are more strange things in 
 the world than a man may see, as Sir Walter has remarked, " in a journey 
 between Staines and London." " Ophir also was an inhabitant of the East 
 India, and (as St. Jerome understands it) in one of the islands plentiful with 
 gold, which are now known by the name of Molucca. Josephus understands 
 Ophir to be one of those great headlands in India which, by a general name, 
 are called Chersonesi, or Peninsulse, of which there are two very notorious, 
 Calicut and Malacon. Pererius takes it rightly for an island, as Saint 
 Jerome doth ; but he sets it at the headland of Malacca. But Ophir is found 
 among the Moluccas farther east. 
 
 " Arias Montanus, out of the second of Chronicles, the third chapter and 
 sixth verse, gathers that Ophir was Peru, in America, looking into the West 
 Ocean, commonly called Mare del Sur, or the South Sea, by others Mare
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 65 
 
 Philip II. of Spain having expelled Don Antonio, king of Por- 
 tugal, from his dominions, the latter landed in England and came 
 
 Pacificum. The words in the second of the Chronicles are these ' And he 
 overlaid the house with precious stones for beauty ; and the gold was gold of 
 Parvaim.' Junius takes this gold to be the gold of Havilah, remembered by 
 Moses in the description of Paradise ' And the gold of that land is good :' 
 finding a town in Characene, a province in Susiana called Barbatia (so 
 called, as he thinks, by corruption, for Parvaim), from whence those kings 
 subjected by David brought this gold, with which they presented him, and 
 which David preserved for the enriching of the Temple. 
 
 " But this fancy of Peru hath deceived many men before Montanus and 
 Plessis, who also took Ophir for Peru. And that this question may be a 
 subject of no further dispute, it is very true that there is no region in the 
 world of that name : sure I am that at least America hath none no, not 
 .any city, village, or mountain so called. But when Francis Pizarro first 
 discovered those lands to the south of Panama, arriving in that region 
 which Atabalipa commanded (a prince of magnificence, riches, and dominion 
 inferior to none), some of the Spaniards, utterly ignorant of that language, 
 demanding by signs (as they could) the name of the country, and pointing 
 with their hand athwart a river, or torrent, or brook that ran by, the 
 Indians answered ' Peru,' which was either the name of that brook, or of 
 water in general. The Spaniards thereupon, conceiving that the people 
 had rightly understood them, set it down in the diurnal of their enterprise ; 
 and so, in the first description made and sent over to Charles the Emperor, 
 all that west part of America to the south of Panama had the name of Peru, 
 which hath continued ever since, as divers Spaniards in the Indies have 
 .assured me; which also Acosta, the Jesuit, in his natural and moral history 
 of the Indies, confirmeth. And whereas Montanus also findeth, that a part 
 of the Indies (called Jucatan) took that name of Joctan, who, as he sup- 
 poseth, navigated from the utmost east of India to America ; it is most 
 true that Jucatan is nothing else in the language of that country but 
 ' What is that ?' or, 'What say you?' For when the Spaniards asked the 
 name of that place (no man conceiving their meaning), one of the savages 
 answered, ' Jucatan,' which is, ' What ask you ?' or, ' What say you? ' The 
 like happened touching Paria, a mountain'ous country on the south side of 
 Trinidad and Margarita ; for when the Spaniards, inquiring (as all men do) 
 the names of those new regions which they discovered, pointed to the hills 
 afar off, one of the people answered, ' Paria,' which is as much to say as, 
 ' high hills,' or ' mountains.' For at Paria begins that marvellous ledge of 
 mountains, which from thence are continued to the Strait of Magellan, from 
 eight degrees of north latitude to the 52nd of south ; and so hath that country 
 ever since retained the name of Paria. 
 
 " The same happened among the English, which I sent, under Sir Richard 
 Grenville, to inhabit Virginia. For when some of my people asked the name 
 
 F
 
 G6 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 to London, where he applied to Elizabeth for her aid towards the 
 recovery of his kingdom. The Queen contributed six men-of-war 
 
 of that country, one of the savages answered, ' Wingandacon,' which is as 
 much to say as, 'You wear good clothes,' or, 'gay clothes.' The same 
 happened to the Spaniard in asking the name of the island Trinidad ; for a 
 Spaniard demanding the name of that self place, which the sea encompassed, 
 they answered, 'Caeri,' which signifieth an island. And in this manner 
 have many places newly discovered been intituled of which Peru is one. 
 And therefore we must leave Ophir among the Moluccas, whereabout such 
 an island is credibly affirmed to be. 
 
 ' ' Now, although there may be found gold in Arabia itself (towards Persia), 
 in Havilah, now Susiana, and all along that East Indian shore, yet the 
 greatest plenty is taken up at the Philippines, certain islands planted by the 
 Spaniards, from the East Indies. And by the length of the passage which 
 Solomon's ships made from the Red Sea (which was three years in going and 
 coming), it seemeth they went to the uttermost east, as the Moluccas, or 
 Philippines. Indeed, those that now go from Portugal, or from hence, finish 
 that navigation in two years, and sometimes less; and Solomon's ships went 
 not above a tenth part of this our course from hence. But we must consider, 
 that they evermore kept the coast, and crept by the shores, which made the 
 way exceeding long ; for, before the use of the compass was known, it was 
 impossible to navigate athwart the ocean and therefore Solomon's ships could 
 not find Peru in America. Neither was it needful for the Spaniards themselves 
 (had it not been for the plenty of gold in the East India islands, far above the 
 mines of any one place of America) to sail every year from the west part of 
 America thither, and there to have strongly planted and inhabited the richest 
 of those islands, wherein they have built a city called Manilla. Solomon, 
 therefore, needed not to have gone farther off than Ophir in the East to have 
 sped worse; neither could lie navigate from the east to the west in those days, 
 whenas he had no coast to guide him. 
 
 " Tostatus also gathereth a fantastical opinion out of flabanus, who makes 
 Ophir to be a country whose mountains of gold are kept by griffins ; which 
 mountains Solinusaffirmeth to be in Scythia Asiatica, in these words : ' Nam 
 cum auro et gemmis affluant, griplies tenent universa, alites ferocissimce, 
 Arimaspi cum Ms dimicant,' &c. For whereas these countries abound in gold 
 and rich stones, the griffins defend the one and the other a kind of fowl, the 
 fiercest of all other ; with which griffins a nation of people called Arimaspi 
 make war.' These Arimaspi are said to have been men with one eye only, 
 like unto the Cyclops of Sicily ; of which Cyclops, Herodotus and Aristseus 
 make mention ; and so doth Lucan in his third book ; and Valerius Flaceus ; 
 and D. Siculus, in the story of Alexander of Macedon. But (for mine own 
 opinion) I believe none of them ; and, for these Arimaspi, I take it that this 
 name, signifying one-eyed, was first given them by reason that they used to 
 wear a visor of defence, with one sight in the middle to serve both eyes, and
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 67 
 
 and sixty thousand pounds, and encouraged her subjects to help 
 the design. Ralegh was one of the first to do so ; and he accom- 
 panied that prince as a volunteer, the charge by sea being com- 
 mitted to Sir Francis Drake, by land, to the veteran Sir John 
 Norris. We learn that in this expedition Ralegh took a great 
 number of hulks and other ships belonging to the Hanse Towns, 
 
 LOUD BCBOHLET. 
 
 not that they had by nature any such defect. But Solinus borroweth these 
 things out of Pliny, who speaks of such a nation in the extreme north, at a 
 place called Gisolitron, or the Cavo of the North-east Wind. For the rest, as 
 all fables were commonly grounded upon some true stories, or other things 
 done, so might these tales of the griffins receive this moral : That if those men 
 which fight against so many dangerous passages for gold, or other riches of 
 this world, had their perfect senses, and were not deprived of half their eye- 
 sight (at least of the eye of right reason and understanding), they would 
 content themselves with a quiet and moderate estate, and not subject themselves 
 to famine, corrupt air, violent heat and cold, and to all sorts of miserable 
 diseases. And though this fable be feigned in this place, yet if such a tale were 
 told of some other places of the world, where wild beasts or serpents defend 
 mountains of gold, it might be avowed ; for there are in many places of the
 
 68 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 laden with Spanish goods, provisions, and ammunition for a second 
 invasion of England; and his conduct throughout was so highly 
 pleasing to her majesty, that she honoured him, as well as Drake 
 and Norris, with a gold chain. 
 
 world, especially in America, many high and impassable mountains, 
 which are vwy rich, and full qf gold, inhabited only with tigers, lions, and 
 other ravenous and cruel beasts, unto which if any man ascend (except his 
 strength be very great), he shall be sure to find the same war which the 
 Arirnaspi made against the griffins; not that the one or other had any sense of 
 the gold, or seek to defend that metal, but being disquieted, or made afraid of 
 themselves or their young ones, they grow enraged and adventurous. In like 
 sort it may be said that the alegartos (which the Egyptians call the crocodiles) 
 defend those pearls which lie in the lakes of the inland'} for many times the 
 poor Indians are eaten up by them, when they dive for the pearl. And though 
 the alegartos know not the pearl, yet they find savour in the flesh and blood of 
 the Indians, whom they devour." 
 
 And again, relating the fable of the golden fleece, he observes : 
 " Not far from Caucasus, there are certain steep-falling torrents which 
 wash down many grains of gold, as in many other parts of the ivorld; and 
 the people there inhabiting, use to set many fleeces of wool in those descents of 
 waters, in which the grains of gold remain, and the water passeth through."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH CD 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE Earl of Essex was now nearly at the height of Elizabeth's 
 favour. On his return with Leicester from the low countries, he 
 had been made master of the horse in the place of his step-father, 
 advanced to the office of Lord Steward, and, on the formation of 
 the camp at Tilbury, the Queen had appointed him general of the 
 horse, a step which savoured greatly more of weakness than of 
 wisdom, the inexperience of the young man unfitting him for so 
 considerable a charge. A little before Leicester's death, the 
 University of Oxford, like her sister, ever sagacious of a rising- 
 sun, and with a fervid Persian disposition to worship it, which later 
 times have not abated, had incorporated him Master of Arts, that 
 he might be the more capable of becoming their Chancellor when 
 the office should become vacant, as it did shortly afterwards by the 
 death of Leicester. Elizabeth, however, did not please that this 
 high honour* should be conferred upon him, and Sir Christopher 
 Hatton was elected. 
 
 Such, nevertheless, was the influence of Essex, that in a letter, 
 dated August 17th, 1589, from Captain, afterwards Sir Francis Allen, 
 to Anthony Bacon (the elder brother of the great Bacon), we find 
 that " My Lord of Essex hath chased Ralegh from the court, and 
 confined him into Ireland conjecture you the rest of that matter." 
 The Queen, indeed, gave Sir Walter to understand, that it were as 
 well if he went over to Ireland to look after his twelve thousand 
 acres, and Ralegh was fain to be gone, once more singing 
 " Fortune, my foe, why dost thou frown ?" to see how the new 
 exotic plant (the potato) prospered, which he had been the first 
 to introduce into Ireland. 
 
 Here he visited Spenser, at his pleasant seat of Kilcolman, near 
 the river Mulla, a circumstance which the poet has celebrated in 
 
 * The University of Cambridge, about five-and-twenty years afterwards, 
 elected Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, their chancellor, the miscreant who, 
 a year or two subsequently, was convicted of poisoning Sir Thomas Over- 
 bury. Why should not the highest honour a University has it in her 
 power to bestow, be conferred upon genius or learning ?
 
 70 THE IJFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 his pastoral, " Colin Clout's come home again," -where Ralegh is 
 called "The Shepherd of the Ocean;" and here he made the 
 acquaintance of the old Countess of Desmond.* 
 
 What has been called the species of honourable banishment of 
 Ralegh did not last many weeks. On his return to the court he 
 introduced Spenser, whom he had brought over with him, to the 
 Queen. " The Shepherd of the Ocean," says the poet 
 " Unto that goddess' grace me first enhanc'd, 
 
 And to mine oaten pipe inclin'd her ear, 
 
 That she thenceforth therein 'gan take delight, 
 
 And it desir'd at timely hours to hear ; 
 
 All were my notes but rude and roughly dight." 
 
 And when, shortly afterwards, the first three books of the 
 " Faery Queen "'were published, the letter in which, according to 
 Ralegh's advice, the scope arid intention of the whole poem were 
 set forth, was addressed to him : and very fitly, for Ralegh by 
 this time enjoyed no small reputation as a poet.f 
 
 * " I myself," says Ralegh in his "History of the "World," " knew the old 
 Countess of Desmond, of Inchiquin, in Munster, who lived in the year 1589, 
 and many years since (afterwards), who was married in Edward the Fourth's 
 time, and held her jointure from all the Earls of Desmond since then ; and 
 that this is true, all the noblemen and gentlemen of Munster can witness.' 
 Assuming that the Countess was married in the middle of Edward the Fourth's 
 reign, the old lady must have held her jointure somewhere about a hundred 
 and forty years. 
 
 f The following sonnet was addressed by Spenser to Ralegh on the pub- 
 lication of his " Faery Queen " : 
 
 " To thee, that art the summer's nightingale, 
 
 Thy sovereign goddess's most dear delight, 
 "Why do I send this rustic madrigal, 
 
 That may thy tuneful ear unseason quite ? 
 Thou only fit this argument to write, 
 In whose high thoughts Pleasure hath built her bower, 
 
 And dainty Love leam'd sweetly to indite ; 
 My rhymes, I know, unsavoury and sour, 
 To taste the streams that, like a golden shower, 
 
 Flow from thy fruitful head of thy love's praise. 
 Fitter, perhaps, to thunder martial stour 
 
 "When so thee list thy lofty muse to raise. 
 Yet till that thou thy poem will make known, 
 Let thy fair Cynthia's praises be thus rudely shown." 
 Ralegh acknowledged the compliment in a very beautiful and original
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 71 
 
 His moderation in the controversy between the Established 
 Church and the Puritans was shown by the zeal with which he 
 took up the cause of Udal, a Nonconformist minister, who, in July, 
 1590, had been condemned for felony, in writing a book against the 
 bishops, and for whom he obtained a reprieve ; and the warmth of 
 his friendship for his cousin, Sir Eichard Grenville, was exhibited 
 
 sonnet, and in some verses in which he does not forget to administer a dose 
 of flattery to his royal mistress, to whom he might be pretty certain the 
 grateful poet would carry it 
 
 A VISION UPON THE FAERY QUEEN. 
 
 " Methovtght I saw the grave where Laura lay, 
 
 Within that temple where the vestal flame 
 Was wont to burn ; and, passing by that way, 
 
 To see that buried dust of living fame, 
 Whose tomb fair Love and fairer Virtue kept ; 
 
 All suddenly I saw the Faery Queen, 
 At whose approach the soul of Petrarch wept, 
 
 And from thenceforth those graces were not seen ; 
 For they this Queen attended ; hi whose stead 
 
 Oblivion laid him down on Laura's hearse ; 
 Hereat the hardest stones were seen to bleed, 
 
 And groans of buried ghosts the heavens did pierce ; 
 Where Homer's sprite did tremble all for grief, 
 And curs'd th' access of that celestial thief." 
 
 ON THE SAME. 
 
 " The praise of meaner wits this work like profit brings, 
 As doth the cuckoo's song delight, when Philomela sings. 
 If thou hast formed right true Virtue's face herein, 
 Virtue herself * can best discern to whom they written bin. 
 If thou hast beauty prais'd, let her sole looks divine, 
 Judge if aught therein be amiss, and mend it by her eyne. 
 If chastity want aught, or Temperance f her due, 
 Behold her princely mind aright, and write thy Queen anew. 
 Meanwhile, she shall perceive how far her virtues soar 
 Above the reach of all that live, or all that wrote of yore ; 
 And thereby will excuse and favour thy good will, 
 Whose virtue cannot be express'd but by an angel's quill. 
 Of me no lines are lov'd, nor letters are of price, 
 Of all which speak our English tongue, but those of thy device." 
 
 * Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 t The Young Edward VI. was wont to call the then " Lady Elizabeth " hi* 
 u sweet sister Temperance."
 
 72 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 in an elaborate defence,* written by him, of that thrice valiant 
 captain's conduct in Lord Thomas Howard's expedition of 1591,. 
 for intercepting the Spanish Plate fleet at the Azores. In this 
 pamphlet is seen conspicuously the bitter hatred with which he 
 regarded the Spaniards, who even then well knew his enterprising- 
 spirit, and his enmity to their nation, and who feared him most of 
 all Englishmen, except Drake. 
 
 Not without cause. Ralegh now formed a design against them 
 in the West Indies, particularly at Panama. His object was to 
 intercept the Plate fleet, and he put himself to great expense in 
 fitting out a maritime force, and used all his influence in engaging 
 his friends and others in the adventure. Having provided thirteen 
 ships of his own and his fellow adventurers, the scheme was so 
 well liked by the Queen, that she added to them two of her own 
 men of war, the" Garland" and the " Foresight," and appointed him 
 general of the fleet, the post of lieutenant-general being conferred 
 upon Sir John Burgh. 
 
 They put to sea in May, 1592 ; but on the next day Sir Martin 
 Frobisher followed, and overtook him with the Queen's letters of 
 recall.f Finding, however, his honour so far engaged that he saw 
 
 * It is called a " Keport of the Truth of a Fight about the Isles of Azores 
 thislast summer, betwixt the Revenge, one of her Majesty's ships, commanded 
 by Sir Richard Grenville, and an Armada of the King of Spain," 4to, 1591. 
 It was reprinted in Hackluyt's Voyages. "VVe wish we could afford to 
 give the whole narrative of this exploit as brave a one as has ever been 
 performed on the sea by any man. In a few words, Grenville maintained a 
 battle for twenty-four hours, in the Revenge, against fifty Spanish galleons, 
 with but two hundred men, whereof eighty were sick on the ballast. When 
 he had killed more than a thousand men, and sunk five of their greatest 
 vessels, after his powder was all spent, and himself mortally wounded, he at 
 last yielded upon honourable terms, which the Spanish admiral, in admiration 
 of his gallantry, proposed to him. He died within two days after, and his 
 ship sank before she could arrive in Spain. 
 
 f Dr. Southey, never unwilling to insinuate against Ralegh, says (but give 
 no authority), "It appears that there was an understanding between him 
 and the Queen that he was not to go in command of it (the fleet), though the 
 adventurers had been led to engage in it under such a belief." And "it 
 seems he was not acting with good faith towards the Queen." Southey 
 remarks that "the motives for this are not explained in any documents, 
 which have yet come to light." We shall immediately see a motive which 
 might make Ralegh glad of an occasion to obey the Queen's recall.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 73 
 
 no means of preserving 1 his reputation with his friends if he did 
 not proceed, he gave her majesty's letters a latitude of interpreta- 
 tion, and pursued his course ; and although in three or four days 
 he received what was believed reliable information, " that there was 
 little hopes of any good to be done this year in the West Indies, 
 considering that the King of Spain had sent express orders to all 
 the ports, both of the islands and of terrajirmu, that no ship should 
 stir that year, nor any treasure bs laid aboard for Spain," he never- 
 
 SlR MAUT1N FROBISIIER. 
 
 theless proceeded. But on the llth of May, meeting with a stone 
 off Cape Finisterre, and considering that the season was too much 
 advanced for his design upon Panama, and that his provisions were 
 now too far consumed for so long 1 a voyage, he made of his neces- 
 sity the seeming virtue of obedience to the Queen's commands, 
 after dividing his fleet into two squadrons, one of which was 
 confided to Sir John Burgh, and the other to Sir Martin Frobisher, 
 issuing orders to the latter to lie off the South Cape, to keep in 
 and terrify the Spaniards on their own coast, while the former 
 lay in wait at the Azores for the caracks from India. 
 
 The sagacity that had dictated those directions soon made itself
 
 74 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 apparent. The Spanish admiral, being advised that an English 
 fleet was cruising upon their coast, got together his whole naval 
 power, with instructions to keep a wary eye upon Frobisher ; and 
 thus the unprotected caracks fell a prey to Sir John Burgh, who 
 took the Madre de Dios, one of the greatest ships belonging to Por- 
 tugal, and accounted the richest prize ever brought to England, the 
 vessel being of 1,600 tons' burden, of which 900 were merchandise. 
 Ralegh, and Sir John Hawkins (his chief partner in the enterprise) 
 computed the profit of the capture at half a million ; but dis- 
 honesty when the prize was brought into Dartmouth, and rapacity 
 on the Queen's part, left Ralegh, Hawkins, and the other adven- 
 turers, little to pay themselves upon. The sailors embezzled jewels 
 and other valuables to more than two-thirds of the estimated value 
 of the cargo ; and her majesty, who, by agreement when she con- 
 tributed her two ships, was " to have according to her tonnage " 
 " only one of which, and the least of them, too," says Monson, 
 was at the taking of the caracks made such use of her regal 
 authority, that, the same author adds, " the rest of the adven- 
 turers were fain to submit themselves to her pleasure, with whom 
 she dealt but indifferently." 
 
 In the spring of this year Sir Walter was very instrumental in 
 inducing the House of Commons to grant- (of two proposed) the 
 larger subsidy to the Queen, for a prosecution of the war with 
 Spain. 
 
 But about six weeks after Sir Walter had been recalled from head- 
 ing the expedition against the Plate fleet, he incurred the deep dis- 
 pleasure of Elizabeth. He had won the heart of one of the maids 
 of honour,* Elizabeth Throgmorton, daughter of Sir Nicholas 
 Throgmorton, an able statesman and ambassador, then lately de- 
 ceased. To ask the Queen's consent to the marriage was indis- 
 pensable ; but (as it had before proved in like cases) it was dan- 
 gerous. The consequences of their affection in due time became 
 
 * Sir Humphrey Gilbert affected not the court or its pleasures, yet the 
 Queen gave him one of her maids of honour in marriage, and his half- 
 brother, Ralegh, who had been wont to say that " the maids of honour were 
 like witches, who could work a world of mischief, but were unable to do 
 good," obtained in a maid of honour one of the best wives that ever height- 
 ened prosperity or alleviated misfortune. Her devotion to her husband 
 from first to last was boundless. She was very beautiful.
 
 Sin WALTER RALEGH. 7i> 
 
 manifest; and the Queen, highly exasperated at what, Southey 
 says truly, " was not only a moral sin, but in those days a heinous 
 political offence," committed Ralegh to the Tower.* 
 
 On the fourth day of his imprisonment, he began to play such 
 seemingly mad, but in reality politic pranks (a recital of which he 
 evidently designed should reach the Queen's ears), as, while we 
 laugh at them, we cannot readily pardon, even allowing the crafty 
 
 SIR JOHN* HAWKINS. 
 
 dexterity with which he sought to work upon Elizabeth in her 
 weakest point. The following curious letter, dated July 26, is from 
 Arthur Gorges, afterwards knighted, a very brave and constant 
 follower of Ralegh, to Sir Robert Cecil: "HONOURABLE SIK, 
 
 * It would appear that it was the intention to send both offenders 
 thither. In a letter from Sir Edward Stafford to Anthony Bacon, dated 
 Drury House, July 30, 1592, we read " If you have anything to do with 
 Sir Walter Ralegh, or any love to make to Mrs. Throginorton, at the Tower 
 to-morrow, you may speak with them, if the countermand come not to-night, 
 as some think will not be, and particularly he that hath charge to send 
 them thither."
 
 76 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 I cannot choose but advertise you of a strange tragedy that 
 this day had like to have fallen out between the Captain of the 
 Guard and the Lieutenant of the Ordnance, if I had not by great 
 chance come at the very instant to have turned it into a comedy. 
 For upon the report of her majesty's being at Sir George Gary's, 
 Sir Walter Ealegh having gazed and sighed for a long while at his 
 study window, from whence he might discern the barge and boats 
 about the Blackfriars'-stairs, suddenly he brake out into a great 
 distemper, and sware that his enemies had on purpose brought her 
 majesty thither to break his gall in sunder with Tantalus' torment, 
 that when she went away he might see his death before his eyes ; 
 with many such-like conceits. And, as a man transported with 
 passion, he swore to Sir George Carew, that he would disguise him- 
 self and get into a pair of oars, to ease his mind but with a sight of 
 the Queen, or else, he protested, his heart would break. But the 
 trusty gaoler would none of that, for displeasing the higher powers, 
 as he said, which he more respected than the feeding of his humour, 
 and so flatly refused to permit him. But in conclusion : upon this 
 dispute they fell flat out to choleric outrageous words, with strain- 
 ing and struggling at the doors, that all lameness was forgotten,* 
 and in the fury of the conflict, the gaoler had his new periwig 
 torn off his crown. And } r et here the battle ended not, for at last 
 they had gotten out their daggers, which, when I saw, I played 
 the stickler between them, and so purchased such a rap on the 
 knuckles, that I wished both their pates broken ; and so with much 
 ado they stayed their brawl to see my bloody fingers. At the first 
 I was ready to break with laughing to see them two scramble and 
 brawl like madmen, until I saw the iron walking, and then I did 
 my best to appease the fury. As yet I cannot reconcile them by 
 my persuasions, for Sir Walter says he shall hate him for so re- 
 straining him from the sight of his mistress, while he lives ; for that 
 he knows not (as he said) whether ever he shah 1 see her again, when 
 she is gone the progress. And Sir George, on his side, swears 
 that he had rather he should lose his longing, than that he would 
 draw on him her majesty's displeasure by such liberty. Thus they 
 continue in malice and snarling ; but I am sure all the smart 
 lighted on me. I cannot tell whether I should more allow of the 
 
 * Ealegh alludes to this temporary lameness in a letter to Cecil, written 
 about the same time.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 77 
 
 passionate lover, or the trusty gaoler. But if yourself had seen it 
 as I did, you would have been as heartily merry and sorry as ever 
 you were in all your life in so short a time. I pray you pardon my 
 hasty written narrative, which I acquaint you with, hoping- you 
 will be the peace-maker. But, good sir, let nobody know thereof, 
 for I fear Sir Walter Ralegh will shortly grow Orlando Furioso, if 
 the bright Angelica persevere against him a little longer.'' 
 
 Fastened with wax to the letter was the following postscript : 
 4i If you let the Queen's majesty know hereof, as you think good 
 be it ; but otherwise, good sir, keep it secret for their credit, for 
 they know not of my discourse, which I could wish her majesty 
 knew." 
 
 It seems clear to me that Arthur Gorges intended to do a 
 friend's turn for Ralegh by drawing up this narrative for Cecil (at 
 the time very intimate with Sir Walter), who would laugh at the 
 description of the scene, see its intent, and make the best use of it 
 for the captive's delivery from prison. Ralegh, however, must 
 have stimulated his meriment and quickened his activity in his be- 
 half by the following letter, which commences in a very business- 
 like manner : 
 
 " SIR, I pray be a mean to her majesty for the signing of the 
 bills for the guard's coats, which are to be made now for the pro- 
 gress, and which the clerk of the check hath importuned me to 
 write for. My heart was never broken till this day, that I hear the 
 Queen goes away so far off, whom I have followed for so many years 
 with so great love and desire in so many journeys, and am now left 
 behind her in a dark prison, all alone. While she was yet near at 
 hand, that I might hear of her once in two or three days, my sor- 
 rows were the less, but even now my heart is cast into the depth of 
 all misery. I that was wont to behold her riding like Alexander, 
 hunting like Diana, walking like Venus, the gentle wind blowing 
 her fair hair about her pure cheeks, like a nymph, sometime sit- 
 ting in the shade like a goddess, sometime singing like an angel, 
 sometime playing like Orpheus ! * Behold the sorrow of this 
 world ! one amiss hath bereaved me of all ! Oh glory, that only 
 shineth in misfortune, what is become of thy assurance! All 
 wounds leave scars but that of fantasy ; all afflictions their relent- 
 ing but that of woman-kind! Who is to judge of friendship but 
 
 * This paragon was in the sixty-second year of her age !
 
 78 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 adversity ? or when is grace witnessed but in offences ? There were 
 no divinity but by reason of compassion, for revenges are brutish 
 and mortal. All those times past the loves, the sighs, the sor- 
 rows, the desires can they not weigh down one frail misfortune ? 
 Cannot one drop of gall be hidden in so great heaps of sweetness? 
 I may thus conclude, Spes et Fortuna, valete! She is gone on 
 whom I trusted, and of me hath not one thought of mercy, nor any 
 respect of that that was. Do with me now therefore what you list ! 
 I am more weary of life than they are desirous I should perish ;, 
 which, if it had been for her, as it is ly her, I had been too hap- 
 pily born. Yours, not worthy any name or title, W. R." 
 
 These fantastic tricks of pen and person furnish forth, it must be 
 confessed, a sorry and pitiful spectacle ; but Southey makes an un- 
 generous reference to it when he remarks, that this shrewd device of 
 flattery " it was not more weak in Elizabeth to receive, than it wa& 
 base in a man of Ralegh's understanding to offer."* I could wish 
 
 * There is no writer of biography who more often reminds us than Dr. 
 Southey of the old proverb, that "one man may steal a horse, and another 
 be hanged for looking over the hedge." Southey wrote the words we have 
 quoted while he was yet warm from the composition of a life of the Earl of 
 Essex, who, in 1595, on the anniversary of the Queen's accession, designed a 
 show, or masque, which was presented before the Queen. The biographer 
 thinks it worthy of a description. One Europhilus is divided in his mind 
 whether he shall be a poet, a soldier, or a statesman. A hermit undertakes to 
 recommend poetry, concluding with a compliment to the Queen, " that the 
 gift of the muses would enworthy him in love ; and where he now looked on 
 his mistress's (the Queen's) outside with the eyes of sense, which are 
 dazzled and amazed, he shall then behold her high perfections and heavenly 
 mind with the eyes of judgment." The soldier and the statesman then 
 urge their respective claims; and at length the resolution of Europhilus 
 (Essex) is fixed : " For her recreation he will confer with the muses ; for her 
 defence and honour he will sacrifice his life in the wars, hoping to be em- 
 balmed in the sweet odours of her remembrance ; to her service will he con- 
 secrate all his watchful endeavours, and will ever bear in his heart the pic- 
 ture of her beauty, in his actions, of her will, and in his fortune, of her 
 grace and favour." 
 
 "This device," says Southey, "was much admired; and though the 
 Queen said, ' if she had thought there would have been so much said of her, 
 she would not have been present,' the concluding compliment, which was 
 thought by a judicious auditor to be conveyed in excellent but too plain 
 English, was not too glaring for her. Such flattery did not dimmish her 
 favour for Essex; though, that she should be accessible to it, may have
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 7 
 
 with all my heart that so great a man had not felt himself under 
 the necessit}' of resorting 1 to such means of maintaining 1 or recover- 
 ing- the Queen's favour ; but let it be borne in mind, he was sur- 
 rounded by envious and malignant foes, and that Essex, the new 
 minion of Elizabeth's fancy, not the favourite of her judgment, 
 scrupled at nothing that could aid him in dragging- down a rival 
 whose abilities were so immeasurably greater than his own. If the 
 reader will refer to the passage on fortune and chance which we- 
 have already quoted, he will most clearly perceive that Ralegh was 
 
 8HERBORNE CASTLE, DORSETSHIRE. 
 
 a thorough man of the world ; but while he flattered the Queen for 
 his own purposes, as did all her favourites from first to last from 
 Leicester to Mouutjoy he never attempted, like Essex, to make 
 a dirty and paltry use of it. The Athenian rustic was tired of 
 hearing Aristides called "the just;" one may be excused for im- 
 patience when one hears Essex so often called " the generous." 
 
 On Ralegh's liberation (his imprisonment having lasted eight 
 weeks), he married Elizabeth Throgmorton, showed himself in 
 the metropolis during two days, and went down to Dartmouth 
 to look after his share of the great prize, and then retired to his 
 
 lessened his respect for her." Complacently enough said. Not a word of the 
 baseness of a man of Essex's understanding in offering such adulatioii. It 
 " may have lessened his respect for her !"
 
 SO THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 castle of Sherborne, in' Dorsetshire, which had belonged to the see 
 of Salisbury, but a grant of which he had begged and obtained 
 from the Queen. In the first instance, it had been his design to 
 repair the castle, but, changing his mind, he erected " a most fine 
 house,'' which he " beautified with orchards, gardens, and groves of 
 much delight, so that, whether you consider the pleasantness of the 
 seat, the goodness of the soil, or the other delicacies belonging to 
 it, it rests unparalleled in these parts."* 
 
 There is scarcely an act of Sir Walter's life that has not been 
 turned or tortured to his disparagement by his enemies. He robbed 
 the church by accepting Sherborne. When Dr. Caldwell was elected 
 to the see of Salisbury, he consented, " a good round rent being re- 
 served to the bishopric," to alienate it to the Queen, who, following 
 her common practice of rewarding such as had performed any con- 
 siderable public service with a grant of church lands, gave it to 
 Kalegh.f Again, he was a man utterly without religion. In 1593, 
 
 * Coker's " Survey of Dorsetshire." Kalegli had a genius for ornamental 
 gardening. " Since we have touched something upon gardening," says 
 Oldys, after describing Sherborne, "we may take an opportunity of remem- 
 bering a plantation of his, which is somewhat observable. A late author 
 mentions it with respect to him, but in a distant manner. When telling us 
 that Beddington, near Croydon, in Surrey, is a neat, curious seat, built by 
 Sir Francis Carew, he farther adds : ' The orchards and gardens are very 
 pleasant, and especially famous for the orange trees, which have now grown 
 there above these hundred years, being planted in the open ground, under a 
 moveable covert, during the winter months : they were the first that were 
 brought into England by a knight of that noble family, who deserves no less 
 commendation than Lucullus met with for bringing cherry and filbert trees 
 out of Pontus into Italy, for which he is celebrated by Pliny and others.' Now 
 it has been a constant tradition at Beddington that this knight of that 
 noble family was Sir Walter Ralegh. . . . But that we might not here 
 want such further confirmation as the place will afford of the first planter of 
 that famous orangery, whereof there are several trees still flourishing of the 
 original plantation, which are the stateliest and most perfect bearers of this 
 fruit in England, I have been obliged with the gentleman's answer to the 
 inquiry who now dwells at the seat ; and his words are ' It is the common 
 opinion of this family that Sir Walter Ralegh, who was related to it, brought 
 over and planted the old orange trees there.' " 
 
 f Sir John Harrington, in his " Brief View of the State of the Church of 
 England," observes " That Sir Walter, using often to ride post in those 
 days, upon no small employments, between Plymouth and the court, when 
 Sherborne Castle being right in the way, he cast such an eye upon it as
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 81 
 
 Father Parsons, the Jesuit, a man of learning 1 , but malicious and 
 bigoted, wrote a libel, in which the great men of Elizabeth's court, 
 who had been instrumental in framing her proclamation of 1591 
 against the popish seminaries abroad, accused Ralegh of being a 
 direct doctor and founder of a school of atheism, and ambitious of 
 making converts of young gentlemen to the principles of it. This 
 infamous lie gained a very extensive belief, insomuch that we find 
 Chief Justice Popham, on Sir Walter's trial at Winchester, ten years 
 afterwards, charging him with the offence of "heathenish and 
 blasphemous opinions." We shall hear more of this hereafter. 
 Meanwhile, what are we to think of Archbishop Abbot, who, in a 
 letter dated February 19, 1619,* (four months after Ralegh's death, 
 and nearly five years after the publication of the " History of the 
 World ''), expressly charges him with " questioning God's being 
 and omnipotence, which," his grace adds, " that just judge made 
 good upon himself, in over-tumbling his estate, and last of all bring- 
 ing him to an execution by law?" Must we in charity suppose 
 that Abbot was the only man in England who did not by this 
 time know the wretched falsehood of the calumny, and that Sir 
 Henry Montague, the judge who passed sentence upon him, had 
 released him from that aspersion? Was an archbishop of Can- 
 terbury the only scholar in the nation who had not looked into so 
 remarkable a book (more than remarkable) as the " History of the 
 World," or, having done so, who had omitted to read the very first 
 paragraph ?f His religion might have taught him what he might 
 
 Ahab did upon Naboth's vineyard ; and once above the rest, being talking of 
 it, of the commodiousness of the place, of the strength of the seat, and how 
 easily it might be got from the bishopric, suddenly over and over came his 
 horse, that his very face, which was then thought a very good face, ploughed 
 up the earth where he fell. This fall was ominous, I make no question, as the 
 like was observed in the Lord Hastings ; but his brother Adrian would needs 
 have him interpret that, not as a courtier, but as a conqueror, it presaged 
 the quiet possession thereof." 
 
 * To Sir Thomas Roe, then ambassador at the court of the Mogul. 
 
 f It is a solemn and majestic passage : " God, whom the wisest men 
 acknowledge to be a power uneffable, and virtue infinite, a light by abundant 
 clarity invisible, and understanding which itself can only comprehend an 
 essence eternal and spiritual, of absolute pureness and simplicity, was, and is, 
 pleased to make Himself known by the work of the world, in the wonderful 
 magnitude whereof (all which He embraceth, filleth, and sustaineth) we 
 behold the image of that glory which cannot be measured, and withal that 
 
 a
 
 82 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 have learned in that great work, that to shoot a gamekeeper instead 
 of the deer at which he aimed with his cross-bow while hunt- 
 ing in my " Lord Zouch's park," was a piece of carelessness not more 
 to be grieved at than was the reckless readiness with which he 
 sought to affix a heinous stigma on the memory of an illustrious 
 man, upon hearsay evidence, which was false. 
 
 During his retirement at Sherborne, Ralegh meditated some 
 great exploit, by the success of which he might recover his royal 
 mistress's favour.* Some of his friends thought this an impolitic 
 
 one, and yet universal nature, which cannot be defined. In the glorious 
 lights of heaven we perceive a shadow of His divine countenance ; in His 
 merciful provision for all that live, His manifold goodness, and, lastly, in 
 creating and making existent the world universal by the absolute art of His 
 own word, His power, and almightiness : which power, light, virtue, wisdom, 
 and goodness, being all but attributes of one simple essence, and one God, 
 we in all admire, and in part discern, per speculum crealurarum, that is, in 
 the disposition, order, and variety of celestial and terrestrial bodies terres- 
 trial, in their strange and manifold diversities celestial, in their beauty and 
 magnitude which, in their continual and contrary motions, are neither 
 repugnant, intermixed, nor confounded. By these potent effects we approach 
 to the knowlege of the Omnipotent Cause, and, by these motions, their 
 Almighty Mover." 
 
 * I think it highly probable that (as Mr. Tytler suggests) the beautiful 
 poem I am about to quote was composed in the gardens and groves he had 
 planted. He calls it 
 
 A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY'S RECREATIONS. 
 Quivering fears, heart-tearing cares, 
 Anxious sighs, untimely tears, 
 
 Fly, fly to courts ; 
 
 Fly to fond worldlings' sports, 
 Where strain'd sardonic smiles are glozing still, 
 And grief is forced to laugh against her will ; 
 
 Where mirth's but mummery, 
 
 And sorrows only real be ! 
 
 Fly from our country's pastimes ! fly, 
 Sad troop of human misery ! 
 
 Come serene looks, 
 
 Clear as the crystal brooks, 
 Or the pure azur'd heaven, that smiles to see, 
 The rich attendance of our poverty 
 
 Peace and a secure mind, 
 
 Which all men seek, we only find.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 83 
 
 course, as leaving- the field open to his enemies ; but they knew not 
 Elizabeth so well as he, nor the best way to deal with his enemies, 
 
 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, perhaps, our woods sometimes may shake ; 
 But blustering care could never tempest make ; 
 
 Nor murmurs e'er come nigh us, 
 
 Saving of fountains that glide by us. 
 
 Here's no fantastic masque, nor dance, 
 But of our kids, that frisk and prance ; 
 
 Nor wars are seen, 
 
 Unless upon the green 
 
 Two harmless lambs are butting one the other, 
 Which done, both bleating run, each to his mother ; 
 
 And wounds are never found, 
 
 Save what the ploughshare gives the ground. 
 
 Here are no false, entrapping baits, 
 To hasten too, too hasty fates ; 
 
 Unless it be 
 
 The fond credulity 
 
 Of silly fish, which, worldling-like, still look 
 Upon the bait, but never on the hook ; 
 
 Nor envy', unless among 
 
 The birds for prize of their sweet song. 
 
 Go ! let the diving negro seek 
 
 For gems hid in some forlorn creek ; 
 
 We all pearls scorn, 
 
 Save what the dewy morn 
 Congeals upon each little spire of grass, 
 Which careless shepherds beat down as they pass ; 
 
 And gold ne'er here appears, 
 
 Save what the yellow Ceres bears. 
 
 Blest silent groves ! may you be 
 For ever mirth's best nursery ! 
 
 May pure contents 
 
 For ever pitch their tents 
 
 Upon these downs, these meads, these rocks, these mountains, 
 And peace still slumber by these purling fountains ! 
 
 Which we may every year 
 
 Find when we come a-fishing here ! 
 
 I cannot omit giving in this place Sir Walter's reply to Kit Marlow's 
 
 o2
 
 84 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 which was one that showed a high consciousness of his own 
 desert, and a profound knowledge of human nature. Of Ralegh's 
 
 song, which is well known, but which we reprint, that the answer may be 
 the better understood. 
 
 SONG. 
 
 BY CHRISTOPHER MARLOW. 
 
 Come, live with me and be my love, 
 And we will all the pleasures prove 
 That grove or valley, hill or field, 
 Or wood and steepy mountains yield. 
 
 Where we will sit on rising rocks, 
 And see the shepherds feed their flocks 
 By shallow rivers, to whose falls 
 Melodious birds sing madrigals. 
 
 Pleas'd will I make thee beds of roses, 
 And twine a thousand fragrant posies; 
 A cap of flowers, and rural kirtle, 
 Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle ; 
 
 A jaunty gown of finest wool, 
 Which from our pretty lambs we pull ; 
 And shoes lin'd choicely for the cold, 
 With buckles of the purest gold ; 
 
 A belt of straw and ivy-buds, 
 With coral clasps and amber studs ; 
 If these, these pleasures can thee move 
 To live with me, and be my love. 
 
 THE ANSWER. 
 
 BY SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 If all the world and love were young, 
 And truth on every shepherd's tongue, 
 These pleasures might my passion move 
 To live with thee, and be thy love. 
 
 But fading flowers in every field, 
 To winter floods their treasures yield, 
 A honey'd tongue, a heart of gall, 
 Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall. 
 
 Thy gown, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, 
 Thy cap, thy myrtle, and thy posies, 
 Are all now wither'd, broke, forgotten, 
 In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 85 
 
 policy in such cases Sir Robert Naunton says '* Finding his favour 
 declining, and falling into a recess, he undertook a new peregri- 
 nation to leave that terra infirma of the court for that of the wars, 
 and by declining himself, and by absence, to expel his and the 
 passion of his enemies, which in courts was a strange device of re- 
 covery, but that he knew there was some ill office done him, that 
 he durst not attempt to mind any other ways than by going aside, 
 thereby to teach envy a new way of forgetfulness, and not so much 
 as to think of him : however, he had it always in mind never to 
 forget himself. And his device took so well, that at his return he 
 came in, as some do by going backwards, with the greater strength, 
 and so continued to the last hour in her grace." And another 
 (the author of Aulicus Coquinarise) observes " His enemies of 
 greater rank kept him under sometimes in, sometimes out ; and 
 then he would wisely decline himself out of the court road ; and 
 then you found him not but by fame; in voyages to the West 
 Indies, Guiana's new plantations, Virginia, or in some expeditions 
 against the Spaniard.'' And a third to the same effect " It is 
 observable that Sir Walter Ralegh was in and out at court so 
 often, that he was commonly called the tennis ball of fortune, which 
 she delighted to sport with. His enemies perpetually brought him 
 into disgrace with his mistress, and his merit in a little time 
 restored him again to her favour; and as she always grew cold to 
 the Earl of Essex after absence, so she ever received Ealegh with 
 greater marks of her esteem ; arid he was too hard for his rivals by 
 the very means which they intended for his destruction." 
 
 But before he set out upon the adventure, the prosecution of 
 which had tilled his mind for many years, there was something at 
 court to make his enemies fear, not only that he was about to be 
 restored to favour, but that he was to be called to the Queen's 
 councils. One of them says in a letter, " Of choice of councillors 
 
 Thy belt of straw and ivy-buds, 
 Thy coral clasps and amber studs, 
 Can me with no enticements move, 
 To live with thee, and be thy love. 
 
 But could youth last, could love still breed, 
 Had joys no date, had age no need ; 
 Then those delights my mind might move 
 To live with thee, and be thy love.
 
 86 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 there is a bruit, but nothing 1 assured. Sir Walter Ealegh looketh 
 for a place amongst them ; and it is now feared of all honest men 
 that he shall presently come to the court, and is thereto wrought 
 to serve a turn. And yet it is well withstood. God grant him 
 some further resistance, and that place he better deserveth, if he 
 had his right."* But finding no present fruition of his hopes, 
 Ralegh decided upon leaving England, having no less an object in 
 view than the discovery and conquest of El Dorado. The acquisi- 
 tion of the " large, rich, and beautiful" empire of Guiana was an 
 enterprise which had baffled the repeated efforts of some of the 
 ablest and most renowned captains and cavaliers of Spain for nearly 
 a hundred years. In their own authors we find commendations of 
 many brave commanders, who, during that time, had endured mise- 
 ries while treading this maze, and losing themselves with five hun- 
 dred, and sometimes a thousand men each, in an endeavour to find 
 this country. The example of these adventurers, however unsuc- 
 cessfuland perhaps for that reason stimulated Ralegh to this 
 undertaking ; for whatever he might have thought of the policy 
 of Spain, he had a sincere admiration of the enterprise of their 
 discoverers, whom he has thus celebrated in his " History of the 
 World. " " Here I cannot forbear to commend the patient virtue 
 of the Spaniards. We seldom or never find that any nation hath 
 endured so many misadventures and miseries as the Spaniards 
 have done, in their Indian discoveries. Yet persisting in their 
 enterprises with an invincible constancy, they have annexed to 
 their kingdom so many goodly provinces, as bury the remembrance 
 of all dangers past. Tempests and shipwrecks, famine, over- 
 throws, mutinies, heat and cold, pestilence, and all manner of dis- 
 eases, both old and new, together with extreme poverty and want of 
 all things needful, have been the enemies wherewith every one of 
 their most noble discoverers, at one time or other, hath encountered. 
 Many years have passed over some of their heads in the search of 
 not so many leagues:: yea, more than one or two have spent their 
 labour, their wealth, and their lives, in search of a golden king- 
 dom, without getting further notice of it than what they had 
 at their first setting forth. All which notwithstanding, the third, 
 fourth, and fifth undertakers have not been disheartened. Surely, 
 
 * Nicholas Faunt, somewhile secretary to Sir Francis Walsingham, and a 
 creature of his son-in-law, the Earl of Essex.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 87 
 
 they are worthily rewarded with those treasuries and paradises 
 which they enjoy ; and well they deserve to hold them quietly, if 
 they hinder not the like virtue in others, which (perhaps) will not 
 be found." 
 
 Having collected as much information as he could procure 
 relative to Guiana, and the means of entering 1 it, he drew up, in 
 
 1594, instructions for the use of Captain Whiddon, an old and well- 
 tried captain of his own, and sent him to make a survey of the coast. 
 The captain returned, in the following- year, with a highly favour- 
 able account of the riches of the country, which he had obtained 
 from some of the chief Cliques upon its borders. Upon this, 
 Ralegh, at a considerable expense, got together a squadron of ships, 
 which the Lord Admiral Howard and Sir .Robert Cecil augmented. 
 We have no certain knowledge of the number of the vessels ; but 
 from Ralegh's own account of the voyage, published after his 
 return, there must have been five at least, besides barges, wherries, 
 and tenders. He set sail from Plymouth, on the 6th of February, 
 
 1595, and proceeded to the Canaries, and arrived at Trinidad on the 
 22nd of March, when he made himself master of St. Joseph, and 
 took the Spanish governor, De Berrio, prisoner. This cavalier, 
 grateful for the courtesy with which Ralegh treated him, frankly 
 communicated to him the knowledge and experience he himself 
 had gained during the many years, and at a vast cost, he had spent 
 upon Guiana. But Sir Walter, who was not to be daunted by 
 prospective difficulties or danger, left his ships at Curiapan, in 
 Trinidad, and with a hundred men, in several little barks, sailed 
 400 miles up the river Orinoco, in search of Guiana.* Some of 
 the petty kings of the country resigned their sovereignty to the 
 Queen of England. But the weather was so hot, and the rams 
 were so violent, that he was compelled to retire, being in equal 
 danger of destruction from the rapid torrents of water as from his 
 enemies. 
 
 The inhabitants of Cumana refusing to bring in the contribu- 
 tions he required, he set tire to the town, as also to part of St. 
 Mary's and Rio de la Hacha; and having convinced himself that 
 
 * Ralegh was the first Englishman who ever sailed up the Orinoco. His 
 favourite and most trusted captain, Laurence Keymis, in a second voyage to 
 Guiana, called the river " Raleana," in honour of his patron, a name which it 
 was not likely to retain.
 
 88 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 there were gold mines in the country, of which he had discovered 
 more in a month than the Spaniards had done in many years, he 
 returned to England in the autumn of 1595, and, in the follow- 
 ing year, published an account of his voyage and discoveries, 
 which be dedicated to the Lord Admiral and Cecil. 
 
 This relation, however, which contains a very graphic, curious, 
 and interesting account of a country hitherto undiscovered, and 
 which enlarged upon the riches of the land to which he had led 
 the way, did not awaken the curiosity or stimulate the cupidity of 
 the court and the city in anything like the degree he had expected. 
 Ralegh brought home with him some of the white spar which he 
 supposed to contain gold, and which was assayed in London, and 
 found to contain a fair proportion of that metal ; but some of the 
 crew had brought marcasite, which is comparatively worthless, 
 and had offered it for sale, and this to a great extent discredited the 
 whole relation, as offering encouragement to a mercantile specula- 
 tion.* Again, there were some who did not believe that one of the 
 brothers of Atabalipa, Emperor of Peru, and put to death by 
 Pizarro, had made his way to Guiana, and founded the golden 
 and imperial city of Manoa, by the Spaniards called El Dorado ; 
 and they could by no means put faith in the existence of those war- 
 like women the Amazons, with their queen; and in the Ewaipanoma, 
 who were reported to have eyes in their shoulders, and mouths in 
 their breasts, or on a level with them. But Ralegh did not speak of 
 either as having himself seen them. He says that an ancient 
 Casique assured him that there was such a nation of women on the 
 south of the Amazon river, whose manners and customs, as they 
 were described to him, somewhat conformed with what is recorded 
 of the ancient Amazons ; " but that they cut off their right breasts," 
 says he, " I do not find to be true." As to the Ewaipanoma, many 
 of the chiefs, and the prince who came with him to England, 
 avouched that there was a nation of such people ; but, says 
 Ralegh, " whether it is true or no, the matter is not great, neither 
 can there be any profit in the imagination. For my own part, I 
 saw them not ; but am resolved that so many people did not all 
 combine or forethink to make the report." By way of conclusion 
 
 * A certain alderman of London, and an officer of the Mint, are said by 
 Sir Walter to have busied them selves in propagating the "malicious slander," 
 that the gold ore brought from Guiana was of no price.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 89 
 
 to this matter, he observes " As to the Amazons, and those who 
 had their faces in their breasts, having only heard talk of them, 
 he left it for others to find them out."* The following passage 
 from his " History of the World," extracted from the Life of 
 Alexander the Great, will show that, eighteen years afterwards, 
 he believed in the existence of the Amazons : 
 
 " Here it is said that Thalestris, or Minothea, a queen of the 
 
 Amazons, came to visit him Plutarch citeth many 
 
 historians, reporting this meeting of Thalestris with Alexander, 
 and some contradicting it. But, indeed, the letters of Alexander 
 himself to Antipater, recounting all that befel him in those parts, 
 and yet omitting to make mention of this Amazonian business, 
 may justly breed suspicion of the whole matter as forged. Much 
 more justly may we suspect it as a vain tale, because an historian 
 of the same time, reading one of his books to Lysimachus (then 
 king of Thrace), who had followed Alexander in all his voyage, 
 was laughed at by the king for inserting such news of the Ama- 
 zons; and Lysimachus himself had never heard of. One that 
 accompanied Alexander, took upon him to write his acts, which, to 
 
 * It is certain that Shakspeare had read attentively the narrative of 
 Ralegh's voyage. In " The Tempest " we read of " the still-vexed Ber- 
 moothes." Ralegh says " The rest of the Indies for calms and diseases very 
 troublesome, and the Bermudas a hellish sea for thunder, lightning, and 
 storms." In the same play, the honest councillor, Gonzalo, asks, "Who would 
 believe 
 
 " that there were such men 
 
 Whose heads stood in their breasts ? which now we find 
 Each putter-out of one for five will bring us 
 Good warrant of? " 
 
 And in " Othello," where the Moor tells of having seen men " whose heads 
 do grow beneath their shoulders," we are to understand that a man of honour 
 and veracity is speaking, not that a Mendez Pinto is telling travellers' tales 
 to the council of ten. 
 
 Seventy years after Shakspeare, Milton, in his " Paradise Lost," when 
 the Archangel Michael shows the other hemisphere to Adam, says : 
 
 " In spirit perhaps he also saw 
 Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume, 
 And Cusco in Peru, the richest seat 
 Of Atabalipa, and yet unspoil'd 
 Guiana, whose great city Geryon's sons 
 Call El Dorado."
 
 90 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 amplify, he told how the king had fought single with an elephant, 
 and slain it. The king, hearing such stuff, caught the book, and 
 threw it into the river of Indus, saying, that it were well done to 
 throw the writer after it, who, by inserting such fables, disparaged 
 the truth of his great exploits. Yet, as we believe and know that 
 there are elephants, though it were false that Alexander fought 
 with one, so may we give credit unto writers making mention of 
 such Amazons, whether it were true or false that they met with 
 Alexander, as Plutarch leaves the matter undetermined. There- 
 fore I will here take leave to make digression, as well to show the 
 opinions of the ancient historians, cosmographers, and others, as 
 also of some modern discoverers, touching these warlike women ; 
 because not only Strabo, but many others of these our times make 
 doubt whether or no there were any such kind of people. Julius 
 Solinus seats them in the north parts of Asia the less. Pomponius 
 Mela finds two regions filled with them : the one on the river Ther- 
 modoon, the other near the Caspian sea. ' Quas (saith he) Sauro- 
 niatidas appellant] which the people call Sauromatidas. The 
 former of these two had the Cimmerians for their neighbours. 
 ' Cerium est (saith Vadianus, who hath commented upon Mela), 
 illos proximos Amazonibusfuisse; 1 it is certain that the Cimmerians 
 were the next nations to the Amazons. Ptolemy sets them farther 
 into the land northwards, near the mountains Hippaci, not far 
 from the pillars of Alexander. And that they had dominion in 
 Asia itself, toward India, Solinus and Pliny tell us, where they 
 governed a people called the Pandeans, or Padeans, so called after 
 Pandea, the daughter of Hercules, from whom all the rest derive 
 themselves. Claudian affirms that they commanded nations, for 
 he speaks (largely perhaps as a poet) thus : 
 
 " ' Medis levibusque Saberis 
 
 Imperat hie sexus : Reginarumque sub armis, 
 Barbarice pars magnajacet.' 
 
 Over the Medea, and light Sabaeans reigns 
 This female sex : and under arms of queens, 
 Great part of the barbarian land remains. 
 
 "Diodorus Siculus hath heard of them in Lybia, who were 
 more ancient (saith he) than those which kept the banks of Ther- 
 modoon, a river falling into the Euxine sea, near Herachum. 
 
 "Herodotus doth also make report of these Amazons, whom he
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 91 
 
 tells us that the Scythians call J^orpatas, which is as much as 
 Viricidas, or men-killers. And that they made incursion into Asia 
 the less, sacked Ephesus, and burnt the Temple of Diana, Mane- 
 thon and Aventinus report, which they performed forty years after 
 Troy was taken. At the siege of Troy itself we read of Penthe- 
 silea, that she came to the succour of Priamus. 
 
 " Am. Marcellinus gives the cause of their inhabiting- upon the 
 river of Thormodoon, speaking- confidently of the wars they made 
 with divers nations, and of their overthrow. 
 
 "Plutarch, in the ' Life of Theseus,' out of Philochorus, Hel- 
 lenicus, and other ancient historians, reports the taking of Antiopa, 
 Queen of the Amazons, by Hercules, and by him given to Theseus ; 
 though some affirm that Theseus himself got her by stealth, wheii 
 she came to visit him on board his ship. But in substance there is 
 little difference, all confessing that such Amazons were there. The 
 same author, in the ' Life of Pompey,' speaks of certain companies 
 of the Amazons that came to aid the Albanians against the Romans, 
 by whom, after the battle, many targets and buskins of theirs were 
 taken up. And he saith, farther, that these women entertain the 
 Gelae and Lelages once a-year, nations inhabiting between them 
 and the Albanians, 
 
 " But to omit the many authors making mention of Amazons 
 that were in the old times, Francis Lopez, who hath written the 
 ' Navigation of Orellana,' which he made down the river of Ama- 
 zons, in the year 1542 (upon which river, for the divers turnings, 
 he is said to have sailed six thousand miles), reports from the rela- 
 tion of the said Orellana, to the Council of the Indies, that he both 
 saw those women and fought with them, where they fought to 
 impeach his passage towards the east sea. 
 
 " It is also reported by Ulrichus Schmidel, that in the year 
 1542, when he sailed up the rivers of Paragna and Parabol, that he 
 came to a king of that country, called Scherves, inhabiting under 
 the tropic of Capricorn, who gave his captain, Ernando Rieffere, 
 a crown of silver, which he had gotten in fight from a Queen of 
 the Amazons in those parts, 
 
 " Edward Lopez, in his description of the kingdom of Congo, 
 makes relation of such Amazons, telling us that (agreeable to the 
 reports of elder times), they burn off their right breasts and live 
 apart from men, save at one time of the year, when they feast and
 
 92 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 accompany hem for a month. 'These ' (saith he) ' possess a part of 
 the kingdom of Monomotapa, in Africa, nineteen degrees to the 
 southward of the line ; and that these women are the strongest 
 guards of this emperor, all the East India Portugals know/ 
 
 " I have produced these authorities in part to justify mine own 
 relation of these Amazons, because that which was delivered me 
 for truth, by an ancient Cagique, of Guiana, how upon the river of 
 Papamena (since the Spanish discoveries, called Amazons), that 
 these women still live and govern, was held for a vain and unpro- 
 bable report." 
 
 It is clear that, even before Ealegh's setting out upon his 
 voyage, his enemies had industriously disseminated a rumour that 
 he never meant to go at all, but that his intention was to conceal 
 himself somewhere for a time, and then assert that he had returned 
 from his discovery. And this extravagant story was believed! 
 " It appears," says Sir Walter, " that I made no other bravado of 
 going to sea than was meant, and that I was never hidden in Corn- 
 wall, or elsewhere, as was supposed. They have grossly belied me" 
 (there is good reason to believe that this was Essex's lie) "that fore- 
 judged I would rather become a servant of the Spanish king than 
 return ; and the rest were much mistaken, that would have per- 
 suaded, that I was too careful and sensual to undertake a journey 
 of so great travail." 
 
 That he was greatly vexed, too, at the bad reception he met 
 with on his return, is apparent in his prefatory letter to Howard 
 and Cecil, where he says " I do not know whether I should 
 bewail myself either for my too much travail and expenses, or 
 condemn myself for doing less than that which can deserve 
 nothing. From myself I have deserved no thanks, for I am 
 returned a beggar, and withered ; but that I might have bettered 
 my poor estate, it shall appear by the following discourse, if I 
 had nof respected only her majesty's future honour and riches. 
 It became not the former fortune in which I once lived to go 
 journeys of picory; and it suited ill with the offices of honour 
 which, by her majesty's grace, I hold this day in England, to 
 run from cape to cape, and from place to place, for the pillage 
 of ordinary prizes." 
 
 The language of Ralegh throughout this performance is that 
 of one who was assured of the truth of all he asserted, touching
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 93 
 
 the riches and other advantages of Guiana. Dr. Southey is com- 
 pelled, evidently with great reluctance, to own pretty nearly as 
 much : " In his account of El Dorado, he repeated the fables 
 which were found in Spanish histories, and which he believed 
 as entirely as the Spaniards themselves. This was the weakness 
 of a strong mind, the credulity of if he be not belied an in- 
 credulous one." This acknowledgment, nevertheless, the writer 
 would bid us take with a reservation. It is as much as to say 
 " Ralegh (if he be not belied) was an atheist ; and yet (if I must 
 say the truth) he believed these fables ;" so bidding us to suspect 
 that he did not believe them. My conviction is, that Sir Walter 
 spoke from his heart when he said " If it be my lot to prosecute 
 the same" (the conquest of Guiana), " I will spend my life therein ; 
 and if any else shall be enabled thereto, and conquer the same, 
 I assure him thus much he shall perform more than ever was 
 done in Mexico by Cortez, or in Peru by Pizarro ; whereof one 
 conquered the empire of Montezuma the other of Guasco and 
 Atabalipa ; and whatever prince shall possess it, that prince shall 
 be lord of more gold and more beautiful empire, and of more 
 cities and people, than either the King of Spain or the Great 
 Turk.'' He winds up his treatise of Guiana with " his trust in 
 Him who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, to put it into 
 her heart, who is the lady of ladies, to possess it ; if not, I will 
 judge those men worthy to be kings thereof, who, by her grace 
 and leave, will undertake it of themselves." 
 
 To show to the world the thorough confidence he nourished 
 in his own scheme, he fitted out, at his sole expense, the " Darling" 
 and " Discoverer," under Captain Laurence Keymis, who had at- 
 tended him on the former expedition. Keymis set sail in January 
 1596, and, having made further discoveries, returned to England 
 in the following June, and published an account of his adventure, 
 which he dedicated to Ralegh, and in which the author givea 
 a very high-flown description of the gold and other commodities 
 of Guiana, ardently exhorting his patron to engage the Queen 
 hi the conquest of that country. " In one word," urges Keymis, 
 "the time serveth ; the like occasion seldom happeneth in many 
 ages ; the former repeated considerations do all jointly together 
 importune us, now or never, to make ourselves rich, our posterity 
 happy, our princess everyway stronger than our enemies, and to
 
 94 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 establish our country in a state flourishing and peaceable. Oh ! 
 let not, then, such an indignity rest on us, as to deprave so 
 notable an enterprise with false rumours and vain suppositions, to 
 sleep in so serious a matter, and, renouncing the honour, strength, 
 wealth, and sovereignty of so famous a conquest, to leave all 
 to the Spaniard." * 
 
 A third voyage to Guiana was undertaken this year ; but Sir 
 Walter only sent a single vessel, the sole object of which vraa 
 
 * Many of the sea-captains of Elizabeth's time possessed qualifications 
 which old Admiral Benbow would have derided with much effusion of scorn 
 and tobacco juice. Keymis was educated at Oxford, and was a pupil or dis- 
 ciple of Hariot, the " universal philosopher," as he was called, to whom the 
 captain addressed a copy of Latin verses, prefixed to his account of Guiana. 
 A short poem (about two hundred lines in length) in blank verse, which Dr. 
 Johnson, in his "Life of Milton," remarks "was probably written by Ralegh 
 himself," figures by way of preface to this narrative. The Doctor was wrong 
 in his surmise, and Oldys right in his conjecture, when he says, "I take 
 the poet to have been Mr. George Chapman." This learned and excellent 
 dramatic writer, and translator of Homer, was an intimate friend of Hariot, 
 and doubtless of Keyinis. Vates, among the Romans, was a prophet as well 
 as a poet. Chapman showed little of the former in his lines, which are ex- 
 tremely good. We give an extract : 
 
 " Then in the Thespiad's bright prophetic font, 
 Methinks I see our liege rise from her throne, 
 Her ears and thoughts in steep amaze erect, 
 At the most rare endeavour of her power. 
 And now she blesses, with her wonted graces, 
 Th' industrious knight, the soul of this exploit, 
 Dismissing him to convoy of his stars ; 
 And now for love and honour of his worth, 
 Our twice-born nobles bring him bridegroom-like, 
 That is espous'd for virtue to his love, 
 With feasts and music ravishing the air, 
 To his Argolian fleet ; where round about 
 His bating colours English valour swarms 
 In haste, as if Guianian Orenoque 
 With his full waters fell upon our shore. 
 And now a wind as forward as their spirits, 
 Sets their glad feet on smooth Guiana's breast ; 
 Where, as if each man were an Orpheus, 
 A world of savages fall tame before them, 
 Storing their thrift-free treasuries with gold. 
 And then doth plenty crown their wealthy fields;
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 95 
 
 to explore the rivers on the coast.* This should be a convincing 
 evidence of the earnestness with which he prosecuted this adven- 
 
 There, learning eats no more his thriftless books; 
 Nor valour, ostrich-like, his iron arms ; 
 
 But all our youth take Hymen's lights in hand, 
 
 And fill each roof with honour'd progeny : 
 
 There, makes society adamantine chains, 
 
 And joins their hearts with wealth, whom wealth disjoin'd : 
 
 There healthful recreations strew the meads, 
 
 And make their mansions dance with neighbourhood, 
 
 Which here were drown'd in churlish avarice. 
 
 And there do palaces and temples rise 
 
 Out of the earth, and kiss th' enamour'd skies ; 
 
 Where New Britannia humbly kneels to heaven, 
 
 The world to her, and both at her blest feet, 
 
 In whom the circles of all empire meet." 
 
 It is not altogether from the purpose to add the following lines from Chap- 
 man's best tragedy, " Bussy d'Ambois." They show that the poet had an eye 
 for maritime discovery. Perhaps he had seen a fleet of Drake's return to port. 
 The reader will thonk us for giving them, for the sake of the noble illustration 
 of a great moral. (By the bye, there is a verse, printed in italics, which ia to be 
 found in Shakspeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream.") 
 
 " And as great seamen, using all their wealth 
 And skills in Neptune's deep invisible paths, 
 In tall ships richly built, and ribb'd with brass, 
 To put a girdle round about the world, 
 When they have done it, coming near their haven, 
 Are fain to give a warning-piece, and call 
 A poor staid fisherman, that never pass'd 
 His country's sight, to waft and guide them in: 
 80 when we wander furthest through the waves 
 Of glassy glory, and the gulfs of state, 
 Topp'd with all titles, spreading all our reaches, 
 As if each private arm would sphere the earth, 
 We must to virtue for her guide resort, 
 Or we shall shipwreck in our safest port." 
 
 * Oldys and Birch tell us that this vessel was named after himself, "The 
 Wat." The vessel was but a pinnace, and was probably christened by Lady 
 Ralegh, by the familiar diminutive of "Wat," her then only son, Walter, 
 being between three and four years of age.
 
 96 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ture ; for he had at the moment many affairs in hand which 
 occupied his attention and engaged his time. Indeed, when 
 Keymis returned and dedicated his narrative to him, he was out 
 of the country, employed in a momentous enterprise a relation 
 of which will be found in the following chapter.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 97 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PHILIP II. of Spain having threatened a second invasion of 
 England, which his recent successful siege of Calais, and the 
 death of two of his most fell scourges, Sir John Hawkins and Sir 
 Francis Drake,* encouraged him to hope would be successful, 
 
 SIR FKANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 * These two great naval commanders both died in the same expedition 
 (they were joined in commission as generals of the fleet) against the West 
 Indies. The former, it is generally believed, died of grief and vexation that 
 his advice as to the conduct of the enterprise was overruled or disliked by his 
 colleague ; and Drake, of mortification that the expedition was not successful. 
 Of either may be said, with equal truth, what was written of Sir Francis 
 Drake 
 
 " The waves became his winding-sheet ; the waters were his tomb ; 
 But for his fame, the ocean sea was not sufficient room."
 
 98 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 Queen Elizabeth determined, on the advice of her council, to 
 chastise the presumption of her enemy by sending a force suffi- 
 cient to destroy the Spanish shipping in their own harbours. 
 Accordingly, a powerful fleet of ninety-six ships, containing 
 fourteen thousand men, of whom one thousand were volunteers, 
 was fitted out for this formidable purpose. These were joined 
 by twenty-four Dutch ships, with two thousand six hundred men, 
 but the services of these latter were not greatly called into 
 requisition. 
 
 The Lord Admiral Howard and the Earl of Essex were joined 
 in commission generals of this expedition, with a council, con- 
 sisting of Lord Thomas Howard, Sir Walter Ralegh, Sir Francis 
 Vere, and Sir Conyers Clifford, to whom was added Sir George 
 Carew, to make the number of five. Lord Thomas Howard and 
 Balegh were also constituted admirals ; and so the whole fleet 
 was divided into four squadrons. Essex was impatient to be gone 
 to attack the Queen's enemies, and to kill them all up one after 
 the other with his own hand ; but he received a rebuke from the 
 Queen, who said in a letter to him " Though we meant to drive 
 it to the last considerations and utmost debates, as much as could 
 be, yet we compared times so sufficiently, as a prince who knows 
 what belongs to such a matter, that nothing should be done to 
 retard you (being ready) one hour ; for, as we know Ralegh not 
 to be arrived, so we know, after it, some time to embark such an 
 army must be required." Within ten days after this letter, on the 
 1st of June, 1596, the fleet sailed from Plymouth, and on the 20th 
 it anchored in the bay of St. Sebastian, half a league from Cadiz. 
 
 The Lord Admiral and Essex decided that the town should 
 be first attempted, so that the Spanish galleons and galleys, toge- 
 ther with the forts of Cadiz, might not simultaneously discharge 
 their fire upon the English fleet. The council of war concurred 
 in this decision, at which, however, Ralegh was not present, 
 having been sent the day before to stop such vessels as might pass 
 out from St. Lucar or Cadiz along the coast. He returned just 
 when Essex was putting his men into boats in order to land them. 
 Upon this, Ralegh went aboard the Earl's ship and remonstrated 
 with the rash and over-brave nobleman, protesting before all the 
 colonels against the resolution come to by the Council. He gave 
 the young commander (who was afraid of being thought afraid)
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 99 
 
 convincing reasons that his course would bring on a general ruin, 
 the utter overthrow of the whole army, the loss of their own lives, 
 and the imminent peril of the Queen's future safety. The Earl 
 excused himself by laying the fault (if fault it were) to the Lord 
 Admiral.* All the commanders and gentlemen besought Ralegh 
 to dissuade the attempt, and, thereupon, Essex prayed him to 
 persuade Howard to enter the port. This was easily done, and 
 the permission conveyed to the Earl by Ralegh, who called out 
 to him 'EntramosJ whereupon the gallant young Earl (he had not 
 learned cowardice or caution from Leicester) threw his hat into 
 the sea for joy, and prepared to weigh anchor. 
 
 The day being far spent, Ralegh counselled the deferring of 
 the attack till next morning (though, he tells us, " some being 
 desperately valiant, thought this a fault of mine ") which was 
 agreed upon, as also, only now, was the disposition of the fleet, 
 which was ordered as he recommended. He particularly advised 
 that two great fly-boats should board each Spanish galleon, after 
 the Queen's ships had sufficiently battered them. This being 
 consented to, and the two generals persuaded to lead the body of 
 the fleet, Sir Walter, in the Warspite, had the command of the van, 
 which was to enter the harbour, and consisted of the Mary-Rose, 
 commanded by Sir George Carew ; the Lion, by Sir Robert 
 Southwell ; the Eainbow, by Sir Francis Vere ; the Swiftsure, by 
 Captain Cross ; the Dreadnought, by Sir Conyers and Alexander 
 Clifford ; and the Nonpareil, by Mr. Robert Dudley ; besides twelve 
 London hired ships and the fly-boats the Lord Thomas Howard 
 leaving his own ship, the Mer Honneur, to go on board the Nou- 
 pareil.f At the first break of day Ralegh weighed anchor, and bore 
 
 * It is marvellous that so skilful and practical a commander as the Lord 
 Admiral should have advised so rash a measure. Ralegh, who had studied 
 deeply the art of war, both on land and at sea, says that " the most part could 
 not but perish in the sea ere they came to set foot on ground, and, if any 
 arrived on shore, yet were they sure to have their boats cast on their Leads, 
 and twenty men, in so desperate an attempt, would have defeated them all." 
 
 t The author of the " Triumphs of Nassau " observes "The resolution of 
 giving Ralegh the van being oppugned by the Lord Thomas Howard, who said 
 that honour belonged to him (as vice-admiral), it was concluded that both 
 of them should go together; but Ralegh, as soon as it was day, to lose no 
 time in weighing anchor, let slip, and thereby had the advantage of sailing 
 first." 
 
 H2
 
 100 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 in towards the Spanish fleet, which were thus placed to support 
 the attack : Under the walls of the city were ranged seventeen 
 galleys, that they might the better flank the English ships as they 
 entered, and obstruct their passage forward to the galleons. The 
 artillery from Fort Philip played on the fleet, as did the cannon 
 from the curtain of the town, and six culverins scoured the 
 channel. As soon as the St. Philip (one of the largest ships of 
 Spain) perceived Ralegh under sail approaching, she also set sail, 
 and with her the St. Matthew, the St. Thomas, the St. Andrew, 
 the two great galleons of Lisbon, three frigates of war, accustomed 
 to transport the treasure, two argosies, very strong in artillery, 
 the admiral, vice-admiral, and rear-admiral of New Spain, with 
 forty other great ships, bound for Mexico and other places. Of 
 these, the St. 'Philip, the St. Matthew, the St. Andrew, and St. 
 Thomas, being four of the royal ships of Spam, again came to 
 anchor under the fort of Puntal, in a strait of the harbour which 
 leads to Puerto Real. On the starboard they placed the three 
 frigates ; behind, the two galleons of Lisbon and the argosies ; 
 and the seventeen galleys, by three and three, " to interlace them, 
 as occasion should be offered." Behind these again, the admiral, 
 vice-admiral, and rear-admiral of New Spain, with the body of 
 the fleet, were placed, towards Puerto Real,, to defend the entrance, 
 their line stretching like a bridge over the strait, which was also 
 guarded by the fort of Puntal. 
 
 Sir Walter, advancing in the van of the English, was " saluted " 
 by the fort called Philip, afterwards by the ordnance on the curtain, 
 and lastly by all the galleys. To show his scorn of this assault, 
 he answered first the fort, and afterwards the galleys, in his own 
 words, " to each piece a blow with a trumpet ; disdaining to shoot 
 one piece at any one or all of those esteemed dreadful monsters. 
 The ships that followed beat upon the galleys so thick, as they 
 soon betook them to their oars and got up to join with the g-alleons 
 in the strait ; and then, as they were driven to come near me, and 
 enforced to range their sides towards me, I bestowed a benediction 
 amongst them." * 
 
 * Sir Walter, in his History, observing 1 upon the difficulty of staying a 
 ship in its course by operations from the land, observes " In the beginning 
 of our late Queen's time, when Denmark and Sweden were at war, our east- 
 land fleet, bound for Liefland, was forbidden by the King of Denmark to trade
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 101 
 
 The St. Philip, the great and famous Admiral of Spain, was 
 the mark he aimed at ; and he came to anchor by the galleons, 
 which he began to batter with the utmost resolution. The Lord 
 Thomas Howard soon came to anchor on one side of him, with Sir 
 Thomas Southwell, Sir George Carew, and the Cliffords on the 
 other, and Sir Francis Vere towards the Puntal. At last, after 
 they had cannonaded the enemy for a long time, about ten in the 
 morning the Earl of Essex, impatient of remaining any longer a 
 mere looker-on, bore through the fleet, leading the ships on the 
 left hand, and anchored near to Sir Walter. Captain Cross after- 
 wards advanced as near as he could; but Ralegh was always 
 
 with the subjects of his enemies, and he threatened to sink their ships if they 
 came through the straita of Elsinore. Notwithstanding this, our merchants 
 (having a ship of her majesty's, called the Minion, to defend them) made the 
 adventure, and sustaining some volleys of shot, kept on their course. The 
 king made all the provision he could to stop them, or sink them, at their 
 return; but the Minion commanded, as I take it, by William Burrough 
 leading the way, did not only pass out with little loss, but did beat down with 
 artillery a great part of the fort of Elsinore, which, at that time, was not so 
 well ramparted as now perhaps it is, and the fleet of merchants that followed 
 him went through without any wound received. Neither was it long since, 
 that the Duke of Parma, besieging Antwerp, and finding no possibility to 
 master it otherwise than by famine, laid his cannon on the bank of the river 
 so well to purpose, and so even with the face of the water, that he thought it 
 impossible for the least boat to pass by ; yet the Hollanders and Zealanders, 
 not blown up by any wind of glory, but coming to find a good market for 
 their butter and cheese even the poor men, attending their profit when all 
 things were extremely dear in Antwerp passed in boats of ten or twelve tons, 
 by the mouth of the Duke's cannon, in despite of it, when a strong westerly 
 wind and a tide of flood favoured them, as also with a contrary wind and an 
 ebbing water they turned back again; so as he was forced, in the end, to 
 build his stockado overthwart the river, to his marvellous trouble and charge. 
 The fort Saint Philip terrified not us in the year 1596, when we entered the 
 port of Cadiz ; neither did the fort at Pnntal, when we were entered, beat us 
 from our anchoring by it, though it played upon us with four demi-cannons 
 within point blank from six in the morning till twelve at noon. The siege 
 of Ostend, and of many other places, may be given for proof how hard a 
 matter it is to stop the passage of a good ship without another as good to 
 encounter it. Yet this is true that where a fort is so set as that of Angra in 
 Terceira, that there is no passage along beside it, or that the ships are driven 
 to turn upon a bow-line towards it, wanting all help of wind and tide ; then, 
 and in such places, is it of great use and fearful otherwise, not."
 
 102 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 closest to the enemy, and stood single in the head of all. After a 
 vigorous exchange of shot for nearly three hours, in which his 
 ship suffered so much that it was ready to sink, Ralegh went to 
 the Admiral in his skiff, to desire that he would oblige the fly-boats 
 to advance, that he might board the enemy. The Earl of Essex 
 was then coming up, to whom he declared, that if those boats did 
 not come, he would board them in the Queen's ship, for it was the 
 same loss to burn or sink, and one he must endure. The Earl 
 promised him on his honour to second him in whatever he might 
 attempt, as likewise did the Lord Thomas Howard, upon which, 
 after a long and desperate fight, Sir Walter, having no longer 
 hopes of the fly-boats, prepared to board the Spanish Admiral, 
 who, perceiving this, ran his ship ashore, and was followed by the 
 other capital ships.* The Admiral and the St. Thomas were burnt, 
 and the St. Matthew and St. Andrew saved by the English boats 
 before they took fire. The English showed great moderation 
 after the victory ; but the Dutch, who did little or nothing in the 
 fight, made a great slaughter among the enemy, till they were 
 " by myself," says Ralegh, "and afterwards by my Lord Admiral, 
 beaten off.'' 
 
 This memorable victory was obtained by sea, and the bay 
 resigned by two, or, as some say, by four in the afternoon, though 
 no more of the English fleet were engaged in constant and close 
 action than eight ships, opposed to fifty-five or seven, as Ralegh 
 reckons them besides the fort of Puntal playing upon them all the 
 while. The taking of the city of Cadiz immediately followed. 
 Ralegh, though he had received a grievous wound in the leg, 
 which was much torn and deformed by a splinter-rshot in the fight, 
 willing to encourage the army with his presence, and desirous of 
 seeing the conduct and disposition of the enemy, was carried 
 ashore on the shoulders of his men, when the Lord Admiral sent 
 
 * What emulation what rivalry, rather in order than one might stand 
 higher in the Queen's favour on his return than the other, was conspicuous 
 in this action ! Ralegh says that " My lord general Essex thrust the Dread- 
 nought aside and came next the Warspite, ahead of all that rank but my Lord 
 Thomas. The marshal (Vere), 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 of my company advertising me thereof, I caused 
 it to be cut off, and he fell back into his place, whom I guarded, all but his 
 ?ery prow, from the sight of the enemy."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 103 
 
 him one of his horses. But the torment he endured, and the 
 fear of being shouldered by the tumultuous soldiers, abandoned 
 to spoil and rapine, without any respect of persons, impelled him 
 to return to the fleet that night, there being no Admiral on board 
 to order it, or indeed few mariners left in the ships, " all " (to use 
 his own words) " running to the sack." Otherwise, like the rest 
 of the commanders, he might have rewarded himself for his ser- 
 vices. Leaving them in safe possession at his departure, they 
 promised to reserve for him his share of the booty, and to give 
 him a good quarter of the town, of which they defrauded him.* 
 The next morning, he sent his half-brother, Sir John Gilbert, and 
 his wife's brother, Arthur Throgmorton, to the General, for orders 
 to fall on the Spanish West Indian fleet, outward bound, and said 
 to be worth twelve millions, then lying in the Puerto Real, where 
 they could not escape him. But he received no answer, which he 
 imputed to the hurry and confusion then existing. In the after- 
 noon, the merchants of Cadiz and Seville offered them two millions 
 of ducats to spare the fleet ; but the Lord Admiral was averse to 
 any composition, and the Earl of Essex was desirous that the land 
 officers should seize the ships. To this, Ralegh, having regard to 
 the honour of the sailors, would not consent ; and so the opportu- 
 nity either of taking or ransoming them was lost ; for the next 
 morning the Spanish Admiral (the Duke of Medina Sidonia) 
 caused this rich fleet to be burned. Thus the galleons, frigates, 
 argosies, the fleet of New Spain, and all (except the galleys, which 
 escaped) were consumed to ashes. A good number of the enemy's 
 ordnance was recovered out of their ships ; and the plunder of the 
 city in merchandise, plate, jewels, and money, was very consider- 
 
 * Balegh well knew the potency of money in commanding respect, and 
 valued it accordingly. His discontent at not receiving a portion of the spoil of 
 Cadiz is characteristic. "The town of Cadiz," he says, " wns very rich in mer- 
 chandise, in plate, and money ; many rich prisoners given to the land com- 
 manders, so as that sort are very rich. Some had prisoners for sixteen thousand 
 ducats; some for twenty thousand; some for ten thousand; and besides great 
 houses of merchandise. What the generals have gotten, I know least, they 
 protest it is little : for mine own part, I have gotten a lame leg, and a deformed ; 
 for the rest, either I spake too late, or it was otherwise resolved. I have not 
 wanted good words, and exceeding kind and regardful usage ; but I have pos- 
 session of nought but poverty and pain. Jf God had spared me that blow, I 
 had possessed myself of some l^use."
 
 104 THJE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 siderable ; the total loss being estimated at twenty millions of 
 ducats. 
 
 The army embarked on the 5th of July ; and it was deliberated 
 in the Council of War, whether the fleet should not continue at 
 sea, in order to intercept the West Indian fleet, but the want of 
 provisions forbade the entertainment of such a design ; and it was 
 resolved to return to England, visiting the Spanish coasts in their 
 way, to destroy the enemy's shipping. Accordingly, they sailed, 
 and demolished Faro, plundering it of the valuable library of its 
 Bishop, Osorio, which was the foundation of the public library 
 begun by Sir Thomas Bodley the following year. The Earl of 
 Essex proposed some other enterprises ; but was stoutly opposed 
 by the principal land and sea officers. This so disgusted the 
 petulant favourite, that, on his return, he wrote a " Censure of the 
 Omissions " in the expedition, in which paper he raises four 
 objections to the conduct of it: that they did not capture the 
 Indian fleet ; that they abandoned Cadiz ; that they did not wait 
 for the caracks and Indian ships ; and lastly, that they did not 
 attack the enemy in other ports. These omissions he charges 
 upon the other commanders ; and, in the last two articles, particu- 
 larly names Sir Walter Ralegh (who had prevented him from 
 ruining the expedition, and making a fool and a madman of him- 
 self), whose conduct and courage, however, were greatly approved 
 of by the Queen, and extorted the admiration of the people.* 
 
 Notwithstanding his recent services, Sir Walter was still sus- 
 
 * Before the fleet sailed on this expedition, the Queen had exhorted the 
 Lord Admiral to take especial heed of the Earl of Essex's person. He was 
 rashly brave, and Elizabeth bad a tenderness for him; but she knew his inexpe- 
 rience, and doubted his discretion. As to his "exceptions," the attempt of a 
 cockerel to crow with all his might what weight could his opinions hold against 
 the united voice of commanders who had distinguished themselves on land and 
 at sea, whilst he was receiving pocket-money (not, by the way, very liberally 
 disbursed) from his guardian, the Lord Treasurer Burghley ? Whether Cadiz 
 could have been retained, and for what length of time, with the military force 
 at the disposal of the English commanders, I leave it to soldiers to determine. 
 Meanwhile, let me recommend a perusal of the following passage from Ralegh's 
 " History :" " It is not so easy to hold by force a mighty town entered by ca- 
 pitulation, as to enter the gates opened by unadvised fear ; for when the 
 citizens, not being disarmed, recover their spirits, and begin to understand 
 their first error, they will think upon every advantage of place, of pro- 
 visions, of multitude, yea of women armed with tile-stones, and rather choose
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 105 
 
 pended from his office of captain of the guard. This, however, 
 did not discourage him from applying 1 for the office of vice-cham- 
 berlain, or from making- himself a mediator between Essex and 
 Secretary Cecil, whose contests were the source of continual un- 
 easiness to the Queen. Having- effected a reconciliation, he soon 
 reaped the fruits of it. In the year 1597, Cecil brought Ealegh to 
 her majesty, who received him with great kindness, and restored 
 him to his captaincy of the guard ; and on the same evening he 
 went abroad with the Queen in her coach, thenceforth had private 
 conferences with her, and attended her in her privy chamber, with 
 the same freedom as before. He was now assured of the favour 
 of his royal mistress, and had little to fear, for the time to come, 
 from the machinations of his enemies. 
 
 by desperate resolution to correct the evils grown out of their former cowardice, 
 than suffer those mischiefs to poison the body, which in such half-conquests 
 are easily tasted in the mouth. A more lively example hereof cannot be de- 
 sired than the city of Florence, which, through the weakness of Peter de 
 Medicis, governing therein as a prince, was reduced into such hard terms, that 
 it opened the gates unto the French king, Charles VIII., who, not plainly pro- 
 fessing himself either friend or foe to the state, entered the town with his army 
 in triumphant manner, himself and his horse armed, with his lance upon his 
 thigh. Many insolencies were therein committed by the French, and much ar- 
 gument of quarrel ministered between them and the townsmen so far forth, 
 that the Florentines, to preserve their liberty, were driven to prepare for fight. 
 To conclude the matter, Charles propounds intolerable conditions, demanding 
 huge sums of ready money, and the absolute seigniory of the State, as con- 
 quered by him, who entered the city in arms. But Peter Caponi, a principal 
 citizen, catching these articles from the king's secretary, and tearing them 
 before his face, bade him sound his trumpets, and they would ring their bells; 
 which peremptory words made the French bethink themselves, and como 
 readily to this agreement, that for forty thousand pounds, and not half of that 
 money to be paid in hand, Charles should not only depart in peace, but restore 
 whatsoever he had of their dominion, and continue their assured friends ; so 
 dangerous a matter did it seem for that brave army, which in a few months 
 after won the kingdom of Naples, to fight in the street, against the armed 
 multitude of that populous city. It is true that Charles had other business that 
 called him away ; but it was the apprehension of imminent danger that made 
 him come to reason. In such cases, the firing of houses usually draws every 
 citizen to save his own, leaving victory to the soldier; yet where the people are 
 prepared and resolved, women can quench as fast as the enemy, having other 
 things to look unto, can set on fire. And, indeed, that commander is more 
 given to anger than regardful of profit, who, upon the uncertain hope of de- 
 stroying a town, forsakes the assurance of a good composition."
 
 106 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 During Ralegh's constrained absence from the court, he lived, 
 we are told, in great splendour in and near the town. We have 
 now, however, no means of knowing where he resided. It is 
 uncertain whether the seat at West Horsley, in Surrey, belonged 
 to Ralegh, although it was in possession of his son ; but there 
 can be no doubt that he had a villa at Islington. The original 
 mansion, for more than a century and a half an inn, called " The 
 Pied Bull," was taken down a few years since. The house has 
 been rebuilt, and is now one of the modern wine-vaults, or 
 " palaces" of that northern and traditionally " merry" suburb. As 
 to his dwellings in London, he had apartments in the court at 
 Somerset House, and was permitted by Queen Elizabeth to occupy 
 the palace called Durham House, in the Strand. He had also a 
 house in St. James's ; but where, it is impossible to ascertain. 
 
 It was not long before Ralegh's active services were called for. 
 What was afterwards called " the island voyage " was a design to 
 defeat and destroy at Ferrol, as well as in other ports of the enemy, 
 the Spanish fleet intended for a new expedition against England 
 and Ireland ; to seize upon such Indian fleets of treasure as they 
 should meet with ; but especially to conquer, retain, and garrison 
 most of the islands of the Azores, and, most of all, Terceira. The 
 Earl of Essex (the Lord Admiral being indisposed) had the chief 
 command, Lord Thomas Howard being vice-admiral, and Ralegh 
 rear-admiraL But the success of this expedition was not answer- 
 able to the magnitude of the preparations made for it. There had 
 been a misunderstanding between Ralegh and Sir Francis Vere 
 {who was again marshal of the army) at the siege of Cadiz. The 
 Earl of Essex, before they set out on the island voyage, made it 
 his business to reconcile them, and bade them shake hands 
 " which we did both," says Vere, " the more willingly, because 
 there had nothing passed between us that might blemish reputa- 
 tion." It had been well for Essex, and far better for the success 
 of the expedition, had he at the same moment flung from him his 
 jealousy and envy of his rear-admiral. 
 
 Unpleasant differences began soon after the fleet set sail from 
 Plymouth, on the 9th July 1597. Sir Walter's ship, the Warspite, 
 having been seriously damaged by a storm in the bay of Biscaj', 
 he was detained behind the fleet till the accident could be repaired. 
 When he came to the rock of Lisbon, he met with a large number
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 107 
 
 of ships and traders, which he conducted to the Azores. This, 
 which was a signal service (these vessels being- on their way to 
 England, not having found Essex at the rendezvous appointed by 
 himself), was a proceeding of which the Earl did not know what to 
 make. His creatures, of whom he had many, and to whom he 
 always lent too ready an ear, had possessed him with the belief 
 
 SIB FRANCIS VKRE. 
 
 that Ralegh had inveigled these ships away, and that he had 
 designed to desert him. On Ralegh's arrival, Essex seemed, says 
 Arthur Gorges, " to be the joy fullest man living," protesting that 
 " he never believed we would leave him, although divers persuaded 
 him to the contrary," and acknowledging " that he was sorry for a 
 letter which he had written, by Mr. Robert Knollys, into England 
 against us," but promising " to make a despatch on purpose, contrary 
 to the former." 
 
 With what pity, and with a deal of that which is sometimes allied 
 to it, must Sir Walter have regarded this " slight man," who now 
 treated him with the greatest kindness and familiarity."* 
 
 * " Though the earl had many doubts and jealousies buzzed in his ears against 
 him (Ralegh), yet I have often observed," says Gorges, " that both in his
 
 108 THE LIFE AMD TIMES OP 
 
 In the council of war held before the isle of Flores, it had been 
 decided that Essex and Sir Walter should jointly attack the island 
 of Fayal. Here Italegh waited some days for the Earl, but he did 
 not arrive. Sir Walter deemed it high time to call a council of 
 war, in which he proposed to attempt the town himself a step 
 which Sir Guilly Meyrick, Sir Nicholas Parker, and other 
 creatures of Essex, strongly resisted, but which Gorges, Sir W. 
 Brook, and Sir W. Harvey, with many other commanders and 
 gentlemen of his own squadron, as warmly encouraged. Ralegh at 
 length agreed to delay the enterprise one day longer, and if the Earl 
 did not arrive, he resolved to take the island ; which he did in the 
 most gallant manner, with, as he has told us, and as the reader has 
 seen {vide p. 59), " none but men assured, commanders of my own 
 squadron, with some of their followers, and a few other gentlemen 
 volunteers, whom I could not refuse ; " leaving Meyrick, Parker, 
 and the other parasites, to prepare such colours for a picture to be 
 presented to their master on his arrival, as should inflame him to 
 madness.* 
 
 greatest actions of service, and in the time of his chiefest recreations, he would 
 ever accept of his counsel and company before many others who thought them- 
 selves more in his favour." 
 
 * The taking of the fort was a desperate undertaking. Ralegh has gene- 
 rously omitted to notice in his account, that many of the soldiers, who had been 
 brought from the Low Countries, and had for the most part lived in garrison, 
 showed great irresolution, and positively refused to go forward to discover the 
 way to the town, a piece of cowardice which excited his scorn and indignation. 
 He told them, " that he would not offer that to any man which he would him- 
 self refuse ; that though it were not the duty and office of a chief commander to 
 undergo so ordinary a service, which duly appertained to the inferior officers 
 and soldiers; " and " notwithstanding that I could therefore enforce others to 
 it, they shall well perceive that I myself will do that which they dare not 
 attempt; wherein I am ashamed in their behalf, that our general (Essex), and 
 we are all thus abused in our opinion of those Low Country soldiers." Sir 
 Arthur Gorges tells us, " When I saw him resolved, I told him that I would, 
 out of the love of a kinsman in particular, and also out of an honest regard, 
 take such part as he did, from whom I had received many kind favours, and 
 accompany him ; but not out of any great desire I had to go about a piece of 
 work which consisted of much danger, and little honour in the performance. 
 He thanked me for the offer, but yet wished me not to go, if it were against 
 my will ; notwithstanding, I accompanied him, and so did some eight or ten more 
 of our servants and followers. But I say truly, and so afterwards it was much 
 spoken of, that there was not any one more of quality that did accompany him
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. ]09 
 
 The next morning, before break of day, they discovered, bearing 
 in with full sail towards the road of Fayal, the Earl of Essex and his 
 fleet, he having been all this while making a wildgoose chase after 
 the Indian fleets, and the Adelantado, who, as he now understood, 
 never stirred out this year. Being duly informed of the taking of 
 Fayal, he broke out into fury, cashiering several of the officers who 
 had 1 conducted themselves gallantly under Ralegh. Some of the 
 Earl's dependents even intimated that Ralegh deserved to lose his 
 head for breach of the articles, in landing without his lordship's 
 orders. When the two met, the Earl, after a faint welcome, began 
 to accuse Ralegh of breach of orders, and being asked wherein he 
 had been guilty of such breach, the other answered, " there was an 
 article that none should land any of the troops without the general's 
 presence or his order." Ralegh replied that there was indeed an 
 order that no captain should do this under pain of death : " But 
 I take myself," said he, " to be a principal commander under your 
 lordship, and therefore not subject to that article, nor under the 
 power of that law." 
 
 Some more words passed, and Essex was apparently pacified, 
 resting himself in Ralegh's lodging. Sir Walter invited the Earl 
 to supper ; but Sir Christopher Blount (the new stepfather of Essex), 
 who brought back the answer, said, " he thought my lord would 
 not sup at all." To which Ralegh replied, " That for his own 
 appetite, he might, when invited, disable it at his own pleasure ; 
 but if the Earl would stay he should be glad of his company." On 
 the next morning, the Lord Thomas Howard, who had been closeted 
 with Essex on the night preceding, assured Sir Walter that the 
 Earl only wanted some acknowledgment, because the rest would 
 think him a weak and tame commander, if he had not satisfaction. 
 Ralegh, (who, spite of the Earl's seeming content on the previous 
 day, suspected some violence would be offered him, had designed 
 
 in that business." Sir Arthur had his left leg shot through by a musket ball. 
 He says " I was then hard by the rear-admiral, who also was shot through 
 the breeches and doublet sleeves in two or three places. And Btill they plied 
 us so fast with small shot, that, as I well remember, he wished me to put off a 
 large red scarf which I then wore, being, as he said, a very fair mark for 
 them. But I, not willing to do the Spaniards so much honour at that time, 
 though I could have wished it had not been on, answered the rear-admiral 
 again, that his white scarf was as eminent as my red, and therefore I would 
 now follow his example."
 
 110 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 to betake himself to bis own squadron, and to have defended him- 
 self or forsaken the Earl,) now again visited Essex, Lord Thomas 
 Howard having upon his honour assured him, that he would make 
 himself a party if any wrong were sought to be done him, and the 
 matter came to a quiet conclusion, the officers that had been 
 cashiered being reinstated. 
 
 Southey seeks to exalt Essex, by telling a story, on the authority 
 of Sir Henry Wotton, of his magnanimity on this occasion, " Being 
 pressed by one, whose name," says Sir Henry, " I need not re- 
 member, that at the least he would put him upon a martial-court, 
 he let fall a noble word upon that occasion, and replied, ' That I 
 would do, if he were my friend.' But the fact is, a council of war, 
 chiefly composed of the Earl's creatures, did sit upon the case, 
 and decided that Ralegh deserved death ; and it is another fact, 
 that his proceedings against Sir Walter, in calling his actions to 
 public question before a council of war, were highly disapproved 
 by the Queen.* 
 
 Influenced by the flatteries of Meyrick and Blount, administered 
 to inordinate self-sufficiency, Essex committed many errors, not the 
 least of which was his missing the Indian fleet. Kalegh, however, 
 made prize of three ships, richly laden, which barely paid the ex- 
 penses of an expedition that was designed for a far more important 
 purpose. Ralegh remarked to Sir Arthur Gorges " Although we 
 shall be little the better for these rich prizes, yet I amheartily glad for 
 our general's sake ; because they will in great measure give content 
 to her majesty; so that there may be no repining against this 
 poor lord for the expense of the voyage." On their return to 
 England, Essex posted to London to vindicate himself, and to throw 
 the whole blame of the non-success of the Indian voyage upon Sir 
 Walter ; but he found the Queen violently incensed against him. 
 She knew well with whom the blame lay, and roundly told him so, 
 and never again employed him in a naval expedition. However, 
 the Earl, for his consolation, had on his side the populace, who be- 
 lieved that Ralegh had robbed Essex of his due glory by the taking 
 of Fayal, and who always received him with triumph, whatever his 
 mischances. Meanwhile, Ralegh's friends at court, where he now 
 stood higher than ever, " mightily graced his doings, and com- 
 mended his experience at sea." 
 
 * Letter of Rowland Wbyte to Sir Robert Sidney.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. Ill 
 
 About this time Sir John Norris died. He was one of the 
 greatest military commanders during Elizabeth's reign, and the most 
 celebrated of five brothers, all approved " men of the sword." There 
 had long been a feud between the families of Norris and Knollys, 
 both being in high esteem with Elizabeth. The achievements of 
 Sir John caused a rankling envy in the breast of the Knollys family, 
 one of whom was married to Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex (the 
 mother, therefore, of the favourite), and was afterwards the wife of 
 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who entered himself a partner in 
 this jealousy, and strove to keep Sir John in the background 
 during the Earl's governorship of the Netherlands ; but who per- 
 formed an action there that made the great favourite's incapacity, 
 if possible, more conspicuous. This enmity and envy had been 
 transmitted to young Essex, who pursued the veteran with a ran- 
 cour most unmanly and despicable. Sir John Norris was sent into 
 Ireland in 1596, with the title of Lord General. Essex, affecting to 
 despise the number of the rebels, Norris was sent over with an 
 insufficient force, " of set purpose," says Sir Robert Naunton " as 
 it fell out, to ruin Norris ; and the Lord Burgh, by the Earl's pro- 
 curement, sent at his heels, and to command in chief; and to 
 confine Norris only to his government at Munster, which broke the 
 great heart of the general, to see himself undervalued and under- 
 mined by my lord and Burgh, which was, as the proverb speaks 
 it, imberbes docere senes" * 
 
 In the following extract, showing that the military profession 
 is the most unprosperous of any, Ralegh, it will be seen, had Sir John 
 Norris in his memory : 
 
 " Hence it comes to wit, from the envy of our equals, and 
 jealousy of our masters, be they kings or commonweals that there 
 is no profession more unprosperous than that of men of war, and 
 great captains, being no kings. For besides the envy and jealousy 
 of men ; the spoils, rapes, famine, slaughter of the innocent, vasta- 
 tion and burnings, with a world of miseries laid on the labouring 
 man, are so hateful to God, as with good reason did Monluc the 
 marshal of France confess, that were not the mercies of God 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott, in a note to Sir Robert Naunton, and echoing him, 
 observes : " Essex, by disgracing this brave general, meant to pave the way 
 for his own Irish expedition ; and the success of hia intrigue proved the 
 immediate cause of his ruin."
 
 112 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 infinite and without restriction, it were in vain for those of his 
 profession to hope for any portion of them, seeing 1 the cruelties by 
 them permitted and committed were also infinite. Howsoever, 
 this is true, that the victories which are obtained by many of the 
 greatest commanders, are commonly either ascribed to those that 
 serve under them, to fortune, or the cowardice of the nation 
 against whom they serve. For the most of others, whose virtues 
 have raised them above the level of their inferiors, and have sur- 
 mounted their envy ; yet have they been rewarded in the end, 
 either with disgrace, banishment, or death. Among the Romans 
 we find many examples hereof as Coriolanus, M. Livius, L. 
 ^Emilius, and Scipio. Among the Greeks we read of not many that 
 escaped these rewards ; yea, long before these times, it was a legacy 
 that David bequeathed unto his victorious captain Joab. With this 
 fare Alexander feasted Parmenio, Philotas, and others, and pre- 
 pared it for Antipater and Cassander. Hereto Valentinian the 
 emperor invited JEtius, who, after many other victories, overthrew 
 Attila of the Huns, in the greatest battle, for the well-fighting 
 and resolution of both armies, that ever was strucken in the world ; 
 for there fell of those that fought, beside runaways, a hundred 
 and fourscore thousand. Hereupon it was well and boldly told 
 unto the emperor by Proximus, that in killing of ^Etius he had cut 
 off his own right hand with his left; for it was not long- after, 
 that Maximus (by whose persuasion Valentinian slew ^Etius) 
 murdered the emperor, which he never durst attempt, ./Etius 
 living. And besides the loss of that emperor, it is true, that with 
 JStius the glory of the Western Empire was rather dissolved than 
 obscured. The same unworthy destiny, or a far worse, had Beli- 
 sarius, whose undertakings and victories were so difficult and 
 glorious, as after-ages suspected them for fabulous ; for he had 
 his eyes torn out of his head by Justinian, and he died a blind 
 beggar. Narses also, to the great prejudice of Christian religion, 
 was disgraced by Justinian. That rule of Cato against Scipio hath 
 been well observed in every age since then to wit, that the common- 
 weal cannot be counted free that standeth in awe of any one man. 
 And hence have the Turks drawn another principle, and indeed a 
 Turkish one, that every warlike prince should rather destroy his 
 greatest men of war than Buffer his own glory to be obscured by 
 them. For this cause did Bajazet the Second despatch Bassa Acmet,
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 113 
 
 Selim strangle Bassa Mustapha, and most of those princes bring to 
 ruin the most of their viziers. Of the Spanish nation, the great 
 Gonsalvo, who drave the French out of Naples, and Ferdinand 
 Cortes, who conquered Mexico, were crowned with nettles, not 
 with laurel. The Earls of Egmont and Horn had no heads left 
 them to wear garlands on. And that the great captains of all na- 
 tions have been paid with this copper coin, there are examples more 
 than too many. On the contrary, it may be said, that many have 
 acquired the state of princes, kings, and emperors, by their great 
 ability in matter of war. This I confess : yet must it be had 
 withal in consideration, that these high places have been given or 
 offered unto very few, as rewards of their military virtue, though 
 many have usurped them by the help and favour of those armies 
 which they commanded. Neither is it unregardable, that the 
 tyrants which have oppressed the liberty of free cities, and the 
 lieutenants of kings or emperors, which have traitorously cast 
 down their masters and stepped up into their seats, were not all 
 of them good men of war; but have used the advantage of some 
 -commotion, or many of them, by base and cowardly practices, 
 have obtained those dignities which undeservedly were ascribed to 
 their personal worth. So that the number of those that have 
 purchased absolute greatness by the greatness of their warlike vir- 
 tues is far more in seeming than in deed. Phocas was a soldier, 
 and by help of the soldiers he got the empire from his lord, 
 Mauritius ; but he was a coward, and with a barbarous cruelty, 
 seldom found in any other than cowards, he slew first the children 
 of Mauritius a prince that never had done him wrong before 
 his face, and after them Mauritius himself. This his bloody 
 fispiring was but as a debt which was paid unto him again by 
 Heraclius, who took from him the imperial crown, unjustly gotten, 
 and set it on his own head. Leontius laid hold upon the emperor 
 Justinian, cut off his nose and ears, and sent him into banishment ; 
 but God's vengeance rewarded him with the same punishment, by 
 the hands of Tiberius ; to whose charge he had left his own men 
 of war. Justinian having recovered forces, lighted on Tiberius, 
 und barbed him after the same fashion. Philippicus, commanding 
 the forces of Justinian, murdered both the emperor and his son. 
 Anastatius, the vassal of this new tyrant, surprised his master, 
 Philippicus, and thrust out both his eyes. But with Anastatius, 
 
 i
 
 114 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Theodosius dealt more gently ; for having wrested the sceptre out 
 of his hands, he enforced him to become a priest. It were an 
 endless and a needless work to tell how Leo rewarded this 
 Theodosius ; how many others have been repaid with their own 
 cruelty, by men alike ambitious and cruel; or how many 
 hundreds, or rather thousands, hoping of captains to make 
 themselves kings, have, by God's justice, miserably perished in 
 the attempt. 
 
 " The ordinary, and perhaps the best way of thriving by the 
 practice of arms, is to take what may be gotten by the spoil of 
 enemies, and the liberality of those princes and cities in whose 
 service one hath well deserved. But scarce one of a thousand have 
 prospered by this course ; for that observation made by Solomon, 
 of unthankfulness in this kind, hath been found belonging- to all 
 countries and ages : ' A little city, and few men in it, and a great 
 king came against it, and compassed it about, and builded forts 
 against it ; and there was found a poor and wise man therein, and 
 he delivered the city by his wisdom but none remembered this 
 poor man.' Great monarchs are unwilling to pay great thanks, lest 
 thereby they should acknowledge themselves to have been indebted 
 for great benefits, which the unwiser sort of them think to savour 
 of some impotency in themselves. But in this respect they are 
 oftentimes cozened and abused, which proves that weakness to be 
 in them indeed, whereof they so gladly shun the opinion. Con- 
 trariwise, free estates are bountiful in giving thanks ; yet so, as 
 those thanks are not of long endurance. But concerning other profit 
 which their captains have made, by enriching themselves with the 
 spoil of the enemy, they are very inquisitive to search into it, arid 
 to strip the well-deservers out of their gettings ; yea, most injuri- 
 ously to rob them of their own, upon a false supposition, that even 
 they whose hands are most clean from such offences have purloined 
 somewhat from the common treasury. Hereof I need not to pro- 
 duce examples. 
 
 " In my late sovereign's time, although for the wars which, 
 for her own safety, she was constrained to undertake, her majesty 
 had no less cause to use the service of martial men, both by sea 
 and land, than any of her predecessors for many years had ; yet, 
 according- to the destiny of that profession, I do not remember 
 that any of hers the lord admiral excepted, her eldest and most
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 115 
 
 prosperous commander were either enriched or otherwise hon- 
 oured for any service by them performed. And that her majesty 
 had many advised, valiant, and faithful men, the prosperity of 
 her affairs did well witness, who in all her days never received dis- 
 honour by the cowardice or infidelity of any commander by herself 
 chosen and employed. 
 
 " For as all her old captains by land died poor men, as Malbey, 
 Randol, Drewrie, Reade, Wilford, Layton, Pelham, Gilbert, Con- 
 stable, Bourchier, Barkeley, Bingham, and others, so those of a 
 later and more dangerous employment, whereof Norris and Vere 
 were the most famous, and who have done as great honour to our 
 natioii (for the means they had) as ever any did those (I say), with 
 many other brave colonels, have left behind them, besides the 
 reputation they purchased with many travels and wounds, nor 
 title nor estate to posterity. As for the Lord Thomas Burrough, 
 and Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, two very worthy 
 and exceeding- valiant commanders, they brought into the world 
 their titles and estates. 
 
 " That her Majesty, in the advancement of her men of war, 
 did sooner believe other men than herself, a disease unto which 
 many wise princes besides herself have been subject I say that 
 such a confidence, although it may seem altogether to excuse her 
 noble nature, yet can it not of some sort accuse her of weakness. 
 And exceeding 1 strange it were, were not the cause manifest enough ; 
 that where the prosperous actions are so exceedingly prized, the 
 actors are so unprosperous and so general!}' neglected. The cause, 
 I sny, which hath wrought one and the same effect in all times, 
 and among all nations, is this that those which are nearest the 
 person of princes (which martial men seldom are) can with no 
 good grace commend or at least magnify a profession far more 
 noble than their own, seeing therein they should only mind their 
 masters of the wrong- they did unto others, in giving less honour 
 and reward to men of far greater deserving, and of far greater use 
 than themselves." 
 
 Shortly after his return from the " Island voyage," Sir Walter 
 made a brief visit to Sherborne, and then returned and took his seat 
 in the house, of which he was an active memberduring the re- 
 mainder of the session. In December of this year, he was employed 
 by the Queen to bring about a reconciliation between Essex and the 
 
 i2
 
 116 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Lord Admiral. In this matter the Queen was obliged at last to 
 pacify her spoiled favourite.* 
 
 Early in 1598, the public was astonished to see Sir Walter 
 Ralegh, Sir Robert Cecil, secretary of state, and the Earl of Essex 
 in a degree of familiarity that looked very much like intimate 
 friendship. " It is exceedingly wondered at by the world," says 
 Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, " to see the too great fami- 
 liarity that is grown between 1,000 (the Earl of Essex) 200 (Sir 
 Robert Cecil), and 24 (Sir Walter Ralegh) and 27. None but they 
 enjoy him, they carry him away as they list." Ralegh it seems at 
 this time sought the Earl's interest to obtain some reward for his 
 services, or for some honour to be conferred upon him, having 
 renounced all hopes of the place of vice-chamberlain, for which the 
 Earl's promise was engaged to Sir Robert Sidney. He was likewise 
 urgent with Cecil that something might be done for him, ere the 
 Secretary went to France as Ambassador to Henry the IV. to divert 
 him from the peace then in treaty at Vervins. Before Cecil's de- 
 parture from France, Ralegh entertained him with a banquet and a 
 play, and accompanied him to Dover. On his leaving London, the 
 Secretary agreed with the Earl of Essex to bring Ralegh, as well as 
 Sir .Robert Sidney into the privy council. But this so suddenly 
 struck up friendship, between Ralegh and Cecil and Essex, lasted 
 not long. It was entered into from motives of interest on the part 
 of all three, and no one who knew them imagined it would be long 
 maintained. 
 
 About this time, there was an alarm of a fresh invasion from 
 Spain, and Sir Walter was sent into Cornwall to put that county 
 in a state of defence ; and in March of the same year, there was a 
 talk of sending him to Ireland as Lord Deputy, but he liked not 
 the office, and Essex got what he craved which brought about 
 his destruction. In August, 1599, there was another rumour of 
 
 * During the absence of Essex in the island voyage, the Lord Admiral 
 Howard (than whom no man was more worthy of honour at the Queen's 
 hands) was created Earl of Nottingham. This promotion was violently 
 resented by Essex ; for it gave Nottingham the precedence, holding, as he did, 
 the post of admiral ; and he positively had the audacity to insist that the Earl's 
 patent should be altered, or that he (Essex) should be permitted to maintain 
 his own right by combat against the Earl, or any of his sons or family ! And 
 the Queen was weak enough to give way to his importunities, and created him. 
 Earl-Marshal of England, in order to support his precedence. 

 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 117 
 
 an invasion from Spain, and a fleet was immediately fitted out, 
 of which Ralegh was appointed vice-admiral. Accordingly, he 
 took his leave of the Court and went on board the fleet. But 
 apprehension of the Spaniards soon proved to be groundless, and 
 he returned to London. At this time he sought an honour which 
 not even his services and her high opinion of the man could 
 prevail with the Queen to bestow. " Sir Robert Cecil and Sir 
 Walter Ralegh," says Whyte, " do infinitely desire to be Barons, 
 and they hnve a purpose to be called unto it, though there be no 
 Parliament." 
 
 ROBSHT CECIL, EARL OF SALISBURY. 
 
 Before the departure of the Earl of Essex for Ireland, as Lord 
 Deputy, he had offended Ralegh with wanton insolence, and 
 perhaps beyond forgiveness.* On the Earl's sudden and unlocked 
 
 *"He (Ralegh) wore," say sly tier, "a suit of silver armour at the tourneys; 
 his sword-hilt and belt were studded with diamonds, pearls, and rubies; his 
 court dress, on occasions of state, was said to be covered with pearla to the
 
 118 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 for return from that country, for which he was at once placed 
 in confinement, to be examined next morning 1 before the Council, 
 Kalegh sided with the opposite party, of which Cecil was the 
 head, dining: with him on that day. And now, in the height 
 of favour, and probably bearing in mind the success of his mad 
 pranks with Sir George Carew in the tower, he affected to be 
 sick, when the Queen showed some signs of relenting 1 towards 
 Essex, whereupon her Majesty " veiy graciously sent to see him*" 
 A few days after, there was a breach of the long friendship that 
 had subsisted between him and Lord Cobham, a nobleman of very 
 ancient family, of whom we shall shortly see more than enough. 
 
 In January, 1601, he expected to be made a privy councillor, 
 and shortly afterwards applied to be appointed one of the com- 
 missioners of the treaty at Boulogne ; but the Queen, perceiving 
 that if she nominated him to that office, he would ask to be of 
 the privy council, refused his request. Disgusted at this, as well 
 he might be (for what sworn head in the council was wiser than 
 his ?), he retired with his lady to Sherborne, taking with him 
 Cecil's son, to be brought up in his family. 
 
 Being sent for, he returned to court in June, and was again 
 importunate for the vice-chamberlainship, and again unsuccessful. 
 Upon this disappointment, he went out with Lord Cobham " to see 
 the camp and siege of fort Isabella, near Ostend," but this is sup- 
 value of 60,000?., and even his shoes glistened with precious stones. It 
 was in this splendid apparel that he waited on his royal mistress, as 
 captain of her guard, during those visits to the homes of the nobility 
 known by the name of progresses." Now, on the queen's birthday, which 
 was the 17th November, Essex having previously learned that Sir Walter, 
 with a very gallant train, gorgeously accoutred, was to make his appearance 
 in the tilt-yard in orange-tawny plumes, provided a much more numerous 
 cavalcade, and decked them in Ralegh's colours, anfl appeared at the 
 head of all, armed cap-a-pie in a complete suit of orange colour. By these 
 means he not only drowned all distinction as pertaining to Ralegh, but thereby 
 incorporated him and his train as so many more of his own esquires, pages, 
 and others of his retinue. This was called the Earl's "glorious feather 
 triumph." But, in the end, it did not turn out so. On that day Essex, in 
 orange-tawny, ran very ill ; and, on the next, wishing to retrieve his reputa- 
 tion, came all in green and ran worse. One of the spectators (Bacon tells the 
 story), asking why this tilter (who seemed to be known in both habits) changed 
 his colours, another answered, " Surely, because it maybe reported, that there 
 was one in green ran worse than he in orange colour."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 119 
 
 posed to have been a pretence, and that he was charged with a secret 
 mission. On the death of Sir Antony Paulet, the government of 
 Jersey becoming 1 vacant, Sir Walter obtained the appointment, with 
 a grant of the manor a lordship of St. Germain in that island. 
 
 The Earl of Essex, we have stated, was placed in confinement 
 on the instant of his unbidden return from Ireland not " bring- 
 ing rebellion broached on his sword," as Shakspeare had predicted, 
 but leaving rebellion more rampant than ever, after having shown 
 an incapacity, as a military commander, so monstrous, that the 
 ghost of Sir John Norria might well have been appeased. This 
 might have been forgiven by the Queen ; but when he broke out 
 into open insurrection, it was felt by her Majesty, and by many who 
 had before been well affected towards him (nay, he himself said 
 there was no safety for the Queen whilst he lived), that there 
 was no help for it, but he must be put to death. Sir Walter was 
 one of those who invested Essex House, and he was present at 
 the execution of the Earl, as captain of the guard, and stood near 
 the scaffold, that he might answer if Essex should desire to speak 
 to him. He retired, however, before the fatal blow was struck, 
 being told that the people thought he had come to triumph over 
 his enemy, and saw the execution, himself unseen, from the 
 armoury. He was sorry afterwards he was not nearer the Earl 
 when he died, for, as he told the people at his own execution, 
 " I understood afterwards that he asked for me at his death, and 
 desired to have been reconciled to me." * 
 
 In the latter end of October, 1001, the Queen having- returned 
 
 * The Earl of Essex died like a brave man and a penitent Christian, although 
 it may be doubted whether he acted rightly in his confession, by implicating 1 
 his friends, who suffered in his cause. In this frame of mind he may well 
 have wished to be reconciled to Ralegh, whom he had, on many occasions, 
 most deeply wronged. It was he who possessed the king of Scots (shortly 
 afterwards James of England) with a fear and hatred of Kalegh. When he 
 made his incursion into the city, what likelier means to cause the people to rise 
 in his favour than to proclaim that Ralegh had formed a design of murdering 
 him ? When the insurrection was at its height, the Earl persuaded Sir Chris- 
 topher Blount, his step-father, to incite Sir Ferdinando Gorges to kill Ralegh, or, 
 failing that, to apprehend him on the river, where Sir Walter was waiting in 
 a boat to warn him of his danger. On the refusal of Gorges, Blount discharged 
 four shots after Ralegh, which Sir Christopher acknowledged at his execution, 
 beseeching Sir Walter's forgiveness for it, which was readily granted.
 
 120 THE LIFE AXD TIMES OF 
 
 from her progress, her last Parliament met, in which Sir Walter 
 sat as one of the members for Cornwall. This was a session full 
 of important business, and Ralegh took an active part in it. 
 In a debate touching the cultivation of hemp, he said : " I do not 
 like this constraining of men to use or manure their grounds at 
 our wills ; but rather will to let every man use his ground for 
 that for which it is most fit, and therein follow his own dis- 
 cretion." It is observed by Mr. Napier upon this " Simple as 
 this recommendation may now appear, its inculcation as a rule 
 for the guidance of statesmen was a vast and a beneficial advance 
 in the science of legislation ; for the interference thus condemned 
 was the favourite policy of all the greatest statesmen of that day 
 Lord Bacon among the rest. Its principle lies at the founda- 
 tion of those laws of Henry VII., which the immortal regenerator 
 of experimental science so emphatically extols in his life of that 
 sovereign, for their extraordinary depth and comprehensiveness.'' 
 Ealegh spoke to the same effect on the renewal of a debate ou 
 the repeal of the statute of tillage. It is quite apparent that he 
 was no protectionist. He said, " I think this law fit to be re- 
 pealed ; for many poor men are not able to find seed to sow so 
 much ground as they are bound to plough, which they must do, 
 or increase the penalty of the statute." : Besides, "The Low 
 Countrymen and the Hollanders, who never sow corn, have by 
 their industry such plenty, that they will serve other nations. . .. 
 . . . And, therefore, I think the best course is to set it at liberty, 
 which is the desire of a true Englishmen." 
 
 It was probably in the year 1602 that he sold his estate in 
 Ireland to Mr. Boyle, afterwards Earl of Cork, and it was in 
 midsummer of the same year that he settled upon his son Walter 
 his estate of Sherborne, having received a challenge from Sir 
 Amias Preston, which, we have his own words for it, he " intended 
 to answer." The cause of this quarrel is not known ; but the two 
 knights came to an understanding without proceeding to a duel. 
 Fuller says he had been informed that Sir Walter, " without any 
 abatement to his valour, wherein he had abundantly satisfied all 
 possibility of suspicion," declined the challenge because of the 
 inferiority, in point of position, of Preston. But I cannot think 
 such a circumstance would have weighed with Ralegh ; for Sir 
 Amias was descended from a good family, and was a very brave
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 121 
 
 soldier and enterprising seaman. Indeed, it is clear it did not, or 
 he would not have gone so far in pursuance of his intention as 
 to settle his estate upon his son. We know, however, what was 
 his opinion of duelling in his later years. His condemnation of 
 the practice is one of the most remarkable digressions in his 
 " History of the World," and, proceeding from a man whose 
 personal courage it would have been ridiculous to question, it 
 must have had its effect in checking a silly and bloodthirsty 
 passion or, rather, fashion which, for some years then past, 
 had been suffered to run its course almost with impunity. 
 
 " FUNERAL GAMB3 HELD BT SCIPIO A DUEL BETWEEN TWO SPANISH PRINCES- 
 A DIGRESSION CONCERNING DUELS. 
 
 " Scipio, returning into Spain, and resting that winter, took 
 vengeance the next year upon those of Illiturgi, Castulo, and 
 Astapa. The conquest of the country being then in a manner at 
 an end, he performed, at New Carthage, with great solemnity, 
 some vows that he had made, and honoured the memory of his 
 father and uncle with funeral games, especially of those that 
 fought at sharp, according to the manner of the times. Neither 
 was it needful that he should trouble himself with preparing slaves 
 for that spectacle, to hazard their lives, as was used in the city of 
 Rome ; for there were enough that offered themselves as volun- 
 taries, or were sent from their princes, to give proof, in single 
 combat, of the valour of their several countries. Some also there 
 were, that being in contention, which they could not or would not 
 otherwise end, agreed to defer the decision of their controversies to 
 trial of the sword, in single fight. Among these the most eminent 
 were Corbis and Orsua, cousin-germans, that contended for the 
 principality of a town called Ibes. Corbis was the elder, and the 
 elder brother's son, wherefore he claimed the lordship, as eldest of 
 the house, after the manner of our Irish tanistry. But the father 
 of Orsua stood lately seized of the principality, which, though 
 himself received by the death of his elder brother, yet this his son 
 would not let it go back, but claimed to hold it, as heir unto his 
 father, and old enough to rule. Fain would Scipio have com- 
 pounded the matter, but they answered peremptorily, that all their 
 friends and kindred had already laboured in vain to take up that 
 quarrel, and that neither God nor man, but only Mars, heir god of
 
 122 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 battle, should be umpire between them. So they had their wills ; 
 and the elder, who was also the stronger, and more skilful at his 
 weapon, easily vanquished the fool-hardiness of the younger. 
 
 " Such combats have been very ancient, and perhaps more 
 ancient than any other kind of fight. We read of many performed 
 before the war of Troy, by Theseus, Hercules, Pollux, and others ; 
 as also of two more at the war of Troy, the one between Paris and 
 Menelaus, the other between Hector and Ajax. Neither want 
 there examples of them among the Hebrews, whereof that between 
 David and Goliath, and others performed by some of David's 
 worthies against those that challenged them, are greatly celebrated. 
 Unto the same kind appertains the fight between twelve of the 
 tribe of Judah, and as many of the Benjamites. The Romans 
 had many of them, whereof that was principal, in which they 
 ventured their dominion upon the heads of three brethren, the 
 Horatii, against the three brethren, Curiatii, that were Albans. 
 The combat of Manlius Torquatus, and, shortly after, of Valerius 
 Gorvinus, with two champions of the Gauls, which challenged any 
 Roman, were of less importance, as having only reference to 
 bravery. In England there was a great combat fought between 
 Edmund Ironside and Canute the Dane, for no less a matter than 
 the kingdom. The use of them was very frequent in the Saxon 
 times, almost upon every occasion, great or small. In the reign of 
 Edward the Third, who sustained the party of Mountfort against 
 the Earl of Blois, contending for the Duchy of Brittany, there was 
 a fight for honour of the nations, between thirty of the Bretons 
 and thirty English, two of which English were Calverlie, a brave 
 captain, and that Sir Robert Knollys, who afterwards became a 
 renowned commander in the French wars, and did highly honour 
 his blood, whereof the Lord Knollys is descended. It were infinite 
 to reckon the examples of the like, found in EnglisL, French, and 
 Italian histories. Most of them have been combats of bravery, 
 and of f/aiet6 de cceur, as the French term it, for honour of several 
 nations, for love of mistresses, or whatsoever else gave occasion 
 unto men desirous to set out themselves. But besides those of 
 this sort, there are two other natures of combats, which are, 
 either upon accusation for life, or upon trial of title and inheritance, 
 as in writ of right. And of this latter kind was that of which we 
 spake even now, between Corbis and Orsua. Unto these, methinks,
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 123 
 
 may be added, as of different condition from the rest, the combat 
 upon wager, such as were that between David and Goliath, or that 
 between the Horatii and Curiatii, in which, without regard of title, 
 the dominion of nations one over the other is adventured upon the 
 head of champions. Upon an accusation for life, there was a 
 combat appointed between the Lord Henry of Bolingbroke, Duke 
 of Hereford, and Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. There was a com- 
 bat performed by Sir John Anstey and one Cattrington, whom 
 Anstey charged with treason, and proved it upon him, by being 
 victorious. The like was fought between Robert of Mountfort 
 and Henry of Essex. The like also between a Navarrois and one 
 "\Velsh, of Grimsby, whom the Navarrois accused of treason ; but, 
 being beaten in fight, confessed that he had belied him, and was 
 therefore drawn and hanged. 
 
 " Whether our trial by battle do determine that the false 
 accuser, if he be vanquished, shall suffer the punishment which 
 had been due to the offender if the accusation had been proved, 
 I cannot affirm ; but we everywhere find, that if he which 
 is accused of treason, or, according to the customs of Nor- 
 mandy, murder, rape, or burning of places (offences punished 
 by death) be overcome, he shall suffer the pains appointed for 
 those crimes. In combats for trial of right, it is not so ; 
 neither is the appellant or defendant bound to fight in person, 
 but he may try it by his champion, as did Paramour and Low, 
 or offered to do, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. And in this 
 case, he that is beaten or yieldeth loseth only his cause, not his 
 life. Neither are the combats upon accusation, or trial of right, 
 fought in open field, as are those of bravery, but in camp close, 
 that is, within rails. Now, this trial by combat was so ordinary 
 in France, before the time of St. Louis and Philip the Fair, his 
 grand-child, as every Lord of Fee, ecclesiastical or temporal, had 
 power to grant it within his own jurisdiction. And it seemeth 
 that the French kings, and other Lords, made their profit hereby. 
 For in the Memorials of the Chamber of Accounts is found an 
 article to this effect : that if a combat were once accepted, and 
 after, by consent of the Lord, were taken up, each of the parties 
 should pay two shillings and sixpence; but if it were performed, 
 then should the party vanquished forfeit a hundred and twelve 
 shilling's. And upon this custom grew the French proverb, which
 
 124 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 they use whenas any man hath had a hard and unjust judg- 
 ment, saying 1 , that he was tried by the law of Lorraine, or Berne, 
 ou le ~battu paye I'amende, where he that is beaten gives the re- 
 compense. Of these frequent trials by battle that greatly learned 
 man Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, did often comp.ain, and especially 
 against the French churchmen, as appears by his letters t<j the 
 Bishop of Orleans, to the Archdeacon of Paris, to Rembert, 
 Archbishop of Sens, and to others, wherein he rebukes the judg- 
 ment of their churches, that had ratified such challenges of 
 combat. But this liberty and kind of trial was retrenched by St. 
 Louis, and Philip the Fair, so that no man could decree or grant 
 it, save the king himself. It hath since been granted, though 
 more sparingly, by the French kings, as to the Lord of Carognes 
 against Jaques le Gris, and to Julian Romero, the Spaniard, 
 against Moro, his countryman, wherein Sir Henry Knevet, father 
 to the Lord Knevet now living, was patron to Romero that had 
 the victory ; and, lastly, to the Lord of Chast. Now in those 
 challenges, upon accusation of treason, murder, or other offence 
 deserving death (and in those only), the rule held that le def'en- 
 deur estoit tenu de proposer ces deffences per un dementir (the 
 defendant was bound to plead not guilty, by giving the accuser 
 the lie). Otherwise it was concluded that the defendant did 
 taisiblement confesser le crime (silently confess the crime). But 
 after such time as Francis, the French king, upon some dispute 
 about breach of faith, had sent the lie unto the Emperor, Charles 
 the Fifth, thereby to draw him to a personal combat, every petty 
 companion in France, in imitation of their master, made giving 
 of the lie mortality itself, holding it a matter of no small glory to 
 have it said, that the meanest gentleman in France would not put 
 up with what the great Emperor Charles the Fifth had patiently 
 endured. 
 
 " From this beginning is derived a challenge of combat, grounded 
 upon none of those occasions that were known to the ancients. 
 For, the honour of nations, the trial of right, the wager upon cham- 
 pions, or the objection and refutation of capital offences, are none 
 of them, nor all of them together, the argument of half so many 
 duels as are founded upon mere private anger yea, or upon matter 
 seeming worthy of anger in the opinion of the duellists. So that 
 in these days, wherein every man takes unto himself a kingly
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 125 
 
 liberty to offer, accept, and appoint personal combats, the giving 1 
 of the lie, which ought to be the negation only in accusations for 
 life, is become the most fruitful root of deadly quarrels. This is 
 held a word so terrible, and a wrong so unpardonable, as will 
 admit no other recompense than the blood of him that gives it. 
 Thus the fashion, taken up in haste by the French gentlemen, 
 after the pattern of their king, is grown to be a custom, whence 
 we have derived a kind of art and philosophy of quarrel, with cer- 
 tain grounds and rule?, from whence the points of honour and the 
 dependencies thereof are deduced.* Yea, there are (among many 
 
 * In 1612 (the year in which Ralegh completed all that he has given us of 
 his great work, which, however, was not published till two years after), 
 James I. put forth an elaborate proclamation, consisting of more than a 
 hundred pages, against duelling. In this performance the king enters into the 
 question with laborious and pedantic particularity. In 1614, Sir Francis 
 Bacon, then attorney-general, prayed the judgment of the Court of Star- 
 (Jhamber upon Priest and Wright the one for sending, the other, his second, 
 for conveying a challenge. In this charge he said, " My lords, I thought it 
 fit for my place, and for these times, to bring to hearing before your lordships 
 some cause touching private duels, to see if this court can do any good to tame 
 and reclaim that evil, which seems unbridled ; and I could have wished that 
 I could have met with some greater persons as a subject of your censure, both 
 because it had been more worthy of this presence, and also the better to have 
 showed the resolution myself hath to proceed, without respect of persons, in 
 this business. But finding this cause on foot in my predecessor's time, and 
 published and ready for hearing, I thought to lose no time in a mischief that 
 groweth every day ; and, besides, it passeth not amiss sometimes in govern- 
 ment, that the greater sort be admonished by an example made in the meaner, 
 and the dog to be beaten before the lion. Nay, I should think, my lords, that 
 men of birth and gentility will leave the practice, when it begins to be vilified 
 and come so low as to barber-surgeons and butchers, and such base mechanical 
 persons. Besides, certainly, both in divinity and policy, offences of presump- 
 tion are the greatest. Other offences yield and consent to the law, that it is 
 good, not daring to make defence or to justify themselves ; but this offence 
 expressly gives the law an affront, as if there were two laws, one a kind of 
 gown-law, and the other a law of reputation, as they term it ; so that Paul's 
 and Westminster, the pulpit and the courts of justice, must give place to the 
 law (as the king speaketh in his proclamation) of ordinary tables, and such 
 reverent assemblies ; the year-books and statute-books must give place to 
 some French and Italian pamphlets, which handle the doctrine of duels" 
 Shakspeare ridicules this in his " As You Like It," where Touchstone tells 
 Jaques, that " he had had four quarrels, and like to have fought one;" and 
 afterwards, that he " durst go no further than the lie circumstantial, nor he
 
 126 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 no less ridiculous) some so mystical curiosities herein, as that it is 
 held a far greater dishonour to receive from an enemy a slight 
 touch with a cane, than a sound blow with a sword; the one 
 having relation to a slave, the other to a soldier. I confess that 
 the difference is pretty ; though, for my own part, if I had had 
 any such Italianated enemy in former times, I would willingly 
 have made with him such an exchange, and have given him the 
 point of honour to boot. 
 
 " But let us examine indiiferently the offence of this terrible 
 word, the lie, with their conditions who are commonly of all others 
 the most tender in receiving it. I say, that the most of these who 
 present death on the points of their swords to all that give it them, 
 use nothing so much in their conversation and course of life 
 as to speak and swear falsely. Yea, it is thereby that they shift 
 and shuffle in the world and abuse it. For how few are there 
 
 (Ins antagonist) durst not give me the lie direct;" whereupon says Jaques. 
 "Can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie?" 4 '0h, sir," says 
 Touchstone, " we quarrel in print, by the book (meaning a treatise then in 
 TOgue, entitled, ' Of Honour and Honourable Quarrels,' printed in 1594], as 
 you have books for good manners. (' The Boke of Nurture ; or, School of Good 
 Manners,' by Hugh Rhodes, 1577.) I will name you the degrees. The first, 
 the retort courteous; the second, the quip modest; the third, the reply 
 churlish; the fourth, the reproof valiant ; the fifth, the countercheck quarrel- 
 some ; the sixth, the lie with circumstance ; the seventh, the lie direct. All 
 these you may avoid, but the lie direct ; and you may avoid that too with an If. 
 I knew when seven justices could not take up a quarrel; but when the parties 
 were met themselves, one of them thought but of an If, as, If you said so,, 
 then I said so, and they shook hands, and swore brothers. Your If is the 
 only peace-maker; much virtue in If'." 
 
 So likewise Ben Jonson, in his " Alchymist" 
 
 AM Drtifffjer." No, sir, a gentleman newly warm in his land, sir, 
 Of some three thousand a-year, and is come up 
 To learn to quarrel, and to live by his wits. 
 
 Face. How ! to quarrel ? 
 
 Druyyer. Yes, sir, to carry quarrels, 
 
 As gallants do : to manage them by line. 
 
 Face. 'Slid, Nab, the doctor is the only man 
 
 In Christendom for him : he has made a table, 
 "With mathematical demonstrations, 
 Teaching the art of quarrels : he will give him 
 An instrument to quarrel by."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 127 
 
 among- them which, having assumed and sworn to pay the money* 
 and other things they borrow, do not break their word and promise 
 as often as they engage it ? Nay, how few are there among them 
 that are not liars by record, by being sued in some court or other 
 of justice, upon breach of word or bond ? For he which hath pro- 
 mised that he will pay money by a day, or promised anything 1 
 else, wherein he faileth, hath directly lied to him to whom the 
 promise hath been made. Nay, what is the profession of love that 
 men make now-a-days ? What is the vowing of their service and 
 of all they have, used in their ordinary compliments, and (in effect) 
 to every man whom they bid but good morrow or salute, other 
 than a courteous or court-like kind or lying ? It is (saith a wise 
 Frenchman, deriding therein the apish custom of his country), 
 un marche et complot fait ensemble, se mocquer, mentir, et 
 j)iper les uns les autres a kind of merchandise and complot made 
 among them, to mock, belie, and deride each other; and so far 
 now-a-days in fashion and in use, as he that useth it not is 
 accounted either dull or cynical. True it is, notwithstanding, 
 (omitting the old distinction,) that there is great difference 
 between these mannerly and complimental lies, with those which 
 are sometime persuaded by necessity upon breach of promise, and 
 those which men use out of cowardice and fear, the latter confes- 
 sing themselves to be in greater awe of men than of God ; a vice 
 of all others styled the most villanous. 
 
 " But now to the lie itself, as it is made the subject of all our 
 eadly quarrels in effect. To it I say, that whosoever givetL 
 another man the lie, when it is manifest that he hath lied, doth 
 him no wrong at all; neither ought it to be more heinously taken, 
 then to tell him he hath broken any promise which he hath other- 
 wise made. For he that promiseth anything-, tells him to whom 
 he hath promised that he will perform it, and, in not performing- 
 it, he hath made himself a liar. On the other side, he that gives 
 any man the lie, when he himself knows that he to whom it is 
 given hath not lied, doth therein give the lie directly to himself. 
 And what cause have I, if I say that the sun shines when it doth 
 shine, and that another fellow tells me I lie, for it's midnight, to 
 prosecute such a one to death for making himself a foolish ruffian 
 and a liar in his own knowledge I For he that gives the lie in 
 any other dispute than in defence of his loj-alty and life, gives it
 
 128 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 impertinently and ruffian-like. I will not deny but it is an extreme 
 rudeness to tax any man in public with an untruth (if it be not 
 pernicious and to his prejudice against whom the untruth is 
 uttered) ; but all that is rude ought not to be civilised with death. 
 That were more to admire and imitate a French custom, and a 
 wicked one, than to admire and to follow the counsel of God. 
 
 " But you will say that these discourses savour of cowardice. 
 It is true, if you call it valour to fear neither God nor hell ; 
 whereas, he that is truly wise and truly valiant, knows that there 
 is nothing else to be feared. For against an enemy's sword we 
 shall find ten thousand seven-penny men (waged at that price in 
 the wars), that fear it as little, or perchance less, than any professed 
 swordsman in the world. Diligentissima in tutela sui fortitude : 
 fortitude is a diligent preserver of itself. It is (saith Aristotle) 
 a mediocrity between doubting and daring. Sicut non martyrem 
 poena, sic nee fortem pugna, sed causa : as it is not punishment 
 that makes the martry, so it is not fighting that declares a valiant 
 man, but fighting in a good cause. In which, whosoever shall 
 resolvedly end his life, resolvedly in respect of the cause to wit, 
 in defence of his prince, religion, or country as he may justly be 
 numbered among the martyrs of God so may those that die with 
 malicious hearts, in private combats, be called the martyrs of the 
 devil. Neither do we indeed take our own revenge, or punish the 
 injuries offered us, by the death of the injurious. For the true 
 conquest of revenge is to give him of whom we would be revenged 
 cause to repent him ; and not to lay the repentance of another 
 man's death upon our own consciences animasq, in vulncre 
 ponere and to drown our souls in the wounds and blood of our 
 enemies. Hereupon you will again ask me if I condemn, in 
 generous and noble spirits, the defence of their honours, being 
 pressed with injuries? I say that I do not, if the injuries be 
 violent. For the law of Nature, which is a branch of the eternal 
 law, and the laws of all Christian kings and states, do favour him 
 that is assailed in the slaughter of the assailant. You will, secondly, 
 ask me, whether a nobleman or a gentleman, being challenged by 
 cartel by one of like quah't} r , be not bound in point of honour to 
 satisfy the challenger in private combat ? I answer, that he is 
 not ; because (omitting the greatest, which is the point of reli- 
 gion), the point of law is directly contrary and opposite to that
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 129 
 
 which they call the point of honour the law which hath dominion 
 over it, which can judge it, which can destroy it except you will 
 style those acts honourable where the hangman gives the garland. 
 For, seeing the laws of this land have appointed the hangman to 
 second the conqueror, and the laws of God appointed the devil to 
 second the conquered, dying in malice, I say that he is both base 
 and a fool that accepts any cartel so accompanied. To this per- 
 chance it will be answered, that the kings of England, and other 
 Christian kings, have seldom taken any such advantage over men 
 of quality, who upon even terms have slain their private enemies. 
 It is true that as in times of trouble and combustion they have 
 not often done it ; so did our noblemen and gentlemen, in former 
 ages, in all important injuries, sue unto the king, to approve them- 
 selves by battle and public combat. For, as they dared not to brave 
 the law, so did they disdain to submit themselves unto the shameful 
 revenge thereof ; the same revenge (because it deterreth murder) 
 that it hath declared against a common cut-purse or other thieves. 
 Nay, let it be granted that a pardon be procured for such offenders, 
 yet is not the manslayer freed by his pardon. For these two 
 remedies hath the party grieved notwithstanding; that is, to 
 require justice by grand assize or by battle, upon his appeal, which 
 (saith Sir Thomas Smith) is not denied ; and he further saith (for 
 I use his own words) that if the defendant (to wit, the man-slayer) 
 be convicted either by great assize or by battle, upon that appeal, 
 the man-slayer shall die notwithstanding the prince's pardon. So 
 favourable (saith the same learned gentleman) are our princes, 
 and the law of our realm, to justice and to the punishment of blood 
 violently shed. 
 
 " It may further be demanded, how our noblemen and gentle- 
 men shall be repaired in honour, where an enemy, taking the 
 start either in words or blows, shall lay on them an infamy 
 insufferable ? I say that a marshal's court will easily give 
 satisfaction in both. And if we hold it no disgrace to submit our- 
 selves for the recovery of our debts, goods, and lands, and for all 
 things else by which the lives of ourselves, our wives, and children 
 are sustained, to the judges of the law because it may be felony 
 to take by violence even that which is our own why should we 
 not submit ourselves unto the judges of honour in cases of honour, 
 because to recover our reputation by strong hand may be murder ?
 
 130 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 But yet again it may be objected, that the loss of honour ought 
 to be much more fearful unto us than either the loss of our goods, 
 of our lands, or of our lives ; and I say so too. But what is this 
 honour I mean honour indeed, and that which ought to be so 
 dear to us other than a kind of history, and of fame following 
 actions of virtue, actions accompanied with difficulty or danger, 
 and undertaken for the public good ? In these, he that is employed 
 and trusted, if he fail in the performance, either through cowardice 
 or any base affection, it is true that he loseth his honour. But the 
 acting of a private combat, for a private respect, and most com- 
 monly a frivolous one, is not an action of virtue, because it is 
 contrary to the law of God, and of all Christian kings ; neither is 
 it difficult, because even and equal in persons and arms ; neither 
 for a public good, but tending to the contrary ; because the loss or 
 mutilation of an able man is also a loss to the commonweal. 
 
 " Now, that a marshal of England hath power to save every 
 man's fame and reputation, as far as reputation may sustain 
 injury by words, I think no man doubteth. For to repent us of 
 any evil words that we have given, and to confess that we have 
 done him wrong unto whom we have given them, is a sufficient 
 satisfaction ; and as it may fall out, more than sufficient. For he 
 that gives ill words in choler, and suddenly denies them, or repents 
 himself of them upon advisement, hath the disadvantage in point 
 of reputation. Concerning blows, which are indeed not to be 
 given but to those that are servile, whether sufficient recompense 
 will be made for them, it shall appear by a notable example of a 
 most worthy gentleman, Monsieur de Plessis, that was stricken in 
 France not long since, by a baron of the same nation. The satis- 
 faction, which was given him by a judgment of the constable 
 and marshals of France, was this. In the open court, wherein 
 the constable gave judgment, M. de Plessis was set in a chair under 
 the degrees where the constable and marshals sat : the baron, who 
 had given him the blow, did kneel before him on both his knees, 
 holding in his right hand a sword with the point towards himself, 
 and in his left hand the like cudgel or bastinado wherewith he had 
 stricken M. de Plessis; both which weapons he delivered into 
 Plessis's hands, submitting himself to such revenge as it should 
 please him to take with either of those weapons, the constable 
 and marshals having formerly left it to the will of Plessis, to use
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 131 
 
 liis own discretion in the revenge of his own wrongs. Now, 
 whether the baron had reason to please himself, as one beforehand 
 in point of honour (who struck M. de Plessis like a ruffian coming 
 behind him, and having the advantage of company, and his 
 horses ready, shifted himself away on the sudden, but being after- 
 wards taken, was taught to repent himself in this shameful 
 manner); or whether Monsieur de Plessis (of whose valour no man 
 doubted) had not far juster cause to rest satisfied, since he might 
 at his pleasure have beaten or wounded his enemy, but forgave 
 him let any wise man judge. To this, if it be said, that the baron 
 was constrained to make his submission, that his repentance was 
 enforced and not voluntary, and therefore no disgrace unto him, I 
 answer, that one may say as well, that it is no disgrace to a thief 
 when he is brought to the gallows, to repent him of the robberies 
 by him committed, because his repentance also is constrained. 
 And it is true, that enforced repentance is no disgrace in respect of 
 a force, but in respect of the fact ; which (but for our sins to God) 
 makes all repentance shameful, because all forced repentance is 
 inflicted upon us for somewhat unworthy of a gentleman and of an 
 honest man. Nay, voluntary repentance itself, as it hath relation 
 to men, ariseth either out of the fear of the ill that may befal us, 
 or out of the acknowledgment of our own weakness. Certainty, 
 as wise men and valiant men do rather deride petty injuries or 
 sudden injuries, that are not offered from malice forethought, than 
 revenge them, so men, apt to quarrel, do commonly suspect their 
 own valour, and rather desire that thereby the world should 
 believe them to be of great daring than know any such resolution 
 in themselves. For he that knows himself indeed to be an honest 
 man, scorns to hunt after opinion. 
 
 " Now the same power which the constable and marshals of 
 France have, hath also a marshal of England or his deputies, by 
 whose judgment, in all disputes of honour, every man's reputation 
 may be preserved. We may therefore as well submit ourselves to 
 the judge of honour in all disputes of honour, as we do submit 
 ourselves in all controversies of livelihood and life to the judges of 
 the law. And, out of doubt, the institution of this Court of 
 Chivalry in England, in France, and elsewhere, was no less 
 charitable than politic. For the blood of man, violently spilt, doth 
 not bring forth honey bees, as that of bulls doth, which sting but 
 
 j2
 
 132 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the fingers or the face ; but it produceth that monstrous beast, 
 revenge, which hath stung to death, and eaten up, of several 
 nations, so many noble personages; as there is nothing more 
 lamentable, nor more threatening the wrath of God upon supreme 
 governors than the permission. 
 
 "His Majesty, therefore, (which Henry the Fourth of France 
 also endeavoured,) hath done a most kingly and Christian-like deed 
 in Scotland, which the most renowned of all his predecessors 
 could never do, in beating down and extinguishing that hereditary 
 prosecution of malice, called the deadly feud ; a conquest which 
 shall give him the honour of prudence and kingly power for 
 evermore. And we have cause to hope that his royal care shah 1 be 
 no less happy in preventing the like mischief, which threatens 
 England, by the audacious, common, and brave, yet outrageous 
 vanity of duellists. 
 
 " Unto this that I have spoken of lying and of manslaughter, 
 it must be added that each of these are of great latitude, and 
 worthy of reproof and vengeance proportionably, more or less, in 
 their several degrees. There is much difference between lies of 
 necessity upon breach of promise, or complimental lies, and such 
 pernicious lies as proceed from fear and cowardice, or are uttered 
 by false witnesses; the former sort being excusable by weakness 
 or levity, the latter being altogether detestable. No less, if not 
 more, difference there is, between killing of a man in open field 
 with even weapons, and that killing which the Scriptures call 
 killing by guile dolo or per insidias ; though our laws do not 
 much distinguish them in punishment. For, in the latter, God, 
 forsaking his own privilege, commandeth that the guileful mur- 
 derer be drawn by force from the protection of his altar. Neither 
 is every guileful murder performed by the sword, nor by overt 
 violence; but there is a guileful murder also by poisoning, and by 
 the pen, or by practice. For such distinction is found between 
 coming presumptuously upon a man to slay him with guile, and 
 lying in wait for blood, privily, for the innocent, without a cause, 
 upon hope of spoil, after such manner as the net is spread before 
 the eyes of the birds. Francis the First, Queen Mary of England, 
 and the king's majesty now reigning, have given notable testimony 
 of their justice upon three noblemen, who committed guileful 
 murder. Of the first kind, King Francis upon the Lord of Talard,
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 133 
 
 who being (saith the French historian) de haute et ancienne lignee, 
 ct supporte de plusieurs grandes alliances ' who being of high 
 and ancient lineage, and supported by divers great alliances' of 
 which the Cardinal of Bellay (in especial favour with the king) 
 was one, was notwithstanding delivered over into the hands of the 
 hangman : Queen Mary upon a nobleman of her own religion, 
 and in many other respects very dear unto her : His majesty 
 upon a baron of Scotland, whose house was no less ancient and 
 faithful than himself valiant, and greatly friended both at home 
 ;tnd abroad. Of killing guilefully by poison, and of punishment 
 following such wicked artisans, every age hath had too many 
 examples. Of killing guilefully by the pen (that I may not speak 
 of any English judge) the author of the ' French Recherches^' 
 gives unto us two notable instances : the one of Des Eshars, who 
 (saith Pasquier) Jit mourir Montaiyu grand Maistre de France, 
 pour contenter Vopinion de celuy dont il estoit lors idolaitre; et 
 Dieu permit que depuis il Jut pendu et estrangU ' who caused 
 Montaigu, great master of France, to die to content his mind (to 
 wit, the Duke of Burgoyne), whom, at that time, Eshars wor- 
 shipped as his idol, but God permitted that he himself was soon 
 ufter hanged and strangled.' The other was of the Great Francis 
 the First, upon his chancellor, Poyet, who, to satisfy the king's 
 jiassion, practised the destruction of the Admiral Chabot a man 
 most nobly descended and of great service. For, as in other men, 
 so in kings, the passion of love grows old, and wears out by time. 
 So the king's affection being changed towards the admiral, he 
 charged him with some offences which he had formerly committed. 
 The admiral, presuming upon the great good service which he had 
 done the king in Piedmont, and in the defence of Marseilles against 
 the emperor, gave the king other language than became him, and 
 desired nothing so much as a public trial. Hereupon, the king (it 
 being easy to provoke an ill disposition) gave commission to the 
 chancellor, as president, and other j udges, upon an information of 
 the king's advocate, to question the admiral's life. The chancellor, 
 an ambitious man, and of a large conscience (which is not rare in 
 men towards the law), hoping highly to content the king, wrought 
 with some of the judges with so great cunning, with others with 
 so sharp threats, and with the rest with so fair promises, as albeit 
 nothing could be proved against the admiral worthy of the king's
 
 134 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 displeasure, yet the chancellor subscribed, and got others to sub- 
 scribe, to the forfeiture of his estate, offices, and liberty, though not 
 able to prevail against his life. But what was the chancellor's 
 reward (the king hating falsehood in so great a magistrate) other 
 than his own degradation, arraignment, and condemnation ? Belle 
 leqon certes (saith Pasquier) a toutjuge pour demeurer tousiours en 
 soy, et ne laisser Jluctuer sa conscience dedans les vagues d'une 
 imaginairefaveur, qui pour Jin de jeu le submerge 'a fair lesson 
 to all judges, to dwell always in themselves, and not to suffer 
 their consciences to float upon the waves of imaginary favour, 
 which in the end overwhelms them.' And as for the admiral, 
 though it might have been answered unto his friends, if any bewailed 
 his calamity as undeserved, that he was tried according to his own 
 desire, by the laws of his country, and by the judges of parliament ; 
 yet the king's justice, surmounting all other his passions, gave back 
 unto him his honour, his offices, his liberty, and his estate." 
 
 It is supposed to have been about the commencement of 1603 
 that Ralegh instituted that meeting of choice spirits at the Mer- 
 maid tavern in Friday-street which afterwards became so cele- 
 brated, and which brought together more talent, learning, and 
 genius, than were probably ever combined, before or since, John- 
 son's Literary Club not excepted. It is not an improbable 
 conjecture that this club, at its first institution, numbered, besides 
 its founder, Camden, Hariot, BACON, SHAKSPEARE, Ben Jonson, 
 Chapman, Daniel, Fletcher, and Sir Hugh Myddleton,* of New 
 River celebrity, with other worthies whose names are less familiar. 
 Beaumont, Donne, Selden, Cotton, and Carew, could hardly have 
 been original members. 
 
 On the 24th of March, 1603, the long and glorious reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth came to an end, and in the grave of that renowned 
 princess was buried the worldly prosperity of Sir Walter Ralegh. 
 Of the instability of fortune, and the vanity of human hopes 
 and expectations, many moralists have written, and many examples 
 
 * I remember to have read somewhere that Ralegh often smoked a pipe 
 with Sir Hugh Myddleton before the door of that worthy citizen and goldsmith's 
 house (which, I think, was in Friday-street). Sir Walter was just the man to 
 take an interest in a recital of Sir Hugh's scheme, which he did not bring to 
 bear without much difficulty, and after several years.
 
 SIR WALTER HAr.EGH. 135 
 
 have they drawn from history in illustration of the mournful fact, 
 that the highest of this world may sink to the very dust, and that 
 ibr the lowest there is yet a lower deep. But very few examples 
 have been presented to us, of men who have suffered the successful 
 shafts of malice, the persecution of enemies, the treachery of 
 friends, the vengeance of outraged laws, and the loss of life, with 
 more dignified magnanimity than Ralegh. If, in his brighter 
 and happier years, he would not have said, in the magnificent 
 lines of Dryden 
 
 " If joys hereafter must be purchased here 
 With loss of all that mortals hold so dear, 
 Then welcome infamy and public shame, 
 And last, a long farewell to worldly fame," 
 
 he would have disdained in his darker, but to posterity his most 
 lustrious day, to exclaim 
 
 "'Tis said with ease; but, oh, how hardly tried 
 By haughty souls to human honour tied ! 
 Oh sharp convulsive pangs of agonising pride ! "
 
 136 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BEFORE his accession to the throne of England, James I. had 
 been strongly prejudiced by the Earl of Essex against Ralegh. 
 These prejudices had been aggravated by Cecil, who had privately 
 corresponded with the cowardly and suspicious king before the 
 death of Elizabeth, and who, after the execution of Essex, perceived 
 the likelihood of a rivalry for power between himself and his once 
 so intimate friend. Cecil soon gained the entire confidence of the 
 new King. He had a talent for fomenting and discovering plots, 
 and the latter half of this qualification commended itself to the 
 liking of James, to whom the ghost of his own deserts was ever 
 appearing in the form of treason ;* and he came to the throne 
 
 * " His carver once, at table, giving himself accidentally a nick on the finger
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 137 
 
 prepared for a conspiracy which the secretary, in his letters, had 
 shadowed forth to him. There were involved other reasons which 
 would cause James to dread and abhor Sir Walter. He, Lord 
 Cobham, Sir John Fortescue, and others, would have obliged the 
 king to sign certain articles, one of which was a limitation of the 
 number of his countrymen, before he should be admitted to the 
 throne. Again, the daughter and heiress of Bassett, of Umber- 
 leigh and Hintoa Court, in Devonshire, was a ward of Ralegh, 
 and from the infancy of both had been contracted to his son 
 Walter. This family was descended from the Plantagenets, and 
 was at that very time laying claim to the crown. 
 
 But if his majesty had had no cause of dislike to Ralegh, his 
 first appearance before him, his known character as a man of war, 
 and the proposal he made to his royal master, would have sufficed 
 to alarm the " modern Solomon." Aubrey says " He was such 
 a man every way that (aa King Charles I. says of the Lord 
 Strafford) a prince would rather be afraid of than ashamed of. 
 He had that awfulness and ascendancy in his aspect over other 
 mortals, that the K . . . ." Then James thought that Sir 
 Walter would engage him in a war ; and not without reason, for 
 his first proposal to his majesty was, to carry two thousand men 
 to invade the Spaniards, without any expense to the King ; and 
 he wrote a discourse against the peace, then in treaty with that 
 country, and another in which he exposed a method of carrying 
 on war ag-ainst her. 
 
 It needed not the acuteness of a Ralegh to perceive, after a 
 very short time, that he was far from welcome at the Court. He 
 was removed from the captaincy of the guards, which was bestowed 
 upon Sir Thomas Erskine, a favourite of James, and his country- 
 man ; and shortly afterwards he was charged with being engaged 
 in a plot against the King and the royal family. This conspiracy 
 has been very properly called a riddle of state, and has never been 
 solved. The sum of what can be gleaned from our own writers is 
 to this effect. 
 
 Matthew de Laurencie, a merchant of Antwerp, was one of 
 the train of Count Aremberg, who, in June, 1603, came ambassador 
 
 {as he was routing in the dish), his Majesty, at the sight of his own blood, 
 could not forbear calling out ' treason ! ' Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, used 
 to make himself merry with t!ii* expression." The Regal Apology.
 
 138 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 from the arch-duke Albert, to congratulate James on his accession, 
 and promote a general peace. The Lord Cobham had had some 
 previous knowledge of this man, and renewed his acquaintance. 
 Laurencie, five days after the arrival of Aremberg, took Cobham 
 with him to visit the ambassador, with whom, it would seem, he 
 had a very important interview, the substance of which he com- 
 municated to Ralegh. He said that Aremberg, knowing that he 
 (Ralegh) was the chief of those who opposed the peace, had 
 offered him a sum of money to promote it. This, indeed, was a 
 repetition of a former offer, made by Aremberg, through Cobham, 
 before the arrival of the ambassador.* 
 
 Early in the following' month the conspiracy, or rather another 
 branch of it, was discovered. In this George Brooke, brother of 
 Lord Cobham, Watson and Clarke, two Romish priests, and 
 others, were engaged. 
 
 Anthony Copley, one of the conspirators, deposed that the 
 King's person was to be surprised by Lord Grey of Wilton and 
 Brooke. Cecil (lately created Baron Essendon), before whom this 
 confession was made, at once suspected that Lord Cobham, the 
 brother of Brooke, might be one of the conspiracy, and, pursuing 
 his conjectures, that Ralegh, again very intimate with Cobham, 
 was joined with him. Accordingly Cecil, meeting Ralegh on the 
 terrace at Windsor, told him that the Council, then sitting, wished 
 to speak to him. The lords having examined him, touching Cob- 
 ham's supposed understanding with Aremberg, Sir Walter fully 
 cleared that nobleman, and remarked, that whatever correspondence 
 there might have been between Cobham and the ambassador, 
 Laurencie was the man most able to give an account of it. 
 Ralegh being committed prisoner to his own house, Cobham sent 
 to him to know what had passed. Ralegh despatched an answer 
 by Capt. Keymis, " that he had cleared him of all," and Keymis 
 bade Cobham " be of good comfort, for one witness could not 
 condemn him." Ralegh, however, positively denied that he had 
 ever sent such a message. 
 
 * How likely Ralegh was to further the interests of Spain, his whole public 
 life has already shown. But the Due de Sully, in his memoirs, expressly tells 
 us that Ralegh called upon him at that very time to communicate to him the 
 practices of the agents of Spain, especially of the English Catholics, to engage 
 King James in an alliance with that court against France and the United 
 Provinces.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 139 
 
 A few days afterwards, Cobham was examined at Richmond, 
 and denied stoutly all that was questioned against Ralegh and 
 himself; but being 1 artfully led to believe that Sir Walter had 
 accused him of all, or more than he knew, he broke out into violent 
 denunciations against Ralegh, and in rage, or possessed with the 
 desperation of a liar and a coward, made the following confession : 
 " That having a passport to go to the Spanish King, he intended 
 first to confer with the arch-duke ; and because he knew the latter 
 had not money to pay his own army, meant from thence to go to 
 Spain, to deal with the King for six hundred thousand crowns, and 
 thence to return to Jersey ; and that nothing should be done about 
 the distribution of that money to the discontented in England till 
 he had spoken with Sir Walter Ralegh." He said further, that 
 " he should never have entered into these crimes but by his insti- 
 gation." He spoke also of plots, but of the particulars could give 
 no account ; yet he acknowledged that he was afraid that Ralegh, 
 upon his return to Jersey, " would have him and the money to the 
 King." This miserable miscreant had not reached the stair-foot ere 
 he came back and protested he had done wrong to Ralegh. In 
 another part of his examination, he said he had had a book 
 from Ralegh, written against the King's title, which he gave 
 to his brother Brooke, and that Sir Walter said it was foolishly 
 written.* 
 
 Upon this, and other parts of his confession concerning the 
 setting up of the Lady Arabella (daughter of Charles Stuart, Earl 
 of Lennox, the King's uncle) as the rightful heir to the crown, as 
 also from the confession of his brother Brooke, a known enemy of 
 Ralegh, "asserting that Cobham told him (though Cobham 
 refused to own it) that Lord Grey and others were only on the 
 
 * Cobham retracted this also. Ralegh, on his trial, said that Cobham 
 must have taken the book from his table ; he himself had taken it to read (by 
 permission of Cecil) from the late Lord Burghley's study. The Lord Treasurer 
 was accustomed to procure all the libels he could get against Queen Elizabeth, 
 and Ralegh observed that he himself had many of them. " I will teach you 
 wit," said the brutal Coke, " before I have done. Englishmen will not bo 
 led by persuasion of words, but they must have books to persuade." Ralegh 
 unswered coolly, " It was written by a man of your profession, Mr. Attorney." 
 To whom Coke said, " I would not hare you impatient." Ralegh replied, 
 ''Methinks you fall out with yourself; I say nothing."
 
 140 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 l>ye, but Ralegh and he were on the main"* with Ralegh's own 
 acknowledgment, "that Cobham offered him eight thousand crowns 
 for his furtherance of the peace, though the Lord Cecil and the 
 Earl of Northumberland were to have the same proffers," upon 
 these circumstances Ralegh was indicted at Staines, on the 21st 
 September, where that indictment was drawn up against him, 
 upon which he was found guilty, notwithstanding that not one 
 single criminal allegation could be proved against him. Three 
 days afterwards Cobham and Grey were indicted at the same 
 place, and the three, pending the trial, were confined in the Tower. 
 In November, the trial drawing nigh, Ralegh got a poor fellow, 
 employed in the Tower, to throw a letter, fastened to an apple, 
 into Cobham's window, while the lieutenant was at supper, 
 entreating him, for God's sake, to do him justice by his answer, 
 and signify to him that he had wronged him in his accusation, 
 and Cobham did so. But Ralegh, thinking this letter not so full 
 and explicit as it might be, sent him a second letter, asking him to 
 publish his innocence at his arraignment. He had not requested 
 a further justification ; but Cobham answered this appeal, and 
 cleared him in the most solemn manner. 
 
 The plague then raging in London, the term was held at Win- 
 chester, whither the prisoners were conveyed. Here, as soon as 
 he was brought, Cobham, dreading the vengeance of the law, but 
 hoping to save himself by the sacrifice of Ralegh, subscribed 
 fresh accusations in a letter to the Lords, and, armed with these, 
 Sir Walter's trial was first proceeded with. 
 
 This trial if by such a name it may be called took place on 
 the 17th November, 1603. The Commissioners were the Right 
 Honourable Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, Lord Chamberlain ; 
 Charles Blount, Earl of Devon ;f Robert Cecil, Baron Essendon, 
 Edward Lord Wotton ; Sir John Stanhope, Vice-Chamberlain ; 
 Lord Henry Howard, afterwards Earl of Northampton.; I Lord 
 
 * The main was the "surprising treason" the intent to " take away the 
 king and his cubs;" the bye was the minor or collateral treason the plot of 
 .Brooke and the Romish priests. 
 
 f This young nobleman, formerly Lord Mountjoy, had been the bosom 
 friend of Essex, and was at least cognizant of his treason. 
 
 J Lord Henry Howard was afterwards implicated in the poisoning of Sir 
 Thomas Overbury ; but it was not convenient to include him amongst the other 
 culprits.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 141 
 
 Chief Justice Popham ; of the Common Pleas, Anderson ; Justices 
 Gawdie and Warburton ; and Sir William Wade, Lieutenant of 
 the Tower. It will not be necessary to give the names of the jury. 
 Ralegh did not challenge one of them, and after their verdict said 
 emphatically, " they must do as they are directed." I hope the 
 story may be true, that, after the trial, some of them went on 
 their knees before Ralegh, and begged his pardon.* 
 
 The indictment was opened by Sergeant Heale. Coke, the 
 Attorney-General, followed, and enlarged upon the treason of the 
 bye, with any participation in which Ralegh was not charged. 
 He then informed the jury that another thing would be stood 
 upon, namely, that they had but one witness, instructing them 
 that one witness was sufficient. He next spoke of Ralegh's 
 treason as a design to destroy the King and his progeny. 
 
 Upon this Ralegh interrupted him, saying, " To whom speak 
 you this ? You tell me news I never heard of." 
 
 " Oh Sir ! do I," cried Coke; " I will prove you the notoriousest 
 traitor that ever came to the bar." 
 
 And then commenced a scene, to be carried on to the end of 
 the trial (the Attorney-General's brutal passions being aroused, 
 which he could vent with safety), which brands the name of Coke 
 with eternal infamy. Lord Campbell says : " His (Coke's) first 
 appearance as public prosecutor in the new reign was on the trial 
 of Sir Walter Ralegh, charged with high treason by entering into 
 a plot to put the Lady Arabella Stuart on the throne ; and here, I 
 am sorry to say that, by his brutal conduct to the accused, he 
 brought permanent disgrace upon himself, and upon the English 
 bar. He must have been aware that, notwithstanding the 
 mysterious and suspicious circumstances which surrounded the 
 affair, he had no sufficient case against the prisoner, even by 
 written depositions, and according to the lax notions of evidence 
 then subsisting." And " whilst he was detailing the charge, he 
 knew it could not be established." We must give a few specimens 
 of it. 
 
 " It is said that " there was appointed for Ralegh another jury, the fore- 
 man of which was Sir Michael Stanhope, the next Sir Edward Darcy, the 
 next Sir William Killigrew, all men of honour, and near servants to the late 
 Queen Elizabeth ; but these being found not for their turn, they were all 
 changed over night."
 
 142 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Attorney- General. " After you had taken away the king, you 
 would alter religion, as you, Sir Walter, have followed them of the 
 bye in imitation ; for I will charge you with the words." 
 
 Ralegh. " Your words cannot condemn me : my innocency is 
 my defence. Prove one of these things wherewith you have 
 charged me, and I will confess the whole indictment, and that I 
 
 SIR EDWARD COKE. 
 
 nm the horrihlest traitor that ever lived, and worthj' to be crucified 
 with a thousand thousand torments." 
 
 Attorney- General. " Stay, I will prove all : thou art a monster ; 
 thou hast an English face, but a Spanish heart." 
 
 Ralegh. " Let me answer for myself." 
 
 Attorney-General. " Thou shalt not." 
 
 Ralegh. " It concerneth my life." 
 
 Attorney- General. "Oh, Sir! have I touched you ?" 
 
 These charges, without proof, drawn from the deposition of 
 Cobham, being proceeded with, Ralegh again interposed. 
 
 Ralegh. " You tell me news, Mr. Attorney." 
 
 Attorney- General. "Oh, Sir, I am the more large, because I
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 143 
 
 know with whom I deal; for we have to deal to-day with a 
 man of wit." 
 
 Ralegh. "I will wash my hands of the indictment, and die a 
 true man to the King." 
 
 Attorney-Getieral. "You are the absolutest traitor that ever 
 was." 
 
 Ralegh. " Your phrases will not prove it, Mr. Attorney. I do 
 not hear yet that you have spoken one word against me : here is 
 no treason of mine done. If my lord Cobham is a traitor, what 
 is that to me ?" 
 
 Attorney- General. "All he did was by thy instigation, thou 
 viper ; for I thou thee, thou traitor."* 
 
 Ralegh. " It becometh not a man of quality and virtue to call 
 me so. But I take comfort in it ; it is all you can do." 
 Attorney-General. "Havel angered you ?" 
 Ralegh. " I am in no case to be angry." 
 The depositions were now read. " They did not," says Lord 
 Campbell, " by any means make out the prisoner's complicity in 
 the plot." The Attorney- General observed, " Ralegh saith, if the 
 accuser be alive, he must be brought face to face to speak ; and 
 alleges that there must be two sufficient witnesses that must be 
 brought face to face before the accused." 
 
 Ralegh. " You try me by the Spanish Inquisition, if you pro- 
 ceed only by the circumstances, without two witnesses." 
 Attorney ~General. " This is a treasonable speech." 
 Ralegh. " Let Cobham be here ; let him speak it. Call my 
 accuser before my face, and I have done." 
 
 We hope we have already made it clear that a prisoner is being 
 tried for his life on the deposition mainly of a man who had 
 accused and retracted ; retracted twice, and again accused ; that a 
 Winchester bushel of the wretch's oaths ought to have been as 
 potential towards a conviction of Ralegh, as the same measure 
 of the Attorney-General's foul-mouthed vituperations. It must ere 
 this have been clear, not only to Sir Walter, but to every man 
 
 * It has often been remarked (and it is very probable,) that Shakspeare had 
 this in his mind when he was writing that scene in " Twelfth Night," where 
 Sir Toby sketches out for Sir Andrew the form of his challenge : " If thou 
 thou'st him some thrice it shall not be amiss; and as many lies as will lie in 
 thy sheet of paper. Let there be gall enough in thy ink."
 
 144 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 there present, that they wanted his life, and were determined to 
 have it. 
 
 Not even Coke had the audacity to attempt an answer to the 
 following statement of the prisoner : 
 
 " As soon as Cobham saw my letter to have discovered his deal- 
 ing with Aremberg, in his fury he accused me; but before he 
 came to the stair-foot he repented, and said he had done me wrong-. 
 When he came to the end of his accusation, he added, that if he 
 had brought this money to Jersey, he feared that I would have 
 delivered him and the money to the king. Mr. Attorney, you said 
 this came out of Cobham's quiver he is a simple man. Is he so 
 simple ? No ; he hath a disposition of his own ; he will not easily 
 be guided by others ; but when he has once taken head in a matter, 
 he is not easily drawn from it : he is no babe. But it is strange for 
 me to devise with Cobham that he should go to Spain to persuade 
 the king to disburse so much money, he being a man of no love in 
 England, and I having resigned my room of chiefest command, 
 the Wardenship of the Stannaries.* Is it not strange for me to 
 make myself Robin Hood, or a Kett, or a Cade, I knowing 
 England to be in a better estate to defend itself than ever it was ? 
 I knew Scotland united, Ireland quieted, wherein of late our 
 forces were dispersed; Denmark assured,. which before was sus- 
 pected. I knew that, having lost a lady whom time had surprised, 
 we had now an active king, a lawful successor, who would him- 
 self be present in all his affairs. The state of Spain was not un- 
 known to me : I had written a discourse, which I had intended to 
 present unto the king, against peace with Spain. I knew the 
 Spaniards had six repulses, three in Ireland, and three at sea, and 
 once in 1588, at Cadiz, by my Lord Admiral.f I knew he was 
 
 * Ralegh, detested by the citizens of London, was very popular in Devon 
 and Cornwall. 
 
 f In his letter to the Earls of Nottingham, Suffolk, and Devon, and to 
 Cecil, written a few days before his trial, he says, " I have been a violent 
 persecutor of that nation. I have served against them in person ; and 
 how my Lord Admiral and Lord of Suffolk can witness. I discovered, 
 myself, the richest part of all his Indies ; I have planted in his territories ; 
 I offered his majesty, at my uncle Carew's, to carry two thousand men 
 to invade him without the King's charge. Alas ! to what end should we live 
 in the world, if all the endeavours of so many testimonies shall be blown off 
 with one blast of wrath, or be prevented by one man's word ! "

 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 145 
 
 discouraged and dishonoured. I knew the king of Spain to be the 
 proudest prince in Christendom ; but now he cometh creeping to 
 the king, my master, for peace. I knew, whereas before he had 
 in his port six or seven score sail of ships, he hath now but six or 
 seven. I knew of twenty-four millions he had from his Indies, he 
 hath scarce one left. I knew him to be so poor that the Jesuits in 
 Spain, who were wont to have such large allowance, were fain to 
 beg at the church door. Was it ever read or heard that any prince 
 should disburse so much money without a sufficient pawn? I 
 knew her own subjects, the citizens of London, would not lend 
 her majesty money without lands in mortgage. I knew the 
 Queen did not lend the States money without Flushing, Brill, and 
 other towns for a pawn. And can it be thought that he would let 
 Cobham have so great a sum ?" 
 
 We must give further portions of this extraordinary trial. 
 Sir Edward Coke is held in reverence by the profession, and pro- 
 claimed the greatest lawyer that ever practised at the bar, or sat 
 upon the bench. Doubtless he deserves this high reputation. But 
 there is too much reason to believe that he who audaciously put 
 the law on one side to curry favour with James, vindicated its 
 supremacy to feed fat his malice against his memory. Let lawyers 
 worship the lawyer ; the rest of the world must ever regard the 
 man with disgust. 
 
 Here is Laurencie's examination : " Within five days after Arem- 
 berg arrived, Cobham resorted unto him. That night that Cobham 
 went to Aremberg with Laurencie, Ealegh supped with him." 
 Upon this evidence of treason, Coke had the effrontery to ex- 
 claim, " The crown shall never stand one year on the head of 
 the King, my master, if a traitor may not be condemned by circum- 
 stances." There was one Dyer, a pilot, called and sworn. He said : 
 
 " I came to a merchant's house in Lisbon to see a boy that I 
 had there. There came a gentleman into the house, and, inquiring 
 what countryman I was, I said an Englishman. Whereupon he 
 asked me if the King was crowned, and I answered, no; but that 
 I hoped that he should be so shortly. Nay,' saith he, ' he shall 
 never be crowned ; for Don Ralegh and Don Cobham will cut his 
 throat ere that day come.' " Coke had the unblushing impudence 
 to offer this as evidence.* 
 
 * Sir John Hawles, Solicitor-General to King William III., in his answer 
 
 Jt
 
 146 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Ralegh urg-ed again and again that his accuser should he 
 brought before him. " My lords, vouchsafe me this grace : let 
 him be brought, being alive, and in the house ; let him avouch 
 any of these things, I will confess the whole indictment, and 
 renounce the King's mercy." Again : " Let me speak for my life : 
 it can be no hurt for him to be brought : he dares not accuse me. 
 If you grant me not this favour, I am strangely used." 
 
 Chief Justice Popham remarked, that the acquitting of his old 
 friend might move Cobham to speak otherwise than truth. To 
 which Ralegh replied : 
 
 "If I had been the infuser of all these treasons into him, you, 
 gentlemen of the jury, mark this. He said, I have been the cause 
 of all his miseries, and the destruction of his house, and that all 
 evil hath happened unto him by my evil counsel. If this be true, 
 whom hath he cause to accuse and to be revenged on but me ?" 
 
 Attorney- General. "He is a party, and may not come: the law 
 is against it I" 
 
 Ralegh. " It is a toy to tell me of law. I stand on the fact. 
 You have not proved anything against me by direct proofs, but all 
 by circumstances." 
 
 to a pamphlet entitled, "The Magistracy and Government of England Vindi- 
 cated," has some remarks on this trial. "I would know," he says, " by what 
 law is the deposition of a person who might be brought face to face to the 
 prisoner, read as evidence? I would know by what law it is forbidden that 
 the accuser should be brought face to face to the accused ? I would know by 
 what law Brooke's deposition of what the Lord Cobham told him of Ralegh, was 
 evidence against Ralegh ? I would know by what law the story Dyer told of 
 what an unknown man said to him at Lisbon of Don Ralegh, was evidence 
 against Ralegh ? I would know by what statute the statutes of the 25th of 
 Edward III. and 5th of Edward VI. (which require two witnesses) are re- 
 pealed? .... The circumstances of this trial, in which the court always 
 overruled the prisoner, were somewhat like the Lord Russell's : he complains 
 of the ill-usage of the king's counsel, as well as the Lord Russell; and both 
 had reason so to do. Hearsay was admitted to be given in evidence against 
 both ; all that either of them said for themselves, though very material, was 
 slighted. The principal witnesses in both cases had before the trials affirmed 
 they knew nothing against them ; they were both accused of having heard what 
 other persons had said in their company, and had not discovered it. They both 
 gave the same answer, that they could not help other men's talk. I think it 
 is plain at this day, that of Sir Walter is thought a sham-plot; what the Lord 
 Russell's is, let the author say."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 147 
 
 Attorney-General. " Have you done? the king 1 must have the 
 last." 
 
 Ralegh. " Nay, Mr. Attorney, he which speaketh for his life 
 must speak last. False repetitions and mistaking^ must not mar 
 my cause. You should speak secundum allegata et probata. I 
 appeal to God and the King in this point, whether Cobham's accu- 
 sation be sufficient to condemn me." 
 
 Attorney-General. " The King's safety and your clearing cannot 
 agree. I protest before God, I never knew a clearer treason. Go 
 to, I will lay thee upon thy back for the confidentest traitor that 
 ever came at a bar." 
 
 And now even the " affable wolf," Cecil, thought it time to in- 
 terpose. 
 
 Cecil. " Be not so impatient, Mr. Attorney : give him leave to 
 speak." 
 
 Attorney-General. " If I may not be patiently heard, you will 
 encourage traitors, and discourage us. I am the King's sworn ser- 
 vant, and must speak. If he be guilty, he is a traitor ; if not, 
 deliver him." 
 
 Here Coke " sat down in a chafe," and would speak no more, 
 until the commissioners urged and entreated him. After much 
 ado he resumed, and made a long repetition of all the evidence, for 
 the direction of the jury ; and at the repeating of some things, Sir 
 Walter interrupted him, and said he did him wrong. Whereupon, 
 the following remarkable dialogue ensued : 
 
 Attorney- General. "Thou art the most vile and execrable 
 traitor that ever lived." 
 
 Ralegh. " You speak indiscreetly, barbarously, and uncivilly." 
 
 Attorney- General. "I want words sufficient to express thy 
 viperous treasons.'' 
 
 Ralegh. " I think you want words, indeed ; for you have spoken 
 one thing half-a-dozen times." 
 
 Attorney- General. "You are an odious fellow; thy name is 
 hateful to all the realm of England for thy pride." 
 
 Rulcgh. "It will go near to prove a measuring-cast between 
 you and me, Mr. Attorney.'' 
 
 Attorney- General. " Well, I will now make it appear to the 
 world that there never lived a viler viper upon the face of the 
 earth than thou." 
 
 K2
 
 148 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 With that he drew a letter from his pocket. It was from 
 Cobham, and addressed to the Lords. The poor man " could be 
 at no rest with himself, nor quiet in his thoughts," until he had, 
 for the third or fourth time, made a clean breast of it. 
 
 " What though Cobham retracted," said Coke ; " yet he could 
 not rest nor sleep till he confirmed it again." 
 
 In this letter, Cobham protested on his soul, before God and 
 his angels, that everything of which he had accused Ralegh was 
 true. 
 
 " What say you now of the letter ?" asked the Chief Justice. 
 
 " I say," said Ralegh, " that Cobham is a base, dishonourable, 
 poor soul ;" and pulled a letter out of his pocket, written to him by 
 Cobham, and desired Cecil to read it, because he only knew his 
 hand. It was read, and was in these terms : 
 
 " Seeing myself so near my end, for the discharge of my own 
 conscience, and freeing myself from your blood, which else will 
 cry vengeance against me, I protest, upon my salvation, I never 
 practised with Spain by your procurement : God so comfort me in 
 this my affliction, as you are a true subject, for anything I know. 
 I will say as Daniel, Purus sum a sanguine hufus.* So God have 
 mercy upon my soul, as I know no treason by you !" 
 
 " Now I wonder," said Ralegh contemptuously, " how many 
 souls this man hath : he damns one in this letter, and another in 
 that." 
 
 " Here," says the account of the trial, " was much ado. Mr. 
 Attorney alleged that his (Cobham's) last letter was politicly and 
 cunningly urged from the Lord Cobham, and that the first was 
 simply the truth." 
 
 And now, there being an end of the evidence, the jury retired, 
 and in less than a quarter of an hour returned with their verdict, 
 
 GuiLTY.f 
 
 * Cobham's remembrance of the Scriptures must have been unsettled at 
 this time. He meant Pilate, not Daniel. 
 
 t Sir Anthony Weldon, in his "Anlicus Coquinariffi," observes: "For 
 Ralegh's defence, it was so brave and just, that (had he not wilfully cast 
 himself, out of very weariness, as unwilling to detain the company longer), no 
 jury could ever have cast him." But Ralegh was ever present to himself on 
 this occasion. Even his enemy, Cecil, acknowledged that his victim urged in 
 his own defence "all that the wit of man could devise." Lord Campbell
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 149 
 
 Being asked by the Clerk of the Crown what he could say why 
 judgment and execution of death should not pass against him, 
 
 Ralegh replied : "My lords, the jury have found me guilty; 
 they must do as they are directed. I can say nothing why judg- 
 ment should not proceed. I desire the King should know of the 
 wrongs done unto me since I came hither." 
 
 " You have had no wrong, Sir Walter," said the Chief Justice. 
 
 "Yes, of Mr. Attorney," answered Ralegh. "I submit 
 myself to the King's mercy. I recommend my wife, and son of 
 tender years, to his compassion." 
 
 Chief Justice Popham now proceeded to pass sentence of 
 death. He said : 
 
 " I thought I should never have lived to see this day, Sir 
 Walter, to have stood in this place to give sentence of death 
 against you, because I thought it impossible that one of so great 
 parts could have fallen so grievously. God hath bestowed on you 
 many benefits. You had been a man fit and able to serve the 
 King in good place. It is best for a man not to seek to climb too 
 high, lest he fall, nor yet to creep too low, lest he be trodden on. 
 It was the posy (motto) of the wisest and greatest councillor in 
 our time in England,* 'Inmedio spatio mediocriajirma loeantur.' 
 You have been taken for a wise man, and so have shown wit 
 
 enough this day Let it not grieve you if I speak a 
 
 little out of zeal and love to your good. You have been taxed by 
 the world with the defence of the most heathenish and blasphemous 
 opinions, which I list not to repeat, because Christian ears cannot 
 endure to hear them, nor the authors and maintainers of them be 
 suffered to live in any Christian commonwealth. You shall do 
 well, before you go out of the world, to give satisfaction therein, 
 and not to die with the imputations upon you. Let not any devil 
 persuade you to think there is no eternity in heaven; for, if you 
 think thus, you shall find eternity in hell-fire." f 
 
 says, " Of course, there was a verdict of guilty ; " by which I do not under- 
 stand his lordship to menu that they were a packed jury, but that they were 
 overborne by Coke. 
 
 * Sir Nicholas, father of the great Lord Bacon. 
 
 f This was a highly moral conclusion of a speech from a dignified judge, 
 who, although not particularly squeamish as to straining the law at the com- 
 mandment of the higher power, may be supposed to have beeu " respectable"
 
 150 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Ralegh, we are told, accompanied the sheriff back to the 
 prison, " with admirable erection, yet in such sort as a condemned 
 
 in his own private character. Will it be believed that this smug censor of 
 another man's falsely alleged religious opinions, from the time he could write 
 man till he became thirty years of age, was the constant and intimate associate 
 of the most profligate and desperate characters, in company with whom he 
 .obtained his livelihood by robbing travellers, at Shooter's Hill and elsewhere, 
 of their purses, and everything of value they had about them ; and that, by 
 these means, he laid the foundation of " the largest estate," says Lord Campbell, 
 " that ever had been amassed by any lawyer ?" But this is not the worst. How 
 came this excellent Christian possessed of Littlecote Hall, which, with his money, 
 he left to his son (who made wings for the riches, wherewith they flew away) ? 
 Sir Richard Darrell, the owner of that "noble house, park, and manor," was 
 tried for murder at Salisbury, before Sir John Popham, and convicted. The 
 judge gave sentence according to law; but was bribed with the estate of 
 Littlecote to procure a nole prosequi. A relation of this " horrible and 
 mysterious crime," as Macaulay terms it, will be found interesting. We give 
 it in the words of Walter Scott, who delivers it "exactly as told in the 
 country." I copy it from Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Chief Justices :" 
 " It was on a dark night, in the month of November, that an old mi J wife sat 
 musing by her cottage fireside, when on a sudden she was startled by a loud 
 knocking at the door. On opening it she found a horseman, who told her 
 that her assistance was required immediately by a person of rank, and that 
 she should be handsomely rewarded ; but that there were reasons for keeping 
 the affair a strict secret, and, therefore, she must submit to be blindfolded, and 
 to be conducted in that condition to the bedchamber of the lady. With some 
 hesitation the midwife consented ; the horseman bound her eyes and placed 
 her on a pillion behind him. After proceeding in silence for many miles, 
 through rough and dirty lanes, they stopped, and the midwife was led into a 
 house, which, from the length of her walk through the apartments, as well 
 as the sounds about her, she discovered to be the seat of wealth and power. 
 When the bandage was removed from her eyes, she found herself in a bed- 
 chamber, in which was a lady, on whose account she had been sent for, and 
 a man of a haughty and ferocious aspect. The lady was delivered of a fine 
 boy. Immediately the man commanded the midwife to give him the child, 
 and, catching it from her, he hurried across the room and threw it on the 
 back of the fire that was blazing in the chimney. The child, however, was 
 strong, and by its struggles rolled itself off upon the hearth, when the ruffian 
 again seized it with fury, and, in spite of the intercession of the midwife, and the 
 more piteous entreaties of the mother, thrust it under the grate, and, raking 
 the live coals upon it, soon put an end to its life. The midwife, after spending 
 some time in affording all the relief in her power to the troubled mother, was 
 told that she must be gone. Her former conductor appeared, who again 
 bound her eyes, and conveyed her behind him to her own home ; he then paid
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 151 
 
 man should do." Many testimonies remain of the address, skill, 
 temper, and dignity, with which he encountered, not his judges, 
 but his adversaries, on this trial. " Sir Walter Ralegh," says Sir 
 Dudley Carleton, " served for a whole act, and played all the 
 parts himself. He answered with that temper, wit, courage, 
 learning, and judgment, that save that it went with the hazard of 
 his life it was the happiest day that ever he spent." One of his 
 auditors says: "He behaved himself so worthily, so wisely, so 
 temperately, that in half a day the mind of all the company was 
 changed from the extremest hate to the extremest pity.' 1 Sir 
 Thomas Overbury, in his " Arraignment of Sir Walter Ralegh," 
 observes, that his carriage was most remarkable first, to the lords 
 humble, yet not prostrate; towards the jury affable, but not fawn- 
 ing, rather showing loss of life than fear of death; towards the 
 king's counsel patient, but not insensibly neglecting ; not yielding- 
 to imputations laid against him in words ; and it was wondered that 
 a man of his heroic spirit could be so valiant in suffering. " The 
 two first," says Carleton, " that brought the news to the king were 
 Itoger Ashton and a Scotchman, whereof one affirmed that never 
 any man spoke so well in times past, nor would do it in the world 
 to come ; and the other said, that whereas, when he saw him first, 
 he was so led with the common hatred, that he could have gone a 
 hundred miles to have seen him hanged, he would, ere he parted, 
 
 her handsomely, and departed. The midwife was strongly agitated by th 
 horrors of the preceding night, and she immediately made a deposition before 
 a magistrate. Two circumstances afforded hopes of detecting the house in 
 which the crime had been committed : one was, that the midwife, as she sat 
 by the bedside, had, with a view to discover the place, cut out a piece of the 
 bed-curtain and sewn it in again; the other was, that, as she descended 
 the staircase, she had counted the steps. Some suspicion fell upon one Darrell, 
 at that time the proprietor of Littlecote House, and the domain around it The 
 house was examined and identified by the midwife, and Darrell was tried at 
 Salisbury for the murder. By corrupting the judge he escaped the sentttnct 
 of the law, but broke his neck, by a fall from his horse in hunting, in a few 
 months after. The place where this happened is still known by the name of 
 ' Darrell's stile,' and is dreaded by the peasant whom the shades of evening 
 have overtaken on his way." I am sorry to be obliged to add, that Sir John 
 Fopham, the owner of Littlecote, was in a manner related to Ralegh, his 
 daughter having been the wife of Sir Richard Champernon, the nephew, as I 
 take it, of Ralegh's mother.
 
 152 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 have gone a thousand to have saved his life." In a word, Sir John 
 Deiiham's lines on the demeanour of the Earl of Strafford on 
 a like occasion, may be applied to Kalegh : 
 
 " Such was his force of eloquence, to make 
 The hearers more concern' d than he that spake; 
 Each seem'd to act the part he came to see, 
 And none was more a looker-on than he." 
 
 The Bishop of Winchester was sent to Sir Walter to prepare 
 him for his end, and to induce him to confess his treason. But the 
 prelate was not able to accomplish the latter part of what had been 
 entrusted to him. He found him indeed " well settled, and 
 resolved to die a Christian, and a good Protestant ; " but " for 
 the point of confession he found him so strait-laced, that he would 
 yield to no part of Cobham's accusation." " No man," says Mr, 
 Southey, " ever asked for life with more dignified submission to 
 his fortune" than did Ralegh, in a letter he addressed at this 
 time to the King. But this praise cannot be accorded to the latter, 
 or to the spirit in which the author composed it, consistently with 
 Southey's singular belief of Kalegh's guilt. Sir Walter wrote like- 
 wise the following letter to his wife : 
 
 "You shall receive, my dear wife, my last words, in these 
 my last lines. My love I send you, that you may keep it when 
 I am dead ; and my counsel, that you may remember it when I 
 am no more. I would not with my will present you sorrows, 
 dear Bess : let them go to the grave with me, and be buried in 
 the dust. And seeing that it is not the will of God that I shall 
 see you any more, bear my destruction patiently, and with a heart 
 like yourself. 
 
 "First: I send you all the thanks which my heart can conceive, 
 or my words express, for your many travails and cares for me, 
 which, though they have not taken effect as you wished, yet my 
 debt to you is not the less ; but pay it I never shall in this 
 world. 
 
 " Secondly : I beseech you, for the love you bare me living, 
 that you do not hide yourself many days, but by your travails 
 seek to help my miserable fortunes, and the right of your poor 
 child : your mourning cannot avail me, that am but dust. 
 
 "Thirdly : You shall understand that my lands were conveyed 
 bond Jide to my child. The writings were drawn at Midsummer
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 153 
 
 was twelvemonths, as divers can witness. And I trust my blood 
 will quench their malice who desired my slaughter, that they will 
 not seek also to kill you and your's with extreme poverty. To 
 what friend to direct you I know not ; for all mine have left me in 
 the true time of trial, and I plainly perceive that my death was 
 determined from the first day. Most sorry I am, that being thus 
 surprised by death, I can leave you in no better estate. God hath 
 prevented all my determinations even that great God which 
 worketh all in all ! If you can live free from want, care for no 
 more ; for the rest is but vanity. Love God, and begin betimes to 
 repose yourself on Him ; in Him you shall find true, everlasting, 
 and endless comfort. When you have travailed and wearied your- 
 self over all sorts of worldly cogitations, you shall but sit down by 
 sorrow in the end. Teach your son also to serve and fear God 
 while he is young, that the fear of God may grow up in him ; 
 then will God be a husband to you, and a father to him a 
 husband and a father that can never be taken from you. 
 
 " Bailey oweth me a thousand pounds, and Adrian (Gilbert) 
 six hundred. In Jersey also I have much owing me. Dear wife, 
 I beseech you, for my soul's sake, pay all poor men. When I am 
 dead, no doubt you shall be sought unto by many, for the world 
 thinks I am very rich ; but take heed of the fair pretences of 
 men and their affections, for they last not but in honest and worthy 
 men ; and no greater misery can befal you in this life than to 
 become a prey unto the world, and after to be despised. I speak 
 not this, God knows, to dissuade you from marriage ; for it will be 
 best for you, both in respect of God and the world. As for me, I 
 am no more yours, nor you mine ; death hath cut us asunder, and 
 God hath divided me from the world, and me from you. 
 
 " Ilemember your poor child for his father's sake, who chose you 
 and loved you in his happiest time. Get those letters, if it be possi- 
 ble, which I writ to the lords, wherein I sued for my life. God is 
 my witness, it was for you and yours that I desired life ; but it is true, 
 I disdain myself for begging it. You know it, dear wife, your son is 
 the son of a true man, and one who, in his own respect, despiseth 
 death and all his mis-shapen and ugly forms. I cannot write 
 much. God he knoweth how hardly I steal this time, when others 
 sleep ; and it is also time for me to separate my thoughts from 
 the world. Beg my dead body, which, living, was denied thee ;
 
 154 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and either lay it in Sherborne, if the land continue, or in Exeter 
 church, by my father and mother. I can say no more. Time and 
 Death call me away. The everlasting 1 , powerful, infinite, and in- 
 scrutable God Almighty, who is goodness itself, and true light, and 
 true life, keep thee and thine ; have mercy upon me, and teach me 
 to forgive my persecutors and accusers, and send us to meet in His 
 glorious kingdom ! 
 
 " My dear wife, farewell ! Bless my poor boy ; pray for me ; 
 and let my true God hold you both in his arms. Written with the 
 dying hand of sometime thy husband, but now, alas ! overthrown. 
 Yours that was, but now not mine own, 
 
 "WALTER RALEGH." 
 
 It was probably at Winchester, where he was kept nearly a 
 month in daily expectation of death, that he drew up his " Advice 
 to his Son and to Posterity," in which we view the results of a 
 sagacious experience dealing with the ordinary affairs of life. 
 
 " SIR WALTER RALEGH'S INSTRUCTIONS TO HIS SON AND 
 TO POSTERITY. 
 
 " CHAPTER I. 
 
 " Virtuous Persons to be made choice of for Friends. 
 " THERE is nothing more becoming any wise man than to mak 
 choice of friends, for by them thou shalt be judged what thou art. 
 Let them, therefore, be wise and virtuous, and none of those that 
 follow thee for gain ; but make election rather of thy betters than 
 thy inferiors, shunning always such as are poor and needy ; for if 
 thou givest hourly gifts, and refuse to do the like but once, all that 
 thou hast done will be lost, and such men will be thy mortal 
 enemies. Take, also, special care that thou never trust any fiiend 
 or servant with any matter that may endanger thine estate ; for so 
 shalt thou make thyself a bond-slave to him that thou trustest, and 
 leave thyself always to his mercy. And be sure of this thou shalt 
 never find a friend in thy young years, whose conditions and 
 qualities will please thee after thou comest to more discretion and 
 judgment ; and then all thou givest is lost, and all wherein thou 
 shalt trust such a one will be discovered. Such, therefore, as are 
 thy inferiors will eat thee out, and when thou leavest to feed them 
 they will hate thee ; and such kind of men, if thou preserve thy
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 155 
 
 estate, will always be had ; and if thy friends be of better quality 
 than thyself, thou mayest be sure of two things the first, that 
 they will be more careful to keep thy counsel, because they have 
 more to lose than thou hast ; the second, they will esteem thee fen 
 thyself, and not for that which thou dost possess. But if thou be 
 subject to any great vanity or ill (from which I hope God will bless 
 thee), then therein trust no man ; for every man's folly ought to be 
 his greatest secret. And though I persuade thee to associate thyself 
 with thy betters, or at least with thy peers, yet remember always 
 that thou venture not thy estate with any of the great ones that 
 shall attempt unlawful things ; for such men labour for themselves, 
 and not for thee. Thou shalt be sure to part (have part) with them 
 in the danger, but not in the honour ; and to venture a sure estate 
 in present in hope of a better in future is mere madness ; and great 
 men forget such as have done them service when they have ob- 
 tained what they would, and will rather hate thee for saying thou 
 hast been a means of their advancement, than acknowledge it. 
 
 " I could give thee a thousand examples, and I myself know it, 
 and have tasted it in all the course of my life : when thou shalt 
 read and observe the stories of all nations, thou shalt find innumer- 
 able examples of the like. Let thy love, therefore, be to the best, so 
 long as they do well ; but take heed that thou love God, thy country, 
 thy promise, and thine own estate before all others ; for the fancies 
 of men change, and he that loves to day hateth to morrow : but let 
 reason be thy school mistress, which shall ever guide thee aright. 
 
 " CHAPTER II. 
 " Great care to be had in the choosing of a Wife. 
 
 " THE next and greatest care ought to be in the choice of a wife, 
 and the only danger therein is beauty, by which all men, in all ages, 
 wise and foolish, have been betrayed. And though I know it vain 
 to use reasons or arguments to dissuade thee from being captivated 
 therewith, there being few or none that ever resisted that witchery, 
 yet I cannot omit to warn thee, as of other things which may be 
 thy ruin and destruction. For the present time, it is true that every 
 man prefers his fantasy in that appetite before all other worldly 
 desires, leaving the care of honour, credit, and safety in respect 
 thereof. But remember, that though these affections do not last,
 
 156 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 yet the bond of marriage dureth to the end of thy life, and there- 
 fore better to be borne withal in a mistress than in a wife ; for when 
 thy humour shall change, thou art free to choose again (if thou 
 give thyself that vain liberty). 
 
 " Remember, secondly, that if thou marry for beauty, thou 
 bindest thyself all thy life for that which perchance will never last 
 nor please thee one year ; and, when thou hast it, it will be to thee 
 of no price at all ; for the desire dieth when it is obtained, and the 
 affection perisheth when it is satisfied. Remember, when thou wert 
 a sucking child, that then thou didst love thy nurse, and that thou 
 wert fond of her ; after which thou didst love thy dry-nurse, and 
 didst forget the other ; after that thou didst also despise her ; so 
 will it be in thy liking in older years. And, therefore, though thou 
 canst not forbear to love, forbear to link, and after a while thou 
 shall find an alteration in thyself, and see another far more pleasing 
 than the first, second, or third love. 
 
 " Yet I wish thee, above all the rest, have a care thou dost not 
 marry an uncomely woman for any respect ; for comeliness in chil- 
 dren is riches, if nothing else be left them. And if thou have care 
 for thy races of horses and other beasts, value the shape and come- 
 liness of thy children before alliances or riches : have care, therefore 
 of both together; for if thou have a fair wife" and a poor one, if thine 
 own estate be not great, assure thyself that love abideth not with 
 want, for she is the companion of plenty and honour ; for I never 
 yet knew a poor woman exceeding fair that was not made dishonest 
 by one or other in the end. This Bathsheba taught her son 
 Solomon, ' Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vanity : ' she saith, 
 further, that ' a wise woman overseeth the ways of her household, 
 and eateth not the bread of idleness. 1 
 
 " Have, therefore, ever more care that thou be beloved of thy 
 wife, rather than thyself besotted on her. And thou shall judge of 
 her love by these two observations first, if thou perceive she has 
 a care for thy estate, and exercise herself therein ; the other, if she 
 study to please thee and be sweet unto thee in conversation withoul 
 thy inslruction ; for love needs no teaching nor precept. On the olher 
 side, be nol sour or slern lo Ihy wife ; for cruelly engendereth no 
 other ihing lhan hatred : let her have equal part of thy estate whilst 
 thou livest, if thou find her sparing and honest ; but what thou 
 givest after thy death, remember that thou givest it to a stranger,
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 1.57 
 
 and most times to an enemy ; for he that shall marry thy wife shall 
 despise thee, thy memory, and thine, and shall possess the quiet of 
 thy labours, the fruit which thou hast planted, enjoy thy love, and 
 spend with joy and ease what thou hast spared and gotten with care 
 and travail. Yet always remember that thou leave not thy wife to 
 be a shame unto thee after thou art dead, but that she may live ac- 
 cording- to thy estate, especially if thou hast few children, and them 
 provided for. But, howsoever it be, or whatsoever thou find, leave 
 thy wife no more than of necessity thou must, but only during her 
 widowhood ; for if she love again, let her not enjoy the second love 
 in the same bed wherein she loved thee, nor fly to future pleasures 
 with those feathers which death hath pulled from thy wings ; but 
 leave thy estate to thy house and children, in which thou livest 
 upon this earth, whilst it lasteth. To conclude : wives were 
 ordained to continue the generation of men, not to transfer them 
 and diminish them, either in continuance or ability ; and therefore 
 thy house and estate, which liveth in thy son, and not in thy wife, 
 is to be preferred. 
 
 " Let thy time of marriage be in thy young and strong years ; 
 for, believe it, ever the young wife betrayeth the old husband, 
 and she that had thee not in thy flower, will despise thee in thy 
 fall, and thou shalt be unto her but a captivity and sorrow. Thy 
 best time will be towards thirty ; for as the younger times are 
 unfit either to choose er to govern a wife and family, so, if thou 
 stay long, thou shalt hardly see the education of thy children, 
 which, being left to strangers, are in effect lost ; and better were it 
 to be unborn than ill-bred ; for thereby thy posterity shall either 
 perish, or remain a shame to thy name and family. Further- 
 more, if it be late before thou take a wife, thou shalt spend thy 
 time and summer of thy life with harlots, destroy thy health, 
 impoverish thy estate, and endanger thy life. And be sure of 
 this : that how many mistresses soever thou hast, so many 
 enemies thou shalt purchase to thyself, for there never was any 
 such affection which ended not in hatred or disdain. Remember 
 the saying of Solomon : ' There is a may which seemcth right to 
 a man, but the issues thereof are the wages of death;' for howso- 
 ever a lewd woman pleases thee for a time, thou wilt hate her in the 
 
 end, and she will study to destroy thee. 
 
 * * *
 
 158 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Bestow, therefore, thy youth so that thou mayest have comfort 
 to remember it when it hath forsaken thee, and not sigh and 
 grieve at the account thereof. Whilst thou art young 1 , thou wilt 
 think it will never have an end ; but behold, the longest day hath 
 his evening, and that thou shalt enjoy it but once that it never 
 turns again. Use it, therefore, as the spring time, which soon 
 departeth, and wherein thou oughtest to plant and sow all 
 provisions for a long and happy life. 
 
 " CHAPTER in. 
 " "Wisest Men have been abused by Flatterers. 
 
 " TAKE care that thou be not made a fool by flatterers, for even 
 the wisest men are abused by these. Know, therefore, that flat- 
 terers are the worst kind of traitors ; for they will strengthen thy 
 imperfections, encourage thee in all evils, correct thee in nothing ; 
 but so shadow and paint all thy vices and follies, as thou shalt 
 never, by their will, discern evil from good, or vice from virtue. 
 And, because all men are apt to flatter themselves, to entertain the 
 additions of other men's praises is most perilous. Do not there- 
 fore praise thyself, except thou wilt be counted a vain-glorious fool ; 
 neither take delight in the praises of other men, except thou 
 deserve it, and receive it from such as are worthy and honest, 
 and will withal warn thee of thy faults ; for flatterers have never 
 any virtue they are ever base, creeping, cowardly persons. 
 A flatterer is said to be a beast that biteth smiling : it is said by 
 Isaiah in this manner ' My people, they that praise thee, seduce 
 thee, and disorder the paths of thy feet ;' and David desired God 
 to cut out the tongue of a flatterer. 
 
 " But it is hard to know them from friends, they are so obse- 
 quious and full of protestations ; for as a wolf resembles a dog, so 
 doth a flatterer a friend. A flatterer is compared to an ape, who, 
 because she cannot defend the house like a dog, labour as an ox, 
 or bear burdens as a horse, doth therefore yet play tricks and 
 provoke laughter. Thou mayest be sure, that he that will in 
 private tell thee thy faults is thy friend ; for he adventures thy 
 mislike, and doth hazard thy hatred ; for there are few men that 
 can endure it, every man for the most part delighting in self- 
 praise, which is one of the most universal follies which bewitcheth 
 mankind.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 159 
 
 "CHAPTER rv. 
 " Private quarrels to be avoided. 
 
 " BE careful to avoid public disputations at feasts, or at tables, 
 among 1 choleric or quarrelsome persons, and eschew evermore to 
 be acquainted or familiar with ruffians ; for thou shalt be in as 
 much danger in contending with a brawler in a private quarrel, as 
 in a battle wherein thou mayest get. honour to thyself and safety 
 to thy prince and country. But if thou be once engaged, carry 
 thyself bravely, that they may fear thee after.* To shun, there- 
 fore, private fight, be well advised in thy words and behaviour ; 
 for honour and shame is in the talk, and the tongue of a man 
 causeth him to fall. 
 
 " Jest not openly at those that are simple ; but remember how 
 much thou art bound to God, who hath made thee wiser. Defame 
 not any woman publicly, though thou know her to be evil ; for 
 those that are faulty cannot endure to be taxed, and will seek to be 
 avenged of thee; and those that are not guilty cannot endure 
 unjust reproach. And as there is nothing more shameful and 
 dishonest than to do wrong, so truth herself cutteth his throat 
 that carrieth her publicly in every place. Remember the divine 
 saying, ' He that keepeth his mouth, keepeth his life' Do, there- 
 fore, right to all men where it may profit them, and thou shalt 
 thereby get much love ; and forbear to speak evil things of men, 
 though it be true (if thou be not constrained), and thereby thou 
 shalt avoid malice and revenge. 
 
 " Do not accuse any man of any crime, if it be not to save 
 thyself, thy prince, or country; for there is nothing more 
 dishonourable (next to treason itself) than to be an accuser. 
 Notwithstanding, I would not have thee for any respect lose thy 
 reputation, or endure public disgrace ; far better it were not to 
 live than to live a coward, if the offence proceed not from thyself. 
 If it do, it shall be better to compound it upon good terms than to 
 hazard thyself; for if thou overcome, thou art under the cruelty 
 of the law ; if thou art overcome, thou art dead or dishonoured. 
 
 * So Polonius in " Hamlet." 
 
 " Bewnre 
 
 Of entrance to n quarrel, but being in, 
 
 Bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee."
 
 160 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 If thou, therefore, contend or discourse in argument, let it be with 
 wise and sober men, of whom thou mayest learn by reasoning-, and 
 not with ignorant persons ; for thou shalt thereby instruct those 
 that will not thank thee, and utter what they have learned from 
 thee for their own. But if thou know more than other men, utter 
 it where it may do thee honour, and not in assemblies of ignorant 
 and common persons. 
 
 " Speaking much is also a sign of vanity ; for he that is lavish 
 in words, is a niggard in deeds ; and, as Soloman saith, ' The mouth 
 of a tvisc man is in his heart; the heart of a fool is in his mouth, 
 because what he hnoweth or thinketh he uttereth.' And by thy 
 words and discourses, men will judge thee ; for, as Socrates saith, 
 " Such as thy words are, such will thy affections be esteemed ; and 
 such will thy deeds as thy affections, and such thy life as thy 
 deeds." Therefore, be advised what thou dost discourse of, and 
 what thou maintainest, whether touching religion, state, or vanity ; 
 for if thou err in the first, thou shalt be accounted profane ; if in 
 the second, dangerous; if in the third, indiscreet and foolish. 
 He that cannot refrain from speaking is like a city without walls ; 
 and less pains in the world a man cannot take than to hold his 
 tongue. Therefore, if thou observest this rule in all assemblies, 
 thou shalt seldom err : restrain thy choler, hearken much, and 
 speak little ; for the tongue is the instrument of the greatest good 
 and the greatest evil which is done in the world. 
 
 "According to Solomon, ' Life and death are in the power of the 
 tongue;' and, as Euripides truly affirmeth, 'every unbridled 
 tongue in the end shall find itself unfortunate ;' for in all that ever 
 I observed in the course of worldly things, I ever found that men's 
 fortunes are oftener made by their tongues than by their virtues, 
 and more men's fortunes overthrown thereby also than by their 
 vices. And, to conclude, all quarrels, mischief, hatred, and 
 destruction, arise from unadvised speech ; and in much speech 
 there are many errors out of which thy enemies shall take the 
 most dangerous advantage. And as thou shalt be happy if thou 
 thyself shun these things, so shall it be most profitable for thee to 
 avoid their companies that err in that kind, and not to hearken to 
 tale-bearers, to inquisitive persons, and such as busy themselves 
 with other men's estates ; that creep into houses as spies, to learn 
 news which concerns them not. For, assure thyself, such persons
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 161 
 
 are most base and unworthy; and I never knew any of them prosper 
 or respected amongst worthy or wise men. 
 
 " Take heed also that thou be not found a liar ; for a lying spirit 
 is hateful both to God and man. A liar is commonly a coward, 
 for he dares not avow truth. A liar is trusted of no man he 
 can have no credit, neither in public nor private ; and, if there 
 were no more arguments than this, know that our Lord in St. 
 John saith, that it is a vice proper to Satan, lying being opposite 
 to the nature of God, which consisteth in truth : and the gain of 
 lying is nothing else but not to be trusted of any, nor to be believed 
 when we say the truth. It is said in the Proverbs that ' God 
 hateth false lips : and he that speaketh lies shall perish." Thus 
 thou mayst see and find in all the books of God how odious and 
 contrary to God a liar is ; and for the world believe it that it never 
 did any man good, (except in the extremity of saving life) ; for a 
 liar is of a base, unworthy, and cowardly spirit. 
 
 " CHAPTER T. 
 " Three rules to be observed for the preservation of a Man's Estate. 
 
 " AMONGST all other things of the world, take care of thy estate, 
 which thou shalt ever preserve if thou observe three things : 
 first, that thou know what thou hast, what everything is worth 
 that thou hast, and to see that these are not wasted by thy servants 
 and officers ; the second is, that thou never spend anything before 
 thou have it, for borrowing is the canker and death of every man's 
 estate ; the third is, that thou suffer not thyself to be wounded for 
 other men's faults, and scourged for other men's offences, which is 
 the surety for another; for thereby millions of men have been 
 beggared and destroyed, paying the reckoning of other men's 
 riot, and the charge of other men's folly and prodigality. If thou 
 smart, smart for thine own sins ; and, above all things, be not made 
 an ass to carry the burdens of other men. If any friend desire 
 thee to be his surety, give him a part of what thou hast to spare : 
 if he press thee further, he is not thy friend at all, for friendship 
 rather chooseth harm to itself than offereth it. If thou be bound 
 for a stranger, thou art a fool ; if for a merchant, thou pxittest thy 
 estate to learn to swim ; if for a churchman, he hath no inheritance ; 
 if for a lawyer, he will find an evasion, by a syllable or word, to 
 abuse thee; if for a poor man, thou must pay it thyself; if for a 
 
 L
 
 162 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 rich man, it need not. Therefore, from suretyship, as from a 
 manslayer or enchanter, bless thyself; for the best profit and return 
 will be this that if thou force him, for whom thou art bound, to 
 pay it himself, be will become thy enemy ; if thou use to pay it 
 thyself, thou wilt be a beggar. And believe thy father in this, and 
 print it in thy thought, that what virtue soever thou hast, be it 
 ever so manifold, if thou be poor withal, thou and thy qualities 
 shall be despised. Besides, poverty is ofttimes sent as a curse of 
 God. It is a shame amongst men, an imprisonment of the mind, a 
 vexation of every worthy spirit ; thou shalt never help thyself or 
 others ; thou shalt drown thee in all thy virtues, having no means 
 to show them; thou shalt be a burden and an eyesore to thy 
 friends ; every man will fear thy company : thou shalt be driven 
 basely to depend on others ; to flatter unworthy men ; to make dis- 
 honest shifts ; and, to conclude, poverty provokes a man to do 
 infamous and detested deeds. Let not vanity, therefore, or persua- 
 sion, draw thee to that worst of worldly miseries. 
 
 " If thou be rich, it will give thee pleasure in health, comfort in 
 sickness, keep thy mind and body free, save thee from many perils, 
 relieve thee in thy older years, relieve the poor and thy honest 
 friends, and give means to thy posterity to live and defend them- 
 selves and thine own fame. Where it is said in the Proverbs, 
 ' that he shall be sore vexed that is surety for a stranger, and he 
 that hateth suretyship is sure;' it is further said ' the poor is 
 hated even of his omn neighbour, but the rich have many friends' 
 Lend not to him that is mightier than thyself, for if thou lendest 
 him, count it but lost ; be not surety above thy power, for if thou 
 be surety, think to pay it. 
 
 " CHAPTER vi. 
 
 " What sort of servants are fittest to be entertained. 
 " LET thy servants be such as thou mayst command ; and enter- 
 tain none about thee but yeomen, to whom thou givest wages ; for 
 those that will serve thee without thy hire will cost thee treble as 
 much as they that know thy fare. If thou trust any servant with 
 thy purse, be sure thou take his account ere thou sleep ; for if 
 thou put it off, thou wilt then afterwards for tediousness neglect it. 
 I myself have, therefore, lost more than I am worth. And what- 
 soever thy servant gaineth thereby, he will not thank thee, but
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 163 
 
 laugh thy simplicity to scorn. And, besides, it is the way to make 
 thy servants thieves, which else would be honest. 
 
 " CHAPTEB VII. 
 " Brave rags wear soonest out of fashion. 
 
 " EXCEED not in the humour of rags and bravery, for these will 
 soon wear out of fashion ;* but money in thy purse will ever be in 
 fashion ; and no man is esteemed for gay garments but by fools 
 and women. 
 
 " CHAPTER VIII. 
 " Riches not to he sought by evil means. 
 
 " ON the other side, take heed that thou seek not riches basely, 
 nor attain them by evil means. Destroy no man for his wealth, 
 nor take anything from the poor, for the cry and complaint thereof 
 will pierce the heavens. And it is most detestable before God, 
 and most dishonourable before worthy men, to wrest anything 
 from the needy and labouring soul. God will never prosper thee 
 in aught, if thou offend therein : but use thy poor neighbours and 
 tenants well ; pine not them and their children to add superfluity 
 and needless expenses to thyself. He that hath pity on another 
 man's sorrow shall be free from it himself; and he that delighteth 
 in, and scorneth the misery of another, shall, one time or other, 
 fall into it himself. Remember this precept ' He that hath mercy 
 on the poor lendeth to the Lord, and the Lord will recompense him 
 tJtat Ite hath given. 1 
 
 " I do not understand those for poor which are vagabonds and 
 beggars, but those that labour to live ; such as are old and cann 
 travail ; such poor widows and fatherless children as are ordered 
 to be relieved ; and the poor tenants that travail to pay their rents 
 and are driven to poverty by mischance, and not by riot or careless 
 expenses. On such have thou compassion, and God will bless 
 thee for it. Make not the hungry soul sorrowful ; defer not thy 
 
 * " Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 
 
 But not express' d in fancy; rich, not gaudy," 
 
 Is the advice of Fulonius to his son, I almost wonder that a man so splen- 
 did in his apparel as Ralegh should have offered this counsel. He says, how- 
 ever, "exceed" not. 
 
 L2
 
 164 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 gift to the needy ; for if he curse thee in the bitterness of his soul, 
 his prayer shall be heard of Him that made him. 
 
 " CHAPTER ix. 
 " What inconveniences happen to such as delight in wine. 
 
 "TAKE especial care that thou delight not in wine; for there 
 never was any man that came to honour or preferment that loved 
 it; for it transformeth a man into a beast, decay eth health, 
 poisoneth the breath, destroyeth natural heat, brings a man's 
 stomach to an artificial heat, deformeth the face, rotteth the teeth, 
 and, to conclude, maketh a man contemptible, soon old, and 
 despised of all wise and worthy men ; hated in thy servants, in 
 thyself, and companions, for it is a bewitching and infectious vice. 
 And, remember my words, that it were better for a man to be 
 subject to any vice than to it, for all other vanities and sins are 
 recovered ; but a drunkard will never shake off the delight of 
 beastliness, for the longer it possesseth a man the more he will 
 delight in it, and the older he groweth the more he shall be subject 
 to it ; for it dulleth the spirits and destroyeth the body, as ivy doth 
 the old tree, or as the worm engendereth in the kernel of the nut. 
 " Take heed, therefore, that such a careless canker pass not thy 
 youth, nor such a beastly infection thy old age ; for then shall all 
 thy life be but as the life of a beast, and after thy death thou shalt 
 only leave a shameful infamy to thy posterity, who shall study to 
 forget that such a man was their father. Anacharsis saith " The 
 Jirst draught servethfor health, the second for pleasure, the third 
 for shame, the fourth for madness;' but in youth there is not so 
 much as one draught permitted ; for it putteth fire to fire, and 
 wasteth the natural heat and seed of generation. And, therefore, 
 except thou desire to hasten thine end, take this for a general rule, 
 that thou never add any artificial heat to thy body by wine or 
 spice, until thou find that time hath decayed thy natural heat ; 
 and the sooner thou beginnest to help nature, the sooner she will 
 forsake thee, and trust altogether to art. ' Who have misfortune? 
 saith Solomon, * mho have sorrow and grief, ruho have trouble 
 without Jighting, stripes without cause, and faintness of eyes 1 
 even they that sit at nine, and strain themselves to empty cups. 7 
 Pliny gaith, ' Wine maketh the hand quivering, the eyes watery,
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH, 1G5 
 
 the night unquiet, a stinking breath in the morning, and an utter 
 forgetfulness of all things.' 
 
 " Whosoever loveth wine shall not be trusted of any man, for he 
 cannot keep a secret. Wine maketh man not only a beast but a 
 madman ; and if thou love it, thy own wife, thy children, and thy 
 friends will despise thee. In drink men care not what they say 
 what offence they give : they forget comeliness, commit disorders, 
 and, to conclude, offend all virtuous and honest company, and God 
 most of all, to whom we daily pray for health and a life free from 
 pain ; and yet by drunkenness and gluttony (which is the drunken- 
 ness of feeding) we draw on, saith Hesiod, ' a swift, hasty, un- 
 timely, cruel, and an infamous old age.' And St. Augustine 
 describeth drunkenness in this manner : ( Ebnetas est blandus 
 daemon, dulce venenum, suave peccatum ; quod, qui habet, seipsum 
 non hubet ; quod quifacit, peccatum non facit, sed ipse est pecca- 
 tum :' 'Drunkenness is a flattering devil, a sweet poison, a plea- 
 sant sin, which whosoever hath, hath not himself; which whoso- 
 ever doth commit, doth not commit sin, but he himself is wholly 
 sin.' 
 
 " Innocentius saith : ' Quid turpius ebrioso, cui f&tor in ore, 
 tremor in corpore, qui premit stulta, prodit occulta, cui mens 
 alienatur, fades transformatur ? Nullum secretum ubi regnat 
 ebrietas, et quid non aliud dcsignat malum ? Fcecundi culices 
 quern non Jecere disertum ?' ' What is filthier than a drunken 
 man, to whom there is stink in the mouth, trembling in the body ; 
 which uttereth foolish things, and revealeth secret things ; whose 
 mind is alienate, and face transformed ? There is no secresy where 
 drunkenness rules ; nay, what other mischief doth it not design ? 
 Whom hath not plentiful cups made eloquent and talking ?" 
 
 "When Diogenes saw a house to be sold, whereof the owner was 
 given to drink, ' I thought at the last,' quoth Diogenes, ' he 
 would spue out a whole house.' ' Sciebam, inquit, quod domum 
 tandem evomeret.' 
 
 " CHAPTER x. 
 
 " Let God be thy Protector and Director in all thy actions. 
 
 " Now, for the world I know it too well to persuade thee to dive 
 into the practices thereof; rather stand upon thine own guard 
 against all that tempt thee thereunto, or may practise upon thee in
 
 106 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 thy conscience, thy reputation, or thy purse; resolve that no 
 man is wise or safe but he that is honest. 
 
 " Serve God : let him be the author of all thy actions ; commend 
 all thy endeavours to Him that must either wither or prosper them. 
 Please Him with prayer, lest, if He frown, He confound all thy 
 fortunes and labours like the drops of rain on the sandy ground. 
 Let my experienced advice and fatherly instructions sink deep into 
 thy heart. So God direct thee in all His ways, and fill thy heart 
 with His grace." 
 
 There are two poems, which I am about to quote, the compo- 
 sition of which has been frequently referred to this critical period 
 of his life. The former (the " Pilgrimage,"*) may have been 
 written in 1603 ' but the latter (" The Farewell," by some en- 
 titled " The Lie ") was written years before, for it is to be found 
 in a MS. collection of poems in the British Museum, dated 1596 ; 
 but that Ralegh was. the author, is undoubted. Poets sometimes 
 place themselves, in imagination, in the condition of other men, 
 and write what they suppose those others would (if they could) 
 have written under certain circumstances. It is a mere conjecture 
 of mine, that Ealegh, when he was composing " The Farewell," 
 might have had Sir John Perrot in his mind, who, in 1592, lay 
 under sentence of death in the Tower. Had that valorous knight 
 been a poet, he would probably have produced some such pieces as 
 this. The " giving them all the lie " at the end of each verse 
 would have enchanted the violent and free-speaking (reputed) 
 son of Harry the Eighth. 
 
 HIS PILGRIMAGE. 
 
 Give me my scallop shell of quiet, 
 
 My staff of faith to walk upon ; 
 My scrip of joy, immortal diet; 
 
 My bottle of salvation ; 
 My gown of glory (hope's true gage), 
 And thus I'll take my pilgrimage. 
 
 Blood must be my body's balmer, 
 
 No other balm will here be given, 
 Whilst my soul, like quiet palmer, 
 
 Travels to the land of heaven, 
 
 * Some think that Bunyan had read this poem, and borrowed from it the 
 idea of a " Pilgrim's Progress."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 167 
 
 Over all the silver mountains, 
 
 Where do spring those nectar fountains. 
 
 And I there will sweetly kiss 
 The happy bowl of peaceful bliss ; 
 Drinking mine eternal fill, 
 Flowing on each milky hill; 
 My soul will be a-dry before, 
 But after, it will thirst no more. 
 
 In that happy, blissful day, 
 
 More peaceful pilgrims I shall see, 
 That have cast off their rags of clay, 
 And walk apparell'd fresh like me. 
 I'll take them first 
 To slake their thirst, 
 And then taste of nectar suckets, 
 At those sweet wells 
 Where sweetness dwells, 
 Drawn up by saints in crystal buckets. 
 
 And when our bottles and all we 
 
 Are fill'd with immortality, 
 
 Then those holy paths we'll travel, 
 
 Strew' d with rubies thick as gravel ; 
 
 Ceilings of diamonds, sapphire floors, 
 
 Hill walls of coral, and pearly bowers. 
 
 From thence to heaven's bribeless hall, 
 
 Where no corrupted voices brawl ; 
 
 No conscience molten into gold, 
 
 No forged accuser, bought or sold; 
 
 No cause deferr'd, no vain-spent journey, 
 
 For there Christ is the king's attorney, 
 
 Who pleads for all without degrees, 
 
 And he hath angels, but no fees. 
 
 And when the grand twelve million jury 
 
 Of our sins, with direful fury, 
 
 'Gainst our souls black verdicts give, 
 
 Christ pleads His death, and then we live. 
 
 Be Thou my speaker, taintless pleader, 
 
 Unblotted lawyer, true proceeder ! 
 
 Thou giv'st salvation even for alms, 
 
 Not with a bribed lawyer's palms. 
 
 Then this is mine eternal plea 
 
 To Him that made heaven, earth, and sea, 
 
 Seeing my flesh must die so soon, 
 
 And want a head to dine next noon,
 
 168 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Just at the stroke of death, my arms being spread, 
 
 Set on my soul an everlasting head ; 
 
 So shall I ready, like a palmer fit, 
 
 Tread those blest paths shown in Thy holy writ. 
 
 Of Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell, 
 
 Who often think, must needs die well ! 
 
 THE FAREWELL. 
 
 Go, soul, the body's guest, 
 
 Upon a thankless errand, 
 Fear not to touch the best ; 
 
 The truth shall be thy warrant. 
 Go, since I needs must die, 
 And give them all the lie. 
 
 Go, tell the court it glows, 
 
 And shines like rotten wood ; 
 Go, tell the church it shows 
 
 What's good, but does no good. 
 If court and church reply, 
 Give court and church the lie. 
 
 Tell potentates they live 
 
 Acting ; but oh their actions ! 
 Not lov'd unless they give ; 
 
 Not strong but by their factions. 
 If potentates reply, 
 Give potentates the lie. 
 
 Tell men of high condition, 
 That rule affairs of state, 
 Their purpose is ambition, 
 Their practice only hate ; 
 And if they do reply, 
 Then give them all the lie. 
 
 Tell those that brave it most, 
 
 They beg the more by spending; 
 Who in their greatest cost 
 
 Seek nothing but commending. 
 And if they make reply, 
 Spare not to give the lie.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 169 
 
 Tell zeal it lacks devotion ; 
 Tell love it is but lust ; 
 Tell time it is but motion ; 
 Tell flesh it is but dust ; 
 And wish them not reply, 
 For thou must give the lie. 
 
 Tell age it daily wasteth ; 
 
 Tell honour how it alters; 
 
 Tell beauty that it blasteth ; 
 
 Tell favour that she falters. 
 
 And as they do reply, 
 
 Give every one the lie. 
 
 Tell wit how much it wrangles 
 In fickle points of niceness ; 
 Tell wisdom she entangles 
 Herself in over-wiseness ; 
 And if they do reply, 
 Then give them both the lie. 
 
 Tell physic of her boldness ; 
 Tell skill it is pretension ; 
 Tell charity of coldness ; 
 Tell law it is contention ; 
 And if they yield reply, 
 Then give them still the lie. 
 
 Tell fortune of her blindness; 
 
 Tell nature of decay ; 
 Tell friendship of unkindness ; 
 Tell justice of delay ; 
 And if they do reply, 
 Then give them all the lie. 
 
 Tell arts they have no soundness, 
 
 But vary by esteeming; 
 Tell schools they lack profoundness, 
 And stand too much on seeming. 
 If arts and schools reply, 
 Give arts and schools the lie. 
 
 Tell faith it's fled the city; 
 
 Tell how the country erreth; 
 Tell manhood, shakes off pity; 
 
 Tell virtue, least preferreth ;
 
 170 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 And if they do reply, 
 Spare not to give the lie. 
 
 So, when thou hast, as I 
 
 Commanded thee, done blabbing; 
 Although to give the lie, 
 
 Deserves no less than stabbing ; 
 Yet stab at thee who will, 
 No stab the soul can kill. 
 
 A few days after Sir Walter's trial, the Lords Cobham and 
 Grey of Wilton, and Sir Griffith Markham, were arraigned, 
 found guilty, and sentenced to death.* " Cobham, on his trial," 
 says Carleton, " made such a fasting day's work of it, that he dis- 
 credited the place to which he was called ; never was seen so poor 
 and abject a spirit. He heard his indictment with much fear and 
 trembling," &c. But young Grey of Wilton was a nobleman of 
 undaunted resolution. He made a long and eloquent speech, and, 
 when asked why sentence of death should not pass against him, 
 he remarked, " I have nothing to say ; " and then he paused long, 
 adding at length" and yet a word of Tacitus comes in my mind: 
 ' Non eadem omnibus decora; ' the house of the Wiltons have 
 spent many lives in their prince's service, and Grey cannot beg 
 his." " There was great compassion had of this gallant young 
 lord." 
 
 It would seem that " there was no small doings at court, con- 
 cerning Cobham, Grey, Markham, and Ralegh," for life or death ; 
 some pushing at the wheel one way, some another.f But James 
 said that justice must take its course, and then proceeded to put in 
 execution a piece of his darling king-craft. 
 
 Markham being first brought to the scaffold, was much dis- 
 mayed, and complained grievously of his hardship. (He had 
 been privately told by his friends that the sentence would not be 
 
 * Brooke and the popish priests were tried previously. Brooke was be- 
 headed, and the priests, Watson and Clarke, were hanged. Whether from bru- 
 tality or inexpertness, they were, as an eye-witness has recorded, " very 
 bloodily handled." 
 
 f We learn but of one who interceded for Ralegh the Countess of Pembroke, 
 sister of Sir Philip Sidney. The "antiques vestigia jlammce" are said to 
 have incited the noble and gentle lady to plead for his life. We are willing to 
 believe that this story may bo true.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 171 
 
 carried into effect upon him). Nevertheless, he so far recovered 
 his composure as to prepare himself with decency to the block. 
 He was now told that a two hours' respite was granted him, and 
 he was led away to the great hall, " to walk with Prince Arthur." 
 Grey's turn came next : he was conducted to the scaffold by a 
 troop of young 1 courtiers, and supported on both sides by two of 
 his dearest friends. " He had such gaiety and cheer in his coun- 
 tenance, that he seemed a dapper young bridegroom." Having said 
 
 THE COUNTESS OP PEMBROKE. 
 
 his prayers, the sheriff informed him that he had received orders 
 to change the order of the execution, and that Lord Cobham was 
 to die first. Thereupon he was " likewise led to Prince Arthur's 
 Hall." Of Cobham let Sir Dudley Carleton speak : " The Lord 
 Cobham, who was now to play his part, and, by his former ac- 
 tions, promised nothing but matiere pour rire, did much cozen 
 the world, for he came to the scaffold with good assurance and 
 contempt of death. He said some short prayers after his minis- 
 ter, and so out-prayed the company that helped to pray with him,
 
 172 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 that a stander-by said, ' he had a good mouth in a cry, but was 
 nothing- single.' He took it upon his soul's resurrection that what 
 he had said of Ralegh was true, and then would have taken a short 
 farewell of the world, when Mr. Sheriff again interposed, and told 
 him that he was to be confronted with Cobham and Grey. These 
 being brought back to the scaffold, ' looked strange, one upon the 
 other, like men beheaded, and met again in the other world.' All 
 having assented to the justness of their sentence, and the lawfulness 
 of their trials, ' Then,' said the sheriff, ' see the mercy of your 
 prince, who of himself hath sent hither a countermand, and given 
 you your lives.' " 
 
 " Ralegh," says Carleton, " you must think (who had a window 
 opened that way) had hammers working in his head, to beat out 
 the meaning of this stratagem. His turn was to come on Monday 
 next ; but the king has pardoned him with the rest, and confined 
 him, with the two lords, to the Tower of London, there to remain 
 during pleasure." James gained some present popularity by this 
 course ; but we have a word to say touching what Dr. Lingard has 
 remarked, and Southey assents to, of this proceeding of the king. 
 The Doctor observes " James reaped the full fruit of this device. 
 The existence of the plot was proved by the confessions made on 
 the scaffold ; the guilt of Ralegh could no longer be doubted after 
 the solemn asseveration of Cobham, and the royal ingenuity, as 
 well as clemency, was universally applauded." Of what worth, 
 we would ask, was the solemn asseveration of Cobham ? How the 
 cur conducted himself at his trial is on record. Who can doubt 
 that his " good assurance and contempt of death " on the scaffold 
 were the consequence of his knowledge that he had no present 
 death to fear ? Markham, we have seen, had a private intima- 
 tion that he was not to suffer why not Cobham ? Is this un- 
 likely ? Taking his conduct on the scaffold in connection with 
 another circumstance, of which neither Lingard nor Southey 
 was aware, it is the most probable thing in the world. Cobham 
 was Cecil's brother-in-law, the secretary being the husband of 
 his sister. 
 
 Lord Grey of Wilton died in the Tower in 1614. Cobham, 
 who, whilst in the Tower, is said, on the authority of Sir Anthony 
 Weldon and others, to have once more cleared Sir Walter, seems to 
 have been released a short time before his death, which took place
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 173 
 
 within three months after Ralegh's execution. His end, as like- 
 wise that (to be told hereafter) of another treacherous friend of 
 Sir Walter, was regarded as a direct judgment of the Almighty. 
 Weldon and Osborn agree as to the manner of Cobham's death. 
 The latter says : " Cobham died in a room, ascended by a ladder, at 
 a poor woman's house in the Minories, formerly his laundress, 
 rather of hunger, than of any more natural disease."
 
 174 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON the 15th of December, 1604, Sir Walter Ralegh was 
 removed to the Tower, where he remained immured nearly 
 thirteen years. A grant was made of his goods and chattels, 
 forfeited by his attainder, to trustees appointed by himself, for the 
 benefit of his family and creditors. Lady Ralegh earnestly soli- 
 cited, and soon obtained, the privilege of sharing her husband's 
 imprisonment, and in this mansion of murder, death, and despair, 
 Carew, the second son of Kalegh, was born early in the following 
 year.* 
 
 That Ralegh entered the Tower, prepared to endure with forti- 
 tude the rigours of what threatened to prove a life-long imprison- 
 ment, I can readily imagine; but his feelings of mortification, 
 resentment, rage at having been sacrificed but, worse than that, of 
 having been, as the court-friends of both would say, outwitted by 
 Cecil if they can be conceived, cannot with any assurance of truth 
 be described. f He was an ambitious man, scorning popularity 
 indeed, but eager for fame. The splendour of a court, himself to be 
 a partaker of it, had no charms for him. To be engaged in active 
 and perilous enterprises, for the advancement, the welfare, and 
 the glory of his country and, we may add, for his own welfare 
 and glory to be one of the chief luminaries from which issued that 
 
 * The persons permitted to have access to Sir Walter were " His lady 
 and son (Walter), and her waiting-maid ; John Talbot, Peter Dean, John 
 Talbot, a boy (these to remain in the Tower with him) ; Gilbert Hawthorne, a 
 preacher (supposed to have been his chaplain), Dr. Turner, Dr. John, a surgeon, 
 John Shelbery (one of his trustees), Thomas Hariot (the philosopher), his 
 steward of Sherborne (to repair to him at convenient time)." 
 
 f I had deemed it unnecessary to press the fact (which even now I believe 
 will be obvious to the reader), that Sir Walter was the victim of a sham plot; 
 but Mr. Tytler, whose abilities I respect, and to whose judgment I defer, has 
 made a reference to a letter from Lord Henry Howard (afterwards Earl of 
 Northampton) to Cecil, at that time supposed to be Ralegh's fast friend, written 
 during the life of Queen Elizabeth. That letter is too long for quotation; but 
 in it is to be clearly discerned the outline of the treacherous scheme which wae 
 put in practice against Ralegh in the first year of James.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 175 
 
 splendour this had been the constant object of his thoughts this 
 had ever been the incitement to his actions ; and to have been 
 debarred from this, when he might have shone with a brightness all 
 his own ; when all his great rivals, or contemporaries and sharers 
 of renown, were no more, when a king had just ascended the 
 throne, who most of all should have valued, because such a king 
 most of all wanted, such a man, must have filled his soul with a 
 bitterness little short of death. Any other man would probably 
 have abandoned himself to despair; but his hopes, though scotched, 
 were not killed. 
 
 The following two poems maybe supposed to have been (indeed, 
 most probably were) written when he was acquiring that state of 
 mind which, while worldly hope lies torpid and to all seeming 
 dead, has tranquillity shed over it by philosophy and religion. 
 
 DE MORTE. 
 
 Man's life's a tragedy ; his mother's womb, 
 From which he enters, is the tiring-room; 
 This spacious earth the theatre, and the stage 
 That country which he lives in : passions, rage, 
 Folly, and vice, are actors; the first cry, 
 The prologue to the ensuing tragedy. 
 The former act consisteth of dumb shows; 
 The second, he to more perfection grows ; 
 F th' third he is a man, and doth begin 
 To nurture vice, and act the deeds of sin ; 
 F th' fourth declines ; i' th' fifth diseases clog 
 And trouble him ; then death's his epilogue. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Rise, my soul ! with thy desires to heaven, 
 
 And with divinest contemplation use 
 Thy time, where time's eternity is given, 
 And let vain thoughts no more thy thoughts abase ; 
 But down in darkness let them lie; 
 So live thy better, let thy worse thoughts die. 
 
 And thou, my soul, inspir'd with holy flame, 
 
 View and review with most regardful eye 
 That holy cross whence thy salvation came, 
 On which thy Saviour and thy sin did die ! 
 For in that sacred object is much pleasure, 
 And in that Saviour is my life, my treasure.
 
 176 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 To thee, Jesu ! I direct my eyes, 
 
 To thee my hands, to thee my humble knees ; 
 To thee my heart shall offer sacrifice ; 
 To thee my thoughts, who iny thoughts only sees : 
 To thee myself myself and all I give ; 
 To thee I die, to thee I only live ! 
 
 Whatever, and however irksome, his constrained inactivity of 
 body, the mind of Ralegh could not but be active ; and he must 
 speedily have felt the want of some continuous and absorbing pur- 
 suit. In a happy hour for himself and for his enduring fame, he 
 lighted upon a subject for his labour to exhaust itself upon, which 
 is characteristic of his enterprising and adventurous spirit, and which 
 promised to solicit every available hour of his imprisonment, even 
 were it prolonged to the end of a long-extended life. But of this 
 more presently. 
 
 It would appear that the first year or two of the prisoner's con- 
 finement was devoted to the pursuits of chemistry. In a letter 
 from Sir William Wade, Lieutenant of the Tower, dated in 1605, 
 we are told that " Sir Walter Ralegh hath like access (with Cob- 
 ham) of divers to him ; the door of his chamber being always 
 open all the day to the garden, which, indeed, is the only garden 
 the lieutenant hath. And in the garden he hath converted a little 
 hen-house to a still-house, where he doth spend his time ah 1 the 
 day in distillations." In a subsequent letter, however, from the 
 same person, we see that he did sometimes a little relax from his 
 labour : " Sir Walter Ralegh doth show himself upon the wall in 
 his garden to the view of the people, who gaze upon him, and be 
 stareth upon them." This indulgence, it seems, caused him to be 
 restrained. 
 
 Sir Walter, it will be remembered, toward the close of Queen 
 Elizabeth's reign, had settled his Sherborne estate upon his son 
 Walter. His enemies, ill at ease until his ruin was complete, 
 caused the deed of conveyance to be scrutinised with malignant par- 
 ticularity, and it was then referred to Sir John Popham, the chief 
 justice, who gave it as his opinion that the deed, wanting a single 
 word, could convey nothing : yet he owned that the omission was 
 clearly the fault of the clerk who had engrossed the document. 
 Some time afterwards, Robert Carr, afterwards Earl of Somerset, 
 a young Scotch favourite of James, took an opportunity of calling
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 177 
 
 liis majesty's attention to the flaw in Sir Walter's conveyance, and 
 solicited Sherborne of his royal master and obtained it ! The letter 
 of Ralegh to this soulless, shallow, rapacious, and villanous minion 
 was of course of no avail. Neither was the appeal of Lady Balegh 
 on her knees with her children, to James, more effectual with that 
 despicable monarch. He only answered, and reiterated, "I mun 
 have the land ; I mun have it for Carr." Elizabeth Ralegh was a 
 woman of a high spirit. There, on her knees, before that ignoble 
 presence of majesty, she prayed to God that He would punish those 
 who had thus wrongfully exposed her and her children to ruin.* 
 
 Sir William Wade's letter has shown us that Sir Walter bestowed 
 a portion of his time upon chemistry. He also engaged in medical 
 pursuits, to which he discovered a strong partiality ; and here he 
 prepared that celebrated cordial which was in such high reputation 
 in the time of Charles II., and on which a treatise was written in 
 French, under the auspices of that monarch.f 
 
 * That prayer was not, nor long, unanswered. For no length of time did 
 Carr enjoy Sherborne. Committed to the Tower for the murder of Sir Thomas 
 Overbury, he was at length released (James having invoked the Almighty's 
 heaviest curses upon himsetf if he spared his life), and restricted to his house in 
 the country. There, in constant companionship with the wife, for the guilty 
 love of whom he had become the murderer of his friend, he passed the remainder 
 of his life, loathing the partner of his crimes, and by her as cordially detested. 
 Need we tell of the doomed Stuarts ? The hog, James, lost his pearl, Prince 
 Henry, in 1612, whilst Ralegh was yet in the Tower. That most hopeful 
 prince, had heaven permitted, might have averted the doom which fell upon 
 his brother Charles, who, like a dishonourable gentleman, had played fast and 
 loose, in this very matter of Sherborne, with Ralegh's son, Carew. Lady 
 Ralegh, who survived her husband many years, lived long enough to be 
 assured of that misguided king's impending fate. 
 
 f It was entitled, " Discours sur le Grand Cordial de Sir Walter Ralegh," 
 and was published in 1665, having been previously translated into English, 
 and published in 1664. The recipe is given by the author, Le Febure; but 
 Sir Kenelm Digby and Sir Alexander Frazer introduced other ingredients. 
 The recipe, as simplified in the " London Pharmacopeia," under the title, 
 " Aromatic Confection," is subjoined. 
 
 Recipe. Zedoary in coarse powder, and saffron, each . . 1J Ibs. 
 
 Distilled water 3 pints 
 
 Macerate for 24 hours, then press and strain. Re- 
 duce the strained liquor by evaporation to 1J 
 pints, to which add the following, rubbed to a 
 very fine powder ; 
 
 II
 
 178 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 A very strong attachment subsisted between Prince Henry and ; 
 Ralegh. The Prince had been heard to say, "No king but my 
 
 Compound powder of crabs' claws . . . . 16 oz. 
 Cinnamon and nutmegs, each . . . . 2 ., 
 
 Cloves 1 
 
 Smaller Cardamom seeds, husked . . . ,, 
 
 Double-refined sugar 2 Ibs. 
 
 Make a confection. 
 
 Evelyn, in his diary, under the date 1662, says "I accompanied his 
 majesty to Monsieur le Febure, his chemist (and who had formerly been my 
 master in Paris), to see his accurate preparation for the composing Sir Walter 
 Ralegh's rare cordial. He made a learned discourse before his majesty, in 
 French, on each ingredient." 
 
 Ralegh appears to have kept the preparation of his cordial a secret during 
 his life. His reason for so doing may probably be found in the following 
 passage : " There lived at that time in Syracuse, Archimedes, the noble ma- 
 thematician, who, at the request of Hiero, the late king, that was his kinsman, 
 had framed such engines of war as, being in this extremity put in use, did 
 more mischief to the Romans than could have been wrought by the cannon, or 
 iny instruments of gunpowder, had they in that age been known. This 
 Archimedes, discoursing once with Hiero, maintained that it were possible to 
 remove the whole earth out of the place wherein it is, if there were some other 
 earth, or place of sure footing, whereon a man might stand. For proof of 
 this bold assertion, he performed some strange works, which made the king 
 entreat him to convert his study unto things of use, that might preserve the 
 city from danger of enemies. To such mechanical works Archimedes and the 
 philosophers of those days had little affection. They held it an injury done to 
 the liberal sciences, to submit learned propositions unto the workmanship and 
 gain of base handicraftsmen. And of this opinion Plato was an author, who 
 greatly blamed some geometricians, that seemed unto him to profane their 
 science by making it vulgar. Neither must we rashly task a man so wise as 
 Plato with the imputation of supercilious austerity, or affected singularity in his 
 reprehension ; for it hath been the unhappy fate of great inventions to be 
 vilified as idle fancies, or dreams, before they were published ; and, being once 
 made known, to be undervalued as falling within compass of the meanest 
 wit, and things that every one could well have performed. Hereof (to omit 
 that memorable example of Columbus's discovery, with the much different 
 sorts of neglect which he underwent before and after it), in a familiar and 
 most homely example, we may see most apparent proof. He that looks upon 
 our English brewers and their servants, that are daily exercised in the trade, 
 will think it ridiculous to hear one say, that the making of malt was an inven- 
 tion proceeding from some of an extraordinary knowledge in natural philo- 
 sophy. Yet is not the skill of the inventors any whit the less, for that 
 the labour of workmanship grows to be the trade of ignorant men. The
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 179 
 
 father would keep such a bird in a cage ; " and he had reason to 
 think highly of the illustrious captive, for it was to him that Ralegh 
 dedicated his observations on the royal navy and sea-service, and 
 he addressed to him, in the form of a letter, a treatise touching- the 
 model of a ship which it was the Prince's intention to build. 
 Hearing that Sherborne had been, or was to be given to Carr, 
 Prince Henry " came with some anger to his father, desiring he 
 would be pleased to bestow Sherborne upon him ; alleging that it 
 
 like may be said of many handicrafts, and particularly in the printing of books* 
 which being devised and bettered by great scholars and wise men, grew after- 
 ward corrupted by those to whom the practice fell ; that is, by such as could 
 slubber things easily over, and feed their workmen at the cheapest rate. la 
 this respect, therefore, the alchymists, and all others that have, or would seem 
 to have, any secret skill, whereof the publication might do good unto mankind, 
 are not without excuse of their close concealings; for it is a kind of injustice, 
 that the long travails of an understanding brain, beside the loss of time and 
 other expense, should be cast away upon men of no worth yield less benefit 
 unto the author of a great work than to mere strangers, and perhaps his 
 enemies. And surely, if the passion of envy have in it anything allowable and 
 natural as having anger, fear, and other like affections it is in some such 
 cases as this, and serveth against those which would usurp the knowledge 
 wherewith God hath denied to endue them. Nevertheless, if we have regard 
 unto common charity, and the great affection that every one ought to bear 
 unto the generality of mankind, after the example of Him ' that suffereth his 
 sun to shine upon the just and unjust,' it will appear more commendable in 
 wise men to enlarge themselves, and to publish unto the world those good 
 things that lie buried in their own bosoms. This ought specially to be done, 
 when a profitable knowledge hath not annexed to it some dangerous cunning 
 that may be perverted by evil men to a mischievous use. For if the secret of 
 any rare antidote contained in it the skill of giving some deadly and irre- 
 coverable poison, much better it were that such a jewel remain close in the 
 hands of a wise and honest man, than, being made common, bind all men to 
 use the remedy, by teaching the worst men how to do mischief. But the works 
 which Archimedes published were such as tended unto very commendable ends. 
 They were engines, serving unto the defence of Syracuse; not fit for the 
 Syracusans to carry abroad, to the hurt and oppression of others. Neither did 
 he altogether publish the knowledge how to use them, but reserved so much 
 to his own direction, that after his death more of the same kind were not 
 made, nor those of his own making were employed by the Romans. It 
 sufficed unto this worthy man that he had approved unto the vulgar the 
 dignity of his science, and done especial benefit to his country. For to enrich 
 a mechanical trade, or teach the art of murdering men, it was beeide his 
 purpose." 
 
 M 2
 
 180 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 was a place of great strength and beauty, which he much liked ; 
 but, indeed, with an intention of giving it back to Ralegh." He 
 at last prevailed with his father, and the king gave Carr 25,000 
 by way of recompense. But the Prince's death, in November, 1612, 
 prevented the accomplishment of this generous design, and 
 herborne was given to Carr. 
 
 HENKY, I'HIXCE OP WALES. 
 
 During the last illness of this noblest of the Stuarts, the Queen 
 applied to Sir Walter for some of his cordial, the good effects of 
 which she had herself experienced. Ralegh, in a letter of con- 
 dolence, hazarded his belief that his cordial " would certainly cure 
 the prince, or any other, of a fever, except in case of poison." 
 After the Prince's death, the Queen, in the agony of her grief, 
 showed this letter of Ealegh, and to her dying day could never be 
 dissuaded from the opinion that her beloved son had had foul play 
 done him.* There were some at that time who, not altogether 
 without reason, shared that opinion. 
 
 * Oldys remarks upon "the unsteady and incoherent opinions which were 
 entertained of one and the same man's loyalty ; that he who was accused at
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 181 
 
 The various political discourses of Sir Walter Ralegh were 
 composed in the Tower. One of these, " The Cabinet Council," 
 was edited and given to the world by Milton, who says in the 
 preface, " Having 1 had the MS. of this treatise, written by Sir 
 Walter Ralegh, many years in my hands, and finding it lately by 
 chance among other books and papers, upon reading thereof, I 
 thought it a kind of injury to withhold longer the work of so 
 eminent an author from the public, which was given me for a true 
 copy by a learned man at his death." In this treatise there are 
 several things which it had been well indeed if James, and his 
 successor Charles, had read, committed to memory, and practically 
 assented to. 
 
 But the chief employment of his prison hours was his com- 
 position of " The History of the World," or rather the first part of 
 it a work of such stupendous labour and research, of such 
 extensive learning and vigorous genius, that in his own and in 
 every succeeding age in this and in other countries it has 
 excited the astonishment and admiration of the studious and the 
 learned. It was noted in his busiest days that he had acquired a 
 vast amount of knowledge ; it was known that he never proceeded 
 on a voyage, or retired for a season into the country, without being 
 accompanied by large chests of books : wit, judgment, and 
 sagacity, even his enemies never denied him, nor his keen obser- 
 vation of life and deep knowledge of human nature. But that a 
 man, overthrown by the successful practice of his enemies, sup- 
 posed to be writhing under the pangs of mortified pride, cozened 
 of his fortune, cheated of his fame, consigned to the prison in 
 which he had once attempted his life* that he should have 
 
 his trial of a plot to extirpate the royal family, should yet be so far relied on 
 to save it, as to have the lives, first of Queen Anne, and now of Prince Henry, 
 trusted to his experiments." 
 
 * We have Cecil's written word for it, that when he was first committed to 
 the Tower on the Cobham accusation, he attempted to stab himself to the 
 heart ; but he only succeeded in inflicting a deep wound in the left breast. 
 The letter addressed to his wife before he committed the act, is that of a frantic 
 man. How his enemies will triumph over his destruction, is the thought that 
 drives him to outrageous despair. If this letter is genuine, I am sorry for it. 
 What makes me doubt its genuineness is, that he commends his daughter to 
 the love of his boy, Walter. It would seem that this illegitimate child was 
 brought np by Lady Ralegh; but we never afterwards hear of her; and far
 
 182 
 
 summon e d such a magnanimous resolution, fortified by a steadfast 
 reliance upon his own powers, as to design the composition of a 
 work (which he would, if spared, have undoubtedly completed), 
 one-half of which appeared the labour of a long 1 and unembarrassed 
 life, might well have been considered, as it must in this day be 
 deemed, nothing short of marvellous.* 
 
 We propose to give some extracts from this book. They supply 
 but a taste of its quality ; but they will afford an indication of his 
 manner of treating historical subjects, and of the spirit in which 
 
 more in relation to Sir Walter, of one sort and the other, has been told by his 
 contemporaries than of any man of that age. 
 
 * Mr. Disraeli, the elder, some twenty years since, made one of his most 
 remarkable discoveries, which he communicated to the world in his very 
 amusing work, "The Curiosities of Literature." He had previously lighted 
 upon a minor discovery, which we cannot omit quoting. He says " Another 
 remarkable instance of this sort is the name of Sir Walter Rarvley, which I 
 am myself uncertain how to write, although I have discovered a fact which 
 proves how it should be pronounced." This he proceeds to " establish by the 
 following fact :" When Sir Walter was first introduced to James I., on the 
 king's arrival in England, the Scottish monarch gave him this broad recep- 
 tion " Rawly ! Rawly ! true enough; for I think of thee very rawly, mon ! " 
 If this "broad reception" were ever given, we do not think, being uttered in 
 broad Scotch, that it would be quite conclusive as to the pronunciation of 
 Ralegh's name. But it is an idle story : he received Ralegh on the first inter- 
 view, and treated liim for some time with apparent cordiality. He would not 
 have dared to make this speech, for Sir Walter's presence ever inspired him 
 with fear. There are multitudes of pamphlets and books, printed during his 
 life-time and long afterwards, in which the pronunciation of the name is 
 satisfactorily established. In these he is called Sir Walter Rarvley. Mr. 
 Disraeli's great discovery, which he calls the "Secret History of Rawleigh's 
 History of the World," amounts to nothing less than this, that Ralegh was 
 indebted to his literary and learned friends for the composition of the whole of 
 that great work, except the elegant, the grand, and the pathetic passages. The 
 levity with which this charge was made, and the perverseness and obstinacy 
 with which it was afterwards persisted in, make us by no means regret the 
 ridicule and chastisement Mr. Disraeli brought upon himself. " This piece of 
 " secret history,' " says Mr. Napier, " alike revolting and preposterous, was 
 well rebutted by Mr. Ty tier; but it has more recently been examined, and 
 with signal chastisement, given to the winds, in a small publication, little 
 known, we suspect, though forming one of the most learned and acute contri- 
 butions to literary history that has appeared in our day." This little work is 
 entitled, "Curiosities of Literature, by I. Disraeli, Esq., Illustrated by Bolton 
 Corney, Esq."
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 183 
 
 he viewed the course of human events. They will display his 
 thoughtful ness, his morality, and his wisdom, and they will suffice 
 to show (what cannot be shown from the works of any other prose 
 writer of that period) with how much vigour, vivacity, freedom, 
 and elegance the English language could be written in the reign 
 of James I. And first let us present a portion of the preface and 
 the concluding passage of the work, not because they show off 
 Ealegh's powers as a writer to the best advantage, but because 
 they explain the design of the whole work, and the summing up 
 of what he had completed. 
 
 " How unfit and unworthy a choice I have made of myself to 
 undertake a work of this mixture, mine own reason, though ex- 
 ceeding weak, hath sufficiently resolved me. For had it been 
 begotten then with my first dawn of day, when the light of 
 common knowledge began to open itself to my younger years, and 
 before any wound received either from fortune or time, I might 
 yet have doubted that the darkness of age and death would have 
 covered over both it and me, long before the performance. 
 
 " For, beginning with the creation, I have proceeded with the 
 ' History of the World,' and lastly purposed (some few sallies 
 excepted) to confine my discourse with this our renowned island 
 of Great Britain. I confess that it had better sorted with my 
 disability, the better part of whose times are run out in other 
 travails, to have set together as I could the unjointed and scattered 
 frame of our English affairs, than of the universal, in whom, had 
 there been no other defect (who am all defect) than the tune of 
 the day, it were enough the day of a tempestuous life drawn on 
 to the very evening, ere I began. But those inmost and soul- 
 piercing wounds which are ever aching while uncured, with the 
 desire to satisfy those few friends which I have tried by the fire of 
 adversity, the former enforcing, the latter persuading, have 
 caused me to make my thoughts legible, and myself the subject of 
 .every opinion, wise or weak. 
 
 "To the world I present them; to which I am nothing 
 indebted ; neither have others that' were, fortune changing, sped 
 much better. For prosperity and adversity have evermore tied 
 and untied vulgar affections. And as we see it in experience, thai 
 dogs do always bark at those they know not, and that it is thei 
 nature to accompany one another in those clamours, so it is wit
 
 184 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 the inconsiderate multitude who, wanting- that virtue which we 
 call honesty in all men, and that especial gift of God which we 
 call charity in Christian men, condemn without hearing-, and 
 wound without offence given ; led thereunto by uncertain report 
 only, which his Majesty truly acknowledges for the author of all 
 lies. ' Blame no man,' saith Siracides, ' hefore you have inquired 
 the matter : understand first and then reform righteously.' Rumor, 
 res sine teste, sine iudice, maligna, fallax. ' Eumour is without 
 witness, without judge malicious and deceivable.' This vanity 
 of vulgar opinion it was that gave St. Augustine argument to 
 affirm, ' that he feared the praise of good men, and detested that 
 of the evil.' And herein no man hath given a better rule than 
 this of Seneca : Conscientice satisfaciamus, nihil in famam 
 laboremus, sequatur vel mala, dum bene merearis. ' Let us satisfy 
 our own consciences, and not trouble ourselves with fame : be it 
 never so ill, it is to be despised, so we deserve well.' 
 
 " For myself, if I have in anything served my country, and 
 prized it before my private, the general acceptation can yield me 
 no other profit at this time than doth a fair sunshine day to a 
 seaman after shipwreck, and the contrary no other harm than an 
 outrageous tempest after the port attained. I know that I lost 
 the love of many for my fidelity towards her whom I must still 
 honour in the dust; though, further than the defence of her 
 excellent person, I never persecuted any man. Of those that did 
 it, and by what device they did it, He that is the Supreme Judge 
 of all the world hath taken the account ; so, as for this kind of 
 suffering, I must say with Seneca, Mala opinio, bcne parta, 
 deleetat. 
 
 " As for other men if there be any who have made them- 
 selves fathers of that fame which hath been begotten for them, I 
 can neither envy at such their purchased glory, nor much lament 
 mine own mishap in that kind ; but content myself to say with 
 Virgil, sic vos non vobis in many particulars. To labour other 
 satisfaction were an effect of frenzy, not of hope, seeing it is not 
 truth, but opinion, that can travel the world without a passport. 
 For, were it otherwise, and were there not as many internal forms 
 of the mind as there are external figures of men, there were then 
 some possibility to persuade by the mouth of one advocate even 
 equity alone.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 185" 
 
 "But such is the multiplying 1 and extensive virtue of dead 
 earth, and of that breath-giving 1 life which God hath cast upon 
 slime and dust, as that among- those that were, of whom we read 
 and hear, and among those that are, whom we see and converse 
 with, every one hath received a several picture of face, and ever} 7 
 one a diverse picture of mind ; every one a form apart, every one 
 a fancy and cogitation differing ; there being nothing wherein 
 nature so much triumpheth as in dissimilitude. From whence it 
 cometh that there is so great diversity of opinions ; so strong 1 a 
 contrariety of inclinations ; so many natural and unnatural, wise, 
 foolish, manly, and childish affections and passions in mortal men. 
 For it is not the visible fashion and form of plants, and of reason- 
 able creatures, that makes the difference of working in the one 
 and of condition in the other, but the form internal. 
 
 " And though it hath pleased God to reserve the art of reading 
 men's thoughts to himself, yet, as the fruit tells the name of the 
 tree, so do the outward works of men (so far as their cogitations 
 are acted) give us whereof to guess at the rest ; nay, it were not 
 hard to express the one by the other, very near the life, did not 
 craft in many, fear in the most, and the world's love in all, teach 
 every capacity, according to the compass it hath, to qualify and 
 mask over their inward deformities for a time. Though it be also 
 true, Nemo potest diu personam ferre fictam : cito in naturam 
 suam residunt, quibus veritas non subest : ' No man can long 
 continue masked in a counterfeit behaviour : the things that are 
 forced for pretences, having no ground of truth, cannot long 
 dissemble their own natures.' ' Neither can any man,' saith 
 Plutarch, 'so change himself, but that his heart maybe sometimes 
 seen at his tongue's end.' 
 
 " In this great discord and dissimilitude of reasonable creatures, 
 if we direct ourselves to the multitude, omnis honestee rei inahis 
 judex cst vulffus ; ' The people are ill judges of honest things,' and 
 * whose wisdom,' saith Ecclesiastes, ' is to be despised ;' if to the 
 better sort, every understanding hath a peculiar judgment, by 
 which it both censureth other men and valueth itself. And, there- 
 fore, unto me it will not seem strange, though I find these my 
 worthless papers torn with rats ; seeing the slothful censurers of all 
 ages have not spared to tax the reverend fathers of the Church 
 with ambition ; the severest men to themselves with hypocrisy ;.
 
 186 THE LIFE AXD TIMES OP 
 
 the greatest lovers of justice with popularity ; and those of the 
 truest valour and fortitude with vain-glory. But of these natures 
 which lie in wait to find fault, and to turn good into evil, seeing 
 Solomon complained long since, and that the very age of the world 
 renders it every day after other more malicious, I must leave the 
 professors to their easy ways of reprehension, than which there is 
 nothing of more facility. 
 
 " If the phrase be weak, and the style not everywhere like 
 itself, the first shows their legitimative and true parent; the second 
 will excuse itself upon the variety of matter. For Virgil, who 
 wrote his eclogues gracili avena, used stronger pipes when he 
 sounded the wars of ./Eneas. It may also be laid to my charge 
 that I use divers Hebrew words in my first book, and elsewhere ; 
 in which language others may think (and I myself acknowledge 
 it) that I am altogether ignorant. But it is true that some of 
 them I find in Montanus; others in Lathi character in St. 
 Senensis ; and of the rest I have borrowed the interpretation of 
 some of my friends. But, say I had been beholden to neither, yet 
 were it not to be wondered at, having had an eleven years' leisure 
 to attain the knowledge of that or of any other tongue. How- 
 soever, I know that it will be said by many, that I might have 
 been more pleasing to the reader if I had written the story of 
 mine own times, having been permitted to draw water as near the 
 well-head as another. To this I answer, that whosoever, in writing 
 a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may 
 haply strike out his teeth. There is no mistress or guide that hath 
 led her followers and servants into greater miseries. He that goes 
 .after her too far off, loseth her sight and loseth himself; and he 
 that walks after her at a middle distance, I know not whether 
 I should call that kind of course temper or baseness. It is true 
 that I never travelled after other men's opinions when I might 
 have made the best use of them, and I have now too few days 
 remaining to imitate those that, either out of extreme ambition, or 
 extreme cowardice, or both, do yet (when death hath them on his 
 shoulders) flatter the world between the bed and the grave. It is 
 enough for me, being in that state I am, to write of the eldest 
 times ; wherein also why may it not be said, that in speaking of 
 the past I point at the present, and tax the vices of those that are 
 jret living in their persons that are long since dead and have it
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 187 
 
 laid to my charge ? But this I cannot help, though innocent. And 
 certainly, if there be any that, finding themselves spotted like the 
 tigers of old time, shall find fault with me for painting them over 
 anew, they shall therein accuse themselves justly and me falsely. 
 
 " For I protest before the majesty of God that I malice no man 
 under the sun. Impossible I know it is to please all, seeing few or 
 none are so pleased with themselves, or so assured of themselves, 
 by reason of their subjection to their private passions, but that 
 they seem divers persons in one and the same day. Seneca hath 
 said it, and so do I, Umts mihi pro populo erat ; and to the same 
 effect Epicurus, Hoc ego non multis, sed tibi ; or (as it hath since 
 lamentably fallen out) I may borrow the resolution of an ancient 
 philosopher, Satis est wius, satis est nullus. For it was for the 
 service of that inestimable Prince Henry, the successive hope, and 
 one of the greatest of the Christian world, that I undertook this 
 work. It pleased him to peruse some part thereof, and to pardon 
 what was amiss. It is now left to the world without a master, 
 from which all that is presented hath received both blows and 
 thanks. Eadem probamus, eadem reprehendibus ; hie exitus est 
 omnis judicii, in quo Us secundum plures datur. 
 
 " But these discourses are idle. I know that as the charitable 
 will judge charitably, so against those, qui glorianturin malitia, 
 my present adversity hath disarmed me. I am on the ground 
 already, and therefore have not far to fall ; and for rising again, 
 as in the natural privation there is no recession to habit, so it is 
 seldom seen in the privation politic. I do therefore forbear to 
 style my readers gentle, courteous, and friendly, thereby to beg 
 their good opinions, or to promise a second and third volume 
 (which I also intend) if the first receive grace and good accept- 
 ance. For that which is already done may be thought enough, 
 and too much ; and it is certain, let us claw the reader with never so 
 many courteous phrases, yet shall we evermore be thought fools, 
 who write foolishly. For conclusion : all the hope I have lies in 
 this that I have already found more ungentle and uncourteous 
 readers of my love towards them, and well-deserving of them, 
 than ever I shall do again. For, had it been otherwise, I should 
 .hardly have had this leisure to make myself a fool in print. 
 * * * * # 
 
 " By this which we have already set down, is seen the begin-
 
 188 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ning and end of the three first monarchies of the world, whereof 
 the founders and erecters thought that they could never have 
 ended. That of Rome, which made the fourth, was also at this 
 time almost at the highest. We have left it flourishing in the 
 middle of the field, having rooted up, or cut down, all that kept it 
 from the eyes and admiration of the world. But after some con- 
 tinuance it shall begin to lose the beauty it had ; the storms of 
 ambition shall beat her great boughs and branches one against 
 another ; her leaves shall fall off, her limbs wither, and a rabble of 
 barbarous nations enter the field, and cut her down. 
 
 " Now these great kings and conquering nations have been the 
 subject of those ancient histories which have been preserved, and 
 yet remain among us, and withal of so many tragical poets, as 
 in the persons of powerful princes, and other mighty men, have 
 complained against infidelity, time, destiny, and, most of all, 
 against the variable success of worldly things, and instability of 
 fortune. To these undertakings these great lords of the world 
 have been stirred up, rather by the desire of fame, which plougheth 
 up the air and soweth in the wind, than by the affection of bear- 
 ing rule, which draweth after it so much vexation and so many 
 cares. And that this is true the good advice of Cineas to Pyrrhus 
 proves. And certainly, as fame hath often been dangerous to the 
 living, so it is to the dead of no use at all, because separate from 
 knowledge ; which, were it otherwise, and the extreme ill bargain 
 of buying this lasting discourse understood by them which are 
 dissolved, they themselves would then rather have wished to have 
 stolen out of the world without noise, than to be put in mind that 
 they have purchased the report of their actions in the world by 
 rapine, oppression, and cruelty by giving in spoil the innocent 
 and labouring soul to the idle and insolent and by having emptied 
 the cities of the world of their ancient inhabitants, and filled them 
 again with so many and so variable sorts of sorrows. 
 
 " Since the fall of the Roman Empire (omitting that of the 
 Germans, which had neither greatness nor continuance) there hath 
 been no state fearful in the east, but that of the Turk ; nor in the 
 west any prince that hath spread his wings far over his nest, but 
 the Spaniard, who since the time that Ferdinand expelled the Moors 
 out of Granada, have made many attempts to make themselves 
 masters of all Europe. And it is true, that by the treasures of
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 189 
 
 both Indies, and by the many kingdoms which they possess in 
 Europe, they are at this day the most powerful. But as the Turk 
 is now counterpoised by the Persian, so, instead of so many mil- 
 lions as have been spent by the English, French, and Netherlands 
 in a defensive war, and in diversions against them, it is easy to 
 demonstrate, that with the charge of two hundred thousand pounds, 
 continued but for two years, or three at the most, they may not 
 only be persuaded to live hi peace, but all their swelling and over- 
 flowing streams may be brought back into their natural channels 
 and old banks. These two nations, I say, are at this day the 
 most eminent, and to be regarded ; the one seeking to root out the 
 Christian religion altogether, the other the truth and sincere 
 profession thereof; the one to join all Europe to Asia, the other 
 the rest of all Europe to Spain. 
 
 " For the rest, if we seek a reason of the succession and continu- 
 ance of this boundless ambition in mortal men, we may add to that 
 which hath been already said, that the kings and princes of the 
 world have always laid before them the actions, but not the ends, of 
 those great ones which preceded them. They are always trans- 
 ported with the glory of the one, but they never mind the misery 
 of the other, till they find the experience in themselves. They 
 neglect the advice of God while they enjoy life, or hope it ; but 
 they follow the counsel of death upon his first approach. It is he 
 that puts into man all the wisdom of the world, without speaking 
 a word, which God, with all the words of his law, promises, 
 or threats, doth infuse. Death, which hateth and destroyeth man, 
 is believed ; God, which hath made him, and loves him, is always 
 deferred. * I have considered/ saith Solomon, ' all the works that 
 are under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.' 
 But who believes it till death tells it us ? It was death which, 
 opening the conscience of Charles the Fifth, made him enjoin his 
 son Philip to restore Navarre ; and King Francis the First, of 
 France, to command that justice should be done upon the murderers 
 of the Protestants in Merindol and Cabrieres, which till then he 
 neglected. It is therefore death alone that can suddenly make man 
 to know himself. He tells the proud and insolent that they are 
 but abjects, and humbles them at the instant ; makes them cry, 
 complain, and repent ; yea, even to hate their forepassed happiness. 
 He takes the account of the rich and proves him a beggar, a
 
 190 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 naked beggar, which hath interest in nothing, but in the gravel 
 that fills his mouth. He holds a glass before the eyes of the most 
 beautiful, and makes them see therein their deformity and rotten- 
 ness and they acknowledge it. 
 
 " eloquent, just, and mighty death ! whom none could advise, 
 thou hast persuaded what none hath dared, thou hast done and 
 whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the 
 world and despised. Thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched 
 greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered 
 it all over with these two narrow words hicjacet. 
 
 " Lastly : whereas this book, by the title it hath, calls itself 
 ' The First Part of the General History of the World,' implying a 
 second and third volume, which I also intended, and have hewn 
 out ; besides many other discouragements, persuading my silence ; 
 it hath pleaseS. God to take that glorious prince out of the world, 
 to whom they were directed, whose unspeakable and never-enough- 
 lamented loss hath taught me to say with Job, ' Versa est iiir 
 luctum cithara mea, et organum meum in vocemjlentium? "
 
 AT LOMDO/. Printed, for WALTER BVRUE .1014 
 
 iiU to " Sir Micr |lakg^'s iistorg of % fclb."
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE HISTORY OF THE 
 
 WORLD. 
 THE MIND OF THE FRONT. 
 
 WRITTEN RY BEN JONSOX. 
 
 BE.V JONSOX. 
 
 From death and dark oblivion (near the same), 
 The mistress of man's life, grave history, 
 Raising the world to good or evil fame, 
 Doth vindicate it to eternity. 
 
 High Providence would so, that nor the good 
 
 Might bo defrauded, nor the great secur'd ; 
 
 But both might know their ways are understood, 
 
 And the reward and punishment assur'd. 
 
 This makes, that lighted by the beamy hand 
 
 Of truth, which searcheth the most hidden springs, 
 
 And guided by experience, whose straight wand 
 
 Doth mete, whose line doth sound the depth of things ; 
 
 She cheerfidly supporteth what she rears, 
 
 Assisted by no strengths but are her own ; 
 
 Some note of which each varied pillar bears, 
 
 By which, as proper titles, sho is known, 
 
 Time's witness, herald of antiquity, 
 
 The light of truth, and life of memory.
 
 192 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 THE JUDGMENTS OF THE ALMIGHTY. 
 
 " To repeat God's judgment in particular, upon those of all 
 ^degrees which have played with His mercies, would require a 
 volume apart ; for the sea of examples hath no bottom. The marks 
 set on private men, are with their bodies cast into the earth, and 
 their fortunes written only in the memory of those that lived with 
 them, so as those that succeed, and have jiot seen the fall of 
 others, do not fear their own faults. God's judgments upon the 
 great and greatest have been left to posterity first, by those 
 happy hands which the Holy Ghost hath guided; and secondly, by 
 their virtue who have gathered the acts and ends of men mighty 
 and remarkable in the world. Now to point far off, and to speak 
 of the conversion iof .angels into devils for ambition; or of the 
 greatest and most glorious kings, who have gnawn the grass of 
 the earth with beasts for pride and ingratitude towards God ; or 
 of that wise-working of Pharaoh, when he slew the infants of 
 Israel, ere they had recovered their cradles ; or of the policy of 
 Jezebel, in cover ing the murder of Naboth by a trial of the elders, 
 according to law, with many thousands of the like : what were it 
 other than to make an hopeless proof that far-off examples would 
 not be left to the same far-off respects, as heretofore ? For, 
 who hath not observed what labour, practice, peril, bloodshed, and 
 cruelty the kings and princes of the world have undergone, exer- 
 cised, taken on them, and committed, to make themselves and 
 their issues masters of the world ? And yet hath Babylon, Persia, 
 Egypt, Syria, Macedon, Carthage, Rome, and the rest, no fruit, no 
 flower, grass, nor leaf, springing upon the face of the earth, 
 of those seeds. No, their very roots and ruins do hardly re- 
 main. Omnia quce manu hominumfacta sunt, vel manu hominum 
 evertuntur, vel stando et durando deficiunt : 'All that the hand of 
 man can make, is either overturned by the hand of man, or at 
 length, by standing and continuing, consumed.' The reasons of 
 whose ruins are diversely given by those that ground their opinions 
 on second causes. All kingdoms and states have fallen (say the 
 politicians) by outward and foreign force, or by inward negligence 
 and dissension, or by a third cause arising from both. Others ob- 
 serve, that the greatest have sunk down under their own weight, 
 of which Livy hath a touch : eo crevit, ut magnitiidine laboret
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 193 
 
 sua : others, that the divine providence (which Cratippus objected 
 to Pompey) hath set down the date and period of every estate be- 
 fore their first foundation and erection. But hereof I will give 
 myself a day over to resolve. 
 
 " For, seeing the first books of the following story have under- 
 taken the discourse of the first kings and kingdoms ; and that it 
 is impossible for the short life of a preface, to travel after and 
 overtake far-off antiquity and to judge of it, I will, for the pre- 
 sent, examine what profit hath been gathered by our own kings, 
 and their neighbour princes, who having beheld, both in divine and 
 human letters, the ill success of infidelity, injustice, and cruelty, 
 have notwithstanding planted after the same pattern. 
 
 " True it is, that the judgments of all men are not agreeable , 
 nor (which is more strange) the affections of any one man stirred 
 up alike with examples of like nature. But every one is touched 
 most with that which most nearly seemeth to touch his own private, 
 or otherwise best suiteth with his apprehension. But the judg- 
 ments of God are for ever unchangeable ; neither is He wearied by 
 the long process of time, and won to give His blessing in one age 
 to that which He hath cursed in another. Wherefore those that 
 are wise, or whose wisdom, if it be not great, yet is true and well 
 grounded, will be able to discern the bitter fruits of irreligious 
 policy, as well among those examples that are found in ages re- 
 moved far from the present, as in those of latter times. And that 
 it may no less appear by evident proofs than by asseveration, that 
 ill-doing hath always been attended by ill success, I will here, by 
 way of preface, run over some examples, which the work ensuing 
 hath not reached. 
 
 "Among our kings of the Norman race, we have no sooner passed 
 over the violence of the Norman Conquest, than we encounter 
 with a singular and most remarkable example of God's justice upon 
 the children of Henry I. For that king, when both by force, craft, 
 and cruelty, he had dispossessed, overreached, and lastly made blind, 
 and destroyed his elder brother, Robert Duke of Normandy, to 
 make his own sons lords of this land, God cast them all, male and 
 female, nephews and nieces (Maud excepted), into the bottom of 
 the sea, with above an hundred and fifty others that attended 
 them ; whereof a great many were noble, and of the king dearly 
 beloved.
 
 194 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 " To pass over the rest, till we come to Edward II., it is cer- 
 tain that after the murder of that king, the issue of blood then 
 made, though it had some times of stay and stopping, did again 
 break out, and that so often and in such abundance, as all our 
 princes of the masculine race (very few excepted) died of the same 
 disease. And although the young years of Edward III. made his 
 knowledge of that horrible fact no more than suspicious, yet in 
 that he afterwards caused his own uncle, the Earl of Kent, to die 
 for no other offence than the desire of his brother's redemption, 
 whom the earl as then supposed to be living, the king making 
 that to be treason in his uncle which was indeed treason in him- 
 self (had his uncle's intelligence been true) ; this, I say, made it 
 manifest, that he was not ignorant of what had passed, nor greatly 
 desirous to have had it otherwise, though he caused Mortimer to 
 die for the same. 
 
 " This cruelty, the secret and unsearchable judgment of God 
 revenged on the grand-child of Edward II. ; and so it fell out, 
 even to the last of that line, that in the second or third descent 
 they were all buried under the ruins of those buildings of which 
 the mortar had been tempered with innocent blood. For Richard 
 II., who saw both his treasurers, his chancellor, and his steward, 
 with divers others of his councillors, some of them slaughtered by 
 the people, others in his absence executed by his enemies, yet he 
 always took himself for over-wise to be taught by examples. The 
 Earls of Huntingdon and Kent, Montague and Spencer, who 
 thought themselves as great politicians in those days as others 
 have done in these, hoping to please the king, and to secure them- 
 selves, by the murder of Gloucester, died soon after, with many 
 other their adherents, by the like violent hands ; and far more 
 shamefully than did that duke. And as for the king himself (who 
 in regard of many deeds, unworthy of his greatness, cannot be 
 excused, as the disavowing himself by breach of faith, charters, 
 pardons, and patents), he was in the prime of his youth deposed, 
 and murdered by his cousin-german and vassal, Henry of Lan- 
 caster, afterwards Henry IV. 
 
 " This king, whose title was weak, and his obtaining the 
 crown traitorous ; who broke faith with the lords at his landing, 
 protesting to intend only the recovery of his proper inheritance, 
 brake faith with Richard himself, and brake faith with all the
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 195 
 
 kingdom in parliament, to whom he swore that the deposed king 
 should live. After that he had enjoyed this realm some few years, 
 and iii that time had been set upon on all sides by his subjects, 
 and never free from conspiracies and rebellions, he saw (if souls 
 immortal see and discern anything after the body's death) his 
 grand-child, Henry VI., and his son, the prince, suddenly, and 
 without mercy, murdered ; the possession of the crown (for which 
 he had caused so much blood to be poured out) transferred from 
 his race, and, by the issues of his enemies, worn and enjoyed 
 enemies whom, by his own practice, he supposed that he had left 
 no less powerless, than the succession of the kingdom questionless, 
 by entailing the same upon his own issues by parliament. And out 
 of doubt, human reason could have judged no otherwise, but that 
 these cautious provisions of the father, seconded by the valour and 
 signal victories of his son Henry V., had buried the hopes of every 
 competitor, under the despair of all reconquests and recovery ; I 
 say, that human reason might so have judged, were not this 
 passage of Casaubon also true Dies, hora, momentum, evertendis 
 dominationibus sufficit, qua adamantinis credebantur radicibus esse 
 fundatee: 'A day, an hour, a moment, is enough to overturn 
 the things that seemed to have been founded and rooted in 
 adamant.' 
 
 "Now for Henry VI., upon whom the great storm of his grand- 
 father's grievous faults fell, as it formerly had done upon Richard, 
 the grand-child of Edward: although he was generally esteemed 
 for a gentle and innocent prince, yet as he refused the daughter of 
 Armaignac of the house of Navarre, the greatest of the princes 
 of France, to whom he was affianced (by which match he might 
 have defended his inheritance in France), and married the 
 daughter of Anjou (by which he lost all that he had in France) ; 
 so in condescending to the unworthy death of his uncle of Gloucester, 
 the main and strong pillar of the house of Lancaster, he drew on 
 himself and this kingdom the greatest joint loss and dishonour that 
 ever it sustained since the Norman Conquest ; of whom it may 
 truly be said, which a counsellor of his own spake of Henry III. 
 of France, Cfuil estoit un fort gentil prince, mats son regne est 
 advenu en un fort mauvais temps: ' That he was a very gentle 
 prince, but his reign happened in a very unfortunate season.' 
 
 " It is true that Buckingham and Suffolk were the practisers and 
 
 N 2
 
 196 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 contrivers of the duke's death ; Buckingham and Suffolk, because 
 the duke gave instructions to their authority, which otherwise 
 under the queen had been absolute ; the queen, in respect of her 
 personal wound, spretceque injuria fomue, because Gloucester dis- 
 suaded her marriage. But the fruit was answerable to the seed 
 success to the counsel ; for after the cutting down of Gloucester, 
 York grew up so fast as he dared to dispute his right both by ar- 
 guments and arms ; in which quarrel Suffolk and Buckingham, 
 with the greatest number of their adherents, were dissolved. And 
 although for his breach of oath by sacrament, it pleased God to 
 strike down York, yet his son, the Earl of March, following the 
 plain path which his father had trodden out, despoiled Henry the 
 father, and Edward the son, both of their lives and kingdom. 
 And what was the end now of that politic lady the queen, other 
 than this, that she lived to behold the wretched ends of all her 
 partakers ; that she lived to look on, while her husband, the king, 
 and her only son, the prince, were hewn in sunder, while the crown 
 was set on his head that did it ? She lived to see herself despoiled 
 of her estate, and of her moveables ; and lastly, her father, by ren- 
 dering up to the crown of France the earldom of Provence, and 
 other places, for the payment of fifty thousand crowns for her ran- 
 som, to become a stark beggar. And this was the end of that 
 subtilty, which Siracides calleth fine, but unrighteous ; for other 
 fruit hath it never yielded since the world was. 
 
 "And now it came to Edward the Fourth's turn (though after 
 many difficulties) to triumph. For all the plants of Lancaster were 
 rooted up, one only Earl of Richmond excepted, whom also he had 
 once bought of the Duke of Brittany, but could not hold him ; and 
 yet was not this of Edward such a plantation, as could any way 
 promise itself stability. For this Edward the king (to omit 
 more than many of his other cruelties) beheld and allowed the 
 slaughter which Gloucester, Dorset, Hastings, and others, made of 
 Edward the prince in his own presence, of which tragical actors 
 there was not one that escaped the judgment of God in the same 
 kind. And he, which {besides the execution of his brother 
 Clarence, for none other offence than he himself had formed in his 
 own imagination) instructed Gloucester to kill Henry VI., his pre- 
 decessor, taught him also by the same art to kill his own sons and 
 successors, Edward and Richard. For those kings which have
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 197 
 
 sold the blood of others at a low rate, have but made the market 
 for their own enemies, to buy of theirs at the same price. 
 
 " To Edward IV. succeeded Richard III., the greatest master in 
 mischief of all that forewent him, who, although, for the necessity 
 of his tragedy, he had more parts to play, and more to perform in 
 his own person, than all the rest, yet he so well fitted every 
 affection that played with him, as if each of them had but acted 
 his own interest. For he wrought so cunningly upon the affections 
 of Hastings and Buckingham, enemies to the queen and to all her 
 kindred, as he easily allured them to condescend,* that Rivers and 
 Grey, the king's maternal uncle and half-brother, should (for the 
 first) be severed from him ; secondly, he wrought their consent to 
 have them imprisoned; and lastly (for the avoiding of future in- 
 convenience), to have their heads severed from their bodies. And 
 having now brought those his chief instruments to exercise that 
 common precept which the devil hath written on every post, 
 namely, to depress those whom they had grieved, and to destroy 
 those whom they had depressed, he urged that argument so fair 
 and so forcibly, as nothing but the death of the young king him- 
 self, and of his brother, could fashion the conclusion; for he caused 
 it to be hammered into Buckingham's head, that whensoever the king 
 or his brother should have able years to exercise their power, they 
 would take a most severe revenge of that cureless wrong offered 
 to their uncle and brother, Rivers and Grey. 
 
 "But this was not his manner of reasoning with Hastings, whose 
 fidelity to his master's sons was without suspect ; and yet the 
 devil, who never dissuades by impossibility, taught him to try him, 
 and so he did. But when he found by Catesby, who sounded him, 
 that he was not fordable, he first resolved to kill him sitting in 
 council, wherein, having failed with his sword, he set the hangman 
 upon him, with a weapon of more weight ; and because nothing 
 else could move his appetite, he caused his head to be stricken off be- 
 fore he ate his dinner. A greater judgment of God than this upon 
 Hastings, I have never observed in any story; for the self-same day 
 that the Earl Rivers, Grey, and others, were (without trial of law or 
 
 * Ralegh, and other writers of that age, frequently use the word " con- 
 descend" in the sense of "consent," but a consent with reluctance, or after 
 persuasion.
 
 198 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 offence given) by Hastings' advice executed at Pomfret I say, 
 Hastings himself in the same day, and (as I take it) in the same hour, 
 in the same lawless manner, had his head stricken off in the Tower of 
 London. But Buckingham lived a while longer, and with an elo- 
 quent oration persuaded the Londoners to elect Richard for their 
 king ; and having received the earldom of Hereford for reward, 
 besides the high hope of marrying his daughter to the king's only 
 son, after many grievous vexations of mind, and unfortunate at- 
 tempts, being in the end betrayed and delivered up by his trustiest 
 servant, he had his head severed from his body at Salisbury, 
 without the trouble of any of his peers. And what success had 
 Richard himself after all these mischiefs and murders, policies, and 
 counter-policies, to Christian religion, and after such time as with 
 a most merciless hand he had pressed out the breath of his nephews 
 and natural lords, other than the prosperity of so short a life, as it 
 took end ere he himself could well look over and discern it ? The 
 great outcry of innocent blood obtained at God's hands the 
 effusion of his, who became a spectacle of shame and dishonour, 
 both to his friends and enemies. 
 
 " This cruel king Henry VII. cut off, and was therein (no 
 doubt) the immediate instrument of God's justice. A politic prince 
 he was, if ever there were any, who by the engine of his wisdom 
 beat down and overturned as many strong oppositions, both before 
 and after he wore the crown, as ever king of England did; I say 
 by hia wisdom, because as he ever left the reins of his affections in 
 the hands of his profit, so he always weighed his undertakings by 
 his abilities, leaving nothing more to hazard than so much as can- 
 not be denied it in all human actions. He had well observed the 
 proceedings of Louis XI., whom he followed in all that was royal or 
 royal-like ; but he was far more just, and began not their processes 
 whom he hated or feared by the execution, as Louis did. 
 
 " He could never endure any mediation in rewarding his ser- 
 vants, and therein exceeding wise, for whatsoever himself gave, 
 he himself received back the thanks and the love, knowing it well, 
 that the affections of men (purchased by nothing so readily as by 
 benefits) were trains that better became great kings than great 
 subjects. On the contrary, in whatsoever he grieved his subjects, 
 he wisely put it off on those that he found fit ministers for such 
 actions. Howsoever, the taking off of Stanley's head, who set the
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 199 
 
 crown on his, and the death of the young Earl of Warwick, son to 
 George, Duke of Clarence, shows, as the success also did, that he 
 held somewhat of the errors of his ancestors ; for his possession 
 in the first line ended in his grandchildren, as that of Edward 
 III. and Henry IV. had done. 
 
 "Now for King Henry VIII. : if all the pictures and patterns of 
 a merciless prince were lost in the world, they might all again be 
 painted to the life out of the story of this king. For, how many 
 servants did he advance in haste (but for what virtue no man 
 could suspect), and with the change of his fancy ruined again, no 
 man knowing for what offence ? To how many others of more desert 
 gave he abundant flowers from whence to gather honey, and in the 
 end of harvest burnt them in the hive ? How many wives did he 
 cut off, aad cast off, as his fancy and affection changed ? How 
 many prii ces of the blood (whereof some of them for age could 
 hardly crtwl towards the block), with a world of others of all de- 
 grees (of vhom our common chronicles have kept the account), 
 did he execute ? yea, in his very death-bed, and when he was at 
 the point to have given his account to God for the abundance of 
 blood already spilt, he imprisoned the Duke of Norfolk, the 
 father, and executed the Earl of Surrey, the son ; the one whose 
 desrrvings he knew not how to value, having never omitted any- 
 thiig that concerned his own honour and the king's service ; the 
 other never having committed anything worthy of his least dis- 
 pleasure; the one exceeding valiant and advised, the other no 
 les valiant than learned, and of excellent hope. But besides the 
 SOTOWS which he heaped upon the fatherless and widows at home, 
 aid besides the vain enterprises abroad, wherein it is thought that 
 hi consumed more treasure than all our victorious kings did in 
 tleir several conquests, what causeless and cruel wars did he make 
 ux>n his own nephew, King James V. ? what laws and wills did 
 IB devise to establish this kingdom in his own issues ? using his 
 siarpest weapons to cut off and cut down those branches which 
 fprang from the same root that he himself did. And in the end 
 ^notwithstanding these his so many irreligious provisions) it 
 pleased God to take away all his own, without increase, though, 
 for themselves in their several kinds, all princes of eminent virtue. 
 For these words of Samuel to Agag, king of the Amalekites, have 
 been verified upon many others ' As thy sword hath made
 
 200 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 other women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among 
 other women.' And that blood which the same King Henry 
 affirmed that the cold air of Scotland had frozen up in the 
 north, God hath diffused by the sunshine of His grace, from 
 whence his majesty now living, and long to live, is descended ; of 
 whom I may say it truly, that if all the malice of the world were 
 infused into one eye, yet could it not discern in his life, eren to 
 this day, any one of those foul spots by which the consciences of 
 all the fore-named princes (in effect) have been defiled ; nor any 
 drop of that innocent blood on the sword of his justice, witk which 
 the most that forewent him have stained both their hands and 
 fame. And for this crown of England, it may truly be avowed, 
 that he hath received it even from the hand of God, and hath staid 
 the time of putting it on, howsoever he were provoked ;o hasten 
 it ; that he never took revenge of any man that sought to put him 
 beside it ; that he refused the assistance of her enemies, that wore 
 it long, with as great glory as ever princess did ; that his majesty 
 entered not by a breach, nor by blood, but by the ordinary gate, 
 which his own right set open, and into which, by a general love 
 and obedience, he was received ; and howsoever his majeity's 
 preceding title to this kingdom was preferred by many princes 
 (witness the treaty at Cambray in the year 1559), yet he never 
 pleased to dispute it during the life of that Tenowned lady, his pre- 
 decessor; no, notwithstanding the injury of not being declared 
 heir in all the time of her long reign. 
 
 " Neither ought we to forget or neglect our thankfulness .0 
 God for the uniting of the northern parts of Britain to tie 
 south to wit, of Scotland to England ; which, though they WBB 
 severed but by small brooks and banks, yet, by reason of tht 
 long-continued war, and the cruelties exercised upon each othei; 
 in the affection of the nations they were infinitely severed. This 
 I say, is not the least of God's blessings which his majesty hatl 
 brought with him unto this land : no, put all our petty griev- 
 ances together, and heap them up to their height, they will 
 appear but as a mole-hill compared with the mountain of this 
 concord. And if all the historians since then have acknowledged 
 the uniting of the red rose and the white for the greatest 
 happiness (Christian religion excepted) that ever this kingdom 
 received from God ; certainly the peace between the two lions
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 201 
 
 of gold and gules, and the making them one, doth by many 
 degrees exceed the former. For by it, besides the sparing of our 
 British blood, heretofore and during the difference so often and 
 abundantly shed, the state of England is more assured, the 
 kingdom more enabled to recover her ancient honour and rights, 
 and by it made more invincible than by all our former alliances, 
 practices, policies, and conquests. It is true that hereof we 
 do not yet find the effect ; but had the Duke of Parma, in the 
 year 1588, joined the army which he commanded with that of 
 Spain, and landed it on the south coast, and had his majesty 
 at the same time declared himself against us in the north, it is 
 easy to divine what had become of the liberty of England, 
 certainly we would then, without murmur, have bought this 
 union at a far greater price than it hath since cost us. It is true 
 that there was never any commonweal or kingdom in the 
 world wherein no man had cause to lament. Kings live in the 
 world, and not above it ; they are not infinite to examine every 
 man's cause or to relieve every man's wants : and yet, in the 
 latter, though to his own prejudice, his majesty hath had more 
 compassion of other men's necessities than of his own coffers : 
 of whom it may be said, as of Solomon, ' Dedit Deus Solomoni 
 latitudinem cordis ;' which if other men do not understand, with 
 Pineda, to be meant by 'liberality,' but by 'latitude of know- 
 ledge,' yet may it be better spoken of his majesty, than of any 
 king that ever England had, who, as well in divine as human 
 understanding, hath exceeded all that forewent him by many 
 degrees. 
 
 "I could say much more of the king's majesty, without 
 flattery, did I not fear the imputation of presumption, and 
 withal suspect that it might befal these papers of mine (though 
 the loss were little) as it did the pictures of Queen Elizabeth, 
 made by unskilful and common painters, which, by her own 
 commandment, were knocked in pieces and cast into the fire. 
 For ill artists, in setting out the beauty of the external, and weak 
 writers, in describing the virtues of the internal, do often leave 
 to posterity of well-formed faces a deformed memory, and of 
 the most perfect and princely minds a most defective representa- 
 tion. It may suffice, and there needs no other discourse, if the 
 honest reader but compare the cruel and turbulent passages of
 
 202 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 our former kings, and of other their neighbour princes (of 
 whom, for that purpose, I have inserted this brief discourse), with 
 his majesty's temperate, revengeless, and liberal disposition; I 
 say, that if the honest reader weigh them justly and with an even 
 hand, and withal but bestow every deformed child on his true 
 parent, he shall find that there is no man that hath so just cause 
 to complain as the king himself hath. 
 
 "Now, as we have told the success of the trumperies and 
 cruelties of our kings and other great personages, so we find that 
 God is everywhere the same God ; and as it pleased him to punish 
 the usurpation and unnatural cruelty of Henry I., and of our 
 third Edward, in their children for many generations, so dealt he 
 with the sons of Louis Debonaire, the son of Charles the Great, 
 or Charlemagne ; for after such time as Debonaire of France had 
 torn out the eyes of Bernard, his nephew the son of Pepin the 
 eldest son of Charlemagne, and heir of the empire and then 
 caused him to die in prison, as did our Henry to Robert his 
 eldest brother, there followed nothing but murders upon murders, 
 poisonings, imprisonments, and civil war, till the whole race of 
 that famous emperor was extinguished. And though Debonaire, 
 after he had rid himself of his nephew by a violent death, and of 
 his bastard brothers by a civil death having inclosed them, with 
 sure guard, all the days of their lives within a monastery held 
 himself secure from all opposition; yet God raised up against 
 him (which he suspected not) his own sons, to vex him, to invade 
 him, to take him prisoner, and to depose him ; his own sons, 
 with whom, to satisfy their ambition, he had shared his estate 
 and given .them crowns to wear, and kingdoms to gbvern, 
 during his own life. Yea, his eldest son, Lothaire (for he had 
 four three by his first wife and one by his second to wit, 
 Lothaire, Pepin, Louis, and Charles), made it the cause of 
 his deposition, that he had used violence towards his brothers 
 and kinsmen, and that he had suffered his nephew, whom he 
 might have delivered, to be slain : ' Eo quod? saith the text, 
 ' fratribus, et prop'inquis violentiam intulerit, et nepotem suum, 
 quern , ipse liberare poterat, interfici permiserit : ' ' because he 
 used violence to his brothers and kinsmen, and suffered his 
 nephew to be slain, whom he might have delivered.' 
 
 " Yet did he that which few kings do, namely, repent him
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 203 
 
 of his cruelty; for, among many other things which he per- 
 formed in the General Assembly of the States, it follows : 
 ' Post hcec autem palam se errasse confessus ; et imitatus impera- 
 toris Thendosii exemplum, pcenitentiam spontaneam suscepit, 
 tarn de his, quam qua in Bernardum proprium nepotem gesserat : ' 
 'after this he did openly confess himself to have erred, and, 
 following the example of the Emperor Theodosius, he underwent 
 voluntary penance, as well for his other offences as for that 
 which he had done against Bernard, his own nephew.' 
 
 " This he did, and it was praiseworthy. But the blood that is 
 unjustly spilt is not again gathered up from the ground by 
 repentance. These medicines, ministered to the dead, have but 
 dead rewards. 
 
 " This king, as I have said, had four sons : to Lothaire, his 
 eldest, he gave the kingdom of Italy as Charlemagne, his 
 father, had done to Pepin, the father of Bernard, who was to 
 succeed him in the empire ; to Pepin, the second son, he gave 
 the kingdom of Aquitaine ; to Louis, the kingdom of Bavier ; and 
 to Charles, whom he had by a second wife, called Judith, the 
 remainder of the kingdom of France ; but this second wife, 
 being a mother-in-law to the rest, persuaded Debonaire to cast 
 his son Pepin out of Aquitaine, thereby to greaten Charles, 
 which, after the death of his son Pepin, he prosecuted to effect 
 against his grand-child, bearing the same name. In the mean- 
 while, being invaded by his son Louis of Bavier, he dies for grief. 
 
 " Debonaire dead, Louis of Bavier, and Charles (afterwards 
 called the Bald), and their nephew, Pepin of Aquitaine, join in 
 league against the Emperor Lothaire, their eldest brother. They 
 fight near to Auxerre the most bloody battle that ever was 
 struck in France ; in which the marvellous loss of nobility and 
 men of war gave courage to the Saracens to invade Italy, to 
 the Huns to fall upon Almaine, and the Danes to enter upon 
 Normandy. Charles the Bald, by treason, seizeth upon his 
 nephew Pepin kills him in a cloister. Carloman rebels against 
 his father, Charles the Bald ; the father burns out the eyes of his 
 son Carloman. Bavier invades the Emperor Lothaire, his bro- 
 ther ; Lothaire quits the empire ; he is assailed and wounded to 
 the heart by his own conscience, for his rebellion against his 
 father and for his other cruelties, and dies in a monastery.
 
 204 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 Charles the Bald, the uncle, oppresseth his nephews, the sons of 
 Lothaire ; he usurpeth the empire to the prejudice of Louis of 
 Bavier, his elder brother ; Bavier' s armies and his son Carloman 
 are beaten he dies of grief, and the usurper Charles is poisoned 
 by Zedechias, a Jew, his physician ; his son, Louis de Beque, dies 
 of the same drink. Beque had Charles the Simple and two bas- 
 tards, Louis and Carloman ; they rebel against their brother, but 
 the eldest breaks his neck the younger is slain by a wild boar. 
 The son of Bavier had the same ill destiny, and brake his neck 
 by a fall out of a window, in sporting with his companions. 
 Charles the Gross becomes lord of all that the sons of Debonaire 
 held in Germany ; wherewith not contented, he invades Charles 
 the Simple ; but, being forsaken of his nobility, of his wife, and 
 of his understanding, he dies a distracted beggar. Charles the 
 Simple is held in wardship by Eudes, mayor of the palace ; then 
 by Robert, the brother of Eudes ; and lastly, being taken by the 
 Earl of Vermandois, he is forced to die in the prison of Peron. 
 Louis, the son of Charles the Simple, breaks his neck in chasing 
 a wolf; and, of the two sons of this Louis, the one dies of poison, 
 the other dies in the prison of Orleans ; after whom Hugh Capet, 
 of another race and a stranger to the French, makes himself 
 king. 
 
 "These miserable ends had the issue's of Debonaire; who, 
 after he had once apparelled injustice with authority, his sons and 
 successors took up the fashion, and wore that garment so long, 
 without other provision, as when the same was torn from their 
 shoulders, every man despised them as miserable and naked 
 beggars. The wretched success they had, saith a learned 
 Frenchman, shows ' Que en ceste mort il y a voit plus du fait 
 des hommes que de Dieu, ou de la justice:' that, in the death 
 of that prince to wit, of Bernard the son of Pepin, the true 
 heir of Charlemagne ' men had more meddling than either God 
 or justice had.' 
 
 " But, to come nearer home, it is certain that Francis I., one 
 of the worthiest kings (except for that fact) that ever the 
 Frenchmen had, did never enjoy himself after he had com- 
 manded the destruction of the Protestants of Mirandol and 
 Cabrieres to the parliament of Provence, which poor people 
 were thereupon burnt and murdered men, women, and children.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 205 
 
 It is true that the said king Francis repented himself of the fact, 
 and gave charge to Henry, his son, to do justice upon the mur- 
 derers, threatening his son with God's judgments if he neglected 
 it. But this unseasonable care of his, God was not pleased to 
 accept for payment ; for, after Henry himself was slain in sport 
 by Montgomery, we all may remember what became of his four 
 sons Francis, Charles, Henry, and Hercules ; of which, although 
 three of them became kings, and were married to beautiful and 
 virtuous ladies, yet were they, one after another, cast out of the 
 world without stock or seed. And, notwithstanding their subtlety 
 and breach of faith, with all their massacres upon those of the 
 religion and great effusion of blood, the crown was set on his 
 head whom they all laboured to dissolve ; the Protestants remain 
 more in number than ever they were, and hold to this day more 
 strong cities than ever they had. 
 
 " Let us now see if God be not the same God in Spain as 
 in England and France ; towards whom we will look no further 
 back than to Don Pedro of Castile, in respect of which prince 
 all the tyrants of Sicily, our Richard III., and the great Evan 
 Vasilowick of Moscovy, were but petty ones this Castilian, 
 of all Christian and heathen kings, having been the most merci- 
 less. For, besides those of his own blood and nobility, which he 
 caused to be slain in his own court and chamber as Sancho 
 Ruis, the great master of Calatrava, Ruis Gonsales, Alphonso 
 Tello, and Don John of Arragon, whom he cut in pieces and 
 cast into the streets, denying him Christian burial : I say, besides 
 these, and the slaughter of Gomez Manriques, Diego Peres, 
 Alphonso Gomez, and the great commander of Castile, he made 
 away the two infants of Arragon, his cousin-germans, his brother 
 Don Frederick, Don John de la Cerde, Albuquergues, Nugnes 
 de Guzman, Cornel, Cabrera, Tenorio, Mendez de Toledo, Gut- 
 tiere, his great treasurer, and all his kindred and a world of 
 others. Neither did he spare his two youngest brothers, inno- 
 cent princes, whom, after he had kept in close prison from their 
 cradles, till one of them had lived sixteen years and the other 
 fourteen, he murdered them there ; nay, he spared not his 
 mother, nor his wife, the Lady Blanche of Bourbon. Lastly, 
 as he caused the Archbishop of Toledo and the Dean to be 
 killed of purpose to enjoy their treasures, so did he put to death
 
 206 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Mahomet Aben Alhamar, king of Barbary, with thirty-seven of 
 his nobility, that came unto him for succour, with a great sum 
 of money, to levy, by his favour, some companies of soldiers to 
 return withal ; yea, he would needs assist the hangman with 
 his own hand in the execution of the old king, insomuch as Pope 
 Urban declared him an enemy both to God and man. But 
 what was his end ? Having been formerly beaten out of his 
 kingdom, and re-established by the valour of the English nation, 
 led by the famous Duke of Lancaster, he was stabbed to death 
 by his younger brother, the Earl of Astramara, who dispossessed 
 all his children of their inheritance which, but for the father's 
 injustice and cruelty, had never been in danger of any such 
 thing. 
 
 " If we can parallel any man with this king, it must be Duke 
 John of Burgoigne, who, after his traitorous murder of the Duke 
 of Orleans, caused the Constable of Armagnac, the Chancellor of 
 France, the Bishops of Constance, Bayeux, Eureux, Senlis, 
 Saintes, and other religious and reverend churchmen, the Earl 
 of Grandpre, Hector of Chartres, and, in effect, all the officers 
 of justice of the Chamber of Accounts, Treasury, and Request, 
 with sixteen hundred others to accompany them to be sud- 
 denly and violently slain ; hereby, while he hoped to govern and 
 to have mastered France, he was soon after struck with an axe 
 in the face, in the presence of the Dauphin, and, without any 
 leisure to repent his misdeeds, presently slain. These were the 
 lovers of other men's miseries, and misery found them out. 
 
 " Now for the kings of Spain, which lived both with Henry 
 VII., Henry VIII., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. Ferdi- 
 nand of Arragon was the first, and the first that laid the founda- 
 tion of the present Austrian greatness; for this king did not 
 content himself to hold Arragon by, the usurpation of his 
 ancestor, and to fasten thereunto the kingdom of Castile and 
 Leon which Isabel, his wife, held by strong hand and his 
 assistance from her own niece, the daughter of the last Henry 
 but most cruelly and craftily, without all colour or pretence 
 of right, he also cast his own niece out of the kingdom of 
 Navarre, and, contrary to faith and the promise that he made 
 to restore it, fortified the best places, and so wasted the rest, as 
 there was no means left for any army to invade it. This king,
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 207 
 
 I. say, that betrayed also Ferdinand and Frederick, kings of 
 Naples princes of his own blood, and by double alliance tied 
 unto him sold them to the French, and with the same army, 
 sent for their succour under Gonsalvo, cast them out and shared 
 their kingdom with the French, whom afterwards he most shame- 
 fully betrayed. 
 
 " This wise and politic king, who sold heaven and his own 
 honour to make his son, the Prince of Spain, the greatest 
 monarch of the world, saw him die in the flower of his years ; 
 and his wife, great with child, with her untimely birth, at once 
 and together buried. His eldest daughter, married unto Don 
 Alphonso, Prince of Portugal, beheld her first husband break 
 his neck in her presence, and, being with child by her second, 
 died with it: a just judgment of God upon the race of John, 
 father to Alphonso, now wholly extinguished, who had not only 
 left many disconsolate mothers in Portugal by the slaughter of 
 their children, but had formerly slain with his own hand the 
 son and only comfort of his aunt, the Lady Beatrix, Duchess 
 of Viseo. The second daughter of Ferdinand, married to the 
 Archduke Philip, turned fool, and died mad and deprived. His 
 third daughter, bestowed on King Henry VIII., he saw cast off 
 by the king, the mother of many troubles in England, and the 
 mother of a daughter that, in her unhappy zeal, shed a world of 
 innocent blood, lost Calais to the French, and died heart-broken, 
 without increase. To conclude : all those kingdoms of Ferdi- 
 nand have masters of a new name, and by a strange family are 
 governed and possessed. 
 
 "Charles V., son to the Archduke Philip in whose vain 
 enterprises upon the French, upon the Almans, and other princes 
 and states, so many multitudes of Christian soldiers and re- 
 nowned captains were consumed ; who gave the while a most 
 perilous entrance to the Turks, and suffered Rhodes, the key 
 of Christendom, to be taken was, in conclusion, chased out of 
 France, and, in a sort, out of Germany, and left to the French, 
 Mentz, Toulon, and Verdun (places belonging to the empire), 
 stole away from Inspurg, and scaled the Alps by torch-light, 
 pursued by Duke Maurice, having hoped to swallow up all 
 those dominions wherein he concocted nothing save his own dis- 
 graces ; and having, after the slaughter of so many millions of
 
 208 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 men, no one foot of ground in either, he crept into a cloister, 
 and made himself a pensioner of an hundred thousand ducats 
 by the year to his son Philip from whom he very slowly 
 received his mean and ordinary maintenance. 
 
 " His son again, King Philip II., not satisfied to hold Holland 
 and Zealand (wrested by his ancestors from Jacqueline, their lawful 
 
 PHILIP II. 
 
 Princess), and to possess in peace many other provinces of the 
 Netherlands, persuaded by that mischievous Cardinal of Granvile, 
 and other Romish tyrants, not only forgot the most remarkable 
 services done to his father the Emperor, by the nobility of those 
 countries ; not only forgot the present made him upon his entry, 
 of forty millions of florins, called the Noval aid; not only 
 forgot that he had twice most solemnly sworn to the general 
 States to maintain and preserve their ancient rights, privileges, 
 and customs, which they had enjoyed under their thirty and five 
 earls before him, conditional princes of those provinces; but, 
 beginning first to constrain them, and enthral them by the
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 209 
 
 Spanish Inquisition, and then to impoverish them by many new- 
 devised and intolerable impositions, he lastly, by strong hand and 
 main force, attempted to make himself, not only an absolute 
 monarch over them, like unto the kings and sovereigns of England 
 and France, but, Turk -like, to tread under his feet all their 
 natural and fundamental laws, privileges, and ancient rights. To 
 effect which, after he had easily obtained from the Pope a dispen- 
 sation of his former oaths (which dispensation was the true cause 
 of the war and bloodshed since then), and after he had tried what 
 he could perform by dividing of their own nobility, under the 
 government of his base sister, Margaret of Austria, and the 
 Cardinal Granvile, he employed that most merciless Spaniard, 
 Don Ferdinand Alvarez of Toledo, Duke of Alva, followed with 
 a powerful army of strange nations, by whom he first slaughtered 
 that renowned Captain, the Earl of Egmont, Prince of Gavare, 
 and Philip Montmorency, Earl of Horn ; made away Montague, 
 and the Marquis of Bergues, and cut off in those six years tha t 
 Alva governed, of gentlemen and others, eighteen thousand and 
 six hundred by the hands of the hangman, besides all his other 
 barbarous murders and massacres by whose ministry, when he 
 could not yet bring his affairs to their wished ends, having it in 
 his hope to work that by subtlety which he had failed to perform 
 by force, he sent for Governor, his bastard brother, Don John of 
 Austria, a prince of great hope, and very gracious to those people. 
 But he, using the same Papal advantage that his predecessors had 
 done, made no scruple to take oath upon the holy Evangelists, to 
 observe the treaty made with the general States, and to discharge 
 the Low Countries of all Spaniards, and other strangers therein 
 garrisoned, towards whose pay and passport the Netherlands 
 strained themselves to make payment of six hundred thousand 
 pounds ; which moneys received, he suddenly surprised the 
 citadels of Antwerp and Nemours, not doubting (being un- 
 suspected by the States) to have possessed himself of all the 
 mastering places of those provinces ; for whatsoever he overtly 
 pretended, he held in secret a contrary counsel with the Secretary 
 Escovedo, Rhodus, Barlemont, and others, ministers of the 
 Spanish tyranny formerly practised, and now again intended. 
 But let us now see the effect and end of this perjury, and of all 
 other the duke's cruelties. First, for himself: after he had mur- 
 
 o
 
 210 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 dered so many of the nobility ; executed, as aforesaid, eighteen 
 thousand six hundred in six years, and most cruelly slain man, 
 woman, and child, in Mecklin, Zutphen, Naerden, and other 
 places ; and after he had consumed six and thirty millions of 
 treasure in six years, notwithstanding his Spanish vaunt that he 
 would suffocate the Hollanders in their own butter-barrels and 
 milk-tubs, he departed the country, no otherwise accompanied 
 than with the curse and detestation of the whole nation, leaving 
 his master's affairs in a tenfold worse state than he found them at 
 his first arrival. For Don John, whose haughty conceit of him- 
 self overcame the greatest difficulties, though his judgment were 
 over-weak to manage the least, what wonders did his fearful 
 breach of faith bring forth, other than the king's (his brother's) 
 jealousy and distrust, with the untimely death that seized him 
 even in the flower of his youth ? And for Escovedo, his sharp- 
 witted secretary, who, in his own imagination, had conquered for 
 his master both England and the Netherlands, being sent into 
 Spain upon some new project, he was at the first arrival, and 
 before any access to the king, by certain ruffians appointed by 
 Antonio Perez (though by better warrant than his) rudely mur- 
 dered in his own lodging. Lastly, if we consider the king of 
 Spain's carriage, his counsel and success in this business, there is 
 nothing left to the memory of man more remarkable ; for he 
 hath paid above an hundred millions, and the lives of above four 
 hundred thousand Christians, for the loss of all those countries 
 which, for beauty, gave place to none, and for revenue, did equal 
 his West Indies ; for the loss of a nation which most willingly 
 obeyed him ; and who, at this day, after forty years' war, are, in 
 despite of all his forces, become a free estate, and far more rich 
 and powerful than they were when he first began to impoverish 
 and oppress them. 
 
 " Oh ! by what plots, by what forswearings, betrayings, 
 oppressions, imprisonments, tortures, poisonings, and under what 
 reasons of State, and politic subtlety, have these fore-named 
 kings, both strangers and of our own nation, pulled the vengeance 
 of God upon themselves, upon theirs, and upon their prudent 
 ministers ! and in the' end have brought those things to pass for 
 their enemies, and seen an effect so directly contrary to all their 
 own counsels and cruelties, as the one could never have hoped for
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 211 
 
 'themselves, and the other never have succeeded, if no such oppo- 
 sition had ever been made. God hath said it and performed it 
 ever : Perdam sapientiam sapicntum ' I will destroy the wisdom 
 of the wise.' 
 
 " But what of all this, and to what end do we lay before the 
 eyes of the living the fall and fortunes of the dead, seeing the 
 world is the same that it hath been, and the children of the pre- 
 sent time will still obey their parents ? It is in the present time 
 that all the wits of the world are exercised. To hold the times 
 we have, we hold all things lawful, and either we hope to hold 
 them for ever, or at least we hope that there is nothing after them 
 to be hoped for. For as we are content to forget our own ex- 
 perience, and to counterfeit the ignorance of our own knowledge 
 in all things that concern ourselves, or persuade ourselves that 
 God hath given us letters patent to pursue all our irreligious 
 affections with a non obstante, so we neither look behind us what 
 hath been, nor before us what shall be. It is true that the quan- 
 tity which we have is of the body ; we are by it joined to the 
 earth; we are compounded of earth, and we inhabit it. The 
 heavens are high, far off, and unsearchable; we have sense and 
 feeling of corporal things ; and of eternal grace, but by reve- 
 lation. No marvel, then, that our thoughts are also earthly ; and 
 it is less to be wondered at that the words of worthless men 
 cannot cleanse them, seeing their doctrine and instruction, whose 
 understanding the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to inhabit, have not 
 performed it. For, as the prophet Isaiah cried out long ago, 
 ' Lord, who hath believed our reports ?' And out of doubt, as 
 Isaiah complained then for himself and others, so are they less 
 believed every day after other. For although religion, and the 
 truth thereof, be in every man's mouth, yea, in the discourse of 
 every woman, who for the greatest number are but idols of 
 vanity, what is it other than an universal dissimulation? We 
 profess that we know God, but by works we deny him ; for 
 beatitude doth not consist in the knowledge of divine things, but 
 in a divine life ; for the devils know them better than men. 
 Beatitudo non est divinorum cognitio, scd vita divina. And cer- 
 tainly there is" nothing more to be admired, and more to be 
 lamented, than the private contention, the passionate dispute, the 
 personal hatred, and the perpetual war, massacres, and murders 
 
 o2
 
 212 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 for religion among Christians, the discourse whereof hath so 
 occupied the world, as it hath well-near driven the practice' 
 thereof out of the world. Who would not soon resolve, that took 
 knowledge but of the religious disputations among men, and noi; 
 of their lives which dispute, that there were no other thing in 
 their desires than the purchase of heaven ; and that the world 
 itself were but used as it ought, and as an inn or place wherein 
 to repose ourselves in passing on towards our celestial habitation ? 
 when, on the contrary, besides the discourse and outward pro- 
 fession, the soul hath nothing but hypocrisy. We are all, in 
 effect, become comedians in religion ; and while we act in gesture 
 and voice, divine virtues, in all the course of our lives we renounce 
 our persons, and the parts we play. For charity, justice, and 
 truth have but their being in terms, like the philosopher's 
 materia prima. 
 
 " Neither is it that wisdom which Solomon defineth to be the 
 schoolmistress of the knowledge of God, that hath valuation in 
 the world ; it is enough that we give it our good word, but the 
 same which is altogether exercised in the service of the world, as 
 the gathering of riches chiefly, by which we purchase and obtain 
 honour, with the many respects which attend it ; these, indeed, be 
 the marks which (when we have bent our consciences to the 
 highest) we all shoot at. For the obtaining whereof it is true that 
 the care is our own the care our own in this life, the peril our 
 own in the future ; and yet, when we have gathered the greatest 
 abundance, we ourselves enjoy no more thereof than so much as 
 belongs to one man ; for the rest, he that had the greatest wisdom 
 and the greatest ability that ever man had, hath told us that this 
 is the use : ' When goods increase,' saith Solomon, ' they also 
 increase that eat them ; and what good cometh to the owners but 
 the beholding thereof with their eyes ?' As for those that devour 
 the rest, and follow us in fair weather, they again forsake us in 
 the first tempest of misfortune, and steer away before the sea and 
 wind, leaving us to the malice of our destinies. Of these, among 
 a thousand examples, I will tnke but one out of Master Dannet r 
 and use his own words : Whilst the Emperor Charles V., after 
 the resignation of his estates, staid at Flushing for wind, to carry 
 him his last journey into Spain, he conferred on a time with 
 Seldius, his brother Ferdinand's ambassador, till the deep of the
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 213 
 
 night ; and when Seldius should depart, the Emperor, calling for 
 some of his servants, and nobody answering him (for those that 
 attended upon him were, some gone to their lodgings, and all the 
 rest asleep), the Emperor took up the candle himself, and went 
 before Seldius to light him down the stairs ; and so did, notwith- 
 standing all the resistance that Seldius could make. And when 
 he was come to the stairs' foot, he said thus unto him : ' Seldius, 
 remember this of Charles the Emperor, when he shall be dead and 
 .gone that him whom thou hast known in thy time environed 
 with so many mighty armies and guards of soldiers, thou hast also 
 seen alone, abandoned and forsaken, yea, even of his own domestical 
 servants, &c. I acknowledge this change of fortune to proceed 
 from the mighty hand of God, which I will by no means go about 
 to withstand.* 
 
 "But you will say that there are some things else, and of 
 greater regard than the former. The first is the reverent respect 
 that is held of great men, and the honour done unto them by all 
 sorts of people. And it is true, indeed, provided that an inward 
 love for their justice and piety accompany the outward worship 
 given to their places and power; without which what is the 
 applause of the multitude but as the outcry of an herd of 
 unimals, who, without the knowledge of any true cause, please 
 themselves with the noise they make ? For, seeing it is a thing 
 exceeding rare to distinguish virtue and fortune, the. most impious, 
 if prosperous, have ever been applauded the most virtuous, if 
 unprosperous, have ever been despised; for as fortune's man 
 rides the horse, so fortune herself rides the man who, when he 
 is descended and on foot, the man taken from his beast, and 
 fortune from the man, a base groom beats the one, and a bitter 
 contempt spurns at the other with equal liberty. 
 
 " The second is the greatening of our posterity, and the contem- 
 plation of their glory whom we leave behind us. Certainly, of 
 those which conceive that their souls departed take any comfort 
 therein, it may be truly said of them, which Lactantius spake of 
 certain ^heathen philosophers, ' Quod sapientes sunt in re stidta,;' 
 for when our spirits immortal shall be once separate from our 
 mortal bodies, and disposed by God, there remaineth in them no 
 other joy of their posterity which succeed, than there doth of 
 pride in that stone which sleepeth in the wall of a king's palace ;
 
 214 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 nor any other sorrow for their poverty than there doth of shame- 
 in that which beareth up a beggar's cottage. ' Nesciunt mortuis 
 etiam sancti, quid agunt vivi, etiam eorum jilii, quia animce 
 mortuorum rebus mventium non intersunt :' 'The dead, though 
 holy, know nothing of the living no, not of their own children ; 
 for the souls of those departed are not conversant with their 
 affairs that remain.' And if we doubt of St. Augustine, we 
 cannot of Job, who tells us, 'That we know not if our sons shall 
 be honourable ; neither shall we understand concerning them, 
 whether they shall be of low degree.' Which Ecclesiastes also 
 confirmeth ' Man walketh in a shadow, and disquieteth himself 
 in vain ; he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather 
 them. The living,' saith he, ' know that they shall die, but the 
 dead know nothing at all ; for who can show unto man what shall 
 be after him under the sun ?' He therefore accounteth it among 
 the rest of worldly vanities to labour and travail in the world, 
 not knowing after death whether a fool or a wise man should 
 enjoy the fruits thereof; 'which made me,' saith he, 'endeavour 
 even to abhor mine own labour.' And what can other men hope, 
 whose blessed or sorrowful estates after death God hath reserved ? 
 man's knowledge lying but in his hope, seeing the prophet Isaiah 
 confesseth of the elect, that Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel 
 knows us not. But hereof we are assured, that the long and dark 
 night of death (of whose following day we shall never behold 
 the dawn till his return that hath triumphed over it) shall cover 
 us over till the world be no more ; after which, and when we 
 shall again receive organs glorified and incorruptible, the seats of 
 angelical affections ; in so great admiration shall the souls of the 
 blessed be exercised, as they cannot admit the mixture of any 
 second or less joy, nor any return of foregone and mortal affection 
 towards friends, kindred, or children, of whom, whether we 
 shall retain any particular knowledge, or in any sort distinguish 
 them, no man can assure us, and the wisest men doubt. But on 
 the contrary, if a divine life retain any of those faculties which 
 the soul exercised in a mortal body, we shall not at that time so- 
 divide the joys of heaven as to cast any part thereof on the 
 memory of their felicities which remain in the world. No, be 
 their estates greater than ever the world gave, we shall (by the 
 difference known unto us) even detest their consideration; and
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 215 
 
 whatsoever comfort shall remain of all forepast, the same will 
 consist in the charity which we exercised living, and in that 
 piety, justice, and firm faith for which it pleased the infinite 
 mercy of God to accept of us and receive us. Shall we, there- 
 fore, value honour and riches at nothing, and neglect them as 
 unnecessary and vain ? Certainly no ; for that infinite wisdom 
 of God which hath distinguished his angels by degrees; which 
 hath given greater and less light and beauty to heavenly bodies ; 
 which hath made differences between beasts and birds ; created 
 the eagle and the fly, the cedar and the shrub ; and among stones, 
 given the fairest tincture to the ruby, and the quickest light to 
 the diamond ; hath also ordained kings, dukes, or leaders of the 
 people, magistrates, judges, and other degrees among men. And 
 as honour is left to posterity for a mark and ensign of the virtue 
 and understanding of their ancestors, so (seeing Siracides pre- 
 ferreth death before beggary, and that titles, without proportion- 
 able estates, fall under the miserable succour of other men's pity) 
 I account it foolishness to condemn such a case, provided that 
 worldly goods be well gotten, and that we raise not our own 
 buildings out of other men's ruins. For, as Plato doth first 
 prefer the perfection of bodily health ; secondly, the form and 
 beauty ; and thirdly, divitias nulla frauds qucesitas, so Jeremiah 
 cries, ' Woe unto them that erect their houses by unrighteous- 
 ness, and their chambers without equity ;' and Isaiah the same, 
 ' Woe to those that spoil and were not spoiled.' And it was out 
 of the true wisdom of Solomon that he commandeth us ' Not to 
 drink the wine of violence ; not to lie in wait for blood ; and not 
 to swallow them up alive whose riches we covet ; for such are the 
 ways,' saith he, ' of every one that is greedy of gain.' 
 
 " And if we could afford ourselves but so much leisure as to con- 
 sider, that he which hath most in the world hath, in respect of the 
 world, nothing in it ; and that he which hath the longest time lent 
 him to live in it, hath yet no proportion at all therein, setting it 
 either by that which is past when we were not, or by that time 
 which is to come, in which we shall abide for ever : I say, if both to 
 wit, our proportion in the world and our time in the world, differ 
 not much from that which is nothing, it is not out of any excel- 
 lency of understanding that we so much prize the one, which hatli 
 (in effect) no being, and so much neglect the other, which hath no
 
 216 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 ending ; coveting those mortal things of the world as if our souls 
 were therein immortal, and neglecting those things which are 
 immortal, as if ourselves after the world were but mortal. 
 
 "But let every man value his own wisdom as hepleaseth. Let 
 the rich man think all fools that cannot equal his abundance ; the 
 revenger esteem all negligent that have not trodden down their 
 opposites ; the politician all gross that cannot merchandise their 
 faith ; yet when we once come in sight of the port of death, to 
 which all winds drive us, and when, by letting fall that fatal 
 anchor which can never be weighed again, the navigation of this 
 life takes end, then it is, I say, that our own cogitations (those sad 
 and severe cogitations formerly beaten from us by our health and 
 felicity) return again, and pay us to the uttermost for all the 
 pleasing passages of our lives past : it is then that we cry out to God 
 for mercy; then, when ourselves can no longer exercise cruelty to 
 others; and it is only then that we are struck through the soul 
 with this terrible sentence that God will not be mocked. For if, 
 according to St. Peter, ' the righteous scarcely be saved,' and that 
 God spared not his angels, where shall those appear who, having 
 served their appetites all their lives, presume to think that the severe 
 commandments of the all-powerful God were given but in sport, 
 and that the short breath which we draw when death presseth us, 
 if we can but fashion it to the sound of mercy (without any kind 
 of satisfaction or amends), is sufficient ? O quam multi, saith a reve- 
 rend father, cum hac spe ad asternos labores et bella descendunt ! I 
 confess that it is a great comfort to our friends to have it said 
 that we ended well, for we all desire (as Balaam did) to die the 
 death of the righteous. But what shall we call a disesteeming, an 
 opposing, or (indeed) a mocking of God, if those men do not oppose 
 him, disesteem him, and mock him, that think it enough for God 
 to ask him forgiveness at leisure with the remainder and last draw- 
 ing of a malicious breath ? For what do they otherwise, that die 
 this kind of well-dying, but say unto God, as followeth ? ' We beseech 
 thee, O God, that all the falsehoods, forswearings, and treacheries 
 of our lives past may be pleasing unto thee ; that thou wilt for our 
 sakes (that have had no leisure to do anything for thine) change 
 thy nature (though impossible) and forget to be a just God; that 
 thou wilt love injuries and oppressions, call ambition wisdom, and 
 charity foolishness. For I shall prejudice my son (which I am
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 217 
 
 resolved not to do) if I make restitution ; and confess myself 
 to have been unjust (which I am too proud to do) if I deliver 
 the oppressed.' Certainly these wise worldlings have either found 
 out a new God, or made one, and in all likelihood such a 
 leaden one as Louis the Eleventh wore in his cap, which, 
 when he had caused any that he feared or hated to be killed, 
 ihe would take it from his head and kiss it, beseeching it to pardon 
 him this one evil act more, and it should be the last 5 which (as at 
 other times) he did when, by the practice of a Cardinal and a 
 falsified sacrament, he caused the Earl of Armagnac to be stabbed 
 to death ; mockeries indeed fit to be used towards a leaden, but not 
 towards the ever-living God. But of this composition are all 
 devout lovers of the world, that they fear all that is dureless and 
 ridiculous ; they fear the plots and practices of their opposites, and 
 their very whisperings ; they fear the opinions of men, which beat 
 but upon shadows ; they flatter and forsake the prosperous and 
 unprosperous, be they friends or kings ; yea, they dive under water 
 like ducks at every pebble-stone that is but thrown towards them by 
 a powerful hand ; and, on the contrary, they show an obstinate and 
 giant-like valour against the terrible judgments of the all-powerful 
 God ; yea, they show themselves gods against God, and slaves to- 
 wards men towards men whose bodies and consciences are alike 
 rotten.* 
 
 " Now for the rest. If we truly examine the difference of both 
 conditions to wit, of the rich and mighty, whom we call fortunate* 
 and of the poor and oppressed, whom we account wretched we shall 
 find the happiness of the one, and the miserable estate of the other, 
 so tied by God to the very instant, and both so subject to inter- 
 change (witness the sudden downfall of the greatest princes, 
 and the speedy uprising of the meanest persons), as the one 
 
 * An allusion to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, who" was dying of a 
 complaint sufficiently indicated by the adjective, whilst Ralegh was writing 
 the above words. This is all the revenge he ever took upon his enemy. A 
 very bitter epitaph on Cecil is generally ascribed to Sir Walter so bitter, 
 indeed, that James the First said he hoped the author might die before him. 
 But it is the offensive personality of an ill-bred man. That Sir Walter never 
 wrote it, I am as certain as though I could hear his indignant denial of the 
 authorship. Nothing is more conspicuous in the writings of Ralegh than 
 his modest and manly decency. I will not sully the page by quoting this 
 epitaph.
 
 218 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 hath nothing so certain whereof to boast, nor the other so- 
 uncertain whereof to bewail himself. For there is no man so assured 
 of his honour, of his riches, health, or life, but that he may be 
 deprived of either, or all, the very next hour or day to come. 
 Quid vesper vehat, incertum est: 'what the evening will bring with* 
 it, is uncertain.' ' And yet ye cannot tell (saith St. James) what 
 shall be to-morrow. To-day he is set up, and to-morrow he shall 
 not be found, for he is turned into dust, and his purpose perisheth.' 
 And although the air which compasseth adversity be very obscure,, 
 yet therein we better discern God, than in that shining light which 
 environeth worldly glory ; through which, for the clearness thereof, 
 there is no vanity which escapeth our sight. And let adversity 
 seem what it will, to happy men ridiculous, who make themselves 
 merry at other men's misfortunes and to those under the cross 
 grievous ; yet this is true, that for all that is past, to the very 
 instant, the portions remaining are equal to either. For, be it that 
 we have lived many years, and (according to Solomon) in them all 
 we have rejoiced ; or be it that we have measured the same length of 
 days, and therein have evermore sorrowed ; yet, looking back from 
 our present being, we find both the one and the other to wit, the 
 joy and the woe sailed out of sight, and death, which doth pursue 
 us and hold us in chase from our infancy, hath gathered it- 
 Quicquid cetatis retro est, mors tenet : l whatsoever of our age is past,, 
 death holds it.' So as whosoever he be to whom fortune hath been 
 a servant, and the time a friend, let him but take account of his 
 memory (for we have no other keeper of our pleasures past), and 
 truly examine what it hath reserved either of beauty and youth, 
 or foregone delights ; what it hath saved, that it might last of his 
 dearest affections, or of whatever else the amorous spring-time gave 
 his thoughts of contentment then unvalu able, and he shall find that 
 all the art which his elder years have, can draw no other vapour 
 out of these dissolutions than heavy, secret, and sad sighs. He 
 shall find nothing remain ing but those sorrows which grow up after 
 our fast-springing youth ; overtake it when it is at a stand, and 
 over-top it utterly when it begins to wither, insomuch as, look- 
 ing back from the very instant time, and from our now being, the 
 poor, diseased, and captive creature hath as little sense of all his 
 former miseries and pains, as he that is most blessed in common 
 opinion hath of his fore-past pleasure and delights. For what-
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 soever is cast behind us is just nothing, and what is to come 
 deceitful hope hath it ; omnia qua ventura sunt, in incerto jacent. 
 Only those few black swans I must except, who having had the 
 grace to value worldly vanities at no more than their own price, 
 do, by retaining the comfortable memory of a well-acted life, behold 
 death without dread, and the grave without fear, and embrace 
 both as necessary guides to endless glory. 
 
 " For myself, this is iny consolation, and all that I can offer to 
 others, that the sorrows of this life are but of two sorts, whereof the 
 one hath respect to God, the other to the world. In the first we 
 complain to God against ourselves for our offences against him ; 
 and confess, et tu Justus es in omnibus qua venerunt super nos : ' and 
 thou, O Lord, art just in all that has befallen us.' In the second 
 we complain to ourselves against God, as if he had done us wrong, 
 either in not giving us worldly goods and honours answering our 
 appetites, or for taking them again from us, having had them ; forget- 
 ting that humble and just acknowledgment of Job, 'the Lord hath 
 given, andthe Lord hath taken :' to the first of which St. Paul hath 
 promised blessedness ; to the second, death. And out of doubt, he 
 is either a fool, or ungrateful to God, or both, that doth not 
 acknowledge, how mean soever his estate be, that the same is yet 
 far greater than that which God oweth him ; or doth not acknow- 
 ledge, how sharp soever his afflictions be, that the same are yet far 
 less than those which are due unto him. And if an heathen wise 
 man call the adversities of the world but Iributa vivendi 'the 
 tributes of living,' a wise Christian man ought to know them, 
 and bear them but as the tributes of offending. He ought to 
 bear them man-like, and resolvedly, and not as those whining 
 soldiers do, qui gementes sequuntur imperatorem. 
 
 "For seeing God (who is the author of all our tragedies) hath 
 written out for us and appointed us all the parts we are to play, 
 and hath not, in their distribution, been partial to the most mighty 
 princes of the world ; that gave unto Darius the part of the greatest 
 emperor, and the part of the most miserable beggar a beggar 
 begging water of an enemy to quench the great drought of death ; 
 that appointed Bajazet to play the Grand Seignior of the Turks 
 in the morning, and in the same day the footstool of Tamerlane 
 (both of which parts Valerian had also played, being taken by 
 Sapores) ; that made Belisarius play the most victorious captain,
 
 220 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 and last, the part of a blind beggar of which examples many 
 thousands may be produced ; why should other men, who are but 
 as the least worms, complain of wrongs ? Certainly there is no 
 other account to be made of this ridiculous world than to resolve, 
 that the change of fortune on the great theatre, is but as the change 
 of garments on the less. For when on the one and the other, 
 every man wears but his own skin the players are all alike. Now 
 if any man out of weakness prize the passages of this world other- 
 wise (for saith Petrarch, magni ingenii est revocare mentem a 
 sensibus), it is by reason of that unhappy fantasy of ours, which 
 forgeth in the brains of man all the miseries (the corporal excepted) 
 whereunto he is subject. Therein it is that misfortune and ad- 
 versity work all that they work. For seeing death, in the end of 
 the play, takes from all whatsoever fortune or force takes from 
 any one, it were a foolish madness in the shipwreck of worldly 
 things, where all sinks but the sorrow, to save it. That were, as 
 Seneca saith, ' fortunes succumbere^ quod tristius est omni fatoj 'to 
 fall under fortune, of all other the most miserable destiny.' " 
 
 "HOW AHAZIAH PEEISHED WITH THE DOUSE OF AHAB J AND 110W THAT 
 FAMILY WAS DESTROYED BY JBHU. 
 
 " The whole army of Israel, with all the principal captains, 
 lying in Ramoth Gilead, a disciple of Elisseus the prophet, came 
 in among the captains that were sitting together, who, calling out 
 among them Jehu, a principal man, took him apart, and anointed 
 him king over Israel, rehearsing unto him the prophecy of Elias 
 against the house of Ahab, and letting him understand that it 
 was the pleasure of God to make him the executioner of that sen- 
 tence. The fashion of the messenger was such as bred in the 
 captains a desire to know the errand, which Jehu thought meet to 
 let them know, as doubting whether they had overheard all the 
 talk or no. When he had acquainted them with the whole matter, 
 they made no delay, but forthwith proclaimed him king. For the 
 prophecy of Elias was well known among them, neither durst 
 any one oppose himself against him that was by God ordained to 
 perform it. 
 
 " Jehu, who had upon the sudden this great honour thrown 
 upon him, was not slow to put himself in possession of it, but used
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 221 
 
 the first heat of their affections, who joined with him in setting on 
 foot the business which nearly concerned him, and was not to be 
 foreslowed, being no more his own than God's. 
 
 " The first care taken was, that no news of the revolt might be 
 carried to Jezreel, whereby the king might have had warning either 
 to fight or flee : this being foreseen, he marched swiftly away to 
 take the court while it was yet secure. King Jehoram was now 
 so well recovered of his wounds, that he could endure to ride 
 abroad ; for which cause it seems that there was much feasting 
 and joy made, especially by Queen Jezabel, who kept her state so 
 well, that the brethren of Ahaziah coming thither at this time, 
 did make it as well their errand^to salute the queen as to visit the 
 king. 
 
 " Certain it is, that since the rebellion of Moab against Israel, 
 the house of Ahab did never so much flourish as at this time. 
 Seventy princes of the blood royal there were that lived in Sa- 
 maria : Jehoram, the son of Queen Jezabel, had won Ramoth 
 Gilead, which his father had attempted in vain, with loss of his 
 life ; and he won it by valiant fight, wherein he received wounds, 
 of which the danger was now past, but the honour likely to con- 
 tinue. The amity was so great between Israel and Judah, that it 
 might suffice to daunt all their common enemies, leaving no hope 
 of success to any rebellious enterpriser ; so that now the prophecy 
 of Elias might be forgotten, or no otherwise remembered than as 
 an unlikely tale, by them that beheld the majestical face of the 
 court, wherein so great a friend as the King of Judah was enter- 
 tained, and forty princes of his blood expected. 
 
 " In the midst of this security, whilst these great estates were 
 (perhaps) either consulting about prosecution of their intents, 
 first against the Aramites, and then against Moab, Edom, and 
 other rebels and enemies, or else were triumphing in joy of that 
 which was already achieved, and the Queen-mother dressing her- 
 self in the bravest manner to come down amongst them, tidings 
 were brought in, that a watchman had from a tower discovered a 
 company coming. These news were not very troublesome ; for 
 the army that lay in Ramoth Gilead to be ready against all 
 attempts of the Aramites, was likely enough to be discharged 
 upon some notice taken that the enemy would not, or could not 
 stir. Only the king sent out an horseman to know what the mat-
 
 222 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 ter was, and to bring him word. The messenger coming to Jehu, 
 and asking whether all were well, was retained by him, who 
 intended to give the king as little warning as might be. The 
 .seeming negligence of this fellow in not returning with an answer, 
 might argue the matter to be of small importance ; yet the king, 
 to be satisfied, sent out another that should bring him word how 
 all went ; and he was likewise detained by Jehu. These dumb 
 shows bred some suspicion in Jehoram, whom the watchman cer- 
 tified of all that happened. And now the company drew so near, 
 that they might, though not perfectly, be discerned, and notice 
 taken of Jehu himself, by the furious manner of his marching. 
 Wherefore the king, that was loth to discover any weakness, 
 caused his chariot to be made ready, and issued forth with Aha- 
 xiah, King of Judah, in his company, whose presence added 
 majesty to his train, when strength to resist, or expedition to flee, 
 had been more needful. This could not be done so hastily but 
 that Jehu was come even to the town's end, and there they met 
 each other in the field of Naboth. Jehoram began to salute Jehu 
 with terms of peace ; but receiving a bitter answer, his heart 
 failed him ; so that, crying out upon the treason to his fellow king, 
 he turned away to have fled. But Jehu soon overtook him with 
 an arrow, wherewith he struck him dead, and threw his carcase 
 into that field which, purchased with the blood of the rightful 
 owner, was to be watered with the blood of the unjust possessor. 
 Neither did Ahaziah escape so well, but that he was arrested by a 
 wound, which held him till death did seize upon him. 
 
 " The king's palace was joining to the wall, by the gate of the 
 city, where Jezabel might soon be advertised of this calamity, if 
 she did not with her own eyes behold it. Now it was high time 
 for her to call to God for mercy, whose judgment, pronounced 
 against her long before, had overtaken her when she least expected 
 it. But she, full of indignation and proud thoughts, made herself 
 ready in all haste, and painted her face, hoping with her stately 
 and imperious looks to daunt the traitor, or at least to utter some 
 apophthegm that should express her brave spirit, and brand him 
 with such a reproach as might make him odious for ever. Little 
 <lid she think upon the hungry dogs that were ordained to devour 
 her, whose paunches the stibium with which she besmeared her 
 eyes would more offend, than the scolding language wherewith
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 223 
 
 she armed her tongue could trouble the ears of him that had her 
 in his power. As Jehu drew n&ar, she opened her window, and, 
 looking out upon him, began to put him in mind of Zimri, that 
 had not long enjoyed the fruits of his treason and murder of the 
 king his master. This was, in mere human valuation, stoutly 
 spoken, but was indeed a part of miserable folly, as are all things, 
 howsoever laudable, if they have an ill relation to God, the Lord of 
 all. Her own eunuchs that stood by and heard her were not affected 
 so much as with any compassion of her fortune, much less was her 
 enemy daunted with her proud spirit. When Jehu saw that she 
 did use the little remainder of her life in seeking to vex him, he 
 made her presently to understand her own estate, by deeds and 
 not by words. He only called to her servants to know which of 
 them would be on his side, and soon found them ready to offer 
 their service before the very face of their proud lady. Hereupon 
 he commanded them to cast her down headlong; which imme- 
 diately they performed, without all regard of her greatness and 
 estate, wherein she had a few hours before shined so gloriously in 
 the eyes of men, of men that considered not the judgments of 
 God that had been denounced against her. 
 
 " So perished this accursed woman, by the rude hands of her 
 own servants, at the commandment of her greatest enemy, that 
 was yesterday her subject, but now her lord ; and she perished 
 miserably, struggling in vain with base grooms, who contemptu- 
 ously did hale and thrust her, whilst her insulting enemy sat on 
 horseback, adding indignity to her grief, by scornful beholding 
 the shameful manner of her fall, and trampling her body under 
 foot. Her dead carcass that was left without the walls, was 
 devoured by dogs, and her very memory was odious. Thus the 
 vengeance of God rewarded her idolatry, murder, and oppression, 
 witli slow, but sure payment, and full interest. 
 
 " Ahaziah, king of Juda, fleeing apace from Jehu, was overtaken 
 by the way, where he lurked; and receiving his deadly wound in 
 the kingdom of Samaria, was suffered to get him gone (which he 
 did in all haste), and seek his burial in his own kingdom; and this 
 favour he obtained for his grandfather's sake, not for his father's, 
 nor his own. .He died at Megiddo, and was thence carried to 
 Jerusalem, where he was interred with his ancestors, having 
 reigned about one year."
 
 224 THE LIFE AXD TIMES OF 
 
 " OP THB TJNWARLIKE ABMT LEVIED BY DAEIU8 AGAINST ALEXANDER THE 
 UNADVISED COURSES WHICH DABIUS TOOK IN THIS EXPEDITION HE IS 
 VANQUISHED AT ISSUS, WHERE HIS MOTHER, WIFE, AND CHILDREN, ARE: 
 MADE PRISONERS OF SOME THINGS FOLLOWING THE BATTLE OF I8SUS- 
 
 "In the mean season Darius approached, who (as Curtius 
 reports) had compounded an army of more than two hundred and 
 ninety thousand soldiers out of divers nations ; Justine musters 
 them at three hundred thousand foot, and a hundred thousand 
 horse ; Plutarch at six hundred thousand. 
 
 " The manner of his coming on, as Curtius describes it, was 
 rather like a masker than a man of war, and like one that took 
 more care to set out his glory and riches than to provide for his 
 own safety, persuading himself, as it seemed, to beat Alexander 
 with pomp and sumptuous pageants. For before the army there 
 was carried the holy fire, which the Persians worshipped, attended 
 by their priests ; and after them three hundred and three score 
 and five young men, answering the number of the days of the year, 
 covered with scarlet; then the chariot of Jupiter drawn with 
 white horses, with their riders clothed in the same colour, with 
 rods of gold in their hands ; and, after it, the horse of the sun. 
 Next after these follow ten sumptuous chariots inlaid and gar- 
 nished with silver and gold ; and then the -vanguard of their horse, 
 compounded of twelve several nations, which, the better to avoid 
 confusion, did hardly understand each other's language ; and these, 
 marshalled at the head of the rest, being beaten, might serve very 
 fitly to disorder all that followed them. In the tail of these horses 
 the regiment of foot marched, with the Persians called immortal, 
 because, if any died, the number was presently supplied, and these 
 were armed with chains of gold, and their coats with the same 
 metal embroidered, whereof the sleeves were garnished with pearls, 
 baits either to catch the hungry Macedonians withal, or to persuade 
 them that it were great incivility to cut and to deface such glo- 
 rious garments. But it was well said, ' Sumptuose indutus miles, 
 se virtute superiorem aliis non existimet, cum in prceliis oportet 
 fortitudine animi, et non vestimentis se muniri, quoniam hostes ves- 
 tibus non debellantur :' 'Let no man think that he exceedeth those 
 in valour whom he exceedeth in gay garments ; for it is by men 
 armed with fortitude of mind, and not by the apparel they put on,
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 225 
 
 that enemies are beaten.' And it was perchance from the Roman 
 Papyrius that this advice was borrowed who, when he fought 
 against the Samnites in that fatal battle wherein they all swore 
 either to prevail or die, thirty thousand of them having apparelled 
 themselves in white garments, with high crests and great plumes 
 of feathers,' bade the Roman soldiers to lay aside all fear : ' Non 
 enim cristas vulnera facere, et per picta atque aurata scuta transire 
 Romanum pilum : ' For these plumed crests would wound nobody, 
 and the Roman pile would bore holes in painted and gilded 
 shields.' 
 
 " To second this court-like company, fifteen thousand were 
 appointed more rich and glittering that the former, but apparelled 
 like women (belike to breed the more terror), and these were 
 honoured with the title of the king's kinsmen. Then came Darius 
 himself, the gentlemen of his guard-robe riding before his chariot, 
 which was supported with the gods of his nation, cast and cut in 
 pure gold : these the Macedonians did not serve, but they served 
 their turns of these, by changing their massive bodies into thin, 
 portable, and current coin. The head of this chariot was set with 
 precious stones, with two little golden idols, covered with an open- 
 winged eagle of the same metal. The hinder part being raised 
 high, whereon Darius sat, had a covering of inestimable value 
 This chariot of the king was followed with ten thousand horsemen, 
 their lances plated with silver, and their heads gilt, which they 
 meant not to imbrue in the Macedonian blood, for fear of marring 
 their beauty. He had for the proper guard of his own person two 
 hundred of the blood royal ; blood too royal and precious to be 
 spilt by any valorous adventure (I am of opinion that two hundred 
 sturdy fellows, like the Switzers, would have done him more ser- 
 vice) and these were backed with thirty thousand footmen, after 
 whom again were led four hundred spare horses for the king, 
 which, if he had meant to have used, he would have marshalled 
 somewhat nearer him. 
 
 "Now followed the rearward, the same being led by Sysigam- 
 bis, the king's mother, and by his wife, drawn in glorious chariots, 
 followed by a great train of ladies, their attendants, on horseback, 
 with fifteen waggons of the king's children, and the wives of the 
 nobility, waited on by two hundred and fifty concubines, and a 
 world of nurses and eunuchs, most sumptuously apparelled : by
 
 226 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 which it should seem that Darius thought that the Macedonians 
 had been comedians or tumblers ; for this troop was far fitter to 
 behold those sports than to be present at battles. Between these 
 and a company of slight-armed slaves, with a world of valets, was 
 the king's treasure, charged on six hundred mules and three hun- 
 dred camels, brought, as it proved, to pay the Macedonians. In 
 this sort came the May-game king into the field, encumbered with 
 a most unnecessary train of strumpets, attended with troops of 
 divers nations, speaking divers languages, and for their numbers 
 impossible to be marshalled; and, for the most part, so effeminate, 
 and so rich in gold and in garments, as the same could not but 
 have encouraged the nakedest nation of the world against them. 
 We find it in daily experience, that all discourse of magnanimity, 
 of national virtue, of religion, of liberty, and whatsoever else hath 
 been wont to move and encourage virtuous men, hath no force at 
 all with the common soldier, in comparison of spoil and riches. 
 The rich ships are boarded upon all disadvantages, the rich towns 
 are furiously assaulted, and the plentiful countries willingly 
 invaded. Our English nation have attempted many places in the 
 Indies, and run upon the Spaniards headlong, in hope of their 
 royals of plate and pistolets ; which, had they been put to it upon 
 the like disadvantages in Ireland, or in any poor country, they 
 Avould have turned their pieces and pikes against their comman- 
 ders, contesting that they had been brought without reason to the 
 butchery and slaughter. It is true that the war is made willingly, 
 and for the most part with good success, that is ordained against 
 the richest nations ; for as the needy are always adventurous, so 
 plenty is wont to shun peril, and men that have well to live, do 
 rather study how to live well I mean wealthily than care to die 
 (as they call it) honourably. ' Car ou il iCy a rien u gagner que 
 dcs coups, volontiers il riy va pas : ' No man makes haste to the 
 market, where there is nothing to be bought but blows.' 
 
 "Now, if Alexander had beheld this preparation before his 
 consultation with his soothsayers, he would have satisfied himself 
 by the outsides of the Persians, and never have looked into the 
 entrails of beasts for success. For, leaving the description of 
 this second battle (which is indeed nowhere well described, 
 neither for the confusion and hasty running away of the Asians 
 could it be), we have enough by the slaughter that was made of
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 227 
 
 them, and by the few that fell of the Macedonians, to inform us 
 what manner of resistance was made. For if it be true that 
 three score thousand Persian footmen were slain in this battle, 
 with ten thousand of their horsemen or (as Curtius saith) an 
 hundred thousand footmen with the same number of horsemen, 
 and, besides this slaughter, forty thousand taken prisoners, while 
 of Alexander's army there miscarried but two hundred and four 
 score of all sorts, of which numbers Arrianus and other historians 
 cut off almost the one half I do verily believe that this small 
 number rather died with the over-travail and pains-taking in 
 killing their enemies, than by any strokes . received from them. 
 And surely if the Persian nation (at this time degenerate and the 
 basest of the world) had had any savour remaining of the ancient 
 valour of their forefathers, they would never have sold so good- 
 cheap, and at so vile a price, the mother, the wife, the daughters, 
 and other the king's children, had their own honour been valued 
 by them at nothing, and the king's safety and his estate at less. 
 Darius by this time found it true, what Charidernus, a banished 
 Grecian of Athens, had told him, when he made a view of his army 
 about Babylon to wit, that the multitude which he had assembled 
 of divers nations, richly attired, but poorly armed, would be found 
 more terrible to the inhabitants of the country, whom in passing 
 by they would devour, than to the Macedonians, whom they meant 
 to assail ; who, being all old and obedient soldiers, embattled in 
 gross squadrons, which they call their phalanx, well covered with 
 armour for defence, and furnished with weapons for ofience of 
 great advantage, would make so little account of his delicate 
 Persians loving their ease and their palate, being withal ill- 
 armed and worse disciplined, as, except it would please him to 
 entertain (having 1 so great abundance of treasure to do it withal) 
 a sufficient number of the same Grecians, and so to encounter the 
 Macedonians with men of equal courage he would repent him 
 over late, as taught by the miserable success like to follow. 
 
 "But this discourse was so unpleasing to Darius (who had 
 been accustomed to nothing so much as to his own praises, and to 
 nothing so little as to hear truth), as he commanded that this 
 poor Grecian should be presently slain ; who, while he was sun- 
 dering in the tormentor's hand, used this speech to the king : 
 ' That Alexander, against whom he had given this good counsel 
 
 p 2
 
 228 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 should assuredly revenge his death, and lay deserved punishment 
 upon Darius for despising his advice? 
 
 " It was the saying of a wise man, ' Desperata ejus principis 
 salus est, cujus aures ita formatce sunt, ut aspera qua utilia, nee 
 quicquam nisi jucundum accipiat:" 1 that 'prince's safety is in a 
 desperate case, whose ears judge all that is profitable to be too 
 sharp, and will entertain nothing that is unpleasant.' 
 
 "'For liberty in counsel is the life and essence of counsel :' 
 * Libertas consilii est ejus vita et essentia, qua erepta consilium 
 evanescit.' 
 
 " Darius did likewise value at nothing the advice given him by 
 the Grecian soldiers that served him, who entreated him not to 
 fight in the straits. But had they been counsellors and direc- 
 tors in that war as they were underlings and commanded by 
 others they had, with the help of a good troop of horsemen, been 
 able to have opposed the fury of Alexander, without any assist- 
 ance of the Persian footmen. For when Darius was overthrown 
 with all his cowardly and confused rabble, those Grecians, under 
 their captain, Amyntas, held firm, and marched away in order, in 
 despite of the vanquishers. Old soldiers are not easily dismayed. 
 We read in histories, ancient and modern, what brave retreats 
 have been made by them, though the rest of the army in which 
 they have served hath been broken. 
 
 " At the battle of Ravenna, where the imperials were beaten 
 by the French, a squadron of Spaniards, old soldiers, came off 
 unbroken and undismayed ; whom, when Gaston de Foix, Duke 
 of Nemours, and nephew to Louis the Twelfth, charged, as 
 holding the victory not entire by their escape, he was overturned 
 and slain in the place. For it is truly said of those men, who, by 
 being acquainted with dangers, fear them not, that ' neglecto 
 periculo imminentis mail opus ipsum quantumvis difficile aggrediun- 
 tur : ' ' they go about the business itself, how hard soever it be, 
 not standing to consider of the danger which the mischief hanging 
 over their heads may bring ; ' and as truly of those that know the 
 wars but by hearsay ' Quod valentes sunt et paaevalentes ante 
 pericula, in ipsis tamen periculis discedunt:' 'they have ability 
 enough, and to spare, till dangers appear, but when peril indeed 
 comes, they get them gone.' 
 
 " These Grecians also that made the retreat, advised Darius to
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 229 
 
 retire his army into the plain of Mesopotamia, to the end that 
 Alexander being entered into those large fields and great cham- 
 paigns, he might have environed the Macedonians on all sides with 
 his multitude ; and, withal, they counselled him to divide that his 
 huge army into parts, not committing the whole to one stroke of 
 fortune, whereby he might have fought many battles, and have 
 brought no greater numbers at once than might have been well 
 marshalled and conducted. But this counsel was so contrary to 
 the cowardly affections of the Persians, as they persuaded Darius 
 to environ the Grecians which gave the advice, and to cut them 
 in pieces as traitors. The infinite wisdom of God doth not work 
 always by one and the same way, but very often in the alteration 
 of kingdoms and estates, by taking understanding from the 
 governors, so as they can neither give nor discern of counsels. 
 For Darius, that would needs fight with Alexander upon a 
 straightened piece of ground, near unto the city of Issus, where 
 he could bring no more hands to fight than Alexander could 
 (who by the advice of Parmenio stayed there, as in a place of best 
 advantage), was utterly overthrown, his treasure lost, his wife, 
 mother, and children (whom the Grecians, his followers, had per- 
 suaded him to leave in Babylon, or elsewhere), taken prisoners, 
 and all their train of ladies spoiled of their rich garments, jewels, 
 and honour. It is true that both the queen with her daughters, 
 who had the good hap to be brought to Alexander's presence, 
 were entertained with all respect due unto their birth, their 
 honours preserved, and their jewels and rich garments restored 
 unto them. And though Darius's wife was a most beautiful lady, 
 and his daughters of excellent form, yet Alexander mastered his 
 affections towards them all ; only, it is reported out of Aristobulus, 
 the historian, that he embraced the wife of the valiant Memnon, 
 her husband lately dead, who was taken, flying from Damascus, 
 by Parmenio, at which time the daughters of Ochus, who reigned 
 before Darius, and the wives and children of all the nobility of 
 Persia, in effect, fell into captivity. At which tune, also, Darius's 
 treasure (not lost at Issus) was seized, amounting to six thousand 
 and two hundred talents of coin, and of bullion five hundred 
 talents, with a world of riches besides. 
 
 "Darius himself, leaving his brother dead, with divers other 
 of his chief captains (casting the crown from his head), hardly 
 escaped.
 
 230 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 " After this overthrow given unto Darius, all Phoenicia (the 
 city of Tyre excepted) was yielded to Alexander, of which Par- 
 menio was made governor. 
 
 " Aradus, Zidon, and Biblos, maritimate cities of great im- 
 portance, of which one Strato was king (but hated of the people), 
 acknowledged Alexander. Good fortune followed him so fast 
 that it trod on his heels ; for Antigonus, Alexander's lieutenant 
 in Asia the less, overthrew the Cappadocians, Paphlagonians, and 
 others lately revolted; Aristodemus, Darius's admiral, had his 
 fleet partly taken and in part drowned, by the Macedonians newly 
 levied. The Lacedasmonians that warred against Antipater were 
 beaten ; four thousand of those Greeks which made the retreat at 
 the last battle, forsaking both the party of Darius and Alexander, 
 and led by Amyntas into Egypt, to hold it for themselves, were 
 buried there ; for the time was not yet come to divide kingdoms. 
 
 " Alexander, to honour Ephestion, whom he loved most, gave 
 him power to dispose of the kingdom of Zidon. A man of a most 
 poor estate, that laboured to sustain his life, being of the royal 
 blood, was commended by the people unto him, who changed his 
 spade into a sceptre, so as he was beheld both a beggar and a 
 king in one and the same hour. 
 
 "It was a good desire of this new .king, when speaking to 
 Alexander, he wished that he could bear his prosperity with the 
 same moderation and quietness of heart that he had done his 
 adversity ; but ill-done of Alexander, in that he would not per- 
 form in himself that which he commended in another man's 
 desire, for it was a sign that he did but accompany, and could not 
 govern, his felicity. 
 
 "While he made some stay in those parts, he received a letter 
 from Darius, importing the ransom of his wife, his mother, and 
 his children, with some other conditions of peace, but such as 
 rather became a conqueror than one that had now been twice 
 shamefully beaten, not vouchsafing, in his direction, to style 
 Alexander king. It is true that the Romans, after they had 
 received an overthrow by Pyrrhus, returned him a more scornful 
 answer upon the offer of peace than they did before the trial of 
 his force. But as their fortunes were then in the spring, so that 
 of Darius had already cast leaf the one a resolved, well-armed 
 and disciplined nation, the other cowardly and effeminate. 
 Alexander disdained the offers of Darius, and sent him word that
 
 SIH WALTER RALEGH. 231 
 
 he not only directed his letters to a king, but to the king of 
 Darius himself." 
 
 "OF ALEXANDER'S PERSON AND QUALITIES. 
 
 " Alexander's cruelties cannot be excused, any more than his 
 vanity to be esteemed the son of Jupiter, with his excessive 
 delight in drink and drunkenness, which others make the cause 
 of his fever and death. In that he lamented his want of enter- 
 prising, and grieved to consider what he should do when he had 
 conquered the world, Augustus Caesar found just cause to deride 
 him, as if the well-governing of so many nations and kingdoms 
 as he had already conquered, could not have offered him matter 
 more than abundant to busy his brains withal. That he was 
 both learned and a lover of learning, it cannot be doubted ; Sir 
 Francis Bacon, in his first book of the ' Advancement of Learn- 
 ing,' hath proved it sufficiently. His liberality I know not how 
 to praise, because it exceeded proportion. It is said that when 
 he gave a whole city to one of his servants, he to whom it was 
 given did, out of modesty, refuse it, as disproportionable to his 
 fortune ; to whom Alexander replied, ' That he did not inquire 
 what became him to accept, but the king to give ;' of which 
 Seneca ' Animosa vox videtur et regia, cum sit stultissima. 
 Nihil enim per se quemquam decet. Refert quid, cui, quando, 
 quare, ubi, etc., sine quibus facti ratio non constabit ; habeatur 
 personarum et dignitatum proporlio, et cum sit ubique virtutis 
 modus, eeque peccat quod excedit, quam quod deficit:' 1 'It seems 
 a brave and royal speech, whereas indeed it is very foolish ; for 
 nothing, simply considered by itself, beseems a man. We must 
 regard what, to whom, when, why, where, and the like without 
 which considerations no act can be approved. Let honours be 
 proportioned unto the persons ; for whereas virtue is ever limited 
 by measure, the excess is as faulty as the defect.' 
 
 " So much hath the spirit of some one man excelled, as it 
 hath undertaken and effected the alteration of the greatest states 
 and commonweals, the erection of monarchies, the conquest of 
 kingdoms and empires, guided handfuls of men against multi- 
 tudes of equal bodily strength, contrived victories beyond all 
 hope and discourse of reason, converted the fearful passions of 
 his own followers into magnanimity, and the valour of his ene- 
 mies into cowardice. Such spirits have been stirred up in
 
 232 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 sundry ages of the world, and in divers parts thereof, to erect 
 and cast down again, to establish and to destroy, and to bring 
 all things, persons, and states, 'to the same certain ends, which 
 the infinite Spirit of the Universal, piercing, moving, and govern- 
 ing all things, hath ordained. Certainly the things that this 
 king did were marvellous, and would hardly have been under- 
 taken by any man else ; and, though his father had determined to 
 have invaded the lesser Asia, it is like enough that he would 
 have contented himself with some parts thereof, and not have 
 discovered the River of Indus, as this man did. The swift course 
 of victory wherewith he ran over so large a portion of the 
 world in so short a space, may justly be attributed unto this 
 that he was never encountered by an equal spirit, concurring 
 with equal power, against him. Hereby it came to pass that 
 his actions, being limited by no greater opposition than desert 
 places and the mere length of tedious journeys could make, were 
 like the Colossus of Rhodes not so much to be admired for 
 the workmanship, though therein also praiseworthy, as for the 
 huge bulk ; for certainly the things performed by Xenophon dis- 
 cover as brave a spirit as Alexander's, and working no less ex- 
 quisitely, though the effects were less material, as were also the 
 forces and power of command by which it wrought. But he 
 that would find the exact pattern of a noble commander, must 
 look upon such as Epaminondas, that, encountering worthy 
 captains, and those better followed than themselves, have by their 
 singular virtue overtopped their valiant enemies, and still prevailed 
 over those that would not have yielded one foot to any other. 
 Such as these are, do seldom live to obtain great empires ; for it is 
 a work of more labour and longer time to master the equal forces 
 of one hardy and well-ordered state, than to tread down and 
 utterly subdue a multitude of servile nations compounding the 
 body of a gross, unwieldy empire. Wherefore, these Parvo 
 Potentes men that, with little, have done much upon enemies 
 of like ability are to be regarded as choice examples of worth ; 
 but great conquerors, to be rather admired for the substance 
 of their actions than the exquisite managing exactness and 
 greatness concurring so seldom, that I can find no instance of 
 both in one save only that brave Roman, Caesar. 
 
 " For his person, it is very apparent that he was as valiant
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 233 
 
 as any man a disposition, taken by itself, not much to be 
 admired ; for I am resolved that he had ten thousand in his 
 army as daring as himself. Surely, if adventurous natures 
 were to be commended simply, we should confound that virtue 
 with the hardiness of thieves, ruffians, and mastiff dogs; for 
 certainly it is no way praiseworthy but in daring good things, 
 and in the performance of those lawful enterprises in which we 
 are employed for the service of our kings and commonweals. 
 
 "If we compare this great conqueror with other troublers 
 of the world who have bought their glory with so great destruc- 
 tion and effusion of blood, I think him far inferior to Caesar and 
 many others that lived after him ; seeing he -never undertook 
 any warlike nation (the naked Scythians excepted), nor was 
 ever encountered with any army of which he had not a most 
 mastering advantage, both of weapons and commanders every 
 one of his father's old captains by far exceeding the best of his 
 enemies. But it seems fortune and destiny if we may use those 
 terms had found out and prepared for him, without any care 
 of his own, both heaps of men that willingly offered their necks 
 to the yoke, and kingdoms that invited and called in their own 
 conquerors. For conclusion, we will agree with Seneca, who, 
 speaking of Philip the father and Alexander the son, gives this 
 judgment of them : ' Quod non minores suere pestes mortalium 
 quam inundatio, qua planum omne perfusum est, quam confla- 
 gratio qua magna pars animantium exaruit : ' They were no 
 less plagues to mankind than an overflow of waters, drowning 
 all the level; or some burning drought, whereby a great part 
 of living creatures are scorched up."* 
 
 * We subjoin the characters of Epaminondas and Agesilaus, which have 
 been highly extolled, and which are drawn in a masterly manner. 
 
 "OF BPAMINONDAS. 
 
 " So died Epaminondas, the worthiest man that ever was bred in that 
 nation of Greece, and hardly to be matched in any age or country; for 
 he equalled all others in the several virtues, which in each of them were 
 singular. His justice and sincerity, his temperance, wisdom, and magna- 
 nimity, were noway inferior to his military virtue ; in every part whereof he 
 so excelled, that he could not properly be called a wary, a valiant, a politic, 
 a bountiful, or an industrious and a provident captain. Neither was his 
 private conversation unanswerable to those high parts which gave him 
 praise abroad. For he was grave, and yet very affable and courteous;
 
 234 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 " THE DEPABTUBE OP HANNIBAL FBOM THE CISALPINE GAULS IXTO ETBUKIA 
 FLAMINIUS, THE BOMAN CONSUL, SLAIN, AND HIS ABMT DESTROYED 
 BY TUB CABTHAGINIANS, AT THE LAKE OF TUEASYMENE. 
 
 " The winter growing on apace, was very sharp and unfit for. 
 service, to the great contentment of the Romans, who, being- not 
 able to keep the field, lay warm in Placentia and Cremona. Yet 
 Hannibal did not suffer them to rest very quiet, but vexed them 
 
 resolute in public business : but in his own particular easy, and of much 
 mildness : a lover of his people ; bearing with men's infirmities ; witty and 
 pleasant in speech, far from insolence, master of his own affections, and 
 furnished with all qualities that might win and keep love. To these graces 
 were added great ability of body, much eloquence, and very deep knowledge 
 in all parts of philosophy and learning, wherewith his mind being enlight- 
 ened, rested not in the sweetness of contemplation, but brake forth into 
 such effects as gave unto Thebes, which had evermore been an underling, 
 a dreadful reputation among all people adjoining, and the highest com- 
 mand in Greece." 
 
 " OF AQESILAUS. 
 
 " He was a prince very temperate and valiant, a good leader in war, 
 free from covetousness, and not reproached with any blemish of lust, 
 which praises are the less admirable in him, for that the discipline of Sparta 
 was such as did endue every one of the citizens (not carried away by 
 the violent stream of an ill nature) with all or the chief of these good 
 qualities. He was nevertheless very arrogant, perverse, unjust, and vain- 
 glorious, measuring all things by his own will, and obstinately prosecuting 
 those courses whose ends were beyond hope. The expedition of Xenophon 
 had filled him with an opinion, that by his hand the empire of Persia 
 should be overthrown ; with which conceit being transported, and finding 
 his proceedings interrupted by the Thebans and their allies, he did ever 
 after bear such hatred unto Thebes, as compelled that estate by mere 
 necessity to grow warlike and able, to the utter dishonour of Sparta, and 
 the irreparable loss of all her former greatness. The commendations given 
 to him by Xenophon, his good friend, have caused Plutarch to lay his name 
 in the balance against Pompey the Great, whose actions (the solemn gravity 
 of carriage excepted) are very disproportionable. Yet we may truly say, 
 that as Pompey made great wars under sundry climates, and in all the pro- 
 vinces of the Eoman empire, exceeding in the multitude of employments 
 all that were before him, so Agesilaus had, at one time or other, some 
 quarrel with every town in Greece, had made a war in Asia, and meddled 
 in the business of the Egyptians, in which variety he went beyond all his 
 predecessors ; yet not winning many countries, as Pompey did many, but 
 obtaining large wages, which Pompey never too Herein also they were
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 235 
 
 with continual alarms, assailing 1 divers places, and taking some ; 
 beating 1 the Gauls, their adherents, and winning the Ligurians to 
 his party, who presented him, in token of their faithful love, with 
 two Roman questors, or treasurers, two colonels, and five gentle- 
 men, the sons of senators, which they had intercepted. These, and 
 in general all such prisoners as he had of the Romans, he held in 
 strait places, laden with irons, and miserably fed ; those of their 
 followers he not only well entreated, but sent them to their countries 
 without ransom, with this protestation, that he therefore under- 
 took the war in Italy, to free them from the oppression of the 
 Romans. By these means he hoped, and not in vain, to draw 
 many of them to his party and assistance. But the Gauls were 
 not capable of such persuasions. They stood in fear lest he should 
 make their country the seat of war, and perhaps take it from them. 
 They were also more grieved than reason willed them, at his 
 feeding upon them, and wasting their territory. Wherefore, 
 some of them conspired against his life, others admonished him of 
 the danger ; and these that gave him the advice were ready soon 
 after to practise against him, but were in like sort detected. He 
 was therefore glad to use periwigs of hair, and false beards of 
 divers colours, to the end that he might not be descried, nor known 
 to those that should undertake to make him away. Fain he would 
 have passed the Apennines upon the first appearance of spring, 
 but was compelled, by the violence of the weather, to tarry among 
 the Gauls till he had seen more swallows than one. At length, 
 when the year was somewhat better opened, he resolved to take 
 
 very like: each of them was the last great captain which his nation 
 brought forth in time of liberty, and each of them ruined the liberty of 
 his country by his own lordly wilfulness. "We may, therefore, well say, 
 Stmilia magis omnia qitam paria : 'the resemblance was nearer than the 
 equality.' Indeed, the freedom of Rome was lost with Pompey falling into 
 the hands of Caesar, whom he had enforced to take arms ; yet the Roman 
 empire stood, the form of government only being changed. But the liberty 
 of Greece, or of Sparta itself, was not forfeited unto the Thebans, whom 
 Agesilatis had compelled to enter into a victorious war ; yet the seigniory 
 and ancient renown of Sparta was presently lost ; and the freedom of all 
 Greece, being wounded in this Theban war, and after much blood lost, ill 
 healed by the peace ensuing, did very soon, upon the death of Agesilaus, 
 give up the ghost, and the lordship of the whole country was seized by 
 Philip King of Macedon."
 
 236 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 his leave of these giddy companions, and bring the war nearer to 
 the gates of Rome. So away he went, having his army greatly 
 increased with Ligurians and Gauls more serviceable friends 
 abroad than in their own country. That the passage of the 
 Apennine mountains was troublesome, I hold it needless to make 
 any doubt. Yet since the Eoman armies found no memorable 
 impediment in their marches that way, the great vexation which 
 fell upon Hannibal when he was travelling through and over them, 
 ought in reason to be imputed rather to the extremity of winter, 
 that makes all ways foul, than to any intolerable difficulty in that 
 journey. Nevertheless, to avoid the length of way, together with 
 the resistance and fortifications, which may not improbably be 
 thought to have been erected upon the ordinary passages towards 
 Rome, he chose at this time, though it were with much trouble, to 
 travel through the fens and rotten grounds of Tuscany. In those 
 marshes and bogs he lost all his elephants save one, together with 
 the use of one of his eyes, by the moistness of the air, and by 
 lodging on the cold ground, and wading through deep mire and 
 water. In brief, after he had, with much ado, recovered the firm 
 and fertile plains, he lodged about Arretium, where he somewhat 
 refreshed his wearied followers, and heard news of the Roman 
 consuls. 
 
 "C. Flaminius and Cn. Servilius had of late been chosen consuls 
 for this year : Servilius a tractable man, and wholly governed 
 by advice of the senate ; Flaminius a hot-headed popular orator, 
 who, having once been robbed (as he thought) of his consulship 
 by a device of the senators, was afraid to be served so again, unless 
 he quickly finished the war. This jealous consul thought it not 
 best for him to be at Rome when he entered into his office, lest his 
 adversaries, by feigning some religious impediment, should detain 
 him within the city, or find other business for him at home, to dis- 
 appoint him of the honour that he hoped to get in the war. 
 Wherefore he departed secretly out of the town, and meant to take 
 possession of his office, when the day came, at Ariminum. The 
 fathers (so the senators were called), highly displeased with this, 
 revoked him by ambassadors ; but he neglected their injunction, 
 and hastening to meet with the Carthaginians, took his way to 
 Arretium, where he shortly found them. 
 
 " The fiery disposition of this [consul promised unto Hanniba.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 237 
 
 great assurance of victory. Therefore he provoked, with many 
 indignities, the vehement nature of the Eoman, hoping thereby to 
 draw him unto fight ere Servilius came with the rest of the army. 
 All the country between Fiesole and Arretium he put to fire and 
 sword, even under the consul's nose ; which was enough to make 
 him stir, that would not have sitten still though Hannibal h;id 
 been quiet. It is true that a great captain of France hath said, 
 ' Pays gnste n' est pas perdu : ' ' A wasted country is not thereby 
 lost ;' but by this waste of the country, Flaminius thought his own 
 honour to be much impaired, and therefore advanced towards the 
 enemy. Many advised him (which had indeed been best) to have 
 patience a while, and stay for his colleague ; but of this he could 
 not abide to hear, saying, that he came not to defend Arretium, 
 whilst the Carthaginians went, burning down all Italy before them, 
 to the gates of Rome. Therefore he took horse and commanded 
 the army to march. It is reported as ominous, that one of their 
 ensigns stuck so fast in the ground, as it could not be plucked up by 
 the ensign-bearer. Of this tale, whether true or false, Tully makes 
 a jest, saying, that the cowardly knave did faintly pull at it (as 
 going now to fight), having hardly pitched it into the earth. 
 Neither was the answer of Flaminius (if it were true) disagreeable 
 hereto ; for he commanded that it should be digged up, if fear had 
 made the hands too weak to lift it ; asking, withal, whether letters 
 were not come from the senate to hinder his proceedings. Of this 
 their jealousy, both he and the senate that did give him cause, 
 are likely to repent. 
 
 " All the territory of Cortona, as far as to the lake of Thrasy- 
 mene, was on a light fire ; which, whilst the consul thought to 
 quench with his enemy's blood, he pursued Hannibal so unadvisedly, 
 that he fell with his whole army into an ambush, cunningly laid for 
 him, between the mountains of Cortona and the lake. There was 
 he charged unawares, on all sides (save only where that great lake of 
 Perusia permitted neither his enemies to come at him, nor him to 
 fly from them), knowing not which way to turn or make resist- 
 ance. So was he slain in the place, accompanied with fifteen 
 thousand dead carcasses of his countrymen. About six thousand 
 of his men, that had the vanguard, took courage as for the most part 
 it happens out of desperation, and, breaking through the enemies 
 that stood in their way, recovered the tops of the mountains. If
 
 238 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 these had returned, and given charge upon the Carthaginians' 
 backs, it was thought that they might have greatly amended, if not 
 wholly altered, the fortune of the day. But that violence of their 
 fear, which, kindled by necessity, had wrought the effects of 
 hardiness, was well assuaged when they ceased to despair of saving 
 their lives by flight. They stood still, in a cold sweat, upon the hill- 
 top, hearing under them a terrible noise, but not any way disco- 
 vering how things went, because of the great fog that held all that 
 morning. When it grew toward noon the air was cleared, and 
 they might plainly discern the lamentable slaughter of their fellows. 
 But they stayed not to lament it, for it was high time, they thought, 
 to be gone ere they were descried and attacked by the enemy's 
 horse. This they should have thought upon sooner, since they had 
 no mind to return unto the fight. For descried they were, and 
 Maharbal sent after them ; who overtook them by night in a vil- 
 lage, which he surrounded with his horse, and so they yielded the 
 next day, rendering up their arms, upon his promise of their lives 
 and liberties. 
 
 " This accord Hannibal refused to confirm, saying, that it was 
 made by Maharbal without sufficient warrant, as wanting his 
 authority to make it good. Herein he taught them (yet little to 
 his own honour) what it was to keep no faith ; and fitted them 
 with a trick of their own. For if it were lawful under the Romans 
 to alter covenants, or add unto them what they listed ; if the Car- 
 thaginians must be fain to pay certain hundreds, and yet more 
 hundreds of talents, besides their first bargain ; as also to renounce 
 their interest in Sardinia, and be limited in their Spanish conquests, 
 according to the good pleasure of the Romans, whose present 
 advantage is more ample than the conditions of the late concluded 
 peace; then can Hannibal be, as a Roman, as themselves, and 
 make them know that perfidiousness gaineth no more in prosperity 
 than it loseth in the change of fortune. Fifteen thousand Italian 
 prisoners, or thereabout, he had in his hands, of which all that 
 were not Romans he set free without ransom, protesting, as he 
 had done before, that it was for their sakes, and to free them and 
 others from the Roman tyrann} T , that he had undertaken this war. 
 But the Romans he kept in strait prison and in fetters, making 
 them learn to eat hard meat. This was a good way to breed in 
 the people of Italy, if not a love of Carthage, yet a contempt of
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 239 
 
 Home ; as if this war had not concerned the general safety, but 
 only the preserving 1 of her own neck from the yoke of slavery, which 
 her over-strong enemies would have thrust upon her in revenge of 
 her oppressions. But an ancient reputation, confirmed by success 
 of many ages, is not lost in one or two battles. Wherefore more 
 is to be done ere the Carthaginians can get any Italian partisans. 
 
 " Presently after the battle of Thrasymene, C. Centronius, 
 with four thousand Roman horse, drew near unto the camp of 
 Hannibal. He was sent from Ariminum by Servilius, the other 
 consul, to increase the strength of Flaminius; but, coming too 
 late, he increased only the misadventure. Maharbal was employed 
 by Hannibal to intercept this company, who, finding them 
 amazed with the report which they had newly heard of the great 
 overthrow, charged them, and brake them, and, killing almost 
 half of them, drove the rest to an high piece of ground, whence 
 they came down, and simply yielded to mercy the next day. 
 Servih'us himself was, in the meanwhile, skirmishing with the 
 Gauls, against whom he had wrought no matter of importance, 
 when the news was brought him of his colleague's overthrow and 
 death in Etruria, that made him hasten back to the defence of 
 Eome. 
 
 " In these passages it is easy to discern the fruits of popular 
 jealousy, which persuaded the Romans to the yearly change of 
 their commanders in the wars, which greatly endangered and 
 retarded the growth of that empire. Certain it is, that all men are 
 far better taught by their own errors than by the examples of their 
 foregoers. Flaminius had heard in what a trap Sempronius had 
 been taken up but the year before by this subtle Carthaginian, yet 
 suffered he himself to be caught soon after in the same manner. 
 He had also belike forgotten how Sempronius, fearing to be pre- 
 vented by a new consul, and ambitious of the sole honour of 
 beating Hannibal in battle, without help of his companion Scipio, 
 had been rewarded with shame and loss ; else would he not, con- 
 trary to all good advice, have been so hasty to fight before the 
 arrival of Servilius. If Sempronius had been continued in his 
 charge, it is probable that he would have taken his companion with 
 him the second time, and have searched all suspected places, pro- 
 per to have shadowed an ambush, both which this new consul 
 Flaminius neglected. We [may boldly avow it, that by being
 
 240 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 continued in his government of France ten years, Csesar brought 
 that mighty nation, together with the Helvetians and many of 
 the Germans, under the Roman yoke, into ".which parts, had there 
 been every year a new lieutenant sent, they would hardly, if ever, 
 have been subdued. For it is more than the best wit in the 
 world can do, to inform itself, within one year's compass, of the 
 nature of a great nation, of the factions of the places, rivers, and 
 of all good helps, whereby to prosecute a war to the best effect. 
 Our princes have commonly left their deputies in Ireland three years ; 
 whence, by reason of the strictness of that their time, many of them 
 have returned as wise as they went out ; others have profited more, 
 and yet when they began but to know the first rudiments 
 of war and government fitting the country, they have been called 
 home, and new apprentices sent in their places, to the great pre- 
 judice both of this and that estate. But it hath ever been the 
 course of the world rather to follow old errors than to examine 
 them ; and of princes and governors, to uphold their slothful igno- 
 rance by the old examples and policy of other ages and people, 
 though neither likeness of time, of occasion, nor of any other cir- 
 cumstance, have persuaded the imitation. 
 
 HOW Q. FABIUS, THE HOMAN DICTATOR, SOUGHT TO CONSUME THE FORCE 
 OF HANNIBAL, BT LINGERING WAR MINUTrUS, THB MASTER OF THE 
 HORSE, HONOURED AND ADVANCED BT THE PEOPLE FOE BOLD AND 
 SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTING, ADVENTURES RASHLY UPON HANNIBAL, AND 
 IS LIKE TO PERISH WITH HIS ARMY, BUT EESCUED BY FABIUS. 
 
 " Greatly were the Romans amazed at this their ill success, 
 and at the danger apparent, which threatened them in more 
 terrible manner than ever did war since Rome itself was 
 taken. They were good soldiers, and so little accustomed to receive 
 an overthrow, that when Pyrrhus had beaten them, once and 
 njrain, in open field, all Italy was strangely affected with his 
 success, and held him in admiration, as one that could work 
 wonders. But Pyrrhus' quarrel was not grounded upon hate : 
 he only sought honour, and fought (as it were) upon a bravery, 
 demeaning himself like a courteous enemy. This Carthaginian 
 detested the whole Roman name, against which he burned with 
 desire of revenge. Ticinum, Trebia, and Thrasymene witnessed 
 his purpose and his ability, which to withstand they fled unto a
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 241 
 
 remedy that had long been out of use, and created a dictator. The 
 dictator's power was greater than the consul's, and scarcely subject 
 unto the control of the whole city. Wherefore this officer was seldom 
 chosen but upon some extremity, and for no longer time than six 
 months. He was to be named by one of the consuls, at the ap- 
 pointment of the senate, though it were so, that the consul (if he 
 stood upon his prerogative) might name whom he pleased. At this 
 time, the one consul being dead, and the other too far off, the 
 people took upon them, as having supreme authority, to give the 
 dignity, by their election, to Q. Fabius Maximus, the best reputed 
 man of war in the city. Novum factum, novum consilium expe- 
 tit: 'contrary winds, contrary courses.' Q. Fabius chose M. 
 Minutius Kufus master of the horse, which officer was customarily 
 as the dictator's lieutenant, though this Minutius grew afterwards 
 famous by taking more upon him. 
 
 " The first act of Fabius was the reformation of somewhat 
 amiss in matter of religion a good beginning, and commendable, 
 had the religion been also good. But if it were true (as Livy 
 reports it) that the books of Sibyl were consulted, and gave 
 direction in this business of devotion, then must we believe that 
 those books of Sibyl, preserved in Rome, were dictated by an evil 
 spirit. For it was ordained that some vow, made in the beginning 
 of this war to Mars, should be made anew, and amplified as having 
 not been rightly made before; also that great plays should be 
 vowed unto Jupiter, and a temple to Yenus, with such other 
 trumpery. This vehemency of superstition proceeds always from 
 vehemency of fear. And surely this was a time when Rome was 
 exceedingly distempered with passion, whereof that memorable 
 accident of two women that suddenly died when they saw their 
 sons return alive from Thrasymene, may serve to bear witness, 
 though it be more properly an example of motherly love. The 
 walls and towers of the city were now repaired and fortified ; the 
 bridges upon rivers were broken down, and all care taken for 
 defence of Rome itself. In this tumult, when the dictator was 
 newly set forth against Hannibal, word was brought that the 
 Carthaginian fleet had intercepted all the supply that was going to 
 Cneius Scipio, in. Spain. Against these Carthaginians, Fabius com 
 manded Servilius, the consul, to put to sea, and, taking up all the 
 ships about Rome and Oetia, to pursue them, whilst he, with the 
 
 Q
 
 24:2 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 legions, attended upon Hannibal. Four legions he had levied in 
 haste ; and from Ariminum he received the army, which Servilius 
 the consul had conducted thither. 
 
 " With these forthwith he followed apace after Hannibal not 
 to fight, but to affront him. And knowing- well what advantage 
 the Numidian horse had over the Romans, he always lodged him- 
 self on high grounds, and of hard access. Hannibal, in the mean- 
 while pursuing his victory, had ranged over all the country, and 
 used all manner of cruelty towards the inhabitants, especially to 
 those of the Roman nation, of whom he did put to the sword all 
 that were able to bear arms. Passing by Spoletum and Ancona, 
 he encamped upon the Adriatic shores ; refreshed his diseased 
 and over-travelled .companies, armed his Africans after the manner 
 of the Romans, and made his despatches for Carthage ; presenting 
 his friends, which were in effect all the citizens, with part of the 
 spoils that he had gotten. Having refreshed his army, fed his horses, 
 cured his wounded soldiers, and (as Polybius hath it) healed his 
 horse-heels of the scratches, by washing their pasterns in old wine, 
 he followed the coast of the Adriatic Sea towards Apulia a 
 northern province of the kingdom of Naples, spoiling the Marru- 
 cini, and all other nations lying in his way. In all this ground 
 that he overran, he had not taken any one city ; only he had 
 assailed Spoletum, a colony of the Romans, and finding it well 
 defended, presently gave it over. The malice of a great army is 
 broken, and the force of it spent in a great siege. This the Pro- 
 testant army found true at Poictiers, a little before the battle of 
 Moncountour, and their victorious enemies, anon after, at S. 
 Jean d'Angely. But Hannibal was more wise. He would not 
 engage himself in any such enterprise as should detain him, and 
 give the Romans leave to take breath. All his care was to weaken 
 them in force and reputation, knowing, that whW once he was 
 absolute master of the field, it would not be long ere the walled 
 cities would open their gates, without expecting any engine, of 
 battery. To this end he presented Fabius with battle as soon as 
 he saw him, and provoked him with all manner of bravadoes. But 
 Fabius would not bite. He well knew the differences between sol- 
 diers bred up ever since they were boys in war and in blood, trained 
 and hardened in Spain, made proud and adventurous by many 
 victories there, and of late by some notable acts against the
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 243 
 
 Romans, and such as had no oftener seen the enemy than been 
 vanquished by him. Therefore he attended the Carthaginian so 
 near as he Tcept him from straggling too far, and preserved the 
 country from utter spoil. He inured his men by little and little, 
 and made them acquainted with dangers by degrees, and he 
 brought them first to look on the lion afar off, that in the end he 
 might sit on his tail. 
 
 "Now Minutius had a contrary disposition, and was as fiery as 
 Flaminius, taxing Fabius with cowardice and fear. But all stirred 
 not this well-advised commander. For wise men are no more 
 .moved with such noise, than with wind bruised out of a bladder. 
 There is nothing of more indiscretion and danger than to pursue 
 misfortune : it wasteth itself sooner by sufferance than by opposition. 
 It is the invading army that desires battle ; and this of Hannibal 
 was both the invading and victorious Fabius therefore suf- 
 fered Hannibal to cross the Apennines, and to fall upon the most 
 rich and pleasant territory of Campania ; neither could he by any 
 arguments be persuaded to adventure the Eoman army in battle : 
 but being far too weak in horse, he always kept the hills and fast 
 grounds. When Hannibal saw he could by no means draw 
 this wary dictator to fight, that the winter came on, and that the 
 towns stood firm for the Romans, whose legions were in sight 
 though afar off, he resolved to rest his army, that was laden with 
 spoil, in some plentiful and assured place, till the following spring. 
 But ere this can be done, he must pass along by the dictator's camp, 
 that hung over his head upon the hills of Callicula and Casilinum : 
 for other way there was none by which he might issue out of that 
 goodly garden-country, which he had already wasted, into places 
 more abundant of provision for his wintering. It was by mere 
 error of his 1 guide that he first entered within these straits. For 
 he would have been directed unto Cassinum, whence he might both 
 assay the fair city of Capua, which had made him friendly promises 
 under hand, and hinder the Romans from coming near it to prevent 
 him. But his guide misunderstood the Carthaginian pronuncia- 
 tion, and conducted him awry another way, from Cassinum to 
 Casilinum, whence Fabius hoped that he should not easily escape. 
 Now began the wisdom of Fabius to grow into credit, as if he had 
 taken the Carthaginians in a trap, and won the victory without 
 blows. But Hannibal reformed this opinion, and freed himself by 
 
 Q2
 
 244 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 a slight invention, yet serving the turn as well as a better. In 
 driving the country, he had got about two thousand Idne, whose 
 horns he dressed with dry faggots, and setting fire to them in the 
 dark night, caused them to be driven up the hills. The spectacle 
 was strange, and therefore terrible ; especially to those that knew 
 it to be the work of a terrible enemy. What it should mean 
 Fabius could not tell, but thought it a device to circumvent him, 
 and therefore kept within his trenches. They that kept the hill- 
 tops were horribly afraid when some of these monsters were 
 gotten beyond them, and ran therefore hastily away, thinking that 
 the enemies were behind their backs, and fell among the light- 
 armed Carthaginians, that were no less afraid of them ; so Han- 
 uibal, with his whole army, recovered sure ground without 
 molestation, where he staid till the next morning, and then brought 
 off" his light footmen, with some slaughter of the Romans, that 
 began to hold them in skirmish. After this Hannibal made 
 semblance of taking his journey towards Rome, and the dictator 
 coasted him in the wonted manner, keeping still on high grounds 
 between him and the city, whilst the Carthaginians wasted all 
 the plains. The Carthaginian took Geryon, an old ruinous town 
 in Apulia, forsaken by the inhabitants, which he turned into barns 
 and store-houses for winter, and encamped under the broken wah 1 . 
 Other matter of importance he did none ; but the time passed idly, 
 till the dictator was called away to Rome about some business of 
 religion, and left the army in charge with Minutius, the master of 
 the horse. 
 
 " Minutius was glad of this good occasion to show his own 
 sufficiency. He was fully persuaded that his Romans, in plain 
 field, would be too hard for the Africans and Spaniards, by whom, 
 if they had been foiled already twice or thrice, it was not by open 
 force, but by subtlety and ambush, which he thought himself wise 
 enough to prevent. All the army was of his opinion, and that so 
 earnestly, as he was preferred, by judgment of the soldiers, in 
 worthiness to command, before the cold and wary Fabius. In this 
 jollity of conceit, he determined to fight ; yet had he been peremp- 
 torily forbidden so to do by the dictator, the breach of whose com- 
 mand was extreme peril of death. But the honour of the victory, 
 which he held undoubtedly his own, and the love of the army, 
 and the friends that he had at home bearing office in Rome, were
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 245 
 
 enough to save him from the dictator's rods and axes, took he the 
 matter never so heinously. Hunnibal, on the other side, was no 
 less glad that he should play with a more adventurous gamester : 
 therefore he drew near, and, to provoke the Romans, sent forth a 
 third part of his army to waste the country. This was boldly 
 done, seeing- that Minutius encamped hard by him ; but it seems 
 that he now despised those whom he had so often vanquished. 
 There was a piece of high ground between the two camps ; which, 
 because it would be commodious to him that could occupy it, the 
 Carthaginians seized upon by night with two thousand of their 
 light-armed. But Minutius, by plain force, won it from them the 
 next day ; and, intrenching himself thereupon, became their nearer 
 neighbour. 
 
 " The main business of Hannibal at this time was to provide 
 abundantly, not only for his men but for his horses, which he knew 
 to be the chief of his strength ; that he might keep them in good 
 heart against the next summer. If besides this he could give the 
 Romans another blow, it would increase his reputation, encourage 
 his own men, terrify his enemies, and give him leave to forage 
 the country at will. Since, therefore, Minutius did not in many 
 days issue forth of his camp, the Carthaginians sent out (as before) 
 a great number of his men to fetch in harvest. This advantage 
 Minutius wisely espied and took. For he led forth his army, and, 
 setting it in order, presented battle to Hannibal, that was not in 
 case to accept it, even at his own trenches. His horses and all his 
 light armature, divided into many companies, he sent abroad 
 against the foragers ; who being dispersed over all the fields, and 
 laden with booty, could make no resistance. This angered Han- 
 nibal, that was not able to help them ; but worse did it anger 
 him when the Romans took heart to assail his trenches. They 
 perceived that it was mere weakness which held him within 
 his camp, and therefore were bold to despise his great name, that 
 could not resist their present strength. But in the heat of the 
 business, Asdrubal came from Geryon with four thousand men, 
 being informed of the danger by those that had escaped the Roman 
 horse. This emboldened Hannibal to issue forth against the 
 Romans, to whom, nevertheless, he did not such hurt as he had 
 received. 
 
 "For this piece of service Minutius was highly esteemed by
 
 246 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the army, and more highly by the people at Rome, to whom he 
 .sent the news with somewhat greater boast than truth. It seemed 
 no small matter that the Roman army had recovered spirit so far 
 forth that'jt dared to set upon Hannibal in his own camp, and that, 
 in so doing, it came off with the better. Every man, therefore, 
 praised the master of the horse that had wrought this great altera- 
 tion, and, consequently, they grew as far out of liking with Fabius, 
 and his timorous proceedings, thinking that he had not done any- 
 thing wisely in all his dictatorship, saving that he chose such a 
 worthy lieutenant whereas, indeed, in no other thing he had so 
 greatly erred. But the dictator was not so joyful of a little good 
 luck, as angry with the breach of discipline, and fearful of greater 
 danger thereon likely to ensue. He said that he knew his own 
 place, and what was to be done ; that he would teach the master 
 of the horse to do so likewise, and make him give account of what 
 he had done if he were dictator, speaking it openly, that good 
 success issuing from bad counsel was more to be feared than ca- 
 lamity ; forasmuch as the one bred a foolish confidence, the other 
 taught men to be wary. Against these sermons every one cried 
 out, especially Metellus, a tribune of the people, which office war- 
 ranted him to speak, and do what he list, without fear of the dic- 
 tator. ' Is it not enough,' said he, ' that this, our only man, chosen 
 to be general and lord of the town, in our' greatest necessity hath 
 done no manner of good, but suffered all Italy to be wasted before 
 his eyes, to the utter shame of our State, unless he also hinder others 
 from doing better than himself can, or dares ? It were good to con- 
 sider what he means by this. Into the place of C. Flaminius he hath 
 not chosen any new consul all this while. Servilius is sent away 
 to sea I know not why. Hannibal and he have, as it were, taken 
 truce : Hannibal sparing the dictator's grounds (for Hannibal had 
 indeed forborne to spoil some grounds of Fabius, that so he might 
 bring him into envy and suspicion), and the dictator giving him leave 
 to spoil all others, without impeachment. Surely his drift is even 
 this : he would have the war to last long, that he himself might 
 be long in office, and have the sole government both of our city 
 and armies. But this must not be so. It were better that the 
 commonalty of Rome, which gave him this authority, should again 
 take it from him, and confer it upon one more worthy. But lest, 
 in moving the people hereto, I should seem to do him injury, thus
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 247 
 
 far forth I will regard his honour: I will only propound, that the 
 master of the horse may be joined in equal authority with the 
 dictator ; a thing not more new, nor less necessary, than was the 
 election of this dictator by the people/ 
 
 " Though all men, even the senators, were ill persuaded of the 
 course which Fabius had taken against Hannibal, as being neither 
 plausible nor seeming beneficial at the present, yet was there none 
 so injurious as to think that his general intent and care of the 
 weal public was less than very honourable. Whereas, therefore, it 
 was the manner, in passing of any act, that some man of credit and 
 authority, besides the propounder, should stand up and formally 
 deliver his approbation, not one of the principal citizens was found 
 so impudent as to oifer that open disgrace, both unto a worthy 
 personage, and (therewithal) unto that dignity, whose great power 
 had freed the state, at several times, from the greatest dangers. 
 Only C. Terentius Varro, who the year before had been prsetor, was 
 glad of such an opportunity to win the favour of the multitude. 
 This fellow was the son of a butcher, afterwards became a shop- 
 keeper, and being of a contentious spirit, grew, by often brab- 
 bling, to take upon him as a pleader, dealing in poor men's causes. 
 Thus by little and little he got into office, and rose by degrees, be- 
 ing advanced by those who in hatred of the nobility favoured his 
 very baseness. And now he thought the time was come for him 
 to give a hard push at the consulship ; by doing that which none 
 of the great men, fearing or favouring one another, either durst 
 or would. So he made a hot invective, not only against Fabius, 
 but against all the nobility, saying, that it grieved them to see the 
 people do well, and take upon them what belonged unto them, in 
 matter of government ; that they sought to humble the commons 
 by poverty, and to impoverish them by war, especially by war at 
 their own doors, which would soon consume every poor man's 
 living, and find him other work to think upon than matters of 
 state. Therefore, he bade them to be wise ; and since they had 
 found one (this worthy master of the horse) that was better affected 
 unto them and his country, to reward him according to his good 
 deserts, and give him authority, according as it was propounded by 
 the tribune, that so he might be encouraged and enabled to pro- 
 ceed as he had begun. So the act passed. 
 
 " Before this busy day of contention, Fabius had despatched
 
 248 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the election of a new consul, which was M. Atilius Regulus, in 
 the room of C. Flaminius; and, having finished all requisite 
 business, went out of town perceiving well that he should not 
 be able to withstand the multitude in hindering the decree. The 
 news of Minutius's advancement was at the camp as soon as 
 Fabius, so that his old lieutenant and new colleague began to treat 
 with him as a companion, asking him at the first in what sort 
 he thought it best to divide their authority whether that one 
 one day, and the other the next, or each of them successively, for 
 some longer time, should command in chief. Fabius briefly told 
 him, ' That it was the pleasure of the citizens to make the master 
 of the horse equal to the dictator, but that he should never be 
 his superior ; he would, therefore, divide the legions with him by 
 lot, according to the custom.' Minutius was not herewith greatly 
 pleased for that, with half of the army, he could not work such 
 wonders as otherwise he hoped to accomplish. Nevertheless, he 
 meant to do his best, and so, taking his part of the army, en- 
 camped about a mile and a half from the dictator. Needful it 
 was though Livy seems to tax him for it that he should so 
 do ; for where two several commanders are not subordinate one 
 unto another, nor joined in commission, but have each entire and 
 absolute charge of his own followers, then are the forces though 
 belonging to one prince or state not one, but two distinct armies ; 
 in which regard one camp shall not hold them both without great 
 inconvenience. Polybius neither finds fault with this distinction, 
 nor yet reports that Fabius was unwilling to command in chief 
 successively (as the two consuls used) with Minutius, by turns. 
 He said that Minutius was very refractory, and so proud of his 
 advancement, that continually he opposed the dictator, who there- 
 upon referred it to his choice, either to divide the forces between 
 them, as is said before, or else to have command over all by 
 course. This is likely to be true ; for natures impatient of sub- 
 jection, when once they have broken loose from the rigour of 
 authority, love nothing more than to contest with it as if herein 
 consisted the proof and assurance of their liberty. 
 
 " It behoved the master of the horse to make good the opinion 
 which had thus advanced him. Therefore, he was no less careful 
 of getting occasion to fight, than was Fabius of avoiding the ne- 
 cessity. That which Minutius and Hannibal equally desired could
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 249 
 
 not long be wanting 1 . The country lying 1 between them was open 
 and bare, yet as fit for ambush as could be wished ; for that the 
 sides of a naked valley adjoining had many and spacious caves, 
 able, some one of them, to hide two or three hundred men. In 
 these lurking places Hannibal bestowed five hundred horse and five 
 thousand foot, thrusting them so close together, that they could 
 not be discovered. But lest by any misadventure they should be 
 found out, and buried in their holes, he made offer betimes in the 
 morning to seize upon a piece of ground that lay on the other 
 hand, whereby he drew the eyes and the thoughts of the Romans 
 from their more needful care to business little concerning them. 
 Like unto this was the occasion which not long before had pro- 
 voked Minutius to adventure upon the Carthaginians. Hoping, 
 therefore, to increase his honour in like sort as he got it, he sent 
 first his light armature, then his horse, and at length (seeing that 
 Hannibal seconded his own troops with fresh companies) he fol- 
 lowed in person with the legions. He was soon caught, and so 
 hotly charged on all sides, that he knew neither how to make resis- 
 tance nor any safe retreat. In this dangerous case, whilst the 
 Romans defended themselves, losing many, and those of their best 
 men, Fabius drew near, in very good order, to relieve them. For 
 this old captain, perceiving afar off into what extremity his new 
 colleague had rashly thrown himself and his followers, did the office of 
 a good citizen ; and regarding more the benefit of his country than 
 the disgrace which he had wrongfully sustained, sought rather to 
 approve himself by hasting to do good, than by suffering his 
 enemy to feel the reward of doing ill. Upon Fabius's approach, 
 Hannibal retired, fearing to be well wetted with a shower from ' the 
 cloud' (as he termed the dictator) that had hung so long on the hill- 
 tops. Minutius forthwith submitted himself to Fabius, by whose 
 benefit he confessed his life to have been saved. So, from this 
 time forwards, the war proceeded coldly, as the dictator would 
 have it, both whilst his office lasted, which was not long, and 
 likewise afterwards, when he delivered up his charge to the consuls 
 that followed his instructions. 
 
 "Servilius, the consul, had pursued in vain a Carthaginian 
 fleet, to which he came never within kenning. He ran along 
 all the coast of Italy took hostages of the Sardinians and 
 Corsicans passed over into Africa, and there, negligently falling
 
 250 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 to spoil the country, was shamefully beaten aboard his ships, with 
 the loss of a thousand men. Weighing- anchor, therefore, in all 
 haste, he returned home by Sicily, and, being- so required by the 
 dictator's letters, repaired to the camp with his fellow consul, 
 where they took charge of the army." 
 
 " THE KOMAN PEOPLE, DESIROUS TO FINISH THE WAR QUICKLY, CHOOSE A 
 BASH AND UNWORTHY CONSUL. GREAT FORCES LEVIED AGAINST HAN- 
 NIBAL. HANNIBAL TAK.ETH TI1E ROMANS* PROVISIONS IN THE CASTLE 
 OF CANNA THE NEW CONSULS SET FORTH AGAINST HANNIBAL. 
 
 " With little pleasure did they of the poorer sort in Borne 
 hear the g-reat commendations that were given to Fabius by the 
 principal citizens. He had, indeed, preserved them from receiving 
 a great overthrow, but he had neither finished the war, nor done 
 anything in appearance thereto tending. Rather it might seem 
 that the reputation of this, his one worthy act, was likely to 
 countenance the slow proceedings, or perhaps the cowardice (if 
 it were no worse) of those that followed him, in protracting the 
 work to a great length. Else what meant the consuls to sit idle 
 the whole winter, contrary to all former custom since it was never 
 heard before that any Roman general had willingly suffered the 
 time of his command to run away without any performance as 
 if it were honourable to do just nothing? Thus they suspected 
 they knew not what, and were ready, every man, to discharge 
 the grief and anger of his own private loss upon the ill adminis- 
 tration of the public. 
 
 " This affection of the people was very helpful to C. Terentius 
 Varro, in his suit for the consulship. It behoved him to strike 
 whilst the iron was hot his own worth being little or none, and 
 his credit over- weak to make way into that high dignity. But the 
 commonalty were then in such a mood as abundantly supplied all 
 his defects. Wherein to help, he had a kinsman, Bibius Herennius, 
 then tribune of the people, who spared not to use the liberty of his 
 place, in saying what he listed, without all (any) regard of truth or 
 modesty. This bold orator stuck not to affirm, that Hannibal was 
 drawn into Italy, and suffered therein to range at his pleasure by the 
 noblemen ; that Minutius, indeed, with his two legions, was likely 
 to have been overthrown, and was rescued by Fabius with the other
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 251 
 
 two ; but, had all been joined together, what they might have done, 
 it was apparent by the victory of Minutius when he commanded 
 over all as master of the horse ; that without a plebeian consul the 
 war would never be brought to an end ; that such of the plebeians 
 as had long since been advanced to honour by the people, were 
 grown as proud as the old nobility, and contemned the meaner sort 
 ever since themselves were freed from the contempt of the more 
 mighty ; that, therefore, it was needful to choose a consul who 
 should be altogether a plebeian, a mere new man, one that could 
 boast of nothing but the people's love, nor could wish more than to 
 keep it by the well-deserving of them. By such persuasions the 
 multitude was won to be wholly for Terentius, to the great vexation 
 of the nobles, who could not endure to see a man raised for none 
 other virtue than his detracting from their honour, and therefore 
 opposed him with all their might. To hinder the desire of the 
 people, it fell out, or at least was alleged, that neither of the two 
 present consuls could well be spared from attending upon Hannibal, 
 to hold the election ; wherefore a dictator was named for that pur- 
 pose, and he again deposed, either (as was pretended) for some 
 religious impediment, or because the fathers desired an inter-regnum, 
 wherein they might better hope to prevail in choice of the new 
 consuls. This inter-regnum took name and being in Rome at the 
 death of Romulus, and was in use at the death of other kings. The 
 order of it was this : all the fathers, or senators, who at the first 
 were an hundred, parted themselves into tens, or decuries, and 
 governed successively by the space of five days, one decury after 
 another in order ; yet so, that the lictors, or vergers, carrying the 
 fasces, or bundles of rods and axes, waited only upon the chief of them 
 with these ensigns of power. This custom was retained in times of the 
 consuls, and put in use, when by death, or any casualty , there wanted 
 ordinary magistrates of the old year, to substitute new for the 
 year following. The advantages of the fathers herein was, that 
 if the election were not like to go as they would have it, there 
 needed no more than to slip five days, and then was all to begin 
 anew ; by which interruption, the heat of the multitude was com- 
 monly well assuaged. Upon such change of those that were 
 presidents of the election, it was also lawful unto new petitioners 
 to sue for the magistracies that lay void, which otherwise was 
 not allowed; but a time limited, wherein they should publicly
 
 252 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 declare themselves to seek those offices. But no device would serve 
 against the general favour borne unto Terentius. One inter-regnum 
 passed over, and the malice of the fathers, against the virtue (as it 
 was believed) of this mean, but worthy man, seemed so manifest, 
 that when the people had urged the business to despatch, only 
 Terentius was chosen consul : in whose hands it was left to hold 
 the election of his colleague. Hereupon all the former petitioners 
 gave over. For whereas men of ordinary mark had stood for the 
 place before, it was now thought meet, that, both to supply the de- 
 fect, and to bridle the violence of this unexpert and hot-headed 
 man, one of great sufficiency and reputation should be joined with 
 him, as both companion and opposite. So L. JSmilius Paulus, he 
 who a few years since had overcome the Illyrians, and chased 
 Demetrius Pharius out of his kingdom, was urged by the nobility 
 to stand for the place ; which he easily obtained, having no com- 
 petitor. It was not the desire of this honourable man to trouble him- 
 self any more in such great business of the commonwealth. For 
 notwithstanding his late good service, he, and M. Livius, that had 
 been his companion in office, were afterwards injuriously vexed 
 by the people, and called unto judgment; wherein Livius was 
 condemned, and JEmilius hardly escaped. But of this injustice 
 they shall put the Romans well in mind, each of them in his 
 second consulship, wherein they shall honourably approve their 
 worth ; the one of them nobly dying in the most grievous loss, 
 the other bravely winning in the most happy victory that ever 
 befel that commonwealth. 
 
 "These new consuls, Varro and Paulus, omitted no part of 
 their diligence in preparing for the war ; wherein, though Varro 
 made the greatest noise, by telling what wonders he would work, 
 and that he would ask no more than once to have a sight of 
 Hannibal, whom he promised to vanquish the very first day, yet 
 the providence and care of Paulus travelled more earnestly toward 
 the accomplishment of that whereof his fellow vainly boasted. He 
 wrote unto the two old consuls, Servilius and Atilius, desiring them 
 to abstain from hazard of the main chance ; but, nevertheless, to 
 ply the Carthaginians with daily skirmish, and weaken them by 
 degrees, that when he and his colleague should take the field with 
 the great army which they were now levying, they might find the 
 four old legions well accustomed to the enemy, and the enemy well
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 253 
 
 weakened to their hands. He was also very strict in his musters, 
 wherein the whole senate assisted him so carefully, as if in this 
 action they meant to refute the slanders with which Terentius and 
 his adherents had burdened them. What number of men they 
 raised, it is uncertain. Fourscore thousand foot at the least, and 
 six thousand horse they were strong in the field when the day 
 came which Varro had so greatly desired of looking upon 
 Hannibal. 
 
 " Hiero, the old king of Syracuse, as he had relieved the Car- 
 thaginians when they were distressed by their own mercenaries, so 
 did he now send help to Rome, a thousand archers and slingers, 
 with great quantity of wheat, barley, and other provisions ; fearing 
 nothing more than that one of these two mighty cities should 
 destroy the other, whereby his own estate would fall to ruin, that 
 stood upright by having them somewhat evenly balanced. He gave 
 them also counsel to send forces into Africa, if (perhaps) by that 
 means they might divert the war from home. His gifts and good 
 advice were lovingly accepted, and instructions were given to Titua 
 Octacilius the prsetor, which was to go into Sicily, that he should 
 accordingly pass over into Africa, if he found it expedient. 
 
 " The great levies which the Romans made at this time, do 
 much more serve to declare their puissance than any, though larger 
 account by poll, of such as were not easily drawn into the field, and 
 fitted for service. For, besides these armies of the consuls, and 
 that which went into Sicily, twenty-five thousand, with L. 
 Posthumius Albinus, another of the prsetors, went against 
 the Gauls, to reclaim that province, which the passage of Han- 
 nibal through it had taken from them. The contemplation 
 of this their present strength, might well embolden them to 
 do as they did. They sent ambassadors to Philip, the son 
 of Demetrius, King of Macedon, requiring him to deliver into 
 their hands Demetrius Pharius, who, having been their subject and 
 rebel, was fled into his kingdom. They also sent to the Illyrians, 
 to demand their tribute, whereof the day of payment was already 
 1 ust. What answer they received, it is not known ; only this is 
 known, that Demetrius Pharius was not sent unto them, and that 
 Philip henceforth began to have an eye upon them, little to their 
 good. As for the Illyrian money, by the shifts that they were driven 
 soon after to make, it will appear, that the one half of it (how little
 
 254 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 soever) would have been welcome to Rome, and accepted with- 
 out any cavil about forfeiture for non-payment of the whole. 
 
 " Whilst the city was busied in these cares, the old consuls lay 
 as near unto Hannibal as possibly they could, without incurring 
 the necessity of a battle. Many skirmishes they had with him, 
 wherein their success, for the most part, was rather good than 
 great. Yet one mischance not only blemished the honour of their 
 other services, but was indeed the occasion to draw on the misery 
 following-. Hannibal, for the most part of that time, made his 
 abode at Geryon, where lay all his store for the winter. The 
 Romans, to be near him, lodged about Cannusium ; and, that they 
 might not be driven to turn aside for all necessaries, to the loss of good 
 opportunities, they bestowed much of their provisions in the castle 
 of Cannse : for the town was razed the year before. This place 
 Hannibal won, and thereby not only furnished himself, but com- 
 pelled his enemies to want many needful things, unless they would 
 be troubled with far carriage. Besides this, and more to his 
 advantage, he enabled himself to abide in that open country, fit for 
 the service of his horse, longer than the Romans, having so many 
 mouths to feed, could well endure to tarry ; without offering 
 battle, which he most desired. Of this mishap, when Servilius 
 had informed the senate, letting them understand how this place, 
 taken by Hannibal, would serve him to command no small part 
 of the country adjacent, it then seemed needful, even unto the 
 fathers themselves, to adventure a battle with the Carthaginian, 
 rather than suffer him thus to take root in the ground 
 of Italy. Nevertheless, answer was returned unto Servilius that 
 he should have patience yet awhile, for that the consuls would 
 shortly be there, with a power sufficient to do as need required. 
 
 " When all things were ready in the city, and the season of the 
 year commodious to take the field, the two consuls, with their 
 army, set forth against Hannibal. This was always done with 
 great solemnity,' especially whensoever they went forth to war 
 against any noble or redoubted enemy. For sacrifices and solemn 
 V9ws were made unto Jupiter, and the rest of their gods, for good 
 success and victory, which, being performed, the generals, in war- 
 like attire, with an honourable train of the principal men, (not 
 only such as were of their kindred and alliance, or followed them 
 to the war as voluntaries, for love, but a great number of others
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. . 265 
 
 that meant to abide at home,) were accompanied on their way, and 
 dismissed with friendly leave-taking 1 and good wishes. At this 
 time, all the fathers and the whole nobility waited upon ^milius 
 Paulus, as the only man whom they thought either worthy of this 
 honour or likely to do his country remarkable service. Terentius's 
 attendants were the whole multitude of the poorer citizens a 
 troop no less in greatness than the other was in dignity. At the 
 parting, Fabius, the late dictator, is said to have exhorted the 
 Consul Paulus with many grave words, to show his magnanimity, 
 not only in dealing with the Carthaginians, but (which he thought 
 harder) in bridling the outrageous folly of his fellow-consul. The 
 answer of Paulua was, 'That he meant not again to run into 
 danger of condemnation by offending the multitude ; that he would 
 do his best for his country ; but if he saw his best were likely to 
 be ill taken, he would think it less rashness to adventure upon the 
 enemy's sword than upon the malice of his own citizens.' " 
 
 OF THE GREAT SIMILITUDE OF WORLDLY EVENTS. 
 
 " Of the great similitude found in worldly events, the limitation 
 of matter hath been assigned as a probable cause; for, since 
 nature is confined unto a subject that is not unbounded, the works 
 of nature must needs be finite, and many of them resemble one 
 the other. Now, in those actions that seem to have-their whole 
 dependence upon the will of man, we are less to wonder if we 
 find less variety, since it is no great portion of things which is 
 obnoxious unto human power, and since they are the same 
 affections by which the wills of sundry men are overruled in 
 managing the affairs of our daily life. It may be observed in the 
 change of empires, how the Assyrians or Chaldeans invaded the 
 kingdom of the Medes,with two hundred thousand foot and three- 
 score thousand horses ; but, failing in their intended conquest, they 
 became subject within a while themselves unto the Medes and 
 Persians. In like manner Darius, and after him Xerxes, fell 
 upon the Greeks with such numbers of men as might have seemed 
 resistless; but after that the Persians were beaten home again, 
 their empire was never secure of the Greeks, who, at all times of 
 leisure from intestine war, devised upon that conquest thereof 
 which finally they made under the great Alexander. If Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, with hia rough old soldiers, had undertaken the Medes,
 
 256 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 or Cyrus, with his well-trained army, had made attempt upon 
 Greece, the issue might, in human reason, have been far different. 
 Yet would it then have been expedient for them to employ the 
 travail and virtue of their men, rather than the greatness of their 
 names, against those people, that were no less valiant, though less 
 renowned, than their own. For the menacing words used by 
 Cyrus, and some small displeasures done to the Greeks (in which 
 kind it may be said that Nebuchadnezzar likewise offended the 
 Medes and Persians) were not so available to victory as to draw 
 on revenge in the future. Great kingdoms, when they decay in 
 strength, suffer as did the old lion for the oppression done in his 
 youth, being pinched by the wolf, gored by the bull, yea, and 
 kicked by the ass. But princes are often carried away from 
 reason by misunderstanding the language of fame ; and, despising 
 the virtue that makes little noise, adventure to provoke it against 
 themselves, as if it were not possible that their own glory should 
 be foiled by any of less noted excellence." 
 
 " OF OUR BASE AND FRAIL BODIES, AND THAT THE CARE THEREOF SHOULD 
 YIELD TO OUR IMMORTAL SOULS. 
 
 " That man was formed of earth and dust, did Abraham 
 acknowledge, when in humble fear he called unto God to save 
 Sodom ' Let not my Lord now be angry if I speak, I that am 
 but dust and ashes.' And, ' In these houses of clay, whose foun- 
 dation is in the dust, do our souls inhabit,' according to Job. 
 And though our own eyes do everywhere behold the sudden and 
 resistless assaults of death, and nature assureth us by never-failing 
 experience, and reason by infallible demonstration, that our times 
 upon the earth have neither certainty nor durability; that our 
 bodies are but the anvils of pain and diseases, and our minds the 
 hives of unnumbered cares, sorrows, and passions ; and that, when 
 we are most glorified, we are but those painted posts against 
 which envy and fortune direct their darts ; yet such is the true 
 unhappiness of our condition, and the dark ignorance which 
 covereth the eyes of our understanding, that we only prize, 
 pamper, and exalt this vassal and slave of death, and forget alto- 
 gether, or only remember at our cast-away leisure, the imprisoned, 
 immortal soul, which can neither die with the reprobate, nor 
 perish with the mortal parts of virtuous men, seeing God's justice
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 257 
 
 in the one and his goodness in the other is exercised for ever- 
 more, as the ever-living subjects of his reward and punishment. 
 But when is it that we examine this great account ? Never, 
 while we have one vanity left us to spend. We plead for titles 
 till our breath fail us ; dig for riches whilst our strength enableth 
 us ; exercise malice while we can revenge ; and then, when time 
 hath beaten from us both youth, pleasure, and health, and that 
 nature itself hateth the house of old age, we remember with Job, 
 that ' We must go the way from whence we shall not return, and 
 that our bed is made ready for us in the dark.' And then I say, 
 looking over late into the bottom of our conscience, which pleasure 
 and ambition had locked up from us all our lives, we behold 
 therein the fearful images of our actions past, and withal this 
 terrible inscription ' That God will bring every work into judg- 
 ment that man hath done under the sun.' 
 
 " But what examples have ever moved us ; what persuasions 
 reformed us ; or what threatenings made us afraid ? We behold 
 other men's tragedies played before us we hear what is promised 
 and threatened ; but the world's bright glory hath put out the 
 eyes of our minds, and these betraying lights (with which we 
 only see) do neither look up towards termless joys nor down 
 towards endless sorrows, till we neither know, nor can look for 
 anything else at the world's hands. Of which excellently Marius 
 Victor : 
 
 " ' Nil hastes, nil (lira fames, nil denique morli 
 J2gerunf,Juimus, qui mine sumus, iifqne periclis 
 Tentati, nildlo meliores reddimur unquam. 
 Sub vitiis nullo culparumjine manentes.' 
 
 " ' Diseases, famine, enemies, in us no change have wrought, 
 What erst we were, we are still in the same snare caught ; 
 No time can our corrupted manners mend, 
 In vice we dwell, in sin that hath no end.' 
 
 " But let us not natter our immortal souls herein ; for to 
 neglect God all our lives, and know that we neglect him ; to offend 
 God voluntarily, and know that we offend him, casting our hopes 
 on the peace which we trust to make at parting, is no other than 
 a rebellious presumption, and (that which is the worst of all) ev \\ 
 a contemptuous laughing to scorn, and de-riding of God, his laws 
 
 R
 
 258 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 and precepts. ' Frustra sperant gui sic de misericordia Dei sibi 
 blandiuntur : ' They hope in vain,' saith Bernard, ' which in this 
 sort flatter themselves with God's mercy.' " 
 
 "THE us ALTERABLE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 " It was a good answer that Sixtus Quintus, the pope, made 
 to a certain friar, coming to visit him in his popedom, as having 
 long before in his meaner estate been his familiar friend. This 
 poor friar, being emboldened by the pope to use his old liberty of 
 speech, adventured to tell him ' that he very much wondered how 
 it was possible for his holiness, whom he rather took for a direct 
 honest man than any cunning politician, to attain unto the papacy, 
 in compassing of which, all the subtilty,' said he, 'of the most 
 crafty brains, find work enough ; and, therefore, the more I think 
 upon the art of the conclave and your unaptness thereto, the more 
 I needs must wonder.' Pope Sixtus, to satisfy the plain-dealing 
 friar, dealt with him again as plainly, saying, ' Hadst thou lived 
 abroad as I have done, and seen by what follies this world is 
 governed, thou wouldst wonder at nothing.' 
 
 " Surely, if this be referred unto those exorbitant engines by 
 which the course of affairs is moved, the pope said true, for the 
 wisest of men are not without their vanities, which, requiring and 
 finding mutual toleration, work more closely and earnestly than 
 right reason either needs or can ; but if we lift up our thoughts to 
 that supreme Governor, of whose empire all that is true, which by 
 the poet was said of Jupiter, 
 
 " ' Qui ten-am inertem, qui mare temperat 
 Ventosum, et urbes, regnaque tristia 
 Divosque mortalesque turmas, 
 Jmperio regit unus cequo : ' 
 
 " ' Who rules the duller earth, the wind-swoln streams, 
 The civil cities and th' infernal realms, 
 Who th' host of heaven, and the mortal band, 
 Alone doth govern by His just command : ' 
 
 Then shall we find the quite contrary. In Him there is no 
 uncertainty nor change ; He foreseeth all things, and all things 
 disposeth to His own honour ; He neither deceiveth nor can be de- 
 ceived, but, continuing one and the same for ever, doth constantly
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 259 
 
 govern all creatures by that law which He hath prescribed, and 
 will never alter. The vanities of men beguile their vain con- 
 trivers, and the prosperity of the wicked is the way leading to 
 their destruction ; yea, this broad and headlong passage to hell is 
 not so delightful as it seems at the first entrance, but hath growing 
 in it, besides the poisons which infect the soul, many cruel thorns 
 deeply wounding the body, all which, if any few escape, they have 
 only this miserable advantage of others, that their descent was the 
 more swift and expedite. But the service of God is the path 
 guiding us to perfect happiness, and hath in it a true, though not 
 complete felicity, yielding such abundance of joy to the conscience 
 as doth easily countervail all afflictions whatsoever, though indeed 
 those brambles that sometimes tear the skin of such as walk in 
 this blessed way, do commonly lay hold upon them at such time 
 as they sit down to take their ease, and make them wish themselves 
 at their journey's end, in the presence of their Lord, whom they 
 faithfully serve, in whose 'presence is the fulness of joy, and at 
 whose right hand are pleasures for evermore.' " 
 
 " THE CHASTISEMENTS OF THE ALMIGHTY. 
 
 " We commonly observe, that the crosses which it hath pleased 
 God sometimes to lay upon His servants without any cause no- 
 torious in the eyes of men, have always tended unto the bettering 
 of their good, in which respect, even the sufferings of the blessed 
 martyrs (the death of His saints being precious in the sight of the 
 Lord) are to their great advantage. But with evil and rebellious 
 men, God keepeth a more even and strict account, permitting 
 usually their faults to get the start of their punishment, and either 
 delaying His vengeance (as with the Amorites) till their wicked- 
 ness be full, or not working their amendment by His correction, 
 but suffering them to run on in their wicked courses to their 
 greater misery. So hath He dealt with many, and so it appears 
 that He dealt with Joas ; for this unhappy man did not only con- 
 tinue an obstinate idolater, but grew so forgetful of God and all 
 goodness, as if he had striven to exceed the wickedness of all that 
 went before him, and to leave such a villanous pattern unto 
 others, as few or none of the most barbarous tyrants should en- 
 dure to imitate." 
 
 n -2
 
 260 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 OBSERVATIONS OPT OF THE STOKY OF MOSES, HOW GOD DISPOSETH BOTH 
 THE SMALLEST OCCASIONS AND THE GREATEST RESISTANCES, TO THE 
 EFFECTING OF HIS PURPOSES. 
 
 " 3$Tow let us for instruction look to the occasions of sundry of 
 the great events in the story of the life of Moses ; for (excepting 
 God's miracles, his promise, and fore-choice of this people) He 
 wrought in all things else by the medium of men's affections and 
 natural appetites. And so we shall find that the fear which 
 Pharaoh had of the increase of the Hebrews, multiplied by God to 
 exceeding great numbers, was the next natural cause of the sor- 
 rows and loss which befel himself and the Egyptian nation ; which 
 numbers, when he sought by cruel and ungodly policies to cut off 
 and lessen, as when he commanded all the male children of the 
 Hebrews to be slain, God (whose providence cannot be resisted, 
 nor His purposes prevented by all the foolish and savage craft of 
 mortal men) moved compassion in the heart of Pharaoh's own 
 daughter to preserve that child, which afterward became the most 
 wise, and of all men the most gentle and mild, the most excellently 
 learned in all divine and human knowledge, to be the conductor 
 and deliverer of his oppressed brethren, and the overthrow of 
 Pharaoh, and all the flower of his nation ; even then, when he 
 sought by the strength of his men of war, of his horse, and chariots, 
 to tread them under, and bury them in the dust. The grief which 
 Moses conceived of the injuries and of the violence offered to one 
 of the Hebrews in his own presence, moved him to take revenge of 
 the Egyptian that offered it : the ingratitude of one of his own 
 nation, by threatening him to discover the slaughter of the 
 Egyptian, moved him to fly into Midian ; the contention between 
 the shepherds of that place, and Jethro's daughters, made him 
 known to their father, who not only entertained him, but married 
 him to one of those sisters; and in that solitary life of keeping of 
 his father-in-law's sheep, far from the press of the world, content- 
 ing himself (though bred as a king's son) with the lot of a poor 
 herdsman, God found him out in that desert, wherein He first 
 suffered him to live many years, the better to know the ways and 
 passages through which He purposed that he should conduct His 
 people toward the land promised, and therein appearing unto him, 
 made him know His will and divine pleasure for his return into
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 261 
 
 Egypt. The like may be said of all things else which Moses 
 afterward, by God's direction, performed in the story of Israel. 
 There is not, therefore, the smallest accident -which may seem 
 unto men as falling out by chance, and of no consequence, but 
 that the same is caused by God to effect somewhat else by yea, 
 and oftentimes to effect things of the greatest worldly importance, 
 either presently, or in many years after, when the occasions are 
 either not considered or forgotten." 
 
 "HUMAN AMBITION. 
 
 " Human ambition is a monster that neither feareth God 
 though all-powerful, and whose revenges are without date and 
 for everlasting neither hath it respect to nature, which laboureth 
 the preservation of every being; but it rageth also against 
 her, though garnished with beauty which never dieth, and with 
 love that hath no end. All other passions and affections by 
 which the souls of men are tormented, are by their contraries 
 oftentimes resisted or qualified ; but ambition, which begetteth 
 every vice and is itself the child and darling of Satan, looketh 
 only to the ends by itself set down forgetting nothing, how 
 fearful and inhuman soever, which may serve it ; remembering 
 nothing, whatsoever justice, piety, right, or religion, can offer 
 and allege on the contrary. It ascribeth the lamentable effects 
 of like attempts to the error or weakness of the undertakers, and 
 rather praiseth the adventure than feareth the like success. It 
 was the first sin that the world had, and began in angels, for 
 which they were cast into hell without hope of redemption. It 
 was more ancient than man, and therefore no part of his natural 
 corruption. The punishment also preceded his creation ; yet 
 hath the devil, which felt the smart thereof, taught him to forget 
 the one as out of date, and to practise the other, as befitting 
 every age and man's condition." 
 
 "THE TEMPTATION OP SATAN. 
 
 " Now the devil, because he cannot play upon the open stage 
 of this world as in those days, and being still as industrious as 
 ever, finds it more for his advantage to creep into the minds of 
 men, and, inhabiting in the temples of their hearts, works them 
 to a more effectual adoration of himself than ever. For, whereas
 
 262 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 he first taught them to sacrifice to monsters to dead stones, cut 
 into faces of beasts, birds, and other mixed natures, he now sets 
 before them the high and shining idol of glory, the all-command- 
 ing image of bright gold. He tells them that truth is the goddess 
 of dangers and oppressions, that chastity is the enemy of nature, 
 and, lastly, that as all virtue in general is without taste, so plea- 
 sure satisfieth and delighteth every sense for true wisdom, saith 
 he, is exercised in nothing else than in the obtaining of power 
 to oppress, and of riches to maintain plentifully our worldly 
 delights. And if this arch-politician find in his pupils any re- 
 morse any feeling or fear of God's future judgment he persuades 
 them that God hath so great need of men's souls, that he will 
 accept them at any time, and upon any condition ; interrupting 
 by his vigilant endeavours all offer of timeful return towards God, 
 by laying those great blocks of rugged poverty and despised 
 contempt in the narrow passage leading to his divine presence. 
 But as the mind of man hath two ports the one always fre- 
 quented by the entrance of manifold vanities ; the other, desolate 
 and overgrown with grass by which enter our charitable 
 thoughts and divine contemplations, so hath that of death a 
 double and twofold opening worldly misery passing by the one, 
 worldly prosperity by the other. At the entrance of the one we 
 find our sufferings and patience to attend us, all which have 
 gone before us to prepare our joys ; at the other, our cruelties, 
 coveteousness, licentiousness, injustice, and oppressions the 
 harbingers of most fearful and terrible sorrow staying for us. 
 And as the devil, our most industrious enemy, was ever most 
 diligent, so is he now more laborious than ever the long day 
 of mankind drawing fast towards an evening, and the world's 
 tragedy and time near at an end." 
 
 "OF THE SEVEN AGES OP MAN, AND OP HIS MORTALITY. 
 
 " Homo est mensura omnium rerum, saith Aristotle, and that 
 the four complexions resemble the four elements, and the seven 
 ages of man the seven planets ; whereof our infancy is compared 
 to the moon, in which we seem only to live and grow, as plants ; 
 the second age to Mercury, wherein we are taught and instructed ; 
 our third age to Venus, the days of love, desire, and vanity ; the 
 fourth to the sun, the strong, flourishing, and beautiful age of
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGII. 263 
 
 man's life ; the fifth to Mars, in which we seek honour and victory, 
 and in which our thoughts travel to ambitious ends ; the sixth 
 age is ascribed to Jupiter, in which we begin to take account of 
 our times, judge of ourselves, and grow to the perfection of our 
 understanding ; the last and seventh to Saturn, wherein our days 
 ure sad and overcast, and in which we find, by dear and lamentable 
 experience, and by the loss which can never be repaired, that of 
 all our vain passions and affections past, the sorrow only abideth. 
 Our attendants are sicknesses and variable infirmities, and by how 
 much the more we are accompanied with plenty, by so much the 
 more greedily is our end desired, whom, when Time hath made us 
 unsociable to others, we become a burthen to ourselves, being of 
 no other use than to hold the riches we have from our successors. 
 In this time it is, when (as aforesaid) we, for the most part, and 
 never before, prepare for our eternal habitation, which we pass on 
 unto with many sighs, groans, and sad thoughts ; and in the end, 
 by the workmanship of death, finish the sorrowful business of a 
 wretched life, towards which we always travel, both sleeping and 
 waking. Neither have those beloved companions of honour and 
 riches any power at all to hold us any one day by the glorious 
 promise of entertainments ; but by what crooked path soever we 
 walk, the same leadeth on directly to the house of death, whose 
 doors lie open at all hours, and to all persons. For this tide of 
 man's life, after it once turneth and declineth, ever runneth with 
 a perpetual ebb and falling stream, but never floweth again. Our 
 leaf once fallen, springeth no more; neither doth the sun or the sum- 
 mer adorn us again with the garments of new leaves and flowers. 
 
 " For if there were any baiting-place, or rest, in the course or race 
 of man's life, then, according to the doctrine of the academics, 
 the same might also perpetually be maintained ; but as there is a 
 continuance of motion in natural living things, and as the sap and 
 juice, wherein the life of plants is preserved, doth evermore 
 ascend or descend, so is it with the life of man, which is always 
 either increasing towards ripeness and perfection, or declining and 
 decreasing towards rottenness and dissolution. 
 
 "THE INVIOLABILITY OF AN OATH. 
 
 "It is not, as faithless men take it, that he which sweareth to a 
 man, to a state, to. a society, or to a king, and sweareth by the name of 
 the living Lord, and in his presence, that this promise (if it be 
 broken) is broken to a man, to a society, to a state, or to a prince;
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 but the promise in the name of God made, is broken to God. It is 
 God that we therein neglect ; we therein profess that we fear 
 him not, and that we set him at naught and defy him. If he 
 that, without reservation of honour, giveth a lie in the presence of 
 the king or of his superior, doth in point of honour give the lie to 
 the king himself, or to his superior ; how much more doth he break 
 faith with God, that giveth faith in the presence of God, promiseth 
 in His name, and makes Him a witness of the covenant made ? 
 
 " Out of doubt it is a fearful thing for a son to break the 
 promise, will, or deed of the father; for a state or kingdom to 
 break those contracts which have been made in former times and 
 confirmed by public faith ; for, though it were 400 years after 
 Joshua, that Saul, even out of devotion, slaughtered some of 
 those people descended of the Gideonites, yet God, who forgat 
 not what the predecessors and forefathers of Saul and the 
 Israelites had sworn in his name, afflicted the whole nation with 
 a consuming famine, and could not be appeased till seven of 
 Saul's sons were delivered to the Gideonites grieved, and by 
 them hanged up. 
 
 " And certainly, if it be permitted by the help of a ridiculous 
 distinction, or by a God-mocking equivocation, to swear one 
 thing by the name of the living God, and to reserve in silence 
 a contrary intent the life of man, the estates of men, the faith 
 of subjects to kings, of servants to their masters, of vassals to 
 their lords, of wives to their husbands, and of children to their 
 parents, and of all trials of right, will not only be made uncertain, 
 but all the chains whereby free men are tied in the world, be 
 torn asunder. It is by oath, when kings and armies cannot pass, 
 that we enter into the cities of our enemies, and into their armies ; 
 it is by oath that wars take end, which weapons cannot end. And 
 what is it, or ought it to be, that makes an oath thus powerful, but 
 thiis that he that sweareth by the name of God, doth assure others 
 that his words are true as the Lord of all the world is true, whom 
 he calleth for a witness, and in whose presence he that taketh 
 the oath hath promised ? I am not ignorant of their poor evasions 
 which play with the severity of God's commandments in this 
 kind; but this indeed is the best answer that he breaks no 
 faith that hath none to break ; for whosoever hath faith and the 
 fear of God dares not do it."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 2G5 
 
 " LOYALTY OF TUB BNGL1SU PEOPLE. 
 
 " It may be pronounced, absolutely, of the kings of England, 
 that never any of them perished by fury of the people, but by 
 treason of such as did succeed' them ; neither was there any motive 
 urging so forcibly the death of King Edward and King Richard 
 when they were in prison^ as fear lest the people should stir in 
 their quarrel. And certainly (howsoever all that the law calls 
 treason be interpreted, as tending finally to the king's destruction) 
 in those treasonable insurrection* of the vulgar, which have here 
 most prevailed, tha Saty o the multituete hath quenched itself 
 with the blood o some great officer*;: n* sack rebellions, howso- 
 ever wicked ;uad barbarous otherwise, thirsting after the ruin of 
 their natural' sovereign, but rather forbearing the advantages 
 gotten upon his royal person; which if any man. impute unto gross 
 ignorance, another may more charitably, and I think more truly, 
 ascribe to a reverent affection. Wherefore that fable of Briareus, 
 who, being loosened Ibyt TfJii . did with his hundred hands give 
 assistance to Jupiter, when all the rest of the gods conspired 
 against him, is very fitly expounded by Sir Francis Bacon, as 
 signifying, that monarchs need not to fear any curbing of their 
 absoluteness by mighty subjects, as long as by wisdom they keep 
 the hearts of the people, who will be sure to come in on their 
 side ; though, indeed, the story might very well have borne the 
 same interpretation, as it is rehearsed by Homer, who tells us 
 that Pallas was one of the conspiracy, and that Thetis alone did 
 mar all their practice by loosening Briareus. For a good form 
 of government sufficeth by itself to retain the people, not only 
 without assistance of a laborious wit, but even against all devices 
 of the greatest and shrewdest politicians ; every sheriff and con- 
 stable being sooner able to arm the multitude, in the king's behalf, 
 than any overweening rebel, how mighty soever, can against him."
 
 266 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 SIR WALTER BALEGH, FKOM THE EXGKAVING IN THE "HISTOET OF THE WOKLD." 
 
 DETACHED OBSERVATIONS, MAXIMS, AND 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 " HE that suspecteth his own worth, or other men's opinions, 
 thinking the less regard is had of his person than he believeth to 
 be due to his place, will commonly spend all the force of his 
 authority in purchasing the name of a severe man. For the 
 affected sourness of a vain fellow doth many times resemble the 
 gravity of one that is wise ; and the fear wherein they live which 
 are subject unto oppression, carries a show of reverence to him 
 that does the wrong ; at least it serves to dazzle the eyes of 
 underlings, keeping them from prying into the weakness of such 
 as have jurisdiction over them. Thus the time wherein, by well 
 using it, men might attain to be such as they ought, they do 
 usually misspend, in seeking to appear such as they are not. 
 This is a vain and deceivable course, procuring, instead of the 
 respect that was hoped for, more indignation than was feared, 
 which is a thing of dangerous consequence, especially when an
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 267 
 
 unable spirit, being overperted with so high authority, is too pas- 
 sionate in the execution of such an office as cannot be checked 
 but by violence." 
 
 " It is certain that the age of Time hath brought forth stranger 
 and more incredible things than the infancy. For we have now 
 greater giants, for vice and injustice, than the world had in those 
 days for bodily strength ; for cottages, and houses of clay and 
 timber, we have raised palaces of stone ; we carve them, we paint 
 them, and adorn them with gold, insomuch as men are rather 
 known by their houses than their houses by them ; we are fallen 
 from two dishes to two hundred, from water to wine and drunken- 
 ness ; from the covering of our bodies with the skins of beasts, 
 not only to silk and gold, but to the very skins of men. But Time 
 will also take revenge of the excess which it hath brought forth : 
 ' Quam longa dies peperit, longiorque auzit, longissima subruet . * 
 ' Long time brought forth, longer time increased it, and a time, 
 longer than the rest, shall overthrow it.' " 
 
 " There are three things which are the natural causes of a long 
 and healthful life ; to wit, strong parents, a pure and thin air, 
 and temperate use of diet, pleasure, and rest ; for those which are 
 built of rotten timber or mouldering stone cannot long stand 
 upright. On air we feed always, and in every instant, and on 
 meats but at times ; and yet the heavy load of abundance where- 
 with we oppress and overcharge nature, maketh her to sink una- 
 wares in the midway. And therefore a good constitution, a pure 
 air, and a temperate use of those things which nature wanteth, 
 are the only friends and companions of a long life." 
 
 " Common bruit is so infamous an historian, as wise men neither 
 report after it, nor give credit to anything they may receive 
 from it." 
 
 " It commonly falls out, that they who can find all manner of 
 difficulties in serving Him to whom nothing is difficult, are, instead 
 of the ease and pleasure to themselves propounded by contrary 
 courses, overwhelmed with the troubles which they sought to 
 avoid ; and therein by God, whom they first forsook, forsaken,
 
 268 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 and left unto the wretched labours of their own blind wisdom, 
 wherein they had reposed all their confidence." 
 
 " The debts of cruelty and mercy are never left unsatisfied." 
 
 " It is usually seen that the hearts of men fail when those 
 helps fail in which they had reposed more confidence than in their 
 own virtue." 
 
 " The malice of the devil, which awaits for all opportunities, 
 is never more importunate than where men's ignorance is most." 
 
 " It was truly said of Seneca, ' Patientia scepe Itesa vertitur 
 in fwrorem:" 1 'Patience often wounded, is converted into fury;' 
 neither is it at any time so much wounded by pain and loss, as by 
 derision and contumely." 
 
 " Worldly men are violent lovers of the prosperous, and base 
 vassals of the time that flourisheth, and as despiteful and cruel, 
 without cause, against those whom any misadventure, or other 
 worldly accident, hath thrown down." 
 
 " Princes do rather pardon ill- deeds than villanous words. 
 Alexander the Great forgave many sharp swords, but never any 
 sharp tongues ; no, though they told him but truly of his errors : 
 and certainly it belongs to those that have warrant from God, 
 to reprehend princes, and none else, especially in public. It 
 is said, that Henry the Fourth of France had his heart more 
 inflamed against the Duke of Biron for his overbold and biting 
 taunts that he used against him before Amiens, than for his 
 conspiracy with the Spaniard or Savoyan ; for he had pardoned 
 ten thousand of such as had gone farther, and drawn their swords 
 against him. The contemptuous words that Sir John Perrot used 
 of our late Queen Elizabeth were his ruin, and not the counter- 
 feit letter of the Romish priest, produced against him. So fared 
 it with some other greater than he, that thereby ran the same, and 
 a worse fortune, soon after." 
 
 "They which tell a- man in his adversity of his faults past, shall 
 sooner be thought to upbraid him with his fortune than to seek 
 his reformation."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 269 
 
 " Parsimony is a revenue of itself." 
 
 "The shame that falls upon an insolent man, seldom fails of 
 meeting with abundance of reproach." 
 
 "It is a thing usual in mischievous, fell natures, to be as abject 
 and servile in time of adversity, as insolent and bloody upon 
 advantage." 
 
 " It was the custom of Philopoemen, when he walked or travelled 
 abroad with his friends, to mark the situation of the country about 
 him, and to discourse what might befall an army marching the 
 same way. He would suppose, that having with him there such 
 a number of soldiers, ordered and sorted in such manner, and 
 marching towards such a place, he were upon that ground encoun- 
 tered by a greater army, or better prepared to the fight. Then 
 would he put the question, whether it were fit for him to hold on 
 his way, retire, or make a stand ; what piece of ground it were 
 meet for him to seize upon, and in what manner he might best do 
 it ; in what sort he should order his men ; where bestow his 
 carriages, and under what guard ; in what sort encamp himself, 
 and which way march the day following. By such continual 
 meditation, he was grown so perfect, that he did never meet witli 
 any difficulty whence he could not explicate himself and his 
 followers." 
 
 " The doctrine which Machiavel taught unto Csesar Borgia, to 
 employ men in mischievous actions, and afterwards to destroy 
 them when they have performed the mischief, was not of his own 
 invention. All ages have given us examples of this goodly 
 policy, the latter having been apt scholars in this lesson to the 
 more ancient; as the reign of Henry the Eighth, here in England, 
 can bear good witness and therein especially the Lord Cromwell, 
 who perished by the same unjust law that himself had devised for 
 the taking away of another man's life." 
 
 " The coveting after long life in respect of ourselves, cannot 
 but proceed of self-love, which is the root of all impiety ; the 
 desire of private riches is an affection of covetousness, which God
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 abhorreth : to affect revenge, is as much as to take the sword out 
 of God's hand, and to distrust His justice." 
 
 " It is common in men to depart no less unwillingly from that 
 which they have gotten by extortion, than from their proper 
 inheritance ; but to think all alike their own whereof they are in 
 possession, be the title unto some part never so unjust. Hereunto 
 alludes the fable of the young kite, which thought that she had 
 vomited up her own bowels, when it was only the garbage of 
 some other fowl that she had hastily swallowed, and was not 
 able to digest." 
 
 " All historians love to extol their own countrymen ; and 
 where a loss cannot be dissembled, nor the honour of the victory 
 taken from the enemy, and given unto blind fortune, then to lay 
 all the blame on some strange misgovernment of their own forces, 
 as if they might easily have won all, but lost all through such 
 folly as no enemy can hope to find in them another time." 
 
 "There are multitudes of men, especially of those which 
 follow the war, that both envy and malign others, if they perform 
 any praiseworthy actions for the honour and safety of their own 
 country, though themselves may be assured to bear a part of the 
 smart of contrary success. And such malicious hearts can rather 
 be contented that their prince and country should suffer hazard 
 and want, than that such men as they mislike should be the 
 authors or actors of any glory or good to either." 
 
 " There is a foolish and wretched pride wherewith men, being 
 transported, can ill endure to ascribe unto God the honour of 
 those actions in which it hath pleased Him to use their own 
 industry, courage, or foresight. Therefore, it is commonly seen, 
 that they who, entering into battle are careful to pray for 
 aid from heaven, with due acknowledgment of His power, who is 
 the giver of victory, when the field is won, do vaunt of their own 
 exploits ; one telling how he got such a ground of advantage ; 
 another, how he gave check to such a battalion ; a third, how he 
 seized on the enemy's cannon ; every one striving to magnify 
 himself, whilst all forget God, as one that had not been present 
 in the action. To ascribe to fortune the effects of another man's
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 271 
 
 virtue, is, I confess, an argument of malice. Yet this is true, 
 that as he which findeth better success than he did, or in reason 
 might, expect is deeply bound to acknowledge God the author of 
 his happiness ; so he whose mere wisdom and labour hath brought 
 things to a prosperous issue, is doubly bound to show himself 
 thankful, both for the victory, and for those virtues by which the 
 victory was gotten. And, indeed, so far from weakness is the 
 nature of such thanksgiving, that it may well be called the height 
 of magnanimity ; no virtue being so truly heroical as that by which 
 the spirit of man advanceth itself with confidence of acceptation 
 unto the love of God. In which sense it is a brave speech that 
 Evander in Virgil useth to ,ZEneas, none but a Christian being 
 capable of the admonition : 
 
 " ' Aude hospes contemnere opes, et te quoque dignum 
 Finge Deo.' " 
 
 "It is said and spoken in Alexander's praise, that when his 
 soldiers cried out against him, because they could not endure the 
 extreme frost, and make way but with extreme difficulty through 
 the snow, that Alexander forsook his horse, and led them the way. 
 But what can be more ridiculous than to bring other men into 
 extremity, thereby to show how well himself can endure it. His 
 walking on foot did no otherwise take off their weariness that fol- 
 lowed him, than his sometime forbearing to drink did quench 
 their thirst that could less endure it. For mine own little judg- 
 ment, I shall rather commend that captain that makes careful pro 
 vision for those that follow him, and that seeks wisely to prevent 
 extreme necessity, than those witless, arrogant fools, that make the 
 vaunt of having endured equally with the common soldier, as if 
 that were a matter of great glory and importance." 
 
 " It is less prejudicial that errors, dishonours, and losses, be 
 laid on councillors and captains than on kings on the directed 
 than on the director ; for the honour and reputation of a prince is 
 far more precious than that of a vassal. Charles V., as many 
 other princes have done, laid the loss and dishonour he received 
 in the invasion of France, by the way of Provence, to Antonio de 
 Leva, whether justly or no, I know not ; but howsoever, all the his- 
 torians of that time agree that the sorrow thereof cost that brave 
 captain his life. Certainly, to give any violent advice in doubtful
 
 272 THE LIS?E AND TIMES OF 
 
 enterprises, is rather a testimony of love than of wisdom in the 
 giver ; for the ill success is always cast upon the counsel; the good 
 never wants a father, though a false one, to acknowledge it." 
 
 " Certainly, the princes of the world have seldom found good 
 by making their ministers over-great, and thereby suspicious to 
 themselves; for he that doth not acknowledge fidelity to be a 
 debt, but is persuaded that kings ought to purchase it from their 
 vassals, will never please himself with the price given. The only 
 restoration, indeed, that strengthens it, is the goodness and virtue 
 of the prince, and his liberality makes it more diligent, so as pro- 
 portion and distance be observed." 
 
 "To wrangle about pretences, when each party^has resolved to 
 make war, is merely frivolous ; for all these disputes of breach of 
 peace have ever been maintained by the party unwilling or unable 
 to sustain the war. The rusty sword and the empty purse do 
 always plead performance of covenants. There have been few 
 kings or states in the world that have otherwise understood the 
 obligation of a treaty, than with the condition of their own advan- 
 tage; and commonly (seeing peace between ambitious princes and 
 states is but a kind of breathing) the best advised have rather 
 begun with the sword than with the trumpet. So dealt the Ar- 
 ragonese with the French in Naples ; Henry II. of France, with 
 the Imperials, when he wrote to Brisac to surprise as many places 
 as he could ere the war brake out ; Don John, with the Nether- 
 lands ; and Philip II. of Spain with the English, when in the great 
 embargo he took all our ships and goods in his ports." 
 
 "In night services, ambushments, surprises, and practices, 
 Aratus was very cunning, adventurous, and valiant ; in open field 
 and plain battle he was as timorous. By this strange mixture of 
 cowardice and courage, he ministered argument of disputation to 
 philosophers and others, whether a valiant man (as he was es- 
 teemed, and in some cases approved) might look pale and tremble 
 when he began battle ; and whether the virtue of fortitude were 
 diversified by the sundry natures of men, and in a manner con- 
 fined unto several sorts of action. In resolving which doubts it 
 may be said, that all virtue is perfected in men by exercise, 
 wherein they are trained by occasion, though a natural inclination
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 273 
 
 standeth in need of little practice, whereas the defect hereof must 
 be supplied with much instruction, use, good success, and other 
 help, yet hardly shall grow absolute in general. Such was Aratus 
 in matter of war. In sincere affection to his country he was un- 
 reproveable, and so acknowledged." 
 
 " In all panic terrors, as they are called, whereof there is either 
 no cause known, or no cause answerable to the greatness of the 
 sudden consternation, it is a good remedy to do somewhat quite 
 contrary to that which the danger would require, were it such as 
 men have fashioned in it their amazed conceits." 
 
 " Insolent natures, by dealing outrageously with such as bring 
 them ill tidings, do commonly lose the benefit of hearing what 
 is to be feared, whilst yet it may be prevented, and have no 
 information of danger till their own eyes, amazed with the 
 suddenness, behold it in the shape of inevitable mischief." 
 
 "The thirst of covetousness, the more it swalloweth, the 
 more it drieth and desireth, finding taste in nothing but gain 
 to recover which they set the law at a price, and sell justice 
 and judgment to the best chapman." 
 
 "It happens often that the decease of one eminent man 
 discovers the virtue of another." 
 
 "We should not, if we be God's children, think it more 
 tedious to hear long and frequent reports of our Heavenly Father's 
 honour, than of the noble acts performed by our forefathers upon 
 earth." 
 
 "Greatly doth the Lord and King of all detest homicide, 
 having threatened, not in vain, that He would require the blood 
 of man at the hand of man and beast. The wars which David 
 had made were just, and the blood therein shed was of the 
 enemies of God and his church yet for this cause it was not 
 permitted that his hands should lay the foundation of that holy 
 temple. Hereby it appears how greatly those princes deceive 
 themselves, who think by bloodshed and terror of their wars to 
 make themselves in greatness like to the Almighty, which is a 
 damnable pride ; not caring to imitate ilis mercy and goodness, 
 
 s
 
 274 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 or seek the blessedness promised by our Saviour unto the peace- 
 makers." 
 
 " I hold it a sure course, in examination of such opinions as 
 have once gotten the credit of being general, so to deal as Pacu- 
 vius, in Capua, did with the multitude, finding them desirous to 
 put all the senators of the city to death. He locked the senators 
 up within the state-house, and offered their lives to the people's 
 mercy ; obtaining thus much, that none of them should perish 
 until the commonalty had both pronounced him worthy of death 
 and elected a better in his place. The condemnation was hasty ; 
 for as fast as every name was read, all the town cried, ' let him 
 die;' but the execution required more leisure. For, in substi- 
 tuting of another, some notorious vice of the person, or baseness 
 of his condition, or insufficiency of his quality, made each new 
 one that was offered to be rejected ; so that, finding the worse and 
 less choice, the further and the more that they sought, it was 
 finally agreed that the old should be kept for lack of better." 
 
 " Where God hath a purpose to destroy, wise men grow short- 
 lived, and the charge of things is committed unto such as either 
 cannot see what is for their good, or know not how to put in 
 execution any sound advice." 
 
 " He that cannot endure to strive against the wind, shall 
 hardly attain the port which he purposeth to recover ; and it no 
 less becometh the worthiest man to oppose misfortunes, than it 
 doth the weakest children to bewail them." 
 
 " As in man's body, through sinews newly issuing from one 
 branch, a finger is more vexed by inflammation of his next neigh- 
 bour than by any distemper in the contrary hand ; so, in bodies 
 politic, the humours of men, subdivided in faction, are more en- 
 raged by the disagreeable qualities of such as curb them in their 
 nearest purposes, than they are exasperated by the general oppo- 
 sition of such as are divided from them in the main trunk. Hereby 
 it comes to pass, that contrary religions are invited to help against 
 neighbour princes ; bordering enemies drawn in to take part in 
 civil wars; and ancient hatred called to counsel against injurious 
 friends. Of this fault Nature is not guilty. She hath taught the
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 275 
 
 arm to offer itself unto manifest loss in defence of the head. They 
 are depraved affections, which render men sensible of their own 
 particular, and forgetful of the more general good for which they 
 were created." 
 
 " We curiously search into their vices in whom, had they kept 
 some distance, we should have discerned only the virtues ; and 
 comparing injuriously our best parts with their worst, are justly 
 plagued with a false opinion of that good in strangers which we 
 know to be wanting in ourselves." 
 
 "It often happens that a prosperous event makes foolish 
 counsel seem wiser than it was." 
 
 " He who would needs help to piece out God's providence with 
 his own circumspection, acts therein like a foolish, greedy gamester, 
 who, by stealing a needless card to assure himself of winning a 
 stake, forfeits his whole test." 
 
 " Young men, when first they grow masters of themselves, love 
 to seem wiser than their fathers, by taking different courses." 
 
 " It is commonly found (which is a great pity) that virtue, 
 having risen to honour by degrees, and confirmed itself (as it were) 
 in the seat of principality by length of time and success of many 
 actions, can ill endure the hasty growth of any other's reputation, 
 wherewith it sees itself likely to be overtopped." 
 
 " All heads are not fit for helmets." 
 
 " Nothing is more vain than the fears and hopes of men, 
 shunning or pursuing their destinies afar off, which deceive all 
 mortal wisdom, even when they seem near at hand." 
 
 " To make an able general, one virtue, how great soever, is 
 insufficient." 
 
 " Natures impatient of subjection, when once they have broken 
 loose from the rigour of authority, love nothing more than to con- 
 test with it, as if herein consisted the proof and assurance of their 
 liberty." 
 
 " By counterfeit shows of dissembling, aspirers do often take 
 
 82
 
 276 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 check by the plain dealing of them who dare to go more directly 
 to work." 
 
 " Gentle behaviour and sweet language are commonly lost 
 when bestowed upon arrogant creatures." 
 
 " Vain is the confidence on which rebels use to build, in their 
 favour with the multitude." 
 
 " Surely, it is great injustice to impute the mischief contrived 
 against worthy men to their own proud carriage, or some other 
 ill-deserving; for, though it often happen that small vices do serve 
 to counterpoise great virtues, (the sense of evil being more quick 
 and lasting than of good,) yet he shall bewray a very foolish malice 
 that, wanting other testimony, will think it a part of wisdom to 
 find good reason of the evils done to virtuous men, which often- 
 times have no other cause than virtue itself." 
 
 A coward thinks all provision too little for his own security."
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 277 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IN May, 1612, death surprised Cecil at Marlborough, and took 
 away Ralegh's bitterest enemy : 
 
 " For they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong." 
 
 This event awakened in Sir Walter hopes of a speedy release which, 
 however, were not immediately to be realised. Nevertheless, in 
 1614, the liberty of the tower was allowed him. About this time, 
 seeing Carr, Earl of Somerset, brought into that fortress, he re- 
 marked, " that the whole history of the world had not the like 
 precedent of a king's prisoner to purchase freedom, and his bosom 
 favourite to have the halter, but in Scripture, in the case of Mordecai 
 and Haman." The King, being told this, replied that Ralegh 
 might die in that deceit. The King knew his own baseness better 
 than Sir Walter : he pardoned Somerset, and executed Ralegh. 
 In the above year, he had the misfortune of seeing his son Walter 
 obliged to fly the country, on account of a duel in which he had 
 been engaged with Mr. Robert Tyrwhit, a dependent of the Earl 
 of Suffolk, Lord High Treasurer.* In this year likewise the 
 " History of the World" was published. 
 
 * Mr. Gifford in his " Life of Ben Jonson," is exceedingly angry that a 
 certain story should have gained such currency as to have found its way into 
 our jest books. It is told by Wood ; and is to the effect that Jonson, in 1593, 
 was tutor to young Ralegh, who at length became weary of his governance, 
 and making, or finding the poet drunk, caused him to be placed in a basket 
 and carried by two men into the presence of his father, to show Sir Walter 
 (to whom a drunkard was an abomination) what a tutor he had chosen for 
 his son. Gifford triumphantly points out that in 1593 young Walter Ralegh 
 was not born (he might have added that Jonson was hardly twenty years of 
 age). But a story may be true although a date be wrong. An escapade 
 similar to the above was committed, I am sorry to say, by the scapegrace, 
 as Mr. Dyce has shown. He tells us : 
 
 " It is now ascertained that Jonson did act as tutor to Sir Walter, not, 
 indeed, in 1593, but in 1613 ; and that young Ralegh, not in England but in 
 France, did treat him in nearly the manner above mentioned. ' Sir W. 
 Raulighe sent him (Jonson) governour with his son, anno 1613, to France. 
 This youth, being knavishly inclyned, among other pastimes .... caused
 
 278 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Villiers, afterwards Duke of Buckingham, was now the almost 
 risen favourite, and to him did Ralegh appeal, and in a manner 
 then very generally understood and practised. For fifteen hundred 
 pounds, paid into the hands of Sir William St. John and Sir 
 Edward Villiers (uncle of the minion) Ralegh procured his liberty , 
 and forthwith proceeded to ponder the best means of prosecuting 
 his old scheme of settling Guiana. During his imprisonment, 
 Leigh and Harcourt had made voyages there the former in 1 604, the 
 latter in 1609 ; he had himself sent thither several times, to encou- 
 rage the natives to resist the encroachments and cruelties of the 
 Spaniards ; and he had proposed a voyage to Guiana, some years 
 before, if his liberty were granted him. More than twenty years 
 had elapsed since he had discovered that country, and taken pos- 
 session of it in the Queen's name. Guiana belonged to England. 
 
 Ralegh having moved the new Secretary, Sir Ralph Winwood, 
 to interest himself in favour of his proposal, the consent of the 
 King, whose necessities were unusually urgent at this time, was 
 soon obtained, and a commission, bearing date August 26, 1616, 
 was procured from him. According to some authors, the commis- 
 sion was under the great seal of England, and directed to " Our 
 trusty and well-beloved Sir Walter Ralegh, Knt. ; " whilst others, 
 and James amongst them, who, after Ralegh's execution, felt him- 
 self constrained to publish what he called a Declaration, assert 
 that it was only under the privy seal, and contained no such 
 expressions of grace and favour. Nevertheless, that commission 
 constituted him general and commander-in-chief of the enterprise 
 made him governor of the new country, with ample authority to 
 settle it, and committed to him the power of executing martial 
 
 him to be drunken, and dead drunk, so that he knew not where he was, 
 thereafter laid him on a carr, which he made to be drawen by pioners 
 through the streets, at every corner showing his governour stretched out, 
 and telling them that was a more lively image of a crucifix than any they 
 had ; at which sport young Raulighe's mother delighted much (saying, his 
 father young was so inclyned), though the father abhorred it.' " Notts of 
 Sen Jonson's Conversations, Sfc. I think it highly probable that Jonson 
 was tutor to young Ralegh long before 1613, for the latter was at that date 
 nearly twenty years of age. Obliged to fly to France on account of the 
 fatal duel, I have no doubt it was at the earnest entreaty of Sir Walter that 
 the poet accompanied or followed him thither. He assumed his governorship 
 of a former pupil.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 279 
 
 law, in such a manner as the king's lieutenant-general by sea or 
 land was entitled to exercise it. 
 
 Although released from prison, Sir Walter had not obtained a 
 pardon, nor was he at all solicitous to procure one declining the 
 offer of Sir William St. John and Sir Edward Villiers, who engaged 
 to get him a full pardon for 700. For Bacon, whom he had 
 consulted on this point, told him, " Sir, the knee-timber of your 
 voyage is money. Spare your purse in this particular ; for, upon 
 my life, you have a sufficient pardon for all that is past already, 
 
 LORD BACON. 
 
 the King having, under his broad seal, made you admiral of your 
 fleet, and given you power of the martial law over your officers and 
 soldiers." 
 
 To undertake this voyage, Ralegh was compelled to call in 
 8,000 which he had lent to the Countess of Bedford, and which 
 had been given to him in full satisfaction of his Sherborne estate 
 (valued at 5,000 per annum). He induced Lady Ralegh likewise 
 to sell her estate at Mitcham, in Surrey, for 2,500. He obtained
 
 280 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 many co-adventurers, some of whom were foreign merchants ; and 
 about seven months after the date of the commission, the fleet, 
 which consisted of seven sail, was ready for sea.* 
 
 "The Destiny" had been built at the sole charge of Ralegh, 
 and his son Walter accompanied him as his captain. There were on 
 board two hundred men, of whom about eighty were gentlemen 
 volunteers and adventurers, many being Sir Walter's relatives. 
 This number was afterwards increased. 
 
 In the latter end of March, 1617, Ralegh dropped down the 
 Thames ; but it was late in June before his entire force joined com- 
 pany with him, enabling him to clear the port of Plymouth. He 
 was obliged by stress of weather to put into port at Cork, and it was 
 late in August before he could proceed. Early in September he 
 made the Canaries ; in October, the Cape de Verd Islands ; and in 
 November, the continent of South America. He had suffered great 
 distress during the whole passage, which he describes in the follow- 
 ing letter, written to his wife on his arrival : 
 
 " SWEETHEART, I can write unto you but with a weak hand, 
 for I have suffered the most violent calenture for fifteen days that 
 ever man did, and lived. But God, who gave me a strong heart in 
 all my adversities, hath also now strengthened it in the hell-fire of 
 heat. We have had two most grievous sicknesses in our ship, of 
 which forty-two have died, and there are yet many sick. But having 
 reached the land of Guiana this 12th of November, I hope we 
 shall recover them. We are yet two hundred men, and the rest of 
 
 * These were : 
 
 " The Destiny," Sir Walter Ralegh . . . 440 tons, 36 pieces of ordnance. 
 ' ' The Jason," John Pennington .... 240 25 
 " The Encounter," Edward Hastings, (after- 
 wards Whitney) 160 17 
 
 " The Thunder," Sir Warham St. Leger . 180 20 
 
 "The Flying Joan," John Chidley. . . .120 14 
 
 " The Southampton," John Bayly .... 80 6 
 
 " The Page," James Barber 25 3 
 
 Before the fleet left the English coast, it was joined by the following 
 vessels, less particularly described : " The Convertine," Keymis ; " The 
 Confidence," Woolaston; "The Flying Hart," Sir John Feme; "The 
 
 Chudley," ; a Fly-boat, Samuel King ; another, Robert Smith ; a 
 
 Caravel, .
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 281 
 
 our fleet are reasonably strong strong enough, I hope, to perform 
 what we have undertaken, if the diligent care at London to make 
 our strength known to the Spanish king by his ambassador, have 
 not taught the Spanish king to fortify all the entrances against us.* 
 Howsoever, we must make the adventure ; and if we perish, it shall 
 be no honour for England, nor gain for his majesty, to lose, among 
 many others, one hundred as valiant gentlemen as England hath 
 in it. . . . 
 
 " Your son had never so good health, having no distemper in all 
 the heat under the line. All my servants have escaped but Crab 
 and my cook ; yet all have had the sickness. Crofts, and Maul, and 
 the rest are all well. Remember my service to my Lord Carew, 
 and Mr. Secretary Winwood ; I write not to them, for I can write 
 of nought but miseries. Yet of men of note we have lost our 
 sergeant-major, Captain Piggott and his lieutenant, Captain Edward 
 Hastings (who would have died at home for both his liver, spleen, 
 and brain were rotten), my son's lieutenant Payton, and my cousin 
 Mr. Hughes, Mr. Mordaunt, Mr. Gardiner, Mr. Hayward, Captain 
 Jennings, the merchant Keymis of London, and the master-chirur- 
 geon, Mr. Refiner, Mr. Moore, the governor of the Bermudas, our 
 provost-marshal, William Steed, Lieutenant Vescie ; but to my 
 inestimable grief, Hammon and Talbot. By the next I trust you 
 shall hear better of us. In God's hands we are, and in Him we 
 trust. The bearer, Captain Allen, for his infirmity of head, I have 
 sent back an honest, valiant man : he can deliver you all that is 
 past. Commend me to my worthy friends at Lothbury ; and my 
 devoted and humble service to her majesty. To tell you that I 
 might be here king of the Indians were a vanity; but my name 
 hath still lived among them here. They feed me with fresh meat 
 and all that the country yields. All offer to obey me. Commend 
 me to poor Carew, my son." 
 
 The extreme illness of Ralegh, which continued for six weeks, 
 debarred him from undertaking the discovery of the mine (of which 
 Keymis had told him in England, and the existence of which had 
 been certified to the king), and he was obliged to depute Captain 
 Keymis to that service, and he ordered five small ships to sail into 
 the Orinoco, aboard of which were five companies of fifty men each ; 
 
 * It had taught the Spaniards in Guiana to be prepared for them.
 
 282 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 the first commanded by Captain Parker ; the second by Captain 
 North ; the third by his son, Captain Ralegh ; the fourth by Cap- 
 tain Thornhurst ; and the fifth by Prideaux, Captain Chidley's lieu- 
 tenant. The charge of these companies, Sir Warham St. Leger 
 having fallen sick, devolved upon George Ralegh, Sir Walter's 
 nephew, who had distinguished himself in the Netherlands, and to 
 Keymis was entrusted the landing and conducting them. 
 
 The five ships parted from Ralegh and the rest of the fleet, 
 with a month's provision, on the 10th of December. They found 
 that a new Spanish town, called St.Thomas, with about one hundred 
 and forty lightly-built houses, a chapel, a convent, and a garrison, 
 had been erected on the main channel of the Orinoco, about twenty 
 miles distant from where Berreo, the Spanish governor whom 
 Ralegh had taken on his first discovery of Guiana, had attempted 
 to plant himself and his followers. Perceiving this, Keymis thought 
 it advisable, fearing to have the enemy's garrison between his party 
 and the boats, to deviate from his instructions, which enjoined him 
 in the first place, to carry a small detachment to make trial of the 
 mine nnder shelter of their own camp, and then to deal with the 
 Spanish town as it should behave. Keymis and his company 
 decided therefore to land in one body, and encamp between the mine 
 and the town. By this course, though themselves were stronger, 
 their boats were exposed ; and, contrary to Ralegh's order, the 
 mine remained untried. 
 
 It was now three weeks since they left Ralegh and the fleet ; 
 when, lauding one night nearer the town than they imagined, and 
 purposing to rest themselves on the bank of the river till morning, 
 they were suddenly attacked by the Spanish troops, which had been 
 apprised of their coming. This assault was so unlocked for, and 
 struck the English soldiers with such a panic, that they had all 
 inevitably been cut to pieces, had not their officers and some of the 
 gentlemen-volunteers encouraged them. They now rallied, and 
 made so spirited a defence, that they forced the Spaniards to re- 
 treat, and pursued them into the town. Here the battle was re- 
 newed, and with serious odds against the English, the governor of 
 St. Thomas, and four or five captains at the head of their com- 
 panies having come to the assistance of their comrades. Young 
 Ralegh, now three and twenty years of age, full of the fire of youth 
 and the courage of his family, without waiting for the musketeers,
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 283 
 
 rushed forward at the head of a company of pikes, and killing one 
 of the captains, was himself shot by another, but still pressing for- 
 ward, the captain who had discharged the shot felled him with the 
 butt-end of his musket. He spoke but these words : " Lord have 
 mercy upon me, and prosper your enterprise," and had barely 
 spoken them when his sergeant, Plessington, with his halberd 
 thrust the Spanish captain through the body. Two other Spanish 
 officers and the governor himself fell in this engagement. Of the 
 rest some fled, whilst others, under shelter of the market-place, 
 killed and wounded the English at pleasure, so that they were 
 compelled to fire the town, and drive the enemy to the woods and 
 mountains. Some, however, were careful to defend the passages 
 to their mines, of which there were four in the vicinity. 
 
 A few days after this, Keymis attempted to visit and make trial 
 of the mine with Captain Thornhurst, Mr. W. Herbert, Sir John 
 Hampden and others; but on the first evidence given of their 
 intention to land, he received a volley of shot from the Spaniards in 
 ambush in the woods, which slew two of the company, hurt six 
 others, and wounded Capt. Thornhurst dangerously in the head. 
 Keymis now took such thought as ended in a determination not to 
 visit the mine at all. He found that the woods were thick and im- 
 passable, that the river was so low that he could not approach the 
 bank near the mine by a mile, and he remembered that, if he suc- 
 ceeded iu discovering the mine, he had no men to work it. In a 
 word, he returned with the companies to the fleet, and pleaded the 
 above reasons and others for not going to the mine. But as some 
 mitigation of their want of success, and as an encouragement to- 
 wards future exertions, Keymis produced two ingots of gold, which 
 had been reserved at St. Thomas, as the King of Spain's fifth, or 
 proportion, together with other valuable spoils of the late governor, 
 and a large collection of papers, schemes, plans, maps, &c., found 
 in his study. Among these were several letters, which showed that 
 Ralegh's enterprise had been communicated to the Spanish govern- 
 ment. Sir Walter, about a month afterwards, complained in a 
 letter to Secretary Winwood of the treachery of betraying and ex- 
 posing him to Spain, whose communications to South America long 
 anticipated his arrival there. Meanwhile, the excuses or represen- 
 tations of Keymis by no means satisfied him. Irritated at hearing 
 that he had not attempted the mine, and distracted by the loss of
 
 284 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 his son, he bitterly reproached the captain with having undone him 
 and wounded beyond recovery his credit with the King. This 
 affected his faithful, valiant, and honest follower of many years so 
 deeply, that he retired to his cabin and shot himself; and finding 
 the wound not mortal, he despatched himself with a long knife 
 thrust through the left breast to the heart. 
 
 The following letter to Lady Ralegh describes the failure of 
 this disastrous expedition : 
 
 " I was loth to write because I knew not how to comfort you, 
 and God knows I never knew what sorrow meant till now. All 
 that I can say to you is, that you must obey the will and providence 
 of God ; and remember that the Queen's majesty bore the loss of 
 Prince Henry with a magnanimous heart, and the Lady Harrington 
 of her only son. Comfort your heart, dearest Bess ; I shall sorrow 
 for us both. And I shall sorrow the less, because I have not long 
 to sorrow, because not long to live. 
 
 " I refer you to Mr. Secretary Winwood's letter, who will give 
 you a copy of it, if you send for it. Therein you shall know what 
 hath passed, which I have written by that letter ; for my brains are 
 broken, and it is a torment to me to write, especially of misery. I 
 have desired Mr. Secretary to give my Lord Carew a copy of his 
 letter. I have cleansed my ship of sick men and sent them home, 
 and hope that God will send us somewhat before our return. 
 Commend me to all at Lothbury.* You shall hear from me, if I 
 live, from Newfoundland, where I mean to clean my ships and 
 revictual, for I have tobacco enough to pay for it. The Lord bless 
 and comfort you, that you may bear patiently the death of your 
 most valiant son. This 22nd of March, from the Isle of St. 
 Christopher's. " Yours, 
 
 "WALTER RALEGH." 
 
 " Postscript. I protest before the majesty of God, that as Sir 
 Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins died heart-broken, when they 
 failed of their enterprise, I could willingly do the like, did I not 
 contend against sorrow for your sake, in hope to provide somewhat 
 for you to comfort and relieve you. If I live to return, resolve 
 
 * Lady Ralegh's relations, the Throgmortons, no doubt. Her father, Sir 
 Nicholas Throgmorton, had a house in that part of Lothbury which is now 
 called Throgmorton Street.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 285 
 
 yourself that it is the care for you that hath strengthened my heart. 
 It is trne that Keymis might have gone directly to the mine, and 
 meant it. But after my son's death, he made them believe that he 
 knew not the way, and excused himself upon the want of water in 
 the river, and, counterfeiting many impediments, left it unfound. 
 When he came back, I told him he had undone me, and that my 
 credit was lost for ever. He answered, that when my son was lost, 
 and that he left me so weak that he thought not to find me alive, 
 he had no reason to enrich a company of rascals who, after my 
 son's death, made no account of him. He further told me, that the 
 English sent up into Guiana could hardly defend the Spanish town 
 of St. Thomas, which they had taken ; and therefore for them to 
 pass through thick woods it was impossible, and more impossible 
 for them to have victuals brought them into the mountains. And 
 it is true that the governor, Diego Palameca, and other four cap- 
 tains being slain, whereof my son Wat slew one, Plessington (Wat's 
 serjeant) and John of Moroccoes (one of his men) slew two I say, 
 five of them slain in the entrance of the town, the rest went off in 
 a whole body. And each took more care to defend the passages to 
 their mines, of which they had three within a league of the town, 
 beside a mine that was about five miles off, than they did of the 
 town itself. 
 
 " Yet Keymis, at the first, was resolved to go to the mine. But 
 when he came to the bank-side to land, he had two men of his slain 
 outright from the bank, and six others hurt, and Captain Thorn - 
 hurst shot in the head, of which wound, and the accident thereof, 
 he hath pined away these twelve weeks. Now, when Keymis came 
 back and gave me the former reasons which moved him not to 
 open the mine (the one, the death of my son ; a second, the weak- 
 ness of the English, and their impossibilities to work it, and to be 
 victualled ; a third, that it were a folly to discover it for the 
 Spaniards ; and lastly, my weakness, and being unpardoned), and 
 that I rejected all these his arguments, and told him that I must 
 leave it to himself to answer it to the King and State, he shut 
 himself into his cabin and shot himself with a pocket-pistol, which 
 broke one of his ribs ; and finding that he had not prevailed, he 
 thrust a long knife under his short ribs up to the handle, and died. 
 " Tims much I have written to Mr. Secretary, to whose letters 
 I refer you. But because I think my friends will rather hearken
 
 286 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 after you than any other to know the truth, I did after the sealing 
 break open the letter again, to let you know in brief the state of 
 that business, which I pray you impart to my Lord of Northumber- 
 land and Silvanus Scorie, and to Sir John Leigh. 
 
 " For the rest : there was never poor man so exposed to the 
 slaughter as I was. For, being commanded on my allegiance to 
 set down, not only the country, but the very river by which I was 
 to enter it ; to name my ships' number, men, and my artillery ; this 
 was sent by the Spanish ambassador to his master the king of 
 Spain. The King wrote his letters to all parts of the Indies, 
 especially to the Governor Palameca, of Guiana, El Dorado, and 
 Trinidad, of which the first letter bore date March 19, 1617, at 
 Madrid, when I had not yet left the Thames ; which letter I have 
 sent to Mr. Secretary. I have also two other letters of the King's, 
 which I reserve, and one of the council's. The King also sent a 
 commission to levy three hundred soldiers out of his garrison of 
 Nuevo Regno de Grenada, and Porto Rico, with ten pieces of brass 
 ordnance to entertain us. He also prepared an armada by sea to 
 set upon us. It were too long to tell you how we were preserved : 
 if I live, I shall make it known. My brains are broken, and I 
 cannot write much. I live yet, and I told you why. 
 
 " Whitney, for whom I sold all my plate at Plymouth, and to 
 whom I gave more credit and countenance than to all the captains 
 of my fleet, ran from me at the Granadas, and Woolaston with him. 
 So as I have now but five ships, and one of those I have sent home, 
 and in my fly -boat, a rabble of idle rascals, which I know will not 
 spare to wound me, but I care not. I am sure there is never a 
 base slave in all the fleet hath taken the pains and care that I have 
 done that hath slept so little, and travailed so much. My friends 
 will not believe them, and for the rest I care not. God in Heaven 
 bless you and strengthen your heart. Yours, 
 
 "WALTER RALEGH."* 
 
 * Hume, on whose authority in any disputed or doubtful point in history 
 connected with the Stuart family, a man now-a-days would be laughed at 
 for relying, avers that Ralegh's design, before he embarked on this voyage, 
 was to plunder the Spaniards. He says : " Ralegh's force is acknowledged 
 by himself to have been insufficient to support him in the possession of St. 
 Thomas, against the power of which Spain was master on that coast ; yet it 
 was sufficient, as he owns, to take by surprise and plunder twenty towns. It
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 287 
 
 Sir Walter had been seriously ill ever since his arrival at Guiana, 
 and he was incapable of repairing the omission of Keymis by him- 
 
 was not therefore his design to settle, but to plunder. By these confessions, 
 which I have here brought together, he plainly betrays himself." But how? 
 It may be asked, why then did he not plunder ? He himself writes, " If I 
 forbore all parts of the Spanish Indies, wherein I might have taken territory 
 of their towns on the sea-coasts, and did only follow the enterprise I under- 
 took for Guiana, &c." That Southey should put his foot in the steps of 
 Hume, I am not surprised ; but that Mr. Napier in the Edinburgh Review 
 (Vol. 71.) should assert that "no one can doubt that he had resolved, before 
 leaving England, to take forcible possession of St. Thomas," indeed astonishes 
 me, when I see that an attempt is made to affix criminality to Sir Walter. 
 That he expected opposition from the Spaniards there can be no doubt, or he 
 would not have taken such a force with him ; that the King likewise ex- 
 pected it, is seen by his permitting such a force to be taken. Mr. Napier says, 
 " It seems altogether astonishing that James's ministers should allow him to 
 sail with a fleet of such magnitude and force as that which he collected." But 
 is it so ? Not at all. The King was in want of money, and had great hopes 
 of the success of this adventure. It is true, his majesty, in his Declaration, 
 published after Ralegh's death, says that he gave no belief to Ralegh's state- 
 ments ; but who is to give belief to his majesty ? He tells us that " Sir 
 Walter Ralegh had so enchanted the world with his confident asseveration of 
 that which every man was willing to believe,'' that he felt his honour was in 
 a manner engaged to let him go. Was he without the circle of the magician's 
 enchantment ? Was every man, except James, enchanted ? And then, " Sir 
 Walter Ralegh carrying the reputation of an active, witty, and valiant gen- 
 tleman, and especially of a great commander at sea, by the enticement of this 
 golden bait of the mine, and the estimation of his own name, drew unto him 
 many brave captains and other knights and gentlemen of great blood and 
 worth, to hazard and adventure their lives, and the whole or a great part of 
 their estates and fortunes in this his voyage." James here to me at least 
 manifestly betrays himself. Why this talk of Ralegh's reputation " of an 
 active, witty, and valiant gentleman, and especially of a great commander 
 at sea " as attracting others, if it had not attracted himself, seeing that, if 
 his majesty's assertion of his pacific intentions towards Spain are to be be- 
 lieved, the qualities of activity, valour, and skill as a commander, and Ralegh's 
 known hatred of the Spaniards, were the very last that should have com- 
 mended him to that enterprise. But let us hear a little more of James's de- 
 fence. " His majesty enjoined Secretary Winwood to ask Sir Walter Ralegh, 
 upon his conscience and allegiance to his majesty, to deal plainly and express 
 himself, whether he had any other intention, but only to go to those 
 mines in Guiana, which he not only solemnly protested to the said Sir Ralph 
 Winwood, but by him writ a close letter to his majesty, containing a solemn 
 profession thereof, confirmed with many vehement asseverations, and that he
 
 288 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 self going to the mine. Moreover, his company began to " cast a 
 sad eye homeward;" whereupon he called a council of his captains, 
 
 never meant or would commit any outrages or spoils upon the King of Spain's 
 subjects. But notwithstanding his majesty acquainted the Spanish ambas- 
 sador with this his protestation, yet the said ambassador would never recede 
 from his former jealousy and importuning his majesty to stay his voyage, 
 alleging that the great number of ships that Sir Walter Ralegh had prepared 
 for that voyage showed manifestly that he had no such peaceable intent ; and 
 offering (upon Sir Walter Ralegh's answer thereto, that those ships were only 
 provided for his safe convoy), that if Sir Walter Ralegh would go with one 
 or two ships only to seek the said mine, that he would move the King of 
 Spam to send two or three ships with him back again for his safe convoy 
 hither with all his gold ; and the said ambassador's person to remain here in 
 pledge for the king his master's performance thereof." Can anything be 
 more reasonble or cogent than this representation by Gondomar ? Is it credible 
 that it would not have convinced King James, if he had not conceived hopes 
 of this enterprise which would enable him to set Spain at defiance ? But no. 
 " Such were the constant fair offers of the said Sir Walter Ralegh, and spe- 
 cious promises, as his majesty in the end rejected the importunate suit of the 
 said Spanish ambassador for his stay, and resolved to let him go ; but there- 
 withal took order, both that he, and all those that went in his company, 
 should find good security to behave themselves peaceably toward all his ma- 
 jesty's friends and allies." A politic king was James, and a crafty ; but 
 Ralegh and his co-adventurers, it seems, outwitted him. " For the good 
 security which his majesty ordered to be taken, for their good and peaceable 
 behaviour on their voyage, his majesty never heard anything to the contrary 
 but that it was performed, till they were upon their parting, and then it was 
 told him that every one of the principals that were in the voyage had put in 
 security one for another, which, if his majesty had known in time, he would 
 never have accepted of." 
 
 This, which has been often quoted against Ralegh, is, to my mind, conclu- 
 sive as to James's tacit participation in Sir Walter's designs, whatever they 
 might be. It is incredible that the king and his ministers did not know what 
 kind of security Ralegh and his co-adventurers had put in. He was willing 
 that the knight should proceed upon his expedition on his own terms ; and 
 he withheld his pardon, as he himself tells us, lest he should play him false 
 a suspicion which, he also informs us, had no weight when it was shared and 
 so vehemently urged by Gondomar. Had Ralegh returned with treasure, 
 even though it had been spoil, he would have been well pleased, and a fig for 
 the Spanish ambassador, whom the Spanish king, it is said, at last for all his 
 services requited with a fig. Meanwhile, in the event of failure, he had a 
 case against Ralegh sufficiently plausible to serve as a handle for his sacrifice. 
 The Declaration of King James has often been examined and adduced as 
 damning evidence against Sir Walter ; I submit that it contains evidence,
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 29 
 
 and declared to them his intention of making for Newfoundland, 
 to revictual and repair his ships. But the majority being of opinion 
 that they should at once return to England, he arrived with his 
 leaky vessels at the Irish port of Kinsale. 
 
 COUNT OONUOMAH. 
 
 Before this time, the news of his attack upon the Spaniards, the 
 
 little short of proof, to convict James of harbouring, for his own profit, sinister 
 il<-igns against the Spanish West Indies, which it had, perhaps, been well 
 for Sir Walter had he executed. Ealegh, indeed, on the failure of the mine, 
 had meditated a seizure of the Plate Fleet. He made no secret of his inten- 
 tion, for he confessed it to Lord Bacon, who said, " Why, you would have 
 been a pirate !" " Oh," quoth he, " did you ever know of any that were 
 pirates for millions? They only that work for small things are pirates." 
 He knew, or strongly believed, that the king would have welcomed his return 
 with such a prize; for James might have reminded Gondomar of the treaty 
 by which war was allowed with the Spaniards in the West Indies, though 
 peace was made in Europe. As it was, James durst not bring him to trial 
 for sacking St. Thomas, for no jury would have convicted him. Even Hume 
 is obliged to acknowledge this.
 
 290 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 death of his son, and the suicide of Keymis, had reached England. 
 Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, who, before Ralegh's departure 
 for Guiana, had strongly remonstrated with the King against Sir 
 Walter's going thither, besought, or rather demanded, an audience 
 of his Mnjesty, promising that all he had to say should be comprised 
 in one word. James, who affected Gondomar's society because of 
 his gaiety and humour, was astonished and frightened when the 
 ambassador, entering abruptly, pronounced with frantic vehemence 
 " Piratas ! piratas ! piratas ! " and left the royal presence with a 
 like abruptness. It was now time, he thought, for King James to 
 bestir himself; and, to propitiate Spain, to sacrifice the most 
 dreaded scourge of that country, and the sole great English admiral 
 then surviving. There were two passages in Ralegh's letter to Sir 
 Ralph Wiuwood, the secretary, which could not have been very 
 pleasing to the King the latter, indeed, must have made him 
 wince and twitch his hose with redoubled activity. " In truth," says 
 Ralegh, "the Spanish ambassador hath complained against me to 
 no other end, than to prevent my complaints against the Spaniards ; 
 when, landing my men in a territory appertaining to the crown of 
 England, they were invaded and slain before any violence offered 
 to the Spaniards. And I hope that the ambassador doth not esteem 
 us for so wretched and miserable a people, as to offer our throats 
 to their swords without any manner of resistance." 
 
 It was, perhaps, hardly judicious to have set down the passage 
 we are about to quote ; but the temptation was strong, and not 
 easily to be rejected. " The readiest way," he says, " that the 
 Spanish ambassador could have taken to have stayed me from going 
 to Guiana, had been to have discovered the great practices which / 
 had with his master against the King my sovereign lord, in the first 
 year of his Majesty's reign of Great Britain, for which J lost my 
 estate, and lay thirteen years in the Tower of London. " 
 
 But the Spanish match (between Prince Charles and the Infanta) 
 was then on foot, and was at the moment the thing so near the 
 king's heart, that every other consideration must give place to it. 
 Accordingly, the king issued a proclamation, dated June llth, 
 1618, declaring his detestation of Sir Walter's conduct towards the 
 Spaniards at Guiana, and charging such as had any knowledge of 
 the particulars to repair to the king's council. This proclamation 
 asserted a lie, namely, that his majesty had expressly restrained and
 
 SIH WALTER RALEGH. 291 
 
 forbidden Ralegh from any act of hostility upon any territories or 
 subjects of foreign princes with whom his majesty was in amity, 
 and more particularly those of his dear brother the King. The 
 commission contains no such limitation. 
 
 On his arrival at Plymouth, Ralegh heard of the proclamation 
 that was out against him, and, writing a letter to the king in 
 defence of his actions, prepared to follow it to London, and to sur- 
 render himself into the king's hands. On his way to the metro- 
 polis, however, he was met by Sir Lewis Stukely, Vice-Admiral of 
 Devon, and his kinsman, who told him that his orders were to 
 arrest him, and to bring him up prisoner to London. Under the 
 false plea of clemency, a certain amount of leisure was allowed for 
 this purpose, and Ralegh returned with his "kinsman" to Ply- 
 mouth.* Here he had reason to believe it was the king's fixed 
 
 * King James's declaration charges Ralegh with " then and at divers 
 times openly declaring that there was no coming to England, for that he 
 knew not how things would be construed, and for his part would never put 
 his head under the king's girdle, except he first saw the great seal for his 
 pardon." It is very probable that this is true. Ralegh knew very well 
 of what bad stuff James was made, and the use Gondomar would have made 
 of it. Had he not passed his word to certain lords (as we shall see at his 
 execution), it is likely that England would never have seen him again. His 
 return, after so unsuccessful an expedition, was a matter of general wonder. 
 Howel, in a letter to Sir James Crofts, says, " This return of Sir Walter 
 Ralegh from Guiana puts me in mind of a facetious tale I lately read in Italian, 
 how Alphonso, king of Naples, sent a Moor, who had been his captain a long 
 time, to Burbary with a considerable sum of money to buy horses, and return 
 by such a time. Now, there was about the king a kind of buffoon or jester, 
 who had a table-book or jouraal, Avherein he was used to register any absur- 
 dity, or impertinence, or merry passage that happened about the court. That 
 day the Moor was despatched to Barbary, the said jester waiting upon the 
 king at supper, the king called for his journal, and asked what he had ob- 
 served that day. Thereupon, he produced his table-book, and amongst other 
 things he read, how Alphonso, King of Naples, had sent Bertram the .Moor, 
 who had been a long tune his prisoner, to Morocco, with so many tliou^iiiii 
 crowns, to buy horses. The king asked him why he inserted this? 'Be- 
 cause,' said he, ' I think he will never come back to be a prisoner again, and 
 so you have lost both man and money.' ' But if he do come, then \ -<>ur jest 
 is marred,' quoth the king. ' No, Sir; for if he return, I will blot out your 
 name, and put him down for a fool.' The application is easy and obvious. 
 But the world wonders extremely that so great and wise a man as Sir Walter 
 Ralegh would return to cast himself upon so inevitable a rock as I fear lie 
 will." 
 
 T 2
 
 292 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
 
 intention to bring him to the block ; and, finding himself very 
 loosely watched by Stukely, he "dealt with a French bark" to 
 convey himself out of the country ; but he changed his resolution ; 
 and on the next day sent more money to the master of the bark 
 to detain him, and altered his resolution once more. 
 
 After this, we are told by Captain King, an old and trustworthy 
 follower of Ralegh, Stukely had orders to bring up Sir Walter, 
 but with no more speed than his health would permit. There was 
 with Stukely one Manourie, a French quack, a " professor of 
 physic, and one that had many chemical recipes." Ralegh set on 
 King to sound the Frenchman, who averred that, according to his 
 small ability, he was ready to do him all honest service he could, so 
 it might be done without offence." Having, as he believed, secured 
 his man, Ralegh imparted to him his intention of counterfeiting 
 sickness to gain time " till the Spanish fury was over." On that 
 evening he pretended to be seized with giddiness and dimness of 
 sight, and on the next day, having sent Lady Ralegh and the chief 
 of his servants forward to London, he feigned a fit, and fondly 
 thought he had imposed upon Stukely, who was in Manourie's con- 
 fidence all along. But this was not enough. Manourie, at his 
 request, prepared for him a composition, which was put upon his 
 brow, his arms, and his breast, so that he became " all pimpled 
 his face full of great blisters of divers colours, having in the midst 
 a little touch of yellow, and round about, like a purple colour, and 
 all the rest of his skin, as it were, inflamed with heat." This baifled 
 the skill of three physicians, who, however, certified that the patient 
 could not, without manifest peril of his life, be exposed to the air. 
 
 The time that Ralegh thought he thus gained was spent in 
 writing his apology, which was a vindication of his Guianian 
 voyage ; which, however, was of no avail with the king, to whom 
 it was addressed. Manourie, who had been Ralegh's amanuensis 
 on this occasion, had by this time gained his confidence. Giving 
 the Frenchman twenty crowns, Sir Walter promised him fifty 
 pounds a-year if he would aid his escape. Manourie consented to 
 do so, and proposed one or two plans which Ralegh did not 
 approve. A permission to go to his own house when he arrived in 
 London having been procured through the Vice-Chamberlain and 
 the Secretary, Naunton, Manourie said that it might be seen by 
 this that his majesty seemed not inclined to take away his life
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 293 
 
 To which Ralegh replied : " They used all these kinds of flatteries 
 with the Duke of Biron, to draw him fairly into prison, and then 
 they cut his head off. I know they have concluded among them 
 that it is expedient a man should die to reassure the traffic I have 
 broken with Spain." 
 
 Between Andover and Staines if we are to believe Manourie, who 
 says that up to this time Stukely was not aware of the understand- 
 ing between himself and Ralegh he discovered Sir Walter's intended 
 escape, and thereupon put such a careful watch over him that he 
 began to suspect that Stukely knew too much. At Staines, there- 
 fore, he employed Manourie to gain over Stukely, producing " a 
 jewel made in the fashion of hail, powdered with diamonds, having 
 a ruby in the middle, valued at a hundred and fifty pounds." " Tell 
 him," said Ralegh, " besides this jewel, he shall have fifty pounds 
 in money." Stukely, after some parley, accepted the offer; but 
 bade Manourie tell Ralegh that he would choose rather to go with 
 him than to tarry behind with shame and reproach ; adding, how 
 could this be done without losing his office of Vice-Admiral, which 
 cost him six hundred pounds ? He was satisfied as to this ; and 
 Manourie, having now played his part, took leave of Ralegh, say- 
 ing he did not think of seeing him again while he was in England. 
 On his arrival at Brentford, Le Chesnay, a follower of Le Clerc, 
 agent from the French king, waited upon him, telling him that 
 Le Clerc was very desirous to speak with him as soon as he got to 
 London, touching some affairs which nearly concerned his welfare. 
 Accordingly, the night of Ralegh's return to London, Le Clerc 
 came to him and offered him a French bark, which he had prepared 
 for his escape ; and withal, recommendatory letters, for his safe 
 conduct and reception, to the Governor of Calais ; promising, more- 
 over, to send a gentleman expressly to attend and meet him there. 
 Ralegh, learning that the French bark was neither so ready nor so 
 fit as one that he had engaged Captain King to provide, thanked 
 the agent, but declined that part of his order. For the letters and 
 the rest of his offer he should be beholden to him, because his 
 acquaintance in France was worn out. 
 
 Captain King had been sent on from Salisbury to provide a boat, 
 which was to be got through one Cotterell, who had been a servant 
 of Ralegh. This man reminded King of one Hart, once his boat- 
 swain, who had now a ketch of his own. King dealt with this man,
 
 294 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 giving him money to get his boat iu readiness ; and a further reward 
 being 1 promised, vowed inviolable secresy. He had no sooner 
 received the captain's money than he betrayed the design to Mr. 
 William Herbert, who made it known to the government. The 
 unsuspicious old captain, however, still fed Hart with money to 
 keep his ketch at Tilbury. 
 
 On the evening of the 7th of August, Sir Walter Ralegh came 
 to London ; but he told King, who waited upon him, that he could 
 not get ready to go with him that night. On the next morning 
 Stukely got a warrant, indemnifying him for any contract he might 
 enter into with his prisoner, and for any seeming compliance he 
 might make with any offer of escape. When King came again, Sir 
 Walter said there was now no going without Stukely, whom he 
 doubted not of being- able to engage to go along with him, and he 
 appointed to meet the captain at the Tower dock on the next night. 
 
 Thither King repaired at the time appointed, and there came 
 Ralegh disguised, with a false beard, and a hat with a green hat- 
 band. With him came Stukely, young Stukely, and his own page. 
 Sir Walter having asked King if all things were ready, was answered 
 in the affirmative, and that the cloak-bag and the four pistols were in 
 the boat. Stukely then saluted Captain King, and asked him " whe- 
 ther thus far he had not distinguished himself an honest man ? " To 
 which King answered, " that he hoped he would continue so." 
 
 They had not rowed above twenty strokes, having previously 
 divided the pistols, before the waterman told them that Mr. Herbert 
 had lately taken boat, with the apparent intention of going through 
 the bridge, but that he had returned down the river after them. 
 Ralegh was alarmed at this; but, encouraged by Stukely, they 
 rowed on. But Sir Walter, not thoroughly satisfied, presently 
 hailed Captain King, who was in the other boat with young Stukely 
 and Hart, and told him that he could not go forward unless he was 
 sure of the waterman, whom he then spoke to, asking whether, if 
 any should come to arrest them, they would ruu forwards or return. 
 The men were alarmed at this question, and answered that they 
 knew nobody there but Captain King, who had hired them to 
 (jrraveseud, and that they neither durst nor would go further. 
 Ralegh said that a "trifling matter" with the Spanish ambassador 
 compelled him to go to Tilbury, to embark for the Low Countries, 
 and that he would give them ten pieces of gold for their pains.
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 295 
 
 Stukely now began to curse and to swear, and to confound 
 himself for being so unfortunate as to venture his life and all that 
 he valued with a man so full of doubts and fears. He swore that 
 if the watermen would not row on he would kill them, and per- 
 suaded Ralegh that there was no such danger as he apprehended. 
 King was also of Stukely's opinion. A wherry crossed them when 
 they came near Greenwich, which Ralegh said was on the look-out 
 for them. King sought to dissuade him from this supposition, 
 saying that, if they could but reach Gravesend, he would hazard 
 his life to get to Tilbury. These delays spent the tide, and the 
 watermen said it was impossible to get to Graveseud before 
 morning. Hearing this, Ralegh would have landed at Purfleet ; 
 and Hart told him that he could procure him horses to Tilbury. 
 Stukely appeared anxious for this ; but King told him that, if they 
 could not go by water, it was impossible, at that time of night, to 
 get horses to go by land. 
 
 By this they had rowed about a mile beyond Woolwich. Here, 
 approaching two or three ketches, Hart began to doubt whether 
 any one of them was his. And now, Ralegh concluded they were 
 betrayed, and bade the watermen turn back, hoping to have got to 
 his own house before morning.. He examined Hart strictly, who 
 pretended he had given his men express charge not to stir from 
 Tilbury till he went down ; hat this did not satisfy Sir Walter. They 
 were about a furlong <WL their way back, when tliy espied another 
 wherry : and hailing her, they declared they were for the king. 
 Ralegh, perceiving they were some of Mr. Herbert 's<crew, proposed 
 to Stukely, seeing they were discovered, that lie might remain still 
 in his custody, and that Stukely should openly declare to the 
 watermen that he was his prisoner, which he did. They now 
 planned how they should reach Ralegh's house, and how Stukely 
 might save himself harmless, by saying that he had only deluded 
 his prisoner thus far, that he might discern his intentions and seize 
 upon his private papers. Then they whispered, and Ralegh gave 
 Stukely something out of his pockets, who all the while embraced 
 him with the utmost seeming tenderness, and made the most 
 caniest protestations of friendship and fidelity. When they were 
 got back to Greenwich, Stukely said that he durst not take Ralegh 
 to his house, but persuaded him to land, which he did the strange 
 boat landing at the same time. On Greenwich-bridge, Stukely
 
 296 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 told Captain King that it would be well for him, and for Sir 
 Walter's good, that he should pretend to be consenting with him to 
 betray his master. This fine old fellow understood no such refined 
 policy, and, though Ralegh himself seconded Stukely, flatly refused, 
 thinking that he should not only thereby belie his own conscience, 
 but make himself odious to the world. Then Stukely arrested the 
 captain in the king's name, and committed him to the charge of 
 two of Mr. Herbert's men. After this, they all went to a tavern ; 
 
 AXXE OF DENMARK, (JUEE3T OF JAMES I. 
 
 and King heard Ralegh say, " Sir Lewis, these actions will not turn 
 out to your credit." 
 
 Ralegh was kept apart from King till morning, when, as they 
 entered into the Tower, Sir Walter said to him " Stukely and 
 Cotterell have betrayed me. For your part, you need be in fear of 
 no danger ; but as for me, it is I am the mark that is shot at." 
 Then King, taking leave of Ralegh, left him " to His tuition, with 
 whom, I do not doubt," says the pious old man, " his soul resteth." 
 
 Ralegh, once more in the Tower, did not abandon himself to
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGI1. 297 
 
 despair, although a committee was at once appointed to inquire 
 into the particulars of the recent attempt at escape. Such a pre- 
 meditated attempt was declaimed against as a heavy and heinous 
 crime, arguing a disdain of his majesty's mercy. But he had still 
 one or two powerful friends,' the best being the Queen, who wrote 
 the following letter to the favourite, Buckingham: 
 
 ANNE It. 
 
 " MY KIND DOG, If I have any power or credit with you, I 
 pray let me have a trial of it at this time, in dealing sincerely and 
 earnestly with the king that Sir Walter Ralegh's life may not be 
 called in question. If you do it so that the success answer my 
 expectation, assure yourself that I will take it extraordinary kindly 
 at your hands, and rest one that wisheth you well, and desires you 
 to continue still, as you have been, a true servant to your master." 
 
 But all interposition was of no avail. Gondomar must be 
 appeased ; the Spanish match must be proceeded with.* And yet 
 two months were occupied in deliberation as to the manner in which 
 Sir Walter should be proceeded against, during which he was 
 examined in the Tower again and again. At length the commis- 
 sioners suggested two forms the one was, that, with the warrant 
 
 * It has been said, that Lord Clare, who was a warm friend of Sir Walter, 
 and who also had no slight influence with Gondomar, saw, or thought he saw, 
 a disposition on the part of the ambassador to intercede for Ralegh's life, 
 if he would himself entreat him to do so. This was made known to Ralegh, 
 who was assured at the same time that there was no other hope of his pre- 
 servation. Sir Walter paused, and then replied, " I am neither so old nor so 
 infirm, but I could be content to live, and, therefore, this would I do if I were 
 sure it would do my business ; but if I fail, then I lose both my life and 
 honour, and both these I will not part with." If there is any truth in this, 
 Lord Clare was deceived into making snch a proposal to Ralegh. It was a 
 trick between Gondomar and James. The Spanish agent would have made 
 his intercession public, to mitigate the detestation of the English people, who 
 were strongly opposed to the Spanish match ; and James, having executed 
 Sir Walter, would have made a merit with his " dear brother of Spain," 
 of doing justice upon an enemy of that country, in spite of the intercessions 
 of its ambassador. The king had been base enough to offer to send Ralegh 
 to his faithful majesty to be dealt with as he pleased ; he was afterwards so 
 base as to make his execution a plea for forbearance on the part of Spain. 
 Will any one say that it was not a happy hour for England when she saw 
 the reversed footprints of the last king of the despicable race of Stuart ?
 
 298 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 for his execution, his majesty should put forth a narrative of his 
 late offences ; the other, that he should be called before the whole 
 council of state and the principal judges, certain of the nobility 
 and gentry being permitted to be present that they might then 
 declare Sir Walter to be civilly dead ; then for his majesty's 
 council to make the charge, to hear Sir Walter's answer, and then 
 to send him back, for that no sentence could be pronounced 
 against him; and then to offer their advice whether, taking 
 Ealegh's subsequent offences into consideration, the king might not 
 justly give warrant for his execution upon his attainder. Thus, as 
 Oldys observes, was a method of putting him to death " pieced 
 out." But James, disliking this method, and in opposition to his 
 commissioners, sent a privy seal to the judges, to order execution 
 forthwith. This was rather a grave matter for the learned judges. 
 It was an extra-judicial proceeding ; and they held a conference 
 upon it, the result of which was, that the prisoner should be brought 
 to the bar by a habeas corpus to the Lieutenant of the Tower, 
 and demanded of whether he could urge anything why execution 
 should not be awarded ? Upon this resolution, a privy seal came 
 to the justices of the King's Bench, commanding them to proceed 
 against him according to law. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 28th of October, Sir Walter Ralegh, at 
 eight o'clock in the morning, was awakened out of a fit of the ague, 
 and conveyed to Westminster. Yelverton, the Attorney-General, 
 called for execution, observing " Sir Walter Ralegh hath been a 
 statesman, and a man who, in regard to his parts and quality, is 
 to be pitied : he has been a star at which the world hath gazed. 
 But stars may fall nay, they must fall, when they trouble the 
 sphere in which they abide." Being asked what he could say, why 
 judgment should not be awarded against him ? Ralegh replied that 
 " He hoped the judgment he received to die so long since could not 
 now be strained to take away his life ; since, by his majesty's com- 
 mission for his late voyage, it was implied to be restored, in giving 
 him power as marshal on the life and death of others ; and since he 
 undertook the same to honour his sovereign, and to enrich his 
 kingdom with gold, whereof this hand," he said, " hath found and 
 taken in Guiana" . He would have gone on ; but Chief Justice 
 Montague interrupted him, telling him that treason was not par- 
 doned by implication, and that he must say something else to the
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 209 
 
 purpose, or they must proceed to give execution. Ralegh replied 
 " If your opinion be so, my lord, I am satisfied, and so put myself 
 on the mercy of the king, who, I know, is gracious ; and, under 
 favour, I must say I hope he will be pleased to take commiseration 
 on me, as concerning this judgment which is so long past, and 
 which, I think, here are some could witness nay, his majesty was 
 of opinion that I had hard measure therein." 
 
 The Chief Justice then addressed him in these terms : 
 " Sir Walter Ralegh, you must remember yourself you had 
 an honourable trial, and so were justly convicted ; and it were 
 wisdom in you now to submit yourself, and to confess your offence 
 did justly draw upon you that judgment which was then pronounced 
 against you : wherefore, I pray you, attend what I shall say unto 
 you. I am here called to grant execution upon the judgment 
 given you fifteen years since ; all which time you have been as a 
 dead man in the law, and might at any minute have been cut off; 
 but the king in mercy spared you. You might think it heavy if 
 this were done in cold blood, to call you to execution : but it is not 
 so ; for new offences hare stirred up his majesty's justice to re- 
 member to revive what the law hath formerly cast upon you. I 
 know you have been valiant and wise, and I doubt not but you re- 
 tain both these virtues ; for now you shall have occasion to use 
 them. Your faith hath heretofore been questioned ; but I am re- 
 solved you are a good Christian ; for your book, which is an 
 admirable work, doth testify as much. I would give you counsel, 
 but I know you can apply unto yourself far better than I am able 
 to give you. Yet will I, with the good neighbour in the Gospel 
 (who, finding one in the way wounded and distressed, poured oil 
 into his wounds and refreshed him), give you the oil of comfort, 
 though in respect that I am a minister of the law, mixed with 
 vinegar. Sorrow will not avail you in some kind ; for, were you 
 pained, sorrow would not ease you; were you afflicted, sorrow 
 would not relieve you ; were you tormented, sorrow would not con- 
 tent you ; and yet the sorrow for your sins would be an everlasting 
 comfort to you. You must do as that valiant captain did, who, 
 perceiving himself in danger, said, " Death, thou expectest me ; 
 but, maugre thy spite, I expect thee." Fear not death too much, 
 nor fear death too little : not too much, lest you fail in your hopes ; 
 not too little, lest you die presumptuously. And here I must con-
 
 300 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 elude with my prayer to God that lie would have mercy on your 
 soul. Execution is granted." * 
 
 Ralegh then desired that he might not be cut off so suddenly, 
 for that he had something to do in discharge of his conscience ; 
 something to satisfy his majesty, something wherein to satisfy the 
 world. He desired, also, that he might be heard at the day of 
 his death, concluding thus : " I take God to be my judge, before 
 whom I shall shortly appear, that I was never disloyal to his 
 majesty, whick I will justify where I shall not fear the face of any 
 king on earth." So he craved their prayers, and was led away to 
 the Gate-house, near Palace Yard, the next day being appointed 
 for his execution. James was at Theobald's, in Hertfordshire 
 during the trial, but the warrant was dated the same day, having 
 no doubt been signed previously, and was produced immediately 
 after the sentence. It was directed to the Lord Chancellor 
 Verulam.f 
 
 Ralegh was not " butcher'd to make a civic holiday ; " but the 
 29th of October was then the anniversary of the Lord Mayor's 
 show and feast. Having received the sacrament from the Dean of 
 Westminster, he was brought by the sheriff, at nine in the morn- 
 ing, from the Gate-house to a scaffold erected in Old Palace 
 Yard. He had on a wrought nightcap under his hat, a ruff band, 
 a black wrought velvet nightgown over a hair-coloured J satin 
 doublet, a black wrought waistcoat, a pair of black cut taffeta 
 
 * This was a better speech, as to the spirit of it, than Popham's, thir- 
 teen years before. But Montague was hard beset, or he would not have 
 talked such nonsense. We need not the ghost of Sir Edward Coke to come 
 from the grave to tell us that a man dead in the law can commit no new 
 offences. That Ralegh was virtually pardoned, we have shown Bacon's word 
 for it. If he was not so, I humbly submit that the King's commission was 
 nought, and that any step taken against him after his return to England, 
 including his examinations in the Tower, Avas against the law. Ask a lawyer 
 why Ralegh was executed ? he will tell you, For having been found guilty 
 of conspiring with Spain against England : ask the world of which lawyers, 
 as private gentlemen, form a part it will answer, For an act of alleged 
 hostility against Spain, for which he was never tried. 
 
 f It is impossible to tell what were Bacon's feelings, when he received 
 the warrant for the execution of his friend of a man whose greatness he was 
 the one person in England who could measure. 
 
 f Qu. J/r-coloured ?
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 301 
 
 breeches, and ash-coloured silk stockings. On his way from the 
 prison, " an old man, whose head was bald, came very forward, 
 insomuch that Ralegh noticed him, and asked ' whether he would 
 have aught of him ?' The old man answered, ' Nothing but to see 
 him, and to pray God for him.' Ralegh replied, ' 1 thank thee, 
 good friend, and I am sorry I have no better thing to return thee 
 for thy good will.' Observing his bald head, ' But take this night- 
 cap (which was a very rich wrought one that he wore), for thou 
 hast more need of it now than I.'"* 
 
 He mounted the scaffold with a cheerful countenance, and 
 saluted the lords, knights, and gentlemen of his acquaintance then 
 present. Proclamation being made by the officer for silence, he 
 said : " I desire to be borne withal, for this is the third day of my 
 fever; and if I should show any weakness, I beseech you to 
 attribute it to my malady, for this is the hour in which it is wont to 
 come." Looking towards a window where some of the lords were 
 seated, and fearing that they could not distinctly hear him, he 
 notified as much, whereupon the Lord Arundel and others came 
 down to the scaffold. He then resumed. "I thank God," he 
 said, "that he has sent me to die in the light, and not in the 
 darkness. I likewise thank God that he has suffered me to die 
 
 * There are some further stories with which the reader may as well be 
 acquainted. On the night before his execution, Lady Ralegh visited him, 
 and amidst her tears acquainted him that she had obtained the favour of 
 disposing of his body. He answered, smiling, " It is well, Bess, that thou 
 may'st dispose of that, dead, which thou hadst not always the disposing of 
 when it was alive." 
 
 On the morning of his death he smoked, as usual, his favourite tobacco, 
 and when they brought him a cup of excellent sack, being asked how he 
 liked it, Ralegh answered : " As the fellow, that, drinking of St. Giles's bowl, 
 as he went to Tyburn, said, ' That was good drink, if a man might tarry by 
 it.' " The day before, in passing from Westminster Hall to the Gate-house, 
 his eye had caught Sir Hugh Beeston in the throng, and calling on him, 
 Ralegh requested that he would see him die to-morrow. Sir Hugh, to secure 
 himself a seat on the scaffold, had provided himself with a letter to the 
 sheriff, which was not read at the time, and Sir Walter found his friend 
 thrust by, lamenting that he could not get there. " Farewell !" exclaimed 
 Ralegh, " I know not what shift you will make, but I am sure to have a 
 place." 
 
 I find these stories in Mr. Isaac Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature." 
 The first is natural and probable ; but I place small faith in the other two.
 
 302 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 before such an assembly of honourable witnesses, and not 
 obscurely in the tower, where, for the space of thirteen years 
 together, I have been oppressed with many miseries. And I return 
 Him thanks that my fever hath not taken me at this time, as I 
 prayed to Him it might not, that I might clear myself of some 
 accusations unjustly laid to my charge, and leave behind me the 
 testimony of a true heart, both to my king and country." 
 
 He first defended his attempt to escape to France from 
 Plymouth, " which was, because I would fain have made my peace 
 before I came to England." He then cleared himself of the im- 
 putation of having entered into a plot with France, saying, " For 
 a man to call God to witness at any time to a falsehood, is a 
 grievous sin. To call Him as a witness to a falsehood at the point 
 of death, when there is no time for repentance, is a crime far 
 more impious and desperate ; therefore, for me to call that 
 Majesty to witness an untruth, before whose tribunal I am in- 
 stantly to appear, were beyond measure sinful, and beyond hope of 
 pardon. I do yet call that great God to witness, that, as I hope to 
 see Him, to be saved by Him, and to live in the world to come, 
 I never had any plot or intelligence with the French king ; never 
 had any commission from him, nor saw his hand or seal ; that I 
 never had any practice or combination with the French agent, nor 
 ever knew or saw such a person till I met him in my gallery. If I 
 speak not true, O Lord, let me never enter into thy kingdom ! " 
 
 " The second suspicion or imputation was, that his majesty had 
 been informed I have spoken disloyally of him. The only witness 
 of this was a base Frenchman, a runagate, a chymical fello\v, whom 
 I soon knew to be perfidious ; for, being drawn by him into the 
 action of freeing myself at Winchester, he, being sworn to secrecy 
 over-night, revealed it in the morning. It is strange that so mean 
 a fellow could so far encroach himself into the favour of the Lords, 
 and be so credited by his Majesty. But this I here speak : it is no 
 time for me to flatter or to fear princes I who am subject only 
 to death; and for me, who have now to do with God alone, to tell 
 a lie to get the favour of the king were in vain. I confess I did 
 attempt to escape, but it was only to save my life. I likewise 
 confess that I feigned myself to be indisposed at Salisbury: but I 
 hope it Avas no sin ; for the prophet David did make himself a fool, 
 and suffered spittle to fall upon his beard, to escape from the hands
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 303 
 
 of his enemies, and it was not imputed to him a sin : what I did 
 was only to prolong time, till his majesty came. But I forgive that 
 Frenchman, and likewise Sir Lewis Stukely, the wrongs he hath 
 done me, with all my heart ; for I have received the sacrament this 
 morning of Mr. Dean, and I have forgiven all men ; but in charity 
 to others I am bound to utter this caution against them, and such 
 as they are." 
 
 He then denied several other matters that had been charged 
 against him, looking over his notes as he proceeded. Turning to 
 the Earl of Arundel, lie said : " My lord, you being in the gallery 
 of my ship at my departure, I remember you took me by the hand 
 and said, you would request one thing of me, which was, whether 
 I made a good voyage or a bad, that I would return again to 
 England, which I then promised and gave you my faith I would." 
 " So you did," said his lordship ; " it is true, and they were the last 
 words I said to you." After adverting to some further charges of 
 less moment, he thus concluded : " I will borrow but a little time 
 more of Mr. Sheriff, that I may not detain him too long ; and 
 herein I shall speak of the imputation laid upon me through the 
 jealousy of the people, that I had been a persecutor of my Lord of 
 Essex ; that I rejoiced in his death, and stood in a window over 
 against him when he suffered, and puffed out tobacco in defiance of 
 him ; when as, God is my witness, that I shed tears for him when 
 he died : and as I hope to look God hi the face hereafter, my Lord 
 of Essex did not see my face at the time of his death ; for I was far 
 off, in the armoury, where I saw him, but he saw not me. It is 
 true, I was of a contrary faction ; but I take the same God to 
 witness that I had no hand in his death, nor bare him any ill affec- 
 tion, but always believed it would be better for me that his life had 
 been preserved ; for, after his fall, I got the hatred of those who 
 wished me well before ; and those who set me against him, set 
 themselves afterwards against me, and were my greatest enemies ; 
 and my soul hath many times been grieved that I was not nearer 
 to him when he died ; because, as I understood afterwards, he asked 
 for me at his death, and desired to have been reconciled to me. 
 
 " And now I entreat that you all will join me in prayer to that 
 great God of heaven whom I have seriously offended being a man 
 full of all vanity, who has lived a sinful life in such callings as have 
 been most inducing to it ; for I have been a soldier, a sailor, and a
 
 304 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 courtier, which are courses of wickedness and vice; that His 
 almighty goodness will forgive me ; that He will cast away my sins 
 from me ; and that He will receive me into everlasting life. So I 
 take leave of you all, making my peace with God." 
 
 Proclamation being now made that all should depart the scaffold, 
 Ralegh " embraced," as an eye-witness tells us, " all the lords and 
 others of his friends then present with the most courtly compliments 
 of discourse, as if he had met them at some feast." He entreated 
 the Earl of Artmdel to desire the King that no writings defamatory 
 of him might be published after his death, concluding, " I have a 
 long journey to go, and therefore must take my leave." Then 
 having put off his gown and doublet, and given his money, his hat 
 and other articles to his attendants, he called to the headsman to 
 show him the axe. The man appearing to hesitate, Ralegh said. 
 " I pr'ythe let me see it : dost thou think I am afraid of it ? " 
 Having felt -the edge, " It is a sharp medicine," he said to the 
 sheriff, smiling, " but it is that that will cure all sorrows," and he 
 kissed it. He then entreated the spectators to pray for him, and, 
 kneeling down, was long in prayer. When he rose, the headsman 
 kneeled down and asked his forgiveness, which Sir Walter, laying 
 his hand upon his shoulder, granted, requesting him not to strike 
 till he should lift up his hand as a sign. " Then," said he, " fear 
 not, but strike home." Being asked which way he would lay his 
 head upon the block, he answered, " So the heart be right, it is no 
 matter which way the head lies," and he laid himself down. After 
 a brief prayer, he lifted his hand : the signal not being obeyed, he 
 called aloud, " Strike ! strike ! " and at two blows his head was 
 struck off, his body never shrinking or moving. The extraordinary 
 effusion of blood astonished the spectators, who inferred from it 
 that he might have lived many years. 
 
 His head, after it had been shown on each side of the scaffold, 
 was put into a red leathern bag, and, with his velvet nightgown 
 thrown over it, was conveyed away in a mourning coach. His body 
 was buried hard by, in the chancel of St. Margaret's Church ; but 
 his head was, during her life, preserved in a case by Lady Ralegh, 
 who survived her husband twenty-nine years. After her death, it 
 was buried with her son Carew at West Horsley, in Surrey.* 
 
 The story has been often told of Master Edward "Wymark, a wealthy 
 citizen, a great newsmonger, and a constant Paul's-walker (or frequenter of
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 305 
 
 The following verses were found in the bible which Ralegh had 
 with him in the Gate-house. He wrote them the night before he 
 suffered : 
 
 " Even such is Time, who takes in trust 
 
 Our youth, our joys, and all we have, 
 
 And pays us but with earth and dust ; 
 
 "Who, in the dark and silent grave, 
 
 When we have wander'd all our ways, 
 
 Shuts up the story of our days. 
 
 But from that earth, that grave and dust, 
 
 The Lord shall raise me up, I trust." 
 
 Sir Walter Ralegh was sixty-six years of age at the time of his 
 death. We have already given, from Sir Robert Naunton, a few 
 words descriptive of his person. Let us hear what Aubrey had 
 heard. " He was a tall, (six feet in height,) handsome, and bold 
 man. He had a most remarkable aspect ; an exceeding high 
 forehead, long-faced, and sour eye-lidded." He adds, that " not- 
 withstanding his great mastership in style, and his conversation 
 with the learnedest and politest persons, yet he spoke broad Devon- 
 shire to his dying day;" and that "his voice was small." The 
 following rebus indicates how the first syllable of his name was 
 pronounced in his own time : 
 
 " The enemy to the stomach (rani) and the word of disgrace, (lie) 
 Is the name of the gentleman with the bold face." 
 
 Soon after Ralegh's execution, James, seeing how he was, and was 
 likely to continue to be, deluded by the Spanish king (the Spanish 
 match had come to nothing), caused one of his ministers to write to 
 his agent in Spain, to let them know they would be looked upon as 
 the most unworthy people in the world, if they did not now act with 
 
 the middle aisle of the cathedral, which was a common resort in those days). 
 Hearing of Sir Walter Ralegh's execution, he said, among other things, 
 " His head would do very well upon the shoulders of Sir Robert Naunton, 
 the secretary of state." Being summoned before the Privy Council for 
 having used these words, Wymark pleaded that he intended no disrespect 
 to Mr. Secretary, but only spoke in reference to the old adage, that " two 
 heads were better than one.' " He was dismissed ; but not long after, when 
 rich men were called upon for a contribution to St. Paul's cathedral, Wy- 
 mark, at the council table, subscribed a hundred pounds. "Two are better 
 than one, you know, Mr. Wymark" said the secretary significantly, which, 
 between fear and charity, he was fain to subscribe. 
 
 t)
 
 306 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 sincerity, since his majesty had given so many testimonies of his ; 
 and now of late, "by causing Sir Walter Ralegh to be put to death, 
 CHIEFLY for the giving them, satisfaction. Further, to let them 
 see how, in many actions of late, his majesty had strained upon the 
 affections of his people, and especially in this last concerning Sir 
 Walter Ralegh, who died with a great deal of courage and con- 
 stancy. Lastly, that he should let them know how able a man Sir 
 Walter Ralegh was, to have done his majesty service. Yet, to give 
 them content, he had not spared him, when, by preserving him, he 
 might have given great satisfaction to his subjects, and had at com- 
 mand, upon all occasions, as useful a man as served any prince in 
 Christendom." 
 
 Nothing, during the disgraceful reign of James, brought upon 
 him so much odium as the sacrifice of Ralegh. His trial at 
 Winchester, his long imprisonment in the Tower, and his noble 
 demeanour on the scaffold, had reconciled the people to him, and 
 made them hate his persecutors. James's infamous agent, Stukely, 
 was universally execrated, and was commonly called and known by 
 the title of " Sir Judas."* But he did not long survive this dis- 
 tinction. The judgment of God was upon him. Before the end 
 of the year, he was surprised in Whitehall clipping the gold the 
 very gold, some say (who conceive that no story can be too em- 
 phatic) which had been bestowed upon him as a reward of his 
 treachery ;f and being condemned for that crime, and reduced to 
 
 * In a letter from Mr. Lorkin to Sir Thomas Puckering, Bart., in the 
 Sloane Collection, we find : " I shall conclude with my Lord Admiral's 
 (Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, the hero of the Armada) entertain- 
 ment of Stukely, who, being Vice-Admiral of the "Western Ports, and 
 pretending to come and give an account to his lordship of his office, came 
 and placed himself in the dining chamber, there expecting till his lordship 
 passed ; who, taking no notice of him, he stepped to him, acquainting him 
 with the occasion of his coming. ' What,' said my lord, ' thou base 
 fellow, thou ! who art reputed the scorn and contempt of men, how darest 
 thou offer thyself into my presence ? Were it not in mine own house, I 
 would cudgel thee with my staff, for presuming to be so saucy.' Stukely 
 made his complaint unto the king, whose answer was, ' What would'st thou 
 have me do ? Would'st thou have me hang him ? Of my soul, if I should 
 hang all speak ill of thee, all the trees of the country would not suffice, so 
 great is the number.' " 
 
 f In a letter from Thomas Wallis to Dr. Ward, he says, " It was asserted
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 307 
 
 the necessity of stripping himself to his shirt to raise money to 
 purchase a pardon, withdrew himself from the odium of mankind 
 to the island of Lundy, in the Severn Sea, where he died mad, on 
 the 29th of August, 1620. 
 
 It has commonly happened that the character of a great man, 
 aspersed and vilified during his life-time, has been vindicated 
 and re-established in the next age. His enemies, and the fools 
 who believed and the knaves who adopted their calumnies, re- 
 moved from the world, the object of their malice has been 
 judged severely sometimes but with dispassionate candour and 
 fairness, by posterity. Such has not been the fate of Ralegh. 
 Denied justice while living, it has been denied him after death. 
 As with his life, so with his character. Tried and found guilty 
 of one charge, falsely preferred against him, he lost his head 
 on another for which he was not tried at all. If one imputation 
 upon his memory has been examined and found to be groundless, 
 lie has been convicted ou another which would not bear examina- 
 tion. Spite of the almost pious exertions of the laborious, the 
 pains-taking, and the learned Oldys to clear the reputation of a man 
 of whom England has reason to be proud, spite of the biogra- 
 phies of Birch, Cayley, the zealous and amiable Mrs. Thomson, 
 and the high-spirited and eloquent Tytler, there have been some 
 in the present century who not directly, indeed, but by impli- 
 cation have sought to revive all the charges that were ever 
 brought against him by his worst enemies. 
 
 yesterday for certain that Sir Lewis Stukely should this first day of the 
 term be arraigned, at the King's Bench bar, for clipping of gold, though I 
 hear no more of it ; but he is in prison, and must come to it. Sir Walter 
 Ralegh's blood crieth for vengeance, both against him and Mainwarinj; 
 (Manourie), the Frenchman, his other accuser, who is fled for being Stukely's 
 consort in clipping." 
 
 And in a letter from Mr. Lorkin to Sir Thomas Puckering, we read, " Ma- 
 nourie, the French apothecary, who joined with Stukely in the accusation of 
 Sir Walter Ralegh, is taken at Plymouth for clipping of gold, as was his 
 companion. .... His examination was sent up hither to the King, 
 wherein he .... (as I hear from Sir Robert Winde, cupbearer, I think, 
 to his Majesty, who saith he read the examination) that his accusation 
 against Ralegh was false, and that he was won thereto by the practice and 
 importunity of Stukely, and now acknowledges this his present miserable 
 condition to be a judgment of God upon him for that"
 
 308 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 Ralegh has been accused of an insatiable thirst of gold, of a 
 piratical indifference as to the means whereby he procured it, 
 and of a niggardly expenditure of it after it had been acquired. 
 The money he got was taken from the enemies of his queen, and 
 what he obtained from Elizabeth was granted for services of 
 no ordinary description rendered to his country. Sir Robert 
 Naunton, who was secretary of state at the period of Sir 
 Walter's execution, acknowledges that he never dipped his 
 fingers into the public coffers, as others had done, but that all 
 he ever received he had earned. He expended forty thousand 
 pounds in the prosecution of the war with Spain. As to his 
 niggardly expenditure, his fault, if it was one, lay quite the 
 other way. He was all profuseness and magnificence. He was 
 the patron of painters, poets, and learned and ingenious men 
 he so beautified Sherborne that it was the marvel of the county, 
 and it is on record what a splendid establishment he maintained 
 in London, even whilst he was in disgrace with the Queen. 
 Deprived of his estate, poor, and imprisoned in the tower, he 
 sent fifty pounds as his contribution towards the formation of 
 the Bodleian library. 
 
 He has been taxed with pride, by which we are to understand 
 a haughty, insolent, and disdainful carriage of himself towards his 
 equals and inferiors. Strange to say, no instance has been cited 
 in support of this allegation. That he entertained small respect 
 for the multitude, he has been at no pains to conceal ; on the 
 contrary, he has shown it in many passages of his writings. He 
 could not smirk in the face of a mob, still less could he court them, 
 as Essex did, and he was hated by them accordingly. But in 
 Devonshire and Cornwall he was beloved. As Lord Warden of 
 the Stannaries, none ever appealed to him in vain for redress. 
 Cecil has testified, in a letter to a friend, his surprise at witnessing 
 how Sir Walter was adored by his sailors, when he was about to 
 embark on an expedition. The Indians would have made him 
 their king ; and years afterwards the name of Ralegh was re- 
 membered, and his presence amongst them desired. 
 
 He has been stigmatised with atheism. Is it necessary, after 
 the evidence furnished in this volume, to rebut that charge ? 
 " He is the heretic who makes the fire, 
 Not he who burns in't."
 
 SIB WALTER RALEGH. 309 
 
 He is the atheist who would have fixed the stigma of atheism, 
 knowing it to be false, upon one, and one of the greatest and 
 noblest, of God's creatures. Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 that time-serving prelate, might almost have heard, in his palace 
 of Lambeth, the descent of the axe upon the neck of the man he 
 traduced ; traduced after he had been told (for probably he was 
 told by the Dean of Westminster) what a " divine prayer," he 
 offered up in the last minute of his life. 
 
 "And now," in conclusion, and in the words of old Howel, 
 " let this glorious and gallant cavalier, whose enemies confessed 
 he was one of the weightiest and wisest men this island ever 
 bre'd, rest in his grave." God has granted to few, in any age, the 
 faculties He bestowed on Sir Walter Ralegh j but He has given 
 to all, or nearly all, the power of making a due application of the 
 faculties they possess. Who but must despair of equalling a 
 Ralegh? But they may rival him in devotion to their Queen and 
 country, in indefatigable industry ("he can toil terribly," said 
 Cecil of him), in undaunted and heroic courage, and in piety and 
 humble dependence on the will of the Almighty. 
 
 t 
 
 l-ETTEK AND GALPIlf, FLAYHOUSE-YAKD, ADJOINING T1IE "TIMES" OFFICE
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 PAGE 17, line 23, for " practice," read " practise," 
 60 8 " men, assured commanders," read " men assured, 
 
 commanders." 
 
 81 2 " wrote a libel, in which," read " in a libel on." 
 85 11 " as some do," read " as rams do." 
 110 29 " Indian voyage," read " Island voyage." 
 128 27 " animasq," read "animasque" 
 151 14 " loss of life," read " love of life." 
 152 17 "latter," read "letter." 
 164 18 " careless," read " cureless." 
 233 23 " suere" read "fuere." 
 240 7 " of the factions of the places," read " of the factions, 
 
 of the places." 
 
 278 1 1 (note) "assumed," read "resumed." 
 287 4 (note) " territory," read " twenty." 
 293 33 for "order," read "offer."
 
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