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 tye, 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 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